Etiquette for Conversation. Nineteenth-century rules of etiquette focused upon class distinctions, but also prescribed different expectations for the behavior of men, women, and children. This image is one of a set from Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms that compares and contrasts the improper and proper forms of conversation. What rules of etiquette are the women and children breaking in this image and correctly demonstrating in the next image? Are the differences in behavior of the men in the two images as different as the differences in behavior of the women and children?
Thomas Hill. Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms. Chicago: Hill Standards Book Co., 1888, 152-53.
Image courtesy of Internet Archive and the California Digital Library.
This image is featured in Exploring Vacation and Etiquette Themes in Social Studies by Cynthia Resor