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Primary Source Sets
Victorian Era
An advertisement for Dr. Scott’s Electric Corset, 1883.

An advertisement for Dr. Scott’s Electric Corset, 1883.

This is an advertisement for a women’s undergarment that not only provided fashionable support for the heavy, highly tailored women’s clothing of the era but also promised numerous health benefits as well. An “Electric Corset” probably meant a magnet sewn into the lining of sufficient strength to move a compass needle, rather than the use of actual electricity. The advertisement illustrates Victorian-era fascinations with science and electromagnetism, health fads that made confident but dubious medical claims, and the form and function of an idealized female body.

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Citation Information
“Dr. Scott's Electric Corset,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/8ea2da40f42fc8831a2882a6d3040e3c.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of The New York Public Library.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 14 of 14 in the Primary Source Set Victorian Era

Previous Item
A photograph of a Victorian home interior in Kenosha, Wisconsin, ca. 1890.
A tortoiseshell calling card case from the mid-nineteenth century.
A chromolithograph print called “Making the Scrap Book,” 1868.
An African American family record chart, 1880.
An excerpt from The Lady’s Guide to Perfect Gentility, 1859.
A print depicting a Victorian couple in love, 1850s.
A photographic portrait of Queen Victoria.
A commemorative hair and yarn wreath from Wisconsin, ca. 1879.
A post-mortem photograph of Samuel Charles Stowe, son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1849.
A photograph of Victoria Terminus Railway Station in Mumbai (Bombay), India.
An excerpt from the London Exhibition’s “New Crystal Palace Polka,” 1851.
A dedication and poem from Victoria Regia: a Volume of Original Contributions in Poetry and Prose, 1861.
A photograph of the University of Pennsylvania cricket team, 1887.
An advertisement for Dr. Scott’s Electric Corset, 1883.

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