What we can learn from Newspaper

I chose the newspaper from my hometown, Decorah Iowa. The header of the paper still looks similar today. This issue is from November 24th, 1915, the day before my paternal grandfather was born. The issue is 12 pages long and is roughly 25% advertising.

I found this ad interesting. Keeping in mind that this is before women could vote, it talks about the skirt being an approved style. The company that made the skirts is Korrect. I was surprised to see it talked about sizing for larger women. These must have been the best around. Comparing prices (capitalism!) this skirt was significantly more than admission to the theatre to see a motion picture.

The first article on the first page was about a series of sermons being given on what businessmen of Decorah think of the church. Back then the church had significantly more role in day to day life than it does now. The article talks about the church being an educator of youth to decrease delinquincy, as well as maintain health, prevent, and heal disease.

There was a political article stating a large number of Germans (roughly 50% of the population of the town then and now) were going to change from the Democratic party to the Republican party due to the handling of foreign affairs.

Part of a page was dedicated to the theatre and pictures that were coming. One that caught my attention ties back to the cowboy unit. "Tile Exposition's First Romance"  was billed as a "Western with a lot of action...with a love story thrown in" It was also called a comedy. For 1915 this was quite a mix of genres in a single picture.

There were several pages dedicated to the townships and what everyone was doing, where they traveled, and who they had dinner with. I noticed there were few instances of news of single women, and married couples were referenced by the husband's name. Our unit on gender and sex ties well into this. In this time there were very deeply ingrained roles and societal expectations of men and women. Their sex was their gender and everything was heteronormative.





I did find it interesting that the newspaper was not totally written to and for men. There were grocery, clothing, and shoe ads; as well as the goings-on (Gossip!) that were geared toward women. Though this does paint a picture of a "woman's place" in 1915, she was completely removed from politics and business.