Publication Date
5-2019
Date of Final Oral Examination (Defense)
3-1-2019
Type of Culminating Activity
Thesis
Degree Title
Master of Arts in History
Department
History
Major Advisor
Raymond J. Krohn, Ph.D.
Major Advisor
Lisa Marie Brady, Ph.D.
Advisor
Leslie J. Madsen-Brooks, Ph.D.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Abstract
This thesis uses the life of 19th-century American reformer Mary Gove Nichols to explore antebellum feminism through the lens of health and marriage reform. Using primary sources including the subjects own personal publications, this thesis traces one theme throughout Nichols’s life: her passionate drive to educate women on their own health, and to make such knowledge accessible, so that they could acquire it for themselves. This particular theme manifested in two forms: wellness acquired via homeopathic medicine, specifically the water cure; and wellness acquired from a safe and loving marriage. Her life’s work, an early form of feminism, aimed to not only aid in women’s personal well-being, but opened the door that would allow them to become stewards of wellness for others.
DOI
10.18122/td/1558/boisestate
Recommended Citation
Nichole, Marnie, "The Art of Healing: Mary Gove Nichols's Crusade for Women's Wellness" (2019). Boise State University Theses and Dissertations. 1558.
10.18122/td/1558/boisestate