Home on the rails

Professor Amy Richter's research

As much as it changed the American landscape, the coming of the railroad in the 19th century transformed American society. By providing a fast and relatively inexpensive means of long distance travel, railroads opened the vast expanses west of the Mississippi to settlement, and made it much easier for family and friends to stay connected, even when separated by distance.

In her new book, Home on the Rails, historian Amy Richter explains that railroad travel also created a context whereby female passengers, especially those traveling alone, were required to mingle with strangers--male and female, rich and poor, white and "colored"--to a degree that had, hitherto, been unusual. The railroad car constituted a public space where unrelated men and women might be confined together for a few hours to a few days. As a result, the relation of women to this new public space, and the conduct of male and female strangers toward each other, had to be defined.

The railroads created this public space at a time when gender roles were becoming more rigidly defined. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, the workplace became increasingly separated by location from the family home. While men left home to work for wages, women remained behind to tend children and keep house. The Victorian "cult of true womanhood" maintained that women should confine themselves to their "natural" and private sphere of home and family. Man's natural sphere, in contrast, was the public one of work, commerce, and government. Thus, the opportunity for unrelated men and women to mingle during travel--a decidedly public context, was perceived as a potential threat to a woman's emotional purity and physical safety.

Richter wanted to understand how 19th century American society reconciled its expectation that women confine themselves to the private sphere, while at the same time accommodating their increasing need and desire to venture into the world, whether to migrate to a place of more opportunity, or to visit family and friends that were becoming dispersed across a vast continent. Did the railroad companies, which obviously wanted as many passengers as possible, try to convince women and society at large that train travel would not compromise a woman's identity as a woman? Did increasing participation in train travel redefine what were appropriate interactions and activities for women in a country that celebrated its ideals of personal freedom and democratic ideals? Did these attitudes and expectations apply to all women, white as well as those of color, rich as well as poor, single and married?

Richter shows how society's expectation that women confine themselves to the private sphere and the need of women to travel coexisted uneasily, and, how, over time, that need to venture into the public space of travel stretched the boundaries of what activities were considered acceptable for women's participation. In the process, Richter examined personal journals and writings of the time, newspapers, and especially the vast amount of 19th century printed material relating to railroad companies and railroad travel. This last included company archives, advertisements, magazines, and popular fiction.

Home on the Rails explains how:

Railroad companies went to great lengths to convince society that railroad cars were not so much public spaces as "homes away from home." To insure that "ladies"--middle and upper class white women--would feel comfortable with train travel, first class cars were lavishly decorated and furnished. Separate cars were maintained for men wishing to smoke, persons of the working class, and of color. Some cars were reserved for ladies traveling alone or accompanied by male relatives.

While there may have been societal hesitation about the appropriateness of train travel for women, railroad companies hoped that the presence of "ladies" on board would act to subdue the rowdiness of male and lower-class passengers, thus making rail travel acceptable to wealthy male travelers. In the end, the presence of women aboard transformed the the layout of trains, the nature of services provided, and created a new type of consumer space for both men and women.

During the early years of train travel, it was assumed that male passengers or "gentlemen" would assist, accommodate, and protect female passengers, particularly those traveling alone. As the century advanced however, male passengers became increasingly disgruntled with that role. The railroads responded by requiring conductors and porters to assume the role of gentleman protector.

Exactly which female passengers were deserving of male solicitude was highly debated. Richter notes that the term lady often did not correspond with female. Gentlemanly assistance was not necessarily expected to extend to poor women or women of color. These women had a particularly difficult time combining conformity to gender expectations with a need to travel.

Particularly in the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th century, the American woman's ability to travel alone became celebrated, as long as she complied with her womanly responsibilities in other ways. A woman who capably managed her own travel exemplified the particularly American qualities of independence, pluck, and determination. Her ability to mingle appropriately and safely in the company of strangers was an example of how a democratic society should function.