The Josephine Long Wishart Collection:
Mother, Home and Heaven

The Josephine Long Wishart Collection: Mother, Home and Heaven is a monograph collection of popular advice literature. Aimed primarily at women, books cover topics from cooking and cleaning to marriage and birth control. Many of the titles are manuals that offer guidelines for self-improvement.

The Victorian notion of the woman as the "Angel in the House" is well-represented, with many of the texts proposing that every young woman should be prepared to be the guardian of her home and to provide heaven on earth for her family. Later imprints document the change in social constructs.

As result of more women taking an active role in the work force during World War I and World War II, the texts reflect the changes made to the guidelines for becoming an "ideal woman." Books published in the 1960s represent the explosion of the youth culture and the need for women to look and feel young to keep up with the demands of daily life.

The collection demonstrates how self-improvement advice has been redefined to meet the needs of popular culture. The books, approximately 800 titles to date, were collected by Harrison Hayford over a period of several years. In 1990, his wife, Josephine Wishart Hayford (Class of 1937), donated the bulk of the collection in honor of her mother, Josephine Long Wishart, wife of President Charles F. Wishart. Since Ms. Hayford's death in 1996, Mr. Hayford has continued to add to the collection on a regular basis. The Wishart family played a dominant role in the college's history for the better part of this century.

A guide and database are available for patron use.

For Additional Information:

Gilgenbach, Cara. "Catalogue and Reference Guide to The Josephine Long Wishart Collection: Mother, Home, and Heaven". Wooster, OH: College of Wooster, 1993.