Interdisciplinary Connections in Sarah Orne Jewett's A Country Doctor

Lowell Factory: Adeline left Oldfields to work at a factory in Lowell, MA. The "Lowell System" or also referred to as the "Lowell Girls". Some US History classes are using the following web sites to learn about this part of social history.

Economic Role of Women, Factory Girls (from Mr. Pentz).

• Your Norton US History book: pages 266 - 268, 271 - 275, 327 - 330, 349.
• Click on Sarah Moore's or Erin Leech's web page for a great powerpoint presentation on the Lowell Factory System.
• Visit the National Park Homepage for usefully information; you could also plan a visit: http://www.nps.gov/lowe/millgirls.htm

• Harriet Robinson, a Lowell Mill Girl, 1834-1838. She started work at the age of 10. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/robinson-lowell.html
  
• The Harbinger, Female Workers of Lowell,1836. http://longman.awl.com/history/primarysource_9_1.htm
  
• Drawing of a Lowell factory girl, 1840.
  http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/
  graphics/lowell.gif
  
• Drawing of a Merrimack factory,1840.
  http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/
  graphics/merrjean.jpg
  
• Factory Rules from the Handbook to Lowell, 1848.
  http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/lowell.html
  
• Daily schedule of a Lowell girl in 1853.
  http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/
  graphics/ttable.jpg
• Read about the "Lowell System" on pp.228-29 in Zinn's A People's History of The United States. (Harper Collins, 1999).

Historical 19th Century Female Doctors:

• Do you know about Elizabeth Blackwell?
• http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_blackwell_eliz.htm
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/medicine/nonint/indust/ht/inhtbi2.shtml

Titian's Presentation of the Virgin.

Review and reread the first five pages of Chapter 10. On page 93, Jewett dramatizes Dr. Leslie's mentoring with an allusion to this famous work of art. The passage reads: "The ministers were both excellent men; but Dr. Leslie was the only man who looked far ahead or saw much or cared much for true success. In Titian's great Venetian picture of the Presentation of the Virgin, while the little maiden goes soberly up the steps of the temple, in the busy crowd beneath only one man is possessed by the thought that something wonderful is happening, and lifts his head, forgetting the buyers and sellers and gossipers, as his eyes follow the sacred sight.

The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple; 1534-1538; oil on canvas; 345 x 775; Venezia, Gallerie dell’Accademia.

• This large painting of The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple is one of the few works that Titian did for a Scuola Grande, that is one of Venice’s major confraternities. Mary goes to the Temple in accordance with Jewish custom, but as she climbs the stairs, she already shines with the divine light of the new era. The confrontation of Christianity with Judaism and paganism is symbolically emphasized by the two figures at the bottom of the canvas. The classic, mutilated torso, represents the inexorable decline of the pagan world, while the other, the old Jewish woman selling ritual offerings for the Temple is the image of the persistence yet gradual exhaustion of the Jewish religion and culture. If the respectful attitudes of Mary and her parents proclaim the continuity between the Jewish and Christian worlds, the only continuity of paganism is represented by the architecture inspired by the words of Titian’s friend, Serlio. The scene includes the highest officials of the Scuola della Carità.
• Recalling that finding the drama beneath the surface of ordinary things is an aspect of Realism, how does this scene illuminate that element of Realism? Also, how does this scene connect to the garden scene of the first afternoon that Nan spent visiting Dr. Leslie?