The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

408 THE STORY OF MY LIFE. magazines, ably edited, and beautifully illustrated, are published in the same interest, and colleges for women announce "Courses of lectures on Domestic Science" as a part of their curriculum. This is as it should be. The higher and " lower education" of women should keep pace with equal step. Housekeeping was robbed of its terrors from the day of my sister's advent to our home. I had no more fear of ironing day than I had of the kitchen, and though I had much to learn in all departments, I had made a good start, and now lacked neither courage nor interest. If my husband brought home an unexpected guest, it did not frighten me out of my wits. I even dared to give some three or four teaparties, to cancel my indebtedness to those who had shown us social attentions: Our little home began to take on beauty and individuality. It was extremely simple, boasting few decorations, but abounding in comfort, rest, and quiet, exquisite in its perfect neatness, and glorified by sunlight, during the long cold months of winter and early spring. And when, one happy day, my husband came home from a picture sale with three framed oil paintings, and half a dozen framed steel engravings which he had "bid off" for a ridiculously small sum, I would not have exchanged places with Queen Victoria. The gift of one of Raphael's masterpieces would not make me so happy to-day. I was so childish in my pleasure, that twice in the night I stole softly out of bed and lighted the parlor lamps, to feast my eyes on our new possessions. What a light of their own the paintings added to the parlor, and how the engravings relieved the walls of the somewhat bare little study! The oil paintings have stood the test of almost fifty years in the enlarged family, and are still honored by a place on the walls, for they do not lack merit.

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Title
The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...
Author
Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice, 1820-1905.
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Page 408
Publication
Hartford, Conn. :: A.D. Worthington & Co.,
1897.
Subject terms
Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice, -- 1820-1905.

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"The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ..." In the digital collection Making of America Books. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/4728109.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 12, 2025.
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