The women of Wooster once were firmly placed into classes by the expectations of society, and those deemed upper-class were held to particularly high standards. From approximately 1820 to 1860, during a movement called the Cult of Domesticity, these women were expected to adhere to the Cult’s four tenets: piety (be more religious than men), purity (be pure in heart, mind, and body), submissiveness (be deferential and obedient to their husbands), and domesticity (a woman’s proper place and role were in the home only).
Michael Nachtrieb, a Wooster artist well known for painting portraits, owned a portrait studio and once featured an exhibit called Nachtrieb’s Women of Wayne County During the Cult of Domesticity Era. His oil paintings featured several high-society women, along with labels indicating who they married and how many children they produced – standards by which women were judged and which determined their social standing with their peers.
Among the women featured were Adelaide Critchfield, who married L. R. Critchfield in 1854 and had seven children; Maria Frick Overholt, who married John Overholt, Sr., and had five children; and Williamina Regina Quinby, who married George Quinby in 1855 and had four children.
Nachtrieb’s portraits are on display at the Wayne County Historical Society. Stop in for a tour to see this exhibit, and many others, in the permanent collection, as well as several temporary exhibits and the eight buildings comprising the grounds. Tours are given on Saturdays at 1 and 2:30 p.m., from March through December. It is recommended that you call to ensure that any special events won’t disrupt tours on the day you wish to visit.
