Lectures
Though many women had already delivered public lectures in the 1830s, 40s and 50s, Oakes Smith has been widely credited as the first woman speaker accepted on the Lyceum Circuit, in 1851, a career move which afforded her both a national audience and a sometimes lucrative source of income. Soon many other women followed Oakes Smith’s path.
Lyceums were educational institutions, designed for both learning and social advancement and assimilation for young men (and many women). Since political subjects like slavery were discouraged or disallowed, Oakes Smith’s lectures were carefully titled and designed as “philosophical” or historical discussions of woman’s place in society. Hundreds of newspaper reviews and manuscript copies of her lectures show how often she seems to have crossed the “political” line.
Oakes Smith’s major lecture career extended from her first performance at Hope Chapel, New York City in June 1851 through 1857, when she canceled several engagements due to ill-health, though she did lecture occasionally from the early 1860s through the 1880s, in both small private and larger public settings.
Jiaming Lou’s draft of a "map” of Oakes Smith’s lecture career details the extent of her travel, and in many cases provides images of lecture venues and accommodations in cities from Portland, ME to Chicago, IL. (click on the top left menu icon of the map for instructions!)