Bloomer, Amelia Jenks (1818-1894), was an American reformer who supported the temperance and women’s rights movements. She was known for her “Turkish pantaloons,” which she wore with a skirt to her knees. Other American women had worn the pantaloons before, but Bloomer made them famous when she advocated their use in her journal, the Lily. The pantaloons eventually became known as bloomers.
Amelia Jenks was born on May 27, 1818, in Homer, Cortland County, New York. She married a newspaper editor, Dexter C. Bloomer, of Seneca Falls, New York, in 1840. The Lily, which began as a reform newspaper for women in 1849, contained news about women’s rights, education, and other issues. Bloomer also supported the woman suffrage movement. She became the deputy postmaster of Seneca Falls, New York, in 1849. She said that she wanted to give “a practical demonstration of woman’s right to fill any place for which she had capacity.”
Bloomer and her family moved to Ohio in 1854, then settled in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She sold the Lily but continued to write and lecture in favor of women’s rights. Bloomer died on Dec. 30, 1894.
