This ONLINE lecture will explore the social lives, religious contexts, economic circumstances, and legal strategies of single women who coupled together in late eighteenth-century Philadelphia, and argues that these households were a distinctly queer arrangement that operated outside of traditional patriarchal and heterosexual household structures. Through the framework of "queer possibility" this lecture will examine how literary culture, religious opportunities, and relationship models all contributed to a woman's ability to imagine and choose to share her life with another woman.

Tickets available from Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/.../yoke-fellows-and-life...

Speaker:
Isabel Steven earned her BA in History from the College of William and Mary in 2018, and has been working in history and art museums since 2016, including The J. Paul Getty Trust, The Valentine Museum, and Maymont Mansion. She is in the midst of earning her MA in Public History at Temple University here in Philadelphia, and currently works at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This past summer she worked as an intern for the Elfreth's Alley Association to help bring to life the first season of The Alley Cast podcast.