Bustles & Broadswords

Bustles & Broadswords

By Claire MeadHistory
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Bustles & Broadswords episodes

  • Bustles & Broadswords Trailer

    Welcome, sword lady lovers...to Bustles and Broadswords! Tune in to find out what it's all about and for a teaser about Season 1...around Performance! (jazz hands with swords) (don't try this at home)

    Season 1 of Bustles and Broadswords will update weekly throughout June/July 2022. Tune in every week for a new episode!

    Follow on Twitter at @bustleswordpod to be the first to know when the next one's live!

    And you can follow the writer, narrator and producer of this podcast, Claire Mead, at @carmineclaire!

    4 min
  • Toupie Lowther

    This week, we cover a gender non-conforming lesbian who was a fencer, a tennis player, WWI ambulance driving unit leader AND a key player in a 20s lesbian book scandal...the unpredictable Toupie Lowther.  

    Show notes!

    Images:

    Toupie Lowther in breeches in The Sketch, 1900

    Toupie in a tennis outfit, c. 1900, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.
    Late 19th/early 20th century postcard of a woman fencing with the caption "just you try and break up with her" in French (and great pictures in this French blog post in general)
    Members of the Hackett-Lowther unit including posing with the kitten mascot, French Army's Photography Department
    The Hackett-Lowther unit working on ambulances, Le Monde Illustré No. 3168, September 7, 1918.
    Lady Una Troubridge left and author Radclyffe Hall with their dachshunds at Crufts dog show, 1923, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas
    Romaine Brooks, La France Croisée, 1914, Smithsonian American Art Museum (and not "La Croisée" as stated in the podcast)

    Sources & more reading:

    Diana Souhami, The Trials of Radclyffe Hall - a must-read for anyone who wants to find out more about Hall and the book trial. And the rest of her books are just as fantastic re: historical lesbians.

    J. Halberstam, Female Masculinity.
    Katrina Rolley, Cutting a Dash: The Dress of Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge
    Laura Doan, Passing Fashions: Reading Female Masculinities in the 1920s
    Fencing for Ladies 1901 newspaper article
    Imperial War Museums Toupie Lowther timeline
    The Times August 5, 1919 - Englishwomen with the French army
    Medal card of Lowther, Toupie Corps: French Red Cross Rank: Driver, National Archives
    Lady fencers – transcript of an article in the Harmsworth magazine, issue July 1899
    Nathalie Barney, Quelques Portraits-Sonnets de Femmes
    Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness - Not my fave lesbian novel but great to get the historical context for many lesbians at the time.


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    51 min
  • La Jaguarina

    This week, we cover the swashbuckling Californian adventures of Ella Hattan, aka La Jaguarina - flamboyant 19th century California dueller extraordinaire.

    Show notes!

    Sources & more reading:

    Colonel Thomas Monstery, and the Training of Jaguarina, America’s Champion Swordswoman

    La Jaguarina!, Houghton Library Blog

    The Jaguarina-Wiedermann Battle, Journal of Manly Arts, 2002 (the irony)

    Women's History Spotlight: Jaguarina and Colonel Monstery

    Jaguarina at Pacific Beach

    World Renown Champion Amazon: Jaquarina

    Los Angeles Herald, 1890-1893, October, 1892

    Godey's magazine (1896), HathiTrust Digital Library

    Indianapolis Journal, December 1897

    Images (also accessible via @bustleswordpod)

    Horseback fencing here and here

    Fight uniform

    More fanciful version of it

    THAT fencing picture

    Jaguar outfit

    Further context:

    Mara Laura Keire, For Business and Pleasure: Red-Light Districts and the Regulation of Vice in the United States, 1890–1933 for more context on the Ladies' Alimony's Club lithograph kept at Library of Congress. As mentioned, this lithograph also shows examples of racist and antisemitic caricatures - corresponding to the racism of American theatre. This article from National Black Theatre is a snapshot overview of the history of Black theatre in the US.


    50 min
  • The Tigress of Brittany

    This week, we cover Joan...of Clisson, and how she ended up becoming an axe-wielding pirate in 14th century France with a fearful reputation and the best nickname: the Tigress of Brittany!

    56 min
  • La Maupin

    This week, we cover the unique Julie d'Aubigny, also known as La Maupin...an opera singing and duelling bisexual badass from 17th century France!

    38 min

About Bustles & Broadswords

From the publisher's feed

Bustles and Broadswords is a podcast about historical, legendary and semi-historical, semi-legendary women with swords - with a queer twist. Researched, narrated and produced by Claire Mead.