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.