Manchester Mirror’s Fritz Swanson Writes Article for UMich Alumni Magazine

Fritz Swanson’s brief history of the first Dean of Women at the University of Michigan appeared in the fall issue of LSA MAGAZINE. Read the full story at the link below.

Dr. Eliza Mosher looked down at her womb. It was made of red silk. Directly above it was a coil of intestines, stitched together out of a fine yellow ribbon. A plump red heart hung amidst blue veins and red arteries made of string.

The entire ensemble was draped across the bodice of her black dress.

Before her was a class of young Victorian women with high collars, skirts that hid their shoes, and great leg-o-mutton sleeves puffed around them. These girls, all students at the University of Michigan in 1897, lived in a world where it was taboo to refer to their lower extremities—including the word “leg”—in mixed company because of the improper images it might conjure. But there they were, saying it and more in Mosher’s hygiene class, the first class of its kind in LSA.

As Mosher arranged her hand-made anatomical model, cupping the bottom of the silk uterus, all the ladies in the room drew in an uncomfortable breath.

via Toilets, Ladies, and Exercise.

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by Fritz Swanson

Fritz Swanson has written for The Believer, the Christian Science Monitor, Print Magazine, McSweeney's, Esopus, LSA Magazine, and The Mid-American Review. He serves as a trustee on the Manchester District Library Board. He's the designer and publisher of The Manchester Mirror.

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