De Damespost
The first Dutch-language magazines aimed at women started to appear in the early eighties of the eighteenth century, which was relatively late compared with Britain, France and Germany. Lotte Jensen explains the delay by pointing out that, unlike in these large neighbouring countries, the Dutch readers’ market was too small to support ‘specialist’ magazines for a wide variety of target groups. As women constituted a relatively small audience, it must have been hard to get a women’s magazine off the ground (Jensen, 26-28). One attempt to do so was by Betje Wolff, who in 1786 tried to follow a German example, Pomona für Teutschlands Töchter (1783-1784), published by Sophie von La Roche. The Dutch version never even made it into print, probably due to a lack of interest from publishers, female readers or both (Jensen, 11).
One of the first women’s magazines in the Netherlands was De Damespost (The Ladies’ Post), which appeared in 1785 and about which little is known. It was presumably edited by one or more male editors, as is evident from letters to the editor, which begin with ‘myn heer’ (Sir) or ‘myne heeren’ (Sirs). Whether these letters were real or fictional we have no possibility of knowing, but either way they were addressed to a man.
Each issue consisted of news followed by a miscellany section. The ‘news’ came from all over the world, was of an amusing or sensational nature and quite possibly copied from other periodicals. It covered the birth of monsters or royal children, visits and appearances of kings and queens, a boy who stroked a tiger without being bitten, and what the ladies were wearing at parties and balls. The society news in particular brings to mind today’s yellow press.
The miscellany section featured short stories, poetry, aphorisms and fictional letters. Spread out over several issues was a correspondence between ‘a lady from Amsterdam and her friend in the Veluwe’, an orthodox protestant region in the province of Gelderland. De Damespost, moralistically, favours the honest and god-fearing woman from the countryside over her Amsterdam correspondent, who, alas, lived a far too worldly and luxurious life.
Although the magazine contained no book reviews, its ‘female context’ prompted a study of references to women authors. There proved to be hardly any. The only mention of a woman writer was found in the correspondence referred to above, where the woman from Veluwe was reading to her father from David by Lucretia Wilhelmina van Merken. The correspondence also referred to several other writers, but by their surnames: (Philip?) Doddridge, (Arthur?) Young, Hervey and Bennett. The latter two might be women, Agnes Maria Bennett en Elizabeth Hervey, both whose writings were known in the Netherlands, although only the former seems to have been translated. The references in the Damespost do not make it clear whether the correspondents had actually read them.
Bibliography:
- De Damespost. Behelzende eenige zeldzaame gebeurtenissen, zedelyke vertoogen en verhaalen, nuttige berichten, zedekundige brieven en aanmerkingen, fraaije dichtstukjes, enz. Byéén verzameld in zes en twintig weekbladen. (Amsterdam, 1785). Leiden University Library.
- Dijk, Suzan van and Helmers, Dini, ‘Nederlandse vrouwentijdschriften in de 18e eeuw?’, in W.W. Mijnhardt (ed.), Balans en Perspectief van de Nederlandse cultuurgeschiedenis: De productie, distributie en consumptie van cultuur. (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991), 71-88.
- Jensen, Lotte. ‘Bij uitsluiting voor de vrouwelijke sekse geschikt’: vrouwentijdschriften en journalistes in de achttiende en negentiende eeuw in Nederland. (Hilversum: Verloren, 2001), pp. 11, 26, 28, 40, 41, 43, 45, 52, 195.
Susanne Parren, April 2007
Transl. Brenda Mudde
- Note that when arriving in the database WomenWriters your status will be "not logged on", meaning that your access to the database is limited. For complete access (and participation in the project), contact Suzan van Dijk.
- Sources > Dutch sources > Articles in the press > Women's press > Damespost