A 19th-century artist designed a “map” to the woman’s heart, “exhibiting its internal communications, and the facilities and dangers to Travelers therein.” It may seem innocuous, but this piece of odd artwork spells out a lot about the culture’s ideas of what was important to women back then.
The map heavily emphasizes vanity and self-centeredness: Love of Display, Love of Dress, and Love of Admiration take up a lot of the landscape. Below these areas, Selfishness is also assigned a rather large territory. But on a more positive note, at least a woman’s heart apparently contains a City and District of Love, Hope, Enthusiasm, and Good Sense.
Thanks to Brainpickings.org for turning us on to this map, a print of which can be found at 20×200.
