Matrimonial Pilgrimage

Featured is a map entitled “Matrimony or the Land of Bliss” published in Haddam in 1860 and created by George E. Kelsey, a graduate of Brainerd Academy.

It was advertised as:

a most unique and original miniature panoramic chart…which points out the course of the Matrimonial Pilgrim through the vast deep of single blessedness to the sure of haven of true Felicity. Nothing can be more appropriate as a gift, for a gentleman to present to his sweetheart, or a lady to her suitor, as a gentle hint of the bliss of wedded life and thus perhaps a speedy means to the alter.

The advertisement goes on to say that the maps may be a source of amusement at social parties and “establish a chain of remarks which impart buoyancy and mirthful tone”.

A 1916 article in the Hartford Courant states that map shows “what a stereotyped and at the time delightfully naïve view our grandfathers must have on marriage and of its forerunner courtship”. Today some may find the map a little distasteful and outdated, but it clearly shows we have come a long way from “Blue Stocking Bay”.