The title page to Mrs. J. W. Likin's book about her experience as a canvasser in California. The book was printed by the Woman's Co-operative Printing Union. Read the full book for free on the Internet Archive.
Mrs. J. W. Likins faces down a surly potential customer.
Books, newspapers, and printed images reached customers not only through bookstores but through agents selling by subscription. Agents travelled using the new transportation network—the railroad—and shipped books to their destinations through the postal service. Many women worked as agents alongside men.
One fascinating lens into the world of book agents is Mrs. J. W. Likins autobiographical Six Years Experience as a Book Agent in California: Including My Trip From New York to San Francisco via Nicaragua, published in San Francisco by the Women’s Union Book and Job Printing Office (an imprint used by the Women’s Co-operative Printing Union) in 1874. Read Likins book in full on its Internet Archive page. Likins wasn’t a Spiritualist (or at least she doesn’t indicate as such). But her book still provides valuable clues for what it was like to be a woman agent within this print culture of which Spiritualism was a part, and her account references other women agents working at the time.
Likins worked as a book agent and canvasser in California cities from 1868-1874. She entered the job from economic need, having to support her family upon arrival in San Francisco.
“On my way I passed the book-store of H. H. Bancroft, then on the corner of Montgomery and Merchant streets. In the window I noticed a card, with the words ‘Agents Wanted’ on it. Stepping into the store a gentleman advanced to meet me. I asked him ‘Do you employ ladies agents?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘allow me to take you to the Subscription Department.’” [1]
Likins sold engraved portraits, and later books. She canvassed the streets, writing down the names of customers in her subscription book and picking up the ordered books at each city’s post office. Likins did not identify as a woman’s rights supporter, but she did believe in equal pay for equal work. She wrote of the challenges she faced as a woman canvasser and the sexist customers she encountered. In one memorable anecdote, she stands her ground against a man who tells her she should be at home caring for her family.
“I, for the first time since I had commenced canvassing, made up my mind not to be beaten. Taking a chair, I seated myself close beside the Judge, saying, ‘I know you are an old bach, and likely a woman hater; but, still you must listen to me for a short time.’ I then explained to him the position I was placed in, and showed him the necessity of me having to canvass; I told him I was no strong-minded, woman’s rights advocator, as that seemed to be his strong point of argument against me. I also said that a lady could be a lady, and follow any kind of employment that was not too laborious, and in the event of her having performed any duty as well as could possibly have been done by a man, she certainly ought to be as well remunerated for the same.”
And Likins was good at her job: “After some lengthy discussion, for and against, I actually was successful in talking him into buying a book” [2].
Below are several examples of women working as agents for Spiritualist newspapers.
Banner of Progress
In 1867, the list of men and women “authorized to act as Agents for the Banner of Progress, to receive subscriptions and money for the same, and forward them to this office” included Mrs. L. Hutchison of Owensville, and Mrs. S. M. Wales of Dayton, Nevada [3].
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Common Sense
In 1874, Common Sense sought agents regardless of any gender: “Canvassers wanted.—A good canvasser, male or female, is wanted for this journal in every town on the coast. Liberal commissions allowed to those who devote time to the work.”
The list of existing male and female agents included Mrs. L. Hutchinson of Inyo Co., and Mrs. Georgiana B. Kirby of Santa Cruz Co. Abby W. Baker, Addie L. Ballou, and H. F. M. Brown are listed under Traveling Agents [4].
Sources
Images:
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[Likins title page] Mrs. J. W. Likins, Six Years Experience as a Book Agent in California: Including My Trip From New York to San Francisco via Nicaragua (San Francisco: Women’s Union Book and Job Printing Office, 1874), title page, Open Library, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/sixyearsexperien00liki/page/n7/mode/2up.
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[Likins illustration] Mrs. J. W. Likins, Six Years Experience as a Book Agent in California, opposite page 110. https://archive.org/details/sixyearsexperien00liki/page/n7/mode/2up.
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[1] Mrs. J. W. Likins, Six Years Experience as a Book Agent in California, 52,
https://archive.org/details/sixyearsexperien00liki/page/n7/mode/2up.
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[2] Likins, Six Years Experience as a Book Agent in California, 90-91. https://archive.org/details/sixyearsexperien00liki/page/n7/mode/2up.
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[3] Banner of Progress, December 1, 1867 (San Francisco, California), page 4. The International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals (IAPSOP), http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/banner_of_progress/.
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[4] Common Sense, June 20, 1874 (San Francisco, California). The International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals (IAPSOP), http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/common_sense/.