Nestled among the holdings in the College’s Frank Forster Library are two small booklets, published in Melbourne in the 1890s. They are written and published by Mrs B Smyth, who was a fascinating figure. Described by Farley Kelly as having made “a singular contribution to Melbourne’s social and cultural life in the 1880s and 1890s,”¹ Mrs B Smyth’s role in the history of women’s rights and birth control in Australia are the focus of our collection spotlight in this issue.

Early Years

Fig. 1. Mrs Brettena Smyth.

Born in Kyneton, Victoria, in 1842, Bridgetena (Brettena) Riordan was the daughter of John and Bridgetena Riordan. In 1861, Brettena married William Taylor Smyth, and in the following years relocated to Errol Street, North Melbourne, where William operated a greengrocer and confectionery, and the family lived behind the store. Mrs Smyth bore five children before her husband’s untimely death caused by pthisis (tuberculosis) in 1873. After William’s death, Mrs Smyth converted the store into a drapery and druggist supply store.

In the mid-1880s, Mrs Smyth started to follow her true passion. She became the founder and secretary of the Australian Women’s Suffrage Society (AWSS) and a fierce advocate for the rights of women within society. Having held a lifelong dream to become a doctor, Mrs Smyth commenced medical studies and was described by one doctor as “one of the most conscientious and hard-working medical students he had ever met.”²  Unfortunately, a failed investment scheme meant that Mrs Smyth could not afford to complete her medical studies. Nonetheless, in what one writer described as “an instance of what resolution and dogged determination can accomplish,”² Mrs Smyth persevered. Largely self-taught, she expanded on her political beliefs and became a leading voice for birth control, women’s education, and women’s control of their own bodies.

A Woman’s Body

Mrs Smyth was a gifted and popular public speaker. By July 1887, in front of an audience of nearly a thousand people, she claimed “the honour and credit of being the first woman in the Australian colonies” to deliver a political speech. Mrs Smyth was “loudly cheered on rising” and “frequently applauded during her address,” demonstrating her evident talent as an orator.³ Her popularity on the speaking circuit was such that by 1890 she was giving a range of lecture courses, primarily focused on educating women about their own bodies.

Mrs Smyth was an imposing and impressive presence on the stage. Standing at nearly six feet, she was described as “tall, muscular, well-developed, with a perfect disdain for a broomstick waist.”¹ The latter refers to her belief in accepting the natural shape of women’s bodies. In her publication Women’s Diseases: Their Cause, Cure, and Prevention, which is based on one series of her public lectures, Mrs Smyth decries the health risks of tight lacing, particularly for women who are pregnant or postpartum. She explains that “it is strongly to be hoped that a better taste is now arising, and that the female figure will not be thought so imperfect naturally as to require crushing and squeezing into shape.”³

Mrs Smyth despaired at “the fact that many women were ignorant about the workings of their own bodies, especially their sexual organs”⁴ and took it upon herself to change this. In Women’s Diseases, she describes in detail the different parts of the female anatomy and speaks about some disorders that may be encountered by women. In many cases, she presents this information alongside diagrams picturing the condition.

An example drawn from this booklet can be seen below.

Fig. 2. Text and illustration regarding “Falling of the Womb” in Women’s Diseases, pp. 28-29 (RANZCOG Frank Forster Library collection).

Fig. 3. Limitation of Offspring, 1893 (RANZCOG Frank Forster Library).

Fig. 4. Women’s Diseases, 1895 (RANZCOG Frank Forster Library).

Birth Control

In 1888, a legal ruling in New South Wales made it possible for birth control literature to be sold in Australia without it being classified as “obscene”. Following this ruling, Mrs Smyth promptly began to sell and advertise this material from her store, as well as contraceptive devices.⁴

Mrs Smyth also gave regular lectures on birth control, and published a booklet based on her lectures, titled Limitation of Offspring. In the booklet, she speaks passionately on the virtue of birth control, stating that “it is much more moral to prevent the conception of children than after they are born to desert or slowly murder them by want of food, air and clothing.” Mrs Smyth was a strong believer in the rights of a woman to determine for herself how many children she should have, arguing that “every woman should say so many and no more, and when she will have them. Marriage should protect her freedom, not make her a slave.”

Her views on birth control stemmed from her belief in a woman’s control of her own body, however they were also strongly informed by eugenics. Mrs Smyth was firmly convinced that sickly parents resulted in sickly children. She believed that having too many children made those children “liable to idiotcy (sic)”. She claimed that “those who suffer from hereditary diseases, consumption, or insanity in the family, might marry if they so wished, but they should not have children.”²

The Collection

The College’s Frank Forster Library is fortunate to hold copies of both booklets mentioned in this article. The College’s copy of Limitation of Offspring is a fourth edition, published in 1893, whilst the copy of Women’s Diseases is a nineteenth edition, published in 1895. Crudely made and inexpensively produced, Kelly claims that Mrs Smyth’s publications were “sometimes awkward and derivative”, but were nonetheless “informative, sensible, and compared to imported examples of the genre, cheap.”¹

Measuring approximately 12x18cm each, these booklets offer a fascinating glimpse into late 19th-century Melbourne. The first 14 pages of Limitation of Offspring consists of advertisements for Mrs Smyth herself, as well as some of her neighbouring businesses, painting a colourful picture of North Melbourne in the 1890s. These businesses included Fitzgerald Brothers (“Importers of General Drapery, Costumiers, Milliners, & Gentleman’s Outfitters”), W. Leeming’s Great Colonnade Boot Bazaar, a dentist, newsagent, home furnisher, and photography studio.

The booklets also demonstrate Mrs Smyth’s impressive self-advertisement and promotion skills. The closing pages of each booklet contain a collection of quotes from the press offering their praise of Mrs Smyth and her public work and lectures. She is variously described as “a lady of rare ability”, “a clever businesswoman”, and having “an impressive delivery,” amongst many similar testimonials.²  

Mrs Smyth was also forthright in speaking to the value of her own work, calling Limitation of Offspring “the Book of the 19th Century”, and claiming it is “worth its weight in pure gold and is the best book that ever was sold to instruct and enlighten young and old.”³ 

Fig. 5. Advertisement from Limitation of Offspring, 1893 (RANZCOG Frank Forster Library collection).

Fig 6. Advertisement from Limitation of Offspring, 1893 (RANZCOG Frank Forster Library collection).

Legacy 

In 1897, Mrs Smyth sold her business and began preparations for “a colonial and overseas tour, equipped with new French diagrams.”¹ Unfortunately, this tour never came to pass. Mrs Smyth’s health rapidly deteriorated and she died in February 1898. 

Whilst one obituarist offered the backhanded compliment that Mrs Smyth “was almost too candid and practical for a female,”⁵ Stephen Barker (an AWSS committee member) offered the following warm tribute after her passing:

Mrs Smyth was a lady that under genial conditions would have risen to a very high place in the profession she had so early chosen but hampered as she was with difficulties that have borne hundreds of her sisters down in life, she achieved a position singular because she had brains to think for herself.¹

Mrs Brettena Smyth was an extraordinary woman. Self-educated, dynamic, influential, and forceful, she was a working woman who supported herself and her family while also advocating for a more inclusive and equitable society for women. Her booklets, held in the Frank Forster Library collection, play a small part in preserving the legacy of her achievements today.