In June, 1883, Jefferson and Helen Beardsley of Ithaca, New York, were indicted, tried, and sentenced for “selling and exhibiting obscene pictures.”
In Smut: An 1883 Obscenity Trial and Its Echoes Today (Paul Dry Books, 2026), historian Carol Kammen draws directly from the trial transcript and reveals the fascinating history surrounding the case and its surprising relevance today.
The story begins with the 1876 Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia. This enormous affair – the first official world’s fair in the United States drew nearly 10 million visitors from around the country and the world, and was, among other things, a venue for all types of art works, including erotica.
“Although there was pornography of one sort or another all along, the dissemination of such pictures and at an affordable price into smaller cities and villages in the country can be traced directly to the advances in photography in the 1850s and to the 1876 Centennial Celebration,” Kammen explains.
The Beardsleys brought several images home from the fair to their small photography studio and proceeded to show them to select customers.
The town leaders of Ithaca, a hamlet about to grow rapidly thanks to the presence of the recently-founded Cornell University, were vigilant to protect their town’s good name.
Through the lens of the trial, Kammen explores the local social control agency of the day; considers the influence of Anthony Comstock’s legislation for social purity on smaller communities; and notes the odd role of women in the law.
In vivid detail, this small-town trial dramatizes the same forces at work today, as citizens strive to balance the public and private virtues. Includes photographs.
Carol Kammen has authored more than a dozen books about New York State history; a historical novel, Lamentations; and a reference book, On Doing Local History, now in its third edition.
She is a retired Senior Lecturer in History at Cornell University, an occasional contributor to the New York Almanack and former editorial writer for History News, she has been the Tompkins County Historian for the past twenty-five years, and winner of the New York State Historian of the Year award. She lives in Ithaca.
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