Boston Marriages

The term Boston marriage was used in New England in the late 19th century to refer to a long-standing and intimate monogamous relationship between two women who typically were not heterosexually affianced or wed at the time of their relationship, though they may have been so before or after the relationship. Another term for Boston marriage is Wellesley marriage, in tribute to both the New England origins and the value of academic achievement attributed to the partners. A Boston marriage may or may not have sexual overtones; if not, lesbian bed death is the current evocative term for those nonsexual unions of past years. In considering [Page 88]whether these lesbian partnerships were “closeted” in the current sense of the term, the answer is unclear. Some seem to have been, but others were undoubtedly open, as autobiographies and memoirs of the time reveal.

The state of Massachusetts made same-sex unions legal in 2004, leading some to believe that the term Boston marriage is a new usage. In fact, it dates back at least as far as its first literary appearance in the 19th century.

The literary origin and history of usage for Boston marriage begins by citing Henry James's characters Olive and Verena, from the novel The Bostonians, written in 1885. James applied the term to those relationships, which he depicted as common in New England, in which two women formed a long-term relationship, shared financial obligations, shared personal regard, might identify themselves as advocates of women's rights in that time (“New Women”), and may or may not have been sexual partners.

A literary contrast is David Mamet's all-woman play Boston Marriage (2000). Its title is only an homage to James's usage, and Mamet's play was much criticized when first performed. In Mamet's usage, there is no doubt that sexual intimacy is a feature of the Boston marriage.

Social historians suggest that the Boston marriage is best understood as a regional American phenomenon, and a phenomenon limited by era. Thus, the term is most accurately applied to the New England relationships between women in the Victorian America of the 19th century, reflecting the particularly “Yankee” American values of independent thinking, especially as demonstrated through work motivated by social conscience and resulting from academic or other formal training and achievement; self-reliance, in the sense that the relationship between two women involved in a Boston marriage, and often their circle of similarly involved friends, was completely satisfying; and hard work, indeed, the feeling that work outside the home was a sine qua non.

Other analysts point out the strength of feelings and intimacy of two women involved in a Boston marriage as recalling the bonds of mother and daughter. It is also often mentioned that women involved in Boston marriages had a high regard for scholarship and the intellectual life, so much so that the term also connotes the partners as white women of wealth and social class able to attend the few women's colleges of the day. In examining the memoirs of those involved in the Boston marriages during the Victorian period, it is clear that such relationships often involved a network of couples who were mutually supportive.

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