Anthony Comstock, Abortion, and the Arrest of Madame Restell
October 9, 2024
Anthony Comstock, Abortion, and the Arrest of Madame Restell

By Nicholas L. Syrett

Anthony Comstock arrested many people, but perhaps none was so famous as Madame Restell, whom he arrested on February 11, 1878, for selling contraceptives and abortifacients. Because Restell remains best known as an abortion provider, and because Comstock succeeded in passing a federal statute that bears his name, one might assume that abortion occupied a central place in his campaign, or that Restell was arrested for performing an abortion. Neither is completely accurate. By taking the arrest of Restell as a case study, this post considers the various legal modes by which Comstock did his work, and the way he understood abortion as related to his greater campaign against obscenity and sexual license.

Targeting Victoria Woodhull: The Visual Debates that Drove Anthony Comstock’s Pursuit of the First Woman to Run for United States President
October 2, 2024
Targeting Victoria Woodhull: The Visual Debates that Drove Anthony Comstock’s Pursuit of the First Woman to Run for United States President

By Allison K. Lange

Anthony Comstock, an evangelical Christian who made it his mission to protect public morals, almost certainly imagined the woman who promoted free love as the personification of evil. He needed public support for his crusade, and this cartoon by Thomas Nast helped him win it.

Minding the GAPE – September 2024
October 1, 2024
Minding the GAPE – September 2024

By Kym MacEwan

Anthony Comstock and Victoria Woodhull, religion and the economy, knickknacks and collectibles at historic sites, political cat postcards, and much more

Robert W. McAfee: The Comstock of Chicago
September 25, 2024
Robert W. McAfee: The Comstock of Chicago

By Magdalene Zier

By the end of the nineteenth century, nearly every state had enacted or revised some sort of anti-obscenity statute, and eight of the country’s ten largest cities had an anti-vice society. This blog post spotlights one understudied arm of the apparatus: Robert W. McAfee. Although McAfee never rivaled Comstock’s prominence in the press and in public imagination, he was instrumental to the expansion and daily operation of the Comstock regime across stretches of the Midwest, Upper South, and Great Plains.

previous arrow
next arrow

Trending Posts

Puck illustration showing Anthony Comstock as a monk thwarting shameless displays of excessive flesh, whether that of women, horses, or dogs

Anthony Comstock and the Comstock Laws: A JGAPE Forum Preview

By Magdalene Zier, Lauren MacIvor Thompson, Cathleen Cahill and Kimberly A. Hamlin / September 4, 2024
Aerial view showing Washington Monument and white buildings along straight streets

Excavating the Colonial War on D.C. Alleys in the Making of Imperial Washington

By Brendan Hornbostel / August 29, 2023
Black and white mugshots of Emma Goldman, profile and front views

Reading Red Emma: A Critique of Liberal Democracy in America

By Kollin Fields / May 31, 2022
Black and white photograph of interior view of library reading room with male and female students sitting at tables, reading

Minding the GAPE – February 2023

By Kym MacEwan / March 1, 2023
Black and white print serves as an allegory of the reconciliation of North and South through Reconstruction. Image depicts the U.S. government as a pavilion-like structure topped by a bald eagle and surrounded by symbolic images.

Regulating Freedom in Georgia’s County Court

By Dr. Jonathon Booth / April 19, 2023