The Second Oldest Profession
The Wet Nurse, Revered and Reviled
$65.12
- Hardcover
176 pages
- Release Date
15 May 2026
Summary
An illustrated exploration of an age-old occupation, at once life-giving and freighted with contradictory ideas about women and their bodies. The wet nurse—a woman hired to breastfeed a child not her own—is indeed attested far back in history; in fact, archaeologists have discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen’s wet nurse. In modern Europe and the United States, wet nursing persisted into the early twentieth century, when bottles and formula rendered it obsolete. At one end of the social scale, w…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780789215215 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0789215217 |
| Author: | Barbara Zucker |
| Publisher: | Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S. |
| Imprint: | Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S. |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 176 |
| Release Date: | 15 May 2026 |
| Weight: | 820g |
| Dimensions: | 19mm x 216mm x 216mm |
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Critics Review
The Second Oldest Profession, devoted to an occupation that has been a source of pride and target of prejudice–wet nursing–is a provocative, taboo-busting, richly illustrated investigation. This page-turner of a case study, researched for more than thirty years, interweaves the personal, pictorial, political, and art historical and reveals, as Zucker notes, ‘facts and fables, truths and lies.’–Joan Simon, independent curator and writer
The wet nurse, ‘revered and reviled’ throughout history, is the subject of artist Barbara Zucker’s book, aptly named The Second Oldest Profession. She reveals the history of breastfeeding another’s child in beautiful illustrations and photos, which make it a pleasure to leaf through the pages.
–Madeleine Kunin, former United States Ambassador to Switzerland and 77th Governor of Vermont
Barbara Zucker
Barbara Zucker is professor emerita of art at the University of Vermont and a founder of the A.I.R. Gallery, the first women’s cooperative gallery in the United States.
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