Caroline Dexter


Caroline Dexter was an English-Australian dress reformer, writer, and feminist.
Dexter was born in Nottingham, England; she was educated privately in England and Paris. In 1843 she married the painter, William Dexter, he migrated to Australia aboard the Bank of England arriving in Sydney in 1852, and she arrived in the Marie Gabrielle in 1855. In Sydney they opened and ran a Gallery of Arts and School of Design.
They moved on to Gippsland in 1856. While in Gippsland Caroline wrote her Ladies Almanack: The Southern Cross or Australian Album and New Years Gift. When it was published in 1858 it was 'The First Ladies' Almanack Published in the Colonies'. Soon after the book was complete the Dexters separated and Caroline moved to Melbourne.
After lecturing about the bloomers in London and beyond, Caroline continued to pursue her interest in dress reform in Australia. Her continued support for dress reform caused controversy in the Sydney Morning Herald. Nonetheless, she ran an Institute of Hygiene and promoted divided skirts for women and the abolition of corsets in Melbourne. She also met Harriet Clisby and together they produced the first all-women publication in 1861. The Interpreter ran for two issues. In 1861 Caroline married William Lynch, together they held a salon and acquired an important collection of Australian art.
Dexter Street in the Canberra suburb Cook is named in her honour. A book about William and Caroline, Folie A Deux: William and Caroline Dexter in Colonial Australia, was written by Patrick Morgan in 1999.