Adeline Myers and the Myers Family of Norfolk, Virginia

During the Early Republic, Virginia’s cities grew rapidly, creating a cosmopolitan society without precedent in the Old Dominion. Both the salon and amateur musicianship were hallmarks of a new elite urban society, as demonstrated in the life of Adeline Myers (1791–1832), the eldest daughter of the first Jewish couple to settle in Norfolk. The Myerses’ home had two capacious salons, household spaces that had come en vogue in elite Virginian townhomes at the turn of the nineteenth century. In these salons, young women like Adeline did more than display their musical accomplishments; they asserted their place as cultural leaders and innovators, especially during the social seasons that brought together the state’s belles and beaux . Beyond Norfolk, Adeline engaged with salon culture in Richmond and Philadelphia, where she regularly enjoyed the company of other Jewish women who shared her devotion to literature, music, and learning.