Milkmaid

For other uses, see Milkmaid (disambiguation).

A milkmaid, milk maid, milkwoman, dairymaid, or dairywoman is a girl or woman who works with milk or cows.^[1]

A Danish milk maid with shoulder yoke circa 1935

She milks cows and also uses the milk to prepare dairy products such as cream, butter, and cheese. Many large houses employ milkmaids instead of having other staff do the work. The term milkmaid is not the female equivalent of milkman in the sense of one who delivers milk to the consumer;^{[citation needed]} it is the female equivalent of milkman in the sense of cowman or dairyman.^[2]

Further information: Jack in the Green § Origins in the 18th century

In 1600s-1800s English "milkmaids" sold milk wearing a yoke holding two milk pails and vending vessels, and also decorated themselves for the London May Day procession.^[3][4]

Cowpox

As a result of exposure to cowpox, which conveys a partial immunity to the disfiguring (and often fatal) disease smallpox, it was noticed that milkmaids lacked the scarred, pockmarked complexion common to smallpox survivors. This observation led to the development of the first vaccine.^[5]

Cultural references

• A legend of a Dun Cow is about the milkmaid who guided the monks of Lindisfarne carrying the body of Saint Cuthbert to the site of the present city of Durham in 995 AD.
• There is a famous painting by Johannes Vermeer entitled The Milkmaid (c. 1658).
• Aelbert Cuyp, another Dutch artist, created the drawing known as A Milkmaid (c. 1640–1650).
• The eponymous heroine of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1892) works as a milkmaid.
• The folktale The milkmaid and her pail is a cautionary tale about a milkmaid who spends her time daydreaming.
• The California native flower commonly called milkmaids is named for its resemblance to the hat often worn by milkmaids.
• Kid Harpoon has a song called "Milkmaid"; the music video features actress Juno Temple.
• Tori Amos references a milkmaid in the first verse of the song "Father Lucifer”.
• The "8th day" verse of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" mentions "eight maids a-milking".^[6]
• The Philippines has a condensed milk brand called Milkmaid, a product of Nestle.
• The San Francisco Milk Maid is cookbook author Louella Hill, author of Kitchen Creamery (Chronicle, 2014).
• The character Milkmaid in August Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata.

Milkmaid in Minnesota, United States, 2008

Milkmaid and dairy cattle in Mangskog, Sweden, 1911

See also

• Milkman

References

1. Galen, Jessica A. B. (2017). "Dairymaids". The Oxford Companion to Cheese (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199330881.013.0270 (inactive 1 November 2024). ISBN 978-0-19-933088-1. Retrieved 2022-12-23.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
2. Hough, Carole (2001). "Middle English Deye in a Fifteenth-Century Cookery Book". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. 102 (3): 303–305. JSTOR 43344800. The standard edition of the cookbook glosses deye as 'dairymaid', and indeed the term is otherwise recorded as a simplex in Middle English only with this meaning or the masculine equivalent 'dairyman'.
3. Hammerstrom, Kirsten (7 February 2013). "Blame the Milk Maid". Kitty Calash. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
4. • Judge, Roy (1979). The Jack in the Green, a May Day Custom. D S Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-029-6.
   • Judge, Roy (2000). The Jack-in-the-Green: A May Day Custom (second ed.). London: The Folklore Society Books. ISBN 0-903515-20-2.
5. Stern, Alexandra Minna; Howard Markel (2005). "The History Of Vaccines And Immunization: Familiar Patterns, New Challenges" (PDF). Health Affairs. 24 (3): 611–621. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.24.3.611. PMID 15886151. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
6. The Associated Press (November 26, 2012). "'12 days of Christmas' cost: How much is a partridge in a pear tree?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 8 May 2014.