I recently read something about American spinsters in the 1800s who would "attach themselves" to other families as "aunts," and it got me wondering about the kind of lifestyles single women might have had, since I'd always assumed they were just stuck living alone or with their parents.
I know this is a broad question, but I'm interested in hearing about lifestyles of spinsters from any and all social strata (and open to hearing about the situation in other countries, too!).
Are you stuck on mid-19th century? Because I can tell you about the lives and work of early women librarians, but that's more 1880s-1920s!
If you were wealthy enough, you could set up a household on your own with a friend. The term for this was a "Boston marriage," taken from Henry James' novel 1886 The Bostonians which depicts such a relationship. People often take the term to be a codeword for lesbians, but it's not clear that this was the case. Or at least, the term did imply an intense emotional connection between the two women, but not necessarily a sexual relationship. Of course, it's difficult to judge these things from afar, particularly as if there was a sexual relationship it likely wouldn't have been discussed openly, even in private letters.