In the nineteenth century Woman's Exchanges formed a vast national network that created economic alternatives for financially vulnerable women in a world that permitted few respectable employment options.One of the nation's oldest continuously operating voluntary movements -- many are still in business after more than a century -- the Exchanges were fashionable and popular shops where women who had fallen on hard times could sustain themselves by selling their handiwork on consignment -- without having to seek public employment. Over the century Exchanges became an important forum for...