From Whale Jaws to Corsets: How Sailors’ Love Tokens Got Into Women’s Underwear

We like to think of people in the 1800s as fusty prudes who were scandalized by the sight of an ankle. So it might surprise you to learn that in the early 19th century a young man in Europe or America might give his sweetheart a token of love she could wear inside her corset. Known as a busk, this long, flat, rigid object would slide into a tall, narrow pocket in the front of a corset between a woman’s breasts, all the way down to her pubic bone.
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