BLOOMER, AMELIA JENKS American dress-reformer and women's rights advocate, was born at Homer (N.Y.), on May 27, 1818. In 1849 she took up the idea—pre viously originated by Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller—of a reform in woman's dress, and the wearing of a short skirt, with loose trousers, gathered round the ankles. The name of "bloomers" gradually became popularly attached to any divided-skirt or knickerbocker dress for women. Until her death on Dec. 3o, 1894, Mrs. Bloomer took a prominent part in the temperance and woman suffrage movements.