Gone Fishin'
Everybody else seems to be going on vacation, so we are, too. We're taking a week off from blogging, tweeting, pinning, & general social networking.
See you back here next week!
Keeping Cool (or Not) in Colonial Williamsburg
Like much of the east, Williamsburg, VA suffered through record a record heat wave last week, with temperatures in the upper nineties and humidity to match. Yet Tidewater Virginia was a hot place in the 18th c., too, and the interpreters and historic tradespeople of Colonial Williamsburg were determined to continue on as they would have 250 years ago. The single most important secret weapon against the heat: linen, the best possible fiber for keeping cool(er). As always, click on the images to enlarge them.
Some people I've identified, but there are others, alas, whose names I didn't get. If you know the anonymous ones, please let me know & I'll happily add their names.
Journeyman blacksmith Christopher Henkels, top left, swore that the heat of the summer sun was much worse than standing near his fire to work. I'll take his word for that - but he was dressed for the heat with the neck of his line shirt open and the sleeves rolled as high as possible.
These two summer interns, right, in the Margaret Hunter millinery shop are ready to ply their trade in crisp linen and cotton, with silver thimbles on their fingers. Lauren Greene, left, wears a purple and white striped cotton English gown, with a diamond-patterned cotton petticoat, linen cap, apron, and neckerchief. Molly McPherson, right, also wears a linen apron and cap with her short gown of printed cotton, and a cotton neckerchief.
But in the 18th c., just as now, there are plenty of people who resolutely ignored the heat, and dress exactly as they would for any other day. These three men, lower right, were on their way to a program at the Governor's Palace; my guess is that they represent a wealthy gentleman (perhaps even the royal governor himself) in silk coat, waistcoat, and breeches; his secretary in somber dark green; and his enslaved servant in silver-laced livery that's probably wool. Their black hats are either wool, or beaver - hardly summer-weight! - and the two gentlemen area also wearing full wigs. The saving grace would have been the long linen shirts that all three were wearing next to the skin beneath all that stylish magnificence.
Breakfast Links: Week of July 15, 2013
• Shameless 1790s gossip from the Adams family about the Vassall family, with added sex and gambling.
• Sailors' favorites: naval war kitties in hammocks, World War II.
• Breathtaking historical food artistry - molded puddings jellies, and pastries.
• A literally hot gentleman: Man Against a Background of Flames, attributed to painter Isaac Oliver, c. 1600.
• Irony par excellence: lining of bishop's miter is cut out of pages with medieval love poetry.
• What would a Regency lady put on her sunburn?
• Dress right for safety in the shipyard, WWII.
• Lemon meringue pie, first created by 19th c. Philadelphia pastry shop proprietress Mrs. Elizabeth Goodfellow.
• Medieval representations of the births of royal babies and other celebrated infants.
• Exquisite costumes of The Ballets Russes.
• Alice Austen's intimate & creative images of life in New York more than a century ago.
• The phantom of a great fire in Bryant Park, New York, 1858.
• What do the British and Irish Lions have to do with a ghost in 18th c. Donegal?
• Lady Margaret Douglas, niece of Henry VIII and a survivor of four Tudor courts.
• A short history of swan-herding.
• Library porn: truly breathtaking libraries from around the world.
• An exotic piece of lost 18th c. London: William Bullock's Egyptian Hall.
• Eighteenth century receipt for making gooseberry vinegar.
• It's July, 1813, and Lord Byron is displeased.
• Zootsuits in Chicago, 1946.
• Truly novel bookstores.
• An Indian court-martial in 1819 for letting a Rajah escape.
• Buying a stocked country store in 1836.
• American in Paris Thomas Jefferson describes the storming of the Bastille, 1789.
• A wealthy grain dealer breaks ranks and builds his hulking mansion far north of Millionaire's Row, New Yor, in 1875.
• The London Painters-Stainers Company and the house-painter.
• Baddeley Brothers, a rare survivor among printers in London still producing engraving, die-stamping, embossing, & debossing.
• Dr. Benjamin Rush attends a Jewish wedding in 1787, and finds it all fascinating.
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls and receive fresh updates daily!
Friday Video: Mr. Darcy & That Infamous Wet Shirt
Isabella reporting,
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of the most-filmed books in literature. For many fans of the book, the ultimate Mr. Darcy remains Colin Firth in the 1995 BBC production. Those same fans can be even more specific: in a recent poll, viewers named the scene where Darcy takes a fully-clothed dip in his pond as the all-time most memorable moment in British TV drama. It's so famous, in fact, that there's now a twelve-foot fiberglass sculpture of Firth as Darcy, right, rising up from the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park, which is really pretty scary.
Is the scene worth all the fuss? Here's the clip so you can judge – and enjoy – for yourself.
18th Century Vignettes from Colonial Williamsburg
A bonus post today, simply because I wanted to share these photos.
As enjoyable as Colonial Williamsburg is for a self-proclaimed history nerd - the tradespeople, the politics, the antiques and art - sometimes it's the little unexpected moments that offer the truest glimpse into the past. (As always, please click on the images to enlarge them.)
Top: It's been so hot here this week that in the buildings without modern air-conditioning, every door and window is thrown open for any hint of a breeze. This is looking into (and through) one of the outbuildings behind the Peyton Randolph House. Hard to imagine being one of the 18th c. women using those flatirons (standing on the table) in 100 degree heat!
Left: This is one of the upstairs bedchambers in the Wetherburn Tavern. The gentleman who has removed his wig (the heat again?) has paid extra for one of the "private" rooms - though he'll likely still be sharing his lodgings with several other men if the House of Burgesses is in session and the town is crowded.
Right: This is the shop window of the post office and printing shop, offering pens, paper, and ink as the tools of the writing trade. How could I not include that? But it wasn't until just now that I noticed the abandoned plastic cup sitting on the brick wall. Ahh, modern "civilization" intrudes again....
