Saturday, December 8, 2012

Breakfast Links: Week of December 3, 2012

Saturday, December 8, 2012
It's time for Breakfast Links - this week's collection of our favorite links to other web sites and blogs, photographs, and articles, all gathered for you from the Twitterverse.
• The grand wardrobe of Queen Elizabeth I - a collection of ostentatious hand-me-downs?
• England's Great Storm of 1703 devastates her ships and her oak trees alike.
• The Wheatsheaf Inn, Popham Lane, and Jane Austen; part two here.
Sir Winston Churchill: politician, man of action; also grower of roses & collector of butterflies.
• Accessory of the Day: Andre Perugia shoes, 1925.
• In 1858, NYC's famed Crystal Palace burned to the ground.
• Stealing Charlie Chaplin: a macabre grave-robbery.
• St Katharine's by the Tower: London's forgotten medieval hospital.
• Bleak House no more: Charles Dicken's home reopens after restoration.
• In honor of the holiday season: shopping & advertising in Georgian Britain.
• It lasted four days and led to the deaths of 4,000: the 1952 Great Smog of London.
Christmas carols, Regency style.
• Unhappy but politically important: Margaret of Denmark (1456-1486), Queen of Scotland.
• A magic-carpet ride for young lovers in 18th c. India.
• Even royalty finds comfort in needlework: Queen Mary's pillow.
• A magnificent blue corset, c. 1868-1874.
• The secret contents of second-hand books.
Love advice to a young woman from the Sausalito (CA) News, December 1912.
• Interested in Tudor dentistry? "Here foloweth medycynes for ache in the tethe."
Bad Santas: a roundup of truly objectionable Christmas advertising.
• Why American parents don't name their daughters Mary anymore.
Drinking tea was once considered an irresponsible, reckless pursuit for women.
• Meanwhile, George (and Martha) Washington were drinking hot chocolate.
• The wonders of unicorn horns: preventions and cures for poisoning.
• Worn, torn, ripped, and shattered 18th c. shoes.
• This silk flag belonged to the 84th Regiment of Infantry, United States Colored Troops.
• New York's 1916 Children's Courthouse processed 10,000 "imps of Satan" a year.
• How Christmas traditions help to preserve archaic and obsolete language.
• The distinguished pedigree of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle: the truth about medieval hedgehogs.
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter at @2nerdyhistgirls for daily updates!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The accidental juxtaposition of the 18th century shoes & silk military flag above brought to mind a pair of 18th century shoes partly made out of a silk military flag!

http://emuseum.chs.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/search$0040/468/title-asc?t:state:flow=f0f3d074-855e-473e-aa47-8c4a9b43e2f8

Isabella Bradford/Susan Holloway Scott said...

Anonymous, the link just reverts to the general site. I'd still love to see the shoes - could you please try again?

Anonymous said...

Queen Mary's pillow.
Great that the upper crust did some of their own needlework back then, and earlier. Now, they just fork out a bunch of money for others to do it for them.... Nothing to be proud of about the latter.

 
Two Nerdy History Girls. Design by Pocket