Saturday, February 14, 2015

Breakfast Links: Week of February 9, 2015

Saturday, February 14, 2015
Ready to take away the early-morning chill - a fresh serving of Breakfast Links, our weekly round-up of fav links to other web sites, blogs, articles, and images, collected for you via twitter.
• "Inflame her to venery with wanton kisses": the joy of sex, 1684-style.
• Box it, bag it, wrap it: medieval manuscript transportation devices.
• The near-death, and revival, of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.
• Scars in limestone: finding traces today of the horrific 1920 Wall Street bombing.
• 1890s corded corset from the Chisolm Trail Museum.
Image: The kitchen at Winchester College c1900: the poor cook's face says it all.
• Detailed recreation of a Victorian household: Amy Miles' miniature house.
• Shudder! 18th c. dentistry.
• From the Yorkshire Gazette, 1822: Man wants a wife. No adjectives spared.
Image: Watch this time-lapse video of how the recent Massachusetts snow storm blanketed the famous 17th c. House of Seven Gables in Salem.
• Eight reasons why a dog is a broken-hearted woman's best friend, 18th c. style.
• This is so strange yet unbelievable cool: listen to what traditional embroidery patterns sound like if played as a laser-cut textile in a music box.
• London's ancient livery companies and street names.
• How news of Paul Revere's ride was published - and censored - in 1775.
• Devastating photos of 19th c. Native American children before and after entering the Carlisle Indian School.
Image: Miss Hedgehog
Glorious gentleman's ring, 1789-1790, commemorating Battle of St. Vincent in blue glass, gold, and pearls.
• Lead-filled billy club used by the "Massachusetts League of Freemen" when dealing with slave-hunters, c. 1845.
• When did reading become an emotional, intrinsically nostalgic activity?
• Old ways prove hard to shed, even as crisis hits centuries-old kimono trade in Japan.
• London in mineature: Mogg's 1806 pocket map.
• Beauty spots and the French pox.
Image: Bloomsbury Square in London as it appeared in mid-18th c. complete with cattle.
• An awesome 1950s Plaza Hotel cocktail menu to peruse online. A Rhett Butler, anyone?
• Fascinating costume analysis of the portrait Marie Antoinette a la Rose.
• Several topics related to the Battle of Waterloo, including the women at the battle; the last British eyewitness to the battle was Elizabeth Watkins, who died in 1904.
• Washing and restoring four 18th & 19th c. baby bonnets for exhibition.
• Henry VIII and his musical spies: see here and here.
• Ten things people once complained would ruin the English language.
Image: The Snow Queen, 1890
Vinegar Valentines for the one you love to hate.
• Amusing gallery of restaurant business cards from 1870s-present.
• Charles Dickens on the horrors of fame.
• The trailblazing black models who changed fashion forever.
• Recovering the Doves Press type, thrown into the Thames in 1916 by a vindictive Thomas Cobden-Sanderson, and a digital facsimile here.
Image: Mummy portraits from Roman Egypt, 0-200 C.E.
• From Alice in Wonderland to Swan's Way and The Bell Jar: ten great meals in literature.
• Ten imaginatively repurposed industrial buildings that were abandoned.
• Manuscript road trip: tracking the 19th c. Spanish Forger (who was probably French.)
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.

3 comments:

Hels said...

I love histories of the City of London livery companies, naturally linked into London’s history and its famous streets. But most of all I love the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Oh the hours I have spent reading their histories and examining their objects... oh the dreams.

Stacy Norwood said...

Hi Ladies!

I love breakfast links on Sunday - it's one of the highlights of my week. Just wanted to share a tidbit about this week's "Man wants wife" link. I suspect the editor of the paper may have been pranked. Peter Pangloss is a character in a 1797 play that would have been fairly well-known at the time - The Heir at Law. It's a comedy and the character and this gentleman sound an awful lot alike.

Just a thought.

Thanks!
Stacey Norwood

Isabella Bradford/Susan Holloway Scott said...

Yes, Stacey, you weren't alone in guessing that the letter was, ahem, something of a joke. Many people on Twitter said the same thing. It's possible the editor himself might have written the letter to amuse his readers. Dr. Pangloss is also a notable main character in Voltaire's "Candide." And you're right: either way, 18th c. readers would have gotten the joke immediately.

Glad you enjoy the Breakfast Links - there's so much cool *stuff* out there on Twitter that I'm delighted to be able to share it each week!

 
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