Breakfast Links: Week of June 27, 2011

A special welcome to all our new followers on Blogger and Twitter, and best wishes to our old friends, too. It’s a holiday weekend here in America, and we’re glad you’re sharing your Fourth of July with us. We’re serving up a tasty selection of Breakfast Links this week, gathered for your amusement from various websites, blogs, and tweets.

 • Wonderful collection of late 19th c photos of smiling subjects - last sequence of man & woman is esp. delightful: http://bit.ly/gxzY5K

• Spurious but amusing tale of 19th-century smuggling: http://bit.ly/kM0RQ0

• Rescue & rebirth of 19th c NYC department store Ehrich Brothers: elegant commercial building preserved, reused: http://bit.ly/m4Zppb

• Beautifully combining art & botany:18th c. flower collages by Mary Delany http://bit.ly/jcDkxH

• Travel in 18^th c high style! It's a SEDAN-tary life: http://post.ly/2HvZc

• Ancient architecture and heraldic symbolism: 360˚ virtual tours of St George’s Chapel, Windsor http://bit.ly/kiBMkq

• These need no comment: Vintage Ad Sexism - http://tinyurl.com/62ashbn

• Alice B. Toklas stitched Picacasso's designs: Amazing needlepoint upholstery on Louis XV chairs: http://bit.ly/igqZBn

• The Abduction of Frances Mercer, 1750 - a story of Georgian child kidnapping http://bit.ly/joTTWT

• Emily Dickinson's Bible posted online by Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass : http://tinyurl.com/68nnw5x

• Mary Saxby (1738-1801): the girl who ran away with the gypsies: http://bit.ly/m6x1hZ

• Long before the Duchess of Cambridge visited Canada, the young Queen Elizabeth wore this: "Maple Leaf" Dress from state visit in 1957: http://ht.ly/5ucDI

• Just in time for the 4th: View each signature on the Declaration of Independence. http://bit.ly/jxbaAe

• Gorgeous Chiswick House: http://wp.me/p13rlt-PM Beautiful local Georgian temple/villa, self-contained folly .

• Totally steampunk: Victorian artificial arm: http://bit.ly/k8TmAs

• When an 18th c brick house is really covered with tiles: Mathematical tiles http://tinyurl.com/3utatok

• One of the most extraordinary pieces of Tiffany's jewelry http://met.org/mhECee , featuring dragonflies & dandelions.

• Shoes from 70 yrs ago that could hit the fashion-streets today: Shoe Design c. 1939 - http://tinyurl.com/6x8bhx7

• Oakwell Hall, lovely but modest 16th c W. Yorkshire country house that inspired Charlotte Bronte: http://bit.ly/lFMmeZ