Breakfast Links: Week of August 29, 2011

Whether you’re celebrating Labor Day Weekend, the end of summer, or having the kids finally back in school, we’re glad to help you pass the time with an extra-large serving of our favorite Breakfast Links (to make up for last Sunday, wiped out along with the power by Hurricane Irene.) Gathered fresh from the Twitterverse, here are this week’s links to some of our favorite web sites, other blogs, images, and news stories.

• People of the past were of all shapes and sizes, just like today. The proof is in their clothes: http://bit.ly

• Oo-la-la! Shopping guide for American & English visitors to Paris, 1869. Bring plenty of money: http://bit.ly

• Ingenuous self-storing Edwardian parasol, c 1900-1910: http://bit.ly/pEZjfV

• John Rawlings' 1940s colour fashion shots - http://tinyurl.com/

• 'I'll go to the Bull or Fortune, and there see a play for two pence' - the first public London theatres http://bit.ly

• The golden 1960s, when it was perfectly acceptable for a man to point in his wife's face (at least in commercials!) http://youtu.be/VssO

• Gorgeous photos of Venice in the 1890s, in colour Photochrom http://bit.ly/nRdGQV

• Just looked at the Digital Southern Historical Collection and nearly cried, it's so amazing. http://bit.ly

• NYC, 1893: piano manufacturing company headquarters, masquerading as an over-the-top Venetian-Moorish fantasy: http://bit.ly

• Splendid South Carolina silk tailcoat, c 1830, embroidered w/rice plants & state seal via @chasmuseum: http://flic.kr/p

• Property of a Lady: 18th Century Costume, Mourning and Art in a Neoclassical Miniature: http://wp.me/p

• The fanciful King's Beasts of Henry VIII: http://bit.ly plus more Tudor beasts in this 1520 Bestiary: http://tinyurl.com/

• Wonderful! An eternal favourite "Girls skipping at an athletics carnival" http://flic.kr/p

• Fictional execution today, 1863: Peyton Farquhar, in 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' http://bit.ly/pdynPZ

• The stunning Regency library at Ickworth: http://bit.ly

• Remains of legendary Australian outlaw Ned Kelly identified:  http://bbc.in/nbcfTM plus drawings of Kelly http://bit.ly

• Want to dress like it's the 19th century in Paris? You're in luck -download this book from us! http://ow.ly/6iAmQ

• 'When Peg met Rich': actress Peg Woffington meets cat-lover & eccentric theatre manager John Rich http://bit.ly

• Tragic death of obstetrician Sir Richard Croft MD, who attended Princess Charlotte during her fatal confinement, 1817: http://bit.ly

• From the Queen's parasol: Apparently this carving represents Victoria's favourite donkey (note use of *reputed*!) http://bit.ly

• A lady wrote to Abraham Lincoln in 1863 & asked for "a sentiment & an autograph" in return he... http://bit.ly

• Legendary Castrato Faranelli Had Post-Menopausal Disease http://ow.ly

• Guide to Marie Antoinette's trial - and why it's best to switch your brain off at the outset. http://bit.ly

• Beware the Devil in 17th c London. A dark Tale from the Parish Clerks' Memoranda. http://bit.ly