Breakfast Links: Week of February 13, 2012

Served up fresh: our weekly offering of Breakfast Links! Our favorite links to other blogs, web sites, pictures, and articles, collected for you from around the Twitterverse.

• A Day in the Life of a Wartime Housewife, 1941: http://bit.ly/wjah8t
• Is this really a long-forgotten photograph of the Bronte sisters? http://bit.ly/zb5gAy

• A slice of the world's grandest hotel in 1853 survives on Broadway. http://bit.ly/ylpd31

• George Washington, international example of cocky, callow youth, and how he grew up: http://bit.ly/zCk7zt

• Imagine making a dramatic entrance wearing this 1927 coat from the House of Lanvin: http://met.org/yNUeMQ; Now imagine revealing this stunning ca. 1924 Lanvin dress: http://met.org/z6OysG

• Hand-Written Love Letters from Famous People: Henry VIII To Michael Jordan http://bit.ly/zKRpUg

• 18th c bad girl & actress Mrs Wilson (c1752-1787) http://bit.ly/oYm3jC

• Wonderful story of Emma Riley Macon, teenager caught in middle of American Civil War: http://ow.ly/92tEy

• Obsolete endearments for old-fashioned romantics, from ‘pigsney’ to ‘flitter-mouse’.http://oxford.ly/xHi7qq

• Trayne Roste - Making a 15th c English Spit Cake over an open fire (with video) : http://bit.ly/xvMQOz

• Kingston Lacy, the beautiful, poignant house created by William Bankes: http://bit.ly/waBwFB

• Death at Carlton House: The Sorry Tale of a Footman's Suicide http://post.ly/5QlOl

• Romantic ideals and sexual desire in the Middle Ages: http://bit.ly/xJUA4t

• "A private society that publicized the secrecy of their activities" aka the infamous 18th c Hellfire Club: http://bit.ly/wAwYFx

• England's lost Downtons: How endless homes have ended up as bypasses, office blocks & golf courses http://bit.ly/wnpTCZ

• Esther Howland (1828–1904) first to publish & sell Valentine cards in the US http://awe.sm/5fOSZ

• Historical wedding shoes – slide-show from the Bata Shoe Museum: http://bit.ly/bxMGyp

• Diamond flaming hearts sparkle in the Manchester Tiara, made by Cartier in 1903 http://bit.ly/AbaOxz

• General Grant in Love and War http://ow.ly/94zZn

• A list of things to be cut from movies in 1927, pre-MPAA (e.g. the word "Gawd") http://bit.ly/A0heQ6

• Do not yawn or gnaw at anything! Museum etiquette from Catherine the Great: http://bit.ly/yZ3H01

• Cats' meat & green hastens: William Marshall Craig’s Itinerant Traders, 1805: http://bit.ly/x0amf9

• Charming 17th c Swarkestone Pavilion, restored: http://bit.ly/wPB5HL; before restoration, used as a backdrop for Rolling Stones album cover: http://bit.ly/A7jAEc; finally, recreated (sort of) in Las Vegas: http://bit.ly/ycnPaq