• Poignant and evocative: original recordings of Irish soldiers' songs, made in German prisoner of war camps during World War One.
• Hold the butter! A brief history of gorging.
• Charming letter from Santa to Mark Twain's three-year-old daughter (though Santa sounds suspiciously like Mark Twain....)
• Bearded ladies, on display.
• Strikingly modern ancient textiles.
• An unusual quiz: which medieval torture method would you use on your enemies?
• For the holidays: how to prepare a turkey in pre-Revolutionary America.
• Image: Falstaff in an 1823 fore edge painting.
• An appalling trail of historical distortion: how the African victims of the Zong Massacre were replaced by "Irish slaves."
• When was the London Season?
• The erotics of shaving in Victorian Britain.
• Indian chintz: a legacy of luxury around the world.
• The humble petitioners of 18thc London.
• Medieval spam: the oldest advertisements for books.
• Image: Dragoon helmet, First Troop, Philadelphia City Calvary, 1835
• The 19thc. motherhood trap: why were so few Victorian women writers also mothers?
• Witches and grandma's tomato sauce.
• To consider next time you're in a store: what fashion mannequins say about us.
• Important historical question: do you have a barber?
• Image: Someone was naughty: child-sized hands traced on the pages of an 1852 book.
• In 1816 England, the pillory was used to punish sodomy, pimping, fraud, perjury, and theft that involved breach of trust.
• Shoe and plaster cast of a Chinese woman's bound foot c1890.
• How the tiny island of Nantucket became the 19thc. whaling capital of the world.
• The history of the hamburger.
• Image: The Library Company's amazing suggestion box with a lion's mouth, c1750.
• Fifteenth century recipes to entertain in an Exeter cathedral library manuscript.
• Norman Cross, French Prisoner of War camp in Huntingdonshire, begun in 1796.
• First-person account of what it was like to be a poor Victorian child attending a "ragged school."
• Two women physicians appear in the illustrations of this 14thc. manuscript, and here's a female medical student shown in another 14thc. manuscript.
• Photos of soldiers' inventories showcase 1,000 years of fighting gear.
• Exploring Hyde Park's hidden pet cemetery.
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.
Above: At Breakfast by Laurits Andersen Ring. Private collection.
One of us -- 
1 comments:
I loved the post about The Season. But it is not what one would guess. "The aristocratic season came into existence not only to further the marriage market but to entertain the upper classes while they carried out their political duties. The season followed the rhythm of Parliament: it began in late October with the opening of the new session, and ended in June with the summer recess". My best guess would have been summer, when people were more relaxed and (perhaps) less concerned with business concerns and country estates.
However once the Regency period started, the months of The Season changed totally. Many thanks.
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