• Three hellish places from London's past that you wouldn't want to visit.
• The bridges of Old London.
• A scandalous divorce: the two Mrs. Fenollosas.
• Where is King Henry VIII buried and why doesn't he have a tomb?
• DIY fashion continues to thrive at the McCall Pattern Company, founded in 1863.
• Image: Jane Austen finishes writing Persuasion on August 6, 1816 - and here's a page of the manuscript.
• "The pink of fashion": Mrs. Andrew Hamilton visits SweetBriar in Philadelphia, 1818.
• The many loves of Henry Tufts, the original colonial bad boy.
• How left-handed penmanship contests tried to help Civil War veterans after amputations.
• Paris, city of lights, romance, and urinals.
• Image: 2000-year-old Greek mosaic floor accidentally discovered in Turkey (and it's a beauty.)
• Mayhew's street traders of London, 1851.
• Stunning interpretations of El Greco portraits created with yarn, a loom, and an algorithm.
• Countess Leonor D'Oeynhausen, an 18thc poet and intellectual possibly involved in espionage.
• 1926 meets 1776 at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial.
• From the suffragettes to BLM: the unexpected ways that protestors have utilized fashion.
• Image: The 19thc Egyptian House in Penzance makes even the Brighton Pavilion look demure.
• The nostalgic glow of NYC's remaining historic neon signs.
• A short illustrated history of firefighting helmets.
• Occupational hazards: the maladies of early modern midwives.
• Who shot Edward Vyse? The Corn Law Riots of 1815.
• Image: A Victorian anti-drowning device.
• Bonded by love and liver: the story of conjoined twins Chang and Eng.
• How many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were born in places other than the state they represented in the Continental Congress?
• We love a ducky story with a happy ending.
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Above: At Breakfast by Laurits Andersen Ring. Private collection.
One of us -- 
5 comments:
The two Mrs Fenollosas showed that divorce was always a risky business in the Victorian era, whether or not the husband and the second lady-love got away with it. Everyone would have felt terribly sorry for the "real" Mrs Fenollosa (Elizabeth) since she could neither ask for a divorce from her husband, nor could she stop him from getting one without her consent.
Even a private woman could not have stopped the newspapers speculating :(
The ducky story was so sweet, I teared up.
The El Greco portraits are beautiful, and I find the juxtaposition of the "tech-y" algorithm with handwork fun. As a knitter, I must admit to being rather perplexed that both the article and the artist are referring to the portraits as knit. It's clear from the description and photos, that although he is using a loom or knitting frame to work on, there are no loops pulled through one another in the finished work - which by definition, knitting must have. I realize that's probably beside the point for most people. But I find myself dismayed that there is so little knowledge, and often little respect for the different needle crafts among the public at large.
Anonymous ~ YES!! As a long-time knitter myself, I find that cavalier attitude towards handwork in general incredibly irritating. (In fact I almost didn't include the El Greco post in the Breakfast Links because that "knitting" reference bugged me so much - however, the art-history-nerd in me won out over the knitter.) Over and over in the press and in fashion items that are clearly crocheted will be described as knitted, or something knitted will be called macrame, or...well, it goes on and on, and it's just plain lazy. So yes, I share your pain. :)
I wonder if the colors in the Worth dress in the Fenollosa writeup have changed over time. The gold(ish) fabric seems to match some colors in the rest of the dress, but somehow it seems to me that things are slightly out of whack, especially between the gold and the red next to it.
Isabella - Oh goodness, yes. When it is gobsmacking-ly obvious what method is actually used to make something, and the writer seems to have just pulled a random name out of the air to describe it.... ARGH! Thank you - a burden shared, you know. :-)
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