• The tale of an unusual portrait: President John Quincy Adams painted as a hornpipe dancer?
• Noble squares and charming cheesecake: a Regency tourist's London diary.
• Who knew that corset rust was a serious washday problem?
• The cheapest bookstore in the world: James Lackington and the creation of modern bookselling in 18thc London.
• Tattoos as memory-prompts: the introduction of Social Security numbers brought with it a very modern anxiety.
• Image: Mourning bonnet with skeletal black lace leaves and mauve poppies, c1885.
• Fashionable blues of the 18thc.
• A tough place to work: in a box, submerged, digging out dirt from a river bed, 1873
• Radical motets from a 16thc nunnery by the youngest daughter of Lucrezia Borgia.
• Martha Washington's diamond ring, a rarity in 18thc America.
• From immigrant shopgirl to multi-millionaire: how Clementine Cahn built a real estate empire in 19thc New York City.
• Erica Wilson, the Julia Child of needlework.
• How to bathe like an 18thc queen.
• Image: Locket engraved on the back: "Hair of Mary Tudor, Queen of France, cut from her head Sept 6 1784 when her tomb at St Edmundsbury was opened."
• The art of silhouette (and courting) in Winslow Homer's illustrations for James Russell Lowell's The Courtin', 1874.
• A guide to choosing the right kilt.
• How preserving a 19thc opera house in Leadville, CO became one family's obsession.
• Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife, collaborated with Thomas Tallis to compose music to rally her husband for war.
• Image: Ola Brooks of Mount Carmel, TN, placing index tabs, 1933.
• The unsung delights of a well-designed endpaper.
• Robertson's fantastic phantasmagoria, an 18thc spectacle of horror.
• On-line exhibition: postcards from early burlesque performer Miss Kitty Lord, chanteuse excentrique Anglaise, and her tour of Egypt, 1908-12.
• The advertisement of a tailor in Portsmouth, NH, 250 years ago.
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Above: At Breakfast by Laurits Andersen Ring. Private collection
One of us -- 
3 comments:
With apologies, but the next to last item's (Miss Kitty's postcards) link is missing.
Thank you for sharing all these every week.
Azteclady ~ My apologies! Miss Kitty Lord's postcard link is now where it belongs...S.
Many mourning bonnets indicated that the wearer was in mourning by making her look ugly and defeated. This one had enough black to make the purpose clear, but the flowers were at least a sign of life and hope.
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