• Dr. David Hosack, revolutionary nerd - and physician to both Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
• The skeleton suit: sounds scary, but not to the little boys who wore them in the early 19thc.
• "A Gentleman having married a wife made this request to her that she would not ride upon a great dog in the house": gossip from 17thc vicar John Ward.
• Eighteenth century business women and their trade cards.
• Mrs. Bridget "Biddy" Mason was brought to Los Angeles as a slave in 1851; she died free, and one of the city's wealthiest women.
• Image: The Marquis de Lafayette used pre-printed invitations for Monday night suppers; guests included Americans like Adams, Jay, and Jefferson visiting Paris.
• "Anyone can develop a good telephone personality": How to Make Friends By Telephone, a 1950 guide.
• In July, an 18thc white oak from Washington's era fell at Mount Vernon, but most of the stories surrounding the tree were from the Civil War.
• Image: John Adams drew this map of his local taverns in Braintree and Weymouth, MA, in 1760.
• The drowned, submerged prehistoric forests of Lincolnshire.
• Aunt Fanny's school bell, c1920.
• Old Bet, the first elephant brought to America, arrived in Newburyport, MA in 1797.
• Influenced by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, workhouses built in 19thc England were designed to split up families by putting them in different laboring groups.
• The deadly 1911 heatwave that drove people insane.
• Image: Mona Friedlander and Joan Hughes, the first women to fly military planes in Britain, 1940.
• Julia Child's recipe for a thoroughly modern marriage.
• Benjamin Franklin discovers tofu for America.
• Six historic sites in Britain that survive from the Age of Steam.
• Image: Cat paw-prints preserved in medieval tiles.
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Above: At Breakfast by Laurits Andersen Ring. Private collection.
One of us -- 
2 comments:
All Things Georgian blog has a great post about trade cards for business women.
Some workhouses paid their residents for their labors with specially minted coins which could be spent at local shops, afterward being redeemed by the merchants for cash. I have one from the Sheffield Workhouse dated 1813. On one side the workhouse itself is pictured with the words OVERSEERS OF THE POOR, and on the other side a figure of Charity with the words SHEFFIELD PENNY TOKEN. There was a lack of copper coinage in the UK because the government was very slow in issuing new coins- old ones might continue in circulation until they were worn nearly featureless. The most important reason for issuing these was that the overseers could keep track of where the residents spent their money, possibly earning then a reprimand if they bought liquor. I wish I could attach an image.
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