Early Saturday Morning in Colonial Williamsburg: The Governor's Palace

Susan reporting:

I'm heading home today, where I hear I'll find the same mess of downed power lines and no internet that Loretta has, all caused by that early snowstorm. But before I go, I'll leave you with one last picture from Colonial Williamsburg. While much is made of the last royal governor, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, and his disastrous tenure on the eve of the American Revolution, little is known of those below stairs who kept the "palace" (a term of sarcasm employed by 18th c Virginians in reference to the expense of their royal governor's residence; as grand as it might have appeared to them, it must have seemed decidedly inferior to the aristocratic Dunmores.) Lord Dunmore's staff was a mixture of favorite servants brought with him from Scotland and enslaved people purchased in Virginia. True, the young woman I glimpsed early yesterday was a tour guide, not a servant of any kind, but she did make me think of all the more ordinary folk of that house who must have had their own stories to tell.

Downed by Nor'easter

Loretta reports:
October snowstorm - downed trees, downed wires, downed Internet equals no blog. Sorry.  Back ASAP.

Breakfast Links: Week of October 24, 2011

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

• Royal Society is the world's oldest scientific publisher. Its journal archive is now freely available online http://bit.ly/uP0uoW

• 17th century Glass Trade Beads http://bit.ly/vAq925 #chs

• General Grant’s sword and an unusual use for a Civil War artifact: http://ow.ly/77gF2

• Death attacks! The Nightingale monument at Westminster Abbeyhttp://bit.ly/hbCskq

•  'The Final Indignity: Dissecting the Criminal Body' - http://wp.me/p14Gvd-rc

• Ring lost in Wiltshire returned after 180 years - http://bbc.in/oRGI3v

• Degrees of prostitution in 19th c Paris: http://bit.ly/uBcnOC

• From the pages of Thomas Hardy: shepherds' huts:http://bit.ly/uJ5GLd

• Interiors of the Titanic - 1912http://bit.ly/oI4ZhN 

• Sad, symbolic & beautiful creations: mourning quilts: http://ht.ly/77UDK

• The Golden Age of Dirty Talk: http://bit.ly/v3U3sv Ruff diddling ahead!

• Roots of binge drinking traced back to 17th century studentshttp://j.mp/uxswG9

• Re-opening of 18^th c artist William Hogarth's house, Chiswick http://post.ly/3h2yi

• "The Negro Girl of Mr. Wheatley's": http://bit.ly/uTnaKx

• 1930s Madeline Vionnet bias-cut gownhttp://bit.ly/tZsqs3

• Cork family parts with Titanic victim's message in a bottlehttp://bbc.in/uqEN1c

• It's that time of year again! Tudor Ghost Caught on Film http://bit.ly/srQXuX

• Edith Wharton’s lessons on writing are still valuable today: http://bit.ly/v3NC3U

• Living ghosts of Civil War veterans come alive in silent newsreel footage. http://fb.me/BtWT5cZw

• London's lost amulets and forgotten folklorehttp://tgr.ph/tneUUt via 

• Ham and hay: 19th c cooking method inspired by autumn harvest, recipes: http://bit.ly/v3sgC4

•  A Capability Brown walk at Dinefwr Park, Carmarthenshire, restored and reopened:http://bit.ly/vJrXmd

Early Saturday Morning in Colonial Williamsburg:Rain & Wind & Sewing

Susan reporting:

The same Nor'easter that blasted most of the Northeast left its mark on Colonial Williamsburg yesterday, with much rain and wind and chilly temperatures (though fortunately no snow!) While only the bravest and those armed with the sturdiest umbrellas ventured out into the streets, it was a perfect day to stay indoors beside a fire. In the Margaret Hunter shop, seamstress Emma Cross, left, took advantage of the pale sunlight to in the shop's window to stitch a hem into the silk gauze of a new cap.

Friday Video: Silent Screen Actresses Model Flapper Fashions, 1928

Susan reporting:

Today's video is a short newsreel fashion show, featuring several Hollywood actresses modeling the latest fashions for 1928. Like a clip I shared earlier, this is a rare, early use of Kodachrome. Because of it, the women seem startlingly contemporary and fresh, as do many of the clothes. And check out those cars!

Of course I couldn't resist trying to learn more about these silent film actresses.  In order of their appearance:

•Corliss Palmer (1902-1952) was a popular silent screen actress, appearing in numerous films beside such famous actors as Charlie Chaplin, Max Sennett, and Oliver Hardy.
•Raquel Torres (1908-1987) was a Mexican-born actress who appeared in both silent and sound films. Today she's best remembered for playing a would-be Mata Hari in the Marx Brothers' move Duck Soup (1933).
• Laura LaPlante (1904-1996) was the most famous of these actresses in her time, and between 1921-1930 was Universal Pictures' most popular star. Talkies effectively ended her career, but her last movie, the Western Arizona (1931) included a young actor named John Wayne.
• Ruth Elder (1902-1977) was perhaps the most interesting of all these ladies. She was not only an actress, but also an aviatrix who - in a plane dubbed the American Girl - attempted to duplicate Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic to prove that women were equal to men.