Masturbation can also be seen as a form of women’s sexuality that has evolved since the Victorian era. Masturbation was seen as a moral disgrace and was shunned by the majority of society. It was blamed to be the causes of diseases such as heart disorders, cancer and hysteria. The editor of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, went so far as to say that even if masturbation wasn’t the cause of the diseases that the engaging in it would further the disease. According to the website, Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Circumcision, and Dr. Joseph Jones, a former president of the Louisiana State Board of Health, masturbation resulted in 'hopeless insanity.' This insanity could also be inherited from the offspring of a person that masturbated. As a result, many females thought to be masturbating were subject to a clitoridectomy, or removal of the clitoris. Although this was often a drastic measure and by no means the norm, it still shows the strict code of virtue imposed on sexuality in the Victorian age.

Source: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/femhist/sexuality.shtml

I will cover you with love when next I see you, with caresses, with ecstasy. I want to gorge you with all the joys of the flesh, so that you faint and die. I want you to be amazed by me, and to confess to yourself that you had never even dreamed of such transports... When you are old, I want you to recall those few hours, I want your dry bones to quiver with joy when you think of them.

- Gustave Flaubert, famous French writer, to his wife Louise Colet, on August 15, 1846.

For those who are more vegetable inclined, today we are going to learn a simple breakfast dish from 1864. The use of vegetables in the nineteenth century prior to standard refrigeration was always seasonal and based upon local crops. If asparagus was not in season, another vegetable could be employed, like a tomato, a squash, green beans, peas, or anything else. People cooking in the nineteenth century had to be experimental and willing to try different food combinations based on their limited resources. Wealthier people had more options because they could afford to bring in more foods from different regions of the country. Without standard refrigeration, however, spoiling was always an issue. It was like playing beat the clock with consuming the food before it was spoiled and wasted.

Here is the recipe from "On Cooking Vegetables" in American Recipes from 1864.


Take cold asparagus, and cut it the size of peas; break four or five eggs into a dish, and beat them with pepper, salt, and the asparagus. Then put it into a stew-pan with a spoonful of butter, set it on the fire, and stir it all the time till it thickens. Put it upon toasted bread in a hot dish.

Perhaps the most significant turning point in Queen Victoria's life was the death of Prince Albert in December 1861. His death sent Victoria into a deep depression, and she stayed in seclusion for many years, rarely appearing in public. She mourned him by wearing black for the remaining forty years of her life.

Albert's death came suddenly. In November 1861, he contracted typhoid fever. He lay sick in bed for several weeks, finally succumbing to the disease on December 14. He was only forty-two years old. Victoria was devastated. She wrote to her daughter Victoria shortly afterwards: "How I, who leant on him for all and everything—without whom I did nothing, moved not a finger, arranged not a print or photograph, didn't put on a gown or bonnet if he didn't approve it shall go on, to live, to move, to help myself in difficult moments?"

The Queen turned mourning into the chief concern of her existence the next several years. The Prince's rooms in their residences were maintained exactly as he had them when he was alive. Her servants were instructed to bring hot water into his dressing room every day as they had formerly done for his morning shave. She had statues made of him, displayed mementos of his around the royal palaces, and she spent most of her time secluded in Windsor Castle or in Balmoral up in Scotland, where she had formerly spent so many happy times with her husband.

After the first year, her mourning came to be viewed by many in Britain as obsessive, and public unease arose about the Queen's state of mind and the state of the monarchy generally. This unease was aggravated by Victoria's refusal to appear in public except on the rarest occasions. She made her first public appearance only on October 13, 1863, and then only to unveil a statue of Albert at Aberdeen, Scotland. She appeared publicly in London on June 21, 1864, riding out through the streets in an open carriage. She did not personally appear to open Parliament until the 1866 session, and then only reluctantly.

Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/victoria/section5.rhtml

I took this bit of information from PBS.

Mummies were used as medicine?

Medical recipes list "mummy" as an ingredient. It was even taken straight. King Francis I of France, in fact, took a pinch of mummy every day with rhubarb. And who says what's worse, rhubarb or mummy? He believed that it would make him stronger and invincible, and would stop assassins from killing him.

Did this notion that mummies made good medicine lead to a lot of them being destroyed?

Hundreds and thousands of mummies were destroyed for medicine. Others were burned as kindling or wood, because there aren't that many trees in Egypt. There are 19th-century accounts of travelers who say, "Oh, it's unseasonably cold and we've run out of wood, so we have to throw a mummy on the fire."

Amazing. And the Victorians also had "unwrapping" parties, didn't they?

Mummies were considered very Gothic. And in the Victorian era, when anything neo-Gothic was cool, unwrapping mummies became very stylish. So people would bring back or buy mummies from Egypt and have unwrapping parties. We have invitations saying, "Come to Lord Longsberry's at 2 p.m., Piccadilly, for the unwrapping of a mummy from Thebes. Champagne and canapés to follow." A lot of mummies were destroyed in that way.

However, there were some people, such as a man called Thomas Pettigrew, who was later called Mummy Pettigrew. He was a trained medical doctor, and he did a lot of unwrappings to understand how mummies were made. In the 19th century, he published one of the first scholarly works on how mummies were produced.

Ballgowns, ca. 1860-1862.

Not enough female reenactors pay attention to their hair, so it is my goal to find ways to teach women to do their hair in a suitable manner. I have found a video on YouTube that teaches women how to do their hair in a Regency period updo. The Regency period was just prior to the early Victorian period. Some of you are getting into reenacting the War of 1812 and even Jane Austen-style living histories, so I thought I would change up my usual Civil War reenacting lessons and jump to the previous generation.

If you do not have long hair, consider using clip on extensions like the clip on extensions in this blog. Read that blog to understand why hair is very important in portraying nineteenth century women and why it should not be ignored in reenacting today.

Please do not use this style at a reenactment later than about 1825 because it won't be correct.

On this day in 1861, Elmer Ellsworth was killed in Alexandria, Virgina, while he was removing a Confederate flag from a window in the Marshall House Inn. He is generally regarded as the first officer killed on duty in the Civil War.

From Wikipedia:

Ellsworth was born in Malta, New York, grew up in Mechanicville, New York, and lived in New York City. In 1854, he moved to Rockford, Illinois, where he worked for a patent agency. In 1859, he became engaged to Carrie Spafford, the daughter of a local industrialist and city leader. Carrie's father demanded that he find more suitable employment, so he moved to Chicago, to study law and work as a law clerk.

In 1860, Ellsworth went to Springfield, Illinois, to work with Abraham Lincoln. He studied law in Lincoln's office and helped Lincoln with his 1860 campaign for president. Ellsworth was only 5' 6" tall, but Lincoln called Ellsworth "the greatest little man I ever met." He accompanied Lincoln to Washington, D.C. in 1861.

Ellsworth became drillmaster of the "Rockford Greys", the local militia company, in 1857. He studied military science in his spare time. After some success with the Greys, he helped train militia units in Milwaukee and Madison. When he moved to Chicago he became colonel of Chicago's National Guard Cadets.

Ellsworth had studied the Zouave soldiers, French colonial troops in Algeria, and was impressed by their reported fighting quality. He outfitted his men in gaudy Zouave-style uniforms, and modeled their drill and training on the Zouaves. Ellsworth's unit eventually became a nationally famous drill team.

The Civil War broke into open warfare in April, and on April 15, 1861, Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to put down rebellion. Ellsworth helped recruit these soldiers: he raised the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (the "Fire Zouaves") from New York City's volunteer firefighting companies, and returned to Washington as their colonel.

Ellsworth died shortly after returning to Washington. On May 24, 1861 (the day after Virginia's secession was ratified by referendum), President Lincoln looked out from the White House across the Potomac River, and saw a large Confederate flag prominently displayed over the town of Alexandria, Virginia.

Ellsworth immediately offered to retrieve the flag for Lincoln. He led the 11th New York across the Potomac and into the streets of Alexandria uncontested. He detached some men to take the railroad station, while he led others to secure the telegraph office and get that Confederate flag, which was flying above the Marshall House Inn. Ellsworth and four men went upstairs and cut down the flag. As Ellsworth came downstairs with the flag, the owner, James W. Jackson, killed him with a shotgun blast to the chest. Corporal Francis E. Brownell, of Troy, New York, immediately killed Jackson. Brownell was later awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions.

Lincoln was deeply saddened by his friend's death and ordered an honor guard to bring his friend's body to the White House, where he lay in state in the East Room. Ellsworth was then taken to the City Hall in New York City, where thousands of Union supporters came to see the first man to fall for the Union cause. Ellsworth was then buried in his hometown of Mechanicville, in the Hudson View Cemetery.

Thousands of Union supporters rallied around Ellsworth's cause and enlisted. "Remember Ellsworth" was a patriotic slogan: the 44th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment called itself the "Ellsworth Avengers", as well as "The People's Ellsworth Regiment."

Relics associated with Ellsworth's death became prized souvenirs. The Smithsonian Institution and Bates College's Special Collections Library have pieces of the Confederate flag that Ellsworth had when he was shot—in 1894, Brownell's widow was offering to sell small pieces of the flag for $10 and $15 each. The New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center in Saratoga Springs has most of the flag itself and Ellsworth's uniform, showing the hole from the fatal shot. The Fort Ward Museum in Alexandria dedicates a section of their museum to Ellsworth, displaying the kepi he wore when he was killed, patriotic envelopes bearing his image, a piece of the Confederate Flag (on which Ellsworth's blood is visible), and the "O" from the Marshall House sign that a soldier took as a souvenir.

In 1862, the newly established county seat of Pierce County, Wisconsin, located in the undeveloped center of the county to settle the controversy between two established cities, was named Ellsworth, Wisconsin in his honor.

The 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia had a major exhibit devoted to Col. Ellsworth.

In addition, Ellsworth, Michigan, Ellsworth, Wisconsin, and Fort Ellsworth were named in his honor.

Hygiene in the early nineteenth century was a nightmare, to put it mildly. The main issue was a lack of good clean water and a lack of good drainage systems.

From: http://www.victorianweb.org/science/health/health10.html

During the first decades of Victoria's reign, baths were virtually unknown in the poorer districts and uncommon anywhere. Most households of all economic classes still used "privy-pails"; water closets were rare. Sewers had flat bottoms, and because drains were made out of stone, seepage was considerable. If, as was often the case in towns, streets were unpaved, they might remain ankle-deep in mud for weeks. For new middle-class homes in the growing manufacturing towns, elevated sites were usually chosen, with the result that sewage filtered or flowed down into the lower areas where the laboring populations dwelt. Some towns had special drainage problems. In Leeds the Aire River, fouled by the town's refuse, flooded periodically, sending noxious waters into the ground floors and basements of the low-lying houses.

As Chadwick later recalled, the new dwellings of the middle-class families were scarcely healthier, for the bricks tended to preserve moisture. Even picturesque old country houses often had a dungeonlike dampness, as an visitor could observe: "If he enters the house he finds the basement steaming with water-vapour; walls constantly bedewed with moisture, cellars coated with fungus and mould; drawing rooms and dining rooms always, except in the very heat of summer, oppressive from moisture; bedrooms, the windows of which are, in winter, so frosted on their inner surface, from condensation of water in the air of the room, that all day they are coated with ice."

To Anne Boleyn

My Mistress and Friend,

I and my heart put ourselves in your hands, begging you to recommend us to your good grace and not to let absence lessen your affection...or myself the pang of absence is already to great, and when I think of the increase of what I must needs suffer it would be well nigh intolerable but for my firm hope of your unchangeable affection...

Henry VIII

Today we are going to learn a method of making gravy from 1833. Gravy was a vital part of any nineteenth century meal in which one would find meat on the plate. They did not have the luxury of running out to the store to buy pre-mixed packets of gravy. Each aspect of any meal was prepared from scratch utilizing the ingredients the cook already had in their kitchen.

I found this recipe online but it originally came from The American Frugal Housewife by Mrs. Lydia Child, published in 1833. Here are the additional notes I found online.

"Scorched flour" does not sound like a very attractive item, but under its more common name of browned flour is well regarded even today for gravy-making. It is made by simply putting common flour--either white or whole wheat--into a dry frying pan and cooking it over low to medium heat, stirring continually, until it looks cooked. (White flour will become brown, and since whole wheat is browner to begin with it will simply become more so.) More important than the greater darkness of the resulting gravy is the fact that the scorching process cooks the flour in advance of its actual addition to the sauce. Many failures in gravy-making can be traced to the flour or other thickening agent being insufficiently cooked in the pan, resulting in a pasty consistency and unpleasant taste.


1 roast (beef, ham or poultry)
1/2 pint flour
1/2 pint water
Salt as desired

Most people put a half a pint of flour and water into their tin-kitchen, when they set meat down to roast. This does very well; but gravy is better flavored, and looks darker, to shake flour and salt upon the meat; let it brown thoroughly, put flour and salt on again, and then baste the meat with about half a pint of hot water (or more, according to the [amount of] gravy you want.) When the meat is about done, pour these drippings into a skillet, and let it boil. If it is not thick enough, shake in a little flour; but be sure to let it boil, and be well stirred, after the flour is in. If you fear it will be too greasy, take off a cupful of the fat before you boil. The fat of beef, pork, turkeys and geese is as good for shortening as lard. Salt gravy to your taste. If you are very particular about dark gravies, keep your dredging-box full of scorched flour for that purpose.

Have you ever wondered what soap Queen Victoria liked to use the most? Well, wonder no more! Her favorite soap was Pears transparent soap and it's still being made and sold today. A friend of mine refuses to use anything else. Get clean like the Queen!

Here's some information about it from Wikipedia:

Pears transparent soap is a brand of soap first produced and sold in 1789 by Andrew Pears at a factory just off Oxford Street in London, England. It was the world's first transparent soap. Under the stewardship of Thomas J. Barratt, A. & F. Pears Ltd. company initiated a number of innovations in sales and marketing. According to Unilever records, Pears Soap was the world's first registered brand and is therefore the world's oldest continuously existing brand.

Andrew Pears, the son of a farmer, was born in around 1770 and moved from his native Mevagissey in Cornwall to London in about 1787 to train as a barber. He completed his apprenticeship in 1789 and established a barber's shop in Gerrard Street in Soho and began to produce cosmetic products. At that time Soho was a wealthy residential area, and Andrew's clientele included many wealthy socialites who took great pride in their appearance. The fashion amongst the wealthy of the period was for pristine white (alabaster) complexions; tanned faces were associated with those who laboured out of doors. Andrew found that his powders and creams were frequently being used to cover up damage caused by the harshness of the soaps and other beauty products (many of which contained arsenic or lead) that were in general use at the time. Pears began to experiment with soap purification and eventually managed to produce a gentle soap based on glycerine and other natural products. The clarity of the soap gave it a novel transparent appearance which provided a marketing advantage. To add to the appeal, Andrew gave the soap an aroma reminiscent of an English garden.

In 1835, his grandson Francis Pears joined the business and created the company A. & F. Pears Ltd. In 1838 Andrew Pears retired, leaving Francis in charge of the company. In 1851 the company was awarded the prize medal for soap at The Great Exhibition.

Francis' son-in-law Thomas J. Barratt, sometimes referred to as the father of modern advertising, eventually managed the firm.

In 1862, production of the soap moved to Isleworth, and three years later Francis' son, Andrew, joined A. & F. Pears Ltd. as joint proprietor and ran the factory, whilst Thomas ran the head office in London.

In the mid 1910s, A. & F. Pears Ltd. became part of Lever Brothers and moved production to Port Sunlight in north west England.

Pears soap is now made in India by Hindustan Lever a company in which Unilever controls a fifty-two percent stake.

On this day in 1861, North Carolina seceded from the Union.

AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of North Carolina and the other States united with her, under the compact of government entitled "The Constitution of the United States."

We, the people of the State of North Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by the State of North Carolina in the convention of 1789, whereby the Constitution of the United States was ratified and adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly ratifying and adopting amendments to the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded, and abrogated.

We do further declare and ordain, That the union now subsisting between the State of North Carolina and the other States, under the title of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved, and that the State of North Carolina is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.

Done in convention at the city of Raleigh, this the 20th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1861, and in the eighty-fifth year of the independence of said State.

Rather than write about the Fiji Mermaid, I'll let this nice lady in Boston tell you about it. All of the alleged Fiji Mermaids were in museums and side shows and people in the nineteenth century paid a lot of money to see this creature. Problem was - it was a hoax. People actually believed it was real!

Beach fashion, Gody's Ladies Book, July 1867.

Not enough female reenactors pay attention to their hair, so it is my goal to find ways to teach women to do their hair in a suitable manner. I have found a video on YouTube that teaches women how to do their hair in a twisted braided bun very similar to styles I have seen in mid-nineteenth century photographs. This style is a more intricate version of the basic braided bun that I showed you all last week. Pay extra attention to how this girl twists her hair at the sides of her head because women in the nineteenth century did that a lot. She keeps saying it's an Edwardian style in her video but it's really mid-Victorian aka Civil War period. Edwardian women can be identified because they piled their hair on top of their heads. This style is clearly at the nape of the neck, which is identified as mid-Victorian.

If you do not have long hair, consider using clip on extensions like the clip on extensions in this blog. Read that blog to understand why hair is very important in portraying nineteenth century women and why it should not be ignored in reenacting today.

Please remember that if you are doing your hair for the early 1860s, there are a few standards that should be employed no matter what style you use.

1. Always part the hair down the middle.
2. Always keep the bulk of the hair at the nape of the neck.
3. For early 1860s, cover the ears with the hair.
4. From 1864 onward, tuck the hair behind the ears.
5. NO BANGS DURING THE CIVIL WAR!

Here is a video that shows how to do a twisted braided bun. Remember to keep it on the nape of your neck, part it down the middle first and use hairspray or something to smooth your bangs in with the rest of your hair. If you prefer, you can do one braid and make a regular bun out of it, or twist the hair into a rope and make a bun out of that. The main point of the style is the twists at the sides of the head with the bulk of the hair at the nape of the neck.

Women in the nineteenth century were not really considered adults until they gave birth to a child. A woman who could not have children for one reason or another was never truly considered an adult no matter her age.

Motherhood was not really the choice that it is today. It was assumed upon marriage that a woman would begin giving her husband heirs. Male children were desired more than female in order to carry on the family name and because property legally passed from father to son rather than from mother to daughter. Upon her marriage, all of a woman's possessions, property, money, and even children, legally belonged to her husband. He was the breadwinner, the provider, the head of household and the wife owed him all the children she could give him. The levels of femininity were dictated by her life's accomplishments - a good marriage brought her up a level and then having children brought her to the most respected level of motherhood.

A woman who could not have children led a life more in solitude than her motherly counterparts. She lacked the female bonding achieved through women assisting each other through pregnancy and childbirth. Women who did not yet give birth to a child were shielded from pregnancy and childbirth to protect their virtues and to not frighten them from the bloody reality of it. Motherhood created a bond among the most respected women and the more children they had, the more respect they earned.

This is a letter from poet John Keats to his beloved Fanny.

Wednesday Morng. [Kentish Town, 1820]

My Dearest Girl,

I have been a walk this morning with a book in my hand, but as usual I have been occupied with nothing but you: I wish I could say in an agreeable manner. I am tormented day and night. They talk of my going to Italy. 'Tis certain I shall never recover if I am to be so long separate from you: yet with all this devotion to you I cannot persuade myself into any confidence of you....

You are to me an object intensely desirable -- the air I breathe in a room empty of you in unhealthy. I am not the same to you -- no -- you can wait -- you have a thousand activities -- you can be happy without me. Any party, anything to fill up the day has been enough.

How have you pass'd this month? Who have you smil'd with? All this may seem savage in me. You do no feel as I do -- you do not know what it is to love -- one day you may -- your time is not come....

I cannot live without you, and not only you but chaste you; virtuous you. The Sun rises and sets, the day passes, and you follow the bent of your inclination to a certain extent -- you have no conception of the quantity of miserable feeling that passes through me in a day -- Be serious! Love is not a plaything -- and again do not write unless you can do it with a crystal conscience. I would sooner die for want of you than ---

Yours for ever
J. Keats

Today we are going to learn about boiling fowls with oysters. Oysters were very popular in the nineteenth century, especially in coastal regions. Fowl, however, was not as cheap as it is today. Unless the man went out and hunted a bird for supper, beef was actually more common on the nineteenth century dinner table if the family could afford to buy any meat at all.

I found this recipe online, although it originally came from Godey's Lady's Book magazine in the January 1861 issue. It was a reader-contributed recipe.

From the online article:

This is perhaps the only recipe of either past or present time which we have seen call for cooking a bird in a double boiler. The technique was used on smaller cuts of beef or poultry to produce the substance known as "meat tea," often used as a therapeutic agent in cases of illness or injury. It is difficult to see how a bird, even a "young' and presumably small one, can be cooked through with this procedure in the amount of time given. It would seem just as quick and a great deal safer to simply roast the creature, stuffed as indicated and with sauce made as directed with the pan juices.



1 young fowl
Oysters (enough to fill the cavity of the fowl)
White Sauce (if desired)


Take a young fowl, fill the inside with oysters, put it into a jar, and plunge the jar in a kettle or saucepan of water. Boil it for one hour and a half. There will be a quantity of gravy from the juices of the fowl and oysters in the jar; make it into a white sauce, with the addition of egg, cream, or a little flour and butter; add oysters to it, or serve up plain with the fowl...the dish loses nothing of its delicacy and simplicity.

Here is some information from Wikipedia about death photography, or post-mortem photography, which was very popular in the nineteenth century.

The invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 made portraiture much more commonplace, as many of those who were unable to afford the commission of a painted portrait could afford to sit for a photography session. This cheaper and quicker method also provided the middle class with a means for memorializing dead loved ones.

These photographs served less as a reminder of mortality than as a keepsake to remember the deceased. This was especially common with infants and young children; Victorian era childhood mortality rates were extremely high, and a post-mortem photograph might have been the only image of the child the family ever had. The later invention of the carte de visite, which allowed multiple prints to be made from a single negative, meant that copies of the image could be mailed to relatives.

The practice eventually peaked in popularity around the end of the 19th century and died out as "snapshot" photography became more commonplace, although a few examples of formal memorial portraits were still being produced well into the 20th century.

The earliest post-mortem photographs are usually close-ups of the face or shots of the full body and rarely include the coffin. The subject is usually depicted so as to seem in a deep sleep, or else arranged to appear more lifelike. Children were often shown in repose on a couch or in a crib, sometimes posed with a favorite toy or other plaything. It was not uncommon to photograph very young children with a family member, most frequently the mother. Adults were more commonly posed in chairs or even braced on specially-designed frames. Flowers were also a common prop in post-mortem photography of all types.

The effect of life was sometimes enhanced by either propping the subject's eyes open or painting pupils onto the photographic print, and many early images (especially tintypes and ambrotypes) have a rosy tint added to the cheeks of the corpse.

Later examples show less effort at a lifelike appearance, and often show the subject in a coffin. Some very late examples show the deceased in a coffin with a large group of funeral attendees; this type of photograph was especially popular in Europe and less common in the United States.

Post-mortem photography is still practiced in some areas of the world, such as Eastern Europe. Photographs, especially depicting persons who were considered to be very holy lying in their coffins are still circulated among faithful Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christians.

A variation of the memorial portrait involves photographing the family with a shrine (usually including a living portrait) dedicated to the deceased.

Here are some examples of post-mortem photos in the nineteenth century. WARNING: Some of these images might be disturbing.

Not enough female reenactors pay attention to their hair, so it is my goal to find ways to teach women to do their hair in a suitable manner. I have found a video on YouTube that teaches women how to do their hair in a braided bun. The braided bun was extremely common but not quite as common as the everyday twisted bun. It was fast, it was easy, it kept hair out of the face while women went about their daily chores. I highly recommend the braided bun for the majority of your reenacting activities because it is easy and accurate.

If you do not have long hair, consider using clip on extensions like the clip on extensions in this blog. Read that blog to understand why hair is very important in portraying nineteenth century women and why it should not be ignored in reenacting today.

Please remember that if you are doing your hair for the early 1860s, there are a few standards that should be employed no matter what style you use.

1. Always part the hair down the middle.
2. Always keep the bulk of the hair at the nape of the neck.
3. For early 1860s, cover the ears with the hair.
4. From 1864 onward, tuck the hair behind the ears.
5. NO BANGS DURING THE CIVIL WAR!

Here is a video that shows how to do a relatively easy braided bun. Some people do one braid and others create two braids from one ponytail and wrap them around each other. Remember to keep it on the nape of your neck, part it down the middle first and use hairspray or something to smooth your bangs in with the rest of your hair.

The "delicate" lady’s place in fashion probably lead in many ways to the Victorian woman’s high death rate. As a healthy appetite, labor, exercise, and spending a lot of time outdoors was considered manly, women didn’t eat a lot, hardly ever got good exercise, and spent a lot of time indoors, where the air was stagnant and germs ran amok. The working men got the best food and meat, and the women in the family looked after the sick, who coughed in their faces all day. Many of the middle and upper class women suffered from "Green Sickness", which describes the skin of an anemic person. This was due to the lack of iron in people's foods.

Source: http://robertwhite.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/random-facts-about-the-victorian-era/

- She Was A Phantom of Delight by William Wordsworth

Today in Lillian's Kitchen, we are going to learn how to make catsup (ketchup), nineteenth century style. I found this recipe online. Here is the text:

This is one of the earliest recipes we have found which simply used the term "catsup" for a tomato-based sauce. This was not used in the dump-it-over-the-burger-and-fries style of condiment practiced today, but rather was intended primarily as a flavoring agent to be added in one or two tablespoonful quantities to other recipes, especially soups. The amount being made here would probably last a small household for a year.

Many authors recommend putting catsups into small bottles, so that each can remain sealed until it is opened for use, rather than always refilling the little bottle from a large jug. That process allows the contents to be exposed to air, creating a potential for spoilage.

This recipe comes from The Young Housekeeper's Friend by Mrs. Cornelius, published out of Boston in 1863.


Tomatoes
Salt
2 onions
1/2 spoonful ginger
2 spoonfuls powdered clove
2 spoonfuls allspice
1 tsp. black pepper

Slice the tomatoes and sprinkle them with salt. If you intend to let them stand until you have gathered several parcels, put in plenty of salt. After you have gathered all you intend to use, boil them gently an hour, strain them through a coarse sieve; slice two good-sized onions very thin for every gallon; add half a spoonful of ginger, two spoonfuls of powdered clove, two of allspice, and a teaspoonful of black pepper. Boil it twenty minutes after the spices are added. Keep it in a covered jar. This kind of catsup is specially designed to be used in soups, and stewed meats.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you from Fanny's Parlor! Here is how Mother's Day came to be in America.

When the first English settlers came to America, they discontinued the tradition of Mothering Day. While the British holiday would live on, the American Mother’s Day would be invented—with an entirely new history—centuries later. One explanation for the settlers’ discontinuation of Mothering Day was that they just didn’t have time; they lived under harsh conditions and were forced to work long hours in order to survive. Another possibility, however, is that Mothering Day conflicted with their Puritan ideals. Fleeing England to practice a more conservative Christianity without being persecuted, the pilgrims ignored the more secular holidays, focusing instead on a no-frills devotion to God. For example, even holidays such as Christmas and Easter were much more somber occasions for the pilgrims, usually taking place in a Church that was stripped of all extraneous ornamentation.

The first North American Mother’s Day was conceptualized with Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Despite having penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic 12 years earlier, Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War that she called on Mother’s to come together and protest what she saw as the futility of their Sons killing the Sons of other Mothers. With the following, she called for an international Mother's Day celebrating peace and motherhood:


At one point Howe even proposed converting July 4th into Mother’s Day, in order to dedicate the nation’s anniversary to peace. Eventually, however, June 2nd was designated for the celebration. In 1873 women’s groups in 18 North American cities observed this new Mother’s holiday. Howe initially funded many of these celebrations, but most of them died out once she stopped footing the bill. The city of Boston, however, would continue celebrating Howe’s holiday for 10 more years.

Despite the decided failure of her holiday, Howe had nevertheless planted the seed that would blossom into what we know as Mother’s Day today. A West Virginia women’s group led by Anna Reeves Jarvis began to celebrate an adaptation of Howe’s holiday. In order to re-unite families and neighbors that had been divided between the Union and Confederate sides of the Civil War, the group held a Mother’s Friendship Day.

After Anna Reeves Jarvis died, her daughter Anna M. Jarvis campaigned for the creation of an official Mother’s Day in remembrance of her mother and in honor of peace. In 1908, Anna petitioned the superintendent of the church where her Mother had spent over 20 years teaching Sunday School. Her request was honored, and on May 10, 1908, the first official Mother's Day celebration took place at Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia and a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The West Virginia event drew a congregation of 407 and Anna Jarvis arranged for white carnations—her Mother’s favorite flower—to adorn the patrons. Two carnations were given to every Mother in attendance. Today, white carnations are used to honor deceased Mothers, while pink or red carnations pay tribute to Mothers who are still alive. Andrew's Methodist Church exists to this day, and was incorporated into the International Mother’s Day Shrine in 1962.

In 1908 a U.S. Senator from Nebraska, Elmer Burkett, proposed making Mother's Day a national holiday at the request of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The proposal was defeated, but by 1909 forty-six states were holding Mother's Day services as well as parts of Canada and Mexico.

Anna Jarvis quit working and devoted herself full time to the creation of Mother's Day, endlessly petitioning state governments, business leaders, women groups, churches and other institutions and organizations. She finally convinced the World's Sunday School Association to back her, a key influence over state legislators and congress. In 1912 West Virginia became the first state to officially recognize Mother's Day, and in 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed it into national observance, declaring the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

The holiday flourished in the United States and flowers, especially white carnations, became very popular. One business journal, Florists Review, went so far as to print, “This was a holiday that could be exploited.” But the budding commercialization of Mother's Day greatly disturbed Jarvis, so she vociferously opposed what she perceived as a misuse of the holiday. In 1923 she sued to stop a Mother’s Day event, and in the 1930's she was arrested for disturbing the peace at the American War Mothers group. She was protesting their sale of flowers. In the 1930’s Jarvis also petitioned against the postage stamp featuring her Mother, a vase of white carnations and the word “Mother’s Day.” Jarvis was able to have the words “Mother’s Day” removed. The flowers remained. In 1938, Time Magazine ran an article about Jarvis's fight to copyright Mother's Day, but by then it was already too late to change the commercial trend.

In opposition to the flower industry’s exploitation of the holiday, Jarvis wrote, “What will you do to route charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations?” Despite her efforts, flower sales on Mother's Day continued to grow. Florist's Review wrote, “Miss Jarvis was completely squelched.”

Anna Jarvis died in 1948, blind, poor and childless. Jarvis would never know that it was, ironically, The Florist's Exchange that had anonymously paid for her care.

Source: http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/about-mothersday/history/

Queen Victoria was a pothead and coke head.

No, seriously.

Drugs such as cocaine and cannabis were not made illegal until after the Queen died. In fact, they were very often prescribed by doctors for various forms of pain, weakness, and a number of other ailments. Women often used cannabis to cope with menstrual cramps and childbirth pain. The Queen's own doctors prescribed it to her just for those reasons. She also drank a precursor to Coca-Cola called Vin Mariani that contained somewhere between 6 mg and 7.5 mg of cocaine. It was made from Bordeaux wine treated with coca leaves and ads for Vin Mariani claimed that it would restore health, strength, energy, and vitality.

On this day in 1861, Arkansas seceded from the Union. Much is made of the Eastern theater of war but many brave men lost their lives fighting in the West. Here is the Ordinance of Secession passed for Arkansas.

AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union now existing between the State of Arkansas and the other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America."

Whereas, in addition to the well-founded causes of complaint set forth by this convention, in resolutions adopted on the 11th of March, A.D. 1861, against the sectional party now in power in Washington City, headed by Abraham Lincoln, he has, in the face of resolutions passed by this convention pledging the State of Arkansas to resist to the last extremity any attempt on the part of such power to coerce any State that had seceded from the old Union, proclaimed to the world that war should be waged against such States until they should be compelled to submit to their rule, and large forces to accomplish this have by this same power been called out, and are now being marshaled to carry out this inhuman design; and to longer submit to such rule, or remain in the old Union of the United States, would be disgraceful and ruinous to the State of Arkansas:

Therefore we, the people of the State of Arkansas, in convention assembled, do hereby declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the "ordinance and acceptance of compact" passed and approved by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas on the 18th day of October, A.D. 1836, whereby it was by said General Assembly ordained that by virtue of the authority vested in said General Assembly by the provisions of the ordinance adopted by the convention of delegates assembled at Little Rock for the purpose of forming a constitution and system of government for said State, the propositions set forth in "An act supplementary to an act entitled 'An act for the admission of the State of Arkansas into the Union, and to provide for the due execution of the laws of the United States within the same, and for other purposes,'" were freely accepted, ratified, and irrevocably confirmed, articles of compact and union between the State of Arkansas and the United States, and all other laws and every other law and ordinance, whereby the State of Arkansas became a member of the Federal Union, be, and the same are hereby, in all respects and for every purpose herewith consistent, repealed, abrogated, and fully set aside; and the union now subsisting between the State of Arkansas and the other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby forever dissolved.

And we do further hereby declare and ordain, That the State of Arkansas hereby resumes to herself all rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America; that her citizens are absolved from all allegiance to said Government of the United States, and that she is in full possession and exercise of all the rights and sovereignty which appertain to a free and independent State.

We do further ordain and declare, That all rights acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United States of America, or of any act or acts of Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall remain in full force and effect, in nowise altered or impaired, and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been passed.

Adopted and passed in open convention on the 6th day of May, A.D. 1861.

The belief in paranormal occurrences with ghosts and other unexplained phenomena is by no means a modern concept. Such beliefs have waxed and waned throughout recorded history. In the nineteenth century, three sisters in New York unwittingly created the Spiritualist Movement through their alleged contact with the spirit world.

From Wikipedia:

The Fox sisters were three sisters from New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism, the religious movement. The three sisters were Leah Fox (1814–1890), Margaret Fox (also called Maggie) (1833–1893) and Kate Fox (1837–1892). The two younger sisters used "rappings" to convince their much older sister and others that they were communicating with spirits. Their older sister then took charge of them and managed their careers for some time. They all enjoyed success as mediums for many years.

In 1888 Margaret confessed that their rappings had been a hoax and publicly demonstrated their method. She attempted to recant her confession the next year, but their reputation was ruined and in less than five years they were all dead, with Margaret and Kate dying in abject poverty. Spiritualism continued as if the confessions of the Fox sisters had never happened. "This pattern of confession followed by retraction, which is not uncommon, has supplied both true believers and sceptics with material to support their case, so controversy never ends."

It is no surprise that the desire to communicate with the dead reached a fever pitch during the Civil War due to the high casualties in both the Union and Confederacy. People needed to have their last goodbyes and sought comfort in any way they could. It became highly fashionable to hire mediums to come to gatherings in homes or public venues for this specific purpose. Unfortunately, most of the alleged mediums, like the Fox sisters, were charlatans looking to profit from the grief of others. The fraud has continued into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and the reputations of legitimate mediums have never fully recovered.

Seances involved people sitting around a table with their eyes closed asking the spirits to communicate through the medium present. Often the alleged medium had the table rigged with different things under tables such as bells with strings that they could pull with their toes, chalkboards on which they could write messages with their toes, and so on. While people's eyes were closed, the clean chalkboard was quickly and quietly switched with the chalkboard containing the message from the great beyond. Tables were also rigged to shake and jerk at the best dramatic moment, which was allegedly a sign from the spirits with the people. The belief in false mediums went to the highest levels of society, including Mary Todd Lincoln, who held seances in the White House after her son died. She also went to a spirit photographer in the years after President Lincoln was killed in order to try and make contact with him.

Spirit photography became immensely popular in the mid-to-late nineteenth century but it was also the most fraudulent practice by these charlatan mediums. It was very easy to accomplish by taking a normal photograph of a living person and then developing it with a double exposure method to impose another image on top of it.

Here are some examples of spirit photography.

Bathing dresses, also called bathing costumes. This is from ca. 1864.

Not enough female reenactors pay attention to their hair, so it is my goal to find ways to teach women to do their hair in a suitable manner. I have found a video on YouTube that teaches women how to do their hair in a chignon. This style was often used in the nineteenth century, more often after the Civil War as the bulk of the hair crept up the back of the head.

If you do not have long hair, consider using clip on extensions like the clip on extensions in this blog. Read that blog to understand why hair is very important in portraying nineteenth century women and why it should not be ignored in reenacting today.

Please remember that if you are doing your hair for the early 1860s, there are a few standards that should be employed no matter what style you use.

1. Always part the hair down the middle.
2. Always keep the bulk of the hair at the nape of the neck.
3. For early 1860s, cover the ears with the hair.
4. From 1864 onward, tuck the hair behind the ears.
5. NO BANGS DURING THE CIVIL WAR!

Here is a video that shows how to do a relatively easy chignon. Remember to keep it on the nape of your neck, part it down the middle first and use hairspray or something to smooth your bangs in with the rest of your hair.

In the nineteenth century, it was considered entirely too familiar and improper for a single man to address a single woman by her first name. If he addressed her by her first name, it implied that they were engaged.

Let's use the Emma Thompson version of the film Sense and Sensibility as an example since more people are likely to have seen that than read the Jane Austen novel. At the end of the film, Hugh Grant playing Mr. Farras addresses Miss Dashwood (Emma Thompson) by her first name of Elinor. She begins to weep. The subtle nuance often lost on the audience is that Elinor suddenly knows by the use of her first name that he intends to propose. He doesn't get to finish because it's already there and implied by the simple use of her first name.

Additionally, the use of a person's first name was considered so personal that many in the nineteenth century continued to address each other by their last names around other people even after they were married. An example of this (to use another film that most people have likely seen) was evident in Gone with the Wind in the scene where Scarlett's mother comes home and tells "Mr. O'Hara" that he must dismiss the overseer and he responds by calling her Mrs. O'Hara. That was common in upper-class families. Only when they were alone or in private letters would they have addressed each other by their first names or private nicknames. Lower classes were less formal about the use of first names after people were married.

I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is, or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of creation if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning; my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable.

- Catherine Earnshaw, Chapter 9, Wurthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Today in Lillian's Kitchen (click here to read about the real woman named Lillian), we are going to learn to make Apple Jonathan.

Very often in nineteenth century cookbooks, there were no measurements like there are in modern cookbooks because there was no sense of standard protocol. Cooking techniques were passed down from mother to daughters and so forth, and were done with individual methods. Cups were typically measured by actual teacups, which were all different sizes. It was not the exact science as it is today, but at the same time, domestic living was so much more practiced and women had the ability to easily eyeball their ingredients. It was certainly not uncommon for a woman to be able to look at vaguely written instructions in a cookbook and use methods she learned from her own foremothers to create something ideally similar, if not just like the intended result in the recipe.

This particular recipe came from The Complete Home published in 1879. A few notes regarding this recipe. A pudding dish was like what a pie dish is today. Puddings in the nineteenth century were not the little cups of chocolate goo sold in grocery stores today. They were everything from what we consider pot pies with meats, vegetables, gravy, etc., to sweeter treats that looked like regular sugary custards and such. Paste was like a flat dough that could be savory or sweet depending on the recipe.


Line the sides of only a pudding dish with some nice paste, and fill it full of juicy, tender apples, peeled and sliced, with a little water to keep them moist. Cover the top of the dish with paste and bake until the apples are soft, then remove the crust and mash the apples while hot, adding sugar, butter, grated nutmeg and a little flavoring if desired. When cool, serve with rich cream, sweetened, flavored and whipped to a stiff froth, or the cream may be used without whipping. Either way the dish is delicious.

Much has been made of the comparison between the new Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress and Princess Grace of Monaco's wedding dress, but many failed to comment on the inspiration this royal bride drew from the Victorian period. Although the Duchess was a rather modern bride in many ways, such as leaving her reception in an Aston Martin rather than a carriage, she paid close attention to traditional detail that hearkened back to brides of ages past.

Beginning with her Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen gown, the Duchess was quite involved with the design. It was constructed using the same methods that were used in the nineteenth century. The floral lace appliqués were made using the Carrickmacross lace-making technique that originated in Ireland in the 1820s. Additionally, the cut and shape of the gown was constructed much like the classic Victorian hourglass figure. The narrow waist would have looked Victorian in itself but the designer added the extra detail of padding around the Duchess' hips. Along with the heavy pleating around the waist, designed to resemble an opening flower, the basic engineering of the gown was not unlike that of the mid-to-late Victorian period. The floral lace appliqués used on her dress were roses, thistle, daffodils and shamrocks. Roses are the national symbol of England. Thistle is the national symbol of Scotland. Daffodils are the national symbol of Wales as well as being a symbol of new beginnings. Shamrocks are the national symbol of Ireland.

For the flowers, the Duchess did not simply choose things that she found pretty. Everything used to decorate Westminster Abbey and the flowers carried by the bride and bridesmaids were carefully chosen for their meanings as well as their ability to sustain beyond the wedding day. The language of the flowers is a lost art form that I was very glad to see the Duchess observe in her wedding.

In her bridal bouquet, the Duchess carried Lilies-of-the-Valley, Hyacinth, Sweet William, and Myrtle. Traditionally, the Lily-of-the-Valley symbolizes sweetness and renewed happiness. Hyacinth symbolizes constancy. Sweet William, aside from the nod to her future husband, symbolizes gallantry, finesse and perfection. Perhaps the most special addition to the bridal bouquet was Myrtle, which symbolizes love, mirth and joy. Every royal bride since Queen Victoria has had a sprig of Myrtle in her bouquet. The Myrtle comes from a tree which grew from a cutting of Queen Victoria's own bridal bouquet Myrtle. Since then, each royal bride has included a sprig from the original plant in her bouquet, and they then plant their sprigs in Queen Victoria's garden as well. In fact, the tradition is that the bridesmaids plant the sprigs in the garden. Supposedly, if it doesn't root and grow, the bridesmaid who planted it will be an old maid. Luckily for them, myrtle roots very easily.

The language of the flowers continued in the elaborate eight-tiered wedding cake. It was a traditional English fruitcake with about 900 handmade sugar-paste flowers and the new monogram W with a C. The Duchess reportedly did not want a towering thin cake as royals have used in the past, nor did she want anything horribly overdone, reflecting her sensitivity to the state of the international economy. Each flower was chosen carefully by the Duchess for its meaning and her desire that the flowers tell a story throughout the wedding. This is very Victorian in attitude and her foremothers would have considered their flowers in a similar way. She chose seventeen different flowers and sent a list to the baker, who felt unsure about how to put so many flowers on one cake.

The flowers on the royal wedding cake:

Rose (white) - national symbol of England
Daffodil - national symbol of Wales, new beginnings
Shamrock - national symbol of Ireland
Thistle - national symbol of Scotland
Acorns, oak leaf - strength, endurance
Myrtle - love
Ivy - wedded love, marriage
Lily of the valley - sweetness, humility
Rose (bridal) - happiness, love
Sweet William - grant me one smile
Honeysuckle - the bond of love
Apple blossom - preference, good fortune
White heather - protection, wishes will come true
Jasmine (white) - amiability
Daisy - innocence, beauty, simplicity
Orange blossom - marriage, eternal love, fruitfulness
Lavender - ardent attachment, devotion, success, and luck

As someone who feels quite at ease with the Victorian period, the new Duchess of Cambridge's nods to very old tradition were quite heartwarming to witness.