Come on it's Lovely Weather for Sleigh Bells and Skating Parties!

Winter sports have been popular in America for hundreds of years. But in the 1800s and early 20th century, winter pastimes not only provided fun and exercise, they also served as much-anticipated and enjoyed social gatherings. One of the most popular pastimes of all was ice-skating, described in an 1886 newspaper as “Our National Winter Exercise.” Frozen ponds and rivers were always busy in the winter, and nighttime skating parties like those described in Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Rose O’ the River were favorite amusements, especially for young people:

“Never had there been . . . such wonderful skating. The river was one gleaming, glittering thoroughfare of ice from Milliken’s Mills to the dam at the Edgewood bridge. At sundown bonfires were built here and there on the mirror-like surface, and all the young people from the neighboring villages gathered on the ice.”

Homemade Cheer: Christmas During the Great Depression

From Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol onward, so many stories have been written about people managing to make Christmas merry even under the direst of circumstances, be it fire, flood or famine—or more often, a simple lack of funds. But during America’s Great Depression, this challenge wasn’t confined to storybooks—it was a challenge that nearly everyone faced.

“For many thousands of people this is going to be a different Christmas,” wrote the editor of Successful Farming magazine in the December 1932 issue. “It is fellowship, love, understanding, sympathy that is most needed this year. All the tinsels and lights, all the extravagant show, cannot take the place of the real spirit of Christmas. This should be predominately a children's Christmas. And that need not be done extravagantly [as] the greatest happiness comes from the simple things of life.”

If in the Mirror Your Lover is Seen, You'll Surely be Happy on Hallowe'en

I just love this time of year! For me, Halloween kicks off a whole season of celebrations that goes on until New Year's Day. Here in Virginia, fall is a treat for the senses, a combination of colors and scents and sounds and perfect weather for outdoor activities that gets me in a festive mood. This year I've had even more fun sifting through Victorian and Edwardian Halloween ephemera for our new release, At the Sign of the Jack O' Lantern. When I think of Halloween today, I think of trick-or-treaters, carving pumpkins, and scary stories, but I'd never thought of Halloween as being a romantic holiday or a time of good fortune. So I was surprised to find so many vintage Halloween postcards (the sending of which was another popular tradition of old) spouting wishes of good luck and romantic revelations.

Though the commercialism of Halloween has mostly overtaken October 31, the holiday's roots are derived from the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain. Occurring at the halfway point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, the Samhain festival marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. It was a time to take stock in and celebrate the bounty of the harvest and ask for blessings for the coming "dark season." According to a long tradition of Gaelic folklore, the veil between the living world and the spirit world is at its weakest point on Samhain. Many Halloween traditions still in place today originated from Gaelic methods of protecting themselves from evil spirits, but it was believed that some of those spirits could be useful as well, for what better time is there to attempt to divine one's future than when the spirits are nearest to help?

I Could Hardly Wait to Keep Our Date This Lovely Easter Morning

In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,

You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade...

I love hats. I usually only wear them to church, so you’ll be sure to see me sport one five or six times a year on Sunday mornings because I think they are feminine and lovely and just plain fun. (I wish women still wore gloves all the time, too, and red lipstick and hose with a seam up the back, but since I don’t want to look like I’m in costume, I just stick with the occasional hat.) And of course I love to wear an Easter bonnet! Granted, my hat this year is a rather conservative straw number with an enormous black blow, but I love the fancier Easter bonnets women wear in the Easter Parade.

History Notes: A Vintage Tradition -- The Easter Egg

Traditionally, in some parts of Europe, eggs that went into Easter foods weren’t broken open, but gently punctured so the egg emptied out without destroying the shell. The hollow eggs were then decorated with plant-based dyes and strung on to tree branches. The art of decorating Easter eggs became increasingly popular during the Edwardian era, almost to the point of becoming a “fine art.”

History Notes: Great Changes, Fat Presidents, and Girl Scouts

The 1910s was a decade of great change for America. It was during this decade that the United States was first considered a world leader. Many of the issues of 1910 are ones we face today: including the escalation of immigration and poverty, labor and monopoly battles, work safety and child labor problems. World War I - the first 'war to end all wars' raged. The 1910s were the decade America came of age. ~Peggy Whitley, Lonestar College

One of the “great changes” during this time was that of the American Woman. She had had enough. As early as 1840, women started taking a stand on issues important to them. The right to vote and the right to own property; the right to make wages the same as their husbands and the right to establish their own businesses; and the right to sue and the right to divorce their husbands on the same grounds as men could divorce their wives.

Hobble Skirts, Muckrakers, and Bohemians: The Progressive Era

Mary Robert Rinehart’s novel, When a Man Marries, was written in 1910, in the middle of what came to be known as the ‘Progressive Era’ in the United States. Beginning in the 1890s--the ‘Gay Nineties’--and ending roughly with the start of World War I, the Progressive Era marked a time of social and political change.

A new vocabulary characterized this era. Americans would speak about a "public interest" that was opposed by "special interests." They would also speak about "efficiency" and "expertise" in government and “morality” in foreign affairs. For the first time, Americans spoke of "social workers," "muckrakers," "trustbusters," "feminists," "social scientists," and "conservation." ~ Digital History -- Progressivism

History Notes: Turn-of-the-Century Education

Rose O’ The River by Kate Douglas Wiggin was published in 1905. In the novel, the characters Stephen and Rose were fortunate enough to have had the opportunity for higher education, but due to family and financial circumstances, both ended up back home without finishing their studies. This was a common scenario in the early 1900s. With fewer job opportunities in the rural areas of America, such as Maine, many men ended up in laboring for the logging and ship-building industries. Only a few were fortunate enough to attend school, and many who did never got the chance to graduate.

Gorham Normal School, Maine, 1905
(Now the University of Southern Maine)