Chintz? Check!

On May 10, 2013May 9, 2013 By kittycalashIn 1763 Project, Clothing, History, Research4 Comments

Les Fleur d' Inde — Les Fleur d’ Inde: delicious!

Because I am prey to a pretty print as much as the next ~~princess~~ ~~costume blogger~~ tenant farmer’s wife, I thought I should go looking for evidence before I launch into any cotton sacques, and to justify the use of the print remnant I’m stitching up into a jacket. (Apologies in advance to my friend who bought enough for a gown, because you know we’ll wear them to the same event…)

Providence Gazette and Country Journal, March 16, 1765

American Historical Newspapers to the rescue, once again. Here’s an ad for Alexander Black and Archibald Stewart, from the Providence Gazette and Country Journal of March 16, 1765. Chintz and calico: it’s here in Providence in 1765. I knew there were merchants selling calicoes and chintzes in Providence in 1768 (including Samuel Young, who printed his broadside in red).

Three years later, Joseph and Wm. Russell at the sign of the Golden Eagle are selling (lately imported from London and Bristol) “A neat and genteel assortment of dark ground calicoes and chintz.” This ad runs to four columns in the Providence Gazette and Country Journal, 1768, April 9. It’s a tantalizing list, and no, I did not miss those chip hats and bonnets!

Digression: I was attracted to this bit about forks as I recall being told by a historic house tour guide once that “forks were not in common use until the Civil War.” It’s an early house, maybe he meant the English Civil War, but I think forks were here to stay and be bought for a variety of prices long before the American Civil War. How else to explain those archaeological finds that show forks of some kind at Rev War forts and camp sites? /Digression. New digression: OMG, knitting needles! /New digression.

Back to chintz: Here, in 1771, is William Eliot, selling chintzes in Providence, and advertising in the Providence Gazette and Country Journal of June 1, 1771. He also has “flowered and sprigged lawn in aprons,” and Kenting and check handkerchiefs. (Kenting was a fine linen fabric)

In the limited search I ran (1754-1783 newspapers), plenty of references to chintz appear in Providence alone (there were 166 hits, but the ads repeat). This completely unscientific approach in which I stopped looking in 1771*, has turned up 5 merchants, if you count the RIHS Library’s broadside for Samuel Young. Chintzes and calicoes were everywhere. Dark grounds were “genteel,” checks and spots and stripes are popular and common.

Paul Sandby, London Cries: Black Heart cherries... ca. 1759. YCBA, B1975.3.206 — Paul Sandby, London Cries: Black Heart cherries… ca. 1759. YCBA, B1975.3.206

I begin to see 18th century Providence, if not all of the Colonies, as a variegated, kaleidoscopic place of pattern and color. I think there was more than we realize, even if only in small amounts.

Look again at the cherry seller: her petticoat is yellow and blue, if not yellow, blue, and white striped, her apron is blue, her stockings brown or faded reddish, her cap is affixed with a pink or red ribbon, and she wears a checked kerchief. She’s poor and sort of faded, but she’s colorful–more colorful, perhaps, than we have credited.

*I do have to head out to work, but I can search again.

Sampler Resources

On May 8, 2013May 7, 2013 By kittycalashIn History2 Comments

Sew 18th Century had a fun post recently about “Which State House is it?”

I’m not usually a sampler fan (you know this is not an area in which I shine), but I have learned a lot more about samplers through work than I ever expected to. And what do you know? Some of it stuck!

I thought I would pass along some helpful resources for sampler fans. Last year, one of the (if not THE) premier sampler collections was sold at auction by Sotheby’s. Through the magic of the interwebs, you can see the catalog online:

Important American Schoolgirl Embroideries: The Landmark Collection of Betty Ring

Even I say “Yum!” to all those pictures. I like color and texture, but sometimes samplers make me feel like all the air has been sucked out of the room. Walker Evans has the same effect. But when you look at them like this–or arrayed on a worktable–they turn into pictures, and those I enjoy. You page through the catalog and see what Betty Ring had, and whimper a little about these going in to private and not public hands. I know we whimpered…how I covet a green-background sampler!

But wait–there’s more! Be sure to check out American Needlework Treasures, and Girlhood Embroidery Volumes I & Volume II which are available as full-text PDFs with images. In Girlhood Embroidery, you can read more about the Mary Balch School.

If you like samplers, and want to learn more or support sampler work, visit The Sampler Consortium website. You can become a lifetime member free of charge, and enjoy email updates with sampler news. The Consortium is connected to The Sampler Archive Project, which is funded by the NEH. We’re pleased to be part of the SAP’s first phase, and I am pleased to have learned so much just by cataloging.

In the Grip of La Grippe

On May 7, 2013May 6, 2013 By kittycalashIn History2 Comments

lwlpr13377 — The Life of a Nobleman: the sick room, LWL call no.
830.00.00.73+

I had a cold this week past, and quite miserable it made me, too. It got me thinking about illness, and historical perceptions of illness.

I love words, and old words are best, and one of my favorites has long been catarrh. It sounds just like what it is. The Times (another one of my loves) has a hilarious column on the subject, originally published in 1865. It makes me want to write a chapbook, “Letters on Cattarh.” The first known use of the word is in the 15th century, so chances are good it turns up in 18th century usage. In fact, it turns up in the Boston Post Boy of Jan 1 1736 not as a cause of death, but as the reason for the state of George Bethune’s lungs.

Scanning America’s Historical Newspapers (yes, I do this for fun) turns up more than 1,400 hits before 1783 alone for “illness,” most resulting in death, though some are described as past, and disfiguring. My money’s on smallpox for those.

Providence Gazette and Country Journal, 1768.

Catarrh turns up 27 times. Here it is in the Providence Gazette and Country Journal of 1768. It’s from an extract of the minutes of the American Society, held at Philadelphia, for Promoting Useful Knowledge. I can imagine the gentlemen sitting with pipes and punch bowl, grumbling to each other, “We can send a ship to Suriname, but we can’t cure the common catarrh.” Or perhaps it is the ladies who say it, as the gentlemen come stumbling home from the meeting to Promote Useful Knowledge.

La Grippe, as experienced by poor Adelaide, is influenza. The etymology suggests a 1770-80 French origin, from gripper, to seize suddenly. That’s pretty descriptive, if you’ve ever had flu. La Grippe turns up in the index of the Philadelphia Repository and Weekly Register, January 1, 1803, as “prevalent at Paris,” and on April 9, 1803, we can read the little article about it.

On April 11, 1803, in the Alexandria Advertiser and Commercial Intelligencer there appears an “Extract of a private letter” describing interments of 400 per day, and 4000 in a ten-day period. This was serious, serious stuff. Facing illness today, we’re so much better off than people were in 1803, or even 1903. Germ theory is only 150 years old at the most, and really, thank goodness for it.

For more on the various diseases and epidemics of the past, I give you the Contagion database from Harvard. It’s an excellent collection of articles and links to additional reading, from smallpox to influenza. I feel better already.

Details. All in the Details.

On May 4, 2013 By kittycalashIn Clothing, History, Living History, making things, Museums4 Comments

Detail, pair of pockets. Gallery of Costume, Platt Hall, Manchester City Galleries. MCAG.1922.2150

This image is from the fantastic VADS site‘s gallery of pockets. I need new pockets, or a pocket update and overhaul, so I went looking for inspiration.

Child's Pocket, 1720-1760. RIHS 1985.1.9. — Child’s Pocket, 1720-1760. RIHS 1985.1.9.

This is a dangerous path to go down if you are as unskilled with a crewel needle as I am.

Sew18thCentury can do it– so, sew, lovely. Me…well, everything I knew about embroidery I learned as a child, and promptly forgot with puberty. So my skills remain appropriate for reproducing this, from a Rhode Island collection. The pocket is child-sized, at 14 inches, and the embroidery has a crabbed, angry look, as if the girl would much rather have been outside, chasing her dog or brother. I can relate, at least to the dog part.

I made a pattern of the embroidery, traced it onto linen, and started working on dredging up those long-forgotten skills. As a child, I had a sewing or embroidery book, but what I remember most about the projects I made was how far their finished form was from what I had envisioned.

This is not an uncommon experience for children; my son has certainly experienced this, and even adults are subject to it. I think the best rendition of it, sewing-wise, is Eleanor Estes’ portrayal in The Middle Moffat of Jane Moffat attempting to make a “brocated bag” for Mama’s Christmas present.

The image of Jane sewing or crocheting under a tree while talking to Cranbury’s Oldest Inhabitant, a Civil War veteran, sums up every reenactment I’ve ever been part of… but I digress.

My embroidery stitches lack a lot, but most of what they lack is practice–and that’s what makes reproducing that RIHS pocket a perfect project for me. Pockets were “sampler” projects, and suitable for girls to learn on. This combines plain sewing with embroidery, and ends up as something useful and authentic, so what more can I ask?

Pocket, single, embroidered. Snowshill Costume Collection, National Trust (UK). mid 1700s. SNO1452

The VADS site has tons of images to inspire me, and with practice, someday I could manage something as beautiful as this. I need only make sure that it fits my time period and station–and for some events it will, but for most, the plain pocket or the crabbed-stitch embroidered pocket, are probably far more appropriate.

Kirsten Hammerstrom

Category: History

Chintz? Check!

Sampler Resources

In the Grip of La Grippe

Details. All in the Details.