Working Men, ca. 1880s

One of my favorite sort of Victorian photographs to find are group photos of people done in the setting that the group gathers in (versus in a studio). More faces from the period for your money and generally more candid, showing a real moment from the time. Church, school, and family groups are exciting enough but there is something especially real about people photographed where they worked. I think this is the only one in my collection. By the suits on the boss men, it appears to be from sometime in the 1880s but could conceivably be early 1890s. Here is the full photo followed by detail shots of it divided into four quadrants. Lots of wonderful details of every day working guys. Hope you enjoy it and that it helps with your recreation of every day men's working dress at the end of the Victorian period if that is up your alley like it is mine.

Yours & c.

The Victorian Man

Merry Christmas From 1908!

It's a day late but wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! This photo from my collection came to mind yesterday so pulled it out. No idea who it is r where it was taken but is marked "xmas 1908" on the beck. Hope your day was as joyous as these folks seemed to be!

Your's & c.

The Victorian Man

Dinner in the 1880s

Recently, Amy was back in California for visits with old friends and a weekend as Agnes from David Copperfield at The Great Dickens Christmas Fair. This left me with an excellent opportunity to cook things that she especially can't stand the smell of, which especially means fish (which I especially love). If I was going to craft a dining experience, it was going to be completely Victorian. On this particular evening, the latter end of the period won out and I went with further exploration of my copy of the 1886 Philadelphia Cook Book 

by Mrs. S.T Rorer

Every word this lady wrote was solid gold (I have a lot of cook books and this is truly one of the best) so I knew I was in good hands for a new experiment.

The main event was broiled fish (salmon in my case):

With Sauce Hollandaise:

Which also requires making drawn butter:

A few notes if you want to try it in a modern kitchen- when you broil the salmon (I only did about 0.63 lb.), place the oven rack about 6" from the broiler (second place in mine) and broil for a good five minutes on each side. I highly recommend doing further reading on safe handling for the specific fish and weight you are using.

When you are making the drawn butter for the Hollandaise sauce, 1 Cup of water will work well for the 1/2 pint specified.

I kept it simple and just had an appropriately basic salad as an accompaniment with French dressing from the same book (using the option for tarragon vinegar):

This is a wonderful dressing and, while not difficult to make, it is crucial that the instructions be followed exactly in order for it to come out well.

Madeira was my wine of choice (courtesy of my good friend Doug Rousch) with water as well.

Indulged in setting the table with original 19th Century table ware with the exception of the oil lamp, napkin, and the bowl that the salad dressing was in. That bowl is the excellent craftsmanship of my friends at J. Henderson Artifacts. They can't be beat for any sort of historic stoneware, including custom pieces.

It was a delectable taste of the period and very nice way to pass an evening. One more thing solidly in the realm of what the Victorians did better. If you are feeling the need to immerse your senses in history but the next event is just not close enough, I highly recommend jumping into a few recipes from whatever period is your passion and making an evening of it. You won't be sorry!

Your's & c.

The Victorian Man

The Locust Grove/Charles Dickens/Queen Victoria Connection

Unfortunately, the stars did not align this year to rejoin my friends at the magnificent Great Dickens Christmas Fair.

    Playing Nephew Fred at Dickens Fair in 2013 with Dennis Parks as Scrooge. If someone know who took this  photo, please let me know!

but I did stumble upon a new detail recently that called to mind how Locust Grove (the ca. 1792 historic house museum where I work in Louisville, KY), Charles Dickens, and Queen Victoria (who you may also meet at the fair!)...

  Amy as Queen Victoria in 2012. Again- someone let me know who took this so I can mention them

...all circle around the same incident in 1842. I have finally gotten around to reading Charles Dickens' American Notes, which I was especially interested to read since George Croghan of Locust Grove...

  Lt. Col. George Croghan, ca. 1816. Collection of Historic Locust Grove. Read more about Col. Croghan here.

...mentioned in his journal 7 April 1842, “…Dickens arrived at the Galt House during the night but departed for St. Louis very soon after breakfast.” This was during the American tour that Dickens wrote American Notes about. Dickens mentioned little about Louisville other than how impressed he was with the Galt House.

                                                  Charles Dickens in 1842 by Francis Alexander

Dickens was on his way West. He made it to St. Louis and ultimately to see the prairie, which he was very unimpressed by, then traveled back through Louisville (seeking out the same excellent hotel) and Cincinnati on his way to Sandusky in Ohio.

On the way, he stopped at a hotel, apparently somewhere around Columbus, OH, where at dinner there was, “…a droning gentleman who talks arithmetically and statistically on all subjects, from poetry downwards; and who always speaks in the same key, with exactly the same emphasis, and with very grave deliberation.”

I was half asleep, making my way through morning coffee, when I read this and almost glanced over it but something told me that it was crucial and worth comprehending. Dickens went on to say:

"He came outside just now, and told me how that the uncle of a certain young lady who had been spirited away and married by a certain captain, lived in these parts; and how this uncle was so valiant and ferocious that he shouldn’t wonder if he were to follow that said captain to England, ‘and shoot him down in the street wherever he found him;’ in the feasibility of which strong measure I, being for the moment rather prone to contradiction, from feeling half asleep and very tired, declined to acquiesce: assuring him that if the uncle did resort to it, or gratified any other little whim of the like nature, he would find himself one morning prematurely throttled at the Old Bailey: and that he would do well to make his will before he went, as he would certainly want it before he had been in Britain very long."

Earlier that year, George Croghan's fourteen year old niece, Mary:

daughter and only surviving child of George's younger brother, William Croghan, Jr.:

had eloped with English Napoleonic War veteran, Edward Schenley, who was nearly thirty years older than she was:

This caused a major transatlantic scandal and, in fact, George Croghan had written to his cousin John O'Fallon on February 16, 1842, "[William] is half distracted. Let him rouse himself and pursue to the rescue of his child, even though to effect it he have to blow the vile robber's brains out. I write in haste and in great distress." Supposedly, the ire of Queen Victoria, herself, was raised by the incident.

Queen Victorian in 1843 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter - Royal Collection RCIN 406010

So, there you have it- whether at Locust Grove in Louisville or the Dickens Fair in San Francisco, we are really telling the same story! Break a leg out there, Victorian Londoners, and to find out more about the Croghan-Schenley scandal, visit this article on the official Locust Grove blog.

Your's & c.,

The Victorian Man

Mid 19th Century Quilt Idea

Quilts are hands down one of the most nuanced, complicated, fraught with myth and misinformation corners of textile history. Most of my sewing life, I have been saving scraps from projects hoping to one day turn them into some sort of basic quilt of a form correct to somewhere in the middle to late 19th Century. But while I am always fascinated to read scholarship on the evolution of quilts during the 19th Century, I find myself nowhere close to wrapping my mind around it. Even the seemingly haphazard late Century crazy quilts combine their own brand of specialized joining and stitches, leaving me wondering in the end if the make-do quilts of legend ever existed at all. While artistic license is always a possibility, these two works seem to portray something that may be possible with my random period scraps and novice hands:

The above image appears to be ca. 1850s but I have not found specific information on the date or artist. The bed covering appears to be a simple arrangement of a variety of squares and rectangles. Detail of the piece:

And the following is ca. 1870 Story of Golden Locks Seymour Joseph Guy:

I'm not sure if the detail at the lower left here is meant to portray a decorative curved form of the edge of this quilt or if it is just a fold but this also appears to be an arrangement of random pieces arranged in basic geometric shapes fit together as able:

May be worth a try.

Your's & c.

The Victorian Man

Peach Pie from 1886

Another very well done cookbook from the Victorian period is The Philadelphia Cookbook: A Manual of Home Economics by Mrs. S. T. Rorer, principal of the Philadelphia Cooking School, 1886. this evening, I tried her recipe for peach pie and it turned out very well:

"Line pie dishes with good plain paste. Pare, cut the peaches in halves, and take out the stones, then lay them in the dishes, sprinkle lightly with sugar, add a quarter cup of water, cover with an upper crust, and bake in a quick oven for thirty minutes; or the peaches may be thoroughly rubbed without paring, slightly mashed and baked without stoning."

Use whatever your favorite pie crust recipe is. You'll need seven or eight peaches. We were a little short so, at Amy's suggestion, we added some blackberries to make up the space, which were great. I just cut the peaches into nice sized bits. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

Your's & c.
The Victorian Man

Mint Juleps in Victorian England?

Not quite but good effort. In 1845, Englishwoman Eliza Acton published one of the greatest cook books in history. In my personal experience, her book blows the slightly later work by Mrs. Beeton out of the water. She makes a great effort to not only relate contemporary English recipes but acquaint her readers with food and beverages from elsewhere, in this case America. In her entry, "Mint Julep, an American Receipt," she does note that, "...the receipt, which was contributed by an American gentlemen, is somewhat vague." Could be that the American gentleman wasn't letting loose of his secret. One way or another, pursuing further documentation of mint julep methods in the 1840s is now on my agenda.

It comes out rather charming but is brandy based (even though she does note that it doesn't have to be) and lacks any sweetener, which it could have stood (and I do not generally like very sweet beverages).

So here it is:

"'Strip the tender leaves of mint into a tumbler, and add to them as much wine, brandy, or any other spirit, as you wish to take. Put some pounded ice into a second tumbler; pour this on the mint and brandy, and continue to pour the mixture from one tumbler to the other until the whole is sufficiently impregnated with the flavor of the mint, which is extracted by the particles of the ice coming into brisk contact when changed from one vessel to the other. Now place the glass in a larger one, containing pounded ice: on taking it out of which it will be covered with frost work.'"

Acton then notes, "We apprehend that this preparation is, like most other iced American beverages, to be imbibed through a reed...."

I placed it in the freezer for a few minutes instead of placing it in a glass of ice and used a paper straw instead of a reed (plastic straws never touch the lips of real Victorian men)

It was a great little experiment with one country trying to interpret what was going on in another in 1845. Please feel free to contribute your julep history notes in the comments!

Your's & c
The Victorian Man