#12 May 1870

[rabbitcruiser]

The Manitoba Act was given the Royal Assent on May 12, 1870, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15, 1870.

[thelibraryghost]

A Young Person's Introduction to Late 19th-Century Western Fashion

hello fellow youths

General information Banner, Bernadette. "Exposing Victorian Influencers Who 'Facetuned' Their Photos. (Photo Manipulation was EVERYWHERE)." YouTube. July 17, 2021. English Heritage. "Fashion Through History: Episode 1 – Victorians." YouTube. February 9, 2023. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "100 Years of Fashion // The Fashionable Plus Size Silhouette from 1820-1910." YouTube. June 5, 2021. Victoria and Albert Museum. "100 Years of Fashionable Womenswear: 1830s – 1930s | V&A." YouTube. July 18, 2023. Zebrowska, Karolina. "Victorian Fashion Is Not What You Think It Is." YouTube. March 19, 2019.

Accessories Banner, Bernadette. ""Afro-Victorian": Bringing Historical Black Women's Dress into the 21st Century w Cheyney McKnight." YouTube. October 20, 2021. Cox, Abby. "A Fashion Historian Explains the History of the Handbag." YouTube. January 26, 2023. Rudolph, Nicole. "Dangerous Things in Victorian Pockets : Mens Pocket History." YouTube. March 2, 2024. Rudolph, Nicole. "The Controversial History of Color Season Analysis." YouTube. November 4, 2023. Zebrowska, Karolina. "Disgusting and Creepy Victorian Fashion Trends." YouTube. October 17, 2018.

Bustles and hoopskirts Donner, Morgan. "Weirdest Victorian Invention: The Bustle-Chair (and we made one)." YouTube. November 20, 2020. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "100 Years of Underwear // The Changing Plus Size Shape from Regency to Victorian to Edwardian." YouTube. May 1, 2021. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "All About Bustles! A Deep Dive into 1870s Fashions." YouTube. December 26, 2023. Rudolph, Nicole. "Why were Victorian Hips Controversial?" YouTube. September 12, 2021.

Cosmetics Birchwood, Vasi. "1800s Makeup Is Not What You Think." YouTube. July 21, 2023. English Heritage. "Queen Victoria Makeup Tutorial | History Inspired | Feat. Amber Butchart and Rebecca Butterworth." YouTube. May 20, 2019. Zebrowska, Karolina. "I Used Only Victorian Cosmetics For a Week." YouTube. July 26, 2023.

Fabrics Rudolph, Nicole. "Did Silk Spontaneously Combust in the Victorian Era?" YouTube. August 8, 2021. Rudolph, Nicole. "The History of Elastic." YouTube. July 4, 2021. Rudolph, Nicole. "The Truth About Arsenic in the Victorian Era." YouTube. January 24, 2021.

Gowns Bullat, Samantha. "Dress Historian Analyzes Victorian Mourning Clothing of the Mid-19th Century." YouTube. March 14, 2021. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "All About 1860's Fashion // What did Civil War-era fashion look like?" YouTube. November 12, 2022. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "How did fashion evolve from 1850-1859? // 1850's Fashion Deep Dive." YouTube. October 1, 2022. Rudolph, Nicole. "Victorian Fast Fashion? The Truth about the History of Disposable Clothing." YouTube. February 6, 2022. SnappyDragon. "Were the Pre-Raphaelites painting accurate medieval dress . . . or Victorian fairtytalecore?" YouTube. April 26, 2024. Zebrowska, Karolina. "19th Century Fashion - How To Tell Different Decades Apart?" YouTube. November 17, 2017.

Hair care and styling Banner, Bernadette. "Following a Victorian Home Made Hair Care Routine (1889)." YouTube. September 11, 2021. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "Getting Dressed in an 1888 Daisy Costume // Easy Bustle-Era Hair Tutorial." YouTube. November 13, 2020. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "Getting Dressed in the 1870s & 1874 Hairstyle Tutorial." YouTube. February 23, 2020. Rudolph, Nicole. "Why did Victorian Women Cut their Hair Short?" YouTube. December 18, 2022. Laundry and housekeeping English Heritage. "A Tour of the Laundry - The Victorian Way." YouTube. September 6, 2019. English Heritage. "How to Wash Up - The Victorian Way." YouTube. March 18, 2021. English Heritage. "Laying the Table at Christmas – The Victorian Way." YouTube. December 14, 2022. Walkley, Christina, and Vanda Foster. Crinolines and Crimping Irons: Victorian Clothes: How They Were Cleaned and Cared for. Peter Owen Limited: London, 1978.

Outerwear and working wear Birchwood, Vasi. "What Irish Working Women Wore in the Late 19th Century | I Made the Clothing of My Irish Ancestors." YouTube. June 23, 2023. English Heritage. "The Real Mrs Crocombe | Part Four: A Victorian Cook's Outfit." YouTube. July 5, 2018. Stowell, Lauren. "It's Hot: Let's Look At Some Bathing Suits." American Duchess. August 18, 2023. Rudolph, Nicole. "The History of Jeans, T-shirts, and Hoodies: Time Travel 101." YouTube. March 20, 2022. Zebrowska, Karolina. "The 1851 Women's Pants That Made The Victorians Go Crazy." YouTube. March 2, 2020.

Shoes Rudolph, Nicole. "100 years of Antique Boots." YouTube. February 10, 2024. Rudolph, Nicole. "How to Make Regency & Victorian Shoes: Beginner Shoemaking." YouTube. June 27, 2021. Rudolph, Nicole. "The Myth of Tiny Feet "Back Then"." YouTube. September 26, 2021.

Undergarments Banner, Bernadette. "I Wore a (Medical) Corset for 5 Years. How do Victorian Corsets Compare?" YouTube. November 7, 2020. Banner, Bernadette. "Making Some Frilly Victorian Underwear || 1890s Combinations." YouTube. February 9, 2019. Birchwood, Vasi. "What Victorians Wore to Bed." YouTube. May 5, 2023. Cox, Abby. "I made weird Victorian underwear (it's a knit onesie) & a pretty 1890s corset || historical sewing." YouTube. March 21, 2021. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "How 8 Different Historical Corsets Affect the Same Plus Size Body." YouTube. December 12, 2020. Rudolph, Nicole. "100 Years of Corset History: How 8 Corsets affect the same body." YouTube. November 29, 2020. Zebrowska, Karolina. "How Did Victorian Ladies Stay Warm in Winter? || THE EXPERIMENT." YouTube. January 22, 2021. Zebrowska, Karolina. "How Did Victorian Women Deal With Their Periods?" YouTube. October 17, 2019.

[sirenjose]

Norton's Birth Year and some facts about his age at the time of the DeRoss tragedy

Alice: age 6 when her parents die in the tragedy

Year of the tragedy: 1887, based on the Official Artbook

Alice is 21 in the final game, so the final game was in 1902.

Norton is 28 in the final game.

-> Norton was born in 1874 and age 12 on the day of the tragedy in 1887.

Alice's birthday: September 13.

If Alice is 6 during the tragedy, and the tragedy was in 1887, that tragedy had to have happened between September 13, 1887 and December 31, 1887.

Norton's birthday is March 19.

-> Thus why Norton we know was 12 at the time of the tragedy.

12 was the minimum age allowed for boys to work underground in coal mines (Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act, 1872). Legislation in 1860 set a requirement for a minimum level of formal education before children were permitted to work. It made it so 10 and 11 year old boys could only be employed in British collieries if they had earned an educational certificate or if they attended school at least 2 days a week for at least 3 hours per day. (Females were prohibited by an Act in 1842.)

The Education Act of 1870, which applied to England and Wales, made attendance at school compulsory for children between the ages of 5 and 10. For Scotland, an Act was introduced in 1872 that made school compulsory for children between 5 and 13. There were exceptions to these 2 acts, such as for children engaged in apprenticeships or those being appropriately home schooled.

The 1872 Act also made it so boys between 12 and 16 couldn’t work more than 54 hours in 1 week or 10 hours in 1 day. It also required between 8 and 12 hours between periods of employment (defined as starting when they leave the surface and ending when they return to the surface).

It did have provisions for 10 year olds to labor part time where seams were especially thin. At the same time, surface work was regulated, a minimum age of 12 being required for both boys and girls for full-time employment (and 10 years for part-time work).

Norton says in his 2nd letter “Over the last 20 years, I lived like a rat in the gutter”. Based on what we know, he was likely restricted to work above ground until at least age 12, and even afterwards had restrictions on his hours and what he could do and such until at least age 16.

In which case, this comment, based on the context, may have just been referring to him growing up poor. It may imply his father died when he was 8, at which point life became very hard for him, especially as Norton’s mother is never referenced. As I discussed in a previous post, with how rare divorce was, Norton’s mother is more likely to be dead.

[moriarty-sisters]

The Arsenic Poisoning of Episode 3

Hello hi I'm a history major currently doing research of the Victorian use of arsenic in textiles, and I figured, why not see how much arsenic poisoning Lokius would have gotten at the fair?

Poor Mobius is about to have a rough time. I'm assuming Loki has some genetics that make his less susceptible to arsenic poisoning. But Mobius's sweet tooth would be the most likely to get him into trouble.

First of all, arsenic was EVERYWHERE. It was in upholstery, paint, playing cards, curtains, clothing, pesticides, paper stationery, wallpaper, candy wrappers, even dust. The most common pigment was Scheele's green, which was used to produce a very vibrant green.

Let's look at the fair. What from here would they have come into contact with? They spent a good chunk of a day there, and Mobius seems like a fun guy. Let's assume they were in buildings. Many of the buildings were temporary constructions, so I would assume they would not be the most furnished, like a home would, but they could have stopped by the domestic product exhibit by the Pratt Institute. And they may have come across artificial flowers in decorations, stopped to look at gloves or in an art hall, or Mobius could have played a few rounds of cards painted with arsenic green. He might have accidentally brushed against someone wearing a green arsenic-dyed dress and had the offset sit in his skin for a while. Here is an illustration of the wounds direct contact with arsenic could cause.

Here you can look through photos and an account of the fair.

Arsenic was sold in grocery stores before restrictions were passed in Parliament (my research focuses on the UK right now, but I'm going to apply it to Chicago. I am also assuming many things from the UK were shipped to Chicago for the fair). The Arsenic Restrictions Act of 1851 limited the sale of arsenic to 10 pounds or less and to pharmacists. Not very effective, if you ask me, and according to this cartoon and this one.

(Quick background info was that Parliament was hesitant to pass arsenic restriction laws, which even led to an increase in the use of arsenic. Arsenic was not just in the green pigments, but for the purpose of this post and because it's the Loki series, I'm focusing on green.)

Doctors had widely suspected arsenic in domestic textiles and products caused arsenic poisoning since the 1870s. Most of the time, symptoms disappeared once the patients left the room/house because they weren't around the arsenic wallpaper/cloth/etc. But arsenic was so widespread at the end of the 19th century, I firmly believe that Mobius would have been seriously ill at the end of episode 3. Here are symptoms noted by two different doctors.

This is not even mentioning the fact that arsenic had a history of being in sweets and other foods. As mentioned in the second image, candies were sometimes wrapped in paper dyed with arsenic, but arsenic was also used to dye confectionery, and also substitute other ingredients, whether accidental or in an attempt to cut costs. In 1858, a confectioner accidentally mixed 12 pounds of arsenic into a batch of peppermint. 200 people got sick and 21 died in the Bradford Sweets Poisoning.

One historian, James C Whorton, posits that arsenic was added to lower costs and that the Arsenic Restriction Act actually did nothing to restrict arsenic being released into the public.

This brings us to another point. We know that at the fair, knockoffs were a large business there. If even before the fair, there was the temptation to lower costs by carelessly replacing it with arsenic, then it might be probable to assume some candies had a strong presence of arsenic at the fair, given how prevalent knockoffs were. Poor Mobius, unless he was very careful to do his research, probably ate a few. This is where the sweet tooth gets him in trouble. Loki didn't eat anything, the most he would have encountered was probably fabric and dust.

A report from 1900 shows that arsenic was suspect in glucose products. Glucose is sugar, which is used to make caramel and molasses, which are used in the making of: you guessed it, Crackerjack. The Crackerjack of the 1893 World's Fair was made with molasses, which is from refining the sugar cane, but arsenic mixed with molasses was also used as a pesticide so it would perhaps not be uncommon to have arsenic-laced molasses in the vicinity, especially at a fair showing off new agricultural developments. Given that this report is from 1900, I am assuming arsenic may have been more prevalent in sugar before 1900.

So Mobius could have been exposed to any amount of this during the day at the fair. What about onscreen? When they reach the bar, Mobius could have brushed against clothing containing arsenic given how crowded it was. We see him think about ordering a beer. Also not a good idea, Mobius.

I would also say Timely might have had exposure standing next to the stage curtains. But Loki's magic when they leave also kicks up a lot of dust. If we look back at the first image, we can see the concentration of arsenic in dust. Inhaling that wouldn't have done Mobius any good either.

There are several factors that we did not see onscreen that I could only guess that they did. But Timely's lab may have had arsenic in it, and given how dusty it seemed to be, that very well could have also been a place that added to Mobius's exposure. Many physicians reported arsenic poisoning, likely from their work.

This post will likely be edited for a while as I continue my research (it's also 1 am and I wrote this in an hour) and then I'll do a full bibliography (if you want a certain source, ask in the notes and I'll post it), but this is my conclusion that Mobius would probably have been ill after returning to the TVA if we lean into his sweet-tooth side, so Lokius hurt/comfort fics anyone??

[stampedestring]

So how much older is Gil Favor compared to Rowdy Yates?

Judge Brady : You're a very young man, Mr. Yates. Is Mr. Favor any older?

Rowdy: Yeah, he's older.

Judge Brady : Good. An older head is always a cooler head. You may convey my respects to Mr. Favor. You may also inform him as to what happened here. I shall expect to hear from him very soon.

Rowdy: Well, I'll tell him what you said, but don't expect to hear from him. He ain't that much older.

—S3E23, Incident of the Phantom Bugler

He ain't? -cracks knuckles- Well, let's get calculatin'!

Rowdy's age immediately post-Civil War

All the episodes I'm going to reference are from the first three seasons (in the middle of season 3, they complete their drive from San Antonio to Sedalia).

Incident at Poco Tiempo: Rowdy joined up to fight in the Civil War (1861–1865) at the age of 16 (at which point in the war is unclear). If he took up droving in the years immediately after the war, the early seasons would be set in 1866 and later. (Though I think I saw a grave marker marked 1870 in one early episode, but I can't recall exactly.)

Incident of the Chubasco, Incident at Alabaster Plain: Rowdy was captured by Union forces and spent the remainder of the war as a POW in a Union prison. It was a significant period of time (he got to see the sun "once a month," implying he was there for multiple months) and he was held in Yuma, Arizona. Two notable Civil War skirmishes in Arizona were the Battle of Stanwix Station and the Battle of Picacho Pass, both taking place in 1862. He could have been captured not in connection with those skirmishes (he doesn't answer Pete when Pete asks if he was captured before or after a battle), but hypothetically he might have spent up to three years imprisoned.

Rowdy's age in relation to Mushy's age

Incident of the Captive: Mushy's mother thinks he's not yet full-grown and says she knows some boys are full-grown at 17 or 18, while Mushy might reach 30 before he's full-grown. 17 or 18 should be the lower limit of Mushy's age (since he's a late bloomer in context), and 30 the upper limit.

Incident of the Widowed Dove: Mushy offers to fight Rowdy because he's closest in age to him. Ergo, Rowdy and Mushy are close in age, and I read it to mean that Rowdy is a little older. So, Rowdy is at least a little older than 17 or 18. If he joined up at the beginning of the Civil War, he would have been born around 1845 and been 21 in 1866; if he joined up near the end of the war, he would have been born around 1849 and been 17 (!?) in 1866, which I think is unlikely because of the comparison with Mushy, so let's go with Rowdy being between 19 and 21 around 1866.

Favor's age in relation to Rowdy's age (via comparison with the unlucky Lucky)

Incident of the Blue Fire: Favor tells Lucky (the guy who joined up with the drive for this one episode) that he (Favor) and another boy ran away from home to drive cattle at the same age as Lucky. In the same episode, Lucky wants to be friends with Rowdy because they are close in age. (Lucky was kicked out by his father at the age of 12 and has been wandering ever since, so Lucky is at least a teenager.)

So the age difference between Favor and Rowdy must be approximately the number of years between Favor running away from home at about Rowdy's age (which is about the same as Lucky's age in the episode), and Favor getting to this point in his life in the episode - a widower with two children, who has built up a reputation as a good trail boss who can manage large cattle drives, and is right now on his way from San Antonio to Sedalia. Let's look at Favor's daughters' ages.

Incident of the Fish out of Water: Candy Moore (who plays the older daughter, Gillian) was born in 1947, and Barbara Beaird (who plays the younger daughter, Maggie) was born in 1948; the episode aired in 1961, and one could assume it was filmed in 1960 or 1961, so the actresses were 12/13 (Beaird) and 13/14 (Moore). (But Maggie looks younger than Gillian by more than 1 year to me... anyway...)

(Bonus consideration, Incident of the Stalking Death: Favor on how long he's been a widower: "She's been gone a little longer than four years." I don't know how much "a little longer than four years" is to Favor - it's probably deliberately left open to interpretation - but since it has been mentioned that the girls' mother died when Maggie was a baby, Maggie is at the very least five years old and acts older than that when we see her.)

If we go with the actress's age at the time of filming for Gillian (~13)*, and assume that Favor got married approx. a year before she was born, and he managed to get married soon after leaving home and establishing himself somewhat (also approx. a year) - Favor and Rowdy could be 15 years apart in age -- or more!

*(I'm assuming that the early season episodes up to Incident of the Fish out of Water - when we see Gillian and Maggie - are all part of one long, eventful drive from San Antonio to Sedalia, since they go to other places like Abilene or take on shorter drives elsewhere in later seasons. The Sedalia Trail is approx. 700 miles, and if the herd moves at about 15 miles a day, that's about 46 days assuming no incidents... but even with incidents, let's say it takes a few months. So the time between Incident of the Blue Fire and the herd reaching Sedalia and Favor going off to Philadelphia to see his daughters is less than a year, and we don't need to take into account the "drive time" between episodes when using Gillian's age in the calculation.)

We could also assume Gillian to be a few years younger than her actress' age (but older enough than Maggie that she remembers Maggie as a baby), and reduce the time between Favor running away from home and having his first child, and thereby squeeze the age difference between Favor and Rowdy down to, say, 10 years.

Favor's age in the early seasons

I'm inclined to go with a younger age for Rowdy at the beginning of the early-season drive along the Sedalia Trail (assuming that we're somewhere in the vicinity of 1866), since Favor describes himself as having run away from home as a "boy" when he was close in age to Lucky (and hence Rowdy) - this implies he was quite young, certainly not a full-fledged adult in all senses, at least in the view of his parents. If we go with Rowdy being 19 in Incident of the Blue Fire (still older than Mushy's lower limit, as mentioned above), we end up with Favor being... between 29 and 34 (or older).

What I'm getting from this is that Eric Fleming was just about the right age for playing Favor when Rawhide started (34 when the first season aired) and Clint Eastwood was perhaps a little old for playing Rowdy (29 when the first season aired).

If anyone has more data points, please drop them in replies or on reblog :)

[scotianostra]

On 17th May 1870 David Octavius Hill, the painter and pioneering Scottish photographer, died.

Hill was one of several pioneering photographers Scotland produced during the 19th century. If you follow my posts you have definitely seen lots of his pictures.

David Octavius Hill was born in Perth, the son of a book publisher. He was educated at Perth Academy and the School of Design in Edinburgh. Hill was an acceptable landscape painter and illustrator (illustrating some novels for Sir Walter Scott). Always involved in the art world, he helped organize the Royal Academy of Scotland and served as secretary from its inception until his death. He was a respected artist in his time, but not one that would be recognized today had he not become involved with Robert Adamson.

David Octavius Hill was present in 1843 at the meeting of the Church of Scotland and witnessed the succession of 457 ministers to reassemble as the Free Church of Scotland. Hill was so moved he pledged to paint a portrait of all 457 ministers together. Sir David Brewster, who had studied for the clergy of the Church of Scotland was also at the meeting. He suggested the use of the Calotype as a sketching tool.

Adamson, who had opened his studio at Rock House just weeks before, entered into a joint venture with Hill to photograph all 457 men of the new Free Church of Scotland. The subjects were posed outside. One set was designed to appear indoors but was actually outdoors with furniture and drapery against a wall of the building.

David Octavius Hill’s 12 ft-wide Disruption Painting, widely thought to be the first time a painter based his work on photographs. The work, which was begun in 1843 and took 23 years to complete, includes everyone involved in signing the agreement that set up the Free Church of Scotland in the 19th century.

Hill and Adamson mainly made Calotype documentary portraits that beautifully speak of their time. They photographed not only the churchmen, but also a variety of subjects: landscapes, architecture, friends and family. Their environmental portraits were among the earliest recorded, utilizing the new medium of photography. They worked together on their project for four and a half years, until Adamson’s early death in 1848.

After Adamson’s premature death at age 27, Hill temporarily abandoned photography and returned to painting. Hill became a member of the Photographic Society of Scotland in 1856 and ran a studio with Alexander McGlashan from 1861 to 1862 publishing Some Contributions Towards the Use of Photography as an Art. Hill sold the remnants of his studio with Adamson in 1869. The property on Calton Hill is now holiday accommodation.

Hill is buried in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh - one of the finest Victorian cemeteries in Scotland. He is portrayed in a bust sculpted by his second wife, Amelia, who is buried alongside him.

Pics are mainly of Hill, with several pieces of his artwork.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 11, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAY 12, 2024

If you google the history of Mother’s Day, the internet will tell you that Mother’s Day began in 1908 when Anna Jarvis decided to honor her mother. But “Mothers’ Day”—with the apostrophe not in the singular spot, but in the plural—actually started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War convinced writer and reformer Julia Ward Howe that women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change society.

The Civil War years taught naïve Americans what mass death meant in the modern era. Soldiers who had marched off to war with fantasies of heroism discovered that newly invented long-range weapons turned death into tortured anonymity. Men were trampled into blood-soaked mud, piled like cordwood in ditches, or withered into emaciated corpses after dysentery drained their lives away.

The women who had watched their hale and healthy men march off to war were haunted by its results. They lost fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers. The men who did come home were scarred in both body and mind.

Modern war, it seemed, was not a game.

But out of the war also came a new sense of empowerment. Women had bought bonds, paid taxes, raised money for the war effort, managed farms, harvested fields, worked in war industries, reared children, and nursed soldiers. When the war ended, they had every expectation that they would continue to be considered valuable participants in national affairs, and had every intention of continuing to take part in them. 

But the Fourteenth Amendment, which established that Black men were citizens, did not explicitly include women in that right. Worse, it introduced the word “male” into the Constitution when it warned states against preventing “male inhabitants” from voting. In 1869, the year after the Fourteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution, women organized two organizations—the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association—to promote women’s right to have a say in American government.

From her home in Boston, Julia Ward Howe was a key figure in the American Woman Suffrage Association. She was an enormously talented writer who in the early years of the Civil War had penned “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a hymn whose lyrics made it a point to note that Christ was “born of woman.”

Howe was drawn to women’s rights because the laws of her time meant that her children belonged to her abusive husband. If she broke free of him, she would lose any right to see her children, a fact he threw at her whenever she threatened to leave him. She was not at first a radical in the mold of reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who believed that women had a human right to equality with men. Rather, she believed strongly that women, as mothers, had a special role to perform in the world.

For Howe, the Civil War had been traumatic, but that it led to emancipation might justify its terrible bloodshed. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 was another story. She remembered:

“I was visited by a sudden feeling of the cruel and unnecessary character of the contest. It seemed to me a return to barbarism, the issue having been one which might easily have been settled without bloodshed. The question forced itself upon me, ‘Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone know and bear the cost?’”

Howe had a new vision, she said, of “the august dignity of motherhood and its terrible responsibilities.” She sat down immediately and wrote an “Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World.” Men always had and always would decide questions by resorting to “mutual murder,” she wrote, but women did not have to accept “proceedings which fill the globe with grief and horror.” Mothers could command their sons, “who owe their life to her suffering,” to stop the madness.

"Arise, women!” Howe commanded. “Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.’”

Howe had her document translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish and distributed it as widely as her extensive contacts made possible. She believed that her Women’s Peace Movement would be the next great development in human history, ending war just as the antislavery movement had ended human bondage. She called for a “festival which should be observed as mothers’ day, and which should be devoted to the advocacy of peace doctrines” to be held around the world on June 2 of every year, a date that would permit open-air meetings.

Howe organized international peace conferences, and American states developed their own Mothers’ Day festivals. But Howe quickly realized that there was much to be done before women could come together on a global scale. She turned her attention to women’s clubs “to constitute a working and united womanhood.”

As Howe worked to unite women, she came to realize that a woman did not have to center her life around a man, but rather should be “a free agent, fully sharing with man every human right and every human responsibility.” “This discovery was like the addition of a new continent to the map of the world,” she later recalled, “or of a new testament to the old ordinances.” She threw herself into the struggle for women’s suffrage, understanding that in order to create a more just and peaceful society, women must take up their rightful place as equal participants in American politics.

While we celebrate the modern version of Mother’s Day on May 12, in this momentous year of 2024 it’s worth remembering the original Mothers’ Day and Julia Ward Howe’s conviction that women must have the same rights as men, and that they must make their voices heard.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[chic-a-gigot]

La Mode illustrée, no. 24, 12 juin 1870, Paris. Toilettes de Mme Bréant-Castel, r. Nve des Pls. Champs. Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Netherlands

Description de toilettes (Bibliothèque Forney):

Costume en toile mexicaine écrue, composée d'une jupe ronde, d'une tunique drapée et d'un paletot. La garniture de la jupe se compose de sept rubans de velours noir sur lesquels sont jetés de distance en distance des bouquets de fleurs des champs composés de coquelicots, épis, bluets et pâquerettes, brodés en soie de couleurs naturelles. Même garniture sur la tunique, mais moins large (cinq rubans de velours noir). Même garniture sur le paletot, mais plus étroite (trois rubans de velours). Le paletot a des doubles manches très-larges et fendues, et secondes manches étroites.

Robe de foulard bleu, à fines rayures bleues plus foncées. Confection en taffetas noir.

Costume en cachemire blanc, composé d'une jupe ronde, d'une tunique non drapée et d'un paletot à doubles manches (larges, fendues, et sous-manches étroites). Le costume entier est garni d'une bordure brodée genre cachemire de l'Inde.

—

Costume in ecru Mexican canvas, consisting of a round skirt, a draped tunic and an overcoat. The trimming of the skirt is made up of seven black velvet ribbons on which are thrown at intervals bouquets of wild flowers made up of poppies, ears of corn, cornflowers and daisies, embroidered in natural-coloured silk. Same trim on the tunic, but narrower (five black velvet ribbons). Same trim on the overcoat, but narrower (three velvet ribbons). The overcoat has very wide and split double sleeves, and narrow second sleeves.

Blue scarf dress, with fine darker blue stripes. Made in black taffeta.

Costume in white cashmere, consisting of a round skirt, an undraped tunic and an overcoat with double sleeves (wide, split, and narrow under-sleeves). The entire costume is trimmed with an Indian paisley-like embroidered border.

[kemetic-dreams]

Researching African American Ancestors

Due to the long history of slavery in the United States, family history research can be challenging for many African Americans.

Census takers rarely recorded the names of enslaved people and seldom listed family members together. Enslaved people were often subjected to forced name changes, family separation, and other injustices that continue to cause challenges when finding people from the past.

But some strategies can help. 

Getting started

Download our guide to African American family history.

Gather information:

Family Bibles

Journals, diaries, and letters

Photographs

Obituaries and newspaper clippings

Birth, marriage, and death certificates

Family group sheets, pedigree charts, and books of remembrance

Interview your family members and ask whether they have any records. Take note of names, dates, and places. 

Start a family tree and add anything you've discovered. 

Search family trees by clicking the Search tab and selecting Public Member Trees. To narrow your search results, add information one field at a time until you get results you can use. 

Follow the strategies below. 

Tracing your family backward

In the United States, federal censuses are taken every 10 years. Trace your ancestors backward in censuses starting with your immediate family, recording each detail you find.

Enslaved people were not usually named in censuses. Slavery was abolished in 1865, so the first census that included the names of most African Americans was the 1870 U.S. Federal Census.

If you can trace your ancestor back to the 1870 census, you've got a good start. The next step is to find out whether they appeared in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census.

In 1860, about 10% of African Americans were free. If your ancestor was free in 1860, they should be listed in the census. If you can't find them in the 1860 census, they were likely among the 90% of African Americans still enslaved.

Look too for your ancestor in the Mortality Schedules. These are indexes of people who died during the 12 months before the census date. Mortality schedules are available for the 1850–1880 censuses. These schedules often included the names of both freedmen and enslaved people, but sometimes the names of enslaved people were excluded from the index.

Trace your ancestors backward until you can't find them anymore. At that point, it's time to find the name of the last enslaver.

Finding the last enslaver

To find pre-1870 records that include your African American ancestor, you may need to find records for the enslaver.

If your ancestor has an uncommon last name, search censuses for white people with the same surname as your ancestor in the same area. When you find them, make a list; these are possible enslavers. Only about 15% of formerly enslaved people took the enslaver's surname. Start with the 1860 U.S. Federal Census. 

Search the Freedmen's Bureau for your ancestor's name. The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established in 1865 to help newly freed African Americans transition to life outside slavery. The names of former enslavers were often included in labor contracts, sharecropping agreements, and marriage records. Read more about the Freedmen's Bureau Records & Freedman's Bank Records.

Search the U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records and the Civil War Pension Index. First, identify an ancestor in the Colored Troops Military Service Records, then use the information you find to locate the same person in the Civil War Pension Index, which often lists the names of enslavers.

Search the Freedman’s Bank Records. The Freedman's Savings and Trust was an institution chartered by Congress to benefit of newly-emancipated people. This publication reproduces fifty-five volumes of signatures and personal identification data of thousands of depositors who maintained accounts with the bank. These records usually show account numbers, dates of application, and the depositor's name, age, complexion, place of birth, place raised, occupation, spouse, children, family members' names, remarks, and signature. These registers of deposits sometimes included the name of a formerly enslaved person, their family members, and the former enslaver.

Search the Wills and probate records. Enslavers’ wills and probate records often list enslaved people by name.

Search U.S. Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1939. This database contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of people who were formerly enslaved. It’s searchable by any word, so references to specific names can be found easily. Enslavers were often named in these narratives.

Searching slave schedules

If you know the enslaver's name and your ancestor's likely year of birth, try searching for the enslaver in the 1850 slave schedules and 1860 slave schedules. For help searching or understanding slave schedules, see Searching Slave Schedules.

More resources

The African American history page on Ancestry contains information about our DNA test and links to search databases.

The African American Historical Record Collection features interviews with people who were formerly enslaved, slave manifests, slave emancipation records, and more.

AfriGeneas provides resources for African-related genealogy with a vision of finding and documenting the last slaveholder and the first African in each family.

Cyndi's List has an index of genealogy sites about African American research.

The National Archives contain both African American research and links to resources.

The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research is a Harvard research center that supports research on the history and culture of people of African descent and provides a forum for collaboration.

[yaggy031910]

The napoleonic marshal‘s children

After seeing @josefavomjaaga’s and @northernmariette’s marshal calendar, I wanted to do a similar thing for all the marshal’s children! So I did! I hope you like it. c: I listed them in more or less chronological order but categorised them in years (especially because we don‘t know all their birthdays). At the end of this post you are going to find remarks about some of the marshals because not every child is listed! ^^“ To the question about the sources: I mostly googled it and searched their dates in Wikipedia, ahaha. Nevertheless, I also found this website. However, I would be careful with it. We are talking about history and different sources can have different dates. I am always open for corrections. Just correct me in the comments if you find or know a trustful source which would show that one or some of the dates are incorrect. At the end of the day it is harmless fun and research. :) Pre 1790

François Étienne Kellermann (4 August 1770- 2 June 1835) 

Marguerite Cécile Kellermann (15 March 1773 - 12 August 1850)

Ernestine Grouchy (1787–1866)

Mélanie Marie Josèphe de Pérignon (1788 - 1858)

Alphonse Grouchy (1789–1864)

Jean-Baptiste Sophie Pierre de Pérignon (1789- 14 January 1807)

Marie Françoise Germaine de Pérignon (1789 - 15 May 1844)

Angélique Catherine Jourdan (1789 or 1791 - 7 March 1879)

1790 - 1791

Marie-Louise Oudinot (1790–1832)

Marie-Anne Masséna (8 July 1790 - 1794)

Charles Oudinot (1791 - 1863)

Aimee-Clementine Grouchy (1791–1826)

Anne-Francoise Moncey (1791–1842)

1792 - 1793

Bon-Louis Moncey (1792–1817)

Victorine Perrin (1792–1822)

Anne-Charlotte Macdonald (1792–1870)

François Henri de Pérignon (23 February 1793 - 19 October 1841)

Jacques Prosper Masséna (25 June 1793 - 13 May 1821)

1794 - 1795

Victoire Thècle Masséna (28 September 1794 - 18 March 1857)

Adele-Elisabeth Macdonald (1794–1822)

Marguerite-Félécité Desprez (1795-1854); adopted by Sérurier

Nicolette Oudinot (1795–1865)

Charles Perrin (1795–15 March 1827)

1796 - 1997

Emilie Oudinot (1796–1805)

Victor Grouchy (1796–1864)

Napoleon-Victor Perrin (24 October 1796 - 2 December 1853)

Jeanne Madeleine Delphine Jourdan (1797-1839)

1799

François Victor Masséna (2 April 1799 - 16 April 1863)

Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte (4 July 1799 – 8 July 1859)

Auguste Oudinot (1799–1835)

Caroline de Pérignon (1799-1819)

Eugene Perrin (1799–1852)

1800

Nina Jourdan (1800-1833)

Caroline Mortier de Trevise (1800–1842)

1801

Achille Charles Louis Napoléon Murat (21 January 1801 - 15 April 1847)

Louis Napoléon Lannes (30 July 1801 – 19 July 1874)

Elise Oudinot (1801–1882)

1802

Marie Letizia Joséphine Annonciade Murat (26 April 1802 - 12 March 1859)

Alfred-Jean Lannes (11 July 1802 – 20 June 1861)

Napoléon Bessière (2 August 1802 - 21 July 1856)

Paul Davout (1802–1803)

Napoléon Soult (1802–1857)

1803

Marie-Agnès Irma de Pérignon (5 April 1803 - 16 December 1849)

Joseph Napoléon Ney (8 May 1803 – 25 July 1857)

Lucien Charles Joseph Napoléon Murat (16 May 1803 - 10 April 1878)

Jean-Ernest Lannes (20 July 1803 – 24 November 1882)

Alexandrine-Aimee Macdonald (1803–1869)

Sophie Malvina Joséphine Mortier de Trévise ( 1803 - ???)

1804

Napoléon Mortier de Trévise (6 August 1804 - 29 December 1869)

Michel Louis Félix Ney (24 August 1804 – 14 July 1854)

Gustave-Olivier Lannes (4 December 1804 – 25 August 1875)

Joséphine Davout (1804–1805)

Hortense Soult (1804–1862)

Octavie de Pérignon (1804-1847)

1805

Louise Julie Caroline Murat (21 March 1805 - 1 December 1889)

Antoinette Joséphine Davout (1805 – 19 August 1821)

Stephanie-Josephine Perrin (1805–1832)

1806

Josephine-Louise Lannes (4 March 1806 – 8 November 1889)

Eugène Michel Ney (12 July 1806 – 25 October 1845)

Edouard Moriter de Trévise (1806–1815)

Léopold de Pérignon (1806-1862)

1807

Adèle Napoleone Davout (June 1807 – 21 January 1885)

Jeanne-Francoise Moncey (1807–1853)

1808: Stephanie Oudinot (1808-1893) 1809: Napoleon Davout (1809–1810)

1810: Napoleon Alexander Berthier (11 September 1810 – 10 February 1887)

1811

Napoleon Louis Davout (6 January 1811 - 13 June 1853)

Louise-Honorine Suchet (1811 – 1885)

Louise Mortier de Trévise (1811–1831)

1812

Edgar Napoléon Henry Ney (12 April 1812 – 4 October 1882)

Caroline-Joséphine Berthier (22 August 1812 – 1905)

Jules Davout (December 1812 - 1813)

1813: Louis-Napoleon Suchet (23 May 1813- 22 July 1867/77)

1814: Eve-Stéphanie Mortier de Trévise (1814–1831) 1815

Marie Anne Berthier (February 1815 - 23 July 1878)

Adelaide Louise Davout (8 July 1815 – 6 October 1892)

Laurent François or Laurent-Camille Saint-Cyr (I found two almost similar names with the same date so) (30 December 1815 – 30 January 1904)

1816: Louise Marie Oudinot (1816 - 1909)

1817

Caroline Oudinot (1817–1896)

Caroline Soult (1817–1817)

1819: Charles-Joseph Oudinot (1819–1858)

1820: Anne-Marie Suchet (1820 - 27 May 1835) 1822: Henri Oudinot ( 3 February 1822 – 29 July 1891) 1824: Louis Marie Macdonald (11 November 1824 - 6 April 1881.) 1830: Noemie Grouchy (1830–1843) —————— Children without clear birthdays:

Camille Jourdan (died in 1842)

Sophie Jourdan (died in 1820)

Additional remarks: - Marshal Berthier died 8.5 months before his last daughter‘s birth. - Marshal Oudinot had 11 children and the age difference between his first and last child is around 32 years. - The age difference between marshal Grouchy‘s first and last child is around 43 years. - Marshal Lefebvre had fourteen children (12 sons, 2 daughters) but I couldn‘t find anything kind of reliable about them so they are not listed above. I am aware that two sons of him were listed in the link above. Nevertheless, I was uncertain to name them in my list because I thought that his last living son died in the Russian campaign while the website writes about the possibility of another son dying in 1817. - Marshal Augerau had no children. - Marshal Brune had apparently adopted two daughters whose names are unknown. - Marshal Pérignon: I couldn‘t find anything about his daughters, Justine, Elisabeth and Adèle, except that they died in infancy. - Marshal Sérurier had no biological children but adopted Marguerite-Félécité Desprez in 1814. - Marshal Marmont had no children. - I found out that marshal Saint-Cyr married his first cousin, lol. - I didn‘t find anything about marshal Poniatowski having children. Apparently, he wasn‘t married either (thank you, @northernmariette for the correction of this fact! c:)

[i-should-have-studied]

Mod 3: Gymnosperms

Pinus Needle T.S.

It is circular in outline in P. monophylla, semicircular in P. sylvestris and triangular in P. longifolia, P. roxburghii, etc.

Outermost layer is epidermis, which consists of thick-walled cells. It is covered by a very strong cuticle.

Many sunken stomata are present on the epidermis.

Each stomata opens internally into a substomatal cavity and externally into a respiratory cavity or vestibule.

Below the epidermis are present a few layers of thick-walled sclerenchymatous hypodermis. It is well developed at ridges

In between the hypodermis and endodermis is present the mesophyll tissue.

Cells of the mesophyll are polygonal and filled with chloroplasts. Many peg-like infoldings of cellulose also arise from the inner side of the wall of mesophyll cells.

Few resin canals are present in the mesophyll, adjoining the hypodermis. Their number is variable but generally they are two in number.

Endodermis is single-layered with barrel-shaped cells and clear casparian strips.

Pericycle is multilayered and consists of mainly parenchymatous cells and some sclerenchymatous cells forming T-shaped girder, which separates two vascular bundles. Transfusion tissue consists of tracheidial cells.

Two conjoint and collateral vascular bundles are present in the center. These are closed but cambium may also be present in the sections passing through the base of the needle.

Xylem lies towards the angular side and the phloem towards the convex side of the needle.

Idk where to find xeric nature info

Williamsoniaceae

Occurrence of Williamsonia

Williamsonia belongs to family Williamsoniaceae of Bennettiales.

It has been reported from Upper Triassic period but was more abundant in Jurassic.

This was earlier discovered under the name Zamia gigas by Willamson in 1870 but has now been named as Williamsonia.

Professor Birbal Sanhi (1932) described W. sewardiana from Rajmahal Hills of Bihar (India).

External Features of Williamsonia

Williamsonia resembled Cycas in appearance, but its best-knows species is W. sewardiana. The plant had an upright, branched, and stout stem covered by persistent leaf bases.

A terminal crown of pinnately compound leaves was present. For the stem genus Bucklandia, Sharma (1991) opined that features of leaf bases such as their shape, size and arrangement pattern are of taxonomic significance.

He observed that leaves in Williamsoniaceae show syndetocheilic stomata with rachis possessing collateral endarch vascular bundles.

Reproduction in Williamsonia

The fructifications of Williamsonia were large and attained a diameter of about 12 cm.

They were borne on a peduncle.

Many spirally arranged bracts were present around the base of the floral axis.

In W. gigas the cones were present among the crown of leaf bases while in W. sewardinia they were present on the short lateral branches.

Williamsonia plants were unisexual.

Female Flower

The female 'cones' of W. gigas and W. sewardiana have been investigated in detail. Instead of 'strobili' or 'cones', Sporne (1965) proposed to use the term 'flower'.

The conical receptacle was surrounded by many perianth-like bracts. The ovules were stalked.

The apex of the receptacle was naked and sterile. The nucellus was surrounded by a single vascularize integument, which was fused with the nucellus. The nucellus had a well-marked beak and a pollen chamber. In young ovules the micropylar canal was long and narrow.

In mature ovules, the canal widened because of the formation of nucellar plug and disappearance of interlocking cells. In the apical part of the endosperm, Sharma (1979) observed 2 or more archegonia.

Male Flower

Male flowers consisted of a whorl of microsporophyll's which were united to form a more or less cuplike structure. In majority of the investigates species the sporophylls were un-branched but in some species they were also pinnately branched.

Sitholey and Bose discovered W. santalensis from Upper Gondwana, and observed that microsporophyll's in the species were bifid.

One of the branches of microsporophyll was fertile while the other was sterile. The fertile part has finger-like structures called synangia. Each synangium had two rows of chambers enclosing microsporangia.

The fertile branch of the bifid sporophyll possessed many purse-like capsules, in each of which there were present many monocolpate pollen grains.

Cycadeoideaceae

Classification:

Division - Cycadeoidophyta

Order - Cycadeoideales

Family - Cycadeoideaceae

Genus - Cycadeoidea

Introduction:

Cycadeoidea is the only genus of family Cycadeoidaceae, represented by thirty species. They are entirely extinct and resemble cycads in the outward stumpy appearance of trunk and an apical crown of pinnate compound leaves. This fossil group of plants flourished during the Triassic to Cretaceous periods of the Mesozoic era. They are reported from various places in the world, in India the Cycadeoidales are found in Rajmahal Hills in Bihar. The petrified trunks of C. entrusca are the oldest fossil ever collected by man.

External Features:

The genus Cycadeoidea had a short, branched, or unbranched spherical, conical, or irregular trunk. The diameter of the trunk is 50cm and the highest rarely reached a meter except in C. jenneyana, it attended the height of several meters. These trunks are covered by rhomboidal leaf bases having multicellular hairs in between. Crown of 10ft long pinnate compound leaves are present at the top.

Anatomy of Stem:

The transverse section of the stem shows roughly a circular outline. The epidermis is not very distinct due to the presence of heavy armor of leaf bases. The cortex is parenchymatous and traversed by mucilage canals and numerous leaf traces. The primary vascular structure consists of a ring of endarch, collateral, conjoint, and open vascular bundles encircling the pith. Pith is wide and parenchymatous. A ray-like extension passes between the vascular bundles that make their appearance discrete.

There is a cambium ring with a thin zone of secondary wood. The secondary wood encircles the primary xylem and consists of tracheids with scalariform and bordered pits. The secondary medullary rays traverse the secondary xylem and secondary phloem.

The C-shaped leaf traces arise singly from the primary vascular strand and entering the cortex divided into several masarch strands and enters straight into the leaf.

Anatomy of Leaf:

The pinnules show xerophilous structure. The upper and lower epidermis is heavily cutinized and thick walled. The mesophyll cells are distinguished into palisade and spongy parenchyma. The vascular bundles are mesarch and surrounded by bundle sheath.

Reproduction:

The reproductive structure is represented by flowers. In most of the species, the flowers are bisexual and arise in the axil of each leaf.

Structure of Flower:

The flowers are bisporangiate, stalked, and partially sunken in the leaf base armor. Rach such mature flower is 5-10cm in diameter and 10cm long. From the base of such flowers about 100 to 150 hairy bracts arise in close spiral little below the apex. These bracts formed a perianth like structure and protect the megasporangiate and microsporangiate parts of a flower. The microsporophyll or androecium forms a whorl united at the base into a sheath. The megasporophyll or gynaecium consists of numerous stalked ovules born around a central receptacle. Between the ovules, interseminal scales with expanded tips are present. These expanded tips fused to form a continuous surface with pores, through which the micropyle of ovules extended. The vascular supply of flowers consists of many branches from leaf traces.

Microsporophyll or Androecium:

The microsporophyll is 10-12cm long, consists of a central rachis bearing numerous pinnae. The pinnae bear two rows of bean-shaped shortly stalked pollen capsules or synangia. These pollen capsules are born on the trabeculae within the fertile region of microsporophyll. A line of dehiscence is also visible at the base of each microsporophyll. This suggest that the entire microsporophyll might have been shed as a unit. The pollen capsule or synangia measures about 3.5x2.5mm and its wall is several layers thick, the outer layer made up of palisade like cells, and the inner layer is made up of thin-walled cells followed by a tapetum. The tapetum was not demarcated. A ring of microsporangia arranged around the periphery of each synangium. The microsporangia dehisce longitudinally and release the microspores into the synangial cavity. At maturity, the synangia liberate these microspores outside by an apical opening that splits into two valves. The liberated microspores or pollens are oval, measures up to 68µ that represents the male gametophytes. Pollen grains of Cycadeoidea are multicellular.

Megasporophyll or Gynoecium

The gynoecium consists of a spherical or conical receptacle that bears numerous stalked orthotropous ovules and interseminal scales. Each ovule is about 1mm long and consists of the single integument that fused with the nucellus except at its apex.

According to Lignier, in C. morieri, nucellus is free from the integument. Each ovule has a pollen chamber and a nucellar beak. This nucellar beak is the extension of the integument. The ovules also have long micropyle, extended from the flat surface of interseminal scales. The fused tips of interseminal scales form an external protective covering or pericarp surrounding the seeds.

Crepet and Delevoryas discovered many of bisporangiate cones from the Cretaceous of black hills. They studied the structure of these ovules in detail. These ovules are urn-shaped and resemble with the ovules of C. wellsii. According to them the micropyle of these ovules are funnel-shaped due to the constriction below the flaring. The inner wall of the micropyle is lined with large cells, considered to be epidermal cells. The integument has three distinct layers. The outer fleshy layer of radially elongated cells, the middle stony layer made up of thick-walled cells, and the inner layer is fleshy.

The young nucellus is made up of thin-walled cells. The cells at the micropylar end are much elongated (80µ long) in comparison to the cells of the chalazal end. The cell at the nucellar tip is pointed up tp whereas cells on either side are bend outward to give the nucellus a distinct shape.

Crepet and Delevoryas reported a linear tetrad or row of three cells in the center of the nucellus.

The seeds are somewhat elongated or oval and possessed two cotyledons.

[rabbitcruiser]

The Manitoba Act was given the Royal Assent on May 12, 1870, paving the  way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15, 1870.  

[focsle]

Happy new year! Here’s what some whalers were thinking about on this day past.

William Abbe, Atkins Adams, 1859

During our middle night watch the new year came in the man at the wheel struck one bell at 12 o clock - when M + I had a little aquadiente + switchel — We furled the M t. g. sl, M. Sh. + I going aloft to do it — + stowed the f.j. saw a large ship just abeam faintly defined against the sky in the night gloom — Had roast pork for dinner but not enough hardly for one man — Old woman sent me 5 cigars as a New Years present. Cap this morning asked the Mate + 3rd Mate down to the Cabin — saw them spit out quids and clean their mouths — very suspicious + extraordinary circumstance this. I think they went down to Splice Main Brace — especially as immediately afterwards the cabin boy carried down a pitcher of water. What are the dear friends at home doing to day? Very pleasantly—I hope—celebrating the infant year with due festivities — I smoke my cigar and content myself with this degree of jubilee.

Charles Brown, Parker, 1834

“We thus see the beginning of the year who may see the End we know not. I wish for helth and Prosperity [hain?] wish I know not what is most propper for me to have but the giver of all noeth and therefore I shal have whatever is most Propper”

William Stetson, Arab, 1856.

“The old year has now been swallowed up in the unfathomable vortex of the past, another year of promise has pleasantly dawned upon us, and another week has passed away as quietly as its immediate predecessor. But little cruising about on shore has been done by any of us.”

J.T. Langdon St. Peter 1851

“This year we have taken 13 whales which stowed us 430 bbls Have spoken 11 Barques and 1 ship and have been gamming 18 times. Have lost 1 man by drowning and 1 discharged on account of sickness. The health of the crew has been generally good. So far myself I have not been sick a single day. Another year has drawn to its close and still we are preserved from danger + sickness and are all fondly hoping that before another year rolls around we shall be enjoying ourselves at home”

Silliman Ives, Sunbeam, 1870

“The old year is numbered among the things that were, the death knell has been rung and today the joy bells are pealing for the birth of 1870. But peal they ever so joyfully, the music of their merry chiming is unheard by us, as we hold on the “even tenor of our way” down here in the Malay Archipelago. It is a sad fact that there are no holidays for sailors. One day is not regarded above another on ship-board, and we wear away the weary weeks of our treadmill existence with but little to break the dull monotony of the recurring days, as they bring to us the same round of duty and discipline. If the Almanac were not referred to, we would never know that there was such a day as the “glorious” Forth of July. The day supposed to be observed by our friends at home as Thanksigiving, is never noticed at sea. Christmas, the dearest and best of all festival seasons, is utterly and entirely ignored. And so far as specially observing New Years, it might just as well be June 1st as January 1st.”

Allen Newman (and his wife Abby Newman), Edward, 1849

Newman’s sick. I would give all my old shoes to trade situations  with the poorest Devel I can think of I am home sick, sea sick, and love sick, and sick of the sea without A remedy. There is no Balm for healing heare. [it appears Abby was annotating this old logbook of his a year later while he was away again at sea, penning her own entries in response to his] O dear what A [Time?] A nobody see it of all kind of sickness home sick is the worst Abby P. Newman

William H. Chappell, Saratoga, 1855

“150 days out. Ten years ago I hardly daired to think of seeing this year but God has ordained it I do not know why. Perhaps there is a work for me to do and I must do it “by the patience of hope and and the labor of Love” that I may be able to say at His coming “I have fought my way through I have finished the work thou didst give me to do” I am glad to hear others make becoming resolutions for the New year and I should not do my Wife justice if I did not think she had formed some before this time and I wish them all a happy New Year. One year from this we should be half way home and our feelings will contrast wonderfully with those of the present time.”

Samuel Wood, Bowditch, 1852

“2 sail in Sight to the Westward the weather is fine nothing doing but comon ship duty Easy times & a hapy new year with uss + a hearty wish & a good kiss to all the mery girls of the American Stars & Stripes that floats in the breeze at our mast heads.”

Keeper Unknown, Bartholomew Gosnold, 1843

“The old year is past and gone and A new one has begun, and yet we are blessed with the comforts of this wourld, for as the sun in all her splendor rises above the towering hills of Owhyhee, sends forth her rays, in that fullness of a devine being, as though it were the first of her appearance on this our globe, non yet altering her cours, but with all her celetial power, still pursues her way along in an uninterupted state, what wonders power does she display.”

[dwellordream]

“After the war, more young women worked and lived away from their families. Rural women, in particular, migrated to the country’s urban industrial centers in search of work. Rural areas offered few ways to earn a livelihood, and opportunities to grow and experience the world seemed far more limited on the farm. Single young women migrated at a greater rate and earlier age than single men to seek work in the cities. On the average, single urban women were 18 years old while men were 20. Although cities offered more employment opportunities, women’s choice of occupations was limited primarily to jobs that men would not take or to work that seemed appropriate for women, according to the social standards of the day--that is, work that duplicated women’s domestic and caretaking role, such as teaching, nursing, sewing, and domestic service.

Women with few skills and little or no education had even fewer choices. Factory work, waitressing, and domestic service were among their few available options. Among these, many women preferred factory work because they perceived it to be less demeaning than housework. Yet factory work was arduous. Although most female factory workers were employed in the garment industry, women also worked in factories that made boxes, artificial flowers, canned foods, and other products. For all factory workers the hours were long--anywhere from 10 to 12 hours a day--and the loud clack-clack-clack of machines echoed in their ears as they sat hunched over their work for wages of less than a dollar a day.

…African-American women also chose domestic work as a last resort. To them, the relationship between employer and servant was painfully reminiscent of the relationship between mistress and slave. Most black women in Southern cities, however, could find no other work except for domestic service. But black domestics usually refused to live in their employers’ homes and instead worked strictly as day servants. Cooks and maids earned between $4.00 to $8.00 a month, and nursemaids earned about $1.50 to $3.00. The workday generally lasted 12 to 14 hours, at least six days a week. Black women with children had to leave their own children with family or neighbors or all alone.

Although a black woman might be hired as a cook, she could also find herself watering the garden, cleaning house, or running errands. Her title may have specified a certain task, but her duties were as varied as her employer decided. Like white servants, she had to deal with impersonal and sometimes abusive behavior from her employer. She was variously called “cook,” “girl,” “Mammy,” or by her first name, even by her employer’s children.

…Parents seemed especially eager for their daughter to attend school. They knew that with an education their daughters could find work later on as teachers within the African-American community. From 1880 to 1915, more African-American girls than boys attended school, mainly because parents needed the labor of their sons in the fields. Even with an education, however, young black women had little hope of finding professional work outside the African-American community. Schools and businesses in the white community refused to hire them.

In contrast, white women with more education or the means to pay for business courses found new employment opportunities in office work. In 1870, there were only 19,000 female office workers nationwide; by 1890, this number had multiplied to 75,000. In 1870, only 4.5 percent of office stenographers and typists were women. Ten years later, women held 40 percent of these positions.

…The post-Civil War era opened up new employment opportunities for women in nursing and teaching as well. Traditionally a job performed by women at home, nursing evolved into a profession after the Civil War, complete with professional training and accreditation. In 1873, Linda Richards became the first American woman to receive a degree in nursing. She graduated from Dr. Susan Dimock’s nursing program at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, Massachusetts, and went on to teach at newly established nursing schools in New York, Boston, and Japan. She also founded several nursing programs. By the mid-1880s, 22 schools for nurses had opened in the United States.

African-American women had always ministered to their people’s medical needs. In slavery, they nursed sick or injured slaves and served as midwives and wet nurses to other enslaved women and to white mistresses. In freedom, they continued to care for ailing members of their communities, using herbs and potions in their treatments. But in the postwar era, they faced obstacles if they wanted to acquire a formal nursing education--most white nursing schools refused to admit black students. One exception was the New England Hospital for Women and Children, which admitted one black student and one Jewish student each year. In 1879, one of its students, Mary Eliza Mahoney, became the first African-American woman to receive a nursing degree.”

- Harriet Sigerman, “‘Women Have Always Worked’: New Employment Opportunities.” in Laborers for Liberty: American Women, 1865-1890

[opera-ghosts]

On June 10, 1865, the world premiere of "Tristan and Isolde" by R. Wagner took place in Munich.

„Mild und leise wie er lächelt…“

Here are some of the first sopranos to have sung the role of Isolde over the years and contributed to the success of this work through their dedication.

Malvina Schnoor von Carolsfeld, (7 December 1825 – 8 February 1904), Danish-born Portuguese dramatic soprano.

Felia Litvinne (11 October 1860, Saint Petersburg – 12 October 1936, Paris) was a Russian-born, French-based dramatic soprano.

Italia Vasquez-Molina (1869-1945), Italian soprano.

Irma von Voggenhuber (17 July 1841 Budapest - 11 January 1888 Berlin), soprano.

Elsa Westendorf (1877-1918), German soprano.

Marie Wittich 27 May 1868 – 4 August 1931), German dramatic soprano.

Rosa Sucher (23 February 1849 – 16 April 1927), German dramatic soprano.

Berta Pester-Prosky (Frankfurt am Main, September 7, 1866 - Krefeld, December 27, 1922), German soprano.

Thila Plaichinger (14 March 1868 – 19 March 1939), Austrian soprano.

Katharina Klafsky (19 September 1855 – 22 September 1896), Hungarian dramatic soprano.

Margot Kaftal (1873 Warsaw - October 1942 in Italy), Polish soprano.

Johanna Gadski (15 June 1870/1872 – 22 February 1932), German dramatic soprano.

[sarcasticsciencefictionwriter]

Fanfic Tag Game

Tagged by @dorothyoz39 thanks so much for the tag! 🥰

1. How many fics do you have on AO3?

104.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

520,363

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Sanctuary and Stargate SG-1.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Commute - 85 (Stargate SG-1, G, Sam/Jack)

In-Between - 70 (Stargate SG-1, G, Sam/Jack)

One Snowy Day - 65 (Stargate SG-1, G, Sam/Jack)

Two Kinds of Sparks - 60 (Stargate SG-1, T, Sam/Jack)

One Rainy Day - 58 (Stargate SG-1, G, Sam/Jack)

I'm sensing a pattern.... 🤔

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes, I always respond to comments. They make me happy and I want to take the time to thank anyone who took their time to respond to a thing I wrote, because I very much appreciate it.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The Last of the Tau'ri - Stargate SG-1, Sam/Jack

This was inspired by The Last of Us and is a one-shot. I don't want to spoil anything, but it involves death and loss of hope, so that's probably the angstiest.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I don't know. Really, I don't. I have a lot of fluffy endings, but I don't know if I've had hugely happy endings.

Waving the white flag on this question, sorry.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten comments telling me what I got wrong in canon and how I got it wrong and then told how I shouldn't ask for them to stop doing that.

On ff.net I've had people speed-run all the chapters of a story and then their only comment is that it's depressing. (And also assume that because it hasn't been updated in a while, it's finished)

I don't know if that counts as hate, exactly, though.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Yep! I love doing crossovers. I only have four published crossovers write now and since two are extremely serious, I'm going to have to go with 'Tesla's Moving Castle'.

This is Howl's Moving Castle with Nikola in the role of Howl and Helen in the role of Sophie, but with science instead of magic, set in the 1870s.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Not yet, technically. @tina-mairin-goldstein got me to agree to co-write a Supernatural/Hannibal crossover, but I haven't really put any effort into it. I'd like to, though, in my fandoms.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Helen/John, Helen/Nikola from Sanctuary and Sam/Jack from SG-1.

15. What’s a fic you’d like to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I intend to finish every fic I have published, even if inspiration and computer problems are delaying some, so I think I will finish them all, eventually.

The rare few I started and abandoned in my document folder are abandoned because I don't want to finish them.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Emotion and tension between characters. And foreshadowing, though that's sometimes not intentional.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Emotions, funnily enough. I always have such a hard time during the writing process and it's not great.

Or description.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I've done it a few times, when characters speak another language, mostly just sprinkling in a sentence or word or two. I like including it when possible, though I worry that the translation program (i.e. google translate) may butcher the language and I worry about that, because I don't want to be disrespectful.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Warrior cats (unpublished).

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

*cries in 104 fics*

Either Enigmatic Confections or The Abnormal X-File

It changes with my mood.

No pressure tagging: @lanistas, @tinknevertalks, @theleotorrio, @zeldamacgregor, @chartreuseian,

and @romanaisalive and anyone else who wants to play! (Tumblr no longer allows you to tag more than five people without a paragraph break)