Victorian gossip columns are a thing of beauty, full of back-handed chatter and salacious innuendo. In the late 1800s, a well-connected man (or woman) could make quite a nice living printing other people’s secrets and adding a few spots to … Continue reading
In the dark ages before texting, Victorians used texting-like shorthand on a surprising variety of publications. I first encountered this practice on a poster advertising the Needham Congregational Church’s 1891 Strawberry Festival. Since then I’ve been noticing it nearly … Continue reading
Tooling around the Intertubes this week, I stumbled upon this photographic tribute to what my Seven-Year-Old calls the Olden Times — Everyday life in London in 1870, courtesy of the Mail Online. Street vendors of everything from locksmithing to strawberries, … Continue reading
Back in 1994, Heather Busch published Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthestics. I was aware of it at the time and thought it sounded like a fun book to browse through at some point. It’s languished on my … Continue reading
Reposted from Once Upon a Time in Needham. Among the original documents tucked away in the archives of the Congregational Church of Needham is the Weekly Calendar for June 15, 1890. The calendar is notable not only for its mention … Continue reading
For those of you interested in this sort of thing, I found a fun set of crime reports from the wayback machine this week. My favorite passage: October 2, 1880: Swindling couple brought to justice Boston police had been looking … Continue reading
Reposted from Once Upon a Time in Needham. Nowadays the Congregational Church of Needham saves copies of each week’s bulletin. But that wasn’t always the case. Which is why whenever I come across a stray calendar from our first 100 … Continue reading
Reposted from Once Upon a Time in Needham. When I think of special church services, I think of Christmas, Easter, baptisms, and weddings. I don’t think of the ceremonial burning of financial documents. That’s really more a private thing. So … Continue reading
Cross-posted to Caterpickles. Hey it’s NaNoWriMo. I’ve got be careful how I use my time. 🙂 When I learned recently of a Victorian taxidermist named Walter Potter who delighted in crafting ornate scenes using preserved animals dressed in period costume, … Continue reading
Michael Howell
Shala Howell