Natural Beauty from the past.
Zoe Emily Reynolds (1869-1906) and Josie Diademia Reynolds (1873-1957) were the daughters of Dr. Azro H Reynolds and Emily Triphena Allen in Tunbridge, Vermont. They performed together and were often backed by their father as the Reynold Sisters Orchestra and were something of a local celebrity in Orange County Vermont. Their father wrote (for many years) a gossip column in the Montpelier Argus and Patriot, entitled "Tunbridge Tidbits". For many years almost every edition contained a plug for his daughters and their playing prowess - ads for concerts etc. The girls’ parents separated in the 1890s and the sisters went with their mother to Keene New Hampshire, but they continued to play there - both girls ended up performing and teaching violin. Unfortunately, Zoe died young of kidney failure, but Josie lived into the middle of the 20th century. Taken circa 1880. Taken circa 1885.
Like our own Jane Austen, the 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson never married, died in middle age and, to put it mildly, didn’t lead a wildly eventful life, writes BRIAN VINER.
Greetings all! Today I begin the first of a new series of posts I'm calling "Behind the Seams." I hope to feature a different item each month! In these posts I want to show a few of the more interesting details of some of my vintage and antique garments. Creating each post is proving a little more time consuming that I originally planned but I think all the extra work will pay off in the end. I've always been interested in knowing what the insides of older clothing looks like, how it's sewn, etc. and really want to be able to show those details as best I can. Each post will include LOTS of photos. I'm not really sure how many is too many so your feed back will be most welcome. (Can there really ever be too many photos of an awesome vintage/antique dress?) I would also like to hear from you, dear reader, what it is you would like to see. What kind of construction details are you most interested in? Any particular time period? Most of my collection is 1920s or newer but I do have several older pieces, such as the one featured today, that I think everyone will enjoy seeing. This incredible little piece was a surprise find at an antique shop a few years back. I was on a mission looking for hats and was poking around a rather cluttered antique shop (the best kind) when I spied something bright blue a corner. And I mean bright, like electric, blue! Expecting a hat or scarf of some kind I pulled out this little beauty. Most certainly not a hat, lol! This corselet, or Swiss waist, is a little worse for wear but what a great study piece! A Swiss waist is a boned, pointed underbust garment that was worn over skirts and blouses or dresses. They were very popular fashion accessory in the 1860s. Some even had shoulder straps, like this example. Often called corsages in the 1860s, the terms Swiss bodices, Swiss belts, or Swiss waist belts or simply waists are used to describe the same type of garment. They show up again in the 1880s and 1890s, which is when the name Swiss waist became common. Unlike a corset, a Swiss waist does not fastens with a metal front busk. They have a flat front, with or without a front opening, or can lace up the front with hand worked eyelets. The back fastens with lacing. Black was a common color as seen in the print below. But many surviving examples, like mine, indicated that some women were not afraid of color! Or patterns! Check out this crazy plaid and paisely silk waist at the The Fenimore Art Museum. Also this one in teal. (Godey’s, August 1862) The inside of my waist is lined in dark blue cotton and each seam is stiffened with 1/4" wide baleen. I know it's baleen and not metal because you can see it in spots where the lining is torn or worn away. The waist closes with 5 hooks and eyes and has 11 eyelets for a cord which is now missing. Each tiny eyelet is only about 1/8" in size and beautifully sewn. The hooks and eyes are most likely a more recent addition. The edges of the waist are bound with self fabric piped with a narrow cotton cord. Piping was a very common detail on 19th clothing. The waist is also trimmed around the edges with self fabric ruching that is 5/8" wide. The eyelets are tiny but bound very neatly. This was made for a tiny gal! When laid flat it measures 24 1/2" long about 9" high at the center from. The back is slightly shorter at 7 3/4". The narrowest part is 2 5/8". It is made of 7 sections. I found it interesting that white thread and a darker brown thread was used to construct the waist. The modern seamstress it taught to use matching thread for her projects so the stitches are not as easily seen. However, on close examination, even on the front where the trim is attached, you can see the stitches. To me this is a good glue that this was something made at home rather then a professional, but I'll admit I have no documentation to support that. I plan to make a pattern from this someday but I think you could easily draft one yourself from the measurements I've given. If you can't wait, don't worry! Katherine of Koshka the Cat has a pattern drafted from a waist in her own collection. The size and shape is a little different then mine but I really like it. Source - The Graceful Lady Source
The Queen Anne staircase was sold from Blake Hall in West Yorkshire, when the house was demolished in 1954. The youngest of the Bronte sisters - Anne - worked as a governess at the Hall in 1839.
Daguerreotype of a beautifully dressed gentleman, c. 1855
Photograph of Emily Duncan in character, 1874, Guy Little Collection
Cast as some unworldly young woman who wrote a 19th-century romance, Emily Brontë is more powerful and relevant than she is given credit for.
Emily Warren Roebling, seen here in a portrait held in the Brooklyn Museum, was instrumental in the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge (Via Wikimedia Commons) BROOKLYN HEIGHTS – A streetcorner will be named in honor of pioneering Brooklyn Heights resident for her role in completing one of the greatest pieces of Brooklyn iconography there is: the Brooklyn Bridge. Emily Warren Roebling (1843-1903) will be honored by having the corner of Columbia Heights and Orange Street co-named after her this af
A vibrant celebration of flowers as “brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tissues,” as “stars… wherein we read our history.”
These are the bizarre photographs from a 19th century freak show where members of the public in the US would pay to witness people with physical deformities.
Dimensions (Overall): 9.3 Inches (H) x 8.3 Inches (W) x 2.1 Inches (D) Weight: 3.88 Pounds Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up Number of Pages: 736 Genre: Reference Sub-Genre: Etiquette Publisher: William Morrow & Company Format: Hardcover Author: Lizzie Post & Daniel Post Senning Language: English Street Date: April 25, 2017 TCIN: 52281065 UPC: 9780062439253 Item Number (DPCI): 248-44-7379 Origin: Made in the USA or Imported If the item details above aren’t accurate or complete, we want to know about it. Report incorrect product info.
Learn about Emily Blackwell, who founded a hospital and infirmary with her sister Elizabeth, a first for women of their time.
20 of the best 18th and 19th Century female authors, including Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, and more.
There is something very immediate and wonderful to see actual images that show the pride and affection of photographers from many eras as they pose with their cameras. Here are some of interesting vintage photographs of photographers from Beverly's Flickr collection. This gentleman has passed dapper and is approaching a lampoon representation of an artiste! The floppy polka dot bow tie and bunch of flowers might be his everyday dress but it feels to us as if he is having some fun or playing a part. He holds the bulb of a pneumatic shutter mounted on a large view camera. His pocket watch is in hand to time the exposure. This cabinet card shows a mustached man with a folding camera in a studio setting. In this cabinet card a young man uncaps the lens of his tripod mounted camera to make an exposure. In spite of the caped coat, grass, and landscape background it was taken in a studio. The background is unusual because it seems to be painted directly on the wall rather than on canvas. The landscape has been painted over the baseboard of the wall. The photograph is by Whitley of Elmira, NY. A well dressed young man inserts a film holder into a folding plate camera on a tripod in this oval cut photograph on a heavy black mat. The photographer's name is embossed in hard to read script but the location, Hancock, Michigan is clear. Two women in hoop skirts tease a photographer in this albumen print taken from an album of Mount Savage, Maryland photographs. The dresses suggest the 1850s/60s. Tintype of 3 young women with studio camera. The cryptic writing reads "The Three Damnid" or "Danmid" Wilhemina Greek Slave & Damnid or Danmid". Perhaps they were referring to the Danaïds, daughters of Danaüs in Greek mythology painted by Burne-Jones. "Greek Slave" seems to be a reference to Hiram Powers famous stature but these young ladies are certainly more completely dressed than she! Wilhemina has defeated us as an art history reference. Samuel F. B. Morse with his camera. The albumen photograph by A. Bogardus of New York shows an older Morse with his daguerreotype camera beside him on a table. In addition to his accomplishments as a painter and inventor of the telegraph Morse was a very early practitioner of the daguerreotype process. He was given a demonstration by Daguerre himself in 1839 before the public presentation. Morse taught the process to a succession of eager American photographers, including Mathew Brady. Dr. Hermann Wilhelm Vogel poses with his camera in an oval cut albumen print mounted on a gold and black decorative page. The handwritten text reads "your old friend H. Vogel" and we can not determine if it is written or printed on the mount. Vogel was a famous figure in 19th century photography and well known as the teacher of Alfred Steiglitz. This is a collodion negative that has been mounted as a lantern slide. It has been labeled by the photographer "Wet col neg Wet col positive". The paper mat tells us it was made in 1873 in Belvidere, New Jersey. It names the young men (it appears that the young women did not rate naming) are H. W. Hazard and John C. Browne. The camera peeks out of the mat on the left side but the dark tent, buckets, and other supplies give us a delightful window on what was involved in an afternoon of photographing in 1873. In this tintype a young man stands beside a table holding a camera. The clumsily hung backdrop says interior but the real looking grass under the two young men says outdoor. This European carte-de-visite is by W. Freudentheil. It seems unlikely that the grim faced little boy in the strange coat could manage the large stereo camera beside him. This trimmed amateur photograph is not identified. The tripod appears to be homemade but the camera under the darkcloth is a real box camera. A cyanotype self portrait with a folding camera taken in a mirror. A young woman in a tinted blue dress and her camera are reflected in a large mirror. The left side shows a double image of a chair and the wall paper in the beveled edge of the mirror. This real photo postcard is marked "Rébublique Française" and "Carte Postale". This image is half a stereo card by G.S. Irish of Glen's Falls, N.Y. The Fort William Henry Hotel, Lake George, N.Y.; the photographer; and his stereo camera are reflected in a mirrored gazing ball. This stereo card is labeled "Finley & Sons, Photographers, Canandaigua, N.Y." On the back is a label "View at Sonnenberg, the residence of F.F.Thompson, Canandaigua, N.Y." and in ink "The Glass Bubble". Reflected in the gazing ball is a house and garden, a stereo camera on a tripod and two men reclining on the path. The "Artistic" size mount suggests a 1870s date. This image called "Focusing" by Miss Emily V. Clarkson was printed by the NN Photogravure. company Since we are a couple absorbed in all things photographic we find this couple sharing a darkcloth especially poignant. Why, however, is he wearing that striped coat and cap? This is half of a stereo card that is marked "E. M. Johnson, Photographer, Crown Point, N.Y.". Mr. Johnson wears a rather bazarre printed coat while he photographs a couple. Young woman is standing behind a camera on a tripod in a back garden. This is half of a stereo card that is marked "Horace D. Udall, Landscape Photographer". We can assume that the man inside the darktent is Horace or his assistant. The location is not marked but the printer of the label on the back is identified as the Cleveland Foundry. Cyanotype of a photographer with a cable release in his hand in a field, 1893. The print shows some free silver in the shadows but the appeal of the young person, a boy we thought, proudly showing off a Graflex type camera was immediate. Photographer with view camera in the median of Green Street in Augusta, Georgia.The camera on a tripod is from the dry plate era, late 19th or early 20th century. Two young boys stand with the photographer in a derby in the median of a wide city boulevard lined with large residences. On the right is a carriage with a mounting block and on the left a carriage with a horse. There is a monument in the distance and there appear to be electric light strung across the median. Lady photographing a dog with a view camera This is a tintype from the Cliff House Studio in San Francisco made sometime in the early 29th century before it burned in 1907. I have another tintype with the same backdrop and they appear on the market regularly. The seated woman has a large box camera on her lap. Edmanson The Ventriloquist photographs his Dummy RPPC. Robert Edmanson (1890-1949) was an English magician and ventriloquist. Self portrait of a photographer, ca 1860s. Since it bears the backmark of Wm. Giles, West Aurora, Illinois, it must be him. The 1870 census lists William Giles as a photographer in the 3rd Ward, Aurora, Kane County, Illinois. This stereo card, with an 1882 copyright, shows the photographic party of Edward L. Wilson in Egypt.. The title of the card is "Photographing Cephren and Mencheres" from the series "Scenes in the Orient". (via Beverly's Flickr)
