Week of October 31, 2006

Authorities

Accusers

Accused

Confessed and Accused Others

Executed

Died in Prison

Lydia Dustin | Ann Foster | Sarah Osborn | Roger Toothaker

Died During Interrogation

Giles Corey

With all the Hullabaloo surrounding Halloween, and the opportunities on campus to be "terrified", it might be a good idea to reflect a little on Witches and Witchcraft in Colonial New England. The Postcard above dates to 1882--the Bicentennial of the Witchcraft Hysteria in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Today, Salem makes a tidy sum of money from witchcraft tourism, and even has an "official" town witch. So it might be a worthy act to meditate a little on the names below during "trick or treat" season. But I guess it is better to joke about witches than to hang persons accused of being the same. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Chapter III. Going to Housekeeping, pp. 54 - 73

Going to Housekeeping refers to the rituals surrounding courtship, marriage, and the establishment of new households. You will want to note the ages at which marriage happened, and also the relationship between marriage and household establishment...these two things were not as closely allied as they are in our day. Note the degree to which marriage remained a financial arrangement, and the legal aspects, including those designed to protect women. New England (more particularly, Boston) became a center of self-help books for women establishing new households, and women’s magazines start to shape “taste” much the way they do today

Chapter IV Frosty Mornings and Stinging Fingers: The Effects of Winter pp. 74 - 103

Evidence suggests that New England was a colder place in the mid 19th century than it is today. Perhaps the effect of this chapter could best be realized by reading it in front of an open window! Firewood provided both a problem and an opportunity. Imagine the amount of wood necessary to heat the residences of a city the size of Boston. I’ll recruit someone to bring a tape measure as an aid to visualization. Recognize, too, the dangers of fire and the tragedies which resulted from causes as simple as a random spark. Some quaint New England customs arose as a response to incredibly frigid temperatures... indoors. Among these, bundling is perhaps the most famous.

An early nineteenth century kitchen in Maine. A kettle hangs on the chimney crane. Bread would be baked in the oven on the right. At the time it was photographed, the kitchen had been converted into a dining room with the fireplace as the decorative centerpiece. It would have been far less spiffy when it was functioning. No white logs, and no decorative pewter on the mantel. One might have found a salt cellar there, instead. HABS photograph

A modernized kitchen dating to the mid to late nineteenth century. The stove likely burned coal, judging by the small fireboxes. Fumes and smoke would have left the room through the old fireplace chimney behind. The brick surround and the glazed tile below are fire prevention accessories.

Stoves like these provided warmth for people as well as a place to cook. The tank to the left is a cold water tank. Water would be pumped into it by hand and fed to faucets by gravity. Note the very modern convenience of hot water provided by a boiler in the stove itself, linked to the water tank by a pipe. HABS photograph

Chapter V Clean, Bright, and Comfortable: Dimensions of Housework pp. 104 -142

Chapter V reminds us of two related things. First, inefficient technologies are frequently dirty technologies, and second, nothing drives invention harder than necessity. Text and illustrations alike will provide evidence of both the desire for, and difficulty of attaining of, cleanliness. We’ll also see how innovations begin to make the lives of New Englanders more pleasant. Be careful to recognize the truth in the old saying that we don’t miss what we’ve never had.

Chapter VI: Clean and Decent: A Family’s Clothing pp.143 -162

This chapter is about more than mere clothing. Of course, clothing isn’t really “mere,” anyhow. All one needs to do is think about how much time and effort we spend choosing our garments. This chapter marks the transition from a period in which clothes were almost entirely home products (homespun becomes a metaphor for everything from moral sayings to humor) to products made at least partly by machine in the great mills of towns like Lawrence and Lowell and Fall River. (0r lesser enterprises like Slater Mill, to the right. We'll return to looking at Mill life when we spend some more time with Hansen. Women like the ones at the right provided the stuff for the fashions of women like those below. Be aware of who or what served as an “arbiter of taste”. Note, too which occasions called for “special regalia”. Finally, be aware that Nylander has chosen to consider personal cleanliness in this chapter, and not the preceding one.

from Godey's Lady's Book, February 1850

Figure 1st.– Evening dress of straw-colored silk, the skirt trimmed with four flounces of Brussels lace; the first one very deep, the other medium width, and caught up with small bouquets. The corsage is trimmed in a similar style, the lace arranged as a berthe cape, and the trimming of the sleeves falling a little below it. The bouquet de corsage, or bouquet for the waist, is of the same flowers as the wreath, as is usual in full evening costume. Wreaths of purple heath, or the mingled blossoms of aquatic plants, are the most fashionable this season. The heath is worn with ringlets, and made to droop at the side, while the others form small bouquets. Flowers are the most simple and natural ornaments a young lady can wear.

Figure 2d.– A walking-dress of claret-colored cashmere or merino. The form of the corsage is novel and striking. The sleeves are trimmed to correspond with the waist and skirt, being buttoned to the elbow. Delicate cuffs and collar of lace. The bonnet has a single plume, and is lined with a drawn blue ribbon.

FURS.– It will be noticed that the muff' in the fashion plate is of ermine, which is in favor this winter, although sables and stone martin are more generally worn – ermine being so successfully counterfeited that the real can scarce be told from the imitation. Muffs, tippets, and deep cuffs are the principal articles in which fur is used, although opera cloaks, and even hoods, have been trimmed with a narrow row of ermine or sable. Swansdown in cuffs, or a border for sacques, is very tasteful. The muffs are somewhat smaller than they have been worn – very much smaller than those now in vogue in the country. The tippets are small circular capes about the neck, descending in a kind of scarf from in front, very much as our grandmothers wore them