Victorian America’s Ice Delivery

Victorian America’s Ice Delivery

Victorian Americans needed ice–for home use, through delivery businesses, on a commercial scale (to keep food from spoiling at the grocery and in railroad transportation). Ice houses were built all over the United States from the independent family’s ice house on their property to the enormous commercial Swift & Co. Ice House storing 60,000 tons annually. Ice harvesting occurred in January and February and kept in storage facilities until the following winter by applying ingenuity, science, and hard work. Men used saws, horse-drawn sleighs, and the strength of their own backs to harvest the cash crop each winter. This article contains vintage photographs, newspaper ads, and science info of the Victorian era.

Screen Doors, a new invention!

Screen Doors, a new invention!

Pop Quiz! Were screen doors (and window screens) invented BEFORE or AFTER 1870? Do you know?

This article includes images of the screen doors on historic homes (taken recently), images from Sears Roebuck & Co. Catalog and Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog, as well as historical information about why and how screens were invented during the Victorian era, as well as a solid answer about whether these household basics were invented before or after 1870. The answer just might surprise you.

Historic Idaho Hotel in Silver City

Historic Idaho Hotel in Silver City

The Idaho Hotel was built in 1863–and is still open for business (in the summer months). Jacquie’s Much Ado About Silver City was held at this historic hotel. This article contains many images taken in June 2016 (and some historic images). Lots of amazing history and preserved elements of the past in this hotel! #JacquieRogersAdo16

Book Review: Legends of the Wild West: Tombstone, Arizona (by Charles River Editors)

Book Review: Legends of the Wild West: Tombstone, Arizona (by Charles River Editors)

FIVE STARS for Charles River Editors’ Legends of the Wild West: Tombstone, Arizona. This nonfiction account covers the breadth of Tombstone from the first miners and where the settlement took its name to the forever famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Amateur historians and readers of fiction set in the American West will benefit from reading or listening to this informative and entertaining book.