True sleigh rides are a thing of antiquity that most of us consider romantic. Did you consider how expensive such an outing could be? Or dangerous? No wonder a newspaper columnist of the day, in good humor, suggested an alternative.
Vintage paintings, photographs, and newspaper articles shed light on this sport, transportation, and social outing.
Picnics were a common and notable diversion for Victorian Americans whenever weather permitted. Schools, churches, families, and organizations hosted picnics. Reasons varied from welcome-home parties to gatherings to hear a speaker or minster to holiday celebrations. This article contains recommendations for preparing and transporting picnic foods properly, protecting young ladies from harm (let’s keep those chaperones in place!), and a peek inside my new release Courting Miss Cartwright–specifically the picnic basket auction scene.
July 24th is Pioneer Day in the state of Utah, commemorating the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley (the first permanent Euro-American settlers) in 1847. This state-wide celebration includes everything from parades to rodeos, fireworks to pageants, Pioneer/Frontier clothing to Native American Inter-Tribal Pow-Wows, to covered wagon reenactments and picnics. Pioneer Day is inherent to Utah’s Victorian-Era, Old West history.
Nineteenth Century American Easter Celebrations are very much like those we experience now. This article covers a wide range of Victorian American observances from church services to Easter eggs (to the giving of eggs), ladies Easter Bonnets and new clothing for men. Easter parades, donation plates, and historical menus from newspapers of the era.
Our Victorian American ancestors celebrated Thanksgiving very much like we do today. Some fun traditions have slowly melted away into obscurity but others are still going strong. This article contains detail amateur historians will enjoy, the official photograph of 1890 University of Michigan football team, and images of printed invitations issued for holiday parties.
