cacakerbamakhlukpolitik

Ok, so a bunch of people asked how I could tell the “self-lacing” 1830s corset on Two Nerdy History Girls was actually designed to be spiral laced. Reproduction Regency-era stays with correct spiral lacing  So we’re going to take a quick look at the all important detail that lets us know that the fascinating lacing cheat on this corset is not original to the design. There are two ways to lace things: spiral lacing and cross lacing. Spiral lacking is when the corset is basically sewn shut. The lace is anchored at the top or bottom and then laced down or up. It’s easy to spot a spiral laced corset, because at the top and bottom, on opposite sides, the eyelets are half-spaced. In almost all the images I can find online of extant corsets, they have been laced incorrectly (which is why they are often tilted or uneven). Historically, almost all extant examples are spiral laced until you start to see the 2-part metal busk employed in the Victorian era. Victorian speed-laced corset Cross l

The Imagination Station, 2230-2236 14th Street, June 27, 2012. Image courtesy of The Detroit News. At approximately 7:30 am on Wednesday, June the 27th, a single-alarm fire broke out in a vacant home at 2236 14th Street in Corktown. By the time the Detroit Fire Department put out the blaze, it had spread to the vacant house next door at 2230 14th Street. The structures comprised the Imagination Station , which was ultimately intended to undergo renovation and become a center for arts and education. The home to the north (2236--nicknamed "Lefty") has been damaged beyond repair and will be demolished. Its companion ("Righty") sustained serious fire damage and will probably meet the same fate. [Update: I have been told by Mary Carter of the Imagination Station that this house can still be saved.] The older of the two homes is "Lefty", whose original address was 320 14th Street. It first appeared in the 1873 city directory, when it was listed as the resid

I’m back from RomCon2012 and utterly exhausted (I blame Delilah Marvelle for being the best roomie every, oh did we have some killer parties with readers and the male cover models!). So this week I’m just going to go easy on myself and feature my favorite Regency-era striped cotton pelisse/redingote. The OED dates women’s pelisse to the 1750s and women’s redingotes to the 1820s. Given the way the quote assumes you know what the garment is already, and OED personal saying that verbal usage often predates written records by 20-50 years, I’m going to go out on a limb and stick with the museum’s label of Redingote, 1810-1815. I love the heavy, striped cotton. It’s so colorful. It makes me think of India (where it was very likely woven). And I love how stark it is otherwise. Just clean lines and a beautiful collar. Can't you just see a sassy heroine striding down the street in this as pale, wilting girls flee in her wake? Do you have a favorite historical garment that you use for inspir

This is a bit of an odd post for several reasons. First, the site is slightly outside of Mill Creek Hundred, but only very slightly. Second, the house in question, although built in an old style, dates only to the mid 1930's. Finally, the topic grew completely out of comments on another post. It's actually because of one comment in particular that I've decided to give the subject its own post. I thought the story was interesting enough that I didn't want this comment (which is almost a post in itself) lost in the shuffle. It all started last November, with a question in a comment on the post about the Josiah G. Hulett House . Bill Harris asked if I knew anything about a nearby stone house that overlooked Lancaster Pike. It sits on the south side of the road, on the left just before you cross Red Clay Creek and the railroad tracks if you're coming from Centerville Road or 141. It's made of fieldstone, and at first glance looks as if it could be 18th or 19th Cent

Rev. Thomas Love Nineteenth Century Mill Creek Hundred, like the rest of the country, was a highly religious place. The smattering of small, country churches helped to define and unite the communities, and in doing so the leaders of those churches (especially ones who remained for an extended period of time) became influential and well-known in the community. In the mid-1800's, few men were more respected in this area than the Presbyterian minister Rev. Thomas Love. He preached at local churches for over 35 years, taking several struggling congregations and building them into strong churches. He also managed to be a gentleman farmer in eastern MCH for more than 55 years, joining his ministerial predecessor in leaving his name on the map even today. Thomas Love was born on March 22, 1796 in Faggs Manor, PA (near the present-day towns of Avondale and Cochranville). His parents were James and Mary Love, and his grandfather, also Thomas Love , was a soldier in both the French and India

In September 1808, a local man was fishing off the coast of Orkney when he spotted a bunch of birds feasting on an animal corpse on the rocks. He saw what looked like a giant sea serpent, but couldn't get close enough to be sure. Ten days later, a gale washed the corpse onto the Stronsay beach, where it was closely examined and measured by local men. The beast quickly gained notoriety--but it also quickly decomposed. The four men who examined it closely were taken to Kirkwall (Orkney's main city) to give sworn testimony to the magistrate about what they'd seen. The 1860 Naturalist's Library  sums up the testimony as follows: It measured fifty-six feet in length and twelve in circumference. The head was small, not being a foot in length, from the snout to the first vertebre; the neck was slender, extending to the length of fifteen feet. All the accounts agree in assigning it blow holes, though they differ as to their precise situation. On the shoulders something like a b

The second novel in my historical fiction trilogy on the life of the doomed queen of France Marie Antoinette was published last month. DAYS OF SPLENDOR, DAYS OF SORROW focuses on the fifteen years she reigned alongside her husband, Louis XVI, from the death of his grandfather Louis XV in May, 1774, to the days following the violent fall of the Bastille in July 1789. A captivating novel of rich spectacle and royal scandal, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow spans fifteen years in the fateful reign of Marie Antoinette, France’s most legendary and notorious queen . Paris, 1774. At the tender age of eighteen, Marie Antoinette ascends to the French throne alongside her husband, Louis XVI. But behind the extravagance of the young queen’s elaborate silk gowns and dizzyingly high coiffures, she harbors deeper fears for her future and that of the Bourbon dynasty. From the early growing pains of marriage to the joy of conceiving a child, from her passion for Swedish military attaché Axel

This Friday, 15 June, is the 197th anniversary of the Duchess of Richmond's ball at which the Duke of Wellington learned that Napoleon was attacking not from the west as Wellington had expected but on the Allied Army's eastern flank, trying to separate them from their Prussian allies. Pouring over a map of Belgium in the Duke of Richmond's study, Wellington is said to have declared, "Napoleon has humbugged me." A number of officers joined their regiments straight from the ball and fought the next day at Quatre Bras in their ball dress. Monday, 18 June, is the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo itself. Both the ball and the battle figure prominently in my latest release, Imperial Scandal . My hero, Malcolm Rannoch, is a diplomat and intelligence agent, but Wellington presses him into servicein the battle delivering messages. I knew early on in the plotting process that I wanted to have Malcolm delivering messages during the battle, and I was