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Two Nerdy History Girls
twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com
21
Bestselling authors Loretta Chase & Susan Holloway Scott gossip about history, writing, and yes, shoes.
#62624 in All

A table setting for dessert, 18th century style

Loretta reports:These photos are from my visit last year to the Victoria & Albert Museum .According to the note accompanying this display of a fashionable family’s table setting for dessert, “The...

17 h ago

What the Maidservant Wore, c 1770

Isabella/Susan reporting:Weve seen what a stylish British mantua-makers apprentice might wear in the shop in the 1770s, what a female blacksmith or other laboring woman might wear at her work, and, w...

1 day ago 1 person likes this

A resting place in Italy

Loretta reports:In observance of Memorial Day, we continue Thursdays photo series on the Florence American Cemetery.

2 days ago

Breakfast Links: Week of May 21, 2012

It may be a holiday weekend, but were still serving up a fresh serving of our favorite links of the week to other blogs, web sites, photographs, and articles, collected from around the Twitterverse.•...

4 days ago

Friday Video: Buglers Cry: A History of Taps

After some inexplicable glitch at YouTube last night, were finally able to post this wonderful Friday Video to continue our observation of Memorial Day. The bugle call known as Taps is 150 years old ...

5 days ago

Friday Video: The Buglers Cry & the Origin of Taps

Todays video continues our observation of Memorial Day with a brief history of sounding taps. Is there any other piece of music thats as instantly recognizable, yet always evocative and filled with e...

5 days ago 1 person likes this

In honor of those who served

Loretta reports:Memorial Day will be observed in the U.S. on Monday, and the parties & sales will run through the weekend.  But many of us will take a moment to reflect on what this day mean...

6 days ago

The Bum-Bailiff Outwitted, 1786

Susan reports:Sometimes "reading" an 18th c print is easy, and the humor is obvious. Theres not much subtlety to a cartoon of women tripping so their skirts fly up, or twittering dandies, eit...

23 may 12

The Virtues of Coffee

Loretta reports:~~~290. Coffee. The infusion or decoction of the roasted seeds of the coffee-berry, when not too strong, is a wholesome, exhilarating, and strengthening beverage; and when mixed with ...

22 may 12

Vauxhall Gardens on a Punch Bowl, c 1800

Isabella/Susan reporting:For nearly 200 years, the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall offered Londoners every kind of entertainment, from sublime orchestral music to the spectacle of a horse and rider lift...

21 may 12

Breakfast Links: Week of May 14, 2012

Served up fresh for your weekend delight: our favorite links of the week to other blogs, web sites, photographs, and articles, collected from around the Twitterverse. For even more links (and every d...

19 may 12

Mae West: She was no angel

Loretta reports:Continuing my celebration of early cinema, todays short feature is a trailer for the Mae West film, Im No Angel.  She was one remarkable woman, as this rare BBC Interview makes c...

18 may 12

Another Recycled Gown, from 1770 to 1827

Isabella/Susan reporting:As we reported here last week, we Nerdy History Girls are now on Pinterest. I suspected it would be fun, and to my image-magpie-brain, it is. But Ive been surprised by how th...

17 may 12

Update: A Happy Ending for Mavisbank

Isabella/Susan reporting:Earlier this year, I wrote a post about Mavisbank, above, a tragically neglected country house in Midlothia, Scotland. Designed in 1772 by Robert Adam, Mavisbank was not only...

17 may 12

Belzoni & the Pharoahs Colossal Head

Loretta reports:Giovanni Belzoni was one of the inspirations for the hero of my Egypt-set story, Mr. Impossible.  Transporting the colossal head was only one of Belzonis many amazing adventures....

16 may 12 1 person likes this

"The Curious Maids" Play a Classic Prank, 1768

Isabella/Susan* reporting:When I visited Winterthur Museum last week, I not only wandered through the peony gardens, but also saw the museums newest special exhibition, Uncorked! Wine, Objects, &...

15 may 12

Gossip in the Court Journal May 1835

Loretta reports:Then as today, magazines (both men’s & women’s) featured celebrity gossip. Rather than rock and movie stars, the subjects were members of Fashionable Society. Then as now, as well...

14 may 12

Huzzah! Were Now On Pinterest

As youve probably guessed, we like pictures almost as much as we like words, which made our leap to Pinterest almost inevitable. Weve been busily posting images of even more interesting historical go...

14 may 12

Breakfast Links: Week of May 7, 2012

Served up fresh for your weekend delight: our favorite links of the week to other blogs, web sites, photographs, and articles, collected from around the Twitterverse.• Fancy Edwardian folk in fancy d...

13 may 12

Peonies, lilacs, irises

Isabella/Susan reporting:Just to prove that I do leave the keyboard behind once in a while: an absolutely beautiful morning at Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library yesterday. Summer cant be far a...

12 may 12

Friday Video: Morning Mood on the Metro

Isabella/Susan reporting:Todays video isnt particularly historical, but it is a delightful way to start the day, and the weekend, too. One morning last month, members of the Copenhagen Philharmonic s...

11 may 12 1 person likes this

Middlesex Hospital ca.1810

Loretta reports:~~~MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL, for the reception of the sick and the lame, and for lying-in married women, is situated in Mary-bone-fields, near Oxford-road, now called Charles - street. ...

10 may 12

Why Ox-Skulls on an 18th c Doorway?

Isabella/Susan* reporting:When I see an 18th c doorway in Massachusetts, I expect to see a simple pediment or porch. What I dont expect are the skulls of oxen. Bovine skulls are found in paintings by...

09 may 12

Gondolas then & now

Loretta reports:Didst ever see a Gondola?  For fear     You should not, I’ll describe it to you exactly: ‘Tis a long cover’d boat that’s common here,     Carved at the prow, ...

08 may 12

What Kept the Georgian Cook Happy, c 1750

Isabella/Susan* reports:When the Earl of Marlton, later 1st Marquess of Rockingham, expanded his country seat of Wentworth Woodhouse with an eye to entertaining on a grand scale, he invested consider...

06 may 12

Breakfast Links: Week of April 30, 2012

Served up fresh for your weekend delight: our favorite links of the week to other blogs, web sites, photographs, and articles, collected from around the Twitterverse.• Shawl dresses & dresses mad...

05 may 12

Friday Video: Minnie the Moocher

Loretta reports:Early animated films can be surprisingly trippy.  This one features two of my 20th C favorites: Betty Boop & Cab Calloway.  He’s the man dancing at the beginning. Not As...

04 may 12

The Incomparable Red of Cochineal

Isabella/Susan* reporting:Lately a valuable historical commodity has been much in the news. Its a commodity discovered in Mexico by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th c, desired by 17th c French kings...

03 may 12

Fashions for May 1819

English Walking DressLoretta reports:In his/her General Observations on Fashion and Dress, the fashion writer of La Belle Assemblée waxes rhapsodic about the month of May.~~~The fashions of the delig...

02 may 12

Entertaining like an Earl, 1738

Isabella/Susan* reporting:Display was an important part of elegant Georgian dining. Not only did the food have to be properly composed and the conversation scintillating, but every spoon and serving ...

01 may 12

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