on April 18, 2020
This is how you do it! A location trip to the Isle of Jersey with author C. J. Lee.
Find out more in this YouTube interview.
WHERE WILL THIS LOCATION TRIP LEAD????
The Paper Lantern Writers are a collective of Historical Fiction Writers, both published and unpublished.
Our goal is to tell a cracking good story, using the context of history.
Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
on March 11, 2020
From the Washington (District of Columbia) Times…New Spring Silk Frocks!
“Choose from materials such as taffeta silk, charmeuse, and silk crepe in styles and colors suitable for street or evening wear. Among the colors are new blues, soft greens, wisteria, tango, elephant’s breath, burgundy: also the pastel shades for evening wear.”
Tango?
From the Pantene website (2012): “Tangerine Tango, a spirited reddish orange, continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward. ‘Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it.’”
on March 4, 2020
We’re still in 1908 with “The New Millinery” from the Washington (District of Columbia) Herald.
on February 25, 2020
Fresh from New York City (and The Evening World newspaper), it’s Bloomingdales, selling $18 & $20 Taffeta and Satin Foulard Dresses at – – – $10.75!
on February 25, 2020
Ladies! Here’s a Well-Cut Frock from the Fort Myers, Florida News-Press!
“Here’s a most attractive tub frock with just the practical features you need for workaday wear: Front-button closing, easy fullness below the shoulder yoke, action back, big pockets and a sash to fit the waistline.”
on February 14, 2020
The feast of Saint Valentine of Rome was designated in the year 496.
The date? February 14th, of course.
About 900 years later, Saint Valentine and his feast day (already celebrated with food, drink, jousting, poetry, singing, and dancing) somehow became associated with romance, passion, and love.
And so began the need to send Saint Valentine’s greetings—letters, cards, and books that were chock full of flowers, hearts, rhyming verse, sly suggestions and outright innuendos, and plump cherubs, puppies, and babies!
During the 19th century—when my historical mystery Fanny Newcomb & the Irish Channel Ripper is set—cards and postcards celebrating Saint Valentine’s Day reached a new height of romantic expression.
But in the mid-19th century and continuing into the mid-20th century, many valentines took a darker, meaner, and even stinkier turn for the worse.
What? You haven’t heard of Vinegar Valentines?
Bitter, caustic, and often downright nasty, Vinegar Valentines were created to offend and insult the recipient.
Vinegar Valentines consisted of two elements: first of all, they had graphics that included slimy animals like snakes and slugs or grotesque caricatures of men and women. Secondly, these missives included a rude rhyme or mean quotation.
And although my Fanny Newcomb would never ever, ever-ever-ever send out a Vinegar Valentine, I still thought you’d like to see a few stinkers for yourself.
The Serpent
The Saleslady
The Suffragette
Mr. Bald Head
(and I admit it! I’m glad that there were Vinegar Valentines for men also!)
The Surgeon
(A Civil War Vinegar Valentine)
Fortunately, Vinegar Valentines went out of style long ago, and today I can wish you a very happy Saint Valentine’s Day with a sweet postcard full of hearts and happy thoughts!
Happy Valentines Day from FANNY NEWCOMB & THE IRISH CHANNEL RIPPER!
on February 12, 2020
The (Munster, Indiana) Times suggests that Your Valentine wants 51-Gauge Crepe Ringless Chiffons @ 59 cents a pair.
“51-gauge beautiful chiffons–aristocrats of the hosiery world–available at this extremely low price only because of tiny irregularities!”
Just what would these chiffons costs if there were no irregularities at all?
on February 5, 2020
The very kind and wonderful storyteller Suzanne Adair has invited me to share how to “hold history in your hands” in this week’s Relevant History blog.
And…here’s Suzanne’s scoop on the FANNY NEWCOMB giveaway:
“A big thanks to Ana Brazil! She’ll give away a packet of four reproduction postcards and one original postcard of Italian Headquarters, plus a paperback copy of Fanny Newcomb and the Irish Channel Ripper, to someone who contributes a comment on my blog this week (available Tuesday 4 February). I’ll choose the winner from among those who comment by Friday at 6 p.m. ET. Delivery is available in the US only.”
For a little preview, here are a few of my postcards that are not in the Relevant History publication:
and here’s a larger view of the postcard that Kerry wants to know more about.
This postcard was printed after 1908, which is the date that the Southern Railroad Depot (the large monumental building with a rounded arch entrance on Canal and Basin Streets) was completed.
on February 5, 2020
“A Well Proportioned Figure is Always Attractive!” (So says the Wichita (Kansas) Daily Eagle of February 5, 1919.)
“Good-looking women vary in type, but their proportions are always good. Great numbers of them wear Nemo Corsets.
NEMO CORSETS, $3.50 and up.
NEMO BRASSIERES, $1.00, $1/50 and up.”
on January 29, 2020
What she wore AFTER she “made this model at home” from The Times (Shreveport, Louisiana):
“Why is the morning brighter? Because it’s both pleasant and easy to slip into this crisp and youthful house frock, knowing one is smartly and becomingly attired for “at home” hours. Truly a beginner’s fashion, with but five easy pieces to cut and fit together, it takes practically no time to run it up on the machine and the cost is just next to nothing at all. Hasn’t the yoke a decorative zig-zag cut? It’s easy and inexpensive to accent, too, with a quartet of bright shiny buttons. Beauticians and other such professionals will find it as practical a uniform as the housewife does a duty frock. Choose pre-shrunk broadcloth or poplin.”