Posts by Geri Walton
1802 Parisian Millinery Fashions According to English Newspapers
Parisian millinery fashions in 1802 were something that English newspapers always remarked about because the most fashionable of women knew that they could not be seen without the proper hat when they hit the streets. Newspapers loved to provide all the details related to the last fashions, and millinery was no exception. However, because fashions…
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Kitty Pakenham: Duchess of Wellington and the Wife of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Catherine Sarah Dorothea Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington was commonly known as Kitty Pakenham. She was born in Dublin, Ireland on 14 January 1773 to Edward Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford and Catherine Rowley. She became “The Honourable Catherine Pakenham” when her father succeeded as the 2nd Baron Longford three years after her birth.
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Porcelain and Madame de Pompadour
Today’s guest is Nancy Bilyeau. She has worked on the staffs of InStyle, DuJour, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and Good Housekeeping. She is currently the deputy editor of the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at City University of New York and a regular contributor to Town & Country, Purist, and The Vintage News. She…
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Some of the Executioner’s Interesting Tools of the 1700 and 1800s
Some of the executioner’s interesting tools of the 1700 and 1800s were the axe and block, sword, wheel, gallows, and the guillotine. The axe was one of the first tools used by English executioners and was originally called the “heading axe.” One of these axes displayed at the Tower of London had a convex blade…
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Massarti the Lion Tamer Killed in 1872 by His Lions
Manders’ Menagerie was a traveling circus that relied on Massarti the Lion Tamer for one of their most famous acts. Massarti, who was born Thomas Macarte* in Cork around 1838, had been hired by Mr. Manders in 1871 to replace the African lion tamer, Martini Maccomo,** allegedly a native of Angola who had arrived in…
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Humorous and Cheeky New Year’s Resolutions from Punch in 1889
Punch; or, The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humor and satire established in 1841 that helped to coin the term “cartoon” in its modern sense. The magazine also offered its satirical viewpoint and because of its its sophisticated humor and absence of offensive material, other papers ran small pieces from the magazine…
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Christmas Crime in the Victorian Era
The holidays of the late 1900s were often thought of as a time of cheer, but along with that cheer came Christmas crime in the Victorian Era. It was plentiful and resulted in anything but peace on earth. Perhaps, that was why the following Christmas card, although wishing Christmas cheer, displays a dead bird.
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The World’s First Human Cannonball Zazel or Rossa Matilda Richter
The world’s first human cannonball Zazel was born Rossa Matilda Richter in 1863.* From an early age she was performing aerial stunts, and when she turned fourteen, she made a name for herself. It happened on 2 April 1877, when Richter, using the stage name Zazel, was fired out of cannon at an amusement place…
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French Masquerade Ball Costumes in the 1700 and 1800s
There are many descriptions of what people wore in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in France. Some of these descriptions were printed in books about acceptable masquerade ball costumes that could be worn to dances and parties. Descriptions also sometimes included actual fashions worn by peasants, gentlemen, ladies, merveilleuses, incroyables, and nobility. Here are some…
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Napoleon’s Coronation
Because there were so many attempts on Napoleon’s life, it was decided there needed to be an institution that would survive him, and, thus, the idea of a monarchy was re-born and Napoleon was proclaimed “Emperor of the French” by his hand-picked Senate, known as the Sénat conservator. The hereditary title was given him on…
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