19th Cent. Life
Galleries of Friendship and Fame is the first comprehensive investigation of the origin, development, and practices of 19th-century American photograph albums. In this fascinating book, the author argues that the album--whether functioning as family record, parlor entertainment, social register, national portrait gallery, or advertisement for photography itself--helped transform the nature of self-presentation at the cusp of modernity.
This handsome volume examines carte de visite and cabinet card albums from their introduction in the United States in 1861 through the rise of the snapshot at the century's end. By examining a wealth of previously overlooked primary materials, this study offers a completely new understanding of photograph albums, revealing how they emerged, how they were marketed and sold, and how families displayed and told stories through them. Galleries of Friendship and Fame addresses the history of technology and innovation, the interconnectedness of the commercial and domestic spheres, and the ways photography helped shape notions of identity, family, and nation in a rapidly changing America.
Subtle changes in building long before the Revolutionary War hinted at the growing independence of the American colonies and their desire to be less like the British.
Records of estate auctions show that many households in Colonial America contained only one chair--underscoring the patriarchal nature of the early American family. All other members of the household sat on stools or the floor.
The excavation of a tiny community of freed slaves in Massachusetts reveals evidence of the transplantation of African culture to North America.
Simultaneously a study of American life and an explanation of how American life is studied, "In Small Things Forgotten," through the everyday details of ordinary living, colorfully depicts a world hundreds of years in the past.
American consumers today regard sugar as a mundane and sometimes even troublesome substance linked to hyperactivity in children and other health concerns. Yet two hundred years ago American consumers treasured sugar as a rare commodity and consumed it only in small amounts. In Refined Tastes: Sugar, Confectionery, and Consumers in Nineteenth-Century America, Wendy A. Woloson demonstrates how the cultural role of sugar changed from being a precious luxury good to a ubiquitous necessity. Sugar became a social marker that established and reinforced class and gender differences.
During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Woloson explains, the social elite saw expensive sugar and sweet confections as symbols of their wealth. As refined sugar became more affordable and accessible, new confections--children's candy, ice cream, and wedding cakes--made their way into American culture, acquiring a broad array of social meanings. Originally signifying male economic prowess, sugar eventually became associated with femininity and women's consumerism. Woloson's work offers a vivid account of this social transformation--along with the emergence of consumer culture in America.
Seeking the Historical Cook is a guide to historical cooking methods from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century receipt (recipe) books and an examination of how those methods can be used in kitchens today. Designed for adventurous cooks and foodies, this volume is rich with photographs, period images, and line art depicting kitchen tools and cooking methods. Kay K. Moss invites readers to discover traditional receipts and to experiment with ancestral dishes to brighten today's meals.
From campfires to modern kitchens, Seeking the Historical Cook is a primer on interpreting the language of early receipts, a practical guide to historical techniques, and a memoir of experiences at historic hearths. Scores of sources, including more than a dozen unpublished personal cookery books, are compared and contrasted with a new look at southern foodways (eating habits and culinary practices). A rather strict interpretive and experiential approach is combined with a friendly and open invitation to the reader to join the ranks of curious cooks. Taken together, these receipts, facts, and lore illustrate the evolution of selected foods through the eighteenth century and beyond.
After decades of research, experimentation, and teaching in a variety of settings, Moss provides a hands-on approach to rediscovering, re-creating, and enjoying foods from the early South. The book begins by steeping the reader in history, culinary tools, and the common cooking techniques of the time. Then Moss presents a collection of tasteful and appealing southern ancestral receipts that can be fashioned into brilliant heirloom dishes for our twenty-first-century tables. There are dishes fit for a simple backwoods celebration or an elegant plantation feast, intriguing new possibilities for a modern Thanksgiving dinner, and even simple experiments for a school project or for sharing with a favorite child. This book is for the cook who wants to try something old... that is new again.