May Book Tuesday

 Wow!
Cutting it a little fine here 😁 but courtesy of the awesome Richard Baker at the "Frontier Citizen " we have this fascinating book review.

Take a look and also check out the Frontier Citizen on FB.

Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta

BOOK REVIEW

Here is the eighth review of a book in my collection related to old west journalism. (I do not have many so am always grateful for readers’ suggestions of others I may wish to obtain.)

This time:

“Little Newspapers on the Prairie - The Frontier Press Career of Carrie Ingalls" 

by Julie Hedgepeth Williams.

I found out about this book whilst browsing online and looking at the website of the Laura Ingalls Wilder home and museum (www.lauraingallswilderhome.com).

Most people my age will have watched "Little House on the Prairie" on television and many will have also read the original books by Laura. We know some things about Ma & Pa Ingalls and their children but, apart from Laura, what do we know about the family after the setting of the books and TV show?

In this book, the author tries to fill that gap, at least  regarding Carrie.

Whilst the show and books finish with Carrie still a child, she grew up to be a strong-minded, independent woman who worked very successfully on a variety of newspapers in the late 19th and early 20th century. Her career only ended when, at the age of almost 42, she married a mining entrepreneur.

Julie Hedgepeth Williams is a media historian of many years experience who has written a number of related books. In this one, she has pulled together as much evidence as possible to give Carrie's newspaper story. There isn't much - mostly family diary entries and surviving newspaper articles with a few photos - but Williams has collated everything to give as full a biography as possible. It is an interesting, if short, read and we learn a lot about the transient nature of the newspapering job (especially on final proof newspapers) and of Carrie herself.

This is a well-written book. It is an easy read and, due in part to the scant source material, does not take long. The author has provided a coherent, logical biography without any made-up elements.  It is clear that what we have here is as much as we can get. And it is well worth getting.

If you wish to obtain a copy of this book, it is easily obtainable in the USA direct from the museum (the only source). However, they will not ship internationally so, if you wish to get one outside the States, you will need an American resident to buy it for you and send it on (I used my brother).

Hedgepeth Willams, J. (2019), Little Newspapers on the Prairie - The Frontier Press Career of Carrie Ingalls, Rapid City: The Little Print Shop.

Richard F. Baker

Frontier Citizen®

#livinghistory #newspapering

April Fashion Friday

 For this month's Fashion Friday we have an interesting discussion of mending and making do.
Unless you were fabulously wealthy you had to make sure your clothes lasted aloooong time.

Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta

School Daze

 Today we have a fascinating video about schooling in Victorian times from historian Ruth Goodman.
During Queen Victoria's reign literacy in Britain went from  50% to nearly 100% an achievement that had large impacts on society as a whole.
Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta

April Book Tuesday

This month's Book Tuesday also works for Fashion Friday!
This is a wonderful collection of  PHOTOS of Victorian and Edwardian Fashions

Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta 

Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey
(Dover Fashion and Costumes) 

by Alison Gernsheim 

From Amazon:

Since the invention of photography there has not been a history of fashion completely illustrated by photographs — until this one. Photography historian Alison Gernsheim first studied Victorian and Edwardian fashion in order to be able to date photographs in her collection. Of course the photos soon proved to be the best of all fashion plates — authentic, detailed, as decorative and charming as top fashion illustration. When united with identifications and descriptions of the chief costume articles, and a commentary that includes childhood memories of the period, the resulting history is doubly indispensable — equally useful and delightful to serious and casual readers.

The invention of photography preceded that of the crinoline by about a decade. Pre-crinoline bonnets, stovepipe hats, and deep décolletage are featured in the first of these 235 illustrations — including a beautiful 1840 daguerreotype portrait of a lady that is the earliest study of its kind extant. From 1855 to the 1870s the crinoline gave shape (whether barrel, bell, teapot, or otherwise) to English women, and their shapes fill many of these full and half-page photos. English men went beardless in top hats and frock coats; as in other eras, the sporting wear of the previous generation became acceptable morning and evening town attire. Styles and accoutrements came and went — moustaches, straw hats, bustles and bodice line, petticoats, corsets, shawls and falsies, flounces, ruffles, lace, and materials — satin, silk, velvet, woolen underwear, full-length sable, and osprey feathers. Many of the models for these fashions were already fashionable enough — Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Lillie Langtry, Winston Churchill, many archdukes, duchesses, counts, princes, and Queen Victoria herself. Photographers are identified where possible, and include Nadar, Lewis Carroll, and the Downeys. Every photograph is captioned and annotated.

February Fashion Friday

 This video from Asta Darling answers the perennial question...

Were bright colours even a thing back then?

Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta

New Event for all your Re-Enactor Needs

 This will be a very interesting and useful event!

Update: Alas this event has been cancelled, hopefully it will run in 2026!

January Fashion Friday

For our first Fashion Friday of 2025 here is a fantastic video by historian Ruth Goodman from YouTube.
Lots of info on daily life for the different classes in Victorian England. 
While only a bit is about "Fashion" per se there is a tremendous amount of good info on daily living here. Always keep in mind that this is where many people in the West came from and they would have brought many of these patterns of life with them.

Enjoy
The Victorian Society of Alberta