August Book Tuesday

A couple of fascinating entries for our Book Tuesday feature.

Enjoy

Victorian Society of Alberta

Ranching Under the Arch

Stories from the Southern Alberta Rangelands

-by D. Larraine Andrews

"In a remarkable story . . . that helps to explain southern Alberta’s uniqueness, Andrews makes it clear that the land and the people cannot be separated." - Canada's History

"If you are at all connected to ranching in the Canadian West. . . this book will suit the most exacting of historians and is a recommended read." - Canadian Cowboy Country

"This is probably the most comprehensive history of foothills ranching since L.V. Kelly's book The Range Men was first published in 1913. Yet it is superior to this early volume in that it covers a greater time period, right up to modern day ranching." - Alberta History

Victorian Pharmacy

Rediscovering Forgotten Remedies and Recipes

- by Jane Eastoe

Providing hints, tips, recipes, and historical background, this book explains how many traditional remedies are still in use and how to make them at home
 
Here is the story of consumer medicine—how drugstore healthcare emerged in just 50 years and how consumers still rely on hundreds of formulations and products that can trace their origins back to the 19th century. Sun cream; treatments for insomnia, dandruff, or warts; perfumes; and soaps are all as important today as they were 100 years ago and are stocked by the local pharmacist. This book takes a look at which products were on offer, whether they were effective, and how they are used today, showing that while the names of products on the pharmacy shelf have changed over time, consumers' hopes and aspirations remain much the same as their Victorian predecessors. This is also the story of the growth of the drugstore, and how families have come to rely upon them as dispensaries of healthcare.

Heritage Day Long Weekend 2020

Normally on this August long weekend we are at Days of Yore in Didsbury. While we are all missing being there, seeing our old friends, making new ones and talking with our visitors, we are looking ahead to next year with great relish. Until then, below are a couple of recipes that are camp favourites for Days of Yore.

We hope you have a wonderful Heritage Day weekend!

We'll see you at Days of Yore in 2021!

Great-Grandma Coleman's Oatmeal cookies

2 1/2 c oatmeal
2 1/2 c flour
1 c sugar
Salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 c lard
Sour milk or buttermilk

Mix all dry ingredients. Add lard and sour milk to roll. Roll and cut with a glass (round cookie cutter). Bake on greased cookie sheet until slightly golden (350°F, approx 12 minutes)

Date filling:
1 c chopped, pitted dates
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c water

Cook in a saucepan, spread on a cookie, top with another cookie to make a sandwich.

Old Fashioned Lemonade
(from the Anne of Green Gables cookbook)

1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c water
Finely grated peel of 1 lemon
1 1/2 c lemon juice (best squeezed from lemons)
Ice cubes
Cold water
Lemon slices and fresh mint (optional)

Measure sugar, water and lemon peel into a saucepan, bring to a boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, let cool. Add the 1 1/2 c lemon juice, stir. Pour the lemonade syrup into a jar with a lid. This can be kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.

When you're ready for some lemonade, put 2 ice cubes into the bottom of a glass, pour 1/4 c syrup over the cubes, add 3/4 c cold water and stir. Add lemon slices and mint for garnish if desired. Makes enough syrup for 14 glasses of lemonade.

Meanwhile... on the other side of the World

Modern digital film analysis can truly bring the past to life.

Here is a film from 1902 of street scenes in Halifax England.

From the YouTube header:

Second pass at this old film of Halifax, England in January 1902.  Updated version of an earlier, longer upload of the same film.  Speed corrected and added in sound for ambiance.  Film by the Mitchell and Kenyon company

 Enjoy this glimpse into the world of 1902.

Victorian Society of Alberta

Corsetry & Couture

This is a fascinating blog, filled with useful information on fashion during our period.
Highly recommended.
Here is a sample of a post to "whet yer whistle".

Thanks for reading.
Victorian Society of Alberta
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Defining 1880s Style- The Silhouette

 When it comes to mid to late 1880s style, it’s easy for one to conjure up visions of dresses with severely sculpted lines that were largely defined by an extremely angular “shelf bustle.” Naturally, as with all fashions, they manifested themselves in both extreme and moderate versions but it was the more extreme versions that caught the attention of the press and assorted satirists. One of the most oft-repeated quips was “one could set a tea service on top of the bustle.” 

 

From Fliegende Blätter; Band LXXVIII (1883), p. 147.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s just one example from an 1883 German humor magazine in which the women is likened to a Centaur.

 

 

 

 

Interestingly enough, the above cartoon was made in 1883 when the bustle was re-emerging- perhaps they were ahead of the fashion curve? 😉

All joking aside, to a great degree, 1880s style was defined by the “shelf bustle” as shown in the picture below:

Evening Dress, American or European, c. 1884 – 1886, silk;
 The Metropolitan Museum of Art (C.I.63.23.3a, b)

Structure was everything in Victorian fashion and below are some examples on how the distinctive 1880s silhouette was created:

Bustle, c. 1885; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.2007.211.399)

Please check out the rest of this excellent article at:

Lily Absinthe

Corsetry & Couture

July Book Tuesday

The next entry for our Book Tuesday feature.

Enjoy
Victorian Society of Alberta

The Cowboy Cavalry 
The Story of the Rocky Mountain Rangers
 - by Gordon E Tolton

When Native and Métis unrest escalated into the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, settlers in southern Alberta's cattle country were terrified. Three major First Nations bordered their range, and war seemed certain. In anticipation, 114 men mustered to form the Rocky Mountain Rangers, a volunteer militia charged with ensuring the safety of the open range between the Rocky Mountains and the Cypress Hills. The Rangers were a motley crew, from ex-Mounties and ex-cons to retired, high-ranking military officials and working, ranch-hand cowpokes. Membership qualifications were scant: ability to ride a horse, knowledge of the prairies, and preparedness to die.

This is their story, inextricably linked to the dissensions of the day, rife with skirmishes, corruption, jealousies, rumour, innuendo and gross media sensationalizing . . . all bound together with what author Gordon Tolton terms “a generous helping of gunpowder.” Tolton’s meticulous research reveals unexplored perspectives and little-known details.

How to be a Victorian 
– by Ruth Goodman

Ruth Goodman believes in getting her hands dirty. Drawing on her own adventures living in re-created Victorian conditions, Goodman serves a sour bustling and fanciful guide to nineteenth-century life. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, this charming, illustrative work celebrates the ordinary lives of the most perennially fascinating era of British history. From waking up to the rapping of a knocker-upper man on the window pane to lacing into a corset after a round of calisthenics, from slipping opium to the little ones to finally retiring to the bedroom for the ideal combination of love, consideration, control and pleasure, the weird, wonderful, and somewhat gruesome intricacies of Victorian life are vividly rendered here. How to Be a Victorian is an enchanting manual for the insatiably curious.

Happy Dominion Day!

Or as we say in these modern times...

Happy Canada Day!

Wishing everyone a safe, happy and fun Canada Day, 

from all of us at the Victorian Society of Alberta.

 153 years looks good on you Canada!

New Feature Book Tuesdays!

Welcome to our new monthly feature!

BOOK TUESDAY

On the first Tuesday of every month(ish) we will be sharing books that have useful, entertaining, and interesting information on Victorian history.

Each post will have one book that deals with the History of Western Canada and one that deals with the greater Victorian World outside of Western Canada.

To get things rolling here are the first two books for you to check out.

Thanks for reading.
The Victorian Spectator.

~~~~~~~~~~ BOOK TUESDAY ~~~~~~~~~~

Ranching with Lords & Commons

By John Craig

 Ranching with Lords & Commons, originally published in 1903, tells the fascinating story of Alberta's famous Oxley Ranch from the perspective of John R. Craig, Oxley's former manager. Craig's passion and knowledge shine through in this overview of what the cattle business was really like when ranching got underway in the late 1800s. In writing about his experiences, Craig's intention was to provide "faithful reproductions of actual facts in the pioneer life of the western cattleman." This story—and the history it reveals—provides an entertaining and informative account of the early days of Alberta's cattle industry.

 

I feel I am justified in presenting a narrative which has the double merit of novelty and truth, and which at the same time serves to relieve me from responsibility for the shortcomings and eccentricities—to put it mildly—of the aristocratic cattlemen with whom it was my lot for some years to be associated, and who are indicated in the title as lords and commons.—John R. Craig

Available at AMAZON and fine used bookstores.

~~~~~~~~

The Victorian Internet:
The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers

by Tom Standage

 The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from the eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.

Available at AMAZON



I am running a regular post "From the Wire" on our FaceBook page with interesting little bits of telegraphic history.
Check it out!
--Ed.