elaby: (Watson and Lestrade - CJ&EH Empty House)
[personal profile] elaby
We got back from Vermont yesterday, and it's so wonderful to have three whole days before we have to go back to work. Yay for Labor Day! We stayed at a beautiful Victorian inn where I went nuts for the architecture and tried (with limited success) to map the whole place. I couldn't quite figure out the outside shape - that is, they gave us a very bare-bones map, but I had serious issues reconciling it with the inside - so I just drew up how I thought the inside worked. There were lots of fascinating little sets of staircases that led to other halls full of rooms, and they obviously were shorter than the staircase that went down to the ground floor, so the whole place had to have multiple levels. It was so neat. Anyway, the awesome Victorianness propelled me into finally scanning those pictures I bought when we went antiquing.


Old photographs are surprisingly inexpensive around here, especially compared to the other stuff you find at antique stores.

I was really struck by this lady. She has a very intent expression, and she's one of the very few people I saw in all of hundreds of photographs I looked at that day who looked like she might be of a decent besides northwestern European. The year printed on the back of this is 1880.


This lady looks like she's of a somewhat later period (if anybody has a guess, feel free). I like her because she has glasses, and this looks like a graduation photograph to me.


Oooh, this was a tintype! There were a whole bunch of them in little embossed cards, and I chose this one because she's got interesting hair. It's got a name written in pencil along the bottom, and as far as I can tell, it says "Ellen B. Lobman (or Lolman, maybe?) March 3d 1869".


And a guy! I really like his glasses (pince nez, hee!) and his collar... and whatever he's got in his pocket. And his ring is neat, and his watch-chain! He looks like a nice respectable gentleman :3 No date, and men's clothing doesn't change quickly enough that I can tell, non-expert that I am.


This one isn't dated either. I like the way she's looking off-camera, with the light from behind her. Her one-shoulder ruffle is, um, interesting ^^;; but I really like her hair comb.


Hee, I love this lady XD She's so happy, and normally people don't smile at all in these pictures. I was lucky to find them looking serene, even, since most of them looked very serious. I have no idea when she's from either, but she definitely looks like she's wearing a corset (hung with tassels, no less!). I wonder if she's an actress.


This is one of my favorite pictures. He's so little! He looks like he's about 16. He can't be very old, anyway, just old enough to grow that moustache :3 He's got a cute little bow-tie, and a watch chain, and aww.


I liked this one because I'd seen so few that were almost from the back like this. It shows her hairstyle really well, and the details of her collar.


That's it for pictures! Now here are a bunch of ads from magazines, clipped out and pasted to posterboard and sold for something like five for a dollar. It was awesome. They amused me to no end XD

Coats! Very dashing :3


A corset ad and bizarre sentence structure all in one ad! "As Graceful as the New Woman all the time - at work, a-wheel, in negligee - is she who wears a G-D Bicycle Waist." *giggles* Just one dollar! 18-30 inch waists!


I thought this was pretty. Nice hat, too.


Corsets of all sorts! For every imaginable occasion!


Ahaha, this is my favorite XD Protect your home from moustachioed burglars with the Dow Pocket Door-Fastener! Looks like he forgot his black silk mask.


I bought this one because it has fairies playing in a soup tureen. End of story. Note their hats! A top hat, two different acorn-caps, and what looks like a cobweb (but is suspiciously similar to Holmes's "earflapped traveling cap").



I just had an epiphany - the reason I've been spelling the word traveling "wrong" for so long is that I persist in using the British English "travelling" with two Ls! That makes me feel better.

Date: 2009-09-06 02:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caitirin.livejournal.com
XD Those are fantastic!

Date: 2009-09-06 02:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
Thank you :3 You were very helpful picking them out!

Date: 2009-09-06 03:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] missprinty.livejournal.com
Your happy lady is most definitely an actress or singer, no respectable lady would be seen cavorting about in her underthings.

I love vintage advertisments, though your chosen period is somewhat ealier than mine. I like the fifties and early sixties with their determinedly cheerful housewives.

Date: 2009-09-06 01:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
Ah, I didn't realize those were her underthings! The fifties did have awesome ads, you're right :)

Date: 2009-09-06 05:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] canellaphile.livejournal.com
I LOVE these. And, I'm glad you had a great vacation in a Victorian mansion or something. It sounds really fun, actually. :)

I like the second image. Mainly because of the detail on her dress, and that I just figured out the backdrop is a painting of a mantle. Early Sears portrait studio? lol
Edited Date: 2009-09-06 05:22 am (UTC)

Date: 2009-09-06 01:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
Thanks! :) It was a very nice vacation. I thought the backdrop looked kind of like a painting, too! Hee, I bet it was Sears ^_^

Date: 2009-09-06 01:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
I also love your icon! She's like "What on earth is that in my tea cup?"

Date: 2009-09-06 07:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dave-t-lurker.livejournal.com
Thanks for sharing those!

Date: 2009-09-06 02:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
I'm happy to! :D

Date: 2009-09-06 12:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-arethusa.livejournal.com
These are all gorgeous (even though I have to admit that the stillness in old photographs give me the creeps!)

That last bloke is soo cute! I find it amusing that back then there was no "teenage" clothes. You dressed like a child until you were considered old enough to dress like an adult. Clearly this guy has just become old enough :)

Teenage style as we know it today was such a 1950s invention.

The smiling lady is also delightful, and I agree with [livejournal.com profile] missprinty, she looks very much like an actress or singer. She's clearly more at ease with the idea of being photographed.

Date: 2009-09-06 02:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
Teenage style as we know it today was such a 1950s invention.

I only JUST had this realization the other week! We saw Grease on stage and it kicked the idea into my head. I've been under the impression that there was really no youth culture in the Victorian era - no things that just teenagers did, or ways they acted or dressed.

I love the way the smiling lady is posed, and it totally makes sense, seeing that she's not composed and dignified-looking, that she'd be used to being photographed.

Date: 2009-09-06 02:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-arethusa.livejournal.com
Teenage-ness in general was born from the post-war culture. Young people feeling that adults had made a mess of the world and naturally wanting to rebel against it. /geekery

The smiling lady is the only one who doesn't have that "have you taken it yet?" look about them, lol. I love the insecurity that surrounds new technology!

Date: 2009-09-07 01:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
That makes sense! I appreciate your geekery :)

Date: 2009-09-10 10:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] coastal-spirit.livejournal.com
Teenage style as we know it today was such a 1950s invention.

I think it might have been a little earlier than that. Grammie wore short pleated skirts and bobbie socks with saddle shoes when she was in high school (she graduated in 1943), and I think that was definitely a teenage thing, as later after graduation, she "graduated" to wearing suits and nylons. I do agree that the "teenage rebellion" look originated in the '50's, though.

I love these pictures. I would say that the girl with the glasses was somewhere around 1905-1915. The woman with the one ruffle was, I bet during the Civil War, as her dress has a "military" look to it, and the one ruffle may have been to save material? I'd definitely say that the smiling woman was an actress or an early pinup girl of some sort.

Date: 2009-09-10 11:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
You are so knowledgeable! :D Thank you! I didn't know the bobbie socks-saddle shoes thing was that early. Cool!

as her dress has a "military" look to it

Ooh, you're right. You're so smart! I didn't think about those connections.

Date: 2009-09-13 10:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] coastal-spirit.livejournal.com
You are so knowledgeable! :D

Nah. I'm just old. *gigglesnort*

I didn't know the bobbie socks-saddle shoes thing was that early. Cool!

This is kind of interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_soxer

as is this:
http://century.guardian.co.uk/1940-1949/Story/0,,127764,00.html

I do remember seeing in old 40's movies teenage girls wearing rolled up jeans and bobby socks.

Ooh, you're right. You're so smart! I didn't think about those connections.

It's all that watching Gone With the Wind so many times. ;)

Date: 2009-09-14 12:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
I cannot stop loving that icon XD XD

It's SO interesting, the evolution of fans and fandom! It says there that Frank Sinatra was the first idol singer, and I'm pretty sure the first "fandoms" started with serials in the 1800's. I wonder what made people start getting so into these things? Probably the spread of literacy, and as a result, the more widespread audiences. People could talk about stuff they read or saw on stage or listened to, when radio came around, with more people.

Date: 2009-09-06 01:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janeturenne.livejournal.com
Awww, these! The photographs are lovely--the adorably moustached youth and the grinning actress particularly--but the ads are what really get me. As you could no doubt predict, the structure of the "The New Woman" sentence just about makes me faint with delight. "a-wheel!" "...is she who wears!" Okay, possibly going into raptures over obscure grammatical contortions is, y'know, very very weird, but I don't care because THAT is a thing of beauty. The other corset add is possessed of some deliciously twisted syntax as well. Possibly this was the way to sell corsets? It would have worked on me!

Thank you so much for sharing these, and I'm glad you had such a great time on your trip! [livejournal.com profile] caitirin whispered on Twitter that the mapping was in service of a novel, and I'd like to have it on the record sooner than now that I can't wait to read it :)

Date: 2009-09-06 02:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
Hee! *glomp* Oh, Jane, if anyone would appreciate me pointing out twisty period grammar, I knew it would be you! See, this is what makes you such an awesome writer - you notice how they phrased things differently in the Victorian era and you recreate it beautifully.

Possibly this was the way to sell corsets? It would have worked on me!

*giggles* It probably was! I'll bet it was like those ads now that talk like teenagers talk, so that when polite young ladies saw the ad, they'd feel some kind of connection with the advertisers. Elegant grammar would make them feel elegant, I guess?

Eh heh, I'm hoping to use the map for NaNoWriMo :3 I don't normally post much from them because they're always so awful, but sometimes I come up with stuff that I like! Last year's was particularly successful.

Date: 2009-09-06 06:41 pm (UTC)
elaineofshalott: Painting of a woman with pale luminescent skin and low-cut dress, face in profile. (sometimes we are even pretty)
From: [personal profile] elaineofshalott
I want a product that will give me "perfect comfort--a sound pair of lungs--a graceful figure and rosy cheeks." (Why the dashes and then no dash? Did they substitute them for commas? In that case, what did they have against the poor neglected oxford comma?) Funny how squishing the lungs makes them healthier.

Hee hee! The Pocket Door-Fastener was made in Braintree, MA! (I have been taking the Braintree train for a few stops on my way home from the city.) I don't think Braintree is a terribly prosperous place today, thus may still be in need of Pocket Door-Fasteners.

These are great!

Date: 2009-09-07 01:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
*cracks up* I know, the things that corset ad promises! And the dashes make no sense to me, either. The way I understand it, the dashes would mean perfect comfort, that is to say, a sound pair of lungs..." not just another addition to the list of amazing health benefits *giggles*

I have been taking the Braintree train for a few stops on my way home from the city.

Ah, cool! Is that the red line? We take that every time we go down to Boston, because we always go to the Harvard stop to visit the anime store.

Date: 2009-09-07 07:03 pm (UTC)
elaineofshalott: Aged photo of a white tea-mug with red hearts, sitting on a matching saucer. (<3 tea)
From: [personal profile] elaineofshalott
It is the red line, yes. I interned in Cambridge. The Harvard Square stop is a tempting stop to make whenever I go into the city and have a fair amount of spare time, but I try to avoid it because there are so many things to spend money on. (Bubble tea at TeaLuxe! Books at the Harvard Coop! Yarn at [knitting store I forget the name of]! Sigh.)

Date: 2009-09-07 07:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
We go into that knitting store all the time! The one underneath Wagamama, right? We've never bought anything there, but it's very nice :)

Date: 2009-09-06 10:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dakegra.livejournal.com
the reason I've been spelling the word traveling "wrong" for so long is that I persist in using the British English "travelling" with two Ls!

I would argue that you're spelling it perfectly correctly, you're just on the wrong continent.

:-)

Fabulous photos, thanks for sharing.

Date: 2009-09-07 01:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
You're welcome! :D

I would argue that you're spelling it perfectly correctly, you're just on the wrong continent.

So true! I'm always fighting with spell check about that, and now I know why!
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Date: 2009-09-07 01:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
I knew exactly what you meant!

Date: 2009-09-07 01:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elaby.livejournal.com
That HAS to be it ^_^ I'm sure!

Thank you :) I really like them!

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