1860s Dinner Invitations

To help out all of us bored, ladies I am planning to host a tea or a dinner soon at one of the future reenactments. It will most likely be a tea. It will by no means be a fancy engagement but it will serve to give us something to do while the men are drilling. Us ladies from different regiments rarely have any time to meet each other. It would be nice to be able to put names to faces and get to know the people who belong to the same battalion as us. Seeing as my particular company only has two civilians, we decided the only way to get to know everyone is to have everyone over for a small soiree. I am researching all of the particulars because I have never thrown any kind of get together in my life. I will be sure to be asking a lot of people for help.   

Dinners in the 1860s were normally held at 7 or 8 o'clock at night . During the social season (after Easter to August 12 in England, or from Fall to early Spring depending on the weather in the U.S.) it was customary to give out invitations three weeks in advance. For smaller gatherings or dinners during the "slow season" one or two weeks advance notice was considered sufficient. Invitations were written by hand or could be printed up with blanks to fill in with the guests names and the date of the dinner.
 

Invitations and R.S.V.Ps were a must as dinners could be large affairs with 10 courses as is given in the book The Habits of Good Society from 1865:

This book recommends fill in the blank invitations if you entertain a lot printed as below:

Another book, Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving by Mary Foote Henderson in 1876 suggests  similarly worded but handwritten invitations:

Responding to an invitation was considered polite an necessary for anyone planning a large party, the same book gives examples of polite decline R.S.V.Ps

An example of an accepting R.S.V.P:

Invitations were normally printed or written on cards, roughly 4.5"x 6" with a  matching envelope. Invitations were delivered by servants by hand. Invitations were only mailed if a guest lived far away. An example of an invitation from 1890 can be seen here. 

I plan to hand out invitations the Friday of the event and hopefully host the soiree on Saturday or Sunday--not up to period etiquette but it will have to do. I plan to do group invitations addressed to "The Ladies of the 44th Mississippi" and the like. For anyone who thinks they would like to be invited, we are pretty sure it will be at a big event in October, which should narrow down the particular event for most of us. If it goes well we will probably be hosting more at more events and encouraging others to do the same. Why should the men have all of the fun? 

The Secret Garden

“Where you tend a rose, my lad,

A thistle cannot grow.” 

I just read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was one of my favorite stories as a child. I remember reading a child’s version of it and I really liked the movie although I am pretty sure I saw it only once. I had also seen a theatrical performance of it. Much to my surprise, I remembered a lot of the dialogue word for word. It clearly had an impact on my childhood if I can remember pieces of it more than a decade later. I feel though, as a child, the more interesting and thoughtful parts alluded me such as the very well known quote “Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.”

As a child, this was just a fun thing to say, but it really has a lot of weight and meaning to it. Positive aspirations, goals, and positive thinking really do open our eyes to the gifts of life. As we get older, tough classes, hard jobs, fights, tragedy, pain, failure and the bad times in life can cloud our eyes. Everyone has probably felt trapped inside bad thoughts or felt helpless and so buried in deep in despair that they can’t find a way out at all. We all have let “thistles” grow. It is empowering to remember that we can stop thistles from growing by planting the seeds of good and letting good grow in its place. I have found the book to be very meaningful. It is a sweet story with a good message. I definitely recommend revisiting it.           

“Much more surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.” 

“In each century since the beginning of the world wonderful things have been discovered. In the last century more amazing things were found out than in any century before. In this new century hundreds of things still more astounding will be brought to light. At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done--then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago. One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts--just mere thoughts--are as powerful as electric batteries--as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live.”

The motif of thoughts being controllable energy in the book is a reflection of the popularity of the notion during the late 19th century and early 20th.  Spiritualism, was at its peak.  Many "new" ideas were coming out of India at the time and both Britain and the U.S. had a decent following. Most spiritualists believed in God but also believed that spirits inhabited the Earth and could be communicated with though mediums. Mediums and Seances became popular and despite the fact that many mediums were proven to be frauds, they still were in demand. There were many prominent believers during middle and late 19th century including Mary Todd Lincoln, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, and many scholars and scientists. The many mediums were prosecuted in court for fraud, and many believers soon rejected Spirituality by the 1920s.   

Cora Hatch: a famous medium in the 1850s. 

What a charming book! I am astounded that it has lost favor in recent times. Alice and Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes and Anne of Green Gables seem to be very popular recently. I'm sure it has to do with movies. I don't think the movie versions of The Secret Garden are anything fantastic. Perhaps its time will come soon and an updated movie will come out, perhaps incorporating the spiritualism of the times.  

The Virginia Reel : Instructions and Sheet Music

I have posted a little bit about the Virginia Reel before but it was such a widespread and popular dance, I think that more can be said about it. Many people today would like to learn it.

The Virginia Reel dates back to the 1700s and became very popular in the 1830s. The Virginia Reel was originally danced to a song which was known in England as Sir Roger De Coverley. In America, the song came to be known as The Virginia Reel just because of the popularity of dancing that particular dance to it. The dance could be danced to any reel or hornpipe but Sir Roger De Coverley was the most popular.A collection of other popular "Virginia Reel" songs, collected in 1850 can be read here in PDF.

In A Christmas Carol, one of my favorite stories, when Scrooge is shown Fezziwig's party by the Ghost of Christmas Past, it is mentioned that Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig danced to Sir Roger De Coverley played by a fiddle.

The dance is danced in two lines, one line of gentlemen and one line of ladies. There is a Head Couple (the couple closest to the orchestra) and a Foot Couple (the couple closest to the doors in a traditional dining hall.) There are many versions of the steps due to region.

Some different versions and explanations of the steps and other references:

Phantom Ranch: Basic text explanation, no photos.
 Youtube Virginia Reel: Slightly blurry, danced to The Irish Washerwoman and the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Youtube The Virginia Reel: The song The Virginia Reel played on tin whistle.

Remember, dances were learned at home as part of a "proper education" for both gentlemen and ladies. If one was not good at a certain dance, they would try to sit it out. Dances were taught in public dancing schools as well as in private homes. Of course most practice was probably done with members of the same sex at small gatherings. Dances were "called" by someone to guarantee everyone was in unison so you do not have to worry much as long as you know the individual steps being called. 


As many ladies are anxious to learn period dances and many gentleman are far to shy to help them, I must implore to the gentlemen that they take period advice from The Fashionable Dancer's Casket by Charles Durang who states "As ladies are not entitled to the privilege of asking gentlemen to dance, it is the duty of gentlemen to see that ladies shall not sit long waiting for partners, as it is one of the greatest breaches of good manners, that a gentle-man can be guilty of in the ball-room, to stand idling whilst ladies are waiting to be asked." No more Mr. Darcys guys, please, The girls are waiting to dance! Good luck!

I Didn't Die: A Day at the Beach and the Shippensburg Reenactment

What a crazy week! On Wednesday, Andy and I decided to go to the beach for the day. It was very hot but the water was freezing. The beach wasn't very crowded. After a bit of swimming in the ocean and collecting seashells on the beach, we fell asleep under our umbrella. We don't know how long we slept but we jumped awake to find the water hitting our toes! Good thing it didn't get our books wet!

The next day we were told that our friends could not make it to the reenactment at Shippensburg that we were planning to go to. We were upset but decided against going as we wouldn't know anyone there.

I watered my garden and Andy fixed a fiddle on the deck. It was hot and sunny. I tried to help him put the sound post back into the fiddle. Suddenly day turned to night. We both looked up at the sky, gathered our things and ran inside. We expected rain but we were not prepared for the storm that followed within seconds.

Winds up to 75 miles an hour and pounding rain went on for about an hour. We heard trees snapping like twigs and some neighborhoods got hail. Many trees were stripped of their leaves. Wires were down on every street and electricity was out for three days. The street lights and stores were hit just as hard. We could not get out of out driveway, electrical wires were draped behind our driveway and a tree had fallen across the top of our street and another at the bottom of our street. We went out to find some ice but couldn't find any anywhere. We ended up getting Chinese takeout for the family and ate it together in the dark with my grandma. We had a radio run on batteries and flashlights hung in her dining room chandelier. It was a cozy dinner all together.

All of our food had to be thrown out. By Friday, the lack of air conditioning and food, plus the fact that it was very dangerous to drive, made us decide that we might as well have gone to the reenactment. So we did. We had to gather our gear from the completely dark basement using dim flashlights. The reenactment was a bit far from us and we had no mapquest directions because of the power outage. We checked to local libraries as well but both were closed. We did end up getting some old-fashioned "paragraph directions" from a Shippensburg establishment using my Kindle in the car on our way. (Yay! You know our generation, we haven't a map in the house.)

When we finally got to the event, the regiment we were supposed to meet up with wasn't there! We were offered to fall in with a Mississippi regiment and we had a great time. The event was definitely not as "period correct" as we are used to but it was still a very fun time! There were lots of ladies there and we went, in a horse-drawn carriage to a seminar on mourning customs. It was very fun to drive on the main roads of the town in such a period fashion.

The lectures were given by a lady named, Myra Reichart in a gorgeous, period bed and breakfast. She gave information on the Victorian Period which extends past the time period that I am used to but was very informative.

The battle took place right on the main street of the town and many locals came to watch.We even talked to one lady who came to the event with her husband from Alaska! I've never seen a whole town so interested in a reenactment.  Local establishments were very much into the reenactment and left out food for the reenactors to forage. One especially nice establishment was "Pizza 'n Stuff." The owner was very nice and gave the reenactors free beverages regardless if we bought anything or not. It was a very fun event with a lot to do for women and civilians-- I am not used to that! They had a waterice social and a ball. Next year is the 10th anniversary of the reenactment. We are planning to attend.

Look at all of this artillery damage! (Just kidding.):

What have you all been up to? I'm trying to catch up will all of the blog posts I missed reading. I hope you are all doing well and will think of going to the Shippensburg reenactment next year.

Civil War Era Hats, Bonnets and Hoods

This post is for Atlanta at The Story of a Seamstress' new site for beginning Civil War reenactors.

Head coverings were a must during the 1850s. Cloth caps were worn indoors in the morning and also to sleep in. Bonnets and hats were worn outside. Large sunbonnets were worn outdoors in the country. Wealthier women wore hats with veils. Pale skin was coveted during the period so even working women covered up to protect their skin. Some women did not cover their heads outside but it was the exception rather than the rule and an uncovered head was synonymous with a "fast lifestyle."

Prior to the war most women had between 4-12 bonnets per year, the average being closer to 4. During the blockade, many Southern women had to learn to do without and refashion their bonnets with anything they could. Bonnets were one of the first things women had to learn to do without. Makeshift bonnets and hats were made from palmetto leaves. Bonnets were worn in church and on short social calls, this heightened the demand. 

Even the rich could not get new bonnets in the South due to the blockade. Sarah Morgan, a Southern teenager when the war began, wrote in her diary that "Colonel Breaux paid my hair the most extravagant compliments. He said he could not say his prayers for looking at it in church, Sunday before last. Perhaps that is the reason St. Paul said a woman should not worship in church with her head uncovered! But as the Yankees stole my bonnet, I am reduced to wearing my black straw walking-hat with its curled brim, trimmed in black ribbon with golden sheaves of wheat. Two years ago this fall, father threw me a banknote at table, and I purchased this with it. Now it is my only headgear, except a sunbonnet." 

Period Examples of Head Coverings:
Caps

Sunbonnets
 

Evening/Dressy Coverings 

Head Coverings by Season:

Spring

Summer

Winter

 
Fall

Hopefully these pictures will help beginning reenactors see which styles are appropriate. Bonnets and hats were normally purchased and few made their bonnets at home. Make sure your bonnet is made in a period correct style and out of period correct fabrics. Fine silks, velvets, lace and ribbons were used for hats and bonnets, a beginner mistake is to use cotton. Cotton was not used for bonnets; if you wish to make a summer bonnet, leave the bonnet uncovered and add the trim right on top of the straw braid.