Valentine's Day Cards

Giving valentines has been popular since the 1700s. They started out as slips of paper with messages on them but soon they began to be commercially produced in the mid 1800s.  By 1862, according to the New York Times in an article after the Civil War, 21,260 valentines were delivered to post offices in New York City even with the paper shortages caused by the war.











This number jumped to 86,213 in 1866. These numbers did not even include valentines mailed in envelopes. The 1867, article in the New York Times noted that the manufactured valentines had been using the same few poems had been using the same few poems and sentimental notes for at least 30 years prior.

Victorian Valentines were sentimental, comical and normally contained beautiful imagery. Mass produced cards often had spectacular artwork and were inserted in family photo albums.

 Some fun Valentine's Day Superstitions:

•  In the late 1500s, it was thought that birds chose their mates on Valentine's Day.
• In the 1770s it was thought that if a girl pinned five bay leaves to her pillow the night before Valentine's Day and she dreamed of her crush, that they would be married within the year. 
• Another 1770s superstition was that if a girl put all of the names of her suitors on slips of paper and put them in water, the name on the slip of paper that rose to the top first would be her Valentine.
• From the 1700s- 1870s it was believed that the first person you saw on Valentine's Day would be your Valentine.  
• In Scotland in 1866, the young girls and boys would put their names into two separate boxes, if one person drew the name of another person three times, it was thought that the two would be married.
• In the 1900s people believed that if a lady entertained gentlemen the night before Valentines Day, that she would soon lose her social standing.
• Another superstition from the 1900s was if a girl looked through the keyhole of the hen house and saw a rooster and a hen together that she would be married during the year.
• It was believed in the 1900s that if a lady went walking on Valentine's Day that she could predict who she was going to marry by the first bird that she saw: Blackbird: Clergyman, Robin or Sparrow: Sailor, Goldfinch: Millionaire, Yellow Warbler: a Wealthy man, Bluebird: a Poor man, Woodpecker: She would be an old maid.

 

A Valentine to Send to Your Valentines:

Read About the Language of Flowers.

Colonial Games: How to Play Leap Frog

Leap-frog is a game we used to play as very little kids. I don't think we ever really knew the rules but it was still fun. This is a game I probably could not play anymore.

This is played in a line of players, all players except the last one in the line, squat down with their hands on their thighs. The last player in line runs up behind the player directly in front. The end player then places his hands on the back of the player in front of him while simultaneously jumping over the back of the player. The player then continues to jump over the backs of all of the players until he reaches the front of the line.

The new end player then restarts the game. This game seems very simple but the difficulty comes when players fail to make the jumps.

An Alternate Way to Play from 1833:

A Funny College Reminiscence about Leap Frog:

http://americangardenhistory.blogspot.com

Homemade PVC Whistles

Finally I got Andy to play his low D whistle. I am not very happy with the sound quality of the recording, I recorded it straight on the computer using the built-in hardware. It sounds like it is being played on a phonograph.

Andy is very nervous when playing in front of people or when he is recorded. The recording really doesn't capture the richness of the whistle sound that you hear in person.

*******Please vote in the poll on my sidebar if you are interested in knitting a Civil War Era reticule.  I had a lot of people interested in making them and asking me for a good pattern. Please vote so I know when it is best for most people.

Colonial Games: How to Play Peg-Farthing

Library of Congress

Peg-farthing, peg-top, or "ring" is played on a flat surface on which a circle is drawn about a yard in diameter. Another circle is drawn around this one for the players to stand on.  A farthing (coin) or other flat marker is placed in the center of the circle. A string is wound around a wooden top and pulled quickly to propel the top to spin on its own. Players start their top at the coin and try to get their top out of the circle by spinning it. If a top spins out of the circle, the owner can pick it up.

While the first person's top is within the circle (spinning or stopped,) the other players take turns to throw the pegs of their own tops at the top in the circle in an attempt to hit the top out of the circle or to "split" the top--separate the top and its peg. The player who successfully does this gets to keep the peg of the other player's top. The point of the game is to get as many pegs as you can.








After one round of throwing, if no one successfully "splits" the top, another player releases his top into the circle to be pegged at also. If all of the tops are "dead" in the circle, the first person removes his top and starts the game again.

It was written that the tops infequently "split" but it never stopped boys from trying. Most boys tried to hit their own top out of the circle to prevent it from being broken by another player.

The Bridal Ballad: Edgar Allan Poe

Scroll down and play the video first. :D

 

I love Edgar Allan Poe, and while this is not one of his most popular works or, in my opinion, one of his best, this illustration really made me take notice of the somber tones of the poem that at first glance seems childishly "rhymey."   

 

The poem itself is one of only a few poems from Poe written using a women speaker. The lines are simple and read very much like an old English Rhyme or song. Some think that this poem deals with what is modernly called "Post-nuptial Depression." This interpretation could have merit as the poem was published in 1837, and Poe was married to his cousin,Virginia, in 1836.  

 

Poe was fond of the drink and easily became intoxicated. Shortly after this poem was published in the Southern Literary Messenger, his drinking had become so bad that he was forced to leave the paper. It is entirely possible that Poe acknowledged that he really was not the best thing for his 13 year old bride and this poem may indicate his guilty conscious. 

 

Following their marriage, there were many rumors that Poe was not faithful to her. One of the ladies accused was Elizabeth Fries Lummis Ellet, a poet. Anonymous letters written to Virginia which told her of a relationship between Poe and Ellet made Virginia remark on her deathbed that Ellet had "been her murderer." It is believed that Ellet wrote them to Virginia herself. Ellet had been guilty of writing seductive letters to Poe inviting him to meet with her that he did not act upon.  

 

The ring is on my hand,
And the wreath is on my brow;
Satin and jewels grand
Are all at my command,
And I am happy now.

And my lord he loves me well;
But, when first he breathed his vow,
I felt my bosom swell-
For the words rang as a knell,
And the voice seemed his who fell
In the battle down the dell,
And who is happy now.

But he spoke to re-assure me,
And he kissed my pallid brow,
While a reverie came o'er me,
And to the church-yard bore me,
And I sighed to him before me,
Thinking him dead D'Elormie,
"Oh, I am happy now!"

And thus the words were spoken,
And this the plighted vow,
And, though my faith be broken,
And, though my heart be broken,
Here is a ring, as token
That I am happy now!

Would God I could awaken!
For I dream I know not how!
And my soul is sorely shaken
Lest an evil step be taken,-
Lest the dead who is forsaken
May not be happy now.

 

The poem is beautifully put to music by Hayley Westerna. The sadness of the poem is so intricately captured by the music.