The Girl with the 19th Century Curl: Hot Tongs, Setting Lotions, and False Hair
(Met Museum)
During much of the 1860s and 1870s, hair arranged in artfully placed curls and ringlets was all the rage. But for ladies with naturally straight hair, those curls weren’t always easy to achieve. Who can forget the scene in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women when Jo burns off her sister Meg’s hair with a pair of hot tongs?[…]Continue Reading
Ice Skating Fashions of the Nineteenth Century
For most mid-nineteenth century ladies, fashionable outdoor sport consisted of little more than horseback riding, or a spirited game of croquet. But with the winter came yet another option for outdoor activity. In her 1877 book The Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Etiquette, Eliza Duffey states that ice skating “is to winter what croquet is to summer.”[…]Continue Reading
Victorian Advice on DIY Christmas Decorations
(Private Collection)
For many Victorians, homemade Christmas decorations were far preferable to those bought in a store. Why spend good money on glittery trinkets when you could make something much more meaningful yourself? An article in the 1887 edition of Household Words advocates for doing just that, declaring:[…]Continue Reading
A Convenient Fiction is a USA Today Bestseller!!
Dear Readers,
My new Victorian romance novel A Convenient Fiction is a USA Today Bestseller!! This is my third book—and the third of the Parish Orphans of Devon books—to have made the USA Today bestseller list this year as a single title. I wasn’t expecting it. My illness and surgery last month resulted in the launch of this novel being a little less robust than with my previous books. What a surprise to find A Convenient Fiction squeaking onto the list! […]Continue Reading
The Value of An Introduction: Vouching for Someone Victorian-Style
(Met Museum)
Today, introducing one stranger to another at a social or business gathering is simply polite behavior. But in the Victorian era, an introduction was a thing of infinite value. It was a voucher. A guarantee that the person being introduced was both respectable and worthy of knowing. As Mrs. Walter Houghton explains in her 1893 book Rules of Etiquette & Home Culture:[…]Continue Reading
