One of the first things I do when I put on makeup is to dab my cheeks with a bit of blush. I have always loved the effect and while blush has taken a back seat to eyeliner and contouring more recently, it is still a part of my most basic leaving the house routine. [...]
Something about springtime makes me think of picnics and afternoon tea. Last year I wrote a post that I enjoyed from start to finish on planning a Victorian picnic. I enjoyed the post so much that I referred to it for recipes to make finger sandwiches for an Easter brunch that I attended this year. [...]
It might just be me, but I absolutely love Downton Abby scenes where dining etiquette is discussed. From the downstairs staff being trained to how things played out upstairs, I find the details so intriguing; especially considering how much things have changed since. Victorian table etiquette carried over into the first decades of the 20th [...]
When it comes to the holidays, some things change and some things stay very much the same. One thing that has changed since the Victorian era is that fewer cards are now sent for the holidays. While we now typically see mass amounts of cards being sent for Mother’s Day, Christmas, and to a lesser [...]
Do you hang mistletoe in your home over the holiday season? Do you know that of all the holiday traditions that have both ancient and pagan roots that this is one is among the oldest? Or that it was ever-so-saucy Victorians that turned it into the kissing ritual as we know it today? The history [...]
Flirting in the Victorian era was a very involved affair. Rather than the very direct ways that we might express our interest in someone today, looking for romance in the 19th century was about looking for one of the few socially-appropriate ways to engage with the opposite sex and then behaving even more carefully. I [...]
It has been such a fun year of writing for Recollections! About this time one year ago I did a lovely series on the delightful documentary A Very British Romance featuring one of my favorite historians, the fabulous Lucy Worsley. One of the things that I learned whilst watching the documentary is that at the [...]
The holidays are here, and boy, don’t we all need it? It’s been a year of struggles for all of us, and I can tell how much people are looking forward to being with their families and to enjoying some comforts as we wait for the fresh start of the new year. And some of [...]
As a blogger of the history of fashion, I am always interested when I see a surge of interest in a particular trend of the past. One such thing that I’ve noticed is the attention given to the hair jewelry of the Victorian era. While such pieces have been on display in museums and passed [...]