Because of my interest in paper dolls, I have wanted to research the origins of Dolly Dingle for a while now. What I have uncovered is the illustrious career of a pioneering female artist, Grace Drayton. You will no doubt be familiar with some of her most well-known cartoons, which she was creating during a [...]
Paisley prints are among the most popular here at Recollections, and certainly around the world and through time. The pattern is so popular that it is easy to take it for granted as just sort of always been around without putting much thought into how it became so ubiquitous. At least, that is how I [...]
Some people like to dress up, and some people don’t. Personally, nothing makes me feel more regal and confident than a full skirt with a petticoat underneath. Besides this, most of the fashion trends that I have studied involve women’s clothing that required a petticoat to wear properly, yet I have never done much reading [...]
We recently heard from a customer who wrote in to let the Recollections team know how much she was enjoying her new jacket. We always love hearing from happy customers, but when we learned that the jacket had been purchased to wear at the Port Townsend Victorian festival that she was helping to organize, we [...]
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, readers! This is an extra special year for this holiday as many local celebrations are being held for the first time in two years. We would like to celebrate along with you and have put together a fun roundup of articles, historical images, videos, and vintage recipes for you to browse [...]
I thought a post on the early history of bookmobiles would be of interest to our readers. I quickly found when beginning my research a couple of weeks ago, however, that it is a longer and more complex history than I ever thought. After digging and digging (and digging!) I decided that my favorite aspect [...]
Well - each time I think I have gone down my favorite rabbit hole researching a blog post for Recollections I quickly find myself tearing myself out of another one. I have planned to do a post this week on Easter bonnets for about a year now, and when I began, it sure was hard [...]
I love parasols. They are dainty, delicate, and automatically find you feeling demure when using one. While still in use today, they very much peaked in popularity in the Victorian era, when they were seen as status symbols, indications of a sense of style, and yet another flirting tool. I have been looking forward to [...]
The travel bug has bitten me once again! I have been a world traveler my entire adult life and found it challenging to stay put the last two years, though I did gain a lot from doing so. My first trip since the beginning of the pandemic was my glorious Christmas holiday to Tombstone Monument [...]