First Post!

    My very first post on my very first (independent) 'blog!  I shall be migrating most of my existing reference posts over from Tumblr, but I wanted to have something as a placeholder before that.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

D&D Thinkpiece: Holy Symbols

Image
    I've been pondering the nature of holy symbols in Dungeons & Dragons and similar fantasy tabletop RPGs.  They're instantly recognizable, with strong lines and bright colors, and can be hugely fun to sprinkle throughout a dungeon as clues or emblazon on a character's shield to show their allegiance.  Yet, there seems to be a distinct lack of real-world analogs for D&D-style holy symbols.  How did that happen?      Although D&D was created by a deeply Christian man, E. Gary Gygax seems to have neglected the real-world use of holy symbols in his own religion, much less outside of Christianity.  Let's look at how the cross is used as a Christian symbol.     The cross or crucifix is, essentially, the ancient Roman equivalent of the gallows.  As the instrument of Jesus' suffering* and death*, it is the quintessential Christian symbol.  It can appear with or without Jesus (or other hanged martyrs), and w...
Read more

1910s Drafting, Tailoring, and Hatmaking

    There are a lot of resources out there for period patterns from the era(s) in question, at least from the 1800s onward, so I thought I'd add yet another series of posts to my blog.  Publication of sewing manuals seems to drop off after the 1910s, picking up again in the 1940s, but I will try to do as many decades as I can! General information      Bryner, Edna. Dressmaking and Millinery . Cleveland, OH: Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, 1916.     Foster, Olivia Hyde. Sewing for Little Girls . New York, NY: Duffield & Company, 1911.      Ginsburg, Marcus O. Chart of Bias Cutting . New York, NY: The Public Press, 1919.     Goodwin, Emma E. Goodwin's Course in Sewing: Practical Instruction in Needlework for Use in Schools and at Home . New York, NY: Frank D. Beattys & Company, 1910.      Van Rensselaer, Martha, et al. A Manual of Home-Making . New York, NY: The MacMillan ...
Read more

1910s Cookery Books

    All right, the first in the Cookery series !  Once again, I shall be creating posts by decade.  Note that How to Make Bread is a bit scanty on instructions, being largely an advertisement for the firm's new bread machine.  Also, I've separated out the wartime-specific cook books, rather than keeping them in their proper categories, as the ingredients and assumptions can be quite different. Baked goods and sandwiches Cakes, meat pies, fruit tarts, breads, sandwiches.     Blitzner, John. The Peerless Pastry Book . Seattle, WA: Trustee Printing Company, 1910.      Brothers, Minnie E. Bread Making and Bread Baking . Minneapolis, MN: 1915.      Furstenberg, Katherine. Mrs. Furstenberg's Method of Making Superfine Cakes . Milwaukee, WI: 1916.      Harris, H. G., and S. P. Borella. All About Gateaux and Dessert Cakes . London, UK: Maclaren & Sons, 1910.      Richards, Paul. Bakers'...
Read more