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theradioghost · 4 years

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...ok what's up with corsets?

I mean, mostly just a lot of misconceptions about how they worked and what they were for. I’m going to ramble a lot here, but please know that I am not by any definition an expert on any of this, just a 19th century lit major who’s studied a lot of historical context stuff for research and fun purposes.

One clarification is, to simplify the complex and annoying evolution of language over centuries, if it’s from the early 1800s or later, it’s a corset. If it’s from the 16th-18th centuries, it’s “stays” or a “pair of bodies.” (I think bodies was an earlier term more commonly used for outer garments while stays were undergarments, but don’t quote me on that.) Stays were basically conical with quite a long torso, and you couldn’t lace them particularly tight because metal eyelets weren’t invented until the 1830s and the fabric couldn’t take that strain. Depending on the fashion at the time, their basic function was to create a perfectly smooth, very long silhouette, push your boobs up, or both. Typically their structure came from cording, reeds, whalebone, or layers of paste-stiffened fabric; steel stays from this period are essentially orthopedic devices (or, and I’m obsessed with this idea: fakes created by 19th century fetishists. There’s a reason the 19th century is my favorite historical period and it’s because everything was absolutely nuts, all the time). They also fell in and out of fashion at times – if you look at the naturalistic, Grecian styles of European dresses in the 1820s, for example, many women were wearing either very light stays just to push their bust up, or none at all.

Some nice examples of stays from this period are this, this, and this, from the V&A’s collections. Looking at most portraiture of women from the 16-1700s also pretty clearly displays the conical silhouette that stays produced, but I’m going to refrain from adding images to this post because I already suspect that it’s going to be incredibly, frustratingly long.

Women basically weren’t wearing structured undergarments before the Renaissance, so medieval stays are not a thing.. Although on a fascinating side note, a few years back someone found a bunch of medieval bras, which we had no idea were a thing until then, so that’s really cool.

Regardless of whether you’re talking stays or corsets, two important things. First of all, they were not worn directly against the skin what the hell, firstly because that is incredibly uncomfortable, and secondly because in periods where most people owned fairly little clothing and a lot of that was wool, having a linen or cotton undergarment under all your clothes helped keep them cleaner by separating them from your skin. Historically most often that was a shift, basically just a big long undershirt thing.

The second important thing is whalebone, historically always the number one material for corset boning. Whalebone is an incredibly misleading name, and I hate it, because it took me forever to learn that “whalebone” is not bone but baleen, the bristly stuff that filter-feeding whales have instead of teeth. It’s made from keratin, same as our hair and fingernails. It’s light, flexible, and becomes bendable with warmth, meaning that over time, the boning of a corset would conform to your natural body shape as it was warmed by your body heat, and would stay in that shape. All-steel boning only really became A Thing in the last couple of decades that corsets were an everyday garment for most women, and that wasn’t because of superior structural properties. It was because it was cheaper, given that after centuries of whaling, there were a lot fewer whales to hunt, and acquiring baleen became more expensive and difficult. Even then, a lot of manufacturers just moved to things like featherboning (made from the shafts of feathers), coraline (made from a plant whose name I cannot remember), cane, or just cording (often cotton or paper cords), rather than steel. They also tended to use spiral steels, which can flex more, as opposed to solid steel bones. The main use of steel in corsets was actually to reinforce the closures, the front busk and the back where it laced.

(Most modern corsets are either all-steel waist training corsets or “fashion corsets” boned with flimsy plastic, but there’s actually a modern product called synthetic whalebone which is a plastic designed to replicate the properties of baleen as closely as possible.)

Then we get to the Victorian period, and that’s where pop culture really kind of loses its shit over the idea of corsetry? All the fainting and shifting organs and women getting ribs surgically removed (what) and generally the impression that Corsets Are Horrible Death Garments.

Tightlacing is one of the big things here. Yes, there were Victorian women who tightlaced to reduce their waists to dramatic extremes, and it was not healthy. There are also women today who put themselves through dangerous, unbelievable things to achieve the most fashionable body possible (tw in that link for disordered eating, self-harm, and abuse), and that article only covers the extremes of the professional modeling industry, not everyday things like high heels, for example. Most women who were tightlacing were young, wealthy, and fashionable, not worrying about being healthy enough to work as long as they could achieve ideal beauty – the same people who do this kind of thing now. And part of the reason we know so much about it is that it was extreme and uncommon even then. Medical experts ranted about the dangers of tightlacing, people campaigned against it. It was definitely not the case that all women were going around suffocating in tightlaced corsets all the time.

It’s worth considering our sample of evidence. You see a lot of illustrated fashion plates, which don’t look like real women now, and didn’t then either. By the late 1800s, photographers had already figured out plenty of tricks with angles and posing to make a model look as wasp-waisted as possible. They would also just straight up paint women’s waists smaller in a lot of pictures. And when you consider surviving garments, a disproportionate number of them are from rich young women who hadn’t yet married and had children, because for a variety of reasons those tend to be the clothes that are preserved and survive. The constantly-swooning women of Victorian literature are for some reason presumed to be representative of real life and the constriction of corsets – let me tell you, as someone who studied 19th century literature specifically, everything is exaggerated and melodramatic, especially extremes of emotion (and men also swoon a lot too). It also seems weird that we nod along unquestioning with the most extreme claims of 19th century panics about the medical harm of corsets (rib removal? with 19th century surgery???) and then just mock those silly, stupid Victorians when we read about things like bicycle face or the claim that fast vehicles would make women’s uteruses fly out of their bodies or whatever.

In fact, corsets were a pretty sensible garment in a lot of ways. They seem really restrictive to us now, but historical garments in general didn’t stretch the way modern knit fabrics do. In addition to supporting the bust just like any modern bra, corsets could actually make moving and breathing easier by helping to support the weight of ridiculously heavy dresses. Women did in fact live everyday, active lives wearing them, including lower-class women who worked physically demanding jobs. Late-Victorian women actually started doing a lot more sports, including cycling – that cyclist at the top of the bicycle face article is definitely wearing a corset, for example. They were used to them, too, and used to the specific ways you move in those kind of clothes, which most modern folks who try to wear that stuff one time are not. One interesting thing I’ve heard is that while corsets helped posture a lot – a lot of people today use them medically to help with back pain and support for just that reason – over time that understandably means that if you’re always wearing a corset, your abdominal muscles won’t be very strong because they’re not doing as much work keeping your posture straight. No ab crunches for Victorian women I guess.

Looking at extant Victorian-era clothing, the fashionable wasp-waisted silhouette actually had a lot more to do with the optical illusion achieved with extensive padding, which widened the hips and turned the upper body into a smooth, Chris-Evans-esque triangle. In comparison, the waist looks smaller. (Seriously, look up some photos of late 19th century ladies, their whole front upper body is this perfectly smooth convex curve. That’s all padding.) Silhouette was what the Victorians really cared about, and padding is a lot more sensible and comfortable than tightlacing.

My basic point here is just I guess that there’s a common and weirdly moralizing perception now that the historical corset was, invariably, this horrible constricting heavy steel cage thing that damaged your health and was a Tool Of Patriarchal Oppression. There’s also a lot of really bad costuming in historical dramas. I just think the reality is a lot more interesting. Also that modern steel waist training corsets kind of terrify me?

If you want more info and some good primary and academic sources from people who actually study and recreate historical garments and Actually Know Things, I recommend Bernadette Banner’s videos (here and here) on corsets – also just her stuff in general, I’ve been incredibly happy to see her gaining a lot of attention lately because she’s delightful – this video by historical costumer Morgan Donner wearing a corset daily for a week and talking about what it feels like, and this article, which cites among other things a really interesting late-19th-century study by a doctor trying to actually gather data on corsetry and its effects. Also for that matter, the aforementioned YouTube costumers have respectively made 17th-century stays and a late 19th-century corset, and seeing how these garments are put together is really interesting.

(I feel like I heard somewhere once that S-shape corsets from 1900-1910ish might have been more potentialy harmful because they did weird things to your back posture, but honestly my historical knowledge and interest drops precipitiously when you hit the 20th century.)

#this. is probably more than you wanted. sorry.#regicidal-defenestration #asks #my posts

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the-busy-ghost · 6 years

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I think as much as I generally am pretty fond of regency romances, my big problem with Scottish ones is that they don’t really tend to engage with late eighteenth and early nineteenth Scotland on the same level as the writers do for England, and it just doesn’t seem realistic so much as a suitably Wild setting for the brooding hero and nothing more. And I don’t need total historical accuracy in my books but like something that I can vaguely recognise as my country would be nice (and although some Jacobite romances are a bit more accurate, I’ve never been much into the Jacobites so I’m talking really 1770s-1830s here, Jacobite romances are a whole other rant).

I mean I’m sure there must be at least some writers who do their research and everything for Scotland. But often I’ve come across writers who have really researched regency period England for their books, and even included some of the important social conditions and background politics, but then they’ve turned there hand to Scotland and it’s this same old ‘dark and brooding kilted hero sweeps the heroine off to his forbidding castle in the mountains, where he lives like it’s the fifteenth century and has nothing but loyal clansmen surrounding him, and is probably fighting a ‘clan war’ with a neighbour, or being attacked by English invaders despite this being the year of our lord 1828’ and while that’s fun sometimes, it’s frankly not realistic for either the actual reign of George III, the regency period, or the reign of George IV.

Apart from the fact that this is a relatively modern period we’re talking about, and not mediaeval, this was a period of immense change people. This was the period of the Enlightenment- of Lord Monboddo speculating about evolution and Watt’s steam engine and Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’ and Dr Johnson’s tour of the Hebrides- but it was also a period where serfdom for the colliers and salters had only been ended in 1775, when Scots were profiting off sugar and cotton plantations in the West Indies and the slave trade (it became illegal to own a slave in Scotland in 1778 but the Scots had a dab hand for colonialism after the Union), when the tobacco lords who gave Glasgow its first great economic boom had just been put out of business by the American wars. It was a time when the Kirk was still able to put the fear of God into local communities but David Hume’s philosophical ideas were some of the most important of the day. It was a revolutionary and difficult time in many places- anti-conscription feeling accidentally led to the Massacre of Tranent, and weavers marched on Carron Ironworks in the Radical War of 1820 with ideas that weren’t so dissimilar to the ideals of the French Revolution. It was the time of the United Scotsmen but also of Henry Dundas. Dundee was making money from the whaling industry and was about to have its jute and linen boom which made it an important centre of female employment, Aberdeen was being transformed into the Granite City and had as many universities as the whole of England, the New Town of Edinburgh was being built in all its classical splendour and the Old Town was still tumbledown and poverty-stricken, while Glasgow was in the middle of its growth from a minor burgh to the biggest city in Scotland and the second city of the Empire, the workshop of the world. Robert Burns was making toasts to the lassies, while John Anderson provided for women to be able to attend lectures in physics (or rather natural philosophy) and other sciences at the college he founded, though women wouldn’t be able to graduate university in Scotland until the 1870s. Scots were becoming a major feature of the British army, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes eagerly. Cattle droving was about to come to an end, and sheep farming began to boom. It was the time of the Sutherland Clearances and all the breakdown in the old clan structures and economic problems and mass emigration and that was occurring across the Highlands- and elsewhere- at that time.

Other than the Clearances, which were partly linked to the erosion of the old clan system in the late eighteenth century, perhaps the most important thing happening at the time which would concern regency romance was the beginnings of Tartan tourism. Because under James MacPherson and Sir Walter Scott and others like them, and especially after George IV’s visit to Edinburgh, this was a time when the romantic image of Scotland began to be developed intensely- its formerly unprofitable and dreary Highlands became wild and beautiful pleasure parks for the rich, the Highland chief, the Jacobite, and (though less enduring) the border Scot became figures of romance rather than reasons to keep Scotland down. Highland landowners were suddenly eager to show off their kilts and parade around in tartan even if many of them, for example MacDonnell of Glengarry, were clearing their clansfolk off the land at the same time. So basically, regency romance is set in a time where the conditions that CREATED the Scottish romance were flourishing (for better or for worse), and yet they very rarely acknowledge that.

I’m a person who’s more into the Middle Ages and I’m no expert on eighteenth or nineteenth century Scotland, so I could have missed things but it’s a fascinating period. I’m hardly an expert in romance novels either- and as I say there could be some out there that DO do their research, while at the same time I understand the escapist side of romance. But I feel it’s just not common enough to rather see Scottish romances address some of the things that were ACTUALLY going on in Scotland during the regency period and the years around it, even if it was just in the background, because I promise you they make a far more interesting setting for a story than a Brooding Highland Chieftain who would have been more appropriate two centuries earlier (and even then would need more research).

Or if you really want your brooding Highland landowner, why not explore the way that his life is different to his predecessors- his relationship with his people not as strong as it was, struggling to keep his estate afloat without driving off his tenants (if he’s a good guy, which is about as escapist as we’ll get for the period), or he’s in the process of transforming an ancient tower house into a fine and imposing baronial residence worthy of a Scott novel, or dealing with the fact that his father was exiled for supporting the Jacobites (and also the moral problems of his father maybe fleeing to run a plantation in the Carolinas or wherever) and yet now he’s feted for his family’s Jacobite connections in the very circles of Edinburgh society that are Whig to the core, or maybe the fact that all his neighbour landlords- usually Scots by the way- are pouring their money into English educations and fashionable carriages and balls in Edinburgh and London while their people are driven off the land (does your local Scottish rake at a London ball give a rat’s ass? Is he even FROM the Highlands?). And that’s just the traditional Highland story with a different twist- it doesn’t even begin to go into the regional variation, or the different classes, or the culture of the cities, or old Lowland burghs and farming communities contrasted with new mill towns like New Lanark, the growth of coal mining, or the Carron Ironworks. That I think would be much more recognisable as Scotland, and probably also really develop the world of the regency romance, where Scotland plays a role beyond that of Gretna Green and Highland Holdfasts. Just give me the real Scotland, its bad bits and its good bits, because that was always better than the fictional version, no matter how many bare-chested and kilted Noble Savage types you throw in my direction (and I like a man in a kilt as much as the next person, but come ON).

On a final note, consider this- this is the period where kilts become Fashion Items, rather than functional wear (oh and they were also banned for a bit before this too). And also why would you pass up the opportunity of seeing George IV in a kilt and pink pantaloons?

Oh and lastly people need to learn what a laird is it’s... it’s a very specific thing...it’s not just a lord.

#Thoughts on the Thistle #Again I'm not really getting onto Scottish romances I just think they could be about ten times more appropriate to their setting #It would be fine if the regency romances in England weren't well developed either but they often are and it's a shame Scotland isn't so much #I seriously saw one book set in 1812 where he's having a clan battle with his neighbour #In 1812 it's unlikely he'd even have enough fighting men left on his estate even if there WERE intense clan wars in the traditional sense #Rather than in the sense of intense legal battles in the High Court in Edinburgh #Not to mention you have preferred sheep to men; let the sheep fight for you

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wineanddinosaur · 3 years

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Wine 101: Zinfandel

Inspired by one of VinePair’s most popular site sections, the Wine 101 Podcast takes an educational, easy-to-digest look into the world of wine. This episode of wine 101 is sponsored by Bear Flag Wine. Bear Flag Wine, we make wines as layered as California history. Inspired by the brave souls of the Bear Flag Revolt, each of our bold wines honors a rousing story of independence. Bear Flag lives to celebrate that independence and kindred spirits who stand their ground, have the good taste to dream, and never waste a drop. Stand with us as we raise a glass to toast all those brave enough to carve out their own place in the world. Forever enduring. Forever independent. Bear Flag Wines.

Welcome back to Wine 101. In this week’s episode, VinePair tastings director Keith Beavers makes his way through the knotted twists and turns of Zinfandel. At this point, the wine is so ingrained in California wine culture, that we often assume it’s a native grape. However, through careful research, Beavers found that Zinfandel didn’t come to California until the Gold Rush. Before that, it was bred by horticulturists in New England, and before that … it gets a little murky.

As it turns out, Beavers isn’t the first to try to track down Zinfandel’s origin. The grape was the center of an investigation led by researchers at the University of California Davis, who ended up pairing with scientists from the University of Zagreb in Croatia. With several doppelgangers discovered along the way, the scientists often found themselves on the verge of a breakthrough, only to be duped again.

Years later, with mysteries solved and research recorded, Beavers pored over evidence to weave this comprehensive origin story of the great grape we know as Zinfandel. He also touches on the nickname “White Zinfandel” and what it means for rosé lovers, as well as what to expect from a classic Old Vine Zin.

In tracking this story, Beavers followed research that jumped back and forth from the United States to Puglia, Italy to Kaštela, Croatia. Eventually, he worked his way through everything from the Croatian Firefighting Olympics, to a wave of horticulturists turned gold miners to explain the grape, the myth, the legend: Zinfandel.

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My name is Keith Beavers, and “Some leaders’ strength is in inspiring others “ —Ahsoka Tano, former Jedi.

What’s going on wine lovers? Welcome to Episode 23 of VinePair’s Wine 101 podcast. My name is Keith Beavers. I am the tastings director of VinePair. And what is up? It’s not just a rosé. It’s not just a blush. It’s a vigorous red wine. It has an amazing history in the United States, but do we know where it’s from?

What is Zinfandel? What do we know about Zinfandel? It’s a mystery. Let’s solve it.

So what is your experience with Zinfandel? As an American wine consumer, are you familiar with the wine?

“It’s a red wine, and I know it because I’ve had it before and I love it?” Or do you know it as something called White Zinfandel, and it’s pink? Or do you know it because it’s a grape that is so prominent in the American market that we just know it? You know, either of those makes complete sense.

Zinfandel, it’s not our grape. But it is a grape that has been here in the United States, mostly in California, for a very long time. It has endured so much. And for a long time, it was widely celebrated, but it’s really had a roller coaster ride of popularity, dipping up and down in fashion.

The thing about Zinfandel is, it’s never gone anywhere. It’s always been with us, and we’ve always liked it, whether we knew it or not. Sometimes Zinfandel ends up in that 75 percent blend. Zinfandel is actually a rosé that we created here in the United States called White Zinfandel. It’s always been with us.

The thing about Zinfandel, though, is the word Zinfandel is nowhere else in the world. It’s just in the United States. So for a long time, we assumed it was an American variety. But it’s not. It’s vitis vinifera. So it cannot be from the United States. So the mystery of Zinfandel for a long time confounded a lot of people in the wine industry. But in the 1990s, things started clearing up, and the story of Zinfandel and how it got from wherever it came from to us is very cool.

So I’m going to go through this mystery, and it’s a fun story, so let’s get into it. And by the time it’s all over you’re going to be like, “Oh my gosh, that’s cool.” At the end of the 18th century, like literally 1799, in a region of Italy called Puglia in the southern part of Italy — it’s the heel of the boot that is Italy — in a little town called Gioia, a priest by the name of Francesco Filippo Indellicati entered into the town record that he had found a very particular grape in his vineyard. This is at a time when vineyards were basically field blends. He called this grape Primitivo, which is from Latin and means early to ripen because the grape was an early ripening variety.

And then one of the reasons why he put this in the record is because early ripening varieties were also always advantageous because you can make wine earlier and you can make more money. Meanwhile over in the new republic, the United States at this point in the early 1800s, realized that the wine-making industry was not going to happen on the East Coast. There were too many problems with weather and mites and all this stuff. So all the grapes — there were grapes being grown from Florida all the way to Maine — but in New England, there was a new cottage industry forming. And I guess we can call it the hothouse and grape industry.

Because what was happening is you had all these horticulturists that were ordering vine cuttings from Europe to the United States. And they were growing these great vines in greenhouses or like hothouses because of the sun. And they were forcing these vines to ripen early, to make grapes to put on the market for table grapes.

We can actually call it a table grape industry, if you will. Boston for some reason becomes the center of focus for this industry. And this is where an annual convention is held where all these horticulturists provide their wares, they say these are the vines for the grapes, these are the best grapes, there was a lot of competition.

Around this time, just outside of Boston in Brookline, a dude by the name of Samuel Perkins starts building his greenhouse operation. Down in New York City in the borough of Queens, which at that time was considered part of Long Island, a dude by the name of George Gibbs is a horticultural hobbyist and he’s kind of thinking about getting into this whole industry. And I don’t know if this is because of this, or a result of this, but it just so happens that George Gibbs had a neighbor by the name of William Robert Prince, who was actually an established horticulturist, whose father was a horticulturist and wrote books about it.

So I’m not sure how that happened, but it happened, and they became friends, and they got into the business together. In 1820, George Gibbs imported 28 vine varieties from the Imperial nursery in Vienna, which is the center of the Austrian empire. That same year over in Puglia, our priest started sharing his early ripening variety, Primitivo, to other vine growers in the region.

And this vine begins to spread throughout Puglia in popularity. Back over in New England, when these horticulturists would get these vines, they would take very copious notes, because they wanted to document their vines so they could bring their vines to Boston or even on the local market to sell them.

So they’re always listing the vines that they had. And in an 1830 document, it shows that William Robert Prince lists twice a grape, he calls black “Zinn Fardell” of Hungary, but there is no list of a grape of this name on the records coming from Europe. Somehow this name, this “Zinn Fardell” shows up, and we don’t know how.

But somewhere between 1830 and 1835, George Gibbs is bringing these cuttings that he has up to Boston for the annual horticulturist society convention. At some point, our boy Samuel Perkins from Brookline purchases the “Zin Fardell” vine from George Gibbs. And by 1835, he was selling what he called Zinfandel in Boston.

And this grape Zinfandel, it’s also being spelled Zinfindel, is being sold as a very popular table grape in Boston. So this mystery grape is becoming very popular in the Northeast. And this is right before the Gold Rush happens. And when that hits there are all these horticulturists who are pretty well-to-do dudes, and a lot of them start heading all the way to California to strike it rich with gold, but then also to supplement their income with agriculture. Somewhere between 1835 and 1850, two members of this whole society, this horticultural society, make their way to California and eventually become prominent members of politics and agriculture.

James L.L. Warren makes his way to California. I’m not really sure how, but he grows the Zinfandel grapes in New England. It’s listed in his 1844 lists of vines. He eventually is the founder of the California agricultural society. And then you have this other guy named Frederick McCaundry, otherwise known as Capt. Frederick McCaundry. He has his own ship, but he also is in this horticulturist society. He’s known to grow Zinfandel. He sails from Massachusetts to California. He ends up becoming a member of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco.

Around this time, our boy William Prince is out in California as well, and he notices a grape vine called Black Saint Peter that looks very similar to his grape called Zinfandel. Why did he name it some Zinfandel? We don’t know. And in 1852, an official documentation of receiving records shows that a shipment of vines sent from the East Coast to the West Coast, include a vine called Zin Thin Doll. The spellings are all over the place with this grape.

But the research gets really murky around this area. It’s still thought that this grape Zinfandel, what we know as Zinfandel today, was already in California. Maybe it was called Black Saint Peter’s. There’s a thought that if you’re drinking wine during the Gold Rush it was going to be made from this grape so it’s a little bit murky. But by 1860, it is being grown and made into wine in Napa and Sonoma. And this really kind of solidifies Zinfandel in California in the United States, because that same year. a letter to the editor of The Horticulturist, which is the magazine for the horticulturists in California, confirms that the spelling should be Zinfandel. So there it is. There’s our name? Z I N F A N D E L, Zinfandel. And now it is part of our world.

And Zinfandel officially becomes celebrated. And it is a very important wine grape to be grown in California. It starts being grown all over the place, and then Prohibition hits and messes everything up. It’s a long story, of course, but man, does it decimate the wine industry of California, but good old Zinfandel kind of survives through the whole thing.

It is part of the church wine that’s allowed under the law. It’s also part of blocks of dry must you add water to, to make your own bathtub wine. Zinfandel is still around. It never goes anywhere, but why is it called Zinfandel? Prohibition really messed up our drinking culture in this country. And it took a long time. It’s almost like we’re still working on it, but it took a long time for Americans to get into dry red wine again.

And it wasn’t until the late ’60s, when we really started getting interested in wine again, and here is where the mystery of Zinfandel begins to be solved. In 1967, a man by the name of Austin Goheen, he’s a plant pathologist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, the ARS. He visits Bari, which is a main city in Puglia. He tastes a wine made from what is now called the Primitivo grape, and dude kind of freaks out. He’s like, wait a second. This tastes like Zinfandel back in Cali. He asks if he can see the vineyards of Primitivo, and then he freaks out again.

He’s like, “These vines look like Zinfandel.” So he has some cuttings sent to University of California Davis, and then he flies back home, and he plants a Primitivo vine right next to a Zinfandel vine and starts to compare the morphology, or the way the vine grows. In 1972, Goheen confirms the morphology of these two vines are similar. We’re still not sure that they’re the same, but they’re sure similar.

In 1975, the year of my birth, PhD candidate at UC Davis, Wade Wolfe, establishes that the vines show what’s called identical isozyme patterns. I know that’s science-y, but basically it’s a certain kind of enzyme that was used to compare similarities before DNA profiling. And it showed that they’re pretty much identical.

Somewhere between 1975 and 1979 Goheen is contacted by Franco Lamberti of the University of Bari in Puglia. Franco, along with a colleague of his from the University of Zagreb in Croatia, suggests that the Zinfandel Primitivo thing might correspond to a grape they found on the Dalmatian coast called Plavac Mali. What’s interesting about Croatia here is that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was huge, and it covered part of the Croatian Dalmatian coast. And if the horticulturists from the East Coast were getting vine cuttings from the Imperial Greenhouse in Vienna, that’s part of the same kingdom.

So in 1979, Goheen asks them to send cuttings of Plavac Mali to the University of California Davis, hoping to find the origins of this grape. But before that could happen, the winemakers in this area assumed it was Zinfandel. So they started sending this Plavac Mali to the United States, labeling it Zinfandel. Actually at the same time, the winemakers in Puglia were very excited about having Zinfandel, so they started sending Primitivo to California and naming it Zinfandel. And this is really upsetting the winemakers in California making Zinfandel, like “Yo, what’s happening here? We’re making Zinfandel. What are you sending us, and why are you putting Zinfandel on the label? And alas, in 1982 Plavac Mali is identified as not being Zinfandel through that whole isozyme comparison.

And in 1985, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms rules that you cannot put Zinfandel as a synonym for Primitivo, Plavac Mali. Just can’t do it again. Sorry. And now I know I’ve mentioned her name before, Carol Meredit, a great geneticist. She was a professor at UC Davis. She and her doctoral candidate, John Bowers, were using this DNA profiling to figure out the origins of all these varieties. In 1994, it happened. They proved through DNA profiling that Zinfandel and Primitivo are exactly the same. Now, what if we took this DNA profiling to that Plavac Mali grape and see if that was Zin? Mike Grgich, an American winemaker of Croatian descent, had a winery called Grgich Hills.

He actually asked Carol Meredith like, look, let’s collaborate. Let’s collaborate with the University of Zagreb and try to find the origin of this thing for once and for all. Carol Meredith is like, “Yeah, let’s do that.” So she, along with two members of the University of Zagreb, Edie Malantetch and Ivan Pevitj, as well as Jasinka Pilajitch, who would go along to write a book called “Zinfandel: A Croatian American Wine Story,” went to the Dalmatian Coast and collected 148 samples of Plavac Mali. But unfortunately all 148 samples came back as a negative match to that of Zinfandel.

In the following years, Malantetch and Pevitj continued to search for the origins of Zinfandel. This is what would eventually be called the “Zin Quest.” And they would always be sending samples back to Carol Meredith and going “No, no.”

And then in December of 2001, the mystery was solved. And this is so cool. Located between the cities of Trogir and Split on the Dalmatian coast is a town called Kaštela. The town of Kaštela is actually made up of seven coastal villages built around castles that were built in the 15th and 16th century to protect this area against the Ottomans.

In Croatian, Kaštela means “castle.” So, it’s a coastal town made up of these seven villages, and each village is named after the castle. A man by the name of Ivika Rodanitch lives in Kaštel Novi, one of those villages. Growing up, his father was a vine grower, winemaker. They had a cellar on the property.

And him and his friends would play Cowboys and Indians on the property. And he was always “Billy the Kid,” and this nickname actually followed him through to adulthood as he grew up. The nickname just became “The Kid,” which is very interesting, because he grew up to be 286 pounds of pure muscle.

He became a firefighter, and he loved it so much, he started doing firefighter competitions to the point where Croatia had a firefighter Olympics and he would win. In 1988 and 1992, he was part of the Championship of the Firefighting Olympics, which is just awesome. At some point, his father wanted him to be part of the business for the vine growing and winemaking, and he said, “No, I want to be a company man.”

He got a corporate job and he had that for years until 1991, when the company went bankrupt. So he had to go back and start working the land like his father did. And he grew up among the vines. So he knew how to do this. So what he decided to do is mechanize it, modernize it, and replant vines and make it a really thriving business.

Ivika would make his wine, he would also sell grapes to the local cooperative. And in 1999, he was contacted by Edie Malantetch and Ivan Pevitj from Zin Quest through his co-op asking if they could take some samples from an old neglected part of his vineyard. They came in 2000, took some samples, and then peaced out.

Meanwhile, Ivika is still doing his wine thing. Actually, he’s also still firefighting to the point where he’s in his vineyards tending his vineyards, and with a walkie-talkie, still keeping in communication with the local firehouse. Pretty amazing stuff. And then in the fall of 2001, Malantetch and Pevitj from Zin Quest came back to take specific samples from 50 vines in the old parts of his vineyard. And in September of that year, 2001, Carol Meredith personally calls Ivika and says, “Through DNA profiling, it has been proven that in the old part of his vineyard, the origin of Zinfandel has been found in a vine, in his vineyard, on his property.”

So, Zinfandel comes from Croatia, specifically the Dalmatian coast, specifically around the area of Kaštela. But it’s not called Zinfandel. Here in Kaštela, they literally call it “Crljenak Kaštelanski,” which translates to the “Red of Kaštela,” and they found a total of nine vines of this “What is Zinfandel?”

And then in 2002, in what Jedi wine master Jancis Robinson in the book “Wine Grapes” calls “the garden of a very old lady,” they found this vine, this Zinfandel vine, but here it was called Prividrag. And this is where the story comes full-circle, guys. This is amazing.

Further DNA profiling found that this grape, what we call Zinfandel, has been documented in this area in the 15th and the 16th centuries. And the name of the grape at the time was not “Prividrag,” but was “Tribidrag.” And according to the Croatian linguist Valentine Putanitch, the Croatian word “Tribidrag” comes from a Greek word, meaning — wait for it — “early ripening.” Which is exactly what our priest in Delacatti in 1799 called the grape that he found in his vineyard, “Primitivo,” which means “early ripening.” I mean, wow. And remember good old Plavac Mali, like whatever happened to our Plavac Mali?

Well, it turns out that Plavac Mali, with another grape called Dobričić, are the parents of Tribidrag, which we call Zinfandel and Puglia calls Primitivo! What? And Primitivo is great from Puglia. It’s still very popular. It’s grown in a region called Salento, in a region called Manduria, in Puglia, and they range from very bright, easy-to-drink chillable reds to more focused, dark, inky, full-bodied red wines. They’re awesome. Definitely seek them out, and you can still find Crljenak Kaštelanski or Tribidrag. It’s just not as easy to find wine from Croatia yet. But more and more wines from Croatia are coming onto the American market.

But in California where we know it as Zinfandel, I mean, it’s in the rosé episode, we created an extremely well-known and famous rosé from this called White Zinfandel. And like I said, it goes up and down through fashions. And what happened with that White Zinfandel thing in the ’70s and ’80s, it was so popular that by the 1990s, there was so much Zinfandel in California that the actual red wine Zinfandel became popular for a while in the early to mid-’90s. These big, full-bodied, huge Zinfandels. But as big, oaky wines declined a little bit in popularity, Zinfandel kind of went away for a little bit. It’s never gone away. Just in popularity. And there is great Zinfandel in California. You guys should definitely check it out. I mean, some of the oldest vines we have in America are Zinfandel vines, and they’re in California.

There’s actually the old vine, the term “old-vine Zin“. There’s no other grape that we put “old vine” for on a wine label. Of course, there’s no law for how old the vine has to be or how much old-vine Zin goes into a wine. Because of the 75 percent rule, you can have 5 percent of old-vine Zin and the rest young-vines Zin. But there is beautiful, focused red Zinfandel being made in places like Dry Creek Valley and Sonoma. Places like Lodi, and Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo.

Mendocino County is a beautiful, cool region with next-grade Zinfandels. Napa Valley doesn’t really do Zinfandel as much because Cabernet Sauvignon kind of rules that area. But the good Zinfandel that’s made in Napa Valley is pretty amazing stuff. And if I had time, I would go into different winemakers and all the different styles.

But what I can say is this: There’s a wide range of styles from Zinfandel. You can get the ’90s big, full-bodied stuff, but if you get a good, focused, beautiful Zinfandel I mean, it is just great. And talk about Thanksgiving and holidays. It’s an amazing holiday red wine. So, that’s the story of Zinfandel.

That’s the story of a grape that is kind of ours, but really not, but sort of, you know what I mean?

So go out there, try to find some Zinfandel — maybe tag me. Let me know what you think @vinepairkeith on Instagram. You let me know what you think. Maybe even use the hashtag #Wine101, why not?

If you’re digging what I’m doing, picking up what I’m putting down, go ahead and give me a rating on iTunes or tell your friends to subscribe. You can subscribe. If you like to type, go ahead and send a review or something like that, but let’s get this wine podcast out so that everybody can learn about wine.

Check me out on Instagram. It’s @vinepairkeith. I do all my stuff in stories. And also, you got to follow VinePair on Instagram, which is @vinepair. And don’t forget to listen to the VinePair Podcast, which is hosted by Erica, Adam, and Zach. It’s a great deep dive into drinks culture every week.

Now, for some credits. How about that? Wine 101 is recorded and produced by yours truly, Keith Beavers, at the VinePair headquarters in New York City. I want to give a big shout-out to co-founders Adam Teeter and Josh Malin. I also want to thank Danielle Grinberg for making the most legit Wine 101 logo.

And I got to thank Darby Cicci for making this amazing song: Listen to this epic stuff. And finally, I want to thank the VinePair staff for helping me learn more every day. Thanks for listening. I’ll see you next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article Wine 101: Zinfandel appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-101-zinfandel/

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johnboothus · 3 years

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Wine 101: Zinfandel

LISTEN ONLINE

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Follow Keith Beavers on Instagram

OR CHECK OUT THE CONVERSATION HERE

My name is Keith Beavers, and “Some leaders’ strength is in inspiring others “ —Ahsoka Tano, former Jedi.

What is Zinfandel? What do we know about Zinfandel? It’s a mystery. Let’s solve it.

So what is your experience with Zinfandel? As an American wine consumer, are you familiar with the wine?

That’s the story of a grape that is kind of ours, but really not, but sort of, you know what I mean?

So go out there, try to find some Zinfandel — maybe tag me. Let me know what you think @vinepairkeith on Instagram. You let me know what you think. Maybe even use the hashtag #Wine101, why not?

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article Wine 101: Zinfandel appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-101-zinfandel/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/wine-101-zinfandel

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autismcupcake · 2 years

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I know it's not a thing on Tumblr but people on youtube are VICIOUS sometimes like gonna be honest the 18th century is probably my least favorite overall for fashion!!!! There is really no 17th century and regency era appreciation in most fashion history spaces and I personally am v v disappointed (also late 1820s and 1830s a lot of people are mean about the hair but it's so fun you guys are just rude and hate fun)

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lesmiserablesfashions · 6 years

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Hello! Sorry to barge into your askbox like this, but do you have anything on travelling attires and accessories? Backpacks, sacks, trunks, relevant clothing, anything of the like? Thank you and have a nice day!

oh don’t apologize! i love answering asks like this (once i get around to it lol)

ok ladies first, because that’s just how i live my life:

i know there were things specifically called either carriage dresses or traveling dresses, depending. they were made of heavier, stiffer fabrics than other dresses, as things like muslin, while very pretty, would at the very least wrinkle quite a bit during prolonged carriage travel. they were also sometimes a little shorter at the hem, given how easy it is to accidentally crush a hem of normal length inside a cramped carriage. here are a few photos!

^these being a carriage dress from 1816, a pelisse made to go over a carriage dress from somewhere between 1818 and 1820, and two carriage dresses from 1830!

if your lady character has to ride on horseback for part of the way instead of a carriage for some reason, her traveling clothes would be her riding habit! (a less pretty/expensive set though, if she’s rich enough to own multiple sets), which i did a post on here!

though if your character has no horse whatsoever to help her travel, and none of the associated clothes, i guess just her sturdiest walking dress would be her best bet? it wouldn’t be as durable as a carriage dress or riding habit, for sure, but it’s something. like carriage dresses, they were cut a bit higher around the ankle. just a couple pics:

^1816 and 1835

menswear!

men’s fashion varied just a little less than women’s in this regard from what i can tell? it would most definitely be similar in that sturdier fabrics would need to be used, especially for riding. i’ll be the first to admit i don’t know quite as much about this stuff :|

i don’t think there were specific men’s outfits for carriage travel????? not that i’ve seen, at least? given that trousers wouldn’t really face all the same issues in a carriage that skirts would, it makes sense for me not to have seen any specially adapted ones.

though trousers most definitely could be adapted for travel on foot!

one of the most interesting things i have seen though are overalls! they weren’t like what we call overalls today, of course – i think the bib shape only evolved somewhere in the 1830s? here’s a very short little page aptly titled “the history of overalls” if you’re curious about that. but the overalls i’m talking about were a type of trousers that came about somewhere in the 18th century in america, and gradually spread overseas, where they were a popular feature of army uniforms. they’d cover the entire leg, ankle, and top of the shoe! excellent for protecting nice breeches and stockings. i think in slightly later vernacular the word also implied a looser fit? here’s a page on british military trousers during the napoleonic wars, including an anecdote about an experiment testing the efficacy of overalls! some nice overall pics, though very much out of our era:

^that first one from 1793 (lord i’m sorry it’s so far out of our time, it’s just very difficult to find nice examples), and the next one looks like it says 1813 to 1814! here’s another military history page that talks about overalls in the napoleonic wars, since that’s the best sort of source i have the time to dig up right now

alternatively, a man could also just wear spats like this pair from the ‘30s:

another solid option for protecting a few additional inches of your leg. though that overall anecdote i linked to did mention how buttons were prone to popping off during intensive travel on foot :/

riding boots were also very important! from what i can tell, at least. i actually know nothing about horse riding. from what i can see they had higher heels? for stirrups?? i guess??? pic:

ok so luggage now!

trunks i’m pretty sure were the most important pieces of luggage. they’d be keeping items safe during travel, and were designed to be really good at it – waterproofing, tin or iron bases, etc. this also made them often pretty damn heavy. here’s a bunch of pics:

^1820s, made of brass

^these three 1830s ones, the latter two coated in leather

^some unclear time early in the century; leather

^and just for fun this really really bizarre one from 1820. why is it like that??? who knows

if your character is in the very horrible position of having to travel without a carriage, obviously a trunk is pretty much out of the question. hugo vaguely mentioned fantine carrying some sort of traveling bag when she left cosette with the thenardiers, so? those were a thing definitely

the problem is that the vast vast vaaaaaaaaaast majority of traveling bags you can find on the internet are from after the development of passenger trains (for kind of obvious reasons), which is a bit of a problem for us. mostly because i have no idea how much/in what ways the specifics of rail travel would have changed traveling bags??? obviously it would do something (like at the very least make this super adorable bag) but again ??? i’m likely being a little too nitpicky here but whatever

my best guesses (based on slightly later traveling bags) are that the bag would be leather, with handles as opposed to straps, and a bit smaller than a modern backpack. depending on the style, it might either have one clasp or two buckles. i’m not sure about the likelihood of it being a carpetbag?? my brain associates those much more with later victorian stuff but idk if that’s a totally sound judgement, and google is not helping me much right now :/

that third page i linked to (here’s the link again) also mentions briefly military knapsacks and haversacks. it tells us that knapsacks were apparently cow or goat skin with the hair facing out, had two buckles, and was worn over both shoulders. the haversack was more simple, made of fabric and slung across one shoulder. i have no idea how any of your characters would have gotten their hands on military stuff or if you’d want to put that in your story, but otherwise you might be able to just take these items as inspiration?? idk

here are a few articles on the history of luggage, though like i said, most of it only starts once the industrial revolution is in full swing what with its railroads and steamships and all that

so that’s about all i’ve got/have time to get without making you wait too much longer. do any of my followers have anything to add?? this is heavily condensed and i’m definitely missing some info so anything helps

#the clothes you asked for #long post #i barely went off on any weird tangents this time good for me!#but yeah i am limited to what google can provide & it's not always helpful #when heavy hitters like the industrial revolution come into play #also all of my stuff is super super bourgeois since that's the stuff that's saved #which is a shame tbh #fixaidea

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blog-jadeartist-blog · 7 years

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Paper Doll Definition A paper doll is a two-dimensional figure drawn or printed on paper for which accompanying clothing has also been made. It may be a figure of a person, animal or inanimate object. The term may be extended to include similar items made of materials other than paper, such as plastic, cloth or wood. The term also may include three-dimensional dolls and their costumes that are made exclusively of paper. Collectors sometimes extend their collections to include other toys printed on paper, such as paper airplanes, cars and trains, animals and birds, villages, furniture and so on. Overview It's just a flat paper object, but it has such enormous appeal that it will provide a lifetime of pleasure! For historians, paper dolls and their costumes provide a broad look at cultures around the world. Film and theater buffs will enjoy the popular figures from opera, stage, screen and even television that have appeared as paper dolls-and many have. Paper doll royalty and political figures provide opportunities for sleuths who love digging in odd places to unearth their treasures. Those who love babies, children, pretty ladies, animals or fantasy figures will find their favorite subject in paper doll form. And what woman (or man) over thirty does not remember paper dolls as the cheapest, yet most fascinating toy of childhood? It's memories like this that bring many adults back to the subject as collectors seeking the sets they played with as children. There is nothing quite like the feeling of digging in a box of assorted papers and suddenly finding in one's hand an exact replica of a childhood toy. The years slip away with lightning speed, and such a find awakens childhood with all its simplicities and joys. If the collecting bug for paper dolls has not yet bitten you, it just may. It can be an inexpensive pastime that requires little storage space, or it can grow into a hobby as extensive as collecting antique dolls. And best of all, it is an activity you can share with children of today, teaching them manual dexterity, history, fashion and art while you have great fun together. Once you begin collecting paper dolls, they can become one of life's great passions. Paper Doll Milestones First manufactured paper doll: Little Fanny, produced by S&J Fuller, London, in 1810. First American manufactured paper doll: The History and Adventures of Little Henry, published by J. Belcher of Boston in 1812. In the 1820s, boxed paper doll sets were popularly produced in Europe and exported to America for lucky children. First celebrity paper doll: A doll portraying the renowned ballerina Marie Taglioni, published in the 1830s. In 1840, a boxed set was done of another ballerina, Fanny Elssler, as well as of Queen Victoria. These early paper dolls are rare and priced accordingly. It is still possible to unearth paper dolls from unexpected places, so it is imperative never to throw away old papers without thoroughly examining them for these treasures. Early History Paper dolls have existed as long as there have been paper and creative people to apply images to it. Paper figures have been used in ritual ceremonies in Asian cultures for many centuries. An ancient Japanese purification ceremony dating back to at least A.D. 900 included a paper figure and a folded paper object resembling a kimono which were put to sea in a boat. The Balinese have made shadow puppets of leather and of paper since before Christ, although we are aware of no evidence that they made separate costumes for these figures. Many dolls have been made of paper in the Orient, whether folded or otherwise constructed, but these are three-dimensional and not flat. In France in the mid-1700s, "pantins" were all the rage in high society and royal courts. This jointed jumping-jack figure, a cross between puppet and paper doll, was made to satirize nobility. (Pantin is the French word for a Dancing-Jack Puppet.) Other cultures have had special forms of paper art, including China (Hua Yang), Japan (Kirigami), Poland (Wycinanki), and Germany and Switzerland (Scherenschnitte). Many more have enjoyed folk art pictorial representations in cut paper, but these also do not have garments to fit the forms. With the exception of the kimono mentioned above, these paper figures do not fit our definition of paper doll because they do not include costumes for the figures presented. Examples of the first true paper dolls have been found in the fashion centers of Vienna, Berlin, London and Paris from as early as the mid-1700s. These are hand-painted figures and costumes created for the entertainment of wealthy adults. They may have been done by a dressmaker to show current fashions or done as satirical, sociopolitical illustrations of popular figures of the day. A set of rare hand-painted figures dated late in the 1780s can be found in the Winterthur Museum of Winterthur, Delaware. It shows coiffures and headdresses for sale at the shop of Denis-Antoine on Rue St. Jacques, Paris. In 1791, a London advertisement proclaimed a new invention called the "English Doll." It was a young female figure, eight inches high, with a wardrobe of underclothes, headdresses, corset and six complete outfits. Dolls like these were also sold in Germany. Examples of many beautiful and extremely rare paper dolls can be seen at the John Greene Chandler Memorial Museum in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. Mass-Produced Paper Dolls Pre-1900 McLoughlin Brothers, founded in 1828, became the largest manufacturer of paper dolls in the United States, making their dolls fairly easy to find today. They printed their paper dolls from wood blocks engraved in the same way as metal plates. Some of the most popular dolls, selling for five and ten cents a set, were Dottie Dimple, Lottie Love and Jenney June. The largest producer of paper dolls and children's books, McLoughlin Brothers was sold to Milton Bradley in 1920. A smaller publishing company, Peter G. Thompson, published paper dolls in the 1880s. Similar to the McLoughlin style, some of their titles were Pansy Blossom, Jessie Jingle, Lillie Lane, Bessie Bright and Nellie Bly, selling for eight to fifteen cents per set. Also in the 1880s, Dennison Manufacturing Company added crepe paper to their line, starting a trend that lasted for about forty years. Crepe paper added dimension to the costumes of paper dolls and provided countless hours of fun for children at home and in schools. In the 1890s, Frederick A. Stokes and Company published several sets of paper dolls including likenesses of European royalty and America's own Martha Washington. Imported Paper Dolls From the 1870s to the 1890s, European manufacturers produced beautifully lithographed full-color paper dolls. They often represented royalty and famous theater personalities, including the German Royal Family, the House of Windsor, and actresses Ellen Terry, Lily Langtry and Lillian Russell. Beginning in 1866, Raphael Tuck is perhaps the best known manufacturer of antique paper dolls. The company began "by appointment to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Fine Art Publishers, London," and soon opened branch offices in New York and Paris. Their first paper doll was a baby with a nursing bottle, patented in 1893. Tuck's German manufacturing facilities were destroyed by bombing in December 1940 and all records, plates and documents were lost. Tuck dolls are easily identified by the trademark and series name and number on the back of each piece. A trademark style of this company is a set of paper dolls with many costumes and interchangeable heads. Tuck also made "regular" paper dolls. Some of their titles include Sweet Abigail, Winsome Winnie, Bridal Party, My Lady Betty, Prince Charming, the popular Fairy Tale series and many more. Tuck made paper dolls several years into the twentieth century. Manufactured Paper Dolls Post-1900 Among the companies publishing paper dolls at the turn of the century and beyond was Selchow and Righter, who printed the famous large envelope set-Teddy Bear (out of print) reproduced by B. Shackman/Merrimack and Co. (for over 100 years, in New York City) now of Battle Creek, Michigan. B. Shackman, with excellent color, die-cutting and embossing, is known for its fine-quality reproductions of dozens of antique paper dolls, making them attainable at relatively low prices. McLoughlin and Raphael Tuck continued manufacturing paper dolls into the twentieth century. McLoughlin kept making paper dolls, along with children's story and playbooks, after its sale to Milton Bradley in 1920. Saalfield Publishing of Akron, Ohio, began making children's books, dictionaries and bibles in 1900. Their first paper dolls, done in 1918, were Dollies to Cut and Paint, combining full-color pages with black-and-white, creating further play for youngsters. Magazine Paper Dolls In November 1859, Godey's Lady's Book was the first known magazine to print a paper doll in black and white followed by a page of costumes for children to color. This was the only paper doll Godey's ever published, but it set the trend that many women's magazines followed in years to come. The 1900s saw an explosion of paper dolls in many lady's and children's magazines. Lettie Lane, painted by Sheila Young, made her entrance in Ladies' Home Journal in October 1908 and ran until July 1915. The pages included Lettie, her friends, her family, their servants and accompanying stories. The Lane family became well-known and loved all across America. Ladies' Home Journal continued printing paper dolls through 1948 by a variety of artists including Lucy Fitch Perkins and Gertrude Kay. Good Housekeeping gave us Polly Pratt and her family and friends, also painted by Sheila Young, from 1919 to 1921. Grayce Drayton's immensely popular Dolly Dingle appeared in Pictorial Review in March 1913, then again from 1916 to 1933, interrupted in 1926 by Peggy Pryde and friends and in 1925 and 1926 by the flappers Bonnie and Betty Bobbs. After Dolly came the lovely Polly and Peter Perkins series by Gertrude Kay in 1934. Rose O'Neill coined the word "Kewpish," meaning "cute," and created her dear little cherubs called Kewpies, first as story pages and then as paper dolls. Introduced in Woman's Home Companion in 1912, they enjoyed huge popularity, remaining perhaps the most widely recognized of the antique paper dolls today. Other paper dolls and toys followed in Woman's Home Companion throughout the 1920s: Henry Anson Bart and his paper toys, dolls by fashion illustrator Emma Musselman, Frances Tipton Hunter's precious children, and Katherine Share's paper dolls. The fashion magazine The Delineator (by Butterick Publishing and pattern company) featured Carolyn Chester's charming series of three-dimensional wraparound dolls in 1912 and 1913. Paper dolls accompanied by toys, theaters and stories remained a regular feature through 1922 with interesting paper dolls and toys to inspire patriotism during World War 1. The women's magazines also had jointed dolls by Carolyn Chester, Catherine Hopkins and Alida Clement. Good Housekeeping was a major contributor of paper dolls, showcasing the work of many artists from 1909 to the present. Sheila Young's Polly Pratt enjoyed the company of Little Louise, Thomas Lamb's Kiddyland Movies, and "walking" dolls by Elmer and Bertha Hader. Extension magazine, published by the Catholic Church Extension Society, presented a series by Martha Miller of Patsy, her friends and family from 1931 to 1935. They published other paper dolls off and on from 1936 through 1959. Who doesn't know Betsy McCall, perhaps the best known magazine paper doll in America? She came along after a long tradition of paper dolls in McCall's from 1904 to 1926, featuring the art of Jeremiah Crowley (animals and paper toys); Margaret Peckham, A.Z. Baker and Barbara Hale (Jack and Jill Twins); Mel Cummins (Teeny Town); Corrine Pauli Waterall; Percy Pierce (villages); the Haders (dolls and furniture); Norman Jacobsen (the Nipper series); and Nandor Hanti's clever cut-and-fold McCall Family series. A sweet-faced Betsy McCall by Kay Morrissey debuted in 1951. Morrissey was followed by an unknown artist in 1955, then by Ginnie Hoffman in 1958. Betsy McCall modeled fashions that could be made with McCall's patterns while she enjoyed travels and activities all over the United States and beyond. Betsy has come and gone over the years from the 1960s to the 1990s with various changes in style, from the 1970s "mod" look to a brief appearance of a new attractive, modern Betsy by Sue Shanahan in the late 1990s. Paper Dolls in Advertising When paper dolls surged in popularity as toys, manufacturers of all kinds of household goods took advantage of their popularity by using them to promote their wares. Paper dolls appeared in advertising, some die-cut, some as cards to cut out. A few of the products advertised with paper dolls were Lyon's coffee, Pillsbury flour, Baker's chocolate, Singer sewing machines, Clark's threads, McLaughlin coffee and Hood's Sarsaparilla. These dolls were plentiful and are still fairly easy to find today, often pasted into colorful scrapbooks. Later, from the 1930s to the 1950s, companies put paper dolls into their magazine advertisements to sell such goods as nail polish, underwear, Springmaid fabrics, Quadriga Cloth, Ford Cars, Fels Naphtha and Swan soaps, Carter's clothing for children, and more. Children's Magazines Chilldren's magazines were the perfect place to present paper dolls for play and education. Golden Magazine gave us sixty pages of paper dolls by Hilda Miloche, Neva Schultz and L.M. Edens, many of fantasy and of ethnic style. The popular Jack and Jill Magazine is nearly a sure thing for finding paper dolls from 1938 to 1974. Finding those issues is exciting, but sometimes disappointing as frequently the paper doll page has been removed. Artists who created these pages were Betsey Bates (1973); Peggy Geiszel (1940s and 1958); Tina Lee (1938 to 1951); and Irma Wilde. Children's Playmate printed paper dolls from 1929 to 1961 of all kinds of characters including folk characters, siblings, toys and stuffed animals. Paper Dolls in Teachers' Magazines Paper dolls appeared in children's activity magazines and teachers' instructional magazines such as The Grade Teacher (1929 to 1951); Junior Instructor and Junior Home Magazine (1919 to 1931); Normal Instructor, Primary Plans and The Instructor (1913 to 1936); and Primary Education and Popular Educator (1924, 1928 to 1929). Auctions of household goods that belonged to retired teachers are gold mines for these kinds of paper dolls. Doll and Other Contemporary Magazines Doll magazines, a modern phenomenon, have grown with the popularity of doll collecting and doll-making. Virtually all of the doll and teddy bear periodicals printed in the United States today frequently print paper dolls. Other publications which occasionally print paper dolls are Better Homes and Gardens (various craft issues), Sew Beautiful, Barbie Bazaar and American Girl. Sharp-eyed collectors watch all kinds of periodicals for the odd paper doll which may appear in the context of satire, advertising, illustration, fashion and so on. Newspaper Paper Dolls The Boston Herald began printing paper dolls in the 1890s. Two lady fashion dolls –one blonde, one brunette- were issued in the paper, and others could be ordered. Costumes in subsequent issues fit the dolls first shown. The Boston Globe soon followed with their own unusual paper dolls to put together. In 1907 and 1908, a Teddy Bear series was published, and in 1910, a family. After 1900, the Boston Post printed a series about Little Polly and Her Paper Playmates with the popular addition of Polly's older sister Prue, all in full color. The Sunshine Paper Dolls series appeared in The Boston American and The Buffalo Express in 1916. Paper dolls enjoyed a huge resurgence in newspapers during the Great Depression, when much entertainment could be had for a nickel from the comics and the paper dolls that often appeared in them. Some paper doll characters sprang directly from the comics: the Katzenjammer Kids, Dick Tracy, Brenda Starr, Daisy Mae and Li'l Abner, Fritzy Ritz and Jane Arden. Other newspapers had their own paper doll features, such as Mopsy, Boots and Millie. Comic Book Paper Dolls Paper dolls arrived in comic books when comics went beyond the subjects of adventure and heroes to appeal to the female market. Big and little girls then loved comics too, and in the 1940s and 1950s, paper doll pages included with the comics made them even more appealing. Modeling was a popular theme and a career many girls fancied themselves attaining "someday." This theme also offered a great excuse for dolls to wear lots of costumes. Publishers encouraged interest in their comics and increased sales by inviting readers to send in fashion designs. In hundreds of comics throughout the 1950s, one will find names of mail-in readers/designers assigned to each costume shown. Not all issues contained paper dolls, making the collector's search more challenging. Some of these were Patsy Walker, the Patsy and Hedy series by Atlas Comics (1945 to 1967); Hedy DeVine of Hollywood (Atlas Comics, early 1950s); GAY comics with Millie, Tessie, Nellie and Hedy DeVine (Atlas, 1947 to 1952); the Millie the Model series (Atlas, 1945 to 1973); My Girl Pearl (Atlas, 1955 to 1961); A Date with Judy (National Periodical Publications, 1947 to 1960); Sugar and Spike (D.C. Comics, 1957 to 197 1); Dennis the Menace (Fawcett, 1953 to the present); and the Betty and Veronica series (Archie Comics, 1950 to the mid 1990s). Bill Woggon's Katy Keene and Contemporary Fashion Model Comics Katy Keene first appeared in Archie Comics' Suzie (1945 to 1954), Laugh (1946 to the 1990s), Pep (1940 to the 1990s) and Wilbur (1944 to 1946). Katy Keene, originated by Bill Woggon, is the best-loved and most well-known comic book paper doll. She appeared in her own comics -- Katy Keene Charm, KK Annual, KK Glamour, KK Fashions, and others (1949 to 1961). Katy, her Sis and her friends enjoyed a revival from 1983 to 1990 with some reprints of old Archie Comics by Bill Woggon and new issues by artists Dan DeCarlo, Don Sherwood and John Lucas. A charming series by Renegade Comics, featuring the art of Bill Woggon with the aid of his protégé, Barb Rausch, was Vicki Valentine (1985 to 1986). With only four issues of fun, finding Vicki is a real treat for paper doll collectors. Katy enjoyed some new books in the 1990s by Barb Rausch with the support of Bill Woggon, for Hobby House Press. Since the late 1980s, paper doll collectors have been waiting for new comic book paper dolls, and wishing especially for Katy Keene's return. With enough letters to Archie Comics, maybe it can happen…but who will draw them now with Dan DeCarlo, Barb Rausch and Bill Woggon gone? More Comic Book Paper Dolls There were several short-run comic series with paper dolls. Misty (Star Comics, 1985 to 1986) was a four-issue series of comics featuring paper dolls and the art of Trina Robbins. Following in 1987 was another four-issue Renegade Press series -- Trina Robbins' California Girls. Paper dolls appeared now and then in odd places like Eclipse Comics' Airboy, Fashion in Action and Portia Printz (late 1980s), Renegade's Neil the Horse (1980 to 1986), and Marvel Age #54 (1987), the "Official Marvel News Magazine." The Golden Age of Paper Dolls The 1930s through the 1950s can perhaps claim the title "Golden Age of Paper Dolls," as their popularity during those years has never been equaled. During the Great Depression, paper toys could be afforded by all. Despite the product shortages of World War 11, paper dolls were still manufactured, though on lesser-quality papers. Parents of the 1950s revered the image of little girls lovingly playing with paper dolls, just as their mothers and grandmothers had before them. Queen Holden We cannot discuss paper dolls of this era without introducing artist Queen Holden, who began her career with Whitman Publishing. She painted dear babies, winsome children, families and even movie stars from 1929 to 1950. Some of her best-loved paper dolls today are Baby Patsy, Judy Garland, Baby Shower, Hair-do Dolls, Carolyn Lee, Snow White and the Dionne Quints. She created more of her sweet-faced children for Samuel Lowe Publishing from 1962 to 1971. Some believe that the Barbie doll was inspired by Queen's glamour dolls of the early 1940s. Queen Holden was and is dearly loved by her fans for her unforgettable paper dolls. When old copies of her work can be discovered, it is a joyful find. Today, B. Shackman is the authorized publisher of all her works, reprinting as many of her designs as they can find and keeping her collectors very happy indeed. Kathy Lawrence Queen Holden's daughter, Kathy Lawrence, often the model for her mother's lovely paper dolls, is a fine artist in her own right today, perhaps surpassing her mother's work in quality (but not in popularity, as the heyday of paper dolls had passed by the time she became a paper doll artist). Kathy's first published paper doll, done for Whitman, was Tiny Tot Shop, 1969, similar to her mother's Tots Toggery of the 1940s, followed by her darling Beth Ann, 1970. We can find Kathy's exquisite work today in the American Greetings card racks, showing her winsome children, adorable babes and cute animals. Kathy created paper dolls and other products for B. Shackman from 1980 to 1985, so the tradition goes on. Saalfield Publishing Company The 1940s and 1950s saw great popularity of manufactured paper dolls by many fine artists. The Saalfield Publishing Company had Maybell Mercer, Betty Bell, Ann Kovach and Jean Morse in the 1930s and 1940s, Mary Knight in the 1950s, and Irene Geiger in the 1970s. Fern Bisel Peat created many charming books from 1931 to 1937. Ruth Newton's animals in Costumes are memorable. Rose O'Neill's dear Scootles and Kewpie made a delightful book in 1936. George and Nan Pollard painted celebrity dolls in the 1950s and 1960s for Saalfield as well as for Samuel Lowe. Their lifelike art extended to other subjects as well. Louise Rumely is remembered for her precious baby paper dolls in the early 1960s, as well for her cherub-filled Swan Soap ads of the 1940s and 1950s. Ethel Hays Simms is known for her Raggedy Ann and Andy series from the 1940s to the 1960s. Other artists can be studied in Mary Young's Paper Dolls and Their Artists, books I and II. Samuel Lowe Publishing Company A few of the popular artists of the Samuel Lowe Company are Merily Sharpe, who has been compared to Queen Holden in style; Pelagie Doane, who was also admired as a children's book illustrator; and the Henderson sisters, Doris and Marion, who did large groups of children in play settings. Fern Bisel Peat also painted several books for this company in the 1940s, as did Queen Holden in the 1960s. Jeanne Voelz did celebrity dolls for Lowe and for Saalfield, as well as the irresistible Cuddles and Rags and other cute characters. Whitman Publishing Companies Besides the famed Queen Holden, in the 1940s and 1950s Whitman also published the works of Hilda Miloche, whose style is immediately recognized by collectors. (Some of her paper dolls appeared in paper doll story books of the popular Little Golden Books). Avis Mac (1930s) and Judy Stang (early 1970s) did sweet children dolls. Ruth Newton also did her cute animals for Whitman, and Neva Shultz was prolific in the 1960s, doing twenty-eight books. See Mary Young's books for more information on the Whitman artists. Merrill Publishing Company Miriam Pendleton Kimbal created books filled with children, as well as the highly-sought-after Gone With the Wind (1940), which can sell for more than $400 today. Merrill enjoyed the popularity of Louise Rumely's sweet babes, including her Angel Babies. Florence Salter's animals are often confused with Ruth Newton's, as both artists dressed puppies and kittens in paper-doll style. E.A. Voss, noted for her children's book illustrations, did a few paper dolls for Merrill, as did the popular magazine illustrator Maud Tousy Fangel. Western Publishing, Racine, Wisconsin Thanks to Western Publishing of Racine, Wisconsin, many of Disney's characters became paper dolls. In addition, Doris Lane Butler did young lady dolls (1940s), and Rachel Taft Dixon was loved for her storybook, historical, and folk dolls (1930s). Ethel Bonney Taylor gave us Blondie (1941) as a paper doll. During the 1990s Western Publishing brought us our favorite Disney characters as paper dolls, including Snow White, Pocahontas, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and others. These books are still fairly easy to find on eBay and via secondary market sellers. Celebrity Paper Dolls Celebrities and movie stars were very popular with all the major publishers. It was much simpler to portray stars in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, when rights were generally not secured. Studios often "owned" movie stars and their images, and the stars themselves never saw any income from their sale as paper dolls. With images of beloved stars and sports heroes protected today by lawyers and watchdogs all over the world, a publisher must pay for the rights to reproduce our favorite stars as paper dolls. We are fortunate that the images of royalty and politicians are generally free from these restrictions, so some popular contemporary figures can more readily find their way into paper doll art. Movie Star Paper Dolls Ladies World brought us movie stars in paper doll form from 1916 to 1918, including Mary Pickford, Billie Burke, Mary Miles Minter and Charlie Chaplin. The Delineator also used movie stars in a paper-doll guessing game in 1917. Photoplay presented Movy-Dolls in 1919 and 1920. All were ingénues of the silent screen, including the ever-charming Mary Pickford, Norma Talmadge, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. In 1925, Woman's Home Companion did a short series of child stars as paper dolls -- Jackie Coogan, Baby Peggy, and Peter Pan and Our Gang, painted by Frances Tipton Hunter. In 1925, they ran Hollywood Dollies, doing sixty-six different celebrities including Rudolph Valentino, Tom Mix, Colleen Moore, Mary Astor and Rin Tin Tin. Barbie Barbie may be credited or condemned for the decline in popularity of paper dolls in the 1960s, yet in the 1990s Barbie was one of the most popular paper dolls among children and collectors alike. Paper-doll versions of Barbie and her sister, Skipper, were strong sellers in the 1970s to supplement their three-dimensional counterparts. Boyfriend Ken and girlfriend Midge were also made as paper dolls. Paper Barbies appeared in books and in boxed sets from 1962 through the 1990s, and have dwindled to nearly nothing in the first years of the 21st Century. Little to nothing is known of the various Barbie artists until the late 1980s, when nationally known artist Tom Tierney began painting her for Western Publishing. As Tom maintains a wide network of correspondence with his fans and readers of collector publications, most were aware of his new works wherever they appeared. Another Barbie artistto appear in the 1990s was Barb Rausch, whose love of paper doll art started with Bill Woggon's famous Katy Keene, first done for Archie Comics. Other Places to Find Paper Dolls Collectors today enjoy many and varied sources of paper dolls. One may network with other collectors via paper doll newsletters and learn about the latest paper dolls published, sources for buying from eBay and other online auctions, catalogues, and directly from artists, and at local and regional parties and conventions. Speaking of conventions, they're the greatest place in the world to find paper dolls. First-time attendees have been heard to gush, "It's paper doll heaven in there!" upon exiting the sales floor. Greeting card companies sometimes publish cards with paper dolls. Keep a keen eye on all the publishers' racks and review them frequently each season, and you may find paper dolls and toys on cards and even wrapping paper. "Paper dolls" may be wood, cloth, plastic or even magnetic. Fabric stores now sell “paper” dolls on yard goods. Specialty shops and catalogues carry some surprising selections.

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