1. "The Chatterbox"
Posted by Kat on Dec-26th-02 at 5:26 AM

I had never heard of this paper.  Apparently it was a premiere children's booklet published in Britain but eventually printed in Boston.

It usually takes a child of a certain age, to become interested in reading and to develope a life-long love of literature,,,which we think Lizzie may have had.  Emma probably had her on her knee for stories until 1865, or got too big...

Can you picture Lizzie, around 1870, enjoying these magazines?


http://homepages.tesco.net/~frank.skinner/Chatterbox/Chatterbox.htm

Thanks for the interesting link, Kat.  Lizzie probably had Emma read her that story on page 193 over and over; He never made his mother smile.......Hmmmm. 

You've got good eyes!

I liked the little boy feeding the birds......

Here are some other books that Lizzie may have read or Emma too for that matter.  Useful leisure was the name of the game.

Olive Logan. Get Thee Behind Me Satan! New York: Adams, Victor, & Co., 1872.

Deemed a "woman-book" by the author, this progressive and liberal series of lectures challenged traditional gender roles for women, and also for children: "I should very much like to be abolished the absurd notion that athletics should be confined to boys...On the other hand, if a boy feels like learning to crochet, or do worsted work, let not these tastes be interfered with."
 

     
E. Landells. The Girl's Own Toymaker and Book of Recreation. Boston: Cyrus G. Cooke, 1861.

Filled with numerous activities for young girls, this book offers hours of enjoyment. Projects include paper toys, puzzles, doll clothes, doll furniture, and ornamental fancywork.
 

"Needle-Book in Crochet". Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine. 1862.

Needlecases were often the first item a child would sew, knit, or crochet, They served as appropriate gifts to family and close friends.
                                                                  DOLL CLOTHES
The making of doll's clothes prepared young girls for the inevitable task of fashioning their own wardrobe. Popular periodicals, such as Godey's Lady's Book and Peterson's Magazine, provided a wide variety of patterns for doll clothes. Using the patterns as a guide, Mothers taught their daughters how to draw paper patterns, cut material, and assemble each garment. Gowns, undergarments, stockings, muffs, shoes, and hats completed the doll's ensemble.

"Work Department, Fashionably Dressed Doll." Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine," July 1868.
 
WORKTABLE
Many Victorian women owned worktables and workbaskets to store needlework supplies. In The American Woman's Home, published in 1869, Catharine Beecher provides a detailed description of the contents required for a proper workbasket:

"It is very important to neatness, comfort, and success in sewing, that a lady's work-basket should be properly fitted up. The following articles are needful to the mistress of a family: a large basket to hold work; having it fastened to a smaller basket or box, containing a needle-book in which are needles of every size, both blunts and sharps, with a larger number of those sizes most used; also small and large darning-needles, for woolen, cotton, and silk; two tape needles, large and small; nice scissors for fine work, button-hole scissors; an emery bag; two balls of white and yellow wax; and two thimbles, in case one should be mislaid. When a person is troubled with damp fingers, a lump of soft chalk in a paper is useful to rub on the ends of the fingers." "Besides this box, keep in the basket common scissors; small shears; a bag containing spools of white and another of colored cotton thread, and another for silks wound on spools or papers; a box or bag for nice buttons, and another for more common ones; a bag containing silk braid, welting cords, and galloon binding. Small rolls of pieces of white and brown linen and cotton are also often needed. A brick pin cushion is a great convenience in sewing and better than screw cushions. It is made by covering half a brick with cloth, putting a cushion on top, and covering it tastefully. It is very useful to hold pins and needles while sewing, and to fasten long seams when basting and sewing."

William A. Alcott. The Young Woman's Guide to Excellence. Boston: Waite, Pierce, & Company, 1845.

In an effort to encourage women to exercise, Alcott offers this suggestion: "Spinning is so far out of date, that it might be useless for me to recommend it to the young wife to betake herself to the wheel any part of the day. And yet very few kinds of exercise within doors, are better for many of the class of females for whom I am writing, than spinning wool, &c., on an old fashioned wheel."
  

     
Catharine E. Beecher. A Treatise on Domestic Economy for the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School. Boston: Marsh, Lyon, and Webb, 1841.

Practical instructions on cooking, childcare, family health, education, and overall household management made this one of the most popular books of the nineteenth century. A revision entitled The American Woman's Home was published in 1869.
  

     
Edwin Hubbell Chapin. Duties of Young Women. Boston: George W. Briggs, 1848.

Chapin warns his readers that idleness will lead to immorality, and ultimately the degradation of society. He suggests women fill idle hours producing decorative art, in particular needlework, which is indicative of a civilized and moral culture: "The difference between civilization and barbarism is indicated not only by the increase of intellectual and moral power, and of all those useful elements which build up and consolidate society, but by those ornamental accessories, those beautiful productions of art, which evince a refined and luxuriant culture."
  

     
Lydia Maria Child. The Frugal Housewife. Boston: Carter and Hender, 1838.

Lydia Maria Child shares her knowledge of thrift and home management in The Frugal Housewife. In 1832, after seven editions, the book was renamed The American Frugal Housewife for European distribution. Regarding useful leisure, Child recommends that "nothing be lost. I mean fragments of time, as well as materials. Nothing should be thrown away so long as it is possible to make any use of it, however trifling that use may be; and whatever be the size of a family, every member should be employed either in earning or saving money."
  

     
The Gift for Good Girls, Containing the Good Girl's Book, and The Spring Flowers, edited by Mrs. S. J. Hale. New York: Edward Dunigan and Brother, [1845].

This guide to female domesticity illustrates the lives of over a dozen young girls. Chapters include "The Good-natured Little Girl," "The Persevering Little Girl," and "The Orderly Little Girl."
  

     
Letters to a Very Young Lady. Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union, 1843.

A "Minister of the Gospel" provides sage advice to a "Very Young Lady" in this collection of fictional correspondence: "I do not forbid you to spend some of your time on ornamental work in lace, embroidery, and the like. In every age and country, this has been the entertainment and occupation of your sex. It takes up many a spare moment, enlivens company, enables one to gratify friends, furnishes cheap presents, and prepares for more solid and useful labours."
  

     
Harvey Newcomb. Anecdotes for Girls. Boston: Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln, 1848.

Newcomb professes that a failure to comply with Victorian ideals of womanhood will result in loneliness, poverty, and immorality: "Poor and helpless will that woman be, who does not learn, when a girl, to employ her hands in useful labor."

From the site:

http://www.librarycompany.org/HookBook/case2labels.htm
  

The description of the sewing basket sounds familiar.
Our mother had a green rattan sewing basket that still holds all the needles and pincushion, and tapes and threads, pinking shears and measuring chalk.  She was quite good at sewing.  It was a useful, and creative outlet for a mother of 5 on a budget.  Too bad I hated it.  I would rather mow the lawn than sew, if I had to choose.
I remember, as a girl, those yarn sewing cards.  You "sewed" a "by numbers" picture, with thick yarn.  THAT, I could do for hours!

There is also around here, I think in the cedar chest, a knitting bag with some knit works inside.  This was a fabric bag that had two wooden handles.  Our mother didn't knit, so this was her grandmother's.

The "spinning" exercise sounds like using a bicycle?  Did that contraption have 2 pedals one pumped?  And broad movements of the arms?

Heres a link to a site that probably can explain it better than I can.
http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/wheel-styles.html

I did some spinning in a fibrearts class I took, the spinning wheel we used had one pedal to make the big wheel go and you use one hand to pull and twist the material that will be spun into yarn.  Its alot of work, from washing the wool, carding it, spinning it into yarn, making a natural dye bath and then dying the yarn, hanging it to dry and then finally weaving it or crocheting it, knitting, etc.  Whew! 

Thanks, that was cool!
Sounds like you would only build up one side of your body?
There was a wheel with 2 pedals tho...
Did the yarn & dye smell?

Yes!  It smelled like lanolin and it got all over your fingers which is good for your skin, but, oh so greasy!