I did finally make doughnuts the other day. I settled on a recipe from this 1935 booklet, "Be an Artist at the Gas Range" by The Mystery Chef: If I was better at graphics I'd have the back cover and front cover lined up better, but I hope you get the idea. Don't you just … Continue reading Doughnut report
Author: historylive
Prenuptial agreement, 18th-century style
Listening to a program on the radio today reminded me of a 1789 prenuptial agreement that I ran across while doing a title search in Stratford a while back. Before I give you the transcript, though, I should make sure you understand why it's interesting. First, such agreements were rare. Second, the reason they were … Continue reading Prenuptial agreement, 18th-century style
Dog power
A lot of the really amusing things in the historical life turn up while doing research. As an example, Bill (my spouse) was looking for data about 19th-century industries in Hartford. So he opened up our copy of The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, Vol. I (a 700-page leatherbound tome printed in 1886) to … Continue reading Dog power
Doughnut versification
So, here I am, snowed in and looking through my vintage cooking pamphlets for doughnut recipes, and I discover that The New Home Cook Book (1926, Latest Revised Edition) offers no fewer than nine recipes for doughnuts. And one of them (p. 36) goes like this: Doughnuts. One cup sugar, one cup milk, Two eggs … Continue reading Doughnut versification
Handwriting
A historian doing original research will usually find herself working with handwritten historic documents. These can include letters, diaries, account books, census pages, tax records, and anything else that people think they need to write down. And some of those people have difficult handwriting. Sometimes it's a matter of style. A certain late nineteenth-century town … Continue reading Handwriting
Old scholars never die …
... they just stop adding to their libraries. Seriously, today we visited an excellent used bookstore and added to our personal library the following: The History of American Sailing Ships by Howard I. Chapelle; Dams and Other Disasters: A Century of the Army Corps of Engineers in Civil Works by Arthur E. Morgan; The Royal … Continue reading Old scholars never die …
Kristen Noble Keegan, Historical Geographer 