When Sarah Chrisman’s husband gave her a corset for her 29th birthday, little did she know how much it would change her life.
Continue reading “Book Review: Victorian Secrets, a Corset Memoir”
I recently published an article based on my master’s thesis about Darwinism and facial hair. Take a look here!
Naturalia bloomed in the Victorian period. People filled their parlors with ferns, terrariums, aquariums, shell collections, and taxidermy. Fondness for the natural world literally translated from parlor to person. Flowers, fruit, furs, birds, feathers, reptiles, and mice were popular decoration for the fashionable accessories of the late nineteenth-century and predominantly so on women’s hats.
[Image credit: Silk bonnet with birds, ca. 1890, Metropolitan Museum of Art]
The movie Ten Days in a Madhouse recently premiered, which is based on Victorian journalist Nellie Bly’s exposé on the Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum in New York City. As a costumed interpreter of the famous journalist and overall Nellie Bly fan, I felt obligated to see the film. So, one morning, I, along with three senior citizens, sat for approximately two hours of disappointment.
I recently debuted my living history presentation, “From Sidelines to Headlines: The Intrepid Nellie Bly” at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, CT.
19th Century Ghosts 