Books with title A Day in a Colonial Home

This illustrated book was published in 1921.PREFACE The average home to-day has conveniences to meet thedemands of comfortable living. The heating and lightingare good. In nearly every home may be found a living roomwhere the family assembles for rest and recreation. Herethey read, sew, chat and discuss the news. Similar scenesoccurred in the colonial days, but in quite a different room.The kitchen took the place of our modern living room. Thelife of the colonists centered in it, for in the kitchen was thefireplace, often the one source of heat in the whole house.Its warmth and cheer and its uses as a place for cookingmade it the heart of the home. Here it was that the familyinterests and activities were centered; still the family groupcollected here to share the joys and sorrows of life..........................................................................Book excerpt:A father came into the Newark Museum to ask help of the educational adviser. "I cannot get my children interested in their ancestors,'' said he. "They don't feel any pride in being descended from a lady who came over in the Mayflower. They say, *0h, Charlie's uncle came over in a private yacht, and Mike's brother is going over in an aeroplane.' What shall I do? If we were living at the old homestead, I could show them the hole in the shutter through which the Indian shot their great-uncle, and the oven by the fireside where their great-grand-mother cooked for the continental soldiers, and the wedding dress of their grandmother. But the old place was sold, and everything is scattered." "Bring your children to the Museum," said the educational adviser. "We will show them colonial costumes and candle-molds and Indian arrows."

When the first settlers landed on American shores, the difficulties in finding or making shelter must have seemed ironical as well as almost unbearable. The colonists found a land magnificent with forest trees of every size and variety, but they had no sawmills, and few saws to cut boards; there was plenty of clay and ample limestone on every side, yet they could have no brick and no mortar; grand boulders of granite and rock were everywhere, yet there was not a single facility for cutting, drawing, or using stone.

Excerpt from A Day in a Colonial HomeIt was this need to see the real things that caused the Museum to build in its big hall at the top of the Newark Library a colonial kitchen, and fill it with colonial furnishings. Then the students from the Normal School dressed up in colonial clothes and went to work in the kitchen, spinning, making candles, and sewing carpet rags, and explaining these things to the children who flocked in to visit them.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Could you identify a sausage gun if you had to? How about a plate warmer or a well-sweep? Any idea how the term log-rolling really originated? Alice Morse Earle (1851–1911), a prolific popular historian and the first American to chronicle everyday life and customs of the colonial era, describes what these and many other obscure utensils were and how they were used. She also conveys a vivid picture of home production of textiles, colonial dress, transportation, religious and social practices, the care of flower gardens, colonial neighborliness, and other aspects of early American life.Widely read when it was first published in 1898, this fascinating and wonderfully readable guide was instrumental in promoting a renewed interest in everyday life of bygone times. Today, it offers history buffs, collectors, and other interested readers a feast of delightful information.