Books with title Home life in colonial days 1898

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.

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.

Though first published over a hundred years ago, "Home Life in Colonial Days" is filled with usefulness and vitality. In her wonderfully readable narrative, Alice Morse Earle provides a fascinating description of everyday life --- the chores, the tools, the dwelling places, the foods, the sights and sounds --- that Colonial Americans knew. Tough not a history of Colonial America, "Home Life in Colonial Days" contains many interesting tidbits about our country's earliest days. It also provides an excellent description of everyday life in America, with special emphasis on New England and Virginia during the 1600-1800's. As such, "Home Life in Colonial Days" would be useful not just to historians and antique collectors, but to writers, museum curators, and anyone who wants to understand Colonial America.

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 we regard the large share which child study has in the interest of the reader and thinker of today, it is indeed curious to see how little is told of child life in history. The ancients made no record of the life of young children; classic Rome furnishes no data for child study; the Greeks left no child forms in art. The student of original sources of history learns little about children in his searches; few in number and comparatively meagre in quality are the literary remains that even refer to them.We know little of the childhood days of our forbears, and have scant opportunity to make comparisons or note progress. The child of colonial days was emphatically "to be seen, not to be heard"—nor was he even to be much in evidence to the eye. He was of as little importance in domestic, social, or ethical relations as his childish successor is of great importance today; it was deemed neither courteous, decorous, nor wise to make him appear of value or note in his own eyes or in the eyes of his seniors. Hence there was none of that exhaustive study of the motives, thoughts, and acts of a child which is now rife.