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A Victorian Passage has published 152 articles on a diverse range of subjects. Most of our growing archive of Victorian Era subjects are taken directly from 19th century sources to achieve a closer look into how our ancestors really lived. We have also been expanding our historical eras to include Early American from 1790-1839 and the Edwardian period of the early 20th century. Latest article added November 16, 2009

Listing all the Domestic Life Articles

What Is Bluing?

If you open any cookbook or other domestic book for house keepers you will usually find instructions on how to do laundry. Inevitably you will come upon the rinsing of clothes to be done by putting into bluing. This is what was commonly used to brighten whites. In it's earliest forms it was used by having indigo tied in a thin muslin bag and...Continue Reading

The Linen Press

To those who love housekeeping or who feel an interest in it for duty's sake, the charge of linen and the great care it requires is one of equal importance with the store-closet. It is a pity to trust to finding a linen-closet in any house. If you do find one in a house that has been occupied it forms part of that delightful...Continue Reading

Cleaning Bottles

Many persons clean bottles by putting in some small shot and shaking them around. Water dissolves lead to a certain extent, and a film of this lead attaches itself to the sides of the bottle so closely that the shaking or rinsing with water does not detach it, and it remains to be dissolved by any liquid which has the least sourness in it,...Continue Reading

The Linen Closet - Tablecloths and Napkins

Most young housekeepers take a deep interest in the furnishing and equipment of their tables -- not alone with the food supplies which are there to be served, the dishes which are to contain them, the appointments which are to make everything neat and cozy but as well and especially with the cloth by which the table is to be covered, the napkins which...Continue Reading

Bed Sheets and Blankets

So much has recently been written and printed regarding sheets, pillow-slips and other white clothes for the bed that it may be quite as well to dismiss them with a few words. In the great majority of cases, even those favored housewives who have GOOD HOUSEKEEPING as a guide, are content for the most part with plain, serviceable cotton. This if neatly made up...Continue Reading

The Shoe Bag

"A Place for Every Shoe, and Every Shoe in its Place." A spicy magazine article, entitled "Skeletons in Closets," enters complaint against the omnipresent shoe bag; protesting against " wall pockets nailed inside closet doors, for holding boots and shoes," saying, " It is the worst possible plan yet devised for keeping them," and inviting suggestions for something better in its place. An old...Continue Reading

Bridal Gift Ideas For Housekeeping

Bed and Table Linen for Young Housekeepers. I notice a call in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, from St. Louis, for information concerning Bed and Table Linen, and such other articles of the kind needful for the "going to housekeeping " of the young couple. Those of us who recall the hours spent in making preparations for that event, anticipated perhaps for months, and associated with the...Continue Reading

How Blue Monday was Named

An Advertisement for Pearline washing Soap - 1892 The custom of having wash-day on Monday has probably caused more inconvenience to the housekeeper's servants, in fact to the whole household, than they dream of, thereby making it a day to be dreaded, and causing it to be called "blue Monday." Every member of a household feels it, from the darling babe to the pater...Continue Reading

The Children's Toys and a Pleasant Place for the Little Ones

Having two boys myself and the problem of toys always being spread all over creation I could really appreciate this article. It's dated November 1887 - It is the first rainy days of autumn that bring the children -- happily occupied out of doors during the summer -- into the house, with their hands full of clay to be baked, their pockets full of...Continue Reading

THE MOTHER?S FIRST DUTY.

I WOULD wish every mother to pay attention to the difference between a course of action, adopted in compliance with the authority, and between a conduct pursued for the sake of another. The first proceeds from reasoning; the second flows from affection. The first may be abandoned, when the immediate cause may have ceased to exist; the latter will be permanent, as it did...Continue Reading

THE SECOND BABY.

BETWEEN the first baby and the second what a falling off is there, my countrywomen! Not in intrinsic value, for the second may chance to be ?as pretty a piece of flesh as any in Messina,? but in the imaginary value with which it is invested by its nearest kin and more distant female belongings. The coming of the first baby in a household creates...Continue Reading