Some advice from a Victorian author explaining what month is really the best for fall cleaning & advice on how to get it underway. Continue Reading

In houses of the old style there was either no pantry at all, the kitchen being furnished with a dresser and shelves, or it was merely a small closet to hold the articles in less common use. In modern houses the pantry is next in importance to the kitchen, andContinue Reading

Pine Apple Cheese? What kind of cheese is that? Does it taste like pineapple? Was it made from pineapple? I had never heard of this cheese before. So I sought out, but in vain, to find a modern counterpart. I was left to go back in time and read up on this mystery cheese.Continue Reading

Slate pencils were similar to the chalk we use today. Slate pencils were made to use on slate boards, which were the predecessor to chalkboards. At least two varieties of slate pencils could be found in America in the 1870’s or before. A black variety, manufactured in Germany, which wasContinue Reading

This article was found in The Manufacturer and Builder – February 1870 issue. It looks at how fish hooks were still being produced in the 1870s and near the end of the article it briefly compares to how they were made many years before this. The wire for making fish-hooks isContinue Reading