Posts Categorized: 19th century
Instead of “Fashion Friday,” today will be “Flashback Friday.” I’m re-posting an earlier piece on seance cons in the 19th century, and the devices used. Enjoy! The Entertainment Circuit We often think of seances as events held inside private homes, sort of like consulting a fortune-teller’s tent at a carnival. Certainly, many mediums worked in…
While I’m off watching my oldest get his diploma (where’s my hankie?), here’s a post from the beginning of the year that you might enjoy. I’ll be back soon! Kathy The Age of Larceny Historian Timothy Gilfoyle, in “Street-rats and gutter-snipes: child pickpockets and street culture in New York City, 1850-1900,” (published in Journal of…
Today we’re wrapping up the spiritualism series with some of those “gotcha” moments, sometimes funny, sometimes pathetic, when frauds were exposed in public. “GOTCHA” METHOD 1: Professional De-bunkers 1 person likes this post. Like Unlike
the Fox sisters, Leah, Margaret, and Kate The Fox sisters: Seances (whereby a spirit is summoned to communicate with the living) became quite popular in the 1800s, due in large part to the Fox sisters. In 1848, the first recorded spirit-rapping in America took place when Margaret and Kate Fox attempted to communicate with the…
The game of basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith for the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Massachusetts. In 1892, Senda Berenson Abbott started the first women’s basketball program at Smith College, making modifications to the rules for women’s play. 2 people like this post. Like Unlike
Hartford switched all of its trolleys from horse-drawn to electric in 1893. It was the primary way the residents got around, and operated daily from 5am-1am. It was a nickel fare, with free transfers. This photo is of a closed car, but there were also open cars between May and October, much like SF’s cable…