Happy Suffragette Valentine's Day!

This post is a re-publish from 2011, because if there's one thing the Internet doesn't have enough of, it's historical information about the suffragette movement.


I am a big collector of all sorts of things. Useful things, like used milk caps. 

I also like to collect old postcards. They arrive to my (and my husband's!) delight neatly boxed-up from eBay on a regular basis. Sometimes, I purchase postcards directly from among the decaying remains of a lifetime in a house sale or more macabrely, from an estate sale.

Some of my favorite postcards are the ones that are both pro and con women's suffrage. For those of you who like a little history lesson with your blog reading, the women's suffrage movement in the United States was active in the early twentieth century, until voting rights were finally secured in 1920 after a long and contentious battle.

The U.S. suffragettes were a clever group, as were the equally fascinating anti-suffragettes. The arguments from both sides are still very much alive today via the slogans of the many postcards used to promote each side's position. Today, these same goals are accomplished with emails and witty tweets.

I have an endlessly amusing collection of postcards from both sides of the debate, and only recently realized a few of them are Valentine's Day related.  I'm not sure why the holiday-tie-in, but as I also have Mother's Day and Thanksgiving Day suffragette post cards I'm guessing they took advantage of all the holidays to spread their message.

Here is one of my most favorite Valentines Day anti-suffrage cards.  It reads "Woman's sphere is in the home."

And although she's entirely on the wrong side of the debate, there's still something so captivating about the quilter pictured here. The photo doesn't really show it, but that's a real red ribbon winding around the bottom of her skirt, and tiny silver beads around her quilt. Clearly, the anti-suffragettes weren't messing around when it came to showing their superior crafting skills while being in their place at home.



If you want to see additional vintage and suffragette Valentines, don't worry, I have more! Just click here.

Thanksgiving and Suffrage: because isn't Thanksgiving the perfect time to talk about history?

A couple years back I posted one of my most favorite suffragette postcards in celebration of Thanksgiving.

It turns out to be actually an anti-suffrage postcard, but still, I dig it.

In case my photograph makes it difficult to read the text is: "This is not a suffragette lecture, but a kind Greeting."

The postcard is a response to a historical event in which "Chicago-area women’s rights advocates {were} pushing back the time they served Thanksgiving dinner in order to go see the British suffragist Emiline* Pankhurst," who was giving a lecture.

So see everyone, arguing over the sanctity of Thanksgiving Day - whether it is to go see a famous suffragette or to shop for cheap electronics - is as American as the Thanksgiving holiday itself.

As someone who every year tries to share with her family a brief but important speech about our unsung pilgrim sisters, I'd like to think I would have my family wait a little on dinner in the name of suffrage - a sentiment I don't share for those in pursuit of cheap electronics.

What do you think about listening to lectures on Thanksgiving Day? And what about shopping?

However you spend it, and whatever time you serve your dinner, Happy Thanksgiving!

PS And I almost forgot, did you know that the author of the famous Thanksgiving poem Through the Wood was also a suffragist? Could Thanksgiving get any more feminist?!

Giving the People What They Want: Suffrage

Now that I don't spend my Fridays looking at old photos, I'm devoting that time to wandering around my Google Analytics - which is totally fun stuff.

I got an email this week from someone looking for an image to go with a post she was writing in honor of tomorrow, August 18, being the day the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women in the United States the right to vote was ratified by congress.

Which made me wonder, do I get a lot of suffrage-related searches (and by a lot I mean any searches at all)?

I looked and saw that there are quite a bunch of suffrage-related searches (meaning about 10), and those people seem to be sticky. And that makes me super-happy, because I like to think there is someone besides me utterly fascinated by my suffrage postcard collection.

I was also happy to see searches for anti-suffrage - because I have a swell collection of anti-suffrage postcards, too.

And let this be a reminder all of us to vote this election season! Especially me!

Old Photo Friday: Summer, Late 1970s

Here I am, enjoying a summer day back in the 1970s.

When central A/C wasn't something my little mind could even imagine.

I was more than happy to huddle beside the one wall unit in the study of our house and trade Oliver Wendell Holmes stamps with my older brother and eat frozen lemon pudding.

Fast forward to today, and my family can't even make it through a night of hot temps.

That's right, because our A/C is broken we headed to the local Hilton last night rather then stay in our (honestly, not that) hot house.

For the record, I went under protest, but I did still go.

On Fridays, I post old photos. Join the fun and leave a link in the comments below to an old photo of YOU.

Squinkies: A Photo Collection by Kay

My daughter Kay is really into Squinkies these days. She spent the better part of the afternoon photographing her beloved creatures.

I'm not sure what I think.

Has the Squinkie obsession hit at your house?

Happy Thanksgiving - Suffragette Style

One of my side hobbies is collecting (or hoarding as the case may be - your words not mine), and one of my collections is suffragette postcards.

Nothing makes me happier than when a holiday comes around that is celebrated in suffrage postcards, as thankfully Thanksgiving is.

Here are one of my favorite Thanksgiving suffragette postcards:

In case my photograph makes it impossible to read the text is: "This is not a suffragette lecture, but a kind Greeting."

This text always puzzled me, but yesterday a search with Lady Google's help revealed The Society Pages: Social Science that Matters and the information that in 1909 "Chicago-area women’s rights advocates {were} pushing back the time they served Thanksgiving dinner in order to go see the British suffragist Emiline* Pankhurst," who was giving a lecture.

Now I'm wondering if this postcard that I proudly display in my pro-suffrage collection, actually need to be moved to the binder with the anti-suffrage cards? I think so.

So what does this all mean besides that I love collecting suffragette postcards and I love Thanksgiving?

I'm not really sure...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I Heart Ephemera

Today's homework, tomorrow's ephemera

Ephemera by any other name would be... trash.

But not on eBay.

On eBay, you can buy ephemera, and I do. Lots of it.

I buy cast-aways and cast-asides from a generation back, sometimes even two or three.

I like the milk caps and the jelly molds, memories of kitchens and routines that are no more.

I savor postcards written to someone else with mentions of a mundane trip to Florida to visit relatives, or maybe to see an old friend in Nebraska.

I lovingly turn the pages of yellowed scrapbooks with ripped pieces of magazines pasted in alongside greeting cards for birthdays and anniversaries, where I know neither the giver or the recipient.

I buy stacks and stacks of photographs of families that aren't mine.

These things come here to my somewhat crowded home, and I try and find a perfect place for them.

And I think of them as beautiful and meaningful, this ephemera.

But deep down I know: I buy a lot of trash.

________
Linking-up to Yeah Write, check it out if you don't already know it. Lots of great stories from lots of great writers.

Barbies. And more Barbies. And even more Barbies.

For all of you who visited the Polly Pocket retrospective last week, thank you for coming by and for your comments and commiseration.

This week, I thought I'd go ahead and share my Barbie collection woes as well.

I have two daughters. They're ages five and seven. In these years they have managed to amass a boggling amount of Barbies. (And Polly Pockets, but you've already heard about that.)

Yesterday, in an effort to put our home in some sort of order before yet another school year is upon us, I had the girls clean their rooms. And then for fun, I took a photo of all those Barbies. Ten Barbies, plus a Flairy and two mini Kelly-sister-of-Barbie dolls.

Of course, then I realized there were tons more Barbies lurking in drawers and secret hiding places. Are you ready for this? 21 Barbies, 1 Boy Doll (I think from High School Musical), 1 Flairy, and 2 mini dolls.* 

I'll be honest, it didn't really seem so bad.  Then we went downstairs. Where there were more, oh so many more. Final Barbie over-consumption tally? 27 Barbies, 1 Boy Doll, 2 Flairies, and 3 mini dolls.

It's actually sorta funny that my daughters have so many Barbies, as I am not really a fan myself (for all the usual feminist reasons) and Barbies were not a part of my childhood (again, because my mom had the same feminist reasoning).

Magpie and Kay - I can't wait to see what you think of this collection when you're adults, and perhaps, feminists too.

As you may recall, the home clean-up continued with Polly Pocket: A Photo Essay in 867 small pieces. Next up, I tackle my son's enormous car and train collection.

* One of the mini dolls is not photographed here because Kay had to play with her even if it totally messed-up Mommy's blog photo, not to mention the accompanying copy on her blog post.

Let this be proof I didn't let my blog interfere with your playing.

I'm linking-up to Finding the Funny. 'Cause I like funny. And Kelley and Anna who run this hilarious weekly party. Follow along on Twitter with #FindingtheFunny

Oh, and I like you. And your hair. Did you do something new?

Shelves in the Attic

My attic

As I've discussed here before, I'm a big collector. Mostly, I concentrate on items with an Americana and/or feminist twist - Amish quilts, milk caps, suffragette postcards, and of course jewelry and shoes.

I also have an extensive ribbon hoarding issue collection, and a nice supply of vintage fabric and beads. 

And what is the number one, most important thing for a collector to have? Space. Lots and lots of space. And for the first time, I have this too.

We recently bought a house (coincidentally?) from an avid collector. A collector of such insanity extent, that no one else could see past his copious stuff and appreciate the house. For me, his collections of dolls, boats and maps were all part of the home's charm.

Not to mention, he had my perfect attic.

My perfect built-in shelving, two-zone climate controlled, air-purified museum storage quality attic.

Are you a collector who dreams about endless shelves in the attic? Or do you think collector is just a fancy way of saying hoarder?

Happy Vintage Postcard Valentine's Day!

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that one of my women's suffrage (actually, anti-suffrage) postcards had St. Valentine's Greetings written in tiny print in the corner.

This Valentines Day postcard got me wondering if there were also other ones with a holiday greeting. And if so, why?

A quick online search revealed that postcards were often used as greeting cards back in the early 1900s.  Without email (the horror) or widespread phones even, greeting cards and postcards were one of the most effective ways to get the word out about your favorite cause, which for many was for or against women's suffrage.

Here are a few of my favorite suffrage, anti-suffrage, and vintage feminist Valentine's Day cards:




Image from AuthenticHistory.com



Image from Femulate




Image from the Postcard Museum



Happy Valentine's Day!

I heart Suffragette Valentines

I am a big collector of all sorts of things. Useful things, like used milk caps. 

I also like to collect old postcards. They arrive to my (and my husbands!) delight neatly boxed-up from eBay on a regular basis. Sometimes, I purchase postcards directly from among the decaying remains of a lifetime in a house sale or more macabrely, from an estate sale.

Some of my favorite postcards are the ones that are both pro and con women's suffrage. For those of you who like a little history lesson with your blog reading, the women's suffrage movement in the United States was active in the early twentieth century, until voting rights were finally secured in 1920 after a long and contentious battle.

The US suffragettes were a clever group, as were the equally fascinating anti-suffragettes. The arguments from both sides are still alive today in the slogans of the many postcards used to promote each side's position. Today, these same goals are accomplished with emails and witty tweets.

I have an endlessly amusing collection of postcards from both sides of the debate, and only recently realized a few of them are Valentines Day related.  I'm not sure why the holiday-tie-in, but I'm off now to see if the Internet can enlighten me.

While I search, I leave you with one of my most favorite Valentines Day anti-suffrage cards. 

If she was alive today, I just know she'd have a blog.

For more vintage and suffragette Valentines, click here.

I heart milk caps

I'm a collector, and always have been. I think some people just are, and some people just aren't. And unfortunately for the collectors, it's hard to explain why you need to collect to someone who doesn't share this need. This is particularly hard when a collector is married to a non-collector, though I must admit I guess it must be equally hard to be a non-collector having to live with a collector, and all of her (or his) stuff.

But I do collect. Largely from eBay, and I do enjoy it. And I keep what I collect small, and when possible, cheap.

My latest obsession is milk caps. I know these are trash. But eBay calls them ephemera, which sounds so much better. I came across the world of milk caps by accident, and was instantly hooked. I love the modernist design paired with the vintage colors. I love the glimpse of the past the caps provide with their miniature phone numbers that often include letters. And I love the history lessons of the small family farms and the days when cows needed to be cleared as free of tuberculosis.


And then I ask myself: What the fuck is wrong with me? Why do I keep buying lots and lots of used milk caps from strangers living in the Midwest? And why do I then spend hours categorizing them and putting them into their little custom milk cap sleeves and finally into the master milk cap binder? Why?

But right when my milk cap collection really starts to seem absurd, I just take a quick stroll around eBay and realize I am so not alone.

Have a collection even more questionable then milk caps? Don't be shy, brag about it here!

The road to Larchmont is paved in rhinestones

From Buttons4u.com

Who knew that the road from Manhattan to Larchmont would be lined in rhinestones? But it is literally from our move last week. I can not go three feet without spying another rhinestone. On the stairs of our new house. On the driveway outside. Not to mention the apartment we left, everywhere I looked - rhinestones, rhinestones, rhinestones.

My younger daughter Kay is obsessed with rhinestones -and always has been - which is why there are so many. We had piles stashed around our home like a drunken pirate who wanted to know at any moment he could reach out and run his fingers through his piles of jewels and treasure. In our case we had rhinestones under (and over, and between, and inside of) every surface, because you never knew when you might hear the plaintive wail of "where are my rhinestones?" and need to refill whatever pirates chest or satchel Kay would give you "where's me gold" style 'till it was overfull of her shiny jewels.

I wonder if rhinestones will continue to be our currency of choice out here in the suburbs? Personally, I'm betting on itty-bitty boots and multi-colored dresses from the rare and exotic Island of Polly Pocket.