Unmentionables: Underwear in the Collection

1967.70.7

Object: Corset
Description: Silk corset with lace trim and blue flower design painted on front.  Five metal stays in front, lace up back.
Date: 1886
Height: 13.5”

Underwear.  We all wear it.  Boxers or Briefs?  Granny-panties or Thong?  And for the ladies, entire stores dedicated to contraptions to hold up your bosom.  Strapless or Sporty?  Always the search for something a little more comfortable!

It’s lovely to see all the beautiful dresses and uniforms in museums, but don’t you wonder what they were wearing underneath?  Unfortunately, like today, undergarments of the past were often used until they wore out and they never made it to the museum.

It’s unnatural shape doesn’t quite fit on today’s mannequin,
but SEE IT ON TV during the OCHS Telethon on WUTR April 9

Corsets have been a part of women’s fashion for over 500 years.  Their size and shape has changed, but their purpose has always been to mold the female body into the desired shape.  In the late 1800s, women strove for an hour-glass figure with a waist measurement not exceeding the number of years of her age accentuated by puffy sleeves and padding at the hips and busts.

Scene of the Wedding

This corset is extra fancy because it was part of Cordelia Huntley Butterfield’s wedding ensemble when she married Charles Henry Childs.  Cordelia was the daughter of Theodore Faxton Butterfield and Harriette Hamilton Huntley.  The groom was the son of Justus Childs and Betsy Budlong.  On October 19, 1886, Cordelia and Charles wed in Grace Church (next door to the Butterfield house).

 

~Jeana

jganskop@oneidacountyhistory.org

*Please note that the corset was an element of middle and upper class fashion.  Working class women did not often wear them.

When Spring Each Day Seems Fully in the Air

2011.049

Object: Diary
Description: 1914 diary of Col. Tharratt Gilbert Best.  Almost daily entries written in French that detail Best’s experiences during his education at Princeton.  This is part of a collection of diaries written by Best beginning in 1902 and ending in the 1960s.
Date: 1914

NOTE: I got excited about spring and a little ahead of myself, but let’s just pretend today is April 24!

A dashing young man during his Princeton days

One hundred years ago this morning, Tharratt Gilbert Best, a Junior at Princeton, spent his morning in the lab.  A Freshman was also there and he worked the group very hard, but the crew runs well now.

At the end of the day, when Best recorded his day’s activities, he also noted the Mexicans killed Americans in Mexico and the American soldiers left Texas for Veracruz.*

Colonel Tharratt Gilbert Best
He watches over the OCHS research library that was named after him in 1987.

I found Colonel Best’s diaries in storage last week and was both excited and frustrated when I realized they were almost all recorded in French.  It appears Colonel Best began his recordings in French as a way to practice (something, I also have done when keeping a diary).  Raised in Boonville NY, Best attended the Utica Free Academy, Princeton University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He served in WWI and WWII, and eventually worked in Oneida County as a banker, engineer, historian, author, and the 27^th president of the Oneida County Historical Society.

Best’s daughter, Virginia Best Clarendon translated and edited excerpts from Best’s diaries into the book, Early Memoirs of a Country Gentleman.

I can only imagine what else is in his diaries.  They seem to intertwine daily activities, (Je suis allé au restaurant pour le petit déjeuner./ I went to the restaurant for breakfast.), with national events such as the American involvement during the Mexican Revolution mentioned above.  What a fascinating local resource and commentary on the first half of the 20^th century!

~Jeana

jganskop@oneidacountyhistory.org

also a poet whose skill his daughter described as, the “Robert Frost of the North Country,” here is Best’s verses of assurances that Spring will come

*At least, that is my best transcription of Colonel Best’s handwriting and translation of his intermediate French!

“Join Now! Don’t Wait One Minute”

1997.92.3

Object: Kit, First Aid
Description: Tin box with red and white lettering on white background.  Kit contains box of absorbent cotton, bottles of: Iodine, Mercurochrome, aspirin, laxative, aromatic spirits of ammonia, scissors, dental floss, and box of band-aid strips.
Date: 1920s
Height: 2”
Length: 7.5”
Width: 4.5”

Commercial Travelers’ Mutual Accident Association of America
Ad, Utica City Directory, 1917

In Utica, NY, 1883, Edward Trevvett founded Commercial Travelers’, an insurance company that is now the oldest of its type in the US and is available in all fifty states.  For more information on the history of Commercial Travelers’, click here.  Unfortunately, while the lid of the First Aid Kit reads “Commercial Travelers’,” the kit gives no indication about how it relates to the company.  It may have been sold by the Commercial Travelers’, or it could have been a give-away for members.

What’s in a First Aid Kit from the 1920s?

“Mercurochrome is a commonly used nonirritating antiseptic.”

Iodine and Mercurochrome.  Iodine, often a tincture with an alcohol base, was used as an antiseptic.  Since the alcohol base hurt when applied to an open wound, patients often preferred Mercurochrome as a topical antiseptic for cuts and scrapes.  Because Mercury (now known to have toxic effects) was a major compound in Mercurochrome, the FDA put very strict limitations on the sale of Mercurochrome in 1998.

Perhaps not as sterile 90 years later

Absorbent Cotton.  Some suggested uses include: For dressing wounds, absorbing discharges, cover salves and poultices, applying antiseptics, absorbing perspiration, etc.

“The B&B is ideal Cotton, soft, springy and absorbent.
But, above all, in this Handy Package, B&B stays clean.”
Woman’s Home Companion, June 1913

Dental floss? Because sometimes that little piece of food is DRIVING YOU CRAZY.

Dental Floss, Laxatives, Aspirin, Scissors.  The scissors are to cut the cotton, the Aspirin is for pain, and the laxative is for stomach problems.  I know what the dental floss is for, but I’m a little surprised to see it in a first aid kit.

In case you cut your hand while fainting

Instant Aids Handi-Tapes and Handi-Snips, Aromatic Spirits of Ammonia.  The first are for cuts, burns, and blisters.  The second is for arousing consciousness.

And that concludes our little look into 1920s home medicine!

~Jeana

jganskop@oneidacountyhistory.org

The only empty bottle in the kit. Rough night for the previous owner?

The Halfmoon

SPECIAL EDITION:
(A busy week in the office, so here’s a rare Monday guest post)
Guest Blog by Doug LaFlamme, new OCHS volunteer

2009.032.771

Object: Advertisement
Description: Paper advertisement for Hemstrought’s bakery
Date: 1990

Walking through the Oneida County Historical Society around lunchtime, a folder marked “Hemstrought’s Bakeries” was bound to catch my eye. I instantly remembered walking to the Uptown Utica Hemstrought’s to pick up halfmoon cookies along with other baked goodies. Opening the folder, I found an advertisement for Hemstrought’s dated from 1990, along with a daily shopping guide and several coupons.

 

“In a day when 90% of the baked goods available are baked with mixes, preservatives and artificial replacements for the basic ingredients, Hemstrought’s bakers are baking up scratch recipes from high quality natural ingredients.”

The halfmoon is one of the most enduring, not to mention delicious, inventions from Central New York. The halfmoon was created sometime in the 1920s by Robert Hemstrought, founder of the bakery. In the intervening years, the halfmoon became a culinary symbol for Central New York. It’s not surprising that the halfmoon, and Hemstrought’s bakery, would reach a larger audience. By the 1990s, Hemstroughts was shipping halfmoons throughout the United States. They were even commissioned by a Rochester woman to make a wedding cake out of halfmoons! (“Hemstrought’s half moons take on national flavor,” Utica Observer Dispatch, February 23 1999)

 

Bread, Rolls, Cakes, Cookies, Donuts, Muffins, Tea Loaves, Pastries, and Pies

In 1999, the bakery and confection were featured in national food magazine Saveur. The magazine published a Hemstrought’s approved recipe with the article, which can still be found on their website (click here).

The legacy of the halfmoon and Hemstrought’s Bakery endures. Although several locations of Hemstrought’s have closed, the halfmoon will remain a staple dessert in Central New York homes for years to come.

~ Doug LaFlamme

1996: The Mad Cow Disease hit Britain, the Unabomber was arrested, and Hemstrought’s had these great deals!

White Jugs & Liquor

SPECIAL EDITION:
Guest Blog by Fred Capozzella, OCHS trustee & bottle collector

1974.44.1

Object: Jug
Description: Two-gallon stoneware jug marked in blue “P. VIDVARD/ UTICA, N.Y.” and decorated with two free-hand brush strokes in blue.
Date: 1878
Height: 13.25″
Diameter: 8.5″

Pictured is a salt glazed stoneware jug, produced by White’s Pottery, of Utica.  It is the two gallon size, stenciled and slip decorated.

Employees of Whites Pottery
c. 1905

White’s (also known as Whites, N. White, N. A. White, and Central New York Pottery, among several other names) began about 1838 under the ownership of Noah White.  It continued until about 1907, when all production ceased.  During its nearly 70 years, it produced a wide variety of utilitarian wares, from miniature mugs to umbrella stands to stoneware barrels.

It also produced the type of stenciled jug shown here, for many merchants, some from out of the area.

“Where you will find the Largest Assortment of Imported and Domestic Wines, Liquors and Ales in this city.”
Utica Daily Observer, July 27, 1878

P. (Peter) Vidvard was a liquor dealer, located at the corner of John Street and the Erie Canal.  He advertised as a “Distiller, Importer and Wholesale Dealer in Fine Wines, Liquors and Ales.”  This jug dates from about 1878.

Peter Vidvard was in business with John H. Sheehan (Vidvard and Sheehan) in the early 1870’s and with his son Jules (P. Vidvard & Son) in about 1880.  The firm continued after his death, under the ownership of his wife, Catherine until the late 1880’s.

~Fred Capozzella

Did you like this post?  Find out more about Mohawk Valley jugs, bottles, & businesses at the Mohawk Valley Antique Bottle Club website here.

Pfc. D. Russell

“Winter scene near Boonville, N.Y.”

Object: Postcard
Description: World War II-era postcard with winter image of Boonville on the front and message on the back.
Date: 1945
Height: 5.5”
Width: 3.5”
Weight: An ounce or two

While looking for postcard images to post on Twitter and Facebook, I came across this postcard from Boonville.  The solitary skiis stuck in the snow and illuminated by the setting sun spoke to me.  How lovely, but almost sad.  So I read the back.

The note on the back.

Mrs. Frederick Zaugg
Main St.
Boonville, NY

Dear Aunt Grace,

Buddy phoned again.  His address now Pfc. D. Russell 32944808 – Lovell General Hospital South Ward 39 Camp Devens Mass.  We may go to see him soon.

Love,
Jerry

Tell Uncle Dick for me as I haven’t address.

That short note says a lot.  Jerry wrote to his Aunt Grace to let her know that Buddy was in a hospital in Massachusetts.
And Buddy is a soldier.

Postmark

The postmark provides a little more information: Old Forge, NY Feb23 6pm 1945.

1945, that means Buddy was a soldier in World War II.

We have a lot of postcards in our collection.  The pictures on the front document the places of this area – and provide color in a time when pictures were black and white.  But postcards were designed to be a means of correspondence and I never know what the message on the back will be.  As in this case, postcards in the late 1800s and early 1900s were often used as a quick way to send information.  Like an e-mail, only prettier and more personal, and a little slower.

I’ve done a little research to find out more about Buddy, but I haven’t found him yet.  If you knew him, please let me know.

~Jeana

jganskop@oneidacountyhistory.org