In my own writing and research, I’m very lucky to have chosen the late nineteenth century, or Gilded Age, of American history as the setting for my books. It’s an era when there was plentiful printed material being produced, nearly all of which is now in the public domain and a great deal of which has been scanned and made available by Google. Today I want to share some of my Gilded Age bibliography: the texts I find myself referring back to over and for detail in my writing. All of these are freely available online and can (mostly) be searched for the bits that are most relevant to you.
Living in the future gives me so much access to the past…
Gilded Age Bibliography
Clothing, Fashion, Domestic Matters
Dictionary of Dry Goods
Cole, George S. A Complete Dictionary of Dry Goods and History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool and Other Fibrous Substances: Including a Full Explanation of the Modern Processes of Spinning, Dyeing and Weaving, with an Appendix Containing a Treatise on Window Trimming, German Words and Phrases, with Their English Pronunciation and Signification, Together with Various Useful Tables. W. B. Conkey Company, 1892.
Need to know how the most celebrated laces in the world are ranked? The comparative spindle-speeds in European and American silk mills? What “spats” is short for? What fabrics are used for neckcloths? Who was Jacquard, anyway?
Millionaire Households
Carter, Mary Elizabeth. Millionaire Households and Their Domestic Economy, with Hints Upon Fine Living. D. Appleton, 1903.
A manual for professional housekeepers, this book will tell you how to unpack the wardrobe newly arrived from Paris, what order to clean in (floor-waxing and rubbing is last!), how a servants’ dining-hall or butler’s pantry should be arranged, and how to judge the heat of an oven, get rid of various insects, and how to cook cheese straws.
Perfumes and Their Preparation
Askinson, George William. Perfumes and Their Preparation: Containing Complete Directions for Making Handkerchief Perfumes, Smelling-salts … Cosmetics, Hair Dyes, and Other Toilet Articles. N. W. Henley, 1892.
Not just about perfume, this book covers many options for personal hygiene, including soaps, hair oil, face lotions, tooth pastes, hair dyes and depilatories. I like to look at it to consider not only what characters might smell like, but to consider what their personal toilette might include.
The Chemical Laundry Guide
How to polish starched linen and why? What to do with a badly rust-eaten sad-iron? How to use blueing? What are the seven measurements required to make a good fitting shirt? Why to press wool rather than wring it? How to restore creased ribbons? What’s better than old tea leaves for sweeping carpets?
Marriage & Divorce
The Geography of Marriage
Snyder, William Lamartine. The Geography of Marriage: Or, Legal Perplexities of Wedlock in the United States. G.P. Putnam’s sons, 1889.
If you need to know the divorce laws of a particular state, what happens to a second marriage after one party of the first marriage was presumed dead, at what age a marriage could be legally contracted, the validity of foreign marriages or foreign divorces, this is the text for you. It covers everything, with a healthy amount of editorializing from the author. In keeping with the times, there is a racist chapter on “mongrel marriages” or miscegenation, wherein Snyder ties himself in knots to state that abolition is good, but that interracial marriages are “in poor taste,” but we ought not judge others for poor taste. 😒
Marriage and Divorce
Hunt, William Chamberlin. United States. Bureau of the Census. Marriage and Divorce. 1867-1906, Part 1. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1909.
Do you need a table showing “Divorce–per cent granted to husband and to wife of the total number of divorces granted for each principal cause, for states and territories: 1887-1906”? Or maybe one for “Divorces granted to husband and to wife, classified with respect to intemperance as a cause of the divorce, for states and territories: 1887-1906”? Would you like t read about variations in marriage license laws of different states? A digest of divorce laws for each state? Perhaps a digest of marriage & divorce laws for foreign countries such as England, Algeria, or Formosa? Marriage statistics for the City of Vienna, or of Hungary, or of Paris, or of Stockholm? This is absolutely the reference for you.
Manners & Social Customs
The Mentor
Ayres, Alfred. The Mentor: A Little Book for the Guidance of Such Men and Boys as Would Appear to Advantage in the Society of Persons of the Better Sort. Funk & Wagnalls, 1894.
Alfred Ayres was a speech coach for actors, as near as I can tell, who also wrote The Orthoepist, The Verbalist, and The Essentials of Elocution. In short, I assume he was an insufferable stuffed shirt–his obituary says one of his students, nursing him on his death bed, deliberately recited a bit of Shakespeare in a monotone, knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist correcting her and would thus be diverted from thoughts of death. This book starts with four pages of quotes on the importance of manners and then goes on to tell you that a well-bred man should never remove a tight-fitting glove to shake hands, never smoke in the streets except at night, and never lose his temper at the card-table.. And a man who habitually sings, hums, or whistles “deserves the calaboose for disorderly conduct.”
The Flower Vase
Mayo, Sarah Carter Edgarton. The Flower Vase: Containing the Language of Flowers, and Their Poetic Sentiments. J. Merrill, 1850.
I find the idea of using flowers, or folded corners of calling cards, or direction of a lady’s fan to send secret messages endlessly fascinating, which is why I keep referring back to this book on the meanings of flowers. Who doesn’t need to know that Calla lilies indicate feminine modesty, or that honeysuckle is for fidelity? I did condense this book’s information into a blog post on Victorian flower language because I find it so amusing.
I also gave my characters a copy of this book in Anyone But the Earl, where it causes some trouble.
What They Say In New England
Johnson, Clifton. What They Say in New England: A Book of Signs, Sayings, and Superstitions. Lee and Shepard, 1896.
What do you get when you combine a collection of superstitions with practical Yankee thought? “The moon gets seriously given credit for a good many things too. Yet how its phases could affect the weather, or the crops, or the pork of hogs that are killed, I do not understand, and probably no one does.” Nevertheless, Johnson has collected folk wisdom about weather, friendship, luck, dreams, children, and snakes, among other topics. I rather wish I hadn’t read the bit about snakes.
Food
Ice-cream and Cakes
American. Ice-cream and Cakes: A New Collection of Standard Fresh and Original Receipts for Household and Commercial Use. Scribner, 1883.
Do you know the difference between Neapolitan ice cream and Philadelphia ice cream? What a Farina Boiler is? How to use a Lactometer? Whether Florida or Jamaica oranges are more desirable? This book answers all such questions as well as providing recipes for ice creams, water ices, iced souffles, frozen puddings, and cakes. Someday I will try making something from it; for now I am content to be amused by recipe names like “Mrs. Grundy’s Society Cake” or “Knickerbocker Cakes.”
The Flowing Bowl
Schmidt, A. William. The Flowing Bowl: When and what to Drink. C.L. Webster, 1891.
Not just recipes, this book from a 30-year veteran of the hotel and bar business includes discussion of history (wine undoubtedly originated in the Caucuses), physiology (dry sugar placed upon the tongue is not tasted till it begins to dissolve), proverbs (“Milk is the wine of the young and wine is the milk of the aged.”), ways in which ingredients may be adulterated (“A surplus of water renders the milk thin, and gives it a bluish color, which is often covered by yellow dyestuffs.), ethnography, and sample menus from Greek banquets to the Annual Banquet of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation.
Medical
The Practice of Surgery
Bryant, Thomas The Practice of Surgery. Henry C. Lea, 1873.
This is an American edition of a medical textbook written by a British surgeon from Guy’s Hospital in London. How did Victorian doctors approach concussions? What did they know about abdominal wounds or kidney disease or male sterility? This book has chapters for “Gunshot Injuries” and “Amputation” and “Feigned and Hysterical Disease.” Illustrations include a guide to different types of sutures, nail fungus, and removal of kidney stones.
Language
The American Slang Dictionary
Maitland, James. The American Slang Dictionary. R.J. Kittredge & Company, 1891.
“In for it” means in trouble, “rigging” is a woman’s clothing, an “eye-opener” is a morning drink, and a “noodle” is a fool. Full of good phrases like “none of my funeral” meaning not my business, “a caution to snakes” is something superlatively extraordinary, and “the way it looks to a man up a tree” to describe someone with a special observational advantage. I can never have enough words; I wish I had a print copy of this one to flip through anytime I was bored.
Demographics
The Working Girls of Boston
Wright, Carroll Davidson. The Working Girls of Boston: From the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, for 1884. Wright & Potter Print. Company, 1889.
A large social survey covering where said working girls were born, whether or not they were married, average time in their occupation, average age… Carpet sewers average age 39, saleswomen average age 22. Average weekly income across all occupations: $5.17. Portion of earnings shared with parents, children, siblings, or husband, or spent on transportation, church, dentistry, music and painting, medical…
General Knowledge
Everybody’s Pocket Cyclopaedia
Sheldon, Eli Lemon. Everybody’s Pocket Cyclopædia of Things Worth Knowing, Things Difficult to Remember, and Tables of Reference. Harper & Brothers, 1892.
Some important facts you will find in this book:
- Anaesthesia discovered in 1844.
- Needles, modern, first used in 1545.
- Joseph Jefferson, greatest American comedian. Born 1829, Philadelphia. His most famous character “Rip Van Wikle.” In 1890 published his “Autobiography,” “the most contribution to stage history in recent years.”
- A gentleman should be introduced to the lady, not the lady to gentleman.
- In Germany, 500 Grammen = 1 Pfund (lb)
The Sun’s Guide to New York
The Sun. The Sun’s Guide to New York: Replies to Questions Asked Every Day by the Guests and Citizens of the American Metropolis. Jersey City printing Company, 1892.
Where was the New York post office and what services did it provide? What were the main private schools in the city? In which part of the city does one purchase furniture? Which tracks host horse racing in October? Which cemetery monuments are recommended sights for visitors? All this and more is included in this travel guide.
The Official Railway Guide
Allen, W.F. The Official Railway Guide: North American Freight Service Edition. National Railway Publication Company, 1896.
This one is exactly what it says on the tin: a railway guide from 1885. It’s full tables in tiny print which I use to figure out how long it would take someone to travel from, say, Detroit to Cincinnati: 8 hours and 45 minutes on a day train with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. Also includes steamboats and transatlantic steamers. A bit confusing and hard to read, but it is what it is. Editions for other years are also available.
These are amazing resources! I love reading about the Gilded Age. ❤