Bottoms Up, Or, how to hydrate at events

A few things to consider and a quick word on a pet peeve...

In the 1860s, drinking water was only beginning to be filtered, purified, and treated for the various water-bone illnesses we know today; so, the Citizen had different drinking habits entirely. 

The Citizen, also, lived and traveled in a different social-hospitality construct. 

So, your Citizen would have had a drink before s/he left their home, would have been offered a beverage when they visited friends, bought a beverage at an establishment, and drank from creek to hand with a glance for obvious unhealthy pollution (like a rotting carcass). The Citizen would also have thought little of going up to a house, knocking on the door, and asking for a drink... which they likely would have been provided. 

The Citizen would also have been drinking a lot less than we do today. When water is suspect and beverage availability uncertain... one tends to simply not drink. Not an option for the modern interpreter at a hot event. 

Very little of the above happens at events, save offering a drink to “visiting” friends and the occasional beverage establishment. 

So... we must look to do something that is outside of the everyday experiences of those we portray... bring beverages along on a “quick day trip”. 

Thus, in researching, we will look to the occasions our Citizens did have to bring beverages along... hunters/sportsmen on day-long excursions, picnics, and bought-beverage packaging... and also, long voyages with uncertain re-provisioning, such as westward migration. 

So... look to your event. If you are portraying your own home... grab a bucket to get water from the centralized event water source and serve it from pitcher to glass. If you are “in town”... look towards a flask, bottle in a basket, or possibly a sportsman’s canteen. If you are a commission agent, Army-associated, or other person who goes in to the situation knowing water access will be uncertain... look to sportsman’s canteen or bought beverage packaging. 

The Things you carry support the Story you tell as much as the clothes you wear and the physical space you create. Not just “any old thing” will do... it may say something about your portrayal you don’t intend.

A few more tangents ...

***Iced tea was seen among beverages for invalids. Hot tea was the method for healthy adults. In hot, humid weather... the idea of hot tea leaves us UG!  ...so... lemonade, fruit vinegar, switchel, an infusion of mint and ginger sweetened to taste and served over ice... lots of choices, just not iced tea.

***Switchel... I’ve been looking for almost a decade and have not found published recipe or instructions that substitute honey for molasses or include honey in addition to molasses. When I request of the Hive Mind, I get lots of “well, it just makes sense, they used honey as an alternate sweetener so often.” Agreed, it was common substitution for sugar... but I can’t find it in direct reference to switchel use. If anyone can... please share. 

***Yes, “mucket” is a military and sportsman item... so again, if you want to use one, have your sportsman catalog handy or expect to remind your military fellow participants that they were available private purchase at the period equivalent of Colman and you were not stealing from the dead. Keep in mind, they have a lot more fun accusing you of stealing from the dead. 

***They were less likely to drink from the storage container. There’s a reason Mother scolds you to use a glass.

Please see my blog archive for recipes and further info on beverages.

The Brave 2/3; Or, No Bevis, Not every man was a soldier in the Civil War

Few things can bait me into rage like bullying. I was bullied. I know the signs to look for. I know the behaviors that, if left unchecked and without comment, will wear away at the confidence and the soul.

Years ago a friend who portrays a civilian man of the mid 19th century encountered a fellow male civilian re-enactor. As such situations do, they got to talking about The Hobby and previous experiences. The new friend asked my friend if he'd ever had military re-enactors make snide comments about portraying a civilian, imply that he was less of a man because he didn't portray military, or question his sexual orientation because he took time to dress as a fashionable civilian man. My friend replied that he had his own experiences and they went on to compare the nature of those uncomfortable incidences. 

That conversation sticks with me as I interact with both military and civilian re-enactors.

A casual survey of fellow re-enactors on how they would respond to a military re-enactor questioning civilian men about military service brought on a flurry of "I portray a civilian," "He needs to read up on real history," and "Ignore his idiocy." 

What I take away from those responses is that we have become accustomed to bullying to the extent we let it pass without comment.

Here's a few facts for the fire.

There were approximately 11 million males over the age of 16 at the time of the Civil War. 

Two-Thirds of those were civilians. 

The government at the local, regional, state, and federal levels were predominately civilian men.
   Such as John Cook, mayor, and City Councilmen Lewis Wilhide, George H. L. Chrissinger, Charles H. Henson, Richard Sheckels, Ephriam W. Funk of Hagerstown Maryland. 

The leaders in business, industry, and community services were predominately civilian men.
     Such as Superintendent John A. Kennedy and Commissioners Thomas Coxon Acton and John G. Bergan of New York City Police Department

Civilian men provided oversight and management of the majority of businesses.

Civilian men advised women on the maintenance of farms, law, and business dealings.
     Such as Harvey Bear and William Heyser

Civilian men enabled women to conduct their business; co-signing credit, loans, contracts, and banking.

Civilian men did many jobs that were still thought appropriate for only men, despite the women flooding the workforce.
     Such as Gunpowder manufacture which we learn from "Employments of Women" by Virginia Penny, 1863 reported no female workers.
     

Civilian men founded the commissions that ensured sanitation, supply, and assistance.
     Such as Dr. Samuel Howe, Rev. Dr. Bellows, and Frederick Law Olmstead

Civilian men contracted many of the support services for the military; everything from hospital nurses and teamsters to produce merchants and grave diggers.
     Such as Walt Whitman and "Uncle" Jim Parks

Many civilian men were veterans of previous military engagements.
     Such as John Lawrence Burns of Gettysburg

Men of color could not enlist until 1862, previously serving in civilian support positions.
     Such as William Wood and James M. Peters

There were laws, edicts, and decrees in place to ensure the civilian men needed to maintain the communities, states, and country could get exemptions from service. 

So, with 2/3 of the men not in military service during the Civil War, a large portion of re-enactors should be choosing to portray civilian men. Instead, the few who do are met with bullying behavior worthy of a school playground.

Why shouldn't we ignore the idiot? 

Because the face of Civil War era re-enacting is changing. We are engaging potential members all the time. The War affected the whole population, so we have room for everyone. In each encounter we have the chance to share history as it was and without civilian men, the history is incomplete.

One can't have a Civil War program without a Civil War soldier, but without civilian men the story is only a third told.

It's All On The Line Together

A Dear Newbie has stumbled into a common misconception today and we should clear it up.
The flawed logic goes something like the following:
If Dear Newbie is a man, ...
...he knows about men's clothes...
...he is not a woman...
...he does not dress as a woman...
...he, therefore, would not know anything about clothing for persons of the female gender.

Whoa, whoa... Hold up there, Pard... that dog is maybe not gonna hunt.

Sure, Dear Newbie is a man and will research men's clothes...because he wears men's clothes. He'd also know some basics of women's and girls' clothes because he knows women (and probably girls too.)
Dear Newbie has a Mother and likely sisters too. They wear women's clothes. So, growing up, his drawers and Sister's drawers were beside each other on the clothesline and Mother's chemise was mended right along side Father's shirts. The conversations may have been whispered and not spoken of openly... but he may have heard about a "lady's time" too.
Dear Newbie, unless he is particularly naive, has likely assisted a woman out of her clothing at some point.  So, he has a basic idea of how women's clothing functions. He may fumble it and need her help, but it's not completely foreign.
If Dear Newbie is a common kind of man, he's likely married and he'd be passing familiar with his wife's clothing, though he doesn't speak of it and will call out anyone else who does.
 Perhaps Dear Newbie and his lady have been blessed with children. There's a chance some of those children will be girls. Girls who will wear female clothing. Who's clothing will go on the line next to Sonny's drawers and in the mending box next to his shirts.

The same can be applied to the Dear Newbie who is a woman. Men's clothing would not be as familiar as her own, but it would not be as foreign and scandalous as we often make it out to be.

So, we do a disservice to the people of the mid 19th century when a man cutely says, "I don't know 'nuthin' 'bout women's clothes."
They knew about clothing of the "opposite gender," they just didn't openly talk about it. Just like We don't openly talk about what goes on in the bedrooms of other people, and really prefer not to think about it too much (despite our love of celebrity scandals), Persons of the mid 19th century knew about clothing and just accepted it was there.
If we are to portray a person of the mid 19th century with a full range of knowledge, it's time we learn the basics of clothing the "opposite" gender.

Can I have your pattern for that? ...another rant.

If the Dear Readers will indulge me in one more rant, I promise to put up something... less angry... in the near future.

A tailor makes clothing patterns by drafting. It's a competitive profession. We compete with not only fellow professional tailors but also with every home crafter who has heard from her/his mentor that she/he can save money in re-enacting by sewing him/herself.
 "Making a frock coat couldn't be that hard. After all, Saint Grandma made ALL their clothes when they were small," quoth Crafter. So, they ask what pattern they should use to make a period correct frock coat or over-coat or trousers or waistcoat. Well, there are a few folks out there who put out patterns commercially. The pioneers in commercial patterns for the re-enactor market did their best to fill a niche. Others joined in with more detailed research and more solid patterning skills. They're still around.
There is still an unfilled niche in the commercial pattern pantheon, and I hope to fill it some day.

In the professional world, it is bad form to say negative things about a competitor. Even Saint Grandma agreed with a chipper, "If you can't say something nice, say nothing at all." My Grandmother and Mother instilled in me a sense of fair play too. Everyone deserves a chance, don't kill their chance with a careless word.
So in the competitive world of tailoring for re-enactors, I may keep an eye on the commercial patterns available, but I haven't used them in years. So I haven't tried out every commercial pattern for menswear there is. If I haven't tried it, I'm not recommending it.

Drafting the pattern is just the first step in making a garment. A tailor is in charge of everyone who does work for him, so he needs to be proficient in each phase of garment construction. He knows how to draft patterns. He knows how to fit bodies. He knows how fabric will behave. He knows the right stitches to put in what places to achieve the desired effect. He knows what is fashionable and when that's appropriate. He knows what is classic and how to maintain it. He knows what is out-dated and how to talk a customer out of it. These are not easily acquired proficiencies. These are not skills conveyed in a commercial pattern, even ones with stellar instructions.

I recently heard an excellent comparison. Asking a tailor to recommend a pattern is like going to a gourmet restaurant and asking the Chef for the recipe to his signature dish. At best, he'll recommend you buy the book in which he placed that recipe. At worst, you're mucking about casually with his livelihood. If you can make the signature dish at home, you won't come to the restaurant to buy it from him. If you don't go to the restaurant, he'll have to close it. He'll then be out of work and searching for a new job.
If you can make a tailored garment at home, you will stop patronizing tailors. We'll be out of a job and looking for new work. Not to mention we have to look at all the cut corners and lack of innards in your work at the events we attend. "Where'd I leave the acid-reducer?"

I'm not gonna let that happen to me nor any of my fellow tailors. So darn tootin', you ask for a pattern and I'm gonna recommend a tailor or shirt-maker.

Will This Work? ...a rant

The Old Hats are frustrated today and not feeling their usual generous selves. On a usual day, we are happy and relived to be asked 'Will this work" before a purchase is made, because it gives us a chance to spare Dear Newbie the expensive and soul crushing mistakes we have made. But lately though, it seems the questions are asked without forethought and the complex answers given are over-generalized or ignored outright in favor of convenience or romanticism.
Since no one likes to see a beloved mentor in mental distress, I thought I'd give a few thoughts on why the query "Will it work" is being received less generously.

Our objective is to tell a story. It doesn't matter if it's at a battle re-enactment, a living history show-n-tell, a museum, or gallery exhibit... we have a story to tell.
We are telling the story of a person or people in the past. We share who they were, what they might have felt, how they lived, how The War impacted them (or didn't), what they thought and why that might have made sense to them, where they've been, where they are, and where they hope to go.

Each of the things we choose helps us tell that story. The wardrobe helps us tell the story. The housewares help us tell the story. The environment helps us tell the story.
Because each of the Things helps us tell the story, we must make each choice with care. Not just any old Thing will do. It must be a specific Thing that reflects the choices that might have been made by the people of the story we are telling.
It is easy to say "this Thing was available, therefore, I choose it." That Thing was likely not the only Thing available and we want to make sure the version you choose supports the specific story you are telling.

So, just like you go through your list of questions when choosing your wardrobe, apply your questions to your housewares and environment too.
Could I spoon-feed you an answer of "buy this"? Yep, sure I could. But you would not understand why I recommended that Thing among all the Things available.

 If I lead you through a thought process on how your Thing will support or confuse your story, you will decide for yourself what is the right choice of Thing and more easily defend your choice to others with independently verifiable sources.

Accumulated Knowledge and Interpreting Foodways History

Dear Newbie is excited to have been given a great gift, a reprint of an historic cookbook. She questions if it could be taken to an event for reference, since copying out the recipes is tedious.

Let's consider this question.
Cooking knowledge is a sticky situation due to the nature of how foodways are learned "in real life." Everyone must eat, so from the start everyone has someone in their lives cooking. Recipes are introduced, become trends, become classics, and pass from fashion... or morph into something new as technology changes the way we cook, acquire ingredients, and experiment with substitutions.

Assume an interpretive focus of 1859-1865. In theory, any recipe published or traced to before 1865 should work; but does that accurately reflect the foodways of your portrayal? In many cases, it does not because your portrayal did not gain the sum total of your foodways knowledge in a single dose from a single source.

I'll give an example from my modern life:
A holiday tradition in my family is the breaded fresh ham sandwich. A basic recipe is thin-sliced pork, dipped by turns in cracker crumbs and egg-milk mix, and fried. I learned this dish from my grandmother who used "fresh ham" and saltines crackers, fried in vegetable oil in an electric skillet. When she had news that she and grandpa should reduce salt and canola oil became the new healthy alternative to straight vegetable oil, she switched to no salt saltines and canola oil. My mother thought butter crackers would give a richer flavor, so she used those instead of saltines. I am often unable to find "fresh ham" and must substitute a pork loin. I accommodate a friend with Celiac disease by using gluten free herb crackers akin to butter crackers. I dislike frying because the oil spatters, so I oven fry my breaded "fresh ham." Were I to trace this family recipe back even further than my grandmother, would I find ship's biscuit or bread crumbs for batter, frying in oil or lard or butter?
Were I, my late mother, and my late grandmother to publish cookbooks, we'd each have a very different recipe for this one "classic" dish.

In the mid 19th century, cooking knowledge was similarly acquired. You were taught basics as you grew up that reflect your family and their traditions. Situations such as health or availability caused substitutions that may have changed how your descendants would learn the recipes they watched you make.

So how does that help us judge recipe books for interpretive purposes?
Consider your event goals, not just over-all interpretive strategy that governs how you approach the hobby, but the interpretive goals of each event you attend.
If your goal is a survey of era appropriate recipes for your own edification, then learning several recipes from a book in which the instructions seem clear is an excellent introduction to historic cooking.
If your interpretive goal for the event is to showcase foodways of 186x generally speaking, then you can include a survey of books published in several dates prior to 1865. Showing 1820s & 1830s recipes that have become "classics, 1840s & 1850s recipes that are "family staples," and a few from 1860s that show the "newest trends" and "innovative technology" provides a solid context for the accumulated foodways knowledge of an average person of 186x. In short, bring the book if published 1830-1865.
If your interpretive goal for the event is to "Live as people of 186x for a weekend," then your specific circumstances need to be considered. Take your age and pinpoint the year your portrayal was born if the event date 186x was "today." Pinpoint the years for ages 10, 20, and the years you would have married or begun your own household. Pinpoint the years for major changes in circumstance, such as a big promotion for your husband that requires more fashionable entertaining to maintain "Place" or a season or two after imported goods become scarce. These years will be your targets for which your foodways knowledge would shift. Again, you're separating into three categories: "classics," "family staples," and "fashions, innovations, & substitutions."
I am 42 years old and let's take 1862 as a target date. I would plan my menus to use memorized recipes published 1800-1845 to reflect those I would have learned from watching my female relatives growing up, I might reference a "well loved" reproduced recipe book published circa 1845 for a complex recipe to reflect those that have become family staples I would make every-day, and if entertainment is involved I might include a clearly trending recipe from a reproduction of a barely used 1861 book or 1861 clipping from a magazine.
In short, choose the book carefully based on who you portray.

With a wealth of period cookbooks available online in digital collections and being reproduced by specialty publishers, we're able to think beyond convenience to add depth of knowledge to our portrayals, if we remember that foodways are an accumulation of knowledge and practice rather than created full formed in a single go from a single source.

Online Chronologically Organized Cookbook Collections:
The Feeding America Project
Historic Cookbooks Collection 1800-Civil War
Manuscript Cookbooks Survey

My Menfolk need clothes and I don't have a clue where to begin! Please help!

As a tailor I get this same desperate plea every few weeks on FaceBook. These questions and pleas have inspired blog postings that I expanded into a presentation. Today, I will list the blog posts in an order for making a plan for a Wardrobe Toolbox. Dear Newbie, I assure you, your menfolk need more than just clothes for sharing history; but don't panic, we have a plan for that.

Where do I begin?
You start by assessing the events you plan to do. Remember that military portrayals and civilian portrayals need to look at their events and therefore wardrobes differently.
    Assessing Your Events, and what that can tell you
    A Citizen Considers His Wardrobe

Then proceed with a Starter Pack to get you through the first events. Borrow garments, if you can, while you save up for quality garments. Follow the Starter Pack with an Expansion Pack for the Primary Core. (By this time, I'm using "insider jargon" and you need clarification. Read on.)
    Advice on a Wardrobe Core
    Man's Wardrobe Toolbox

Remember not to stop with clothes. He'll need "stuff" and a means to carry it, and those items can say a lot about his portrayal.
    Shlep Like a Mule
    Portable First Person; Or, The Right Mind, Part 2

But Wolfie, isn't there an easy checklist?
No, not really. Non-military men have so many variables to choose that a checklist is really difficult. The closest I can come is The Best Bet Wardrobe For Men and Older Boys. 

For those in middle age portraying professional class or middle class men, here's special advice for sorting out what is correct attire for which activities.  Stallion Dressed As Colt

And finally, some advice on why "fitting in" is so important to 19th century dressing, and thus, should be likewise in recreating 19th century dressing. The Zen Of Common