At Day at Spring Mountain Ranch

At Spring Mountain Ranch
Photo by Lisa Coffey

This morning I put on my 1860's layers and headed out to Spring Mountain Ranch, which is here in Vegas, and right next to Red Rock Canyon. Today is Nevada Day (Nevada was admitted to the Union October 31st, 1864 - "Battle Born") and this weekend is the Civil War reenactment put on by the Southern Nevada Living History Association.

A view from Spring Mountain Ranch

Today was kind of a prelude to the weekend, which was awesome for me because I have never been to a reenactment before. Kind of an introduction for me. Today, lots of school kids and homeschoolers came out and there were presentations with cavalry horses, cannons, artillery and we civilians. It was such a blast. I especially love all the little girls who have endless questions about our outfits. I totally relate!

Stables across the pasture - ahem -  I mean, battlefield.
There was a cow mooing away!

I chose to wear my yellow cotton 1860's dress. Under it I had all the bits: stockings, knit garters, boots (Robert Land), original pantalettes and chemise, corset, three petticoats, a 108" hoop (Originals by Kay) and organdy undersleeves (remade from these originals). I also wore a pocket, which I reached through a convenient slit in my skirt (perfect for iphone!). One thing I was missing was a corset cover, which I just didn't get around to making yet. Next on my list!

To accessorize, I wore an antique brooch, belt buckle pin and watch chain. I found a nice little pocket watch for it on Amazon. The baste in collar is a beautiful white work piece I found for only $5 at an antique store! What luck!! The belt is brown silk over buckram lined with cotton. There are great directions for making a belt in Elizabeth Stewart Clark's Dressmaker's Guide. I also switched out my modern wedding rings for a plain "gold" one I found on Amazon. It looked great for being so cheap! I had taupe leather gloves, too, but they're in my pocket for the picture. 

Accessories! Undersleeves, hankie, belt, buckle pin, brooch, ring,
watch and chain, straw hat and hat pin.

All the jewelry is antique except for the watch. I think it
 is more common to wear the buckle vertically, though I
have seen a few CDV's with it worn horizontally.

Antique store steal! A whitework collar, basted in.

Robert Land side-lacing boots.

The batiste handkerchief I made has a wavy hem, much like the ones mentioned in Juanita Leisch's book, Who Wore What?: Women's Wear, 1861 - 1865. Apparently a fancy shaped hem gave ladies the opportunity to show off their fabulous narrow hemming skills.

I chose to wear a sun hat (it's bright here!), which I bought from Abraham's Lady. I took off the black cloth ribbon that came with it and replaced it with a brown silk satin one from MJ Trimming.

Shady face! The hat works just as
good as sun glasses!

And a sneaky modern cheater tip...

I always wear Shellac for my manicure. It's a gel that goes on like a nail polish, but it cures under a light. It lasts for like two weeks, which is great, but it's very time consuming to remove, just to dress up.  So I discovered this great polish: Essie's "Matte About You." It's a matte nail polish, so I put a coat over the gel and the shine is gone. At a casual glance, it looks like you have natural, costume friendly nails. Then just a quick wipe of non-acetone takes it off and I'm back to the 21st century!

Essie's "Matte About You" nail polish

Nineteenth Century Household Manuals, or What Housekeepers Used Before Google.

Byfield, Northamptonshire, UK
c.1896-1920.
English Heritage NMR

Whenever I watch period shows (i.e. Downton Abbey), aside from drooling over the costumes, I always get very interested by what goes on below stairs. Since poor little ol' me doesn't have a staff of my own, and it's up to me to be not only the lady of the house, but also the housekeeper/butler/cook/scullery maid, I have quite an appreciation for how these great houses were run. These shows always inspire me to break out the silver polish...

Staff of Winsford Towers Estate, 1902. Devon, UK.

Stable staff. Unknown estate.
English Heritage NMR

I recently have been reading Arthur Inch's, Dinner is Served, and Up and Down Stairs: The History of the Country House Servant, by Jeremy Musson. Both very fascinating books about being in service. Inch's book is a kind of how-to mixed with history, using knowledge from his many years as a butler, starting in the 1930's. Musson's book is an in depth study of country house service from the middle ages through today. I recommend both.

A man in the 18th century style livery of Blenheim Palace,
residence of the Duke of Marlborough.
The same home worked at by Arthur Inch. Photo c.1900.
English Heritage NMR

Butler's pantry at Barton Abbey, Oxfordshire.
English Heritage NMR.

But on to first hand, historical resources...

Housekeeper's and staff would have had reference books, just as today we might google a recipe. I start with Cassell's Household Guide, with volumes written in the latter half of the 19th century.

If you have never heard of Cassell's, I first learned about it while watching The 1900 House on PBS. Great show. It took a modern British family and transplanted them into a fully restored c.1900 house, where they had to live and breath the turn of the century way of life. Cassell's guide was used as a reference on the show, both for restoring the house and filling it with everything necessary to the 1900 era lifestyle. They also left the book for the family as a daily reference.

Original for sale at Inch's Books.

I soooo badly wanted to get my hands on that book! Unfortunately, then (1999), I couldn't find one that wasn't a zillion dollars at an antique seller. Fortunately though, now, Cassell's is ALL over the web! What a difference thirteen years makes!

So check it out here, here and here:

On google books for the scanned original.
On Victorian London for a fully indexed and searchable guide.
On Amazon - order a paperback copy and have all 392 pages at hand for your own personal reference. Bummer it's not leather-bound...

Two other well known period reference guides are Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management, first published in 1861, and Sarah and Samuel Adams' The Complete Servant Being a Practical Guide to the Peculiar Duties of all descriptions of servants... with Useful Receipts and Tables, published 1825. Both of these books are now available for reference online like Cassell's. I have linked their titles. Mrs. Beeton even has her own website! Both books are also available for purchase on Amazon: Click Adams' and Beeton's for the pages.

Fascinating books for reference. If you browse them you will find not only information about cooking, cleaning, etc, but also mending and sewing. There are even some chapters in Cassell's on shoe mending and leatherwork!