Packer’s Tar Soap Advertisement

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Sheryl

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Saturday, February 15, 1913:  Was so disappointed this morning. Thought perhaps Ma would go shopping this morning, but she didn’t.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

What did Grandma want to buy?  . . hmm. .. Teens “need”  trendy shampoos, cosmetics, and grooming supplies.

Maybe Grandma wanted beautiful hair and needed  Packer’s Tar Soap.

1913-05-87.crop

Source: Ladies Home Journal (May, 1913)

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Went to Box Social

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Sheryl

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Saturday, February 8, 1913:  Went to Watsontown this morning to get some stuff for a box social. Ruth and I went up to McEwensville this evening. I did not spend a very enjoyable evening since the person I wanted to get my box didn’t get it and the person I didn’t want to get it got it. Rode home with Ruth and her friend. He’s one of the bald-headed types.

Ruth Muffly

Ruth Muffly

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

I think this is the first box social that Grandma’s gone to since she began the diary—though her sister Ruth went to one in February, 1912.

Box socials always seem like something out of story books. The girls prepared beautiful box lunches with enough food for two that were then auctioned off to raise funds for the school or some charity.

The winning bidder would eat the food with the girl who made the box.

It sounds like the box social turned into a disaster for Grandma.

Ruth was 21—the guy she was with sounds older. How old was he?. . . 30??. . . older??

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1913 China-Inspired Dresses

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Sheryl

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Thursday, February 6, 1913: About the same as yesterday.

Source: Ladies Home Journal (May, 1913)

Source: Ladies Home Journal (June, 1913)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’m going to go off on another tangent.

Today our world is so global—and we think that people lived very geographically isolated lives a hundred years ago.  Well, not exactly—

People considered themselves to be very cosmopolitan. As I mentioned several days ago, students studied current events in China in school—and according to the June, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal:

Interest in the political and civic activities of the new China, which is more or less world-wide at this time, let the designers of the garments on this page to look at that country for inspirations for clothes that would be unique and new and yet fit in with present-day modes and the needs and environments of American women.

China has always been known as possessing a wonderful color sense, and the exquisite beauty of its hand embroidery is the marvel of every needlewoman.

1913-06-26.e

These facts are well known, but one might readily question the possibility of finding in the apparel of the Chinese lines that could be successfully modernized, yet that this has been done is charmingly and most convincingly shown by these attractive and absolutely wearable garments.

1913-06-26.c

Filed under: Fashion | Tagged: , , | 11 Comments »

1913 Victor-Victrola Advertisement

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Sheryl

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Wednesday, February 5, 1913:  Nothing very much for today. Went up to practice this evening.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma was going to be in her class play, and went back into McEwenville in the evening for play practice. (She probably had to come home after school to help milk the cows.)

Grandma obviously appreciated whatever culture was available in her small rural community.  I recently found this advertisement for Victor Victrola’s in the March 15, 1913 issue of a farm magazine called Kimball’s Dairy Farmer.

Victor-Victrola Advertisement

If there is any place where a Victor-Victrola is needed and sure to be appreciated, it is in the homes of the farmers—in your house.

You haven’t the opportunities city people have for attending the theatre, opera, and musical concerts—and yet you have real need of such entertainment to rest body and mind after your day of toil.

And you can have it with a Victor-Victrola in your home. You can enjoy the world’s best music, sung and played by the same great artists who entertain the large city audiences.

You can hear whatever kind of music you like right now.

You don’t have to wait until you feel you can afford a $100 or $200 instrument—any Victor-Victrola you choose as the instrument for your home will play every record in the Victor catalog, and will give you almost as perfect music as the Victor- Victrola XVI, the instrument by which the value of all musical instruments in measured.

Any Victor dealer in any city in the world will gladly demonstrate the Victor-Victrola to you and play any music you wish to hear.

Write us for the handsome illustrated Victor catalogs.

Victor Talking Machine Co., Camden, N.J.

Berliner Gramophone Co., Montreal, Canadian Distributors

Victor-Victrola XVI, $200, Mahogany or quartered oak

Victor-Victrola X, $75 Mahogany or oak

Victor-Victrola VI, $25, Oak

Victor-Victrola IX, $50, Mahogany or oak

Other styles $15, $40, $100, $150

Victor: “His Master’s Voice”

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Hope to Win 2 1/2 Dollar Gold Piece

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Sheryl

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Tuesday, January 28, 1913:  Our teacher made such a wonderful proposition today. It was made to our class. The one who writes the best essay on a given subject is to receive a two dollar and a half gold piece. Margaret G. came home with me to stay till tomorrow. We had a dandy time this evening, although I am afraid our lessons suffered some. Rufus made candy. And so the evening went.

2.5.dollar.gold.coin

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma—I’m keeping my fingers crossed that you write the best essay and get the gold piece. I think you have a chance since you sound so hopeful.

I wish you’d told us the topic so that I could vicariously “help” you write the essay a hundred years later.

—

I’m not sure who Margaret G. was, but it sounds like the girls had a wonderful time. Rufus refers to Grandma’s sister Ruth.

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1913 Broadway Plays

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Sheryl

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Monday, January 27, 1913: We went to town this evening to practice for our play.

broadway.3

Nearly Married at the Gaiety Theatre on Broadway in New York City

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma wrote the previous Monday that she was going to be in a her class play. This was the first play practice.

In my imagination I see a  member of the cast saying, “If we practice hard, I bet our play will be as good as a Broadway play.”

Here’s what the November, 1913 issue of Dress and Vanity Fair magazine had to say about several Broadway plays that were playing in New York a hundred years ago:

In a Lighter Vein on Broadway

The Marriage Market at the Knickerbocker Theatre

The Marriage Market at the Knickerbocker Theatre

In this picture from The Marriage Market the small but sweet voice of Mr. Donald Brian is being lifted up in a duet with Miss Venita Fitzhugh. Until this moment when he has just taken her hand she had not recognized him once since the first act. She met him as a cowboy then and married him in a fit of pique. Since that time he has been disguised as a common sailor on her father’s yacht, but she did not recognize his face at all, and now that he looks so stunning in evening clothes and a clean shirt she cannot believe that it is really he.

Who's Who at the Criterion

Who’s Who at the Criterion

Mr. Richard Harding Davis’s’ comic mystery play Who’s Who finds Mr. William Collier and his adopted son William Collier, Jr. The youngster has a savings bank in his hand with which he is constantly blackmailing the villagers in his bland and child-like way. Mr. Collier who has been held up by the child is expostulating vigorously, paternally, almost expletively.

Dress and Vanity Fair (November, 1913)

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Old Cross-Stitch Examples

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Sheryl

17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Sunday, January  26, 1913: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Besse was out.

Source of Pictures: Ladies Home Journal (May, 1913)

Source of Pictures: Ladies Home Journal (May, 1913)

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma’s sister Besse was married and lived in nearby Watsontown.  Sometimes Besse brought needlework or sewing along when she came to visit. For example, on August 9, 1912 Grandma wrote:

We had sort of s sewing bee here today. Besse was out and brought some of her stuff along.

On this January day, a hundred years ago, perhaps the sisters did cross-stitching while they chatted.

Cross-stitch and crochet work using same rose pattern

Cross-stitch and crochet work using same rose pattern

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