Wallpaper was very popular a hundred years ago – and there were lots of lovely papers that worked perfectly in dining rooms. Here’s some advice for using striped wallpapers:

French-striped papers come under the head of plain papers. They look well and are particularly appropriate in Colonial homes. They may be used in the bedroom, dining room, hall or reception room, and look equally well with either plain or figured hangings. They look better, however, with white woodwork than any other kind.

A hundred years ago people didn’t have markers that could be used to write labels on canning jar lids. They also didn’t have printers to print labels  or even clear tape that could be used to attach labels to the jars. Back then newspapers often printed labels that could be cut out and pasted on jars of freshly canned food.

I generally prepare posts for this blog fairly quickly – but today’s post is an exception. It’s taken me over five years from the time that I first thought about doing this post to actually posting it.

I recently was browsing through a hundred-year-old magazine and saw this tip:

Sometimes the women folks can’t remember when they put up certain cans of fruit. Paste a dated slip of paper on the side.

Farm Journal (August, 1915)

The old tip reminded me that back in 2011, which was the first year I was doing this blog, that I’d scrolled though some old microfilms of hundred-year-old issues of the Milton (PA) Evening Standard,  and had been surprised how the newspaper regularly printed labels for commonly canned foods – cherries in July, tomatoes in August, grape juice in September . . .

I copied a page with labels for tomatoes from the newspaper and planned to do a post on it – but somehow I never actually got around to writing that post and quickly forgot about it until I saw the Farm Journal tip.  So here is the post – better late than never.

I recently came across a glossary in a hundred-year-old cookbook that defined 62 words. I was surprised that several  words that are commonly used now (for example, mayonnaise) needed to be defined in the early 1900s;  that the meaning of several other words had shifted across the years (for example, hors d’oeurves); and that noir was an important food-related word back then.

Even since then I’ve been pondering the following question: If I wrote a cookbook in 2016 and decided to include a glossary, which 62 words would be the most important words to define?

With its long vise-like fingers this device reaches down into the boiling water and lifts out the jars with safety.

The July, 1916 issue of Good Housekeeping had several photos of canning equipment. Some of the pictures make me think about how much has changed over the past hundred years in how we can; others make me think that it hasn’t changed all that much.

An excellent improvised canner is a wash boiler with a wire frames which may be purchased separately in sizes to hold gallon, quart, or pint jars. Any other receptacle with a tight-fitting lid may be used or an outfit may be purchased complete.

This water-seal canner has a thermometer, a safety valve, and a pet-cock. It confines steam under pressure, and in it vegetables are canned with one cooking.

I tend to picture women’s activities a hundred years ago being somewhat constrained by the times and their clothes. I was pleasantly surprised to see an article in the July, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal titled, “Girls’ Frolics in Wood and by Stream: Merry Times on Hikes and Around Streams”  that contained lots of picnic and campfire ideas. Here’s a few suggestions for a surprise boat trip:

A surprise boat trip was the pleasure awaiting a crowd of girls invited by their hostess to meet at the boat landing at three p.m. Soon they were moving up the river on a “voyage of discovery.”

A half hour’s ride brought them to a beautiful grove, where they landed, and search parties were sent out in different directions. In a short time triumphant cries were heard over the discovery of large watermelons found hidden in secluded spots. (A boat with supplies had been sent up the river ahead of the party.) After justice had been done to the melons the girls went upstream until they landed and were told to raid the country.

The enthusiasm of the moment sent everyone forth to discover this time ears of corn. These were loaded into the boat, and the party again set forth toward other lands, in search of whatever they might find. . . fruit hanging from branches of trees.

The last voyage brought them to land just about sunset. They did not need to search long before many parcels were found, containing ham, bacon, beefsteak, sandwiches and marshmallows, which, with the corn for the corn roast and the fruit, provided a substantial supper. Further search brought them to a pile of wood for a bonfires, just waiting to have the match put to it.

It was not long before the girls were sitting around a roaring fire, cooking their meal, and last of all, toasting marshmallows and telling stories as they watched the fire die out. The trip down the river by moonlight was not the least of the afternoon’s enjoyment.