100 Year Old Patterns for Making Paper Birds

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

Tuesday, July 11, 1911: Sorry, but I must have forgotten.

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

Today’s entry should be subtitled “Lucy Wants a Friend”. Let me explain–

It’s wonderful to have my college-student daughter (and her parakeet named Lucy) home for the summer. Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, at dinner I was pondering about what to write: Should I insert a recipe? . . . write about gardening or farming? . . . or I’d seen directions for making paper birds in a 1911 issue of Good Housekeeping; maybe I could write about that.

My daughter immediately said, “Let’s make birds. Lucy needs a friend.”

So today’s topic was decided—and my daughter and I had some quality time together. I don’t think we’d made any paper crafts in at least 15 years and it brought back wonderful memories of making crafts when she was little.

(It’s truly awesome how preparing and posting Grandma’s diary entries can bring together multiple generations.)

Now here are the abridged directions for making a paper bluebird and a red winged blackbird that was in the April 1911 issue of Good Housekeeping:

Supplies Needed

Colored paper

Pencil

Scissors

Paste or glue

Crayons

Colored pencils

Thin white paper for tracing (optional)

Click here for the patterns for the birds and then print. Cut the patterns out.

(In the old days people didn’t have printers or copying machines so they’d trace the pattern out of the magazine using thin paper. If you’d like to be really authentic you can make the pattern by putting thin paper over the sheet with the outlines; trace; and then cut out the pattern that you created on the thin sheet of paper. Save the original sheet to make additional patterns in the future. )

To Make Red Winged Blackbird

1. Lay the bird body, wing, and stand pattern pieces on a piece of black paper, trace, and cut out. Trace the shoulder feathers on red paper.

2. Paste the red shoulder feathers on the wings, and then fold the wings where they join along the dotted line and cut a short slit where the solid line is on the pattern.

3. Make a circle for the eye with a white crayon. In the center of the white circle put a yellow dot. Use pencil to draw the beak. (Do on both sides of bird.)

6. Bend out the lower part of the stand, then glue the upper part of the stand to the upper part of the stand on the bird. This will give a stand of double thickness and with a bend out to each side will hold the bird up as firmly as two strong legs.

7. Now fit the wings on the back of the bird. Slide the slit in the wings into the slit in the bird and stand bird up.

To Make Bluebird

1. Lay the pattern pieces of the bluebird on a piece of blue paper, trace, and cut out.

2. Using crayons make the breast and throat of the bird a yellowish red. Use a white crayon to make a whitish spot just under the tail. (Color both sides of the bird.)

3. Use a black pencil to draw straight lines on the tail to make it look like feathers. (Do on both sides of the bird.)

4. Draw a round ring for the eye with a red pencil and put a black dot in the middle of the ring. Make the beak black with the soft-lead pencil. (Do on both sides.)

5. Draw straight lines on the wing piece to make it look like feathers.

6. Bend out the lower part of the stand, then glue the upper part of the stand to the upper part of the stand on the bird. This will give a stand of double thickness, and with a bend out to each side will hold the bird up as firmly as two strong legs.

7. Now fit the wings on the back of the bird. Slide the slit in the wings into the slit in the bird and stand bird up.

An aside: The directions in the old magazine called for colored paper, crayons, and colored pencils. I was surprised that these items were widely available a hundred years ago—but they apparently have been around longer than I had thought.

Cows in the Corn

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

Monday, July 10, 1911: Nothing doing. Cows got in the corn, and I had to get them out at the expense of a lot of running.

DSC04173.cropped — Photo of a Pennsylvania dairy farm in the July 1911 issues of Farm Journal

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

Cows in a corn field can quickly cause major damage to the crop. I can almost picture Grandma’s father frantically yelling for help—and Grandma running out to chase the cows. And the cows not going where they were supposed to go—but instead running deeper into the corn field destroying even more of the crop. And her father probably yelled even more frantically that they must get the cows out of the corn or there’d be nothing left. And more running . . . until finally the cows were back in the pasture.

Preserving Jams and Jellies a Hundred Years Ago

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

Sunday, July 9, 1911: Went to Sunday school this morning. Was over to see my friend this evening. Besse and Curt were here when I came home.

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

Based on previous diary entries this Sunday sounds like a very typical Sunday at the Muffly’s. Grandma went to Sunday School, her married sister and brother-in-law came to visit, and she visited with a friend.

Since Grandma didn’t write much today, I’d like to tell you a little more about how jellies and jams were made a hundred years ago.

Several days ago I had an entry about making currant jelly using both modern and hundred-year-old recipes. My daughter and I filled miscellaneous jelly jars that I found in my cabinets, and then took a photo to illustrate the posting. The jars in the photo didn’t match—and at first I thought that I should have been more careful to use matching jars for both the modern and traditional recipes when I filled them so that I would have ended up with a better photo.

Some of the jars we filled with current jelly.

But then I realized that my photo probably was more typical of what they would have actually done in 1911—the family would have re-used whatever jars they had and there probably would have been several different types and styles.

A hundred years ago, people generally saved “real” canning jars and lids for canning; and instead often just re-used jars and lids that purchased foods had come in for jellies, jams, and preserves.

The description of filling and sealing jelly jars in the 1907 Lowney’s Cook Book is below:

Have jelly glasses standing in hot water; pour jelly into them; let stand until hard and cover first with paper or melted paraffin, and the tin cover, or paste white paper over the glass. Keep all jellies in cool, dry, dark place.

Hmm, I can’t quite picture sealing a jar with paper—though I can remember pouring melted paraffin on top of jelly to seal it when I was younger and think that some people still use that method.

Another Old Bee Sting Remedy

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

Saturday, July 8, 1911: Went to Watsontown this afternoon. Got stung by a bee coming home. Went up to Oakes on an errand as soon as I got home from town.

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

This is the second time that Grandma has been stung by a bee in less than a month. When I was a child my family always treated bee stings with a baking soda paste. But another old-time remedy for bee stings is described in the Compendium of Every Day Wants (1908):

BEE STINGS.—Common plantain leaves mashed and tied on the part stung will at once draw out the swelling and take away all pain. This is a simple and easily gotten remedy and one that I have tried myself. One summer when I was helping to hive bees, my eyes were stung that they swelled shit, and this took the swelling out in an hour.

Luther Minter in Compendium of Every Day Wants (1908)

The Compendium is referring to a weed sometimes called common plantain (and not to the cooking banana). Some alternative medicine websites indicate that plantain helps relieve bee stings because the leaves contain tannins which act as an astringent and reduces swelling. The leaves may also reduce pain because they contain salicylic acid (which is the active ingredient in aspirin)

25 Largest Cities in US, 1911 and 2011

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

Friday, July 7, 1911: Nothing much at all to write about.

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

Four days ago, I posted the high temperature in 25 cities for July 3, 1911. At that time I wondered which cities were the largest cities in the US in 1911. Since Grandma didn’t have much to say a hundred years ago today, I’ll tell you what I found.

The 25 largest cities in 1911 were:

And, then I wondered which cities are the largest now—and what their rank had been in 1911:

One thing that really surprised me about these lists is that the rank of Detroit was about the same in both 1911 and 2011 (9th in 1911 and 11th in 2011), so I looked at the rank in some of the intervening years. Detroit apparently grew rapidly as the auto industry took off—and it was the 4th largest city in the US by 1920.

For those who care about the details: I used US Census Bureau data for the ranks. The 1911 numbers are based on the 1910 census; the 2011 ranks are based on 2009 estimates. There may be some minor changes in the rank when detailed data become available from the 2010 census.

Finally Got Cavities Filled

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

Thursday, July 6, 1911: Went to Milton this morning. Got that bothersome tooth that ached in the spring filled and several other ones. Went to the extravaganza of buying a five dollar ring today. I am busted now.

DSC03708.cropped — Old postcard of South Front Street, Milton. Grandma probably walked to Watsontown and then took the trolley to Milton when she visited the dentist. (Source: Milton Historical Society)

Recent photo of South Front Street, Milton

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

Yeah! Hip Hip Hooray! Thank goodness! Grandma finally got her tooth filled!

It took Grandma almost three months to get her tooth fixed after it started hurting. She first mentioned that she had a toothache on April 11, and again complained about it on April 15 and April 18. She then tried to visit the dentist in Milton on May 6 and again May 13 but he wasn’t in his office when she got there.

As a mother I can’t imagine one of my children having a tooth ache for months—and wonder why Grandma’s parents let this health problem linger for so long. I guess that times were just different.

I know that this entry was written a hundred years ago, and that all of the problems and concerns that Grandma wrote about resolved themselves one way or the other long, long ago—and that it is irrational for me to be concerned about problems mentioned in the diary–but I must admit that I’ve worried about Grandma’s health when she couldn’t get her tooth fixed for months on end.

The Ring

I’m amazed that Grandma bought herself a $5 ring. In past entries Grandma’s always worried about wasting money, but maybe she decided to reward herself for finally getting her tooth fixed. The ring must have been really nice. In today’s dollars it would be worth about $140. In June Grandma earned $2.65 from picking strawberries—I wonder where she got the remaining money for the ring.

Old-time Currant Jelly Recipe

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

Wednesday, July 5, 1911: No news for today, not the smallest pinch, excepting that I got drenched during a rain storm.

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

Grandma doesn’t give many clues about what she did a hundred years ago today. I wish that she’d written more about mundane events. For example–Which vegetables were ripe in the garden? . . . Which fruits?

This past week-end my husband, daughter, and I picked some red currants at a u-pick farm. I wonder if Grandma’s family had currant bushes and if they made currant jelly.

We decided to make currant jelly, and I used a recipe from an early 20th century cookbook. My daughter used the recipe included in the box of Sure-Jell Pectin.

The jar on the left contains the currant jelly made with the old-time recipe. The jelly on the right was made using the modern recipe.

Bottom line: My daughter’s currant jelly turned out fantastic. Mine ended up being more like fruit leather than jelly. I obviously didn’t interpret and adapt the recipe for use with a modern range, but my jelly had more wonderfully complex flavors than the modern recipe I think that I learned from my mistakes and hope to pick some more currants next week-end—and try again to get the consistency right.

The old recipe is below:

Currant Jelly

Wash and drain currants thoroughly. Do not remove stems. Mash a few in the bottom of the kettle. Cook until the juice seems to be extracted from the currants and the currents look white. Press through a coarse colander, then drip through a jelly bag, but do not squeeze.

Allow one pound of sugar for each pint of juice. Boil juice twenty minutes. Add hot sugar and boil hard three minutes; skim when necessary. Strain into hot glasses.

Lowney’s Cook Book (1907)

I obviously over-cooked the juice—and substantially less cooking time was needed. I think it’s one of those things where with practice—or advice from a more experienced cook—you just learn how thick the boiling juice should be when the sugar is added.

Don't laugh, but here's a photo of the jelly made with the old recipe (left) and the modern recipe (right). The consistency is obviously much better with the modern recipe--but the intense fruit taste of the old recipe was awesome. (I really want to do some more experimenting with old pre--commercial pectin era jelly recipes and try to figure out how to make them properly.)

The cooking process reminded me of boiling maple syrup—and the juice naturally thickened as some of the water evaporated. I just boiled it way too long.

Another old cookbook that I have says that slightly under-ripe currants should be used because they naturally contain more pectin.

The recipe calls for adding hot sugar. Elsewhere in the cookbook it indicates that sugar should be heated in the oven prior to adding to the boiling juice. I guess this reduces the amount of time needed for the liquid to return to a boil after the sugar is added.

An aside: Currants were a popular berry in the US in the early 20th century. A few years after this diary entry was written currant plants were banned in the US. From 1916-1966 Federal laws restricted currant plants because they were an alternate host for a tree fungus called the White Pine Blister Rust. Some states still have laws restricting currants, but they generally are not enforced because there are varieties that aren’t very susceptible to the fungus.