Navigating the Heartache WWI Brings
For centuries, women worked in the home and on the family farm for no pay. It only has been in the past 200 years that women have been allowed to enter what was considered a man’s domain — the workforce. The idea of a woman working for an employer was shocking. Most considered the business…
Have you ever stopped to think about the origins of many of the customs and traditions we hold dear? Most of these customs and traditions feel like they have been around forever, but many have existed for less than 200 years and originated with the Victorians. Here are three notable examples. The list, however, goes…
It’s hard to imagine a time when government regulations didn’t protect workers’ safety. But a century ago, there were no regulations. No one had any reason to question why not. However, that all changed on the day of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. What is a shirtwaist? It’s a type of blouse. It became popular when…
Many people have the impression that the 1910s were technologically the Dark Ages. In truth, nearly all the modern conveniences we enjoy today existed, only in a simpler form. Technological advances accelerated in the 19th century and continued in the 20th century at an astonishing rate. So much so that, as ThoughtCo. puts it, “We…
Post-mortem photography is one mourning ritual that did not survive the Victorian era. These photographs (also known as death photos, mourning portraits or memorial portraits) were, as the name implies, taken of a deceased person. They were popular almost from the invention of photography until around 1900 when it became possible for ordinary people to own a…
The stereotype is that women drivers are bad drivers. This stereotype no doubt got its start in the early days of the 20th century when motoring was thought of as a male pursuit. Some pioneering women thought it was all nonsense. A woman could operate an automobile just as well as a man. Women were…
Learning how to cook in the early 20th century was not a matter of choice for women. It was a matter of survival. Women were expected to cook for their families, but what were they cooking and how were they preparing it? “All the food that we ate when I was a child in the…
We live in a day and age where sex tapes make people celebrities, and the thought of our mortality makes people uncomfortable. There was once a time when the opposite was true. People were aware of the shadow of death, and mourning was a public activity. Their sex lives, on the other hand, were never…
The choice of baby names is vitally important to any parent. And such a big decision it is! The pupils taking the eighth grade exit exam in 1910 would have been born around 1896. What names would have appeared on their classrooms’ rolls, and how do those names compare to today? Then and Now The most…
In 1900, the U.S. high school graduation rate was six percent. During the 1910s in Canada, the highest level of education the average person completed was grade six. The majority of teachers were women. While this is probably still the case today, women were expected to quit working once they married. In some districts, teachers…