Brady’s Faithful Reproductions

Jackets were made of wool, silk, linen, Chintz etc. Length varied, somewhat, with the decades. They were worn for work or for dress as was determined by cut and fineness of fabric. They could be accessorized similarly to gowns and even working class women are sometimes seen in paintings with some form of jewelry.

As a writer, I deplore the passing along of inaccurate undocumented information and I’m happy to see Ms. Loane debunk some of the Martha Washington myths that arose during the flowery Victorian era. A primary source is one written by someone who personally witnessed an event and wrote about it in a timely manner (before the memory dimmed and details blurred). Without primary source documentation, the information is doubtful at best.

Unfortunately, once published false information is quoted for generations and it never seems to die even after the myth is debunked.

Not only did Ms. Loane do an exorbitant amount of research in primary documents for what did happen, she addresses just when various myths were first penned, by whom, and why. In some cases, after an exhaustive search of available primary sources what Ms. Loane could not find speaks volumes.

Martha Washington has been described as circulating among the crude log huts at the Valley Forge encampment ministering to the troops, but this could not be documented in any primary source. None of the people who were at Valley Forge and wrote about their experiences spoke of Martha physically administering aid to the troops. Such comments were first written by George Washington Parke Custis, who wasn’t yet born at the time, some fifty-six years after the encampment.

Custis described his grandmother as a ministering angel at various camps when she is clearly documented by reliable sources as being elsewhere at the time and his accounts continued to grow more flamboyant as he grew older. Ms. Loane considers Custis a writer of poetry but not a historian, and other modern writers compared him to Mason Weems who created the story about George chopping down the cherry tree.

George Washington wrote a letter to the president of Princeton saying there was nothing particularly wrong with his step-grandson except for Custis’s, “aversion to study. . . mere indolence, & a dereliction to exercise the powers of the mind.” This isn’t a glowing recommendation for anyone attempting to write a historical account.

Martha was a cultured woman who knew exactly what was proper for a lady of her stature. Entertaining distinguished guests, arranging dinners or tea for the officers and their wives, outings for the ladies, and perhaps writing letters requesting donations from ladies of means is admirable for the time negating the need for creating stories to frame her in a good light.

Walking through the quarters of raggedly dressed and dirty men who came from all walks of life and may have carried on conversations unfit for a lady’s ears was unacceptable. Neither Martha or George Washington were documented as having made such a claim. No such account has been found in the writings of officers or their wives who were in the camps. As is Ms. Loane, I’m sure her “deeds of charity and piety”, were appreciated by those in her presence, but weren’t noted amongst the troops.

Ms. Loane gives an account of the officers’ wives who did spend time at the Potts home with Martha and various military and civilian visitors. Perhaps more importantly, she describes in great deal what the working women in the camps experienced – both the working class and the poor and wretched, and what they contributed to the aid of the troops. These latter were the laundresses, cooks, nurses, letter-writers, prostitutes, and wives who found themselves homeless when their husbands took up arms. A handful of women also took up arms.

Women born into poverty or who found themselves reduced to it through no fault of their own had few choices and slogging along in the mud behind the army hoping for meager rations or a coin for their labors was the best many of them could do for themselves and their children. Yes, there were children in camp and babies born in camp or on the way to camp, all of whom had to eat and most adding to Washington’s burden of obtaining enough supplies for all.

This book is well researched, well written, and deserves to be read. I highly recommend it.      

This is part of our series on eighteenth century occupations prior to, and following, the wars.  Gardening was necessary and before one can grow vegetables, herbs, grasses for forage, or flowers he must have seeds.  Saving seeds from one year to the next was economical and perpetuated select varieties when properly harvested. 

For those of us who rely heavily, or all together, on heirloom and open pollinated seeds the following information taken from primary sources is as accurate today as it was two centuries ago and would serve any gardener well.

For saving flower and vegetable seeds a 1758 source gave sound advice.  “The Care of saving Seeds for a next Year’s Crop, should come early into the Gardener’s Mind:  he should mark the strongest plant as soon as they come into Flower, and not suffer this to exhaust itself by too large a bloom:  he should cherish the ten or twelve Flowers that first open, and take off all succeeding Buds.  Then the whole Strength of Nature being in a most perfect Manner, and his next year’s Plants will very well shew the Effect of his Care…

The Time of saving Seeds [published in June] from many of the Kitchen Garden Products is now come; and let the careful Gardener here imitate, in some degree, what we have directed for the Florist.

Let them always stand upon the Plants till well harden’d; and then be thrown upon a Mat or Cloth, in an airy Room to dry in their Pods for some Time, before they are rub’d out of them.

When clear’d from the Husks, let them again be thin spread out several Days; and they will thus get that perfect hardening, which will render them fit for keeping or sowing, according to their several Natures”.

It was important to keep seeds pure, otherwise they produce quite differently from the plant the seeds were saved from.

“The truest plants should be selected” for saving seed.  In other words, save from plants that exhibit the characteristics you desire – the biggest flowers, the desired color flower, strongest stems, etc. and the same holds true for vegetables. 

“Effectual means must be taken to prevent a mixing of the sorts, or, to speak in the language of farmers, a crossing of the breeds…”.  There can be no crossing between a cabbage and a carrot, but squash and cucumbers, gourds, pumpkins, or melons can cross.  When a watermelon is insipid instead of sweet and juicy this may be why.  Corn will cross producing more than one color grain in the ears.  These are but a few examples.

To prevent crossing, varieties must be planted far enough apart that the wind doesn’t blow pollen from variety to variety and insects don’t travel between the plants carrying pollen from one to another. 

“To save the seeds of two sorts of any tribe, in the same garden, in the same year, ought not to be attempted; and this it is, that makes it difficult for any one man to raise all sorts of seeds good and true.

However, some may be saved by every one who has a garden; and, when raised, they ought to be carefully preserved.  They are the best preserved in the pod, or on the stalks…

They should stand till perfectly ripe, if possible.  They should be cut, or pulled, or gathered, when it is dry; and, they should, if possible, be dry as dry can be, before they are threshed out”.

Once seeds are threshed, they must be stored where they will remain perfectly dry until planted.

If one man saves beans he may swap some of his seed with his neighbor who saved squash or melon seeds so that each man may have a variety of vegetables the following year”. 

By the 1740s seeds were readily available for purchase but their quality varied greatly.  “…Gardeners about London…will never buy any Seeds…if they do not know how they were saved”.  That writer referred to, “seed of your own saving, or from a Friend that you can confide in…”. 

Seeds do not last forever and such fantastic stories of planting seeds hundreds of years old found in caves or some such are just that – stories.  “Seeds, if they be old very old, and yet have strength enough to bring forth a plant, make the plant degenerate…and therefore skillful gardeners make trial of the seeds before they buy them, whether they be good or no, by putting them into water gently boiled; and if they be good, they will sprout within half an hour”. 

Bib:

“Eden:  or, a Compleat Body of Gardening”.  London.  1758.

Cobbett, Wm.  “The American Gardener”.  1821.

Miller, Philip.  “The Gardener’s Dictionary”.  1748.

Miller, Philip.  “The Abridgment of the Gardener’s Dictionary”.  1771.

Those of us of a “certain age” know aprons as a sometimes pretty, but basically utilitarian, item of clothing meant to keep the dress underneath clean. Aprons stood laundering better than period dresses and there were thousands of these worn in earlier centuries. There were, however, some aprons that were strictly made and worn as an accessory and served no practical purpose at all.

In the 18th century they often had a “bib” and were known as pinners because pins were used to hold the bib in place. They could be as sheer as dragonfly wings or of more substantial fabric depending on  their intended use. The dressy ones might be embroidered or done up in white work.

Such embroidery work and fine sewing were suitable for ladies to do in a social setting while actually sewing a common garment was not. The difference was that embroidery and white work were skills a lady was expected to possess and the items they produced were, in essence, works of art.

Perhaps these originals will inspire someone to recreate one of these exquisite pieces.