Colonial Cradles

Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber,

Holy angels guard thy bed!

Heavenly blessings without number

Gently falling on thy head.

Sleep, my babe; thy food and raiment,

House and home, thy friends provide;

All without thy care or payment:

All thy wants are well supplied.

— From “A Cradle Hymn” by Isaac Watts (1674 – 1748)

The first time I saw a colonial cradle, I was visiting the home of Nathaniel Hawthorne in Concord, Massachusetts.

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne Home, Concord, MA

I was just a young girl and I can still see the rich, dark wood, so smoothly crafted with loving care. I remember imagining the children of the household that were rocked to sleep within the comforting confines. Seeing that cradle brought to life tender traces of the love and care of the people who had lived there. I cherished that memory long into adulthood, when I named my own son “Nathaniel.” And I still eagerly drink in the images of antique cradles wherever I see them.

Peregrine White's Wicker Cradle

The first cradle in America came over on the Mayflower in 1620. It was the Dutch wicker bed that soothed the first child born to the Pilgrims in the New World: Peregrine White. The young boy was birthed onboard the wooden vessel as it docked in Cape Cod Bay. It can still be seen at the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Most of the cradles made in the colonies were wrought from wood and the designs ranged from plain, solid boards, to engraved embellishments along the panels, to spindled sides similar to modern crib designs.

Author Eric Sloan in American Yesterday wrote, “At one time or another, cradles have been attached to butter churns, turnspits, dog mills, and even windmill gears to give them automatic movement, but the simple rocker cradle remained in the American household for over two centuries before its disappearance.”

A rather unique cradle, thought to have multiple uses for nursing mothers, twins or invalids, was the “adult cradle.” These wooden cradles were about the size of a single bed, but built closer to the floor.

According to Jack Larkin in The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790 – 1840, not every infant slept in a cradle in Early America. “…it was common, noted the physician and reformer William Alcott in 1830, for an American mother to ‘sleep with her infant on her arm,’ and children often shared the parental bed until they were weaned.”

Cradle from Storrowton Village Museum

But whether some infants shared their parents’ bed or not, the cradle seemed to be the predominant shelter for little ones while they slept.

Shirley Glubock in Home and Child Life in Colonial Days writes:

“Nothing could be prettier than the old cradles that have survived successive years of use with many generations of babies….In these cradles the colonial baby slept, warmly wrapped in a homespun blanket or pressed quilt.”

How much better thou’rt attended

Than the Son of God could be,

When from heaven he descended

And became a child like thee!

Soft and easy is thy cradle:

Coarse and hard thy Savior lay

When His birthplace was a stable

And His softest bed was hay.

— From “A Cradle Hymn” by Isaac Watts (1674 – 1748)

Dyeing and Blocking- The history behind Printed Fabrics by Debra E. Marvin

In the 18th Century, among the many fascinating items Europeans began to ‘need’ from the far east were printed fabrics. “Fast Printed” meant the colors were not supposed to run, not the speed of creation. By 1700 English, French, and Dutch craftsmen had figured out how to fix their dyes and create prints with the use of elaborate carved woodblocks, but they were slow to catch imports for their desirability.  

Here's a link to an incredible dress from 1780s made of Indian Chintz. Such colors and bold patterns!

Of course, the labor was backbreaking – cold, dark workrooms with boiling vats of dye. Bleak, monotonous work for very long days. Sadly, few samples of the earliest of prints survive. Cotton took dye best and natural fabrics deteriorate unless kept under the best of situations.

The Madder Plant. Roots were the source of red dye

Most dying centered around two major colors – red and blue and were created by the use of MADDER for red and INDIGO for blue.

THE PROCESS:
It’s incredible to see the intricate details carved on old woodblocks.  Dots worked into the patterns (or not) helped the worker line up the block from spot to spot. A block was colored (think of stamping –rolled on, or pressed onto the dye) and pressed against fabric, then imprinted with a tap from a mallet. The process continued, block by block down the yards and yards of fabric. Consider that in a yard and a half , the process on 45” material would have been done 91 times alone with a 4”  sq. block.  (note-45” wide material is the norm now, not then!)

If you are like me, you love TOILE. Here’s an excellent representation of detail but done in one color.

Imagine the work that went into this fabric!

Amazing printed fabric from 1775-1800

http://www.marquise.de/database/dbout.php?name=hindelopen1.jpg&lang=.

Block printing was not perfect and that’s the charm of it. A discerning seamstress might well pass on fabric that was not lined up properly, or had the occasional smear, but someone would use it.  It’s not surprising that prints were not found on the clothes of servants and the working class in the 18^th Century!

CREATING THE WOOD  PATTERN BLOCKS was a time-consuming enterprise, starting with a thick block of wood made from sycamore / planetree or pear wood (primarily  in England). They had to be of quality to resist warping when wet, and were backed with two or three other layers of wood, often pine. Grains ran in opposite directions in each layer to further prevent warping.

The block was sanded completely flat and smooth before accepting the sketched on design which was transferred on.  The design started on paper, as it had to be copied over to other blocks if the design had multiple colors. For each color the area of the design was left and the balance carved away. I understand the process from making printing blocks out of a linoleum type material, but the skill involved to make a multi-colored block amazes me.

At times, small details had to be made in metal and added to the block, as small cuts tend to wear away or chip off. The use of copper added a very intense amount of work in such cases.

The process to print continues with the choice of a good cloth, fast dyes, and steady hands. And patience!

For a multi-color print, the entire bolt of fabric had to be hand printed in one color and allowed to dry. A second, third or fourth color could be added with different blocks for the same pattern and additional stamping and drying time. In some cases, if a color was only used in a small part, it was hand painted on.

For many years in England, import of printed fabric was illegal. People loved it but it took away from the domestic fabric industry—until British craftsmen could compete with Indian craftsmen!  Textiles from India led the market for a long time. India muslin and calico remained in high demand even after British mills were rolling out cotton fabric.

Here are few more ways to create printed cloth:

Mordant Dyeing (chemical fixatives stamped to the cloth which was then put into a pot of dye)

Resist Dyeing (placing a resist material, like a wax, on the fabric where dye was not to attach)

Hand Painting!

Flower designs were popular, and still are. Fabric printing by mid 18^th century was done to mimic embroidery.  Later, bolder patterns of twisting stems and lines came along but so did small designs which were much easier and cheaper to produce! Now the working class could wear  simple prints.

The term Calico represents printed cotton and may have originated in America as the general term for cotton prints coming from the port of Calicut, India. Chintz, another popular cotton print (generally with a more polished cotton thread and therefore a shinier fabric) is believed to have come from the Hindi word Chint which meant variegated.

I won’t take for granted the classic look of printed cotton when I consider its not so humble beginnings.

For anyone creating period clothing, it is important to look at what materials were used at the time.

September New Releases Tea Party ~ Featuring DEBUT Author Shannon McNear, Carla Olson Gade, Gina Welborn

Christmas comes early this month with Shannon McNear's debut novella in A Pioneer Christmas and Carla Olson Gade and Gina Welborn's novellas in Mistletoe Memories ~ two historical novella collections from Barbour Publishing. Do come in and help us celebrate.

Please enjoy some tea made with water from
Schooley's Mountain Springs and some delicious pumpkin scones.

A Pioneer Christmas -

Journey along with American settlers who learn that despite where the trail takes them or how primitive their lodgings may be Christmas is all about the heart. Determined to honor Christ's birth, these pioneers find a way to make Christmas happen in places like a cave, a tipi, and a dugout. Modern readers will enjoy a peek into life before commercialism took over the sacred day, distracting us from the true blessings of faith, hope, and love. Enjoy nine original novellas of Christmas romance, including Shannon McNear's debut novella Defending Truth.

About Defending Truth - On the frontier of western North Carolina, which will someday become east Tennessee, Truth Bledsoe keeps her family fed while her father is away fighting the British. When she discovers a half-starved, fugitive Tory, she’s not above feeding him, but to go past simple Christian charity to forgiveness seems impossible. To love would be unthinkable.

Micah Elliot has fled capture after the massacre at King’s Mountain, heartsick, battle weary, and ashamed of the cowardice that sent him westward over the mountains instead of eastward to home. Groping his way through a crisis of faith, he must discover and embrace what might finally be worth laying his life down for.

A note from Shannon:  The Battle of Kings Mountain (which took place in October 1780, not 1781, contrary to the timestamp on my story!) has haunted me since about fifth grade or so, when I read the novel Who Comes to Kings Mountain? by John and Patricia Beatty. Later, when I began serious research on the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution, I hunted down a copy of that kids’ book and was disappointed to find how NOT historically accurate the story is ... but the conflict of neighbor against neighbor, sometimes brother against brother, continues to tug at my heart. It isn’t for nothing that the Revolution is referred to as “America’s First Civil War.”

Mistletoe Memories -

For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. ~ Hebrews 3:4

One of America’s earliest summer resorts began atop the majestically wooded Schooley’s Mountain where the mecca of chalybeate springs (or “magic water”) drew visitors from near and far. Eventually the magic water disappeared, but the memories remained. Folks who live there tell the stories they heard from their grandparents who heard them from their grandparents. The four stories in MISTLETOE MEMORIES cover the almost 200 years after the house was built and center around a house that became a refuge that became an orphanage that became a home.

'Tis the Season by Carla Olson Gade (1820) ~ Stephan Yost, resident carpenter of Schooley’s Mountain, New Jersey’s fashionable resort, spends off-season working on repairs, renovations, and constructing new buildings. When he is hired to build a permanent home for the resort's physician and his spirited daughter, Annaliese Braun, in time for Christmas, Stephan finds himself enamored by the precocious spinster. But will he be able to compete for her affections against the advances of a manipulative iron baron?

A note from Carla: "George Washington slept here," claimed the renowned Heath House resort on Schooley's Mountain, NJ and they preserved the room he stayed in. This is just one of the nods at colonial history you'll find in 'Tis the Season. Other historical detail sprinkled throughout the novella, helping establish the setting of the collection, includes the the 18th century discovery of the mineral springs and the reference to the famous 1774 Old Stone Union church where one of the scenes is set. There are many more historical treats that flavor the novella along with the successive stories, each set in a later time period up until present day. Be sure to check out my story board on Pinterest. 

Mercy Mild by Gina Welborn (date) ~ As Christmas approaches, Civil War widow Marianne Plum thanks the Lord every day she never had children. Last thing she’d want is to raise a child alone. So when an orphaned girl arrives in town looking for her cousins, the charming and joyful Deputy Sheriff Ezekiel Norcross asks Marianne to give the child a place to stay. . .only until her cousins are found. Soon the girl’s mischievous exploits send Marianne repeatedly to Zeke, who shows her the greatest peace on earth comes with learning to give and to receive love.

A note from Gina: As I was researching, I came across a pdf called A History of Morris County New Jersey. It contained information about Company K of the 7th New Jersey and how many men they lost at Spotsylvania, Virginia, during the Civil War. My goal was to create a scene that would honor the men who served in Company K by bringing to life the facts that Zeke shares in his speech, including about the gift of the Bible to the soldiers and the various battles. See my Mistletoe Memories Pinterest board!

 

GIVEAWAYS:  One copy of A Pioneer Christmas Collection, signed by all nine authors! A copy of Mistletoe Memories from Carla Olson Gade. And anthor copy of Mistletoe Memories along with a beautiful table runner is being given by Gina Welborn. We also have a pair of sweet-smelling bayberry candles from Colonial Williamsburg to put you in the Christmas mood!  Please leave your email address with your comment to be entered.

Question: In Mistletoe Memories there are some mistletoe kisses that are quite memorable. What is a favorite kiss of yours: personally, in character, in a favorite novel? Is it a mistletoe kiss?

 

Colonel William Preston and Smithfield Plantation by Cynthia Howerter

William Preston was nine years old when he and his family immigrated to the American colonies from Ireland in 1738. The Preston family located in Augusta County, Virginia, near present day Staunton and Waynesboro, where the frontier literally began at their front door. 

Colonel William Preston served in the French and Indian War (1754-1763), and married Susanna Smith in 1761. After the war, Preston was elected in 1765 to represent Augusta County at Virginia’s House of Burgesses in Williamsburg. He served as a Representative until about 1770 when Augusta County was divided. 

The year 1774 not only saw Colonel Preston active in Lord Dunmore’s War against the Shawnee Indians, but he also moved his wife Susanna and their seven children to the newly built house on Smithfield Plantation, named in honor of Susanna's maiden name. At the time, it was the largest plantation in southwest Virginia.  

Although the property was located at the edge of the rugged Appalachian Mountain frontier in southwest Virginia, the L-shaped house reflects the refined architecture and genteel ambiance of the Tidewater homes in eastern Virginia.

Smithfield's plantation house

Throughout the Revolutionary War period (1775-1783), Colonel Preston took an active part in military affairs in Virginia. His family, as well as others who lived on the Virginia frontier, were threatened by Shawnee and Cherokee Indians who sided with the British. However, the Preston family remained on their plantation, setting an example of courage for other settlers in the area.

Late in 1780, Colonel Preston helped plan the military campaign that led to the defeat of the Tories at the Battle of King's Mountain in rural South Carolina. He was unable to participate in the battle due to illness in his family.

At the time of Preston’s death at age 53 in 1783, William and Susanna were the parents of 12 children, five of whom were born at Smithfield. Widowed, Susanna Smith Preston raised their children, living at Smithfield Plantation until her death in 1823. 

Many of William and Susanna’s descendants became prominent Americans. Their eldest son, James Patton Preston, who inherited the plantation, served as Governor of Virginia from 1816-1819. Their grandson, William Ballard Preston, served as a Congressman, Secretary of the Navy, and later as a Senator of the Confederate States of America. He also co-founded the Preston and Olin Institute, a small Methodist college in Blacksburg that later became Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, better known as Virginia Tech.

Smithfield Plantation was carefully restored in the 1960s. The one-and-a-half-story white house is noted for its spacious rooms and high ceilings, and contains many original Preston family furnishings. 

Smithfield's Formal Drawing Room

Its lovely garden is filled with a variety of 18^th century plants that the Prestons mentioned in written documents. An heirloom orchard is being developed.

Rear view of the house showing the "L-shape" and the house garden

Several outbuildings, called “dependencies,” have been rebuilt. These include a cider house, a weaver/cook house, and a miller’s cabin. Other dependencies are to be rebuilt in the future. The Preston family cemetery is located on Virginia Tech’s campus, near the plantation.

Smithfield Plantation's weaver's cabin - also known as the cook house

Photographs generously provided by Colonel Douglas W. Anderson, Museum Administrator, Smithfield Plantation, and cannot be copied or reproduced without written permission by Smithfield Plantation.

Smithfield Plantation is adjacent to the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. For more information: Smithfield Plantation

Award-winning author Cynthia Howerter loves using her training in education, research, writing, and speaking to teach and inspire others about a time in America that was anything but boring. A member of the Daughters of the American revolution (DAR), Cynthia believes history should be alive and personal.

Visit Cynthia's website: Cynthia Howerter - all things historical

Colonial Hand Quilting - Labor of Love

I'm always fascinated by the trades and occupations that our colonial ancestors held, especially the long hours they kept and the primitive manner which they worked, without the conveniences that we enjoy today. In my novel Pattern for Romance I've chosen to highlight the trades of a merchant tailor, mantua-maker, and a quilter. When doing my research I was fascinated to learn the interesting history of quilting in early America.

My heroine in Pattern for Romance, from an upper-middling class family in England, learned to quilt as a leisurely activity. Upon her arrival in Boston, Massachusetts under dire circumstances she turns to her skill and finds employment as a quilter at a mantua-maker's (dress) shop. Her painstaking, meticulous stitches earn her only a pittance and for this reason quilters in the 18th century were often accused of theft, a crime my protagonist also gets accused of. But alas, it is no secret that the hero will come to her aid so she won't have to bear the brand of a T for theivery on her work-worn hand.

There are many romantic notions about quilting and one of them comes from our early American history. It is a myth commonly believed that colonial women sat around quilting bed coverings as a past time. Most women in these times did not have leisurely time for such activities when there was so much work to be done each and every day.

Photo I took at CW.

You may be surprised to learn that some of the earliest quilted objects in America were garments, not bed covers. Before there were piecework quilts such as Broderie perse/chintz applique and Mathematical/Lone star quilts made from imported fabrics (contraband during the trade embargoes with Britian) there were whole-cloth quilts. The whole cloth was quilted to add warmth and style, thus the whole-cloth quilt. Beautiful patterns were quilted into the fabric to create exquisite pieces worn by men, children, and women. The lovely open-robe style colonial gown purposefully displays the quilted outer petticoats worn by women to show off the beautiful creations. I border on obsession when it comes to my admiration of these garments, here you can see why.

QUILT - A coveríng for a bed, a petticoat for a woman made by stitching one cloth over another with some sort substance between.
~  The New And Complete Dictionary Of The English Language, 1775

Open-robe gown and quilted petticoat. Heart: Wholecloth
calimanco quilt by Esther Wheat, Conway, Massachusetts,
about 1790, Smithsonian Institution. Whole-cloth quilt
by Lucretia Smith, dated 1776, Bowers Museum,
Santa Ana, California.

 

This calimanco and linsey woolsey quilted bed cover
was taken as a prize in the Revolutionary War from a
British vessel. Click through to see detail.

The warm and beauty provided in the quilted cloth were also used for bed covers and a research trip to the New England Quilting Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts afforded me the opportunity to see first hand some of the beautiful white-work, whole-cloth bed quilts. Unfortunately I was not able to take photographs, but the images are impressed in my memory and I'm so glad there are extant samples of the exquisite 18th century quilts for us to appreciate today. You can imagine how delighted I was when I discovered these beauties during my trip to Old Fort Western in Maine where museum interpreters are learning how to quilt whole-cloth as they did in the colonial period.

Let's not forget the quilting bees/parties that were held to make much work lighter. The women would spend the day quilting away and invite the men to join them at the end of the day to celebrate with food, music, and dancing.

For more views of colonial quilts please visit my Quilts of Love Pinterest board. 

What colonial occupation intrigues you? How do you finding pleasure in your labor? In your rest?

Happy Labor Day!

Women Folk
Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth
Quilt Index

Hand quilting at a quilting museum video demontration.