A 1948 article in the journal “Economic Botany” referred to the coconut palm as “Mankind’s Greatest Provider in the Tropics.” The article discussed the uses not only of coconut flesh but of the oil and fiber and sap. “The palm provides almost every want except clothing,” concluded author Oscar K Moore. This was far from…
Benjamin Chew Howard wrote genuinely loving letters to his wife, the former Jane Grant Gilmor. In one he quoted a poem, telling Mrs. Howard “time has not ‘dimmed your eye.’” It was 1835 and Jane Howard was 34, hardly an old matron. Still, the sentiment was sweet. The letters between Mr. and Mrs. B. C….
The Manuscript Cookbooks Survey describes the handwriting in the “Hoffman Cook Book” as having an “unvarying mood.” That is one way to put it. The text is dense. Impenetrable. To my eyes: a nightmare. The exhausting handwriting likely belonged to Lydia A. Hoffman Smyser, who was born in Maryland in 1837 and ended up in…
Like many local history enthusiasts, I follow the social media of Evan Woodward, a.k.a. SalvageArc, who digs into forgotten privies in Baltimore and beyond, unearthing the pottery shards, bones, bottles, and other non-biodegradable relics that people once threw into their privies. (The you-know-what and any other gross organic matter have all turned into dirt at…
One of the many changes that the pandemic caused in me was a reversal of my austere policy on hard-copies of cookbooks. Where once I had been donating my more rare books and avoiding paying for anything I could view in a library, I suddenly had the urge to build up my home collection more…