Category: Traditions

A Skimmington Shaming

3/2/2018

Is your neighbor being annoying? Too loud? Coveting another neighbor's wife? What do you do about it?
In early America, the answer would have been skimmington.

Metropolitan Museum of Art / The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1966

Read my piece on skimmington in OZY.

If you want to read even more about skimmington and the European traditions it evolved from, check out Riot and Revelry in Early America, a collection of essays about protest and celebration in the United States from the colonial period to the Civil War.

0 Comments

Let's Make Pepparkakor!

12/8/2017

0 Comments

Me, rolling out gingerbread dough.

...also known as Swedish gingerbread cookies!
As I was rolling out dough for pepparkakor last weekend, I realized I didn't know anything about the distinctly thin and crispy cookies I've been cutting out and eating every year. So, I decided to look into what I could find about the history of Swedish gingerbread and share my favorite recipe, which comes from an almost-antique 1986 Allt Om Mat.
Enjoy and God Jul!

0 Comments

Today's Folk Music & the Protest Roots

9/3/2017

0 Comments

Read my profile of Eli Smith on OZY.

This past April, I had the opportunity to attend the Brooklyn Folk Festival in New York City's most hipster borough. The event was co-founded and is produced by Eli Smith, the multi-instrumentalist string band musician of the Down Hill Strugglers. The music he booked was a curated experience of great folk and traditional bands from New York and across the country. His music is deeply rooted in the history of folk and traditional music in the United States, and he brings in the complexity of that history when he books other acts too. And through this type of music, he wants people to create, think, and resist.

0 Comments

Happy Valentine's Day!

2/14/2017

0 Comments

I always loved finding old greeting post-cards when I worked at the archive. What better day to share some of my favorites?

Classic cupid cherubs are always a good choice for telling your valentine how much you care...

But then, you can also get more original. These are two of my favorites. I couldn't decide if the one with the Dutch children is poorly translated, or if it is supposed to be wrong, as if they can't quite make their English flirting correct. And I've definitely printed copies of the tickle card. I find it such a great image of how couples had to flirt in the early 1900s.

0 Comments

Lost Witch Song from the Wizard of Oz

10/27/2016

0 Comments

Image of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and Dorothy from the 1902 production of "The Wizard of Oz."

While searching through the Levy Collection at in the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries Special Collection for witch images, I came across "The Witch Behind the Moon," and it was so complex that I thought it deserved it's own post.

0 Comments

The Witching Hour Arrives...

10/11/2016

0 Comments

It's October! That means we can start with Halloween-themed posts, right?

I was recently made aware of the fact that there are a number of sheet music covers with witches in the Lester S. Levy Collection at the Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries Special Collections. So just in time for Halloween, I'll share some of them here!

The Celebrated Witches Dance crops up in sheet music archives across the country, especially this edition transcribed by Wm. Vincent Wallace, and printed in New York City in the 1850s.
Originally titled "Le Streghe," or The Witches, it was published in 1813 for violin accompanied by piano. (You can hear and see a performance of the original arrangement here.) The flighty staccato notes and quick runs punctuated by longer, more melodic sections definitely evokes what the cover to the right depicts.
This edition was published by William Hall & Son in New York City. Hall seems typical of sheet music publishers during the mid 1850s - he not only published this Americanized European classical music, but sold the instruments (pianos, guitars, melodeons, and woodwinds) to play it.

0 Comments

The Crab Derby in Crisfield

6/24/2016

0 Comments

Everyone is in place, waiting. Money and honor are on the line. The gate comes up. Bang! They're off!

They are crabs; Chesapeake blue crabs to be specific. A crab race? Really? Yes.
In 1947, the town of Crisfield decided to host a hard crab race outside of their post office as part of a summer Fishing Fair, highlighting their seafood bounty. In Maryland, summer is synonymous with eating blue crabs out on a deck by the water, and Crisfield, located on Eastern Shore between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, is a town that revolves around watermen and fishing culture.
I came across these great clips from WMAR-TV's coverage of the 6th annual crab race via the University of Baltimore's archives, which got me to look into the history of the event a little more.

0 Comments

Happy Easter! Time to dress up like a witch!

3/24/2016

1 Comment

Wait, what? Easter? Witches?

If that was your reaction, you are not Swedish, sorry! But you might have already known that. If you are Swedish, you know that during the week leading up to Easter, it's common for boys and girls to dress up like Easter Witches.

Don't worry, they are mostly friendly witches! These photos from Nordiska Museet.

So what the heck do witches have to do with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus? I asked myself that this morning and found a pretty good explanation from Nordiska Museet/ the Nordic Museum in Stockholm.

1 Comment

Come in, the stacks are open.

A Skimmington Shaming

Is your neighbor being annoying? Too loud? Coveting another neighbor's wife? What do you do about it?
In early America, the answer would have been skimmington.

Read my piece on skimmington in OZY.

Let's Make Pepparkakor!

Today's Folk Music & the Protest Roots

Read my profile of Eli Smith on OZY.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I always loved finding old greeting post-cards when I worked at the archive. What better day to share some of my favorites?

Lost Witch Song from the Wizard of Oz

While searching through the Levy Collection at in the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries Special Collection for witch images, I came across "The Witch Behind the Moon," and it was so complex that I thought it deserved it's own post.

The Witching Hour Arrives...

It's October! That means we can start with Halloween-themed posts, right?

The Crab Derby in Crisfield

Everyone is in place, waiting. Money and honor are on the line. The gate comes up. Bang! They're off!

Happy Easter! Time to dress up like a witch!

Wait, what? Easter? Witches?

Come in, the stacks are open.

Archives

Categories

Come in, the stacks are open.

Is your neighbor being annoying? Too loud? Coveting another neighbor's wife? What do you do about it? ​In early America, the answer would have been skimmington.

I always loved finding old greeting post-cards when I worked at the archive. What better day to share some of my favorites?

While searching through the Levy Collection at in the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries Special Collection for witch images, I came across ​"The Witch Behind the Moon," and it was so complex that I thought it deserved it's own post.

It's October! That means we can start with Halloween-themed posts, right?

Everyone is in place, waiting. Money and honor are on the line. The gate comes up. Bang! They're off!

Wait, what? Easter? Witches?

Come in, the stacks are open.

Archives

Categories

Is your neighbor being annoying? Too loud? Coveting another neighbor's wife? What do you do about it?
In early America, the answer would have been skimmington.

While searching through the Levy Collection at in the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries Special Collection for witch images, I came across "The Witch Behind the Moon," and it was so complex that I thought it deserved it's own post.