KRISTINA R. GADDY
  • Books
    • Well of Souls
    • Flowers in the Gutter
  • Writing
  • Open Stacks Blog
  • About
    • Support My Writing
  • Contact

Come in, the stacks are open.

A Skimmington Shaming

3/2/2018

0 Comments

 

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. 

Picture
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

 
Picture
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!

Read More
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. 
Picture
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? 

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

 
Picture
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.


Read More
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. 
Picture

Read More
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. 

Read 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. 
Picture
Picture
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. 

Read More
1 Comment
    Picture

    Come in, the stacks are open. 

    Away from prying eyes, damaging light, and pilfering hands, the most special collections are kept in closed stacks.  You need an appointment to view the objects, letters, and books that open a door to the past. 

    Here, pieces of material culture are examined in the light. The stacks are open. ​Read the stories behind objects and ephemera found in private collections, archives, and museums. 

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    16th Century
    17th Century
    18th Century
    19th Century
    20th Century
    21st Century
    African American History
    African History
    Alcohol
    Alcohol History
    America
    Animal
    Appalachian
    Art
    Bad Science
    Baltimore
    Banjo
    Banjo Collector's Gathering
    Banjo History
    Banya Obbligato
    Banya Prei
    Books
    Canada
    Cancer
    Cat
    Celebrations
    Chesapeake Bay
    Chicago
    Christmas
    Circus History
    Civil War
    Clown
    Cold War
    Colonial History
    Communism
    Conjoined Twins
    Cook Books
    Crab
    Creole-bania
    Culinary History
    Devil
    Drumming
    Dutch History
    Easter
    England
    Eugenics
    Exhibits
    Fiddle
    Film
    Food
    Food History
    France
    "Freak Show" History
    German American
    German History
    Goucher College
    Halloween
    Hockey
    Hollywood
    Hospital
    Human Development
    James Ford Bell Library
    Jewish History
    Lincoln
    Lost Baltimore
    Lost History
    Lying In
    Lying-In
    Magazine Covers
    Map
    Maritime History
    Maroons
    Maryland
    Maternity
    Medical History
    Medical Procedures
    Medicine
    Metropolitan Museum
    Midwifery
    Minstrelsy
    Monsters
    Museum
    Music
    Native American History
    New Jersey
    New Orleans
    Newspapers
    New York City
    Obstetrics
    Ozy
    Patent
    Photography
    Plain Weave
    Political History
    Politics
    President
    Print
    Psychology
    Public Transportation
    Science
    Sheet Music
    Skansen
    Skeleton
    South American History
    Sports
    Stedman
    Streetcar
    Suffragettes
    Suriname
    Sweden
    Swedish History
    Theater
    The Knick
    Third Reich
    Traditional Music
    Traditions
    Transportation History
    Tri-racial Isolate
    Typeface
    Typography
    U.S.
    USA
    U.S. History
    Valentine
    Vegetarian
    Vegetarianism
    Victorian
    Violin
    Virginia
    Vodou
    Weaving
    West Africa
    West Virginia
    Winti
    Wisconsin
    Witch
    Witches
    Women
    Women's History
    World History
    World War II

    Picture

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Books
    • Well of Souls
    • Flowers in the Gutter
  • Writing
  • Open Stacks Blog
  • About
    • Support My Writing
  • Contact