On a chilly January day with snow all around here in the Washington, D.C. area, it’s easy to dream of stretching out next to one of these lovely ceramic tile ovens (also known as Kachelöfen or masonry heaters).
Category: Trade Literature
Besides these fabulous hat adornments, more images, including veils, ornaments, pins and already trimmed hats can be found on the Libraries’ Galaxy of Images.
In the New Year … May your cupboards be full … May your accounts rise in value … May you not have to work too hard … Happy New Year from Smithsonian Libraries.
The weather is definitely getting colder, so this seemed like a perfect time to feature a trade catalog illustrating winter fashion from the late nineteenth century. John E. Kaughran & Co.’s Illustrated Catalogue, Fall and Winter, 1884-85 has several pages showing ladies’ cloaks, coats, and jackets.
Sears shipped the components for 49,500 “kit-houses” in 15 years, providing middle-class Americans with good residential design at affordable prices. Buyers selected their dream house from the scores of models presented in Sears’ “Honor Bilt” catalogs. For historians, details of house design, such as the breakfast nook, and slogans, such as “Where women spend 2/3 of every day should be modern and bright,” are important records of American domestic life.
To teach children the stretch of fingers necessary to play a full-sized piano, the keys on these toy pianos were spaced the same distance apart as the keys on a full-sized piano.