Little Ideas for a Victorian Craft Project for a Christmas gift!

A couple of little things I found to archive

Ready for the Holidays!

All the decorating at the Patterson House is finished.  Last night was the preview for the Foundation members, the Advisory Board members, Docents and Volunteers.  It was a great night, the rain held off and the house was beautiful...and of course, the food was great too!

Wedding Dresses!

Through the years since the Patterson House was opened as a historical museum, all kinds of items gravitated toward the house.  At first these items were catalogued but there were so many things needed to be done in the house and there were only 1 or 2 staff, the rest were volunteers, and the catalogue project was put to the side.

Then about 15 years ago the cataloguing project started up again, 2 volunteers working on it.  Then life took over and those volunteers had to leave the area and the project.

Meanwhile, through all these years, more items were being donated and a lot of them went into closets with the hope of being cataloged and displayed in the future.  Then, there were bags of stuff left at the office that did not pertain to the historic era the Patterson House and some of that stuff actually made it into the house too.

So now, we are back to going through the whole inventory of the house and cataloging, and even "repurposing".

I am working with the textiles and we are actually getting a lot done.  My next goal is to open the Wedding Dress boxes, hopefully in January.  The boxes haven't been open for about 15 years so it will be like opening treasure chests!  We have about 5 boxes that are listed as Wedding Dresses, but maybe there are more boxes or some mis-labeled.  We will see!

This a shot of the "Old Hall Closet" where most of the boxes have been stored all these years.  See all those big boxes on the top shelf, some of them are marked "Wedding Dress" among other things like "Mens Swimming Suit".  Then there is another closet that has at least 3 boxes marked "Wedding Dress".    All the rest of the stuff in this closet are paper documents that will be archived after the textiles are done.  There are photos, land maps, graduation certificates, letters....you name it, that is going to be an interesting project too!

Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day in the San Francisco Bay Area was not a very pleasant place.  The air was so smokey and considered unhealthy.  Actually anything over 100 is considered unhealthy, and it was about 135 that day.  There had been worse days and kids were going crazy and teachers too because everyone had been told to stay inside for days.  The schools had decided to close and so there were those people threw all caution to the wind and went to the farm. 

Meanwhile, the Patterson House had been so busy preparing for the decoration marathon coming up.  Veterans Day had not entered our consciousness.  So I rushed over before opening and put up the flag and started digging around to find things to put out for the day, even if we weren't going to have but a possible handful of visitors.  In that quest, I found something very special.

Back in a closet, I found this wonderful display.  And I just realized I hadn't shared it on the blog.

This was all in a display frame, a picture of a young World War I soldier, a medal of honor, another medal for different places he had served during the war, his "dog tag" and a New Testament.

There was no notation on the back of the frame telling who the soldier was or any other information.
Then looking at the pieces in the frame carefully, I figured out the name on the dog tag was John H Callow.  The dog tags then didn't have a number on them, just a name.  I then remembered one of our Patterson House Docents, Marge Callow.  Since then I have found out that she donated this display to the House.  It was of her father so it makes it so special.  She has since passed on but is remembered as a wonderful teacher, a great docent, and a very proud daughter of a brave veteran.

This was a medal awarded to those that served in battle areas in France.  On the back it mentions the "War to Save Civilization".  We sure have gone through a lot of them since that one.

So we put out this little display and a few WWI posters.  But I did think of John Callow and the things he must have seen in his young years.  And I thought of Marge and thanked her for sharing her dad's experience with us.

Asian Gathered Purse:

Asian Gathered Purse:  This little purse is Chinese, I think, although it could be Japanese.  We have no information on this purse, but I would like to think it was bought by Clara on one of her trips to those countries.

This is a little coin attached between the purse and the tassle.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Yesterday morning I looked out the window and was able to see gray sky, but over to the west was BLUE! AND THE EDGE OF A CLOUD IN THE DISTANCE!!!

After 2 weeks of totally gray sky and nothing else but the smell of smoke, the warnings not to go outside without a mask of N95, a bit of light blue and a cloud was so wonderful.  It is one of those experiences that you have to live to really understand the emotion.  I could understand how people in East USA feel when they talk of cabin fever.  Living in California most of my life, weather is not really exciting.  Good Morning America weather guys are always talking about the East Coast, so hot and frying eggs on sidewalks, so cold (it is 7 degrees F in New York today) floods, tornados, hurricanes and etc.

2 weeks ago, a horrible fire blew, literally blew 100 yards a second, a fire across the land and through several small towns in Northern California.  These towns have been there since the 1850s, the time of the Gold Rush!  One one side of Paradise (which I heard had been originally named "Pair of Dice", but changed it's name later to be more respectable) has mountains and the other side, a canyon.  Because of this they had one main road going in and another going out.  The town is basically gone now.  But the fire isn't and the smoke has gone up and with the inversion has just stayed there, stuck.

The Golden Gate Bridge was in such thick smoke you couldn't see it from Baker Beach.  I used a tree a street over from us to judge how bad the air quality was every morning.  I just found out this morning that tree still has lots of light yellow leaves on it, it has been looking so gray and indistinct I thought it was just gray branches I was seeing. 

But, back to being thankful, our air quality has gone from in the 200s to 38 just before the rain when the breeze started blowing the smoke out.  100 is considered unhealthy and a year ago our air quality was 38 with people burning in their fireplaces.  So it was such a joy to be able to see a cloud again!  And then it rained yesterday, so great!  And everyone was so happy!  And today, beautiful BLUE sky!!And CLEAN air to enjoy!  Just very essential things are to be thankful for. 

So hope everyone takes a nice breath of air, has enough to eat and is warm enough, and remembers to be thankful for what we have.

Paisley Shawl

This is a paisley shawl that is from the 1800s.  It is large and in very good shape, only the edges are worn.The colors are so vibrant!!

In the photos it is folded.

Baby Shoe

And here is a baby shoe:

It had been archived before with this note saying the other shoe to the pair is in the Nanny's room in a frame.  It is in an oval frame with about 7 different kinds of children's shoes from booties to toddlers from the Victorian era.

Calling Card Bag

This is a little bag that a note inside says was used to hold calling cards (in the 1800s).

Front

Back

Nightgown Bag

This Nightgown Bag was also donated by Emily Hook.  It was from the 1865-1875 era.  As the note with it explains, this held a nightgown and was laid at the foot of the bed.  

It has a fringe around the outside edges and has a braid embroidered on it for decoration.

Outside back

Outside front

Note enclosed in bag

Bonnet that could have come to California in a covered wagon!

This is a quilted bonnet that dates back between 1800 and 1850.  It is hand sewn and hand quilted.  The outside is made of black silk which is in pretty good shape except the back panel which is made from a different silk and is shattering along fold lines.  The ribbons have insect damage, small holes.  

Side View

Back of Bonnet

The Ribbon Ties

Showing quilting 

View of the back from the top

The inside front is the same silk as the outside, then the sides are a tan cotton fabric, both are padded.  The back is a light brown cotton but not padded. There is a neck piece gathered to the back and sides.  It is not padded.

View from the inside

Where the ribbons are attached.

 Notes that were found with the bonnet.  

It was donated by a former Patterson House Docent Emily Hook.

 The peacocks are getting their new feathers, but they know they don't look that great yet.

The 3rd set of Lace: