Caskets in The Shop at the Hunter House Victorian Museum

The latest wholesale issue of Victorian Trading Company arrived at the museum last week and all of the volunteers gathered around to see what new items were being offered. The volunteers are some of The Shop's best customers, thanks in part to the discount the museum affords them.




As advertised on the front of their catalog, Victorian Trading Company prides itself in its selection of antique replica gifts, home decoratives and domestics, greetings/stationery, jewelry and accessories. In their jewelry selection this season is a  Victorian Jewelry Casket described as: Intricately detailed, the glass-lidded chamber will harbor your precious baubles while complementing perfume atomizers and other vanity-top lovelies. 6x2."
It does indeed resemble a sarcophagus with a glass lid. The oblong body, no pun intended, is an aged silver color with engraved details and a clasp. The feet appear to be a representation of a fleur-de-lis motif. Some definitions suggest that word casket is a corruption of the French cassette, small box; perhaps that explains the fleur-de-lis emblem that is associated with French royalty. The lily flower is also associated with purity and resurrection. And of course, the feet may not even be a fleur-de-lis at all; the picture in the catalog is rather small!



A casket for jewelry, you might muse. Today's society associates caskets with cemeteries. In earlier years and cultures caskets were containers, repositories for valuables, such as jewels and documents. During the romantic wave that swept over the Victorian Era, death became softened even romanticized. Graveyards, with their puritanical associations, grew into park like cemeteries. The word cemetery comes from a Greek word meaning sleeping space. In this peaceful resting place coffins transformed into caskets, a place to keep the earthly remains of loved ones.


After the discussion about caskets and coffins, graveyards and cemeteries and heaven and .... well, the question remained: do we purchase the jewelry casket for The Shop? And the answer: we haven't decided.
On a related note, the Victorian Era park like cemeteries we have in Norfolk and throughout the Commonwealth are quite lovely spaces and especially at this time of the year. It is not unusual at all to take a drive or a stroll in cemeteries. The art is magnificent. The nature is restorative. Get out of the car or off the bike and wander about to read the stones. Do please obey cemetery rules and regulations. If the cemetery has an office or even a gift shop, stop in for a tour map. If there is a donation box, consider leaving a contribution to help with future conservation and preservation efforts. Enjoy!

Yellow Blooms in the Garden

One of the most pleasant moments of the day is opening the black iron gate into the museum's garden and entering under the trellis of a Lady Banks rose.
The spring garden is sparse, but the new green of leafing trees and rose bushes and grass is complemented by the joy of the yellow marsh marigold, daffodils and forsythia.
I am neither a horticulturist nor a gardener, but I love flowers and trees and have learned many of their names and attributes even if I did not inherit my mother's green thumb to actually cultivate them. My mother always had a yard in bloom and in later years had two yards in bloom, hers and the museum's.
A great deal of what is currently in the museum's garden came either from her garden or was planted by her. The forsythia is a hardy shrub, thankfully, as the one in the garden was traumatized when someone ran into the brick wall from the parking lot a couple of years back. The landscaper rescued it and put it back in place with the hope that it would survive. And survive it has.
The yellow forsythia blooms before it leafs out. The plant was named for the British botanist William Forsyth (1737 - 1804), a founding member of the Royal Horticulture Society in 1804. He has been credited as the royal gardener for the gardens at Kensington Palace and St. James's Palace.
Britain's Queen Anne, who reigned between 1702 and 1714, worked to have the Kensington Palace Gardens established as a public flower garden. Her flower of choice, so it has been noted, was the jonquil.
Jonquil, daffodil, narcissus ... I know, there are 27,000 different daffodils in 13 classes according to The Daffodil Society (UK). I grew up calling these playful flowers jonquils. I read a somewhat amusing note on a gardener's site/page that claimed that the daffodil is only referred to as jonquil in 'the south.' Well, then.
I do not want to get too scientific about this - my apologies to anyone offended - because I just want to enjoy the beauty of the blooms and the spaces they populate. It is always the best of winter surprises when a few pop up and burst into color. Chances are they will be under snow the next week.
Again, my mother always referred to the bulb as the jonquil or narcissus. I knew the name Narcissus from Greek mythology. (Narcissus was a beautiful god who would sit by still pools of water and admire his reflection. Once he went down to embrace his reflection, thinking it was the most handsome of gods, and fell in - drowned - tragic. Thus, people who become enamoured with themselves are often described as narcissistic.)
I do not believe I even heard the term daffodil until I was introduced to William Wordsworth's poem 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.'
 

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

 

Just a few years ago I walked through parts of the Lake Country in England where William and his sister Dorothy lived. It was late spring, but there were some end of the season blooms weathering it out. I felt as though I had arrived at the end of a pilgrimage of sorts.

The daffodil has been named as the birth flower for the month of March. (Who gets to name birthstones and state reptiles and such?) In various sources noting the language of flowers, the daffodil means respect, regard, the flower of death, and the most poetic, ' you are an angel.'

I picked up a beautiful old post card at an antique store several years ago (probably longer than that now as the price penciled on the back is $2.00); it depicts a bouquet of daffodils with the sentiment:

Daffodils (Regard) 

That come before

The swallow dares,

And take

The winds of March

With beauty.

 

Now, to the most exciting information I read just today: The Daffodil Society (UK) Established in 1898 as the specialist society of Great Britain for all who are interested in the Genus Narcissus, is holding its Annual Show in Coughton Court, Warwickshire - just outside of Stratford upon Avon - on April 19 and 20th. The official website for the society refers to the event as 'Yellow Fever;' which is a little ominous for folks in Tidewater, but ...

AND volunteers are needed to help with the weekend's events.

AND, according to the website's information: No Daffodil Society show is complete without the traditional fish and chip/ chicken and chip supper on  Friday night.  We are delighted that the NT is prepared to provide this for us at 7pm on Friday 18 April. Numbers are critical so ensure that you book with the Society Secretary well in advance and no later than Thursday 17 April 2014. Prices are being finalised and will be on the website shortly.

 

www.thedaffodilsociety.com/wordpress.  Check it out. I think we've still got time, and we've still  time to reserve a fish and chip dinner!

The Pleasure of Your Company ...

Our website, our blog, our everything is undergoing change, hard for traditionalists like me. Call it spring cleaning, if you will.
The museum re-opens for the new season (number 26)  this Wednesday, April 2. Often on April Fools Day we offer free admission; this season we are offering an Open House on Saturday April 5 and Sunday April 6. There is no admission fee. We want you to be our guest and enjoy the beauty and splendor of the Hunter's Home. Please visit with us on Saturday between 10 AM and 3:30 PM or Sunday between 12:30 PM and 3:30 PM.
The Shop at the Hunter House Victorian Museum has been replenished with lovely spring inspired items in the season's soft pastels. There are only a few Easter items, but they are as sweet as can be; think foil covered chocolate bunnies and chicks, only these are not chocolate. They would be delightful at place settings on your spring dining or tea table, or sitting in your windowsill, or in a floral arrangement, or peeping out of an Easter basket. Use your imagination!
Spring is for the birds, and not just Robin Red Breast and Jenny Wren. You'll find bird cages adapted for pillar candles (or whatever else you fancy), matching plates and mugs with depictions of familiar backyard birds, hummingbird ornaments that have far more uses than simply hanging on a Christmas tree (although, feel free to buy ahead for the holidays), tea towels and hand towels.
Introduce spring into the dining room with cheerful yellow or blissful blue table runners adorned with white embroidered butterflies.
Fairies ~ they are everywhere you look! Sweet, whimsical, imaginative.
Of course, there are new items for the tea table, along with our signature Miss Eloise's Afternoon Tea blend and Hunter House's Cottage Rose Whipping Cream Scone mix.
The Shop at the Hunter House Victorian Museum is open for shopping anytime that the museum is open for touring, Monday through Saturday from 10 AM until 3:30 PM and on Sundays from 12:30 PM until 3:30 PM. Simply ring the front door bell and ask to be shown to The Shop.
If you are not on our mailing list but would like to receive fliers with the museum's special events, please send us an email or call us: 757-623-9814. You can also check the website, since you are already here; but do check back often as there are special events all through the year.
I have been working on a creative writing project that only allows the use of lists in answers to the prompts. One prompt last week was: Where do you take your out-of-town guests? You know my answer!
Another prompt this weekend was: List Your Favorite Home Town Businesses. Hmmm ... The Hunter House Victorian Museum certainly is home town, established by Norfolk's Eloise Dexter Hunter. It stands practically at the entrance of the Historic Freemason District, where you can stroll and admire dozens of other 'historic' homes. And the museum's gift shop is also home town.
Do join us soon as we celebrate the Victorian Era in our 26th season.

       George Eliot may sound like a male name; however, it’s actually the pen name of a female Victorian author. Mary Anne Evans (a.k.a. George Eliot) was one of the leading authors of the Victorian Era. Even though women authors had started publishing works under their own names, Mary Anne Evans persisted in using a male pseudonym. Her reasons behind doing this are unknown, but there are theories as to the use of a pen name. The first is that she believed the works of female authors were never taken seriously as most women wrote frivolous romances. The second is her want of privacy due to her somewhat unusual life. George Eliot lived for over 20 years with a married man and conducted herself as his wife. Later, after her life partner had died, she married another man who was nearly 20 years her junior. Some people say that she believed her private life would affect the sales of her novels.

       Throughout her career, George Eliot translated several works, wrote poetry, and published seven novels. Her first novel, “Adam Bede”, became a favorite of both Princess Louise and Queen Victoria. In fact, the Queen was so impressed by the beautiful scenes in the novel, that she commissioned an artist to paint a serious of scenes from the book. Queen Victoria became an avid reader of George Eliot’s works and eventually George Eliot was introduced to the Queen in 1877.

       Eliot’s novel “Adam Bede” became one of the most widely read novels of the Victorian Era. She was praised by critics for using a rural setting and writing with a political view. In “Adam Bede” she tells the story of a love triangle played out against the background of infanticide. The trial in the book was met with rave reviews for its realism. All of her subsequent novels became hits as well.

       Today, George Eliot novels are read in high school and college courses throughout multiple nations. Each of her novels has been developed for film or television.

The Victorian King Arthur

Have you ever heard someone say “Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all”? This is a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson. Tennyson served as Queen Victoria’s Poet Laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892 (the longest tenure of any poet laureate). In fact, he was the first person ever to be elevated to the British peerage for accomplishments in writing. Some of his most popular works include “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, “The Lady of Shalott”, and “Mariana”. The work that has had the most impact on any Post-Victorian Era is “The Idylls of the King”, which chronicles the events of the infamous King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Published between 1856 and 1885, these poems replaced all previous versions of the story in popularity and became one of the quintessential works on the subject.

Tennyson’s work is the first to develop all the characters related to the story. He sought to create King Arthur as a gentleman that any Victorian man could strive to live up to. He included the Victorians’ renewed interest in courtly love or the idea of “pure” love, as well as his belief that it was difficult or near impossible to achieve. This he symbolized through the love of Arthur for Guinevere. Idylls shows the unconditional love that Arthur has for Guinevere. She is ultimately unable to return this type of love and flees to a convent after having an affair with Lancelot; though Arthur forgave her. Tennyson also goes on to develop poems dedicated to every knight that sits at the round table and how they came to be there. The amount of work Tennyson put into Idylls created an epic that authors of every age since have looked to as the source for their own version of these tales.

In the past 20 years alone, there have been multiple works of fiction along with movies and television shows that have used Tennyson as their starting point for King Arthur. Readers may enjoy Nancy McKenzie, Marion Zimmer Bradley Rosalind Miles or Stephen Lawhead. If you prefer films, there is First Knight; The Mists of Avalon; or Excalibur. Even Disney has done a few Arthurian movies. They have done The Sword in the Stone; A Kid in King Arthur’s Court; and Avalon High. Channel Stations have now started developing their own series. Starz has Camelot and BBC has Merlin.

On a side note: Archaeologists believe the man on whom the legends of King Arthur are based was a Briton/Roman general who lived in the 4th or 5th century.  The general Artorius helped the Britons drive out the Saxons and served as a counselor to the kings, but never became king. 

Lanuage of flowers

If anyone has seen our flyer for the upcoming events at the Hunter House, then you will know that we have decided to focus on flowers throughout the summer. Nowadays, we send flowers for birthdays, Valentine’s Day, or perhaps to smooth things over after a fight. The Victorians, on the other hand, used flowers to convey so many emotions that they created a language for flowers assigning a meaning to every flower. Simply by giving someone a well thought out bouquet you could tell someone you loved them, you sympathized with them, you hated them, you just wanted to be friend, you thought they were lying, and so on; even something as simple as telling someone you agreed with them.
Prior to the Victorian Era, flowers still had meanings. They were used as symbols of a religion or deity, usually Christian, Greek, or Roman. There is also a story behind the origin and meaning of each flower. Being a person who enjoys all kinds of stories and tales, I could pick a few flowers and let you know the stories behind each. However, in the interest of space and the fact that I’m supposed to be focusing on the Victorian meaning of flowers, I’ll just have to let that go. Since we will shortly be coming up on June, which is also referred to as “wedding month”, I thought I’d focus on the meaning of the flowers inside an average Victorian wedding bouquet.
A typical wedding bouquet usually consisted of one large rose in the middle, surrounded by other flowers. There could be other roses in the bouquet as well, but there was usually a larger on in the middle of the bouquet. A rose symbolizes love. The color of the rose indicates the type of love a person would wish to convey. Red roses are for romantic love. The story behind how roses turned red is Greek in origin. It’s a great story regarding Aphrodite (goddess of love) and Persephone (goddess of the underworld) competing for the love of Adonis (a mortal). In a nutshell, the story says that Aphrodite blocked Adonis from going to the underworld to see Persephone. So Persephone had Adonis fatally wounded so that he would be forever locked in the underworld with her. Aphrodite rushed to his aid while Adonis was dying and scratched herself on a white rose bush, turning them red. White roses symbolize purity in love or spiritual love (white roses were associated with the Virgin Mary). Yellow roses symbolize a decrease in love and often refer to infidelity. Yellow roses were not used in Victorian wedding bouquets.
Next to the large rose, the most common flowers in a bouquet were baby’s breath, pansies, ivy, dahlias (not black), peonies, and primroses. Baby’s breath is a symbol of festivity and happiness. Pansies are meant to convey happy thoughts. Ivy is for fidelity. Dahlias are used to express commitment. Peonies mean that one has hope for a happy marriage. Primroses are said to also be a sign of love and also youthfulness.
The primrose was one of the most fashionable flowers in the Victorian Era. Queen Victoria had them grown in her private gardens. She would often send bouquets of primroses to Prime Minister Disraeli. Upon Disraeli’s death, she sent a wreath of primroses as a token of affection. The other most popular flower in Victorian times was the violet. The meaning of violets is modesty, but the Victorians liked the scent so much that violets were the most common flower to find at the street markets.
After reading all about flowers here, we hope you will come see the decorations we have planned in the museum during our flower related events. If you’re like me and love the stories behind the meanings of flowers, you might enjoy this book: The Language of Flowers by Sheila Pickles.

Here's Something Victorian I Bet You Didn't Know...

Did you know that the Coca-Cola beverage was invented in the Victorian Era? I surely didn't, until the director of the museum asked me to research it. The original formula for Coca-Cola was created as a medicine to cure morphine addiction. The inventor of the original formula, John Pemberton, was a chemist who also served in the Confederate army. In April 1865, he was injured in the Battle of Columbus. Like most injuried soldiers of the Civil War, he was given daily doses of morphine for the pain (the addictive properties of morphine were not discovered in the 1860s). Also like most injured Civil War veterans, Pemberton became addicted to morphine. He started trying to use his chemistry skills to create a medicine that would cure morphine addiction. The original formula was actually a coca wine made from the coca plant and mixed with French Wine. However, when prohibition began in Atlanta in 1886, he was forced to change the formula so that it was non-alcoholic. That is when Coca-Cola was born. The name was settled on because it tells everyone the two main ingredients, coca and kola. Coca is a plant from which cocaine is extracted and kola is a nut from which we get caffeine.
The first advertisements for Coca-Cola sold the beverage as a patent medicine for 5 cents that was said to cure morphine addiction, headaches, and impotence. By 1888, John Pemberton had 3 different Coca-Cola mixtures on sale in drugstores across Atlanta. He sold the formula to 5 separate businessmen. However, the one who turned it into a worldwide phenomenon was Asa Candler who would later become mayor of Atlanta. Candler eventually bought the 4 other competing companies to become the sole owner of Coca-Cola.
The formula of Coca-Cola has changed several times over the years. They have created Cherry Coke, Lime Coke, Lemon Coke etc. Several different countries have even developed their own local tastes, but the 2 main ingredients have always been coca and kola nut. Once the addictive properties of cocaine were discovered, the fomula was changed to use the leaves of the coca plant after the cocaine had already been extracted, leaving only the flavor of the leaf behind in the beverage.
Now that the world has become very different from Victorian Era culture, Coke has become even more popular. In 2011, John Pemberton started his own Twitter feed. He now has 55,0o0 followers. The Coca-Cola Facebook page has thousands, if not millions, of fans. Coke sponsors athletes, movie theaters, and all other kinds of entertainment. It is no longer just a beverage, it has become a permanent part of people's lives and our culture.