In 1932, after Margaret Brown’s death and during the Great Depression, what we know today as the ‘Molly Brown House Museum’ was sold to a private buyer. Throughout the years, various owners altered the house dramatically, including creating twelve separate rooms for renters and redesigning the appearance of the house to reflect modern styles. In [...]
One of the outlandish things that women in the Victorian era did was to adapt the cage crinoline as a way to achieve the sought after full skirt. Made of wood, steel, or horsehair, the crinoline was a stiff underskirt that made a woman’s skirt a force to be reckoned with. While women reveled in [...]
Christmas in Hannibal, Missouri-Margaret’s Childhood Margaret Tobin (later Brown) celebrated her very first Christmas in Hannibal, Missouri. She was born in 1867, just after the Civil War, to hard working Irish immigrants John and Johanna Tobin. When Margaret was three years old, Christmas became a United States holiday. Christmas trees became popular in England and [...]
Giving thanks for a special event, for home and for family has a long tradition in the cultures across the world, but the American idea and tradition of Thanksgiving Day for Margaret Brown’s family and for many of us has evolved from simple proclamations of thanksgiving to God to an event centered around the home, [...]
Victorians were curious people interested in nature, the sciences, anatomy, botany, and morbidity. For upper-class citizens, collecting scientific objects showed that they were sophisticated and educated. The Victorians were interested, some even to the point of obsession, in beauty, death, and finding rare items that were visually appealing. Some collections were so extensive that they [...]
“A lady explorer? A traveler in skirts? The notion’s just a trifle too seraphic: Let them stay and mind the babies Or hem our ragged shirts; But they mustn’t, can’t and shan’t be geographic." Letter to the Royal Geographic Society, June 1893 Who was the Intrepid Woman Traveler? By the 19th century, a new class [...]
“Servants of Mrs. Brown Poisoned”, reads a headline on page one of the May 7, 1904 edition of the Denver Times. “Five of the servants seriously ill from eating contaminated food but the family escaped any issues,” it continues. Sam Gleason, stable boy, Mary O’Fallon, cook, Annie Schleining, second girl, Sadie Johnson second girl, and [...]
Anyone who has ever received a rose knows that the giver is likely expressing a feeling of love toward the recipient. The idea that flowers can represent different feelings and emotions is nothing new and can be traced back as far as the ancient Egyptians. Flowers were used in religious ceremonies and festivals, found in [...]
Prior to the 1800s, sports were brutal, lawless, and something to be played and enjoyed by the lower-class. However, the Victorian Era brought rules and regulations to sports and shifted the focus from “manly physical pursuits to moral and spiritual exercises with disciplinary value and a spirit of fair play.”(1) The upper-class Victorians ate this [...]
In Henry J. Wheman’s how-to guide The Mystery of Love, Courtship and Marriage Explained, advice on various activities are presented for men and women alike such as “Pet names,” “Wooing,” “How a lady should manage her Beau to make him propose Marriage,” “Twenty Ways of Popping the Question,” “The Etiquette of Engagement,” “General Remarks to [...]
