A short wile ago I posted about the Harriet Tubman jigsaw puzzle that was missing 8 pieces. The missing pieces have not been found. But I have some information about Harriet Tubman. Here at Ida Culver Broadview there is an Information Sheet called This Day in History. The Sheet for February 1 had the headline “Harriet Tubman becomes the first African American woman to appear on a U.S. postage stamp” To quote further – “antislavery crusader and Civil War veteran Harriet Tubman becomes the first African woman to appear on a U.S. postage stamp, the first in the Post Office’s Black Heritage Series. Tubman’s appearance on stamps was emblematic both of the progress made in recognizing African Americans’ contributions to American history and of the ongoing effort to put abolitionists on equal footing with slaveowners in the nation’s historical canon.” .
Day: February 4, 2022
Textile Tales: Send Someone the Mitten
Anyone have any spare mittens?
This morning, the Old Sturbridge Village weekly newsletter contained a quirky article involving, of all things, mitten symbolism. Rather than paraphrase, I’m posting it verbatim.
Slang and figures of speech change over time and from place to place. The phrase “sending someone the mitten” meant to break up with them or to reject a proposal. The Old Sturbridge Village Museum Collection contains an assortment of mittens, including the unique, miniature mitten shown below. As you can see, it measures only 1 ½ inches long! According to the donor, this mitten was sent by Admah Edgecombe of Bethel, ME to her fiancé, Charles Poole of Woburn, MA to break off their engagement. Despite this, they later married in 1857 and had three children. Whether or not this story is true, the mitten demonstrates incredible knitting technique, especially in the thumb gusset construction.
I’ve been knitting and felting many pairs of mittens…
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Out of Touch
One of my sons has moved from London to Singapore. That is a part of the world that I
have read about but I am not sure exactly where it is. Failing to have a world map posted on the wall in front of me I have to resort to the big G (Google) and find my way around the world. I still like to have PAPER maps – old fashioned I know. Atlases and the Oxford English Dictionary.
I am reminded of the time years ago back in the late 1950’s when I was studying for my Master’s degree in Geography at Northwestern University. Passing a final oral exam was one of the requirements of the course. I came before the board which consisted of 3 professors who posed the questions. If memory serves me right – they were all seated and I was standing. All was going well until they asked me about the geography of Java. Java had not been part of my course where I had specialized in urban geography and geomorphology. Far flung from Java! Nevertheless, I vaguely knew where Java was (probably from my stamp collecting days and just general reading) – so I fudged through with an acceptable answer and passed the exam.
Back to Singapore – there is a 19 hour time difference between my location in Seattle and my son in Singapore so the window for phone calls is very narrow – either early in the morning or late at night.
One good thing is that I now I have a new focus for my postcard collecting. Singapore here I come – February 6th is the next meeting of my Postcard Club.
Janet's Thread 2 