50s - TV - Dinah Shore - Howdy Doody - The Hit Parade - Gunsmoke - Milton Burle. Ideas in case you are looking to put a mini TV into the room. Though TVs were far from mini in those days. I remember a set of kitchen curtains with José Carriocca/Donald Duck /and - The Three Amigos a la Disney among the print. Newspapers daily and the comics on Sunday with Brenda Starr and The Wee Folks and Ally Oop and Dick Tracy and Prince Valiant. Radio soaps from 12 noon to one - Our Gal Sunday, Helen Trent, Back Stage Wife and Ma Perkins and The Lumberyard in the NYC area.

Jane in Arkansas

50s: As long as you are venturing into the bathroom of the 50's house with the red and white can of Colgate tooth powder, how about the little jar of Mum. No roll on or spray deod. then.

MAP in Puyallup

50's Kitchen: Here’s what I remember from our little apartment kitchen:

• Ipana toothpaste
• Junket rennet custard
• Rinso Blue
• Bon Ami cleanser
• Maypo hot cereal.

Rosemary in Cleveland

Meat grinders aren't necessarily used for meat: I still use the meat grinder for colored sponges to grind it into small bits for foliage and landscape material. Natural sponges don't work.

Jean Day

The 1940's House: 'The 1900's House' TV series by Channel 4 in England caused so much interest when put out by PBS in America, that I just wanted to give preview information of the' 1940s House' a new series by the same production team, same format, which will be broadcast in January 2001 in Britain, so should go global sometime after that.

I think the difference is that it will start with the beginning of the war in 1939 and go ahead a year a programme, following Britain's fortunes during the war, the introduction of harsher rationing etc.

My mother says that when the war ended, their local greengrocer had his first delivery of bananas for 6 years. All the local kids formed a queue in the street (has to be in Britain, right, if they formed a queue? :O) and were each allowed to see The Banana - no one could afford to buy any, of course.

Helen from York, England

40's. While WWII was on, butter was a commodity that few had on their table. I was really lucky because we had a widowed aunt who came to dinner every Sunday and she would have NOTHING to do with what passed as butter in those days ... it had to be butter! So, every Sunday we had a cube of butter on our table for biscuits, or bread or rolls or whatever.

There were no margarines either. When you went to the store you got a malleable bag of white something (always looked like Crisco to me) with a yellow "button" in it. You pushed on the button and it would spread the yellow color throughout the white "whatever" as you kneaded it over and over...this was supposed to make you think you had "butter". I think this was the start of Oleomargarine. Eventually (I think after the war) you could get this stuff already colored as it is today (but to this day margarine still tastes like Crisco to me). Lard was used for ammo manufacture and I don't remember it being that available either. It was really something after the war to be able to go to the store and buy butter (or almost everything else) without the long lines, the limits, or the ever present ration coupons.

I can remember shortages so bad that, when something came into a store (like tunafish for example) and only one to a family/customer my Mom, Dad, and myself at 7 would all rush into the store, grab one and wait in lines that went out the door and around the block. I'll bet the gals in England could tell a few tales. I always thought these things would make a good mini scene of the 40's.

So in terms of lard, Crisco, butter etc., most of what we see today came at the end of the 40's going into the 50's with lard as an animal product being easily the oldest going back to farming days.

Ana

Joann Swanson's kitchen: The article I think you're referring to for a '40s kitchen is in the October l995 issue of Nutshell News. It's entitled "A Model Kitchen, The height of modern efficiency for the l930s". This may have been a futuristic kitchen for the l930s, but it sure looks like what I remember from the l950s!

J and M Nielsen

Water closets: I had one in my 1910 apt. in SF (located under the stairs in the front entry hall) and many is the day I wish I had one again. It's a room with only a toilet (mine had a small sink for washing your hands) - a lot of new homes now have them and call it a half bath, although the ones I've seen are a great deal "fancier" than the one I had. Anyway, the BATHROOM was just that - a room with only the bathtub and a sink (ever been soaking in the tub when someone suddenly needs to use the "loo"). Of course, if you have a home with more than one bathroom it no longer is a problem.

Ana

Colonial Kitchens:  re:canned food, my mother quit canning once she got a big chest freezer, but I'm sure some of the hardier rural Ss’rs will know about it, and Mary  Eccher has probably researched it.  However, I seem to recollect dimly that canning was a byproduct of the industrial revolution, and therefore would be inappropriate earlier than the very end of the 18th century , which would be post-colonial (after the Revolution -- early Federal period). There may have been an early version of potted meats stored in crocks for short periods, but otherwise starchy vegetables were preserved raw in root cellars and people ate what was available seasonally.  Winter diet had to have been boring -- limited salad (slaw), meat, potatoes, turnips, yams, with bread, rice, dried beans and dried fruit.  Hmm.  That's probably why fruitcake is a Christmas tradition -- no fresh fruit available!  Southern diet was probably better, because relatively fresh fruit could be imported in from the Caribbean. 

Loretta.Sniarowski

Colonial canned food--not. According to the docents in Annapolis crocked meat or dried meat or vegetables or herbs were done, but they ate "cold weather vegetables" corn & beans, dried; beets, onions, cabbage, carrots, turnips, cranberries if in New England, squash, and wheat, rice, oats, and molasses, salt and cone sugar and some spices if available.  Check out the Historical Society of Annapolis for good details on that period. It was literally feast or famine most of the time--feast on cabbage or beans, or remain "famished"--thus the origin of that word.

Christmas Carol, Yakima

Tudor decoration: I have a hardcover book, Tudor, 1500-1603, one of The Connoisseur Period Guides, which I bought at a used bookstore. It contains 180 pages of text, over 200 half-tone illustrations, about 50 line drawings and 4 pages in full color. The initial volume in the series, it was published by Reynal Company, Inc., New York, and edited by Ralph Edwards and L. G. G. Ramsey. It is incredibly detailed, covering architecture, interior decoration, furniture, painting and sculpture, as well as handicrafts, costume, music and printing. Strangely enough, I cannot find a copyright date, but it must go back a ways because the original printed price on the book jacket was $8.95, and it was listed as published in New York, 17, N. Y. Probably no longer in print, but perhaps you could check one of the sites for out of print books.

Wanna

Books: I just got Victorian Dollhouses by Nick Forder on the recommendation of a Smallstuff member - it is fantastic. The book has over a hundred pages of full color photographs of finished rooms and all the different kinds of furniture appropriate to different Victorian periods, with very helpful descriptions of how the pieces would be used and why Victorian householders favored various items. I found the book through Bibliofind.com, my favorite used bookstore site. I've received books through Bibliofind from England and Australia as well as U.S., so think the booksellers who list are generally happy to ship out of the country.

Kay Dreher

Colonial food storage: This is a bit about colonial food storage for Rita and anyone else who is making an 18th C kitchen.

They would not have had glass canning jars in the colonial period, they used stoneware jars to store things. Most often, meats were just smoked or salted and hung to dry. Sometimes meats were "pickled" in brine in stoneware crocks. A large stone was placed on the top of the crock to keep the meat from floating up out of the brine and being spoiled.

 Many fruits were saved by drying them. Wines  made from fruits were stored in crocks or barrels. Some root vegetables were stored in sand in root cellars. Sauerkraut and pickles of all kinds were stored in brine filled crocks covered with thin cloth or wooden lids. Even eggs were saved by storing them in brine.

A white sugar cone is shaped as a usual cone except that the very top is slightly rounded off. Sugar cones were quite big and hard, so I don't believe they were used on the table at all. Large sugar nippers were used to cut off pieces of the sugar cone, then the sugar pieces were crushed in a mortar or dissolved whole into a liquid. Brown sugar came in small wooden kegs. I know that in wealthy Southern homes, there was a special locked cabinet used for storing the sugar because sugar was an expensive imported item. The average family would have used wild or domestic honey to sweeten things.

Coiled "sweet grass" baskets were made in the south (and still are) so I would go with these, although you could use  woven ones too. I saw a demonstration of splint basket weaving in Williamsburg, Va. this past fall, so I know those were used in the colonial south too. 

Darlene from LI

Sugar cones: The sugar cones I am familiar with are about 6 inches tall and cone shaped.  They are made of dark to medium brown sugar, or unrefined sugar.  I seem to remember some with cinnamon added.  They are still available here in the San Antonio Mexican markets or in Mexico.  Yes, they are cut with a knife and I do know that sugar was very expensive back then.  I don't think they were white sugar, or refined, but I could be wrong.

      Last October, I went to the big annual antique show in Comfort TX and one dealer had a sugar cone mold.  It was about 4 feet long, made of wood about the size of a railroad tie, and had maybe 10 cone shaped holes in it.  The dealer had cleaned it up and placed votive candle holders and candles in the holes, and it was very unique, rustic looking. 

Patty Adamson in Bandera TX

Canning: Canning was "invented" during the Napoleonic Wars.  It was done in wine/champagne bottles.  Previous to that time, food was preserved by drying, salting, smoking or storing in a cool place. 

Tom

Period Info: Dougless Strickland Bitler ("Ask Dougless" of Miniature collector mag) has numerous volumes of period information.  I think she would be a great resource for your Victorian questions--you can get a personal answer by mailing a SAS to Dougless,  150 N. Ave, #303, Talmadge, OH 44278. Or see if a source near you has her volumes, or can order the one you would need--they come in "periods".  Also check with Miniature Collector mag editor, Barbara Aardema at baardema@scottpublications.com .  She would be able to help direct your search.

Masterson

1930s English Kitchen: My parents bought their small terraced house in England in the late 1920s, and it remained virtually the same until they moved out in 1961! Just things like the cooker were changed, and the first refrigerator added in about 1956.

It was a fairly small room, with square red tiles on the floor. I believe the walls were half tiled in 6" square white tiles, but I am not sure. Behind the door, in the left hand corner, was a big copper gas boiler, which my mother used to fill up every Monday to do the washing. I can remember coming home from school for lunch on Monday, and the hall seemed to be full of piles of washing waiting to be done, the whole house was full of steam, my mother's face was bright red, and she wore Wellington boots because there was so much water on the floor. As we were only a family of four, and no boys, I don't know why there was so much washing, but there was.

Beyond the boiler, on the left hand wall, was a grey coke boiler, with a stove pipe going up and then angled back into the wall. I suppose this provided hot water, but I can't remember that either. During the winter, there was always a pan of sliced onions simmering in water, with honey added, and when we had coughs and colds we were given spoonfuls of the stuff. I can still taste it and smell it. Over the boiler was an airing rack, that was raised or lowered by a rope and pulley. I don't remember the clothes smelling of cooking (or onions), but I suppose they must have, because in the winter clothes had to be dried there.

Beyond the boiler, along the back wall, was a larder. The door was level with the back wall of the kitchen, so the larder projected out into the garden, presumably to keep it cool. Next to the larder was the sink, a deep china one, with taps fixed to the wall, and a window above the taps. Immediately to the right of the sink was the door into the back garden. There was a metal draining board which clipped to the side of the sink, across the back door, so unless you had the door open no one could go out until the drying up was done. There was a bracket in the larder, under a shelf, where the draining board was stored when not in use.

Along the right hand wall was the iron mangle, which again came out on Mondays. I remember it required great effort to put big things through, like sheets. I think my mother must have had enormous muscles. When not in use, it folded down and formed a table. Next to the mangle was the gas cooker, quite small and standing on little legs that stuck out at angles.

Next to the cooker, in the corner next to the door to the hall, was the kitchen cabinet, with two doors at the top with shaped windows in them, and an open shelf below. Then there was a drop down door which formed a work table when opened, with metal brackets at either side to support it. This concealed a variety of little shelves and compartments. I can remember my mother rolling out pastry on it. Of course, the cutlery drawers were below this flap, so if she forgot to get something out before starting work it was very difficult. Under the drawers was another double cupboard with a shelf.

Over the years the gas wash boiler was replaced by a washing machine, the mangle went, and a larger cooker was installed. I think the kitchen cabinet stayed right to the end, as did the coke boiler and airing rack. The refrigerator went where the mangle had been. She still had to struggle with the draining board across the back door, there was no way round that.

Jan

1930's kitchen: One detail I do recall is some terra cotta covers for the milk which always stood under the sink....these were shaped like a large milk bottle and Mum would soak them in water and put them over the milk bottles to keep them cool.

Jennifer in Peterboro, Ontario

Aga stoves and Boilers: I used to have a beautiful old aga in one of the farmhouses we lived in. There were effectively 3 doors below the hob. The central door was the actual fire grate, below which was a drawer for catching all the ash. To the left and right were two ovens. The ovens weren't particularly wide though I could comfortably fit a small roasting dish or my very large bread pans. The hob had effectively 5 plates . The central plate was a cover through which to check the fire in the grate below, without having to open the door.

Operated by wood or anthracite, tho' obviously the anthracite lasted longer. During summer we tended to light the stove only when cooking as it heated the entire house. In winter it was left burning the whole time. I kept an enormous basket of pine cones next to the oven and every so often we would chuck a few into the grate. The cones are slower burning than wood, cost less than the anthracite, which was reserved solely for cooking, and released the most heavenly smell.

Ours was not connected to the boiler, though the one on my aunt's farm was. She had a beautiful copper boiler which stood to the left of the stove, it's lower end on a level with the top of the stove.

Oh, by the way, mine was typically black, but my aunt's was a cream enamel finish.

Karin in South Africa

30’s Furniture: I've got a book called "Furniture of the Depression Era" subtitled Furniture and Accessories of the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's. Written by Robert W. and Harriett Swedberg. Published by Collector Books, P.O. Box 3009, Paducah, KY 42002-3009. No ISBN # that I can find. It's got individual photos of furniture, including bedroom, sofas, kitchen and dining room, occasional tables, etc. It does not show many pieces in actual settings, but it does give dimensions for most, so miniaturizing wouldn't be too hard. There is some detail given as to manufacturers, and popular styles of the time.

Bonni Backe in Jersey City, NJ