Holly Messinger's Blog

 from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, January 1856:"Flounces are universally worn, the number resting entirely at the option of the wearer. Skirts are very full, and so long as to touch the ground, even when distended by the most ample under-dress. The hoops of our grandmothers certainly threaten to reappear, if we may not say that they have actually appeared again. We are confident, however, that

In one episode of The Law According to Lidia Poët, our heroine mentions a device called a "volumetric glove." Because standard Googling is not going to get you far with this, I searched Google Books, 19th century, and found this treatise on Criminal Man, by Gina Limbroso. This business about the volumetric glove is interesting for several reasons: first, it was an early lie detector; second, it

Time flies when you're busy. I feel as if I've been moving along steadily on this project and look up to find it's been over a month since I started it. No shame, of course, just another example of how everything takes longer than you think it will––and costs more.For instance, when I started this project I had three goals in mind: to learn about styles and construction methods of the 1850s,

 I'm reviving this blog as a place to store the record of my making a 1855-ish dress, as part of my research into 1850's clothing. For those who don't know, I work part time at the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City. I am mostly engaged in documenting and restoring/reconstructing clothing artifacts that were recovered in the winter of 1988-89 and preserved in the early 1990s. We have almost

St. Louis, Missouri August 1880The mulish expression on Mr. Tracy’s face told me he was about to bolt again.He still did not look well—he’d lost weight over the summer, which his rawboned frame could ill-afford to lose, and his skin still had the bloodless tinge of fever and exhaustion. But he was dressed and his “plunder,” as his roughneck brethren call it, was packed and piled on the Turkish

On Friday I ventured out to the kitchen gardens to freshen up one of the pa-kua ideograms I had put there. My protection spell had developed thin spots, more quickly than I should have expected. So I was not entirely surprised when I arrived at the south garden wall and encountered Sergeant Pugh sitting on that wall, his crutch leant to one side and his hoe the other."Morning ta ya, Miss," he

September 12, 1876 Edinburgh, Scotland Queen’s Care Charity Hospital New patient admitted today. 23 yo female committed to custody by husband after >6 months of hallucinations, vivid nightmares, delusions of being watched, touched, etc. Patient has history of “religiosity” and involvement with Spiritualism but delusions amplified during the spring, after loss of 3rd pregnancy in late trimester. 

 Cheyenne Evening Star—Thursday, August X, 1880 A New Lucky Strike?According to a reliable source, this reporter has learned that a party or parties unknown delivered a sizable sample of pure gold quartz ore to Heinzler & Heinzler Assayers last week. While Heinzler Sr. would not confirm or deny the existence of such a sample, nor less its purity of weight, the unnamed source intimated the sample

Is there a rule or convention or expectation that every installment in a series of novels has to be the same type of story? I mean what trope is the determining factor? As long as each book in the series has the same setting and mostly the same characters, does it matter if one volume leans more toward action and the hero's journey, and the next is a romance, and the third is a dystopic allegory,

I binge-watched all of Sacred Lies on Facebook Watch these past few days. I know, I'm as shocked as you are. And I have a few thoughts about it.

Blumhouse kept promoting it to me, and I thought the hook was somewhat gratuitous (handless girl arrested for murder!) until I learned that the series was based on a book which was a retelling of the Grimms' tale 'The Handless Maiden."

I'm always on