Article Archives: What’s in the Attic?

Fit For a King . . . Priced for the Common Man

May 16, 2013 | by Linda Hamer Kennett

n the early 1900′s the art glass market was ruled by the Tiffany family. Beautiful and elegant, it was indeed “fit for a king”. The problem for the majority of the American public was — you had to be a king to afford it! In 1905 the general public was … Read More

Home Remedies, Recipes, and the Best Time to Plant Your Garden

May 9, 2013 | by Linda Hamer Kennett

Unique in content and inexplicably accurate, the “Old Farmer’s Almanac” stands as the oldest continuously published periodical in North America. This little book (which is actually no more than a pamphlet) was first published by Robert B. Thomas in 1792 under the name “The Farmer’s Almanac.” Originally intended to be … Read More

Peanut Butter and Jelly — It’s What’s For Lunch

May 2, 2013 | by Linda Hamer Kennett

The America of the 1800’s was a time of growth and development of the country’s infrastructure. Building railroads and roadways, clearing forests, working the mines and manning the factories required an immense amount of manpower, and when lunchtime came . . . they all had to be fed. Out of … Read More

The Doll No One Would Buy

April 25, 2013 | by Linda Hamer Kennett

The room full of middle-aged ad executives were not impressed. Oh, they were smugly polite— after all they were in the presence of the company founders wife. But the proposal before them would be expensive and there was just no mass appeal to the buying public. Disappointed but not discouraged, … Read More

Got a Light?

April 18, 2013 | by Linda Hamer Kennett

Friction matches found favor with the public soon after they were invented by English chemist John Walker in 1826. To many, it were as though fire had been rediscovered, as these tiny little sticks made it possible to summon up a flame at will. Yet with the convenience came considerable … Read More