Any Road Will Get You There.

While looking through old photos this evening I discovered that I have not yet properly shared the photos of my 1943 outfit, constructed for the Midway Village World War II event this past September.

The dress is made from the above Simplicity pattern. I had the luck to pick this up earlier in the spring for only a few dollars. Very little alteration was needed from the patterns original sizing. Although future incarnations will likely have slightly larger, and more "dance-able" skirts. The entire outfit was constructed from stash material. The green & white are a linen-cotton blend that I collect for last minute clothing projects while the black rick-rack & cloth covered buttons were found my great-grandmother's vintage stash which I inherited last winter.

The dress is entirely constructed by machine, save attaching the buttons. I used a combination of sewing techniques from the Singer Illustrated Dressmaking Guide, copy-write 1941. This book is a great way to learn more traditional dress making techniques and maximize what can be done with just a straight & zig-zag stitch on your machine. All interior seams for the dress are overcast with a zig-zag stitch, the front buttonholes are functional as well as the "regulation placket" along the left side. I am especially pleased with the side placket, since I've never done one before this project. Typically if the front buttons, I will eliminate the placket out of laziness. This time I took the time to do it as historically as possible and get the perfect fit, which the placket emphasizes.

The matching bag was inspired by the second, unknown pattern. The design is just a double layered drawstring bag, the same design I use to make all my random pouches & gift bags. It was only natural that I also use it for this period outfit as well. The bag is constructed from dress scraps with a twisted cord, again from my great-grandmothers collection, as both the opener & shoulder strap. It is just big enough for all my important information including those much needed "papers"!

I accessorized with a while cotton snood; custom made by Arthelia's Attic on Etsy, vintage 1940's shoes; which hurt my feet but look too cute not to wear and the requisite white cardigan & bobby socks. The wonderful vintage suitcase was purchased at the event from one of the sutlers for a mere $15. It is now the home to all my 1940's clothing and accessories, with plenty of room for more!

For the photographs my trusty photographer A & I headed to our home town outside of Chicago. The intention was to take photos at the semi-vintage train depot in town. 35 degree weather, fog & sporadic rain derailed that plan, no pun intended. Instead we set up shop in front of my mother's vintage 1920's office building where I pretended to hail every car passing on the street.

The Gingerbread Man

"I'm a gingerbread merchant, but what of that there,
All the world, take my word, deal in gingerbread ware."

Eighteenth century gingerbread cakes, although the name is a bit deceiving, are very similar to the gingerbread cookies so many of us will indulge in this holiday season. The chief differences between the modern & historic versions include the use of treacle, baking soda and the final shaping of the cookie. However, the differences are so slight that they should not deter the amateur historian from attempting these tempting treats.

Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language from 1768 defines gingerbread as a “farinaceous fweetmeat made of dough, like that of bread or bifcuit.” His colleague, Francis Grosse defines it in the 1788 publishing of A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue as, “A cake made of treacle, flour, and grated ginger”. From these definitions it is clear that gingerbread cakes are actually a cookie with a floury texture, sweetened with the foam created during the processing of sugar, highly spiced with ginger. Molasses, although also part of the sugar refining process and frequently used in modern gingerbread, is not the same as treacle. It is interesting to note that not every recipe surveyed uses treacle; the trend later in the decade leans toward sugar, specifically brown sugar, and molasses so that by the 1814 publishing of Maria Rundell’s A New System of Domestic Cookery not one of the four different recipes for gingerbread include treacle as an ingredient.

Modern bakers rely on baking soda and other chemical leaveners to create lighter textured in their baked goods. In the 18th century, some 50 years before the first commercially packaged baking soda, the main choice of chemical leavener would have been potassium carbonate, commonly known as pearl-ash. None of the surveyed recipes include this leavener, suggesting that period gingerbread was a rather dense, unleavened cake. Period cooks further encouraged the density of the cakes by circumventing the meager expanding power of the included butter. Elizabeth Cleland’s recipe from A New and Easy Method of Cookery suggests that cooks “prick them with a Fork” before baking. Such docking prevents the baked goods from rising by providing release points for the build up of internal steam. The resulting density of the cakes alone does not though suggest that they were ideal for long term storage since many recipes still included butter which can compromise the storage potential of goods, even after baking.

To the modern mind, gingerbread conjures up thoughts of elaborate cookie houses, decorated with sugared icing and tiny candies, inhabited by little gingerbread men. The 18th century gingerbread man bore little resemblance to his modern counterpart. Instead of a cut-out, he would have more likely been pressed or printed, the stiff dough rolled & pressed against a carved wooden mold to produce a relief image. Thanks to the lack of leavener, the resulting image would stay crisp and clear even after baking. A more common period option for shaping the cookies is to take John Farley’s advice and “make them up into thin cakes”. These cakes were most likely round in shape, cut out “with a tea-cup, or fmall glafs” or rolled “round like nuts” as both John Farley & Hannah Glasse suggest in their respective books. In her extensive collection of gingerbread recipes Maria Rundell adds, “Of some, drops may be made”. There is even a recipe specifically for so called gingerbread nuts in the 1807 version of The Complete Confectioner. The trend of calling them gingerbread nuts rather than cakes not only references their shape, but further suggests just how dense the resulting cookies were.

Since historic and modern gingerbreads are so similar in both ingredients and cooking method, it is easy to substitute a favorite modern recipe and enjoy these treats at all your period holiday gatherings. However, for those of an adventurous nature, it is just as easy to directly follow a historic recipe; in fact gingerbread might be one of the best first historic recipes simply because it is so similar. Plus, if they turn out poorly, you can always package them up & give them as a gift to another reenactor friend who might not enjoy the taste, but will certainly appreciate the attempt.

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Works Cited:
Cleland, Elizabeth. 1755. A New and Easy Method of Cookery: Treating, I. Of gravies, Soups, Broths, &c. II. Of Fish, and Their Sauces. III. To Pot and Make Hams, &c. IV. Of Pies, Pasties, &c. V. Of Pickling and Preserving. VI. Of Made Wines, Distilling and Brewing, &c. W. Gordon.

Farley, John. 1787. The London Art of Cookery, and Housekeeper's Complete Assistant.

Glasse, Hannah. 1774. The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy: Which Far Exceeds Any thing of the Kind Yet Published. W. Strahan, J. and F. Rivington, J. Hinton.

Grose, Francis. 1788. A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. S. Hooper

"Hot Ginger-bread, Smoking Hot". John Johnson Collection. Bodleian Library. University of Oxford.

Johnson, Samuel. 1768. A Dictionary of the English Language. W. G. Jones.

Nutt, Frederick. 1807. The Complete Confectioner: or, The Whole Art of Confectionary Made Easy: Containing, Among a Variety of Useful Matter, the Art of Making the Various Kinds of Biscuits, Drops &c. as Also The Most Approved Method of Making Cheeses, Puddings, Cakes &c. in 250 Cheap and Fashionable Receipts. Richard Scott.

Rundell, Maria Eliza Ketelby. 1814. A New System of Domestic Cookery: Formed Upon Principles of Economy: and Adapted to the Use of Private Families Throughout the United States. R. M'Dermut & D. D. Arden

Wilson, Charles Henry. 1803. The Myrtle and Vine: or, Complete Vocal Library, Containing Several Thousands of Plaintive, Sentimental, Humorous & Bacchanalian Songs, Collected From the Muses of England, Ireland & Scotland. T. Dean.