Treasures Afoot

Treasures Afoot
Author: Kimberly S. Alexander
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2018-09-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1421425858

Shoes reveal the hopes, dreams, and disappointments of the early Americans who wore them. Honorable Mention of the Historic New England Book Prize by Historic New England In Treasures Afoot, Kimberly S. Alexander introduces readers to the history of the Georgian shoe. Presenting a series of stories that reveal how shoes were made, sold, and worn during the long eighteenth century, Alexander traces the fortunes and misfortunes of wearers as their footwear was altered to accommodate poor health, flagging finances, and changing styles. She explores the lives and letters of clever apprentices, skilled cordwainers, wealthy merchants, and elegant brides, taking readers on a colorful journey from bustling London streets into ship cargo holds, New England shops, and, ultimately, to the homes of eager consumers. We trek to the rugged Maine frontier in the 1740s, where an aspiring lady promenades in her London-made silk brocade pumps; sail to London in 1765 to listen in as Benjamin Franklin and John Hose caution Parliament on the catastrophic effects of British taxes on the shoe trade; move to Philadelphia in 1775 as John Hancock presides over the Second Continental Congress while still finding time to order shoes and stockings for his fiancée’s trousseau; and travel to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1789 to peer in on Sally Brewster Gerrish as she accompanies President George Washington to a dance wearing a brocaded silk buckle shoe featuring a cream ground and metallic threads. Interweaving biography and material culture with full-color photographs, this fascinating book raises a number of fresh questions about everyday life in early America: What did eighteenth-century British Americans value? How did they present themselves? And how did these fashionable shoes reveal their hopes and dreams? Examining shoes that have been preserved in local, regional, and national collections, Treasures Afoot demonstrates how footwear captures an important moment in American history while revealing a burgeoning American identity.

Afoot and Lighthearted

Afoot and Lighthearted
Author: Bonnie Smith Whitehouse
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2019
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 0525574816

A guided journal for walkers who want to expand their physical and creative worlds through acts of mindfulness. "Beautifully designed . . . I'd like to give a copy of this smart, fetching book to everyone I know."--Susannah Felts, BookPage Afoot and Lighthearted will teach readers how to harness the power of walking to cultivate and nourish attention, inspiration, and determination, as well as to combat distraction, anxiety, and the dreaded creative block. Organized around thematic prompts designed to help makers take a break from digital life and tap into the transformational magic of creative journaling, Afoot and Lighthearted introduces us to innovative walkers throughout literature, art, philosophy, and history, and it offers encouragement in the form of inspirational quotes. Supported by light illustrations and evidence from recent research on the compelling connection between walking and well-being, Afoot and Lighthearted offers a fresh perspective every step of the way, much like a walk itself.

There's A Murder Afoot

There's A Murder Afoot
Author: Vicki Delany
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1643850350

Just in time for Sherlock Holmes's 166th birthday, the fifth installment in national bestselling author Vicki Delany's Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery takes Sherlockania to the max with a Holmes convention and historic 221 Baker Street. Gemma Doyle and her friends travel to London for a Sherlock Holmes convention--but will Gemma's father take the fall for a felonious forger's fatality? The 6th of January is Sherlock Holmes's birthday, and lucky for Gemma Doyle, January is also the slowest time of the year at both the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, and Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room. It's a good time for Gemma and her friends to travel to England for a Holmes Convention. For Gemma, the trip provides an opportunity to visit her parents, Jayne Wilson is excited about seeing all the sites London has to offer, and Ryan Ashburton just wants to spend some time with Gemma. But the trip is immediately derailed when Gemma's father Henry recognizes his brother-in-law Randolph Denhaugh, who disappeared more than thirty years ago on the night he stole a valuable painting from his own parents. Henry, a retired detective with Scotland Yard, has been keeping tabs on the man's career as a forger of Old Masters and he warns Randy to stay away from his family. It's up to Gemma, with the help of her friends, to plunge into the "lowest and vilest alleys" of London to save her father from prison.

Shopping All the Way to the Woods

Shopping All the Way to the Woods
Author: Rachel S. Gross
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2024-03-26
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0300270089

A fascinating history of the profitable paradox of the American outdoor experience: visiting nature first requires shopping No escape to nature is complete without a trip to an outdoor recreational store or a browse through online offerings. This is the irony of the American outdoor experience: visiting wild spaces supposedly untouched by capitalism first requires shopping. With consumers spending billions of dollars on clothing and equipment each year as they seek out nature, the American outdoor sector grew over the past 150 years from a small collection of outfitters to an industry contributing more than 2 percent of the nation's economic output. Rachel S. Gross argues that this success was predicated not just on creating functional equipment but also on selling an authentic, anticommercial outdoor identity. In other words, shopping for the woods was also about being--or becoming--the right kind of person. Demonstrating that outdoor culture is commercial culture, Gross examines Americans' journey toward outdoor expertise by tracing the development of the nascent outdoor goods industry, the influence of World War II on its growth, and the boom years of outdoor businesses.

To Treasure an Heiress (The Secrets of the Isles Book #2)

To Treasure an Heiress (The Secrets of the Isles Book #2)
Author: Roseanna M. White
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2022-01-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1493436104

1906 Beth Tremayne has always been drawn to adventure. During her childhood, she fed that desire by exploring every inch of the Isles of Scilly. Now, after stumbling across an old collection of letters and a map buried on her family's property, she's found more adventure than she ever anticipated in the hunt for pirate treasure. But in order to discover where the clues lead, she must search alongside Lord Sheridan, a man she finds insufferable. Sheridan has spent years pursuing whatever archaeological interests pique his imagination. And when he discovers that Beth's search connects with one of his far-removed pirate ancestors, he can't help getting involved. Plus, he finds her irresistible, even though she insists he stole a prized possession of hers. As they work together following different clues and drawing closer to danger, they start to piece together a story of tragic love and piratical adventure. But which treasure will bring the greatest surprise--the one they find in each other or the one just out of their reach?

The Secret

The Secret
Author: Byron Preiss
Publisher: ibooks
Total Pages: 1
Release: 2016-10-05
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN:

The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.

Victorians Undone

Victorians Undone
Author: Kathryn Hughes
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2018-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 142142570X

In lively, accessible prose, Victorians Undone fills the space where the body ought to be, proposing new ways of thinking and writing about flesh in the nineteenth century.

The Way We Wed

The Way We Wed
Author: Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
Publisher: Running Press Adult
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2020-12-01
Genre: Design
ISBN: 0762470283

For fashion buffs, romantics, and brides-to-be, a fascinating collection of wedding garb and glamour through pop culture and history. The Way We Wed: A History of Wedding Fashion presents styles and stories from the Renaissance to the present day, chronicling evolving fashions, classes, and expectations. And because all wedding attire has a tale to tell, The Way We Wed also reveals fascinating personal stories of those who wore it. While the book is a rich source of bridal inspiration for all seasons, it's far from a monotonous parade of white gowns. The Way We Wed showcases wedding gowns of all colors and styles from around the world, as well as going-away dresses, accessories (shoes, veils, hats, and tiaras), and clothes worn by flower girls, bridesmaids, mothers of the bride, and grooms. Same-sex weddings are represented along with royal weddings, wartime brides, White House weddings, remarriage, Hollywood weddings, and more. The book features celebrity and historical couples as well as everyday people. A few of the included names: Angelina Jolie Frida Kahlo Elizabeth Taylor Princess Diana Martha Washington Solange Knowles Ellen DeGeneres Meghan Markle Illustrated with 100 gorgeous photos, The Way We Wed is a rich celebration of the art of wedding fashion across time and cultures, and those whose style and circumstances made a statement.

The malleable body

The malleable body
Author: Heidi Hausse
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2023-04-25
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1526160641

This book uses amputation and prostheses to tell a new story about medicine and embodied knowledge-making in early modern Europe. It draws on the writings of craft surgeons and learned physicians to follow the heated debates that arose from changing practices of removing limbs, uncovering tense moments in which decisions to operate were made. Importantly, it teases out surgeons’ ideas about the body embedded in their technical instructions. This unique study also explores the material culture of mechanical hands that amputees commissioned locksmiths, clockmakers, and other artisans to create, revealing their roles in developing a new prosthetic technology. Over two centuries of surgical and artisanal interventions emerged a growing perception, fundamental to biomedicine today, that humans could alter the body — that it was malleable.