Have you ever wondered how your ancestors made soap? Have you particularly wondered how they made soap without the internet? When they were stuck they couldn’t have a quick look at eHow or one of the many handy YouTube videos on soap-making. Of course, most of the time the necessary skills would be handed down from parents to children, but not every parent would be available, willing, or able to pass on the needed skills.
This is when they could turn to a book like Dick’s Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes, or How They Did it in the 1870s. Receipt is an archaic word for “recipe,” so this is basically a book of recipes, but not recipes for food, although it does include pickles and alcoholic drinks from cider to liqueurs. Receipt 551 is titled “To Make Home-made Soap.” It is a short paragraph that refers back to Receipt 550 for lye: ”Fill an iron kettle two-thirds full of the concentrated lye prepared according to the last receipt.” Then the receipt for lye refers back again to the receipts for making straw and slaked lime. Concentrated lye is made out of ashes, which doesn’t sound very ominous, but lye itself is very caustic and can cause burns. A lot a caution should be used for many of these recipes.
One thing I learned from Dick’s Encyclopedia is how hard our ancestors had to work, just for everyday life, and particularly in the domestic sphere! I own an antique gramophone with a large brass trumpet. Every now and then (not nearly often enough) I buy copper polish from the supermarket and I unscrew the trumpet from the base, spread out newspapers and spend a few hours polishing it. Dick’s Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes has a section on copper, starting with the properties of the metal and going on to how to separate copper from various other metals like lead and zinc (not something I will try at home!) and finally Receipt 3252 “How the Clean Coppers and Tins.” The instructions call for pulverizing your own ‘rotten’ stone, and mixing it with turpentine and soft soap (that you undoubtedly made previously yourself). Nowadays, I don’t have to consider pulverizing my own stone. And I can put 10,000 songs on an iPod and not even have to wind the gramophone!
So perhaps I won’t really make my own soap or brass cleaner since I can so easily and cheaply get them from the supermarket, but Dick’s Encyclopedia also has sections on artistic pursuits. There are sections on marbling books and photography, including how to make your own photographic paper, glass and chemicals.
Dick’s Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes, or How They Did it in the 1870s is a fascinating glimpse of how things were done almost one and half centuries ago. It is fun to browse through to get an idea of how hard our ancestors worked for everyday life, or possibly even a cautious use of some of the receipts.
Check the WRL catalog for Dick’s Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes
I’m adding this to my to be read list! Thanks for the great review!
I love books like this and will seek this one out.
Just yesterday I came across this one in our library stacks in Connecticut.
Why Did They Name It…? Hannah Campbell,Fleet Publishing Cor, c.1964
The front cover states “An entertaining history of the brand names which have become an integral part of American homes, delightfully illustrated with reproductions of old-time advertisements.” and it is just that!
I am fascinated by this sort of book, too, especially if they are reprints of genuine old books. Then they can’t help but include the assumptions and viewpoints of their times.
Another one we have that is fascinating is the reprint of the1897 Sears Roebuck Catalog (by S.J. Perelman). It can be a time waster to page through it and see what people actually bought back then. And it is interesting to see how some things were so cheap, but some things haven’t risen in price very much (meaning, of course, that they represented much more of someone’s income back then).
Jan
I have browsed the reprint of the Sears Catalog (such fun) and have actually seen the real thing too (not that I’m that old).
Another set I really enjoy browsing through is Foxfire, originally a magazine to encourage self sufficiency and preserve Appalachian customs. They were then bound into a series of books and later into a 40th anniversary collection. If you ever need to dress a hog, tan a hide, churn butter, etc, then these are for you. Absolutely fascinating.
Thanks for a trip down nostalgia lane Jan.
Carol
I have an old copy of Foxfire at home (and it looks like we have lots in the library). I remember them being useful for things I am probably not going to do (like the hog-dressing you mention!), but also useful for hints on far more common pursuits like lighting a fire or gardening.
Jan
I love this kind of book. I have always liked history, but in recent years, I’ve been more and more interested in life during the periods of history that interest me. We learn what was happening in the world at various times, but it’s also really interesting to learn what it was like to live then. My to-read list is already long and growing faster than I can read, but I think I’ll have to add this one to it.
Nicole
The other commenters have good suggestions for titles to look at, too. The fiction is interesting as well – yesterday a commenter suggested “Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague” by Geraldine Brooks as a follow up to the book I reviewed on the plague. I have checked out the CDs and will start listening to it in a few days.
I appreciate all the good suggestions!
Jan
I actually have Year of Wonders on my to-read list. These other suggestions also look great. Now if I only had unlimited time to read them all…
[...] using a wooden handled pig’s hair brush and harsh ammonia. As I said in my October post about Dick’s Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes, our ancestors had to work very hard in the domestic sphere. My children often claim (with good [...]
As I was writing a historical nonfiction book about my ancestors, I used things that my ancestors left, including a cookbook when Taft was in office called The White House Cookbook,These family members lived in cold woods and isolation on a Transcendental Commune. Mail was at General Del. a 2-day ox-cart ride away and when 2 go to that town after 6 months :we opened and answered everyone else’s mail too since who knew when if ever any of us would get here again?” almost presciently, for the ox drops dead the first night of the trip home.. In this kind of seclusion they have to make the same things women do in the cook book , meaning that they needed to have on have such things assumed to be around the home in 1885-1913 like potash, lye, quick-lime and slaked lime, washing soda, ether, chalk, alcohol, pulverized resin, gum shellac, linseed oil, naptha, kerosene oil, oxalic acid, chloroform and a word they spell paraffine. Each of these things is required to clean something, cure mosquito bite itch, cure a toothache, soften a hide, de-feather a game bird— the people either brought ta 50-year supply with them or they did without what no genteel home went without, I found the book very interesting because it told what people believed then for example about the four humors,as it told Mom how to make a poultice for junior’s swollen ankle., as well as giving a peek at the cures they believed in, the many steps they took to get bedsheets white again or leather supple–,how strong these women had to be to lift and carry all these things ,how smart to know how to mix them if using more or less than called for, and not to spill caustic chemicals on themselves(not that much skin showed)–I too was fascinated with the drudgery women accepted as part of being a woman, Dick;s Encyclopedia looks as if it will go past the cookbook in information and entertainment.
I would love getting to get my hands on this book. It seems quite interesting though. I often listened to my Granny’s stories of how they lived back in her days. Really hardworking. Kids today would refuse to be slaves to domestic work.