No. 726
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 05, 2023

December 1860.

Styles for the Month.
December 5, 2023
...
...

Tag: Fad

A New Wrinkle.

How the fashionable women of “sawciety” get their complexions whit the assistance of a hypodermic injection.

12/14/2015

Beautiful Forever.

7/29/2014

Society Unveiled.

2/3/2014
When reading about UFO sightings, one gets a bit bored of encounters with the usual saucer-eyed little green men, so it’s always welcome when extraterrestrials think outside of the box and offer us humans a more novel spectacle.  In the November/December 1968 issue of “Flying Saucer Review,” a French UFO researcher named Lyonel Trigano presented a striking case which had been brought to his
More...
Strange Company - 3/30/2026
"As his son I am proud of hisefforts to succeed in life"Jefferson Randolph Smith IIIArtifact #93-2Jeff Smith collection(Click image to enlarge) oapy's son hires a legal firm to stop the defamation of his father's name. At age 30, Jefferson Randolph Smith III, Soapy and Mary's oldest son, was protecting his father's legacy and his mother's reputation from "libel" and scandal. He was also
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
New York didn’t invent April Fools Day; this holiday might date back all the way to ancient Rome. But starting in the 19th century, April 1 in Gotham has been a day to celebrate with stupid pranks, outrageous hoaxes, the mocking of politicians and business leaders, and since 1986, a parade down Fifth Avenue. This […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 3/30/2026
Youth With Executioner by Nuremberg native Albrecht Dürer … although it’s dated to 1493, which was during a period of several years when Dürer worked abroad. November 13 [1617]. Burnt alive here a miller of Manberna, who however was lately … Continue reading
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
National Police Gazette, January 28, 1882Mrs. J.W. Gibbons was away from her home in Ashland, Kentucky, on December 23, 1881. She left behind her 18-year-old son Robert, her 14-year-old daughter Fannie, and 17-year-old Emma Thomas (aka Carico), who was staying with them. Mrs. Gibbons returned the following day to find her home burned to the ground and all three inhabitants dead.Read the full
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 3/28/2026
Whatever you believe about the guilt or innocence of Lizzie Borden, I have always believed film makers do a great injustice to the story by not beginning at the beginning- the death on March 26, 1863 of the first Mrs. Borden. In the dying moments of Sarah Morse, Emma takes on the weight of the care of her little sister, not yet three years old. Emma herself was just 12 on March 1st. Emma has seen her mother suffer for a long time, seen her pain and loss of little Alice Esther. Emma is old enough
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026
  [Editor’s note: Guest writer, Peter Dickson, lives in West Sussex, England and has been working with microfilm copies of The Duncan Campbell Papers from the State Library of NSW, Sydney, Australia. The following are some of his analyses of what he has discovered from reading these papers. Dickson has contributed many transcriptions to the Jamaica […]
More...
Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
A Bloody Ruction. | She Liked Her Lager Beer.

December 1860.

December 1860 Styles for the Month.

Fig. 1. Morning robe of cashmere broche in roses, with their leaves. A revers of the same, edged with a narrow rose-fluted ribbon, forms the border, the ribbon extending round the bottom of the skirt. Underskirt flounced with delicate embroidery to the waist, with vest to match. A flounce forming a frill length-wise on the chemisette, which is finished with a ruching at the throat. Solferino net, with ruched silk edge, and tassels.

Fig. 2. Evening dress of pink tulle, with two skirts of doubled crape, strapped with purple satin ribbon, low Grecian corsage, and short, fan-shaped sleeve; flowers for the hair, and garniture for the robe of purple rhododendrons.

Fig. 3. Robe of green silk, with small figure, broche in the same color; skirt with five narrow flounces, edged with ribbon runching; round body, with pelerine cape, and floating waist ribbon, broche in the same colors, and edged with velvet. Small bishop sleeves, with a full seam on the front, covered with ruching, wrist finished with a frill, edged with ruched ribbon. Hat of purple velvet, with a wreath of purple berries in their leaves, across the front.


Frank Leslie's Monthly Magazine, December 1860.