SUGGESTED READING

Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes, John Bakeless, (Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1959)

A Peculiar Service, Corey Ford, (Boston: Little, Brownell)

George Washington's Spies on Long Island and in New York, Morton Pennypacker, (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1939)

Secret History of the American Revolution, Carl Van Doren, (Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing 1941)

Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, David Hackett Fischer, (NY: Oxford Univ. Press 1.995)

The Traitor and the Spy, James Thomas Flexner, (NY: Harcourt, Brace, 1953)

Fashion in Detail; From the 17th and 18th Centuries, Avril Hart and Susan North (Burnley and Trowbridge)
This book covers: Stitching, Seams, Quilting, and Cording. Gathers, Pleats and Looped Drapery, Collars, Cuffs, and Pockets, Buttons, Trimmings, Knitting, Lace and Open (work, Gloves and Shoes... Wonderful close up photos in color, clear drawings of the garments.

1999 EVENT SCHEDULE

Vincennes, IN - May 29-30
So. Milwaukee, WI - Jun 24-28
Indianapolis, IN - Jul 10-11
Wheaton, IL - Jul 31-Aug 1
Ft. Recovery, OH - Aug 14-15
Fredonia, WI - Sep 4-5
Danville, IL - Sep 18-19
Warsaw, IN - Sep 25-26
Lafayette, IN - Oct 2-3

CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS
Reference: Colonial Williamsburg web site

Christmas Cards: Printers have been cashing in on Christmas since the eighteenth century-at least in London and other large cities. Schoolboys (and I do mean only the young males) filled in with their best penmanship pages pre-printed with special holiday borders. "Christmas pieces" they were called. But the Christmas card per se was a nineteenth-century English invention.

Christmas Trees: If we had to choose the one outstanding symbol of Christmas, of course it must be the gaily decorated evergreen tree with a star at the very top. German in origin, "Tannenbaum": gained acceptance in England and the United States only very slowly. The first written reference to a Christmas tree dates from the seventeenth century when a candlelighted tree astonished residents of Stasbourg. I have found nothing recorded in the eighteenth century about holiday trees in Europe or North America. By the nineteenth century a few of the "German toys", using Charles Dicken's phrase, appeared in London. But these foreign oddities were not yet accepted. When a print of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's very domestic circle around a decorated tree at Windsor Castle appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848, the custom truly caught on.