my-deer-friend

[my-deer-friend]

This is what Tumblr suggested to me.

[my-deer-friend]

I wonder what People Who Really Like Trains liked best before trains. the first sights of the first trains in history must’ve hit those brains like a galaxy going off.

[my-deer-friend]

why are dudes in fanfic always getting hit with freight train orgasms. why not an orient express orgasm, classy and romantic. where are the shinkansen train orgasms? his orgasm hit him like the TGV atlantique breaking the passenger rail speed record. like the shanghai maglev, his orgasm was a feat of engineering but something of a commercial disappointment.

[my-deer-friend]

I hate this myth that it was super common for adult men to marry 13-year-old girls in the 18th century. It's just plain untrue. No you weren't an old maid by 16. It was not common to have 5 kids by the time you were 20. The average marriage age for women was early 20s. It was not that uncommon for older teens to get married but 13 was unusually young.

[my-deer-friend]

"I have still a part for the public and another for you"

Always makes my day remember the cute pet names they had for each other.

(These images are part from another thing I'm doing that I wish show you soon :).

[my-deer-friend]

What do you even meannnn

[my-deer-friend]

John Laurens in Bath

On my recent visit, I managed to track down one of the residences that John Laurens stayed in during his January 1775 visit to Bath.

In the 18th century, Bath was one of England's most popular spa and resort towns, as well as a stopping point on the road between London and the western harbours of Bristol and Falmouth. John and his politically likeminded friend Richard Beresford lodged in the same boarding-house as former Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson, where they apparently had a spirited debate about the brewing tensions in America.

Per volume 10 of the Papers of Henry Laurens, Hutchinson lodged at “Mr. Briton’s”. The Bath directory for 1791 lists two boarding-house keepers named "Mrs. Britton", as well as a "Mr. Bretton", so I needed to consult Hutchinson's published diary. It provides this additional clue:

Therefore, I think we can fairly certainly say that it was:

The New and Correct Plan of the City of Bath from 1780 shows Milsom Street to be at the north end of the city, where it still is today. In fact, very little has changed from the old city layout.

Unfortunately, much of the street was rebuilt in the intervening centuries, and the current building at No. 46 is from 1901 – though it retains the period style.

In 1805, the street looked like this. It was a fashionable destination and setting for many scenes in works of fiction, including some of Jane Austen's novels.

[my-deer-friend]

New REBLOG Game

Just fucking lie about the previous poster

[my-deer-friend]

It's going to sound odd, but working on someone who did objectively come from a position of immense societal privilege has made me reflect on how obliterating the historical record can be.

My man, despite coming from wealth and power, has had his radical politics so thoroughly expunged that they come as a shock to people I talk to. His published works were abridged after his death, his beliefs rarely come up in books about the period despite coming up over and over in the newspapers at the time, and his strong public push for reform barely gets a footnote. He still gets presented as apolitical in so many places more than a century later, despite being radical.

If it can be done to him, it's not hard to imagine that it has happened to so many people far more subaltern than him.

[my-deer-friend]

Inexpressibly obsessed with this portrait.

Marie Jean Augustin Vestris by Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1781-2

[my-deer-friend]

What kind of posts would your character make on tumblr dot com?

[my-deer-friend]

For anyone interested in historical dancing, I've just come across this incredible resource of literally thousands of historical dancing manuals (which include sheet music, choreographies and related guidebooks on posture, deportment, etc.).

Some of them include charming illustrations, such as this 1737 guide on how to salute with your hat:

Or this 1750 depiction of a dancing master:

And some illustrations that look more like instructions for summoning a demon than performing a dance:

[my-deer-friend]

the amrev boyfriends post-germantown, based on that vase depicting achilles tending to a wounded patroclus because i am unoriginal

[my-deer-friend]

18th century fencing manuals agree.

All 18th century men look like this to me

[my-deer-friend]

John Laurens Cigar Box

Since June 14, 2014, I have been using an image of a dandified John Laurens from a cigar label as my icon for this blog. It is one of my favorite artistic representations of John Laurens, and to me, it has become an intrinsic part of my blog's identity. Over the past 11+ years (!), I have periodically searched for this cigar label so that I might add it to my collection of books, art, and other items related to John Laurens. I even reached out to the runners of the Cigar Label Price Guide website where I had originally found this image. They were no longer in the business of buying/selling cigar labels, but they kindly provided me with the current high-res version of my icon and gave me some suggestions on where I could search for cigar labels for sale. Despite my efforts, I never came across this white whale of mine - until last week. Imagine my surprise when I received an eBay notification advertising a rare John Laurens cigar box for sale. After frantically texting @ciceroprofacto about this development, I immediately contacted the seller and purchased the cigar box. Shout-out to the seller for including "Laurens was rumored to be the secret lover of Alexander Hamilton" in their listing description - they 100% knew the audience for this item. After over a decade of searching, my beloved John Laurens cigar label is finally in my collection, and it contains so many details that I have never seen before! The above image shows the label on the outside of the cigar box lid, and the below image shows the label on the inside of the lid:

The left side of the label appears to depict the story of Laurens presenting his memorial requesting French aid directly to King Louis XVI while the right side appears to show John Laurens (left) conversing with Benjamin Franklin (right). These depictions may be based off of illustrations from McClure's Magazine. I love the gold details along these images:

Here is a close-up of Laurens from the inside lid:

The front of the box features a label bearing Laurens's name and some additional decorations:

The image I've been using for my blog comes from a label that spans an outer edge of the box:

My John Laurens collection truly feels complete with the acquisition of this cigar box. I had thought that I may never find it for sale - to finally own it is an incredible feeling. Here's to another decade of John Laurens posting.

[my-deer-friend]

Lams and shaving shenanigans

[my-deer-friend]

inspired by this