Thursday, December 30, 2021

Come On In...

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Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) A Philadelphia Doorway 1882
Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. As a painter of early American life, he displays a quaint humour. Henry acquired an extensive collection of antiques, old photos, & assorted Americana, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray.”
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Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Visiting With Those Passing-By

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Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) An Informal Call 1895
Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. As a painter of early American life, he displays a quaint humour. Henry acquired an extensive collection of antiques, old photos, & assorted Americana, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray.”
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Sunday, December 26, 2021

Reading at Home

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Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) At Home with a Good Book 1872
Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. As a painter of early American life, he displays a quaint humour. Henry acquired an extensive collection of antiques, old photos, & assorted Americana, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray.”
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Friday, December 24, 2021

Watering the Horse

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Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) At the Watering Trough 1899
Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. As a painter of early American life, he displays a quaint humour. Henry acquired an extensive collection of antiques, old photos, & assorted Americana, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray.”
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Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Riding in the Carriage

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Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) Carriage Ride 1886
Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. As a painter of early American life, he displays a quaint humour. Henry acquired an extensive collection of antiques, old photos, & assorted Americana, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray.”
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Monday, December 20, 2021

Children Resting 1879

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Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) Childhood 1879
Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. As a painter of early American life, he displays a quaint humour. Henry acquired an extensive collection of antiques, old photos, & assorted Americana, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray.”
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Saturday, December 18, 2021

Coming Home

.Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) Coming Home
Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. As a painter of early American life, he displays a quaint humour. Henry acquired an extensive collection of antiques, old photos, & assorted Americana, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray.”
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Thursday, December 16, 2021

Waiting for the Ferry

.Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) Waiting for the Ferry
Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. As a painter of early American life, he displays a quaint humour. Henry acquired an extensive collection of antiques, old photos, & assorted Americana, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray.”
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Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Sitting in the Parlor

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Edward Lamson Henry (American Painter, 1841-1919) Parlor on Brooklyn Heights of Mr and Mrs John Ballard 1872

Edward Lamson Henry (1841–1919) was an American genre painter born in Charleston, South Carolina who came to live in New York at an early age. As a painter of early American life, he displays a quaint humour. Henry acquired an extensive collection of antiques, old photos, & assorted Americana, from which he researched his paintings. His wife Frances said that "Nothing annoyed him more than to see a wheel, a bit of architecture etc. carelessly drawn or out of keeping with the time it was supposed to portray.”
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Monday, December 6, 2021

Paintings of Women by John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852)

.John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Mary Scott Swan 1815
John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Sarah Russell Church 1800
John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Theodosia Burr
Theodosia Burr Alston was the daughter of Aaron Burr. She was educated at home by her father & was able to write fluently in Greek & Latin, as well as French & English. Aaron Burr was ahead of his time in believing that a young woman should be given the opportunity to receive the same education as a man.

When Theodosia was 17 years old, & her father was about to become Vice President under Thomas Jefferson, (both had received the same number of votes in the electoral college while running for president), Theodosia married Joseph Alston, the governor of South Carolina. They honeymooned at Niagra Falls, the first known American couple to do so. Their son, Aaron Burr Alston ("Gampy"), was born in the following year.

John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Mother and Son 1800

John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Mrs Marinus Willett and Her Son Marinus Jr 1802
John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Elizabeth Maria Church 1799
John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Theodosia Burr Alston
John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Mary Ellis Bell (Mrs Isaac Bell) 1827John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Mrs. Daniel Strobel, Jr. (Anna Church Strobel) and Her Son George, ca. 1799

John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) was born at Kingston, New York. He was employed by a print-seller in New York, and was first instructed in art by Archibald Robinson (1765–1835), a Scotsman who was afterwards one of the directors of the American Academy of the Fine Arts. He went to Philadelphia, where he spent time in the studio of Gilbert Stuart and copied some of Stuart's portraits, including one of Aaron Burr, who placed him under Gilbert Stuart as a pupil.

In 1796, Aaron Burr sent Vanderlyn to Paris, where he studied for 5 years. He returned to the United States in 1801 and lived in the home of Burr, then the Vice President, where he painted the well-known likeness of Burr and his daughter.
John Vanderlyn (American Neoclassical Painter, 1775-1852) Self Portrait.

Saturday, December 4, 2021

How 19C Black Women Fought for Civil War Pensions & Benefits

Harriet Tubman   Library of Congress

In a time when military pensions were a large part of the federal budget, Black women faced unique challenges in securing compensation.

History.com By Becky Little Nov 16, 2021

Many of the Black women who applied to the Bureau of Pensions asked for benefits based on their husband or father’s service; but Black women also performed military service during the Civil War, & could make claims for pensions of their own. One of these women was Harriet Tubman, who applied for a pension based on her wartime service as a nurse, cook, spy, scout & first woman in U.S. history to lead a military raid.

​​Tubman spent decades appealing to the government to compensate her for her military service & pay her a pension. After the death of her second husband, veteran Nelson Davis, in 1888, she also applied for survivor benefits based on his service, & began receiving $8 a month in 1892. 

In 1899, Congress passed a bill increasing the bureau’s payments to Tubman to $20 in consideration of her contributions as a nurse—though not, Congress made clear, for her service as a spy, scout & military raid leader. It was a partial recognition of her service, 34 years after the fact.

Over two million soldiers enlisted in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War. When it ended, the United States had many more veterans & surviving dependents than it had ever had before. In the decades that followed, military pensions became a major part of the federal budget, accounting for 37 percent of the budget by 1894. 

Despite the enormous growth in payments to veterans & their relatives after the Civil War, securing compensation could be an arduous process that required significant time & resources. The legacy of slavery made that process especially challenging for Black women applying for benefits. 

Widows of Civil War soldiers could begin applying to the Bureau of Pensions during the war, & one of the first major obstacles for Black women who had survived slavery was the bureau's marriage requirement. Women needed to prove they had been married to their deceased husbands to receive survivor benefits. However, because enslaved men & women hadn’t been legally able to marry, the Bureau of Pensions didn’t initially recognize their unions.

In 1864, the government began retroactively recognizing these marriages, but there were still other factors that made it difficult to start the process. Some veterans & families didn’t know they were eligible for pensions or benefits in the first place. Pensioners were required to provide multiple records, from military service documents to marriage certificates to medical exams. Access to attorneys who could help applicants navigate the complex system was a barrier for many formerly enslaved families, as was literacy, since antebellum laws had punished enslaved people for learning to read or write.

“In addition to the sort of application obstacles, [these women were] also facing ideas about what constitutes a worthy widow,” says Brandi Clay Brimmer, a professor of African, African American & Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & author of Claiming Union Widowhood: Race, Respectability, & Poverty in the Post-Emancipation South.

“There’s almost an immediate suspicion that formerly enslaved people’s families are not legitimate, they are not nuclear, that women are…claiming benefits for children that were not the soldiers',” she says. 

Even if Black women did succeed in receiving benefits, Brimmer says “it was equally difficult to maintain their standing on the roll.” The Bureau of Pensions could & did remove women’s benefits if they earned paid wages outside of the home, if they remarried or if the bureau suspected them of engaging in behavior it viewed as inappropriate.

This was the case with Patience Buck, whose husband, George K. Buck, suffered a severe head injury during the war that contributed to his death in 1871. Patience Buck first applied for benefits in 1879, & had to apply multiple times before the bureau approved her application in 1890 (the bureau had argued that her husband’s death was unrelated to his war injury). However, the bureau later cut off her benefits based on rumors that she was a prostitute. These rumors were false, but were enough to deprive her of her benefits.

In addition to critiquing an applicant's own actions, the Bureau of Pensions might hold her husband’s actions against her if it learned that her husband had had an affair, says Holly Pinheiro, Jr., a history professor at Furman University & author of The Families’ Civil War: Black Soldiers & the Fight for Racial Justice.

“The federal government, through the Pension Bureau, is basically going to war with Black families to make them prove that they’re legitimate, that they’re worthy of a pension,” he says.

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - Consent for an Introduction


Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

In the introduction of one gentleman to another, great prudence and caution must be used by the really polite man; but in the introduction of ladies to each other, and to gentlemen, infinitely more care is necessary, as a lady cannot shake off an improper acquaintance with the same facility as a gentleman can do, and their character is much easier affected by apparent contact with the worthless and the dissipated.

It is incumbent, therefore, on ladies to avoid all proffers of introductions, unless from those on whom, from relationship or other causes, they can place the most implicit confidence.

As a general rule, ladies may always at once accord to any offers of introduction that may proceed from a father, mother, husband, sister, or brother; those from intimate cousins and tried friends are also to be considered favourably, although not to be entitled to the same implicit reliance as the former.

No person of correct feeling will make an introduction to a lady, without having first apprized her of it, and obtained her consent.
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Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Fashion for the Privileged 1809

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Evening Full Dress
Title: Ackerman's Repository
Item Date: January, 1809
Collection: Casey Fashion Plates
Location: Los Angeles Public Library
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Sunday, November 28, 2021

Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - The Curtsey upon an Introduction


Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

Formerly it was the habit for the ladies to curtsey on being introduced, but this has latterly been changed into the more easy and graceful custom of bowing.

The habit of saluting and shaking hands is now quite obsolete, except in some country towns where ladies at first introductions salute other ladies by kissing them on the cheek, and fervently shake the hands of the gentlemen.

At present, in the best society, all that a lady is called upon to do, upon a first introduction either to a lady or a gentleman, is to make a slight, but gracious inclination of the head.

Upon one lady meeting another for the second or subsequent times, the hand may be extended in supplement to the inclination of the head; but no lady should ever extend her hand to a gentleman, unless she is very intimate,—a bow at meeting, and one at parting, is all that is necessary.

Ladies should never bow hastily, but with slow and measured dignity.
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Friday, November 26, 2021

Fashion for the Privileged 1809

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Dancing Dress
Title: Ackerman's Repository
Item Date: February, 1809
Collection: Casey Fashion Plates
Location: Los Angeles Public Library
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Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - Avoiding an Introduced Gentleman


Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

If you wish to avoid the company of any one that has been properly introduced, satisfy your own mind that your reasons are correct; and then let no inducement cause you to shrink from treating him with respect, at the same time shunning his company. No gentleman will thus be able either to blame or mistake you.

If, in travelling, any one introduces himself to you, and does it in a proper and respectful manner, conduct yourself towards him with politeness, ease, and dignity; if he is a gentleman, he will appreciate your behaviour—and if not a gentleman will be deterred from annoying you; but acquaintanceships thus formed must cease where they began, and your entering into conversation with a lady or gentleman in a boat or a coach does not give any of you a right to after recognition.

If any one introduces himself to you in a manner betraying the least want of respect, either towards you or himself, you can only turn from him in dignified silence,—and if he presumes to address you further, then there is no punishment too severe.
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Monday, November 22, 2021

American Women & Children by the Beardsley Limner (active between 1785-1805)

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The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831) Boy with Dog

The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831) Harmony Child Mrs Oliver Wright

The Beardsley Limner, an American painter active 1785-1805, was an itinerant artist who executed several naive portraits along the old Boston Post Road, in Connecticut & Massachusetts, from about 1785 to 1805. This name is derived from portraits this artist made of Elizabeth & Hezekiah Beardsley. The Beardsley Limner may actually be a Connecticut pastelist Sarah Perkins. Some stylistic similarities exist between the two, but there are sufficient differences to raise questions about a definitive identification. Works shown here are attributed to the Beardsley Limner.

The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831)

The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831) Elizabeth Davis Mrs Hezekiah Beardsley 1789

The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831) Child Posing with Cat 1790s

The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831) Boy in a Windsor Chair

The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831) Girl In a Pink Dress 1790
The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831)
The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831) Charles Adams Wheeler, c. 1790
The Beardsley Limner (American painter, active 1785-1805 possibly Sarah Bushnell Perkins 1771-1831) Girl in Lace Cap 1790s
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Sunday, November 21, 2021

Poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx


My nosegays are for Captives
Dim – long expectant eyes –
Fingers denied the plucking,
Patient till Paradise –
To such, if they sh'd whisper
Of morning and the moor –
They bear no other errand,
And I, no other prayer.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a reclusive American poet. Unrecognized in her own time, Dickinson is known posthumously for her innovative use of form and syntax.

The New York Botanical Garden's library produced an exhibit, “Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers." An exhibition of over 50 books, manuscripts, watercolors, & photographs retold the story of Emily Dickinson’s life including her reclusiveness, her adoration of flowers & plants, and her reluctance to share her poetry.
Links between her verse & the plants & flowers provided inspiration for her poems on display along with original manuscripts. Most importantly it also included an interactive exhibit of Emily's own herbarium of over 400 plants, now in the online collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Dickinson studied botany from the age of 9 & throughout her life tended the garden at the Homestead, the family's home. She sent homegrown bouquets to friends, studied botany at Amherst Academy, & tended her own glassed conservatory off her father's study. As an amateur botanist, she collected, pressed, classified, & labeled more than 400 flower specimens.
A reproduction of her only existing dress (she reportedly wore only white later in life) is on loan from the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst.
The exhibit also included what must be a guess at a recreation of Emily's garden. No historical documents about her actual garden seem to exist, only her herbarium, letters, & poems referring to plants. Over a third of Dickinson's poems & nearly half of her letters allude with passionate intensity to her favorite wildflowers, to traditional blooms like the daisy or gentian, & to the exotic gardenias & jasmines of her conservatory.
The exhibition catalog featureed essays by Dickinson authors Judith Farr & Marta McDowell. McDowell wrote Emily Dickinson's Gardens: A Celebration of a Poet and Gardener, & Farr wrote The Gardens of Emily Dickinson.
It is clear to those who read this blog, that Emily Dickinson is one of my favorite poets. I wrote my undergrad senior honors paper on her work in college. 

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Etiquette for American Ladies 1840 - The Letter of Introduction


Etiquette for Ladies: With Hints on the Preservation, Improvement, and Display of Female Beauty. Published by Lea and Blanchard, Philadelphia. 1838-1840

Be very cautious of giving a gentleman a letter of introduction to a lady; for remember, in proportion as you are esteemed by the lady to whom it is addressed, so do you claim for your friend her good wishes,—and such letters are often the means of settling the weal or the woe of the parties for life. Ladies should never themselves, unless upon cases of the most urgent business, deliver introductory letters, but should send them in an envelope inclosing their card.

On receipt of an introductory letter, take it into instant consideration; if you are determined not to receive the party, write at once some polite, plausible, but dignified cause of excuse. If the party is one you think fit to receive, then let your answer be accordingly, and without delay; never leave unanswered till the next day a letter of introduction.

If any one whom you have never seen before call with a letter of introduction, and you know from its appearance who sent it, desire the person to sit down, and at once treat them politely; but if you do not recognise the hand-writing, it is quite proper, after requesting them to be seated, to beg their pardon, and peruse the letter in order that you may know how to act .

It is now, however, a very rare thing for any one to call upon a lady with an introductory letter; no one the least conversant with the rules of good society will do it; such letters ought to be sent in an envelope.

If any one requests a letter of introduction, and you do not consider that it would be prudent, either in respect to your situation with the person so requesting' it, or with the one to whom it would be addressed, refuse it with firmness, and allow no inducement whatever to alter your purpose.

Friday, November 19, 2021

Winter, Summer, Spring & Fall - History & Art of Umbrellas

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). Woman with a Parasol 1872
The term parasol usually refers to an item intended to protect people from the sun. Umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect them from rain.

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) Summer
Usually the difference is the material; some parasols are not waterproof.

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Group with Parasols

Some parasols & umbrellas are meant to be fixed to one point, often used with garden furniture or at the beach.

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Eleanor Brooks
Both umbrellas & parasols can be exclusively hand-held, portable devices.
Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) In the Doorway (Good Morning)
Both umbrellas & parasols simply can be held as fashion accessories & not used for protection from sun or rain at all.

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Madame Roger-Jourdain

"Para" means stop or shield and "sol" means sun.

Emanuel Phillips Fox (1865 -1915) The Arbor
The word "umbrella" evolved from the Latin "umbella" (an "umbel" is a flat-topped rounded flower) or "umbra" meaning "shaded."

Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) Woman with a Parasol

In the sculptures at early Nineveh, an ancient city on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, the parasol appears frequently.

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). Young Woman with a Japanese Umbrella

In Persia, the parasol is repeatedly found in the carved work of Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550-330 BCE).

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903). Woman with a Parasol

In some sculptures in Persia, the figure of a king appears attended by a servant, who carries over his head an umbrella.

Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) The Japanese Parasol

In other Persian sculptures on the rock at Takht-i-Bostan, supposed to be not less than 12 centuries old, a deer-hunt is represented, at which a king looks on, seated on a horse with an umbrella held over his head by an attendant.

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) The Traveller

In ancient Egypt, the parasol is sometimes depicted as a flagellum, a fan of palm-leaves or colored feathers fixed on a long handle, resembling those depicted in several Victorian paintings.

Claude Monet (1840-1926). The Walk, Woman with a Parasol 1875

Another Egyptian engraving depicts an Ethiopian princess traveling through Upper Egypt in a chariot with a sort of umbrella fastened to a stout pole rising in the center.

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) A Portrait (Miss Lloyd) 1876
The umbrella was generally used throughout Egypt, partly as a mark of distinction, but more for its useful rather than its ornamental qualities.

Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) Two Young Women in a Garden

In some paintings on an Egyptian temple wall, a parasol is held over the figure of a god carried in procession.

Charles Courtney Curran (1861-1942) Lotus Lilies 1888.

In Greece, the parasol (skiadeion), was an indispensable adjunct to a lady of fashion in the late 5th century BC.

Claude Monet (1840-1926). Detail Camille Monet in the Garden 1871

Aristophanes (446-386BC), a much acclaimed comic playwright of ancient Athens, mentions it among the common articles of female use which could apparently open and close.

Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) The Garden Parasol

Geographer Pausanias (d. 470BC) describes a tomb near Triteia in Achaia decorated with a 4th-century BC painting ascribed to Nikias, Plutarch's Slave of Fear d 413BC, depicting a woman, "and by her stood a female slave, bearing a parasol."

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). Woman with Parasol

Its use seems to have been confined to women. For a man to carry one was considered a mark of effeminacy. In Aristophanes' Birds, a 415BC Greek comedy, Prometheus uses one as a comical disguise.

Édouard Manet (1832-1883) Woman with a Parasol 1881.

It had also its religious signification. In the Scirophoria, the feast of Athene Sciras, a white parasol was borne by the priestesses of the goddess from the Acropolis to the Phalerus.

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Simplon Pass The Lesson

In the feasts of Dionysos, the god of wine, the umbrella was used, and in an old bas-relief the same god is represented as descending ad inferos with a small umbrella in his hand. Dionysos inspired ritual madness, joyful worship, ecstasy, carnivals, celebration and was a major figure of Greek mythology.

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) Detail Mrs. Newton With a Parasol

In the Panathenæa, the daughters of the Metics, or foreign residents, carried parasols over the heads of Athenian women as a mark of inferiority. In Rome, the umbrella seems to have been commonly used by women to shade themselves from the heat by means of the Umbraculum, formed of skin or leather, and capable of being lowered at will. There are frequent references to the umbrella in the Roman classics, and it appears that it was a post of honor among maid-servants to bear it over the heads of their mistresses.

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). A Morning Walk

Allusions to the parasol are reasonably frequent in the poets Ovid, Martial, & Juvenal.

Claude Monet (1840-1926). Detail Woman in a Garden
The Roman umbrella does not appear to have been used as protection from rain.

Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) Sun and Wind

The umbrella appears frequently on Etruscan pottery, as also on later gems and rubies.

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) Mary Cassatt at the Louvre

One gem, figured by Pacudius, shows an umbrella with a bent handle, sloping backwards.

Claude Monet (1840-1926). Woman with a Parasol 1886

From China's Terracotta Army, a carriage with an umbrella securely fixed to the side appears from Qin Shihuang's tomb, c. 210 BCE.

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) Lady with a Parasol, 1870-72
In written records, the oldest Chinese reference to a collapsible umbrella dates to the year 21 A.D., when Wang Mang (r. 9–23) had one designed for a ceremonial four-wheeled carriage. The Chinese character for umbrella is 傘 (sÇŽn) and is a pictograph resembling the modern umbrella in design.

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) Detail In the Sunshine

The Chinese & Japanese traditional parasol, often used today near temples, remains similar to the original ancient Chinese design.

Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) Lady with a Parasol

A late Song Dynasty Chinese divination book that was printed in about 1270 CE features a picture of a collapsible umbrella that is exactly like the modern umbrella of today's China.

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). Two Girls with Parasols at Fladbury
In India, the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata (about 4th century) relates the following legend: Jamadagni was a skilled bow shooter, and his devoted wife Renuka would always recover each of his arrows immediately. One time however, it took her a whole day to fetch the arrow, and she later blamed the heat of the sun for the delay. The angry Jamadagni shot an arrow at the sun. The sun begged for mercy and offered Renuka an umbrella.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935) A Rainy Day, New York

In 17th-century Ava in India, it seems to have been part of the king's title, that he was "King of the white elephant, and Lord of the twenty-four umbrellas."

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) In an English Garden

In 1855, the King of Burma was called "His great, glorious, and most excellent Majesty, who reigns over the kingdoms of Thunaparanta, Tampadipa, and all the great umbrella-wearing chiefs of the Eastern countries."

Martha Walter - Summer Sunshine

According to a 1687 account of Siam, the use of the umbrella was granted to only some of the subjects by the king. An umbrella with several circles, as if two or three umbrellas were fastened on the same stick, was for the king alone. The nobles carried a single umbrella with painted cloths hanging from it.

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) Detail Portsmouth Dockyard

The district of Tenochtitlan called Atzacoalco of the Aztec Empire was reported to have used an umbrella made from feathers & gold as its pantli or flag. It was carried by the army general.

Frederick Frieseke (1874-1939) Through the Vines

Scarce allusions to European umbrellas throughout the Middle Ages probably indicates that they were not in common use. Apparently Europeans depended on cloaks, not umbrellas, for protection against storms.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) Young Woman at Large

The general use of the parasol in France & England was adopted, probably from China about the middle of the 17th-century, when depictions of umbrellas are frequently seen.

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925). The Pink Dress

John Evelyn, in his Diary for June 22, 1664, mentions a collection of rarities shown him by one Thompson, a Roman Catholic priest, sent by the Jesuits of Japan and China to France. Among the curiosities were "fans like those our ladies use, but much larger, and with long handles, strangely carved and filled with Chinese characters," which is evidently a description of the parasol.

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) Mary Cassatt at the Louvre

In John Florio's "A World of Words" (1598), the Italian word Ombrella is translated "a fan, a canopie. also a testern or cloth of state for a prince. also a kind of round fan or shadowing that they use to ride with in summer in Italy, a little shade."

Charles Courtney Curran (1861-1942).

In Randle Cotgrave's "Dictionary of the French and English Tongues" (1614), the French Ombrelle is translated "An umbrello; a (fashion of) round and broad fanne, wherewith the Indians (and from them our great ones) preserve themselves from the heat of a scorching sunne; and hence any little shadow, fanne, or thing, wherewith women hide their faces fro the sunne."

Claude Monet (1840-1926). Victor Jacquemont Holding a Parasol 1865

Kersey's Dictionary (1708) describes an umbrella as a "screen commonly used by women to keep off rain."

Emanuel Phillips Fox (1865 -1915) The Green Parasol
Daniel Defoe's (c 1661–1731) Robinson Crusoe constructs his own umbrella in imitation of the ones he had seen used in Brazil. "I covered it with skins," he says, "the hair outwards, so that it cast off the rain like a pent-house, and kept off the sun so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advantage than I could before in the coolest."

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) At the Races

Explorer Captain James Cook (1728-1779) in one of his voyages, mentions some of the natives of the South Pacific Islands, with umbrellas made of palm leaves.