A Brief Introduction

This is me, at age 16.

Every morning, over the course of four summers, I slid into my voluminous petticoats and strapped on my corset and went to live in the 19th century. I had needed a job, and a few years previous my mother had risen to a semi-management position at a local “living history” museum. Employment was gauranteed, and it seemed an acceptable alternative to working at the "Piercing Pagaoda."

Living history was, and is, a relatively new fad in museums—it began at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts in the ‘70s, most likely stemming from the popularity of battle re-enacting after the centennial of the Civil War. Today, sites like Williamsburg have brought living history into the mainstream of tourism. The idea is, instead of just gazing at rooms filled with historic objects, you actually fill those rooms with people. Characters, based on the historical families that may have lived and worked there.

In my 19th century life, I’d churn butter, milk cows, work in the garden, paint, draw, read, sing—all the things my character would have done 150 years ago, but with the unfortunate daily addition of a few hundred people touring my house.

At the time, this was just my job. I couldn't predict the lasting effect it would have on my perception of the world.

And that is what this blog about: How I see the 21st century, after living in the 19th.

(photo by Brett Schutzman)