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Ordinary Artifacts, Two Rivers, WI (2026)

07/05/2024

Some things never change.

My Fourth of July looks a lot like this one from 1922. I’m surrounded by friends and family. Homemade dishes are being passed and kids are running around laughing.

Here’s hoping the same for you and yours.

05/10/2024

Tis the season… for commencement ceremonies!

Future grads and proud parents alike are raiding their closets looking for the perfect outfit. But don’t worry! The Delineator is here to help with this article on graduation fashions from an 1896 issue of the magazine.

A young graduate’s attire, “ideally simple, is suited to her girlhood and to the demands of the occasion. The wearing of all white is as much a matter of sentiment as of fashion. Often, however, the necessity of a touch of color, usually in some delicate shade, is imposed by the wearer’s complexional characteristics.”

The article recommends dresses of silk, gauze, crepes and chiffon. “Ribbon, lace, embroidery…of course flowers, are the decorations most generally employed.” Full skirts and puffed sleeves are all the rage. And one simply must wear silk hosiery, slippers and white suede gloves.

“Natural flowers can be worn with any of the costumes illustrated and the choice and disposition of trimming can be modified to suit individual taste.”

But remember, “a galaxy of youthful graduates, their faces flushed with the pride of success” is the most beautiful sight one will see on the big day.

📸 The Delineator (May 1896)

01/01/2024

Some sage advice from a Prohibition-era holiday card.

Happy New Year's, my friends! Here's to a better and brighter year ahead that's full of laughter, love and lots of vintage.

11/10/2023

🌷THE STORY OF ORDINARY ARTIFACTS🌷

Three years ago today, Ordinary Artifacts opened its digital doors.

Before this shop, I had spent a decade working in thirteen museums across four states. My mission, battle cry and mantra was ‘museums are for everyone’. Nothing felt more important than my job.

I thought museums were my great love, ya know? They had made me who I was - shaped what I thought and how I moved around in the world. But ya girl was tired. I was underpaid, overworked, burnt out and exhausted. So I quit my job and sobbed the whole drive home. Who was I without museums?

Much of Ordinary Artifacts has been shaped by the thing that broke my heart.

I love the thrill of unearthing something covered in dust that I just know has a story to tell. I love researching and telling y’all the wild stuff I find. I love uncovering stories of people that lived and died centuries ago who weren’t so different from us. I love finding our common humanity in handwritten letters. I love hearing echoes of my sister’s laugh in antique photos of joyful women. I love using the past to teach myself to do better - learning lessons unintentionally taught from mistakes left behind. I love that artifacts have brought us together.

For me, Ordinary Artifacts is more than a vintage shop. It’s a museum of the things that move me. It’s the way I honor the past, nourish my soul and find a connection with humanity through ordinary items left behind.

In the past three years, I’ve shipped more than 2,700 packages to 10 countries. More importantly, I’ve met all of you! What a gorgeous community of vintage lovers we are a part of.

I'm thankful for each of you - your support, friendship and hoarding. Here’s to the years (and vintage!) to come.

❤️ Abbie

10/20/2023

🌷CLOTHES FOR MOURNING🌷

This article from a 1907 issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal on mourning fashions for women sheds light on why this practice was so important during the Victorian era.

It opens by explaining that donning mourning clothes “is the conventional outward sign of respect to the dead, but it is also a safeguard for one who is heart-broken & grief-laden.”

Here are some interesting tidbits from the article:

◾️“For the widow or the bereaved mother it is still correct to wear the time-honored Mary Stuart bonnet with a long veil draped over it…. But let me repeat that this is strictly conventional mourning.”

◾️”It is a difficult matter to give rules & regulations for wearing mourning, as even the authorities seem to disagree. However it is a generally-accepted rule that the widow mourns for two years; the parent for a year and a half, & the daughter for a parent a year or a year and a half.”

◾️“The feeling of protection given by the veil is, of course, the reason for its use, & therefore English crepe is preferred by many women, as it hides the features completely.”

◾️”An elderly woman should select a turban-shaped, crepe-trimmed hat but any style of black hat that is becoming & will carry a veil is quite permissible.”

◾️”For a young girl of 16 or 18 years of age, dull black silk bows or rosettes should be used in place of crepe.”

◾️”The widow wears a bonnet with the veil over her face for the first six months, after which time the bonnet is replaced by a hat with a short face veil to the shoulders…The long veil is then draped at the back.” After a year, “ a black hat with only a face veil is used during the remainder of the mourning period…”

◾️”For the street, in first mourning, the plainest styles of coat & skirt, made of black serge or cloth, are chosen, worn with a silk or challis waist of simple design; but for the house, & for the street a little later, more elaboration is allowed.”

◾️ “The Princesse & Empire styles seem particularly adapted to mourning gowns…As to the materials to use: for a serviceable dress or a street suit, the henriettas & cashmeres are popular…Crepe de chine, louisine & taffeta are used for gowns & waists.”

10/19/2023

🌷HAUNTED PAPER: THE EPHEMERA OF DEATH & DYING🌷

CW: Photos of the deceased

Throughout history, the dead have been mourned. Death & dying have always been marked with rituals & ceremonies. Sometimes, the remains for these practices are archaeological. But other times, ephemeral evidence remains.

In the Western world, mourning is often associated with the Victorian era. There were many outward expressions of grief that touched every aspect of a Victorian’s life- from fashions & home decor to stationery & social calendars. Mourning touched every aspect of a Victorian life.

During the 19th century, a funeral would occur at home. Rooms were decorated mourning wreaths & flowers; black crepe was draped over doors. Mourning clothes were purchased. Clocks in the home were stopped & mirrors covered. The casket was displayed, surrounded by floral sprays. Photographs were taken of the deceased & bits of hair were clipped to make mourning jewelry, pins & art.

Nothing sheds light on the social aspects of death quite like objects from that time. Billheads tell us about the financial aspects of dying. Clothing & advertisements for mourning wear help us understand how all-encompassing one’s grief had to be. And how the death industry was marketed. We look at memorial cards, funeral cards & letters on mourning stationery for more personal expressions of grief. Artistic trends & aesthetics are reflected on grave art in the cemetery. And we can see the dead in postmortem photography.

Death & loss connect us to those who came before us, whether it was the generation before or ten thousand years ago. Rather than view death-related objects as ‘creepy’, I see them as evidence of people helping each other through the hardest thing many of us will ever go through. Ordinary artifacts left behind, by those who were they themselves left behind, tell us stories of unimaginable loss & celebrations of lives lived.

Join me this Thursday for an hour full of the funeral ledgers, cemetery guidebooks, photos of headstones, embalmers’ billheads, death certificates and more.

Haunted Paper Sale
Thursday, Oct 19
8-9pm cst

Comment for a tag!

10/18/2023

🌷MONUMENTS & GRAVESTONES🌷

For more than a century, the creation of headstones has been a true artform. They’re monuments to one’s life and a physical representation of the love and grief those left behind feel.

This collection of mounted photographs are from a Lancaster County, Pennsylvania monuments and grave works company. The images, which all date from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, document different styles and designs that were selected and used in cemeteries throughout Lancaster and Berks County.

Based on the craftsmanship, location and date of this collection, I believe they document the work of Haldy Granite & Monumental Works (later WY Haldy & Sons).

Haldy Monumental Works was founded by Lewis Haldy in 1849. Haldy immigrated to the US from France with his family. On their voyage to America, their ship sank and they lost everything. Likely due to the hospitality he received upon being rescued, Haldy was a proud patriot. He volunteered to serve in the Army during the Civil War and supported causes for veterans for the rest of his life.

Haldy received several notable commissions during his life including the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Lancaster and the massive burial monument for Milton Hershey (of Hershey Chocolate) and his family. The company was often featured in trade journals and shown as being examples of exemplary craftsmanship and innovation.

Upon his father’s death, WY Haldy took over the family business; he was later succeeded by his own two sons. Today, the Haldy Monumental Works still exists though it is part of a larger conglomerate of grave works.

This collection will be coming to this shop during tonight’s sale And don’t miss Thursday’s Haunted Paper sale.

All sales happening on Instagram: instagram.com/ordinaryartifacts

07/19/2023

🌷NOVEL PAPER: THE EPHEMERA OF BOOKS & BOOKSELLERS🌷

This one is for my fellow bibliophiles.

Here’s a visual love letter to books using the ephemera surrounding them. From bookplates and library cards to billheads and trade cards, there is so much to learn from these old bits of paper.

For some of us, collecting ‘book ephemera’ started because of our love of reading. And each piece is like a work of art! But we can also study them to learn more about cultural trends, fashions, history and individual reader’s personalities.

To me, collecting ‘book ephemera’ is much more personal than other types of paper (that I also love dearly!). There’s something so intimate about seeing a physical manifestation of someone else’s love of reading, even if they lived and died centuries ago.

07/12/2023

🌷THRIFTING IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY🌷

“Years ago, when fashions changed more slowly, the question of what to do with secondhand clothes was not so formidable as it is now….”

This article from an early 20th century issue of McCall’s Magazine ponders the best use for last season’s clothing.

“...What to do with it, if one no longer wants to wear it, becomes a great question.”

But thankfully, “America has adopted the Old World thriftiness and women have begun to sell their discarded garments. Not to the ‘Old Close’ man though! Oh, no. Quite a different customer buys them… There are now shops where such clothes as are warranted to have come from places where no disease raged, and that are in good condition otherwise.”

But who is purchasing these previously-worn items? “Many professional women who must have something dressy to wear on the stage or platform, and cannot afford expensive gowns, often find a ball or dinner dress that some rich woman having worn a few times has discarded and sold. Jackets, wraps, even shoes and underclothes are all to be had…”

The article generously claims, “the secondhand shop has become a feature of mercantile life no longer despised.” And not just for fashion! “Such things as bed and table linen are often found in them for a mere song.”

But readers are cautioned. “Auction sales too are popular and here while bargains are sometimes picked up, it is necessary to be wary, for in the excitement of bidding against another aspirant, one is apt to pay more for an article than it would cost new.”

This sounds all too familiar, right? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

📸 From McCall’s Magazine (c. 1900)

07/09/2023

🌷PROBLEMS IN DRESSMAKING🌷

Woman’s Home Companion was an American monthly magazine that was published in 1873 to 1957. Articles focused on fashion, beauty, homemaking, current events, social commentary, parenting, interior design & literary fiction.

This column, called Problems in Dressmaking, asks both readers & modistes to send in their solutions for common problems when creating the most fashionable attire.

Here are some of my favorite bits of advice:

If you cannot have a silk lining in your gown, a soft, pretty one is delaine or very thin challis.

I should not advise a blue cloth gown for visiting, as it is not sufficiently dressy. one of the new reds or green would be more suitable.

You can remodel your sealskin cape into a jaunty bolero or Eton coat. line with satin to match the seal.

Always select your evening gowns by gaslight, then you are sure of the tints.

Dresses muss less when folded & laid in a dress-box. Hanging has a tendency to make them stringy when worn. fold carefully away with tissue paper between each fold.

White organdie is always appropriate for a bride, regardless of the time of year.

All shades of heliotrope & violet are used for entire gowns though greens are more popular with the ultra-smart set.

Yes, bright-colored silk petticoats will be worn this winter for both house & street.

Indeed you may use as much gathered ribbon to trim your gown as you wish.

Brocade satins trimmed with lace flounces or narrow frills are the newest petticoats.

Plaid skirts are quite fashionable & you might match one to your plain tailor waist using plaid as a trimming.

The best way to freshen up a white organdle gown is to send it direct to a reliable cleaner.

For brides, I should not advise silk underclothing for general use though two or three suits are very nice to have.

Of course all street gowns have long sleeves.

📖 Woman’s Home Companion (December 1899)

07/07/2023

🌷AVAILABLE NOW🌷

Talk about “show me the good stuff”!

This 1915-1916 scrapbook from Lancaster’s MT Garvin Department Store is the *best* stuff. It’s about 20 lbs of advertising, press releases, speeches, newspaper articles, invitations and more.

$220 + shipping

Ordinary Artifacts

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