Project Gutenberg's Home Life in Colonial Days, by Alice Morse Earle

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Title: Home Life in Colonial Days

Author: Alice Morse Earle

Release Date: September 19, 2007 [EBook #22675]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This e-text was prepared from the reprint edition published in 1974 by
Berkshire Traveller Press. Copyrighted materials from that edition,
including the modern preface and illustrations, are not included.

* * * * *

Home Life in
COLONIAL
DAYS

Written by
ALICE MORSE EARLE
in the year 1898

THE BERKSHIRE TRAVELLER PRESS
Stockbridge, Massachusetts

_THIS BOOK IS BEGUN
AS IT IS ENDED
IN MEMORY OF MY MOTHER_

_Foreword_

_The illustrations for this book are in every case from real articles
and scenes, usually from those still in existence--rare relics of past
days. The pictures are the symbols of years of careful search, patient
investigation, and constant watchfulness. Many a curious article as
nameless and incomprehensible as the totem of an extinct Indian tribe
has been studied, compared, inquired and written about, and finally
triumphantly named and placed in the list of obsolete domestic
appurtenances. From the lofts of woodsheds, under attic eaves, in dairy
cellars, out of old trunks and sea-chests from mouldering warehouses,
have strangely shaped bits and combinations of wood, stuff, and metal
been rescued and recognized. The treasure stores of Deerfield Memorial
Hall, of the Bostonian Society, of the American Antiquarian Society, and
many State Historical Societies have been freely searched; and to the
officers of these societies I give cordial thanks for their cooeperation
and assistance in my work._

_The artistic and correct photographic representation of many of these
objects I owe to Mr. William F. Halliday of Boston, Massachusetts, Mr.
George F. Cook of Richmond, Virginia, and the Misses Allen of Deerfield,
Massachusetts. To many friends, and