Blast to the Past! Ladies' Home Journal February 1917

[00:00:11]Hello everyone, it's Jenie.

[00:00:15]How are you?

[00:00:18]I hope you're well.

[00:00:21]Welcome to my channel and welcome to another Friday flip.

[00:00:30]So, as you could see from the thumbnail, it's another oldie.

[00:00:38]Very old.

[00:00:41]It is the ladies home journal from 1917.

[00:00:54]February of 1917.

[00:00:59]And this is the other magazine that was sent to me by my friend, my dear friend in Canada, Kim from um Angel on My Shoulder ASMR.

[00:01:14]So, we're going to flip through here. I have not looked through this one yet.

[00:01:22]Someone in the last video, one of you commented about storing these in acidfree tissue paper. So, I've ordered some and it should be here today.

[00:01:38]So instead of putting them back in this plastic, which can kind of harbor moisture and perhaps mold, and I'm in Texas, so it's it's humid here.

[00:02:00]I won't I'll wrap them in acidfree tissue paper.

[00:02:07]I mean, I think about what this has survived and this is in excellent condition. So, I don't want to be the one to ruin it.

[00:02:21]Be just my luck.

[00:02:25]So, before we get started, couple things.

[00:02:29]Check to make sure you're still subscribed.

[00:02:34]And if you aren't subscribed, consider giving me a subscri a subscribe thumbs up thing. Even don't forget to do a thumbs up because that helps the algorithm say, you know, people liked it, they watched it, and gave it a thumbs up. So, I forget to do that, too.

[00:02:54]So, give me a thumbs up if you would.

[00:02:57]Um, and check out Kim from Angel on My Shoulder. She has an ASMR channel and um yeah, support us older girls.

[00:03:12]Anyway, I'm going to go before we dive into this lady's home journal, and it's a big one.

[00:03:21]I'm going to go over what was going on in the world in 1917 because I think it's important to put this into context.

[00:03:33]So, let's do that now.

[00:03:43]The yard people. The yard people. The yard people. Of course.

[00:03:51]I swear. I swear. Okay, so let's just talk about it.

[00:03:58]World War I was raging, and I'm not going to spend a lot of details on the war, but America had not entered the war yet.

[00:04:09]Um, uh, the president was w Woodro Wilson.

[00:04:16]He had just won reelection. His campaign slogan was, "He kept us out of war."

[00:04:25]Well, within weeks, he's going to be asking con Congress to declare war on Germany.

[00:04:34]Okay. The automobile is beginning to change life. Cars are becoming more common.

[00:04:43]Many families still use horses, but automobiles are rapidly taking over.

[00:04:52]Roads are improving, but long-distance travel is still quite an adventure. So, telephones are now becoming more common in middle class homes. Long-distance calls exist, but they're super expensive.

[00:05:15]And so therefore, most communication is still by letter.

[00:05:22]In 1917, women do not have the na nationwide vote. The 19th amendment that allowed them to vote. It didn't come until 1920.

[00:05:37]So suffrage campaigns were still very active.

[00:05:43]Women are now being encouraged to embrace new household technologies such as electric irons, vacuum cleaners, and washing machines.

[00:05:59]But remember, many households still lacked electricity.

[00:06:06]So, with regard to fashion, long skirts are becoming slightly shorter, corsets were still common, and those huge Victorian hats are starting to fade, and clothing is becoming simpler and more practical.

[00:06:30]Now, let's talk about money.

[00:06:33]the at this magazine is 15 cents.

[00:06:38]Um in today's value that's about four or five dollar and remember a loaf of bread is about8 to10.

[00:06:52]A new Ford Model T car is about $360 and the average income yearly income is roughly $7 to $900.

[00:07:08]So a car is about half a year's wages.

[00:07:13]Wow.

[00:07:15]Okay.

[00:07:16]So let's see. Families entertained themselves with reading magazines such as this, playing piano, singing together, board games, visiting neighbors, or reading aloud.

[00:07:38]My father who was born in the 20s, late 20s, talked about how when his mom and dad, if and when they got to go see a movie, like a a a movie at the, you know, picture show type movie, they would come home and all the kids would sit around and they would go over the entire movie and share the movie with them.

[00:08:07]and he talked about how special that was. He got to kind of relive that movie or live that movie through their storytelling because they couldn't take afford to take all the kids.

[00:08:24]So, um let's see. Aviation was brand new.

[00:08:31]The Wright brothers had flown just 13 years before.

[00:08:37]Most Americans had never seen an airplane, and aviation was considered experimental and daring.

[00:08:49]During World War I, airplanes are just beginning to be used in combat.

[00:08:59]The kind of music people were listening to was ragtime. I love ragtime. Scott Joplain. If you haven't heard ragtime um music, Google listen to Scott Joplain.

[00:09:16]My brother Ben could play uh he played the piano really well. I played as well, but not like Ben. And he played Scott Joplain.

[00:09:27]um early jazz, patriotic war songs.

[00:09:33]Um so jazz is just beginning to emerge from New Orleans and it's spreading across the country.

[00:09:44]So let's see.

[00:09:48]Let's talk about the cover. This cover was by Lewis Fairfax Muckley Morpark.

[00:09:56]Lewis F. Morpark. And he was an American illustrator who created a number of magazine covers and decorative bird and nature illustrations.

[00:10:12]And um it was kind of influenced by art numeral transitioning into art deco.

[00:10:24]So let's see let's talk a little bit about the state of medicine and healthc care.

[00:10:34]So germ theory is now accepted among doctors. Doctors knew bacteria caused many diseases.

[00:10:46]Surgical instruments are now sterilized.

[00:10:51]Um, and surgeons are wearing gowns and gloves.

[00:10:56]Handwashing is becoming standard practice.

[00:11:01]Now, here's a big one. There are still no antibiotics. Penicellin isn't discovered until 1928, so 9 years later.

[00:11:12]Um, and it wasn't widely available until the 1940s.

[00:11:18]So, a simple cut could become very deadly.

[00:11:24]Pneumonia was often fatal and strep infections like strep throat could kill you.

[00:11:34]childbirth infections were still a major risk.

[00:11:41]They did have the smallox vaccine and rabies vaccine, but there are no vaccines for polio, measles, mumps, reubella or tetanus or influenza.

[00:11:58]And now most people feared hospitals. Um, still they were intimidating and people didn't they most of them were treated at home by a local doctor.

[00:12:20]Most babies are born at home and midwives were very common.

[00:12:26]uh but maternal mortality was very high and infant mortality was also much higher.

[00:12:36]One in 10 babies did not survive their first year.

[00:12:42]Now dentistry Novacaane had just been introduced but dental drills were still very primitive so most adults just lost teeth. They pulled them out at home.

[00:12:59]Soft foods for old age was the common adage.

[00:13:06]So, okay. Now, the Spanish flu, they were just on the brink of the Spanish flu, which started in 1918, a year later, and that was a pandemic that killed um tens of millions of people worldwide.

[00:13:28]Onethird onethird of the world's population was touched by the Spanish flu and it overwhelmed hospitals.

[00:13:41]The readers of this magazine had no idea it was coming.

[00:13:48]So most common treatments were rest, fresh air, sunshine, cod liver oil, mustard plasters, and castor oil.

[00:14:01]Um yeah, many patients um got things like things that were advertised in magazines that were starting to see alcohol things, opium derivatives, cocaine, early um formulations of cocaine, and questionable herbal concoctions.

[00:14:28]The average life expectancy was about 54 years old.

[00:14:35]The leading cause of death was tuberculosis, TB.

[00:14:44]Let's see. Heart attacks were less commonly diagnosed because doctors didn't fully understand them.

[00:14:52]Cigarettes were often advertised by doctors.

[00:14:58]Um, X-rays had been discovered only about 20 years earlier, but it was still new technology.

[00:15:09]So, there you go.

[00:15:16]So, I am going to turn on my overhead camera and flip through this large magazine.

[00:15:37]Oh, you know what?

[00:15:40]There is no address sticker on this like there was in the last one. Somebody looked up that address and it was like a a bakery or a cookie shop or a sweets shop or something like that, but there's no address on this one that I can see.

[00:16:03]Okay, so let me turn on the overhead.

[00:16:14]It's really a beautiful, beautiful co. I would love this in a big picture framed on my wall.

[00:16:32]Okay, here we go. I need my glasses.

[00:16:45]Okay, someone also made the comment on the last um old magazine how ads were much fewer than today's magazines which are just ad after ad after ad. There's much more reading involved in this. So, we'll see how 1917 compares to the 1894 one. Okay. So, here is an ad for old Dutch cleanser. It chases dirt for aluminum. It doesn't scratch or discolor.

[00:17:32]31 million birds are killed by cats.

[00:17:35]What are we going to do about it?

[00:17:41]This is something about National Bird Day.

[00:17:49]Next month's home journal will further talk about this subject.

[00:18:03]Okay. Goodyear tires. A beautiful big art deco art nuvo. Art nuvo. Um, beautiful picture. I hope you can see that.

[00:18:17]Okay. My government and I, a department which aims to bring the American woman in touch with her government. And so what they talk about fish, good living and economy, indoor gardening, get what you pay for, the weatherman, the clothes buyer.

[00:18:50]These are bulletins that you can actually send off for how to keep food.

[00:18:57]Now remember with electricity not being in every household um ice boxes are still common. Um so preservation of food is very important.

[00:19:12]Cooking lessons, the right to health if your children are attending a rural school. Um it talks about um education in hygiene and health. Okay.

[00:19:33]And women's clubs.

[00:19:40]Okay.

[00:19:41]the women's club this month uh in home economics things they talk about things like pure clean and safe food budgeting better girls and domestic service um I learn a lot from you guys someone also said that home help you know having somebody come in and help you um with housekeeping was very common because they were so cheap.

[00:20:19]So, the welfare of the baby and child, the coming penny, school lunch, children and their own spending money, uh school girls, how shall they dress?

[00:20:36]One street dress for women where club women should lead the rural woman and her home.

[00:20:47]And then different women who are blazing trails.

[00:20:52]Um a play broker. Let's see. An investment expert.

[00:21:04]judges.

[00:21:07]Um, yeah, I mean, lots of things.

[00:21:11]Vocational trades for women.

[00:21:16]Okay. Bright. I love the layout. Bright things of all times that people have laughed over.

[00:21:31]little little anecdote dotal jokes and you know yeah the greatest artists of all the world make records for the Victor ex so Victor records.

[00:21:48]Okay. Wow.

[00:22:02]Ivory soap. Look at that beautiful sketch. Um, line art.

[00:22:10]Okay. Suppose America does go dry and that's about alcohol and you know prohibition.

[00:22:20]Interesting. Yeah. If you are a mother or a father.

[00:22:28]Oh, look at this. My friends by S. Sarah Burnernhard.

[00:22:35]Oh my goodness. The new Paris that will come.

[00:22:43]Let's see the newspaper at breakfast.

[00:22:50]Lots of interesting articles.

[00:22:54]Oh, the letters she never sent to the man to whom she was engaged.

[00:23:10]I'll take those $50 million.

[00:23:14]That is about who is it? The an empress in China when we were social gypsies and how we found friends even in a big city.

[00:23:34]Red Pepper's patience. H just lots of stories.

[00:23:42]Okay, Vermeier. So, they're showing them some pictures, the most wonderful pictures in America from the leading private collections.

[00:23:53]So, they get to see I mean, think about it. They didn't have the internet to see classics. So, we have a lady writing by Vermeere, the Dutch artist Vermeere.

[00:24:05]This is by Turner and it's depositing of Giovani Bellini's pictures in Venice.

[00:24:15]I know it's sideways, but another story. The old Peabody Pew.

[00:24:28]Famous stories into plays.

[00:24:34]The Pigpocket and the Thief.

[00:24:39]Just stories, lots of reading.

[00:24:42]Now remember, a a woman, the average woman is a homemaker, and she's very, very busy.

[00:24:51]So, she's not going to sit down and read this all in one sitting. She might read one or two stories per evening.

[00:25:02]I love the drawings.

[00:25:04]The illustrations are just beautiful.

[00:25:13]Living songs in living pictures.

[00:25:21]It's for the National Week of Song.

[00:25:27]Okay. The singing of songs that have stood the test of time.

[00:25:33]Um twisting. So wow. Just something about men.

[00:26:01]questions about men so women can understand men.

[00:26:07]Campbell's tomato soup and they also have asparagus, beef, bouan, celery, lots of them. Tomato, okra. I don't think they have that today. Um, let's see. Printier. What is that? Printier.

[00:26:27]Pepper pot. Pea soup.

[00:26:31]Mikatonyi soup, oxtail, mutton. They don't have those today that I know of.

[00:26:39]Okay. Editorial things.

[00:26:43]What we eat and what happens to it. And this is all about bread.

[00:26:50]All about bread.

[00:26:53]Questions. Is the crust of bread less digestible than the inside? And the answer is no. It is satisfactorily digested when properly chewed.

[00:27:09]Okay. Rooms I like in neighbors houses.

[00:27:13]So different pictures of in home interiors.

[00:27:21]The house of moderate cost kind of a bungalow type house.

[00:27:29]Yeah. Oh, I love this one. This looks like something you'd see in the Cotsworlds. And I love the Cotswalt.

[00:27:38]Yeah. Very lots of um mid-century, not mid-century modern, very bungalowish, which became popular again in the midentury.

[00:27:51]Okay. Toothbrushes.

[00:27:55]Um the social room at church.

[00:27:59]Ooh, a dress. Yeah. See how this is much simpler, shorter, less um you know, less full. Very nice. I like that dress. Oh, look at this.

[00:28:14]Look at this. Oh, so you would have to cut this out and you've got the little They're paper dolls. I'm so glad that didn't happen. to this magazine. Wow.

[00:28:32]The stories that mother tells at bedtime.

[00:28:39]Handywork and original designs for little things.

[00:28:44]Just little craft things people make.

[00:28:52]toothpaste.

[00:28:54]That's a big ad.

[00:28:57]Nine out of 10 persons face the loss of teeth. So to counteract acid mouth, brush your teeth.

[00:29:10]The ideas of a plain country woman.

[00:29:20]You know, I think sometime I will as a long blah blah blah maybe come back and read one of these. This sounds interesting.

[00:29:32]Um, but I can't read all of this in this video. This is kind of a a brief overview.

[00:29:41]So, I will come back and do a reading of some of these.

[00:29:47]get some really good value out of this page turning.

[00:29:52]Okay. Bacon at its best.

[00:29:56]I'm gonna get hungry now. Okay. The best I can do for a dollar a day. So, so it's an entire weekly menu.

[00:30:08]This is wonderful. I love this.

[00:30:12]New housekeeping lessons.

[00:30:16]So, cream of peanut soup.

[00:30:20]Oh, boy.

[00:30:22]Um, fashion, of course. Some ads for fashion and ads on this side as well.

[00:30:34]New notes for rural schools.

[00:30:41]Hawaiian canned pineapple. the fresh fruit taste.

[00:30:47]Okay, a food budget in a Delaware home.

[00:30:52]So the meat order for one month comes to about $10.15 and that includes bacon, roast beef, lamb chops, ve cut cutlets, ham, cold tongue, oysters, beef for stewing, liver, chipped beef, chicken, ham to boil, sirloin steak, roast lamb, and hamburger. And so that's for the whole month.

[00:31:27]And they've got grocery things, fruits and vegetables, um dairy.

[00:31:35]So it all comes to $50.98 for the entire month.

[00:31:46]Beautiful home. Home furnishings.

[00:31:59]Oh, here's a car. Look at this. Um, Overland. I don't know it. $665 for that one. They have several um goes up to almost $1600 for this one.

[00:32:19]Okay. Jello, the Dutch oven.

[00:32:24]Okay. Johnson and Johnson. Bandages and baby powders and different soaps.

[00:32:38]Aladdin homes. So, home designs, home plans.

[00:32:43]You can this home is a,045.

[00:32:55]Oh, and then they talk about those pictures. So, basically what you do is you cut them out and it tells you how to frame them. Oh my goodness.

[00:33:08]So they talk about that one with Vermeier and the other one the beautiful Turner um Venice scene. Interesting. That's so cool. So educational Quaker oats laundry. So cataloges that you can send off for Okay. Can't linger too long or this will be a super super long.

[00:33:50]They still are not very politically correct.

[00:33:55]Okay. Dainty desserts with tapioca coconut. Dramadary coconut.

[00:34:07]Are long or short nails best for playing piano? I think we can agree that short uh nails are best.

[00:34:20]Okay. Linen rugs. more from the letters she never sent.

[00:34:33]Okay. The a portfolio of dress designs.

[00:34:40]Okay. Here we go. Here are some ads.

[00:34:44]Let's see. So, a party book suggestions for different holiday parties. Oh, look at more clothes and coats. This coat is almost $12. $11.98.

[00:34:57]This dress is $14.98.

[00:35:07]Korean chicken ola king sau um soap. Complexion soap beds. Simmons beds. Wow, Simmons is an old company.

[00:35:26]Okay. Honey and almond cream.

[00:35:38]Okay.

[00:35:40]Oh, bullong cubes. That's what that is.

[00:35:43]Okay. Varnish for your floors. Sugar Williams. Wow. That's another old company.

[00:35:53]Okay, let's see. Draperies, mirror polish, soap. Don't try to cover up a poor complexion. Clear it with resinol soap.

[00:36:18]Okay. Towels.

[00:36:21]Um, chocolates.

[00:36:25]Jippy gel.

[00:36:29]Making gelatin foods.

[00:36:32]Okay.

[00:36:33]Interesting.

[00:36:38]Hairbrush.

[00:36:40]Look at that.

[00:36:42]And it is made with what kind of bristles? A lot of times they were made with bore bristles. I don't know if they are or not.

[00:36:52]Okay. Lemon pie recipe, silk fabrics, soaps.

[00:37:07]Yeah. Lots of different ads.

[00:37:10]Honey, flour. Pillsbury flower corsets. People the women still wore corsets.

[00:37:25]Okay.

[00:37:27]Oh, look at the So you write off for embroidery samples.

[00:37:32]Wow.

[00:37:36]Okay.

[00:37:41]Needle work supplies.

[00:37:46]What is that? Pianos.

[00:37:52]Yeah.

[00:37:55]Beachnut peanut butter.

[00:37:59]Burpee seeds.

[00:38:02]Um because most people had a garden.

[00:38:05]Pepsidant.

[00:38:07]More more toothpaste. I we used to use pepsidant in the 60s. I remember peps in it.

[00:38:17]Okay. Lots more seeds. Everything for the garden.

[00:38:23]Beauty. Face powders. Tal s aaches.

[00:38:29]Okay. What is the matter with my skin?

[00:38:34]Blackheads, blemishes, sluggish and colorless skin. Um, and it's all using this facial soap if that's the cure.

[00:38:48]Okay. Bridal things. Um, yeah, little veils and things like that.

[00:38:56]Oh, look at these little touches to freshen your clothes. So, a new purse or a bag, a collar that you could put over your dress, kids clothes.

[00:39:15]Let's go back. Look at this. Look at this little uh sleep bonnet.

[00:39:24]And here's one to cheer one's combo days with crepe dish. So, you put a scarf over your head because you're sick and you can't, you know, get cleaned up.

[00:39:40]Okay, let's see. Patterns that any can use. These dresses are pretty simple.

[00:39:47]So, dress making and millinary, making your hats and your clothes.

[00:39:59]Okay. Colia records.

[00:40:05]More patterns for the beginner.

[00:40:11]You know, as electricity came, listening to a record player was a big luxury.

[00:40:20]Okay. Sports dresses for for playing tennis or some sort of racket, you know, maybe. Uh what do you call that? Um, what is that you play with a net, you know? Um, I can't think of the name.

[00:40:40]Okay, more dental powder and dental paste, toothpaste, night creams, maternity corsets.

[00:40:54]Okay, the office dog.

[00:40:58]And then the last page. Oh, it's got a tear in it. Libbyy's a Vienna style sausage and Mexicanstyle chili, asparagus, pineapple, and peaches.

[00:41:16]Okay, so Libbyy's canned foods.

[00:41:21]And the very last page is beautiful boy.

[00:41:24]Ribbon dental cream. of toothpaste.

[00:41:36]Well, what did you think? I loved this.

[00:41:40]I loved the layout. Um, I loved the topics and how easy they were to present to the reader, the woman, the female reader, and on things that are pertinent to her life. Um, budgets, you know, dress making because not everybody could go just buy a dress. So, um, yeah, I think that's a good idea. There are some stories or articles in there that I think would make for a long reading blah blah blah. It may be interesting. It may bore you to complete sleep, which ultimately is my goal, you know, to relax you, to um calm you, to create some background voice, for some blah blah blah, cuz that's what I like for me to sleep.

[00:42:45]Okay, I'm going to sign off for now.

[00:42:48]Kim, thank you again. These are fascinating and I think we're going to see this one again in future videos.

[00:42:59]There's some articles I want to come back and read.

[00:43:04]I hope you enjoyed this, my friends.

[00:43:08]Take care, be well, and I will see you all in the next video.

[00:43:18]Goodbye for now.