Abridged from Alice Morse Earle's "Home life in colonial days" and "Child life in colonial days" first published in 1898/1899. Edited by Shirley Glubok. Special photography by Alfred Tamarin. Here in one volume you will find a wealth of fascinating accounts that provide a genuine and intimate view of how the American colonists spent their days, how they worked and sometimes played and how on the seventh day they "rested." Many of the antiques explained and illustrated here have passed so completely from the American scene that the original names of the articles were determined only after research into diaries, journals and letters from the seventeenth century. One such article that happily has disappeared was called a wooden gag, a cruel device similar to a horse's bit, which teachers used to silence talkative pupils (page 133).
Home and Child Life in Colonial Days invites careful study as well as leisurely browsing. in addition to providing authentic reference material, it is one of the most enjoyable books abot our colonial heritage ever published. (dust jacket)