Jobs…Past, Present, and Future

 

Those who are part of the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog are here probably because of an interest in our country’s history. And possibly, by extension, also historical information from around the world.

For the past month, I’ve been in the process of refreshing and expanding three novellas I wrote several years ago with the common theme of lighthouses and the keepers who maintained them. My goal is to include more details about the duties performed by these individuals—and in some cases, families—who lived in remote locations. Maintaining the light and keeping watch for mishaps on the water provided essential services to ocean-traveling ship captains, as well as those sailing on the Great Lakes in the upper Midwest.

Hendricks Head courtesy of Boothbay Register

In my search for more details about this profession, I came across a fantastic website that describes jobs throughout the ages. There you can find listings including: a description of the overall duties, the years/centuries when the profession thrived, including why the profession died, the salary, what a typical day might be like, tools involved in the trade, and what skills were required to succeed. Also available are many FAQs that provide more information.

The Jobs Museum site includes professions ranging from a flint knapper in prehistoric times to a groom of the stool in Tudor times to a slubber doffer in the Industrial Revolution to a stereoscopist in the Victorian era. And, of course, you can explore jobs that you know the name of like paper boy, blacksmith, newspaper typesetter, Pony Express rider, wainwright, and scrivener. Not only would the site be of interest to authors and armchair historians but also to genealogists who might want to know more about what their ancestors lives were like.

Wainwright courtesy of Jobs Museum

Here’s the URL https://museum.jobzmall.com. But fair warning, you might spend more time there than you planned for because the information is so fascinating.

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I now have a free historical novelette titled Bewitching Gypsy I’m using as a reader magnet on Book Funnel for those who register for my occasional newsletter. https://dl.bookfunnel.com/ipfc1m6vaw

The Value of a Great Research Website

 I’m sharing about a website I’ve used quite a lot over the years since I started writing historical romance. It’s for the Central Pacific Railroad, and the URL is cprr.org.

I’m the type of historical reader who wanted to know about the details of daily life for the people in the story. I’ve read too many stories that included vague statement like “The train trip lasts five days and she arrived at ten a.m. looking fresh as a daisy.” Those books I set aside. As a logical human who has traveled in real life, I know planes can take off at two a.m. (I booked one of those flights on a cheap ticket website) or a train can arrive at a small town at eleven at night. Those inconveniences can act as added tension in a novel.

This site is great for writers, as well as the general public, because of the historical photographs of the construction of the railroad, the picturesque locations, and maps of the actual routes of where the railway traveled, including elevations. Advertisements enticing travelers to go on excursions can be accessed. One fact that surprised me was some timetables listed connections with foreign travel to China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. And this is in 1876!

What I have used extensively are the timetables for the various lines, which allow me to create realistic situations my characters experience. I can plan the travel route, using the names of the stops (some of these cities no longer exist) but, more importantly, the number of times the train stops. Hard to imagine anyone getting any sleep if the train makes eight to ten stops in an eight-hour period.

Ever thought about what westward travelers did once they encountered the Mississippi River? Or what happened when that traveler reached the end of the railroad line but still needed to reach a location fifty miles farther west or north? The timetables often list connections to other rail lines or stagecoach lines, in addition to listing when meals were served and how much luggage was allowed.

A visit to this site will spark questions you didn’t even know you had.

I used this resource extensively in my second Lockets and Lace story titled Taming A Scandal.

Socialite Mercia Saunders is traveling to her brother’s Texas ranch to let the gossip settle from a Philadelphia scandal. Pinkerton agent Dominic Prentice is pairing surveillance on the spoiled lady and hunting down stolen jewelry. Will the confinement of a cross-country train ride toss them together and ignite sparks?

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