Victorian-American Boot Jacks by Kristin Holt

 by Kristin Holt, USA Today Bestselling Author
of Sweet Romance set in the American Old West

 

Necessity, the Mother of Invention

While men's boots were loose enough to be pulled free with a man's own two hands, no one knew they needed something like a boot jack. As so often happens, changing fashions dictate the need for an invention (i.e., sleeve supporters). This time, fashion's wily ways effected men.

The story presented in this 1871 newspaper article explains how "boot-jacks came in shortly after the introduction of tight boots."

North Star of Danville, Vermont on September 22, 1871.

Imagining a Boot Jack

Are you familiar with boot jacks? Could you recognize one in a museum?

Image: Wilson 55 Auctioneers

This beautiful mahogany piece allowed the user to remove his tight boots. Yet not all boot jacks were so fancy.

Image: Every Thing But The House

Yes, many boot jacks were wooden, such as these examples. Manufacturers also cast jacks out of iron.

Image: Urban Remains

Even mail-order catalogues got in on the boot jack market. Montgomery, Ward & Co. Catalogue sold boot jacks made of iron.

Montgomery, Ward & Co. Catalogue Spring and Summer 1895, No. 57.

Boot Jacks: A Necessary Contraption?

Boot Jacks have gone the way of the dodo. Most of us haven't seen one--but many of us have. Any able-bodied man could remove his own boots, couldn't he?

Consider the tale related in 1876:

The Mendocino Democrat of Ukiah, California on May 20, 1876.

Reminiscing About Boot Jacks

Ah, the good old days. Some of those golden days of yore included boot jacks.

Now that's a charming tale. Worth a chuckle.

This next old-time reminiscence tale recalls his father's discipline applied by paddling the boy's backside with a boot jack.

Boot Jack Patents

 

Invitation

Have you seen or used a boot jack? Do you have something to add? Please scroll down and comment.

Related Articles

Copyright © 2021 Kristin Holt LC

Victorian Ladies Ride Tricycles by Kristin Holt

 

by Kristin Holt
USA Today Bestselling Author
of Sweet Romance Set in the American Old West

 

Today we think of trikes/tricycles as a child’s first bike. Or perhaps for older folks. So put on your nineteenth-century spectacles and explore this cycling boom through Victorian eyes.

 

CYCLING

 

Bicycles caught on in a huge way in the United Kingdom, and the sport quickly followed in the United States. Cycling may have originated with wealthy young (and athletic) men but adaptations for women soon followed.

 

NOT JUST FOR KIDS

 

Smartly dressed couple seated on an 1886-model bicycle for two. U.S. National Archives; unrestricted use.

Four-wheel bicycles called quadracycles emerged as a “sociable” vehicle, allowing a couple and chaperone to ride the same conveyance. As numerous developments followed in rapid succession (on both sides of the pond), all kinds of advancements in style, functionality, method of propulsion, and configuration of seats ensued. Some of these developments led to a stable three-wheeled bicycle named the tricycle.

 

Note this illustrated ad shows how the Coventry Convertible Sociable becomes a conveyance for one.

American and English Bicycles and Tricycles for sale in the United States, 1883.

Tricycles were seen as ladylike and fashionable both in Europe and the Victorian-era United States. Women could take outdoor, fresh-air exercise (even in their corsets) and did so with increasing fervor.

 

As the mid-nineteenth century gave birth to the safety bicycle, the decade of the 1880s saw the rise of the proper lady’s tricycle. Note the following reports of respectable women out on their own, buzzing around town on their tricycles.

 

Respectable women ride tricycles anywhere and everywhere.

Despite ladylike styles of tricycles, men rode them too. In fact, men raced tricycles!

POPULARITY

Midst races upon safety bicycles, other purposes emerged. United States Patents for advancements upon various elements of bicycles/tricycles explain that the tricycle was developed for slower rates of speed than racing bicycles. With three legged stool-like stability, ladies’ tricycles allowed them to sit, steer, pedal, and hold on in a manner fitting their gender.

 

Victorian woman on tricycle. From Pinterest.

Women found increasing freedom as they took to the wheel. Women rode bicycles (usually safety bicycles) and tricycles, finding the exercise and ease of movement to be a newfound kind of liberty.

As the decades passed, bicycles became more readily available, and affordable by those not of the wealthy upper classes.

I've had a wonderful time exploring the joy of cycling among our nineteenth century forebears. Please see the list of related articles, below, for far more information.

INVITATION

Have you read an enjoyable book set in the nineteenth century where bicycles of any kind play a role? Please scroll down and share in the comments.

 

RELATED ARTICLES

 

Copyright © 2020 Kristin Holt LC

Street Car Etiquette (1889)

  by Kristin Holt

 

I'm forever amused by American Victorian-era humor. The point of the historic newspaper article I'll share seems to be reached extra-well because of the dollop of humor. Ultimately, the purpose is evident. Good manners are always in style.

 

The following article, titled Street Car Etiquette appeared in the Fort Worth Daily Gazette of Fort Worth, Texas, on February 24, 1889, apparently having first run in the New York Sun.

1908 Postcard featuring the 1887 horse car on display in Manchester, New Hampshire. The FIRST horse car in the city. Labeled "Rapid Transit". Image: Public Domain, found on Wikipedia.

Horse-drawn cars such as the one on this Manchester postcard had been invented much earlier... Manchester was simply blessed with their first (apparently) in 1887. The following original patent drawing and details explain the unique (thus patented) and new arrangement of doors on the horse-drawn railway cars with the patent granted on September 4, 1860. While not a laughing matter, the patent solves a similar problem--"the usual annoyances now occasioned by passengers standing outside, and blocking the passageway". A little more--including parting with the need for a conductor (reference etiquette in the newspaper article)--is included below the patent image.

Patent No. 29,882 issued to J. Harris, Jr. on September 4, 1860. Source: Google.

Taken from the detail contained within the patent (application and final document), also courtesy of Google.

"The doors a, a, [see fig 2] when closed, are at an obtuse angle with a plane parallel to the end of the car, or at any angle which increases the facilities of passengers on their entrance and exit, and the usual annoyances now occasioned by passengers standing outside, and blocking the passageway, is obviated. By the present mode of constructing platforms, they extend from side to side entirely across the car, and the doors slide open at right angles to the sides. I construct my car in any of the known forms, except the platforms, doors and doorways. The ends of my car are constructed viz., the greater portion of the platforms are inclosed [sic], thus making the interior more spacious, and economizing seat room for additional passengers, as represented by the letters c, c, on Fig. 2. I have two entrances and two doorways, or platforms, one at each end of the car, their relative position being diagonal. Consequently, no accident can occur to passengers, from cars coming in an opposite direction, as the peculiar construction of the doors and platforms oblige the passengers to enter and leave, on the outside or right hand of either rail track.

The doors are controlled by the driver by means of foot straps extending from the door, through the ear and under his foot. This arrangement is not adopted in cars at present, where the horses are made to change from end to end, in reversing the draft of the car.

By the above mentioned improvements we are successfully enabled to dispense with the attendance of a conductor." [underline and bold added, as are comments in square brackets]

Apparently human nature hadn't changed much (nor the aggravations caused by public transportation) from 1860 to 1889... and I'd wager a guess that commuters on today's trains and light rail would say nothing's much different in 2016. Except for a few more riders on a few more vehicles of public transportation on a few more rails and a few more roads. Ultimately, polished manners and politeness are as essential--if not more so--today than they were 127 years ago.

Perhaps humor is the best way to respond to such aggravations and breaches of etiquette, then or now.

May I share a bit more Victorian-era humor with you?

• Victorian America's Sense of Humor
• Leap Year Victorian Humor (a.k.a. Countdown Day #9: Leap Into Love (the Victorian Way)
• Victorian April Fool's Day  
• Pencil  Skirts, Victorian Style
• The Spinster Book: 1901 (And men are like cats...)
• Mail-Order Bride Farces... for Entertainment?
• Matrimonial Fool and his Money

Kristin Holt, USA Today Bestselling Author writes Sweet Victorian Romance set in the American West. She writes frequent articles about the nineteenth century American west--every subject of possible interest to readers and amateur historians. She contributes monthly to Sweet Americana Sweethearts (first Friday of each month) and Romancing the Genres (third Tuesday of each month). 

Sweet Romance Appropriate for All Audiences

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Copyright © 2016 Kristin Holt LC