Beginning in the 12th century, Arab physicians began to prescribe their patients a most unorthodox remedy: the ground remains of mummies procured from Egyptian tombs.
Mummy powder proved so profitable that soon after its introduction, Egyptian tombs were ransacked not only for the riches they might contain, but also for bodies that might be processed into the expensive folk medicine. It wasn’t long before the practice of applying mummy powder was incorporated into medieval Europe’s catalog of dubious medical practices. By the 16th century, the product had become so commonplace in both Europe and the Middle East that the once seemingly endless supply of authentic, mummified Egyptian cadavers quite literally dried up.
Mummy powder, however, was not the only everyday use of the Egyptian dead that arose before the dawn of modern archaeological preservation. In the 16th and 17th centuries, pulverized mummy was the key ingredient in a popular shade of brown artist’s pigment, and preserved human and animal remains of Egyptian origin were used in the production of this “mummy brown” paint until the early 20th century.
Whether this statement was merely jest on the part of the American literary icon, well known for his sense of humor, has been the subject of debate ever since it was published. What is known, however, is that the supply of authentic Egyptian corpses by the beginning of the 1800s was so small only that upper crust Europeans could afford to purchase one whole. In the wake of Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt, it became vogue amongst the aristocracy to hold “unwrapping parties,” where carefully preserved corpses would be haphazardly stripped of their bandages, so that revelers could gaze upon the millennia-old face concealed beneath them. Small burial ornaments concealed in the linens would then be dispensed to partygoers as souvenirs, while exposure to air caused the delicate bodies to crumble into dust, never to be seen again.
With summer comes the baseball season and all the excitement of following a national pastime with a long history. The games and the players are closely followed and allusions are always made to great plays and champions of previous games. We may also follow with curiosity how the spectacle has altered over time and how the uniforms of our favored players have changed as well.
The first baseball teams took to the baseball field with uniforms comprised of flannel shirts with raised collar and wool pantaloons. These flannel and wool combinations remained a standard for baseball uniforms until the mid 1900’s, a remarkable detail considering the intensity of summer heat combined with the exertion of the game. A slight improvement to the comfort of the wearer may have been the 1868 Cincinnati Red Stocking’s introduction of altered pants when they developed knickers to expose their signature high red socks. Other variations that followed were the lace-up jersey versus the pullover jersey, the removal of the collar from the jersey top, giving the players a little more freedom from constraint and changes made to the hatwear worn by the players, which began as straw hat designs and were replaced by fabric hats not too dissimilar to the caps we know today.
Early baseball teams distinguished themselves from one another by the color of their stockings as opposed to distinct markings or insignia on their outfits. This did change over time as characteristics such as checks or pinstripes, monogramming, scripted lettering, numbers, player’s names, color trims, and other details evolved and were incorporated into the costumes. Over the last century the advent of television and its impact on popular culture has added to the hype of sports brands and their marketing. These influences have promoted some of the changes in the baseball uniform and extended the characteristics of the uniform further into our daily culture. Today baseball fans are extensions of their favorite teams by wearing their favored uniforms and exhibiting to the world the strength of their association with a monogram, a color, a number.
image: photograph, 1889, lace-up and checked jersey, Brooklyn Bridegrooms
image: photograph, 1890, jerseys and ties, Brooklyn Nationals
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Fortune cookies are a ubiquitous part of meals in almost every Chinese restaurant in America. We often laugh at the hokey fortunes found in these little cookies but give little thought to their origin. Many of us assume that it is a Chinese tradition but it is actually not a Chinese invention. In fact, the beginnings of the fortune cookie can be traced back to Japan of the 19th century.
The majority of people claiming credit for bringing the cookie to the U.S. are Japanese with the idea that they modified the cookie design they used in their native land. The first person to have served the Americanized cookie is thought to be Makoto Hagiwara at the turn of the 20th century. He provided them to customers at his restaurant the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco.
The RMS Titanic’s much anticipated maiden voyage began when it set sail from Southampton, England on Wednesday, April 10th, 1912. Some of the world’s wealthiest and most prominent people boarded the First Class cabins on that fateful voyage, including millionaire John Jacob Astor, industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, Macy’s department store owner Isidor Straus, millionairess Margaret “Molly” Brown, journalist William Thomas Stead, The Count and Countess of Rothes.
Despite these evasive maneuvers, the RMS Titanic’s starboard side brushed along the large iceberg directly in its path, buckling the hull and causing damage along 299 feet along the ship below the waterline. The collision with the iceberg caused five of the forward compartments to fill with water. The RMS Titanic sank two hours and forty minutes later in the early hours of April 15th, 1912, firmly etching its place in history as the greatest peace time maritime disaster with a loss of life of 1,517 passengers and crew.
Recently, researchers uncovered a confidential investigation by the ships builders around the time of the tragedy that indicated their knowlege of the Titanic’s design flaws. In “Titanic’s Last Secrets”, a book by Brad Matsen, the author chronicles how the investigation into RMS Titanic’s sinking showed that skimpy rivets and a flimsy hull were to blame for the speed in which the Titanic sank. The owners of the White Star Line nevertheless, chose to cover up their findings and blamed the Titanic’s captain, Edward J. Smith for the disaster. The builders over-rode the concerns of their engineer despite suspecting the flimsy quality of the hull because they wanted to get the ship on the seas in time in their quest to win the race against the Cunard shipping line. 
