I am not referring to either a chocolate cakey treat or the short Girl Scouts, but rather to those odd little creatures that are so willing to help humans. I bumped into them while collecting images of trade cards. Unfortunately I could not think of what they were called...I tried everything that came to mind knowing that wasn't it, hoping some reference to other tiny imaginary beings would send me in the right direction. They didn't...
Finally I simply found another trade card that opened the door...this one! What a relief.
I have to admit that the current spate of articles assuring me that age related memory impairment is due to knowing too much rather than a decline into dribbling dementia has been pleasant. Not that I thought it was,but still...
OK, back to business, I have been following brownies all morning, finding the following wonderful web pages to fill you in on this extraordinary fad that swept the country, impacting kids and adults!
Finally I simply found another trade card that opened the door...this one! What a relief.
I have to admit that the current spate of articles assuring me that age related memory impairment is due to knowing too much rather than a decline into dribbling dementia has been pleasant. Not that I thought it was,but still...
Brownies of this sort aren't popular anymore. I wonder, if like Tinkerbelle, they are fading away from lack of a new generation of children believing in them. Fairies, on the other hand, like the condor, have had a comeback in the last few years. (I'm basing this on what the younger children in my art classes are interested in drawing. This is a good change from homophobic taunts mirroring what they heard elsewhere in decades past.)
Here is the card that made me nuts trying to remember what they were.
The only Brownie memory I have is off my grandmother and her much beloved Brownie camera. Hers was covered in an odd bumpy cloth or paper if I remember correctly. Gram was legally blind but she loved taking pictures with her Brownie! I think she had it for 70 years or more...could that be? Wish I had it. I think of what that camera saw.
- First, get your own copy of Palmer Cox' The Brownie Book from Google Books. Nice early bicycle references as well. Brownie as wheelman :-)
- The Winterthur Museum has an excellent and entertaining page about Palmer Cox and his creation, the brownies.
- The Secret Victorianist blog posted A Victorian Alphabet: B is for Brownies in the Brain
- and, always fun, the Google Image Search!
This trade card picture goes first in honor of the snow day that
kept me home with the time to explore the brownie world.
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