News from the Past

Good news, book lovers: Ask the Past is now a book! With lots of all-new (well, actually quite old) advice and charmingly curious illustrations from rare books, Ask the Past will finally reveal how to win a legal case, make...

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How to Wash Your Baby, c. 1320

Getty MS 1, f. 29v (c. 1360-70)"You should wash the baby after he has had a long nap. In warm weather, use tepid water. In cold weather, use warmer water, but never use scalding water. You should wash the baby two or three times a day,...

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How to Read Eyebrows, 1562

John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis"The eyebrowes that be very heary declare folyshnes of maners and mischiefe... The eyebrowes whyche descende downe warde on the syde of the nose, and raysed vpward on the syde of the temples, and hangyng downeward...

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How to Make Artichoke Ice Cream, 1768

L. Boilly, Les Mangeurs de Glaces (1825)"Artichoke ice cream. Take three or four artichokes, of which you will use only the bottoms; boil them until they are soft; crush them with a quarter-pound of blanched pistachios, a quarter of a candied...

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How to Dress Your Child, 1890

H. O'Neill & Co., Fall and Winter 1890-1"Besides one nicer suit of dress, white English nainsook and flannel skirts, it is well to have four day dresses of French nainsook; six slips of cambric, dimity or checked nainsook that answer for...

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How to Make Green Eggs, 1656

"Take half a dozen of eggs, break them each severally upon a Trencher, and after that beat them all together in a dish, and adde some beaten salt to them, and some few drops of water, or of milk; cause some butter to be mested in a Skillet,...

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How to Prepare for Spring, 1528

Walters Art Museum MS W.195, f. 4r"Of prymtyme, and what it is. The prymtyme is hote & moyst temperatly as the ayre. This season the blode moeueth and spredeth to all the membres of the body, and the body is parfyte in temperate complexyon....

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