Impressions Aren't you hot in all those clothes?

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Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
I picked this up today. These Chronicles are put out by the Historical Society of Michigan. The main article is about how people avoided getting to hot during the Civil War. The article describes how Civil War era civilians stayed cool in the summer. This would be of help for Civilian reenactors doing events on hot days. After all a reenactor would not want to not say "cool" in a period correct way. I like the flag apron.
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With today's fabrics, probably. But people who live on the desert and in hot climates wear copious loose-fitting garments of dark colors (you don't see Arabs crossing the deserts in Bermuda shorts). I docent in a Victorian house and, looking at the clothing there, the idea was to shield from the sun.
 
My Mississippi mother always said that they were acclimated to it. We spend time in air conditioning and then feel the heat more but they had heat all the time and got accustomed to it. I certainly see that with the cold - what strikes us New Yorkers as a bit cool is considered freezing by my Southern kinfolks.
 
I always say that since my dress is made of all natural fibers, so it breathes. (Ok, the corset not so much) but everything else does, and the cotton helps to wick the sweat away which is cooling. And I have found that portable shade, a parasol is an indispensable item on hot summer days.
 
I picked this up today. These Chronicles are put out by the Historical Society of Michigan. The main article is about how people avoided getting to hot during the Civil War. The article describes how Civil War era civilians stayed cool in the summer. This would be of help for Civilian reenactors doing events on hot days. After all a reenactor would not want to not say "cool" in a period correct way. I like the flag apron.
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Where can we get a copy?
 
Where can we get a copy?
The "Aren't You Hot" article is in Chronicle Volume 37, No. 2 (Summer of 2014). Chronicle is a magazine put out by the Historical Society of Michigan and sent to members. Because I am a docent at the Michigan History Museum the Michigan Historical Society sends me a courtesy copy. They also have a price of $4.95 on the magazine but I am not sure I have ever seen new ones for sale at bookstores, museum gift store, or any other stores. Older issues can occasionally be found in some of the better used books stores in Michigan. However, it is hit or miss on what issues these used book store have available and newer issues are rare to find.

You might contact the Michigan Historical Society at www.hsmichigan.org or call 1 800 692-1828 to find out if back issues are available. Used book store sell used copies for $1 to $2 so if I ever see a copy of this issue I will buy it and offer it free to any CivilWarTalk forum member who might want one.

For anyone very interested in Michigan during the Civil War, Chronicle does of and on have articles about Michigan in the Civil War. Michigan History Magazine also has Civil War article is some issues as does Trace the Archives of Michigan Magazine. Although no longer published Michigan History had some Civil War articles and so did Michigan Historical Review when that magazine was published. The Historical Society of Detriot also had a few interesting Civil War articles but the name of their magazine escapes me right now.
 
My Mississippi mother always said that they were acclimated to it. We spend time in air conditioning and then feel the heat more but they had heat all the time and got accustomed to it. I certainly see that with the cold - what strikes us New Yorkers as a bit cool is considered freezing by my Southern kinfolks.
I agree with your Mom. When I played high school football and reported in August for 2 a day practices, our coaches used to tell us to turn off the air-conditioning at home to get acclimated to the heat. It was no problem for me because in those long ago days my parents had no air conditioning.
 
Doing Texas Revolution living history we get that question often. Of course wool really was the original "technical fabric." It sort of breathes a bit, although in my case I find the underlying faux-linen cotton osnaburg shirt gets saturated with sweat and sort of exerts a "radiator" effect... And it insulates when wet. So while you will feel cold and clammy and miserable and muddy in the rain, it will keep you warmer. I also point out that wool is just the thing if operating muzzle loading artillery to avoid getting singed by black powder fouling or sparks or whatever. It was cleaned by brushing, so that was rather simple.

On the other hand, I often provoke bewilderment by wearing a cotton/canvas duck fatigue outfit that was authorized for wear south of the Potomac River, and Texas is mighty far south of that! Some claims have been made that these were even worn in Illinois during the Black Hawk War. Unfortunately, it shows stains easily, the stains never come out, and it has a tendency to never really dry in the humidity, so it is prone to mildew and mold. So the idea of a nice summery roundabout jacket and fall-front trousers fell out of favor, and instead it became all wool all the time. Jean material with a warp vs. weft of wool and cotton is often astonishing to people wearing athleisure and yoga pants!
 
Of course wool really was the original "technical fabric." It sort of breathes a bit, although in my case I find the underlying faux-linen cotton
In the dress collection in the Victorian museum where I docent are several that are made of linsey-woolsey (a standard in colonial times with a history that goes back many years). But one of the purposes of this fabric was warmth--so it probably had limited appeal in the south.
 
Heat is relative. I remember one Pennsylvania summer sweating so heavily that it looked like I'd been dipped in salt several times and the Bank sign read 114 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple of days.

Then we had a break in the weather, dropped to a breezy 91 and I remember actually shivering.

Watching people fail to hydrate is fun.
 
Heat is relative. I remember one Pennsylvania summer sweating so heavily that it looked like I'd been dipped in salt several times and the Bank sign read 114 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple of days.

Then we had a break in the weather, dropped to a breezy 91 and I remember actually shivering.

Watching people fail to hydrate is fun.
I have a thryoid issue, so I don’t thermo regulate well...it can be hard for me to stay hydrated at reenactments. I still haven’t figured out how to tote water in a period correct manner! I have a lovely tea cup I use in my display..I tried using a ceramic bottle, but it doesn’t hold enough water and it’s very heavy! Plus ever tried to get water from an open tap in hoop skirts???
 
I have a thryoid issue, so I don’t thermo regulate well...it can be hard for me to stay hydrated at reenactments. I still haven’t figured out how to tote water in a period correct manner! I have a lovely tea cup I use in my display..I tried using a ceramic bottle, but it doesn’t hold enough water and it’s very heavy! Plus ever tried to get water from an open tap in hoop skirts???

Women in particular need to pay serious attention to pacing themselves - far too frequently I've found female soldiers failing to hydrate because of the lack of suitable bathrooms. Gotta plan for that. If I were in those hoop skirts, I'd find ways to pre-position my liquids.

Stoneware jugs wrapped in wet towels are one period solution.
 
Reminds me of the field trips to Plymouth Plantation with my fourth graders. If we went in the warmer months, someone usually asked if they were hot, and got pretty much the same answer folks cited here, but when you go down to the recreated Wampanoag camp, it was more of a **** shoot - sometimes you got boy scouts explaining things and other times you got members of the Wampanoag tribe. One of the later, a woman, remarked to me that she was just as glad to not have to wear the European style clothing, but if they wanted to be REALLY authentic, she would have been topless (side note - in the film at the Pequot Museum behind Foxwoods, the woman ARE topless. I understand that there are signs up now warning people with small children about that and the graphic violence, but at the time, we had a whole lot of 'splainin' to do once word got back to the parents!).

And then she said paid admissions would probably increase if they actually went with that level of authenticity!

No doubt.
 
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