Time Out For Our Ancestors! Winter Straps On War's Respite

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
skating season 1862 crop.JPG

" Skating Season 1862 ", Central Park, NYC. One of an awful lot of popular images produced conveying the holiday, let-your-hair-down, what-war, winter break. You see uniform coats in the background- purposefully there.


williamsbg.JPG

Williamsburgh, L.I., New York's ' skater ', ' tent ' in center had a warming stove and seats. Guessing long structure, right, was yet another ' skating club '. I think I see a uniform on the ice- a break from war, a reminder it's out there.

By November an odd peace was forced over the war. We see photographs all the time " Winter camp ", " Building winter camp ", Inside a winter camp ". Well, between bitter cold, frigid rain, snow, animals intolerant of extreme hardship and needed to pull the entire thing from battle to battle- not to mention ground too hard to receive the dead, supply trains rendered unreliable by weather and the sheer bulk associated with all-things-winter- we quit for awhile. So odd, like a time- out.

camp.JPG

National Archives, described as building a winter camp- seems to be accurate with rather scanty tents and solid structures taking shape. Time Out.

Time Out indeed, in a society increasingly dotted over with women in mourning, newly minted orphans, men's black arm bands and freshly dug graves. If it's an assumption, please excuse but noticed this perfectly splendid, winter emergence, at the same time, by our ancestors. Yes, this veritable rage continued post war but seem to see a war time engagement beyond anything previously. Crazy cool stuff.
ad skates.jpg

Always the flag, see it? But always the escape, even in commerce.

As soldiers hunkered down in smoky, cramped and warm, log-lined respite, citizens at home, as if let off tense leashes, strapped various versions of sharpened steel to delighted toes and swarmed newly frozen ponds, lakes, streams and puddles, if one could be found. Swarmed? If misery loves company, joy makes hash of the concept by attracting battalions.
central pa skating.JPG

Snip inclusive of 'tent ' ( it was one of the warming huts ), NYPL says Central Park, may be Philadelphia
dem skate reszd.jpg

And..... fashion! Boy is wearing a kepi like a good reminder.


A great many era illustrations showing our ancestors plunged into this social and physical past time, ice skating, are from Central Park, New York City. It's erroneous thinking the ice skating clubs, ice festivals, massive, nearly nightly gatherings and weekend jams were local or limited. Nope. NYC, even 150 years ago central to art and publishing, just happened to also have a gigantic ' pond ', open to the public and climate offensive to anyone not dedicated to ice skating.
new skates crop.jpg

Just post war
ny skating club.JPG

Here's NYC Central Park's Skating Club
skate cent park.jpg
skate chair.jpg
skating fesival.jpg

All Central Park. Really wanted to include the dress-up festival- what a kick, right?


Catch a good look at these deliberate depictions- " 1862 ", and most are from the war years. Looking carefully, a uniform or hat is depicted- just to drive the point home. Time Out, War. Gosh they had fun. Gosh they deserved some.

skating frame.JPG

Godey's. No woman left behind. Who cares if you couldn't skate- look cute and go anyway. And forget.
skating season sized.jpg

Nowhere near a city? We forgot the war with whomever took a break on creeks, ponds and puddles. No ice time bills forthcoming, no driving to enclosed buildings with generated ice- just night air, the moon and frozen toes.
 
Thanks JPK. I have the Central Park Currier and Ives in my den. I like the motion in it - unlike many C&I prints each person is distinctly differnt. I didn't realise this was 1862 - quite sobering to see all this pleasure while soldiers were suffering in the field.
 
The Revolutionary War battlefield by the Old Stone House in Park Slope Brooklyn was flooded in winter to create a skating rink. The 200 year old house was used as a warming hut.


So they flooded ( an entire battlefield ) on purpose, not just waiting for lakes to freeze? Boy, you just can't imagine how much our ancestors got out, and were determined to do so, until poking around in this stuff. Couldn't find Brooklyn's skating club in images but guessing one of the many, many images may have been it? With the best efforts in the world, NYPL's archivists must have had a terrible time ascertaining which happy mob of Victorian skaters was where, in New York City.
 
Thanks JPK. I have the Central Park Currier and Ives in my den. I like the motion in it - unlike many C&I prints each person is distinctly differnt. I didn't realise this was 1862 - quite sobering to see all this pleasure while soldiers were suffering in the field.


Yes, I was of two minds over it- and very nearly did not do this thread. Actually have a thread where Mary Lincoln ( as usual ) is accused of being one of the well-heeled pleasure seekers at Saratoga Springs exotic hotel- she had to publish a letter stating no, she was in DC. There was certainly an overlay of the uber-wealthy enjoying themselves at lavish locations dedicated to their entertainment during those years.It's all very ' iew ', still digging around on a thread. I think I was hoping perhaps the whole thing wouldn't be so awful- it's pretty awful. As you said, while soldiers are suffering, an awful lot of people with n awful lot of money were having a splendid time.

Looking into it, this seems different? While certainly we see in Godeys and Demorest's some lavish ' Skating Costumes ', seems more an escape into some community based enjoyment, leaving war behind for awhile. Most classes ( glaringly missing is one race ) seem present. In a day when artwork was hugely representational with symbols galore, seem to be carefully inserted military caps and capes. And flags.
 
Those are wonderful skating pictures. Looks like so much fun. I use to love to skate. Now my knees and arthritis keeps me from going. Did have fun when skating. I was so proud when I learned to skate backwards.


Donna, wish I could claim it's the RA now but never, in all the years of trying, could skate backwards. Hysterical. Wreck? Best achievement was speed without the slightest idea how in blazes to stop. Seem to remember marking some bank by the pond without a tree...... . You skaters have all my respect!
 
So they flooded ( an entire battlefield ) on purpose, not just waiting for lakes to freeze? Boy, you just can't imagine how much our ancestors got out, and were determined to do so, until poking around in this stuff. Couldn't find Brooklyn's skating club in images but guessing one of the many, many images may have been it? With the best efforts in the world, NYPL's archivists must have had a terrible time ascertaining which happy mob of Victorian skaters was where, in New York City.
Here is a drawing of the flooded field. I was not sure that they did this during the Civil War, but the caption said tha tthey did. The small house on the right is the famous "Old Stone House." This is all about four blocks from my girlfriend's house:

washington pond.JPG


http://www.covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/washington_park.html
 
My sister and I used to skate at the town pond all the time in the winter. The older kids use to love to play "Crack the Whip" with the smaller kids at the end (me). I loved that feeling of not quite fear and excitement when they let me go and I would just fly across the ice. I was looking for "Crack the Whip" in the images above. I bet it was played but maybe not by the dressed up women. But I can see soldiers indulging children with it!
 
Those ladies look lovely swooshing over he ice enveloped in yards and yards of fabric. I can imagine how they felt, the icy wind sanding their cheeks raw, ripping their lungs. Speed, speed, speed... anything to stop the pain of remembrance, that tragic War!
 
I enjoy these old lithos, too--on several levels. I just plain like them artistically, and I enjoy finding fun details, such as the little spaniel dog, in the compositions. When I was a young kid, we had several pairs of all-metal, strap-on skates in the house. I have no idea how old they were. They might have been antiques or they might have still been fairly commonplace when my older siblings were young. Does anyone know when those died out? We had hockey skates, too, and that's what I used. The strap-ons were very much like the patent drawing shown farther up the page, but there were more clamps for shoe soles.

I don't know what the skating chairs are called, but they must have been fairly common. They look just like a one-person sleigh with a push handle. They were probably a lot of fun to ride.
 
I see someone again asked about the skating sleds or chairs. In site I gave, they are discussed. It is site on skating etiquitte in my previous post.

I think they be fun.

We could be in them and have our favorite Generals push us around. Eleanor you MUST share Longstreet with me a little!
 
Back
Top