Some of my favorite pictures from Rachel's photo albums are these views of her room, taken circa 1902.
The pictures are incredibly detailed and show how a wealthy young woman at the turn of the century chose to decorate her personal space. They also offer some fascinating insight into Rachel's life.
Let's take a tour!
Rachel's desk, likely where she wrote many of her letters, is in the corner. The contents are less than organized, unsurprisingly for Rachel. Among the items on top you can see framed photographs and an ink blotter. I'm guessing the wicker item under the desk is a wastebasket.
Rachel's couch is overflowing with pillows. Making pillows/pillow covers was a common project/gift among young women. Sometimes these pillows would be ordered partially assembled, with a stenciled pattern for embroidery. A common theme was seals of colleges/universities, with the intended recipients being young men attending these schools.
Will requested a Yale pillow from Rachel for Christmas in 1895, a task which seemingly ended up falling to Aunt Lilla as she wrote Will asking for specifics.
"Have you any suggestions or directions? You might send a sample of the true Yale blue. Would you like it blue with ‘Yale’ embroidered in white? Or what is the proper thing?"
Rachel wrote Will in 1897 that "I don’t think fellows have any idea what they are asking for when they demand a pillow." - suggesting a lack of appreciation for the time, effort and money that goes into such a project - which I'm sure any fellow modern crafters can related to.
Through the bars of Rachel's gorgeous brass half-tester bed you can glimpse into her en suite washroom and see that she has indoor plumbing. This was still extremely unusual at the turn of the century, especially for rural areas like Rachel's. The two spigots suggest she also had hot water.
The tops of Rachel's bookshelves are covered in souvenirs from her trips to Europe. You can see images of the Venus de Milo and Michelangelo's David on the wall, and a small sculpture of the Venus de Milo on the shelf below.
An image of a gondola (indicated by the red arrow) is presumably a souvenir of Venice, a city Rachel was slightly obsessed with. She read an essay about the founding of Venice at her graduation ceremony and instructed Will to write her from Venice when he traveled there in 1899 because "I want to know how my pigeons are". Rachel and her husband would honeymoon in Venice in 1910.
On the bookshelf closest to the camera there are two small books that I believe I can identify.
They appear to be this set of two very pretty books about Great Britain by William Winter, which Rachel's granddaughter still has on her shelves today. Rachel received them from her mother for Christmas 1893.
Hanging off the side of Rachel's dresser are a selection of scarves and a stylish high collar very similar to the one she is wearing in this photograph taken in August 1901.
On the other side of the dresser is a pennant from Phillips Academy - Andover, the prestigious boarding school attended by Will and Jack. School pennants were nearly ubiquitous features of young people's rooms in the 1890s and early 20th century.
Hanging on the wall above the pennant you can see a graduate cap. This is presumably Rachel's own cap from her graduation from the Ogontz School for Young Ladies in 1898.
Rachel can be seen wearing what is likely the same cap in this picture from a school reunion circa 1903.
Among the photographs on Rachel's dresser are two I can identify.
The photograph with the red arrow is a picture (likely the exact picture Rachel's granddaughter still has) of Rachel's sister Isabel, who died at the age of 15 in 1895.
And while I haven't seen the exact photo indicated by the blue arrow, the size of the girl's pudgy cheeks makes me think it is likely Rachel's other sister Mary, who died of diphtheria in 1890 at the age of 7.
Isabel, Rachel and Mary circa 1886.
It's very interesting to me that Rachel had photos of both her sisters displayed as from everything I've observed the family very rarely spoke of them after their deaths. With the exception of one letter dictated by a young Isabel in 1884, none of the 1000+ letters I have ever mention either girl - yet Rachel continued to place their photographs where she would see them every day.
Between the dresser and the bookshelves, behind Rachel's absolutely stunning/ridiculous neoclassical-revival Morris chair, there is a small child-sized chair with a doll on it.
I wonder if this was one of Rachel's dolls from childhood, or if perhaps it belonged to Isabel or Mary. It obviously had significant sentimental value if she kept it displayed in her room into her 20s.
Do you have any favorite details? Anything you noticed that I missed? I'd love to hear any insights anyone has!
My favorite bit about this is imagining a librarian finding a bat on a shelf and their first thought is "Wait, wait, I have exactly the book for this!"
this might be a bold statement but I think one of the best character designs to exist in television is salem saberhagen, a warlock punished for trying to take over the world & forced to live as a cat for a 100 years, who spends his penance being a bitchy little drama queen who causes constant trouble and cries a lot
turnnoffyourmind
romaincrisis
dailybridgerton
