#personal artifacts

[lowcountrydigitallibrary]

Bone Buttons

Buttons made of bone with depressed center and primarily four holes, though some contain five holes.

From the Hunley Artifact Collection – Personal Artifacts collection held by the Friends of the Hunley.

[notanothernogoodblog]

The personal eyewear collection of Thomas Jefferson serves as a tangible testament to the third president’s relentless ingenuity, passion for detail, and deep commitment to the ideals of the Enlightenment.

Far from being simple medical necessities, these spectacles were customized tools of intellect that Jefferson actively helped design to maximize his daily reading and writing efficiency. His remarkably slim silver reading glasses, developed in a multi-year correspondence with Philadelphia optician John McAllister starting in 1806, drew heavily from Benjamin Franklin's early work with bifocals. By minimizing the vertical breadth of the frames, Jefferson could seamlessly alternate between examining fine texts and viewing his sprawling Monticello estate without ever adjusting his eyewear, perfectly mirroring his pragmatic approach to problem-solving.

Beyond their mechanical functionality, these artifacts carry profound historical and symbolic weight for a nation celebrating its Semiquincentennial.

The inclusion of the round, green-tinted spectacles reveal the early American struggle against environmental glare, highlighting a period when increased literacy and the explosion of printed knowledge demanded new optical innovations. Accompanying the frames are original paper slips hand-labeled with terms like "smaller magnifier," emphasizing how closely Jefferson monitored his own bodily changes and physical decline without ever abandoning his scholarly pursuits.

These intimate, everyday relics bridge the gap between grand political history and human vulnerability, illustrating that the brilliant mind behind the Declaration of Independence relied on meticulous, self-designed instruments to sculpt his enduring vision for the American republic.

[drakesfavoritebbw]

[livingroomplaymakers-blog]

Some Thoughts on Living Rooms

By Erin Austin

I’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately. It’s all been for really fun stuff so I’m not complaining. But I have to say, when I come home from a trip and open the front door to my apartment, I am so happy to be in my living room.

Here are some of the things I see:

My late Grandma’s pottery

The record player that has led to many impromptu dance parties

The couch purchased at District furniture store

The ashy remains of many many incense sticks

The chopped-up remains of the set from one of my plays

The courting candle recently acquired from a trip to Boston 

The holy water and the Badnjak from Serbian Christmas

The very large and very melted-down candle Tony gave away to me because it made him feel nauseous and he no longer wanted it in his living room

Remote controls; there are so many remote controls

The walls were supposed to be burnt sienna. But after the paint dried, I realized they were salmon. There are splotches of paint on the ceiling above our turquoise accent wall that we never bothered to cover up because we were tired of painting.

If I walk to the windows and part the curtains, I can look out and see the skaters practicing trick after trick at the high school. I can see neighbors walking their labradoodles, and I can see ambulances rushing to the hospital.  

I love my living room. Not because of any one of these things, but because they are all together in one place.

Living rooms are for working, they are for gathering, they are for falling asleep when the bedroom is just too far away. Living rooms aren’t something you create over night. It takes time to accumulate the necessary set pieces and memories to make it just right. It takes time to be able to really see all of the things inside your living room, as well as what lurks right outside it. The outside world creeps into your living room no matter how many deadbolts you have on your door. When it does, you have to make the choice to shove the intruders back out or deal with their presence and somehow incorporate them into the décor.

I love coming home after a long trip and I love taking off my shoes and socks and stretching out on the fluffy carpet. Every time I unlock the front door and walk into my living room, I bring something with me. My living room groans under the weight of so many stories, so many milestones, and so much stuff.  But no matter how full it becomes, there’s always an opportunity to bring in more.