Thimble

Thimble

A pitted cap or cover worn on the finger to push the needle in sewing.

Or

A group of islands off of the Connecticut coast.

The islands themselves - long prized by sailors on the Sound as a sheltered deep-water anchorage - comprise 23 that are inhabited (most of them wooded), numerous barren rocks and hundreds of reefs visible only at low tide.

Although they are said to be named for the thimbleberry, a relative of the black raspberry, that plant is seldom seen in the area, and is more frequent in northern New England. Other species of blackberry and raspberry, however, are sometimes referred to by residents of the area as thimbleberries.

Or

Thimble(berry)

Rubus parviflorus, commonly called thimbleberry, salmonberry, and snow bramble, is a species of Rubus, native to North America.
 
Or 

A chapter of SAGA, Thimbleberry,  that was founded in 1989 that meets in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Wedding Dress Exhibit

Another local historical society to where I live has a wedding dress exhibit going on. I was able to visit the small display last week and had fun viewing the dresses from local residents that were on display.

The years the dresses came from ranged from 1781 through to 2014, so you can imagine the difference in the look of these dresses! Some dresses also had the shoes that were worn included in the display.

 

My favourite was a dress made of silk and lace and worn in 1916 by Theresa H. Dardani when she married Louis Carissimi at the St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Fairfield, Connecticut. The couple came originally from Italy and lived their entire married life in Fairfield.

 

1781 Wedding dress and shoes worn by Lucy Nichols when she married Reverend Philo Shelton. The dress was a good choice as it could be worn for other special occasions and was easy to care for. The wedding was most likely a small family affair held in the home of the bride's parents, as was tradition at that time.

Annie McKie Frye wore this dress when she married Hanford Lyon around 1850. The invention of synthetic dyes allowed for bright colours and the railway facilitated the distribution of the sewing machine and fashion magazines, making such a dress fall into the price range of the middle class!

 

Queen Victoria made the white wedding dress popular and it has since become traditional to wear white. It is also tradition to wear something blue, have something old and something new. The blue was often the wedding garter which came into fashion in nineteenth-century England.

 

 

 

I hope you take the time to visit a local historical society near you and see what they have in their collection. It is especially fun to go with friends and enjoy a lunch or afternoon tea afterwards!