Colonial Living is EdwinTunis's a vigorous re-creation of 17th- and 18th-century America--of the everyday living of those sturdy men and women who carved a way of life out of the wilderness. In lively text and accurate drawings we see the dugouts and wigwams of New England's first settlers and the houses they learned to build against the cruel winters; the snug Dutch and Flemish farmhouses of Nieuw Amsterdam; the homes of the early planters in the South which would one day be kitchens for the houses they dreamed of building when tobacco had made them rich.
Long research and love for his subject gave Tunis an intimate knowledge of the details of daily living in colonial times, from the period of tiny coastal settlements to the flourishing, interdependent colonies which fought a major war for independence. He shares all with his reader--the building of houses, with their trunnels, girts, and hand-hewn beams, the spinning of yarn and its weaving and dyeing, the making of candles and soap, and the intricate business of cooking on the open hearth with lug poles, cranes, bake kettles, and spits. He describes the early crops, and pictures the implements and animals used to produce them; in detailed pictures we see again the tools and products of the craftsmen--the blacksmith, the cooper, the miller, the joiner, and the silversmith.
Edwin Tunis has brought the significant past to life with consummate skill. Rich in enjoyment, rich in information, with more than 200 drawings, his book is a warm, lively, and authentic panorama of a lost way of life.
Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: The Beachheads -- St. Augustine -- Roanoke -- Jamestown -- Plymouth -- New Amsterdam -- Massachusetts Bay -- Maryland -- New Sweden -- The Seventeenth Century -- I. New England -- House Building -- Wells -- Furniture -- Food -- Cooking -- Eating and Drinking -- Heat and Light -- Home Crafts -- Cloth -- Wool Production -- Wool-Spinning -- Flax Production -- Flax-Spinning -- Weaving -- Clothing -- Towns and Discipline -- Trades and Crafts -- Travel and Mail -- Education -- II. New Netherland -- Hat-Making -- Houses -- Inside the Houses -- Cooking and Eating -- Grain -- Milling -- New Amsterdam -- People and Clothes -- III. The Southern Colonies -- Tobacco -- Land and Bondage -- Small Planters -- Cottages -- Ways and Means -- The Big Plantations -- The Manor Houses -- Bricks -- Furniture -- Cooking -- Food -- Lumber and Sawmills -- Plantation People -- Clothes -- Learning -- The Eighteenth Century -- I. Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- German Settlers -- German Houses -- The Scotch-Irish -- Log Forts and Cabins -- Customs and Trade -- Clothes -- People -- Shootin' Arns and Game -- II. The Coastal Colonies -- Agriculture -- Wood and Wooden Implements -- Farm Animals -- Pork -- Barns and Houses -- Interiors -- Plantations -- Industries -- Iron -- Charcoal -- Tanbark and Leather -- Glass -- Paper -- Clocks -- Vehicles and Roads -- Bridges and Ferries -- The Post and the News -- Inns -- River Boats -- Ships -- Rope -- Trade and Money -- Silverware -- Towns -- Buildings -- Rooms -- Furniture -- Tools -- Heat and Light -- Food, Eating, and Cookery -- Men's Clothes -- Women's Clothes -- Youth -- Diversions -- Inns -- Churches -- Prison -- Sickness and Medicine -- Learning.
A book that anyone would pick up and pursue for enjoyment, this is also a volume that no American school should be without.
-- Wisconsin Library Journal
Edwin Tunis (1897-1973) was born in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, and spent much of his life in Maryland. A well-known artist, illustrator, and muralist, his work appeared at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Society of American Etchers, the National Academy of Design, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. His other books include Colonial Craftsmen; Colonial Living; Weapons; Oars, Sails and Steam; and The Tavern at the Ferry, all available in paperback from Johns Hopkins.