Those who remember the bygone days of disco recall a colorful expression of freedom, a musical genre whose sound captivated the world but whose bright star faded quickly.

A call to go wild

Delighting listeners with four-on-the floor rhythm (a steady beat in 4:4 time with the bass drum hit on every beat), as well as the use of electric piano, brass, horns, syncopated basslines, and synthesizers, the genre was developed in the late 1960s. It seemed to be a high-energy response to those who felt that dancing had no place in music – especially from fans of rock, which had dominated airwaves in the 1950s and ‘60s. Disco ushered in the 1970s with a flair that dismissed those naysayers, with dance as one of the pillars of its subculture.

“Disco music in the ‘70s was just a call to go wild and party and dance with no thought or conscience or regard for tomorrow,” singer Martha Reeves once said of the genre.

And the world, it seemed, answered the call, with disco clubs being erected in what seemed like every major city. There, music lovers converged in loose-fitting, colorful clothes that made it easy to dance. They danced the Hustle, the Bump, the Watergate. The speakers poured out the sounds of artists like ABBA, KC and the Sunshine Band, the Village People, Donna Summer, and Diana Ross.
The 1960s were over. The ‘Me’ Decade had arrived – and with it, so had disco.

Saving the day

Like so many other cultural trends, disco was born in New York City. It was early 1970, and a young DJ, David Mancuso, was planning to host a big party in his loft. The party – “Love Saves the Day” – was organized to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Hosted at Mancuso’s home, the venue, which quickly simply became known as ‘The Loft,’ would welcome only a select group of revelers. It was the very first underground dance party, and at its epicenter was Mancuso’s arsenal of high-tech music equipment, which, according to authors Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, had to play music that was “soulful and rhythmic … and impart words of hope, redemption, and pride.”

From its very beginnings, disco was music for the “others” of society, played in music venues for African-Americans, Latino and Hispanic-Americans, Italian-Americans (especially in New York City), and gay Americans.

“Disco gave different communities a safe space to celebrate love and liberation. It was an opportunity to find people who looked like you, thought like you and — perhaps most importantly — danced like you,” according to an article on PBS.org. “This was especially liberating for the LGBTQ+ community. Oppression came from the legal system and friends, neighbors, colleagues, and police; it was illegal for two people of the same sex to dance together, let alone have public relationships. Even when a 1971 law made same-sex dancing legal in New York City, wider society refused to tolerate it. For many, being queer became about looking out for each other — and disco was one way to do that.”

The hits keep comin’

The new sound combined elements of other music genres, from soul and funk to gospel and electronic. In disco clubs, colored tiles lit up on the dance floor to keep time with the beat of the music as mirrored balls shimmered and became physical manifestations of the upbeat tunes spun by disc jockeys night after night.

And in the span of just a few short years, the genre gave birth to some of the decade’s most memorable songs, which include:

• “Bad Girls” by Donna Summer (1979) – “An energetic ode to ladies of the night,” according to forbes.com. Toot toot, hey, beep beep!
• “The Hustle” by Van McCoy (1975) – The number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of ’75, its tune was easy to dance to and its lyrics were easy to follow.
• “Night Fever” by The Bee Gees (1977) – Made famous in “Saturday Night Fever,” it was one of the first disco songs to energize mainstream audiences.
• “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer (1977) – According to Forbes, the song “makes you feel as though you’re on a dance-floor with only the speakers. The synthesized beat contrasted with Summer’s angelic vocals have a transformative effect only love can.”

• “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor (1978) – An anthem of strength, Gaynor’s timeless classic helps you pick yourself up and move on from a bad breakup.
• “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge (1979) – An upbeat tune all about the power of community.
• “Staying Alive” by The Bee Gees (1977) – Perhaps the most well-known mainstream song, forever linked to “Saturday Night Fever.”
• “Boogie Nights” by Heatwave (1976) – With a jazzy beginning, this song had dancers tearing up the dance floor back in the day.

The common theme of these and other disco tunes – the joy found in liberation.

“The heartbeat of the genre can’t be stopped”

As the decade came to a close, so too did the heyday of disco. Long-simmering tensions between producers of rock music and producers of disco music culminated in “Disco Demolition Night” on July 12, 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. There, the MLB promotion featured a crate of disco albums being blown up on the baseball field. The field itself was heavily damaged, and large groups of the more than 47,000 attendees stormed the field, sparking a riot.
The genre blazed as brightly as a mirrored ball on the dance floor – and its influence on pop culture is “staying alive” even today.

“The heartbeat of the genre can’t be stopped,” the PBS article notes. “Disco itself may not exist as it once did, but this revolution has had an evolution, and now its impacts are breaking boundaries between genres — much as its original creators did. While the so-called “end” of the era is still disputed, what matters most is that the soul of disco is still alive in speakers, earbuds and dance clubs around the world.”

One beloved American comic strip has allowed readers to see the world through the eyes of children – and a feisty beagle, too – for 75 years this year.
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and all their friends entered American pop culture (and our own hearts) in 1950. Penned by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, the Peanuts strip followed the adventures of a boy named Charlie Brown (ever the underdog, unlucky in both life and love, he was nonetheless the most lovable loser in the Sunday funny pages), along with his rambunctious beagle Snoopy, whose imagination and taste for adventure rivaled his owner’s desire to finally kick a football that was always pulled just out of reach.

Over the years and then decades, a menagerie of friends would join ol’ Chuck, including, to name just a few, Linus Van Pelt, a philosophically minded boy always attached at the hip to his blue security blanket; Linus’ sister Lucy, a bossy, self-proclaimed fussbudget who delighted in tormenting Charlie with the aforementioned football; Schroeder, a highly talented piano prodigy who was singularly focused on his music; and Sally, Charlie’s younger sister whose unrequited love for Schroeder – her “sweet baboo” – seemed neverending.

Before the Peanuts gang hit the scene, Schulz, a military veteran and lifelong illustrator, drew his first comic strip, Li’l Folks, for the St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press in the late 1940s. Li’l Folks first featured the Charlie Brown character, whom Schulz named after a fellow instructor at an art school where he taught. In those strips, Charlie Brown didn’t yet wear what would become his signature zigzag shirt, though he was accompanied by his best friend, a dog who looked like what would become Snoopy but wasn’t yet given that name.

United Features Syndicate, catching wind of the popularity of Schulz’s comic, agreed to sign a contract to produce a daily strip for syndication. The syndicate pushed for Schulz to use the title “Peanuts,” an idea that Schulz would later say he hated. Why, Schulz argued, would he use that title when there was no character with that name? Still, Schulz reluctantly agreed – yet for the duration of his long career, he never warmed to the idea.

The 1950s

Peanuts made its debut on Oct. 2, 1950, first appearing in just seven newspapers, with Schulz receiving $90 for his first month of content.
Longtime fans who read the earliest strips will note many differences of the characters from those early days and the ones they have come to know and love. Charlie Brown’s entire personality is perhaps the most notable difference. In the early 1950s, Charlie Brown was “flippant, gradually growing into the kinder, gentler hero who most readers are now familiar with,” according to the Charles M. Schulz Museum’s website.

Later, Schulz said of Charlie Brown, “He’s a caricature. We all know what it’s like to lose, but Charlie Brown keeps losing outrageously. It’s not that he’s a loser; he’s really a decent little sort.”

Charlie Brown’s shirt with the iconic zigzag pattern would make its debut in December of that same year. Joining Chuck was his beagle pal Snoopy, who would walk on all fours until 1957, when Schulz first depicted him walking on his hind legs only.

Throughout the decade, readers would be introduced to most of the strip’s primary characters – Schroeder and Violet in 1951; in 1952, Lucy and Linus; eternally filthy Pigpen in 1954; and in 1959, Sally. The art in Schulz’s comic strip was cleaner, sleeker, and simpler, with thicker lines and short, squat characters,” according to the museum, and Charlie Brown’s head began as the shape of a football; it wasn’t completely round, as it would appear in future years.

By the end of the decade, Schulz had decided that he alone would produce all aspects of the comics, from the drawing to the text to the inking. He never employed assistants in his studio.

The 1960s

The ‘60s was considered the Peanuts strip’s Golden Age, incorporating more social commentary, as well as expanding Snoopy’s fantasy world in which he flew his doghouse throughout the sky as the World War I Flying Ace. Readers would meet new characters throughout the decade, including Charlie Brown’s crush, the Little Red-Haired Girl, in 1961; the freckled and tomboyish Peppermint Patty and Woodstock (initially unnamed) in 1966; and Franklin, the comic strip’s first Black character, in 1968 (Schulz created Franklin after a fan who worked as a schoolteacher wrote to Schulz shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., asking Schulz to introduce a Black character in the strip). The Peanuts comic strips of the 1960s tackled other social issues and topics of the day, including the inclusion of women in sports (Charlie Brown’s baseball team featured both boys and girls), the Vietnam War, the space race, and school dress codes.

A new generation of children were introduced to the Peanuts gang in December 1965, when the strip’s first television special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,”made its debut on CBS. The special might be best known for its heavy use of religious themes, including Linus reading Luke 2:8-14 in the Bible in order to explain the true meaning of Christ-mas. In that same year, Peanuts characters appeared on the cover of Time mag-azine. Another TV special, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” first aired the following year, in 1966. At the end of the decade, in December 1969, the strip’s first feature-length film, “A Boy Named Charlie Brown,” opened in theaters.

The 1970s

Snoopy’s avian friend Woodstock finally received his name in 1970, and Peppermint Patty’s bookish friend Marcie, who only refers to Patty as “sir,” made her debut in 1971. Meanwhile, Linus and Lucy’s younger brother Rerun was born in 1973.

Despite the introduction of more characters, by the 1970s, it was clear that Snoopy had become the most popular. Schulz began to incorporate Snoopy into more comics, giving him the alternate personality of sunglasses-wearing Joe Cool, as well as an integral (and memorable) role in 1973’s “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” the strip’s 10th TV special. Snoopy’s brother, the desert-dwelling Spike, was introduced in 1975.

Schulz faced criticism for his focus on Snoopy, with fellow cartoonists praising his earlier Peanuts strips as being more cerebral and thought-provoking in nature and criticizing his later cartoons for being “lighter and more whimsical.” Schulz himself recognized that Snoopy’s dominance in his strip was at least a possibility. “I have to be careful not to let the ubiquitous beagle run away with the strip,” he mused.

In The New York Press, one artist would respond to Schulz’s statement by writing, “Snoopy proved a calamitous artistic misjudgment through which the most intelligent comic strip the world had ever seen was transformed, by the late 1970s, into a thoroughly third-rate feature.”

Royal Doultons

If you’re headed to the china cabinet to use your good dinnerware this holiday season – you know, the items that will become family heirlooms – there’s a good chance they’re Royal Doultons.

One of the most well-known ceramic and home accessories manufacturers on both sides of the pond, Royal Doulton pottery, stoneware, cookware, glassware, tableware, and even linens have become synonymous with those special occasions that call for a touch of class and sophistication. Even today, the company, at more than two centuries old, is creating new traditions for families in the United States, its native Great Britain, and around the world.

The early years

Founded in London in 1815, the Royal Doulton company was the result of a collaboration between John Doulton, Martha Jones, and John Watts, who worked as a foreman at a London factory. In the beginning, their small company produced only salt glaze stoneware pieces, mostly jugs and jars intended for pubs or inns.

Jones left the company after only five years; Watts stayed on until 1853, and the following year, the company was renamed Doulton & Co. John Doulton’s son Henry, who had been working in his father’s studio since the age of 15, took over the business from John upon his death in 1873.

Throughout the mid-19th century, the company had branched out from stoneware to manufacturing circular sewage pipes, due to a cholera pandemic between 1846 and 1860. The cholera pandemic, which killed 23,000 in Great Britain in one year alone, was traced back to contaminated water as the original method of the disease’s transmission.

Though the company wasn’t known for its plumbing items – among them, cast-iron bath tubs – it added a variety of housewares to its catalogue in the ensuing years, including mixing bowls and storage jars. Later, Doulton added decorative objects such as vases and plaques, having moved on from the original salt glaze finish to an underglaze painting.

Now a household name

By 1871, the company brought young artists into its employ at its studio in Lambeth, a district in London, bringing in students from the nearby Lambeth School of Art. Many of the artists were young women, and most of the surviving pieces from that studio are signed and dated by the artist.

The company was a household name by the end of the 19th century, when Doulton & Co. had more than 4,000 employees on its payroll. Henry Doulton, having run his family’s company and overseen its dramatic expansion for nearly 25 years, retired in 1897 and died just a few months later.

As the Victorian era came to a close at the dawn of the 20th century, the company had already begun making architectural terracotta – columns, arches, sculpture. Many were designed in the British Art Nouveau style that became popular during the reign of King Edward VII; the monarch would later grant a Royal Warrant that allowed the company to change its name to the one we know today – Royal Doulton.

As the 20th century progressed, though Royal Doulton continued the production of its sewage pipes as well as its decorative ceramics, the company shifted its focus to manufacturing high-quality bone china. Figures, too, would become increasingly popular, with the highest-quality pieces produced between the end of World War I in 1918 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

A brand fit for a prime minister

One of the most well-known artists in the company’s studio in Burslem, Charles Noke, produced some of Royal Doulton’s most sought-after ‘character jugs’ – jugs in the likeness of a variety of people, from grizzled fishermen to soldiers to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

“Until his death in 1941 (one of his last models was a character jug of Winston Churchill) he oversaw many of the factory’s most popular 20th century lines, including the rich brown glazed Kingsware, the practical and decorative Series Ware and the range of loving cups and jugs modelled with scenes from British literature and history,” according to antiquestradegazette.com. “Noke showed the first Doulton figures at the Chicago Exhibition in 1893 and 20 years later was responsible for launching a designated range of figure models – known as the HN (Harry Nixon) collection – while the first character jugs, John Barleycorn, Old Charley and the double-faced Mephistopheles, arrived in 1934. … Although made across a century in a bewildering variety of subjects, styles, and colors, Doulton figures and ‘tobys’ are instantly recognized and widely collected around the English-speaking world.”

Hopping into a postwar world

In the post-war years, Royal Doulton acquired ceramic filter company Gloucester-based Aerox Ltd., and, a few years after that, Beswick Pottery, which specialized in porcelain figurines (including figurines of characters from the popular Beatrix Potter books). Royal Doulton’s immensely popular “Bunnykins” figurine series, which had been introduced in the 1930s, later ceased production and re-introduced in the late 1960s, was a series of nursery dishes and collectible figurines of anthropomorphic rabbits. The original pieces were illustrated by Sister Bailey, an English Roman Catholic nun.

Between 1971 and 2005, Royal Doulton was owned by conglomerate Pearson plc, and later by Ireland-based Waterford Wedgewood plc. Today, Royal Doulton is owned by New York-based KPS Capital Partners. Collectors can still buy contemporary pieces – including a cookware, dinnerware, and crockery collection from celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay — at www.royaldoulton.com.

Royal Doulton collections have their loyal collectors, but there’s always room for more, according to antiquestradegazette.com.

“For casual collectors who buy Doulton simply on the strength of subject matter or personal preferences, this is a buyer’s market in need of new entry-level collectors. Online trading, and eBay in particular, has proved well-suited to Royal Doulton, but it has brought a glut of examples to light – too many for even the large number of collectors in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to absorb,” the website states. “But rarities, those that plug holes in the collections of the top tier of Doulton collectors, are a different matter. Here high three- and four-figure prices are the norm with a clutch of hard-to-find early figures capable of selling at over ($5,000 U.S. dollars).”

And though it can be difficult to know where to begin your Royal Doulton collection, there are opportunities around every corner, according to online antiques seller Roundabout Antiques.

“A Royal Doulton figurine may begin at a variety of sources, a chance gift, a souvenir picked up on holiday,” the website states, “or an appreciation of Royal Doulton craftsmanship can initiate a lifetime of extremely satisfying collecting.”

Whether you enjoy the occasional celebratory cigar or a petite Virginia Slim, you’re part of an ever-shrinking demographic of people – those who smoke. Until the late 20th century, it’s an activity that’s been enjoyed for centuries as part of one’s daily routine. Now, though the number of smokers nationwide dwindles as we learn more about the harmful effects of nicotine, items associated with and used in the act of smoking – called tobacciana – remain as collectible as ever.

Cigarette lighters

We’re not talking about those cheap, plastic, disposable lighters – cigarette lighters used to be serious business. Invented in the early 1800s, these lighters ranged from manual (igniting by a flint striking a wheel, which then ignites a fuel-soaked wick) to automatic (using a simple push button).
Smokers used manual lighters for about a century, from when they were invented in the 1820s until the 1920s, when the automatic lighter was invented. From the early 20th century onward, these lighters became increasingly elaborate in their design.

Starting in the early 20th century, the older models were elaborately decorated and even served more than their original purpose.

Attract female customers

“To attract female customers in the 1930s, some companies created lighters that combined various accessories, such as cigarette cases and compacts, and added rhinestones or decorative enameled rhinestones, or designs,” according to an article in Collectors Weekly. “In the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, Ronson produced the Ronson Master Pack, combining a lighter, cigarette case, and watch.”

One of the household names in cigarette lighters, Zippo, was founded in Pennsylvania in 1932.

“Zippos were standard issue during World War II, as their sturdy windproof construction made them ideal for soldiers. But these wartime Zippos are hard to find, as many were left behind or lost. Many of the lighters made for soldiers were covered in a ‘black crackle’ finish that soldiers could carve names and drawings into with knives or pins. This ‘trench art’ can increase the value of a Zippo lighter significantly,” Collectors Weekly states. “Zippo became an aesthetic icon, and by the 1950s was making custom-decorated lighters for different companies, clubs, and teams to be used as advertising or gifts. Businesses gave monogrammed lighters to their employees for celebrations of service or retirements.”

Since 1955, the production date of each lighter has been stamped on its interior; pre-1955 lighters are considered especially valuable due to their rarity. Zippo lighters specifically can range anywhere in value from $30 to hundreds of dollars depending on their condition and rarity.

Cigarette cases

If you enjoyed smoking during the early to mid-20th century, you kept your cigarette case as closely to you as your pocketbook or your compact. Designed to keep your cigarettes from being crushed, they were considered to be “decorative personal accessories,” making a bold statement about your style and sophistication.

“There are two general categories of antique and vintage cigarette cases,” according to Collectors Weekly. “The first is the case designed for home use. In the late 19th century, Fabergé made rounded sterling silver cases with delicately worked surfaces and a slender row of tiny rose diamonds on the case’s thumb piece. In the 1920s, Art Deco cigarette boxes were fashioned out of polished panels of sterling, with stepped covers that recalled the shapes of Mayan temples. By the 1940s, home cigarette cases were being produced out of laminated slabs of Bakelite.”

The second type of cigarette case – the more common type – was the rec-tangle designed to fit in your pocket or in your purse. Both types of case were usually made with silver, though the fancier models were embossed and engraved. Fashion house Cartier even produced cases encrusted with diamonds and other precious gemstones.

If you’re just starting your collection, a good option would be to begin by collecting cheaper, tin cases, manufactured between the 1920s and the 1950s by the major cigarette power-houses of the day – among them, Chesterfield and Lucky Strike.

Cigarette holders

Used by both women and men, the cigarette holder was considered a luxurious fashion accessory, plain and simple. Their petite size and slim design gave women an “overall tall, slim, and graceful impression,” according to the 2015 article “A Symbolic View of Cigarette Holders” by F. David Mulcahy and Melissa Sherman in the academic journal Issues in Social Science.

“The cigarette holder became a fashion accessory for women in the early 1920s and remained popular until the 1960s. … It is argued that the artifact became a symbol of assertiveness for many women both in real life and fiction,” according to the article’s abstract.

Besides being considered extremely stylish, cigarette holders served multiple purposes — to prevent cigarette ash from falling onto a woman’s clothes, as well as to prevent staining a woman’s gloves or hands. In addition, longer cigarette holders cooled the smoke and reduced tobacco stains on one’s teeth. These holders were made from a variety of materials, from wood, amber, and ivory to enamel and tortoiseshell. The length of the holder you used depended on the activity you were enjoying alongside it: when having cocktails with friends, for instance, you’d employ a shorter cigarette holder, while an evening at the opera called for a much longer one, usually 16 to 20 inches in length.

Cigar boxes

Cigars have been packed in boxes made of wood, aluminum, brass, and tin, among other materials, since around the end of the Civil War. Usually, these boxes could hold two rows of 25 units apiece.

“Novelty cigar boxes are highly collectible, and some were designed in such a way that they had other uses after being emptied—for example, during the Depression, companies offered cigar boxes that could later be used as jewelry boxes,” according to Collectors Weekly. “Cigar boxes were sometimes designed in fun shapes to catch the attention of potential buyers. These include cigar boxes in the shape of log cabins, cars and buses, bottles, books, and trunks, as well as those that can be used as checkers or back-gammon boards.”

Cigar boxes, especially those more common models made of heavy cardboard, can be found at most antique stores for only a few dollars each.

Humidors

The preservation of tobacco is a delicate balance of humidity, as too much or too little of it will damage cigarettes and cigars. Humidors – boxes designed to control the humidity level to which the tobacco is exposed, as well as limit its exposure to sunlight – can range in size from small desktop versions to cabinets designed to hold 100 or more, to an entire room.

They are almost always made of wood, with their interior veneer made of Spanish cedar (this type of wood holds more moisture than others, and it even imparts its aroma to cigars). According to Collectors Weekly, humidors should never be directly exposed to sunlight, and their temperature should ideally stay above 54 degrees but below 75 degrees. Humidity should hover between 68 and 75 percent.

“All humidors have a means of maintaining humidity. Antique humidors have a space or metal container in them for a wet sponge. Humidity was also achieved by adding water droplets to a tissue,” according to Collectors Weekly.

“Today, smaller humidors may also employ silica gel beads or high-tech polymer acrylic fleece, while larger humidors are sometimes equipped with electronic sensors that detect when the humidity inside needs to be adjusted.”

Antique desktop humidors in good condition can fetch anywhere from $1,000 to as much as $5,000, according to The Antique Humidor Shoppe, an online vendor that restores and sells antique humidors.

Of course, tobacciana collectibles are as great in variety as they are in number – ashtrays, cigar cutters, advertising, tobacco tins, and the list goes on. These items represent just a tiny fraction of those items still in demand by collectors, even long after smoking has fallen out of fashion.

**Disclaimer:**

This article discusses smoking-related collectibles, which are of historical and nostalgic interest. It is important to note that smoking poses significant health risks. The U.S. Surgeon General has determined that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other serious health conditions. This article is intended for informational purposes only and discover vintage america does not endorse or promote smoking or tobacco use.

One centuries-old Halloween tradition

One centuries-old Halloween tradition – the carving of the jack-o’-lantern – has illuminated cold autumn nights for hundreds of years, and it’s an image synonymous with the spooky holiday.

Not pumpkins, but turnips

We can trace jack-o’-lanterns back to Europe in the mid-1600s; back then, they were simply referred to as a lantern – vegetables such as pumpkins and turnips whose insides were scooped out and the exterior carved with rudimentary shapes and designs, from which a candle placed inside the hollowed-out item would glow. Later called ‘jack-o’-lanterns,’ the origin of their name is a mystery – it may have referred to night watchmen working in England; or it may have come from an Irish folktale about Stingy Jack, a drunkard who loses a bet with the devil and is doomed to wander the Earth using only a hollowed turnip to light his path ahead.

Regardless of where their name came from, these lanterns were created for the purpose of warding off evil spirits; in the beginning, they were left on windowsills instead of outside one’s front door.

Here comes harvest time

Here in North America, ‘jack-o’lantern’ first appeared in written form around 1837 and was associated with the harvest season, not Halloween. The link between the jack-o’-lantern and Halloween began in 1866. The following appeared in a Canadian newspaper:

The old time custom of keeping up Hallowe’en was not forgotten last night by the youngsters of the city. They had their maskings and their merry-makings, and perambulated the streets after dark in a way which was no doubt amusing to themselves. There was a great sacrifice of pumpkins from which to make transparent heads and face, lighted up by the unfailing two inches of tallow candle.

Jack-o’-lantern Featured

Just less than two decades before, the jack-o’-lantern featured prominently in author Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” which told the tale of a schoolteacher’s frantic pursuit by what is assumed to be the ghost of a Revolutionary War soldier who was decapitated in battle and whose head was replaced by a jack-o’-lantern. The teacher is presumed to be missing the next morning, and the only “evidence” of the pursuit is a smashed jack-o’-lantern nearby.

 Pumpkins would be the new crop that began to be used in the U.S. with the wave of Irish who immigrated there in the 1840s due to Ireland’s potato famine. 

“They arrived in America to celebrate Halloween and were able to find a very particular new world crop that was much larger and easier to carve than their root vegetables of home; the winter squash, the most famous of which is a pumpkin,” according to an article published by Andrew Huntley of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

A spooky squash

By the mid-19th century, jack-o’-lanterns carved from turnips and pumpkins had found their way into folklore and literature and were commonplace; in 1867, the relatively new medium of photography captured the first image of a jack-o’-lantern; the photo was published in Harper’s Weekly. And starting in 1842, magazines began printing instructions on how to carve pumpkins with different kinds of faces.

Before the tradition of mischievous kids and teens dashing the jack-o’-lanterns to the ground began, those same youths would use the carved pumpkins to frighten others.

“Before Halloween was widely celebrated in the United States, kids started taking pumpkins — which were overwhelmingly plentiful during the months of September and October — and carving faces into them. After sticking a candle in the pumpkin to light it up, kids would run around, frightening people with the spooky-looking objects,” according to an October 2018 article by TIME Magazine.

Though the holiday of Halloween began being celebrated in North America in the mid-19th century, the holiday was mostly meant for adults and considered much too scary for kids. By the early 1900s, that had started to change, however, and by the mid-20th century, families began to throw lavish Halloween parties, complete with games like bobbing for apples and paper decorations from companies like the Dennison Paper Co. Between 1912 and 1934, Dennison published an annual catalog that included Dennison products and ideas for Halloween parties.

Don’t forget to snack on those seeds

With the arrival of a more family-friendly Halloween season, pumpkin carving began to become a family affair, teaching children how to fine-tune their motor skills and use their imagination. While carving your pumpkin into a bonafide Halloween jack-o’-lantern, roasting pumpkin seeds can add a tasty element to the carving process, though the cleaning of the seeds can prove laborious. One of many easy pumpkin seed-roasting recipes can be found at www.tasteofhome.com/article/roast-pumpkin-seeds.

Outrageous Pumpkins

Outside of the home, pumpkin-carving contests allow novice and veteran carvers alike to test and show off their skills to audiences. The most well-known of those can be found on The Food Network – “Outrageous Pumpkins,” in which carvers vie for a $25,000 prize.

“’Outrageous Pumpkins’ is not just another carving competition; it’s a revolutionary display of artistry, craftsmanship, and the sheer power of imagination. This vibrant reality show unfolds on the Food Network and elevates the age-old autumn tradition of pumpkin carving into a competitive spectacle,” reads a description of the program. “Witness elite carvers from across the nation push their creative boundaries to craft the most astounding jack-o’-lanterns ever seen. With a perfect blend of classic designs and audacious 3D carvings, ‘Outrageous Pumpkins’ stands unparalleled in its endeavor to reimagine and redefine the art of pumpkin sculpting.”

It’s not too late to learn

And if you’re new to the art of carving up a jack-o’-lantern but don’t have any courses being offered in your area, you’re in luck – a business called Manic Pumpkin Carvers offers an online workshop for beginners later this month.

Live Pumpkin webinar

The live pumpkin webinar – only for beginners – is $15 and takes place from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29. To register, visit www.maniacpumpkincarvers.com.

When you’re finished carving up your scary squash and ready to leave it on your porch, keep in mind that completed jack-o’-lanterns will look their best for three to five days before they begin to soften, get moldy, and spoil, according to Good Housekeeping.

We’d also love to see your Halloween jack-o’-lantern creations. Send photos of yours to editor@discovervintage.com.