You may want to check out this interesting article (ha! You like that? I think it’s interesting anyway!) I wrote for the Onondaga Historical Association last year and finally published it on their website: Deerskin coat given to Harvey Baldwin by the Oneida Indians as a gift for helping them survive the cold year of 1816. The coat is beautifully beaded, and the cold year has something to do with a volcano. Check it out!
Detail of beading on the bottom of the Deerskin coat
Please let me know what you think about it when you’re done reading it! I hope you enjoy it!
December 9, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Oh my gosh, Pam. You have said you are not a writer. You had better think twice about that, girl!
I enjoyed this. The GE TV was interesting and a blast from the past.
BRAVO!
December 9, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Very interesting article. The coat is awesome and it survived well. You did a great job! What an odd year that was in 1816.
December 9, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Mary - Thank you, you are so kind. I *love* to research and write historical articles!! I’m going to keep doing it and maybe someday I can get paid to do it for a living!!
I had four +/- aunts and uncles that worked at GE Syracuse and they all had TV sets like this. I couldn’t believe it when Tom H. wrote an article on this as an historical artifact!
Linda - Thank you! The coat is totally awesome! You know the ice on the Delaware in the painting of Washington crossing it with his men? There was a mini ice age going on back in those years. The volcano certainly didn’t help out with the coldness back then.
December 10, 2007 at 7:14 am
Very interesting article, and relevant too, since climate change is such a “hot” topic!
December 11, 2007 at 1:41 am
Very, very nice, Pam!
Another interesting fact about that year is that Mary Shelley was forced to stay inside and she ended up writing Frankenstein!
December 11, 2007 at 10:47 pm
A wonderful & informative article…and such a beautiful coat! Thanks for sharing.