The Bookworm 1850 (Box Diorama)

Era: The Victorian Era

Inspiration: The Bookworm (German: Der Bücherwurm) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the German painter and poet Carl Spitzweg. The picture was made circa 1850 and is typical of Spitzweg's humorous, anecdotal style and it is characteristic of Biedermeier art in general. The painting is representative of the introspective and conservative mood in Europe during the period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the revolutions of 1848, but at the same time pokes fun at those attitudes by embodying them in the fusty old scholar unconcerned with the affairs of the mundane world.

History: The picture shows an untidily dressed elderly bibliophile standing on top of a library ladder with several large volumes jammed under his arms and between his legs as he peers short-sightedly at a book. Unaware of his apparently princely or abbatial Baroque surroundings, he is totally absorbed in his researches. A handkerchief, carelessly replaced, trails from his pocket. His black knee-breeches suggest a courtly status. The intensity with which he stares at his book in the dusty old once-glorious library with its frescoed ceiling mirrors the inward-looking attitudes and return to conservative values that affected Europe during the period. The painting was executed two years after the revolutions of 1848 provided a shock to the stable world embodied in the dusty solitude of the library.

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Thanksgiving Box Diorama: Thankful for Home & Harvest - Plymouth, Massachusetts, circa 1732

Era: The Colonial Era

Inspiration: Inspired by the spirit and history of the Thanksgiving Holiday.

History: By 1730, the Plymouth colonists had observed Thanksgiving for a century already, and the harvest celebration became an integral part of New England tradition. On that special day each fall, families gathered together to give thanks to the Lord for rewarding their labors with a bountiful harvest.

Families would attend church twice on that day and share their good fortune with extended family who visited from nearby towns or colonies. This special day consisted of togetherness in the truest sense of the word, as each family member contributed to chores while sharing memories, anecdotes, and gossip to pass the time and strengthen their bond.

Farm life and the subsistence agricultural lifestyle conditioned the colonists with a hearty disposition and allowed them to adapt to the hardships encountered each winter. On this day of thanks, the colonists took comfort in knowing that their labors and resulting harvest would sustain their loved ones for another winter.

Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among almost all religions after harvests and at other times.The Thanksgiving holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation.

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