I Just Learned...

I just did some googling and learned what a "Circassian Beauty" is. A fixture in side/freak shows in the 19th century (and probably first shown in PT Barnum's "American Museum"), a Circassian Beauty was advertised as a woman of purest Caucasian stock, a woman of intense beauty and pale skin, traded in slave markets of Constantinople (or is it Istanbul?) and prized by Turkish harem-holding sultans. Incidentally, they also had very large, teased-out hair. You can see a photo of one here, and read more details as well. It is often interesting to see what used to be considered "beautiful" and "titillating" to people of a bygone era. In fact, that is one of the reasons I am most drawn to reading historical fiction -- being able to learn more about what life used to be like in a different time.

I read about Circassian Beauties in Mark Graham's book The Black Maria, a mystery of Old Philadelphia. Although I am not that enthusiastic about the novel overall (there were about four or five severe plot twists at the end of the book, so the story seemed ridiculous by the time I got to the last page), Graham did paint a very vivid and enthralling picture of the Centennial Exhibition (like a World's Fair) in Philadelphia in 1876, and certainly made me want to see some photos of the grandeur he depicts in the book. There is actually quite a bit of information on the Centennial Exhibition here, for those who are interested.

The other thing I had to look up online after reading this book was a "prismoidal railroad." Although I couldn't find a photo of it, the prismoidal railroad is apparently a wooden precursor to our modern monorail.