Jane Hall’s experiences in Arizona and California before she became an orphan in 1930 did not expose her to as many people from other nations as New York City. Although her guardians introduced her to an exclusive social world, when she went to art school at The Cooper Union on Manhattan’s Lower East Side,…
The January 1, 2018, New Yorker cover, “Cramped” by George Booth, features a huge grey elephant that looms over the living room of two people trying to have a quiet evening at home. Another pachyderm appeared on the December 31, 1938, cover of the magazine. This gleeful pink elephant by Rea Irvin (1881-1972) might just as…
I came across an interesting article recently about Thanksgiving in the 1930s thanks to journalist Julie Chang. She notes that, for those who could not afford to dine in an elegant hotel or club, making recipes from scratch compensated for inflated food prices during the Depression. And many Americans remained optimistic despite their troubles. At…
As many of you know, for quite a while I’ve been reading magazines published in the 1930s and 1940s; I’ve been interested in the values that women’s magazines, such as Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping, imparted to their women readers. In those days, magazines were filled with articles about current events as well as fiction by…
Dorothy Thompson on the cover of Time magazine, June 12, 1939 She was one of the most celebrated journalists of her era. On June 12, 1939, she graced the cover of Time magazine which called her “‘the second most popular and influential woman in the country behind Eleanor Roosevelt.’” And Dorothy Thompson…
One soggy March Sunday a few years ago, my daughter, Carlyn Maw, and I headed to Manhattan Beach where Jane and her small family lived between 1927 and 1930. First stop, the small cottage in Polliwog Park that is home to the Manhattan Beach Historical Society. Steve Meisenholder, the society’s former president, has spent most of his…
Poplar Springs Farm near Warrenton, Virginia, was a place that came to mean as much to Jane Hall as the desert hamlet of Salome, Arizona. How thrilled she would have been that Poplar Springs Inn and Spa is now an oasis of beauty, serenity and gourmet cuisine after extensive renovations by the owners, Michael Eisele…
