Gold

In the Pocket of History

In life and culture, it is the little things that count. So many times it is the small details of history that say the most about who we are, and the times we live in.

How much more true is that of the little things we carry around in our pockets. How much can someone learn about life in the 21st Century by examining our keys and our coins and our cellphones and MP3 players and pepper sprayers.

I recently read of a chance to buy just that kind of look into the Victorian age…through handkerchiefs.

The following is reposted from More Intelligent Life.

Beautiful Blowhards Leave it to the gentlemen of Victorian England to turn the handkerchief into something subversive. Fiammetta Rocco, the Books and Arts editor of The Economist, admires some unexpectedly profound hankies for sale at an upcoming Christie’s auction …

The handkerchief, at least in modern Britain, is a bit of a joke. Tied in a knot at each corner and worn on the head, it’s the classic seaside postcard stereotype, along with lobster skin and a pumpkin-shaped waistline.

But in other countries hankies are serious business. Pocket corners–handkerchiefs folded into a suit’s front pocket–have a language all their own, with monikers like Cagney, Cooper and Astaire denoting how many corners show above the pocket line. In Sri Lanka and Japan carrying a handkerchief is considered a sign of a well-educated person.

In America seriousness comes in another vein. There handkerchiefs are largely regarded as unhygienic: how disgusting to empty the contents of your nose and carry them around in your pocket.

But some people will put up with anything to advance the cause of knowledge. A student at Boston University recently wrote a PhD thesis on the cultural history of the pocket and pocketed possessions in 19th-century America.

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