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Detail of an American red moiré silk dress, ca. 1837. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
During the nineteenth century, women's periodicals specified the types of dress appropriate for the variety of evening activities. In 1832, The Ladies' Cabinet alerted its readers, "Moiré is coming much into favour for dinners of ceremony or evening parties." The modest neckline, long sleeves, and subtle moiré textile suggest that this is a dinner or evening party dress.
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Acquaintance card from the collection of Alan Mays.
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Found flower arranging image via Camille Brown.
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Mouth-to-mouth contact occurs across the animal kingdom, including in many, but not all, human societies. Such contact is commonly referred to as “kissing,” which we more formally define as a non-agonistic interaction involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer. ... Kissing poses an evolutionary problem, since it does not appear to aid survival or reproduction in an obvious way, while the potential costs of disease transfer are high. What is its benefit or adaptive function?
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Though researchers found evidence of kissing in several species, they narrowed the focus of the study mostly to the behavior of large apes, like gorillas, orangutans and baboons.
But the vast use of the practice surprised Dr. Brindle. She said she had expected examples of kissing among apes and humans, but was surprised to see the gentle behavior shared between bugs, albatrosses and polar bears.
