Archives Month - Love, Marriage, and a Pound of Butter

I’m getting married on Saturday. In the midst of all of the wedding to-do, my brain needed a break. To procrastinate from planning my own event, I took a few moments to comb through the Myers archives in search of a snapshot of weddings and marriage in a Norfolk long gone by. The search turned a wide variety of wedding related artifacts, including a cake recipe fully loaded with butter, sugar and lots of fruit – a cake truly meant to impress the early 19th century guest. Another wonderfully interesting piece is a newspaper article from May 4, 1816 describing the May 2, 1816 London wedding of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte Augusta to His Serene Highness Leopold George Frederick at Charlton-House. The article gives a full account of those involved, their stations in life, the setting, ceremony and celebration. Proof that Royal gossip has always been interesting on both sides of the pond! Finally, a sentimental little poem called “To Sir Robert Smyth” popped up. Written by an anonymous author and reprinted in the local paper, it was a literary answer to a poem by the former. These artifacts, along with many sentimental tomes in the Myers’ library give full account to the human interest in love, marriage, sentimentality and whimsy.

-SCM