Sara Catterall

@scatterall

Writer. MLIS. So many interests. She/her. Author of Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon. Blog etc at saracatterall.com

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Sara Catterall@scatterall· 29d

Back when cooks could cook

Two cake recipes that are just lists of ingredients with measurements. No mixing or baking instructions.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· 29d

My goodness, 1903 Wisconsin

Ad for the bank of sturgeon Bay: "every woman should have a bank account."

Sara Catterall@scatterall· 29d

Inherited an old community cookbook that contains a family contribution or two, and an ad for my great-grandfather's clothing store.

Old full page ad for Miller Clothing House in the Sturgeon Bay Cook Book, featuring a donkey with impossibly long ears, and the obvious Julius Caesar quote.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Jul 9

The colorful cover of a picture book titled Pickle-Chiffon Pie, featuring a green three-headed dog in a red tie, brown oxfords, and chef hat running with said pie. Pink castle in the background, man in spectacles and a tall green hat giving chase.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Jun 26

I mean

Sepia 1870s chorus girls frolicking in outfits similar to one Madonna wore for Pride. Legs, arms, bosoms, corsets, tiny frilly undershorts.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Jun 11

1944.

Political cartoon of a donkey and an elephant reaching incompetently for a flying football labelled Equal Rights For Men and Women. Caption: "Don't Fumble It!"

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Jun 9

Walked past Memorial Hall this morning after characters in The Bostonians walked past it last night.

Awkward view from the sidewalk of Memorial Hall near Harvard Square in Cambridge MA. Much red brick, limestone trim, turrets and stained glass.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Jun 7

...thought I'd weed until 1 and then have lunch, but got into the zone

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Jun 6

Hot day. Panting Robin babies.

Three blind robin nestlings poking their heads up from a nest on the outdoor light by my back door. Beaks open.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Jun 3

Got home to a book award in the mail! Thank you so much to @iowastatehistory.bsky.social

A certificate on cream paper with elaborate gold trim and a gold seal from the State Historical Society of Iowa, awarding my book Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-fashion Icon the Benjamin F. Shambaugh Award honorable mention for 2026, as a significant book about Iowa history.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· May 23

Sat on my front step this morning with my feet in the light rain and listened to the birds #tenminmerlin

Merlin list: American Robin, northern house wren, blue jay, song sparrow, northern cardinal, Baltimore Oriole, common grackle, red winged blackbird, red bellied woodpecker, ovenbird, hairy woodpecker, starling

Sara Catterall@scatterall· May 13

There is a statue in Seneca Falls of the moment of introduction, but it's called When Stanton Met Anthony. No mention of the mutual friend in the middle. I wrote a book about her though...

Triple statue of 1850s women, two in "bloomers". The one in the middle bringing together the two on either side, who are about to shake hands.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Apr 4

Did a spring wander around my garden this afternoon. The red maple flowers are the stunners.

Red and cream buds and tassels on a twig, green grass, pine trees, and gray stone path, wall and driveway in the background.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Mar 26

Picked up Gen Z from work, and they were laughing about this bit of 1951 discourse at the beginning of The Daughter of Time.

He could not remember what the thin blue book at the bottom of the pile was. Something earnest and statistical, he thought. Tsetse flies, or calories, or sex behaviour, or something.

Even in that, you knew what to expect on the next page. Did no one, any more, no one in all this wide world, change their record now and then? Was everyone nowadays thirled to a formula? Authors today wrote so much to a pattern that their public expected it. The public talked about ‘a new Silas Weekley’ or ‘a new Lavinia Fitch’ exactly as they talked about ‘a new brick’ or ‘a new hairbrush’. They never said ‘a new book by’ whoever it might be. Their interest was not in the book but in its newness. They knew quite well what the book would be like.

It might be a good thing, Grant thought as he turned his nauseated gaze away from the motley pile, if all the presses of the world were stopped for a generation. There ought to be a literary moratorium. Some Superman ought to invent a ray that would stop them all simultaneously. Then people wouldn’t send you a lot of fool nonsense when you were flat on your back.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Mar 18

...And as for the feathers...none other it was permitted to weare them...for that amongst them the feathers were estemed to be the true ornament of a valiant man of warre, which was al that I could learne of this prety Delly." But Austrians were less exclusive it seems!

Etchings of 16th c Austrian couple, possibly Ottoman-influenced, both with a broad fan of ostrich feathers on their heads.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Mar 18

...a Nicolay illustration from that book, some of the Landesknecht, or Dellys (Jirousek commented that a modern Turkish word for crazy is "deli")

Etching of bearded man on horseback with shaggy fur suit and saddle blanket, wings on his shield, and an eruption of feathers with fur trim on his head.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Mar 11

Physicist is home from a week in Santa Barbara and brought me some of the good stuff

Black and gold candy box from Lokum Turkish Delight & Baklava.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Mar 7

All I have are antiques, but A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up And Tied His Horse To Me by Wallace Tripp is still great.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Mar 4

Researching something else, I ran into the bloomers again in a whole new form! September 1918, though the exhibit says 1920? Obviously didn't take off, but what a design. exhibits.lib.berkeley.edu/spotlight/wo...

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Feb 14

Stood on the snow covered front walk for a few minutes to listen to the birds sing spring

Merlin app list of audible birds: northern cardinal, American crow, blue jay ("your bird of the day!"), tufted titmouse, black-capped chickadee, dark-eyed junco, white-throated sparrow, song sparrow.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Feb 7

Muffins ready.

A Bridge Creek Lemon Ginger Muffin broken open to cool on a small white plate on the arm of my couch, frosty window in the background.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Feb 7

Specifically the lemon ginger muffins from this book, bought around 1981 at Odegard in Minneapolis when I was working there. Also discovered MFK Fisher in that section, via her translation of Brillat-Savarin. It was a good bookstore.

Grimy dust jacket of my old copy of Marion Cunningham's wonderful The Breakfast Book. I have The Supper Book too.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Jan 31

Went out to breakfast with my dad in Minneapolis

Glass door reflecting beautiful sunny cold day, with one sign "Door managed by staff/ please wait for staff to open door" and another "private property / no ice or cbp access"

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Jan 21

A data collection team collects anonymized data submitted from Whipple Watch and many of the local rapid response chats, aggregating them into consumable formats, such as interactive maps of hotspots. This team also admins the searchable database of license plates sorted by “confirmed ICE,” “suspected ICE,” “confirmed not ICE,” and other categories.

[Inset pic reads: My parents are in a cafe and hear whistles and honking. Every single person in the cafe stands up and rushes out the door]

Additional place-based chats have emerged around school systems, faith communities, mutual aid grocery deliveries, and the like. Another development was the Neighborhood Networks intake chat, which acts as a clearinghouse for incoming volunteers. New people from anywhere in the city—or anywhere in the state of Minnesota—can be added and oriented to a list of chat options, and admins will add them to the open chats or connect them to the vetting and training processes for the more closed chats.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Dec 31

Back to the struggle with handwriting in the archives. No record of who this letter is from, just this signature. All guesses welcome! (not the Miss Smith part)

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Dec 24

Gen Z took some santa cat pictures

A large well lit pale orange cat wearing Santa hat and beard, sitting on the arm of a couch with a brass snowflake hanging behind him.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Nov 30

Bought two "Fairytale" pumpkins in late October to decorate front door urns at the bookstore. Just swapped them for festive greens. Cut into one to see if they look good and oh my. Lining up the squash recipes!

Two halves of a 20 pound lobed flattish pumpkin on a cluttered counter, one face up, one sitting up on a white cutting board with its innards scraped out in front of it. Rich golden orange flesh.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Nov 29

Happy Birthday to the Public Universal Friend. There's a great little exhibit of their personal effects at the Yates County History Center in Penn Yan, NY. www.yatespast.org/schererch.html

A portrait of the benevolent nonbinary Public Universal Friend, in sober black and white, with shoulder length brown curls and dark eyes.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Nov 28

Woke up to unexpected snow

A double window in a dark room looking out on layers of snow-coated branches.

Sara Catterall@scatterall· Nov 8

Out here building community with UU newcomer brunch. Much coffee, and a vegan option.