Shirley Wajda

@stwajda

Historian, curator, knitter of the American experience, daughter & granddaughter of immigrants, waiting for Lefty & CLE World Series win. US material & visual culture, museum studies, women's history, everyday life. Too many projects. shirleywajda.com

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Shirley Wajda@stwajda· 11d

Barney Rubble knows.

Cartoon character Barney Rubble from "The Flintstones." Stocky male figure with blond hair and wearing a ragged prehistoric (likely) fur/hide one-piece costume. He is raising his proper right arm, index finger pointed skyward as if making a point.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· 12d

On what would have been my mother's 99th birthday, I share an image of her. Taken by my father on their 1968 trip to the Bahamas--a trip won by my father's hard work as a kitchen salesman. When Mom died in 1994, this was the first image my dad, brothers, & I thought of to share in our grief & love.

Image of a woman seated in a passenger airliner seat. Window curtains behind her at right; seat at left. She wears a white dress with embroidered stand-up collar and front zipper. Her hair is styled in a small beehive. She, with a half smile, looks intently up at the camera. Her face is partially in shadows.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· 14d

At the cat the time will be...

A white and gray cat sitting next to a clock radio with the time reading 2:33.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· 20d

The place: Bentleyville, Cuyahoga County, Ohio The date: 1878 The crime: Lively set-to

Newspaper article:

Chagrin Falls Exponent.
PUBLISHED
EVERY THURSDAY MORNING.
No. 1 Shute's Block.
FRANK F. STRANAHAN, Local Editor.
Local and Miscellaneous
--Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Hull got into an altercation about the right of possession fo 5 quarts of respberries, near Bentleyville, one day last week, and Mrs. Hull claimed that Mrs. Hall had made too big a haul on the bushes. Mrs. Hall denied the soft impeachment and claimed the whole stock in trade, whereupon Hull made a haul on the bank and Hall tried to haul away the collaterals. Hull hauled Hall over the coals and a lively set-to resulted, in which Hull rubbed the berries hulls and fall into Hall's face, neck and hair. No arrests.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· 28d

Not watching the game but kinda know what's up.

Screenshot of Bluesky's Trending box, listing:

1. Argentina
2. Merino
3. Donald Trump
4. Madonna
5. Messi

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jul 16

Homespun Silent Auction at #SHEAR2026! Hoping my contribution of two pairs of handknit wool socks attracts some bids!

Pair of knit socks in burnt orange color and gansey design.

Pair of handknit socks in gray, with whie toes, heels, and top. Red stripe in white field at top.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jul 14

Happy Bastille Day! I'm wearing a Phrygian cap and knitting with needles as quick as a guillotine's blade.

Black and white film still of actress Blanche Yurka in the 1935 "A Tale of Two Cities." Features, at center, a seated woman wearing a Phrygian (peaked) cap on her long dark hair. She has a somber look on her face as she looks into space, past the viewer's proper left shoulder. In her raised hands she holds knitting needles and the knitted piece she is currently making. Behind her sit men with various facial expressions ranging from concern to revulsion.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jul 11

Oh, that anniversary's today, right?

Color photographic image of two men in striped baseball uniforms sitting next to each other on a bench in front of a wire fence and green baseball field. The men face the field, their backs to the viewer. The man seated at the left wears a uniform reading "BURR 61." The man seated on the right wears a uniform reading "HAMILTON 63."

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jul 9

I live in a historic house where I work, so (alas) no pets. But the site's fearless groundhog was out and about.

Furry critter owning all that he sees: clover, wild strawberies, and a utility pole in the right foreground.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jul 4

War of 1812 naval flag. Dark blue background upon which is stitched in yellowed white threads "DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP."

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jul 3

Spent too much time writing today rather than walking. But at least I'm patriotic.

Screenshot of my steps counter, revealing that I walked only 1,776 steps today.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jun 30

Tom Kean Jr. as

Film poster featuring the shape of an adult man in white. In his raised proper right hand is a smoking weapon. In his lowered proper left hand is a wad of green currency bills. The words "The Amazing Transparent Man" is superimposed across the center of the poster. A woman in pink costume is at lower left. A man behind a stair banister is at upper right.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jun 30

MDF. (Medium Dense Fiberboard. Could stand for something else....)

Color photo of fake arch constructed of cheap materials and covered to look like stone or marble with some foliate embellishments. Atop are two gold eagles on either side of a gold winged figure. Background shows US Capitol in background.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jun 21

Swill. "Yeah, America. A water with a character all its own."

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jun 21

Vandal.

Mosaic fragment, circa 500 AD, collection British Museum. A man astride a white horse at right.At left and behind the man and horse is a fortification the Vandal, um, vandalized.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jun 16

It is finally strawberry season where I live. Making strawberry-rhubarb jam!!!

Punnets of strawberries with aone rhubarb stalks.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jun 13

Image of Pantone color card, using the white tarp with vertical blue and black vertical lines covering the Kennedy Center wall on which the words "The Donald J. Trump and" were removed. Below the image of the tarp are the words "PANTONE/86-47/TRUMP COVER-UP."

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jun 13

Do the scaffolding guys take a break?

Lunch atop a Skyscraper, distributed by Acme Newspictures, September 1932. Original caption: "While New York's thousands rush to crowded restaurants and congested lunch counters for their noon day lunch, these intrepid steel workers atop the 70 story RCA building in Rockefeller Center get all the air and freedom they want by lunching on a steel beam with a sheer drop of over 800 feet to the street level. The RCA building is the largest office building in terms of office space in the world."

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Jun 1

I think they disapproved of my form as I hiked the hill.

Two black-and-white cattle stare rather menacingly at the viewer. They stand in a hillside of tall green grasses. At the horizon line above them is a tree against an overcast gray sky.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· May 17

Please let them be the Killer Bees from South America. Please please please.

Group of men (comedians John Belushi, Garrett Morris, Dan Ackroyd, and Elliott Gould)dressed in yellow and black striped bee costumes. From Saturday Night Live 1976 sketch entitled "Home Invasion." Faces of Gilda Radner and Chevy Chase at lower right corner of the image.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· May 8

Happy VE Day! Because of this day, an American GI met a German and married eight years after WWII's end. They happened to be my late parents. Here they are the Konstablerwache in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, in the late 1940s.

Black-and-white photograph and three individuals in foreground with crowds of people in the background. Taken at the Konstablerwache: brick walkway, buildings in the background with scaffolding. The woman and man at the center are smartly dressed and looking at the camera. The woman wears a light-colored coat and high heels. The man wears a windbreaker and dark trousers.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· May 5

Windsor Chair of Foreboding.

Image shows a large and exaggerated shadow of the crest rail and spindles of the back of a Windsor chair.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· May 3

Sunday sock knitting.

Partially knitted sock on bamboo double-pointed needles photographed against black laptop computer keyboard. Sock leg and heel completed. Orange wool.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· May 3

Photo taken from an interior window lighting a storage space in 1905 Creamery building constructed for and not by Shakers. These cases of drawers may have been moved from another (perhaps razed) building.

Image of section of large ochre colored wood drawers with unpainted knobs in storage area of the 1905 Creamery at Canterbury Shaker Village.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· May 1

Related: In grad school I inventoried Independence National Historical Park's collection of schlock featuring the Liberty Bell. I suspect many local (& conservative) historical societies have these sorts of collections & will continue to collect such stuff as patriotic. And let's never forget:

Textile showing a pattern of USA founders and presidents as young men either dressed in 18th- and 19th-century garb open to show six-pack abs or shirtless. "LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS" in red and a heart with USA-flag motif interspersed between images of the Liberty Bell, Abraham Lincoln, Paul Revere on horseback (North Church steeple in back), Thomas Jefferson holding a scrolled document, his head ringed with stars, and three shirtless men (two playing drums, one playing a fife) based on Archibald Willard's painting "The Spirit of '76."

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Apr 24

Broke out a new journal to record work meetings.

Bound book with blue cover bearing the words (in white) "My list of bodies I buried in the woods."

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Apr 15

Happy National Laundry Day! May your textiles be stain-free! Fun fact: The Canterbury Shakers' patented washing machine won a medal at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

Print advertisement for the Canterbury Shakers' washing machine. The text reads:

ADVERTISEMENTS.
Improved Shaker Washing Machine,
BUILT AT SHAKER VILLAGE, N.H.
Patented July 23, 1877.
[image of large, belt-driven, wood washing machine, with water taps above]
Laundry Apparatus, Corn Brooms and Brushes, Hosiery, Apple Sauce, Maple Syrup, &c., &c.
Manufactured and Sold by the SOCIETY OF SHAKERS, at Shaker Village, N.H. Correspondence Solicited Address
N.A. BRIGGS, Trustee.

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Apr 7

New York Times suffering from either poor copyediting and proofreading or really wanting an egg tossed at someone at the White House.

New York Times correction added to an article on Melania Trump's wearing of Ralph Lauren at the annual White House Egg Roll: "A correction was made on April 6, 2026: Because of an editing error, an earlier version of the digital summary with this article misstated the type of event that was held at the White House on Sunday. As the article correctly noted, it was an egg roll, not an egg toss."

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Mar 27

The Great Big Baked Potato menu for the Northern Pacific Railroad dining car on the Big Potato Route, 1917.

Color photograph of the cover of a menu featuring a baked potato with wrinkled brown skin, slit in half, with a pat of yellow butter sitting in the slit at the left and a silver spoon in the slit at the right. The potato sits on a decorated plate, with only the nearest part visible. Between the decorative border of the plate and the potato is the word "Menu."

Shirley Wajda@stwajda· Mar 22