Saving society, one corsage at a time

From today, the New York Times has granted free access to its archive up to 1922, and it makes for fun reading.

The 1913 debutante season was a blast, by all accounts, filled with headlines like:

BALL AT THE RITZ FOR MISS MIMI SCOTT;
Newport Bud of Last Summer Introduced to New York Society by Her Father.

There's plenty of detail on the "wonderful galaxy of buds this Winter in society's garden"; every tea dance, every lunch out, article after article stressing the beauty and charm and er... charming beauty of the lay-dees.

And hey, the ridiculously expensive flowers "are always sent to the hospitals and the sick in the tenements". Such sacrifice, so that others can die/starve with an exotic orchid in sight.

The details of wills were widely publicized, and it's interesting to see how the Titanic affected estate law.


And it turns out, sometimes the Butler really did do it.



Some of the headlines read like articles from The Onion.



And my favourite:

-- it would make for fine dinner party conversation!