June 10, 2024 • 21 mins
What if fashion could lead to the near-extinction of entire bird species? Join us as we explore the dark side of 19th-century feathered fashion and its devastating impact on avian populations. But before diving into this fascinating and somber tale, we share our delightful baking adventure with the classic Southern hummingbird cake. From the rich and tropical ingredients to the unexpected challenges in the kitchen, we recount our journey to create a dessert that's both heavy in components yet light and fluffy in texture. Get your slice ready, and prepare for a culinary and historical treat!
Feathers were once worth more than gold, and the craze for extravagant hats adorned with exotic plumes drove mass hunting and near-extinction events for species like the snowy egret and lyrebird. We trace the use of feathers in fashion from ancient times through the 19th century, highlighting how South American birds and indigenous dress influenced European style. We also examine the roles of fashion icons and ornithologists in perpetuating this trend, leading to widespread exploitation of bird populations. This episode promises to be a blend of sweet indulgence and historical insight, shedding light on the consequences of a seemingly innocuous fashion statement. Grab your slice of hummingbird cake and join us for a captivating look at feathered fashion's impact on wildlife.
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Recipe:
https://grandbaby-cakes.com/hummingbird-cake-recipe/#recipe
Sources:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Smartacus.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Tells History.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Alright, enough with the echo and fanfare.
You're here for history, right,and not that boring crap you
learned in high school.
This stuff's actuallyinteresting, like things you've
never heard about the Civil War,cleopatra, automobiles,
monopoly, the Black Plague andmore Fascinating stories,
interesting topics and somedownright weird facts from the
(00:28):
past.
It's a new twist on somestories you may know and an
interesting look at some thingsyou may have never heard.
So grab a beer, kick back andenjoy.
Here's your host, smarticus.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Hello history enthusiasts, welcome back to
another episode of SmarticusTells History.
I am your host, smarticus,accompanied by my co-host,
phoenix.
Hi, today we're going to betalking about the fashion trend
that saw the exploitation andextinction of several bird
species, a trend that was somassive in the 1800s that it
affected the entire world.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
But first food, and as a wink and a nod to our
feathered friends, we're eatinghummingbird cake yeah, I haven't
tried mine yet.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I have um.
Have you?
I figured you had um youusually do.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Sometimes I like to wait to get more of an authentic
thing I usually try to, butthis I mean, you know, there had
to be a little tasting and themaking I tasted the frosting.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
That was the only thing I tasted so far oh my god,
oh, this is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, I told you.
So for those of you who don'tknow, hummingbird cake is an old
southern favorite.
My grandmother was fromLouisiana, so I've had this most
of my life.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh, it's so good.
There's pineapple in it,there's pecans, there's bananas,
obviously.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Oh, I didn't.
Yeah, I didn't put pecans inmine.
I'm not a pecan person.
But I'm sure it makes a crunchytexture.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Sorry, licking my lips here.
What I did was I stuck them ina coffee grinder so it turned
them into powder.
Oh, yeah, so you just get alittle hint of the flavor, but
because my daughter would nothave eaten it if I had actually
left big old chunks in there.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
No, yeah, that's a good idea.
Yeah, yeah, in the recipe Ithink it says just to crush them
or to buy the ones that arepre-crushed.
Yep, but no, this is reallygood.
It does have.
I mean, I guess, just like anyother cake, it has tons and tons
of sugar in it.
Yes, and when I poured it out,there was also an alarmingly
(02:32):
amount of vegetable oil.
I thought, oh yeah, it was acup and three quarters of
freaking vegetable oil.
I know a cup and a quarter.
Yeah, I think it was a cup and aquarter of vegetable oil.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And you end up making with the recipe, you end up
making with it.
With the recipe, you end upmaking two nine inch cakes yeah
and those babies are heavy yeahyeah, they were super heavy but
at the same time it's a reallylight, fluffy cake it is.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, it's nice and fluffy.
I had to um stick mine back inthe oven a couple of times yeah,
mine needed longer than the40-some minutes.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It said.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
No, it said 24 to 30 minutes is what it said yeah,
that's what it was, and so Isaid, all right, well, I'll try
it at 25 minutes first.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I didn't have any toothpicks so I used a butter
knife and so I pulled it out at25 minutes.
I stuck the butter knife inthere and I pulled it out and it
was, and it was on it.
So I was like all right, well,it's got to go back in a little
bit longer, right?
So I did five minutes and, uh,I pulled back out again and then
, after I cleaned it off cleanthe knife off, um, and it was
about halfway I'm still on thereagain, yeah, um, so I was like
(03:39):
all right, so I did another fiveminutes and then, third time
was a charm, and it came outclean, nice.
So I was like all right, doneand it was about 35 minutes.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I guess at that point yeah, I started to pull mine
out the first time after thetimer went off because I used I
did 25 too.
I didn't do 24 minutes.
I was like that's weird, I'mnot doing 24 that's what I
thought too so I did 25 and Istarted to pull it out and I
could see that both of them werejiggling in the middle like a
roly-poly person.
You know what I'm talking aboutfolks.
There was some jiggle in themiddle.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, I knew as soon as I pulled it out.
And of course I immediatelythought of that video that I
think you sent me of GordonRamsay and his mother with that
pie or whatever.
Whatever it was that they weremaking.
Yes, and she's like, is thatdone in the middle?
And he's like, yeah, of courseyou do.
He sticks and he's like, oh,actually it's not.
And he's like, how did you knowthat wasn't done in the middle?
(04:27):
And she's like I could see itfrom the angle.
It was jiggling or whatever.
Yeah, or whatever it was, butyeah, it was.
Mine were also extra jigglywhen I pulled them out.
They definitely needed at leastanother 10 minutes in.
There is it's, it's nice, it'sa nice texture.
It's not, um, it's not.
Uh, you know, too soft to.
You know, like my, you knowwell, I guess yours too.
(04:48):
You know, half the time we dothese it's, it's epic failure
well, for me it's bread.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I am terrible at bread, but when it comes to
making almost any other kind oflike a cake, I can make.
Cake man, I'm good with cake Ithink that's the only thing that
we've really screwed up is aform of bread.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, what did we have?
Oh well, the Lardy cake, whichI don't really call a cake
because it was more of a bread.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, I don't know why I don't want to be called a
cake.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
but yeah, it was more of a bread.
That one was an epic failure,and then that was horrendous.
Yeah, the spotted dick that wehad came out, okay, but it was
an issue too, though.
Yeah, a little bit, I think,yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Mine was so stinking dry, I mean, and, like I said,
you could have used that thingas a doorstop.
It was not going to go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It was so heavy, oh my gosh.
All right, well, I finished offmy piece.
Nice, that was actually prettygood.
It's just me, I live alone, ofcourse.
So I made a whole cake, a wholenine inch cake, with two halves
, of course, like it says, andso I'm going to have lots left
over.
Yeah, mine will not probablyfinish the week it will have
(06:03):
maybe three days left andeveryone will have had a piece
every single day.
Well, I'm a pre-diabetic too,so I probably won't be eating it
very much.
Yeah, you ought to be careful,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I ran out of confectioner's sugar.
I was trying to make thefrosting.
I thought I had enough.
In my head I still had enough,but I was wrong.
So my husband gets our littleninja thing out.
He's like I got you, and hegets a bunch of regular sugar
and just starts blitzing thesnot out of it and I was like oh
yeah, that's how you makeconfectioner.
(06:32):
Yeah, is it okay?
Yeah, I had.
I knew it in the back of myhead because I learned it from
somewhere.
I can't remember, but he knewit.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
He was like I got you , don't worry I didn't realize,
so I went um, like I said, Ididn't buy the extra stuff until
uh this morning.
I didn't realize, so I went um,like I said, I didn't buy the
extra stuff until uh thismorning.
I didn't realize that powderedsugar came in like a plastic bag
.
Yeah, um, I mean, it makessense there is.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
There's some kind that you can get from a box, but
I'll tell you what.
It's not as good yeah.
I don't know how else to say it, other than it's just not as
good as the stuff you buy in thebag.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, I left it in the bag, but I'm probably going
to end up putting it in like atote or something.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Just because it is powdered, and I know that if
that bag tears like it's justgoing to go everywhere.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So yeah, I always stuck mine in a container or
another bag.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, I'm going to put it in a container.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
If you're worried about it getting too moist, what
you can do is you can stick amarshmallow in there.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Oh yeah, mine are.
They're airtight containers, sothat should be a problem.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Carry on Smarticus.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Okay, I will carry on .
Let's see here.
Starting in the late 1700s andhaving a huge boom throughout
the 1800s, the fashion industrywitnessed a craze for feathers,
particularly in Europe and NorthAmerica.
Feathers, once symbols ofprestige and luxury, became
(07:57):
highly sought after adornmentsfor clothing, hats and
accessories.
Originally for the elite, thistrend eventually trickled its
way to those in the lower stratatoo.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
We're not talking about just any feathers.
No, the more ornate the better.
Hummingbird feathers with theiriridescent shine and
color-changing abilities whenturned, the lyrebird with its
gorgeous tail, plumage egretswith their pretty wispy feathers
(08:32):
, and so much more.
That's not even touching on thestuffed birds brought into
London's kind of weird.
If you look at some of thepictures, like the links that I
put for our resources, the linksthat I put for our resources
there are pictures of stuff thatsurvived to now from that time
and they are frightening.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Really, I mean, I can't imagine going.
Oh, you know what I really needto complete this fabulous
outfit?
I need some little dead bird'shead on a brooch right here in
between my boobs.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, that's weird.
That's alarmingly weird, Right?
And why would they think thatthat was even fashionable?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I guess we talk about that a little bit later.
On.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Okay, before you start thinking it was crazy, it
was a crazy European thing, Imean, like everything else.
It's important to remember thatfeathers have always been
utilized in fashion, going backto antiquity, as decorative
elements symbolizing elegance,wealth, status and ceremony.
Think of the Native Americans,the Mayans and Incans, ancient
(09:42):
Greece and so on.
However, the craze during the1800s was on a whole other level
.
The market for feathers duringits height was large and in
demand that the price for anounce of plumage could earn a
hunter $32.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
In today's money, that's $1,000 per ounce, making
plumes worth twice their weightin gold.
In 1902, over 1,600 boxes ofheron plumes were sold in just
one London auction house, whichis brought further into
perspective when you realizethat four herons worth of
feathers were needed to makejust one lady's hat.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Which brings us to the millinery industry, where it
all started.
The art of hat makingexperienced a golden age during
the 19th century, as we said,because of bird plumage, but it
all started thanks largely tothe export of objects and people
from Brazil to Europe, startingback in the 16th century.
Birds, their feathers and theway the local indigenous people
dressed in South America heavilyinfluenced color schemes and
(10:40):
aesthetic ideas on the Europeanfashion world.
Large, elaborate hats adornedwith feathers became essential
accessories for women of highsociety.
Feathers were meticulouslyarranged in intricate designs,
often embellished with ribbons,flowers, gemstones and even
exotic bugs.
This was called the Brazilianstyle in Europe.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Which brings a whole new meaning to the Brazilian
style, now Totally different.
If you seriously go look at oneof them, I can't reach what it
is.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Don't look at the Brazilian style, don't do that,
no, no, not that the bugs though.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
The bugs, though it was a fan and it it had all
these gorgeous feathers it wasjust you know it's like a little
fan for fanning your stuff whenit's too hot at church or
whatever and there are shinylittle bug carcasses mixed with
the feathers it's.
I was just like no, I don'twant bugs near me on any other
(11:39):
time.
I don't want them on my clothes.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
No yeah, that's kind of weird, it's just people are
crazy live bugs on you like it'sjust oh, no, no weird, I mean.
I mean, I get they're dead, butyou know what I mean, right?
No, exactly, they were live.
You know their carcasses on you.
Why?
Why would you want that on you?
Um, I can totally understand.
(12:02):
You know people.
You know wanting jewelry.
You know of the fake ones.
You know like the uh, theegyptian scarab.
Um, yes, you know like whatever, right, that's not.
Why would you want a deadanimal on you?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
yeah, no, especially some of those beetles that they
have down in south america.
Heck, no yeah, I don't evenwant to look at them as a
picture, and I don't let alonehave it on me, right?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
and I don't know if maybe well, like there wasn't
any kind of like epoxy oranything back then.
So I don't know what they wouldlike they had.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They had epoxy, but it was caustic stuff um well, it
wasn't.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
What they have now, though, is what I'm right,
exactly so the preservation ofthose things.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I don't know how in the world they've survived to
this day, but someone was takingvery good care of their stuff
right.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Well, I was more inclined to think about, you
know, the smell of them, likehow did they clean them, how did
they?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I didn't even think about looking into that.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
How did they not smell?
I would imagine they wouldsmell.
I mean, if you think, I mean,even if you have, like you know,
Junebug season, if you don't goout there and sweep your porch
around, it's going to startsmelling.
Yeah, I mean even dead leavessmell, yeah, so I don't know, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I do know that they had lacquers back in the day
though they had, you know, forpaintings and sealing your wood
furniture and stuff like that.
So, maybe they were usingsomething like that, but yeah, I
don't know, that, but yeah, Idon't know.
Just encapsulate their littledead carcasses and lacquer and
(13:45):
stitch that bad boy on the fan.
Of course, the mass productionof feathered fashion items had a
devastating impact on birdpopulations worldwide.
How could it not, when featherswere being integrated into
almost every article of clothinga person wore?
It didn't help that huntersemployed ruthless methods to
meet the demand, often resortingto indiscriminate slaughter and
habitat destruction.
Entire colonies of nestingbirds were decimated, with
(14:08):
species such as the snowy egretand the great auk facing
imminent extinction due to theoverhunting for their plumes.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
At one point the demand for lyrebird feathers was
so high in Australia that over400 were killed in one district
in a single season, just tosatisfy the London market.
The lyrebird is one of theoldest species there, with
fossils dating 15 million years,and they were nearly hunted
into extinction.
Egrets, herons, bowerbirds,emus they were all targets in
(14:36):
the land down under.
Bowerbirds, emus they were alltargets in the land down under.
According to an article byMalcolm Smith in History Today,
Trinidad alone exported 15,000hummingbirds a week in the 1800s
.
Nowhere was safe for the poorwinged creatures.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Fashion icons and trendsetters of the 19th century
played a significant role inpopularizing feathered attire.
Empress Eugenie of France andQueen Victoria set the standard
for elegance and sophisticationand inadvertently contributed to
the exploitation of avianspecies.
However, there was anothercontributor to the demand, and
that was, and still is, a bitmore overtly grotesque the
(15:17):
ornithologists working at theVictoria Museum.
They were killing thousands ofbirds a year in the name of
scientific discovery, whileblaming the scarcity and flated
market valuation on frivolouswomen.
One article from them in 1887stated all that can be hoped for
is that the freaks of femininevanity may take some other and
(15:37):
less harmful direction.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Amidst the rampant destruction of bird populations,
there were many voicesdemanding conservation.
One such person, who was nearlyforgotten until recently, was
Emily Williamson.
In 1889, she founded theSociety for the Protection of
Birds, spb.
In response to the alarmingdecline of bird species due to
the feather trade.
The SPB advocated for theProtection of Birds.
(16:00):
Spb.
In response to the alarmingdecline of bird species due to
the feather trade, the SPBadvocated for the ethical
treatment of birds andcampaigned against the
indiscriminate killing forfeathers.
The British Ornithologist Union, bou, which had only male
members and believed that womencould never be on their level,
firmly denounced the SPB as somegroup of sanctimonious women
trying to play in men's business.
(16:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right.
Regardless of what BOU said,williamson and her group grew to
5,000 members in just sixmonths.
That number doubled in 1893.
15,000 letters and 50,000leaflets were sent out annually,
speaking out against the lackof restrictions and care to the
various bird populations.
(16:43):
In 1892, the usage of birdfeathers was still in shops, but
not in every one of them.
Eventually, they realized theyneeded to get more male members
into the SPB to really start thewheels of change going, and so
they reached out to influentialmen and asked them to become
life associates to the group.
Many were happy to join.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I mean why not?
I mean it's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I mean, like you know , polite society.
Back in the day you needed aninvitation.
So basically they were allvampires.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, yeah.
By 1899, there were 20,000members and they were catching
the eyes and ears of QueenVictoria herself.
The Queen was very much againstanimal cruelty and made an
order prohibiting the wearing ofegret sprays by her military.
It was a small victory, but theSPB had still not made much of
(17:34):
a dent in the demand for exoticbird plumage of a dent in the
demand for exotic bird plumage.
Even after they became theRoyal Society for the Protection
of Birds in 1904, thanks to aroyal charter by Edward VII,
they were still spinning theirproverbial wheels.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Still there were other voices around the world
calling for protection andconservation.
An Australian ornithologistnamed Arthur H Mattingly was one
of many in the land down underwho documented the devastating
decline of bird populations.
Mattingly's meticulous work andphotographs prove the decline
of bird species in theirhabitats, revealing the
(18:09):
devastating effects ofoverhunting and habitat
destruction driven by the demandfor feathers.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
His work provided crucial scientific evidence to
support conservation efforts andraise awareness about the
urgent need to protect birdpopulations from exploitation.
It was near the Murray Riverthat he captured a devastating
picture that shocked the wholeworld and really drove a
devastating nail into the plumemarket.
It's a grainy black and whitepicture of a nest.
There are two very young egrets, barely old enough to stand on
(18:41):
their long, wobbly legs.
Below the image is text thatsays Starving Egrets.
Parents Shot for their Plumes,young, young egrets, plumafera
calling to passing herons forfood, waiting for the end Young,
all but dead.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
The picture is heartbreaking when you realize
that they are just like anyorphans, begging for food and
hoping to make it one more day.
Mattingly's article, plunderedfor the Plumes, hit the UK,
paris, amsterdam, italy, spain,denmark and Australia and the US
, along with the photo and manyothers.
In 1911, the RSPB got a hold ofthe article and posted the
(19:20):
photos on billboards and in shopwindows.
This started protests againstthe wearing of feathers in
London's West End, and by 1913,the international plume market
fell out of favor.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
The last fall of the axe, if you'll allow me the
euphemism, was when Colonel SirCharles Yate went to the House
of Commons in the UK andintroduced a plumage bill in
1920.
It was defeated, but thefollowing year the importation
of plumage Prohibition Act waspassed by Parliament.
It took 33 years forWilliamson's dream to come true,
(19:53):
but it was three decades wellspent, and the RSPB is still
around, thanks to its almostforgotten founder.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
The use of feathers in fashion during the 1800s
exemplifies the detrimentalconsequences of human
exploitation of naturalresources for aesthetic purposes
.
The insatiable demand forfeathered attire led to the near
extinction of numerous birdspecies and the actual
extinction of others,highlighting the profound impact
of fashion and biodiversity.
(20:22):
As we reflect on this chapterin history, it serves as a stark
reminder of the need forsustainable practices in the
fashion industry and theimportance of conservation
efforts to preserve our planet'sprecious wildlife.
Conservation efforts topreserve our planet's precious
wildlife, championed byindividuals like Emily
Williamson, arthur H Mattinglyand organizations such as the
RSPB.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Well, folks, that wraps up.
This episode of Smartacus TellsHistory.
We hope you learned somethingfrom this intriguing tidbit from
the annals of history.
If you have any historicalquestions or topics you'd like
us to explore in future episodes, don't hesitate to reach out.
Thank you for joining us and ifyou enjoyed this episode,
please subscribe and leave us areview.
(21:03):
We'll be back with more storiesfrom the past.
Until then, keep exploring.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Thanks for listening to Smarticus Tells History.
If you enjoyed this episode,don't forget to rate and review
and make sure to subscribe, andbe sure to follow the show at
facebookcom.
Slash smarticustellshistory orjust click the link in the show
description.
Thanks again for listening.
See you next time you.
Welcome to Smartacus.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Tells History.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Alright, enough with the echo and fanfare.
You're here for history, right,and not that boring crap you
learned in high school.
This stuff's actuallyinteresting, like things you've
never heard about the Civil War,cleopatra, automobiles,
monopoly, the Black Plague andmore Fascinating stories,
interesting topics and somedownright weird facts from the
(00:28):
past.
It's a new twist on somestories you may know and an
interesting look at some thingsyou may have never heard.
So grab a beer, kick back andenjoy.
Here's your host, smarticus.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Hello history enthusiasts, welcome back to
another episode of SmarticusTells History.
I am your host, smarticus,accompanied by my co-host,
phoenix.
Hi, today we're going to betalking about the fashion trend
that saw the exploitation andextinction of several bird
species, a trend that was somassive in the 1800s that it
affected the entire world.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
But first food, and as a wink and a nod to our
feathered friends, we're eatinghummingbird cake yeah, I haven't
tried mine yet.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I have um.
Have you?
I figured you had um youusually do.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Sometimes I like to wait to get more of an authentic
thing I usually try to, butthis I mean, you know, there had
to be a little tasting and themaking I tasted the frosting.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
That was the only thing I tasted so far oh my god,
oh, this is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, I told you.
So for those of you who don'tknow, hummingbird cake is an old
southern favorite.
My grandmother was fromLouisiana, so I've had this most
of my life.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh, it's so good.
There's pineapple in it,there's pecans, there's bananas,
obviously.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Oh, I didn't.
Yeah, I didn't put pecans inmine.
I'm not a pecan person.
But I'm sure it makes a crunchytexture.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Sorry, licking my lips here.
What I did was I stuck them ina coffee grinder so it turned
them into powder.
Oh, yeah, so you just get alittle hint of the flavor, but
because my daughter would nothave eaten it if I had actually
left big old chunks in there.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
No, yeah, that's a good idea.
Yeah, yeah, in the recipe Ithink it says just to crush them
or to buy the ones that arepre-crushed.
Yep, but no, this is reallygood.
It does have.
I mean, I guess, just like anyother cake, it has tons and tons
of sugar in it.
Yes, and when I poured it out,there was also an alarmingly
(02:32):
amount of vegetable oil.
I thought, oh yeah, it was acup and three quarters of
freaking vegetable oil.
I know a cup and a quarter.
Yeah, I think it was a cup and aquarter of vegetable oil.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And you end up making with the recipe, you end up
making with it.
With the recipe, you end upmaking two nine inch cakes yeah
and those babies are heavy yeahyeah, they were super heavy but
at the same time it's a reallylight, fluffy cake it is.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, it's nice and fluffy.
I had to um stick mine back inthe oven a couple of times yeah,
mine needed longer than the40-some minutes.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It said.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
No, it said 24 to 30 minutes is what it said yeah,
that's what it was, and so Isaid, all right, well, I'll try
it at 25 minutes first.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I didn't have any toothpicks so I used a butter
knife and so I pulled it out at25 minutes.
I stuck the butter knife inthere and I pulled it out and it
was, and it was on it.
So I was like all right, well,it's got to go back in a little
bit longer, right?
So I did five minutes and, uh,I pulled back out again and then
, after I cleaned it off cleanthe knife off, um, and it was
about halfway I'm still on thereagain, yeah, um, so I was like
(03:39):
all right, so I did another fiveminutes and then, third time
was a charm, and it came outclean, nice.
So I was like all right, doneand it was about 35 minutes.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I guess at that point yeah, I started to pull mine
out the first time after thetimer went off because I used I
did 25 too.
I didn't do 24 minutes.
I was like that's weird, I'mnot doing 24 that's what I
thought too so I did 25 and Istarted to pull it out and I
could see that both of them werejiggling in the middle like a
roly-poly person.
You know what I'm talking aboutfolks.
There was some jiggle in themiddle.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, I knew as soon as I pulled it out.
And of course I immediatelythought of that video that I
think you sent me of GordonRamsay and his mother with that
pie or whatever.
Whatever it was that they weremaking.
Yes, and she's like, is thatdone in the middle?
And he's like, yeah, of courseyou do.
He sticks and he's like, oh,actually it's not.
And he's like, how did you knowthat wasn't done in the middle?
(04:27):
And she's like I could see itfrom the angle.
It was jiggling or whatever.
Yeah, or whatever it was, butyeah, it was.
Mine were also extra jigglywhen I pulled them out.
They definitely needed at leastanother 10 minutes in.
There is it's, it's nice, it'sa nice texture.
It's not, um, it's not.
Uh, you know, too soft to.
You know, like my, you knowwell, I guess yours too.
(04:48):
You know, half the time we dothese it's, it's epic failure
well, for me it's bread.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I am terrible at bread, but when it comes to
making almost any other kind oflike a cake, I can make.
Cake man, I'm good with cake Ithink that's the only thing that
we've really screwed up is aform of bread.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, what did we have?
Oh well, the Lardy cake, whichI don't really call a cake
because it was more of a bread.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, I don't know why I don't want to be called a
cake.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
but yeah, it was more of a bread.
That one was an epic failure,and then that was horrendous.
Yeah, the spotted dick that wehad came out, okay, but it was
an issue too, though.
Yeah, a little bit, I think,yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Mine was so stinking dry, I mean, and, like I said,
you could have used that thingas a doorstop.
It was not going to go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It was so heavy, oh my gosh.
All right, well, I finished offmy piece.
Nice, that was actually prettygood.
It's just me, I live alone, ofcourse.
So I made a whole cake, a wholenine inch cake, with two halves
, of course, like it says, andso I'm going to have lots left
over.
Yeah, mine will not probablyfinish the week it will have
(06:03):
maybe three days left andeveryone will have had a piece
every single day.
Well, I'm a pre-diabetic too,so I probably won't be eating it
very much.
Yeah, you ought to be careful,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I ran out of confectioner's sugar.
I was trying to make thefrosting.
I thought I had enough.
In my head I still had enough,but I was wrong.
So my husband gets our littleninja thing out.
He's like I got you, and hegets a bunch of regular sugar
and just starts blitzing thesnot out of it and I was like oh
yeah, that's how you makeconfectioner.
(06:32):
Yeah, is it okay?
Yeah, I had.
I knew it in the back of myhead because I learned it from
somewhere.
I can't remember, but he knewit.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
He was like I got you , don't worry I didn't realize,
so I went um, like I said, Ididn't buy the extra stuff until
uh this morning.
I didn't realize, so I went um,like I said, I didn't buy the
extra stuff until uh thismorning.
I didn't realize that powderedsugar came in like a plastic bag
.
Yeah, um, I mean, it makessense there is.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
There's some kind that you can get from a box, but
I'll tell you what.
It's not as good yeah.
I don't know how else to say it, other than it's just not as
good as the stuff you buy in thebag.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, I left it in the bag, but I'm probably going
to end up putting it in like atote or something.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Just because it is powdered, and I know that if
that bag tears like it's justgoing to go everywhere.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
So yeah, I always stuck mine in a container or
another bag.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, I'm going to put it in a container.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
If you're worried about it getting too moist, what
you can do is you can stick amarshmallow in there.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Oh yeah, mine are.
They're airtight containers, sothat should be a problem.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Carry on Smarticus.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Okay, I will carry on .
Let's see here.
Starting in the late 1700s andhaving a huge boom throughout
the 1800s, the fashion industrywitnessed a craze for feathers,
particularly in Europe and NorthAmerica.
Feathers, once symbols ofprestige and luxury, became
(07:57):
highly sought after adornmentsfor clothing, hats and
accessories.
Originally for the elite, thistrend eventually trickled its
way to those in the lower stratatoo.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
We're not talking about just any feathers.
No, the more ornate the better.
Hummingbird feathers with theiriridescent shine and
color-changing abilities whenturned, the lyrebird with its
gorgeous tail, plumage egretswith their pretty wispy feathers
(08:32):
, and so much more.
That's not even touching on thestuffed birds brought into
London's kind of weird.
If you look at some of thepictures, like the links that I
put for our resources, the linksthat I put for our resources
there are pictures of stuff thatsurvived to now from that time
and they are frightening.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Really, I mean, I can't imagine going.
Oh, you know what I really needto complete this fabulous
outfit?
I need some little dead bird'shead on a brooch right here in
between my boobs.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, that's weird.
That's alarmingly weird, Right?
And why would they think thatthat was even fashionable?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I guess we talk about that a little bit later.
On.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Okay, before you start thinking it was crazy, it
was a crazy European thing, Imean, like everything else.
It's important to remember thatfeathers have always been
utilized in fashion, going backto antiquity, as decorative
elements symbolizing elegance,wealth, status and ceremony.
Think of the Native Americans,the Mayans and Incans, ancient
(09:42):
Greece and so on.
However, the craze during the1800s was on a whole other level
.
The market for feathers duringits height was large and in
demand that the price for anounce of plumage could earn a
hunter $32.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
In today's money, that's $1,000 per ounce, making
plumes worth twice their weightin gold.
In 1902, over 1,600 boxes ofheron plumes were sold in just
one London auction house, whichis brought further into
perspective when you realizethat four herons worth of
feathers were needed to makejust one lady's hat.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Which brings us to the millinery industry, where it
all started.
The art of hat makingexperienced a golden age during
the 19th century, as we said,because of bird plumage, but it
all started thanks largely tothe export of objects and people
from Brazil to Europe, startingback in the 16th century.
Birds, their feathers and theway the local indigenous people
dressed in South America heavilyinfluenced color schemes and
(10:40):
aesthetic ideas on the Europeanfashion world.
Large, elaborate hats adornedwith feathers became essential
accessories for women of highsociety.
Feathers were meticulouslyarranged in intricate designs,
often embellished with ribbons,flowers, gemstones and even
exotic bugs.
This was called the Brazilianstyle in Europe.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Which brings a whole new meaning to the Brazilian
style, now Totally different.
If you seriously go look at oneof them, I can't reach what it
is.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Don't look at the Brazilian style, don't do that,
no, no, not that the bugs though.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
The bugs, though it was a fan and it it had all
these gorgeous feathers it wasjust you know it's like a little
fan for fanning your stuff whenit's too hot at church or
whatever and there are shinylittle bug carcasses mixed with
the feathers it's.
I was just like no, I don'twant bugs near me on any other
(11:39):
time.
I don't want them on my clothes.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
No yeah, that's kind of weird, it's just people are
crazy live bugs on you like it'sjust oh, no, no weird, I mean.
I mean, I get they're dead, butyou know what I mean, right?
No, exactly, they were live.
You know their carcasses on you.
Why?
Why would you want that on you?
Um, I can totally understand.
(12:02):
You know people.
You know wanting jewelry.
You know of the fake ones.
You know like the uh, theegyptian scarab.
Um, yes, you know like whatever, right, that's not.
Why would you want a deadanimal on you?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
yeah, no, especially some of those beetles that they
have down in south america.
Heck, no yeah, I don't evenwant to look at them as a
picture, and I don't let alonehave it on me, right?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
and I don't know if maybe well, like there wasn't
any kind of like epoxy oranything back then.
So I don't know what they wouldlike they had.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They had epoxy, but it was caustic stuff um well, it
wasn't.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
What they have now, though, is what I'm right,
exactly so the preservation ofthose things.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I don't know how in the world they've survived to
this day, but someone was takingvery good care of their stuff
right.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Well, I was more inclined to think about, you
know, the smell of them, likehow did they clean them, how did
they?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
I didn't even think about looking into that.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
How did they not smell?
I would imagine they wouldsmell.
I mean, if you think, I mean,even if you have, like you know,
Junebug season, if you don't goout there and sweep your porch
around, it's going to startsmelling.
Yeah, I mean even dead leavessmell, yeah, so I don't know, I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I do know that they had lacquers back in the day
though they had, you know, forpaintings and sealing your wood
furniture and stuff like that.
So, maybe they were usingsomething like that, but yeah, I
don't know, that, but yeah, Idon't know.
Just encapsulate their littledead carcasses and lacquer and
(13:45):
stitch that bad boy on the fan.
Of course, the mass productionof feathered fashion items had a
devastating impact on birdpopulations worldwide.
How could it not, when featherswere being integrated into
almost every article of clothinga person wore?
It didn't help that huntersemployed ruthless methods to
meet the demand, often resortingto indiscriminate slaughter and
habitat destruction.
Entire colonies of nestingbirds were decimated, with
(14:08):
species such as the snowy egretand the great auk facing
imminent extinction due to theoverhunting for their plumes.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
At one point the demand for lyrebird feathers was
so high in Australia that over400 were killed in one district
in a single season, just tosatisfy the London market.
The lyrebird is one of theoldest species there, with
fossils dating 15 million years,and they were nearly hunted
into extinction.
Egrets, herons, bowerbirds,emus they were all targets in
(14:36):
the land down under.
Bowerbirds, emus they were alltargets in the land down under.
According to an article byMalcolm Smith in History Today,
Trinidad alone exported 15,000hummingbirds a week in the 1800s
.
Nowhere was safe for the poorwinged creatures.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Fashion icons and trendsetters of the 19th century
played a significant role inpopularizing feathered attire.
Empress Eugenie of France andQueen Victoria set the standard
for elegance and sophisticationand inadvertently contributed to
the exploitation of avianspecies.
However, there was anothercontributor to the demand, and
that was, and still is, a bitmore overtly grotesque the
(15:17):
ornithologists working at theVictoria Museum.
They were killing thousands ofbirds a year in the name of
scientific discovery, whileblaming the scarcity and flated
market valuation on frivolouswomen.
One article from them in 1887stated all that can be hoped for
is that the freaks of femininevanity may take some other and
(15:37):
less harmful direction.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Amidst the rampant destruction of bird populations,
there were many voicesdemanding conservation.
One such person, who was nearlyforgotten until recently, was
Emily Williamson.
In 1889, she founded theSociety for the Protection of
Birds, spb.
In response to the alarmingdecline of bird species due to
the feather trade.
The SPB advocated for theProtection of Birds.
(16:00):
Spb.
In response to the alarmingdecline of bird species due to
the feather trade, the SPBadvocated for the ethical
treatment of birds andcampaigned against the
indiscriminate killing forfeathers.
The British Ornithologist Union, bou, which had only male
members and believed that womencould never be on their level,
firmly denounced the SPB as somegroup of sanctimonious women
trying to play in men's business.
(16:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right.
Regardless of what BOU said,williamson and her group grew to
5,000 members in just sixmonths.
That number doubled in 1893.
15,000 letters and 50,000leaflets were sent out annually,
speaking out against the lackof restrictions and care to the
various bird populations.
(16:43):
In 1892, the usage of birdfeathers was still in shops, but
not in every one of them.
Eventually, they realized theyneeded to get more male members
into the SPB to really start thewheels of change going, and so
they reached out to influentialmen and asked them to become
life associates to the group.
Many were happy to join.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I mean why not?
I mean it's a good thing.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I mean, like you know , polite society.
Back in the day you needed aninvitation.
So basically they were allvampires.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, yeah.
By 1899, there were 20,000members and they were catching
the eyes and ears of QueenVictoria herself.
The Queen was very much againstanimal cruelty and made an
order prohibiting the wearing ofegret sprays by her military.
It was a small victory, but theSPB had still not made much of
(17:34):
a dent in the demand for exoticbird plumage of a dent in the
demand for exotic bird plumage.
Even after they became theRoyal Society for the Protection
of Birds in 1904, thanks to aroyal charter by Edward VII,
they were still spinning theirproverbial wheels.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Still there were other voices around the world
calling for protection andconservation.
An Australian ornithologistnamed Arthur H Mattingly was one
of many in the land down underwho documented the devastating
decline of bird populations.
Mattingly's meticulous work andphotographs prove the decline
of bird species in theirhabitats, revealing the
(18:09):
devastating effects ofoverhunting and habitat
destruction driven by the demandfor feathers.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
His work provided crucial scientific evidence to
support conservation efforts andraise awareness about the
urgent need to protect birdpopulations from exploitation.
It was near the Murray Riverthat he captured a devastating
picture that shocked the wholeworld and really drove a
devastating nail into the plumemarket.
It's a grainy black and whitepicture of a nest.
There are two very young egrets, barely old enough to stand on
(18:41):
their long, wobbly legs.
Below the image is text thatsays Starving Egrets.
Parents Shot for their Plumes,young, young egrets, plumafera
calling to passing herons forfood, waiting for the end Young,
all but dead.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
The picture is heartbreaking when you realize
that they are just like anyorphans, begging for food and
hoping to make it one more day.
Mattingly's article, plunderedfor the Plumes, hit the UK,
paris, amsterdam, italy, spain,denmark and Australia and the US
, along with the photo and manyothers.
In 1911, the RSPB got a hold ofthe article and posted the
(19:20):
photos on billboards and in shopwindows.
This started protests againstthe wearing of feathers in
London's West End, and by 1913,the international plume market
fell out of favor.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
The last fall of the axe, if you'll allow me the
euphemism, was when Colonel SirCharles Yate went to the House
of Commons in the UK andintroduced a plumage bill in
1920.
It was defeated, but thefollowing year the importation
of plumage Prohibition Act waspassed by Parliament.
It took 33 years forWilliamson's dream to come true,
(19:53):
but it was three decades wellspent, and the RSPB is still
around, thanks to its almostforgotten founder.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
The use of feathers in fashion during the 1800s
exemplifies the detrimentalconsequences of human
exploitation of naturalresources for aesthetic purposes
.
The insatiable demand forfeathered attire led to the near
extinction of numerous birdspecies and the actual
extinction of others,highlighting the profound impact
of fashion and biodiversity.
(20:22):
As we reflect on this chapterin history, it serves as a stark
reminder of the need forsustainable practices in the
fashion industry and theimportance of conservation
efforts to preserve our planet'sprecious wildlife.
Conservation efforts topreserve our planet's precious
wildlife, championed byindividuals like Emily
Williamson, arthur H Mattinglyand organizations such as the
RSPB.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Well, folks, that wraps up.
This episode of Smartacus TellsHistory.
We hope you learned somethingfrom this intriguing tidbit from
the annals of history.
If you have any historicalquestions or topics you'd like
us to explore in future episodes, don't hesitate to reach out.
Thank you for joining us and ifyou enjoyed this episode,
please subscribe and leave us areview.
(21:03):
We'll be back with more storiesfrom the past.
Until then, keep exploring.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Thanks for listening to Smarticus Tells History.
If you enjoyed this episode,don't forget to rate and review
and make sure to subscribe, andbe sure to follow the show at
facebookcom.
Slash smarticustellshistory orjust click the link in the show
description.
Thanks again for listening.
See you next time you.
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