Haint Blue

[mamselle]

It's great fun to do with 100 folks in a dance hall, all improvising like crazy!

M.

[Cheerful]

Thanks for the video lesson in dance history, Mamselle!  I didn't know about all of this.  Fun and joyful!

[mamselle]

You're welcome!

One of our local teachers appears for, like, 2 seconds around 1:30 or so on the Shim-sham thread.

If you know it, it's all you can do not to get up and start dancing with the music.

There are online and local (well--when possible, again) in-person groups doing classes and dances now.

M.

[mahagonny]

Ella Mae Morse. Killin' alto saxophone solo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RAg4vpi-H8

[nebo113]

An update on my search for the origins of haint blue.

This coming week, I will be meeting with a local history librarian in Gullah country.  We will search the collection for early reference to the term.

I've also contacted a curator at a historic home, also in Gullah country, which used the term in regard to a portion of the site. 

By sometime next week, I hope to have more definitive information.

[sinenomine]

Looking forward to it, nebo113!

[mamselle]

I've recently noticed a couple of articles on the early use of indigo and/or woad in Africa and India.

I forgot to bookmark them/email them to myself, but could find them if useful.

As with smallpox inoculation, N. Am. culture benefits from so many other places' innovations and discoveries.

M. 

[nebo113]

I've recently noticed a couple of articles on the early use of indigo and/or woad in Africa and India.

I forgot to bookmark them/email them to myself, but could find them if useful.

As with smallpox inoculation, N. Am. culture benefits from so many other places' innovations and discoveries.

M.

Yes, we are a melange of any cultures.  Hold off for the time being on tracking down the articles, as I think the museum curator is working from Africa to US and back.  Let me see what she has.  Thanks.

[The Future]

Oh wow, 'from Africa-to the US-and back', this should be good, thank you nebo113 !

[FKM100]

I know that laundry blue (Reckitt's blue in the UK and Mrs Stewart's bluing in the USA) was often used to tint limewash in the 19th century. It was favored by poor folk because it was very cheap. Limewash was often the only kind of house paint they could afford and blue was one of the very few additives they could use to brighten things up. In my country, adding Reckitt's blue was widely believed to keep away flies. I never heard anything about spirits, though. It all sounds most interesting. Happy hunting!

[nebo113]

I know that laundry blue (Reckitt's blue in the UK and Mrs Stewart's bluing in the USA) was often used to tint limewash in the 19th century. It was favored by poor folk because it was very cheap. Limewash was often the only kind of house paint they could afford and blue was one of the very few additives they could use to brighten things up. In my country, adding Reckitt's blue was widely believed to keep away flies. I never heard anything about spirits, though. It all sounds most interesting. Happy hunting!

Interesting!  From what I understand, the actual composition of whatever might be determined to be hant blue is under consideration.  Indigo and buttermilk may be involved, but I am far from an expert.

[mamselle]

Did we talk upthread about the use of buttermilk as a base for a blue paint in one of the Shaker Villages? (I want to say NH, but don't recall for sure, could have been in NY).

I don't now remember if it were indigo or some other coloring agent, but I do remember buttermilk was involved.

I could just read through the thread, of course...

M.

[nebo113]

Here is what I consider the definitive response on haint blue...there is no such thing, except as brought to us be white folks.

From a curator at Telfair, Atlanta, which up until a few years ago, called the color on a ceiling in the room of an enslaved person, haint blue



"Previously it was believed that blue paint on our ceiling in the Slave Quarters was haint blue. However, after a paint analysis was done in 2019, we discovered that it is actually a synthetic ultramarine limewash. No organic additives like milk, starch, or indigo were found. This limewash became available around the 1830s and is found in other slave quarters/spaces at sites in Charleston like the Heyward-Washington House and Aiken-Rhett House. We have been trying to go around to media sources and correct the information that states the paint on our ceiling as 'haint blue'.


Unfortunately, the origins and history behind 'haint blue' remain a mystery. Our sources are very limited, but we continue to do more research to try to understand. If you do happen to discover new information on your searches, please share, and vice versa. I feel there is an endless amount of research to be done on haint blue......"  (end of curator quote)

Moreover, when I met with a local librarian knowledgeable in low country history, and went through many tomes in addition to my online research, the earliest references to haint blue were from after the turn of the century and were by white folks doing primarily anthropological studies.  Even they referenced it as being indigenous to Gullah Culture, though with no solid references, not even "According to Aunt Sally on St Helena Island....."  More along the lines of "We know it's from Gullah/Geechee culture so we don't need to provide credible evidence."

[mamselle]

Thanks for the follow-up.

Interesting that it's manufactured. I was trying to recall at one point if I'd heard something about blueberries for the Shaker paint colors I'd heard of, but had discounted it as likely to spoil and/or attract bugs.

Has a verbal study of the term itself been done? (a la OED, although they're not always reliable, either--heresy, I know...).

M.