Maria Tallmadge Cushman home remedies notebook

00-1949-39-0

Collection

Identifier: 00-1949-39-0

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Maria Tallmadge Cushman home remedies notebook (1949-39-0) was compiled by Maria Tallmadge Cushman from the year 1840 through 1864. The small notebook contains home remedies for illness as well as many recipes and hints for household cleaning. Many of the remedies are handwritten, and a fair amount are newspaper clippings. Health remedies include treatments for cholera, cancer, colds, rheumatism, dysentery, and "Mrs. Noyes Recipe for purifying the blood." Interspersed with health cures are recipes and tips for housekeeping. These items include tips about softening sponges, cleaning looking glass, extracting durable ink, killing bed bugs, as well as recipes for cologne water, various soaps (such as toilet soap and shaving soap), lotions for the gums, and tooth powder. The item is currently housed in 3A Box 30.

Dates

created: 1840-1864
Other: Date acquired: 11/30/1948

Creator

Cushman, Maria Tallmadge, 1790-1878 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright has been transferred to the Litchfield Historical Society for materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection. Copyright status for other collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Biographical or Historical Information

Maria Tallmadge Cushman, daughter of Benjamin and Maria Floyd Tallmadge of Litchfield, Connecticut, was born March 25, 1790. In 1801 and 1802, Benjamin, a 1772 graduate of Yale College, had his daughter study at the Litchfield Female Academy in her hometown. In 1812 Maria wed John Paine Cushman, a lawyer from Troy, New York who had attended the Litchfield Law School in 1808. Prior to meeting and marrying John Cushman, Maria was engaged to Virgil Maxcy, a law school student from Attleborough, Massachusetts who studied in Litchfield in 1805. It is unclear exactly when the engagement was broken but letters between the two indicate that Maria was not as interested in Virgil as he was in her. A letter from Tapping Reeve consoling Maria on her decision indicates that the break may have come in 1807. Maria's father, Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge was a land speculator, merchant, bank president, and United States Congressman. Maria's maternal grandfather General William Floyd served as Governor of New York, a member of the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence.

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