Historically Inaccurate

Poring through household and medicinal recipes from the 1700s, between the leeches and lead, Katherine Crighton ’05 came across one that looked like … modern lip balm.

The ingredients were readily available, “so I tried it, and I blew up my kitchen,” they say. Note: ultra-hot wax and water don’t mix. “But I learned something! And I wrote it down.”

Crighton has been fascinated by historic traditions ever since their days in Radcliffe Edmonds’ Magic in Ancient Greco-Roman Society class. They can draw a direct line from that class to their current project: recreating household recipes from the 1500 – 1700s.

Each recipes takes months of research and tracking down ingredients, all chronicled on Crighton’s website. But “I don’t notice because I’m just having a really nice time.”

Lip balm and a rosewater skin cream with powdered pearl—the less you know about the historical process for “essence of pearl,” the better—are Crighton’s biggest successes.

“Soap has been my nemesis,” they say. The best version so far looks more like energy bites than Dove.

Faced with mysterious ingredients and vague directions, not to mention lacking an old-timey apothecary, Crighton has to do a lot backward engineering to create faithful reproductions that are also legal and safe (hence their “historically inaccurate” descriptor). “The point is exploring it,” they say, “the point is failing at it.”

While recreating historic food is popular—Crighton cites Tasting History on YouTube as an influence—the household goods space is less crowded. Crighton sells their creations at craft markets because they have excess, but also because it gives them a chance to share their learnings and the recipes.

“People have been people for a very long time,” they say, “it’s just the technology that changes.”

Follow along at katherinecrighton.com

Photo by Matthew J. Burgos.