Posts Archives - Bonny Miller

Raisin Oatmeal “Conference Cookies”

On November 11, 2023

By request, here’s the recipe! I call them “Conference Cookies” because the recipe makes a big batch, enough to last through the SCMTA (South Carolina Music Teachers Association) conference.

No cookie from the grocery store had ever tasted as good as these soft raisin cookies when I made them for the first time when I was in seventh grade. The original recipe came from General Foods Kitchens’ All About Home Baking (6^th edition, 1963; note dog-eared cover and stained pages), a booklet we used in my Home Economics class. These days I substitute instant oatmeal in place of nuts to steer clear of nut allergies.

Who was J. W. B. Garrett?

By Bonny Miller

On April 26, 2023

In Posts

Who was J. W. B. Garrett, whom Augusta Browne married in September 1855, within weeks of first meeting him?

J. W. B. (John Walter Benjamin) Garrett was an artist who specialized in portraits, especially paintings made from small daguerreotypes, just as families today can commission a portrait to be painted from a photograph. Garrett had not trained as an artist and turned to painting around 1850, after chasing journalism and politics as a young man. John (J. W. B.) did not hail from New York. He arrived in Gotham during the summer of 1855, after traveling from Memphis, Tennessee, where he had recently lived and maintained a portrait studio.

Irish Curiosity (in Honor of St. Patrick’s Day)

By Bonny Miller

On March 17, 2023

In Augusta Browne, Posts

“Irish Curiosity” is the name of a short story published by Augusta Browne in 1848, one hundred seventy-five years ago. The theme of the humorous story is curiosity, which is considered a commendable thirst for knowledge in a man, but in a woman, curiosity is regarded as inappropriate interference in the affairs of others. Further, as Browne expressed in deliberately misspelled language that gave the flavor of an Irish brogue, a woman “of coorse can’t kape a saycret.”

SCMTA Shared Presentation

By Bonny Miller

On February 19, 2023

In Posts

Thank you to the South Carolina Music Teachers Association (SCMTA) for hosting my Zoom presentation, “Schumann’s Hand and Musicians’ Wellness,” on February 18, 2023.

The SCMTA series of statewide Zoom speakers grew out of the COVID shutdown when local chapters could not meet in person. Each chapter identified a presentation by one of their members to be broadcast via Zoom. The shared presentation series has continued as a beneficial opportunity to learn from and interact with colleagues from around the state without leaving home. I was honored to represent the Columbia Music Teachers Association. My session was recorded and is available to members on a private YouTube channel.

Music, History, Women, and Heritage

Category: Posts Page 1 of 5

Raisin Oatmeal “Conference Cookies”

Who was J. W. B. Garrett?

Irish Curiosity (in Honor of St. Patrick’s Day)

SCMTA Shared Presentation