Blog
Halloween - Foreword: A Coal-Region Halloween
Posted by Edward Moran on May 26th 2020
If, as they say, America is a melting pot, then Halloween is its seething witchly cauldron, a macabre mashup, a hobgoblined hobnob of Celtic mythology, German hexerei, and Transylvanian folkl…
Halloween - Chapter 1 : “Thys Yere The Towne Of Depe” (Part 1)
Posted by Edward Moran on May 26th 2020
Halloween is at once the most orange-blooded American and the most other-worldly of holidays. With its roots in the spooky spirit-wanderings of Celtic lands, Halloween was brought to America by Ir…
Advertisement: American Eagle Tobacco Company, Detroit, Michigan
Posted by Edward Moran on May 13th 2020
Apparently that’s Lily Langtry dressed as a geisha, in the Japonisme style graphics that was popular around the turn of the 20th century. Are those pipes and cigarette packets stuck in her ob…
WPA Poster: The Sun Rises In The West Written And Produced By Southwest Theatre Unit
Posted by Edward Moran on May 12th 2020
We are currently facing circumstances that approach the Great Depression. In May 1935, just a few days and 85 years ago, the government enacted the
Works Progress Administration.
“The
Work…
Edward Penfield And The American Poster
Posted by Judith Maas on May 8th 2020
Edward Penfield’s first poster for Harper’s in 1893 shows a man in a green coat absorbed in reading a magazine while being splashed by raindrops; the display type accompanying the figure is as mat…
Ye Ghost Ship
Posted by Gunnar Rice on May 8th 2020
An hour before sunset, after a stormy June day, in the year 1648, a crowd of colonists from the very new town of New Haven stood at the shore to watch a ship sail into harbor. While many had…
The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, And Matilda Joslyn Gage
Posted by Gunnar Rice on May 5th 2020
The name of L. Frank Baum may not carry instant recognition, but his best-known creations, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wizard of Oz, are American cultur…
The Chicago World's Fair Invented The Best And The Worst
Posted by Karen Herringa on May 2nd 2020
In 1871, a fire started in the city of Chicago that burnt its buildings to cinder and ashes. After two days of the fire spreading through four miles of inner city, it naturally put itself out. It w…
We Heard The Bells: The Influenza Of 1918 (HHS Documentary - 2015)
Posted by James Lantos on May 1st 2020
With an interview of Dr. Anthony Fauci.…
Historic Songs For A Pandemic
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Apr 30th 2020
In 1918 two events were consuming the attention and resources of the world: World War I and the Flu pandemic. The pandemic received scant attention from popular culture though it affected most a…
Backyard Chickens, Then And Now
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Apr 26th 2020
To trace the roots of the current explosion in chicken keeping, you would probably want to consider the influence of Martha Stewart, who trumpeted the appeal of the blue-green eggs produced by her…
States Helping States. It Has Happened Before.
Posted by Jeff Lantos on Apr 21st 2020
In response to the medical disaster unfolding in New York, the governors of Oregon, Washington and California sent ventilators. Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots football team, sent 300,…
Napoleon Lajoie, The Definition Of Grace
Posted by Steven Jordan on Apr 19th 2020
Written upon the Hall of Fame plaque of Napoleon “Larry” Lajoie, it reads “the most graceful and efficient second baseman of his era.” According to all accounts of his contemporaries and others who…
Jane Addams, George Pullman, and King Lear
Posted by Judith Maas on Apr 17th 2020
The career of Jane Addams (1860-1935) was bracketed by the founding of the Chicago social settlement, Hull House, in 1889, and her receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. Her list of accomplishmen…
Great Horses Of The Silver Screen
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Apr 16th 2020
The term “Wonder Horse” was coined to describe Tom Mix’s horse Tony, but eventually was used to describe any of a select cadre of movie horses known for performing risky or amazing stunts. Tony was…
Bayard Rustin, Man Of Many Faces
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Apr 15th 2020
Ronald Reagan praised Bayard Rustin’s “moral courage” after the gay civil rights activist’s death in 1987. An anti-gay praising a gay black rabble-rouser who advised Martin Luther King? The 80s wer…
“A Fortress Besieged By An Invading Army”: The Astor Place Riot
Posted by Judith Maas on Apr 12th 2020
On the evening of May 10, 1849, the British Shakespearean actor William Charles Macready, playing Macbeth, stepped onto the stage of the palatial Astor Place Opera House in lower Manhattan. Built i…
Elephants On The Brooklyn Bridge
Posted by Edward Moran on Apr 12th 2020
It was an audacious project from the start. Fourteen years in the building, the Brooklyn Bridge easily catapulted itself into the ranks of the Seven Wonders of the Industrial Age. The Bridge was a t…
“A Span, A Cry, An Ecstasy"
Posted by Edward Moran on Apr 12th 2020
If the Brooklyn Bridge were nothing more than an engineering marvel, that would have been enough to insure its place in the pantheon of great American civic enterprises. It was more than the sum of…
How Buffalo Bill Invented The Wild West
Posted by Leah Dearborn on Apr 11th 2020
When “Buffalo Bill” Cody died in 1917, more than 18,000 mourners attended his funeral and paid their respects while his body lay out for viewing at the Colorado State House. Even in death the former…
Mark Twain on the Danube
Posted by Judith Maas on Apr 11th 2020
Acclaimed novelist, lecturer, humorist, journalist, and travel writer—Mark Twain (1835-1910) received a celebrity’s welcome when he arrived in Vienna in September 1897. Bookstores could not keep up…
The Stories Of Monhegan Island
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Apr 10th 2020
Monhegan Island is a wild, sometimes harsh place. Native Americans roamed here fishing its waters and exploring its rocky wooded terrain. Pirates landed on its shores, some say leaving buried treas…
It Came From Above: A Visual History of Astronomy
Posted by Leah Dearborn on Apr 10th 2020
By Leah Dearborn When NASA's New Horizons probe hurtled past Pluto in 2015, it provided hundreds of new images of the far corners of the solar system. Artists, however, have been creatin…
The American Library Association’s Library War Service
Posted by Judith Maas on Apr 9th 2020
“In the ability to reach, educate and affect the adult population the library occupies a position of great responsibility and is a great power for national defense.” - Charles B. Alexander,…
The Coast Guard’s Forgotten History
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Apr 9th 2020
Too often overshadowed by its similarly sea-faring cousin, the Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard has a far longer history, and one that’s just as action-packed.Officially formed on January 28, 1915, the Co…
Cloud Chasing Chariots: Early Yosemite Photographers
Posted by Katrina Trepsa on Apr 8th 2020
Imagine it’s 1860. You want to capture the clouds over Yosemite. But you don’t just hold your hand above the sky, squint and take a picture. There are no hand-held cameras, no phones, no cars,…
Braille: The Language Of The Blind
Posted by Susan Bates on Apr 8th 2020
Braille has fascinated me since I was young. Created by Louis Braille in the 1800’s, it was an incredible discovery and helped millions around the world who previously were unable to read or write t…
The Gold Rush’s Hazy Grays
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Apr 8th 2020
John W. Marshall inadvertently made — and changed — history on January 24, 1848, when the carpenter found bits of gold at entrepreneur John Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. The men tried to keep…
Research Locates Site Of Salem Witch Hangings
Posted by James Lantos on Apr 7th 2020
From the Boston Globe: http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/01/12/researchers-confirm-site-salem-hangings/ReOusTREuXUo8RdxARGLNI/story.html…
Baseball's Bloomer Girls
Posted by Susan Bates on Apr 7th 2020
You have probably seen the movie “A League of their Own” starring Madonna and Geena Davis. Women’s baseball teams, belonging to the All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBL) brought the game…
Read All About It! In Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Apr 7th 2020
Whereas the Internet and cable television are the ways most receive their news today, in 1855 Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News published its first issue with a run of only 30 copies. It was an inausp…
The Civil War Battle at Mill Springs - Logan's Crossing, Kentucky, January 19, 1862
Posted by Susan Bates on Apr 5th 2020
The battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky was destined to be a pivotal conflict at the outset of the Civil War. Securing this territory would be a major victory for either side due to its p…
Podcast: The American Library Association’s Library War Service
Posted by James Lantos on Apr 5th 2020
Star Spangled Images
Posted by James Lantos on Apr 5th 2020
Pictorial America - Copyright 2020, Snapshots of the Past…
Nellie Tayloe Ross: More Than A Woman
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Apr 5th 2020
By Andrew BelonskyEvery year newspapers and historians commemorate Nellie Tayloe Ross’ January 5, 1925, inauguration as the nation’s first female governor. And it certainly was a momentous occ…
New York Public Library Puts 20,000 Hi-Res Maps Online & Makes Them Free To Download And Use
Posted by James Lantos on Apr 5th 2020
Our friends at the New York Public Library have made a proclamation. New York Public Library Map Collection Release Announcement…
Susan Glaspell and Alison’s House
Posted by Judith Maas on Apr 5th 2020
News of the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for drama elated the playwright, infuriated the theater critics, and surprised everyone. Alison’s House by Susan Glaspell beat out plays by such greats as Maxwell Ander…
Paul Revere's Will
Posted by James Lantos on Apr 5th 2020
I saw this interesting article today about the fact that Ancestry.com has made available millions of wills, including that of Paul Revere. Paul Revere, J.P. Morgan wills among millions now online.…
NY Times: Ruth Newman, A Survivor Of The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Dies At 113
Posted by James Lantos on Apr 5th 2020
Ruth Newman, a Survivor of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Dies at 113…
Rare Pictures Capture Native Americans In Late 1800s
Posted by James Lantos on Apr 5th 2020
This article appeared on the Voice of American "Learning English" website. The Library of Congress has a famous collection of Indian photographs taken by Edward Curtis. The above photograph of a Bla…
The Great Bartholdi Statue Of Liberty
Posted by Susan Bates on Apr 5th 2020
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the…
Daguerreotype Photography At Yosemite
Posted by James Lantos on Apr 5th 2020
Saw this terrific National Geographic article about the modern use of the antique method of Daguerreotype photography at Yosemite. …
The Flag In Lincoln's Box At The Ford Theater
Posted by James Lantos on Mar 11th 2019
Items and artifacts involved in the events at Ford's Theater, April 15, 1865, have made their way to different locations and to different people around the country. The Library of Congress holds…
The Smoking Terror Volcano
Posted by James Lantos on Mar 11th 2019
NASA reports: "For the first time in more than a century, Nicaragua’s Momotombo Volcano awoke with an explosive eruption. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite…
The Tractor Rumbles To Life
Posted by Gunnar Rice on Mar 11th 2019
The scene of a farmer astride a John Deere tractor, the sun beating down as he moves through rows of fields, seems a familiar part of the American landscape. But the iconic and seemingly ubiquit…