12 Etiquette Screw-Ups In 1896
Manners still matter.Later this month in Los Angeles, at the annual convention of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society — a group that focuses on making systems, devices and machines more...
View ArticlePop Quiz: Who Was The Only President To ...
Only is a lonely word. It sets people apart and places them at a back-of-the-cafe table for one. When speaking of the 43 men who have been president of the United States — a rarefied roster already —...
View ArticleAmerican Women Who Were Anti-Suffragettes
With the new movie about the British suffrage movement, Suffragette, scheduled to be released this week, recollections of protest and debate concerning a woman's right to vote in the U.S. are...
View ArticleA Very Weird Photo Of Ulysses S. Grant
Swim around enough in the oceanic photo archives of the Library of Congress and you will spot some strange things — including old doctored photos of two-headed humans and a man-monster...
View ArticleHalloweens Past: Wacky Pranks With Wagons
When America was younger: Ladies wore hats, men sported spats and Halloween could be hard on the family buggy or wagon.By the late 19th century, All Hallows Eve had become – all across the country — a...
View Article5 Best-Selling Female Writers You May Not Have Heard Of
A handful of popular female writers of 19th century America — such as Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe — continue to be widely taught and read.
View ArticleThomas Jefferson's 10 Rules Of Life — Mocked
Thomas Jefferson was a great one for giving out advice. As Anna Berkes points out on the Monticello website, the third U.S. president often took the opportunity to advise family and friends on...
View Article6 Jokes From 19th Century America
There were some mighty funny folks in 19th century America: writers Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce, for instance. And, by some accounts, stage comedians Fanny Rice and Marshall P. Wilder.For a while,...
View ArticleCivil War Leaders — In An 1880s Insurance Ad?
Take a look at this photo. It's a handsome group portrait of, according to the Library of Congress, President Abraham Lincoln, flanked by Adm. David G. Farragut and Gens. William T. Sherman, George...
View ArticleWhat Do We Do Now In America The Same Way We Did It 100 Years Ago?
Can we crowdsource a history story?Often you add insightful information to stories I have posted and sometimes you suggest new stories for me to write. I feel like we are in a partnership.So, I...
View Article18 Rules Of Behavior For Young Ladies In 1831
"This is indeed," the Adams Sentinel in Gettysburg, Pa., proclaimed on Feb. 24, 1830, "the age of improvement."The proclamation was part of a story about the Moral Encyclopaedia, a set of self-teaching...
View Article'Masking' Memories: Thanksgiving In Disguise
These days it seems like the holidays are running together — at least commercially speaking — when Halloween masks start popping up around Labor Day and Christmas trappings are for sale in the stores...
View ArticleThe Peculiar Parade Of Thanksgiving Traditions
Time was in America that stores routinely closed on Thanksgiving Day.
View ArticleA Forgotten Presidential Candidate From 1904
Despite what you read in some history books — such as the Biographical Dictionary of Congressional Women— Rep.
View ArticleBuilding The Library Of Congress — In A GIF
Contracted by the government between 1880 and 1896, photographer Levin C. Handy documented the construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill.Handy, who was...
View Article
