Honoring Our Veterans

This organization features interviews with current and former members of the Armed Services. Hear their experiences in their own words, and in their own voices. 

Hallowe'en During a Pandemic (No, not this one)

What did Hallowe'en look like during the 1918 influenza outbreak? Hint: Jollification was frowned upon. Read more about it here.

Juneteenth, Yesterday and Today

Happy Juneteenth! You may be hearing more about Juneteenth this year than you have in the past, but the significance of the date has been noted for some time.  Look at this website for more details about the history and the event that it commemorates. 

Historical City Maps

Regular readers of this blog know that I am enamored of maps, and especially historical maps. So I was very excited to see that the Library of Congress has a free collection of historical city maps. You can see what Manhattan or San Francisco used to look like a century ago. The image below is a bird's eye view of Washington DC in 1883. You can see the Washington monument and the Capitol Building, but the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials were not yet built.

1938 Selfie

This photo was taken in a mirror in 1938. It is one of the rarely seen historical photos in this collection. Bonus points if you can identify the boy in the picture.  I'll post the answer tomorrow. 

Fifty Years of Earth Day

Fifty years ago today, the first Earth Day helped to establish an environmental awareness, and changed the way we live. On this site, you can sign up to take action, or read about the history of the event, or watch newscasts reporting on the movement that swept the nation. Stay fly, Eagles!  

Investigating the Assassination of President Lincoln

President Abraham Lincoln died 155 years ago today, after being shot the night before by actor John Wilkes Booth. In this online exhibit from Ford's Theatre, you can collect and analyse the evidence that brought the conspirators to justice. 

Attention All Map Aficionados

Every map tells a story, and these maps help to tell the story of contagion in 19th century. They illustrate where diseases occurred, and how they traveled. What will the maps of COVID-19 show?

Map of malaria deaths in the US in 1870. (Library of Congress)

Newspaper Ads From the 1918 Flu Pandemic

Historians and scientists are looking back to the flu pandemic of 1918, which claimed millions of lives worldwide. Although that flu and today's coronavirus are different diseases, and there have been obvious medical advances in the past 100 years, these ads from newspapers at the time show, in some respects, how little has really changed.

You can see more ads, and read more about them, in this Time magazine article.

Stay Fly, Eagles!