History, Natural History & the Arts
Henry Davis Minot was born near Forest Hills (part of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston) in 1859, the sixth of seven children of William and Katharine Maria Sedgwick Minot.
He took an early interest in ornithology (the study of birds), recording careful observations, including, at the age of 11, what he believed to be a new species of bird in 1871 (it turned out not to be the case). [Read more…] about Henry Davis Minot’s Adirondack Warbler & ‘Diary of a Bird’
The Reconstruction Era (1865–1877) was an exceedingly turbulent period after the Civil War. The federal government faced the challenges of reintegrating the 11 seceded Confederate states back into the United States, rebuilding the Southern economy, defining the legal, social, and political status of four million Black Americans newly freed from slavery, and more. [Read more…] about Reconstruction Conference Set for June 25-27
The American Revolution was as much an environmental conflict as a political one and it wasn’t only people who shaped the War of Independence — or bore its consequences. The natural world also made its mark on the course of the war, while experiencing changes because of it. [Read more…] about Environmental History & The War of Independence
Ulysses S. Grant’s ancestors first came to America in 1630 when Englishman Mathew Grant landing in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Grant was always proud of his forebears, but the most important individuals in his life were his parents.
His father Jesse Root Grant (1794-1873) was an ardent abolitionist who spent part of his early years living in the home of the father of the John Brown. His mother Hannah Simpson Grant (1798-1883) came from Pennsylvania parents who were die-hard Jacksonian Democrats. [Read more…] about Ulysses S. Grant: From John Brown to Grant’s Cottage
Incensed at the landing of three ships carrying East India Company tea in late November, 1773 American colonists who had been blocking the unloading of the tea and convening meetings demanded that the tea be returned to England without delay.
On the night of December 16, 1773, between 30 and 60 disguised men rushed out of a meeting at the Old South Church and into the streets of Boston, heading for Griffin’s Wharf and its three tea-laden ships. In all, they dumped 340 large wooden chests containing some 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor that night. [Read more…] about The ‘Tea Party’ Revolution in Boston and New York
The hardships and wonders of life at sea created experiences and cultural practices that were bound to clash with Puritan orthodoxy in colonial Boston.
When the H.M.S. Rose arrived in 1686 as the town’s first long-term Royal Navy station ship, it destabilized the town’s traditional relationship with seafarers. [Read more…] about Devil Unleashed: The Royal Navy in Boston, 1685-87
Committees of Safety grew from the Committees of Correspondence, which were organized before the American Revolution to establish, through the writing of letters, an underground network of communication among Patriot leaders in the Thirteen Colonies. The committees were instrumental in setting up the First Continental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia in September and October 1774.
Authorized by the First Continental Congress in late 1774 to enforce the Articles of Association, local leaders of these committees largely determined their structure and operation. [Read more…] about The Committee of Safety in Revolutionary America
The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) has premiered a new podcast, Historians & Their Histories. The first episode features Blake McGready, a US historian interested in environmental history, especially of the American Revolution. [Read more…] about Environmental History of the American Revolution
If it weren’t for a typo, few members of the American Medical Association in 1895 would have given much thought to sexual relations between women. But a dutiful reader — stumped by the use of the word “tribaism” – set off an exchange about a search for the definition of the word “tribadism.” How did this old term, with roots in ancient Greece, become a flashpoint in the emergent scientific study of sexuality? Why does it matter? [Read more…] about The 1895 Tribadism Controversy & the Invention of Sexual Deviance
Alvin Ailey (1931 – 1989) was a dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City in 1958 as a haven for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.
Ailey’s work fused theater, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with Black vernacular. His Revelations is recognized as one of the most popular and most performed ballets in the world. [Read more…] about Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: A Radical Accounting
Among the origins of the traditional New Year’s Eve “ball drop” was Dudley Observatory in Albany, where each morning a worker started up a dynamo (generator) and at exactly 12 noon flipped a switch that energized an electromagnet that pulled up a metal ball to the top of a pole on the roof of the Capitol building.
Every night at midnight, the worker flipped the switch again causing the ball to drop. (You can read about it here). [Read more…] about The Emergence of New Year’s Eve Parties in America, 1820-1929
From 1890 to 1910, public works departments and private contractors collectively paved thousands of miles of new cement sidewalks in US cities. The new sidewalks, mostly cement-bound concrete, dramatically changed walking for city pedestrians across the country.
Previously, walking around towns involved far more puddles, dust, mud, and lumpy surfaces. Impermeable cement regulated water and dirt while creating smooth surfaces. [Read more…] about Cement Sidewalks & Urban Cultures, 1890-1930
The John Quincy Adams Digital Diary is now fully online with transcriptions and manuscript images for more than 15,000 journal pages. This digital edition pairs verified and searchable transcriptions for all pages of the various diaries John Quincy Adams kept from 1779 to 1848. [Read more…] about John Quincy Adams Digital Diary Now Online
Cultural shifts and updated curatorial standards have influenced current ideas about what is appropriate to discuss and display in museums and historical organizations. Increasingly, journalists, critics, scholars, and the public are approaching museum exhibitions with a more critical eye as to which stories organizations choose to interpret as well as those that are absent. [Read more…] about Curating Controversy: Exhibiting Difficult Objects in Museums
In addition to providing inexpensive intoxication and occasionally lousy accommodations, village taverns in the Northeast were urbanizing institutions. They helped New Yorkers and New Englanders conceive and pursue wide-ranging economic and social ambitions. [Read more…] about Early Northeast Taverns, Networking, Self-Improvement & Urban Tendencies
Egyptomania refers to a period of renewed interest in ancient Egypt sparked by Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign (1798-1801), which included many scientists and scholars and led to the documentation of ancient monuments in Egypt.
In 1822 Jean-François Champollion deciphered Egypt’s ancient hieroglyphs with the Rosetta Stone, which was found in July 1799 being used as building material in the construction of a French fort in the Nile Delta. [Read more…] about American Egyptomania & Egyptian Revival Art
At a time when the very foundations of democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a roadmap for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America (Viking, 2023), historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, revealing how the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” can be traced back through the earliest days of the republic. [Read more…] about Heather Cox Richardson’s Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America
Biography can be a powerful vehicle for telling some of the untold and under-told stories of people’s lives. This may be especially true for children, who are forming their ideas about what matters, and who matters, in part through the books they read. [Read more…] about Untold Stories for Children: Biographies for Kids & Why They Matter
Stephen Robertson’s granular data-driven analysis of events produced an interpretation of the racial disorder in Harlem in 1935 as a complex mix of attacks on white individuals and property and police violence.
The book was not necessarily the best form for such an interpretation as it requires arguments that are selective rather than inclusive in both their evidence and argument. [Read more…] about 1935 Harlem in Disorder: A Digital History
In 1776, General Benedict Arnold was at a great point in his life, despite being recently widowed. He was a favorite of George Washington and a respected military leader. [Read more…] about Benedict Arnold’s Unrequited Love
Use your bank’s “bill pay” option (or just send a check)
Thanks for your support! These are difficult times. Without your support we cannot publish the Almanack.
*Donations are not tax deductible.
(Click the X in the top right corner this box to not see this message again for 7 days).