As United States involvement in the Second World War loomed near, President Roosevelt recognized that the production of arms and armaments to support the US and its allies would require a massive number of workers, including African Americans who continued to suffer under segregation ...
Many people enjoy the yearly ritual of choosing a calendar, date book, or planner in which to note their daily activities. These seemingly innocuous notes and scribbles can sometimes reveal interesting details about people's interests, social and professional lives, priorities and goals, or other personal details...
Special Collections and Archives holds a fragment of a Torah scroll. Although difficult to date, the scroll most likely dates from 1800 to 1950. On 10 sheets of parchment sewn together, the section runs from Numbers 2:22 to 32:131. Although the segment is no longer Kosher...
Japanese incursions into China began as early as 1931, shortly after the Mukden (or Manchurian) Incident. The following six years saw several smaller incursions, both military and political. For the Far East and Southeast Asia, the war began with the full-scale Japanese invasion of China in 1937; two years later it would become World War II...
For guitarists, achieving recognition and fame through one’s unique ability to imagine, craft, and perform is a satisfying and rewarding experience that distinguishes the musician as exemplary. The Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) holds the International Concert Artist Competition each year, awarding the lucky winner an extensive international tour, a cash prize, a recording contract...
Pseudoscience consists of a body of knowledge presented as being derived from scientific experiments and methods while simultaneously failing to present evidence of its veracity. Belief in various pseudoscientific ideas has been widespread in different historical periods, and even in the present day. The 19th century in particular saw a flourishing of pseudoscientific ideas, including spiritualist ideas ...
This week's blog post explores several cookbooks from our Culinary Collections, focusing on one main ingredient – corn. Corn is a coarse grain with origins in the Americas. Although its birth place is debated, Mexico is often cited with a date range of 5,000 to 25,000 years ...
Baedeker's travel guides, produced by publisher Karl Baedeker and his descendants beginning in the 1830s, were hugely popular with European audiences travelling around neighboring European nations and the far-flung reaches of their colonial empires. Baedeker wanted travelers to find ....
Found in the Arnold Court Collection on Polar Exploration within Special Collections & Archives are two official reports of USRM Corwin, one from 1881 and the other 1884. Both are essentially ship’s logs that report information including weather conditions, navigation coordinates, reports on ....
Ours is a society anchored on identity--whether a screenname you use online, a driver's license with your name and physical description, a passport that allows you to come and go in particular countries, or the absence of any of the above. Passports and identification documents in the Old ...
