March 7, 2009
I’m probably way behind the curve, but this looks to me as if it could be developed into a classroom exercise of some sort.
At Geevor Tin Mine Museum’s Weblog, I stumbled onto Whenonge #7 — When on Google Earth #7 (archaeology edition).
These wacky archaeologists! They get a Google Earth image of some dig, post it, and challenge people to identify the dig and the time in history the site was actually occupied. The first to identify the site accurately gets to host the next round.
Hey, take a look at these things. They would make great slides for a presentation, but they’re also just cool.
Mystery image for When on Google Earth #7 (archaeology)
Like so much in archaeology, this game comes to us from our methodological cousins in geology. Shawn Graham adopted their game, and modified it for our use at whenonge #1. Chuck Jones had the first correct answer, and then hosted whenonge #2. The mysterious and elusive PDD got #2 right but never claimed his prize, so Chuck struck back with whenonge #2.1. Paul Zimmerman got the correct answer to #2.1 and hosted whenonge # 3. Heather Baker got the correct answer to #3 and hosted whenonge # 4, and Jason Ur won and hosted of whenonge # 5 . Dan Diffendale won that, #6 was hosted on whenonge #6 and i won this! so here we are… be the first to correctly identify the site above and its major period of occupation in the comments below and you can host your own!
What’s that? There’s a geology version, too? Good heavens! The geologists are past #150!
WoGE #124 - Where on Google Earth #124; I don't know where this is, but it looks cool.
It’s the sort of geeky game that airline real estate lawyers could play with airports, football geeks could play with collegiate football stadia, or baseball geeks with Major League Baseball parks. Hiking, camping and wilderness geeks could do a National Parks and National Monuments version, with real aficianadoes including trails in National Wilderness Areas from the National Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
Why not a simple geography version? Cities with more than 2 million population; national capital cities, state capital cities; Civil War battlefields; famous battlefields; volcanoes; 7 Wonders of the World.
Maybe someone in the Irving, Texas, ISD can get their geography kids to use their computers and put up a website devoted to some of these issues.
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Geography - Physical, geology, Lesson plans, Science, Space exploration, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: geography, geology, Google Earth, History, Satellite Images, Student projects, Technology in the classroom | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
March 7, 2009
Anthony Watts want to make a case that rising ocean levels aren’t connected to human activities, there’s nothing we can do about it, there’s nothing we should do about it, or something. Looking for a touchstone in history, Watts said:
In 2002, the BBC reported that a submerged city was found off the coast of India, 36 meters below sea level. This was long before the Hummer or coal fired power plant was invented. It is quite likely that low lying coastal areas will continue to get submerged, just as they have been for the last 20,000 years.
Submerged city? Hmm. Not in the textbooks published since 2002. What’s up with that?
NASA Earth Observatory photo of the Gujarat Gulfs, including the Gulf of Cambay (Khambhat), where a "lost city" was thought to have been found in 2001; later research indicates no city underwater.
Oh, this is what’s up: Watts links to a BBC news story, not a science journal — one of the warning signs of Bogus Science and Bogus History, both. The news story talks about preliminary findings in 2002 that did not hold up to scrutiny. Measurement error was part of the problem — the pattern of the scanning radar sweep was mistaken for structures found on the sea floor. Natural formations were mistaken for artificial formations. When the news announcement was made, archaeologists and other experts in dating such things had not be consulted (and it’s unclear when or whether they were ever brought in). The follow-up didn’t support the story, notes Bad Archaeology. Terrible archaeology to support pseudo climate science? Why not?
This doesn’t deny Watts’ general claims in his post, but it is too indicative of the type of “find anything to support the favored claim of denial” mindset that goes on among denialists. (There is evidence of a much lower waterline in the area during the last ice age; water levels have risen, according to physical evidence, but probably not inundating the what would be the oldest civilization on Earth.)
It will be interesting to watch what happens. Will Watts note an oopsie and apologize, or will the entire group circle their Radio Super wagons around the issue and call it a mainstream science plot against them? Will Watts correct his citation, or will they move on to cite the disappearance of Atlantis as evidence that warming can’t be stopped?
Anybody want to wager?
What sort of irony is there in a guy’s complaining about a scientific consensus held by thousands of scientists with hundreds of publications supporting their claims, and his using one news report almost totally without any scientific corroboration in rebuttal?
Resources:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
March 4, 2009
How can you tell I’m behind the scope and sequence?
I was just reminded today of how neat this site is: Imaging the French Revolution. Good stuff comes out of George Mason University from time to time. This site is part of that stuff.
11. Le plus Grand, des Despotes, Renversé par la Liberté (Place Vendôme). [Place Vendôme, The Greatest of Despots Overthrown by Freedom] Source: Museum of the French Revolution 88.170 Medium: Etching and colored wash Dimensions: 17.2 x 24.4 cm Commentary (numbers refer to pages in essays): General analysis – Day-Hickman, 5 Reasonable crowd – Day-Hickman, 2
Oh, also: Take a look at this site:
Some guy named Frank Smitha has assembled a history of the world, claiming to be trying to avoid bias. The French Revolution page is a pretty good run down, much more thorough than the average textbook.
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3 Comments | 1789, French Revolution, History, History images, On-line learning, Turning Points, World history | Tagged: 1789, French Revolution, History, History images, World history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 16, 2009
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you were Monty Python.
Millard Fillmore’s White House portrait, via Wikipedia
President Millard Fillmore, in the State of the Union Address, December 2, 1850
Peruvian guano has become so desirable an article to the agricultural interest of the United States that it is the duty of the Government to employ all the means properly in its power for the purpose of causing that article to be imported into the country at a reasonable price. Nothing will be omitted on my part toward accomplishing this desirable end. I am persuaded that in removing any restraints on this traffic the Peruvian Government will promote its own best interests, while it will afford a proof of a friendly disposition toward this country, which will be duly appreciated.
Update, May 22, 2013: Phosphorus becomes even more critical, according to Mother Jones (phosphorus is a key component of bat and bird guano).
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Posted by Ed Darrell
February 15, 2009
Helsingen Sanomat reports that a poster by Jukka Veistola which mobilized Finland to ban DDT back in the 1970s, has been included in a new book marking the most effective posters of the 20th century.
Jukka Veistola, Finland, 1969
Jukka Veistola, Finland, 1969
It’s great news, really.
A book has been published in Mexico that portrays the world’s most important posters from the 20th and the early 21st century. The book contains 120 posters, the artists of which include Andy Warhol, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso among others.
Included among this worthy company is also Finnish illustrator Jukka Veistola’s ideological DDT poster from 1969.
Veistola’s startling red and blue work was a prizewinner at the Warsaw International Poster Biennale in 1970, and was subsequently acquired by the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) into its collections.
In part, Veistola’s poster contributed to Finland’s becoming one of the first countries in the world to ban the use of the synthetic pesticide DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane).
I do have a couple of questions, though: First, what’s the name of the book? Second, who is the editor? Third, who published the book?
It’s great to know that the poster is in a book somewhere; it would help those who would want to find or buy the book to know the name of the book, the editor or author, and the publisher.
(We should note, too, that a gas mask wouldn’t have protected songbirds. They got the DDT by eating insects with the stuff in ’em. A dozen worms would carry a dose high enough to kill a robin; robins might eat a dozen worms in an hour.)
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Posted by Ed Darrell
February 12, 2009
Is it an unprecedented coincidence? 200 years ago today, just minutes apart according to some unconfirmed accounts, Abraham Lincoln was born in a rude log cabin on Nolin Creek, in Kentucky, and Charles Darwin was born into a wealthy family at the family home in Shrewsbury, England.
Gutzon Borglum’s 1908 bust of Abraham Lincoln in the Crypt of the U.S. Capitol – Architect of the Capitol photo
Lincoln would become one of our most endeared presidents, though endearment would come after his assassination. Lincoln’s bust rides the crest of Mt. Rushmore (next to two slaveholders), with George Washington, the Father of His Country, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and Theodore Roosevelt, the man who made the modern presidency, and the only man ever to have won both a Congressional Medal of Honor and a Nobel Prize, the only president to have won the Medal of Honor. In his effort to keep the Union together, Lincoln freed the slaves of the states in rebellion during the civil war, becoming an icon to freedom and human rights for all history. Upon his death the entire nation mourned; his funeral procession from Washington, D.C., to his tomb in Springfield, Illinois, stopped twelve times along the way for full funeral services. Lying in state in the Illinois House of Representatives, beneath a two-times lifesize portrait of George Washington, a banner proclaimed, “Washington the Father, Lincoln the Savior.”
Charles Darwin statue, Natural History Museum, London – NHM photo
Darwin would become one of the greatest scientists of all time. He would be credited with discovering the theory of evolution by natural and sexual selection. His meticulous footnoting and careful observations formed the data for ground-breaking papers in geology (the creation of coral atolls), zoology (barnacles, and the expression of emotions in animals and man), botany (climbing vines and insectivorous plants), ecology (worms and leaf mould), and travel (the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle). At his death he was honored with a state funeral, attended by the great scientists and statesmen of London in his day. Hymns were specially written for the occasion. Darwin is interred in Westminster Abbey near Sir Isaac Newton, England’s other great scientist, who knocked God out of the heavens.
Lincoln would be known as the man who saved the Union of the United States and set the standard for civil and human rights, vindicating the religious beliefs of many and challenging the beliefs of many more. Darwin’s theory would become one of the greatest ideas of western civilization, changing forever all the sciences, and especially agriculture, animal husbandry, and the rest of biology, while also provoking crises in religious sects.
Lincoln, the politician known for freeing the slaves, also was the first U.S. president to formally consult with scientists, calling on the National Science Foundation (whose creation he oversaw) to advise his administration. Darwin, the scientist, advocated that his family put the weight of its fortune behind the effort to abolish slavery in the British Empire. Each held an interest in the other’s disciplines.
Both men were catapulted to fame in 1858. Lincoln’s notoriety came from a series of debates on the nation’s dealing with slavery, in his losing campaign against Stephen A. Douglas to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate. On the fame of that campaign, he won the nomination to the presidency of the fledgling Republican Party in 1860. Darwin was spurred to publicly reveal his ideas about the power of natural and sexual selection as the force behind evolution, in a paper co-authored by Alfred Russel Wallace, presented to the Linnean Society in London on July 1, 1858. On the strength of that paper, barely noticed at the time, Darwin published his most famous work, On the Origin of Species, in November 1859.
The two men might have got along well, but they never met.
What unusual coincidences. Today is the first day of a year-long commemoration of the lives of both men. Wise historians and history teachers, and probably wise science teachers, will watch for historical accounts in mass media, and save them.
Go celebrate human rights, good science, and the stories about these men.
Resources:
Charles Darwin:
Abraham Lincoln:
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10 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, Civil Rights, Civil War, Evolution, History, Holidays, Human Rights, Politics, Science | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Emancipation, Evolution, History, Lincoln, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 5, 2009
Bauer is fictional, Norris is mostly fictional.
Neither of them can hold a candle to the exploits of Thomas A. Baker.
This is one of the rewards of the study of history: Fiction cannot hold a candle to reality.
Older son Kenny and I were discussing fantastic things, and he mentioned the story of a “real life Rambo” he had heard about, a guy named Tom Baker. Baker’s heroism on Saipan, in the Marianas Islands, in the last months of World War II could not pass as fiction — no one would believe it true. Of course, it is true.
That’s what marks a winner of the Medal of Honor from other heroes in uniform, often. The things they do, under fire, with their lives on the line, so far exceed what we think humanly possible, that all we can do is marvel.
Take a deep breath, say a little prayer of thanks for those who go into harm’s way in defense of freedom, and read the Medal of Honor citation for Thomas A. Baker, whose medal was awarded posthumously:
*BAKER, THOMAS A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company A, 105th Infantry, 27th Infantry Division. Place and date: Saipan, Mariana Islands, 19 June to 7 July 1944. Entered service at: Troy, N.Y. Birth: Troy, N.Y. G.O. No.: 35, 9 May 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty at Saipan, Mariana Islands, 19 June to 7 July 1944. When his entire company was held up by fire from automatic weapons and small-arms fire from strongly fortified enemy positions that commanded the view of the company, Sgt. (then Pvt.) Baker voluntarily took a bazooka and dashed alone to within 100 yards of the enemy. Through heavy rifle and machinegun fire that was directed at him by the enemy, he knocked out the strong point, enabling his company to assault the ridge. Some days later while his company advanced across the open field flanked with obstructions and places of concealment for the enemy, Sgt. Baker again voluntarily took up a position in the rear to protect the company against surprise attack and came upon 2 heavily fortified enemy pockets manned by 2 officers and 10 enlisted men which had been bypassed. Without regard for such superior numbers, he unhesitatingly attacked and killed all of them. Five hundred yards farther, he discovered 6 men of the enemy who had concealed themselves behind our lines and destroyed all of them. On 7 July 1944, the perimeter of which Sgt. Baker was a part was attacked from 3 sides by from 3,000 to 5,000 Japanese. During the early stages of this attack, Sgt. Baker was seriously wounded but he insisted on remaining in the line and fired at the enemy at ranges sometimes as close as 5 yards until his ammunition ran out. Without ammunition and with his own weapon battered to uselessness from hand-to-hand combat, he was carried about 50 yards to the rear by a comrade, who was then himself wounded. At this point Sgt. Baker refused to be moved any farther stating that he preferred to be left to die rather than risk the lives of any more of his friends. A short time later, at his request, he was placed in a sitting position against a small tree . Another comrade, withdrawing, offered assistance. Sgt. Baker refused, insisting that he be left alone and be given a soldier’s pistol with its remaining 8 rounds of ammunition. When last seen alive, Sgt. Baker was propped against a tree, pistol in hand, calmly facing the foe. Later Sgt. Baker’s body was found in the same position, gun empty, with 8 Japanese lying dead before him. His deeds were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army.
This site may have a photo of Thomas A. Baker.
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2 Comments | 1941-1945, A Good Story, Accuracy, Famous Battles, Heroes, History, Military History, World War II | Tagged: Good Story, Heroes, History, Thomas A. Baker, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 4, 2009
Buddy Holly died 50 years ago, February 3. NPR gives the basics:
Morning Edition, February 3, 2009 – Fifty years after his death at 22, rock ‘n’ roll founding father Buddy Holly is still cool. On Feb. 3, 1959, Buddy Holly, along with J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and Ritchie Valens, died in a plane crash while touring the Midwest. Holly would have been 72 by now — and probably still rocking and rolling. Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Elvis Costello have all paid tribute to Holly as a major influence.
But the music itself wasn’t his only contribution. Holly was among the first artists to use the studio as an instrument: He spent days crafting songs and experimenting with techniques that were still new in the recording business.
History is an odd business. Holly’s old hometown is Lubbock, Texas. Lubbock, itself in an odd, welcomed Prairie Renaissance, features a Rock and Roll Museum and a set of Buddy Holly glasses that would dwarf the Colossus at Rhodes. But his family is at odds with the city on the use of his name on local streets and promotional materials.
Sculpture of Buddy Holly's glasses, at the Buddy Holly Center, Lubbock - Roundamerica.com
Waylon Jennings, probably the most famous survivor in Holly’s old band, died in 2002 (on February 13). Who is left to study Holly and his work, to keep the flame of historic remembrance alive?
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1 Comment | milestones, Music, Texas, Texas history, Texas Music | Tagged: Buddy Holly, February 3 1959, History, Lubbock, Music, Texas, Texas history, Texas Music | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 3, 2009
Can’t embed the photo here. Panoramic photos are cool things to use to capture history. Photographer David Bergman made a colossal, 1,464 megapixel photo of the inauguration of Barack Obama — you gotta see it.
Bergman described it:
I made a panoramic image showing the nearly two million people who watched President Obama’s inaugural address. To do so, I clamped a Gigapan Imager to the railing on the north media platform about six feet from my photo position. The Gigapan is a robotic camera mount that allows me to take multiple images and stitch them together, creating a massive image file.
My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.
Bergman is offering prints for sale.
Were you at the inauguration, on the Capitol grounds? Check Bergman’s photo, and zoom in to see whether you can see yourself in history.
A smaller version of Bergman’s GigaPan photo of the inauguration of Barack Obama; go see the zoomable version at Bergman’s site, and marvel at the detail of faces
Tip of the old scrub brush to julie@century.
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3 Comments | Barack Obama, History, History images, Images, President Obama, Presidents, Technology | Tagged: David Bergman, GigaPan, History, Images, Obama's Inauguration, Panoramic Photo, Technology, U.S. Capitol | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 3, 2009
I think it was Mark Twain who said a lie can get around the world twice before the truth has got its boots on (feel free to correct me on that if you have a good source).
Whoever said it, it was right.
Now, we see that a mined quote can do the same thing as a whole lie.
Harry Truman is the victim this time.
Google turns up more than 27,000 sites with this quote, attributed to Harry Truman:
If you can’t convince them, confuse them.
Now I ask you, Dear Reader, does that sound like old Give-’em-hell Harry, the original straight talker? Did Harry Truman really urge the use of confusion, when persuasion fails?
If you’re careful and persistent, you can turn up four Google hits for the accurate version, from his dramatic and historic campaign for election in 1948:
I don’t think you are going to be the victims this time of the old Republican doctrine: “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”
There you have it. Harry Truman was not urging the use of confusion. He was campaigning against it.
Last page of a comic book biography of Harry Truman for the 1948 campaign - Truman Library
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1 Comment | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Campaigns, Famous quotes, Good Quotes, Harry Truman, History, History Revisionism, Political cartoons, Politics, Presidents | Tagged: 1948 Campaign, Accuracy, Famous quotes, Harry Truman, History, Truman Library | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 2, 2009
Fred Wendorf, an in-the-digs sort of archaeologist, will talk about his life and work Thursday night at the DeGolyer Library.
Remember, teachers who call in advance may earn continuing education credit from the SMU History Department.
This will be a good session for geography and world history teachers, and probably for U.S. history teachers, too.
(SMU PRess, 2008)
Fred Wendorf
Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory
Emeritus, Southern Methodist University
Thursday, February 5, 2009
6:00 pm reception.
6:30 pm lecture followed by book signing
DeGolyer Library
Southern Methodist University
6404 Hilltop Lane at McFarlin
“Archaeologists know that Fred Wendorf’s expeditions produced most of what we know about the Stone Age prehistory of northeastern Africa. They also realize that he contributed centrally to the archaeology of the American Southwest before he focused his talents on Africa. They know he’s consistently reported his research in timely, thorough, and lucid monographs. In this book, they’ll discover he can also describe, with modesty and candor, the circumstances that shaped his extraordinary career.”—Richard Klein, Professor of Biology and Anthropology and Bass Professor in Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University
“Celebrated by his colleagues in the Americas, Europe, and Africa as a brilliant innovator who made significant advances in archaeological method and theory, Fred Wendorf has been a dominant figure in American and North African archaeology in an extremely productive career spanning nearly six decades. His engaging autobiography chronicles his personal and professional lives—warts and all.”—Don D. Fowler, Mamie Kleberg Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, University of Nevada-Reno
“Fred Wendorf is an archaeological Midas. He and his collaborators have written the prehistory for vast swaths of the Sahara, work thatinvolves adventure, decades-long persistence, and the ability to piece together seemingly irreconcilable small pieces of a very large jigsaw puzzle.”—John Yellen, president of the Paleoanthropology Society and for many years an excavator in Kenya, Ethiopia, and the Congo
“Wendorf’s rousing good story of archaeological adventures in harsh desert environments demonstrates that real archaeological adventures are only made possible by good planning, sound organization, scientific discipline, and hard work.”—Raymond H. Thompson, Riecker Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, University of Arizona, and Director Emeritus, Arizona State Museum
FRED WENDORF, Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory Emeritus, Southern Methodist University, grew up in Terrell, Texas, was wounded as a lieutenant serving in Italy during World War II, received his Ph.D. from Harvard, and spent more than sixty years as a field archaeologist in this country and in Africa. In 1987 he was elected to the American National Academy of Sciences.
To register for this event, please click here.
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Leave a Comment » | Anthropology, Archaeology, History, Science | Tagged: Africa, Archaeology, Desert Southwest, History, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 1, 2009
Statue of Thomas Jefferson in the Jefferson Memorial, Rudulph Evans, sculptor – Library of Congress photo by Carol Highsmith, who graciously puts her photos in the public domain
A commentary from Cal Thomas caught my eye — little more than a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson strung together. Jefferson seems oddly prescient in these quotes, and, also oddly, rather endorsing the views of the right wing.
From the way the text is laid out, and the brevity of the piece, I’m guessing it’s a radio commentary.
I read Jefferson often. I’ve read Jefferson a lot. I don’t recognize any of the quotes.
So I plugged them into the Jefferson collection at Liberty Fund’s Online Library of Liberty, which has a lot of Jefferson ready for full-text searching.
Oops. None of the quotes scored a hit.
Couldn’t find them in the Library of Congress’s on-line list of quotes, either.
It looks as though Jefferson didn’t say these things that are being attributed to him.
Cal, is that you?
Cal, can you give us citations on these quotes?
How about you, Dear Reader? Can you save Cal Thomas’s bacon by providing a citation for any of the quotes below, alleged to be from Thomas Jefferson?
AS WE LISTEN TO TALK OF BAILOUTS AND ENDLESS DEBT, THINK ON THESE THOUGHTS FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON:
“THE DEMOCRACY WILL CEASE TO EXIST WHEN YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO WORK AND GIVE TO THOSE WHO WOULD NOT.”
HERE’S ANOTHER: “IT IS INCUMBENT ON EVERY GENERATION TO PAY ITS OWN DEBTS AS IT GOES. A PRINCIPLE WHICH IF ACTED ON WOULD SAVE ONE-HALF THE WARS OF THE WORLD.”
AND ANOTHER: “I PREDICT FUTURE HAPPINESS FOR AMERICANS IF THEY CAN PREVENT THE GOVERNMENT FROM WASTING THE LABORS OF THE PEOPLE UNDER THE PRETENSE OF TAKING CARE OF THEM.”
AND ONE MORE: “MY READING OF HISTORY CONVINCES ME THAT MOST BAD GOVERNMENT RESULTS FROM TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT.”
There you have ’em, Dear Readers. Did somebody hoodwink Cal Thomas into thinking these are Jefferson’s bon mots, when they are not?
Shake of the wet scrub brush to Truthseeker.
Below the fold, the complete Cal Thomas commentary.
Read the rest of this entry »
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28 Comments | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, History, Quotes, Thomas Jefferson, Voodoo history | Tagged: Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Bogus history, Cal Thomas, History, Quotes, Thomas Jefferson, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 29, 2009
HistoryBox.com?
Check it out — there be good stuff.
For example, abundant sources of information and especially images on the history of New York City can be found here. It’s in directory form, so you may need to click once more to get what you need — but so far, everything I’ve clicked works, and it always seems to go to a good site.
New York state resources, here.
The U.S. history portion is not working yet.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
January 29, 2009
Oops, missed this anniversary date!
First page of patent granted to Thomas Edison on January 27, 1880 -- for light bulb
Thomas Alva Edison got a patent for “electric-lamp” on January 27, 1880.
According to the Our Documents site:
In 1878 the creation of a practical long-burning electric light had eluded scientists for decades. With dreams of lighting up entire cites, Edison lined up financial backing, assembled a group of brilliant scientists and technicians, and applied his genius to the challenge of creating an effective and affordable electric lamp. With unflagging determination, Edison and his team tried out thousands of theories, convinced that every failure brought them one step closer to success. On January 27, 1880, Edison received the historic patent embodying the principles of his incandescent lamp that paved the way for the universal domestic use of electric light.
(Information excerpted from American Originals by Stacey Bredhoff; [Seattle and London; The University of Washington Press, 2001] p. 62–63.
Our Documents grew out of the National Archives list of 100 milestone documents important to American history — Edison’s patent application was voted one of the top 100. Our Documents is now a joint exercise combining the efforts of the National Archives, National History Day, and USA Freedom Corps.
Page from Edison's application for patent for an "electric lamp" - National Archives
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10 Comments | 100 Milestone Documents of U.S. History, DBQ sources, Government, Historic documents, History, History images, Invention, Technology, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: 100 Mileston Documents of U.S. History, 1880, Historic documents, History, Light Bulb, Patents, Technology, Thomas Edison | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 28, 2009
It’s either a sign of how old wounds have healed, or it’s another step in the cryptic and slow, cold war in which the South works to overcome the victory of the Union in the Civil War.
Ulysses S Grant as a Lt. General; photo by Alexander Gardner, Library of Congress image
Associated Press reports (via Federal News Radio) the papers of President Ulysses S Grant will move from the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale, to Mississippi State University, in Starkville, Mississippi.
The fact that a collection about a Union hero who helped topple the Confederacy has wound up in Dixie is not lost on [John Marszalek, a Civil War scholar and Mississippi State history professor emeritus who’s now shepherding the collection].
“There’s an irony in it,” he said with a laugh. “People recognize this for its scholarly worth, and I think what has happened over time is that people have come to realize that the Civil War is over and we’re a united nation again.”
Still, Grant’s return to the South doesn’t thrill Cecil Fayard Jr., the Mississippi-based leader of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
“U.S. Grant is not beloved in the state of Mississippi. Southern folks remember well his brutal and bloody tactics of war, and the South will never forget the siege of Vicksburg,” he said.
The Ulysses S. Grant Association, which owns the papers, decided to move them at the request of Marzsalek, who was named conservator after the death of John Y. Simon, the historian who had curated the collection during the publication of more than 30 volumes of Grants papers, beginning in 1962. Simon lost his professorship at SIU last year, and died in July 2008.
The modern concept of a presidential library did not exist until 1939. The first such library was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Par, New York, established with papers donated in 1939. There are now official libraries, parts of the U.S. National Archives system, for Herbert Hoover (who preceded FDR) in West Branch, Iowa, Harry Truman, in Independence, Missouri, Dwight Eisenhower, in Abilene, Kansas, John Kennedy, at Harvard University near Boston, Lyndon Johnson at the University of Texas, Austin, Richard Nixon at Yorba Linda, California, Gerald Ford library at Ann Arbor and museum (still under construction) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jimmy Carter in Atlanta, Ronald Reagan at Simi Valley, California, George H. W. Bush at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, and Bill Clinton in Little Rock. George W. Bush is working to establish a library and institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the library an extension of the National Archives, and the institute modeled roughly after the Herbert Hoover Institution affiliated with Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are honored with institutions, too. Washington’s home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, is held by the Ladies of Mount Vernon Association, which originally saved the mansion; the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is in Springfield, Illinois. Neither of those institutions has much formal tie to the federal library system.
Because of their places in history, even at the risk of enlarging the institutionalness and management problems of these libraries, I would like to see libraries established for Theodore Roosevelt, perhaps in South Dakota; for Woodrow Wilson; For Andrew Jackson, probably near his home in Tennessee; and for John Adams and/or John Quincy Adams, outside of Boston. These institutions could bolster the spread of knowledge and preservation of history of our freedoms and liberties; if we were rich, it would be useful and productive to put libraries in Ohio — for William Howard Taft, or for Taft and Garfield and Buchanan — and far upstate New York for Millard Fillmore, perhaps at the University of Buffalo. Libraries honoring James Madison and James Monroe could be useful, too, but would put a great concentration of such institutions close to Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Under the fold: Quotations from U. S. Grant, from the Grant papers collection.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 