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A Short Biography of James Playsted Wood
Imagine growing up in Brooklyn, New York in the 1910s; on 53rd Street to be exact, in a house that stands today within a stone’s throw of the I-278 Gowanus Expressway. Imagine you had one pesky little...
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The Purse That Mattered
Daddy has a Ph.D. in Engineering. He collects sets of encyclopedias for fun. His most prized possession is the autograph of Felix Bloch, a scientist who won the Nobel Prize in physics. Daddy doesn’t...
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A Short Biography of Dorothy Keeley Aldis
An award-winning author of books for children, Dorothy Keeley Aldis was born in Chicago, Illinois in the spring of 1896, on March 13th, to be exact. Her father was the managing editor of the Chicago...
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A Short Biography of Joseph Stopford Archibald
Back in the olden days, before computers were invented, millions of little boys grew up reading about sports in comic strips, comic books and library books. You may know some of these boys, who are now...
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A Match Made in Cleveland: Corydon Bell and Thelma Harrington
Once upon a time, in a faraway land called Ohio, a baby boy was born to a railroad station agent and his wife. It was July 16th, 1894, the town was Tiffin, and the railroad man was Alvin J. Bell. He...
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The Life and Death of James H. Pruett
“Whereas this Council has learned with deep regret that it has pleased the Almighty in his wisdom to take from our midst one whom it has been the pleasure of the people of this city to honor and one...
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Some Residents of Downtown Houston, Texas in the 1940 Census
While waiting patiently (?) for the 1940 census to be indexed by a legion of volunteers, and just for fun, we picked a random intersection in downtown Houston and decided to review those four city...
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The Sindle Brothers of Calhoun and Bradley Counties, Arkansas
When the Civil War started, in 1861, Martha J. Spry was fourteen. She lived with her parents and several brothers and sisters in deep south Arkansas. She didn’t understand all the fuss and bother, but...
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Lizzie B. Cranford: A Civil War Schoolteacher
Mrs. Elizabeth Bacchus Cranford was the oldest white woman in Ouachita County, Arkansas, at the time of her death in 1935. She had been born 101 years earlier, on April 25, 1834, near Paris, Tennessee....
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Some Locomotive Engineering Books Published by Henley
The Norman W. Henley Publishing Company was established in 1890 in New York City. It was located at 2 West 45th Street in Manhattan, and advertised that it published “practical books for practical...
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The Adventures of an eBay Store Item
Hello, my name is Obscure Book. I’m sitting here on a shelf at a thrift store in Pasadena Texas, minding my own business. Been here for a long time, way down on the bottom shelf near all the Reader’s...
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Eureka Internet Guides: An Etsy Spammer
Is your Etsy shop being exploited? Mine was. If you spend much time on Etsy, you may have noticed a company named Eureka Internet Guides. They are sellers of marketing materials, not affiliated with...
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A Short Tour of the Texas Medical Center Archives
If the word ‘archives’ makes you yawn, you might want to reconsider. Yes, there are plenty of boring manuscripts and papers everywhere you look. Yes, it’s cold inside (because the materials need a cold...
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How to Dispose of a Deceased Person's Medications
Up until a few months ago, this situation had never entered my mind. My husband had been on home hospice care for nearly a year before he passed away, and although I regularly refilled his...
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Trivial Flattery Builds Vital Self-Esteem
The human ego is a fascinating thing. If someone says âI donât see how you do thatâ, we shine with childish pride, even though our accomplishment is probably just that we can remember old...
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One Woman’s Adventure with Victorian Trade Cards
Front cover of Lizzie Lovejoy's Victorian Album My husband Jim passed away peacefully, here at home. He had been on home hospice care for more than nine months, and I had been his primary caregiver. I...
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American Journal of Insanity?
The American Journal of Insanity, July 1890 One of the things I like best about thrift shopping is the surprise that hits me when I stumble upon a treasure that others have probably overlooked. Of...
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Victorian trade card album from DeVall’s Bluff, Arkansas
In the late 1870s, DeVall’s Bluff was a tiny “one-horse town” with a population of about two hundred people. It had three stores, a sawmill, a post office and a drugstore. The druggist was Samuel...
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The American Art Company of St. Louis (Arcade Wright Building)
One of the loveliest buildings in downtown St. Louis, Missouri is the endangered gothic Arcade/Wright building, designed in 1906 by famed architects Eames & Young. According to a blog entitled...
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Quack Medicine in Evansville, Indiana
During the 1880s and 1890s, Evansville, Indiana was a thriving little town of about 30,000. It had several churches, banks, a post office, forty policemen and at least one pork-packing plant. William...
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