Category Archives: History

Revisiting the Washington That Never Was

You haven’t lived until you’ve digitally clipped mid-19th-century cursive from a scan of a faded and dirty print. This is B.F. Smith’s landscape of Washington, showing projected improvements in the capital city — the Washington Monument, a stone bridge across the Washington City Canal — from 1852. I found this on the Library of CongressContinue reading “Revisiting the Washington That Never Was”

Exploring an 1883 Map of Washington, DC

A few months ago, the novelist Howard Weinstein posted to Facebook a link to Adolph Sachse’s “Bird’s Eye View” map of Baltimore in 1869, and I poured over it, finding the location where my great-great-grandmother and her father lived at the time and the church where my great-grandparents might have married in 1900, as itContinue reading “Exploring an 1883 Map of Washington, DC”

A Look at Old Baltimore

Recently, I found a photograph of Baltimore, circa 1871 — downtown Baltimore, as seen from Federal Hill. There are things about this photo that are familiar, and many things that would be a mystery. Let’s take a look. Consulting with maps, I feel that this photograph of the Inner Harbor and environs was taken fromContinue reading “A Look at Old Baltimore”

The Washington That Never Was

While looking through the Library of Congress’ website yesterday, I found this vintage 1852 image of Washington, DC, done by the same company that did the map of Baltimore of 1868. “Oh, wow,” I said. “This is cool. There’s the Smithsonian Castle, designed by James Renwick. There’s Trinity Episcopal, also designed by Renwick. There’s theContinue reading “The Washington That Never Was”

Exploring an Old Baltimore Map

Yesterday afternoon, Howard Weinstein shared an interesting find on Facebook, E. Sachse, & Co.’s 1868 map of Baltimore City. Weinstein is writing an historical novel set in Baltimore about a decade later, and he said it would be helpful in his research, and perhaps to others as well. I had ancestors in Baltimore in 1868Continue reading “Exploring an Old Baltimore Map”

A Potential Genealogical Discovery

I found something interesting yesterday, a reference to my great-grandfather in one of Baltimore’s German language newspapers, Der Deutsche Correspondent, on December 1, 1899. Der Deutsche Correspondent was Baltimore’s daily German newspaper, and it was published for nearly eighty years, from the early 1840s to 1918. It reads (translated thanks to Google): Marriage LicensesMarriage licensesContinue reading “A Potential Genealogical Discovery”

An American Flag, Sewn in Scotland, Returns Home

In 1918, a troop ship carrying American soldiers to Europe was torpedoed off the coast of Scotland. Though many were saved from the waters by other ships in the troop convoy, the bodies of nearly 200 soldiers washed ashore on the island of Islay. What ensued was a recovery of the bodies by the island’sContinue reading “An American Flag, Sewn in Scotland, Returns Home”

The Dragons of Christmas

Perhaps I’d still be a Christian had there been more dragons. Many elements of the traditional Nativity scene — in particular, any animals whatsoever — aren’t Biblically canonical. They all derive from apocryphal scriptures, essentially early Church fanfic, such as this passage from Pseudo Matthew about the infant Jesus and the dragons during the flightContinue reading “The Dragons of Christmas”

Did Amelia Earhart Survive?

Has a forgotten photo in the archives of Naval Intelligence answered the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance? I have no idea. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. But that’s the claim of an upcoming special on the History Channel. The reporting on the photo hasn’t made a case for believing that the photo does whatContinue reading “Did Amelia Earhart Survive?”