This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: AHA Today
Jul 6, 2011
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is celebrating its centennial. To look back over the past 100 years, the museum has created a section on its website to highlight items from its collections, present accounts of scientific expeditions, tell stories and collect oral histories of those who’ve worked at the museum over the years, and more.
Source: Salon
Jul 6, 2011
Hoop skirts and washboards don't appeal much to Joyce Henry, so she found another way to relive the Civil War -- as a man.With her breasts tightly bound, shoulder-length red hair tucked under a shaggy auburn wig and upper lip hidden by a drooping mustache, Henry impersonates Lt. Harry T. Buford, a real-life Confederate soldier.The impression could hardly be more accurate since Buford, too, was a woman. He was invented by Loreta Janeta Velazquez, a Cuban-born woman from New Orleans who fought as a man in a series of Civil War battles including the First Battle of Bull Run, according to her autobiography.Researchers have documented more than 200 such cases. And today, a small number of women follow suit by donning blue and gray uniforms as Civil War re-enactors....
Source: BBC
Jul 5, 2011
Scientists in Australia have found the skeleton of a "giant wombat" which lived some two million years ago.
The plant-eating marsupial would have been the size of a four-wheel drive car and weighed three tonnes, experts say.
Its bones were found on a farm in north-eastern Australia's Queensland state.
It is the first time a complete skeleton of a Diprotodon optatum has been uncovered.
The animal was widespread across Australia about 50,000 years ago, when it is believed the first indigenous people lived....
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Jul 5, 2011
On June 23, 2011, the House Appropriations Committee cleared a bill providing only $1 million for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) in fiscal year (FY) 2012. That figure constitutes a 90% reduction from the FY ’11 funding level of $7 million and is $4 million less than the Obama administration’s request for the NHPRC.Assuming no changes are made when the bill is considered on the House floor, advocacy efforts will shift to the Senate. There is no indication when the Senate Financial Services & General Government Subcommittee will meet to consider their FY ‘12 bill. Congress will be in recess the month of August until after Labor Day. Given what occurred last year, and in previous years, there will likely be a series of continuing resolutions to keep the federal government running after the start of Fiscal Year 2012 on October 1. So it is likely many months before any action will occur in the Senate.
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Jul 5, 2011
Forty-five years after President Johnson signed the U.S. Freedom of Information Act into law in 1966, federal agency backlogs of FOIA requests are growing, with the oldest requests at eight agencies dating back over a decade and the single oldest request now 20 years old, according to the Knight Open Government Survey by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.The Knight Survey of the oldest requests utilized the FOIA to examine the actual copies of the oldest requests from the 35 federal agencies and components that process more than 90 percent of all FOIAs. It shows that the oldest requests in the U.S. government were submitted before the fall of the Soviet Union. These unfulfilled requests — some are for documents that are themselves more than 50 years old — are victims of an endless referral process in which any agency that claims “equity” can censor their release.
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Jul 5, 2011
To mark the sesquicentennial anniversary of the American Civil War, the Civil War Trust has announced an ambitious national campaign that will permanently protect 20,000 acres of battlefield land over the next five years. The Trust has already protected more than 30,000 acres in 20 states over the past two decades.Campaign 150: Our Time, Our Legacy kicked off on June 30 with an event held at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, a key landmark of the Civil War’s bloodiest battle, which occurred 148 years ago. The project was announced by Civil War Trust chairman Henry Simpson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom James McPherson and the organization’s newest Trustee, country music superstar Trace Adkins.“With an average of 30 acres of battlefield land lost each day, now is the time for a major preservation initiative,” said McPherson. “If successful, Campaign 150 will have allowed us to set aside those landscapes that future generations will require in order to gain a full understanding of the Civil War. This project will enable us to substantively complete protection of many of the conflict’s storied fields.”
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Jul 5, 2011
The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) recently released its 2011 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. To see the list of endangered sites visit the Trust’s website.Beginning in 1988, the NTHP has annually released the list to raise awareness of the serious threats facing the nation’s greatest treasures. Since the program’s inception, the Trust has identified 233 endangered sites. The program has been so successful in galvanizing preservation efforts across the country that, in over two decades, only a handful of sites have been lost.
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Jul 5, 2011
Notes and comments hand-written by Charles Darwin on the pages and margins of the books in his personal library are now available online for the first time, enabling new insights into the great naturalist’s thought processes and the development of the theory of evolution. The first phase of the project has just been completed, with 330 of the most heavily annotated books now accessible online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.Darwin’s scientific library comprised 1480 books, of which 730 contain abundant research notes in their margins. All the annotated books are in the process of being digitized, resulting in high-resolution images of each book’s pages showing Darwin’s handwriting along with a transcription of the notes in a companion panel.Digitizing the volumes, the majority of which are held at Cambridge University Library, is a collaborative effort involving Cambridge, the Darwin Manuscripts Project at the American Museum of Natural History, the Natural History Museum, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. It is supported jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Joint Information Systems Committee in England.
Source: Fox News
Jul 5, 2011
One of Victorian Britain's most gruesome murder mysteries has been solved after the skull of a wealthy widower was found in the garden of famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough.More than a century after Julia Martha Thomas was brutally attacked by a servant in her home, the case was closed Tuesday as her death was formally recognized in a U.K. court.Remains found during excavations at Attenborough's property in Richmond, South London, were confirmed as those of Thomas, who was chopped up and boiled by her housekeeper in 1879.Although a box containing human flesh was found in the Thames days after the killing and the victim's foot was found on an allotment, her skull had been missing for 132 years....
Source: Fox News
Jul 5, 2011
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California lawmakers on Tuesday sent the governor a bill that would make the state the first requiring public schools to include the contributions of gays and lesbians in social studies curriculum.The bill, passed on a party-line vote, adds lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as well as people with disabilities to the list of groups that schools must include in the lessons. It also would prohibit material that reflects adversely on gays.Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco says SB48 is crucial because of the bullying that happens to gay students. Republicans called it a well-intentioned but ill-conceived bill and raised concerns that it would indoctrinate children to accept homosexuality....
Source: NYT
Jul 5, 2011
Members of Albert Fritsch’s family descended on Grand Central Terminal on Friday to visit a family heirloom (and 45-pound tchotchke) that is now the three-dimensional centerpiece of the exhibition “The Once and Future Pennsylvania Station.”What’s that you say? Why is their heirloom-tchotchke-lawn ornament on display at the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex?
Source: AP
Jul 5, 2011
A British coroner has closed the case on a 130-year-old London murder mystery, ruling that a skull recently found in a garden belonged to a woman killed in 1879.West London Coroner Alison Thompson confirmed Tuesday that the skull found in the neighborhood of Richmond was that of Julia Thomas, a wealthy widow who was murdered by her housekeeper very close to the site.Thompson ruled that Thomas was unlawfully killed and that the cause of death was asphyxiation and head injury....
Source: BBC
Jul 5, 2011
A 13th Century pottery vessel found in the Vale of Glamorgan could indicate a thriving local craft in medieval times.Several fragments of the aquamanile, decorated with a ram's head, were discovered at the site of a manor house at Cosmeston, near Penarth.The vessels were used by guests to wash their hands at the dinner table.Professor John Hines from Cardiff University, leader of the dig, said they had never found such an elegant piece made from the local Vale Ware.The 20-strong team from the university's school of history, archaeology and religion has been digging at the Cosmeston medieval village for the last 4 years.They have been exploring the site of a manor house, which had not been excavated when archaeology work was first carried out in the area in the 1980s....
Source: BBC
Jul 5, 2011
Mass graves found in York contained the skeletons of English Civil War soldiers, according to a new investigation.Mass graves containing 113 male skeletons were unearthed just outside the city walls in 2008.It is thought the men had fought for the Parliamentarians during the siege of York in 1644.An investigation for the BBC series History Cold Case has concluded the men probably died from typhus fever.The programme features a team from the Centre of Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee....
Source: BBC
Jul 5, 2011
A skull recovered in the back garden of broadcaster Sir David Attenborough in south-west London belonged to a woman murdered in 1879, a coroner has ruled.Julia Martha Thomas was killed by her maid, Kate Webster, but her head remained missing. The case became known as "the Barnes mystery".The skull was found during building work in Richmond last October.The coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing and the cause of death as asphyxiation and a head injury....
Source: AP
Jul 5, 2011
The Vatican will display 100 select documents from its Secret Archives at an unprecedented exhibit next year that includes previously unpublished papers from its World War II papacy.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Jul 5, 2011
On March 4, 2012, Chicago will celebrate the 175th anniversary of its incorporation as a city — and the City Council’s resident historian doesn’t want the “important historical milestone” to pass unnoticed.At the behest of Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), the City Council’s Finance and Special Events committees approved a resolution Tuesday urging City Hall to start planning the appropriate celebration.Burke said he has no particular celebration in mind. In fact, he’s wide open.“I would envision, perhaps, an essay contest in the schools or a contest to have a piece of public art dedicated or a symposium to bring leaders from around the world to Chicago or a lecture series where historians — some of the authors of Chicago books — can shed light on how Chicago developed into this great metropolis,” the alderman said.
Source: CNN
Jul 4, 2011
The New York Times store is selling an exceptionally rare version of the Declaration of Independence, a broadside printed about July 13, 1776, in Salem, Massachusetts. One of only six copies in existence, it can be yours for $1.6 million.The store is selling it in conjunction with the Caren Archive, which according to its website has the most significant private collection of rare newspapers and broadsides in the United States.Mones said the Caren Archives and the Times store decided on the price of $1.6 million based on the document's rarity and historical value. The seller is not being identified, and the only other copy not in a public institution is privately owned....
Source: NPR
Jul 4, 2011
On Monday, New York's Coney Island will host Nathan's Famous annual hot dog eating contest. The contest is in its 96th year.But the origin of the popular summer food is still cloudy.Ben Zimmer, executive producer of the online magazine Visual Thesaurus, says there are a lot of myths about the name "hot dog." One is about a New York Evening Journal cartoonist, Tad Dorgan."Around 1901, Tad Dorgan was at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan; it's where New York's baseball Giants used to play. He was at the ball game [and] one of the concessionaires was selling red-hots, these frankfurter sandwiches, and he had the idea to make a cartoon with a dachshund in a roll, and so he drew this picture for this cartoon," he tells Morning Edition's Renee Montagne....
Source: LA Times
Jul 4, 2011
Abdullah Saadi fingers the fine brown leather belt with holsters for thimble-sized coffee cups and a dagger. He is a keeper of customs, Baghdad's professional server of coffee. He sits in a brick house behind an iron gate in the cramped warrens of Sadr City. The room is painted bright lemon in contrast to the gray street outside. His mother walks through the room, half-embarrassed, singing for guests, "I am the mother of the coffee maker." She thumps her chest and laughs at her son.
