Forgotten History
What did the Rebel Yell really sound like?
Oddly enough, nothing like Billy Idol 🙂
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/video/What-Did-the-Rebel-Yell-Sound-Like.html
Forgotten History
Forgotten History
Everything Else
The Thirteen Virtues of Benjamin Franklin
Centuries before the self-help movements began, people already understood the basic need to better themselves. Benjamin Franklin created what we would call a “to-do” list of 13 areas of his life he wanted to improve; he even charted his progress weekly. I think everyone will find at least a few of these familiar. It’s heartening to learn that even the best of us are human — we all struggle against some of the same tendencies as those of our ancestors.
Ben Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues (quoted from Franklin’s autobiography)
Digital Medievalism
Hildegard von Bingen: Sybil, Saint, and Scientist
This post is written in honor of Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating the achievements of women in science and technology.
Hildegard von Bingen (born 1098 – died 1179) is probably best known as a medieval religious visionary, literary author, and composer. But she was a woman of many more talents, including natural philosophy and medicine. Read more “Hildegard von Bingen: Sybil, Saint, and Scientist”
Forgotten History
Letters of Note
The academic study of history makes a strong distinction between “primary” and “secondary” sources. While secondary sources are narratives, opinions, or analysis produced after the fact, primary sources are the real artefacts of the time in question: contemporary documents produced by those with direct experience of events. Primary sources are as close as you can get to experiencing the time during which they’re created; they are snapshots of a few droplets of water rushing along in the ephemeral river of time. You hope as a historian to be able to view as many of these multi-faceted drops as you can to formulate a theory as to the shape of the river’s path.
I’ve just stumbled upon this blog which features a wonderful varied collection of such sources. Letters of Note “is an attempt to gather and sort fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos.” Take a moment to peruse a few of these prismatic pieces of history. Fascinating!
Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience