Getting the News
Crowds lining up to get their letters and newspapers at the post office on Pike and Clay Streets, San Francisco, California, ca. 1850. This was a decade before the east… Read more Getting the News →
Depression
Depression in two senses of the word, 1934, Haddon Heights, New Jersey, via Library of Congress.
Leveling hummocks in dust bowl, thirty miles north of Dalhart, Texas. Farmer: “Every dime I got is tied up right here. If I don’t get it out, I’ve got to drive off and leave it. Where would I go and what would I do? I know what the land did once for me, maybe it will do it again.” Son: “It would be better if the sod had never been broke. My father’s broke plenty of it. Could I get a job in California?”
—Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration, June 1938. New York Public Library.
“Migrant worker looking through back window of automobile near Prague, Oklahoma. Lincoln County, Oklahoma,” The New York Public Library.
‘Emigration—Detailing the Progress and Vicissitudes of an Emigrant’ (1833)
Here is a 15-panel satire by C.J. Grant, perhaps meant for working-class Britons. In it, British emigrants could get away from taxes, but expect frightning exotic animals, cannibals, isolation, poverty, and homesickness. Read the panels in high definition at the Library of Congress, and check out Matthew Crowther’s blog post about the artist at Yesterday’s Papers for some publishing context.
Saco River in Conway, NH, just upstream from the covered bridges on afternoon of December 25, 2019.
Mt. Washington from Intervale, NH, on January 31, 2020.
Speaking of imagined walls, here’s one from 1916, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Five images from Astoria, Oregon.
All DC area residents have complaints and even horror stories to tell about the Metro. Since introducing it to children in the family from out of town, I’ve started looking at it with fresh eyes. (Four photos.)
Some elephant seals seen on the coast of California on May 14, 2018.
This 1899 map’s legend makes sense within a late-nineteenth-century imperialist framework, and the brutality of its seemingly objectively portrayed vision is unmistakable. Source: New York Public Library Digital Collections, http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-fd22-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.
Kyrie
Performance of an earlier, prizewinning composition by my son, while at the San Francisco Conservatory. (The choir sheet music is here.)
10,000 Threads
Recording of some music by my son: 10,000 Threads.
Bicycle Taxi Driver
The latest from my brother (music video)
WordPress Email
My apologies if you tried to contact me earlier via the WordPress email form. Your message never reached my inbox.
Categories
Categories on a blog have a way of getting out of control over time. Am trying to reduce their number, make them more useful, and put tags to better use.
#GHImaps
Some participants of the conference I referenced in the previous post took it to twitter. See #GHImaps.
Kitchens of the Future
Video: Imagined in the 1950s (a future seemingly impervious to changes in normative gender roles)
History and the Packaged Gnocchi
One evening after work recently, I was half-starved and wanted something I could cook quickly. I saw some packaged gnocchi in the cupboard, made by De Cecco, which I thought would fit the bill, until I started reading the directions. Unfortunately, these were quite long, and they mentioned all kinds of ingredients not in the package, so I gave up. I didn’t want a detailed recipe. I just wanted to know how to cook the gnocchi. A few days later, while editing an English translation of a book about Italians… Read more History and the Packaged Gnocchi →
2014 Archival Seminar Report
Here is my report on the 2014 Archival Summer Seminar in Germany. Besides saying what we did, it discusses why, and it considers the various specialties of those who attended.