Earlier this year, reddit user averagedekutree was browsing through a book store in Milwaukee when she came across a century-old high school yearbook from 1913. The high school was called Texarkana in Arkansas, and flipping through the pages is like taking a step through time.
What’s fascinating is to observe both the differences and parallels. Sure the fashion is different but there were clubs, sports teams and plays and students still had nicknames 🙂 There are even advertisements for local businesses like Offenhauser & Co. Insurance that are still in operation today!
Apparently Editor-in-chief ‘Fritter’ wasn’t much of a dancer!
Poor Bryant had the unfortunate nickname of ‘Martha’. Reddit user ExtraNoise looked up Dex and found the following:
– She married a man named William Charles Clark on June 26, 1916 in Texarkana
– They had a daughter in 1918. They named her Laura Lee
– In 1924, William Charles (W.C.) Clark was born
– By 1930 they were living in Shreveport
– In 1940, in addition to their 21 year old daughter, they also had living with them a 22 year old woman named Tommie Lee Midden
The guy on the far left looks like one classy fellow!
“Wind pudding is delicious”
Three digit telephone numbers!
For ice and coal dial 25
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In a paper published on 30 August 2013 by the International Society for Subterranean Biology, Dr Alexander Weigand of Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany, has described a new species of cave-dwelling snail from the Lukina Jama–Trojama cave system.
The new species, Zospeum tholussum, is a tiny and fragile snail with a dome-like, semi-transparent shell. It was found in an unnamed large chamber of the cave at a depth of 980 meters (3,215 ft).
The Lukina jama cave is 1,421 meters (4,662 ft) deep, making it the deepest cave in Croatia and the deepest in all of southeast Europe. You can read the official paper and learn more about the discovery at Pensoft.net.
A fore-edge painting is a technique of painting on the edges of the pages of a book. The artwork can only be seen when the pages are fanned, as seen in the animation below. When the book is closed, you don’t see the image because it is hidden by the gilding (i.e., the gold leaf applied to the edges of the page).
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, fore-edge paintings first arose during the European Middle Ages but came to prominence during the mid-17th century to the late 19th century. Anne C. Bromer for the Boston Public Library writes, “Most fore-edge painters working for binding firms did not sign their work, which explains why it is difficult to pinpoint and date the hidden paintings.”
Thanks to the generous gifts from Anne and David Bromer and Albert H. Wiggin, the Boston Public Library holds one of the finest collections of fore-edge paintings in the United States. Most of the collection has been put online for the world to enjoy and features more than 200 high-resolution images; complete with additional videos, articles and information.
The University of Iowa and Colossal recently featured a few fore-edge paintings with animated gifs that can also be seen below.
On April 22, 2013, the Oklahoma Historical Society in partnership with the First Lutheran Church unearthed a 6-ft x 3-ft x 3-ft (1.83m x 0.91m x 0.91m) chest, buried in the church’s basement exactly 100 years prior.
Dubbed the ‘Century Chest‘, the project was created in 1913 by Virginia Sohlberg of the Ladies Aid Society as a fundraiser to help the church purchase a new pipe organ which is still in use today! Space inside the chest was auctioned off to the public to raise money.
The Century Chest’s artifacts were impeccably preserved in airtight, waterproof containers. The chest itself was buried under a 12-inch (30.5 cm) slab of concrete. Removing the chest took over 11 hours and involved removing two 600-pound chunks of concrete and using an engine hoist to get the chest out of its ‘tomb’.
The contents of the chest were unveiled at a live event and Downtown OKC, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, documented the entire experience and posted the photos to an 81-picture gallery on Facebook.
The complete contents will be preserved and exhibited at the Oklahoma History Center later this year. It will be fascinating to discover the content located inside the countless sealed packages and envelopes, as well as going through the box of recorded messages.
Flag made for the Century Chest by Mr. W. R. Clement, originator and designer of the official Flag of the State of Oklahoma. Also included: certificate of adoption of the flag and message of greeting from Mrs. Clement to the city of 2013. [Source: Downtown OKC, Inc.]
3. Desk telephone, Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Co.
The First English Lutheran Church Century Chest was the idea of Virginia Sohlberg. Sohlberg had heard of a similar undertaking in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and proposed the idea to the church’s pastor, Newton H. Royer. He approved. The church’s Ladies Aid Society led the project with Virginia Sohlberg as President. The project was to be a fundraiser, offering the public the chance to include their name in a ledger and quilt, purchase space in the chest, or buy tickets to the Century Chest service. The fundraiser would benefit the church which needed funds to cover the cost of a new organ. The full price of the organ was $3,200, half of which was paid by Andrew Carnegie.
The project was embraced by the community as an opportunity to celebrate 1913 Oklahoma and reach out to future generations. Citizens, businesses, community organizations, and legislators participated. The planning of the chest was covered in local newspapers. The project grew beyond the church, beyond Oklahoma City, to the entire state.
This is but one of many found from a sealed box of recorded messages.
Inside the Century Chest
The chest contains a variety of objects honoring Oklahoma’s heritage. Included are American Indian artifacts and documents, historical photographs, paintings, poems and musical compositions, coins, family histories, local histories, clothing, various clippings, a special flag, popular technology of the day such as a telephone, phonograph, and camera. A special “Century Chest Edition” of The Oklahoma News newspaper was printed and copies placed in the chest. The chest also includes special messages from the Oklahomans of 1913 to our present-day community. Click Here to view a list of contents.
11. Constitution, Treaties and Laws of the Chickasaw Nation
The burial of the Century Chest was marked with a special service on the evening of April 22, 1913. The service included various musical performances, and addresses from Governor Lee Cruce, Oklahoma City Mayor Whit M. Grant, and Reverend Newton H. Royer, D.D., Pastor of the First Lutheran Church. A recording of the ceremony was made and included inside the chest. [Source: Oklahoma Historical Society]
Each year since the chest’s burial, the members of the First Lutheran Church have pledged their commitment to the chest and its creators. The pledge was created by the church members of 1913 to ensure the chest would be protected and honored for future generations of Oklahomans. [Source: Oklahoma Historical Society]
Last year, Cowan’s Auctions put up a lot of 282 Vietnam War-era Zippo lighters featuring personalized and anonymous engravings chosen by U.S. soldiers, sailors, and airmen during deployment. The collection was compiled by American artist Bradford Edwards over several years in the 1990s, on-site in Vietnam. The collection sold for $35,250 on June 21, 2012.
The following is an excerpt from the Cowan’s Auctions lot description:
Edwards explains that he is fascinated with the lighters as windows into the minds and experiences of the men experiencing a certain place and time. As Vietnam has evolved into a more modern and open nation in the last 20 years, foreign tourists have driven a growing market in the mementos, leading to an explosion in fakes. Edwards proclaims there are no real Zippos in Vietnam now. James Fiorella, author of The Vietnam Zippo (Schiffer Publishing, 1998) and probably the only authority on the subject with an expertise equal to Edwards, agrees, and warns collectors that over 95% of Zippos being sold in the open-air markets of Ho Chi Minh City and Ebay alike are fakes.
Edwards was careful not to target specific sentiments or designs in the engravings, but simply to seek out authenticity and let the objects speak for themselves. As such, the lighters capture a wide range of feelings and opinions about the war, from the obscenity-laden anti-army mottoes of the unwilling draftees, to the simple love notes of the homesick, to the 8 Special Forces emblazoned lighters, conspicuously absent of any further embellishment.
The Vietnam War represented something different from all other American Wars, previous and since. There were the regular army soldiers, many raised by World War II heroes and viewing their job as a duty and privilege. There were victims of fate, the unwilling, drafted by lottery, many poor and minority, resentful of their government and military superiors. And there were those along for the ride, not interested in glory or politics, merely trying to follow orders and earn their ticket home. Regardless, they were all connected by the Zippo, the utilitarian tool carried by nearly all soldiers since World War II, a symbol of dependability and the rare thing that all soldiers could count on. Used for lighting cigarettes, heating food, illuminating letters from home, or setting fire to huts of suspected VC, Zippos were used so frequently in Search & Destroy missions that GIs nicknamed them “Zippo Missions” or “Zippo Raids.” After purchasing one from the post exchange store for $1.80, a soldier could personalize his lighter at sidewalk tents with one of wide selection of stock designs or a personalized message.
In August 2012, the University of Leicester in collaboration with the Richard III Society and Leicester City Council, began an ambitious archaeological project to find the lost grave of King Richard III.
The last English king to die in battle, Richard had been buried five centuries earlier with little pomp in the church of the Grey Friars, all physical trace of which had long since been lost.
Incredibly, the excavation uncovered not only the friary – preserved underneath a council car park – but also a battle-scarred skeleton with spinal curvature. On 4th February 2013, after a battery of scientific tests, the University announced that these were the remains of Richard III. England’s last Plantagenet monarch (the English royal dynasty that held the throne from the accession of Henry II in 1154 until the death of Richard III) had been found.
Although he only ruled for two years – from 1483 to 1485 – Richard III stands out among his peers as one of the most famous (or infamous) Kings of England. Richard was born in Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire on 2 October 1452. Richard and his older brother Edward were the great-great-grandchildren of Edward III, a line of descent which was used to justify the claim to the throne by the House of York during the Wars of the Roses.
Edward ruled as King Edward IV from 1471 until his death in April 1483, when his 12-year-old son succeeded as Edward V, with Richard named Lord Protector. Young Edward and his brother moved into the Tower of London (which was then a royal palace, not a prison) but in June their parents’ marriage was declared invalid, making the princes illegitimate and hence their uncle became the heir apparent. Richard lost no time in being crowned King Richard III and the two boys were not seen again.
Thus began the legend of ‘the Princes in the Tower’ and a long-standing popular belief that Richard had his nephews murdered in order to remove any competing claim to the throne. This has been widely debated for many years, with passionate arguments made both for and against Richard. [Source: University of Leicester]
After defeating an unsuccessful rebellion in October 1483, Richard led his army to Bosworth in Leicestershire two years later to face Henry Tudor (whose somewhat tenuous claim to the throne was also through descent from Edward III). On 22 August 1485, Richard was killed at Bosworth Field, the last English King to die in battle, thereby bringing to an end both the Plantagenet dynasty and the Wars of the Roses. Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII.
Richard’s body was brought back to Leicester, publicly displayed and then given for burial to a group of Franciscan friars. An alabaster tomb monument was constructed over the grave in 1495, paid for by the new King. With the dissolution of the monasteries (by Henry Tudor’s son, Henry VIII) that friary disappeared and along with it any clear record of Richard’s grave.
Tudor writers and artists had no qualms about depicting Richard III as an evil tyrant and child-murderer, as well as a crippled hunchback. Shakespeare’s eponymous play, written 106 years after Richard’s death, cemented the King’s bad reputation (and appearance) among the general public for centuries. [Source: University of Leicester]
The Greyfriars Project had a series of five progressive research objectives:
1. Find the remains of the Franciscan friary.
2. Identify clues to the position/orientation of the buildings.
3. Within the friary, locate the church.
4. Within the church, locate the choir.
5. Within the choir, locate the mortal remains of Richard III.
Radiocarbon dating, radiological evidence, DNA and bone analysis and archaeological results, confirms identity of last Plantagenet king who died over 500 years ago:
– DNA from skeleton matches two of Richard III’s maternal line relatives– Canadian-born furniture maker Michael Ibsen and a second person who wishes to remain anonymous
– Radiocarbon dating reveals individual had a high protein diet – including significant amounts of seafood – meaning he was likely to be of high status
– Radiocarbon dating reveals individual died in the second half of the 15th or in the early 16th century – consistent with Richard’s death in 1485
– Skeletal analysis carried out by University of Leicester osteoarchaeologist Dr Jo Appleby showed that the individual was male and in his late 20s to late 30s. Richard III was 32 when he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485
– The individual had a slender physique and severe scoliosis – a curvature of the spine – possibly with one shoulder visibly higher than the other. This is consistent with descriptions of Richard III’s appearance from the time
– Individual likely to have been killed by one of two fatal injuries to the skull – one possibly from a sword and one possibly from a halberd
– 10 wounds discovered on skeleton – Richard III killed by trauma to the back of the head. Part of the skull sliced off
– Although around 5 feet 8 inches tall (1.72m), condition meant King Richard III would have stood significantly shorter and his right shoulder may have been higher than the left
– Feet were truncated at an unknown point in the past, but a significant time after the burial
– Corpse was subjected to ‘humiliation injuries’ –including a sword through the right buttock
– No evidence for ‘withered arm’ –as portrayed by Shakespeare – found
– Possibility that the individual’s hands were tied
– Grave was hastily dug, was not big enough and there was no shroud or coffin
