Check out the image of the 1898 City Directory for Williamsburg, VA to the left (click on it to enlarge; Source College of William & Mary). You'll notice no phone numbers or addresses for the individuals listed and the existence of a "Yellow Pages"-style advertising section, which means that the format for the phone book existed even before the phone. Head to the College of William & Mary SWEM Library website to see more manuscript and rare book samplers.
I came across this very cool site called Maps of War (via Boing Boing) and found the map you see below. It depicts the spread of various religions throughout recorded history. This is a fantastic tool to grasp both the historical relevance of religions and their scope. You'll notice that in the grand scheme of things Christianity and Islam are "johnny come lately" and their spread has largely occurred in the recent past.
Can you name the guy pictured to the left? You can probably guess that the portrait was taken in the 19th century but that's the only clue I'm going to give you.
Give up? The answer can be found here at Dana Blankenhorn's excellent blog.
On its website the National Archives has made available high-resolution, downloadable images of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and The Declaration of Independence. Always important reading, but particularly these days.
Here's a website that details all the illnesses suffered by the Presidents of the United States. A surprising number suffered gunshot wounds, and apparently our healthiest President was Jimmy Carter who only has severe hemorrhoids listed. George W. Bush also has hemorrhoids and his possible experimentation with cocaine is listed as well.
Okay, no cheating. Here's a pop quiz about the US Constitution.
I could make it easy and give you the answers, but instead check out this page that has the text of the Constitution in its entirety.
Use the comments to tell me how you did. BTW, I failed miserably.
The whole silly "war on Christmas" thing that's been going on so some guy (John Gibson) could sell his book and Fox News could jack up its ratings has had an unexpected, but pleasant effect on me. I've read more in the last two weeks about the history of celebrating Christmas in America than I've ever read before, even in my religious education classes at Capital Lutheran High School West in Arlington, VA. I was reading this Slate article when I came across this paragraph:
Observance of Christmas, or the lack thereof, was one way to differentiate among the Christian sects of Colonial and 19th-century America. Anglicans, Moravians, Dutch Reformed, and Lutherans, to name just a few, did; Quakers, Puritans, Separatists, Baptists, and some Presbyterians did not. An 1855 New York Times report on Christmas services in the city noted that Baptist and Methodist churches were closed because they "do not accept the day as a holy one," while Episcopal and Catholic churches were open and "decked with evergreens." New England Congregationalist preacher Henry Ward Beecher remembered decorative greenery as an exotic touch that one could see only in Episcopal churches, "a Romish institution kept up by the Romish church." (Emphasis on Moravians mine).
You'll notice that the Moravians were one of the Christian sects that celebrated Christmas all along. Winston-Salem is located in what was originally a 100,000 acre Moravian settlement called Wachovia, and is currently home to historic Old Salem. Anyone who's lived here for at least one Christmas can attest to the fact that the Moravians have been practicing the art of celebrating Christmas for a long time.
For evidence you only need to attend a Moravian Christmas Candlelight Lovefeast to get a sense for what I'm talking about. I could try to describe it, but it is beyond my capabilities as a writer. Just take my word for it and if you're ever near a Moravian church on Christmas Eve make sure you attend. What I can say is that you get the feeling that this is what Christmas is all about.
Chalk that up as one more reason that living in Winston-Salem is great.
The British Library has posted the digitized versions of 253 "Festival Books" from the Renaissance and Early Modern eras. From the library's site:
View 253 digitised Renaissance festival books (selected from over 2,000 in the British Library's collection) that describe the magnificent festivals and ceremonies that took place in Europe between 1475 and 1700 - marriages and funerals of royalty and nobility, coronations, stately entries into cities and other grand events.
You can go directly to the texts here: http://special-1.bl.uk/treasures/festivalbooks/BookList.aspx
