This one time, in 1951, my great great uncle was on the cover of Life magazine.
He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor when he was a 22 year old Army Infantry Sergeant, leading his squad near Kujang-Dong, Korea, November 26, 1950. He threw himself on a hand grenade and it exploded under him. He received the Medal Of Honor from President Truman.
From Sgt. Stubby to Smoky and Cairo: Dogs in Combat
As we celebrate Memorial Day, we look at the role man’s best friend has had in combat through the years.
Happy Mustache Monday! This week’s subject is John Good. We’ll just quote from “A Biographical Dictionary of People in Engineering” (Carl A. Wall, 2008) to tell you who he was, because there’s no way we could say it better than this:
GOOD, John, 1841-1908, Irish American inventor; ropemaking, machinist, machinery to replace handmaking of rope, patented breaker, nipper, spreaders, regulators for rope-making, John Good Cordage & Machine Co. (1893-1898), organized John Good & Jennings Patent Machine Cordage Co. (1898), over 100 patents (DAB MEIA)
Classic photo from KLRU archive in honor of our 50th Anniversary
In Focus: The American West, 150 Years Ago
In the 1860s and 70s, photographer Timothy O’Sullivan created some of the best-known images in American History. After covering the U.S. Civil War, (many of his photos appear in this earlier series), O’Sullivan joined a number of expeditions organized by the federal government to help document the new frontiers in the American West. The teams were composed of soldiers, scientists, artists, and photographers, and tasked with discovering the best ways to take advantage of the region’s untapped natural resources. O’Sullivan brought an amazing eye and work ethic, composing photographs that evoked the vastness of the West. He also documented the Native American population as well as the pioneers who were already altering the landscape. Above all, O’Sullivan captured — for the first time on film — the natural beauty of the American West in a way that would later influence Ansel Adams and thousands more photographers to come.
See more. [Images: Timothy O’Sullivan/LOC]
When Joseph-Nicephore Niepce took the first photograph in 1828, his photographic plate required an exposure of eight hours. That exposure time was drastically reduced across the course of the nineteenth century, so that by the 1890s the Collodion process had cut exposure times to two or three seconds.
Nevertheless, a three second exposure meant that subjects had to stand very still to avoid being blurred, and holding a smile for that period was tricky. As a result, we have a tendency to see our Victorian ancestors as even more formal and stern than they might have been.
These pictures are drawn from the Flickr group “The Smiling Victorian” and show a perhaps surprising side to the people who’s “now” was a hundred years before our own.
May 24, 1844: Samuel Morse opens a telegraph line connecting Washington D.C. and Baltimore.
Samuel Morse developed the electric telegraph and his eponymous code in 1836; by 1843, the U.S. government had appropriated to him $30,000 for the construction of an experimental 61 km telegraph line that would run from Washington D.C. to Baltimore - this line was completed in early 1844. It officially opened on May 24, 1844, when Morse sent the words “What hath God wrought” (a biblical quote from the Book of Numbers) from the Capitol to Baltimore. By 1861, telegraph lines spanned the continent, connecting the East and West coasts and rendering most other forms of communication obsolete.
Morse’s 1844 telegraph transmitted messages at a speed of thirty characters per minute, a speed that is simulated above. As telegraphs became more advanced (and operators more skilled), much higher transmission speeds were made possible as well.
Happy birthday Brooklyn Bridge! Today in 1883 our lovely bridge opened to the public. The NY Times has the short history of the day. Or, come over to the Manuscripts and Archives Division, where you can pour over the architectural plans and drawings of parts of the Bridge, including images of the Brooklyn anchorage and tower, derricks, and other equipment used in the bridge’s construction.
