MetaFilter posts tagged with history

BBS documentary author tries to raise funds work full-time on computer history

Monday, stony Monday — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:51:07 -0800

Mefi's own Jason Scott (jscott) wants to raise $25,000 using waxy's Kickstarter to work full-time on computer history. He made BBS documentary (previously), founded the Archive Team, and owns textfiles.com (previously) and, yes, sockington. So far, 237 people have pledged $20,340. On Nov. 4, Jason did a 5-hours, non-stop Scottathon. Apparently, fundraising ain't easy. Texfiles.com is quite a resource, with a wide range of topics: sex (mefi), drugs (mefi), the Vietnam War (mefi), koalas (mefi), Applesoft BASIC (mefi), and, obviously, the "Golden Ages" of BBSes (mefi). Jason has already written quite a bit on computer history, including IBM manuals, retrocomputing, the DAK catalog and Computer Shopper. He's also given many talks: nostalgics don't want to miss Apple II Pirate Lore; youger nostalgics may enjoy the Super Jason Scott Presentation 64. He's working on a documentary about Text Adventures, GET LAMP.

Cokaygne in my brain

Abiezer — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:42:16 -0800

Past Tense is a publishing project exploring London radical history. Their website has texts telling us about William Cuffay, the black Chartist tried and transported for levying war against Queen Victoria; an account of an early instance of women's organised labour struggle during the 1908 Corruganza box-makers strike; the drunken uproar of the 18th-century elections for the spurious Mayor of Garratt, really putting the 'mock' into 'mock election'; a yeoman farmer in Kett's Great Rebellion of 1549; the burning of the Albion Mills; and much more, including some walking tours to locations linked to radical history in various parts of the metropolis.

Where the Scent of Yesterday's Vogue Lives

netbros — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:17:31 -0800

Take your nose on a stroll down memory lane with vintage perfumery. The Vintage Perfume Vault features fragrance reviews and articles on perfume history. Perfume Shrine offers articles on perfumery including essays on the science of fragrance and aroma materials, interviews with perfumers and industry professionals, trend-watching. Inspiration in Perfumery profiles Henri Robert, Andre Fraysse, Ernest Beaux and Edmond Roudnitska. More about olfactory delights from 1000 Fragrances. Looking for that special fragrance to make the evening just right? How about: Dregs | Dirt | Earthworm | Funeral Home | Laundromat | Necco | Pinkitude | Redhead in Bed | Sex on the Beach | Stable | or the ever ubiquitous Play-Doh.

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

jaduncan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:34:59 -0800

The Gecko Wears A Tiara [via mefi projects] Sumarian proverbs. Compare those with the 1600BCE Ashubanipal proverbs and Proverbs From the Ancient Egyptian Temples and indeed, modern Iraq and Arabic more generally. Enjoy, culture geeks. Added bonus proverb pages: Aboriginal Australian proverbs, Afghan proverbs, African proverbs, Albanian proverbs, Altay proverbs, American proverbs, Arabic proverbs, Aramaic proverbs, Armenian proverbs, Azerbaijani proverbs, Balochi proverbs, Basque Proverbs, Bauernregeln (humorous), Bengali proverbs, Bhutanese proverbs, Bible Proverbs, Bosnian proverbs, Breton proverbs, Bulgarian proverbs, Cambodian Proverbs, Catalan proverbs, Proverbs commonly attributed to be Chinese, Chinese proverbs, Corsican proverbs, Croatian proverbs, Cypriot proverbs, Czech proverbs, Danish proverbs, Dominican proverbs, Dutch proverbs, Egyptian proverbs, English proverbs, Faroese proverbs, Filipino proverbs, Finnish proverbs, French proverbs, Frisian proverbs, Galician proverbs, German proverbs, Proverbs from the game of Go, Greek proverbs, Gypsy (Romani) proverbs, Haitian proverbs, Hebraic proverbs, Hindi proverbs, Honduran proverbs, Hungarian proverbs, Icelandic proverbs, Indian proverbs, Indonesian proverbs, Ingush proverbs, Irish proverbs, Italian proverbs, Japanese proverbs, Jewish proverbs, Kannada proverbs, Kashmiri proverbs, Khakas proverbs, Klingon proverbs, Korean proverbs, Kurdish proverbs, Latin proverbs, Latvian proverbs, Macedonian proverbs, Malay proverbs, Malayalam proverbs, Maltese proverbs, Manx proverbs, Maori proverbs, Mesopotamian Proverbs, Mexican proverbs, Mongolian proverbs, Native American proverbs, Nepal Bhasa proverbs, Nepali Proverbs, Nigerian proverbs, Norwegian proverbs, Pakistani proverbs, Pashto proverbs, Persian proverbs, Polish proverbs, Portuguese proverbs, Proverbs, Punjabi proverbs, Romanian proverbs, Russian proverbs, Russian proverbs from the USSR, Sanskrit proverbs, Scanian proverbs, Scottish Gaelic proverbs, Scottish proverbs, Serbian proverbs, Sinhala proverbs, Slovak proverbs, Spanish proverbs, Swahili proverbs, Swedish proverbs, Swiss proverbs, Tamil proverbs, Telugu proverbs, Thai proverbs, Tuareg proverbs, Turkish proverbs, Tywa proverbs, Urdu proverbs, Venezuelan proverbs, Vietnamese proverbs, Vulcan proverbs, Welsh proverbs, Yiddish proverbs, Yoruba proverbs, Zen proverbs.

Enheduanna, the first poet we know by name

Kattullus — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:33:39 -0800

Enheduanna was a priestess and poet in the city of Ur in the 23rd century BC and supposedly the daughter of Sargon the Great of Akkad. She is the first author known by name. Here are a number of her poems in English translation, The Exaltation of Inana, Inana and Ebih, A Hymn to Inana, The Temple Hymns and A Balbale to Nanna. Here are two alternate translations of The Exaltation of Inana, one by James D. Pritchard and an English rendering of Dr. Annette Zgoll's German translation. If you want to learn more, go to The En-hedu-Ana Research Pages.

Nitroglycerin in the Pennsylvania oil fields

tss — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:51:01 -0800

From The Titusville Morning Herald of June 17, 1866, "Our attention has been called to a series of experiments that have been made in the wells of various localities by Col. Roberts, with his newly patented torpedo. ... The torpedo... is lowered into the well, down to the spot, as near as can be ascertained, where it is necessary to explode it. ... The object of the torpedo is to clean out all the deposits at the bottom of the well."
In the western Pennsylvania oilfields of the second half of the 1800s, "shooters" were men who set off nitroglycerin charges in wells to get the oil flowing again. Tales of Destruction relates stories and legends of this absurdly hazardous job. Additional notes here, in Samuel Pees's Oil History. (Previously)

The Fore River Shipyard

rmd1023 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:17:07 -0800

The Fore River Shipyard was in service between 1886 and 1985, first under the management of the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, then Bethlehem Steel, and finally General Dynamics. She helped to close out the age of sail with the construction of the largest sailing vessel in history without any kind of engine. Besides providing a substantial number of liberty ships, surface warships of various classes, and submarines during WWII, it may also be the source of the "Kilroy was here" graffiti. The shipyard was home to a notable feature of the skyline south of Boston: the Goliath crane, which stood from 1975 to 2008. In 2008 it was disassembled (with one fatality) and transported to Romania. The shipyard, and the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, were founded by Thomas Watson, who is more generally remembered for one of his previous jobs.

Britain Can Make It!

Miko — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:53:28 -0800

Making the Modern World presents a set of twisty little passages through the history of science and invention, from the eighteenth century to the contemporary era, brought to you by the UK's Science Museum.

The House on Garibaldi Street

reenum — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:35:26 -0800

The capture of Adolf Eichmann is one of the more daring spy operations in the post WWII era. The story spans 17 years, beginning with Eichmann's clandestine escape from the Allied forces and the Nuremberg trial, and ending with his hanging in Israel. After WWII, Eichmann was able to escape the Nuremberg trials and the subsequent efforts of Nazi hunters in Europe. He worked as a farmer for 5 years, before he was able to gain passage to Argentina with the help of an organization that helped ex-Nazis defect to South America. However, Nazi hunters like Simon Wiesenthal never forgot about Eichmann and the crimes he had committed. After years of chasing false leads, the Mossad finally found Eichmann and assembled a team to capture him. This team included Rafi Eitan and Peter Malkin. The team followed Eichmann and planned his capture, which ended with the Israelis smuggling a drugged Eichmann aboard an El-Al plane and making two transcontinental flights that pushed the plane's limits. The operation caused embarrassment for some of the world's superpowers. But, the trial went on nonetheless. Subsequent generations have studied this capture and the impact it had on the world as a whole. You can find repositories of Eichmann related documents here, here, here and here.

Why do we have an IMG element?

chunking express — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:58:25 -0800

Why do we have an IMG element?

Frankfurter Buchmesse

ocherdraco — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:18:25 -0800

Perhaps you have seen the recent video of flies zooming around a "German trade show" like little banner planes? That "German Trade Show" was the Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse)—the most important event in the book publishing world. It's international; all the major US publishers go, as do many agents, to meet their foreign counterparts and to buy and sell projects amid publishing's eternal and ever-present air of fatalism. This year's fair had some interesting subplots, the most visible of which was the complicated dance the organizers did with this year's guest of honor, China, as accusations of censorship (on the part of China) and of brown-nosing (on the part of the fair's organizers) flew. The Frankfurt Book Fair has been held, on and off, since 1454. The Millions' review of A History of the Frankfurt Book Fair gives a nice capsule overview of the Fair's history since its inaugural fair, which Gutenberg himself may or may not have attended:

Then there was a long, protracted fall. Between 1680 and 1690, nearly every publishing house in Frankfurt collapsed due to the indebtedness of publishers. As a result of this there was an anti-Semitic backlash, Jewish financiers becoming the scapegoats for the failure of the publishing houses, and regulations were imposed forbidding trading to Jews. In fact, it was the wars instigated by Louis XIV, and repercussions of the War of the Spanish Succession that crippled the economy. As well, the Reformation had moved the intellectual hub north, and the center of trade was shifting east, giving Leipzig an edge over Frankfurt. Bookshops in Frankfurt turned into bars. By the mid-1800s, even Leipzig was in decline. Book fairs – as they were envisioned then – had had their day, as the book trade was no longer dependent on fairs. The modern era of the Frankfurt Book Fair, after a few false starts, began in the late 1940s. The 1950 fair was a major success. It was both a cultural exchange and a trade show emphasizing merchandising and marketing. A literary peace prize had also been established – Albert Schweitzer won it that year – giving the fair an added PR boost. There was no shortage of intrigue in the post-war book fair. The Cold War and the building of the Berlin Wall led to the infiltration of West Germany (and the Frankfurt Book Fair) by East German spies! Beginning in 1967 and continuing into the 70s, undercover agents (using pseudonyms) from East German publishing houses were covertly checking out the activity at the fair, seeing which of their authors had books there.

N.B.: I am a book editor. It's possible (but unlikely) that I know someone mentioned somewhere in the things I've linked to.

The Surprisingly Accurately Named Thirty Years War

Kattullus — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:32:07 -0800

The Thirty Years War is a website covers that ginormous kerfuffle that consumed Europe in the first half of the 17th Century from the Second Defenestration of Prague to the Peace of Westphalia. It has a handy map with a place locator which will help you tell your Schweidnitz from your Schweinfurt. Here are some other maps, The Religious Situation in Central Europe about 1618, Principal Seats of War, 1618-1660 and Europe in 1648 - Peace of Westphalia.

'Lo world

starman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:26:48 -0800

Forty years ago today, Leonard Kleinrock and a team of engineers at UCLA connected to Stanford Research Institute and typed (an incomplete) message between the first two nodes of the Internet: "lo." Kleinrock tells the story. The first router. On packet switching. (All YouTube) Kleinrock interviewed by CNN, LA Times. Sign outside the historic room at UCLA. History of the Internet.

1989, revolution in Eastern Europe

Kattullus — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:49:20 -0800

The BBC World Service has put together a special report on the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe (they also have a simpler portal). There is a wealth of material, including TV reports on key events from the BBC archives, interviews, a map timeline, a report on Catholicism's role in the 1989 revolutions, a first-hand report of what it was like to gather news in East Germany during that time and much more.

Iconic Photos

Joe Beese — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:05:10 -0800

Iconic Photos

A history of timezones

Pronoiac — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:40:40 -0800

These files, I thought, only tracked daylight savings time for all the different timezones & offsets from Greenwich Time. Actually, they have a detailed, fascinating history of timezones scribbled in the margins. (via)

Blacksmithing again

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:19:38 -0800

A Day in the Life of a Blacksmith (start here) is the 1869-70 diary of an apprentice blacksmith in Medfield, Massachusetts, in blog form. Brought to you by the American Antiquarian Society and its new blog Past is Present.

Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan

Iridic — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:49:16 -0800

There was a rivalry between the parties, of course, but in Potter's account, it was more like the rivalry between Cal and Stanford than that between today's Republicans and Democrats. The parties had somewhat different constituencies and pledged fealty to a different set of men, but each attempted to encompass as much of the political spectrum as possible rather than merely half of it. The story of the 1850s, by these lights, is about how this changed.

With reference to David M. Potter's The Impending Crisis, Adam Cadre surveys the four antebellum presidents. Previously profiled in his occasional series on the American presidents: George Washington ("...a sort of machine programmed to relentlessly seek out personal success.") John Adams ("...a dead-even mix of good and bad qualities.") Thomas Jefferson ("...a chess player's compulsion to rearrange the institutions of society into a more effective alignment.") James Madison ("...first nerd president.") James Monroe ("...kind of an empty suit...") Andrew Jackson ("...a third-world strongman.") John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and James K. Polk ("...like reading Solo Avengers issues about Starfox and Doctor Druid.")

History of Montreal disco(s)

joeclark — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:58:12 -0800

Funkytown: The Montreal Disco Era. Studio 54? Qu’est-ce que c’est? By the late 1970s, “Montreal had platinum-status admission to the VIP lounge of coolest-of-the-cool disco cities.” An oral history of the city where no one bats an eye at going out to dance at 1:30 AM in –20°C weather. (Contains links to MP3 of CBC Radio documentary.) Incidentally, the film Funkytown mentioned in the comments is an upcoming bilingual historical comedy-drama about the Montreal disco scene that, by the looks of it, will feature some really bitchin’ wardrobe.

The Allied Merchant Navy

Joe Beese — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:07:50 -0800

The 30,000 men of the British Merchant Navy (one-fifth of its pre-war strength) who fell victim to the U-boats between 1939 and 1945, the majority drowned or killed by exposure on the cruel North Atlantic sea *, were quite as certainly front-line warriors as the guardsmen and fighter pilots to whom they ferried the necessities of combat. Neither they nor their American, Dutch, Norwegian, or Greek fellow mariners wore uniform and few have any memorial. They stood nevertheless between the Wehrmacht and the domination of the world. - John Keegan

Mad Props

dersins — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:24:41 -0800

There was a typewriter repairman in North Hollywood, California. He couldn’t believe it when all of a sudden someone deposited 24 vintage typewriters on his doorstep and said, “Make them look new.” He probably hadn’t had that much work in the last 25 years. He was probably just about ready to hang up the “Going out of business” sign and cursing the arrival of the laptop computer when all of a sudden here I come with 24 typewriters. The Collectors Weekly interviews Scott Buckwald, propmaster for Mad Men.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Hargrimm — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:13:51 -0800

"Promoting the Love and Study of American History." The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has many resources on its website, including over 50 free lecture podcasts, a collection of war letters throughout history, a Lincoln bicentennial page, and a new John Brown exhibition. There are also subject pages for 8 'eras' of American History, under "History by Era" on the top menubar, as well as extensive materials for teachers of history (maps, primary sources, quizzes, links).

His Soul Is Marching On

Pope Guilty — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:46:17 -0800

Today is the 150th anniversary of John Brown's abolitionist raid on Harper's Ferry, and the commemorations are underway.

Podcast about the history of the Normans

Kattullus — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:24:17 -0800

Norman Centuries is a new podcast by Lars Brownworth, best known for his podcast series 12 Byzantine Rulers (previously). Norman Centuries, as the name suggests, recounts the history of the Normans, those literal vikings who gained Normandy and then England, Sicily, Malta, Antioch and, well, a whole heck of a lot of other places too. They were a conquering bunch. First two episodes are out with more to follow. [iTunes link]

Women Veterans Historical Collection

tellurian — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:01:59 -0800

Jean M. Fasse (Red Cross during WWII, and later the Special Service). Shirley Ann Thacker (WAVE). Just two of the interviews from the extensive collection of material (photographs, letters, diaries, scrapbooks, oral histories and posters) at the Women Veterans Historical Collection.