Woodbury Historical Tours

11/15/2024

On Nov 14, 1732 the Library Company of Philadelphia hired its first librarian. Founded by Ben Franklin and friends in Nov 1731, the library enrolled members for a fee of forty shillings but had to wait for books to arrive from England before beginning full operation (LoC)

After independence, the third session of the new Federal Congress convened in Philadelphia in January 1791, and the Library Company directors again tendered use of their facility. In essence, the Library Company served as the de facto Library of Congress until 1800 when the fledgling legislature moved to its permanent Washington, D.C., location and the Library of Congress was founded.

1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in.

11/13/2024

American Coup: Wilmington 1898
—Voted In. Terrorized Out—

The little-known story of the deadly 1898 race massacre and coup d’etat in Wilmington, NC.

11/13/2024

Honoring Indigenous Peoples:
20 Recommended Reads
New York Public Library

These books serve as an introduction to a rich and diverse heritage of fiction, nonfiction, history, poetry, memoir, and more.

11/13/2024

". . . documents proved the ship had been built in 1854 and not 1797; nevertheless, Eller was instrumental in convincing the National Park Service, Maryland Historical Society, and Maryland state legislature to date the ship to 1797."

The naming of the Navy’s new frigate class prompts questions over its namesake museum ship’s murky history.

11/08/2024

“Great joy in camp. We are in View of the Ocian, this great Pacific Octean which we [have] been So long anxious to See, and the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey Shores…may be heard distinctly.”

in 1805

“Ocian in view! O! the joy.”

Of the thousands of written words in his field books, these are perhaps William Clark’s most memorable. Since leaving Camp River Dubois over 18 months earlier, the Corps of Discovery believed they were within sight of their primary destination – the Pacific Ocean.

However, at the end of the day, the Expedition was still about 20 miles from the mouth of the great Columbia River and the waves of the ocean. The party didn’t realize how far they had yet to travel, and Clark wrote that evening: “Great joy in camp. We are in View of the Ocian, this great Pacific Octean which we [have] been So long anxious to See, and the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey Shores…may be heard distinctly.”

We know today it wasn’t the ocean they were seeing, but the eastern end of the huge Gray’s Bay. The next few weeks would be miserable for the party as storms and high waves would delay progress and pin them down along the bay’s northern shore.

Image: Map of the upper and lower estuary of the Columbia River by Jonathan Allan, Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. Clark’s view on November 7, 1805, could have been in the area with the text “upper estuary.”

Image Description: A detailed map of the lower Columbia River, from Cathlamet, Washington, on the right to the Pacific Ocean on the left. This shows how the river expands in width as it leaves the gorge area and enters the estuary.

11/07/2024

11/06/2024

in 1865, CSS Shenandoah surrendered six months after the end of the U.S. Civil War. Like the Japanese soldiers of WWII who refused to accept defeat, the crew of the ship continued to fight because they did not believe the initial news about the Confederacy's capitulation.

11/05/2024

Johnny Ringo

Intriguing, mysterious, and heavily mythologized gunslinger Johnny Ringo is buried in Cochise County, Arizona, pretty close to the middle of nowhere. The private landowner graciously allows public access to the grave.

11/01/2024

Missing Pieces Project maps buildings in 189 locations where African American abolitionists spoke against slavery

10/31/2024

NAMED AFTER SPANISH EXPLORER HERNANDO de Soto, the first European to stumble upon the Mississippi River, the DeSoto House opened in 1855 at a time of economic boom in Galena, Illinois. It billed itself “the largest hotel in the west.”

The oldest operating hotel in Illinois enjoys a historic (and some say haunted) past.

10/31/2024

"On August 3, 1849, with the gold rush in full frenzy, the instant city of San Francisco held municipal elections. All those voted into office were Americans, with one exception: a Californio—a Spanish-speaking inhabitant of pre-cessation California—named Francisco Guerrero was chosen as a subprefect, a top administrative position."

The mysterious slaying of Francisco Guerrero in 1851 took place as a massive land grab was underway—one that left the Golden State’s Spanish-speaking inhabitants with little.

10/30/2024

On this very day, in 1938, Orson Wells broadcasted an adaptation of H. G. Wells’ "The War of the Worlds." It aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System network as a special Halloween episode. [LitHub]

On Halloween eve in 1938, the power of radio was on full display when a dramatization of the science-fiction novel "The War of the Worlds" scared the dayligh...

10/30/2024

"As the 66-year-old hero of the American Revolution descended from the ship that had carried him back across the waves to the shores of the nation he had selflessly served as a young man, a roar crescendoed from his admirers. For the next 13 months, Lafayette would travel to each state in America, welcomed by cheering crowds everywhere."

Enormous crowds greeted the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution, during his visit to all 24 states nearly 40 years after the war ended.

10/29/2024

161 years ago . . .

The night of October 28-29, 1863, saw one of the only nighttime battles of the American Civil War. In the Battle of Wauhatchie, at the base of Chattanooga's Lookout Mountain, troops of Confederate general James Longstreet's command attacked a U.S force under General John Geary. Geary's men repulsed the assault, but not before Geary's own son—an 18-year-old artillery lieutenant—was killed.

A summary of the small but deadly nighttime Battle of Wauhatchie, Tennessee on October 28-29, 1863

10/28/2024

New York City Subway Opens

OTD in 1904, New York Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. celebrated the opening of the New York City subway system. At just after 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 27, 1904, the inaugural subway train emerged from City Hall station with Mayor McClellan at the controls. Twenty-six minutes later, the train arrived at its destination at 145th Street. The system opened to the general public at 7:00 p.m. Before the evening was out, subway trains had transported over 110,000 passengers around the city.

Photo: In the Subway, New York, N.Y. c1904. Detroit Publishing Company. Prints & Photographs Division. Library of Congress.

10/28/2024

OTD in 1864: The U.S. navy used a "torpedo" to sink the Confederate ironclad Albermarle at Plymouth, North Carolina

By William B. Cushing In September, 1864, the Government was laboring under much anxiety in regard to the condition of affairs in the sounds of North...

10/27/2024

Limerick’s famous fighting spirit was evident on the battlefield on that fateful day on the Black Hills of the Northern Plains of Montana.