Unusual, Intriguing And Helpful Sites And Blogs

National Museum of American History - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/arts/design/21hist.html?_r=1&hp

European History Online - http://dev.europeana.eu/

Copernicus reconstructed - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7740908.stm

SearchWiki - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7740815.stm

The Pen And The Spindle News

For the longest time we've known that our blog is becoming difficult to navigate for information. We began experimenting with different formats which had limited success for short periods of time only. This has been frustrating for us because our searches and research have turned up some really interesting, and often hard to come by, information.

A month ago we began experimenting with separate databases for different streams of information. This has proved to be very successful, especially with the separated out information on the Anglo Boer War. We are going to continue building separate 'databases' and transition The Pen And The Spindle over to Wordpress within the next few months. 

It is not that we don't like Blogger, but we find Wordpress gives us the opportunity to create fixed information sources which can be more easily accessed.  

At the moment we are inputting and formatting separate information sources for:

• The Anglo Boer War 1899 - 1902
• The Goblin Market on Women's History
• Speculative History for all those events historians avoid.

I have added a community source on Ontario, featuring the GTA, because there are so many small businesses in the area with unique products and/or personalized service never featured and often lost in the cookie cutter malls that mushroom up on any available piece of land. I have a very real commitment to small business because writer/researchers are also small business people, a fact many forget. When times are hard, we are all hit badly.

We will transition our original colonial history blog last. We plan on separating out all the good information sources and categorizing them for easy access. If you have any input, please feel free to comment or email us.

Give-Aways - THIS OFFER IS NOW CLOSED

Golden Nemesis: Manifest Destiny Between The Two Boer Wars 1899 - 1900 is due for publication in early 2009. You can read about it on the page on John Y.F. Blake, Commander, Irish-American Brigade. Or your can visit http://heathevallance.blospot.com for more details.

I will be giving away 10 copies of Nemesis - 6 to libraries and 4 to individuals. These copies will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

If you would like to reserve a copy please email me on heathev@gmail.com.

Only requests which include the following information will be considered:

Full name and email address 

Website or Blog Address

Upon publication I will email you to find out if you are still interested in receiving your free copy and you can give me your physical address at that time.

Your details will NOT be used for marketing or for any reason other than to reserve a free copy of Nemesis.

Unusual, Intriguing And Helpful Sites And Blogs

Oldest turtles on Skye - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7736786.stm

Cafe Royal to shut down - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7736109.stm

Rare Florence Nightingale photo on sale - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7737130.stm

Florence Nightingale Museum - http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/cms/

American Association of the History of Nursing - http://www.aahn.org/

Nursing History links - http://www.lib.flinders.edu.au/resources/sub/healthsci/a-zlist/history.html

Six Little Jungle Boys 1945

American Nursing History

George Horton Barrett

Born in Exeter, Devon, England, June 9, 1794; made his first appearance on the American Stage in Boston, Massachusetts, as Cora's Child, in Pizarro, 1796; he first acted in New York at the Park Theatre, under the management of Johnson and Tyler, as Young Norval, in 1806; Manager of the Bowery Theatre, N. York, with E. Gilfert, in 1829; crossed at the Atlantic in 1847, for Colonel Mann, and opened the Broadway Theatre in New York in September, 1847, as Acting and Stage manager, with The School of Scandal; acted Puff, at Drury lan Theatre, in 1837, under the management of Mr. Bunn; at present he is living in retirement; he was one of the best Genteel Comedians ever attached to the American Stage.

From Chronology of the American Stage from 1752-1852. Francis C. Wemyss. Ayer Publishing, 1968.

The South Cambria Discovers A War Relic

According to the Elizabethtown Post (February 25, 1886), "The English steamer South Cambria has brought from the bottom of the sea an interesting relic of the war of the rebellion. Running short of coal, she was compelled to put into the harbor at Newport News. As the crew were hauling up the anchor, they found the bowprit of a war vessel attached to it. The spot where the South Cambria was lying was exactly where the great naval duel took place between the war vessels Congress and Merrimac, in which the former was sunk. This was in 1862, and the bowprit brought to the surface is supposed to be that of the Congress."

Woman In Soldier's Clothing

A sensation has been caused at Albuquerque, New Mexico, by the arrest of a young woman named Miss Florence Lesher, whose home is in Kansas City. She was taken from the Sante Fe train by the police, and was wearing a soldier's khaki uniform and carrying military discharge papers. She did not deny her sex, and said that she had donned the uniform after cutting off her hair, and had tried to get home that way because she was ill and penniless, having only just been discharged from a hospital in San Francisco. There a sympathetic soldier had given her his clothes and ticket. Several charitable women in Albuquerque supplied Miss Lesher with clothing, and her fare to Kansas City.

Extracted from the Grey River Argus. October 2, 1913.

Women Warriors

The Amazons still constitute the best part of the Dahomian army. This corps of about 2500 women is mainly recruited from young girls of the best families of Dahomey, designated by the caprice of the king for military service. They live in barracks like regular soldiers and are sworn to perpetual virginity. One company of the Amazon regiment bears the name of Razor Virgins, because they are armed with razors 5ft long, which are terrible weapons in African fights, and are used in time of peace to decapitate men sentenced to death by the Dahomian King, who also uses his Amazons as public executioners. The Sure To Kill company is formed of the best sharpshooters. There are also Carbineers and Bayonet companies. The Arrow Bearers is composed of girls too young yet for actual fighting, but who are employed as reconnoitering parties and in the ambulance corps.

Extracted from North Otago Times. August 12, 1890.

Kinkead Ridge Wines At Auction

Future Dances

First Woman Ever Buried With Military Honors

This story was extracted from the North Otago Times, March 17, 1888.

The unusual spectacle of a woman being buried with full military honors was witnessed at Portsmouth on the 25th January, the woman so honored being the wife of Quartermaster Fox, of the Second Battalion Connaught Rangers. She accompanied her husband to the Transvaal, and while ministering to the wounded (during the 1st Anglo Boer War) was shot in the abdomen, from which the bullet was never extracted. She then for four months became a prisoner of war in the Boer camp, and there though weak and suffering, still continued her ministration to her fellow prisoners. Shortly after her return to Portsmouth she began to suffer from partial paralysis. Colonel Bunbury issued an order that Mrs. Fox had died a soldier's death, and Lieutenant General Sir G. Willis decreed a military funeral. It was attended by fully 10 000 persons, the pall bearers being officers, while the gun carriage on which was the coffin, was drawn by six bay horses. Three military bands played alternately. Arrived at the cemetary gates, the Union Jack, at the corner of which hung the red cross which had been given to Mrs. Fox by the Queen, was reverently spread upon the coffin, which was then carried by private soldiers to the chapel. Three volleys were fired over the grave - for the first time in military annuals over a woman.

Database Updates

New posts have been added to The Pen And The Spindle's Ontario - http://ourontario.wordpress.com.

Also, a page on John Y. F. Blake research has been added to The Anglo Boer War 1899 To 1902 - http://angloboerwar.wordpress.com.

Andrew Barton Paterson

The following entry on Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson and Anglo Boer War poetry has been posted in The Anglo Boer War 1899 To 1902 database: 

http://angloboerwar.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/andrew-barton-paterson/

Unusual, Intriguing And Helpful Sites And Blogs

In modeling risk, the human factor was left out - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/business/05risk.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

Merkel urges anti-racism action - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7718201.stm

Coronation in the dragon kingdom - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7715600.stm

Indian Boyhood. Charles Eastman, written in 1902, gives an account of being born into the life of Indian culture - http://books.google.com/books?id=xdQyZce903QC&printsec=frontcover&dq=subject:%22+Biography+%22&as_brr=1&rview=1#PPP1,M1

An 1853 history of New York - http://books.google.com/books?id=33F3db4E7UQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=history&lr=&as_brr=1

The London Magazine 1828 - http://books.google.com/books?id=6PUubmA3gFEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=london&lr=&as_brr=1#PPP8,M1

Thoughts On Writing

Offas Dyke

American Railroad History

The attitude of our public authorities toward the railroads has been very much like that of an injudicious parent toward a wayward child - alternately giving him liberty which he was certain to abuse, and making rules which were so strict that they could not be permanently enforced. During the early years of railroad development no favor was too great to be granted. The United States welcomed railroads more warmly than any other nation. They came at a time when they met a national want. As our population was moved across the Alleghanies, some such communication was needed to bind the parts together, or they would have fallen asunder by their own weight. Our public men were ready to see this. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was planned for a national highway before steam communication had been really proved practicable. Many of the States gave active encouragement by exemption from taxation, or even by direct subsidies. Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Georgia at first built and operated no inconsiderable part of their lines. The crisis of 1837 did not put a stop to railroad development. The failure of canal schemes made the necessity of railroads all the more obvious. Many of the States devoted to the aid of railroads a large part of their share of the surplus revenue which was distributed in 1837. When this was exhausted, grants of public land were proposed, and after some opposition finally carried out on a large scale.

American Railroad Legislation was written by Professor A.T. Hadley for Harper's New Monthly Magazine, and can be read in Volume LXXV June - November 1887 or online from Harper's archive.