One hundred years ago today, people were celebrating the start of what would be dubbed the Roaring 20s in the United States. What should have been a cause for celebration was slightly tempered. This was the last New Year celebration before Prohibition would go into effect on Jan. 16, 1920. (This post is a companion piece to […]
Christmas Shopping in a Bygone Era
The commercialization of Christmas began during the Victorian era. Retailers encouraged consumers to shop for the holidays instead of giving homemade gifts, and shop employees also decorated their shop windows with lavish displays to attract passersby. The tradition of Christmas shopping was born.(This post is a companion piece to Melina Druga’s WWI Trilogy, Angel of […]
School Kids in 1903 Explain Why Thanksgiving Turkeys are Important
Kids Say the Darndest Things may be a television show, but kids have been saying what’s on their minds – and amusing adults – for centuries. In 1903, the Sioux City Journal in Iowa asked the city’s school children to pen an essay on Thanksgiving turkeys. (This post is a companion piece to Melina Druga’s WWI […]
Forgotten Murders From the 1910s
My latest nonfiction book, Heinous: Forgotten Murders From the 1910s, was inspired by news stories I discovered while researching A Tale of Two Nations: Canada, U.S. and WW1. As I conducted my research, I discovered case after case of murder, suicide, murder-suicide, lynchings, cop killings, doctors and nurses poisoning patients, and fatal traffic accidents. It […]
The Great Molasses Flood of 1919
Molasses. Chances are it’s something you don’t have in your pantry, but 100 years ago it was a household staple. Molasses is processed from sugar cane and is used as a sweetener; it is a dark brown, barely viscous liquid. One January day, molasses also became synonymous with death. An industrial accident in Boston, known […]
Lizzie Borden: Damned by the Press?
The silence of a small New England town was shattered on the afternoon of August 4, 1892. Andrew Borden and his second wife, Abby, were brutally murdered with an ax. No one heard anything while the crime was being committed, but the media sensation it caused was heard across the country. (This post is a companion […]
Keeping Away the Darkness: The Electrification of Cities
This week marks the anniversary of an very momentous event in modern civilization: Dec. 31 is the day Thomas Edison first demonstrated his incandescent lightbulb in Menlo Park, NJ. (This post is a companion piece to Melina Druga’s WWI Trilogy, Angel of Mercy, Those Left Behind and Adjustment Year, available wherever eBooks are sold. It also […]
Edwin Hubble: Expanding Our View of the Universe
In a roundabout way, it is Edwin Hubble we have to thank for the Star Wars franchise. Without his work, we would not have the concept of a galaxy far, far away. If you were alive before the 1920s, when you gazed into the night sky, you believed everything in the heavens was a member […]
Boss Tweed: A Name Synonymous with Political Corruption
Corruption always has been a part of American politics. No one exemplifies this more than William “Boss” Tweed. Tweed was active in New York City politics in the mid-19th century. He was portrayed by Jim Broadbent in the 2002 film The Gangs of New York, and is best known for his role as head of […]
Ghosts and Things that Go Bump in the Night: Victorians and the Paranormal
Belief in the paranormal is not limited to modern times. It began long ago with our ancestors telling spooky stories for entertainment. The Victorians, especially, were practically obsessed with ghosts and things that go bump in the night. (This post is a companion piece to Melina Druga’s WWI Trilogy, Angel of Mercy, Those Left Behind […]
If Money Could Buy Anything: Carnegie’s Diplodocus
What would you purchase if you had more money than you knew what do with? A private island? A fleet of personal jets? A sports team? Gilded Age industrialist Andrew Carnegie purchased a dinosaur skeleton. (This post is a companion piece to Melina Druga’s WWI Trilogy, Angel of Mercy, Those Left Behind and Adjustment Year, […]
Gunda the Elephant: A Early Animal-Rights Story
Visitors to zoos today see animals housed in large enclosures where the creatures have room to play, exercise and interact with their own kind. This wasn’t always the case. More than a century ago, animals were kept behind bars in small cages. Sometimes the situation was even worse, as with Gunda the elephant, an inmate […]