Well, I finally finished reading Heirloom Vegetable Gardening but while I was reading it, I also managed to finish a couple of other books!  The Heirloom Vegetable Gardening tome is a great volume and I would like to have a copy of it on my gardening bookshelf for future reference.  Now, on to the other books …

I read Something from the Oven while I was in Asheville for my mom’s birthday.  This is a thorough piece of research that touches on many sources that are generally hidden from the lens of history, including practice and personal preferences.  For those interested in the social reception of new technology, the women’s movement, and food history, this volume offers something for them.  In addition, it is an easy read for those who are not academic historians and only have a passing interest in the subject. Read more »

A couple of additional gardening books that I am currently reading …

and

The first book (Heirloom Vegetables: A Home Gardener’s Guide to Finding and Growing Vegetables from the Past) is an ideal beginners book.  About half of the book concerns the reasons to grow heritage vegetables and some of the details about how to find and grow them.  The last half of the book is a small selection of vegetable profiles and resources – including a very good list of seed suppliers and saver networks.  Unfortunately, when compared to the second book (Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History), its profiles and resources show their true limitations.  But, the little Heirloom Vegetables book would make a nice gift for a new gardener or just someone getting into those special plants.  Read more »

Have a happy holiday!

In that future, to which he looks forward, he will not, we apprehend, be regarded as having drawn the cosmic circle of life, but rather as having indicated one of its arcs. At all events, it seems to be a historic law that the greater portion of truths in the theory of nature first appear as purple mirages –ruddy and auroral streaks gilding the matin of man’s mind ; but the appointed time- duly brings up the perfect thought, fraught with the wealth of invisible climee, and Hooding the age with the sunlight of science.

From the New York Time’s 28 March 1860 review of The Origin of Species: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection of the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.

Origin of Species Review NYT PDF

Charlie Brown's pub showing curiosities brought back by sailors

The National Maritime Museum is on Flickr with a number of sets, including Animals at Sea, photos of the London Port area, and several concerning museum operations (such as conservation and installation).

This collection is another great visual history resource.  I hope that they continue to add images to their collections because I know that they have a great archive of vintage images.

The Science Museum’s new history of medicine website has recently been completed. According to Dr Robert Bud, the Principal Curator of Medicine,

In all it now presents 4000 new images of artefacts from the collections linked to 16 specialised themes on medicine across time, written by staff and other professional historians of medicine. Each theme is associated with bibliographies and interactives suitable for teaching at several levels.

So far, in my limited browsing of it, the Brought to Life website looks like a great resource for students and historians.

Also, all of the images on the site are available for download and use according to the creative commons license – it is defined here.

"Photograph of Camel Corps two Sihks mounted in fighting order." Photograph taken by Felice Beato on the Nile Expedition to relieve Khartoum. 1884/5

The National Archives (formerly known as the Public Records Office) at Kew have joined Flickr.  They have added about 200 items in seven sets.  The images range from the photos of Felice Beato to Historic Documents to a handful of artifacts.

Sample Child's Ration Book. Throughout the 1940s (and for nine years after the end of the war) every man woman and child in Britain owned ration books of coupons for food and clothing. The Ministry of Food's carefully formulated diet is generally believed to have improved the nation's health.

Hopefully they will continue to post images from the Archives … from my work there during my doctoral research, they have a wonderful collection full of great stories and great images!

Coming to a bookstore near you soon!  Or, to pre-order, go to Amazon.

Science for the Nation is a unique look at the history of a great national institution as well as a study of the changing roles of museums and the perceived public role that a museum of science and technology plays within larger society. It illuminates the ways in which we think about the collecting and display of scientific objects, and explores the changing and often difficult relations between the state, business and industry, and museum funding. The essays also examine the Science Museum in the context of other national museums in London, and show the key differences affecting their chosen paths and individual development.

This is a great new volume … okay, I am partial because I helped to write it (see Chapter 3, entitled “The Science Museum and the Second World War”).  A perfect gift for anyone who is interested in the history of museums, especially during the 20th century.

Osler Family at 7 Norham Gardens, Oxford, 1905

From the Marjorie Howard Futcher Photo Collection:

The youngest daughter of the influential McGill University physician and Dean of Medicine Robert Palmer Howard, Gwendolen Marjorie Howard Futcher (1882-1969) was born into a social milieu which included some of the most prominent Canadian business, political, and academic figures and families of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This collection consists of two of her photo albums of images from the 1890s and first decade of the twentieth century, when she was known as Gwendolen Marjorie Howard. It chronicles her school years in Germany and England, her life in Montreal during her late teenage years and early twenties, as well as visits with friends and relatives to various destinations in Canada, Bermuda, Britain, and Europe.

From my quick rummage through the collection, this could be a great resource for a variety of historians.  From the bio of Marjorie, she was an upper-class late-Victorian/Edwardian lady who was well-traveled and well-respected.  Her photo albums provide an interesting peek into both her social life and, for me, the ways (aka photographic technologies used) that memories were preserved.

William Jennings Bryan (seated at left) being interrogated by Clarence Seward Darrow, during the trial of the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, July 20, 1925.

Last November, a new donation of Scopes Trial Photos was made to the Smithsonian Archives and the Archives has posted them to a Flickr set about the trial.  Like the original set that was discovered in 2005, these new images are great visual historical resource for one of the key events in twentieth-century US history.

Clarence S. Darrow (center) standing near Rhea County Courthouse with unidentified man (left) and Arthur Garfield Hays (right), Dayton, Tennessee, probably July 20, 1925.

George Washington Rappleyea

Fred E. Robinson (at right) owned the drugstore where local business leaders persuaded schoolteacher John Thomas Scopes to consent to be charged with violating state law by teaching about evolution. The sign on the tabletop says: “AT THIS TABLE THE SCOPES EVOLUTION CASE WAS STARTED MAY 5, 1925.”

Check out all of the wonderful images out on Flickr!