Popular Culture
From the Archives: In Search of Hiawatha
Just so there is no confusion here, the several months ago referred to below happened in 2013. Over the next five (eeek!) weeks, as my book deadline draws nigh I may resort to re-running old posts more often than usual. Several months ago, on a visit to Fort Michilimackinac, I was startled to read an…
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From the Archives: Lovelace, Babbage and Steampunk Comics (with a little grumble about Lord Byron)
Today is the 230th birthday of George Gordon, Lord Byron, and bits of his history are popping up here and there all over the internet. There are lots of good (or bad) stories to tell. He was a poet when poets were rock stars of the sex, drugs and iambic pentameter variety. And he was…
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From the Archives: Word with a Past – Silhouette
I’m poking around in the long eighteenth century these days and stumbling across lots of surprising tidbits. Take silhouettes. I had long known that charming likenesses cut from black cardstock became a popular and affordable alternative to oil portraits in the mid-eighteenth century. To the extent that I thought about the word at all, I…
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