Shin-Kickers From History
18 Tiny Deaths
Forensic medicine is a familiar concept today to anyone who reads mystery novels or watches police procedural dramas on television. But as recently as 1944 only one to two percent of the questionable deaths in the United States were investigated by qualified medical examiners. In 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee…
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How the United States Sanitary Commission Elbowed Women to One Side in the American Civil War
Last week, while writing about the use of hospital transport ships in the American Civil War, I promised to tell you the story of how a group of men hijacked Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell’s Women’s Central Association of Relief to form the United States Sanitary Commission. It is a story that will feel all too familiar…
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History on Display: Votes for Women, a Portrait of Persistance
One of my disappointments in 2019 was that I didn’t make it to Washington DC to see “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence” at the National Portrait Gallery, which ran from March 29, 2019 through January 5, 2020 . I made plans, over and over. Over and over, life undid those plans. Now I…
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