I first became attuned to the historical enigma of mince pie in the mid-1990s while doing research for my book American Babel: Rogue Radio Broadcasters of the Jazz Age (University of Pennsylvania Press: 2005), a study of forgotten independent (i.e. non-corporate) radio stations of the 1920s and early '30s. This...
A biannual publication offering insights into the use of digital historical collections
From Student Researcher to Careful Scholar: Tips from a Lexicographer
As a lexicographer, dictionary web site editor and co-host of the KBPS radio show "A Way With Words," I receive a large number of questions from the public about word histories. Many of these queries come from students who want help with their studies. As long as I'm not asked...
"Out of the Jaws of Death! Out of the Mouth of Hell!" - Dispatches from the Front during the American Civil War
"We are in the midst of the most terrible battle of the war—perhaps history." 1 So wrote General George McClellan to Chief of Staff Henry Halleck and President Abraham Lincoln before the telegraph wires went dead the morning of September 17, 1862. The wires would remain dead all day, as...
Thanks for the Memories, ... and the Documentary Records: Thanksgiving and the History of American Holidays
"Twas founded be th' Puritans to give thanks f'r bein presarved fr'm th' Indyans, an' . . . we keep it to give thanks we are presarved fr'm th' Puritans." —Finley Peter Dunne, "'Thanksgiving,' Mr. Dooley's Opinions" (1901) Holidays are like peaks in a nation's topography. Without them, the landscape...
Searching for the Forgotten Movie Mogul: William Fox, Founder of Twentieth Century Fox
When I began work several years ago on my in-progress biography of William Fox (1879–1952), founder of Twentieth Century Fox, I knew I was in for trouble. Although Fox was arguably the most important of all the early movie moguls because of his foundational contributions to the art, technology and...
