American Studies

Kindred Spirits is a large stainless steel outdoor sculpture in Bailick Park in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland. commemorates the 1847 donation by the Native American Choctaw people to Irish famine relief during the Great Hunger. The sculpture consists of nine 20-foot (6.1 m) stainless steel eagle feathers arranged in a circle, no two feathers being identical, forming a bowl shape to represent a gift of a bowl of food.

"'Iyyikowa' – It Means Serving Those in Need": Exploring Bonds of Friendship through Indigenous Life in America

The nearly 200-year Choctaw Irish bond was celebrated in County Cork, Ireland in July 2017 with the dedication of "Kindred Spirits". The sculpture's nine steel feathers "represent the Choctaw Nation's...

Illustration labeled “American Stage Coach” showing a horse-drawn coach carrying passengers along a road, with a driver in front. Two white horses pull the coach at speed past a coastal landscape featuring buildings, a fence, and a body of water with a smoking ship in the distance.

"...the malignancy of others compels us to convince the Public...": Fierce competition between innkeepers hosting stagecoach stops plays out in print

Ambitious inn and tavern owners in the early 1800s understood the profitability of hosting reputable stagecoach lines. Hungry, tired travelers delivered to your doorstep are ideal clientele. One might...

Round, blue-tinted eyeglasses rest on a stack of handwritten papers on a wooden surface. The lenses reflect cursive writing, and the background is softly blurred, creating a quiet, scholarly atmosphere.

Reflecting upon the influence of the blue color of the sky: Seeing the world through General A.J. Pleasonton's blue-tinted glasses

In 1871, General A.J. Pleasonton presented ten years' worth of experimental findings to the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture in an effort to "shed light" on a new subject. Standing...

Black-and-white illustration of armed colonial militia confronting British soldiers on a village green, with men firing muskets amid smoke and fallen bodies in the foreground, while organized troops advance near large colonial buildings, barns, and a church steeple in the background—depicting an early Revolutionary War skirmish.

"Huzzah!" The Semiquincentennial of American Independence is Upon Us

In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson, sequestered in a Philadelphia boarding house, drafted the Declaration of Independence as an "expression of the American mind." Just weeks later, on July 2, Congress...

The Smithsonian Institution Building, known as the “Castle,” made of red sandstone in Romanesque Revival style, stands under a partly cloudy sky. A bronze statue of a man in formal 19th-century attire stands prominently in the foreground before the arched entrance, surrounded by greenery and trees.

"...the chief exponent of the scientific thought of the people of the United States...": How to Research the History of the Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution and its twenty museums and galleries have been in the news recently. There is controversy. If you would like to know more, we encourage you to do your own research and urge...

From the Library of Congress. Two hand painted images of American women and British soldiers. On left a Quaker woman detains an English General with tea. On right, a woman receives British soldiers on a porch.

"Such women should read, should think, and should act": Women's Special Roles in the American Revolution

In 1780, the newly formed Culper Spy Ring successfully exposed British plans to ambush the French army in Rhode Island. By quickly alerting George Washington to the enemy's plans, the group...

Historic black-and-white photograph showing four uniformed soldiers standing near the entrance of Fort Garland, Colorado with weathered adobe walls. A small wooden guardhouse stands to the right, and a tall flagpole rises in the center of the courtyard with a pulley or signal device suspended near the top. Trees and low buildings are visible in the background, framed by distant hills or mountains. From the Library of Congress

"As to this, I really cannot attempt to explain what I consider a good joke": One Soldier's Misadventure in Comedy on the American Frontier

In American Indian Wars, 1830-1898, a Readex collection detailing decades of interactions between the U.S. Army, white settlers, and the Indigenous peoples who occupied what would become the Western...

Image from New York Public Library digital library, Wikimedia Commons. Black-and-white engraving depicting the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga (1775) during the American Revolution. In the foreground, Ethan Allen, dressed in military uniform with sword raised, confronts the British commander inside the stone fort. The caption below reads: “Capture of Fort Ticonderoga. ‘By what authority?’ ‘In the name of the Great Jehovah & the Continental Congress.’”

Ethan Allen: "...farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, lay theologian, and American Revolutionary War patriot, hero, and politician..."

On September 25, 1775, Ethan Allen of Vermont was captured during the Battle of Longues-Pointe, his failed attempt to wrest Montreal from the British. After his storied capture of Fort Ticonderoga...

Those They Left Behind: The Hidden Grief of LGBTQ+ Loss in 19th and Early 20th Century Obituaries and Poetry

Scottish poet Thomas Campbell wrote, "To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." While each life is unique, some experiences and emotions—such as fear, excitement, love, and loss—are universal...

Black and white photograph of a group of suffragettes and supporters gathered at Union Square, New York, dated February 16, 1908. The central women are smiling and dressed in winter coats and elaborate hats, holding flowers and pamphlets, surrounded by a crowd of men in bowler hats. The image has a handwritten caption at the bottom: "Suffragettes at Union Sq. 2/16/08."

"Moving Forward Together!": Amplifying Women's History and Experiences

Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations -National Women’s History Alliance 2025 Women’s History Month theme Researchers will uncover diverse voices to build historical...

A vintage illustrated movie poster for Venus of the South Seas, starring Annette Kellerman. The artwork features a woman with a flowing white headscarf and a shimmering mermaid-like tail, gracefully floating in an underwater scene. The background showcases a vibrant green ocean with glowing pearls or bubbles, while waves and sailing ships appear above the water's surface. The title is prominently displayed in bold white lettering.

"The Diving Venus": Annette Kellerman, a Beautiful Example of Female Athleticism

Annette Kellerman (1886–1975) made waves both in and out of the water. Known for her physique, Kellerman challenged societal norms by encouraging women to swim—in comfortable swimwear. She helped make...

An antique illustration depicts three Chukchi people in a landscape near Plover Bay. One individual is wearing traditional hoop armor made of overlapping plates, covering their torso and head. They hold a bow and have a stoic expression. Another person, dressed in warm fur clothing, holds a spear, while a child reaches out toward them. The background consists of rolling hills and an open expanse. The caption below reads, "Chukchis wearing Hoop Armor, Plover Bay.

Martial Arts: Indigenous Use of Shields and Body Armor in 18th-20th Century North and Central America

Nearly two hundred years before Neo, the hero of the Matrix films, extended his consciousness to render bullets harmless in his ostensive reality, Comanche chief and medicine man Po-bish-e-quash-o...

Photo of Zitkála-Šá, Sioux Indian and activist, circa 1898. Photographer, Gertrude Käsebier. National Museum of American History

"She is one of the best representations of the educated Indian": Zitkála-Šá and her Early Years

Zitkála-Šá (February 22, 1876 – January 26, 1938) was an extraordinary woman of many things and many names. She was a Yankton Dakota adorned with the Indigenous name Zitkála-Šá which translates to...

Portrait of Nellie Bly (ca. 1890). Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2010631213/>.

Nellie Bly and the 'Stunt Girls' that Smashed Barriers in Turn-of-the-Century Journalism

Legendary investigative journalist Nellie Bly (born Elizabeth Jane Cochran) died more than 100 years ago. Bly's legacy shaped both the lives of women and the field of journalism. After her death...

"When the Waters Reached the Orphan Asylum," Project Gutenberg's The Complete Story of the Galveston Horror, by Various

The Great Galveston Hurricane and the Sisters of St. Mary's Orphanage: "They did not save them, but they did their best. Try to save something of real value in the world."

In September and October 2024, two historic hurricanes slammed into Florida's Gulf coast and wreaked havoc into the Appalachia region, impacting 6 states, and resulting in over 230 casualties. It is...

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Arrives from Afar. A “dirty snowball” from the distant icy cloud encircling our solar system passed by the Sun and Earth in autumn 2024. Image of the Day for October 12, 2024. NASA Earth Observatory. Accessed 10/22/2024.

"All Human Life on Our Planet Will Then Be Snuffed Out": The Halley's Comet Panic of 1910

Although ATLAS, dubbed the "Halloween Comet," disintegrated before having the opportunity to spook anyone, the return of Halley's Comet in the late spring of 1910 certainly caused a sensational fright...

A Eugenics Society poster (1930s) from the Wellcome Library Eugenics Society Archive. By Wellcome Library.

A Brief History of the Eugenics Movement in America, "...or, The scientific production of human thoroughbreds"

The so-called eugenic marriage of today is a happy combination of the ideality of a stockyard with the practicality of a hummingbird. - Dr. Edward Earle Purinton Eugenics: "the practice or advocacy of...

BBC Monitoring, Readex Text Explorer, word cloud analysis of the search terms space exploration and USSR

From Reading to Exploring: The Future of Textual Analysis with Readex Text Explorer

This article, originally published May 13, 2020, has been updated. For many years, faculty and students have been asking Readex to “bring history to life” in new ways. “You have tremendous products,”...

The Sunday Oregonian. Portland, Oregon. October 24, 1948. From America's Historical Newspapers

Part 2: Death of a Clubman – Investigating the Cold Case

Part 1 recounted the unsolved murder of Joseph Brown Elwell, a wealthy man known for his card playing and womanizing. The Elwell case motivated S.S. Van Dine to write detective stories in the 1920s...

Part 1: Death of a Clubman - The 1920 Murder of "Whist Wizard" and "Love Pirate" Joseph B. Elwell that Inspired the Creation of Ellery Queen

All it took was one bullet to kill Joseph Bowne Elwell, shot in the forehead around eight o'clock on the morning of June 11, 1920, in his tony Manhattan brownstone. He didn't die right away but...

Alice in Wonderland: A play. Compiled from Lewis Carroll’s Stories Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, by Emily Prime Delafield. 1898. From: Nineteenth-Century American Drama

"The Mainspring of Civilization": Elements of Timekeeping

In a world where cellphones and wristwatches are ubiquitous, it’s anachronistic to ask somebody what time it is. We’re immersed in time, and the evidence of its passage is all around us. Of course...

Boxing mail -- N.Y. Post Office (LOC). Bain News Service, publisher. [between ca. 1914 and ca. 1915].

Birth Control – "...a vice upon which relentless war shall be declared." The Society for the Suppression of Vice and the Comstock Act

The Comstock Act (or Law), enacted on March 3, 1873, was formally titled "Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Literature and Articles of Immoral Use" thereby, according to...

Celebrating Women's History Month: Perspectives from Historical Primary Sources

Celebrate Women’s History Month with a look back through the Readex blog archive featuring articles from Readex digitized primary source collections. Read on to discover and celebrate the...

Side-by-side black-and-white portraits of W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Du Bois (left) wears a suit and tie and has a mustache and goatee, looking slightly toward the camera. Washington (right) wears a suit and bow tie, facing forward with a serious expression against a plain studio background.

The Early Histories of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Part IV: W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and the Great Debate

W. E. B. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1868. He died ninety-five years later in Accra, Ghana in 1963. During his long life he rose rapidly to become and remain a powerful...

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