American Battlefield Trust – Famous Civil War Photos in 360°

An evening pause: I just finished reading a book of letters written by a soldier who participated in the battle of Antietam, just south of Burnside Bridge. The irony was that Burnside spent more than a day and multiple attempts to capture the bridge, when in fact his troops could have simply walked across the creek at any point, never getting their legs wet above the knee. The soldier was Captain Wolcott Pascal Marsh, and his regiment actually forded the creek further south and advanced farther than almost anyone else in Burnside’s battalion. The book: Letters to a Civil War Bride.

Like all the Civil War battle fields, Antietam is definitely worth visiting.

Hat tip Cotour.

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Yale makes available online 170,000 photographs from WWII period

History: Yale University had posted online 170,000 Library of Congress photographs taken in the United States from 1935 to 1945.

The photos come from all over the U.S., and can be accessed with this easy-to-use inactive map. They also used the original captions, thus avoiding any editing for politically correct reasons and allowing the viewer to get an honest feel for the time period.

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Color snapshots of England 1960

A collection of snapshots purchased on ebay gives us a peek into life in England around 1960.

Because they are in color they show us that the past was not drab and colorless, but as bright as life today. There are differences, however, and they hint at how our western culture has evolved in the past half century, not necessarily for the better.

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Market Street, San Francisco, April 14, 1906

An evening pause: This film footage has been circulating about on the web for several years. I even think I posted it previously but can’t find that post now. Either way, it was shot mere days before the San Francisco earthquake, and provides us a window into the reality of life then. The sound effects add to the reality, though they are not original to the time. They were added later and were dubbed in with what I think was great care. See the notes here for more details.

Hat tip Edward Thelen.

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