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Booker T. Washington

Picturing Black History

… Participants: Bob Ahern | Director of Archive Photography for Getty Images Dawn Chitty, (Ed.D.) | Director of … Daniela Edmeier   Hello everyone and welcome to picturing Black History Webinar today brought to you … And we can do this in a number of ways. First, we can revisit our own analog collections. Just 1% of our analog …

Dry Days Down Under: Australia and the World Water Crisis

… Australia has water troubles. For at least the past nine years, the people "down under" … is a self-reinforcing event. How, we should ask, has it come to all this? Australia's water woes are, in part, a … parts of Australia every few years and major droughts come at least once per generation. The Big Dry is one in a …
Abraham Lincoln

Top Ten Origins: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

… a strong hold on the imagination of the American public. To commemorate “Honest Abe,” Origins offers ten of the most … , and John F. Kennedy(1963). JFK’s murder was a touchstone for anyone who was alive at that moment. Lincoln’s passing … with the biggest questions himself, leaving a few glancing comments about such landmarks as the Emancipation …
Here, a bus broadcasts the anti-apartheid message to Londoners in 1989.

Inequality After Apartheid

Review of Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit, by Hennie van Vuuren (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)
… In societies that have undergone major political transformations—away from systems of oppression and towards … politicians, arms dealers, and bureaucrats, among others, committed heretofore underappreciated crimes in the waning … proposal dressed up as public diplomacy” in 1985 and who visited the country the following year. When approached in …
An artist's rendering of the Tunguska event

The 1908 Tunguska Event and the Threats of Tomorrow

… No disaster scenario more challenges human hopes to overcome nature’s forces than the sudden and unpredicted strike of a giant … they wanted to determine if a guest from outer space had visited. Yet their commitment to empirical research …
The U.S.-Economic Cooperation Administration created numerous posters to promote the Marshall Plan in Europe. This one, depicting the flags of various Western European countries receiving Marshall Plan aid, was produced in 1950.

The Marshall Plan

… into law on April 3, 1948. The Marshall Plan, as it’s more commonly known, was intended to revive the economies of … Italy, and West Germany, the program was an ambitious foreign aid effort and an unprecedented display of U.S. … However, in underscoring its accomplishments, the latest references to the Marshall Plan neglect its more …
One of the McMinnville UFO photographs. Skeptics have concluded that the UFO was a small model suspended by wires or string from the power lines visible at the top of the photo.

The Air Force Investigation into UFOs

… On December 17, 1969, the United States Air Force concluded Project Blue Book, its investigation into … investigating reports of UFOs. To this end it instituted a comprehensive study of UFOs.  This study, known as Project … Study of UFOs UFO Study: Condon Group Finds No Evidence of Visits from Outer Space …
NCAA Basketball championship banners.

The Big Business of “Amateur” Intercollegiate Sports

… but the game itself made no money. Men’s college basketball commenced with a similarly obscure contest.  In 1895 at … national football championship made a nifty $549 million for the teams and their conferences.  Division I men’s … by poorly compensated, short-term contract, adjunct, and visiting professors. Employees Who Don’t Get Paid For over a …
Mata Hari (1876-1917).

Top Ten Origins: Spies, Lies, and Moles: Oh My!

… Espionage produces information. Its analysis generates intelligence. The process … spy. Since then, as this list shows, espionage became more complex and increasingly valuable. The times change, but … in a forward hospital. French officials let Mata Hari visit him in exchange for her agreement to spy on Germans. …

WikiLeaks, and the Past and Present of American Foreign Relations

… Arabic, European, and Persian architectural styles, the complex embodied purposefully Egypt's place at the … as the group settled down to talk. After a brief back-and-forth about Israel, Mubarak turned to Iraq. "My dear … Little was known of the man beyond the fact that he had visited a website associated with radical Islam—but his name …
On August 8, 1918, 17,000 German soldiers surrendered to the Allies.

November 11, 1918: The End of World War I?

… World War . Or so the story goes. In January 1918, after forty-one months of combat, Allied troops were ready for a ceasefire, but they … been touched by death. Oftentimes, there was no grave to visit and no body upon which to perform funereal rights that …
Cover of The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman by Margot Mifflin.

Taking it on the Chin

Review of The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman, by Margot Mifflin (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009)
… were exhausted, and all but the Oatman family opted to stay for at least a few weeks to recover.  The Oatmans, led by … Olive remade herself into a proper Victorian lady, complete with a child (the couple adopted) and a beautiful … transitions. For more information on Mifflin and her work, visit: …

Yearning to Breathe Free: The American Immigration Story

… American immigration policy has always toggled back and forth between seeking immigrant labor and restricting entry … they simply never made enough to do so. “Many Chinamen have come; few have returned. Why is this?” representatives of … U.S. immigration document. Upon his return from a temporary visit to China in 1895, Wong was denied re-entry to San …
Emperor Süleyman

Süleyman the Magnificent

… feared on the battlefield and the conqueror of new lands for his empire. When Süleyman was made sultan, his kingdom encompassed the peoples and territories of the Balkans, … is still a popular destination for Istanbul residents and visitors today. [Photo by author] The Sultan often reflected …
 SPLM rally in Southern Sudan, 2010. (Image by U.S. Institute of Peace)

Tribal Militias in Sudan

… The war between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary militia Rapid Support … because SAF leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, … settlers and southern tribes. Armed with the latest weapons, the Arab militias carried out destructive …
Albert Bierstadt, Mount Corcoran, c. 1876-1877, oil on canvas

Silent Spring Revolution, a Conversation with Douglas Brinkley

… in 1945, the United States took control of Earth’s destiny for the first time. After the Truman administration dropped … postwar economic boom took hold, with America becoming the world’s leading hyper industrial and military … Revolution , Douglas Brinkley pays tribute to those who combated the mauling of the natural world in the Long …
The Statue of Liberty during the June 10, 2021 solar eclipse.

Solar Eclipses in American History

… he lived in France and traveled widely through Europe. But for all his wanderlust, his most vivid memory stemmed not … total solar eclipse . Dating to 1223 BCE in Syria, it was accompanied by the appearance of  Mars in the sky and … also took credit for this apparent miracle. Whatever the latest eclipse portends, 2024 is a pivotal if ominous year …
Mehmed VI, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, leaving the country after the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate, 1922

The Long End of the Ottoman Empire

… more importantly, it is the only treaty of WWI still in force today. Lausanne marked the end of a long and … Ottoman rule for centuries. The Balkan Wars saw atrocities committed against civilians on a massive scale. The … were forcibly resettled in a “homeland” most had never even visited.  The overall perception of Lausanne’s bloodless …

Another Silent Spring

… the new generation of bullet trains are all emptier than before, for they are the dreaded paths that the coronavirus … future when “some evil spell” had settled on our communities, when “mysterious maladies swept the flocks of … But that cannot be the real story, for COVID-19 is only the latest in a long series of world-shaking epidemics , and at …
Gunpowder Plot conspirators in front of a bonfire celebrating Guy Fawkes Night.

Powder Treason, Bonfire Night, and the English Art of Reinventing the Past

… fireworks light the sky and effigies burn. The celebration commemorates an event from 1605, when authorities discovered … James I ascended to the throne, hope spread among Catholics for religious toleration, in no small part because the new … English Heritage . N.D. https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/real-story-of-bonfire-night/ Sharpe, J. A. …
book cover - Helmut Walser Smith, The Butcher’s Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town

Top Ten Origins: Summer 2019 Must Reads

… The perfect companion to nearly any summer activity is a good book. And, … your interests, there is certainly no shortage of options for those who love history. Here are ten books to put on … of socialism and post-socialism in Eastern Europe. In her latest work, Second World, Second Sex, Ghodsee turns her …
Reinforcing Omaha Beach with men and equipment

Remembering D-Day: 10 Important Facts to Know

… Invasion (PDF File) (June 6, 1944) was the supreme joint effort of the Western Allies in Europe in World War II and … thousand casualties on the first day of the invasion. To commemorate the battle, Origins offers ten of the most … celebrations commemorating the invasions draw thousands of visitors. Heads of state from the United States, the United …