Tall bikes are bicycles with an extended frame that puts the rider’s seat more than two meters above the ground. They originated in the 1800s, a period when all kinds of bicycle variations were being explored. The Lamplighter’s Bicycle was a tall bike adapted for use by lamplighters, who would ride from lamp to lamp to [more...]
The Victorian period in Britain saw a peak in the numbers of servants employed in households. All upper class houses had several servants, and most middle class households aspired to have at least one or two servants. In 1871 over 4% of the population was employed ‘in service’, the vast majority of them women. What servants [more...]
Cleopatra’s Needle stands on the north bank of the River Thames on the Victoria Embankment, central London. It is an ancient Egyptian obelisk and one of a pair. The other one now stands in New York. The name Cleopatra is inappropriate as they were made hundreds of years before Cleopatra’s reign. The obelisks are made of [more...]
Most of the people who visit Nauvoo, Ill., are there to see historical sites relating to the settlement from 1839 to 1846 led by American religious pioneer Joseph Smith Jr. Although most visitors are from the two largest churches that trace their origins to Smith — the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of [more...]
For those interested in American frontier religious history, the Kansas City, Missouri, suburb of Independence City is well worth a visit. One of the first things visitors to Independence are likely to notice is the 90-meter-tall (300 feet) Community of Christ temple, as it is by far the tallest structure in the city. The temple is [more...]
Peelers was the name given to the first police officers. They were named after Sir Robert Peel who introduced them, first in Ireland, and then in England. They were also known as Bobbies in England. Peel was the Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1812 until 1818 at a time when Ireland was a troubled country with [more...]
Pompeys Pillar National Monument, about 28 miles northeast of Billings, Montana, displays the only physical evidence that was left along the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition early in the 19th century. Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the first overland expedition from what is now the eastern United States to the Pacific Coast [more...]
Historians interested in innovative social organizations and offbeat religious movements would have difficulty finding places more interesting than western and central New York state in the first half of the 19th century. The great Protestant evangelist Charles Finney called it the “burnt district” because it was so hard to find converts there after years of [more...]
William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, was inaugurated on March 4, 1841, after winning election as a war hero and the Whig Party nominee. Three weeks later he came down with a bad cold, which turned into pneumonia that doctors at the time could do little about. He died on April [more...]
Until the 18th century ladies used to keep their needlework projects in a work-basket or bag. Then furniture designers started to create elegant little tables for the drawing room with a silk work-bag or box-holder hanging beneath. You have only to look at one to understand why Sheraton, the famous cabinet-maker, called his designs pouch [more...]