Category Archives: American Culture

resolutions galore

Posted on January 1, 2022 by SUMPTER

150 years ago today a Chicago editorial looked at the year just past and saw the terrible destruction of the Great Chicago Fire in October 1871 as a source of hope for the coming year – citizens had a great … Continue reading →

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not half bad

Posted on November 30, 2021 by SUMPTER

Another year, another Thanksgiving. Here’s President Grant’s 1871 Proclamation: THANKSGIVING DAY 1871 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – A PROCLAMATION The process of the seasons has again enabled the husbandman to garner the fruits of successful … Continue reading →

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sound retreat

Posted on March 20, 2021 by SUMPTER

From the March 18, 1871 issue of Harper’s Weekly: THE SOLDIERS’ HOME. ON one of the most beautiful sites in the neighborhood of Washington stands an edifice of singular attractiveness, known as “The Soldiers’ Home,” of which we give a … Continue reading →

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the three exemptions

Posted on November 26, 2020 by SUMPTER

Apparently 150 years ago the United States was free from pestilence and civil strife: BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas it behooves a people sensible of their dependence on the Almighty publicly and collectively … Continue reading →

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virtual vacation

Posted on June 29, 2020 by SUMPTER

Apparently some people weren’t venturing too far from home 150 years ago. What they might have been missing: I’m so old I sort of remember when they turned off the American Falls when I was going to school. As it … Continue reading →

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lapping it up

Posted on June 15, 2020 by SUMPTER

Here’s a man that might have fit right in with Stonewall Jackson’s foot cavalry – except that he hailed from north of Mason-Dixon. From Harper’s Weekly June 11, 1870: WESTON, THE PEDESTRIAN. WE give on this page a portrait of … Continue reading →

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Christmas Wonder

Posted on December 25, 2019 by SUMPTER

Way back in its August 14, 1869 issue, Harper’s Weekly profiled a famous American man of letters: HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. Now that LONGFELLOW — the most popular of American poets — is in England, the question is naturally asked, What … Continue reading →

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world’s blessing?

Posted on November 28, 2019 by SUMPTER

On the day after Thanksgiving in 1869 The New-York Times devoted its entire front page to how the holiday had been observed the day before. This included over four columns (and counting) devoted to the services and sermons at various … Continue reading →

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“soil is trod by none but freemen”

Posted on November 18, 2019 by SUMPTER

In his first year as Commander-in-Chief, President Ulysses S. Grant followed the tradition begun by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 by calling for a national day of Thanksgiving on a Thursday in November. The new president opted for a slightly earlier … Continue reading →

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pre-columbian exposition

Posted on October 15, 2019 by SUMPTER

150 years ago an article considered a logical conclusion: either the ancestors of the humans Christopher Columbus found in the Americas auto-generated (a second Adam and Eve), or Mr. Columbus and crew weren’t the first people from the Old World … Continue reading →

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