Prudence Crandall opens a school for Black girls
“She was a slender young woman, with bright blue eyes, soft blond hair, and a special way of speaking, quiet, controlled –, ‘lady-like,’ as people said in the e...
Category: History
Robert Smalls escapes enslavement
“One night when the officers are on shore, we’re going to take the boat, put you and the children aboard and sail it out to the bar. With my wearing Captain Rel...
The love of Theodore Roosevelt and Alice Lee
Standing 5’7″ and willowy with long wavy golden hair and blue-gray eyes, Alice Hathaway Lee was radiant, enchanting. Family members called her ̶...
Albert Einstein defends Marie Curie
Albert Einstein was so impressed by Marie Curie when he met her, that when Marie was dealing with a public attack on her persona for having exchanged love lette...
Emma Sharp walks 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours
Emma Sharp was a pedestrian, which in 19th century life was the term for an athlete competing in pedestrianism, one of the most popular sports in the western wo...
Maya Angelou becomes first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco
Maya Angelou was 16 years old when she decided to become a streetcar conductor in San Francisco. But getting the job wasn’t easy. She couldn’t even ...
Bill Harley and Arthur Davidson start Harley-Davidson
Bill Harley was tall and quiet, a mechanical engineer by training. Arthur Davidson was short and talkative, he was a story teller, a sales guy. They were just t...
Juli Lynne Charlot creates the circle skirt
Juli Lynne Charlot was 25, broke, when in the winter of 1947 she was invited to a holiday party in Los Angeles. Without an outfit to wear or money for a new one...
Harriet Quimby changes careers and becomes the first licensed woman pilot in the U.S.
“She was a modern woman in a not-so modern age. At a time when her contemporaries were swathed in petticoats and corsets, Harriet Quimby was climbing into...
The knocker-up: an alarm before the alarm clock
In a time before alarm clocks became affordable and reliable, a knocker-up was hired to wake sleeping people so that they could get to work on time. “The ...