Looking at the Eclipse — October 1865

From Harper’s Weekly

(click on image to view larger version)

With large digital copies of civil war — or other — photographs, it’s sometimes interesting to zoom in on different sections of images to more closely examine what is there.

The next image, cropped from the photo, shows a ghostly image of a man. This, of course, is someone who was moving during the long exposure required for photographs. He pause long enough to appear as an apparation superimposed over the background.

Part of an encampment can be seen on the right in the background, where the shapes of possibly five soldiers can be seen. Two are squatting; one is standing, reading a newspaper, it appears, with another fellow, possibly shirtless, standing next to him. On the left of this cropped image, there appears to be a a fifth soldier bending over at the waist. Parts of at least four tents can be made out as well as stacked arms — with at least five weapons with bayonets. Behind the soldiers on the left, there seems to be a part of the curve of a road.

In the picture below, a telegraph operator sits in the wagon, with a pen or pencil in his hand, writing.

Petersburg, Va. U.S. Military Telegraph battery wagon, Army of the Potomac headquarters

Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865; MEDIUM: 1 negative : glass, wet collodion; CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1864 June; photographer: David Knox; Civil War photographs, 1861-1865; compiled by Hirst D. Milhollen and Donald H. Mugridge, Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1977. No. 0357; LOC digital image

Other sizes of this image are available on my flickr page for it.

Stonington Conecticut in 1940

While I like taking and sharing photographs, I also like finding and sharing public domain historical photos.

1940 Nov.
Delano, Jack, 1914- photographer.
Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection
Original digital image at Library of Congress

Mike’s edited and enhanced version on flickr

I don’t spend much time on YouTube or other video sites, but today I came across some interesting historical footage.

The following excerpts are from Wikipedia

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of mile-long suspension bridges in the U.S. state of Washington, which carry State Route 16 across the Tacoma Narrows between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula. The first bridge opened to traffic on July 1, 1940 and became famous four months later for a dramatic wind-induced structural collapse that was caught on motion picture film.

The wind-induced collapse occurred on November 7, 1940 at 11:00 AM (Pacific time), due partially to a physical phenomenon known as mechanical resonance.

From the account of Leonard Coatsworth, a driver who narrowly managed to escape the bridge before the collapse:

“ Just as I drove past the towers, the bridge began to sway violently from side to side. Before I realized it, the tilt became so violent that I lost control of the car… I jammed on the brakes and got out, only to be thrown onto my face against the curb… Around me I could hear concrete cracking… The car itself began to slide from side to side of the roadway.

On hands and knees most of the time, I crawled 500 yards [450 m] or more to the towers… My breath was coming in gasps; my knees were raw and bleeding, my hands bruised and swollen from gripping the concrete curb… Toward the last, I risked rising to my feet and running a few yards at a time… Safely back at the toll plaza, I saw the bridge in its final collapse and saw my car plunge into the Narrows.”

No human life was lost in the collapse of the bridge, though Coatsworth’s cocker spaniel named “Tubby” was lost along with his car in the collapse.

A Very Trying Time.

Caption: “Dust Over Dakota.” A forlorn farmer leans into a dust storm. In: “To Hold This Soil”, Russell Lord, 1938. Miscellaneous Publication No. 321, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Image ID: wea01403, NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Collection
Location: Great Plains, United States
Photo Date: 1935 Circa

This year is a very different political year.

I’m still not going to talk about my own politics here — that’s personal.

The politics of our grandchildren — that’s interesting.

When Obama made his speech in Madison, Wisconsin, on the evening that he won the Potomac primaries, our grandchildren were in the audience.

Emily Mills, the lady who took this photo, observed, from her vantage point in the press area:

When Obama himself finally made his grand entrance, the handful of young college girls standing in front of me (on the other side of the fence) started screaming and jumping up and down like there was a dreamy movie star in the vicinity. That sort of reaction is fascinating to me, and, I think, somewhat unique to the Obama candidacy. I don’t suppose McCain or Clinton elicit similar reactions from their supporters. My blogger friend leaned over to me at one point and asked, “Since when did politics become cool?”

The following week, our grandson was so interested in the process that he asked his dad to take him to the polls when he went to vote — before school.

My earliest memories of politics are from when I was the same age, seven years old. It was during the campaign of another very charismatic president. All I really remember is kids playacting the Kennedy vs. Nixon contest in the playground.

The campaigns this year have been far more interesting than most in the past. I think turnout has been extraordinary for a large percentage of primaries. My wife and I voted in primaries for the first time ever.

Maybe it’s because of the the writer’s strike and — now that it’s over — politics will go back to norrmal.

naaa. – I don’t think so.

(photo by Emily Mills - There is a Creative Commons license attached to this image. Attribution, No Derivative Works)

I like trains and pictures of old trains, particularly nice images of the steam locomotives. I can remember — barely — when some steam engines were still used on the Union Pacific.

I also like to find large old images where one can see a lot of detail when you look close. I’ve cropped this one several times to show all of the people in the image.

“Giant Bluff.” Elk Canyon on Black Hills and Ft. P. R.R.
A wood-burning locomotive with four cars, on a track below a cliff; several people are posing in front of the train.
1890.
Grabill, John C. H., photographer.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.02546

Family walking on highway, five children.

Started from Idabel, Oklahoma. Bound for Krebs, Oklahoma. Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. In 1936 the father farmed on thirds and fourths at Eagleton, McCurtain County, Oklahoma. Was taken sick with pneumonia and lost farm. Unable to get work on Work Projects Administration and refused county relief in county of fifteen years residence because of temporary residence in another county after his illness

1938 June.

Lange, Dorothea, photographer.

Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection

Original Digital Image File: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b38702