World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day is tomorrow, November 14.

Diabetes Week Interview, 1958

The photograph above, courtesy of LA Examiner Digital Archive, was taken in January 1958 during the Diabetes Week interview with Doctors Samuel Soskin (President of the Los Angeles Diabetes Association), Murray Weiss (Chairman of the Detection Drive), and Roy F. Perkins (Treasurer of the Los Angeles Diabetic Association).

The item below, courtesy of Feeding America digital collection, is the first page in the 23-pages-long list of recipes for people suffering from diabetes, which was published in a Diabetes chapter in a historic Fannie Merritt Farmer’s cookbook Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent (1904). To view the rest of the recipes in this chapter, click on the image below.

Recipes for Diabetic (1904). In: Farmer, F.M. Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent. Boston:Little, Brown, and company. pp. 223-246.

Washington, 42nd U.S. state

120 years ago, on November 11, 1889, Washington Territory, which had existed since 1853, was admitted to the Union and became the 42nd U.S. state.
The two images below — a lantern slide and a bird’s-eye view — picture Seattle (the largest city of Washington Territory) and Mt. Vernon (one of the Territory’s smaller towns) shortly before admission to the Union. Seattle was incorporated 20 years, and Mt. Vernon only 4 months before the Washington Territory became Washington state. Images courtesy of King County Snapshots digital collection and Western Waters Digital Library.

Horse-drawn streetcar at Front Street and James, Seattle, ca. 1887

Mt. Vernon, Washington territory (1889)

Montana, 41st U.S. state

120 years ago, on November 8, 1889, Montana was admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
Montana Memory project, recently added to the Opening History aggregation of digital collections, includes 65 digital collections with a total of over 13 thousands items. Two photographs from Montana Memory collection featured below show Montana views and people soon after the state joined United States.

Old Mill (1891-1892)

Musicians

Memphis joined Tennessee Valley Authority 75 years ago

On November 6, 1934, Memphis, Tennessee became the first major city to join the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The U.S. Congress formed the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) a year earlier, in May of 1933, in order to rectify poor conditions in the Tennessee River Valley, including destructive floods, deforestation, erosion, and periodic unnavigability of the Tennessee River. Among the TVA’s various projects are dams (including 26 built by the TVA), electric power, and research into such topics as “clean coal,” forestry, and wildlife conservation. The TVA is currently headquartered in Knoxville and serves and area of approximately 41,000 square miles.

The photograph below, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Stereographs Cards collection, shows bird’s-eye view of riverboats at the wharves along the Tennessee River, Memphis, Tennessee.

Bird's-eye view of riverboats at the wharves along the Tennessee River, Memphis, Tennessee

First weather forecast by US Weather Bureau

On November 1, 1870, almost ten months after its creation in February of the same year, the United States Weather Bureau made its first official meteorological forecast.

Now named the National Weather Service — part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — and headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, the agency is tasked with providing “weather, hydrologic, and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and ocean areas, for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy.” This is done through a collection of national and regional centers, and 122 local weather forecast offices.
The photograph below, courtesy of Alabama Mosaic digital collection, shows one of such local stations — in Birmingham, Alabama — in 1908, when the Weather Bureau was part of the US Department of Agriculture.

U.S. Weather Bureau station, Alta avenue and Lawn street (Birmingham, Alabama, 1908)

Nevada, 36th U.S. state

145 years ago, on October 31, 1864, Nevada became the 36th U.S. state.
Cultural heritage institutions of Nevada state contributed 14 digital collections to the Opening History aggregation:

Before Gaming . . . Celebrating Las Vegas’ Centennial, 1905-2005 collection,
Early Las Vegas collection,
Great Basin History of Medicine Photo Archives collection,
Historic Aerial Photos of Early Nevada collection,
Images of Lake Tahoe collection,
Just Passin’ Through: The Lincoln and Victory Highways in Nevada collection,
Nevada Agricultural Publications collection,
Nevada in Maps collection,
Nevada Test Site Oral History Project collection,
Sagebrush Vernacular: Architecture of Rural Nevada collection,
Showgirls Collection,
Southern Nevada and Las Vegas History in Maps collection,
Special Collections Photograph Collections, University of Nevada at Reno, and
University of Nevada, Reno, Campus Images collection.

This photograph, created in ca. 1865, courtesy of Images of Lake Tahoe collection, shows Swift’s Station, Carson and Lake Bigler Road, eastern summit of Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the region of Lake Tahoe. This lake is the largest alpine freshwater lake in North America, located in the Sierra Nevada mountains, along the border between Nevada and California, west of Carson City, Nevada.

Swift's Station, Carson and Lake Bigler Road, eastern summit of Sierra Nevada Mountains

First IMLS DCC/Opening History digital collection on Flickr

We are happy to announce that IMLS DCC has joined Flickr! Our first set of photographs — from Flora (IL) Public Library’s Charles Overstreet Collection — has been uploaded to the photosharing portal as part of the Flickr Feasibility Study (pdf), an IMLS DCC initiative that began this summer with the goal of increasing the availability and exposure of the rare, historical photos in our collections. We will continue with regular uploads of photographs from a variety of collections, so keep checking our photostream; we welcome tags and comments.

The photograph below, included in our initial Flickr upload set, courtesy of the Charles Overstreet Collection, shows soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 252nd Field Artillery Battalion stationed in Marseille, France, in 1945, exploring the city.

Marseille, France

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th U.S. President, was born in New York City on October 27, 1858.

The photograph below, courtesy of Lake County Discovery Museum digital collection, part of a larger Digital Past collection, pictures Theodore Roosevelt seated on a platform with other officials during his visit to US Army’s mobilization, training, and administrative center of Fort Sheridan, in Illinois, during the World War I.

Theodore Roosevelt Visit to Fort Sheridan (1914?)

Black Thursday and tuition payments

80 years ago, on October 24, 1929, the “Black Thursday” — the 1st day in series of stock market crashes on Wall Street — occurred. The Great Depression followed and spread worldwide, lasting until the outbreak of World War II.
Students often paid their tuition with produce, but during the Great Depression, even payment-in-kind became difficult. The photograph below, courtesy of History of Weber State University digital collection, shows student’s tuition payment to Weber State University, Utah.

Students Tuition Payment

Dizzy Gillespie

American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (1917-1933) was born on October 21, 1917, in Cheraw, South Carolina. Dizzy Gillespie became one of the major figures in the development of bebop and modern jazz. The portrait of Dizzy Gillespie below courtesy of Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection.

Dizzy Gillespie