Thanksgiving celebration

A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress. On November 26, 1941 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

The image below, courtesy of Western Waters Digital Library, depicts in “sign language” (or pictographs) how Thanksgiving day is celebrated by the American Indians. Theodore Lambie, young Sioux, created this picture for the readers of “Indians at Work,” official publication of the Indian service, in 1937.

North Carolina, 12th U.S. state

220 years ago, on November 21, 1789, North Carolina became the 12th U.S. state. This map of North Carolina published around the same time, ca. 1799, is courtesy of North Carolina Maps digital collection, part of a larger Documenting the American South collection.

North Carolina map from Joseph Scott's New and Universal Gazetteer (ca.1799)

Libraries, museums, and archives of North Carolina state have created 6 digital collections included in the Opening History aggregation:
Folkstreams.net collection
North Carolina Experience, Beginnings to 1940 collection
North Carolinians and the Great War collection
Oral Histories of the American South collection,
Southern Homefront, 1861-1865 collection, and
William Gedney: Photographs and Writings collection.

Universal Children’s Day

Universal Children’s Day is tomorrow. The date 20 November, marks the day on which the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989.
A digital item featured below, courtesy of Immigration to the United States (1789-1930) digital collection, is a Christmas fundraising letter and brochure published by Children’s Aid Association in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1929.

Children's Aid Association's Christmas fundrising letter and brochure, 1929

Continental time zones

On November 18, 1883, American and Canadian railroads instituted five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.

This railroad map, published in 1892, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Map Collections, 1500-1999, shows four time zones: Eastern, Central, Pacific, and Mountain. Alaska, which is not shown on this map, belongs to the 5th North American continental time zone — Alaskan.

Burlington Route (railroad map, 1892)

Oklahoma, 46th U.S. state

On November 16, 1907, Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory became Oklahoma state and were admitted as the 46th U.S. state.

Cultural heritage institutions of Oklahoma state (libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, etc.) contributed 17 digital collections to the Opening History aggregation:
100 Years of Oklahoma Governors collection,
Ada Lois Sipuel v. Board of Regents University of Oklahoma, 1948- collection,
Chronicles of Oklahoma collection,
Doris Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History,
Federal Publications about Oklahoma collection,
From Warrior to Saint: The Journey of David Pendleton Oakerhater collection,
Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties collection,
Indian-Pioneer Papers Collection,
Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project collection,
Native American Manuscript Collections,
Oklahoma Authors collection,
Oklahoma Crossroads collection,
Oklahoma Image collection,
Oklahoma Resources collection,
Oklahoma State Government Publications collection,
Tulsa Race Riot Documents collection, and
Western History Collections Photographic Archives collection.

The photograph below, courtesy of From Warrior to Saint: The Journey of David Pendleton Oakerhater collection, pictures four students of Carlisle Indian School in 1880 — Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Comanche — including David Pendleton Oakerhater himself (second left).

Students at Carlisle Indian School, 1880

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)