Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman, glass negative, between 1860 and 1865

Walt Whitman was born 190 years ago, on May 31st, 1819. The portrait above courtesy of Library of Congress, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection.

The Opening History aggregation includes two digital collections about the famous poet: Walt Whitman Archive and Integrated Finding Aid to Walt Whitman Manuscripts.

There are also some interesting items about Walt Whitman in a number of other digital collections in Opening History. For example, listen to audio recording of Allen Ginsberg teaching a class on Walt Whitman and negative capability at Naropa Institute in 1987 (1 hr. 20 min.), courtesy of Naropa Poetics Audio Archives collection, part of a larger Heritage West digital collection.

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World No Tobacco Day

May 31st is the World No Tobacco Day.

The Opening History aggregation includes two digital collections focusing on the subject of fighting back against the epidemic of tobacco smoking —Tobacco Free Project, San Francisco Dept. of Public Health Records collection and Asian/Pacific Islanders Tobacco Education Network Records collection.

A number of other collections in Opening History aggregation contain hundreds of items (photographs, documents, posters, letters, etc.) about the various aspects of tobacco manufacturing and tobacco use in the United States.

The World War I poster (courtesy of Summons to Comradeship digital collection) and the 1908 photograph (courtesy of Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 digital collection) below exemplify two different attitudes to tobacco in early-20th-century United States:

Industrial Problems, Conditions: United States. Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Survey: Tobacco drying in the work room poisons the air (1908)

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International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers

May 29th is the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. Peacekeeping has been developed by the United Nations as a unique “way to help countries torn by conflict create the conditions for lasting peace.” Since 1948, over 60 UN peacekeeping operations took place around the world.

The first UN peacekeeping mission was deployed in 1948 to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The photograph below, courtesy of University of California in Los Angeles, Ralph J. Bunche Papers digital collection, shows signing the Egyptian-Israeli Armistice Agreement on February 24, 1949.

Egyptian-Israeli Armistice Agreement signed

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Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan, “the mother of the modern dance”, was born on May 26, 1877, in San-Francisco.

The portrait of Isadora Duncan in Toga with looking glass above, courtesy of Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection .

Long after her death in 1927, Isadora Duncan continues to inspire artists and dancers worldwide. The poster below, courtesy of Colorado State University Library, International Poster Collection.

Isadora Duncan: a ballet performance poster, 1999

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Igor Sikorsky

Famous aircraft engineer Igor Sikorsky was born on May 25th 120 years ago, in 1889. Sikorsky developed the first stable, single-rotor, fully-controllable helicopter. In 1942, his Sikorsky R-4 model became the first mass-produced helicopter in the world and the United States Air Force’s first service helicopter. The majority of subsequent helicopters were based upon this model.

The photograph below, titled “Igor Sikorsky and the first successful helicopter built in America, Stratford”, courtesy of Connecticut History Online digital collection, pictures Igor Sikorsky piloting R-4’s predecessor — experimental VS-300 helicopter — in 1940.

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International Day for Biological Diversity

May 22 is the International Day for Biological Diversity.
The item featured below, courtesy of Making of America digital collection (part of Opening History aggregation), is a full-text digitized version of a 1854 Louis Agassiz’s book titled The Primitive Diversity and Number of Animals in Geological Times.

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International Museum Day

International Museum Day is celebrated all over the world on May 18th, since 1977. Each year, a theme is decided on by the International Council of Museums Advisory Committee. This year’s theme is “Museums and Tourism”.

Sixty-seven digital collections in Opening History aggregation are hosted by and/or contributed to by various kinds of museums: history museums, science and technology museums, natural history museums, art museums, etc.

The image below courtesy of the Skyscraper Museum‘s Erection Views of Empire State Building collection, part of a larger Visual Index to the Virtual Archive of the Skyscraper Museum (VIVA2) digital collection.

Empire State Building: Concreting--6th floor setback (1930)

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Lewis and Clark expedition

Lewis and Clark expedition to Northwest began 205 years ago, on May 14, 1804.
Expeditions, exploration, and travel is one of the emerging subject strengths of the Opening History aggregation. Digital collections on this topic in the Opening History include:
American Journeys,
American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920,
Bodmer Aquatints Collection,
First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820,
John Wesley Powell Expeditions,
Ridgway Brothers: Explorers, Scientists, and Illustrators,
Stereograph Cards,
Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869 , etc.

Drawing of a White Salmon Trout, by Clark, p. 176a from Ch. 23. At Fort Clatsop, in volume 4 of The Original Journals of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society, American Journeys digital collection.

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International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day

May 8th is celebrated worldwide as an International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day. This is also a birthday of International Red Cross and Red Crescent founder, Henry Dunant (1828-1910). The American Red Cross was founded on May 21, 1881.
The poster below courtesy of University of Minnesota, “A Summons to Comradeship”: World War I and II Posters and Postcards Collection (learn more about this digital collection from Opening History Aggregation).

Red Cross poster 'Give all you can : Red Cross and St. John'

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Cinco De Mayo celebration

Cinco De Mayo is the Mexican national holiday widely celebrated by Mexican Americans in United States on May 5th in remembrance of the 1862 Battle of Puebla.

The poster below, courtesy of the Royal Chicano Air Force Archives collection, part of Opening History aggregation, shows an announcement for celebration of Cinco De Mayo in California. The second item featured here, courtesy of Galeria de la Raza Archives – Catalog of Slides collection, is a photograph taken at 1977 Cinco de Mayo Parade.

Cinco De Mayo celebration

Cinco de Mayo Parade, May 1977

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