Virgin Islands

On March 31, 1917, the United States took possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renamed the territory the United States Virgin Islands.

The Opening History aggregation contains two digital collections with a focus on the history of Virgin Islands:Virgin Islands Funeral Memorial Booklets and Virgin Islands Historical Photographs.
The photograph below, courtesy of The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) Libraries, Virgin Islands Historical Photographs collection, shows the Virgin Islands’ old waterfront in 1920s.

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The first settlement in Delaware

372 years ago, on March 29, 1638, Swedish colonists established the first settlement in Delaware, naming it New Sweden. This book below, published in 1858, courtesy of Making of America digital collection, details the history of Swedes in Delaware. To read the full text of this book, please click on the image of its title page below.

Clay, Jehu Curtis (1858). Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware. Philadelphia: F. Foster

Another book, published in 1873, comes from the Harvard University, Immigration to the United States (1789-1930) digital collection. To read the full text, please click on the introduction page below.

Acrelius, Israel. (1876). A history of New Sweden, or, The settlements on the River Delaware. Philadelphia : Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

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Louisville tornado of 1890

120 years ago, on March 27, 1890, a powerful tornado measuring F4 on the Fujita scale and later labeled “the whirling tiger of the air” struck Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76 and injuring 200. The tornado destroyed 766 buildings in Louisville, including the Falls City Hall, the rubble of which is shown on this stereograph below, courtesy of the Library of Congress, Stereograph Cards digital collection.
This Louisville tornado was the most notable part of the Mid-Mississippi Valley Tornado Outbreak — a major tornado outbreak occurring in the Middle United States on March 27, 1890. To this day, this outbreak is still the 25th most deadly storm in U.S. history.

Louisville tornado, wreck of Falls City Hall (75 killed)

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World Tuberculosis Day

March 24 is World TB (tuberculosis) Day. The title page featured below, courtesy of Making of America digital collection, is from a book Brief history of the campaign against tuberculosis in New York City: catalogue of the tuberculosis exhibit of the Department of Health, published in New York City over 100 years ago — in 1908. To read the full text of this book, please click on the title page image below.

The drawing below, courtesy of The North Carolina Experience digital collection, shows Mountain Sanitarium for Pulmonary Diseases in Asheville, North Carolina, where tuberculosis patients were treated, in 1870s.
The more recent photograph below, courtesy of Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection, part of a larger Historic Pittsburgh Image Collections digital collection, was made in 1937 and shows a doctor giving a tuberculosis vaccination to a small girl.

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International day for the elimination of racial discrimination

March 21 is the International day for the elimination of racial discrimination.
The poster below is courtesy of Teaching with Digital Content (Digital Cultural Heritage Community) digital collections

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American Express anniversary

American Express was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo 160 years ago — on March 18, 1850. A year later, they organized the firm of Wells, Fargo & Company to conduct an express business between New York and San Francisco by way of the Isthmus of Panama and on the Pacific coast, where it long had a virtual monopoly.
This Wells Fargo & Co. Express Freight receipt document from 1903 is courtesy of Hudson River Valley Heritage digital collection.

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Maine, the 23rd US state

Maine became the 23rd U.S. state 190 years ago — on March 15, 1820. The Anna M. Bucknam’s painting below, courtesy of the Maine Memory Network digital collection, shows the Main State House in 1820.

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Clyde W.Tombaugh and discovery of Pluto

March 13 is celebrated in Illinois as Pluto Day because the dwarf planet of Pluto was discovered by an Illinoisan and famous American astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh (1906-1997) on March 13, 1930. This year it’s an anniversary — 80 years since the discovery of Pluto.

This interview with Dr. Tombaugh, courtesy of Heritage West digital collection, was recorded at the New Mexico State University in 1987. In the interview, Tombaugh discusses his early life, employment at the Lowell Observatory, his discovery of Pluto, and employment at the White Sands Missile Range and New Mexico State University.

To listen to the interview, please click here (side A) and here (side B).

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Louisiana Purchase

On March 10, 1804, a formal ceremony was conducted in Saint Louis, Missouri, to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Purchase territory from France to the United States.
The Louisiana Purchase and Louisiana Colonial History Collection in Opening History aggregation of digital collections contains over a hundred artifacts — maps, paintings, personal correspondence, government documents, etc. — mostly from 18th and 19th centuries. The newspaper article below, courtesy of Louisiana Purchase and Louisiana Colonial History Collection, was published in The Balance and Columbian Repository in 1803 and titled “No. VI and last, a comparative view of the disadvantages and benefits, which would probably accrue to the United States, from an enlargement of their territorial limits by the purchase of either Louisiana or the Floridas.”

Another interesting item form this collection is a painting by Andre Castaigne depicting the signing of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty in 1803 by Francois Barbe-Marbois, Robert R. Livingston, and James Monroe.

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National Social Worker Month

March is the National Social Worker Month in the United States. The 1923 photograph below, courtesy of American Missionary Association and the Promise of a Multicultural America: 1839 – 1954 digital collection, shows a group of social workers at a conference in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Left to right on this photograph are pictured: Miss Johnson (Hartford, CT), Miss Lalours (Springfield, ?), Miss Coleman (Boston, MA), Miss Drake (New Haven, CT).

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