I learned a lot while putting together this list of historical highlights. You’ll find articles about the Fenian raids, Basque refugee children, calfskin vellum, and the conservation of rare Egyptian curtains. Read on!

If you’ve ever wished you knew knew more about the Fenian raids, you might enjoy this descriptive account of the Battle of Eccles Hill.

Did you know that Canada’s Parliament Building (then in Montreal) was burned down in 1849? Read all about it. (Sadly, 23,000 volumes from the libraries and archives, as well as priceless paintings, were lost in the blaze.)

Here are two short Canadian history videos featuring archival images: “Who Really Won the War of 1812?” and “Democracy from Rebellion” (overview of the Rebellions of 1837-1838).

I didn’t know that almost 4,000 Basque children were sent to Great Britain after the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War. Maybe I should check out this book.

The Hoover Institution at Stanford University recently declassified many government records. See a list here.

“Plotting out the events of an ancestor’s life on a timeline can help you gain a fuller picture of them as a person. You may notice different locations they have lived, how old they were when their parents died, or which significant historical events took place during their lifetime.” 

The chairman of the Irish National Archives advisory council addresses how archives should move forward in the digital age.

“Thousand year old tradition of printing Britain’s laws on vellum has been scrapped to save just £80,000” The Domesday Book, the Magna Carta, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and other important historical documents were all printed on calfskin vellum, which lasts 5000 years.

Like Ella Frances Sander’s book that I reviewed last week, this article compiles untranslatable words from around the world. (In fact, some of the words are the same.) The detailed definitions are worth reading. I like this one: “Dustsceawung (Old English): contemplation of the fact that dust used to be other things – the walls of a city, the chief of the guards, a book, a great tree: dust is always the ultimate destination. Such contemplation may loosen the grip of our worldly desires.”

If you’d like a sneak peek at the work of museum curators, check out this piece on the conservation of a rare pair of curtains from Late Antique Egypt.

I hope you enjoyed my finds of the week.