Happy Friday, people! Here are some links to historical highlights for your weekend reading/viewing. (My favourite is the article about James Shinn, who stole $100,000 worth of books from university libraries.)
First, in archives news:
- NASA has released historic aviation and space footage (you can even view it on YouTube)
- 2000+ audio cassettes related to the Beat Generation are now available online
- Folger Shakespeare Library has received a huge grant to study early modern food
I love reading about rare book thieves! (Have any [fiction or non-fiction] book recommendations? I’m in line for John Grisham’s latest at the library.)
Did you know that southeast England has many horses carved into the hillsides? “The white geoglyphs stand in stark contrast to the verdant landscapes they dominate—so much so, they often had to be covered or camouflaged during World War II so the German Air Force couldn’t use them as location markers to aid navigation.”
Read the story of the Medway Queen, a brave little ship that rescued 7,000 soldiers from Dunkirk during World War II.
Jane Austen fan? Here’s a guide to Austen houses and other places you’ll want to visit (some appear in film adaptations of her novels).
Read about (and see pictures of) some of the oldest maps in the world.