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online forum for early American discovery, discussion, and diversion from the American Antiquarian Society

Archive for the ‘Fun in the Archive’ Category

Something Fun for the Weekend

July 9th, 2010, by Elizabeth Watts Pope

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NPR had a piece this morning on an exhibit that just opened at the Smithsonian called Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.  If you are in the D.C. area, the exhibit is running until January. It sounds like they are making some interesting connections between the American movie-makers [...]


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Goodbye Blacksmith, Hello Schoolmarm!

June 1st, 2010, by Ashley Cataldo

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When Diann Benti, former AAS assistant reference librarian, created our now (nearly) complete anonymous blacksmith blog, she was inspired to do so by the Massachusetts Historical Society’s tweeting John Quincy Adams. Past is Present would never have a tweeting blacksmith, Diann informed us in her blog post when the blacksmith initially forged his way into [...]


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Antiquarian Oscars

March 15th, 2010, by Elizabeth Watts Pope

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All the votes have been counted and the winner is…. Penny! Penny’s caption won our hearts and received the most thumbs up in Past is Present‘s first humorous what-caption-would-you-write contest. Her submission had the added bonus of connecting to the original post on Slate, before the hype by AAS’s curator of Graphic Arts, Lauren Hewes.  [...]


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What caption would you write?

March 8th, 2010, by Elizabeth Watts Pope

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This is for all the historical comedians out there … Seeing the illustration above, titled “The Naughty Boy,” in Lauren’s post Slate, Before the Hype started me wondering what led up to this scene. There has to be a good story here. The sulky pout. The curls and the dress (which to modern eyes appear [...]


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