An assignment for Advanced Digital! We were supposed to make a gif portrait of a historical character. I chose Julie d’Aubigny, 17th century swordsmaster and opera singer, responsible for the deaths of at least ten men in duels, and openly bisexual. After her lover was placed into a convent by the girl’s parents, d’Aubigny took the vows to enter the convent as a novice, then rescued her lover and set the convent on fire to cover their escape. Dang.
OH MY GOD YES THIS
Sometimes your Daguerreotype boyfriend might be a Daguerreotype girlfriend.
Women lived in germ-ridden camps, languished in appalling prisons, and died miserably, but honorably, for their country and their cause just as men did.The untold stories of women who dressed and served as men in the Civil War
Description of this lady from the link: “To pass as a man, Union soldier Frances Louisa Clayton, who enlisted with her husband in 1861, took up gambling, cigar-smoking and swearing.”
Obit of the Day: NASA’s First Nurse
Rose Church knew an opportunity when she saw one. An employee of McDonnell-Douglas in St. Louis, Missouri, Mrs. Church had heard that the company was hiring an “aerospace physician” and when given a opportunity to speak with company president James McDonnell, she told him “Where there’s a doctor, there’s always a nurse.”
After that conversation there was.
Mrs. Church would serve as the nurse to the Mercury and Gemini astronauts including John Glenn, Alan Shepherd, and Gus Grissom. (She would even bring astronauts their favorite training snack, whether it’s a donut or a beer.)
When McDonnell-Douglas did not receive the contract to build the vehicles for the Apollo missions, Mrs. Church retired.
NASA’s first nurse passed away at the age of 90.
You can find interviews with her here
Random note: Mrs. Church was a guest of NASA for the final space shuttle launch (STS-135, Atlantis) on July 8, 2011. She talks about her excitement here.
Sources: Stltoday.com and The Aero Experience
(Image of Mrs. Church speaking with an unidentified astronaut is copyright McDonnell-Douglas and courtesy of StLToday.com)
(via npr)
While under the fascist rule, this small Italian town was flooded for the “greater good” of the nation: the water was meant to fuel a hydroelectric plant, but it was never built. The only remnant of the town is this church tower, which has stood the test of time.(via)
(via neil-gaiman)
And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors…if particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.Abigail Adams, not fucking around in a letter to her husband John (c. 1776).
That your sex is naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of master for the more tender and endearing one of friend.
This day in history:
Minutes before giving a speech on a campaign stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Theodore Roosevelt is shot in an assassination attempt.
The would-be assassin’s bullet is slowed down after travelling through a steel eyeglass case and the folded, fifty page speech he intended to give, stopping in his chest. Realizing that he wasn’t coughing up blood, Roosevelt figured he was well enough to go ahead and deliver his speech rather than rush to the hospital.
He spoke for the next 90 minutes, opening with the words:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”
Doctors deemed it too risky to remove the bullet, and Roosevelt carried it with him inside his body for the rest of his life.
October 14, 1912 - 100 years ago today
Back when the GOP was progressive….
(via williamjh)
‘Jailers’ keys were apparently filled with gun powder to create a primitive gun that could be detonated if there was any trouble when opening a cell door. We found several original versions that back up this claim, dating from the 17th century and of various complexity.’
(via gingerhaze)
Royal Air Force pilot getting a haircut during a break between missions, Great Britain c. 1942 (via Imgur)
(via gingerhaze)
A Muslim man carrying his hookah in one hand while balancing a pole holding his 5 year old old son in a convoy to West Punjab after the division of India. Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White. India, 1947.
(via brokendownoldqueen)
In the early 20th century, photographer E.J. Bellocq became known for his portraits of prostitutes of Storyville, which was the Red Light District of New Orleans from 1897 through 1917. Bellocq, who had a form of dwarfism and was also a hydrocephalic, frequented brothels, where he…
(via omnicurious)
