Yesterday we announced the release of a new project that we’ve been working on, an interactive version of The Wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The news spread fast and we’ve seen a tremendous response to the announcement. That’s the good news. The not so good news is that we’re having trouble keeping up with…
Hi! I’m Donna and I’ve worked at Footnote for over a year. Part of what I do is write Story Pages and other miscellany. Here is my Footnote profile. I found this interesting recommendation when I was annotating in the Confederate Amnesty Papers. The Governor of Tennessee wrote, in behalf of John Russell’s application for…
You may have noticed that on the new Title Information Pages we try to include at least a couple of sample images to give people a better idea of what they’ll find in each title. You’ll see these images in the left hand column of the page, as in this example for the Lincoln Assassination…
There is no master plan of History. Events happen, we witness and, later, we try to make sense of them. When tragic or momentous events do occur, we often seek to forgo patience for prescience. We want it all to make sense now. We want order and meaning restored. In an age when reporting has…
In July 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a press release saying they had recovered debris of a crashed “flying disc” sparking intense media interest. They later corrected themselves by stating the materials were that of a downed weather balloon. 60 years later, speculation and fascination about the incident continues. Just this week,…
Even the night before the Fourth of July, it’s easy to obtain (where legal, of course) nearly an unlimited supply of fireworks, sparklers and other brilliant incendiary devices. Though such gunpowder-based confections stir delight in children and swelling patriotism in grown-ups, they belie the true state of affairs that General George Washington and his troops…
In the bibliography of David McCullough’s bestselling book, “1776“, (see what else we’re reading) lies an interesting source: “Revolutionary Pension Records.” Much of the power of McCullough’s writing comes from his ability to recount an event that happened more than 220 years ago and make seem like it happened yesterday. The powerful drama unfolds in…
