Laura Keene, a renowned British-American stage actress, is celebrated for her pivotal role as the first influential female theater manager, instrumental in establishing New York City as the premier theatrical hub in the United States. Her legacy is forever intertwined...
I have shared about Halloween before and since it is that time of year, I wanted to share this haunting illustration by Thomas Nast which appeared in Harper’s Weekly on July 7, 1866. Captioned “Why He Can’t Sleep,” the image shows a sleepless...
Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner was born #OTD in 1821. Gardner began his career working for Matthew Brady and founded his own studio in May 1863. He was the first person to photograph the unburied bodies of dead soldiers on an American battlefield. ...
Samuel Bland Arnold, born on September 6, 1834, and passing away on September 21, 1906, played a role in the conspiracy to abduct President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He joined forces with fellow conspirators John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, Lewis Powell, Michael...
Testimony of Boston Corbett Boston Corbett served with the 16th New York and was a prisoner at Andersonville for four months. Shortly after he was exchanged in 1865, he made headlines for killing John Wilkes Booth. Later that year, on August 28, he testified against...
On May 10, 1863, the South lost one of its boldest and most colorful generals on this day, when 39-year-old Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson dies of pneumonia a week after his own troops accidentally fired on him during the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. ...