| A photochrom of an elderly Irish woman using a spinning wheel, a device for spinning thread or yarn from natural or man-made fibers. Manual spinning wheels were likely invented in the 13th century and remained in use until automated mass production techniques were invented in the Industrial Revolution. Hand-spinning remains a popular handicraft.
Photo credit: Detroit Publishing Co.
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Émile Zola's famous public letter "J'accuse" to the President of France Félix Faure in protest against the Dreyfus Affair, January 13 1898. The letter accused the government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus, a French General Staff officer, sentenced to penal servitude for life for spying. Zola pointed out judicial errors and lack of serious evidence. The letter was printed on the first page of the newspaper L'Aurore and caused a stir in France and abroad. For publishing this letter, Zola was prosecuted and found guilty of libel, and he avoided punishment by fleeing to England. As a result of the popularity of the letter, even in the English-speaking world, J'accuse! has become a common generic expression of outrage and accusation against a powerful person.
Author: Émile Zola
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A 1917 recruitment poster for women to join the United States Navy. In March 1917, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels realized that the Naval Reserve Act of 1916 used the word "yeoman" instead of "man" or "male", and allowed for the induction of "all persons who may be capable of performing special useful service for coastal defense." He began enlisting females as Yeoman (F), and in less than a month the Navy officially swore in Loretta Perfectus Walsh, the first female sailor in U.S. history. At the time they were popularly referred to as "yeomanettes" or even "yeowomen".
Artist: Howard Chandler Christy
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Two Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena) chicks, one day after fledging. The Welcome Swallow is a small passerine bird in the swallow family native to Australia and nearby islands, but not until recently to New Zealand. It is very similar to the Pacific Swallow.
Photo credit: Benjamint444
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A panorama of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (the French national library) in Paris, as seen from the north bank of the Seine. The Simone-de-Beauvoir pedestrian bridge is visible on the left, the Bercy bridge, on the right.
Photo credit: Benh Lieu Song
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Ground troop movements during the Gulf War, (called "Operation Desert Storm" by the U.S. military) from February 24–28, 1991. Coalition forces led by the United States invaded Kuwait and Iraq to defeat and expel Iraqi forces.
Image credit: Jeff Dahl
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A Red Admiralty butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) collecting nectar from a Blue Gem flower (Hebe × franciscana). This species is found in temperate Europe, Asia and North America. This large butterfly is identified by its striking dark brown, red and black wing pattern.
Image credit: Joaquim Alves Gaspar
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Malcolm X was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Born Malcolm Little, he changed his surname to "X" as a rejection of his "slave name". Tensions between him and the Nation of Islam caused him to break from the group in 1964. He claimed to have received daily death threats and his house was burned to the ground in February 1965. One week later, Malcolm X was assassinated, having been shot in the chest by a sawed-off shotgun and 16 times with handguns. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted.
Image credit: Ed Ford, New York World-Telegram and Sun
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Mrs. Bill Stagg of Pie Town, New Mexico with her embroidered patchwork quilt that displays all 48 (at the time) United States state flowers and birds, October 1940. Quilting was a very popular early American past time, particularly in the Midwest, where quilting circles were a common social past time for women. Annual town fairs generally included a Quilting Bee, to award excellence in quilting. Handmade quilts were very common wedding gifts for young couples, and were often mentioned specifically in wills due to their sentimental significance.
Image credit: Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration
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A bee feeding on a twisted pair of yellow coneflowers (Echinacea paradoxa).
Photo credit: Derek Ramsey
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