Wishing you happiness and health for the new year!
Nancy E. Gwinn and the Smithsonian Libraries staff
Tag: Holidays
As long as you avoid wiping your eyes with the leaves or serving them up in a salad, it should be possible to enjoy these colorful poinsettia plants in your home.
The Smithsonian American Art/National Portrait Gallery Library houses two issues, November 29, 1862 and December 3, 1864, of Harper’s Weekly containing illustrations depicting troops celebrating Thanksgiving at the front. The illustrations were done for the newspaper by Winslow Homer (1836-1910), who is regarded as one of America’s finest artists.
It’s Thanksgiving week and we are well into the season of Fall, so we decided to feature some trade literature with a Fall theme.
I’m not sure if this etching can reveal anything about Christopher Columbus, who has a more complex profile these days than when the famous rhyme, “In fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue” became familiar to every kid in the schoolyard. What is interesting to learn about that rhyme is that it is only one couplet in a very long poem, “The History of the U.S.” by Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr. The poem also features other famous folks who had an impact on America, including John Smith, Paul Revere and William Penn. Winifred was considered a child prodigy and wrote many “jingles” from a young age.
The snow seems very far away in all this heat, but why not celebrate a little Christmas in July? —Elizabeth Periale Image: Harper's Weekly, 1869. Related: Xmas in July Christmas more »
. . . this hall took about $15.00 to complete, according to the caption of this illustration from The 1917 Party Book by Dennison Manufacturing Co. Besides American flags and more »