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Posted by: Valerie Haeder
For a seemingly interminable 65 days the Mayflower was the floating home of pilgrims, officers and crew as they made their famous journey to America. For some it was a graveyard, and for others, a symbol of life renewed. Those who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 are commonly known as pilgrims, but the sailors who …
Posted by: Amber Paranick
The following guest post was also written by Marissa Ball, Head of the Humanities & Social Sciences Section in the Researcher and Reference Services Division; Peter Armenti, a reference specialist in the Researcher and Reference Services Division; and Ashley Cuffia, a science reference specialist in the Science, Technology, and Business Division. On October 24, 2019, …
Posted in: Comic Books, Crime, Mystery
Posted by: Malea Walker
For 82 years people have tried to solve the mystery Amelia Earhart's disappearance, but in 1937 America remembered her as the brave pioneer woman who conquered flight.
Posted in: Biography, Digitized Newspapers, Mystery, Sports, Women's History
Posted by: Valerie Haeder
The flags decorating the theater box where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated were almost an afterthought, but they became central to the legend and lore surrounding his assassination. On April 14, 1865, just hours before the President arrived at Ford’s, John Ford, the proprietor of the theater, thought it appropriate to adorn the box where …
Posted in: Holidays, Mystery, Newspapers
Posted by: Heather Thomas
Don’t take candy from strangers. Little Charley Ross, the first missing child to make national headlines, made that mistake. During the summer of 1874, two men in a horse-drawn buggy pulled into an affluent neighborhood in Philadelphia and befriended two little boys who were playing in front of their stately home. For five days in …
Posted in: Crime, Digitized Newspapers, Mystery, Newspapers
Posted by: Heather Thomas
They dug up the body in the dead of night. Men armed with shovels and pickaxes extracted the coffin and fled into the October darkness. Authorities gave chase until the body snatchers’ wagon raced over King’s Bridge and into Manhattan. Thus began the saga of the remains of Thomas Paine. At the end of the …
Posted in: Digitized Newspapers, Mystery, Newspapers
Posted by: Heather Thomas
Theodosia Burr Alston, the beloved daughter of disgraced vice president Aaron Burr, left the port of Georgetown, South Carolina on the schooner Patriot in 1812 and was never seen again. Throughout the 19th century, newspapers titillated readers with lurid stories of her alleged fate, including captivity, murder, and deathbed confessions of former pirates. Yet her …
Posted in: Digitized Newspapers, Mystery, Newspapers, Women's History