Top of page

Category: Animals

Magazine cover with black and white drawing of horse seated on a chair, covered in a blanket, with its feet in a barrel.

When the Horse Flu Came for Alexander Graham Bell’s Boston

Posted by: Josh Levy

In fall 1872, a virulent equine influenza spread rapidly from Ontario, Canada down through the urban centers of the American northeast, sickening nearly every horse it met. A young Alexander Graham Bell’s letters back home offer a glimpse into the surreal moment when the nation’s cities discovered how deeply they had come to depend on horsepower.

Black and white print showing beavers near trees and a river.

Of Note: George Washington and the Beaver Tail: An Unfinished Tale

Posted by: Julie Miller

A reference librarian reexamines a favorite letter in the George Washington Papers and gathers more information about the writer, territorial judge George Turner, who caused the first U.S. president years of aggravation and distress during a period when the government was struggling to assert federal authority in the  Northwest Territory.