Union Square opened as a public park in 1839, and by the first decades of the twentieth century was an established destination for anyone who wanted to stroll under the trees, shop for flowers, or just sit and read a newspaper. But it was also the site of a variety of large and small public demonstrations and events.
As mentioned in my previous blog post, I am one of 40 Junior Fellows at the Library of Congress this summer, and I have been working on researching women in baseball and updating the Library's primary source set for educators on baseball.
Mark Twain's reputation spans the centuries: He spent much of his lifetime as one of the most famous writers in the United States, and his works continue to appear in classrooms, as well as in debates over the curriculum. Even now, more than a century after his death, the discovery of an unpublished Twain tale has led to the publication of a new children’s book, which is the subject of an upcoming program at the Library of Congress.
Helen Keller had been eagerly writing since she had first gained the ability to do so several years before. Although an illness in her infancy had left her unable to see or hear, an inventive teacher, Annie Sullivan, introduced her to language, and soon she was reading and writing using braille and the assistance of interpreters.
In the November/December 2015 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article focused on analyzing newspapers from the presidential election of 1912, an unusual contest at an unusual time.