If you enjoy etymology and the peculiarities of North American slang, you may enjoy this post about the evolution of the word "dude":

Dude! by Allan Metcalf
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/10/21/dude/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en


From the Brooklyn Sunday Eagle for April 22, 1883:

“What is the dude, papa?” she said, with sweet, ( Read more... )

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(Great Britain) Asia through a lens: early Colonial Office photos released online
Source: the National Archives of Great Britain. Text reproduced in full from announcement on website: http://ht.ly/dZWvA


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I've been a fan of Victoriana since childhood, thanks to bibliophile parents.  Visits to archives, heavy librayr use, and an early passion for Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Wilkie Collins, E. Nesbit, and others.  Reflective of the time, the "n-word" appeared in some of these authors' works (I recall instances in Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and  ( Read more... )

http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/

Description from the website:  "Welcome to Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire. This website holds detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies. Over 150 films are available for viewing online. You can search or browse for films by country, date, topic, or ( Read more... )

Heads-up for academics and/or people interested in research on the history of slavery:

From now until about mid-January 2012, Cambridge University Press offers free access to articles in its November 2011 special issue of the Law and History Review on "Law, Slavery, and Justice". ( Read more... )

From University Relations, Mississippi State University:

STARKVILLE, Miss.--Historians and archivists at Mississippi State are announcing the discovery of what they believe to be a historic treasure: a hair lock from the 19th century's best known African American social reformer.

The artifact was found among items in the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential ( Read more... )

Interesting factoid, revealed in 1965 contracts now up for auction:
The Beatles refused to play to segregated audience in US | Music | guardian.co.uk

On September 15, 1963, these children died as the result of a racially motivated bombing ( a group of White men were later arrested for the crime).  They were waiting for Sunday School to start in the basement of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.  I remember hearing a National Public Radio interview with a woman who, as a ( Read more... )

Digital Images of Yale’s Vast Cultural Collections Now Available for Free