Live Reporting Archives - Page 8 of 9

Dr. Francesco Lodá: Dueling in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Early Modern, Live Reporting / September 27, 2023 / medieval

Shippensburg University was very lucky to have Dr. Francesco Lodá speak this evening about dueling in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Focusing especially on the Italian Marcelli familial school-of-arms, Professor Lodà demonstrated that the most advanced Masters of Arms achieved very high status, despite the fact that they had not originated from the aristocracy […]

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John Maietta: Strong Drinks and Heavenly Brews: a History of Beer, Wine, Coffee, and Tea

Live Reporting / September 27, 2023

We had a full house this evening at Shippensburg University with guest speaker John Maietta, who gave a fascinating talk on some of the best-loved beverages in history: “Strong drinks and heavenly brews: a history of beer, wine, coffee, and tea”. Here I am with Dr Mark Spicka of the history department and guest speaker

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Wilson College Humanities Conference

Live Reporting / September 27, 2023 / medieval

Presenting research today (February 25, 2023) at the Wilson College Humanities Conference, which was focusing on non-human animals! Here I am with my fellow presenters Catherine Clay (who talked about the role of bees in Russia), Christina Luo (speaking about chickens in Ancient Europe). I talked about horses in the Middle Ages. The papers today

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Wawa Gatheru Speaks at Shippensburg Univeristy

Live Reporting, Long 19th- 20th centuries / September 27, 2023 / environmental history, history of race, U.S. history, women's history

Tonight Shippensburg University welcomed guest lecturer Wawa Gatheru, a leader in the contemporary U.S. environmental justice movement. She had many interesting things to say, but since I am an historian, I especially appreciated her discussion of how the legacy of American slavery has led to environmental inequity today. Wawa Gatheru pointed to two ways this

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Dr. Timothy May Talk on Mongolian History

Africa, Asia and South Asia, Early Modern, Live Reporting / September 25, 2023 / religion

Dr. Timothy May, specialist in Mongolian history, spoke at Shippensburg University this evening. My favorite annecdote was when he talked about the Daoist monk who warned Chinggis Khan that he would live longer if he quit drinking, hunting, and having quite so much sex. The leader of ored the monk, and Chinggis Khan died from

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Eastern State Penitentiary

Early Modern, Live Reporting, Long 19th- 20th centuries / September 22, 2023 / U.S. history

The Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia is definitely worth visiting. It was a unique and highly influential prison, and the current site now has first-rate displays with the buildings intentionally kept in a state of semi-decay. The ambience perfectly matched the subject. Once the USA’s largest prison, Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829 with

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The Original Smithsonian

Live Reporting, Long 19th- 20th centuries / September 15, 2023 / art, US history

This is the very first Smithsonian Museum building, known as “The Castle,” and it was built in 1855. The founders of the Smithsonian lay a foundation for the 21 museums that make up the US national heritage that exists in Washington D.C. today. There are photos here of the surrounding gardens, built by people who

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Ancient Yemen

Africa, Asia and South Asia, Ancient History, Live Reporting / September 15, 2023 / archaeology, economic history

I really enjoyed the Freer Gallery of Art’s small permanent collection dealing with the history of the southwestern part of the Arabian peninsula, or modern Yemen. The area has suffered from horrific warfare since 2014, which has endangered much of its historical heritage. This is tragic, because although the area never boasted the wealth of

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Belladonna Poison

Early Modern, Live Reporting / September 13, 2023 / environment

Belladonna was a poison used during the Italian Renaissance. Sean Carroll’s “Mindscape” podcast this week features Raychelle Burks, who discusses poisons, chemical analytic forensics, and history.

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Hobbit Peoples Skull

Africa, Asia and South Asia, Ancient History, History of Science, Live Reporting / September 13, 2023 / evolution, science

Catch up on how historical geneticists are unveiling fascinating new discoveries about early human history ( example- new discussion about the so-called “Hobbit” peoples from the Indonesia area). _Who We Are and How We Got Here_ is a great read!

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Eastern Medieval Bishop

Africa, Asia and South Asia, Live Reporting, Medieval History / September 7, 2023 / Christian history, Eurasia/Middle Eastern history

Exhibit from the NYC Met, where you can see a teensy dragon (if you squint) on the robes of this eastern medieval bishop, showing cultural influences from east Asia.

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Beethoven’s Final Symphony

Early Modern, Live Reporting / September 5, 2023 / art, music

Almost 200 years ago (May 7, 1824), Beethoven’s Ninth – and final – Symphony debuted, and yesterday I got a chance to hear it at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Carlisle. It took the combined efforts of three groups (the Dickinson College Choir, Cantate Carlisle, and the Dickinson Orchestra) to perform the famously monumental

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Shippensburg University History Students Present Research on African American Community Employed by Thaddeus Stevens

Live Reporting, Long 19th- 20th centuries / August 27, 2023 / history of race, U.S. history

At Shippensburg University, undergraduates have many opportunities to do original historical research projects supervised by faculty who are experts in their fields. Here you can see Jared Diehl and Anna Crawford’s poster presentation for the annual 2023 Academic Day, which commences the semester. Anna and Jared worked this summer to uncover whatever sources they could

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Chimney Top on the North Fork Trail of West Virginia

Big History, Live Reporting / August 26, 2023 / environmental history, U.S. natural parks

These are the views of Chimney Top, a Tuscarora quartzite outcropping at the end of the North Fork Trail on the similarly named mountain in West Virginia. Pictures don’t do this place justice – besides the immensity of scale that my photographic skills couldn’t capture, its beauty was enhanced by the wind and the solitude.

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Crabtree Falls, Virginia

Live Reporting, Long 19th- 20th centuries / August 22, 2023 / environmental history, U.S. history, U.S. natural parks

Crabtree Falls, located near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, is a place of stunning beauty. I got to visit this 1,200-foot waterfall yesterday after a rainstorm and my pictures do not do it justice. With five major cascades, it is one of the tallest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River, with the longest

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Catoctin Mountain Park and Cunningham Falls

Early Americas, Live Reporting, Long 19th- 20th centuries / August 22, 2023 / environmental history, U.S. history, U.S. natural parks

Catoctin Mountain Park — situated right next to Cunningham Falls State Park, is in north-central Maryland and is run by the US National Park Service. Its 5,120 acres overlook the Monocacy Valley. Back in 1935, the area was put under the CCC to be fostered as a public recreational area. Cunningham Falls State Park has

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Tobyhanna State Park

Live Reporting, Long 19th- 20th centuries / August 22, 2023 / environmental history, military history, U.S. history, U.S. natural parks

Tobyhanna State Park was formed out of state lands that had been on a large artillery range that preceded Tobyhanna Army Depot. It has 5,540 acres of land surrounding Lake Tobyhanna, which is named after an American Indian term meaning “a stream whose banks are fringed with alder.” Today I saw a lot of birch

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The Range Trail at Tobyhanna State Park

Live Reporting, Long 19th- 20th centuries / August 22, 2023 / environmental history, military history, U.S. history, U.S. natural parks

The Range Trail is a winding path that traverses across swampy and rocky forest in the Tobyhanna State Park, established in 1949. As you can see from the third slide, the area was used by the U.S. military as a live-artillery training ground during both World Wars. I didn’t see any shell remains on my

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Humpback Mountain

Big History, Live Reporting / August 21, 2023 / environmental history, U.S. natural parks

This is Humpback Mountain, an incredibly ancient formation dating from the Alleghenian orogany — ie, when the Appalachian Mountains were formed — between 325-260 million years ago. Made up of granite with greenstone, the mountain is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, and you can see why they are called that because of

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Shohola Falls

Big History, Live Reporting / August 21, 2023 / environmental history, U.S. natural parks

These are the Shohola Falls, dropping a total of 200 feet in the half-mile course it makes along the Shohola Creek as it drops from Shohola Lake. Located in the Poconos Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania, “Shohola” is an American Indian word that means “meek” or “faint”. This area is part of the Catskill formation and

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