Month: January 2021
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Woman at the Ring Side
Boxing was illegalized in New York state in 1896, then legalized in 1911, then re-illegalized in 1917, then re-legalized for the final time in 1920. And this time, something was new: women were attending the matches. Spurred on partly by the previous year’s ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women voting rights previously reserved […]
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False Splendor of Past Inaugurals
Ah, the days before microphones. This 1921 article described how “not a dozen men have ever heard a Presidential inaugural address.” That same year, Warren Harding became the first president with loudspeakers at his inauguration. The people around him do not hear him. The newspaper men have seats nearer than the other invited guests on the […]
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Our Japanese Question
In 1921, a Harvard government professor warned that “There has never been a time of such uneasy and hostile feeling between the two nations” of the U.S. and Japan. 20 years later came Pearl Harbor. Albert Bushnell Hart noted that the animosity was a relatively recent development: Can two countries be found with a longer […]
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The Gentle Art of Newspaper Humor
A 1920 book by humor columnist C.L. Edson provided advice for the aspiring humor columnist. His biggest advice dealt with when — and when not — to make puns. Mr. Edson has here laid down a code for the columnist, the first law in which reads: “Do not write Paragraphs with Puns on Names.” He […]
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New Forest Chief on Saving Our Forests
In 1921, the U.S. Forest Service director said he wanted to protect America’s forests. He succeeded. The 1920s were the first decade in American history where total forest acres increased (slightly). The number has remained roughly steady ever since. This graph from ThoughtCo., using data from the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program, […]
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