Officers of the 57th Regiment posing with dog. Taken by Roger Fenton, 1855


The Crimean War (pronounced /kraɪˈmiːən/ or /krɨˈmiːən/) (October 1853 – February 1856) was a conflict between theRussian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of thedeclining Ottoman Empire. Most of the conflict took place on the Crimean Peninsula, but there were smaller campaigns in western Anatolia, Caucasus, the Baltic Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the White Sea. In Russia, this war is also known as the “Eastern War” (Russian: Восточная война, Vostochnaya Voina), and in Britain it was also called the “Russian War” at the time.

The Crimean War is known for the logistical and tactical errors during the land campaign on both sides (the naval side saw a successful Allied campaign which eliminated most of the ships of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea). Nonetheless, it is sometimes considered to be one of the first “modern” wars as it “introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare,” including the first tactical use of railways and the electric telegraph. It is also famous for the work of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, who pioneered modern nursing practices while caring for wounded British soldiers.

The Crimean War was one of the first wars to be documented extensively in written reports and photographs: notably by William Russell (for The Times newspaper) and Roger Fenton respectively. News correspondence reaching Britain from the Crimea was the first time the public were kept informed of the day-to-day realities of war.

 

The beginning is near. 

anactualtrainspotter:

A forgotten profession: In the days before alarm clocks were widely affordable, people like Mary Smith of Brenton Street were employed to rouse sleeping people in the early hours of the morning. They were commonly known as ‘knocker-ups’ or ‘knocker-uppers’. Mrs. Smith was paid sixpence a week to shoot dried peas at market workers’ windows in Limehouse Fields, London. Photograph from Philip Davies’ Lost London: 1870-1945.

New Jersey female child laborer photographed in 1910.  “Rose Biodo, 1216 Annan St., Philadelphia. 10 years old. Working 3 summers. Minds baby and carries berries, two pecks at a time. Whites Bog, Brown Mills, N.J. This is the fourth week of school and the people here expect to remain two weeks more. Sept. 28, 1910. Witness E. F. Brown. Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey.” Child labor was common at the turn of the last century.

Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone, February 1931.

(Source: legrandcirque)

schrumpfgermane:

new york 1930s

(Source: valentinovamp)

Vintage photo circa 1912 of Frederick Fleet - a lookout on RMS Titanic when it struck an iceberg on April 14 1912 and subsequently sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Fleet (1887 - 1965) was the first person to sight the iceberg and rang the bridge to exclaim: “Iceberg, right ahead!” He survived the disaster, which claimed more than 1500 lives, as he was one of the crewmembers assigned to man the lifeboats and later testified that he would have seen the iceberg earlier if he had been issued with binoculars. He continued to work at sea for much of his life but became depressed and committed suicide in January 1965, two weeks after the death of his wife. Fleet is sometimes referred to as the last victim of the Titanic disaster in that people who knew him said he suffered from terrible feelings of guilt all his life because he had lived while so many others died. Photo by Harris & Ewing.

unhistorical:

March 11, 1888: The “Great Blizzard of ‘88” hits the East Coast.

Northeastern states, particularly New York, were hit hardest by this storm - a storm that forced temperatures down 13°C below freezing and dumped nearly six feet of snow over New York in three days (snowdrifts, on the other hand, reportedly reached over thirty feet). Many people were caught off-guard by the storm. The lucky ones, including Mark Twain, were left stranded in hotels for days, while over 400 others, like former New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, were killed by the snow and the below-freezing temperatures. Trains were halted, and telephone and telegraph wires were brought down by the snow and wind; after the storm, both of these were moved underground - so, in a way, the Great Blizzard of 1888 helped bring about the construction of the New York Subway System. 

The headline of the March 13 issue of The New York Times read: “IN A BLIZZARD’S GRASP. The worst storm the city has ever known. Business travel completely suspended.”

An image of child laborers in a time when there was no child labor laws. Images like this helped kick start the child labor laws across the US and made the public aware of the situation at hand.

Photography by Lewis Hine, circa 1907 

undr:

Louis Faurer

Union Square, New York City, 1950

Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941

schrumpfgermane:

Jack Allison. New York. Summer 1938

octopusboat:

ataritastic:

rectumofglory:

toptumbles:

Polite bears

This reminds me of a Disney short I saw when I was a kid about a bear that was cold out in the snow, and kept trying to curl up in the park ranger’s bed (I think the ranger was Donald Duck? I forget)

For godless killing machines, they’re awfully polite when waved at.