January 22, 1926. Washington, D.C. “Arcade Hockey Club.” And if roller hockey isn’t your cup of tea, we also have Billiards Dancing Bowling.
Washington, D.C., circa 1919. “Sennett girls.” Producer Mack Sennett’s comedy reels featured a bevy of “bathing beauties,” among them Marvel Rea, seen here in the harlequin costume. National Photo Company.
1962, Seattle, Washington, USA – A little girl listens in on The Hearing Exhibition at the Seattle World’s Fair.
Space Pilots. Minneapolis, Minnesota: A small boy’s dream of piloting a rocket ship through outer space came as nearly true as modern science could make it for plastic-helmeted Johnny Bower (left), and Neil Smith, both seven years old. The youngsters got their big break when Minneapolis-Honeywell’s Aeronautical company invited them, among other young sons of technical employees to visit the plant and see what their dads were doing. “Pilots” Bower and Smith are manipulating special computing equipment developed to duplicate characteristics of supersonic craft and the flight conditions they might be expected to encounter.
Host Bud Collyer brings laughter and smiles to the faces of panelists Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellamy and Kitty Carlisle while Hy Gardner remains only mildly amused.
Nazis burn the library of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, 1933. In doing so countless texts and documentation of early 20th century LGBTQ* history disappears. Remember, it’s never “just some books.”
Nun using card catalogue in the New York Public Library, 1944. Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Did you know that Woodrow Wilson used sheep to keep the White House lawn trimmed during WWI? It’s true!
But the sheep did more than keep the grass at bay. The auctioning of prized White House wool raised over $100,000 for the Red Cross. That’s equivalent to $1.5 million in today’s dollars—money that could be well spent restoring the decrepit National Mall. But even beyond the sale of shearings, the federal flock would be an economic boon for Washington. Just think of the tourist kitsch.
Senator Verda Welcome December 1950
Paul S. Henderson (d. 1966)
4×5 inch black and white negative
Henderson Collection, Maryland Historical Society
HEN.00.B1-054
Verda Freedom Welcome (1907-1990) was a teacher, Civil Rights leader, and the first African American woman to be elected to the state senate. Welcome moved to Baltimore in 1929 and graduated from Coppin State Teachers College. Welcome was elected to the Maryland State Senate in 1962 and survived an assassination attempt in 1964, after which two men were convicted.
The Kent State University Museum at Kent State University has a new exhibition – “Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen.” See her outfits from “A Philadelphia Story!” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner!” Adam’s Rib!”
