12 posts tagged “history”
Last week we adventured to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. It's a place any steampunk would love, and we highly recommend that you visit!
The first day was the trip to the museum. You may think that the Ford Museum would feature a great many cars...
...and you would be right. But there was much, much more! One of the first exhibits you encounter upon entering the museum is Thomas Edison's last breath, preserved in a test tube.
There were also homages to the Industrial Revolution...
historic fire engines...
...and locomotives, all under one roof.
For the futurists among us, there was also the Dymaxion House, designed by Buckminster Fuller for the family of 1946 and an abode that we would happily live in today:
The second day we went to Greenfield Village, and my mind was promptly blown when I learned that Thomas Edison's laboratory from Menlo Park had been moved to Dearborn and reassembled, as closely to the original arrangement as could be.
It really must be seen to be believed.
Also, there were locomotives and Model Ts to ride around in!
There was also an amazing clock tower, originally located in London's Cheapside district and moved to Greenfield Village in the early 1930s:
...and a working, gorgeously detailed carousel constructed in 1913.
Really, we can't recommend it enough. Go and visit history!
- The centennial celebration of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition;
- Vaudeville Nation, a former exhibition at the New York Public Library;
- The "Image Porthole" database of the Steamship Historical Society of America, encompassing decades of steamships and their crews;
- An extensive collection of clipper ship trade cards;
- A manual on telegraph rules and regulations from 1871;
- The "1910 Los Angeles International Aviation Meet Research Collection," which should bring joy to anyone interested in dirigibles;
- and the amazing clockwork desk designed by John Muir, whom is known today for his conservation efforts but was also quite the tinkerer.
There are new links, too! Steampowered World is a new weblog on the scene, and NeoSteam is now asking for beta testers. Also, Jere sent me photographic proof of a steampunk vibrator. Yikes.
If it's Tuesday, that means it must be Steampunk Librarian day. Today we have a lot of links sent in by others, for which I am (as always) eternally grateful. Thanks, everyone!
From Dan: Warren Ellis's new work Ignition City will most likely appeal to the steampunk crowd. I know it appeals to me, at least.
From the Desert Librarian: Girl Genius, one of the shining pillars of steampunk, is something I've never gotten around to reading, even though I always hear wonderful things about it (I know, I suck). I do mean to remedy that soon!
From Bunny: you can buy actual remnants of the Gemini space mission from an auction. How amazing is that?
The historical photos from the Library of Congress always have wonderful material for inspiration. Look at this photo of "Russian Princess Schaikowski and Aviator Abramowitsch," read the comments about how this may have been Abramowitsch's last flight, and see if you aren't tempted to write a story or draw a picture or something.
If you haven't seen the London Particulars shop on Etsy yet, you definitely should - it's beautiful stuff.
Everyone likes to argue about movies, right? Here's a list of movies considered steampunk. Agree? Disagree?
And finally, a wonderful interview with Patrick Gyger discusses "the history of the future," which is what steampunk is all about, at its core.
On to steampunk links! You could travel the globe in considerably less time than Phileas Fogg did, but it's still expensive. (Plus you probably miss out on all sorts of wacky adventures.)
Reports are trickling in from the recent steampunk convention, and it sounds like a good time was had by all, especially the makers! And speaking of makers, Datamancer has a new beautiful ergonomic keyboard for viewing, and Jake von Slatt is working on a steampunk book with Jeff Vandemeer. Congratulations all around!
Scuttlebuggery is a slightly complicated but beautiful Flash game, full of absinthe and turpentine and spookiness. Go!
More game news: Gatheryn, an upcoming MMO game, looks beautiful. I am not well versed in the multiplayer online world, so this is purely a view from the sidelines - but it appears promising!
I had never heard of the UK's "sound mirrors" before this week, but apparently they are still standing, long after their use has faded.
An obituary of Martin Tytell also serves as a beautiful elegy for typewriters; those of us who love to fiddle with non-electronic devices can understand.
