Rose O'Neal Greenhow was a spy for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. As a young woman in Washington, she befriended many influential politicians, including President James Buchanan and South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun, who played a role in shaping her dedication to the South. During the Civil War, Greenhow wrote ciphered (secret code) messages to the Confederates, providing information about Union military plans. Confederate President Jefferson Davis credited her with helping the South win the First Battle of Bull Run. Greenhow sent a message about Union ...

Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) was the 16th president of the United States. He was born on a farm in Kentucky and moved with his family to Indiana at age eight. At age 21, he moved to Illinois, where he held various jobs and began to study law. He had less than one year of formal education, but became a skilled writer by reading the King James Bible and other English classics. He practiced law in Illinois, served in the Illinois General Assembly, and was elected to the U.S. House of ...

This printed map by the Office of the Chief Engineer of the War Department details the fighting at the Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. Named for the creek or “run” in northern Virginia along which the fighting took place, Bull Run was the first major battle of the American Civil War. After halting several attacks ordered by Union commander General Irvin McDowell, the Confederates under General Pierre Beauregard launched a successful counterattack that drove the tired and inexperienced Union forces back toward Washington. The failure of the ...

This document is a one-page handwritten copy of the Ordinance of Secession passed on January 10, 1861, by the members of the Florida Convention of the People (commonly referred to as the Secession Convention). Pursuant to an act of the Florida legislature approved on November 30, 1860, Governor Madison S. Perry issued a proclamation calling an election on Saturday, December 22, 1860, for delegates to a convention to address the issue of whether Florida had a right to withdraw from the Union. The Secession Convention met in Tallahassee on January ...

Petko Rachov Slaveikov (1827–95) was one of the most renowned Bulgarian literary figures of the 19th century. He was a poet, publicist, translator, editor, dramatist, and folklorist. He believed fervently in the ideals of the National Revival movement and many of his works reflect his aspirations for the education of the Bulgarian people and for political and religious independence from the Ottoman Turks. Some of Slaveikov’s most popular works were his humorous calendars, which contained a variety of writing styles, including poems, amusing sketches, and horoscopes. These calendars ...

Bulgarian Folk Songs is the most important National Revival-era compilation of Bulgarian folk material. Gathered and edited by Dimitrii Miladinov (1810–62) and his brother Konstantin (1830–62), the work contains folk songs, riddles, games, and proverbs from both the western and eastern parts of Bulgaria. The Miladinovs were born in Struga (in present-day Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) in what was then the Ottoman Empire. With its 665 songs, Bulgarian Folk Songs had a strong influence on Bulgarian literature and culture as well as on the development of Slavic ...

After nearly two centuries of restricted foreign contact, Japan became increasingly exposed to Western culture in the 1850s as new trade agreements prompted cross-cultural interaction. The influx of unfamiliar technology and customs gave rise to anxiety as well as awe among the Japanese people, whose curiosity about the external world is evident in the detailed depictions of foreign subjects by ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) artists. The sources of these depictions were not only eyewitness accounts, but also borrowed imagery from secondary material, such as engravings in Western journals ...

Commodore Matthew C. Perry entered the port of Yokohama in 1853 with an intimidating fleet of steam warships, in order to compel Japan to open up after nearly two centuries of restricted foreign contact. The Japanese people became increasingly exposed to Western culture as new trade agreements prompted cross-cultural interaction. The mixture of anxiety, curiosity, and awe at this influx of unfamiliar technology and customs is reflected in the detailed depictions of foreign subjects by ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) artists. With the arrival of Perry, Yokohama-e (pictures of ...

After nearly two centuries of restricted foreign contact, Japan was increasingly exposed to Western culture in the 1850s as new trade agreements prompted cross-cultural interaction. The influx of unfamiliar technology and customs incited anxiety as well as awe among the Japanese populace, and their strong curiosity is evident in the detailed depictions of foreign subjects by ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) artists. This print, published in 1861, from the series Bankoku jinbutsu no uchi (People of the various nations), is by Utagawa Yoshitora (flourished 1850–70), one of the ...

After nearly two centuries of restricted foreign contact, Japan was increasingly exposed to Western culture in the 1850s as new trade agreements prompted cross-cultural interaction. The influx of unfamiliar technology and customs incited anxiety as well as awe among the Japanese populace, and their strong curiosity is evident in the detailed depictions of foreign subjects by ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) artists. This print, from the series Gaikokujin no zu (Portraits of foreigners), is by Utagawa Yoshitomi (flourished 1850–70), a pupil of the popular ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi ...

After nearly two centuries of restricted foreign contact, Japan was increasingly exposed to Western culture in the 1850s as new trade agreements prompted cross-cultural interaction. The influx of unfamiliar technology and customs incited anxiety as well as awe among the Japanese populace, and their strong curiosity is evident in the detailed depictions of foreign subjects by ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) artists. This print, created in 1861, is by Utagawa Yoshikazu (flourished 1848–63), one of the foremost pupils of the popular ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861). It ...

After nearly two centuries of restricted foreign contact, Japan was increasingly exposed to Western culture in the 1850s as new trade agreements prompted cross-cultural interaction. The influx of unfamiliar technology and customs incited anxiety as well as awe among the Japanese populace, and their strong curiosity is evident in the detailed depictions of foreign subjects by ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) artists. This print, created in 1861 is by Utagawa Yoshitora (flourished 1850–70), one of the foremost pupils of the popular ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861). It ...

After nearly two centuries of restricted foreign contact, Japan was increasingly exposed to Western culture in the 1850s as new trade agreements prompted cross-cultural interaction. The influx of unfamiliar technology and customs incited anxiety as well as awe among the Japanese populace, and their strong curiosity is evident in the detailed depictions of foreign subjects by ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) artists. This print, published in 1861, is by Ochiai (Utagawa) Yoshiiku (1833–1904), who was a student of the popular ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861), and cofounded ...

Robert Campbell (1829–84) was a Jamaican-born printer, journalist, and teacher who, along with Martin Robison Delany (1812–85), made up the Niger Valley Exploring Party of 1859–60, an expedition organized by free African Americans to explore the possibility of colonizing parts of West Africa with black immigrants from America. Campbell traveled first to England in early 1859. He sailed on to Lagos (present-day Nigeria) and traveled northwest to Abeokuta, where he met up with Delany, a journalist, political activist, and graduate of Harvard Medical School. Acting in their ...

This 1861 work was published during the Taiping Rebellion, a vast political and religious revolt against the Qing dynasty of China that lasted for more than ten years. Very few books were produced in that period, thus publications from that era are rare. The chief author of this work was He Chunfa, minister of the bureau of punishments in the court of Gan Wang (Shield King), a title bestowed by Hong Xiuquan (1813–64), the Taiping leader, to Hong Rengan (1822–64), one of his cousins. In 1851, Hong Xiuquan ...

This Civil War souvenir print contains six views of the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon and of the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon in Philadelphia. The street addresses of both saloons are shown. The relief organization establishments, situated at the transportation hub between the North and South, provided hospital care, washing, sleeping, and writing facilities to more than 1 million military personnel, sailors, refugees, and freedmen in the course of the war. The print features a large central view of the exterior of the Union saloon with troops arriving and entering ...

This print depicts the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, located at the southwest corner of Swanson and Washington Avenues in Philadelphia during the American Civil War. The saloon was a volunteer relief agency supported by the citizens of Philadelphia, which provided meals, hospital care, and washing, sleeping, and writing facilities to military personnel, refugees, and freedmen throughout the war. The print shows soldiers, cheered by civilian onlookers, marching out from the main building to embark on cars of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad for transport to the battlefields to the ...