Slices of Blue Sky

A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more

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Books, History

Sarah Hale’s Campaign for a National Thanksgiving Holiday

November 5, 2022 2 Comments
Portrait of Sarah Josepha Hale in Woman's record, or, Sketches of all distinguished women

If you love Thanksgiving, you should learn the name Sarah Josepha Hale. Starting in 1846 and continuing until her retirement in 1877, Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879) used her position as editress of Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine — one of the most popular and influential magazines of the time — to campaign for a national Thanksgiving […]

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Industrial History, Miscellany

B.T. Babbitt’s Soap Factory and a New Shoreline for Lower Manhattan

July 17, 2021 No Comments
Image of a soap and saleratus factory for the B.T. Babbitt company. From Industrial America or manufacturers and inventors of the United States, 1876. Via-NYPL

B.T. Babbitt’s New York City soap and saleratus (baking soda) factory was near the southern tip of Manhattan, right on the Hudson River. Until the 1970s, anyway.

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Industrial History, Miscellany

B.T. Babbitt, Soap and Baking Soda Magnate of the Late 1800s

June 20, 2021 No Comments
Trade card for the B.T. Babbitt soap company showing child in a soap box sled. Created in 19th century.

Benjamin T. Babbitt was a big deal in the late 1800s: he held numerous patents, his soap company was an innovator in advertising, the company had multiple factories and multiple product lines, including a 300,000 sq. ft. (27,870 sq. m) factory in Lower Manhattan.

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Art, History

The Brooklyn Fair To Aid Union Soldiers During the U.S. Civil War

March 6, 2021 2 Comments
“Anything for me, if you please?” – Post Office of the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair, engraving by Winslow Homer in Harper's Weekly, 1964

The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair, February 1864. A young woman steps up to the Post Office counter and asks “Anything for me, if you please?”

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California History, History

How a 3,930 Pound Cheese Helped Union Army Soldiers During the Civil War

August 30, 2020 No Comments

The poster said “Presentation of the 3,930 lb. Cheese! To the Sanitary Commission.” What was that about? Why such a big cheese? Who was the Sanitary Commission?

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History, Side Dishes

Ancient Roman-Style Carrots

December 17, 2017 6 Comments
Roman Style Carrots based on ancient Roman recipe in Apicius

This recipe for carrots simmered with cumin, mint, and vinegar is really old: it’s derived from a book written more than 1,700 years ago, around the days of Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius.

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Book Reviews, California History, California Travel

Book Review: “Golden Gate” by Kevin Starr

June 11, 2017 No Comments
Orange ship and Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is a global icon, a triumph of engineering, and a work of art. In American terms, it was shaped by the City Beautiful movement, the Progressive Era, and the Great Depression. More mysteriously, the Bridge expresses those forces that science tells us constitute the dynamics of nature itself. Like the Parthenon, […]

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California History

The Otis House: When Wilshire Boulevard was Mansion Row in Los Angeles

May 30, 2017 2 Comments
Harrison Grey Otis residence on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles (demolished)

I was browsing through the amazing digital archives of the New York Public Library recently, looking for fun stuff to pin to my Slices of Blue Sky Pinterest boards, and I ran across an old postcard from Los Angeles that caught my attention. The photo isn’t much — it’s a pretty big Spanish-style house — […]

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California History, Film and Television

TV as Demolition: When the TV Show “Emergency” Filmed in Compton

November 13, 2016 12 Comments

One of my less productive minor obsessions is with the 1970s TV show “Emergency.” It began when a saw a bit of an episode set in San Francisco, which led me to buy a set of DVD that included the episode when “Emergency” filmed in San Francisco so I could learn the details of the […]

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California History

Three More Old Postcards of San Francisco: the Golden Gate, Fort Point and Sutro Baths

May 15, 2016 No Comments

This post has a few more old San Francisco images from the New York Public Library Digital Collections. The first two of postcards were taken before the addition of a major landmark, and the last was taken before the destruction of a major landmark. Before the Bridge The first photo is an undated postcard from […]

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A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more

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