A community manager with a background in American Studies. My opinions and things that I find interesting in American politics, culture, history, and social media.
Historical map shows the distribution of slavery in the US in 1860
In 1961, the United States Coast Survey created a map showing the distribution of slavery across the US South based on data from the 1860 Census. The map was often consulted by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and even appeared in a 1864 painting. via OpenCulture.
Map Showing the Distribution of the Slave Population of the Southern States of the United States Compiled from the Census of 1860. Sold for the benefit of the Sick and Wounded Soldiers of the U. S. Army. By E. Hergesheimer (cartographer), Th. Leonhardt (engraver) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASlavePopulationUS1860.jpg
Bo Diddley, one of the Rock’n’Roll legends interviewed for the Joe Smith Collection at the Library of Congress. Original caption: Bo Diddley in Prague (Lucerna Bar) in 2005, picture by Stefan Reicheneder, used by permission under the GFDL, Cc-by-sa-3.0 licence. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bo_Diddley_Prag_2005_02.jpg
While glancing over the Open Culture blog, a resource that I highly recommend, by the way, I once again found a little gem for everyone interested in American popular culture of the twentieth century. The Library of Congressnow hosts the digitized audio tapes of Joe Smith, a former record industry executive and DJ who in the late 1980s interviewed many of the then most famous stars of Rock’n’Roll and other genres in American popular music. His collection of interview tapes encompasses “238 hours of interviews over two years.” At the time, excerpts of these were made into his book Off the Record (Warner Books, 1988).