“Farmerettes” Fed the Nation at War

In the fall of 1917, manpower was short in the fields of America. When the United States entered the Great War, millions of men had left farm work to join the army or do other war-related jobs. Even with farm labor wages skyrocketing, farmers faced difficulties hiring men to harvest the crops that were needed…

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Mrs. Laura Birkhead and the French Medal of Honor

Back in June, I was poking around in newspapers.com* looking for examples of May Birkhead’s war reporting in World War I. In the process, I stumbled across a fascinating story about her mother, Laura Birkhead (1858-1938) Mrs. Birkhead was visiting her daughter in Paris when Germany declared war on France on August 3, 1914. Despite…

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And Speaking of X-rays….

Several of you responded to my recent post on the subject with interesting information about the early use of x-rays.* This story caught my imagination for several reasons that will be obvious to those of you who are regular visitors here on the Margins: When World War I broke out in 1914, Marie Curie (already…

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