Nineteenth Century Life Story Briefs

What made the 19th century an interesting but tumultuous time? What technological, cultural and social changes influenced life then? Explore those issues in this story collection.

This political cartoon - "Columbia Teaching John Bull His New Lesson" - was released during the War of 1812.

W.E.B. DuBois spent his life gathering evidence to refute the myths of racial inferiority. African-Americans struggled in the face of discriminatory l...

Wendell Phillips (1811-1884) was an orator (among other things) who spoke publicly against slavery.

Although the Essex was the first-known ship to be fatally attacked by a whale, at least three more vessels experienced a similar fate in the ensuing y...

Whaling vessels carried smaller boats which the crew used to hunt and capture whales.

Frank Vining Smith (1879- 1967) was a prolific artist from Massachusetts who specialized in marine painting. His impressionistic style made his painti...

As more and more whales were depleted in the North Atlantic, whaling men traveled to the Pacific. Near the equator, they had found many sperm whales i...

Did you know that whale oil helped to fuel the Industrial Revolution - and - that oil from a Sperm Whale comes mostly from its very large head?

Esther Morris was an early pioneer and feminist.

This image illustrated an article, published in 1863, addressing the deplorable conditions in the Bethnal Green section of London, England.

Wilhelm Conrad (Konrad) Roentgen (1845-1923) and his wife (Anna Bertha Roentgen) lived upstairs from the Physics Institute at the University of Wurzbu...

William Haines Lytle was born in Cincinnati, November 2, 1826. He wrote a famous poem, commemorating the death of Jesse James.

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