Trip to the Johnstown Flood Memorial

Yesterday, my boyfriend and I went to the Johnstown Flood Memorial Park, which is about an hour from me. They had a big display on Victorian mourning rituals, which is a close second to my interest in women in Civil War arsenals. So I happily geeked out. Of course, many people lost their personal effects in the flood, as did businesses. So those with means to do so wore public mourning for loved ones. My guess is that mourning items were sent for from out of town.
From top to bottom: a hairwork pendant with locks of hair supposedly from Flood victims.
A mourning fan.

1880's mourning dress. Note the black velvet collar and cuffs.

Many households draped everything in crepe. It was believed that if one caught their reflection in a mirror while in mourning, they would be the next to die.

I freaking adore this picture of a widow. From roughly the 1860s. Relatively few widows were photographed in mourning, let alone with a veil over their faces.

Another nice mourning photo, probably late 1860's.

Essay: The Northern Homefront: A Quest to Understand

http://m.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpeoplescontest.psu.edu%2Fpsul%2Fpeoplescontest%2Fresource%2Ffeatured-materials%2Fquest.html&h=7AQEioIQl

From A People's Contest at Penn State comes a very analytical essay about various groups (women, children, African Americans) on the Northern homefront, which has been getting considerably more attention of late. Working women are cited - in this case, seamstresses sewing for the army striking for better pay. I've come across one instance so far of that in the arsenals: in the fall of 1864, women struck at the Confederate States Laboratory in Richmond. They were fired and then replaced. This is a must-read, full of heavy-hitting authors in the field.

Essay: Women and the Homefront: New Civil War Scholarship

Women and the Home Front: New Civil War Scholarship | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Author Catherine Clinton has written a great essay about how the study of women in the Civil War has gone from almost nonexistent to booming in just the last fifty or so years.  I hope to eventually be one of those who contributes to that field.

Photograph: Confederate States Laboratory

The Confederate Interior

From the Virginia Historical Society is an Alexander Gardner photograph of the Confederate States Laboratory on Brown's Island shortly after the fall of Richmond. Detailed description on the page.

Video: What caused the Allegheny Arsenal explosion?

http://www.travelchannel.com/video/allegheny-arsenal-explosion

Gotta love staying up late...my mother informed me that one of last night's "Mysteries at the Museum" on the Travel Channel talked about the Allegheny Arsenal explosion. This talks about bullets found in the carnage of the Arsenal, now at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. The video features History Center CEO Andy Masich.

Sermon commemorative of the great explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal

Sermon commemorative of the great explosion at ...

Here, you can read the entire sermon given by the Reverend Richard Lea of the local Presbyterian church after the Allegheny Arsenal explosion. It extolls the positives that came from the tragedy, such as how quickly help arrived and how it brought the Lawrenceville community together.

Article: 1862 Allegheny Arsenal Explosion "gruesome"

| TribLIVE | Pittsburgh

This article about the Allegheny Arsenal explosion from the Tribune-Review is a few years old, but still good and relevent. It features Allan Becer, who has done so much to help me in my research by sharing his own.