At the turn of nineteenth century America, debilitating illness and death were as common for children and young adults as for elders with life expectancy hovering between 30-40 years of age. Now-curable diseases represented serious threats if left untreated. Accidents occurred frequently and treatment options limited considering that bandages were unsterile rags or old clothes.
From National Citizen and Ballot Box for April 1880:
CARLOTTA GUILLARD, was the first French woman who followed printing for a business. She carried on this trade from 1506 to 1567, a period of sixty years and was famous for the beauty and correctness of her work.
LAKSHMI BAEI, the Rani, or Queen of Jhansi, headed her troops in person in the war with England. She dressed as a cavalry officer, and her wonderful generalship held the whole British army in check, until she was killed upon the field of battle.
MADAME DE MAINTENON was the secret wife of Louis XIV. This king was for more than half a century, the central figure in Europe, but after his marriage to Mme. de Maintenon, who was much his senior, he fell entirely under her influence, a power she retained until his death, some thirty years later. Though of good family, she was born in prison and cradled in poverty. Her face was beautiful, her form exquisite, her manners captivating, and her tact great. For many years she controlled the destinies of France, ruling Church and State and Society, selecting generals and ministers, laying plans for the cabinet, directing church action, repressing court licentiousness, ruling France “vigorously and with an iron hand.” She lived to be eighty-four, keeping her faculties to the last. Love of power was the mainspring of her action; for its sake she lived a lie to the world as mistress of the king instead of wife.
Although unfamiliar to many in the twenty-first century, Salmon P. Chase was very much a household name to those living in the United States during the 19th Century.
Salmon Chase was among the most influential Americans of his century with a public service career as an Ohio Senator and Governor, Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War, and finally as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
This new White Paper presents contemporary articles from many of Accessible Archives’ rich historical newspaper and periodical collections documenting Salmon P. Chase’s rise to public prominence through his work for the rights of fugitive slaves and the antislavery movement. It is the story of a man at the center of the fight for racial justice in mid-19th Century America.
At his death, one eulogist noted, “…he was distinguished for great ability and great devotion to duty. Conspicuous among his many claims to popular and lasting regard were his early, continued, and effective labors for the universal freedom of man.”
About the Author
Jill O’Neill is the Director of Content for NISO. She has been an active member of the information community for thirty years, most recently managing the professional development programs for NFAIS (National Federation of Advanced Information Services) before joining NISO in 2015. Her publishing expertise was gained working for such prominent content providers as Elsevier, Thomson Scientific (now ThomsonReuters), and John Wiley & Sons. Jill continues to write for a diverse set of publications, including Information Today and the Scholarly Kitchen blog (scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org).
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