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A Bit of History

Exploring historical thoughts and themes, a bit at a time.

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Victoria Martínez

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Latest Posts

Christmas, Written by Women
Faces of Diversity in American First-Wave Feminism
When the Cult of Celebrity Devours Meaningful History
International Day of the Girl Child 2018
LaGuardia’s Sister, Eichmann’s Prisoner, Ravensbrück’s “Mother”

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“Princess Qajar” and the Problem with Junk History Memes
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Gilded Age New York’s “King of Diamonds”
A President's Son-in-Law, Nepotism and Treason
The Scandinavian Salvation of Mary Wollstonecraft
Pictured // Woman of the Year

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Many of us dive into books, living in other places and as other people for as long as the pages last. If we're lucky, the book is so good that the characters leap from the pages into our world, permeating our thoughts as we go through daily routines. Though small, this sculpture by Swedish artist Ralf Borselius is for me the quintessence of this beautiful dynamic. Even better, it is a monument to a book written by a woman author, Swede Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940), the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Entitled "Sprungen ur boken" (Out of the Book), the sculpture was unveiled on November 24, 2006, in Karlskrona, Sweden, to mark the 100th anniversary of the publication of Lagerlöf's book, "Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige" (Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey across Sweden). In the book and its second volume, which was published in 1907, mischievous 14-year-old Nils flies around Sweden on the back of a goose, taking in the country from top to tail. He runs into some trouble along the way, including in Karlskrona, which is perhaps why he's fleeing the pages of his own story. An English translation of the two volumes entitled "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" is available to download for free at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2SDQanJ. You can also see Nils' journey mapped out at WikiVoyage: https://tinyurl.com/y822c6fk. Personal photo from January 4, 2018, in Karlskrona, Sweden. #SelmaLagerlöf #RalfBorselius #NilsHolgersson #Art #Literature #Sweden #Sculpture #WomenWriters #Reading #Traveling

A very Happy New Year to everyone who likes and follows my historical research and writing. I can’t thank you enough for your interest and support. I wish you and your loved ones happiness and good fortune in 2019. Images: (left) An Old Woman Reading, 17th century, Imitator of David Teniers the Younger, The National Gallery, UK (https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/imitator-of-david-teniers-the-younger-an-old-woman-reading); (right) The Reader, circa 1770-72, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, National Gallery of Art (https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46303.html).

In 1948, American schoolteacher Eleanor R. Abbott (1910-1988) was in a San Diego hospital, stricken with polio, when she had an idea for a game to entertain the children also suffering from the disease alongside her. The following year, the Milton Bradley company put her invention on the market as Candy Land: A Sweet Little Game for Sweet Little Folks. In "Polio Comes Home: Pleasure and Paralysis in Candy Land," published in the Fall 2010 edition of the American Journal of Play, "Candy Professor" Dr. Samira Kawash wrote: "In Candy Land, sweet candy and innocent fun emerge out of and in response to the broader context of a polio menace. Polio became in the 1950s a potent signifier of something dangerous looming on the edges of the idealized American family experience. Candy Land’s therapeutic origin in the polio ward illuminates the extent to which a culture that viewed children through the lens of 'wondrous childhood' was deeply preoccupied with managing and containing risk, danger, and debility." (Source: https://tinyurl.com/yckbqobp) The game is still as popular as ever - a testament to Abbott's vision for a game that even the youngest children could play independently - and was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2005 (http://www.toyhalloffame.org/toys/candy-land). Though little appears to have been written about Abbott, an article about the game on the PBS website notes, "As for Candy Land’s creator, Eleanor Abbott never lost sight of her original goal for the game. She donated all the royalty income she received from Candy Land to charities dedicated to serving children in need." (Source: https://tinyurl.com/ycrj38ee - this article also includes a nice short video about the history of the game) Image: A 1960s edition of Candy Land. #FemaleFriday #WomensHistory #WriteAboutWomen #WomenInventors #BoardGameHistory

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Today I share with you Christmas stories written by the first two women to win the Nobel Prize in Literature: Swede Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940; right), who won the award in 1909, and Italian Grazia Deledda (1871-1936; pictured left), who won it in 1926. Lagerlöf's short story, Legenden om julrosorna, was written the year before she won the Nobel Prize, and was published in English in 1910 as, The Legend of the Christmas Rose. It is a beautifully imaginative tale of 12th century Scandinavia with the message, as I interpret it, that grace, beauty and spirituality are not the sole property and domain of those who are ostensibly nearest to God; and that those with such a claim to the Almighty can destroy grace, beauty and spirituality through conceit and lack of faith. Deledda wrote Il Dono di Natale (The Christmas Gift), in 1895, 31 years before she won her Nobel Prize. Her vision was to write of her native Sardinia as Tolstoy had written of Russia, and this short story is evidence of her success. I felt really luck to find a translation of this beautiful story by a fantastic translator, and have shared excerpts in my final article of the year, "Christmas, Written by Women," which can be found at https://abitofhistoryblog.com/2018/12/21/christmas-written-by-women/ In my article, I include links so that you may easily find and read both of these works today, and experience new perspectives of the beauty and richness of Christmas through the writing of two incredible women in history. Again, a very Merry Christmas. #Christmas #WomenWriters #SelmaLagerlöf #GraziaDeledda #WriteAboutWomen #Literature #ChristmasLiterature #Sweden #Italy

A very happy Christmas Eve to everyone celebrating! Today, rather than reading one or more traditional Christmas narratives, why not explore the Christmas "fantasies" written by two extraordinary women in history? English writer Juliana Horatia Ewing's (1841-1885; pictured left) 1869 short story, Christmas Crackers: A Fantasia, for instance, has been described by one modern literary critic as "a rare evocation of the occult confusion, the tinge of demonism, that underlay the institutionalized fun of a middle-class Victorian Christmas.” And speaking of the occult, Spanish writer Emilia Pardo Bazán (1851-1921; right) takes readers on a Christmas Eve tour of Hell, Purgatory, Limbo, and Heaven in four short Christmas stories she published in the 1893 volume, Cuentos de Navidad y Año Nuevo. Though her stories have not been translated to English, with help from my husband I have provided translations of several passages in my final article of the year, "Christmas, Written by Women," at https://abitofhistoryblog.com/2018/12/21/christmas-written-by-women/ #Christmas #WomenWriters #JulianaHoratiaEwing #EmiliaPardoBazán #WriteAboutWomen #Literature #ChristmasLiterature #England #Spain

American women of color have written narratives of Christmas, though few of these stories have been incorporated into the mainstream of literature, not to mention tradition. In the decades following the American Civil War, for instance, African American women were writing the story of Christmas in a way that is not yet sufficiently recognized. Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837-1913; pictured right), who was born into slavery, and Fannie Barrier Williams (1855-1944; left), who was not, are just two examples. You can read more about these two remarkable women's lives and their narratives of Christmas in my final article of the year, "Christmas, Written by Women," at https://abitofhistoryblog.com/2018/12/21/christmas-written-by-women/ #Christmas #WomenWriters #FannyJacksonCoppin #FannieBarrierWilliams #WriteAboutWomen #Literature #ChristmasLiterature #africanamericanliteraturehistory

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