Forgotten History

[hunck]

Surprising it hasn't leaked water considering it's over 100 years old.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I love the way the lower panes look like old televisions. They should be playing ancient episodes of Stingray. Or Jacques Cousteau!

 

[Mythopoeika]

Surprising it hasn't leaked water considering it's over 100 years old.

It's very impressive.

 

[ramonmercado]

Bones of contention.

Menace to sobriety: When Salvationists fought Skeletons

A young woman, newly married, was knocked to the ground in the English seaside town of Hastings. She was targeted because of her religious beliefs and the clothes she wore, felled by a thrown rock and kicked in the stomach by a mob. She lost an eye. Then later, in hospital, she died from internal injuries.

It was 1882, and Susannah Beaty had become the Salvation Army's first "martyr".

The tail end of the 19th Century saw towns across the south coast of England descend into violence. Dead animals, some set alight, were hurled at passing Salvationists, as were sticks, stones, paint-filled eggs, burning coals and rotten fish. Chamber pots were emptied from upper windows over the heads of men and women below. Thousands of people were injured, some were killed.

The founders of the Salvation Army - originally known as the Christian Mission - William Booth and his wife Catherine, preached and lived out a doctrine of practical Christianity. And a rival force - a ragtag yet violent band calling itself the Skeleton Army - was determined to throw a spanner in the good works.

The rebel group's roots were in the "Bonfire Boys" of towns on the south coast of England - young working-class men who built fires, burned effigies and in some cases, bowled flaming barrels of tar along the streets. They enjoyed nights of revelry and roughhousing, fireworks and fisticuffs and were always unlikely to be attracted to an organisation dedicated to abstinence and cleanliness.

Chris Hare, a historian from Worthing - one of the hotspots of Skeleton activity - says the revolts were the "final violent expression" of traditional working-class festivals and celebrations, such as Bonfire Night and May Day. ...

In response to the "soup, soap, salvation" slogan, Skeleton banners read "beef, beer and bacca". Makeshift uniforms were cobbled together by the Skeletons, and the Salvation bands were drowned out by a cacophony of whistles, horns and drums wielded by Skeletons, who sang their own songs, often with obscene or threatening lyrics. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-54251256

 

[Patrick30]

The Free State of Winston. One of the few areas in the South which refused to succeed from the Union in the Civil War. One county east of me, and very few know the history.
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1850

 

[Austin Popper]

"From the beginning of the war, though, Winston County's inhabitants were strongly Unionist. Christopher Sheats, a 22-year old Winston County schoolteacher and ardent Unionist, was elected by an overwhelming majority to represent the county at Alabama's secession convention. There, he refused to sign the secession ordinance. His Unionism later led to his expulsion from the state legislature and his imprisonment for some time under charges of treason."

Really, you can't make this shit up.

 

[Cochise]

I'm not sure if this belongs here . It could go in several places I guess.

Gathering of nobles intending to settle land dispute fall in to cesspool - 60+ fatalities.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/erfurt-latrine-disaster

 

[Kondoru]

They had quite a lot of problems with weak floors in the Middle Ages but few that....fatal.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Erfurter Latrinensturz really sounds like it should be the name of an 80's/90's German industrial music group.

And, come to think of it, The Erfurt Latrine Disaster really should be a Woody Guthrie protest song.

 

[ramonmercado]

A truly terrible tale of injustice.

She caused a disturbance in church, challenging the vicar over an unpaid bill. For that, Mary Frances Heaton was declared insane and sent to a lunatic asylum in 1837.

She never emerged into the world again, spending the last 41 years of her life locked up. But this weekend her life has been acknowledged with a blue plaque to “the tragic patient” unveiled in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. It highlights her small collection of needlework samplers, a legacy of her life in stitches.

“She wasn’t mad, she was furious,” said Sarah Cobham who, along with other members of the Forgotten Women of Wakefield project, researched Heaton’s life. “She’s a reminder that women were very quickly assumed insane or hysterical. Mary didn’t stand a chance.” ...

In the asylum, Heaton was subjected to years of “treatments”, including electric shocks to her pelvis, purging concoctions and the ingestion of mercury. Her medical records describe her at various times as wild, flighty, excitable, ungovernable, extravagant, violent and abusive.

Over time, Heaton’s mental and physical health deteriorated. Eventually, after a failed escape attempt and with her spirit broken, she became docile and “took to quietly embroidering her story as a way of preserving her memories,” according to Cobham. On one she stitched the words: “I wish the vicar would submit to arbitration my claim against him for music lessons given to his daughter, regularly, twice a week, during the years 1834 and 1835.” ...

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...was-locked-in-asylum-for-calling-vicar-a-liar

 

[escargot]

A truly terrible tale of injustice.

She caused a disturbance in church, challenging the vicar over an unpaid bill. For that, Mary Frances Heaton was declared insane and sent to a lunatic asylum in 1837.

She never emerged into the world again, spending the last 41 years of her life locked up. But this weekend her life has been acknowledged with a blue plaque to “the tragic patient” unveiled in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. It highlights her small collection of needlework samplers, a legacy of her life in stitches.

“She wasn’t mad, she was furious,” said Sarah Cobham who, along with other members of the Forgotten Women of Wakefield project, researched Heaton’s life. “She’s a reminder that women were very quickly assumed insane or hysterical. Mary didn’t stand a chance.” ...

In the asylum, Heaton was subjected to years of “treatments”, including electric shocks to her pelvis, purging concoctions and the ingestion of mercury. Her medical records describe her at various times as wild, flighty, excitable, ungovernable, extravagant, violent and abusive.

Over time, Heaton’s mental and physical health deteriorated. Eventually, after a failed escape attempt and with her spirit broken, she became docile and “took to quietly embroidering her story as a way of preserving her memories,” according to Cobham. On one she stitched the words: “I wish the vicar would submit to arbitration my claim against him for music lessons given to his daughter, regularly, twice a week, during the years 1834 and 1835.” ...

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...was-locked-in-asylum-for-calling-vicar-a-liar

It's good to know that Ms Heaton's dignity is at last being acknowledged.
When I worked at a Hospital for the Mentally Subnormal (yes, that's what the sign said) in the mid-'70s I met elderly people who had been locked up for similar behaviour years before.

The males were mainly petty criminals - it wasn't a prison, although there was a secure unit for men whose conditions were judged dangerous - and the women were there because of 'moral defectiveness.' This might mean promiscuity, working in prostitution, having a baby outside marriage or even, I was told, having an extramarital affair.

Here are scans of the actual 20th century documentation used to legally confine people on the grounds of their being a 'mental defective'.
(Safe Study More link)
English Mental Health Forms

 

[Swifty]

It's good to know that Ms Heaton's dignity is at last being acknowledged.
When I worked at a Hospital for the Mentally Subnormal (yes, that's what the sign said) in the mid-'70s I met elderly people who had been locked up for similar behaviour years before.

The males were mainly petty criminals - it wasn't a prison, although there was a secure unit for men whose conditions were judged dangerous - and the women were there because of 'moral defectiveness.' This might mean promiscuity, working in prostitution, having a baby outside marriage or even, I was told, having an extramarital affair.

Here are scans of the actual 20th century documentation used to legally confine people on the grounds of their being a 'mental defective'.
(Safe Study More link)
English Mental Health Forms

Are people who are locked up under the mental health act still described as being sectioned or isn't that term used anymore?

edit: yes it is

 

[ramonmercado]

Mary Wollstonecraft gets her due at last.

A memorial to the "mother of feminism" is to be unveiled in north London, after a 10-year campaign.

The sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft by artist Maggi Hambling CBE will go on display on Newington Green, Islington, from Tuesday. Born in London in 1759, Wollstonecraft was an 18th Century author and radical who promoted the rights of women. The silvered-bronze sculpture has drawn criticism from some who have queried the inclusion of a naked female figure.

Bee Rowlatt, chair of the Mary on the Green campaign for a statue, said:

"Her ideas changed the world. It took courage to fight for human rights and education for all. But following her early death in childbirth her legacy was buried, in a sustained misogynistic attack. Today we are finally putting this injustice to rights. It's not your average memorial statue at all. It's not of her, it's for her, and the statue draws you in. I hope it sparks a conversation about Wollstonecraft and her extraordinary life." ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-54886813

 

[escargot]

Are people who are locked up under the mental health act still described as being sectioned or isn't that term used anymore?

edit: yes it is

Yup, it refers to the various sections of the Mental Health Act 1983. You knew that!

 

[Swifty]

Yup, it refers to the various sections of the Mental Health Act 1983. You knew that!

I did but I haven't worked directly in that area of health for over 20 years and you know how often these things change!

 

[Nemo]

Mary Wollstonecraft gets her due at last.

A memorial to the "mother of feminism" is to be unveiled in north London, after a 10-year campaign.

The sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft by artist Maggi Hambling CBE will go on display on Newington Green, Islington, from Tuesday. Born in London in 1759, Wollstonecraft was an 18th Century author and radical who promoted the rights of women. The silvered-bronze sculpture has drawn criticism from some who have queried the inclusion of a naked female figure.

Bee Rowlatt, chair of the Mary on the Green campaign for a statue, said:

"Her ideas changed the world. It took courage to fight for human rights and education for all. But following her early death in childbirth her legacy was buried, in a sustained misogynistic attack. Today we are finally putting this injustice to rights. It's not your average memorial statue at all. It's not of her, it's for her, and the statue draws you in. I hope it sparks a conversation about Wollstonecraft and her extraordinary life." ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-54886813

It will be either be damaged/defaced or even stolen within a week.

 

[hunck]

Mary Wollstonecraft gets her due at last.

A memorial to the "mother of feminism" is to be unveiled in north London, after a 10-year campaign.

The sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft by artist Maggi Hambling CBE will go on display on Newington Green, Islington, from Tuesday. Born in London in 1759, Wollstonecraft was an 18th Century author and radical who promoted the rights of women. The silvered-bronze sculpture has drawn criticism from some who have queried the inclusion of a naked female figure.

Bee Rowlatt, chair of the Mary on the Green campaign for a statue, said:

"Her ideas changed the world. It took courage to fight for human rights and education for all. But following her early death in childbirth her legacy was buried, in a sustained misogynistic attack. Today we are finally putting this injustice to rights. It's not your average memorial statue at all. It's not of her, it's for her, and the statue draws you in. I hope it sparks a conversation about Wollstonecraft and her extraordinary life." ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-54886813

I'll have a look at it today. Having looked her up, it's sited close to where she co-founded a school. I really like a lot of Maggi Hambling's stuff.

 

[maximus otter]

It's not of her, it's for her...

“Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority.”

Mary Wollstonecraft

maximus otter

 

[Kondoru]

Nope.

Its just an excuse for another nude woman.

 

[ramonmercado]

“Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority.”

Mary Wollstonecraft

maximus otter

Some are not happy with the new statue.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1326191262773497857

 

[ramonmercado]

Some are not happy with the new statue.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1326191262773497857

And

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1326185134366855168

 

[uair01]

A wonderful meditation on smoking and all that came with it:
http://emanuelderman.com/smoking-part-of-involuntary-affinities-elective-aversions/

 

[Swifty]

She sent her cat over first, technically making it the first to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel ..

https://news.wbfo.org/post/heritage...ylor-falls-daredevil-and-widow-s-hard-choices

The 63-year-old daredevil Annie Edson Taylor, first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, in 1901.

 

[Kondoru]

But why?

 

[Mythopoeika]

But why?

Because madness.

 

[hunck]

But why?

Again, if you read the article it tells you:

In the days before death benefits, pensions and social security, an aging widow had to fend for herself, even one who was a trained, experienced professional. Self-sufficiency or destitution. Sink or swim.

That’s how it was for Annie Edson Taylor, a schoolteacher from Auburn, N.Y. Her only child died in infancy; her husband died in the Civil War. In the ensuing decades, she moved from place to place, teaching school, giving dancing lessons, Texas, New York City, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Michigan, working incessantly to stave off poverty. By 1901 she was 62 years old, her prospects for continued employment diminished by advancing age in a world with no safety net.

So she hit upon a desperate idea – go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. If she lived, she could make a good living with a lecture tour, addressing big crowds eager to hear her describe her impossible achievement. If she died, well, that was another way to avoid the poorhouse.

Alas

At first, Taylor made some cash off her spectacular exploit. She received $200 for appearing at the Pan Am and another $200 making store appearances in Michigan and Ohio with her cat and barrel. But no lecture tour ever materialized, and she soon went broke. Another manager absconded with the barrel and started touring it with a much younger woman masquerading as the Heroine of Niagara. Within a couple of years Taylor was a fixture outside a restaurant on the American side, sitting alongside a replica barrel, selling postcards and her autobiography to tourists making their way to the Falls.

Taylor scraped by for several more years, an elderly widow on her own. In 1921, at 82, she entered the Niagara County poorhouse at Lockport, where she died, penniless. She was buried in the daredevils section of Oakwood Cemetery in Niagara Falls, her grave and tombstone paid for by friends and admirers.

 

[EnolaGaia]

She sent her cat over first, technically making it the first to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel ...

It's not clear whether the cat was Annie's own or just a conveniently available feline. The point of the trial voyage with the cat was to see if Annie's custom-constructed barrel could survive the plunge.

Here's a photo of Ms. Taylor with the cat, taken minutes after fishing the cat and barrel out of the water. The cat had a bleeding wound on its head, and this may have prompted Taylor to wear padding around her own head (as illustrated in the previous photo).

​

Annie Taylor was originally a schoolteacher who went on to live an interesting life prior to her Niagara stunt. In her later years she lived near the falls, signing autographs and hawking souvenirs in addition to working as a clairvoyant and performing magnetic therapy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Edson_Taylor

 

[hunck]

Whichever way you look at it, going over Niagara Falls in a barrel at 63 takes a huge amount of bottle. Or desperation.

 

[Swifty]

It's not clear whether the cat was Annie's own or just a conveniently available feline. The point of the trial voyage with the cat was to see if Annie's custom-constructed barrel could survive the plunge.

Here's a photo of Ms. Taylor with the cat, taken minutes after fishing the cat and barrel out of the water. The cat had a bleeding wound on its head, and this may have prompted Taylor to wear padding around her own head (as illustrated in the previous photo).

View attachment 31614
​

Annie Taylor was originally a schoolteacher who went on to live an interesting life prior to her Niagara stunt. In her later years she lived near the falls, signing autographs and hawking souvenirs in addition to working as a clairvoyant and performing magnetic therapy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Edson_Taylor

I wasn't there (obviously) but the link in my above post claims the cat was hers and that it was Annie who later received a scratch on her head after her descent and not the cat.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I wasn't there (obviously) but the link in my above post claims the cat was hers and that it was Annie who later received a scratch on her head after her descent and not the cat.

Both of them received injuries.

Contrary to rumors at the time, the cat survived the plunge and seventeen minutes later, after she was found with a bleeding head, posed with Taylor in photographs.

Taylor was discovered to be alive and relatively uninjured, except for a small gash on her head.