Curio Cabinet

Beginner’s luck doesn’t get better than this. 13-year-old Milly Hardwick discovered a hoard of Bronze Age artifacts on her third time metal-detecting in November. Hardwick made the find in a field in Hertfordshire, England while out with her father, who introduced her to the hobby. In an interview with ITV News Anglia, she said, “I was shocked, I almost fainted, I was like ‘Dad I'm going to faint!’ I remember sprinting up the field, I was holding my little bag and my hat at the same time, it was amazing!” She also told BBC News, "I got a signal and yelled at my dad and when he started digging he went 'this could be an axe', and he was joking around about it." After digging up a few axes, the two decided to leave the rest of the dig to archaeologists, who were brought in the next day.
 
In all, there were 65 axes and other artifacts dating back to around 1300 BCE. Artifacts from this time period are rare, and could tell scientists a lot about the people who once used them. The discovery could also lead to a payday for Hardwick, but there are a few steps to the process, per the Treasure Act 1996. Someone who makes a significant find has 14 days to report it to the local coroner. The Act defines treasure as, “Any metallic object, other than a coin, provided that at least 10 per cent by weight of metal is precious metal (that is, gold or silver) and that it is at least 300 years old when found.” Since the axes aren’t made of precious metals, but are still of historical and cultural interest, they would then be reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
 
From there, Museums can buy the artifacts, and Hardwick would be given a reward based on their. If there is such a reward, she plans to split the money between herself and the landowner who gave her and her dad permission to dig. Despite the once-in-a-lifetime discovery, Hardwick isn’t about to rest on her laurels. She told ITV New Anglia, “We’re going to try and find gold. That’s the one thing we’re aiming for, and when we do, we’re going to do a little dance.” Of course, finding gold might take a while, but there’s no question whether Hardwick can hack it.

 
[Image description: The blade of a Bronze Age flat axe, similar to the ones found by Hardwick.] Credit & copyright: Birmingham Museums Trust, Peter Reavill, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size.

It took an act of Congress to abolish slavery. On this day in 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified by 27 states, marking the end of most forms of slavery in the U.S. While the amendment was added to the Constitution after the end of the Civil War, its precursor, the Emancipation Proclamation, went into effect on January 1, 1863. The proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln officially freed all remaining slaves in Confederate states. Northern states had already abolished slavery by 1804, and any slave that managed to escape to Union territory from Confederate territory would be granted freedom.
 
Near the end of the Civil War and soon after, there were various proposals to prevent future slavery entirely through a Constitutional amendment. Lincoln also ran for reelection on the platform of passing an amendment to end slavery, as he believed that the Emancipation Proclamation could be reversed or invalidated. On February 8, 1864, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts submitted an amendment to the Senate, stating, “All persons are equal before the law, so that no person can hold another as a slave; and the Congress shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper to carry this declaration into effect everywhere in the United States.”
 
The version of the amendment that would ultimately go on to be presented to the Senate was based on the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Although the Senate would go on to pass the amendment, it wouldn’t be passed by the House until January 31, 1865. The last step was to have at least three fourths of the states at the time ratify the amendment in order to make it part of the Constitution. Georgia was the last of the 27 states needed to ratify it on December 6, 1865. Much, much later, in 1995, Mississippi ratified the amendment in a symbolic gesture, the last of the 36 in existence at the time of the original proposal to do so. Better late than never.

 
[Image description: A cartoon from Harper’s Weekly depicting celebration in the House of Representatives upon the passing of the 13th Amendment.] Credit & copyright: Public Domain

Passionate political crusader or domestic terrorist? It depends who you ask when it comes to Carrie Nation, a woman best remembered for smashing up 19th-Century American bars with a hatchet due to her hatred of drinking. She’d surely be none too happy that Prohibition was overturned on this day in 1933, with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. To be fair, though, Nation had some compelling personal reasons for seeing alcohol as a social ill.
 
Born Caroline Amelia Moore in 1846, Nation’s life was difficult from the start. She suffered from poor health as a child, her mother was mentally ill, and the Civil War uprooted her family’s life several times. In 1865, a 19-year-old Nation met and fell in love with Charles Gloyd. Gloyd was a schoolteacher, physician, and former Union soldier. Unfortunately, he was also a severe alcoholic. His drinking was such a problem that Nation’s own parents objected to the relationship. However, this only delayed Nation’ marriage to Gloyd until 1867. Nation soon found that he spent more time at the local Masonic Lodge, which served alcohol, than he did at home. When Nation became pregnant, in 1868, she moved back in with her parents. In her autobiography, Nation later wrote, “I knew time was near at hand when I would be helpless, with a drunken husband, and no means of support.”
 
During Nation’s lifetime, American drinking culture was different than it is today. Bars, lodges, and other places that served alcohol catered almost exclusively to men. Many women thus found themselves in situations similar to Nation’s—living with drunk men who were sometimes absent and sometimes violent due to their drinking. Married women were not expected to work outside the home, so women in Nation’s situation had few ways to support themselves. Women couldn’t yet vote, so they had no political power with which to challenge alcohol’s legality. Instead, womens’ frustration with mens’ drinking helped form the temperance movement—a social and religious movement that promoted abstinence from alcohol. After her husband died in 1869 from complications of alcoholism, Nation joined the movement and soon became its most prominent leader.
 
By 1889, Nation’s life had taken a turn for the better. She had married again, this time to an attorney and minister named David Nation. In Medicine Lodge, Kansas, she started a local branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Along with other members of the branch, she would stand outside Kansas bars, preaching, yelling, and even singing to the patrons inside. In 1900, however, Nation decided to change her methods, after receiving what she described as a “call from God.”
 
On June 7, 1900, Nation gathered large rocks and went to Dobson’s Saloon, in Kiowa. She walked into the bar and began smashing their bottles of liquor, saying, “Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard’s fate.” She overturned tables and smashed windows. Once she was out of rocks, she left, gathered more, and attacked two other Kiowa saloons. At one point, she even used billiard balls to break windows and mirrors. Not long after, a tornado hit the Kiowa area, convincing Nation that God approved of what she had done. Nation now felt that she had an entirely new way to combat drunkenness.
 
She also realized that a woman smashing up bars was bound to grab public attention, and she leaned into the spectacle, seeing it as a way to convert more people to the temperance movement. Nation began carrying a hatchet, using it to smash bars throughout the state of Kansas and, later, Oklahoma. The hatchet became her most famous symbol, so much so that her bar-smashing episodes became known as “hatchetations.” She even sold hatchet pins to her supporters, who steadily grew in number thanks to the already-popular religious revival of the 19th Century.
 
Of course, not everyone was a fan. Mainstream newspapers often published unflattering cartoons of Nation. Bars began hanging signs with the slogan: “All nations welcome except Carrie.” By the time Nation stopped smashing bars, in 1901, she had been arrested at least 30 times for destruction of private property. Yet her influence pushed the temperance movement, and the debate over alcohol’s legality, into the national spotlight. Nation passed away in 1911, just nine years before alcohol was banned in the United States. It’s a bit of a shame that she never got to see her ultimate goal met. Then again, Nation likely would have gone a-smashing if she’d seen it overturned, in 1933!

 
[Image description: A black-and-white photo of Carrie Nation holding her bible and famous hatchet.] Credit & copyright: Public Domain

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of International Sweater Vestival, a day meant to celebrate the warmest of sleeveless clothing items, enjoy these fashion-themed curios.
 

The hoodie evolved from practical winter clothing to symbol of solidarity.

Despite its outer simplicity, this piece of clothing has a lot under its hood. First worn in the 1930s for solely functional reasons, the anonymity and comfort provided by the hoodie have since attracted wearers from all backgrounds. As many wait for the days to get warmer, everyone from high school students and stay-at-home moms to tech titans and Hollywood celebrities will be savoring the warmth of the hoodie. But the cozy clothing represents a whole lot more than physical comfort.
 
Though monks have worn hooded cloaks for centuries, the modern American hoodie got its start in upstate New York in the 1930s, when the Knickerbocker Knitting Company (now known as Champion) produced them for warehouse laborers who worked in freezing conditions. It was quickly adopted by athletes, as well. As high school football players and track stars started sharing their comfy sweatshirts with their girlfriends, the clothing entered the mainstream.
 
It wouldn't remain innocuous for long. Graffiti artists lent an edgier association when they started wearing hoodies in the 1970s to protect their identities and evade law enforcement. The hoodie's reputation as a sinister item was cemented in 1987, when a composite sketch of the Unabomber wearing one along with sunglasses was widely released. Though it still provided soft, cuddly warmth to all who wore it, it seemed like this particular kind of sweatshirt was destined to be associated with crime and the seedier side of life.
 
The hoodie paradoxically still remains both a practical, everyday sort of item and a heavily charged piece of clothing. In 2012, African-American teenager Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while walking home from a convenience store by a man who had found his "dark hoodie" suspicious. Protests against the shooting featured an image of Martin in his hooded sweatshirt, which again took on a new meaning; donning one became a sign of solidarity with those struggling against racial injustice. Next time we layer up with a hoodie, we'll be thinking of its many historical layers.
 

Image credit & copyright: StockSnap, Pixabay