Questions tagged [19th-century]
The 19th century began on January 1, 1801, and ended on December 31, 1900.
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What were the legal and societal conditions concerning “interracial love” during 1870s?
For the timeframe 1850–1880 I have a question related to the slave trade and love, specifically so-called "interracial love".
Was it possible in any way for a slave woman to marry a white man who had ...
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Were slave plantations economically superior or inferior to plantations with paid labor?
According to certain Marxist authors (Mostly Georgi Plekhanov (and some others), but I'm afraid I cannot quote because the text is not in electronic form and not in English.), slavery in US and latter ...
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Range of sailors' ages on a typical Pacific trading ship in 1810
This question is about crew ages on trading voyages in the North Pacific around 1810. The number of crew members on these voyages was often in the low dozens. Funding could come at least in part from ...
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How can I understand the effect of the Sonderweg on the Revolution of 1848?
I'm trying to understand the effect that the German 'Sonderweg' had on the Revolution of 1848 in Germany. Are there authoritative/canonical references that would help?
PS: Since I also speak German ...
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Where was the first European electric tramway operated?
Many sources agree that the tramway Vevey-Montreux-Chillon, built in 1888 was Switzerland's first and Europe's second electric tramway. However, sources are contradictory on which was the first ...
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Which “Walker” is Thoreau referring to in “A Plea for Captain John Brown”?
“If Walker may be considered the representative of the South, I wish I could say that Brown was the representative of the North. He was a superior man.”
Excerpt From: Henry David Thoreau. A Plea ...
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Where in San Francisco did the Land Commission meet?
After taking California, the U.S. needed a way to sort through land claims and established a Public Land Commission. This operated from 1852 to 1856, principally in San Francisco but also briefly in ...
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After Antarctica was discovered, did 19th or early 20th century map makers give any estimates on the % of the earth's surface covered by water?
According to the U.S. Geological Survey's article How much water is there on, in, and above the Earth?,
About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered
Wikipedia's Earth article also ...
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When did *wooden* 'nails' (pegs) for clay roof tiles go out of fashion?
Judging by Google searches, wooden 'nails' for fixing roof tiles are definitely a thing of the past. However almost all the searches I have attempted (in an area I don't know my way around) have only ...
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Which ship took Tolman to Kamchatka?
William Tolman was reportedly a mechanic from New England who got to Petropavlovsk on a whaling ship in 1813. Somehow he stayed behind and lived his whole long life in Kamchatka.
None of the sources ...
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Why did the British take Hong Kong instead of any other of the later treaty ports?
The aftermath of the first Opium War declared that Hong Kong and the island of Kowloon should be ceded to the UK as a port for refitting ships and storing cargo. It also meant there was easy access ...
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When (and where) did public polling start taking place on topics other than elections?
Image Source: The Roper Center on Cornell.edu
Question
When did public opinion polling on topics other than elections begin? Are there examples prior to the 1930's when Gallup and Roper began ...
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Who conducted the first “straw poll” in U.S. election politics, and when was it conducted?
Prior to Gallup and Roper et al in the 1930's and The Literary Digest in 1916, what was the first election straw poll in US elections? Three sources that I found cite three different answers (though ...
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1answer
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Were “The People's Will” referred to as “terrorist” by their contemporaries?
Narodnaya Volya (The People's Will) was the organization responsible for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in in March 1881. Is there any evidence (preferably online sources) which point to the ...
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When did the last (non-tourist) commercial stagecoach line run in the USA?
Stagecoach at Holladay Express Office, Boise City, Idaho, circa mid-1860s. Source: A Stamp a Day- National Stamp Collecting Month: The Mail Coach
Background
Across from my office is a small Wells ...
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Could Thomas Jefferson have ever heard Mozart's Symphony No. 40, KV. 550?
The third president of the United States was a lifelong admirer of W. A. Mozart. Or rather, of Mozart's music; he arranged to meet Mozart in Paris when he was Minister to France (August 1784–September ...
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What was the troop ratio between the red and white army in the Russian revolution?
I am making a game over the Russian Revolution for English class. I want to make this game a somewhat accurate representation of the Russian Revolution. I have been able find the answers to all of my ...
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Was there any genuine debate in the pre-1860 United States regarding Native American sovereignty?
The United States treated Native American tribes as sovereign states. Relations with various tribes were governed by a series of (often broken) treaties.
At the same time, however, general ...
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1answer
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Where was the site of Mary Seacole's store in Aldershot?
Mary Seacole is best known for running a boarding-house for officers and their families during the Crimean War. I have found a few reliable sources suggesting that on her return to England she briefly ...
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Making bread at home: daily or weekly
My grandmother used to tell me about the life of field workers in her (and her grandmother's) time, going from the 1950s backwards to the 19th century (in Portugal). This often included baking bread ...
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What is this old dual-disc metal object with a spindle? [more pictures added]
[Updated: There are now pictures of both top and side views. Scroll to bottom of post to see the side views.]
While sorting through family artifacts, I found a black metal two-layer disc with a long ...
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1answer
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What is the approximate date of this photo?
The photo below is of an (as yet) unidentified (English) family member and is from the London studio of Hermann Ernst. There is nothing printed on the back. The photo is part of a collection, the ...
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What epithet would John Quincy Adams use?
In his journal for 1824, John Quincy Adams records an incident where he was informed that a William King was telling people that he [Adams] should be nominated for vice-president under Crawford, one ...
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Why was France's birth rate low from 1800 to WWII?
Inspired by this lemma on Wikipedia as well as a few paragraphs here and there in Piketty's Capital in the 21st century I'm asking the question how the low birth rate in France between 1800 and WWII ...
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Who is in this c.1866 photo?
This photo was found with (but not in) an envelope containing seven photos of European royals, all but two of which have been positively identified (one of them here by Evargalo).
Below is a photo of ...
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Who is this, probably royal, teenager?
This photo was found in the same envelope as a photo of the Prince Imperial, Louis Napoleon, (recently identified on this site by Evargalo). The photos (seven in all) were recently handed down on the ...
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Who is this young 'Prince'?
The photo below was found in an envelope among a bundle of family photos which were recently handed down on the English side of my family.
Aside from the photo itself, the only clues are as follows:
...
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1answer
366 views
How did the Filipinos lose the Philippine-American War? [closed]
The Americans were fighting a war thousands of miles away from their country, against the Filipinos who just won a war of independence against Spain. Change the Filipinos to Vietnamese and Spain to ...
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Who owned the ship Ensayo, and what were they doing near Baja California in 1842?
According to Plummer's The Shogun's Reluctant Ambassadors, in 1842, sea drifters from the Eijū-maru were picked up and by the Ensayo, a "Spanish pirate ship" with a Philippine crew. It was "carrying ...
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Can someone help me ID this insignia?
Charles Miller - fought with US Army at battle at Wounded Knee - this photographer took images during and after the Battle. Anyone recognize the insignia? He later became a Mason? Could it be from ...
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Time span of a decade
Wikipedia says that
The 21st century began on January 1, 2001 and will end on December 31, 2100.
The first decade of 21st century is the 2000s. Here Wikipedia says that
The 2000s was a decade ...
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What did Boston shoemakers do with cattle brands?
In the Mexican era, whole cattle hides were California's principal export. To prevent theft law enforcement sometimes checked the brands on hides before they were exported by sailing ship. Most went ...
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Regional dominance of Sitka library
The Russian-American Company's directors were in St. Petersburg while its Chief Manager lived and worked in Sitka. The library there held "more than 1,200 books, valued at some 7,500 rubles. More than ...
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Charles Darwin's dog in 1858
What would have been the breed and name of Charles Darwin's dog at Down House in 1858?
The black and white retriever (Bob) which appears in a photo dated 1863, the Pomeranian (Snow) or someone else?
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2answers
239 views
Are there any surviving military textbooks from the Napoleonic era?
Napoleon attended school for military officers, so it stands to reason they would have some books around which they based their curriculum. Are there any complete and publicly available recordings of ...
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California rancho budget
This question is a source request for real or estimated annual account ledgers for ranchos in Mexican California.
Not much cash was used, so records are sparse. Most goods on the rancho were produced ...
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2answers
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For steam trains, what kind of deaerator was used, if any?
Deaerators are things that remove dissolved gasses in water. Dissolved O2 and CO2 in water will result in boiler corrosion.
So I'm wondering how this was done back in the old days of steam trains, ...
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907 views
Was there a European response to the trail of tears?
This question is pretty straightforward. While looking into Victorian British beliefs about Americans and American history I began to wonder about European attitudes toward American Indians; and more ...
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How profitable was India for the British Empire in the 1800s?
I recently read Imperial Twilight, an excellent history of the opium wars. The author claims several times that while the British trade with China was very lucrative, India was by contrast "...
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What was the family relationship between British neo-Nazi politician John Tyndall and the 19th century physicist of the same name?
John Tyndall was a neo-Nazi British politician who chaired the National Front and who was the chairman of the British National Party from 1982 to 1999. According to his obituary in the Daily Telegraph,...
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Guadalupe Victoria's imprisonment
In 1821 Agustín Iturbide formed a ruling junta for newly independent Mexico that excluded his prominent fellow revolutionary officers. Near the end of 1821, Iturbide imprisoned several that may have ...
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1answer
196 views
How did steppe-nomad military tactics change in response to widespread firearms in the 18th/19th centuries?
Please forgive my ignorance of the cultures extant in the Eurasian steppe at this time, but I was wondering how the military tactics of steppe-cultures changed in response to the massed musket tactics ...
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1answer
414 views
How many British navy officers were from lower classes at the end of 18th century?
Helping my daughter with a presentation about Cook, I looked for English sources about his biography and was surprised to read that he was a son of a farmer hand - practically, the bottom of the lower ...
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Who were the earliest Californian university students?
In California's Spanish and Mexican eras there was not much formal education. The nearest university was that of Guadalajara, founded in 1792. The Híjar-Padrés colony of 1834 brought teachers who ...
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1answer
113 views
Travel route from UK to Boma (Congo territory) in the 1880s
I’m researching for a possible story on the Congo in the 1880s. I’m having a hard time establishing the route and time spent going from a port in England to Boma in the former unclaimed Congo ...
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1answer
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Travelling to Germany in the 19th Century from London [duplicate]
The time period I'm working with is the 1890s, and try as I might I'm really struggling to find the details I need, specifically how long it would take to travel from London to Leipzig at that time.
...
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Was there self-censorship in private correspondence in the early 19th Century?
I've been reading collections of letters and journals (generally relating to the Napoleonic Wars) published in the first half of the 19th century. Often these contain words that have been partially ...
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270 views
Why was whale oil used instead of petroleum?
I just watched “In the Heart of the Sea” about Moby-Dick and Herman Melville. It seems a lot of labour and danger to kill whales to get oil for light and heating.
Wikipedia says petroleum was known ...
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What happened to these buildings near the Seine?
I was looking at these before after images and was concerned what happened to these beautiful buildings near the Seine in Paris. Were they destroyed in a war? Has there been any attempt to reconstruct ...
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Where did United States colleges rank internationally during the 19th century?
I have read that the USA was far behind Europe until maybe the 1930s. But just what were the limitations of US colleges prior to that?
EDIT: I realize there was unlikely to have been any published ...
