Over the years, I’ve gotten quite a lot of questions, comments, and suggestions from readers. Almost two dozen, I’d say! But my favorite correspondence of all, I might as well admit, is the kind that does my work for me. And such is the email that I recently received from my good friend, Melissa Anderson Sweazy, a super-talented photographer and writer (and author of the upcoming book, Veiled Remarks: A Curious Compendium for the Nuptially Inclined).
Melissa wrote to tell me that the old Memphis Daily Appeal newspaper from the 1860s — that’s right, the EIGHTEEN 60S — is now online, where you can peruse it at your leisure. It’s not available in Memphis, where you might expect, but is archived (along with many, many other newspapers) at the University of Texas in Tyler, Texas.
And my oh my, it’s a treasure trove of historical tidbits. Not only are there plenty of compelling stories about the Civil War, but the newspapers back then were just packed with oddities. Such as this little item, from March 26, 1861: “We learn that the 14 men and 15 women at the Home for the Homeless are all troubled with sore eyes.”
Home for the Homeless?
