Prologue: Pieces of History

Last week’s photo may have sparked some of our funniest captions yet! As soon as we started reading about the ill-fated Florence in Apple Jacks, cereal killers, and the Shotz Brewery, we knew choosing a winner would be tough.

So we turned to Denise Henderson, who blogs about her finds in the records over at The Text Message. She also is the Review Team Lead for Online Public Access.

Congratulations to Ryan! Ironically, our guest judge Denise does not like breakfast or breakfast cereal–but she does like her fellow hometown girl Betsy Ross, and so she went with Ryan’s reference to the floppy-hatted, flag-sewing symbol of freedom. Ryan, check your email for a 15% discount to the eStore and check out our merchandise.

And despite the witty suggestions of our captioneers, the original caption confirms this to be a rather mundane scene: “Kellogg Company. Women inspecting filled boxes of cereal before boxes go to sealer., 08/22/1934.”

This week’s photo seems to involve multiples–but this time it’s girls instead of cereal boxes. Give us your funniest caption below! … [ Read all ]

On New Year’s day in 1776, Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army were laying siege to the British-controlled city of Boston. From Prospect Hill, General Washington ordered the Grand Union flag hoisted “in compliment of the United Colonies,” accidentally ending the Revolutionary War.

Or so the British thought.

In Boston, a speech by King George that offered favorable terms of surrender for the colonialists was making the rounds. Loyalists in the besieged city were elated when they saw what looked like the Union Jack flying above General Washington’s encampment at Prospect Hill, taking it as a sign that the Continental forces has accepted the terms and were calling it quits.

Washington remarked on the event in a letter to Joseph Reed on January 4: “By this time, I presume, they begin to think it strange we have not made formal surrender of the lines.”

That the Grand Union flag was so easily mistaken for the British Union Jack made it clear that, certainly, the 13 colonies had a flag problem.

Thankfully, on June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress took up the problem and declared “that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” … [ Read all ]