-
14. A Special Copy of Richard Cantillon’s ‘Essai sur la Nature du Commerce’
By Alec Israeli While studying a modern edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, I came across editorial footnotes citing Smith’s quotations from Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général, a 1755 treatise by French political economist Richard Cantillon.[1] Wanting to consult the original source, I requested a copy to read at the Wren…
-
13. An Anatomical Atlas
By Fiona Knight (@fionalillian_) Upon first glance, these decorated woodcut initials may appear quite charming, featuring little working cherubs. But upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that they’re engaging in something a bit more macabre – bloodletting, the assemblage of a skeleton, the transportation of a corpse and the dissection of one. This is because…
-
12. A Corned Beef Sandwich in Space
By Lauren Evans (@lauren_evans99) In March 1965, the landmark Voting Rights Act worked its way through Congress in the United States, the Beach Boys topped charts with “Help Me, Rhonda”, and a corned beef sandwich found its way into low earth orbit aboard the Gemini 3 spacecraft which launched from Cape Canaveral on March 23.
-
11. An Early Legal Handbook for Women
By Zoë Jackson (@ZoeMJackson1) Ordinary people, including women, in seventeenth-century England participated in legal processes, through which they often demonstrated at least a basic understanding of the law.[1] During the early modern period, there even existed a few legal handbooks specifically aimed at women and their experiences and rights within the law. An early version…
-
10. Erich Mielke’s Breakfast Order
By Caroline West (@Caroline_N_West) The archives of the East German Ministry for State Security (known as the Stasi) are vast. The holdings contain 111 kilometers of documents on the ministry’s operations – and perhaps most significant, its comprehensive and detailed recordings of the private lives of East German citizens. In 1989, aware that public support…
doinghistoryinpublic.org 