June 2009
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The birth of light-rail transportation in 19th...
The latter half of the 19th century saw the increased mobility and growth of the urban setting, with growing industrial production and the expansion of cities, new means of transportation began to be explored. With booming populations, growing numbers of immigrants and workers, the need for an efficient and large-scale transit system was necessary. Whereas before, the citizens of cities like...
April 2009
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The Cemetery: Pere Lachaise & Les Innocents
In the same manner as the morgue, the cemetery too became a tool for governmental organization and ornamentation. In the 18th century, the cemetery was nothing but a source of concern for Parisians. The example of the largest Parisian cemetery, Les Innocents, was a frightful place – completely over saturated with bodies, and leading to the contamination and the spread of disease caused by open...
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The Paris Morgue
The Parisian Morgue presents perhaps one of the best examples of the transformative force that institutional power brought to one of the most basic elements of life. Though throughout history the morgue had always served as “a depository for the anonymous dead”[1] the imposition of the state in this matter, specifically the police prefecture, strove to make the process of identification into a...
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“The morgue is a sight within reach of everybody, and one to which passers-by,...”
– Therese Raquin by Emile Zola (1867)
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Death & the Rise of a Visual Culture
The first half of the 19th century, specifically in Paris, presented a monumental shift in the manner through which individuals interacted with the urban setting. Governmental projects (though not yet the Haussmannization that would be implemented in the 1860s and beyond), challenged the forms and functions of various structures in the city. Their reconstruction, combined with a new institutional...
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Primary Sources: Archives on the Internet
I love that archives are embracing the digitization of photography and old media. Featured are my master list of archival sources, grouped by focus and personal inclination towards the focus of my History course … but these are fantastic in any event and can be explored for hours.
FLICKR
Flickr Commons. A consortium of fantastic institutions posting to flickr.
Veterans of the American...