lifeinthe1800s

This is an interview with Corporal Leander Herron, who tells the story of surviving an Indian battle in September, 1868, about 11 miles outside of Fort Dodge, Kansas. He received a medal of honor for his actions that night. During that time, there were heightened tensions and frequent raids by Plains warriors on wagon trains and settlers in the area. On the night of September 2–3, Herron and fellow Corporal Patrick “Paddy” Boyle set out from Fort Dodge to deliver dispatches 75 miles northeast to Fort Larned. About 11 miles from the post, they came across an Army firewood wagon and its four-soldier escort under attack by nearly 50 Kiowas. Herron and Boyle galloped into the fray to assist the besieged soldiers. While Boyle rode for reinforcements, Herron organized a desperate defense. He and his companions were down to just a dozen rounds among them the next morning when they were saved by a charge of cavalrymen who had galloped the 11 miles from Fort Dodge to their rescue. The audio has been restored and optimized for more clarity. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

From October 16-19, 1917, the second largest Civil War Veterans reunion took place at Vicksburg, Mississippi. This was a very large undertaking. It brought together veterans of the Union Army of Tennessee and the Confederate Army of Mississippi. Over 12,000 veterans were accommodated on the battlefield. They were housed, fed and given all other amenities for there comfort. This video was speed-adjusted, restored and optimized. During the Civil War, the city surrendered during the Siege of Vicksburg, after which the Union Army gained control of the entire Mississippi River. The 47-day siege was intended to starve the city into submission. Its location atop a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River proved otherwise impregnable to assault by federal troops. The surrender of Vicksburg by Confederate General John C. Pemberton on July 4, 1863, together with the defeat of General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg the day before, has historically marked the turning point of the Civil War in the Union's favor. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

Filmed on Broadway and 23rd Street, New York, N.Y. on October 26, 1903. This street level view is of the Broadway side of the Fuller Building near the narrow north corner. Filmed on a very windy day, pedestrians of various descriptions are seen passing by the camera, clutching hats and skirts against the wind. According to some New York City historians, this corner was known as the windiest corner of the city, and in the era of the long skirt, standing on it was considered a good vantage point for a glimpse of a lady's ankle. Policemen would chase away such loungers from the 23rd Street corner, giving rise to the expression "twenty-three skidoo." This video was colorized, speed corrected and restored using AI/Deep Learning.

Here are three different scenes of public swimming pools (baths) and water slides, all filmed in 1897. I colorized, cleaned up and restored the video as much as possible using AI algorithms. Also added is audio for ambience. Scene 1: Filmed August 22, 1897, at the Sutro Baths in San Francisco, California. Scene 2: Filmed August 1897, at the Lurline Baths in San Francisco, California. Scene 3: Filmed August 22, 1897, at the Sutro Baths in San Francisco, California.

This is a video of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Fire Department racing to a fire on Christmas Day, December 25, 1896. The video was colorized/restored by myself, with audio ambience added, using AI/deep learning.

William Henry Jackson (April 4, 1843 – June 30, 1942) was an American photographer, Civil War veteran, painter, and an explorer famous for his images of the American West. In this interview, recorded on April 3, 1941, Mr. Jackson tells of his experiences about roaming the wild west frontier as he performed his job as a photographer and surveyor. Audio is restored, speed-adjusted and equalized for clarity. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

This 1922 documentary called "A Day With Thomas A. Edison" is about the 74-year-old Edison's collaborations with his staff, conversations with industrial leaders, and supervision of the factory's production line. The majority of the film chronicles Edison's trip to the incandescent light bulb factory and details its manufacturing process. This is the original, full length version.

This is the original, full length version of the 1914 Civil War Veterans Reunion, filmed on May 6-8, 1914. The video is speed adjusted and optimized for maximum clarity. Reunions of Civil War veterans from both the North and South were a prominent feature of public life in the United States in the early decades of the 20th century. This 1914 silent film records the meeting of 40,000 Confederate veterans in Jacksonville, Florida, nearly a half century after the end of the war. Titles are used to explain each sequence. Aging veterans dance to the music of two fiddlers and gather to parade on foot, by horse, or in cars. Also shown are crowd scenes, general views of the camp with its tents, an emergency medical tent staffed by the Red Cross, and thousands of veterans dining together in a mess tent. Scenes from the Sons of Confederate Veterans Parade include marching bands, a passing electric street car, and the Forrest Cavalry of Tennessee, named after Confederate cavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrest. An African-American loyal to the Confederacy is shown, as well as F.M. Iremonger, said to be the youngest living Confederate veteran. An estimated one million men served at one point or another in the Confederate military during the Civil War. About 15,000 of them came from Florida, a very significant portion of the sparse, agrarian population.

Filmed in September of 1898 at Camp Wikoff at Montauk Point, Long Island, New York (year says 1897 on video, sorry typo). I colorized and restored this video using AI/deep learning algorithms. Of the thousand and more men who left New York for the Cuban Campaign of the Spanish American War, scarcely three hundred were able to shoulder their rifles to march before the camera on this day at Camp Wikoff. The film shows many of the companies reduced to seven or eight men, yet the American flag and patriotic attitude still stand strong in these courageous soldiers.

Filmed on May 10, 1903 in New York, from the Hudson River. I colorized and restored as much of this video as possible utilizing AI/Deep Learning algorithms. Also added is sound ambience. From a moving boat, the film depicts the Hudson River (i.e., North River) shoreline and the piers of lower Manhattan beginning around Fulton Street and extending to Castle Garden and Battery Park. It begins at one of the American Line piers (Pier 14 or 15, opposite Fulton Street) where an American Line steamer, either the "New York" or "Paris," is seen docked. The camera passes one of the Manhattan-to-New Jersey commuter ferries to Jersey City. Proceeding south, the distinct double towers of the Park Row, or Syndicate Building, erected in 1897-98, can be seen in the background. A coastal freighter is next, then Trinity Church appears, to the left of which can be seen the Surety Building, as a tug with a "C" on the stack passes in foreground. Several small steamboats come into view, and the B.T. Babbitt Soap factory at Pier 6 is seen, followed by the Pennsylvania Railroad piers (#5 & #4), with a group of docked railroad car floats, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad piers (#3 & #2), also with car floats. Next are the Bowling Green Building (rectangular, with facade to camera), the Whitehall Building (vertical, thin side to camera), followed by Pennsylvania Railroad Pier #1. Pier A (with a clock tower) is seen with the New York Harbor Police steam boat "Patrol" at its end. The Bowling Green Offices and the Produce Exchange at Bowling Green are visible in the background. The breakwater (sheltered landing) and the New York City Fireboat House appears and the distinctive round structure, Castle Garden, once a fort and immigrant station, but at the time of filming the City Aquarium, comes into view. The camera then pans east along the Battery Park promenade: the Barge Office (with tower) is visible in the distance, and further out the Brooklyn shoreline with the grain elevators at Atlantic Avenue can be seen. This view is continued, with only a minor break in continuity, in the film Panorama of Sky Scrapers and Brooklyn Bridge From the East River. Together they comprise a sweep around the southern tip of Manhattan, from Fulton Street on the Hudson to the Brooklyn Bridge.

This is the oldest known recording in existence of any U.S. President in history. It was recorded on an Edison wax cylinder in 1889. I restored and re-mastered the audio. The original was extremely degraded, but I eliminated as much of the noise as possible without degrading further the actual voice data. I also enhanced the ambience of the audio to regain as much of the natural overtones as possible, as well as provide an idea of what it actually sounded like if you were in attendance for his speech in 1889.

Born in Salem, Massachusetts,Thomas A. Watson (January 18, 1854 – December 13, 1934) was a bookkeeper and a carpenter before he found a job more to his liking in the Charles Williams machine shop in Boston. He was then hired by Alexander Graham Bell, who was then a professor at Boston University. This is the story of the birth of the telephone. Watson recalls experiences from his work on the invention of the telephone (1875-1915) and shows instruments and replicas of instruments from the early days of telephony. He relates episodes relating to the work and personality of Alexander Graham Bell and describes events of March 10, 1876, when Bell's call for help after an accident was heard by Watson over a receiver they had been testing. Filmed in 1931. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

Filmed on June 1, 1899. The head of the column is just turning into 14th Street from Broadway, the Morton House forming part of the background. Crowds line both sides of the cable car tracks, falling back as the band heading the first division swings around Dead Man's Curve and passes the camera. Chief Devery makes a fine showing, as also do his men, with their white gloves and helmets, shining buttons and spick and span appearance in general. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

Veterans of the Civil War gathering together on May 30, 1930, Memorial Day. At 0:44, one veteran describes the history of celebrating Memorial Day and how his corps commander, John A. Logan, was the key figure involved in starting the tradition. Logan (February 9, 1826 – December 26, 1886) was an American soldier and politician. He served in the Mexican–American War and was a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He served the state of Illinois as a State Senator, a Congressman, and a U.S. Senator and was an unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States with James G. Blaine in the election of 1884. As the 3rd Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, he is regarded as the most important figure in the movement to recognize Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) as an official holiday. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

This is Richard Clarke (15 December 1845 – 5 May 1930), born in Yorkshire, England, who was a United States frontiersman, Pony Express rider, actor, and armed forces member. During his career, Clarke fought alongside George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn against the combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

This is true story of Al Jennings, a lawyer in the 1800s who turned into a train and bank robber in the 1890s for revenge on the justice system. Finally caught by the law, he was sentenced to life in prison, but later was freed with the help of Senator Mark Hanna (Ohio) and then President of the United States William McKinley. Later, after McKinley was assassinated, Jennings was granted a full pardon by Teddy Roosevelt. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

These are Civil War veterans performing rifle-musket drills at a 1929 reunion. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

This is a video filmed in 1930 of a man who was in Ford's Theater when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. He was sitting in what was known as the orchestra section, which was the ground floor seating section. He was also standing on the porch to the Petersen House when Lincoln was carried inside. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

These are two Civil War veterans, aged 84 and 94, talking about fighting in the Civil War. Filmed in 1929, at the time of the Civil War the two men would have been 16 years old and 26 years old when the war started in 1861. The General Price they mentioned is none other than General Sterling Price: On August 10, 1861, at the Battle of Wilson's Creek outside Springfield, Price’s and McCulloch’s combined force defeated Lyon, forcing the federals’ withdrawal. At Wilson’s Creek, Lyon earned the unenviable distinction of being the first Union general killed in the war. In September, Price marched northward, driving from the border counties Kansas Jayhawkers under the command of James H. Lane. Price then marched to Lexington, where his army besieged and forced the surrender of a 3,500-man fortified garrison of federal troops and Home Guard under James A. Mulligan. Pressed by troops under John C. Frémont, commander of the Department of the West, Price soon retreated into the southern counties, where he attended the “rump session” of the legislature and voted for secession in Neosho. After a brief occupation of central Missouri, Price and his state troops went into winter camp near Springfield, where they transferred into Confederate service and in February withdrew to Arkansas. This video is made for educational purposes for fair use under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.

Mr. Samuel J. Seymour, the last living eyewitness to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. was the mystery guest on the February 8, 1956 episode of the I've Got a Secret game show. Mr. Seymour (March 28, 1860 – April 12, 1956) was actually 95 years of age at the time of this appearance instead of 96. Host: Garry Moore Panelists from left to right: Bill Cullen, Jayne Meadows, Henry Morgan, Lucile Ball