first efforts

Summertime, from the Library of Congress's Flickr site

Midsummer Day, Bronx Park, 1911 (Bain News Service)
(photo credit)

"Mrs. O.H.P. Belmont's farm for girls"

Hempstead, Long Island, 1911
(photo credit)

Looks quaint, but apparently Mrs. Belmont's farm was quite a feminist venture. According to this 1911 New York Times article (in PDF), she invited young women tired of the work and dirt of city life to train on her 200 acres, with the aim of eventually running the farm entirely by themselves.

I'll be away from the blogosphere for a bit but have mined the online archives for some good summery historical photographs to keep you entertained. Many of them come from the Library of Congress's Flickr photostream and its digitized Bain News Service collection. The Bain News Service was one of the earliest news photograph services; great photos of popular culture and everyday life in the U.S. in the early twentieth century. Definitely fun for browsing.

Gardening at the White House and our house

The White House has been pretty stingy with the garden updates. After the initial planting frenzy we didn't get much news. Why no webcam where you can watch the lettuce grow, minute-by-minute? I would *pay* for that. Politico 44, get on it!

Here's what I know so far, culled from various sources:

as of mid-June more than 90 pounds of produce has been harvested;

it's a mix of lettuce, snap peas, beans, kale, collards, swiss chard, and herbs;

the garden hasn't been certified organic but it's chemical-free; and

the White House kitchen is using most of the food, but some has been donated to a local soup kitchen.

The photo above depicts the White House beekeeper collecting the first batch of honey from the Obama hives. Nice!

As for our house, there are no bees but we're doing pretty well too. We've worked through two plantings of radishes and lettuce and nearly polished off all the chard and spinach. Snap peas are on the vine and a few green beans have appeared, hidden well under the shade of their bushy leaves. The Early Girl tomatoes have fruited, though they still have quite a way to go before we eat them. And I'm pretty convinced that all four heads of broccoli will become the size of human heads before we arrive home from vacation; here's hoping they hold out so we can get in on the broccoli action.

image credit/caption (top): Charlie Brandts, a White House carpenter as well as beekeeper, collects the first batch of honey from the beehives on the South Lawn of the White House, June 10, 2009. (Official White House Photographer Lawrence Jackson)

See ya later, Lincoln

I've been in my office in 172 Lincoln Hall for ten years. Lincoln Hall is just about 100 years old, so I have had this office for 10% of Lincoln Hall's life. Apart from these folks who had apparently had the office immediately before me, I have no idea who else lived their academic lives within the walls of 172. (I do, however, have it on good authority from a visiting former student that undergraduate men used my office as a dorm room in the overcrowded post-WWII years of the GI Bill).

As I've mentioned before, Lincoln Hall is being evacuated for what looks to be (at least) a three-year renovation, after which time we will move back into a new and improved Lincoln Hall. But I won't ever see 172 again because there won't be faculty offices on the first floor anymore. I won't miss the crowded, noisy hallways, the bells twice every hour, or having to time my bathroom breaks to the rhythms of undergraduate class schedules. I will miss the tall ceilings, the lovely view of the flowering trees next to the English building, and the feeling that I have a Real Professor's Office in a Real Professor's Building where Real Professors do Real Professor Things.

We picked up our new office keys today and I closed the door on 172 forever. When we return from vacation all of my stuff will await unpacking in our new, "temporary" digs. That place will do just fine; my new office has hardwood floors and a fireplace, for crying out loud, and it's a great location next to coffee shops and restaurants. But I will miss good old 172 and its particular view of the world.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Dinner at the farm

Since last summer the folks at Prairie Fruits Farm, our local purveyors of awesome goat cheese, have been hosting public farm dinners at their place just north of Urbana. My beloved and I went last night for their vegetarian dinner (menu here). The food was fabulous, as was the ambience. What a joy to live in a place where Saturday night means you can dine outside with 46 other goat cheese fanatics, watch a lovely prairie sunset, and drive home to the flickers of fireflies. Reminded me yet again of how much I have come to love this place.

The pre-dinner entertainment was, of course, the goats themselves. Here they are, fresh from a day in the pasture, heading inside to get milked. They definitely get a little antsy as they wait their turns. As you'll see, there's even a little head-butting.

Catching up with Banksy

Banksy's at it again, this time secretly taking over an entire museum for the summer. Here's a piece from the BBC that explains the whole thing.

At the BAG

Still guest blogging for a few more days. To see what I have to say about this image, and others, visit me @ The BAG.

(image credit: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)

Guest blogging the BAG

Nothing says "starting tomorrow I'll be guest blogging for four days at BAGnewsNotes" like this 1913 photo of a "female Giant" workin' on her windup. Here's hoping I throw a few strikes...


image credit: Bain News Service collection, Library of Congress Flickr photostream

Picture of health

This photo went out over the wires last week to accompany a report about "recession obesity." Doctors are worried that kids will become obese because their parents substitute fast food when they can no longer afford the healthy stuff. Health is one of those things that's difficult to picture well (something I'll be paying more attention to as health care debates heat up this summer). I like this image because it gets beyond the typical "fast food nation" images of fat families coming out of McDonald's, etc. And because it offers a cartoonish, almost demonic fast food face, donut-eyes and all.

Credit: AFP/Robert Sullivan via Yahoo!News Photos