I was meant to be on “holiday” recently, but it turned out to be somewhat fraught with, ironically or annoyingly, work and lots of Life-Min with only sprinklings of socialising. No rest; which I suppose isn’t too bad considering rest is meant for the wicked?
Anyway…
I returned to work on Saturday past and discovering I wasn’t on the roster for Sunday, as per my diary, I have just signed on for my Tuesday evening shift after spending the past three days on the couch from whence I came to the conclusion that those who say telly isn’t educational don’t know what they are talking about.
I spent Sunday and Monday binging the British telly comedy new/quiz shows Mock the Week and QI (Stephen and Sandi-hosted episodes) and came away with a list of quite interesting facts and people I had to learn more about. (The historian in me, I suppose.)
I’m not going to write about it in detail here, because, how boring. The point of this blog post is simply to direct you to excellent websites that satisfactorily eased my curiosity about two stories that aroused me from my slothful stupor long enough to Google more info.
Betty Lou Oliver – Survivor of the longest fall in an elevator
On 28 July 1945, lift operator Betty Lou Oliver reported for work at the Empire State Building in New York. It was a foggy day in NY City, which created a little disorientation for the B-52 bomber flying in some servicemen from Massachusetts. The pilot, Captain William Smith, ignored advice from air traffic control and his miscalculation led him to crash between the 78th and 80th floors of the Empire State Building.
Betty survived the impact of the crash – she was on the 79th floor at the time – and was thrown from her elevator suffering a broken pelvis, back and neck. Her colleagues placed her in the elevator for evacuation and sent her down to the ground floor for transportation to hospital.
However, the crash had weakened the cables of Betty’s elevator and around the 75-storey mark, according to the Guinness Book of Records entry, it plummeted the remaining [just over] 300 metres / 1,000 feet to the basement from where Betty had to be cut out of the wreckage.
Read about the fatal crash and Betty’s record-breaking fall at the History Collection website.
Anti-Suffrage Cartoons – ‘A Woman’s Mind Magnified’
Many of you will already know about the ‘Votes for Women’ battles across the world. Here in Australia, we were the first country to enfranchise women and enable them to run for Federal Parliament following the Commonwealth of Australia’s big Federation bash on 1 January 1901. (Check out Professor Clare Wright’s You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World.)
One of the arguments against female suffrage is that we little ladies didn’t have enough space in our head for manly things like democracy! (An attitude that hadn’t changed much in Australia by 1973, despite enfranchisement and women in Parliament, judging by this picture-book of a recruitment pamphlet.)
NB: I agree with only two of these “womanly” concerns – chocolate and snail-mail correspondence.
Honestly! The reasons for denying women the right to vote may seem hilarious now; but I have to say that I still get a bit enraged, as such complete and utter bollocks still gets trotted out by politicians and others trying to “keep women in their place”. (Don’t get me started on those five words!)
Anyway…
As I said, this isn’t about me being all analytical, merely directional. I found the above postcard discussed on QI via Spartacus Educational’s ‘Anti-Suffrage Society’ and that was quite a good, illustrated read.
You can also find great resources and discussions on the suffrage movement in the UK via The British Library (naturally), The Women’s Library at the LSE and the Museum of London.
For Australia, visit the National Library and National Archives of Australia, and the National Museum of Australia for some great primary sources, learning resources (good for adults and kids) and blog posts. If you have a little cash to spare, the NLA are currently fundraising for a digitisation project all about the Australian Federation of Women Voters.
That’s all from me. As soon as my shift finishes I’ll be heading back to the couch to finish my binge-watch of The Durrells on ABCiView, which has fascinating real-life inspirations; but this is not why I’m tuned in. I have a thesis to avoid, remember.
The Plodding Historian 