Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture

Uncommon Sense—the blog

Archive for the ‘uncategorized’ Category

BFW: Experiences of Revolution, Part 2: Disruptions in Yorktown

· July 5th, 2022 · 1 Comment

Each year, the Ben Franklin’s World team produces a special episode for the Fourth of July holiday. This year, we’re going even further, sharing two themed episodes that explore how ordinary Americans experienced the Revolutionary War. On Tuesday, July 5, the second of those episodes—“Experiences of Revolution, Part 2: Disruptions in Yorktown,” episode 333—debuts wherever… Read More »

Can historians make archival discoveries?

· May 18th, 2022 · No Comments

By Robert Lee Robert Lee is an Assistant Professor of American History and Fellow of Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge and the author of “‘A Better View of the Country’: A Missouri Settlement Map” in Sources and Interpretations published in the January 2022 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly. A decade ago,… Read More »

Updates from the WMQ

· January 20th, 2021 · No Comments

By Joshua Piker, Editor It will likely come as no surprise to learn that I spend way too much time worrying about authorial voice.  For an editor, that’s very on-brand.  I only raise the issue because I’ve been worrying, in particular, about my authorial voice on this blog.  I’ve got two go-to voices for blog… Read More »

Jack Custis, Race, and the Unseen in Colonial Virginia Portraits

· August 31st, 2020 · 1 Comment

by Janine Yorimoto Boldt One painfully obvious fact as one scrolls through Colonial Virginia Portraits is that the faces are overwhelmingly white. Colonial Virginia Portraits includes more than 500 recorded portraits of which approximately 95 are documented but no longer extant. Only four of the total represent a non-white person. Three of these feature unnamed… Read More »

Global Knowledge, Eighteenth-Century Style

· June 3rd, 2020 · No Comments

In this post, WMQ author Tamara Plakins Thornton recounts how she came to understand eighteenth-century globes and how that changed the way she needed them illustrated for her article in the April 2020 issue.  Through September 30, you can read this article for free on the OI Reader. We will close the beta period of… Read More »

· April 10th, 2020 · No Comments

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