Wars aren’t the only historical events that lend themselves to enthusiastic and accurate reenactments. Here are six examples that may not be as widely known, but certainly have faithful followings.]]> Their fans get up at the crack of dawn and drive, sometimes hundreds of miles, to empty fields where they put on an army uniform, pick up a bayonet, and faithfully reenact battles from the Revolutionary War. Or the Civil War. Or Desert Storm. Historical reenactments, known to their supporters as “living histories,” are events where individuals attempt to faithfully portray an event of the past.  But wars aren’t the only historical events that lend themselves to enthusiastic and accurate reenactments. Here are six examples that may not be as widely known, but certainly have faithful followings.

1. 1860s Baseball

When Major League Baseball went on strike in 1994, the Old Time Base-Ball League officially formed. Today, Old Time leagues exist all over the country; the largest league, with 11 teams, plays in Long Island, New York.  In period uniforms and language, the players and their fans (called “rooters,” among other terms), who also dress in the fashion of the day, are as devoted to accuracy as they are to America’s Pastime.  The players use real dinner plates as bases — standard protocol in the late 1800s — and the “hurler” pitches underhand. Hand-sewn, leather-bound baseballs are caught with bare hands, and balls caught on a bounce are an “out.” Should you ever decide to take up a bat, remember it’s four strikes and you’re out at the old ball game.

Conan O’Brien caught wind of the league, and decided to check it out.  In his typical fashion, much hilarity ensued.  On his final show, Conan called his 1860s Baseball experience his favorite clip in Late Night history:

2. The Fur Trade

In the early 19th century, the fur trade was one of the biggest moneymakers for settlers in the American West.  The trappers, also called Mountaineers or Mountain Men, trapped and skinned animals and transported the pelts back to St. Louis, Missouri, where they sold the furs or traded them for supplies. After this, the furs were made into fashionable hats and the like for well-off patrons on the East Coast. Around 1825, the trappers realized that they could make even more money by trading the furs in their local mountainous surroundings. These annual summer gatherings, called “Rendezvous,” became blowout parties between the trappers and traders. 

The annual Rocky Mountain National Rendezvous is a living history and reenactment that celebrates frontier life and the fur trade enterprise of the American West. True to history, the person in charge is called a “Bushway” (or “Booshway”), a term derived from the French word “Bourgeois.”  The Bushway was the supervisor of indentured trappers and fur traders who were forced to work for the fur trade.  Participants don’t always follow scripts; they simply want to give each other and viewers a taste of what it would have been like to be at a real Rendezvous. [Image courtesy of High Plains Regional Rendezvous.]

3. 19th Century Women’s Education

Do you want to know how to sip tea like a lady? Ballroom dance? Curtsy in a hoop skirt? Every summer, the historical Athenaeum Rectory in Columbia, Tennessee, transforms into an 1861 Girls’ School for a week.  “Students” between 14 and 18 years old come from all over the world to learn what a girl would have learned in the 19th century: etiquette, Latin, dancing, hairstyling, mourning customs, and other vital skills. The faculty members are also faithful reenactors as well as devoted educators. To get the full experience, the girls stay in costume (often in gowns they sewed themselves!) and character all week and board with local families, who are also reenactors.  At the end of the week, a grand ball is held along with commencement ceremonies.

4. Old West Train Robberies

No reenactment of the wild, wild West would be complete without a legendary train robbery reminiscent of the heists pulled by Jesse James and Butch Cassidy. Today, modern citizens transform themselves into gun-slinging outlaws and the sheriffs that dutifully take them down. Thankfully, the riders of the train coach expect the bombardment — complete with weapons and horses — and enjoy the experience. However, in December 2008, at a staged train robbery in Wisconsin, two people were shot when an actor’s gun mistakenly loaded with birdshot went off.  Fortunately, the injuries were not serious.

5. Pirating

This is not Disney-approved-Jack-Sparrow fare. Members of The Pirate Brethren are sticklers for accurate portrayal of the piracy that once ruled the waters. The Pirate Brethren live by their tagline: “Being a gathering place for Pyrates, Buccaneers, their Associates, and Accomplices, in the latter quarter of the 17th and early decades of the 18th centuries.”  The group boasts an annual meeting of enthusiasts called the Adelphi Mill Pyrate Feast, and they portray pirates as both soldiers and common sailors year round.  They wear appropriate attire that allows them to carry six pistols and a sword. And an axe. Be ye prepared. [Image courtesy of Pirate Brethren.]

6. The Far Side

This has been bouncing around the Internet for a bit, and even though it’s not a live reenactment, it sure is hilarious.  As a community on Flickr, fans of Gary Larson’s Far Side comic strips stage photo reenactments of their favorite scenes. Some classic reenacting honors go to:

• The School of Geniuses

• Went to Market

• Objects in Mirror…

[Image courtesy of Flickr user WayneWho.]

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Since it’s National Library Week, here's a look back at ten notable former librarians you might have a hard time picturing amongst the bookshelves.]]>

Appropriately enough, I’m writing today’s Quick 10 from my neighborhood public library. Since it’s National Library Week, here’s a look at ten people who once worked amongst the bookshelves.

1. Mao Zedong: Before he led the Communist Party of China, Mao worked as a librarian’s assistant at Peking University between 1918 and 1919. He needed a job, and earned only eight dollars a month carrying periodicals to the readers and organizing shelves. The future Chairman said, “My office was so low that people avoided me.”

2. Giovanni Giacomo Casanova: “The World’s Greatest Lover” worked for 13 years at the castle of Count Waldstein in Dux, Bohemia. Down on his luck (and low on funds), Casanova asked for a favor, since the occultist Count was known to have an affinity for fellow adventurers and fascinating people. Casanova set out to catalog the Count’s more than 40,000 volumes and clean the library, but he spent most of his time writing. Here, he wrote his famous Memoirs.

3. Beverly Cleary: This Newbery-award winning author and creator of beloved characters such as Ramona Quimby served as a Children’s Librarian in Yakima, Washington. After studying at the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington in Seattle, she took the job, where she enjoyed interacting with all sorts of children. Cleary’s favorite guests were the ones who had home-made roller-skates and scooters and asked her, “Where are the books about us?” Her first of many answers: Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy.

4. Laura Bush: The former first lady holds a master’s degree in library science from the University of Texas. In addition to teaching in the public schools, she was a librarian in the Houston, Dallas, and Austin school systems. Mrs. Bush parlayed her passion and enthusiasm for reading during her time in the White House, launching with Congress the first National Book Festival in 2001. The 2007 festival welcomed more than 120,000 book-lovers to Washington, D.C.

5. Lewis Carroll: The talented author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass served as sub-Librarian at Christ Church, Oxford University (1885-1887). The perfect job for this avid reader, he kept track of the books and the borrowers in addition to tutoring students and lecturing in mathematics.

6. Jorge Luis Borges: Although he never won the Nobel Prize he deserved for his advancements in literature for Latin America and beyond, Borges did work as a public librarian in Buenos Aires. When he supported the allies during WWII, Juan Perón dismissed him from his position, offering Borges a poultry inspector position instead (he declined). Once Perón fell from power, Borges was appointed director of the Biblioteca Nacional, but stepped down when Perón regained control of Argentina. While serving in this prestigious position, Borges also taught literature at the University of Buenos Aires.

7. J. Edgar Hoover: This future FBI Director got his start in government when he worked at the Library of Congress (“the world’s largest filing cabinet”) while attending night school at George Washington Law School. At GWU, you had to be a government employee to attend night school. He started as a messenger, but soon rose in rank to cataloger, then clerk. While working at the Library of Congress, Hoover mastered the Dewey Decimal system, which became the model for the FBI’s Central Files and General Indices.

8. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Goethe explained his passion for the details of a librarian’s job when he said, “The library organization proceeds little by little, slowly enough. I hold my course, and seek to push on from section to section. I profit occasionally from an hour of poetry, or a bit of scientific knowledge.” Goethe worked at the Weimer Library, one of the most important libraries in Germany, where he meticulously organized and cataloged. His success here led to other branches asking for his help. When cleaning and organizing the disarrayed Jena library, Goethe needed more room for books, and his request to use an empty room was denied. He was determined to succeed, so much so that he broke through the brick wall to complete his project. Later, because of damaging dampness of the library to the books, Goethe wanted to break down a city wall, and did the same thing.

9. Eratosthenes of Cyrene: In addition to measuring the Earth’s circumference, Greek mathematician and geographer Eratosthenes served as head librarian at the Library of Alexandria, and also personally tutored the Greek-speaking King of Egypt. Alexandria was considered the scientific and cultural center of the world in the third century B.C., and being a head librarian gave Eratosthenes the reputation of a universal scholar. He was a model bibliographer and possessed an all-around broad knowledge of many fields of study. He probably would have enjoyed mental_floss.

10. Batgirl: When the comic wanted to generate female interest, a “grown-up” version of Batgirl appeared in January of 1967 in Detective Comics #359. In this later incarnation (the original, Bat-girl, was created in 1961), Barbara Gordon was the grown daughter of a Police Commissioner and worked as a librarian. She only began her crime-fighting career by accident, breaking up a robbery when she happened to be wearing her Halloween costume. Who was the victim of this crime? Bruce Wayne, of course!

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