Articles from The Literary Digest
Here is one from the everything old is new again collection. This 1929 article asks whether it was appropriate for schools to fly the American flag, believing as the this one cleric did, that the starry banner is an emblem of war.
This article is made up of the musings of various editors, university presidents and social reformers discussing the cultural relevance of the Flapper and the cultural changes she has brought forth.
Missy Le Hand (1896 – 1944) was a pretty big deal in the life of President Franklin Roosevelt. FDR had many secretaries, but only one was a woman (and she was the first woman to ever serve in this capacity to a U.S. president). When the Germans attacked Poland, the State Department called her first, knowing full well that she was the only one in the White House with the permission to wake him up. Although this article lists many of the personal tasks she was charged with, it should be known that Missy Le Hand was the target of many Washington influence-peddlers.
The majority of women being natural-born housekeepers, why shouldn’t the infinite details of a Governor’s office appeal to the female of the species?
This deep thought was put to the public by the inquisitive souls at The Birmingham News just four years after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted American women the right to vote.
The attached article concerns the 1924 elections which saw many American women swept into high political offices all across the fruited plain; it lists all significant offices that would soon be held by women and clearly indicates that the year 1924 ushered in a new era in American political history.
Click here to read further about women in national politics.
In 1933 FDR named one of these women to serve as Director of the U.S. Mint…
There are hundreds of stories concerning the life of President Lincoln. Some of them are true and some are not and we’ll leave it up to other websites to decide; among the stories told are the ones that tell the tale of a Lincoln who had dreams of foreboding, dreams that came to him in the night and told of his own demise:
Gradually she drove him into telling of his dream.
‘About ten days ago I retired late. I soon began to dream. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs…I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse, wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards, and there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully…others weeping pitifully. ‘Who is dead in the White House?’ I demanded of one of the soldiers. ‘The President,’ was his answer. ‘He was killed by an assassin.’ Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd which awoke me from my from my dream.’
It was argued that slavery in the United States did not end in 1865…
This magazine article reported on the Miracle Fabric of the 1930s: rayon – and rayon cannot be deleted from any study dealing with Thirties fashion any more than the word polyester can be separated from a discussion of 1970s fashion. The article presents a history of the fabric but makes it quite clear that the fabric was immediately embraced by all the fashion houses at that time.
Read about the 1930s revival of velvet.
Click here to read about feminine conversations overheard in the best New York bathrooms of 1937.
This article from 1897 is a digest of Cheerful Yesterdays, a longer piece by Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823 – 1911) originally appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Having served actively in the anti-slavery movement during the days leading up to the Civil War, Higginson put to paper his memories of famed abolitionist John Brown, wishing to banish all thoughts that the man was mad.
Some thirty-one years prior to the official establishment of Israel as a nation, one columnist could read the tea leaves well enough to see that the United States would serve as the protectorate of the young country.
Click here to read a 1933 magazine article concerning the rise of secularism in American society.
The reporter who filed this 1922 article for Literary Digest was concerned with the secular world on college campuses that was damaging the well-balanced minds of American women:
Woman is learning the same things that are taught to her brother; scientific theories destructive of the faith she imbued at home…The women are not doing their duty – they are giving too much time to outside interests – they are degenerating! Women smoking! Women drinking! Women preferring adventures and amusement to caring for families! The flapper – the short skirt – the lack of corsets…
Click here to read the review of a novel that dealt the feminist discomfort with Christianity.
The reporter who filed this 1922 article for Literary Digest was concerned with the secular world on college campuses that was damaging the well-balanced minds of American women:
Woman is learning the same things that are taught to her brother; scientific theories destructive of the faith she imbued at home…The women are not doing their duty – they are giving too much time to outside interests – they are degenerating! Women smoking! Women drinking! Women preferring adventures and amusement to caring for families! The flapper – the short skirt – the lack of corsets…
Click here to read the review of a novel that dealt the feminist discomfort with Christianity.
An article which discusses the growing number of state legislatures given the task to vote up or down on the issue as to whether or not to allow the Darwin theory of evolution to stand as a legitimate topic for discussion and instruction in their respective school systems. Mentioned in the article was one of the major players leading the charge on behalf of creationism: William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925). The journalist interviewed many assorted hot-heads from the most polished universities on behalf of Darwinists and the reader will no doubt be amused to see that so many years have past yet the arguments remain exactly the same.
Three years after this article was printed Bryan would be standing in defense of Christian Fundamentalism during the famous Tennessee Scopes Trial.
The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked Charles Darwin at number 43 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned – click here to understand his reasoning…
More juvenile flapper verses revealing that the flapper is as old as history itself – and far more meddlesome than her male counterpart.
Click here to read a FLAPPER MAGAZINE review of an anti-flapper movie.
Click here to read an article about the demise of a popular 1940s hairstyle.
A few short paragraphs from a late-Twenties issue of Literary Digest recalled the terribly unproductive plans of the short-lived dress-reform movement and the frustrating nature of the human male in most matters sartorial:
The male is a shy creature, and has always been particularly fearful of appearing conspicuous…
Click here to read an editorial about the need for reform in men’s attire.
Here is a 1937 article concerning those stout souls who thought they’d make their way into the United States illegally – but made it no further than Ellis Island:
Aliens who have sneaked into the country are, by the fact of their entry, lawbreakers… Out of gratitude to a country which has welcomed them, is it too much to ask the properly qualified alien to register, in order that his fraudulent countrymen me be detected and sent home?
A 1930s fashion article which perfectly encapsulated some of the heady excitement that filled the air when a new crush-resistant, non-wrinkling, packable, ultra-fashionable velvet hit the market. The material was immediately swooped-up by the glam squad in far-off Hollywood; RKO chief costume designer Walter Plunkett pontificated:
Velvet is the epitome and symbol of elegance.
Not one to be upstaged, Travis Banton (1894 – 1958) Plunckett’s counterpart at Paramount Studios, chimed in declaring:
The flattery and refinement of velvet is supplied by no other material.
Anticipating the Springtime coronation of Edward VIII, thousands of yards of velvet had been manufactured for the occasion.
Click here to read about the woman who dictated many of the fabric restriction rules on the American home front.
A 3 percent remedy’ for our immigration ills, real or fancied, will restrict the admission of aliens from May of this year to June, 1922, to 3 percent of the total of each nationality in this country when the Federal census was taken in 1910. As passed by the house, and expected to pass the Senate, the new measure, except for the time limit, is identical with the Johnson Bill passed in the last session of Congress and killed by pocket-veto of President Wilson.
But the Johnson Bill does not set up a permanent restrictive policy; it is intended merely to protect this country for the next fourteen months from a horde of Europe’s most objectionable classes.
An article concerning a nasty spat between Yale Jews and Yale gentiles, and when all was said and done and the dust had settled, no one came out looking terribly intelligent.
Truth is stranger than fiction’ is an old writer’s saw that the pen plodders know and the general reader doubts. But that truth and fiction may be one and the same thing in comes to light in the story of Charles Lindbergh’s flight. No fiction writer could have contrived a story more perfect and right in it’s details…In a few short days an unknown lad has become the hero of the world. His name is on the lips of more people than any under the sun. His face etched in more minds than any living human. The narrative question of the story, ‘Will he make it?’ is on everybody’s lips, from President to beggars.
