COVE

In 1993, president Bill Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the supreme court. This specific picture shows the supreme court chief justive William Rehnquist administering the oath of office to Ginsburg. This would make RGB the 107th supreme court justice and more importantly, the second woman (Sandra Day O'conner being first), to serve on the Supreme court. RBG was known to promote womens rights from the high court and played a significant role in many controversial cases. In 1996 Ginsburg wrote the supreme courts landmark decision in United States v. Virginia, which supported that...

Sojourner Truth was an American abolosionist and women's rights activist who was born into slavery in New York. Born Isabella Baumfree in 1797, Isabella was sold into slavery and was sold several times before ending up with John Dumont and his wife, Elizabeth. Isabella ended up having children during the time she was Dumont's slave and she wanted her freedom. Dumont agreed to let her go but when the time came, he changed his mind and refused to let her have freedom. Isabella ended up running away with her infant daughter, having to leave behind her other children. After the New York Anti-...

The Labyrinth in New Harmony was created originally by the Rappites. They made one in every society they founded, and it symbolised their spiritual journey, and was used as a place for reflection and meditation. However when New Harmony was purchased by the Owenites, the labyrinth fell into disrepair. Now the obvious symbolism here is that because they abandoned God, going from a religious society to one that was against organised religion (Robert Owen actively showed his distaste for organised religion), they themselves fell into disrepair and fell apart. But I see a much broader picture...

This Proclamation was given during the third year of the civil war by Abraham Lincoln. The importance of this image is it was the change of federal law making all slaves in any state from slaves to free.  This impacted 75,000 slaves immediately, but the other slaves still in Confederate states had to wait to be freed by US military.  Another significant impact that also came along with this was the Fugative Slave Act was no longer recognized.  With this hope around 200,000 slaves escaped to Union states and joined the army to fight the Confederate. The 13th Amendment was able to go into...

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a well-known abolitionist politician. She had many reform interests which included topics such as: women's suffrage rights, child custody rights, property rights, abolition, ‘dress reform,’ and divorce laws. She was mainly known for her work in the women's rights and suffrage movements. She was one of the main organizers of the first woman's rights convention which was held in Seneca Falls, New York, 1848. At this convention she helped write the Declaration of Sentiments, the primary document used to discuss equal rights reform for women. 

Elizabeth was...

The Analytical Engine, first proposed in 1837 by its creator, Charles Babbage, was a machine that could be used to perform arithmetic sums: the first calculator, and in broader terms, the first computer. Babbage's vision for the machine was for it to be programmed using punch cards and for it to perform calculations, but he never thought beyond the scope of this problem. His close collaborator, Ada Lovelace, did, however, and recognized the machine's potential and capabilities, publishing extensive notes on the machine and going to actually create the first algorithm for the machine, which...

The Decembrist Revolt of 1825, was a revolutionary action that took place at Senate Square in St. Petersburg. This revolt was a classist demonstration purposed to protest the appointment of Nicholas I as Tsar after the death of his brother Alexander I. The death of Alexander I was the most significant event leading up to the revolt as it set the stage for the revolt that would occur. It was believed that the appointment would go to Konstantin, other brother of Alexander I, but unbeknownst to the public Konstantin had renounced his claim. All the confusion and political noise inspired the...

Queue or cue was a hairstyle worn by the Jurchen and Manchu people of Manchuria. Later, the queue was forcefully introduced to Han Chinese and required to be worn by the male during the Qing dynasty. The queue was a symbol of Manchu identity. However, the queue was not only a representation of different dynasty identities in China, it was also a representation of racial issues later around the world. A nineteenth-century Britisher disabused readers: “the tail of a Chinaman is not a little tuft on the crown of his head, but is formed of hair suffered to grow luxuriantly in a mass, at least...

This is an illustration from the 1862 edition of Great Expectations, one of Dickens' most celebrated novels. The novel reads as a narration from the main character, Pip, as he grows up and advances in society. He begins in life as a poor boy taken in by his older sister and her husband. He then meets a jilted older woman and her adopted daughter, with whom he falls in love. Shortly afterward, he learns that he is to receive installments of money that will allow him to advance his education and become a gentleman. The rest of the novel explores his ascent in society, and the truth...

Sojourner Truth’s address to the Women’s Rights Convention at Akron, Ohio became widely popular and with it she rose to prominence as one of the greatest abolitionist orators of 19th century United States. However, Truth herself never learnt to read or write so there is a controversy surrounding this extemporaneous speech. Several versions of it have been published since, the two main ones being Rev. Marius Robinson’s transcription published on June 21, 1851 in the Anti-Slavery Bugle and Frances Gage’s 23 April 1863 issues of the New York Independent. It is important to note Marius...

Thomas Edison is known for quite a few inventions that helped change the course of daily human interaction. Among these, the planning of the phonograph conceptualized the beginnings of vocal communication at large distances, leading up to today. 

Between the years 18887 and 1892, Edison sketched out and fine-tuned his idea of the phonograph and the audible letters that people would be able to input into them. Edison evolved from the idea of wax sheets being sent to and from a person to wax cylinders, that would then be put upon a phonograph. 

Although, realistically at the...