Category:
Twentieth Century

The Rose Percy Doll

Read here the whole history of a very expensive doll that became the Junior Red Cross's icon.

Under Bertha [Peter’s] care, Rose Percy aided worthy causes for a sixty-year period. In 1919, near the end of her life, Bertha placed Rose on temporary loan to the American Red Cross Museum in Washington D.C. The very next year, Bertha gifted Rose to the organization, and with that gift, she became the official mascot of the Junior Red Cross. Rose served in that capacity for over eighty years, and during that time greeted visitors from all over the world.

The year 2010 found the American Red Cross facing deficits, so the decision was made to sell off valuable assets in order to reduce their debt. Countless historic artifacts were sent to the auction block, including Rose Percy, who is in fact, older than the Red Cross itself.






Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 04, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Charities and Philanthropy, Medicine, Dolls and Stuffed Animals, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Twenty-first Century

Actual Business Letters

Need to practice your shorthand? We have the assistance you need, right here! Play the embedded album below. Track number 4 about fisheries regulations is spell-binding.



Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 02, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Boredom, Offices, Business Supplies, Institutional Regulations, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, Twentieth Century

The Great Cheiro

The late part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century were filled with occult types, most famously Aleister Crowley. But I had not previously encountered Cheiro.

His Wikipedia page is here.

You can read his palmistry book here.





And luckily, in 1979, Cheiro (died 1936) conducted a long conversation with another medium. Read it here.







Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 27, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Frauds, Cons and Scams, New Age, Supernatural, Occult, Paranormal, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

The Perfect Back Contest

Several different organizations conducted contests for "The Perfect Back." (Why no males were ever invited escapes me.) But the National Chiropractic Association version seems the longest-running and most-publicized. The fellow enjoying himself is one Dr. Charles Wood.









Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 21, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Body, Medicine, Twentieth Century

DeVere Baker, Mormon Raftmaker

His page at a Mormon Wiki.

He had the goal of sailing ocean currents in order to prove the voyages spoken of in the Book of Mormon were possible.... His failures were many, and often embarrassing, so embarrassing that the press and Mormons in general began to look the other way, rather than report on his adventures.... Nor were Baker’s dreams confined to the ocean. In a unique combination of science-fiction and Mormon theology, he authored several stories focused on a beautiful alien girl named ‘Quetara.’ A human scientist is kidnapped by her crew and falls in love with her, learning in the process how God came to be, billions of years previously, and how evolution allowed the endless variation of species to develop on each world in a grand, perpetual Cosmic experiment overseen and controlled by Deity. A subtext of this was ostensibly good latter-day doctrine – that countless other worlds, including, of course, the wise and alluring Quetara’s own planet, were inhabited by people just like us.


Read a long essay here.



Posted By: Paul - Wed Jul 19, 2023 - Comments (5)
Category: Eccentrics, Explorers, Frontiersmen, and Conquerors, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Religion, Twentieth Century

Hoosier Poet Canned Goods

Very few--if any other--poets have a line of canned goods named after them, as did James Whitcomb Riley.





Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 14, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Poetry, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

Rodeo Sweetheart

The earliest reference I find to a "Rodeo Sweetheart" is 1929. And the tradition is still flourishing today.

To get in the mood for appreciating this longtime contest, you can listen to the classic Byrds album.







Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 03, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Regionalism, Twentieth Century, Twenty-first Century, Circuses, Carnivals, and Other Traveling Shows

True Crime Podcast on Vinyl

Well, not exactly, but close enough. Use embedded player below.

History of the case here.










Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 25, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Crime, Death, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, United Kingdom, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

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Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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