Replica of Welcome Stranger Nugget (Photo: Rodney Start / Museums Victoria, CC BY 4.0 DEED)

John Deason was the son of a fisherman. Much like his future business partner Richard Oates, a fellow tin miner, he was not seen to be destined for future greatness. Yet in 1851, an Australian Gold Rush that started in New South Wales changed both of their fates. Hundreds of thousands of prospectors immigrated to the Outback hoping to be among the lucky ones to discover gold. Deason left for the Down Under in 1853, and a year later Oates joined him.

While the men found small gold nuggets here and there, they were struggling to get by and relied on their small farms to fund their prospecting operation. Reportedly, the men didn’t have enough credit to even get a sack of flour the week prior to their big break. After 15 years of toiling, Deason broke his pick on what was to become known as the “Welcome Stranger” nugget. At a whopping 158.7 pounds, the gold behemoth was encased in quartz and found tangled in the roots of a tree. The men decided to wait until nighttime to uncover the entirety of the nugget and then threw a party for their friends to reveal their history-making find.

With these very friends acting as a bodyguard, the men took their nugget to the nearby town of Donolly. They attracted a crowd to the London Chartered Bank, requiring a constable to be called. However, the Welcome Stranger was too big to fit on the bank’s scale. Before a photograph could be taken, the nugget was broken apart to be weighed. It took five hours to get small enough pieces.

The nugget drew comparison to the previously largest found “Welcome Nugget,” from over a decade earlier in New South Wales. The Welcome Stranger was larger by 6 pounds, and was purer gold. While Deason and Oates generously gave bits of the nugget to their friends, eager to have a piece of history, they earned over £9,400 ($11,863). That would be equivalent to a little over  £1.3 million (roughly $1.64 million) today. However, a similar amount of gold would fetch around  £3 million ($3.8 million) today.

The nugget was melted and sent to England by the end of February 1869, and Deason and Oates went back to work their land as if little had changed. The local paper Dunolly & Bet Bet Shire Express noted on a visit after their discovery how little changed the men were and started, “We are glad that the monster has fallen to the lot of such steady and industrious men.” Deason and his family stayed in the area, with descendants still residing in what is a quiet agricultural area today. While Oates returned to his homeland for some time, finding a wife and starting a family, he later returned to Australia.

It’s unclear whether the men’s lives changed drastically after their newfound wealth; however, the Welcome Stranger continues to hold the public’s historical imagination. In the 1980s, Australia released pure gold bullion coins, with the largest denomination depicting the Welcome Stranger. Despite no photographs existing, several replicas have been made. In 2019, the prospectors' descendants gathered to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the precious discovery.

Even today, tourists looking for adventure can head to Victoria to dig for gold. No one has yet managed to find a nugget of gold larger than the “Welcome Stranger” in Australia or anywhere else. The largest fully intact nugget still in existence is the “Pepita Canaa,” weighing 134 pounds. Julio de Deus Filho found the piece in Brazil in 1983. The Museu de Valores do Banco Central do Brasil has it on display. If you want to check out an Australian nugget of gold, the “Hand of Faith,” discovered in 1980 by a metal detector, is fittingly on display at the Gold Nugget Casino in Las Vegas. At only 60 pounds, though, it is just over a third of Oates and Deason’s mammoth.

One hundred fifty-five years ago, two humble miners, John Deason and Richard Oates, discovered the largest gold nugget ever that was the size of an adult man.

Miners and their wives posing with the finders of the nugget, Richard Oates, John Deason, and his wife. (Photo: William Parker via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Before a proper photograph could be taken, the “Welcome Stranger” nugget was melted down, leaving only drawings to base replicas upon.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

h/t: [IFL Science]

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Do you know why the place you live is named what it’s named? Some have straightforward origins, while others leave even those who have been there for decades scratching their heads. In an effort to unravel the meaning behind state and city names across the U.S., WordTips has created a map featuring the literal translations of their names—opening a window to the history of each area.

“To know the meaning of the place names around us is to learn how the land, the history and the culture of a locality have developed over the centuries,” writes the WordTips team. To find these answers, they turned to etymology, as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the American Library Association, and regional news reports, looking for at least two sources for each “literal translation.” In the end, they uncovered the meaning of all U.S. state names, each U.S. state's capital city, and 178 of America’s biggest cities.

“While many state names derive from Native history and/or the features of the land, some bear the marks of colonialism,” shares WordTips. For example, The Carolinas get their name from King Charles II and his father, Charles I, and their state capitals were named after European explorers Sir Walter Raleigh and Christopher Columbus. Meanwhile, “Minneapolis” comes from “Minne,” the Sioux word for water, combined with the Greek suffix “polis,” which means “city.”

Other bits of history that stand out in state and city names are the cases of Seattle and Chicago. The former means “Land of Chief Si'ahl,” making it the only major city named after a Native Chief. As for Chicago, its most common accepted origin is the Algonquin word “shikaakwa,” meaning “striped skunk” or “onion,” the latter of which was spotted in abundance by early explorers around Chicago's lakes.

French and Spanish colonizers also left an imprint via the names they chose, especially in the southern U.S. Most major cities in California hold a Spanish name that pays tribute to a Catholic figure, such as San Diego (a Spanish friar) or San Francisco (Saint Francis). “Los Angeles” comes from “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Ángeles” (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels), in reference to the Virgin Mary. On the other hand, Louisville, Kentucky, was named after the French king Louis XVI, while Louisiana owes its name to his great-great-great grandfather, King Louis XIV.

Many states and places are also named after people. Washington State pays tribute to the first U.S. president, but other places honor more obscure figures. Cincinnati's name comes from Roman statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus; while Bismarck, North Dakota, is named after Otto von Bismarck, known as “the founder of modern Germany.”

Learn more about your hometown and your favorite American destinations by exploring the maps below.

WordTips has created a map featuring the literal translations of U.S. state and city names—opening a window to the history of each area.

“To know the meaning of the place names around us is to learn how the land, the history and the culture of a locality have developed over the centuries.”

To find these answers, they turned to etymology, as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Encyclopedia Britannica, the American Library Association, and regional news reports.

In the end, they uncovered the meaning of all U.S. state names, each U.S. state's capital city, and 178 of America’s biggest cities.

what are the origins of the name of the place you live in?

WordTips: Website

All images via WordTips

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A 13th-century diagram of veins. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

Think of medieval doctors and you probably picture a man dressed in robes, perhaps with a plague mask. In the popular imagination, medicine of the Middle Ages is all leeches, bloodletting, and mystical charms and potions. But to a medieval mind, our modern surgery, pharmaceuticals, and blood tests might look just as divorced from scientific reality.

Modern scholars of the history of medicine are attempting to put the record straight by situating these historic practitioners in a long history of scientific inquiry and deduction. Historian Meg Leja of SUNY Binghamton, who recently penned an article for The Conversation, and Peregrine Horden, whose research was recently published in Social History of Medicine, are trying to shift the needle.

As commented on by Leja, Horden's article situates bizarre medieval “cures” in contexts that explain the rationale behind the (usually gross) regime. These nasty cures could use the fluids and organs of animals, while others involved mixing herbal ingredients like garlic and mugwort. Historic practitioners were undoubtedly successful in curing ailments—treating infections with antibacterial poultices made with honey or concerns for fresh air allude to modern cures. Unfortunately, without modern developments in childbirth, pharmacology, or surgery, saving patients was certainly harder. The regular reoccurrence of deadly pandemics such as plague also devastated patients.

These medieval doctors received inherited medical knowledge from the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. Yet in the early Middle Ages, often called the Dark Ages, books were rare, and universities just began to form after the year 1000 CE. Monks carefully guarded and copied the remains of ancient knowledge left in Europe.

As physicians began to train at universities, they learned to combine this knowledge with practice and rigorous observation. A patient's fluids and appearance could tell them a lot, just like they inform modern medicine. They then rationally tried to adjust what they observed back to a normal state, perhaps by letting blood to purge toxins or altering a diet to affect the humors of the body.

Early texts from the Dark Ages and into the later medieval period recorded recipes for treatments, signs of disease in urine, and views of veins gained from autopsies. As medieval doctors were far from the only practitioners of healing, their patients would have had a wide variety of treatments to choose from. While today's patients may prefer a modern X-ray with good reason, there's less reason to look down our noses at the medieval “quacks.”

One may think of the Dark Ages as a time of quack doctors and magical cures, but medieval medicine was not as divorced from science as we might think.

A 14th-century chart to interpret urine colors. (Photo: Trinity College, Cambridge, CC BY-NC 4.0 DEED)

A 14th-century dentist extracting teeth. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

A 19th-century facsimile of the 10th-century Bald's Leechbook. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

A selection pf household remedies combined into a book in the 15th century. (Photo: Cambridge University Library/Scriptorium: Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Online, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED)

h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine, Cambridge University]

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Photo: Julian Calder for Governor-General of New Zealand via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) (left); Bert Parry via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (right)

Queen Elizabeth II and Marilyn Monroe look like two 20th-century figures who couldn't be more distant. One was the longest sovereign in British history, while the other was a bombshell from the Golden Age of Hollywood. And yet, these two figures shared a moment, building a bridge between two women who shaped history in their respective areas.

Since many associate Queen Elizabeth II with her regal portraits and Monroe with films from the 1950, it would be hard to believe they were actually the same age. As it turns out, they were not only born in the same year, but they were less than two months apart in age. The British monarch was born on April 21, 1926, while the American actress was born only 41 days later, on June 1, 1926.

By the mid-1950s, they were both well on their way along their respective paths. Queen Elizabeth II acceded to the throne in 1952, while some of Monroe's most popular films, like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, and How to Marry a Millionaire, were released between 1953 and 1955. In 1956, Monroe flew to the UK to film The Prince and the Showgirl, at Pinewood Studios in England, where she starred alongside Laurence Oliver. Her stay made her fascinated with the Queen, and she dreamed of having tea with the royal at Buckingham Palace.

While she didn't get invited over for tea, Monroe's wish to meet the Queen came true. During her time in London, Monroe was invited to the Royal Command Performance at the Empire Theatre. There, she lined up with other luminaries from the time, such as Joan Crawford and Brigitte Bardot to greet Queen and her sister, Princess Margaret. The moment was captured on video, showing both women excited to meet one another.

In her book When Marilyn Met the Queen, author Michelle Morgan recounts their conversation, in which the monarch asked the actress about her time in England. “The two then chatted for several minutes, and covered subjects including being neighbors and the Queen's beloved Windsor. ‘We love it,' Marilyn said. ‘As we have a permit my husband and I go for bicycle rides in the Great Park.'”

It has been said that by wearing a gold silk low-cut dress, Monroe didn't stick to protocol and defied previous requests made by officials. Hwoever, that didn't seem to phase the Queen. Instead, the monarch was taken aback by Monroe's makeup. She reportedly told a confidant, “I thought Miss Monroe was a very sweet person. But I felt sorry for her, because she was so nervous that she had licked all of her lipstick off.” As for Monroe, she had a very positive opinion on the encounter. “The Queen is very warm-hearted,” the actress said. “She radiates sweetness.”

Queen Elizabeth II and Marilyn Monroe, who were the same age, met in London in 1956. Watch the encounter below.

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There are two sides to every coin, and this year the United States Mint will continue to celebrate various female figures throughout history by placing them on one side of the U.S. quarter. From Civil War era surgeon Dr. Mary Edwards Walker to salsa sensation Celia Cruz, this year will highlight impactful representations of women who have played significant roles in enacting positive change. These carefully designed portraits that depict five different women on U.S. quarters emphasize the way imagery shapes our understanding of people. These coins are “pocket portraits” that can inspire people to continue making a positive impact in their communities.

Peeling back the layers of these images emphasizes the importance of accurate visual representations of historical figures. As the perfect pocket portraits, hopefully these images of strong women spark an encouraging spirit to find ways of positively impacting the world.

The proof set of the 2024 American Women Quarters is now available for $23. Scroll down to learn a bit more about each woman.

The United States Mint has unveiled new U.S. quarter designs in honor of five pioneering women in various fields.

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker's posture emits a sense of strength in the way that she confronts the viewer. The only female to earn such a high achievement, she is featured with her Medal of Honor. Born in New York, her family valued education. Dr. Edwards continued her education at the Syracuse Medical School where she earned her degree. At the inception of the Civil War, Dr. Edwards dedicated herself to providing medical assistance to those injured in war. She also founded the Women's Relief Organization, which supported families of soldiers wounded in action.

Pauli Muray

Pauli Muray was a reverend and established poet who passionately fought for civil rights. Born in Baltimore, Murray earned her degree from the Harvard University law program with a focus on civil rights law. Later in her career, Reverend Murray co-founded the National Organization for Women. Her dedication to improving the quality of life for all continues to live on in this design. Her portrait spans across the capitalized word “HOPE,” her face framed by the curved line of the letter “O.” Murray believed deeply that hope acts as a cornerstone for positive social changes. Her incredible efforts motivate people to act with the intention of a bright future.

Patsy Takemoto Mink

The etching of Patsy Takemoto Mink represents her unwavering faith in equal opportunity education, gender and racial equality, and care for the environment fueled her to enact hopeful change. Takemoto Mink achieved her degree from the University of Chicago in the early 1950s. Her graduating class included her and one other female, immediately speaking to her concern for gender equality. The life and efforts of Takemoto Mink inspire people to achieve the goals you set out for yourself, which is highlighted in her appearance on the U.S. quarter. She is depicted as a woman of action, writing legislation in front of a government building. This scene features her with a Hawaiian lei gracefully draped around her neck, emphasizing her environmentally conscious efforts.

Zitkala-Ša (“Red Bird”)

Native American figure Zitkala-Ša's composition includes her figure, holding a book and looking off into the distance. There is a sun in the background with a bird flying off to the left of the frame. She wears traditional Native American clothing and is accompanied by the words “Author. Activist. Composer.” Zitkala-Ša, Red Bird, was raised by her mother and on a reservation in South Dakota, until she was taken to Indiana by Quaker missionaries. There, she briefly attended the White's Indiana Manual Labor Institute. Her life experiences fueled her desire to actively encourage social change through her writing and music. This composition uses visual imagery to inspire viewers to dig deeper and achieve even greater feats of positivity.

Celia Cruz

The lively spirit of Cuban salsa dancer and singer Celia Cruz comes to life in this composition that celebrates her zesty personality. Growing up in Havana, Cruz was surrounded by the vibrant nature of Cuban music. Eventually, the pursuit of her singing career led her to move to the United States after the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s. As if you can hear the beat of the music, this tiny portrait evokes movement as the fabric of her garb flows across the coin. Cruz wears a joyful smile on her face, perhaps inspiring people to embody a similar energy.

h/t [Fast Company]

All images via the United States Mint.

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Sheet music from the early 20th century. (Photo: Wikimedia, Public Domain)

What's your favorite musical? Do you belt out “Defying Gravity” when you're alone? Do you still dance anytime “Seasons of Love” from Rent starts playing? Do you still dream of the incredible costumes from The Lion King? Chances are, if you're a Broadway enthusiast or music aficionado, you know George Gershwin's work. Born in 1898, the legendary composer produced classics throughout his short life before dying in 1937. He wrote the opera Porgy and Bess as well as the original Funny Face musical starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire.

Among his works, there was a gap—the musical known as La La Lucille had been missing, its words and music largely unknown for a century. While scholars had previously tried to recreate the lost work, this process took a sudden leap forward with the surprise discovery of the lost, original sheet music by a University of Michigan professor in the Amherst College Archives in Massachusetts.

La La Lucille premiered on Broadway in 1919. It was an important early work of Gershwin's composition, based on a book by Fred Jackson and paired with the lyrics of four authors. It is set on a wild night in New York when a married couple learns of a sudden inheritance, their acceptance of which is conditional on their divorce. The wife, a former showgirl named Lucille, and her husband plan a deception of comic proportions to keep both their love and the money. The music, composed entirely by a brilliant 20-year-old Gershwin, ushers the characters through the plot. However, the loss of sheet music for many songs has reduced these tunes to a few extant piano versions.

University of Michigan scholar Jacob Kerzner was perusing the Amherst College archives in summer 2023. In the Samuel French Collection, he discovered a surprising stack of about 800 pages full of scores. This complete orchestration includes music for flutes, cellos, and other accompanying instruments that had not been heard for almost a century. The musical's last recorded performance, while on the road, was in Massachusetts in 1926. This may be why the scores ended up in Amherst.

In February 2024, music students at the University of Michigan performed songs from the musical alongside this complete music. Junior Aquila Sol sang “Somehow It Seldom Comes True,” while junior Keyon Pickett performed “From Now On.” Professor Jayce Ogren conducted.

“We get to hear these fun flute lines that we hadn’t noticed,” Kerzner told M Live. “We get to warm up some of these ballads with strings, and we get to even see some of the changes in harmony that may not have been published in the piano-vocal, but that George Gershwin or Frank Saddler may have adjusted as they developed this show for Broadway.” A critical edition of the work is also said to be in the works.

The music and lyrics of La La Lucille, a lost Gershwin musical first performed in 1919, were rediscovered a century later by a scholar from the University of Michigan.

“La La Lucille” in its film adaption, 1920. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

The musical, discovered in Amherst College's archives, tells the story of a couple who receives a surprise inheritance.

Listen to some of the long-lost songs yourselves and enjoy the music.

h/t: [M Live]

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Photo: Stock Photos from natnatnat/Shutterstock

Though famously short in stature, leprechauns have landed a big role in Irish folklore. These “wee folk” have captured imaginations for centuries, enchanting generation after generation with green get-ups and promises o' gold.

Though the leprechaun is a staple of pop culture in the Emerald Isle and beyond, its origins are a bit more mysterious. Fortunately, if you've ever wished you knew more about these little sprites, you're in luck! Here, we take a look at the history of the legendary figure.

What is a leprechaun?

Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

In Irish folklore, a leprechaun is a type of fairy. The character is commonly depicted as a tiny, bearded man clad in an emerald ensemble comprising a waistcoat, buckled shoes, and a top hat. In traditional tales, they are shoemakers, fancifully represented by a distinctive “tapping” sound. “Lay your ear close to the hill,” The Leprecaun; or Fairy Shoemaker, an 18th-century poem by William Allingham, reads, “Do you not catch the tiny clamour, Busy click of an elfin hammer, Voice of the Lepracaun singing shrill As he merrily plies his trade?”

In addition to their signature look and sound, leprechauns are known for their love of making mischief. According to legend, they are not to be trusted, as they love playing tricks on people. On the other side of the coin, however, their deviousness makes them lucky; they will grant three wishes to anyone crafty enough to catch them.

Although the leprechaun is unique to Ireland, the figure is an archetype that exists in cultures throughout the world. Places including Iceland, the Philippines, and Indonesia, as well as the Indigenous people in North America, also have stories about little people with supernatural abilities known for their luck and guile.

Enchanting Evolution

While traces of the leprechaun legend date back to the 8th century, the character as we know it today is likely a conflation of two figures from Irish mythology: the luchorpán and the clúrachán. Over the centuries, elements associated with each of these enchanting creatures have mixed and mingled to conjure up the concept of the leprechaun.

The Luchorpán

Photo: Stock Photos from Marshall Courtney/Shutterstock

The word “leprechaun” likely derives from the Old Irish (the language spoken in Ireland between 600 and 900) luchorpán, a compound word whose roots, lú and corp, mean “small” and “body,” respectively.

The earliest recorded use of this term is found in The Death of Fergus mac Leiti, an 8th-century story about tiny water spirits—the luchorpán—who tricks a king into giving up his throne after attempting to drag him into the sea and granting him three wishes.

The Clúrachán

Leprechaun or clúrachán (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

A clúrachán is a solitary, household fairy. Legend has it that the clúrachán haunts wine cellars—a move motivated by the small sprite's love of drinking—and, like the leprechaun, revels in tomfoolery and trickery. They traditionally dress in green, which is likely where the leprechaun's signature color scheme came from. In fact, until the 20th century, leprechauns were customarily clad in red!

“But he is quite a beau in his dress, notwithstanding, for he wears a red square-cut coat, richly laced with gold, and inexpressible of the same, cocked hat, shoes and buckles,” Samuel Lover wrote in Legends and Stories of Ireland, an anthology published in 1831.

Over the last couple of centuries, however, the clúrachán‘s association with the color green has trickled into tales of the leprechaun, eventually becoming one of the sprite's most defining features.

The Modern Leprechaun

Photo: Stock Photos from babenkoirusa/Shutterstock

Today, the legend of the leprechaun has taken on a life of its own. In addition to elements borrowed from the luchorpán and the clúrachán, the modern leprechaun has come to be associated with other attributes—namely, a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. While the origin of this trope isn't crystal clear, a popular explanation is that the leprechauns would use their elusive treasure as a means to trick passersby and barter with their captors.

Leprechauns are seen throughout American culture, where they are the faces of breakfast cereals (Lucky Charms) as well as the mascots of basketball teams (the University of Notre Dame and the Boston Celtics).

Our perception of the enchanted creatures has changed over the years, culminating in the “toadstool sitters, with red Galway beards and green hats” that we associate with one particularly magical holiday: St. Patrick's Day.

The Leprechaun and St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is a Christian feast day that falls on March 17. It celebrates St. Patrick, a Romano-British Christian bishop who converted the pagan Irish to Christianity in the 5th century.

He was made a patron saint of Ireland as a posthumous reward for his tireless efforts, which he recounted in an autobiographical letter. “The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same. I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain.”

Given the holiday's heavily religious roots, why is the leprechaun is associated with St. Patrick's Day? In popular culture, St. Patrick's Day is less of a liturgical holy day and more of a celebration of all things Irish. This includes the evergreen leprechaun, who magically captures both the heritage and hue of the historic Emerald Isle.

Children enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day, and a recent trend is a nod to their trickster side: kids and their parents set “leprechaun traps” each year. If the kids wake up and find that there are gold coins or treasure in the trap, they will know they caught the leprechaun.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a leprechaun?

A leprechaun is part of Irish folklore and is part of the fairy world. These mischievous little creatures were cobblers in traditional tales, but today the modern leprechaun is known for his love of gold and for trying to trick people.

Why do leprechauns wear green?

Until the 20th century, leprechauns actually wore red. It's believed that the tradition of dressing their little bodies in green clothing came from the clúrachán, a solitary, household fairy whose personality slowly merged with that of the modern leprechaun. This traditional figure also loves trickery and dresses in green.

Why do leprechauns like gold?

The association between leprechauns, gold, and rainbows is actually quite new. It was not present in Irish folklore, and it's not totally clear where the connection began. Some scholars believe that their greed and love of hoarding gold are used as excuses for their trickery.

This article has been edited and updated.

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READ: A “Wee” History of the Leprechaun, a Legendary Character From Irish Folklore

Photo: V_Nikitenko/Depositphotos

Physical photographs have captivated humans ever since the invention of the camera in 1816, with their ability to capture life's special moments. One of the earliest and often forgotten photo technologies is tintypes.

Tintypes are a kind of photograph created by generating a direct positive on a sheet of metal. Ironically, the name is misleading because tin wasn't actually used to create the photographs—instead, the images were usually developed on thin iron plates. The process was invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer, who made the mistake of not patenting his creation, leading to the process being widely recreated. Sadly, Archer was also unable to make any money from his invention during his lifetime and died impoverished.

However, Archer's creation outlived him. From the 1850s to the early 20th century, tintypes were widely used across the Western world, as they had a few advantages over other traditional photography techniques of the time. Their photographs did not have a reflection, unlike daguerreotypes, another popular form of photography. Tintypes also generated positive images and were significantly faster to develop, taking approximately 15 minutes. This made them especially popular for portrait photography, even though photography studios rarely used the technique after the 1860s. Thanks to the convenient and sturdy nature of the tintypes, they were often sold as popular souvenirs at events.

Today, tintype photography is rarely used, except for a handful of dedicated photographers. These photographers typically use aluminum instead of iron but keep many of the traditional processes. Some innovative photographers have even built businesses around this photography style, keeping the past—and Archer's invention—alive.

Tintypes are an early style of photography. Contrary to their name, the photos were often developed on thin sheets of iron rather than tin.

Photo: V_Nikitenko/Depositphotos

These tintypes were more popular than other photography styles of the time because they didn't have a reflection and could be developed quickly, making them perfect souvenirs.

Photo: V_Nikitenko/Depositphotos

h/t: [PetaPixel]

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Photo: RAWPIXEL/Depositphotos

Most countries have an official language. For example, Canada boasts dual official languages: French and English. Switzerland has four, which are largely geographically segmented in their usage. Bolivia boasts the Guinness World Record for most official languages at 37—including Spanish and a litany of Indigenous languages spoken by citizens. Even when not an official language, English is spoken widely across the world and forms a bridge between language divides. It is often used in business, universities, and international governance. Despite being the native language of 78% of Americans, English is surprisingly not the official language of the United States. This history of language is inextricably entwined with that of power in American history.

The earliest Europeans who colonized America brought with them a variety of languages, including English, Spanish, Dutch, and French. They arrived on shores which already boasted a rich linguistic tradition of Indigenous languages, many of which survive today despite years of persecution and conscious attempts at erasure through residential schools, violence, and forced assimilation. Meanwhile, enslaved people from Africa brought their own languages too, but these were treated as dangerous modes of resistance. At the time of American independence from Britain, a national language debate arose. “The Founding Fathers didn’t see a need to declare one,” Dr. Wayne Wright, a professor at Purdue University, told CNN in 2018. “English was pretty much the dominant language of the United States at the time so there really wasn’t a need to protect it. And they didn’t want to offend their fellow Americans who helped fight for independence.”

Throughout the 19th century, new waves of European immigrants built significant populations in the U.S., including Italians, the Irish, and eastern Europeans. Asian immigrants also arrived, despite legislative attempts to restrict their immigration. Debates over English's primacy and the treatment of non-English speakers have continued throughout our national history, intensified often by periods of Nativism and xenophobia. “The sad thing about debates about language is that they’re rarely about language itself, but the people who happen to speak those languages,” said Wright. The movement to enshrine English continues today, with a 2023 bill by Republicans pending in Congress. On the state level, many states have officially named English as their language.

However, at the same time, American language education is lacking compared to much of the world. Although the number of Americans who speak a second language at home is rising, bilingualism lags behind much of the world. As America becomes more multicultural, political power struggles over an “official language” continue to speak more to broader debates over immigration, religion, and race. As Alberto Rey Agudo, of Dartmouth College, wrote in the LA Times, “Most important, they show that languages are not a zero-sum game. Kids can speak English and Spanish—or Portuguese, French, or Chinese—and thrive. Maybe they will teach the grown-ups a thing or two.”

The United States of America, unlike most countries does not have an official language, despite English's prominence in culture and politics.

Photo: RAWPIXEL/Depositphotos

h/t: [IFL Science]

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READ: The Multicultural History of Why the U.S. Has No Official Language

A digital enhancement to bring the rock art into sharper relief. (Photo:
G.R.V.)

Cave art left behind by ancient humans has created many scientific mysteries. Who drew what when—the answers can tell us a lot about the early movement and the lives of humans and our ancient relatives. Sometimes cave art records human-ness such as handprints, or activities such as hunting. Sometimes the designs discovered painted in caves or carved into rocks are geometric in nature. Among the most exciting cave art to be studied in the past decade is a cave covered in 895 paintings in Patagonia in South America. New carbon dating research, published in Science, suggests the drawings at Cueva Huenul 1 (CH1) in Argentina are 8,200 years old, making them the oldest known cave art in the region.

The drawings in CH1 have been an object of study for almost a decade. They present 446 distinct groupings of individual drawings. The cave also contained other kinds of ancient artwork beads crafted from shells, decorated animal bones, and gourds which were also engraved. All these works are evidence of the earliest human settlements down at the tip of South America, which humans reached around 12,000 years ago. Scientists wanted to know how old exactly the drawings were, so they tested charcoal found in some of the drawings, specifically “comb”-shaped black sketches that appear frequently.

Accelerator mass spectrometry revealed the remaining carbon in the organic material. Using radio-carbon dating, a practice based on radioactive decay's regular timeline, the charcoal could be dated. Multiple samples were used for accuracy. These yielded an impressive result: the charcoal was 8,171 years old. Not all drawings were created at the same time, however. Researchers believe 130 generations of ancient humans were responsible for the artwork—which includes abstract, human, and animal figures.

According to the paper, at the time of the oldest rock art, a “thinly distributed and highly mobile hunter-gatherer population” inhabited the area. The climate was very arid. “In our rock art case, the [evidence] from the drylands in South America shows that during the early part of the Mid-Holocene (approximately 10,000 to 7,000 years before the present) populations did not grow and may actually have decreased in size,” Ramiro Barberena, paper-co-author, remarked to Hyperallergic, likely with “periodic population crashes rather than long-term stability.” The scholar added, “Additionally, since the sites from the mid-Holocene do not show very intense occupations, we presume that these small human groups had to move in wider areas.” While they left much behind to study, there is still much to learn about Patagonia's earliest inhabitants.

These 8,200-year-old cave paintings date to the mid-Halocene, a period of receding shifting arid climates which affected the humans establishing a foothold in Patagonia.

What do you see in this rock art? (Photo:
G.R.V.)

The volcanic landscape of the Monte Desert and the cave. (Photo: G.R.V.)

The pit structure, red ochre, and a shell bead. (Photo: G.R.V. and R.B>)

h/t: [Hyperallergic]

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