Justice League of Public Domain Victorian Characters?

Yeah, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Alan Moore’s series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , affords the readers a Steampunk setting for these fanciful creations of Victorian imagination.

The original series, illustrated by Kevin O’Neill, premiered in 1999 with Jim Lee’s Wildstorm Comics imprint and DC Comics formidable backing. Moore has noted as literary influences such diverse authors as William S. Burroughs, Douglas Adams, Aleister Crowley, and Oscar Wilde.

The value of keeping literary characters available in the public domain is exhibited in not only Alan Moore’s authorship, but with the character’s portrayal across multiple forms of media delivery. It is unfortunate Moore has developed such an acrimonious relationship with Hollywood and we won’t have the chance to see his stories through a collaborative lens, as the movie industry takes his work from the page to the screen.

At any rate, hope you enjoy a ride with some the iconic personalities of modern Western culture.

Source works of the principal characters:

Wilhelmina Murray

• Dracula by Bram Stoker

Archive related media: Movie

http://www.archive.org/details/nosferatu

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Archive related media: Text

The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Illustrated by Charles Raymond Macauley

Dr. Fu Manchu

• The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer

Archive related media: Old Time Radio

The Shadow of Fu Manchu

Serial melodrama, based on the stories by Sax Rohmer.

http://www.archive.org/details/FuManchuOTRKIBM

Allan Quatermain

• King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard

Archive related media: Movie

http://www.archive.org/details/king_solomans_mine

Capt. Capt. Nemo (Prince Dakkar?)

• Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island

Archive related media: Text

http://www.archive.org/details/worksofjulesvern05vern

Sherlock Holmes

• Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle

Archive related media: Audio Book

http://www.archive.org/details/return_holmes_0708_librivox

- baird

MLK - A Hero’s Journey

A hero is one who has given him(her)self up to the benefit of another.

April 4 marks the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. Voicing ideas and challenging authority is a path lined with fatal dangers. In an extreme case of delayed gratification, 40 years later we have our first black candidate with a reasonable chance at the White House.

Democracy Now! Monday, January 21, 2008 - Democracy Now!
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968

…if he had lived, he would have turned 79 years old. In the early 1960s, King focused his challenge on legalized racial discrimination in the South where police dogs and bullwhips and cattle prods were used against Southern blacks seeking the right to vote or to eat at a public lunch counter. After passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, King began challenging the nation’s fundamental priorities. He maintained that civil rights laws were empty without “human rights”—including economic rights.

Rustbelt Radio - Pittsburgh Indymedia
Reflections on the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

CascadiaPublicRadio - portland oregon community radio
Monday, January 15 22nd Annual “Keep Alive the Dream” Tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. January 15th 11:00 - 6:00 PM Folk Espresso– Folk music in the morning. (5:30) am The KBOO Morning News at 7:00 am More Talk Radio – Del Walker hosts a discussion of the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We Celebrate Martin Luther King
Montage of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as part of the celebration in San Antonio Tx, which takes place each year. This year’s celebration was taped for San Antonio Public Access TV.

I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King Jr. - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
This is an audio recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. giving the “I Have a Dream” speech during the Civil Rights rally on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

MOR Episode 1 - Row Lewis
In this broadcast, Row Lewis discusses what Dr. King’s legacy means to her as a minister and sheds light on the watering down of MLK’s revolution of consciousness: “They’ve created a mythical Martin Luther King Jr., constructed solely from a few lines in his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. And each year, we hear only a portion of this remarkable and rebellious address to an oppressive nation…”

- baird

May the Force be Archived

Most of these Star Wars takeoffs have been kicking around on the Archive for some time getting loads of hits. This post is for the uninitiated who have yet to learn that Star Wars, Lego, and web video go together like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader. Since Star Wars and web video also make a popular couple, two non-brick film animations are also featured.

• Lego Star Wars
  An hour long brick film version of the first Star Wars movie.
• Store Wars
  Learn the ways of The Farm and Darth Tator in the battle for organic food.
• Complaints of the Neurotic
  The character of Woody Allen takes the role of Luke Skywalker who is psychoanalyzed by Yoda in this animation.
• Lego Wars Part II (1004)
  Lewis Chen created this hugely popular brick film.
• Star Wars: The Han Solo Affair (2002)
  Spite Your Face Productions produced this brick film for Lucasfilm.

– Renata

Vintage Cookbooks

Our Cook Book and Home Economics Collection has many gems, and a few are highlighted below.

“Stewed chicken without mashed potatoes, and pork without apple sauce loose half their zest.” This is according to the Pilgrim Cook Book published by Chicago’s Pilgrim Evangelical Lutheran Church Ladies’ Aid Society in 1921. With 700 recipes, you can find Sausage in Potato Boxes (p. 31), Blitz Torte (p. 123), Cough Syrup (p. 130), and Sauerkraut Candy (p. 145).

If you’re stuck at home with a sick person, you might want to check out Food for the invalid and the convalescent published in 1912. If Beef Juice (p. 19) and Meat Jelly (p.26) don’t make your ward feel better, you might want to try the Cracker Gruel (p. 33). In case you didn’t realize, “Vegetables and fruit, while they do not contain much nourishment, are necessary to prevent some diseases.” And the authors would also like you to know that, among other things, beer and pickles are bad for children.

Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for boys & girls (1975) shows kids how to prepare all kinds of nifty meals and snacks, including Pigs in a Blanket (p. 112), Three Men In A Boat (p.123), Cabage Wedgies (p. 163), and Ice Cream Cone Cakes (p. 18).

The 1906 book A bachelors cupboard; containing crumbs culled from the cupboards of the great unwedded has a great many pieces of wisdom to impart along with its recipes. Among them: “The day of of the ‘dude’ has passed and the weakling is relegated to his rightful sphere in short order” (p. 2). Once you’re done laughing at the intro, try a saucy recipe like Bed-Spread For Two (p. 75) - be sure to turn to page 76 and read the beginning of the recipe for Chilely for a little giggle. Then move on to some more manly recipes like Indian Devil Mixture (p. 78), Hot Birds (p. 83) and Finnan Haddie (p. 99). On a more sober note, you can read about some of the San Francisco restaurants that were destroyed during the 1906 earthquake starting on page 85.

And finally, you can cook just about anything in a paper bag, including Frog Legs (p. 53), Bacon and Bananas (p. 70), and Omelettes ( p. 88). Check out the 1912 cookbook Standard paper-bag cookery for more ideas.

– Alexis

A is for Archive: One Hundred Years of Alphabet Books

This selection of alphabet books spans a hundred years and is probably of more interest to adults than children. Two of the more unusual books are the Anti-Slavery Alphabet published at the height of the American abolition movement and Little People: An Alphabet which could as easily be titled ‘An Alphabet of Racism’. This popular form of educating (and sometimes indoctrinating) children has endured for over two centuries. The form has also been used to amuse adults as can be seen in An Alphabet of Celebrities.

• The Royal Alphabet (1808):
  View Item / View Book
• The Merry Cobler and his Musical Alphabet (1815-1820?):
  View Item / View Book
• The Nursery Present, or, Alphabet of Pictures (1830):
  View Item / View Book
• An Anti-Slavery Alphabet (1847):
  View Item / View Book
• Footsteps on the Road to Learning, or, The Alphabet in Rhyme (1849):
  View Item / View Book
• The Illustrated Alphabet of Birds (1851):
  View Item / View Book
• Funny Alphabet (1850-1864?):
  View Item / View Book
• My First Alphabet (1865 to 1889?):
  View Item / View Book
• An Alphabet of Celebrities (1899):
  View Item / View Book
• Little People: An Alphabet (1901):
  View Item / View Book
• An Alphabet of History (1905):
  View Item / View Book
• A Peter Pan Alphabet (1907):
  View Item / View Book

– Renata

Classic Television

The Archive’s patrons, along with our excellent volunteer curator, twainbough, have been helping us build up a nifty collection of Classic Television episodes, and we think it’s time to unveil it!

Here are a few choice morsels for you to peruse:

• Jackie Gleason on Cavalcade of Stars doing a sketch of the Honeymooners (before it became a show)
• A 1965 episode of The Jack Benny Hour with Bob Hope, the Beach Boys, Elke Summer and Walt Disney
• Rosemary Clooney singing “I Dont Know Why I Just Do” on The Edsel Hour
• 6 episodes of Sherlock Holmes
• 39 episodes of Diver Dan
• The Night America Trembled (1957) with Ed Asner, James Coburn, and a very young Warren Beatty
• A 1956 episode of the Dinah Shore Show - she opens with an excellent rendition of “Honeysuckle Rose”

– Alexis

Recitals

You probably remember your first recital, whether it was on the piano, the violin, a recorder, or a dance floor. Your parents ooohed and ahhhed over your every little mistake and thought you were a virtuoso in the making. Well, the archive has an interesting selection of recitals to choose from, with nary a cute kid to be found. Okay, that’s a lie - I’ve included at least one 8 year old, but he doesn’t make any mistakes.

• Becca Stevens - Senior recital at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music
• Perf de Castro - 10 string guitar recital of Vals #4, op. 8
• Sarah Graham - Mozart’s “Voi, che sapete”
• Miloslav Gajdos - double bass performance of Concert Fantasy by Jan Geissel
• Irish Family Dance - a little Riverdance-style action
• Maestro Martensson - Plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the piano and violin, simultaneously
• William Chiu (8 years old) - piano recital, playing Mozart’s Sonata in C

– Alexis

Bad Ass Babes

It’s that time of year again - hearts, flowers, candy, cupid and bad ass babes. These lovely ladies must not have a date for Valentine’s Day, because they are very badly behaved and not afraid to show it!

• The She Beast
• The Wasp Women
• Tormented
• The Atomic Brain (aka “Monstrosity”)
• Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter

– Alexis

Dating for Dummies

If you haven’t been having much luck in the dating arena lately, maybe it’s time for a little brushup on your skills (ladies, apparently we’re supposed to invite our dates in and make them sandwiches at the end of the evening). We’ve got videos to teach you everything from how to ask for your first date, what to do on a date, and how to decide when you should go steady. But please, for everyone’s sake, watch “VD is For Everybody” first.

• Beginning to Date
• Dating: Dos and Don’ts
• What to Do On a Date
• Going Steady? (apparently, if you’re going steady “you don’t have to make an effort to be at your best all the time!”)
• How Much Affection? (be careful you don’t go too far and end up with a baby!)

– Alexis

Tribute to Edison

Thomas Edison was born on February 11th, 1847. As the inventor of the phonograph (1877), the kinetoscope (1891) (the first motion pictures), and the first talking motion pictures (1913)–not to mention his significant contributions to the commercial use of electricity–it is fair to say that the Archive would not exist as it does today without him. As a birthday tribute we present this selection of early Edison films:

• Feeding Doves (1896)
• Annie Oakley (1894)
• Kissing (1900)
• What Happened at 23rd street (1901)
• Trapeze Disrobing Act (1901)
• San Francisco Earthquake Aftermath (1906)
• Frankenstein (1910)

– Renata