Page one of the first dispatch
Loving this series from McSweeney’s, “Dispatches from Civil War Reenactments.”  I’m personally and professionally a sucker for all things Civil War, re-enacting related, or produced by the fine folks at McSweeney’s.  However, I’m especially a fan of these handwritten notes about the process and experience of participating in reenactments. I’m [...]

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An anti-Stamp Act image: “O! The fatal stamp”

While visiting the Congressional Stamp Exhibition last week, I overheard someone mentioned that the “US was started because of a stamp.” And that’s true to an extent. The Stamp Act of 1765 was a real thorn in the side of colonists, imposing as it [...]

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One of the perks of living in Washington, and I know I’ve mentioned it before, is access to the truly incredible National Postal Museum.  Just last week I took a morning off work to visit the Congressional Stamp Exhibition at the US Capitol, well– very near the Capitol in one of the House office buildings. [...]

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Jon and I enjoyed a lovely Saturday afternoon at the National Postal Museum this past weekend.  I knew very, very little about the 1970 postal strike, that began in New York but eventually included over 200,000 postal employees! At one point they had to lock closed some collection boxes because they were full– mail just piled [...]

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In honor of women’s history month, issue number 6 of Vile Magazine features mail art by many, many women artists.  This issue includes a substantial essay from Anna Banana in which she reflects on her position as a female artist in the 1970s, postal art’s accessibility to marginalized artists, and her perspective on the sub-genres [...]

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VILE magazine, International Double Issue, p. 91

We all know the difficulties it causes to receive the lot of mail we do every day.
That postal authorities have managed to get any item from one address to another is of course not intolerable, but the items themselves derived from and deprived of the postal reference must concern [...]

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Several years ago I received five issues of Vile Magazine as a gift from a colleague.   He packaged up all 5 copies he owns (the complete volume 3) and a few other things which I’ll share later.  Honestly, it was one of the most generous, kindest gifts I’ve ever received.  Exactly the kind of [...]

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“Suffragettes and Petitions” via the Library of Congress’ Flickr Stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

March is Women’s History Month.  Yes, I missed nearly all of it working on my thesis, going to NYC, and getting hit by that d*mn flu.  However, today is still technically March.  So, I thought I’d hop on the Women’s History [...]

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“Amateur Wireless Station” from the Library of Congress’ Flickr Stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

Today, I thought I’d share a list of the podcasts I’ve subscribed to in the last year or so.  I love, love, love podcasting.  Yes, I recognize that 2003 would like to let me know this is old news but I feel [...]

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Aint she a beaut?  Meet my new bicycle– a 21″ vintage Peugeot, complete with cargo rack and adorable horn.  The French woman who sold it to me called it a ringer.  It is basically rust-free (just one tiny little spot on the front) and in working order.  God bless Craig’s List.  I’ve been waiting for [...]

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