- The Emancipation Proclamation's sesquicentennial has prompted lots of commentary around the web. See, for example, Eric Foner's column in the New York Times; Alan Singer's fascinating post over at History News Network; and Aaron Astor's teaching-focused post at the Historical Society. An especially exciting commemoration of the document is Villanova University's newly-launched website "Memorable Days: The Emilie Davis Diaries." Here's a description of the site:
Emilie Davis was an African-American woman living in Philadelphia during
the U.S. Civil War. This website is a transcription of Emilie’s three
pocket dairies for the years 1863, 1864, and 1865. In them, she recounts
black Philadelphians’ celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation,
nervous excitement during the battle of Gettysburg, and their collective
mourning of President Lincoln. The diary allows readers to experience
the war in real time, as events unfolded for Civil War Americans.
Emilie’s preferred spelling of most words has been maintained
throughout, and judicious and careful annotations fill in some of the
details left unexplained in the diary.
- R.I.P. Gerda Lerner, "a scholar and author who helped make the study of women and their lives a legitimate subject for historians and spearheaded the creation of the first graduate program in women’s history in the United States." The rest of the New York Times obituary is here. (Hat-tip: H-Law)
- R.I.P. Beate Sirota Gordon, "the daughter of Russian Jewish parents who at 22 almost single-handedly wrote women’s rights into the Constitution of modern Japan." Read more from the New York Times here.
The Weekend Roundup is a weekly feature compiled by all the Legal History bloggers.
