Episode #51: 1860 Timeline Twist & The Great Eclipse of 1860

12/18/2024: On today’s episode, we cover Mexico’s presidential problems,  popular and problematic songs of the day, a baseball title that was won by fans, the emergence of nursing as a solid career for women, and a surprising letter trolling newly elected US President, Abraham Lincoln, in the 1860 Timeline Twist. Next, Amy Jo covers the “most important eclipse” of 1860 - which proved that CME’s (coronal mass ejections) were products of the sun and not coming from the moon or earth’s atmosphere. We follow three American expeditions that set out that summer for a months-long, arduous journey into the path of totality with all manner of scientific equipment. There were some successes that day in a race against time, hunger, bugs, fatigue, and the weather. Then there were some expeditions that were less successful.

Cover Photo: Warren de la Rue (left), his crew and equipment set up for the eclipse

1. Pony Express postmark, 1860, westbound

2. General Miguel Miramón (1832-1867)

3. Hutchinson Family, 1845

4. I Wish I Was In Dixie's Land, 1860

5. The Brooklyn Atlantics 1865 team

6. Florence Nightingale posing with her class of nurses from St. Thomas' Hospital. Also in the photo is Sir Harry Verney, an active supporter of the nursing school.

7. Troll letter to Lincoln, November 25th, 1860

8. The 1860 eclipse, as printed in Harper’s Weekly. Harper’s informed its readers that the moon’s shadow during the eclipse would travel across the earth at “four times the velocity of a cannon-ball.”

9. (see above)

10. The 1860 eclipse, as printed in Harper’s Weekly. Harper’s informed its readers that the moon’s shadow during the eclipse would travel across the earth at “four times the velocity of a cannon-ball.”

11. Kew photoheliograph, 1857

12. Paddlers. Samuel Scudder, The Winnipeg Country: Or, Roughing It with an Eclipse Party (Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co., 1886), 38

13. Observing the Eclipse. Samuel Scudder, The Winnipeg Country: Or, Roughing It with an Eclipse Party (Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co., 1886), 70

14. Figures 58 and 59, from Spectrum analysis: six lectures, delivered in 1868, before the Society of Apothecaries of London, p. 208, taken during a solar eclipse in Spain in 1860. National Library of Medicine

Sources/Photo Sources

Intro Sources:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/andrew-jackson/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/10/22/are-pandas-dangerous-attacks/7962959001/

https://www.mensjournal.com/news/video-pandas-maul-zookeeper-china

Timeline Twist Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ignacio_Pav%C3%B3n

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Miram%C3%B3n

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_and_Liberty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildwood_Flower

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_(song)

https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p267401coll36/id/5734/ 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/21/secession-ball-civil-war 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Atlantics

https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/atlantics-and-excelsiors-compete-for-the-championship-1860-55b9bfb89217

https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/foundation-nightingale-training-school-nurses

https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-Transportation-Revolution_.pdf

https://www.amdigital.co.uk/insights/blog/oldabelincoln

https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1860

Timeline Twist Photo Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutchinson_Family_Singers#/media/File:1845_HutchinsonFamilySingers_MMA.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_(song)#/media/File:I_Wish_I_Was_In_Dixie's_Land,_1860.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Atlantics#/media/File:Brooklyn_atlantics_1865_team.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale_Faculty_of_Nursing_and_Midwifery#/media/File:Florence_nightingale_at_st_thomas.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Miram%C3%B3n#/media/File:General_Miguel_Miram%C3%B3n.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express#/media/File:Pony_Express'60_West_bound_1860.jpg

The Great Eclipse of 1860 Sources:

https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2017/09/01/total-eclipse-of-the-sun/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_18,_1860 

https://nationaleclipse.com/newspapers/baltimore_07171860.html

https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2021/09/1860-eclipse/ 

https://www.aaas.org/news/19th-century-eclipse-explorations-helped-build-us-scientific-institutions 

https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295992716/free-boy/

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/charles-mitchell-slavery-and-washington-territory-1860/ 

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/the-1860-solar-eclipse/

https://preservewa.org/the-maritime-underground-railroad-of-puget-sound/

https://bcblackhistory.ca/timeline/on-british-soil-he-was-free/

https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/us-historians-shed-light-on-young-slaves-1860-escape-to-vancouver-island-4581820

The Great Eclipse of 1860 Photo Sources:

https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2017/09/01/total-eclipse-of-the-sun/ 

https://nationaleclipse.com/newspapers/baltimore_07171860.html

https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2021/09/1860-eclipse/ 

https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/the-1860-solar-eclipse/