Halloween around the turn of the century often involved youngsters playing pranks on their neighbors, heaving cabbage and other excess vegetables at houses, attending masquerade parties, and generally making merry…
One hundred years ago Richmond was dealing with the so-called Spanish Flu. The rest of the world was dealing with it as well, which made it a true pandemic. The…
Richmond has always loved parades, and never more so than during the Great War. One hundred years ago, the city put on possibly its largest in history. This parade had…
Richmond’s Commercial Club wanted the city to be involved in the war effort beyond buying war bonds and planting gardens. A unique opportunity presented itself in May of 1918. Automobiles…
This week marks the anniversary of the Battle of Midway, which was the turning point of World War II in the Pacific theater. One of Richmond’s earliest casualties in the…
Many people are at least familiar with the Victory Gardens of World War II, but a generation earlier, the federal government, in a nearly identical program, urged citizens to plant…
After several cancellations due to inclement weather, Richmond finally unfurled its Community Service Flag on February 4, 1918. The ceremony was part of a day-long war conference staged by the…
In this season of Christmas shopping, I want to share what patriotic gift giving looked like in December 1917. It’s pretty jarring by today’s standards, but there it is, Monday, December…
In the Summer of 1917 the War Department asked the American Library Association to head up efforts to provide libraries to army training camps. The first step was to raise…
Richmond held another parade on September 3, 1917 for the purpose of sending off the first Army enlistees the next day. This one started at Fourth and Main Streets and…