Civil War Sites Gear Up for 150th

As a girl who grew up in the midst of the Civil War Centennial, I was amazed and just a little chagrinned to realize that 2011 will mark the beginning of the 150th anniversary of that bloody war. A group called Journey Through Hallowed Ground has created a website with information about the major battlefields from Manassas to Gettysburg. Closer to home, the Drum Barracks Museum in Wilmington housed soldiers and military supplies during the Civil War era. A 360-page book, The Civil: A Visual History, will be released in April with photos from the Smithsonian and eyewitness accounts.

Archive of Archives

LA as Subject is an interesting conglomeration of libraries, archives, and other collections of materials which contain documents and artifacts related to the history of the Southern California area. The group is in the process of creating a database of facilities which house this valuable and often one-0f-a-kind material. On October 23, they're planning an archives bazaar from 10 am to 5 pm with exhibits of local historical collections as well as speakers. The event will take place at the Doheny Memorial Library on the USC campus

Say Hey for Ioway!

History, Los Angeles has a great blog wrapping up the history of Iowa picnics in a neat little picnic basket. I did not know that Pasadena started the tradition in 1900. I did know that Long Beach is the hands-down winner of Iowan pride and that the picnics continue. This year's chow-down took place at Recreation Park.
There's also a mention of the Tiki Festival and lots of cool historic photos.

Women of the West

The Autry National Center of the American West has an exhibit called Home Lands: How Women Made the West on display through September 6. Photographs, artifacts and art demonstrate women's influence on the Western landscape.