Category: Learn History Through Fiction

Researching my novel-in-progress, One Person’s Loss, set during World War Two in New York City, I learned that the first penicillin factory in the world was opened by Charles Pfizer and Company in Brooklyn in 1943. The factory made 90 percent of the antibiotics carried by Allied forces on D-Day. Are you curious about what else was manufactured in New York City to support the war effort? See BEHIND THE STORY.

 

In the 1918-1920 Spanish flu epidemic, there were 50-130 million deaths; 500 million people were infected (one-third of the world’s population), 10-20% of whom died. Of U.S. soldier deaths in Europe in WWI, over half (43,000) were killed by the Spanish flu rather than by enemy fire. Read more about the 1918-1920 Spanish flu epidemic and WWI in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Following a wave of xenophobia, the U.S. began to restrict immigration in 1917. The annual rate peaked in 1921 (800,000) until the Immigration Act that year limited new arrivals to 3% of the country of origin’s population. After that, the annual rate swung widely. It fell during the 1922 Depression (300,000), rose in 1923 (500,000), and again in 1924 (700,000), until the 1924 Immigration Act, which favored northern Europe, imposed severe restrictions on central, southern, and eastern Europeans (mainly Jews and Catholics). As a result, immigration dropped once more in 1925 (300,000), until the limits were relaxed in 1929. Read more about the immigrants who made it to America at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

In the early 1900s, New York City’s Walhalla Hall, in the Lower East Side’s 10th ward, was the community’s main civic center and the site of weddings, dances, and union meetings. Residents of this teeming, destitute neighborhood, were glad to escape from daily poverty into the hall’s ornate interior for a few hours of animated talk, diverting entertainment, and lively company. Read more about the Lower East Side at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Take advantage of the paperback sale of On the Shore at Amazon this holiday season: Discounted price $3.96 (usually $14.99); also available on Kindle for $2.99. Support Vine Leaves Press, a small independent publisher. Purchase the book at: https://www.amazon.com/Shore-Ann-S-Epstein/dp/1925417328/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=jessbell-20&linkId=8928bf4e3b131ae3b26d33f37ceec101

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island were asked 29 questions including the following: Are you a polygamist? Are you an anarchist? Were you ever in an almshouse? After their arduous journey, 2% of the arrivals were not admitted, for medical, moral, political, economic, or other reasons and were deported back to their country of origin, earning it the nickname “Heartbreak Island.” For those immigrants fortunate to be admitted, a wooden column outside the Registry where they met their relatives was called the Kissing Post. Read more about immigrants to America at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Take advantage of the paperback sale of On the Shore at Amazon this holiday season: Discounted price $3.96 (usually $14.99); also available on Kindle for $2.99. Support Vine Leaves Press, a small independent publisher. Purchase the book at: https://www.amazon.com/Shore-Ann-S-Epstein/dp/1925417328/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=jessbell-20&linkId=8928bf4e3b131ae3b26d33f37ceec101

British WWI naval expressions described everything from eating to dying. Some of my favorites: Bully (canned, boiled, and pickled beef); Maconochie (a ration of beef, potatoes, beans, onions, and carrots in gravy); Pozzy (ration-issue jam); Chat (body louse); Napo (used up, worn out); Go phut (stop working); Last Post (Taps); and Go west (die). Read more about WWI history and its effect on immigrant families in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

 

In the early 1900s, the Lower East Side’s 10th ward was a geographic, ethnic, and religious melting pot—some would say a simmering and “aromatic” stew. Russian and Eastern European Jews lived together with German, Polish, Irish, and Italian Catholics. There was also a thriving Chinatown. Read more about the Lower East Side and the people who lived and worked there at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS) and BEHIND THE STORY.

The first Newberry Medal for children’s literature was awarded to Hendrik Van Loon for The Story of Mankind on June 22, 1922. Read more about the literature, films, and music of this era in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

Many products still known today were invented in the early 1900s-1920s. For example: Nestle Permanent Hair Wave (1905) Pyrex cookware (1915); Hydrox (1908) and Oreo (1912) cookies; Peter Pan Smooth Peanut Butter (1928); and Brillo (1913) and S.O.S. (1917) which stands for Save Our Saucepans and was named by the inventor’s wife. Also, the first issue of Reader’s Digest was published on February 05, 1922. Read about other products from this era in BEHIND THE STORY and learn more about popular culture before and after WWI in On the Shore (NOVELS).

The first military ID tags were in issued 1906. Soldier got two tags, one to wear on their body, the other for the troop or ship record-keeper. Serial numbers were added to the tags in 1918, during WWI, due to the high casualty rates and the gruesome mutilation of bodies by the increasingly sophisticated machinery of warfare. Read more about WWI history and its effect on immigrant families in On the Shore (see NOVELS).