As an amateur historian, I’m thrilled to share my five-star Goodreads Review of author Mary Cable’s The Blizzard of 88. This nonfiction account of how and why this great blizzard impacted life in 1888 from Maine to Washington, crippling New York City. Can’t recommend this title enough!
The decade of the 1880s proved among the most disastrous, desperate, life-threatening (and life-taking)–as winter in North America was at an extreme, the whole decade long. Climatologists have theories we understand today, but were unknown to our Victorian American ancestors. If you read a fictional book set in the 1880s, that touches on a mild winter, be surprised. Today, March 11th, is the anniversary of “the big one”.
September 8th marks the anniversary of the Great Hurricane in 1900, the tremendous storm that struck Galveston, Texas and took approximately 8,000 lives. Despite numerous other hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes, the Great Hurricane remains the single-most destructive natural disaster in United States History. This article encapsulates the high points of the storm’s events through two newspaper articles in the week following the storm, a YouTube presentation by a young girl, and quotes from historical sources. This historical event is of import to me personally as I spent many long, hot, sunshiny summer days on Galveston beach.
