I am intrigued without cease about my mid-19th century thesis topic, about German immigrants to Cleveland, Ohio, about blacksmithing and carriage making, about the Rheinpfalz before and after 1848, and Cleveland from pre-Civil War America through the Gilded Age.
Whenever I sit down to write, I come up with more to wonder about. I submit here a smattering of questions from a recent writing jag:
– What flowers grow wild in the Rhineland-Palatinate?
– What wood are front doors made of in Freinsheim? in the 1850’s, would they have been painted, varnished, or oiled?
– In Cleveland during the Civil War, would a blacksmith have been doing his patriotic duty by staying at his forge, or enlisting as a soldier? Or?
– What parliamentary rights did Pfalzers lose after Prince Wilhelm brought his armies to the region in 1849?
– What superstitions were prevalent in the day, on either side of the Atlantic?
If you know the answer to any of these questions, or know where I might go to find out, I welcome your input.
By the by, here’s a link to inventors in the second half of the 19th century. We’re talking batteries, basketball and blue jeans …
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