"Disasters! A Conference on Disasters in History" will take place on April 9, 2011, at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware. The University of Delaware-Hagley Fellows Program invites scholars to join in a conversation about how disasters have shaped societies, cultures, and environments since 1700. What makes a disaster a disaster? Who decides? How have they been interpreted? What are the consequences of disasters? What can historians gain by studying disasters? Proposals for papers that explore how disasters can inform the histories of business, technology, consumption, the environment, work, and everyday life are particularly encouraged. Proposals by both graduate students and established scholars are welcome. Financial assistance for travel will be provided to all conference presenters.
Please email a 300-word abstract and a one-page CV to the Hagley Fellows at hagley.fellows@gmail.com by December 31, 2010.
The Princeton University Library has digitized a number of posters from the Interborough Rapid Transit Subway Company . The posters, designed by the public relations firm Ivy Lee, were displayed in subway cars to provide information to riders about changes in fares and routes, safety issues, and other matters of interest. The collection consists of 385 images dating from 1918 to 1932; many of them provide financial information about rates, company dividends, and a general look at an early rapid transit system. October 29, update: Jonathan Rees over at "More or Less Bunk" was moved by this post to go off in search of a better site, and found the massive collection of the London Transport Museum , which displays over 5,000 items in a searchable collection .
