Historical trivia

It's what you know

If you’re a card-carrying scientist, you probably enjoy learning new things. Recently I’ve enjoyed doing the New York Times Flashback quiz. The quiz gives the player eight historical events to place in chronological order. The historical events often have snippets of stories behind them that can be amusing and informative. It’s a happy distraction in a time where there are too many unhappy distractions.

A few weeks ago, there was a tidbit about the origin of the term silhouette. A silhouette is of course a featureless outline or profile that can designed in ways that are simple yet artistic. The art form was created in the mid-1700s in France as a way of introducing art to the masses because it was very cheap to produce for people who could not afford a painted portrait. Around the same time, the French finance minister, a miserly gentlemen named Etienne de Silhouette, was making a name for himself by taxing the rich and imposing what was essentially a wealth tax. There are several stories to how his name became associated with the cheap art form, and you can see a few here. But the association stuck.

I think this is a great concept that I am going to apply in the new pizza-focused food truck that I’m planning. I’m going to call one of the pies “The Dean.” It’s where you order a full pie, but you only get a slice.

This week there was a tidbit about the origin of the Department of Justice. The DOJ was created in 1870 and signed into law by U.S. Grant. What was interesting in the quiz tidbit was that a major role of the DOJ was to prosecute members of the Ku Klux Klan. In the first year there were 1000 indictments and over 500 convictions. The next year there were over 3000 indictments and 600 convictions. This continued for several years and violence in the South plummeted as Grant was proclaimed as being tough on terrorists. But following his re-election there was a moratorium on Klan prosecutions because there were just too many crimes to prosecute and they didn’t have the manpower.

And so, the KKK persisted.

I thought this was striking compared to what the DOJ has become and how even now the tenets of the KKK have become enmeshed in our government. If only the DOJ could have been a little more focused 150 years ago. It’s also a lesson on how institutions evolve over time. Universities that used to be information delivery systems are now run as for-profit enterprises. Hospitals that used to be about healthcare are now essentially investment banks that have a healthcare side gig. And the government that formerly served its citizens….I think you get the picture.

Short post this week. I hope everyone’s wartime life stays safe.