Women's History Month - The Story of Marianne North

Oil painting of Mount Fujiyama framed by wisteria by Marianne North

Marianne North was an extraordinary woman of means who taught herself how to paint, funded her own expeditions to the far corners of the world to find her subjects, and wrote a biography or two recounting her adventures.

   The eldest child of Frederick North, Member of Parliament for Hastings, Marianne had shown an interest in painting and writing, proper 'accomplishments' for a young Victorian lady, suitable hobbies for the daughter of an established family, but never a thought to making a career of such things.
For the sake of both business and recreation Frederick North travelled throughout Europe and the Middle East, and Marianne would often accompany him. During these happy years she learned to improve her skills as an artist, being taught first by a Dutch artist, Miss van Fowinkel, and later by Valentine Bartholomew, one of Queen Victoria's flower painters. She met Sir William Hooker who presented her with specimens to sketch while visiting Kew and refining her skills as an artist.
With the death of her father in 1870, Marianne found herself adrift and wanting focus. Having never married she had retained much of her father's modest fortune, and now sought to use it in her pursuit - painting flowers in their natural settings.

   Her first journey alone was in 1871, she travelled via Jamaica to the United States and Canada. She carried with her suitable letters of introduction, so initially it would seem that her travels were properly accommodated, and this was indeed the case for the most part. Later, however, she found herself trudging through wilderness, scaling cliffs and enduring swarms of insects in the pursuit of her subjects. In the situation necessitated 'roughing it' in tents or sleeping on the ground, she did.
   Her second solo journey took her to the jungles of Brazil, where she stayed for 8 months and completed over 100 paintings. Then in 1875 she travelled across America on her way to Japan, Sarawak, Java, and Ceylon and then back to England briefly. With barely enough time to unpack she was on her way again, this time to India. She remained in India for 15 months and produced a remarkable 200 paintings of mostly plants, but also of the local buildings she liked. Upon her return to London she exhibited her work at Conduit Street, where the positive reception and popularity of her work

encouraged her to display her collection at Kew Gardens, in London.
   In the summer of 1879 she wrote to Sir Joseph Hooker offering to donate her collected works, along with a building suitable to house them, to the garden, with the stipulation that the gallery serve as place for garden visitors rest. Her donation was graciously accepted and Kew gained one of it most enduring features - The Marianne North Gallery. Her friend, architectural historian James Fergusson, designed the building after the colonial structures she had admired in India, and when it was completed, she carefully arranged all her paintings in a dense mosaic on the walls, sorted according to geographical location of subject. She even embellished the gallery with a few of her own designs.
   But long before it was done, she was looking for another journey to undertake. It was at his suggestion of Charles Darwin , who had been a friend of her father's, that she chose her next great destination, Australia and New Zealand. While on an expedition through Australia she met with Marian Ellis Rowan, a talented young woman who would prove to be an accomplished natural history artist in her own right, and taught her how to paint with oils.
   She developed a rapid, vaguely impressionistic, style that allowed her to complete most of her paintings in a day or less. While some critics have seen this as a weakness in her work, others have found in it a vitality, an obvious joy in creation that is almost palpable when viewing her works. Her paintings are not typical of most botanical artists in that her colors are almost more vibrant than in life, and her images, although accurate and true to the subject, do not full illustrate all the plant's distinguishing features. However, she was no stranger to plant identification and taxonomy, being something of an amateur naturalist herself. She even found and painted a previously unknown genus of tree that would later be named in her honor - Northea seychellana. For other species would be named after her, including Nepenthes northiana - one of the giant pitcher plants from Borneo, Crinum northianum - an obscure Amarylis relative she discovered in Borneo, Areca northiana - a feather palm, and Kniphofia northiae - an aloe relative from South Africa, sometimes known as Red Hot Poker.

Butterflies' Road through Gongo Forest, Brazil by Marianne North

   The one continent missing from her travels, and therefore her gallery, was Africa, so in August 1882 she packed her bags and continued her mission. She travelled down to the Cape, and then up to the Seychelles, before returning home in 1883. Her health had been failing for some time, and by the time she made her expedition to Chile in 1884, despite rheumatism and increasing deafness, it had become evident to her that this would be her last great journey. She retired to Alderley, Gloucestershire, where she died on August 30th 1890.
   Her extensive journals were edited by her sister, Catherine North Symonds, and published in two volumes in 1892 as Recollections of a Happy Life: Being the Autobiography of Marianne North. London and New York; Macmillan, 1892) and proved so popular that a further volume was released the next year - Some Further Recollections of a Happy Life, Selected from the Journals of Marianne North, Chiefly Between the Years 1859 and 1869. (Edited by Catherine North Symonds. London and New York: Macmillan, 1893).

Women's History Month - The story of Libba Cotten

More than twenty years after the death of folk guitar legend Elizabeth Cotten, her music is still heard everywhere. Cotten, who began her public career at the age of 68, became a key figure in the folk revival of the 60's and a National Heritage Fellow. In 1985, at the age of 93, Cotten won a Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording for her album Elizabeth Cotten — Live! 

Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten 

Laura Veirs

Illustrated by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh 

Nonfiction Picture Book

For ages 5 to 7

Chronicle Books, 2018, 978-1452148571

Libba Cotton has music running all the way through her. Everywhere she goes she hears music. Even the sound of the freight trains clattering down the tracks near her house is musical to her ears.

   Libba’s brother has a guitar, which she is not allowed to play. However, when he goes to work Libba sneaks into his room and plays the guitar, even though she has to play it “upside down” and “backwards” because she is left-handed. This is certainly a strange way to play a guitar, but Libba does not care. Somehow this unusual way of playing works for her and she is able to create music.

   After Libba’s brother leaves home, taking his guitar with him, Libba starts to save up to buy a guitar of her own. Earning seventy-five cents a month Libba saves and saves until she has enough to buy a Stella guitar. How Libba plays that guitar! It becomes an extension of her arm and she still plays it backwards and upside down because she is left-handed and the guitar was built for a right handed player. When she is only thirteen Libba writes her first song. It is called Freight Train.

   Then life gets busy and Libba stops playing the guitar because there are too many other things that need to be done. Libba never guesses that one day, when she is a grandmother, music will come back into her life and it will change her future in the most wonderful ways.

   In this beautifully written and very moving book, Laura Veirs, who is herself an accomplished guitar player, performer, and songwriter, tells the story of an extraordinary woman who was a self-taught and very gifted musician. Libba’s song Freight Train is known by musicians and music lovers all over the world, and it was a firm favorite in Laura’s childhood home.

   In addition to the main story, Laura provides her readers with further information about Libba at the back of the book in an author’s note. She also tells us how she became get interested in Libba’s remarkable story.

Happy International Women's Day

“Here’s to strong women: May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.” 

International Women’s Day, a global celebration of the economic, political and social achievements of women, took place for the first time on March 8, 1911. Many countries around the world celebrate the holiday with demonstrations, educational initiatives and customs such as presenting women with gifts and flowers. 
   The United Nations has sponsored International Women’s Day since 1975. When adopting its resolution on the observance of International Women’s Day, the United Nations General Assembly cited the following reasons: “To recognize the fact that securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms require the active participation, equality and development of women; and to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security.”

   The National Women’s History Alliance designates a yearly theme for Women's History Month. The 2022 theme is "Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope." This theme is "both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history."

 

You can find wonderful books that celebrate girls and women on the TTLG Strong Girls, Strong Women feature. 

Shirley Hughes, beloved children's book author and illustrator, has left the stage

Shirley Hughes at work

 

   When I was a little girl I had a set of chapter books that I adored. My aunt and father read them to me, and then I read them on my own. The first book was called My Naughty Little Sister and it was written by Dorothy Edwards and illustrated by Shirley Hughes. The main character, the little sister, is a little 

minx of the first order. She gets into scrape after scrape and is always in trouble. I adored her. When I heard the book mentioned I always saw the little girl as illustrated by Shirley Hughes. The little girl with the red hair who had a naughty gleam in her eye. Above you see her with her best friend, Bad Harry. When those two got together you knew you were in trouble.

   I then went on to read Dogger, a story about a little boy who loses his beloved stuffed animal, and the Alfie stories. Later, as an adult, I discovered many other books that Shirley Hughes both authored and illustrated. Every single one of her illustrated stories offer up a feeling of warmth and gentleness that is unique. 

   When I heard that she had died I had a little cry, and I thanked her for all the stories that she had given me and so many other people. I then got out two of her books that I had handy and began reading. Below is an article about this remarkable woman who hugely influenced my love of the written word. 

Pages from Dogger, one of Hughes' most beloved stories

Shirley Hughes, a British children’s author and illustrator who captivated generations of young readers with warm, tender books about everyday dramas and heartbreaks — digging for worms, stamping in puddles, discovering that a favorite toy has gone missing — died Feb. 25 at her home in London. She was 94.

   While other beloved children’s authors wrote about talking animals, magical spells or dreamlike adventures in distant lands, Ms. Hughes focused on all the real things children experienced, including pint-size dramas that adults sometimes seemed to miss. “They are learning more at this stage than at any other, grappling with these big things: Are my boots on the right feet? Can I safely put my security blanket down? You have to tap into the way they feel about these things,” she told the Times of London.

   Honored by Queen Elizabeth II as well as the British reading charity BookTrust, which gave her its inaugural lifetime achievement award in 2015, Ms. Hughes wrote more than 50 books that collectively sold over 11 million copies. She started out illustrating other people’s books before writing and drawing her own stories in the 1960s, while raising three children in the Notting Hill section of West London.

   Traveling across the city with a sketch pad, she recorded scenes that provided inspiration for her work. “I lurk about in parks and play areas with a sketchbook and observe what I see: the way small children move when they are playing, how they stand when they are rather unsure of themselves, or crouch down to examine something minutely, then take off like a flock of birds,” she told the Guardian in 2017. “Then I go home and make it all up.”

   While her themes were universal, her settings — Victorian terrace houses, birthday teas — were inescapably English. “Oh Shirley,” she recalled publishers telling her, “you are so middle class, so English, you will never sell abroad.”

Alfie gets locked in

   Yet Ms. Hughes acquired a wide readership with “Dogger” (1977), which she called “the most quintessentially English book you could imagine.” Set during a school sports day, the picture book told the story of a boy who loses his beloved toy dog: “One of his ears pointed upwards and the other flopped over. His fur was worn in places because he was quite old. He belonged to Dave.”

   Translated into more than a dozen languages, “Dogger” won the Kate Greenaway Medal, a top British honor for illustrated children’s books, and was voted the public’s favorite Greenaway winner of all time in 2007, for the 50th anniversary of the award. “Hughes has a kindly, inexhaustible eye — she misses nothing,” the Observer literary critic Kate Kellaway wrote in 2010, including “Dogger” on a list of the 10 best illustrated children’s books.

Alfie and his little sister

    Ms. Hughes had another hit with her Alfie series, which began with       “Alfie Gets in First” (1981), about a boy who accidentally locks himself   inside his house. Realizing that he can’t reach the latch to get out, Alfie    bursts into tears. With his mother and baby sister locked outside, the       rest of the neighborhood tries to help, including a milkman who offers to pick the lock and a window cleaner who brings his ladder to climb up to a bedroom window.

“ ‘Dogger’ and ‘Alfie’ are about the tiniest of incidents — down to the stress of putting your shoes on — but these things can be a source of real anxiety for a child,” children’s author Philip Pullman said in a 2009 interview with the Guardian. “And I think this is where she is actually better than [E.H.] Shepard,” who illustrated “The Wind in the Willows” and “Winnie-the-Pooh,” and who served as an inspiration for Ms. Hughes.

   While some of Shepard’s drawings could be “diabetes-inducingly sentimental,” Pullman continued, “you just don’t get that in Shirley. She is much clearer and sharper, and therefore provides a genuinely warmer version of childhood.”

   Ms. Hughes’s own upbringing was framed by World War II, a period that she described as one of
occasional fear but mainly intense boredom, in which she and her older sisters passed the time by drawing pictures and acting out plays, sometimes for their cats. She wrote about the war in several books for older children, including “The Lion and the Unicorn” (1998), about a boy who is evacuated to the English countryside during the Blitz, and “Hero on a Bicycle” (2012), her first novel, about a 13-year-old Italian boy during the Nazi occupation of Florence.

   But picture books remained her focus, even as she broadened her audience with books such as “Bye Bye Birdie” (2009), a wordless, expressionistic fable geared toward adult readers, about a dapper young man whose love interest transforms into a predatory bird.

   “It is a sad thing for adults and children alike if, once we have learned to read, the pictures in our books are sternly removed,” she wrote in a 2004 essay for the Guardian. “They not only add to the pleasure of turning a page, they are the connection through which readers acquire the amazing human attribute of being able to get pictures in the head. And these, of course, are the best illustrations we will ever see.”

   The youngest of three daughters, Shirley Hughes was born in the seaside town of West Kirby near Liverpool on July 16, 1927. Her father served in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I and founded the Liverpool department store T.J. Hughes. He died when Ms. Hughes was 5, in what newspaper reports at the time suggested was a suicide.

   Her mother “became very shy,” Ms. Hughes recalled, and often took her to the theater, helping to cultivate an interest in set design and costumes. At age 16, Ms. Hughes left school to study at the Liverpool School of Art, later attending the University of Oxford’s Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, where an instructor encouraged her switch from theater to illustration.

   The two art forms were not entirely different, said Ms. Hughes, who compared the page to a stage set: “But this is a very intimate theater, which the audience can return to again and again. The characters you draw are like actors on a stage carrying the narrative along with gestures and facial expressions.”

 

 Moving to London, she launched her career as a freelance artist, illustrating Dorothy Edwards’s “My Naughty Little Sister” series as well as children’s books by Noel Streatfield. In 1960, she published her first picture book, “Lucy and Tom’s Day.” Later came books including “Out and About” (1988), a poetry collection for young readers, and “Ella’s Big Chance” (2003), a Jazz Age retelling of Cinderella — in this case a red-haired young woman named Ella Cinders — that earned Ms. Hughes her second Greenaway Medal.

   She also collaborated with her daughter, Clara Vulliamy, on the Dixie O’Day series, about the adventures of a dog who drives around the British countryside in a bright red car. After the death of her husband, architect John Vulliamy, in 2007, she said she started writing children’s novels to help fill the time.

   In addition to her daughter, survivors include two sons — Ed, an author and journalist, and Tom, a molecular biology professor — and a number of grandchildren.

   Ms. Hughes received an OBE, or officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to children’s literature in 1999, and was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2017. She was still writing in recent years, publishing a sequel to “Dogger” at age 93 in 2020, and often extolled the pleasures of reading in interviews, encouraging parents to give their children time and space to slow down and pick up a book.

   “If there’s anything wrong with childhood today,” she told the Guardian in 2015, “[it’s] that there’s too much on offer and everything moves at great speed. What I want children to do is linger, turn the page, see themselves as readers long before they can read.”

Women's History Month - With a review of Mary Walker Wears the Pants

I still remember the first biography - written for youngsters - that I read. My parents bought it for me at the library sale, and it was the story of Florence Nightingale. The book had a plain, dark blue, linen cover and the only illustration in it was an etching of Florence on the frontispiece. The story completely transfixed me. First the first time I learned how hard it was for women in the 1800s to enter a profession, and how restricted their lives were. I remember feeling furious because I read that Florence's parents wanted her to be a 'good girl' and marry a suitable young man; they were appalled when she announced that she was going to become a nurse. I was appalled at their behavior and attitude and I still seethe every time I hear someone belittle a girl or a woman.

Today I bring you a biography of a women who, like Florence Nightingale, wanted to be a healer. Like Florence she pushed against the establishment that wanted to deprive her of that opportunity. The book was written by my dear friend Chery Harness. 

Mary Walker Wears the Pants: The True Story of the Doctor, Reformer, and Civil War Hero 
Cheryl Harness
Illustrated by Carlo Molinari 
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 6 to 9
Albert Whitman & Company, 2013, 978-0807549902
In the 1800s, tradition dictated that men wore pants and women wore long dresses, and under thesedresses there were layers of petticoats and tight corsets. At that time men alone were allowed to vote, women were not allowed to participate in politics of any kind, and as a result women had little to control over their own lives. They were also not allowed to becomes doctors, lawyers, bankers, or business owners; indeed the only jobs that they could take on was teaching, nursing, cleaning, and working in a factory.
   Then Mary Edwards Walker came along and she refused to accept these rules and societal restrictions. “Her parents taught her to think for herself,” and this is exactly what she did, even if it meant that people talked about her behind her back. She dared to become a doctor, one of the first women in America to do so, and she dared to wear pants because they were a lot more comfortable and sensible than those silly dresses.
   When the Civil War broke out, Mary went to Washington D.C to do all she could to help. Wounded men were pouring into the capital city, and there were not enough doctors to tend to them all. Though she was a trained doctor, she was not allowed to be a surgeon in the army. Instead, for a while, she did what she could to make the soldiers more comfortable working as a nurse. 

   This kind of nursing was something other determined women did, women like Clara Barton, and Louisa May Alcott. After a time, Mary decided that her skills were being wasted and even though she was not allowed to serve as an army surgeon, she went to the field hospitals and offered her help. The medical staff at these facilities were stretched so thin that Mary’s help was accepted. By some. Eventually, in 1863, she was allowed to become an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army. Thrilled to finally be allowed to work as a proper doctor, Mary set off for the front lines. She never imagined then that all kinds of adventures, some of which were dangerous, lay in her future.   
   In this wonderful picture book biography readers will meet a woman who believed that everyone had the right to wear what they wished, think what they wished, and say what they wished. She wore pants in public to make it clear to everyone that she met that she would not be bound by accepted societal norms. 

   Cheryl Harness tells Mary’s story with evident admiration, spirit, and touches of humor, thus helping us to get to know a woman who was courageous and determined. 

A Mighty Girl

A Mighty Girl is a wonderful organization that supports and encourages girls to grow up to be strong women. They have a splendid listing of books about exceptional women on their website that I encourage you to visit. 

About A Mighty Girl:

"A Mighty Girl is the world’s largest collection of books, toys, movies, and music for parents, teachers, and others dedicated to raising smart, confident, and courageous girls and, of course, for girls themselves!

After years of seeking out empowering and inspirational books for our four young nieces, we decided to create A Mighty Girl as a resource site to help others equally interested in supporting and celebrating girls. The site was founded on the belief that all children should have the opportunity to read books, play with toys, listen to music, and watch movies that offer positive messages about girls and honor their diverse capabilities.

Girls do not have to be relegated to the role of sidekick or damsel in distress; they can be the leaders, the heroes, the champions that save the day, find the cure, and go on the adventure. It is our hope that these high-quality children’s products will help a new generation of girls to grow and pursue whatever dreams they choose -- to truly be Mighty Girls!"

March is Women's History Month

Women’s History Month is a celebration of women’s contributions to history, culture and society and has been observed annually in the month of March in the United States since 1987. Women’s History Month 2022 will take place from Tuesday, March 1-Thursday, March 31, 2022. 

The actual celebration of Women’s History Month grew out of a weeklong celebration of women’s contributions to culture, history and society organized by the school district of Sonoma, California, in 1978. Presentations were g

iven at dozens of schools, hundreds of students participated in a “Real Woman” essay contest and a parade was held in downtown Santa Rosa.

A few years later, the idea had caught on within communities, school districts and organizations across the country. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week. The U.S. Congress followed suit the next year, passing a resolution establishing a national celebration. Six years later, the National Women’s History Project successfully petitioned Congress to expand the event to the entire month of March.

The National Women’s History Alliance designates a yearly theme for Women's History Month. The 2022 theme is "Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope." This theme is "both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history."

As I do every March I will be reading and reviewing many new books for Women's History Month. For years I have been reading and reviewing books about exceptional women and you can view these on my feature, Strong Girls, Strong Women on the TTLG website. 

There are wonderful listings for books about remarkable women all over the web. Here are a few sites that you might like to visit. Just click on the images above and below to visit the websites.

From the Imagination Soup website 

From the What Do We Do All Day website 

From the The Blog of Toledo Lucas County Public Library

Happy March!

"March was an unpredictable month, when it was never clear what might happen. Warm days raised hopes until ice and grey skies shut over the town again." 

- Tracy Chevalier

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade." 
- Charles Dickens

"By March, the worst of the winter would be over. The snow would thaw, the rivers begin to run and the world would wake into itself again." 

-Neil Gaiman

Happy March to you all. Here in the Pacific Northwest we are desperately hoping that this month, and our spring, will be wet. We have barely had any rain for more than a month and everything is dry as dry. So, although I like to see Pooh taking his pleasant amble under a blue sky as the countryside starts turning green again, I rather prefer seeing Christopher Robin measuring the level of rainwater and rain pours down and taps on his nice, large, black umbrella. 

Black History Month - Celebrating African-American Inventors

Clockwise from top left: Benjamin Banneker, Madame C.J. Walker, George Washington Carver,
Dr. Shirley Jackson, and  Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.

There are so many things that we take for granted. We eat our potato chips, drive safely on roads thanks to traffic lights, eat food that has been transported long distances in refrigerated trucks, travel in elevators, and turn on our home security systems without once thinking about the men and women who thought up these inventions. Every single one of these innovations came into the world because of the genius of an African American inventor. Indeed, so many of the things that we use every day were invented by African American inventors whom we have never even heard of. 

There are a few books on the subject that you might looking at:

African American Inventors by Otha Richard Sullivan

What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors by Raymond Obstfeld and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 

African-American Inventions That Changed The World: Influential Inventors and Their Revolutionary Creations by Michael A. Carson

Black History Month - The story of a brilliant African American inventor

One of the things I love about reviewing nonfiction children's literature is that I learn a lot. When I started reviewing titles for Black History Month I got to 'meet' so many wonderful men and women of African descent who stories are inspiring. I saw how many of these stories never ended up in history books, and I like to do my part to set the record straight in my own small way. African Americans, and other people of African descent around the world, have made enormous contributions to society, and we need to learn about their achievements about the honor them. 

Today you are going to meet an African American inventor who created many useful things in his productive life. One of these inventions, in particular, saved lives. 

To the Rescue: Garrett Morgan Underground 

Monica Kulling

Illustrated by David Parkins

Non-Fiction Picture Book

For ages 5 to 7

Tundra Books, 2017, 978-1-101-91882-1

Garrett Morgan was the seventh child of former slaves who lived in Kentucky and worked as sharecroppers. It was a hard life, and when it was time for Garrett to leave school so that he could get a job, the fourteen year old decided to travel north to Cleveland, Ohio, to see if he could find a job that was less unremitting. 

   Garrett started out sweeping floors in a clothing factory but he did not keep that job for long. When he noticed that the sewing machine belts were always breaking he invented a belt that was stronger, and thus he earned him his employer’s gratitude and a new job as a sewing machine repairman. 

   This new job served Garrett well and by the time he was twenty-one he owned his own sewing machine shop, and a house. He and his wife, Mary Anne, then opened a tailoring shop as well. 

  Garrett had a gift for inventing. Quite by accident he created a hair product that straightened curly hair. This invention led to him creating a new business, the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company. The success of his cream and other hair products gave Garrett the financial freedom to spend more of his time inventing.

   When Garrett saw a need he set about trying to create a product that would take care of that need. He saw that firefighters required some kind of device that would help them rescue people from smoke-filled buildings, and so he invented the Safety Hood and Smoke Protector. 

   Though his invention worked well, Garrett could not get the local fire departments interested in the hood, because Garrett was African-American. Then a disaster struck the city which changed Garrett’s life forever.

   All too often black inventors and innovators are not given credit for their creations. In this book Monica Kulling tells the story of an inventor whose inventions literally saved lives. Her engaging writing brings Garrett Morgan to life for young readers, and David Parkins’ ink and watercolor illustrations takes children back to a time when everyday life was a lot more dangerous than it is now.