RESEARCH ARTICLES

Margaret Tobin Brown is known as the “Unsinkable Molly Brown,” famous heroine of the Titanic. Although she was never called Molly (the name first appeared in an obituary, written by a man who had never met her), Margaret’s story has been shaped by myth and legend. At Historic Denver’s Molly Brown House Museum it is…

 Walter Reed Hospital Flu Ward [1910-1920]. Courtesy of Library of Congress It begins with a headache and tiredness followed by a dry, hacking cough. Loss of appetite and stomach problems develop; on the second day, excessive sweating. The symptoms are so severe that it is misdiagnosed at first as cholera, typhoid and dengue. The majority…

Women’s Day Banner, C. 1975. Courtesy of History.com Women have been making history in our country since long before the founding of what we now know as the United States of America. However, their contributions were often looked over or relegated to the footnotes of history due to patriarchal norms in society. During the early…

“An Iraqi woman prepares to cast her voting ballot” courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  In the United States, the fight for women’s suffrage began in 1848 at a meeting in Seneca Falls, New York.[1] In 1869, Wyoming became the first territory to grant women the right to vote and in 1893, Colorado became the first state…

Anyone who has ever received a rose knows that the giver is likely expressing a feeling of love toward the recipient. The idea that flowers can represent different feelings and emotions is nothing new and can be traced back as far as the ancient Egyptians. Flowers were used in religious ceremonies and festivals, found in…

The Museum recently began the undertaking of compiling all of Margaret and J.J. Brown’s quotes. Along the way, we asked one of our Museum Specialists to write about the project and here is what she had to say: For the past few months I have been chipping away at what feels like an insurmountable task….

Prior to the 1800s, sports were brutal, lawless, and something to be played and enjoyed by the lower-class. However, the Victorian Era brought rules and regulations to sports and shifted the focus from “manly physical pursuits to moral and spiritual exercises with disciplinary value and a spirit of fair play.”(1) The upper-class Victorians ate this…

In the United States, Europe, and many other parts of the globe, St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Father Christmas bring gifts to all the good children on Christmas Eve. The book, T’was Night Before Christmas, was written by Clement Clark Moore in 1823. This was the first time St. Nick appeared in America in a…

Located about two hours southwest of Denver is the town of Leadville, Colorado. Leadville holds the title of the highest elevation of a city in the United States at an impressive 10,152 feet. Established in 1877 by Horace Tabor, propelled by a silver boom, Leadville became one of the fastest growing communities in the country….

Denver’s Chinatown was located in LoDo, near today’s Ballpark, and was derogatorily called “Hop Alley”. Today, nothing remains of Denver’s Chinatown other than a commemorative plaque near Blake and 20th. The boundaries of Denver’s old Chinatown were approximately 15th to 20th and from Market to Wazee. Denver’s Chinatown was the largest in the Rocky Mountain…

Just 10 miles southwest of the Molly Brown House Museum, at Wadsworth and Yale, is the Browns’ summer retreat, built by J. J. Brown in 1897. The Molly Brown Summer House, which the Browns dubbed “Avoca Lodge,” was a peaceful getaway for Margaret and J. J. to escape the hustle and bustle of city life….

For the second year in a row, the Molly Brown House Museum is hosting a summer intern from Ireland, through Project Children. With that, we thought we’d explore a little bit of the history of the Irish in Colorado!   In the summer of 1845, the late blight fungus completely decimated the potato crop, which…