A fun thing in combing Julia Wilbur's diaries is coming across headline events and people of the day--once huge, now forgotten.

September has been my month to travel for some "early years" Julia Wilbur research. Now I have to sort through and do something with all that I learned. 

Before crowdsourcing and kickstarters, before bake sales, before raffles came the fund-raising bazaars and fairs of the 1900s.

African American women made up about 10% of the Union hospital nurse workforce.

Summer wanderings took me to a place I have wanted to see for a long time--Frederick Douglass' home in Southeast Washington, DC. He lived there from 1877 to his death in 1895.

On July 7, 1865, four people were hanged at what is now Fort McNair in Southwest Washington, DC: George Atzerodt, David Herold, Lewis Powell, and Mary Surratt. Here's what Julia Wilbur had to say:

Until the late 1800s, Americans (that is, those who even had the right to vote) did not cast secret ballots.

Julia Wilbur attended the dedication of the Sumner School on September 2, 1872. Here's some background.

When Julia Wilbur first came to Alexandria, she boarded at the home of George Seaton. 

In the Manuscript Room at the Library of Congress, I came across the papers of John C. Babcock, who enlisted with Sturgis Rifles in 1861.

Although officially neutral, France (along with England) was lurking as a possible supporter of the Confederacy. 

When Julia Wilbur first came to Washington in late 1862, a dome to accommodate the expanded Capitol was under construction.