The Monica Bird

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

that’s a young JRR Tolkien ^ I gotta say that besides being the genius  writer of the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit and the the Silmarillion, a poet, philologist , war veteran and university professor, he was a pretty attractive guy.

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

[TW] Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1652) was an Italian Baroque painter and a completely kickass lady. One of her best known paintings is the gory Giuditta che decapita Oloferne, (Judith Beheading Holofernes), which she painted when she was nineteen years old during the trial of her rapist, Agostino Tassi. The trial was a grueling and humiliating ordeal for Artemisia, who had to undergo a gynecological exam and torture with thumbscrews to determine if she was telling the truth. Tassi was eventually found guilty, but never faced punishment for his crimes. It’s clear from her painting what Artemisia’s feelings on the subject were.

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

Zelda Fitzgerald at 17.

(1900-1948). Wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, face of the Jazz Age, and the prototype that every flapper modeled themselves after. She was gorgeous!

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

An early depiction of Walt Whitman— oh, poetic swagger.

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

Samuel Elias, considered by many to be the greatest small man in early boxing history, and a man of many nicknames: “Dutch Sam”, “The Man with the Iron Hand”, or even “The Terrible Jew”. He was a prominent lightweight in the bare-knuckle days of the early nineteenth century who had no fear in facing men taller and heavier than he. Sam possessed a rare combination of guile and power and many historians believe he invented the uppercut, thus changing the sport of boxing forever.

He stood only 5’6”, and never fought at more than 134 pounds but in the late 1800s, Sam was the best lightweight fighter in England, defeating Bill Cropley in 25 minutes on May 10, 1808, and Ben Medley in 52 minutes and 49 rounds at Mousley Hurst on May 31, 1810.  In an era when most boxers fought 20-25 times in a career, Dutch had approximately 100 bouts, losing only twice.

He retired from the ring, but continued to train the same way as when he fought: three glasses of gin taken three times every day. In December 1814, despite warnings from a physician that he faced death if he boxed again, Dutch returned to the ring after getting into a dispute with Bill Nosworthy. Nosworthy had already defeated Jewish boxer Dan Martin that year, and London Jewry backed Sam to regain their honor. Wasting away from drink, Sam lost the bout to the younger and heavier Nosworthy much to the chagrin of England’s Jews.

After a life of hard fighting and harder drinking, Dutch Sam died two years later on July 3, 1816 in London. He was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Whitechapel.