How the WWI Dazzle Ships Redefined Camouflage

Dazzle-painted ship, circa 1916 — Credit: IWM via Getty Images

Author Mark DeJoy

August 6, 2024

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In 1917, at the height of World War I, England was in deep trouble. Germany had established an advantage in the waters surrounding the British Isles, and its policy of unrestricted warfare meant that even merchant ships were targets. Vessels were being sunk at a rate that threatened to completely incapacitate shipping to England, cutting off all manner of supplies. For the British to avoid certain defeat, they would need to find a way to protect the outgunned and outmaneuvered cargo ships. In response, the Royal Navy developed a novel paint scheme for British vessels that practically reinvented the concept of camouflage. These “dazzle ships,” as they were called, were a unique defense tactic that gave new meaning to the phrase “the art of war.”

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The German navy had one of the most fearsome attack vessels of World War I: the Unterseeboot, often referred to by the abbreviation “U-boat.” Unterseeboot translates to “under the sea boat,” and these vessels were some of the first submarines used in wide-scale military operations. During the First World War, U-boats were deployed in retaliation for England’s blockade of the North Sea and English Channel; Germany’s strategy was to attack all shipping to England, and in effect create its own blockade. Germany issued a tacit threat that “a U-boat cannot spare the crews of merchant ships, but must send them and their ships to the bottom of the sea. All shipping should be warned and all merchant shipping to England should be brought to a halt in a short period of time.”

Of course, halting all shipping trade was not a feasible action for England. The Royal Navy countered with Q-ships, which were war vessels disguised as merchant ships to bait U-boats into surfacing for an attack, at which point the Q-ship would reveal its hidden weapons and fire on the outgunned U-boat. The tactic depended upon surprise, so its success was temporary: The Germans adjusted by switching from attacking with surface guns to attacking with torpedoes while still submerged. Torpedoes were a more costly weapon, but Germany was investing heavily in U-boats, increasing its fleet sevenfold between 1914 and 1917 in an effort to swiftly defeat England.

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The expanded, torpedo-equipped U-boat fleet wreaked havoc. Between March and December 1917, 925 British ships were sunk by U-boats — a rate of approximately 23 per week. England needed countermeasures, but anti-submarine weapons were limited at the time. Depth charges (underwater bombs) were in use by 1916, but they were primitive; their effectiveness was also limited by the inability to accurately locate a submerged U-boat. The hydrophone could detect the presence of a submarine in the water, but it couldn’t indicate distance — sonar was still years away. England needed a way to protect its ships.

The U-boats’ targeting strategy was to locate ships by the smoke emitted from their smokestacks against the horizon. The submarine would then close in to a distance of approximately 1,000 to 2,000 feet from the target, in order to be in torpedo range. Achieving a hit with the torpedo depended on accurately determining the speed and heading of the target; at the distance the submarines kept, even a slight miscalculation would result in a miss. It was Royal Navy lieutenant and painter-designer Norman Wilkinson who realized that the narrow margin between torpedo success and failure provided a defense opportunity.

U-boats viewed their targets through a periscope for only a very short time, so as to avoid the periscope being spotted and giving away the location of the submarine. “I suddenly got the idea,” Wilkinson later recalled, “that since it was impossible to paint a ship so that she could not be seen by a submarine, the extreme opposite was the answer — in other words, to paint her, not for low visibility, but in such a way as to break up her form and thus confuse a submarine officer as to the course on which she was heading.” The idea was to disorient and dazzle during the short amount of time a U-boat commander had to view the ship.

After the strategy was successfully pitched to the British Admiralty, 50 ships were ordered to be dazzle painted, and Wilkinson was tapped to lead a Dazzle Section to prepare the paint schemes, which Wilkinson described as being designed for “maximum distortion” — in other words, to create a distorted view of the ship when viewed through a submarine periscope.

No two ships had the same design, and each ship was painted differently on its port and starboard sides. When the Royal Navy asked observers for their impressions on whether or not the dazzle camouflage was effective, they made comments such as, “[It was] almost impossible to say how she was steering,” and “[It] sometimes appears to be going in the opposite direction.” Satisfied by that result, the Admiralty ordered all merchant ships to be painted in dazzle camouflage in October 1917. By June 1918, more than 2,300 ships were dazzle painted.

The concept made its way to the United States as well. When U.S. Navy Admiral William S. Sims visited England, he was so impressed with dazzle painting that he convinced the U.S. government to request that Wilkinson be brought to the United States in order to help establish a dazzle painting operation stateside. Wilkinson traveled to Washington, D.C., in March 1918 and met with Franklin D. Roosevelt (who was then the assistant secretary of the Navy). FDR expressed his enthusiasm for dazzle painting, while also noting, “We have no department of camouflage here.”

Wilkinson spent the next month establishing the American Camouflage Section, which consisted of two subdivisions: a research division at Eastman Kodak, composed of scientists, and a design division in Washington, D.C., composed of artists.

In both the U.K. and U.S., the dazzle designs were strikingly angular and futuristic. A 1918 issue of Popular Science suggested that the “crazy splashes of paint and freakish stripes” might be seen as “the whimsical color schemes of half-demented cubists and futurists.” Other critics called the camouflaged ships “a futurist’s bad dream,” a “flock of sea-going Easter Eggs,” and “a cross between a boiler explosion and a railroad accident.”

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But was the dazzle painting effective? A definitive answer is elusive — additional defensive measures such as convoy escorts were put into practice around the same time, making it impossible to isolate the impact of dazzle painting. But the reduction in ships sunk by U-boats by the summer of 1918 does correlate with the widespread introduction of dazzle camouflage. And Wilkinson pointed out in a March 1920 issue of Journal of the Royal Society of Arts that the German navy also adopted dazzle camouflage, suggesting the enemy found value in the tactic. What’s more, according to a 1918 issue of Popular Science, the United States War Risk Insurance Board ordered that any ship that was not dazzle painted would be subject to higher premiums for maritime insurance — in a world where money talks, that may be the most telling of all.

Why Did the British Wear Red Coats?

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Author Tony Dunnell

August 1, 2024

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In February 1645, during the First English Civil War, the Parliament of England created the New Model Army. This single, standing army consisted of 22,000 regularly paid, well-disciplined, and properly trained men, with promotion gained on merit. To enhance the cohesion of this force, every soldier was supplied with a standardized uniform, which included a red coat.

It wasn’t long before these soldiers were unofficially dubbed “Redcoats,” a name that stuck through many conflicts to come. British soldiers only stopped wearing red when the khaki uniform was introduced during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), but even today, red coats are worn by British soldiers on ceremonial duty.

But why the color red? It may seem strange today, when camouflage is so commonplace in the design of military uniforms, that such a noticeable color was used on the battlefield, rather than green, brown, or khaki. But there were a number of reasons why red was chosen, including battlefield strategies and the simple need for a uniform that could be produced quickly and efficiently.

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Red Coats Weren’t Designed To Hide the Blood of Battle

First of all, British soldiers didn’t wear red to hide spilt blood, either their own or that of their enemies. There is no evidence to support this often-repeated explanation, and it doesn’t make much sense anyway. Not knowing that you are bleeding isn’t particularly helpful, and hiding any evidence of injuries from the enemy isn’t of much benefit amid the chaos of the battlefield. Also, a bloodstain on a red uniform would likely appear as black rather than red.

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Red Wool Was Commonplace and Cheap

The most prosaic reason for the color of the Redcoats’ iconic jackets was one of simple economics. Supplying a large standing army with uniforms could be a costly business. As it happened, red wool was commonplace, cheap, and durable. While some dyes, such as kermes and cochineal, produced a deep scarlet favored by the wealthy and powerful, the wool used in the standard infantry jacket was colored red with a cheaper, brownish-red dye derived from the root of the madder plant, which had been used by numerous civilizations dating as far back as ancient Egypt.

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Red Uniforms Offered Battlefield Benefits

While camouflage uniforms are standard today, they wouldn’t have served much purpose on the battlefields of old, when infantrymen walked slowly into battle in ordered and obvious columns and lines. Guns were also highly inaccurate, making it difficult to target and hit a particular individual, no matter how easy they were to see. What’s more, having uniforms that blended into the environment would have actually been detrimental. For the generals in command, being able to see exactly where their soldiers were was vital in the smoke and chaos of battle (and also made it easier to spot deserters running from the fight). For the soldiers, meanwhile, red jackets made it easier to tell friend from foe on the battlefield, and in turn avoid friendly fire.

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Red Signified Prestige and Power

Apart from the more practical reasons for the Redcoats’ distinctive jackets, there was also the issue of British pride to consider. It’s been theorized that red was a preferred choice due to it being one of Britain’s national colors: red, white, and blue. The three colors appear on the Union Jack, and, more specifically, on the St. George’s Cross — the national flag of England — which depicts a red cross on a white background. Eventually, the Redcoats themselves became a symbol of British rule both at home and abroad. The use of red by imperial soldiers over a period of nearly three centuries made the bright and distinctive uniform a powerful symbol of the British Empire.

Why Is ‘Red Tape’ Associated With Bureaucracy?

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Author Kristina Wright

August 1, 2024

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The English word “bureaucracy” originated in the early 19th century, referring to an administrative system where decisions were made by a group of nonelected officials. Today, the term can refer to the regulatory system of any public or private institution, including corporations, organizations, and governments. And in a society where laws are upheld based on a set of established standards and practices, keeping everything running smoothly can require an almost mind-boggling array of rules and regulations.

Such an excessive amount of official systems and processes is often referred to as “red tape.” But how and when exactly did that colorful term become associated with bureaucracy?

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Red Tape Was Used To Bind Official Documents

The use of red tape to bind documents has been noted for centuries, but its exact origins remain murky. The practice may date as far back as the 11th century, to the red, ribbonlike cloth that English clerks used to secure official documents. For hundreds of years, correspondence was tied with tape and the ends were sealed with melted wax, so that the contents couldn’t be read by anyone other than the intended recipient. The only way to access the documents was to cut the seal, which around the 18th century led to the common idiom “cutting through the red tape.”

Some historians suggest the use of red tape for binding government records may have started later, during King Charles V’s reign over Spain in the 16th century, when important documents were secured with red tape to distinguish them from other papers. The color red has long signified royalty and wealth, and red dyes such as kermes and cochineal produced a deep scarlet that were favored by the rich and powerful. Considering the high cost these dyes at the time, it’s unlikely that red ribbon was used for anything other than the most important official documents, at least initially.

Although red tape bindings had already been around for some time, the first written reference in English to the words “red tape” appeared in 1658, in an advertisement in the Publick Intelligencer describing a lost “little bundle of Papers tied with a red Tape.” By the end of the 17th century, the tradition of using red tape to secure official documents had crossed the Atlantic and become standard practice in the American colonies as well. In 1696, a law was passed that stated records of public land boundaries in the colony of Maryland were required to be “seal’d with his Excellency’s Seal of Arms, on a Red Cross with Red Tape.” Other important government documents, including the Stamp Act of 1765, were also secured with red tape.

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“Red Tape” Became a Negative Term for Bureaucracy

Though a regal red binding once signified order and organization, the term “red tape” eventually took on a derogatory connotation, meaning an overly complicated process of rules and paperwork. This meaning of the term has been around for almost 200 years. One of the earliest known uses is found in the 1850 work Latter Day Pamphlets by Scottish author Thomas Carlyle. He wrote, “From all corners of the wide British Dominion there rises one complaint against the ineffectuality of what are nicknamed our ‘red-tape’ establishments, our Government Offices, Colonial Office, Foreign Office and the others.”

Despite the growing negative association, the practice of using red tape to bind important documents was widespread by the end of the American Civil War. According to the National Archives Foundation in Washington, D.C., Americans first used the term “red tape” in reference to bureaucracy because of how difficult it was for Civil War veterans to obtain their tape-bound records in order to file pension claims. While the term “red tape” predates the Civil War era, it became an increasingly popular phrase in English through the 19th and 20th centuries.

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Red Tape Bindings Have Found a New Life as Mementos

Though we still refer to “cutting through the red tape” today, the tradition of binding documents with colorful cloth has been replaced by other methods, including digitizing original records. Some archivists still use twill tape to bind documents, but they opt for undyed tape rather than red, because the red ink can fade or rub off onto the paper. However, red ribbon binding remained in use for a surprisingly long time — until the 1980s — and hundreds of miles of red tape have been used to bind billions of historic documents.

For more than two decades, the National Archives has been shifting the use of red tape from its historic files to its gift shop. The idea to monetize this bit of governmental history was conceived in the 1990s by a volunteer who was removing the red bindings from Civil War documents so they could be transferred to microfilm. In 1997, the first snippets of red tape were sold in the National Archives gift shop for $5. Today, those bits of faded fabric have been incorporated into a wide range of jewelry and mementos for tourists who want to own a piece of bureaucratic history.

The Real Story of Anastasia Romanov

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Author Nicole Villeneuve

August 1, 2024

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The early 20th century was a time of significant turmoil in Russia. The Romanov dynasty, which had ruled Russia for more than 300 years, was in its twilight, facing increasing opposition over economic hardship and disastrous World War I military failures. In March 1917, the Russian Revolution forced Tsar Nicholas II to step down; just over a year later, he and his wife and children were killed in secret by Bolshevik revolutionaries.

For years, the fate of the Romanov family was shrouded in mystery, leaving room for myths about their survival. Theories about one family member in particular — the tsar’s youngest daughter, Anastasia — flourished. The grand duchess inspired not only conspiracies and impostors, but Broadway plays and Hollywood movies. More than 100 years later, her story remains one of the 20th century’s most compelling mysteries. But who exactly was Anastasia, and what really happened to her?

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Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov, the fourth and youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, was born on June 18, 1901. (Their son Alexei, the heir to the throne, was born three years later.) Anastasia was known for her sense of humor and mischievous personality. Gleb Botkin, the son of the family’s physician, said that “in naughtiness, she was a true genius,” describing her as “witty, vivacious, hopelessly stubborn, [and] delightfully impertinent.”

When her father was forced to abdicate the throne in early 1917, the lives of Anastasia and her family were uncertain. The Romanovs and their staff were sent to Siberia, where they lived in relative peace and normalcy, all the while holding out hope that they could make their way to England, where Nicholas II’s cousin, King George V, reigned. But later that year, after Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized power, the royal family was relocated again, to a house in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. It would be their last move.

In the early morning hours of July 17, 1918, Bolshevik forces killed Anastasia, then just 17, and her family in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. True to her personality, the young grand duchess was said to have thumbed her nose at executioner Yakov Yurovsky just hours before her death. The family was quickly, and rather chaotically, buried in unmarked graves nearby, and while the Bolsheviks admitted to the murder of Nicholas II, they covered up the deaths of the rest of the family, giving only vague information. The ambiguity sparked rumors that some members of the family may have survived.

The years that followed saw alleged sightings of the “missing” royal family, and numerous imposters claiming to be surviving Romanov children. Anastasia was at the center of the conspiracies, with several women claiming to be the grand duchess: One imposter named Eugenia Smith penned an “autobiography” detailing her supposed escape, while another woman named Nadezhda Vasilyeva was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks and put in an asylum for her claims.

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The most famous claimant was known as Anna Anderson. In 1920, Anderson was rescued from a Berlin canal. While her identity was initially unknown, in 1922 she claimed to be none other than Grand Duchess Anastasia (she adopted the “Anna” moniker later), insisting that she had survived the execution and fled with the help of a guard. Her story had its share of skeptics and believers, and lengthy legal battles aimed at proving her identity garnered significant media attention over the years. Anderson died in 1984, and DNA testing in 1994 ultimately debunked her claim.

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Anderson’s story became part of Anastasia’s own over the years, and it was indicative of the public intrigue around the mystery — one that inspired a hit Broadway play in the 1950s, a 1956 feature film that won actress Ingrid Bergman an Academy Award and Golden Globe for her portrayal of Anastasia, and a popular animated musical released in 1997 by 20th Century Fox (which itself was adapted into a 2017 Broadway musical).

In 1926, the deaths of the Romanov family were officially confirmed, but the Soviet Union denied responsibility, and discussion of the matter was suppressed. While a burial site was found near Yekaterinburg in 1979, it was largely kept a secret. In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the remains at the site were exhumed and later identified as most of the Romanov family and their staff — but two family members were missing, further fueling conspiracy claims that they had escaped. In 2007, four years after the Church of All Saints was built on the site where the Ipatiev House once stood, another grave was found nearby, containing the remains of the missing family members, and putting many of the myths around the Romanovs to rest.

How Did the Canary Come To Be Associated With Coal Mines?

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Author Tony Dunnell

July 31, 2024

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Humans have been mining since prehistoric times, when flint was excavated for its use in tools and weapons. Since then, we have gone on to mine all manner of minerals, from copper and gold to the rare earth elements used to create the components in many of our modern devices.

Yet mining, and underground mining in particular, is extremely dangerous, with risks such as cave-ins, explosions, toxic air, and extreme temperatures. It may seem strange, then, that such a risky profession is associated with the small and spritely songbird Serinus canaria, otherwise known as the canary.

Just how did this tiny, tuneful member of the finch family become connected with going deep down into the perilous dark of the world’s coal mines? Well, as it turns out, we owe quite a debt to this brave little bird.

The link between canaries and coal mines began with the British physiologist and philosopher John Scott Haldane (1860-1936), a pioneering specialist in the physiology of respiration. Haldane’s many contributions to the field include his investigations into decompression sickness, which helped to improve safety for undersea divers, and an early gas mask designed to protect soldiers against poison gas in World War I. And it was Haldane who first proposed an innovative safety measure for miners. Following his investigation into the cause of an 1896 explosion at Tylorstown Colliery in Wales, Haldane concluded that carbon monoxide buildup was to blame for the disaster. So, he suggested using mice or birds to monitor gas levels in the mines, as he knew that these animals were far more sensitive than humans to poison gases.

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Heeding Haldane’s recommendation, British miners began taking canaries into the coal mines — carried in small metal or wooden cages — to detect the presence of odorless carbon monoxide. If the canary showed any signs of distress (or if it suddenly died), it was a clear sign to the miners that conditions were unsafe and the mine should be evacuated. The use of canaries in this way is perhaps the most common example of what is known as a sentinel species, a term applied to animals or plants that serve as harbingers of danger to human health or the wider environment.

It wasn’t long before the use of canaries in coal mines became commonplace not only in Britain but also in the United States and Canada. The birds became such a trusted part of the mining process — part of the team, you could say — that miners were known to treat their avian companions almost as pets. In some cases, special cages were designed for the canaries that could be used to resuscitate the poor little birds should they succumb to noxious gases. These metal-and-glass cages were fitted with a small oxygen tank. If the canary inside began to show signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, the cage door was closed and a valve opened to revive the bird with a fresh supply of oxygen.

Canaries were used in British coal mines for almost a century. Then, in 1986, hundreds of canaries breathed a collective sigh of relief when Britain announced that the use of birds in coal mines would stop, to be replaced with modern detectors, often known as “electronic noses.” But to this day, canaries retain their connection with coal mining, as much a symbol of the profession as coal-blackened faces, hard hats, and pickaxes. The canary’s role in the mines was so significant that it also became ingrained in the English language: The common idiom “a canary in the coal mine” is still used to refer to something that gives an early warning of danger.

7 Roman Emperors Everyone Should Know

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Author Timothy Ott

July 24, 2024

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Although Rome reached the pinnacle of its power and influence during the imperial era, which stretched from approximately 27 BCE to 476 CE, it wasn’t always easy for emperors during this period to run a tight ship. Not only did these imperial rulers endure threats from both hostile invaders and supposed allies who secretly plotted to gain power for themselves, but they also faced the myriad challenges of maintaining order among the disparate cultures of an empire that touched three continents and encompassed nearly 1.7 million square miles at its peak.

While some emperors succumbed to the pressures of the job and the temptation of corruption, others proved to have the vision and mettle to adjust as needed and propel the empire forward for the next generation. Here are seven Roman emperors who excelled in the role, helping ensure that the memory of Rome would endure for posterity.

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Augustus (27 BCE-14 CE)

Although Julius Caesar proclaimed himself supreme leader in the dying days of the Roman Republic, it was his grandnephew and adopted son Augustus who marked a new era as Rome’s first emperor. Rich from the spoils of victory over Cleopatra’s Egypt, Augustus embarked on a building program that included necessary projects such as new roads and aqueducts, as well as awe-inspiring marvels including the Temple of Apollo Palatinus and the Theater of Marcellus. He also founded a postal system, installed a police and firefighting force, and secured the ever-expanding empire’s borders by establishing a standing army. While his boast of having transformed Rome from a city of clay to one of marble was hyperbole, it’s no exaggeration to say that Augustus’ impressive 40-year rule kick-started the two-century period of prosperity known as the Pax Romana, or “Roman Peace.”

Vespasian (69-79 CE)

The end of Emperor Nero's controversial reign in 68 CE threatened to plunge the Roman Empire into further chaos, as a string of successors failed to establish stability in what became known as the "Year of the Four Emperors." Into that turbulence stepped Vespasian, who quelled the bloody uprisings that had accompanied him to the top and established the Flavian dynasty that endured for the next three decades. Known for his frugal ways — he once was allegedly pelted with turnips for his stinginess as proconsul of Africa — Vespasian unapologetically raised taxes to replenish the coffers that had been drained during Nero's rule. And while he used the cash to fund massive construction projects such as the Colosseum, the emperor also drew praise for showing restraint when it came to indulging in personal luxuries. Although his reign wasn't a particularly long one, Vespasian left enough of an impression that the Roman senator and historian Tacitus noted he was "the only emperor who had changed for the better."

Trajan (98-117 CE)

The second of the "Five Good Emperors" (along with Nerva, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius) that comprised the Nerva-Antonine dynasty that ruled from 96-180 CE, Trajan stakes a legitimate claim to being the greatest ruler of Rome's heyday. With his treasury bolstered by the conquest of Dacia (modern-day Romania), Trajan funneled the bounty toward the building of new roads, bridges, and aqueducts, as well as a magnificent forum with its towering Trajan's Column in the city of Rome. He also had the common sense to share the wealth with the people, and he was widely beloved for reducing taxes and expanding social welfare programs that included the "alimenta" for poor and orphaned children. Trajan continued his military campaigns through his final years, and by the end of his rule, Rome had expanded to the largest territory the empire ever saw. His accomplishments were of such magnitude that future emperors were inaugurated with the words, "Sis felicior Augusto, melior Traiano," meaning "May you be more fortunate than Augustus, and better than Trajan."

Hadrian (117-138 CE)

It's tough to follow in the military footsteps of a warrior-king like Trajan, and to his credit, Hadrian didn't make much of an effort to do so. He instead focused on consolidating and strengthening the empire's borders, a strategy underscored by the construction of the 73-mile Hadrian's Wall across modern-day England, which is still standing today. Hadrian also commissioned major structures such as the Pantheon, codified Roman law with the creation of the Perpetual Edict, and was a devoted patron of the arts. Although he rankled some by embracing Greek culture and flouting his companionship with a Greek youth named Antinous, Hadrian's policies unquestionably kept the empire running at full throttle through the glory days of the second century CE.

Marcus Aurelius (161-180 CE)

A devotee of Stoicism, a Hellenistic school of philosophy emphasizing the pursuit of virtue, Marcus Aurelius is best remembered for the collection of self-reflections that comprise his famed work Meditations. Ironically, Rome's philosopher-king had little time to enjoy the inner peace he sought; his two-decade reign was marked by armed conflict with Parthians to the east and invading Germanic tribes from the north, as well as a devastating plague that wiped out millions of Roman citizens. Despite the hardships, Marcus Aurelius was largely successful at maintaining the prosperity forged by his predecessors. However, he also garners criticism from historians for passing the empire to his son Commodus, whose inept reign is considered to have brought an end to the Pax Romana.

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Diocletian (284-305 CE)

How does a floundering empire overcome the half-century of infighting and territorial loss that would later be coined the "Crisis of the Third Century"? By installing an emperor with the confidence to distribute power across its far-flung boundaries. Known as the tetrarchy, this system featured two senior leaders known as augusti and a pair of junior leaders called caesars who ostensibly ruled their respective jurisdictions, though Diocletian clearly held sway above the others. More of an administrative than a battlefield genius, Diocletian increased the size of Rome's army, doubled the number of provinces, separated the powers of civic and military personnel, and established a state budget based on tax revenue. Although the tetrarchy fizzled after his reign ended, the emperor's success at forging two decades of stability was exemplified by his peaceful retirement instead of a forced abdication or murderous coup.

Constantine (306-337 CE)

Amid the jousting for power that resumed with Diocletian's departure, Constantine the Great emerged to become one of the most transformative figures of the empire's lengthy history. Unlike his predecessors, who either barely tolerated Christians or outright persecuted them, Constantine wholeheartedly embraced the growing religion. He claimed to have seen the sign of the cross in the sky before the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 CE, and the following year, he officially granted tolerance to Christians by issuing the Edict of Milan. After claiming sole control of the empire in 324 CE, Constantine moved his capital 850 miles east to the rebuilt city of Constantinople (formerly named Byzantium), and lured new residents with promises of free bread and citizenship. While Rome succumbed to invaders in 476 CE, the city built by its namesake continued to flourish as the Christian-populated seat of the Eastern Roman Empire for another millennium.

What the New York City Skyline Looked Like 100 Years Ago

New York City, mid-1920s — Credit: Underwood Archives/ Archive Photos via Getty Images

Author Mark DeJoy

July 24, 2024

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Rising up from the inlet of the Hudson River, New York City has one of the world’s most recognizable and expansive skylines. It’s a built environment defined by skyscrapers, with towering historical icons such as the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and the Woolworth Building. The city — Manhattan in particular — has a legacy of cutting-edge vertical architecture dating back to the late 19th century. But 100 years ago, many of the city’s most famous buildings didn’t exist yet.

In 1924, New York City was hardly in its infancy. It had been the most populated city in the United States since 1790, and it grew to become the second most populated city in the world by 1900. As of the 1920 census, the city was home to more than 5.6 million people (compared to roughly 8.8 million today). At the time, New York’s tallest buildings were concentrated in lower Manhattan, the colonial center of the city, which by 1910 contained a bona fide vertical skyline. When downtown land became too scarce and costly, developers began building skyscrapers in midtown, which was a transportation hub thanks to Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. But this development didn’t take place until the late 1920s. In 1924, the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was located at the site of the eventual Empire State Building, and the iconic twin towers of the World Trade Center were still 50 years away. Let’s travel back a hundred years for a glimpse at a very different New York City.

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Lower Manhattan skyline south of the Brooklyn Bridge, 1895.

The construction of tall buildings in Manhattan was spurred by two things: a finite amount of space on the narrow island, and the advent of the passenger elevator, which enabled developers to add higher floors that could be accessed without climbing stairs. Construction was completed on the city’s first two elevator-equipped office buildings in 1875, which historians consider New York’s proto-skyscrapers: the 11-story, 260-foot Tribune Building and the 10-story, 230-foot Western Union Building. The engineering capabilities of the time meant that both structures were built with load-bearing exterior walls — the walls of high buildings were designed to taper to greater thickness on the ground floor in order to provide support for the top floors. Ground-floor walls for a 150-foot building needed to be 3 feet wide; they had to be even wider for greater heights, thus reducing space on the ground floor. This created a sort of practical (and economic) cap on building height, and both the Tribune Building and Western Union Building remained New York City’s tallest occupiable buildings for many years.

Such height limitations were solved in the 1880s by a method known as skeleton construction, in which support for each floor was provided by an iron or steel frame, replacing the need for load-bearing walls. The first structure in New York City built using skeleton construction was the Tower Building in lower Manhattan. At 11 stories tall, it didn’t become NYC’s tallest building when it was completed in 1889 (it used skeleton construction to overcome a narrow lot size, not to achieve grandiosity), but it did provide the means for the city’s skyline to take shape.

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View of Manhattan from Queens, with Roosevelt Island in the foreground and the Metropolitan Life Tower at the far left, early 1920s.

The 1890s ushered in an era of increasingly tall buildings. When the New York World Building was completed in 1890, the 16-story, 309-foot office tower became the first structure to exceed the height of the colonial-era Trinity Church’s spire. It was not only the tallest building in New York, but also the tallest in the world. In 1894, the 18-floor Manhattan Life Insurance Building surpassed it at 348 feet to become the world’s tallest building. Five years later, the 30-floor, 391-foot Park Row Building was completed; it had a nine-year stint as the world’s tallest building before the 42-floor Singer Building thoroughly towered over any other building at the time, at 612 feet tall. In 1909, only a year later, the 50-story, 700-foot Metropolitan Life Tower was completed and became the world’s tallest building. By 1968, the New York World Building, Manhattan Life Insurance Building, and Singer Building had all been demolished. But 100 years ago, they were some of the centerpieces of the New York City skyline.

Office buildings proliferated at the turn of the 20th century as the American economy shifted from agriculture to manufacturing and service industries. These industries required clerical work that in turn required office space to accomplish. But the need for commercial space wasn’t the only reason building heights soared; the lucrative real estate market was another important factor. The high value of property near already-established commercial districts motivated skyscraper construction in midtown and downtown Manhattan. The value of vertical real estate was illustrated to an extreme degree in 1913 with the completion of the Woolworth Building, which took the mantle of world’s tallest building, and became an unsurpassed fixture of the New York City skyline throughout the 1920s.

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Construction of the Woolworth Building on Broadway in lower Manhattan, 1912. On the right is the Municipal Building, also under construction, with the East River in the background.

Standing 792 feet tall, the Woolworth Building contained 58 floors above ground, and another three floors below ground. With its Tudor-style arched entrance portal, sculpted allegorical figures, Greek marble and stained glass interior, it was such a striking example of Gothic Revival architecture that it was referred to as the “cathedral of commerce.” But even though the building was commissioned by F.W. Woolworth as a grand representation of the retail giant, only one and a half floors of the building were actually occupied by the Woolworth Company. The rest of the building — 60.5 floors — was essentially an investment in real estate. Records from 1914 show that the other floors were leased by as many as 1,000 tenants.

New York City’s building boom wasn’t entirely a height race, though — other skyscrapers were adding grandeur to the skyline without breaking records. In 1889, 41 Park Row was built as a Richardsonian Romanesque headquarters for The New York Times. The Flatiron Building (officially, though obscurely, named the Fuller Building) was completed in 1902 as a distinctly wedge-shaped (or iron-shaped, hence its nickname) beaux arts office tower for its intended tenant and original designer, the George Fuller Construction Company.

Other buildings focused on size, but in the form of usable office floor space, not height: In 1908, the City Investing Building became the largest office building in the world in terms of square footage, with 559,000 square feet of office space. It was surpassed by the nearly 1 million square feet of the Manhattan Municipal Building in 1914, which was then exceeded by the 1.2 million-square-foot Equitable Building in 1915. The dark corridor the building made of Pine Street, which ran between it and 100 Broadway, is an example of an unfortunate side effect of the skyscraper boom, leading to the city’s first-ever zoning law the following year.

The skyline of lower Manhattan, circa 1915. The Municipal Building is at the far left; the Woolworth Building is the tall skyscraper to the right of that. The Singer Building is the darker skyscraper in the center of the photo.

New York City’s 1916 Zoning Resolution contained a provision that would have major implications on the design of the skyline from that point forward: It required tall buildings to include setbacks in order to preserve street-level light. Per the law, a tower would need to be indented if it occupied more than 25% of its lot. The requirement was in effect until 1961, and its impact can be seen in buildings such as the Bush Tower (1917), Cunard Line Building, Crown Building (both completed in 1921), Standard Oil Building (1928), and American Radiator Building (1924).

This setback was also incorporated into the signature ziggurat design element of the art deco movement that emerged in the late 1920s. But 100 years ago, the New York City skyline was dotted with buildings designed in Gothic Revival, neoclassical, beaux arts, Jacobethan, Renaissance Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque, French second empire, and neocolonial styles. Art deco icons such as the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building, completed in 1930 and 1931, respectively, were just around the corner.

What Did an English Earl Actually Do?

Anglo-Saxon earls — Credit: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Author Kristina Wright

July 24, 2024

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Even if you’re not from the U.K., you’re likely familiar with the titles of British nobility from countless movies and TV shows. Known as the peerage system, this noble hierarchy consists of five ranks today: duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. The title of earl — the oldest in the peerage system — dates back to the end of the early medieval period, during the reign of King Canute (or Cnut) in the 11th century. It is equivalent to the rank of count in other European countries and has no feminine form, so a female with this title is known as a countess.

In the peerage system, nobles are often referred to by their titles rather than their surnames. These titles typically correspond to the names of an estate, earldom, or territory associated with the noble family. For example, Richard Neville, known as the “Kingmaker” for his pivotal role in the Wars of the Roses, was best known by his title, the Earl of Warwick.

Today, there are around 190 earls in the U.K., but while the title still carries prestige, the role is mostly ceremonial, with few formal responsibilities. Yet during the Middle Ages, earls were powerful leaders who wielded considerable influence over their territory and the kingdom at large. Here are a few of the duties that English earls were once expected to manage.

Earls Governed Large Regions of the Kingdom

During the early medieval period, before the creation of the titles of duke and marquess in 1337 and 1386, respectively, earls were the highest-ranking members of the nobility, second only to the royal family. Earls were appointed by the ruling monarch and were responsible for governing large areas of the kingdom. The lands they oversaw could include several shires (counties), collectively known as a “fief” or “earldom.”

Earls acted as royal governors, representing the king in their territories. They oversaw their estates, enforced royal laws throughout the earldom, made judgments in county courts, and collected fines and taxes for the crown from the people living on their lands. Earls were entitled to a share of the money they collected on behalf of the crown, so their lands served as a source of great wealth as well as power.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, William the Conqueror began to make changes to the traditional system of nobility. He sought to limit the power of earls by ending their judicial control and tax-collecting responsibilities. They were also restricted to overseeing a single county and many of their former duties were taken over by the county sheriff.

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Earls Served as Advisers to the King

The United Kingdom’s upper house of Parliament, known as the House of Lords, has its roots in a body of government from Anglo-Saxon England (the period of English history before the Norman Conquest) called the witan. Named for the Anglo-Saxon phrase “witenagemot,” or “meeting of the wise men,” the witan was made up of noble lords, including earls and barons, as well as religious officials such as abbots and bishops. This group served as a council of advisers to the king (England did not have a ruling queen until Mary I was crowned in 1553). The king would call on the witan to get support for decisions such as granting land, making new laws, or levying taxes.

In the 14th century, two distinct houses of Parliament were established. The House of Commons was made up of representatives from the towns and counties, while the House of Lords was composed of religious leaders, known as lords spiritual, and nobles, including earls and other members of the peerage, known as lords temporal. Before the Norman Conquest, the title of earl was not automatically hereditary, and the territory that defined an earldom was not permanent. By the reign of King Richard II in the 14th century, earldoms were either hereditary or life appointments, and by the 15th century, the vast majority of lords temporal in the House of Lords had inherited their titles. This tradition continued for centuries, and it wasn’t until 1999 that nobles’ automatic right to inherit a seat in Parliament was abolished.

Medieval Earls Were Also Military Leaders

In Anglo-Saxon England, a role known as ealdorman served as a high-ranking court official responsible for enforcing the king’s laws within a local shire. The office of ealdorman evolved into the title of earl, a word of Scandinavian origin that was introduced during the reign of the Danish King Canute (Cnut) in the 11th century. Earls assumed many of the leadership duties of the role: They were tasked with keeping the peace, exercising justice, and raising armies in the king’s name. Under the feudal system, earls granted small parcels of land to knights and vassals in exchange for military services. Knights helped enforce the laws, defending landholdings and seizing other nearby lands, and could become lords themselves.

After William the Conqueror reduced the size of earldoms, earls took on the role of military governors over smaller, more strategic areas of land. They were responsible for overseeing coastal areas and vulnerable borders, and had the authority to imprison lawbreakers. In later centuries, the number of earls and earldoms were reduced through extinction of titles and sale of land. By the 1800s, the role of earl was increasingly focused on social obligations, helping to facilitate important alliances for the crown and strategic marriages between nobles. Despite the reduction in formal responsibilities and landholdings, earls and other members of the British peerage continued to hold a substantial amount of power through personal wealth and political influence as members of Parliament.

The Meaning Behind 9 Famous Middle Initials

Author Bennett Kleinman

July 18, 2024

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Styling your name to include a middle initial is far less common now than when it first became widely popular in the 19th century. As the U.S. saw a massive population boom, many people began using their middle initial to help distinguish themselves from other people with similar names. Throughout the 19th century and into the 20th century, abbreviating your middle name was popular among everyone from presidents to activists. Today, it’s hard to imagine John Rockefeller’s name without the “D” or Susan Anthony without the “B,” but at the same time, many people aren’t sure what those letters actually stand for. Here’s the meaning behind some of history’s most famous but mysterious middle initials.

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John D. Rockefeller

Business magnate John D. Rockefeller’s name has long been associated with wealth, as he’s considered by some metrics to be the richest person in U.S. history. His last name came from his father, businessman and notorious con artist William Rockefeller Sr., but his middle initial stands for Davison, the maiden name of his mother, Eliza. The Davisons were Baptists of Scotch Irish descent who lived on a farm in central New York, near where William did business. Eliza and William married in 1837 and named their first son John Davison Rockefeller. As the young Rockefeller rose to prominence, he styled his name with the middle initial “D,” as was the fashion at the time. He later named his own son John Davison Rockefeller Jr. — a tradition that continued in future generations.

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Ulysses S. Grant

President Ulysses S. Grant was actually named Hiram Ulysses Grant when he was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. At the age of 17, he adopted the middle initial “S,” though it wasn’t by choice. The initial was actually due to a clerical mistake at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1839, Grant was nominated to West Point by Thomas Hamer, an Ohio congressman, who got confused while filling out the application. Hamer knew that Grant often went by Ulysses instead of Hiram, so he put “Ulysses” down as Grant’s first name. The application also required a middle initial, so Hamer wrote “S” for Simpson, the surname of Grant’s mother. Grant futilely tried to correct the error, but the name “Ulysses S. Grant” stuck. In an 1844 letter to his future wife Julia Dent, Grant wrote, “You know I have an ‘S’ in my name and don’t know what it stand for.”

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Susan B. Anthony

Women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony was born just Susan Anthony on February 15, 1820. As middle initials became increasingly popular, she and her sisters had a “great craze for middle initials,” as Anthony later put it in an 1896 interview. As a young girl, she opted to start going by the name Susan B. Anthony, drawing inspiration from her aunt and namesake Susan Anthony Brownell. Anthony was said to dislike the full name Brownell, and preferred to use just the initial “B” for her own middle name.

Warren G. Harding

Gamaliel is the name of the wise man from Acts 5:34-40 of the New Testament — and it’s also the middle name of America’s 29th president, Warren G. Harding. His parents chose the name Gamaliel for their son as they were both religious Christians — Warren’s father, George, was a Baptist and his mother, Phoebe, was Methodist. Unfortunately, the Harding administration was marred by unwise decisions and unchecked corruption, leaving Harding’s legacy far less esteemed than that of his biblical namesake.

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Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington was a prolific educator born into slavery in 1856 and freed during the Civil War. His mother, Jane, initially named her son Booker Taliaferro (pronounced “Tolliver”). This was a common surname in Virginia, where Jane and Booker lived at the time. However, the man who enslaved Booker refused to use the name Taliaferro, so the child was brought up unaware of his birth name. Booker later enrolled in school at the age of 16, and the school required its pupils to have a last name. He selected Washington, after his mother’s husband, Washington Ferguson. Booker later learned about his original surname from his mother, and he immediately adopted it as his new middle name. For the rest of his life, he went by the name Booker T. Washington.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower

Five-star General and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is one of the most famous people in American history. He also has one of the most mysterious middle initials. His middle name is far less well known than, say, John Fitzgerald Kennedy or Lyndon Baines Johnson, yet the “D” simply stands for David, which was actually Eisenhower’s first name at birth. The man lovingly referred to as “Ike” was born David Dwight Eisenhower on October 14, 1890, to his parents David and Ida. However, his mother wanted to avoid confusion from having two Davids in the house, and chose to call her son by his middle name. From a young age, the boy went by the name Dwight at home, even though documents such as his high school yearbook listed him as “David Eisenhower.” As he entered adulthood, Eisenhower kept the name Dwight and shortened David to a middle initial.

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Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil B. DeMille is one of the founders of American cinema, as the visionary behind such legendary films as The Greatest Show on Earth and The Ten Commandments. He was born Cecil Blount de Mille on August 12, 1881, a name that honored both of his grandmothers. The name Cecil came from his maternal grandmother Cecilia Wolff, while Blount came from his paternal grandmother Margaret Blount Hoyt. As he rose to the top of the film world, Cecil styled his name with the middle initial “B.” He also changed the spelling of his last name: While he continued to use the name de Mille in private, he preferred the way DeMille looked in a professional sense.

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman is unique among U.S. presidents in that he’s the only one whose middle initial isn’t an abbreviation at all. His parents gave him the “S” to honor both of his grandfathers — Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young — but kept it to just that single letter. Because of this, Truman wrote his full name without a period after the “S” for most of his life, though that changed during his presidency. He was told by an editor for the Chicago Style Manual that omitting a period was bad grammar, and that it would potentially set a bad example for America’s youth. From then on, Truman signed his name as “Harry S. Truman.”

Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin is among the most renowned science fiction authors of the 20th century, winning both the Hugo and Nebula awards for her 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness. Her middle initial “K” stands for her maiden name Kroeber, as she was born to Alfred and Theodora Kroeber in 1929 in Berkeley, California. Both of her parents were highly regarded anthropologists, and her father earned the first doctorate in anthropology ever awarded by Columbia University. Given their elite status in the world of academia, the Kroebers befriended many notable intellectual figures, including nuclear scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. (The “J” stands for Julius, his father’s name.) Ursula even based Shevek, the protagonist in her novel The Dispossessed, after her parents’ famous friend.

All the U.S. Military Ranks, In Order

U.S. military symbols — Illustration by Madison Hunt

Author Bennett Kleinman

July 18, 2024

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The U.S. military is divided into six branches: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Space Force. Each has its own individual hierarchy, featuring the most accomplished and decorated officers at the very top and recent enlistees at the bottom. Along this chain of command you’ll find ranks such as captains, colonels, and sergeants, all of which are familiar terms. But unless you’ve served in the military, you may be wondering how those ranks stack up, and who answers to whom.

In the military, there’s no ambiguity about who your commanding officer is. There’s a firmly established chain of command so each rank knows where they stand, though the exact terminology varies among the different branches of the military. Let’s look at the ranks of the U.S. military in ascending order, from the lowest to highest positions.

Army

The U.S. Army is the oldest of the six military branches, established on June 14, 1775. It’s also the most heavily populated branch, containing more than 460,000 active service members and many thousands more in the National Guard and Army Reserves. At the very bottom of the chain of command is the rank of private — a title generally given to new soldiers in basic training. Over time, members of the Army may rise up the ranks to the role of sergeant, which is a leadership post that commands various platoons and sections.

Above sergeant is the rank of warrant officer. These officers are generally highly specialized technicians in areas such as intelligence or military policing. Above that is the highest grouping of ranks in the Army, the commissioned officers, who are confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The lowest commissioned officer rank is second lieutenant, and the highest is a special wartime rank called general of the Army. This role has been held by an exclusive group of people including Dwight D. Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur during World War II. There is, however, an even more prestigious rank known as general of the Armies. This role has been conferred only three times in history: to John J. Pershing after World War I, and posthumously to both George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant.

Here are the ranks of the U.S. Army in ascending order:

Private
Private second class
Private first class
Specialist
Corporal
Sergeant
Staff sergeant
Sergeant first class
First sergeant
Master sergeant
Command sergeant major
Sergeant major
Sergeant major of the Army
Warrant officer 1
Chief warrant officer 2
Chief warrant officer 3
Chief warrant officer 4
Chief warrant officer 5
Second lieutenant
First lieutenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant colonel
Colonel
Brigadier general
Major general
Lieutenant general
General
General of the Army

Marines

The Marines were founded on November 10, 1775, and there are just under 200,000 active service members currently enlisted. While this branch has its own unique identity and history, many of its ranks are similar, if not identical, to those of the Army — with a few minor differences.

The lowest four ranks of the Marines are private, private first class, lance corporal, and corporal, in ascending order. The Marines also have roles not found in the Army, such as gunnery sergeant, instead of a sergeant first class, and master gunnery sergeant, equivalent to the Army’s sergeant major. The highest rank within the Marines is general, and there is no role reserved specifically for wartime.

Navy

Though America’s Continental Navy was established on October 13, 1775, it wasn’t until 1794 that the United States Navy was formally founded. As of 2023, the U.S. Navy has nearly 500,000 total personnel between the active service members and those in the Navy Reserve.

The Navy uses very different ranking terminology than the Army. At the bottom is the role of seaman recruit, equivalent in scope to private. Many of the commissioned naval officers are given unique titles as well, such as ensign — which is equivalent to second lieutenant in the other branches — commander, and captain. The highest role in the Navy is admiral, followed by a special wartime position called fleet admiral. This unique title was held by only four people during World War II: William Halsey Jr., Ernest J. King, William D. Leahy, and Chester W. Nimitz.

Here are the ranks of the U.S. Navy in ascending order:

Seaman recruit
Seaman apprentice
Seaman
Petty officer third class
Petty officer second Class
Petty officer first class
Chief petty officer
Senior chief petty officer
Fleet/command master chief petty officer
Master chief petty officer
Master chief petty officer of the Navy
USN warrant officer 1
USN chief warrant officer 2
USN chief warrant officer 3
USN chief warrant officer 4
USN chief warrant officer 5
Ensign
Lieutenant junior grade
Lieutenant
Lieutenant commander
Commander
Captain
Rear admiral lower half
Rear admiral upper half
Vice admiral
Admiral
Fleet admiral

Coast Guard

The Coast Guard’s history dates back to 1790, when Congress authorized several vessels to enforce tariff and trade laws. It wasn’t until 1915 that this branch earned its current name, as Congress formally merged the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life-Saving Service that year. The chain of command for the Coast Guard is nearly identical to that of the Navy, the only difference being that the Coast Guard has fewer chief warrant officer ranks.

Air Force

The Air Force was established on September 18, 1947, under the National Security Act (which also established the Defense Department and CIA). The U.S. has the world’s largest Air Force, with more than 300,000 active duty members and hundreds of thousands more playing pivotal support roles. The lowest rank in the Air Force is airman basic. From there, many of the warrant officers and commissioned officer ranks are identical to the ranks used by the Army and Marines. There is also a special wartime rank at the very top — general of the Air Force. This was held by only one person in history, Henry H. Arnold, who oversaw U.S. air forces during World War II.

Here are the ranks of the U.S. Air Force in ascending order:

Airman basic
Airman
Airman first class
Senior airman
Staff sergeant
Technical sergeant
First sergeant
Master sergeant
First sergeant
Senior master sergeant
Command chief master sergeant
First sergeant
Chief master sergeant
Chief master sergeant of the Air Force
Second lieutenant
First lieutenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant colonel
Colonel
Brigadier general
Major general
Lieutenant general
General
General of the Air Force

Space Force

The Space Force is the most recent branch of the U.S. military, established on December 20, 2019. At the bottom of the chain of command are the roles of specialist 1, 2, 3, and 4, followed by sergeant. The role of specialist is akin to the lower ranks of other branches such as private, seaman, and airman. The rank of specialist 4, however, carries slightly more responsibility and is equivalent to the Army rank of corporal. As you rise through the ranks from there, many ranks within the Space Force are identical to those in the Air Force.

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