I just posted an addendum to an article I published in the journal, Folklore, in 2020: The Other Side of the Tamar: A Comparison of the Pixies of Devon and Cornwall. That article compares pixy legends from the two British neighbors, concluding that there was little diffusion of legends across the border and that the far west of Cornwall was extremely isolated from Devon when it comes to folklore.

The addendum incorporates a new source I recently found, English Forests and Forest Trees, Historical, Legendary, and Descriptive. This is an extremely early publication (1853) that has apparently escaped notice when it comes to Devonian folklore, given that its title gives no obvious hint about this subject being covered. The text provides additional legends about pixies, augmenting the content of my original article. Here is the abstract:

In March 2020, I published an article comparing the pixies of Devon and Cornwall, appearing in Folklore, the journal of the Folklore Society. Since that time, I found a relevant source, Ingram, Cooke, and Co., English Forests and Forest Trees, Historical, Legendary, and Descriptive (1853). It includes remarkably early references to Devonian pixies, enhancing the ability to understand the traditions of the two neighbors on either side of the Tamar River, which forms much of the boundary separating Cornwall and Devon. This source (featuring ML 7015 and ATU 124) allows for an augmentation of my original article, enhancing and supporting the conclusion that I reached, namely that the pixy traditions of Devon and the far west of Cornwall were not expressions of diffusion from one place to the other.

In A Chorus Line (1975), during the song Dance: Ten, Looks: 3, the character Val makes reference to her plastic surgeon as “the wizard on Park and Seventy-third”. Was this just a generic address that general audiences would interpret as being expensive based on the location or was this really the address of a well known plastic surgeon that people in NYC would have recognized?

(1) What are some good books on Asian migration history around the 19th century to mid-1900s? Similar to Adam McKeown's melancholy order, Sunil Amrith's work, and Shelly Chan's Diaspora's Homeland.

(2) Also, how would you define microhistory? I'm thinking about Ginzburg's work and Natalie Zemon Davis, but they don't give me clear answers...

Is there evidence to show that Mesolithic people in general were as violent as their Neolithic descendants/replacements? I keep hearing it argued that although we see Mesolithic cultures and people as relatively peaceful, they were actually anything but, yet without naming any sources or linking to evidence.

In France, under the ancient regime, how many generations did the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis apply too? Was “Children and Grand Children” the literal and defining rule, limiting it at 2 generation past the award, or would it have included great grand children if it had not been abolished in 1830?

And in completely unrelated news….

I know where the 14th Maine Infantry bivouacked before going off to war in Feb of 1862 (our old family farm) and again for their 25 year reunion or something like that, whatever reunion it was they camped in the same field they had used in 1862.

Considering the known capacity for new privates to lose stuff, and the fact that the reunion was rained out and veterans had to be rescued from a suddenly flooding field and put up in locals homes, should I take up metal detectoring or whatever it’s called as a hobby and work that field for loot, er, I mean, museum pieces?

Is there one defining moment in your life that made you say, “I want to become a historian”?

I was just reading about an agrarian-populist political party that played a major role in left wing American politics during the economic crisis of the 1890s - drawing a lot of support from angry farmers. They were apparently really critical of capitalism and allied themselves with the labor movement. I feel like a large part of American history is unknown in regards to their labor movements.

Does anyone know any good books that really gets down into the nitty gritty details of the grievances workers faced since Americas founding?

Stuff ranging from labor striking, economic crisis', working conditions, the transition into modernity and how this might have affected workers. Thank you

This week I made Waldorf salad and wondered how many people who ate the original salad at the original hotel are still alive, or who worked for its inventor.

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Prior to Christianity coming to prominence, how did Romans keep track of the year?

Hey I'm working on a video project where I compare high school history textbooks from various eras. I've found plenty of Pre World War One textbooks but does anybody know were i can get some post 1920 or so books?

Hi! This might be a relatively strange question to come here for, but I don't know where else I can ask this other than the tattoo subreddit. I'm planning to get the outline of the number "77" tattooed on my upper forearm (in reference to the Talking Heads album) and have only recently been informed of the serial number tattoos holocaust survivors often have from being imprisoned. Would my tattoo in any way come across as this? I really would never intend to offend, especially if it is something permanent on my body. Please go easy on me if this is somehow a dumb question

I've been assigned "A History of World Societies" by McKay et al as course book for my history course in University. I'm enjoying it. I saw that "A History of Western Society" by McKay et al was in the AskHistorians book list which is a good sign. How does "A History of World Societies" rank as literature - is it good?

Why did Austria not make an agreement with the Soviets for a gas pipeline? Austria as a neutral country could have benefited from the transit fees by selling Soviet gas/oil to western Europe during the energy crisis. As far as I could find, Europeans had no reservations about trade with the Soviets.