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Max Lee

Max Lee is a recent graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he majored in English and minored in history. After writing a research paper about the four times Martin Luther King, Jr. visited his school, he's been fascinated by local history. He loves medical history and can't wait to see what procedures and medicines appall future historians.

Posts by this Author

DC
Then There Were No Coffins

Then There Were No Coffins

12/21/2016 in DC by Max Lee

In the fall of 1918, a deadly influenza epidemic raged in Washington, D.C. Entire families were wiped out; some people died within a day of showing symptoms. City officials, meanwhile, had a difficult job: figuring out what to do with the bodies.

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Virginia
A Fight to End Horse Racing and Gambling in Alexandria

A Fight to End Horse Racing and Gambling in Alexandria

12/15/2016 in Virginia by Max Lee

The St. Asaph racetrack in Alexandria was a hotbed of gambling at the turn of the century, and local prosecutor Crandal Mackey made it his personal mission to shut the track down. But that was easier said than done as the track's owners concocted elaborate schemes to outwit authorities and circumvent Virginia's anti-gambling statutes.

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Virginia
George Washington's Bicentennial Birthday Bash

George Washington's Bicentennial Birthday Bash

11/29/2016 in Virginia by Max Lee

Across the country, members of high society celebrated George Washington's 200th birthday by attending costumed balls. But only Alexandria could boast that their ball occurred at the location of Washington's last birthday party.

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DC
The Howard University Fight Over Vaccination

The Howard University Fight Over Vaccination

11/17/2016 in DC by Max Lee

Prior to 1909, Harry Bradford had almost never landed himself in the paper. He appeared in The Washington Post once, when it announced that the Kensington Orchestra was going to be performing in the near future. (Bradford played violin.) But other than that, nothing. And yet, in 1910, Bradford’s name was in all caps on the front page of the Post. “Bradford told to quit,” the headline read.

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DC
How a Confederate Woman's D.C. Home Became a Union Prison

How a Confederate Woman's D.C. Home Became a Union Prison

10/28/2016 in DC by Max Lee

Rose O'Neal Greenhow hosted some of the most prominent politicians of her time in her house on 16th Street. At the beginning of the Civil War, she turned it into a hub of Confederate espionage. Then, it became a Union prison.

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DC
A Thwarted Protest at the Soviet Embassy

A Thwarted Protest at the Soviet Embassy

10/19/2016 in DC by Max Lee

On Aug. 24, 1973, about 20 D.C. Jewish school children gathered around the Soviet Embassy holding onto basketballs. It was around noon, and they were getting ready to bounce the balls just loud enough for Soviet officials to hear. But they weren't there to play; they were there to stage a political protest.

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DC
Long Before Prohibition, D.C. Had a Brief Ban on Liquor

Long Before Prohibition, D.C. Had a Brief Ban on Liquor

10/11/2016 in DC by Max Lee

1917 wasn't the first time D.C. banned alcohol. In the midst of a cholera epidemic 85 years earlier, the city's Board of Health banned the sale of all liquor.

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DC
Elizebeth Friedman: Coast Guard Code Breaker

Elizebeth Friedman: Coast Guard Code Breaker

09/28/2016 in DC by Max Lee

By the end of her life, Elizebeth Smith Friedman was renowned for her work deciphering codes from civilian criminals. She cracked the codes that sent members of what one prosecutor called “the most powerful international smuggling syndicate in existence” to jail, took down a Vancouver opium ring, and caught a World War II Japanese spy.

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Categories

  • DC (565)
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