Balloons Are Everywhere
The experience of going up in a balloon was still very much a novelty, but the idea of a balloon was becoming familiar.
The Dangerous Business of Ballooning
This highly dangerous business was accompanied by an increase in accidents and fatalities among aeronauts.
Pioneering Aeronauts
By the 1830s, American ballooning had reached its heyday. American aeronauts made technological improvements that allowed them to achieve higher and farther flights.
Up, Up, and Away: A History of Ballooning in America
This exhibit examines the history of balloon flight in the United States from Blanchard’s first ascension to the early twentieth century.
Digital Research – Where to Begin?
While visiting the William L. Clements Library in person is highly recommended, we also maintain a variety of digital resources for doing research with our collections from afar. This blog post is meant to exist as a jumping-off point for doing digital research with our collections, not as an exhaustive guide.
Additional Resources
Contents Introduction Going Viral in 1776 Audi et Alteram Partem: Listen to the Other Side Revolution, Reaction, and the Rights of Man An Uncommon Conclusion Additional Resources Additional Resources American Revolution in the Clements Collections Thomas Paine papers,...
An Uncommon Conclusion
Paine’s revolutionary temperament was not restricted to matters of politics. His 1794 book The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology extended his critique to theology and religion, questioning key tenets of the Christian faith, criticizing the institutional dimensions of religion more generally, and espousing Deism as the only faith compatible with human reason.
Revolution, Reaction, and the Rights of Man
Fifteen years after the publication of Common Sense, Paine published the first part of his Rights of Man, a defense of the French Revolution. Rights of Man celebrated the French Revolution as heralding a new dawn of liberty and reason, and critiqued Edmund Burke’s 1790 Reflections on the Revolution in France, which had criticized the French revolutionaries, defended traditional, established political norms and institutions, and endorsed gradual reform over wholescale political change.
Audi et Alteram Partem: Listen to the Other Side
This page offers a snapshot of the reactions and responses to Common Sense, and Paine more generally, that make clear how much controversy he and his work aroused. Both visually and textually, Paine was lionized and vilified as he became an icon synonymous with the ideas he advocated for.