I have lots of fascinating historical highlights for you today, from old photographs to extreme bagpiping situations to the discovery of an underground room. Read on!

Check out these photographs of 19^th century China by a British photographer who spent almost twenty years in Peking (now Beijing).

See 64 rare color photos from 1930s-40s (and many more on the Library of Congress Flickr account).

Speaking of the Library of Congress, they asked, “What’s this Gadget?” about 25 uncaptioned photographs and now only six remain unsolved. Maybe you can help!

View a gallery of silk embroidered postcards sent home from Europe by World War I soldiers.

Interested in jazz? Read about discovering Ottilie Patterson’s scrapbooks and papers in the (UK) National Jazz Archive.

Watch a four-minute video about Scottish influence in Nova Scotia created by a young student from Chelsea, Nova Scotia.

Extreme Bagpiping Situations, from Antarctica to the Beaches of D-Day

This is my favourite part: “Though it may appear that the penguin pictured stood beside Kerr of his or her own volition, the Glasgow Digital Library notes that the animal was ‘sufficiently reluctant as a listener to require tethering to a large cooking-pot packed full of snow.’”

An underground room was discovered on the property of a historic house in Rhode Island, purpose still unknown.

Inspired by a new History Channel series called Hunting Hitler, Dr. Greg Bradsher, Archivist at the National Archives in College Park, MD, is writing a multi-part blog series on the death of Hitler and subsequent search for proof of his death.

Using archival evidence knitters developed a pattern for a baby blanket made by First Lady Lou Henry Hoover.

Scientists in Brazil have named a newly-discovered species of daddy longlegs after a Lord of the Rings character: Iandumoema smeagol. 

I hope you’ll share your discoveries in the comments!