Hello, friends! I’ve got some interesting articles to share today on topics spanning the centuries from the Middle Ages to the Italian Renaissance to the Second World War. I hope you enjoy these historical highlights.

Since today is Remembrance Day (Veterans Day to any Americans who are reading), we’ll start with an article about Churchill’s subterranean bunker. If, like me, you don’t know much about it, you’ll enjoy the accompanying photos, including the one below.

Unless you’re living under a rock — in which case you wouldn’t be reading this blog — you know that there was a monumental U.S. election this week. So, speaking of voting and all that, have you heard of “suffrage maps”?  These maps were used in the fight for women’s suffrage and “were painted on walls and positioned in prominent public places, such as state buildings, banks, and businesses. They showed up on drinking glasses, baseball programs, parade floats, and sandwich boards.”

In the Middle Ages scribes wrote curses into books to scare off potential thieves. Read how to “protect your library the medieval way.”

Before Michelangelo became famous he artificially aged his own sculpture of a sleeping cupid and sold it as a classical piece.

An Aboriginal shield possibly dating from the “first encounter between Aboriginal people and James Cook in Botany Bay in 1770” was just uncovered in Berlin.

The Smithsonian is running a Kickstarter campaign to conserve Dorothy’s ruby slippers and other costumes from The Wizard of Oz.

Enjoy your weekend, folks.

P.S. For any writers out there, you might like these ten tips from Micheline Maylor, the current Author in Residence at the Calgary Public Library. (I described my meeting with her in a recent newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed yet, visit my home page to sign up for free.)