Author Archive: Charles Keller

Comet Hunter David Levy’s Observing Logs at the Linda Hall Library

After finishing an appraisal inspection in midtown Kansas City a last month, I stopped by the Linda Hall Library of Science and Engineering on the UMKC campus. Opened in 1946, the library is privately funded and is “the world’s foremost…
Read more

The German Military Connections of Rudolf the Victorious in H.G. Wells’s “Things to Come”

In the mid 1930’s, noted writer, historian, and social commentator H.G. Wells, among the world’s most famous men of letters of the day, teamed up with producer Alexander Korda and director William Cameron Menzies to produce what would become the…
Read more

Mystery Soviet Headgear from the Ethio-Somali War, 1977-1978?

My late father collected international police and law enforcement related headgear, and by the time of his death in April 2015, had amassed a respectable collection. His most exotic examples were a Baden Police spike helmet (circa 1900), a plumed…
Read more

In Brief – Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas”

When Charles Dickens published his career-changing work in December 1843, Christmas was not the major holiday we think of today. In fact at that time it ranked somewhere beneath Easter in importance on the Christian calendar. But a few things…
Read more

Named Union Army Michigan 5th Corps Commemorative Gold Honor Cross

Another exceptional lot brought to Sunflower Auction during the summer of 2007 was this Union Army Civil War honor cross named to William A. Throop. For context see my remarks preceding my post about the Jeremiah Paul (American, ? –…
Read more