1878

Society

1878. Johns Hopkins professor Henry Rowland and Harvard professor John Trowbridge have helped Edison who looks for a lamp filament that will burn for extended periods of time in a high vacuum.

1878. A yellow fever epidemic sweeps the U.S. Gulf Coast states and Tennessee, killing an estimated 14,000.

1878. A smallpox epidemic strikes Deadwood in the Dakota Territory. Frontierswoman Martha Jan Canary works heroically in men's clothing to nurse the ill and renders service that will help make her legendary as "Calamity Jane."

1878. Bat Masterson captures the notorious outlaw Dave Rudabuagh in Dakota Territory and is appointed U.S. marshal, and he will continue as a western lawman until 1902, when he will quit to become a New York sportswriter.

1878. President Hayes invites the children of Washington to an Easter-egg roll on the White House lawn and begins an annual event.

Literature

The Return of the Native. Thomas Hardy. British. 1878. Novel. Looking to escape her environment, Eustacia marries Clym Yeobright who has returned from Paris. His mother is opposed to the marriage. Eustacia has an affair with Wildeve. Clym's mother tries to reconcile with Clym but Eustacia does not answer the door. In despair, his mother dies of an adder bite on returning home. Clym learns that Eustacia is responsible. She drowns. Wildeve drowns trying to save her. Clym becomes an itinerant preacher.

Daisy Miller. Henry James. American/British. 1878. Novel. Unsophisticated, pretty girl from Schenectady traveling in Europe. Runs up against the conventions of Europeanized Americans who enforce rules of the older European community with unthinking severity.

"The Marshes of Glynn." Sidney Lanier. American. 1878. Poem. Reconciles the techniques of music and poetry. Sea marshes of Glynn County, Georgia.

The Europeans. Henry James. American/British. 1878. Novel. Visit of European artist and Baroness sister to New England relatives. Comic treatment.