The discovery of a dinosaur fossil in New Jersey in 1858 sparked a period of intense popular and scientific interest in dinosaurs called “Dinosaur Mania”. Competition between museums to collect specimens led to an oft-forgotten period and a professional rivalry between two men who helped change the face of paleontology - and destroyed each other in the effort.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.