Today marks the anniversary of one of the most quoted speeches in history, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

The speech was brief, and Lincoln only needed a few minutes to deliver it on November 19, 1863 during a ceremony to dedicate a military cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.

At a time of great crisis, with the Civil War grinding on at enormous cost in human life, Lincoln desired an opportunity to make a statement about the war and its purpose. And when invited to speak at the event in Gettysburg, Lincoln crafted a profound text.

In less than 300 words, Lincoln gave a moral justification for the Civil War and presented his ideal image of an American government "of the people, by the people, for the people..."

The Gettysburg Address was distributed widely throughout the north, and it became an iconic statement of American purpose.

Photograph: Abraham Lincoln, portrait by Alexander Gardner, November 1863/Library of Congress

Stories of foreign troops battling in Afghanistan while diplomats try to find a strong leader for the remote and rugged country sound like today's headlines. Yet they perfectly describe Britain's war in Afghanistan in the late 1870s.

When the British invaded Afghanistan for the second time it wasn't to fight the Afghans so much as it was to thwart the Russian Empire. The feeling in London was that Russia wanted to eventually move southward and seize Britain's prize possession, India.

When the British Army marched into Afghanistan in late 1878 things actually went too well at first. A weak Afghan leader agreed to conditions he couldn't enforce, and the British soon faced a disaster in Kabul that could have rivaled the horrendous winter retreat from the Afghan capital in 1842.

After a year of both miscalculation and heroics, the result of the Second Anglo-Afghan War was that Britain installed an Afghan leader who would keep the country stable. And the Russians were denied a stepping-stone to the riches of British India.

Photograph: General Roberts, hero of Kandahar/Library of Congress

A report in the Fashion and Style section of the New York Times makes it official: the 19th century is the current big trend. Seriously. Apparently fashion is looking backward, and what's trendy today are designs with their roots in the 1800s.

As the Times puts it:

As with home design, where curio cases, taxidermy and other stylish clutter of the Victorian era have been taken up by young hipsters, many of today's popular men's styles have their roots in the late 19th century. There are the three-piece suits once favored by mustachioed Gilded Age bankers; the military greatcoats and boots of Union officers; and the henley undershirts, suspenders, plaid flannel shirts and stout drill trousers worn by plain, honest farmers.

The article notes that "obsolete hobbies" such as wet-plate photography are "finding new enthusiasts." And deer hunting with muskets is even catching on.

As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about the 19th century, I'm amused, and even happy, to hear all this. I love the 1800s, and would like to think everyone else does.

But of course I'm also skeptical, and part of me just assumes that the trend seekers are passing through, picking up on some things that seem fascinating before losing interest and finding something else to obsess over. But, for however long it lasts, it's nice to know that the 19th century is trendy.

If you think overheated political rhetoric is something new, consider a classic controversy that rocked American politics long before the appearance of cable channels. The presidential election of 1824 featured four candidates, and when the voting ended in November there was no winner.

The Constitution provides a solution, a presidential election to be held in the House of Representatives. In early 1825 that turned into a monumental drama with three strong characters, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay, who happened to be the speaker of the house.

When the dust settled, John Quincy Adams was the new president. Andrew Jackson, never known to miss a chance to erupt in anger, denounced the entire affair as "The Corrupt Bargain." Jackson accused Clay of throwing the election to Adams in return for the position of secretary of state in the new Adams administration.

Jackson's accusations could never be proven, but his rage fueled his campaign against John Quincy Adams in the election of 1828, which was arguably the dirtiest campaign ever waged for the American presidency.

Image: Andrew Jackson/Library of Congress

On November 6, 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president in one of the most significant elections in American history. Lincoln, who had barely been known outside Illinois a year earlier, had engineered a brilliant campaign which took off after he gave a speech in New York City that made him a suddenly prominent voice against slavery and the politicians who accepted it.

Lincoln was elected without a single electoral vote from the south. And the news of his election as president prompted a number of southern states to make good on their threats to secede from the Union. By the time of Lincoln's inaugural address in March 1861, the first cannon shots of the Civil War were only weeks away.

The 1800s could boast a number of significant elections, but the campaign and election of 1860 will always stand apart. A candidate came from obscurity, stunned a number of more prominent politicians, and won a triumph that would forever resonate.

Photograph: Abraham Lincoln in 1860/Library of Congress

Americans in various places will go the polls and vote on Election Day tomorrow. Ever wonder why a Tuesday in November is designated as Election Day?

The tradition is a throwback to the way people lived more than 200 years ago. Early November provided a chance for people to travel to the polls between bringing in the harvest and settling down for the worst weather of the winter. As for Tuesday, there were concerns about people not having to travel on the sabbath.

In 1845 the US Congress made a tradition the law, mandating that the presidential elections would be held every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

And state and local governments still generally follow the 19th century Election Day tradition, which is why a number of elections around the country will be held tomorrow, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

The British Library is unveiling a major exhibit of 19th century photography designed to show off a sampling of the library's vast photographic collection. The exhibit, titled Points of View, has an online component which can be enjoyed even if you can't get to London.

The exhibit contains several main sections, which focus on such topics as portraits, scientific photographs, and foreign scenes. As might be expected, there are striking images, such as an 1867 photograph of Stonehenge, a portrait of Oscar Wilde staring at the camera, and a classic shot of the hippo which arrived at a London Zoo in 1852 relaxing in its enclosure.

The focus is generally on British subjects, but the travel section naturally includes photos from exotic locales, and there are even some American subjects, such as an Alexander Gardner photograph taken following the Battle of Gettysburg.

The online exhibit will apparently expand beyond what's presently available, with an interactive timeline yet to be unveiled. And the exhibit boasts its own blog.

Points of View, which officially opens at the British Library on Friday, October 30, has already received favorable press coverage, including a rave review in The Times of London.

The 1800s may be remembered for science and industry, but the century also had a very weird supernatural side.

A pair of young sisters in a village in New York State kicked off an international craze for spiritualism, a legendary and very nasty spirit terrorized a farmer and his family in Tennessee, and a First Lady of the United States not only encountered ghosts in the White House, she invited more to visit.

And then there was also poor Joe Baldwin, a railroader who lost his head in a horrific train accident but kept swinging his lantern along the tracks for years afterward.

Darwin's ideas and Morse's telegraph may have been changing the world, but people in the 1800s could put reason and science aside. It was a very supernatural century.

Illustration: Maggie and Kate Fox, who heard the rappings of spirits and began the spiritualism craze/lithograph by Currier and Ives, courtesy Library of Congress

As the ruins of the Great Chicago Fire cooled in October 1871 a rumor began to spread from the devastated city to the rest of the world. And nothing could stop people from believing that a cow being milked by Mrs. Catherine O'Leary had kicked over a kerosene lantern to start the calamitous blaze.

Was the story true? Was Chicago really destroyed by a rambunctious cow?

The story appeared in a Chicago newspaper, and within weeks the story had spread to newspapers in other cities.

An article in the New York Times a month later mentioned that the official commission investigating the cause of the fire had debunked the rumor. But nothing could stop the story of Mrs. O'Leary's cow, and the tale survives to this day.

Photograph: Ruins of the Chicago Tribune building, October 1871/Library of Congress

A disturbing discovery at a construction site on Staten Island in New York City has led to an emotional ceremony and plans to rebury the remains of immigrants who would have arrived in America at the time of the Great Famine in Ireland.

On Saturday a funeral mass was held at a Catholic Church on Staten Island, and two coffins holding the bones of immigrants discovered in a 19th century mass grave were carried into the church. One coffin contained the bones of adults, the other of children.

The burial site was discovered by workers building a new courthouse. The location had been a government immigrant station which ceased operation in 1858, five decades before Ellis Island opened. The mass grave contained the bodies of penniless immigrants who died in a quarantine hospital.

The remains of the immigrants will eventually be placed in a memorial adjacent to the site where the mass grave was discovered.

The New York Times has published a thoughtful article focusing on the forensic anthropologist who studied the bones. An article about Saturday's funeral mass has appeared in the Irish Times, and a news segment featuring interviews with attendees can be viewed at NY1.