- Normandy Park — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
The town of Normandy Park is located in King County, on the shores of Puget Sound between the cities of Des Moines and Burien. Native American tribes traveled to the area to gather clams on the area beaches and fish for salmon. A few families established themselves in the region late in the nineteenth century, but it wasn’t until the 1920s that the Seattle-Tacoma Land Company began selling lots to develop the city of Normandy Park – so named due to the French Norman architecture of the new homes. Population grew steadily after the Depression ended, and Normandy Park established a reputation for prosperity and exclusivity, due to the private beach access afforded only to certain residents. Normandy Park had bumpy political maneuverings in the 1980s and 1990s, and in 2012, city layoffs that resulted in a property tax levy for residents. The city’s population had reached 6,335 by 2010.
- Urania’s Mirror (ianridpath.com)
Urania’s Mirror is a boxed set of 32 constellation cards first published by Samuel Leigh of the Strand, London, in November 1824. An advertisement and review in the The London Literary Gazette for 1824 November 27 describes them as ‘fitted up in an elegant box’ and selling for £1 8s black and white or £1 14s ‘beautifully coloured’. They were described as ‘An acceptable present’ so no doubt the publication was timed to catch the Christmas market. The engraver was Sidney Hall but authorship was coyly attributed to ‘a lady’.