Rehearshals for Daguerreotype started tonight, tomorrow night I give my full-company dramaturgical presentation, what better time to revisit some of the strange bits that didn't make the play?

• a 1849 fued between New York actor Edwin Forrest and his British rival, William Macready, ignited a riot in Astor Place that raged for 20 days and killed 30 people
• the first pornographic pictures were dageurreotypes
• Abraham Lincoln died in a bed once occupied by John Wilkes Booth
• The last words of Gen. Sedgwick: "Those boys can't hit an elephant from this distance..."
• The term "Great Scott" is a direct reference to the nickname of Gen. Winfield Scott
• After he graduated from West Point, Ulysses S. Grant applied to teach mathematics at a girls' school in Ohio.
• Grant's name was really Hiram Grant, but he was called "Lyss" as a child. His West Point sponsor, knowing only the nickname, made a mistake and wrote "Ulysses'" on the application.
• Samuel Morse (yes, that Morse) taught Mathew Brady the art of daguerreotypy
• The "B" in Mathew B. Brady stands for nothing.

earlier: Dramaturgical Remainders