Today’s What We’re Reading features a new International African American Museum, how coffee fueled the Civil War, serendipity and the historian, and much more!

History Links

Museum to Be Built in SC Where Slaves Entered US

“A $75 million International African American Museum will be built in South Carolina on Charleston Harbor where tens of thousands of slaves first set foot in the United States.”

Anna Yegorova’s Red Sky
This Russian female pilot “became one of the only women in the nearly all-male 805th Ground Attack Regiment.”

How Coffee Fueled the Civil War

Jon Grinspan for the New York Times’s Disunion blog discusses how coffee was central to the fighting and daily lives of Civil War soldiers.

Infographic: Where Does Gitmo Fit in? The Long, Winding History of Prison Camps 
Via History News Network.
The Heart of New Orleans
A review of two books on the history of Bourbon Street.

Warren Harding Love Letters to Provide Insight on US Affairs, Possible Spying
The Library of Congress will exhibit the love letters of the 29th president of the United States to his mistress.

Why Did Black Voters Flee the Republican Party in the 1960s?

NPR explains how the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln and emancipation, lost the support of black voters in the 20th century.

Technology

I’m Feeling Lucky: Can Algorithms Better Engineer Serendipity in Research—or in Journalism?

Liam Andrew reveals how the people behind search algorithms are helping enable serendipitous content discovery for researchers.

33 Ethicists Defend Facebook’s Controversial Mood Study

Coming off the heels of news about Facebook’s controversial study of mood manipulation in social feeds, the Chronicle features a column published Wednesday written by six ethicists (joined by 27 others) that argues the study was not unethical and cautions against criticism of future behavioral research.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.