Welcome to the inaugural Nursing Clio Pub Quiz, “Ye Olde America” edition. I just finished teaching a four-week summer course on US women’s history to 1870, which left my head buzzing with little-known facts and historical anecdotes about women in colonial America and the early republic. Being a fan of trivia (and a bit of a nerd) I decided that the perfect outlet for these snippets of the past would be a blog version of the venerable pub quiz.

Here’s how this works: Keeping things simple, we have three rounds, with four to six questions per round. All of the questions come from my course, which spanned the years 1500 to 1870 — so all of the answers fall into that time frame. Questions relate to the experiences of women in the past, how they shaped their worlds and how their worlds shaped them. You can find the answers on the second page.

Let’s see how you do! (No Wikipedia peeking, folks.) Good luck!

ROUND 1: General Knowledge

1. Blue wedge for Geography: The British established their first permanent North American settlement in 1607 at Jamestown. When did this Chesapeake colony stop relying on immigration to maintain its population (that is, when did European colonists’ births outweigh their deaths)?

Around 1620

Around 1650

Around 1680

Around 1700

Around 1760

2. Pink wedge for Entertainment: This novel, first published in the United States in 1794, sold 40,000 copies in its first 10 years, and remained the best selling novel in the United States until the mid-1850s. (Bonus if you can also name the author.)

3. Yellow wedge for History: Who warned her husband in a 1776 letter that she and other women would “foment a Rebelion” if he and his colleagues failed to “Remember the Ladies” when writing the laws for the new United States?

4. Brown wedge for Arts & Literature: In 1768, this well-known poet became one of the first women in the British colonies to voice political dissent with the British government in her poem, “An Address to George III.”

5. Green wedge for Science & Nature: In the 1800s, what would turpentine, cotton root, and calomel all have in common?

6. Orange wedge for Sports & Leisure: In 1830, about how many gallons of pure alcohol did the average American over age 15 consume per year? (Bonus: How does this compare to today?)

1 gallon

7 gallons

14 gallons

21 gallons

53 gallons

ROUND 2: Picture Round

See the image captions for the questions.

ROUND 3: Music Round

Part first: Identify the song title and the artist.

Part second: What theme do these songs have in common?

The End!

See the ANSWER PAGE for the (you guessed it) answers. Let us know how you did in the comments!