During the various Each One Teach One presentation I learned about a variety of communication technologies and their history, but one stuck out to me more than others: the history of carrier pigeons, presented by Kaitlyn Sanchez. Prior to her presentation, I already had some level of knowledge on the topic, but it was limited to mainly the World Wars, so I was still very interested to learn about the origins and other historical uses of carrier pigeons.
Through Ms. Sanchez' presentation I learned many things, beginning with how the use of pigeons for delivering messages has been documented as far back as Ancient Egypt in murals and ruins of dovecotes, or pigeon houses. I found it interesting that the ancient Greeks used pigeons to communicate the results of Olympic Games as well as for communication overseas. Kaitlyn also talked about the story of St. Olga of Kiev, a woman who used pigeon post as carriers of rudimentary bombs to a nearby village. This was a really intriguing story and, although it is admittedly a clever tactic, it doesn't sound too "saintly" to me.
Ms. Sanchez also discussed carrier pigeons during the World Wars were used for communication with the front lines and for covert operations. My interest and previous knowledge of her topic comes mainly from a favorite childhood movie called Valiant. It's an animated movie about carrier pigeons during World War II, charged with delivering a game-changing message to the Allied Forces that prompts a new plan to land in Normandy. The movie pays homage to the true stories of carrier pigeons, and other animals, that the film was based on. Suffice to say that Kaitlyn's chosen topic was very interesting to me as it gave me more historical background to the events in the movie I grew up watching.
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