Notable Last Facts
A Notable Last Fact can be any historically significant event, person, place or thing that marks the end of its era or its kind. The phrase as a area of organized study was coined by librarian/writer William B. Brahms in the early 1990s. A Notable last fact might be the last surviving particpipant or witness to a historic event, the last work produced by a major artist, author, performer or musician, or perhaps the last remaining example of a once-prevalent style or object, such as a type of architecture, or a make or model of an automobile, motorcycle, or airplane. Lasts are important because when an ending occurs, a part of our history is frozen in time. Lasts carry symbolic demarcations of our advances, failures and changes. Some lasts are sad. Others are triumphant. But all are historic milestones by which life's passages can be measured.
History of the Study of Lasts
Interestingly, "lasts" only became an area of study once the area of "firsts" was well established for decades. "Firsts" are often heralded as news stories and may be documented with patents and even with celebrations. "Firsts" have been recorded for a long time and are a widely documented area of study; most particularly in the core library reference work Famous First Facts by Joseph Nathan Kane, first published by H.W. Wilson in 1933. To this day with each subsequent edition remains Wilson's largest selling single volume work. Recognition of "firsts" is only natural, given the importance our society places on innovation, ingenuity and discovery. Thus "firsts" are easy to research and authenticate. A "last", on the other hand, frequently is difficult to track down, as there is not an analogous historical record. "Lasts" though equally as important as firsts, have only recently become an area of comprehensive study. A few small trivia books have compiled a limited number of "lasts" (particularly two small British works by Christopher Slee and a generalized work by trivia compiler Charles Panati). The first substantial, comprehensive attempt to publish a work of "lasts" was done in Famous First Facts published by Reference Desk Press, Inc. by William B. Brahms in 2005.
Frequently Documented Lasts
Most commonly documented lasts include a last surviving veteran of a war, last speakers of extinct languages, or generally last surviving members of any type of formal, professional, or cultural group. These are often brought to public attention at the the time of death in an obituary or news story, frequently the facts that a person is a "last" of a group is the only obvious reason that their obituary or death notice would get national or international attention. In terms of objects, last examples of architecture or building use or building architect are one potential criteria for inclusion in State and National Register of Historic Places. Museums will often display last examples of particular objects, the last known work of a noted atist, or the stuffed remains of the last example of a species that has reached extinction.
Notable Examples of Lasts
Daniel F. Bakeman the last surviving veteran of the Revolutionary War
Hiram Cronk the last surviving veteran of the War of 1812
Owen Thomas Edgar the last surviving veteran of the Mexican-American War
Albert Woolson the last surviving Union Civil War Veteran
John B. Salling the last surviving Conferderate Civil War Veteran
Jones Morgan the last surviving Spanish-American War Veteran
Charles Carroll of Carrollton the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence
Ishi the last of the Yahi
Mauritius Dodo the last surviving Dodo
Benjamin the last suriviving Thylacine -- [Video of last Tasmanian tiger]