American History Blog

1860

2012-01-23T06:10:00.000-08:00

“A house divided against itself cannot stand”……Abraham Lincolnwarned in 1858. Two years later,Lincoln was elected President of a nation divided by the bitter issue ofslavery. And as he predicted, the housebegan to shake.

In June, 1860, the Democratic Party had split apart. Northern Democrats, opposed to slavery, namedIllinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas as their presidential candidate. Southern Democrats nominated John C.Breckinridge of Kentucky. TheRepublicans were united in their antislavery stand and nominated Lincoln, theIllinois lawyers whose speeches opposing the spread of slavery had made him ahated figure in the South. No candidatewon a majority of the popular vote, but Lincoln won the largest share and amajority of the electoral vote.

Infuriated by Lincoln’s victory, South Carolina’s leaders did notwait for his inauguration. They met inCharleston on December 20 and voted to secede from the United States. Bells rang out and crowds cheered. The CharlestonMercury published a special edition with a headline reading, “The Union Is Dissolved.” As the fateful year of 1860 drew to a close,the U.S. was rushing headlong into the tragic, agonizing Civil War.

The Saratoga Campaign

2012-01-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

The first years ofthe Revolutionary War were discouraging for Americans. British forces were larger, better trained,and better equipped. American victorieswere few, but in the fall of 1777, Americans defeated the British in twobattles that turned the war in their favor.

In the summer of1777, the British army under General John Burgoyne moved south towards Albany,New York. Burgoyne planned to gaincontrols of the Hudson River and separate New England from the other colonies,but about 25 miles north of Albany, at Bemis Heights, an American force underGeneral Horatio Gates blocked his path. The British tried twice to get around Gates. On September 19 and again on October 7, thearmies clashed at Freeman’s Farm, a mile north of Bemis Heights. The Americans were victorious both times.

Burgoyne pulled backto Saratoga (now Schuylerville). Heexpected help from British forces in southern New York, but relief did notarrive. The Americans surrounded theBritish, and on October 17, Burgoyne and his 5,000 men surrendered. The victories near Saratoga gave Americansnew confidence and convinced the French that Americans had to resolve and skillto defeat Britain. As a result, Franceentered the war as an American ally.

One of the heroes ofthe Saratoga campaign was Benedict Arnold, who later betrayed the Americancause.

The image you seehere is a painting by John Trumbull titled TheSurrender of General Burgoyne, and it hangs in the Rotunda of the UnitedStates Capital.

Coal Miners

2011-12-14T17:23:00.000-08:00

“In addition to isolation and darkness, the [coal] minersometimes works in mud and water, sometimes stripped to the waist because ofthe heat, sometimes in suffocating gas and smoke.” Those words from a 1922 U.S. Department ofLabor report told only part of the story. Coal miners also faced lung disease, explosions, and cave-ins thattrapped miners underground, where they often died.

Coal filled 90 percent of U.S. energy needs at the time. Some 10 million tons of coal was minedannually in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century.

The miners, some of them boys as young as 10, worked 10 or morehours a day to supply the coal the country demanded. Their pay was low, and many were in debt tothe mine owners, who owned the stores at which miners bought food.

The United Mine Workers (WMW), formed in 1890, tried to improvethe lives of the miners, but the owners fought bitterly against the union. They even hired their own armies to beat orkill striking miners. But under theleadership of John L. Lewis, who became the union’s president in 1920, the UMWgradually achieved its goals: Childlabor was prohibited. The mines weremade safer. And miners worked fewerhours and earned higher pay. A songfrom the 1830s shows how important the UMW was to coal miners:

My daddy was a miner

And I’m a miner’s son

And I’ll stick with the union

Till ev’ry battle’s won.

1789

2011-12-06T05:35:00.001-08:00

The crowd roared as the tall Virginian appeared on the balcony of New York City's Federal Hall. George Washington, hero of the revolution, had agreed to serve his country in a new role.

On that day, April 30, 1789, he took the oath of office as the first President.

Less than a year before, the states had approved the new Constitution, which created a strong central government. in January and February of 1789, elections were held to choose a President, Vice President, and members of Congress. The first Congress had 26 senators and 65 representatives. It met in New York, the temporary capital, on April 6. Then came the inauguration of George Washington, who had been chosen President by unanimous vote.

The President and Congress got right to work. Congress passed the Bill of Rights, protecting the basic freedoms of Americans, and sent it to the states for approval. Congress also established the executive departments, such as the Department of State and the Department of War, and the federal court system. And George Washington began to shape the office of the President, setting patterns and precedents that later Presidents would follow.

Another question that Congress had to address early on was how to address the President. After considering "Your Excellency" and "Your Highness," Congress settled on the simple "Mr. President."

The Founding of St. Augustine

2011-09-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

Some Americans believe that the first permanent Europeansettlement in the present-day United States was the English village atJamestown, Virginia. But 42 years beforethe founding of Jamestown, the Spanish established a permanent settlement atSt. Augustine in Florida. It is now theoldest city in the U.S.

The Spanish began exploring Florida in 1513, when Juan Ponce deLeon first landed there. But Ponce deLeon and the Spanish who followed him were searching for gold, and did notremain. Then in the 1560s, the Frenchclaimed control of the region. Theybuilt a wooden fortress, Fort Caroline, on the northeast coast. King Philip II of Spain quickly sent a fleet,commanded by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, to destroy the French fort. Menendez drove away the French in 1565, andbuilt a Spanish outpost on a nearby inlet. He named it St. Augustine, after the saint whose feast day was August28, the day Menendez first saw the site of the settlement.

St. Augustine was attacked several times in its long history, butthe residents stayed on. In 1586, St.Augustine was looted and burned by an English force led by Sir FrancisDrake. Today, a few ruins still standfrom St. Augustine’s earliest days. Andmany reconstructions show what the settlement must have been like in the 1500s.

Benjamin Banneker

2011-08-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot

The son of a freed slave, Benjamin Banneker spent only a few winters in school. But he overcame racial prejudice and lack of formal education to become a widely respected astronomer and mathematician.

For most of his life, Banneker grew tobacco on a small farm in Maryland. In his 50s, he taught himself mathematics, astronomy, and surveying, using a neighbor’s books and instruments. He used his knowledge to write a series of popular almanacs with accurate information about the movements of the sun, moon, and stars and predications of tides and weather. In 1791, Banneker helped survey the new capital, Washington D.C.…He saved the project from disaster when the supervisor quit, taking the plans for the new city with him. Banneker was able to reconstruct the plans from memory.

B anneker spoke out strongly against slavery and prejudice. When Thomas Jefferson questioned the abilities of African-Americans, Banneker wrote him, defending his race. He won Jefferson’s friendship and support. Banneker’s remarkable achievements as a self-taught scientist were cited by 18^th century abolitionists as proof that “the powers of the mind are disconnected with the color of the skin.”

When Banneker was 22, he built a wooden striking clock, even though he had never seen one. He carved every piece himself by hand.

The Irish in America

2011-08-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)

Beginning in 1845, a terrible blight destroyed the Irish potato crop, the main food of a poor nation. Starvation was widespread, and those who could scrape together money for passage left for America in search of a better life.

The first Irish had immigrated to the Carolinas as early as the 1680s, but it was not until the nineteenth century that they came in large numbers. The main flow of immigrants came between 1820 and 1860 reaching an all-time peak after the potato famine.

Arriving all but penniless, most families went to northern cities. The men worked on construction gangs that built the nation’s new canals and railroads, and in coalfields. Some Americans resented the Irish immigrants because they were Roman Catholics and because they were willing to work for very low wages. Gradually, however, the Irish settled comfortably into American society. They have made many important contributions to American life, and have made many important contributions to American life. And have been particularly prominent in politics and the labor movements

A proud moment for all Irish-Americans was the inauguration in 1961 of President John F. Kennedy whose ancestors had emigrated from Ireland in 1848.

In 1851 alone, more than 220,000 Irish men and women came to the United States.

The America's Cup

2011-08-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

Masts straining and sails stretched full with wind, two sleek racing yachts knife through the ocean at top speed. They are vying for the America’s Cup, the most sought-after prize in yacht racing.

America’s Cup races date back to 1851, when the schooner America sailed from New York to England. There, America beat a group of British yachts in a 60-mile race to win a trophy called the Hundred-Guinea Cup. In 1857, America’s owners gave the prize to the New York Yacht Club, and it became an international challenge trophy – the America’s Cup.

America’s Cup competitions usually take place every three or four years. Each participating country holds races to select the yacht and crew that will represent it. Then the winners from around the world travel to the defending nation to compete for the cup in a series of elimination races. For 132 years, U.S. yachts defeated all challengers winning the cup 25 times. Then, in 1983, an Australian yacht, Australia II, won the trophy. The American yacht Stars and Stripes, skippered by Dennis Conner, won it in 1987. But New Zealand triumphed in 1995 when Black Magic beat Conner’s Young America in five straight races.

One of the yachts that sought to represent the U.S. in the 1995 America’s Cup contest had a crew of 15 women and only one man. Its name was the Mighty Mary.

I.M. Singer

2011-06-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

SINGER 7258 Stylist Model Sewing Machine

The sewing machine was invented by Elias Howe, but it was I.M. Singer who manufactured and marketed an affordable model for home use. In this effort, Singer established another “first”. In order to sell his product, he pioneered an American institution – the installment credit plan.

Earlier, while working in a Boston machine shop in 1851, Singer built a machine that could sew continuous and curved stitches. Unfortunately Singer’s design incorporated elements Howe had patented and Singer had to defend himself in court. For five years, the two inventors battled in court. Howe eventually won the lawsuit for patent infringement. But in the meantime, Singer had manufactured and sold so many machines that the penalty payment was painless.

Singer had formed his company in partnership with Edward Clark. Buyers could pay in small monthly allotments, on credit, rather than in one lump sum. The Singer Manufacturing Company also permitted buyers to trade in old machines for new ones. In 1855, the company began to market its products internationally, and by 1860 it was the largest producer of sewing machines in the world.

Singer’s first patented inventions were for rock-drilling and wood-carving machines.

California

2011-06-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

California: An Interpretive History

Exploring for Spain in 1542, Juan Cabrillo was probably the first European to see California. He was followed in 1579 by England’s Sir Francis Drake. Although each explorer laid claim to the territory for his country, only Spain established settlements. Mexico annexed California in 1822, but thereafter showed little interest in the region.

On July 7, 1846, California was claimed for the United States by Commodore John D. Sloat, who raised the US flag over Monterey. This was followed by the defeat of Mexican troops in California by US forces.

California was officially transferred to the United States in 1848. The following year, when gold was discovered in a creek at Sutter’s Mill, California’s famous Gold Rush began.

The majority of today’s Californians live in urban areas, most notably San Francisco in the north and Los Angeles in the south. California is widely known for superb natural beauty – mountains, shore, and desert. The state’s two leading economic activities are agriculture and manufacturing. California’s most glamorous locale is Hollywood, headquarters of the movie industry.

California contains the highest and lowest points in the country (excluding Alaska): 15,000 foot-high Mount Whitney and Death Valley which is 282 feet below sea level.

The Constitutional Convention

2011-02-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787

On May 25, 1787, representatives of 12 American states met at Philadelphia. Only five years earlier, these states had defeated the British and had become independent. They then banded together under an agreement called the Articles of Confederation. But now they needed a better agreement – a constitution outlining a unified democratic government.

Delegates included James Madison and George Washington of Virginia, Alexander Hamilton of New York, and old Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania, among 51 others. They debated long and hard over many issues. How much power would the new federal government have and how much would be kept by the states? Who would make national laws? Who would enforce those laws? Gradually the delegates worked out their differences. The Constitution they agreed upon called for three branches of government – the legislative (Congress) to make the laws, the executive (the President) to enforce the laws, and the judicial (the Supreme Court) to interpret the laws.

The new constitution went into effect in 1789 when nine of the 13 state state governments approved, or ratified, it. It has been the main governing document of the US for more than 200 years. And it has been used as a model by name newer nations.

Rhode Island sent no delegates to Philadelphia and was the last state to ratify the Constitution.

The Cabeza de Vaca Expedition

2011-02-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

Cities of Gold! Early Spanish explorers believed that North America contained fabulous riches. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was one of those who spread stories of this wealth – but failed to find it.

Cabeza de Vaca came to the New World in 1527. He was second in command of an unsuccessful expedition that tried to conquer Florida. Abandoned by the ships that had brought them to America, the Spanish attempted to sail to Mexico in makeshift rafts. Instead, they landed in present-day Texas, where the surviviors were taken prisoner by Native Americans. From their captors they heard about the seven cities of Cibola – the cities made of gold.

In 1534, after several years of captivity, Cabeza de Vaca, an African named Estevanico, and two other Spaniards escaped. In an incredible two year journey, they wandered on foot through present-day Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. They did not find the golden cities. But eventually they made their way to Mexico. Cabeza de Vaca’s reports inspired several expeditions in search of Cibola. But the fabled cities turned out to be zuni pueblos. Built of mud, they shone somewhat like gold in the bright sunlight.

Later, in 1539, Estevanico guided an expedition in search of Cibola, but he was killed by Native Americans.

The Battle of Buena Vista

2011-02-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

The advantage swung from one side to the other in the battle of Buena Vista, one of the most hard-fought battles of the Mexican War. While 5,000 American soldiers withstood a brutal attack from a much larger Mexican force, a U.S. Army band played “Hail Columbia.”

The war between Mexico and the United States began in May, 1846. In September, General Zachary Taylor, “Old Rough and Ready,” led a U.S. force about 200 miles into Mexico and captured the city of Monterrey.

Then in January, 1847, Mexican President and General Santa Anna marched north with 20,000 men to confront the Americans. Outnumbered four to one, the U.S. troops set their defense in the narrow La Angostura Valley, near a ranch named Hacienda Buena Vista.

The Mexicans attacked on February 20, capturing important defensive positions. The next day, the Americans were almost surrounded. But when Santa Anna offered Taylor a chance to surrender, Taylor ordered his soldiers to “Double shot your guns and give them hell!!!!” Two American units – the Third Indiana and the Mississippi Rifles formed a long, wide angle that would later be called the “V of Buena Vista.” When the Mexicans charged again, they were cut down by the withering cross fire. Santa Anna lost 1800 soldiers. Taylor 700. By day’s end, the Mexican army was in retreat.

In 1848, the hero of Buena Vista, Zachary Taylor, was elected President

The Shakers

2011-02-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

“When they meet together for their worship, they fall a-groaning and trembling, and every one acts alone for him; one will fall prostate on the floor, another on his knees and his head in his hands.” So a visitor described a group of worshipers who danced and sang, shouted, whirled, and went into trances. Outsiders called them “Shakers,” a name they eventually came to use themselves.

The Shakers were established by “Mother Ann” Lee, who came to New York from England with seven followers in 1774. The small group made many converts, and by the 1840s, there were about 6,000 Shakers in 18 villages from Maine to Kentucky. The Shakers were Christians who believed in the equality of men and women and all races. All property was held in common. And they did not believe in marriage. Because they had no children, they had to attract converts to survive.

Shaker communities grew or made almost everything they needed. Their buildings furniture and household implements were simple but elegant. They also made improvements in farming, inventing many new tools. Beginning in the 1860s, the number of Shakers began to decline. Today, there are no Shaker communities. But some of the villages are museums, where the shaker’s spirit lives on in their unique architecture and handicrafts.

Shakers were the first to put garden seeds in envelopes and sell them across the country.

Dallas

2011-02-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

The shining skyscrapers of Dallas are visible from far across the praries of northeastern Texas. Considered the financial center of the Southwest, Dallas is the home of banks, oil companies, insurance companies, and many other businesses. It is also a culturual center and an important transportation hub.

Dallas was born in 1841, when John Neely Bryan built a trading post on the banks of the Trinity River. The town that grew around his log cabin was named for George M. Dallas, a United States Vice President who heped Texas achieve statehood. The arrival of the railroad in the 1870s allowed the farmers near Dallas to ship cotton they grew in the rich prarie soil. When oil fields opened in east Texxas in the 1930s, Dallas became the headquarters for hundreds of oil companies.

After World War II, Dallas becoame a center of manufacturing, financial services, and trade shows. Skyscrapers shot up. The tallest of these, National Bank Plaza, is 72 stories high. Prosperity helped Dallas become a center for culture and recreation. Its theater, opera, and music groups are world famous. So are its museums, its zoos; and its football team, the Dallas Cowboys. The Texas State Fair is the country’s largest, drawing three million people to Dallas each October.

John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza in Dallas is near the spot where Kennedy was shot in November, 1963.

Board Games

2011-02-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

Whether they are set up on the kitchen table or spread out on the living-room floor, board games bring friends and families together. Although games like chess and checkers go back to ancient times, board games have only been around since the mid-1800s. that was when many Americans first began to have leisure time, and they looked for ways to fill it.

The first board game manufactured in the US was the “Mansion of Happiness,” an instant hit in 1843. Like many other board games of the 1800s, it taught a moral lesson: Landing on spaces representing good behavior sped players toward the finish line. iN the 1860s, Milton Bradley introduced a series of popular board games, including the “Checkered Game of Life” and a set of pocket games for Civil War soldiers.

Parcheesi, based on ancient Indian game, was America’s favorite from 1900 to 1930. The word game, Scrabble, introduced in the 1940s, is still popular today. But the most successful board game of all time remains Monopoly. It came out in 1935, during the Great Depression. Americans love this fantasy game, in which players buy and develop property while trying to force their opponents into bankruptcy.

Monopoly was based on a handmade board game designed by Lizzie Magie of Virginia in 1904. Pennsylvanian Charles Darrow adapted it in 1933. He became a millionaire when his version was later published by Parker Brothers.

George G. Meade

2011-02-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

Early on the morning of June 28, 1863, General George Gordon Meade was awakened by a messenger with a letter from Abraham Lincoln. The President, the letter said, had appointed Meade the new commander of the Union’s Army of the Potomac. Five days later, the general won the greatest Northern victory of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg.

Meade was born in Spain, where his father was a US naval agent, and graduated from the US Military Academy in 1835. The next year, he resigned from the army to become a civil engineer. But he returned to duty during the Mexican War of 1846-1848, and then the Civil War broke out in 1861, he was given command of the brigade of Pennsylvania volunteers. An able leader and brave soldier, Meade fought in many of the war’s early battles and was severely wounded in one of them. When Lincoln put Meade in command of the Union army in June, 1863, the South’s General Robert E. Leehad just invaded Pennsylvania. Meade and Lee met at the small crossroads town of Gettysburg on July 1.

There the battle raged for three days, after which the defeatedLee was forced to retreat. “I think I have lived as much in this time as in the last thirty years,” Meade wrote his wife about the fierce struggle at Gettysburg. He continued to lead the Armey of the Potamac until the Confederate surrdender in April, 1865.

Meade died in 1872 from complications related to wounds he received during the Civil War.

Germans in America

2011-02-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

Christmas trees, wedding rings, kindergartens, hot dogs. These are a few of the familiar things immigrants from Germany brought to America.

The first group of Germans arrived in the New World in 1683, aboard the Concord, which has been called “the German Mayflower.” They came from the Rhineland in search of religious freedom.

Fittingly, they named their Pennsylvania settlement Germantown. Since then, more than seven million Germans have come to America. The peak decade was the 1880s, whien 1.5 milllion Germans left the political and economic problems of their homeland to find better lives in the United States. In the 1930s and 1940s, many Germans fled Nazi oppression and reached safety in America. Because the United States fought against Germany in two world wars, many German-Americans were the victims of anti-German feeling in America.

Today, more than one in every five Americans can point proudly to a German ancestor. Across the country, place names such as Frankfort, Kentucky; Berlin, New Hamp;shire; and Bismark, North Dakota attest to the strong German thread in the fabric of the United States.

The Germans who settled in Pennsylvania became known as Pennsylvania Dutch, not because they came from Holland but because Deutsch means “German” in the German Language.

The Battle of Princeton

2010-11-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

On January 3, 1777, George Washington outfoxed the British. A week before, his army had won one of the most remarkable victories of the Revolution. They had surprised and beaten Hessian mercenaries (German troops hired by the British) at Trenton, New Jersey. But British General Lord Cornwallis had marched on Trenton with about 8,000 redcoats, who were now positioned to attack Washington’s 2500 troops.

Instead of fighting Cornwallis, Washington decided to make a surprise attack on another British force. After midnight, the Americans slipped quietly away from their camp. They left their campfires burning so the British would think they were still there. Marsching sliently south and east around Cornwallis’ army the Americans headed utoward Princeton, 10 miles away. At daybreak, they attacked and defeated two British regiments.

The victories at Trenton and Princeton raised the morale of patriots throuout the country. And they caused the British to evacuate western New Jersey, leaving the Americans with an open supply route between Philadelphia and New York. Washington’s army moved into winter headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey, with renewed pride and confidence.

Washington almost lost many of his men just before the Battle of Princeton because their enlistment terms expired January 1,. The general’s personal appeals convinced tmost of them to stay on.

New Orleans

2010-11-07T20:53:00.000-08:00

New Orleans is one of the most picturesque and interesting cities in the US In the section known as the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carre (old square), the pastel-colored houses with their courtyards and wrought-iron balconies seem more Latin American than North American. In another section, the Garden District, large handsome houses with broad verandas and white columns recall the era before the Civil War. Even the city’s cemeteries are different: Because much of the city is below sea level, the earth is too wet for burials, so the tombs all lie above ground. Famous for its fine restaurants, New Orleans is also the birthplace of jazz and the site each year of the famous Mardi Gras, the carnival that precedes Lent.

New Orleans is the southernmost Mississippi port, not far from the Gulf of Mexico. There cargoes are exchanged between seagoing vessels and the steamboats and barges of the Mississippi river system. Today the port of New Orleans handles more freight than any other US port.

New Orleans was established in 1718 by the French. In the 1760s it fell under Spanish control. Returned to France in 1800, the city was acquired by the US in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

New Orleans was the original “Dixie Land,” so named for a ten-dollar bill with a large DIX (French for ten) printed on it that circulated in the city before the Civil War.

Peter Minuit Buys Manhattan

2010-11-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

In the summer of 1826, Peter Minuit made one of the best deals in real estate history. He bought an island at the mouth of the Hudson River from Native American leaders for cloth, beads and other goods that would be worth about $24 today. The Native Americans called the island “Manhatta” – heavenly land. Today we know it as Manhattan, the heart of one of the world’s greatest cities, New York.
Minuit had been sent by the Dutch West India Company to take charge of the scattered Dutch settlements in present-day New Jersey and New York. Minuit decided to move most of the settlers to the southern tip of Manhattan. After buying the island, he built a crude fort and about 30 houses there. Minuit returned to Europe after five years, but the settlement continued to grow. Known as New Amsterdam, it became a busy port and the center of a thriving colony. It was renamed New York by the British, who seized it in 1664.

As for Peter Minuit, he returned to the New World in 1638, in the service of Sweden, and made another smart purchase. He bought land along the Delaware River from Native Americans. Today that land is the site of Wilmington, Delaware.

Peter Minuit was killed in a hurricane in 1638, while on a trading expedition to the West Indies.

The Johnstown Flood

2010-10-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

In 1889 Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a busy little city on the
Conemaugh River, about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh. In the 1850s, the state had constructed an earthen dam north of town, on a tributary of the river. A body of water, Conemaugh Lake, had formed behind the dam. Because people wanted to enlarge the lake for fishing, the dam was made higher –but unfortunately not stronger.

Heavy rains fell throughout the spring of 1889, raising every river and stream above flood stage. Then, on the afternoon of May 31, disaster struck. The dam suddenly gave way, and the waters of Conemaugh Lake roared down the narrow river valley. A wall of water – traveling at 40 miles an hour and carrying with it huge boulders, whole trees, and other wreckage – smashed everything in its path. Farms, factories, and most of Johnstown itself were swept away. For most victims, the only warning was the thunder of the water advancing upon them. Sixty acres of wreckage piled up against a bridge below Johnstown. Broken oil-tank cars exploded, setting fire to the rest of the wreckage , which burned for days. The Johnstown flood killed more than 2,200 people. It was one of the worst American disasters in the nineteenth century.

Because the lake at Johnstown had been enlarged for fishing, one writer summed up the flood in these words: “All the horrors that Hell could wish, such was the price that was paid for fish.”

Winslow Homer

2010-10-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

Winslow Homer is regarded as one of America’s greatest artists. No other American painter has captured the power and beauty of the sea as effectively.

As a child in Massachusetts, Homer knew that he wanted to be an artist. He spent his free time sketching animals and people. When he was 18, he went to work for a lithographer (a printer of pictures).

And in his early 20s, he moved to New York to become a sketch artist for Harper’s Weekly, a popular magazine. Soon Harper’s sent him to sketch the soldiers and battles of the Civil War. After the war, Home taught himself to paint. At first he painted in oils, but later he used watercolors, too. He usually painted fashionable young women, carefree children and simple country scenes.

In the early 1880s, Homer spent time in an English fishing village. There he discovered the sea – the subject to which he would devote the rest of his life. When he returned home, he settled at Prouts Neck, Maine, on a lonely part of the coast. There he created his greatest paintings. Some, such as “Breezing Up,” show a friendly ocean. But many show the sea at its most turbulent, as though in combat with the courageious men who made their living there.

One of Homer’s most dramatic paintings, “The Gulf Stream,” shows sharks circling a boat that has been badly damaged in a storm. A single man lies motionless on the deck. "The Gulf Stream" is pictured with this article.

Otis and the Elevator

2010-10-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

In May, 1854, an amazing demonstration took place at the American Institute Fair in New York City. Elisha Graves Otis rode an open elevator to a great height. Then he ordered its lift cable cut. Onlookers gasped, expecting the elevator to plunge to the ground, but it stayed in place. Otis had invented and installed an automatic safety device for elevators. And he had risked his life to prove that it worked!
Born in Vermont in 1811, Otis manufactured wagons and carriages and then worked as a master mechanic in factories. The need for safe ways to install heavy machinery in factories led to his first experiments with “safety hoists” for elevators. Soon he invented the device that prevented an elevator from falling if its lifting cable broke.

The advent of skyscrapers in the 1870s led to a huge demand for Elisha Otis’ invention. Today, many US elevators are built by the Otis Elevator Company, which was founded by Elisha Otis’ sons. So the Otis nameplate is familiar to many people who live or work in tall buildings.

Elisha Otis also invented a steam plow, a rotary oven, railroad-car brakes, and a steam-driven elevator.

1814

2010-09-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

In 1814, America had been at war with Great Britain for two years. The War of 1812 had begun largely because of British interference with American trade. During 1814, American army and navy forces won several battles that eventually brought peace between the two countries. But the most dramatic event of the war occurred in 1814 with the British attack on America’s capital city, Washington.

In August, 1814, a British force landed in Maryland, scattered the weak American forces there, and on August 24, marched into Washington. President James Madison and other government officials fled the city. Before she left, First Lady Dollley Madison rescued the portrait of George Washington that hung in the White House.

British General Robert Ross ordered Washington’s public buildings to be burned. The British piled furniture up in the White House’s drawing room and set it afire; the inside of the mansion was gutted. The Treasury and War Department buildings were burned next. When the British set fire to the Capitol, it’s interior was destroyed and its roof collapsed. Repairs to Washington took years. Not until 1819 was Congress able to meet again in the the Capito..

The only government building in Washington not burned in 1814 was the patent office; it’s precious drawings and models were sparred.

The Dutch in America

2010-09-14T23:36:00.000-07:00

The Dutch – people from the Netherlands – came to America in two waves. The first wave came at the very beginning of the period of European settlement. These Dutch established the colony of New Netherland in 1624, only a few years after the English arrived in Virginia and Massachusetts.
They founded settlements along the Hudson River and on Long Island in present-day New York, and in nearby New Jersey. In 1626, Dutch settlers bought the island of Manhattan, at the mouth of the Hudson River, from local Indians. There they established the village of New Amsterdam (now New York City). It soon became a thriving town.

When the Dutch surrendered their colony to the English in 1664, hundreds of Dutch families remained. Descendants of those families – the Vanderbilts and the Roosevelts, for example – have played an important role in the nation’s history.

A second wave of Dutch immigrants began arriving in the nineteenth century. They came seeking more opportunity than the crowded Netherlands could offer. Many settled in Michigan and other Midwestern states. They were admired by their neighbors for their hard work and good sense. Today, one famous celebration of America’s Dutch heritage is the annual Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan.

Many place names in southern New York State – Brooklyn, Harlem, Flushing, the Catskills, the Bowery – are based on Dutch words.

John Paul Jones

2010-09-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

John Paul Jones has been called the “fightingest sailor in American naval history.” Born in Scotland, Jones sailed to America as a ship’s boy when he was 12 years old. He commanded merchant ships by the time he was 22. When the American Revolution began, he promptly joined the new Continental Navy. Ships under his command captured British vessels and made daring raids on English coastal towns.

Jones’ greatest victory occurred off the English coast on September 23, 1779. In command of an old watership, the Bonhomme Richard, Jones attacked the British frigate Serapis. The Serapis had more gunpowder and was much larger than Jones’ ship, but Jones drew close to the enemy and succeeded in hooking the two ships together with grappling irons. For three and one-half hours on a moonlit night, the two ships exchanged fire.

The Bonhomme Richard was burning and filling with water when the British called on Jones to surrender. His defiant response is famous: “ I have not yet begun to fight.” And fight on he did, until the captain of the battered Serapis surrendered. The Bonhomme Richard was too badly damaged to save. It sank after Jones and his men boarded the Serapis. But John Paul Jones had won one of the greatest naval victories of the Revolution.

After the American Revolution, John Paul Jones served as a rear admiral in the Russian navy.

North Carolina

2010-09-07T22:06:00.000-07:00

From the stormy coast of the Atlantic to the highest mountain in the Appalachian range, North Carolina stretches 500 miles east to west. It is the tenth largest state in population, yet it has no large cities, and most of its people live in or near small towns. In recent years, the population grew rapidly as people moved there to enjoy its moderate climate and economic opportunity.

North Carolina was one of the original 13 states. During the Civil War, thousands of its men died for the Confederate cause. In 1903, the Wright Brothers chose its windy beach at Kitty Hawk to test their first airplane. For much of its history, North Carolina was an agricultural state. It is still the largest producer of tobacco. But its largest business is textile production. In the 1980s major electronics firms locates offices in the Research Triangle between Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh.

Each year, millions of vacationers visit North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which covers a huge area in the far western corner of the state. Cape Hatteras National Seashore is also a major attraction. It preserves a wild stretch of the Atlantic coastline where pirates once lurked.

No one is sure why North Carolinians are known as Tarheels. Perhaps it is because their soldiers in the Civil War "stuck" during battle and would not retreat.

Peter Minuit Buys Manhattan

2010-09-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

In the summer of 1626, Peter Minuit made one of the best deals in realestate history. He bought an island at the mouth of the Hudson River from Native American leaders for cloth, beads, and other goods that would be worth about $24 today. The Native Americans called the island "Manhatta" - heavenly land. Today we know it as Manhattan, the heart of one of the world's greatest cities, New York.

Minuit had been sent by the Dutch West Indian Company to take charge of the scattered Dutch settlements in present-day New Jersey and New York. Minuit decided to move most of the settlers to the southern tip of Manhattan. After buying the island, he built a crude fort and about 30 houses there. Minuit returned to Europe after five years, but the settlement continued to grow. Known as New Amsterdam, it became a busy port and the center of a thriving colony. It was renamed New York by the British, who seized it in 1664.

As for Peter Minuit, he returned to the New World in 1638, in the service of Sweden, and made another smart purchase. He bought land along the Delaware River from Native Americans. Today that land is the site of Wilmington, Delaware.

Peter Minuit was killed in a hurricane in 1638, while on a trading expedition to the West Indies.

Santa Fe

2010-09-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

Santa Fe is the oldest capital city in the United States. It was founded in the winter of 1609-1610 by Spanish settlers from Mexico as the center of Spain's royal colony of New Mexico.

Four four centuries, the central plaza has been the heart of Santa Fe. Today, Native American artisans sell their jewelry, rugs and pottery along the plaza's walls. A monument in the plaza marks the end of the famous Santa Fe Trail, which brought trading caravans to the city from Missouri.

The four hundred year old Palace of the Governors on the plaza is the oldest government building in the United States. This sprawling structure now houses a museum of New Mexico's history.

Santa Fe is one of the nation's most popular tourist destinations. Visitors are attracted by the city's rich mixture of Spanish, Mexican, Indian, and American cultures. Its spectacular setting at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains; and its dry,sunny climate. Tourists love exploring Santa Fe's picturesque streets and adobe buildings, dining in the city's superb restaurants, and shopping in its dozens of art galleries. Annual events include the Santa Fe Opera, a chamber-music festival, a film festival, and the Fiesta de Santa Fe.

American troops took Santa Fe from Mexico without opposition in 1846. During the Civil War, Confederate forces controlled the city for two weeks.

Baltimore

2010-09-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

Baltimore’s fine harbor has always been the heart of the city. Shipping and shipbuilding thrived there before the Revolution. In the 1800s, sleek sailing ships called Baltimore clippers carried the region’s tobacco and flour to customers around the world. Goods of all kinds poured into the busy port first by wagon along the Cumberland Road and later on the nation’s first railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio.

In 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. To commemorate the event, Francis Scott Key, who witnessed the attack, wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Today, shops and restaurants line the rebuilt waterfront at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Visitors can see ocean creatures at the National Aquarium and tour the Constellation, which was launched in 1797. It is the oldest US warship still afloat.

About half of Maryland’s people live in and around Baltimore The city is a manufacturing center for electronics, chemicals, and steel. It has more than 30 universities, including John Hopkins and its famous medical school. Several renowned art museums and a symphony orchestra enrich the city’s cultural life. Baltimore’s showplace stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, is home to the Baltimore Orioles. Enthusiastic fans often wear orange, the team’s color; some even paint themselves orange!

Frederick Douglass

2010-09-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

In 1841, at an antislavery meeting in Massachusetts, a tall young African-American named Frederick Douglass stood up to speak. He knew about slavery, for he had been born a slave and had escaped only a few years earlier. People were moved by the young man’s story and his eloquent delivery. In the coming years, Douglass became a national leader in the antislavery movement and the most famous African-American of his time. He was a hero to many, black and white. But those who favored slavery considered him a powerful enemy.

In 1845, Douglass published his life story. Millions read it. But his old master in Maryland threatened to have him returned to slavery. He sailed to safety in England, where he earned enough money to buy his freedom. He returned to the US a free man. For many years, he published an antislavery newspaper, The North Star, which was widely read in the North. He made hundreds of speeches condemning slavery. And he helped slaves escaping to Canada on the Underground Railroad.

During the Civil War, Douglass recruited blacks for the Union army. When the conflict ended , he continued to speak out for the rights of African-Americans and women. He died in 1895, and remained a hero to those who continued his fight against racism.

He also served as US minister to Haiti from 1889 to 1891.

Clipper Ships

2010-08-27T06:41:00.000-07:00

“Never, in these United States,” wrote historian samuel Eliot Morison, “has the brain of a man conceived, or the hand of man fashioned, so perfect a thing as the clipper ship.”
The word “clip,” which meant simply “to cut”, later came to mean “to move quickly”.” So a clipper ship was a fast-sailing one.

Clipper ships were the fastest and most beautiful sailing ships ever built. Between 1845 and 1859, American shipyards produced nearly 500 of them. The speediest were the giant Yankee clippers. With their masses of sail, these long, slender ships could travel up to 400 nautical miles a day.

Clippers were first built to carry goods to and from China. After the discovery of gold in California in 1848, they carried prospectors and supplies from the East Coast, to the gold fields. Earlier, this 15,000-mile trip around the southern tip of South America took five months. But by the early 1850s speedy clippers such as the Flying Cloud had cut the time to three months. Clippers set other records, too. In 1849, the Sea Witch sailed from Hong Kong to New York in 74 days. In 1852, the Challenger raced from Japan to California in 18 days. And in 1860, the Andrew Jackson sailed from New York to Liverpool, England, in 15 days. But by then steamships, which did not depend on wind, were replacing the clippers. The era of these “greyhounds of the sea” were coming to a close.

Andrew Jackson

2010-08-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

Andrew Jackson was called “Old Hickory” by the soldiers he commanded. Like the hickory tree, he was strong and tough. But his soldiers loved him, and so did the American people.

Born in the backwoods log cabin. Jackson fought in the Revolutionary War when he was only 13. When he was 14, Andrew Jackson refused to shine the boots of a British officer. The officer slashed him with his sword, leaving a permanent scar on Jackson’s head.

As a young lawyer he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he became a cotton planter, a Congressman, and a militia officer. During the War of 1812 against Britain, he commanded the victorious American troops at the Battle of New Orleans. That triumph made Jackson a national hero. Although he narrowly lost the presidential election of 1824, he won easily four years later.

During his eight years in the White House, Jackson used his powers to strengthen the national government and improve the lives of ordinary Americans. He firmly opposed those who believed that individual states could nullify (cancel) laws they didn’t like. He fought against the Bank of the United States, which he thought favored the rich. And he vetoed many bills that seemed to him to be undemocratic. Because he fought for the average man against the wealthy, Andrew Jackson was known as “the people’s president.”

Colorado

2010-08-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

In 1806, Zebulon Pike journeyed west to explore the vast territory the U.S. had bought from France in the Louisiana Purchase. Crossing the Great Plains into present-day Colorado, he reached the spectacular Rocky Mountains and the snow-covered mountain that now bears his name, Pikes Peak.

More than 50 years later, gold was discovered nearby. Thousands of propectors set out for the region, determined to reach “Pikes Peak or bust.” Loggers, ranchers, and farmers followed the miners to Colorado, which became a territory in 1861 and achieved statehood in 1876.

Today, 80 percent of Colorado’s residents live in the central part of the state, in a band of rolling hills along the edge of the Rockies. Denver, the capital and largest city, is there. The area boasts comfortable summers and cold, unusually sunny winters, periodically broken by the famous “Chinook” wind. A hot dry Chinook, gusting down from the mountains, can raise temperatures 30 to 40 degrees in an hour. Many of Colorado’s old gold-and silver-mining towns are now ghost towns, but mining remains important in the economy as do ranching, farming, and manufacturing. So is tourism.

Colorado is famous for its dramatic scenery, splendid national parks and forests and glamorous ski resorts such as Vail and Aspen.

Colorado, the highest state, has an average elevation of 6,800 feet.

Memorial Day-2010

2010-05-31T12:21:00.000-07:00

Today we honor and remember.....

Outside a broad downright rots the laughing luxury.

Cowboys and Cattle Drives

2010-03-13T12:38:00.000-08:00

At the end of the Civil War, there were five million cattle in Texas, but the market for them was in the North and East. A steer worth $4 in Texas could be sold for $40 in those markets - if the cattleman could get the steer there. So Texas ranchers began using “cowboys” to drive their herds north to “cowtowns” on the railroad in Kansas. The great cattle drives began in 1866 and went on for 20 years. Their routes became famous: the Western Trail, the Loving Trail, and the Chisholm Trail. At the cowtowns – Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City – the steers were loaded aboard trains and sent to market.

Cattle drives were hard and dangerous work. Herds could be stampeded by lightening or thunder. There were flooded rivers to cross, but in dry times water was scarce. Cowboys had to guard against Indians and rustlers. The cowboys took their meals at the chuck wagon and at night slept under the stars. But in the end of the drive they could “cut loose”. In Dodge City, a cowboy wrote, “glasses clinked, dice rattled….violins, flutes, and cornets sent eager strains of waltz and polka…As the night sped on, the saloons became clamorous with….songs and laughter.”

The largest cattle drive on record took place in 1869, when 200 cowboys set out for Texas with a herd of 15,000 steers.

Stonewall Jackson

2010-03-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

Stonewall Jackson died two years before the end of the Civil War, but he is remembered as one of the greatest commanders. He was Robert E. Lee’s right-hand man, famous for this brilliant tactics and bold strikes against Union forces.

Jackson was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was promoted for bravery three times during the War with Mexico. He did not approve of slavery, but he was loyal to his home state, Virginia, and joined the Confederate Army when the Civil War broke out. He earned his nickname at the Battle of Bull Run in 1861. As his brigade withstood a Union onslaught, a fellow officer called out, “There is Jackson, standing like a stone wall.” Jackson next led a brilliant campaign in the Shenandoah Valley.

Although greatly outnumbered, he held off the Union force with a series of lightning strikes and well-fought encounters. He fought some of the war’s most important battles. In May, 1863, he won his greatest victory, at Chancellorsville, Virginia. But the battle had a tragic aftermath. Returning home from a scouting mission, he was mistaken for an enemy and shot by his own men. Jackson died eight days later. It was a bitter loss for Lee, who mourned, “I know not how to replace him.”

Jackson observed the Sabbath so strictly that he would not write a letter if he thought it might travel in the mails on Sunday.

Johnstown Flood

2010-03-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

In 1889, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a busy little city on the Conemaugh River, about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh. In the 1850s, the state had constructed an earthern dam north of the town, on a tributaryof the river. A body of water, Conemaugh Lake, had formed behind the dam. Because people wanted to enlarge the lake for fishing, the dam was made higher – but unfortunately not stronger.

Heavy rains fell throughout the spring of 1889, raising every river and stream about flood stage. Then, on the afternoon of May 31, disaster struck. The dam suddenly gave way, and the waters of Conemaugh Lake roared down the narrow river valley. A wall of water – traveling at 40 miles an hour and carrying with it huge boulders, whole trees, and other wreckage – smashed everything in its path. Farms, factories, and most of Johnstown itself were swept away. For most victims, the only warning was the thunder of the water advancing upon them. Sixty acres of wreckage piled up against a bridge below Johnstown. Broken oil-tank cars exploded, setting fire to the rest of the wreckage, which burned for days. The Johnstown Flood killed more than 2200 people. IT was was one of the worst Amerivan disasters in the nineteenth century.

Because the lake at Johnstown had been enlarged for fishing, one writer summed up the flood in these words: “All the horrors that Hell could wish, such was the price that was paid for fish.”

The Whiskey Rebellion

2010-03-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

One of the threats the new American nation faced in the 1790s came not from a foreign power, but from its own people. The threat became known as the Whiskey Rebellion, because it involved the refusal of farmers in western Pennsylvania to pay a tax on whiskey.

Each year the farmers made whiskey from their corn. A new national tax on corn liquor hurt their business. The farmers were used to paying local taxes, but they resented the national tax. They refused to pay it, and the federal tax collectors were attacked and driven away.
New President Georgia Washington knew there were far more at stake than the tax on whiskey.

He realized that the authority of the new national government was being challenged. It this protest succeeded, others would also defy the government’s laws. Washington called up the militia of four states and personally took command of an army of more than 13,000 soldiers in Pennsylvania. At this show of force, the Whiskey Rebellion ended 0without fighting. And the whiskey tax was soon being collected peacefully. Washington’s decisive action ended a significant threat to the young American government.

In putting down the Whiskey Rebellion, Georgia Washington commanded a force of soldiers larger than any he had led during the Revolution.

Indianapolis 500

2010-02-25T09:11:00.000-08:00

The roar of 33 high-powered engines fills the air. Around the track, the cheers of 300,000 fans mix with the thunderous sounds of straining motors. Finally, after 500 miles of grueling, heart-pounding racing, one driver crosses the finish line as the winner of the world’s greatest autorace: the Indianapolis 500.

The first Indy 500 was run in 1911, just two years after former racer Carl Fisher built the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At that time, many states were outlawing road races because bigger, faster cars made auto racing dangerous. Fisher built a 2.5-mile oval track where carmakers could more safely test new cars and racers could compete for prizes. The first Indy was won by Ray Harroun, whose average speed was 74.5 miles an hour.

Today, high-tech Indy cars, which cost up to $300,000, race around the oval at speeds averaging 160 miles per hour. Driving such fast cars requires quick reflexes, a steady hand, strong nerves, endurance, and more than just a little luck. But winning the Indy 500 guarantees a driver’s place in the history books, as well as racing’s largest prize. The record for most Indianapolis 500 victories – four – is shared by three drivers: Al Unser, A.J. Foyt, and Rick Mears.

In its early days, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was paved with 3.2 million bricks. Today, Indy 500 driver’s race on an asphalt surface.

Great White Fleet

2010-02-17T08:38:00.001-08:00

On December 16, 1907, thousands of cheering spectators jammed the shoreline of Hampton Roads, Virginia. They had come out to watch 16 snow-white battleships set sail on a historic around-the-world voyage.

The cruise of this Great White Fleet was President Theodore Roosevelt’s idea. He believed that the United States should “speak softly and carry a big stick.” He wanted all nations to know that the United States had become a mightly power. Because Japan was acting aggressively in the Pacific, Roosevelt was especially anxious to convince the Japanese that any attack on the Philippine Islands or other American territories would be a serious mistake.

The Great White Fleet’s mission was a huge success. The ships and their crews were welcomed enthusiastically everywhere, even in Japan. The impressive display of strength discouraged Japan from acting against American interests in the pacific and the United States was recognized throughout the world as a major naval power.

The Great White Fleet sailed more than 46,000 miles on its 14-month cruise.

Wordless: Touro Synagogue

2010-02-03T04:33:00.000-08:00

This is an image from the inside of Touro Synagogue located in Newport, Rhode Island.

It is the oldest existing US synagogue.

Jewish immigrants escaping persecution from Spain and Portugal came to Rhode Island in 1658.

Visit the main page for the synagogue here

Other bloggers are participating in Wordless Wednesday. You can find them here

The Founding of the Boy Scouts

2010-02-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

On a visit to London in 1909, Chicago publisher William D. Boyce became lost in a heavy fog. An English Boy Scout helped him to find his way. The Scout told Boyce about the Boy Scout movement, founded in England just a year earlier by army officer Robert Baden-Powell. Boyce returned home and founded the Boy Scouts of America in 1910. The new group adopted Baden-Powell’s motto, “Be prepared,” and his slogan, “Do a Good Turn Daily.”

Today the Boy Scouts of America have almost 4 ½ million members in five divisions: Cubs, Tigers, Webelos, Scouts, and Explorers. To become an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in scouting, a young man must have earned at least 21 merit badges. The organization’s goal is to improve its members’ self-confidence and competence and to foster leaders and good citizens. The program includes instruction and skillbuilding in a wide variety of fields, ranging from first aid to ecology. Members earn merit badges for their accomplishments in special fields, and thereby advance through the scouting ranks.

Camping and outdoor skills have always been important aspects of scouting. Every four years Boy Scouts from more than 100 nations gather for a giant camp-out known as the International Jamboree.

Amy Tan

2010-02-01T03:28:00.001-08:00

In Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, a group of Chinese-American women meets regularly to play mah-jongg, a Chinese game played with small ivory tiles. The women all came to the U.S. from China years earlier, and have kept their Chinese traditions. Their old-fashioned ways embarrass the book’s heroine, the grown daughter of one of the women. Above all, she wants to be American. But as the women tell their touching and often tragic stories of their lives, the daughter begins to understand and appreciate her Chinese heritage.

Amy Tan’s Chinese given name, An-mei, means “blessing from America.”

The story is close to Tan’s own experience. Her parents come to California from China, and she grew up with many of the same conflicts faced by the young heroine of the book. Tan’s parents wanted her to have a successful live in American, but they hoped she would think of herself as Chinese. As a girl, Tan wanted only to blend into American society, but when she began to write stories in the mid-1980s, she brought her two worlds together. Her personal experiences enabled her to write movingly about the relationships between immigrant parents of their children.

The Joy Luck Club, Tan’s first novel, was a surprise best-seller in 1989 and later a successful movie. Her second book, The Kitchen God’s Wife, was also successful. And in 1995 she was back on the best-seller list with The Hundred Secret Senses, a novel about a Chinese-American woman and her Chinese half sister.

Wordless: The Athenaeum

2010-01-26T22:14:00.000-08:00

This painting of George Washington is by Gilbert Stuart and is also known as The Athenaeum.
Yes, people realize it is unfinished.

The Athenaeum is the image of Washington we see on the dollar bill. Stuart and his daughters completed over 130 reproductions but the original, seen here, was never completed. The painting hangs in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Don’t get this painting confused with Stuart’s other famous George Washington painting……
the Lansdowne portrait…the one Dolly Madison saved during the War of 1812.

Other bloggers are participating in Wordless Wednesday. You can find them here .

African Americans

2010-01-25T11:07:00.001-08:00

Unlike immigrants from other lands, ancestors of most African-Americans came to America by force rather than by choice. One million arrived aboard slave ships between 1619 and 1808. As slaves, they were property that could be bought and sold. Often, families were divided up. Most slaves were forced to work hard and live in poor conditions, and many were badly abused.

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution freed all slaves when the North won the Civil War. But this freedom did not bring equality. Soon, many states enacted “black codes,” laws that kept African-Americans segregrated from “whites” for another 100 years. “Blacks” had to attend separate schools, drink from separate fountains, stay in separate hotels, and ride in the back of the bus.

Yet with courage and persistence, African-Americans have gradually gained legal rights to equal opportunity. Meanwhile, they have also made rich contributions to American culture most visibly in music, politics, and sports. Although prejudice still exists, African Americans have won recognition for excellence in every field.

Today, African-Americans make up 12 percent of today’s U.S. population.

Wordless: Boy Rescued From a Shark

2010-01-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

This painting is titled A Youth Rescued From a Shark by John Singleton Copley(1778). It currently hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The painting depicts the rescue of Brook Watson, a British merchant, soldier, and one-time Lord Mayor of London. At the age of 14 Watson was rescued from the shark attack as he was swimming the harbor at Havana, Cuba. He lost his leg from the knee down in the attack, and commissioned the painting to serve as a warning as well as the message that even the severest adversity can be overcome.

Other bloggers are participating in Wordless Wednesday. You can find them here

The Navajo

2010-01-18T18:49:00.001-08:00

More than 500 years ago, a group of people migrated southward from Canada and Alaska to the present-day American Southwest. These newcomers, the Navajo, soon became the dominant tribe in the region.

Today, they are the largest Native American tribe in the United States.
When Spaniards and Mexicans arrived in the area in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Navajo fought to remain free. But the intruders changed the Navajo way of life. Sheep, introduced by the Spanish, became an important source of food, their wool was used in the weaving of colorful blankets and rugs. Horses allowed the Navajo to travel long distances. And Mexican silversmiths taught them how to make beautiful turquoise and silver jewelry.

When the U.S. acquired the region in 1848, the struggle over Navajo lands grew intense. Years of warfare and forced resettlement resulted in the death of thousands. Finally, in 1868, the government signed a peace treaty with the Navajo that returned a portion of their homeland.

Over the years, the tribe began to benefit from oil, gas, and coal that were found on its land.

Today, 150,00 Navajo live on a reservation that covers 25,000 square miles. The reservation is three times the size of Massachusetts! They maintain a strong sense of tribal identify while continuing to play an important role in the live of America’s Southwest.

Wordless: Lander's Peak

2010-01-06T07:16:00.001-08:00

This painting is Landers Peak in the Rocky Mountains by Albert Bierstadt, a German-American painter. Bierstadt is known for large landscapes of the American West. In order to fuel his inspiration Bierstadt often traveled with westward expansion expeditions.

Bierstadt’s works are considered to be part of the Hudson River School---a group of painters that used Romantic details and almost glowing light (luminism).

You can see Bierstadt’s complete works here

Find other wordless images published by other bloggers here.

Adlai Stevenson

2010-01-04T11:26:00.001-08:00

“I’m too old to cry, and it hurts too much to laugh,” Adlai Stevenson said when he lost the 1952 presidential election to Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was quoting Abraham Lincoln, but the comment was classic Stevenson – witty and painfully honest. Stevenson’s loyal supporters admired the liberal, intellectual approach to issues, but most voters preferred Eisenhower’s hero status, conservative politics, and folksy style.

Stevenson began his career as special counsel to the U.S. Navy Secretary during World War II. Later, he helped plan the first United Nations conference. And in 1948, he was elected governor of Illinois, soon getting national attention for reforms and modernizing highways, reorganized the state police, and doubled aid for education. Stevenson’s grandfather, also named Adlai, was Grover Cleveland’s Vice President. He was first to head the Democratic ticket in the 1952 election even though he had refused to campaign for the nomination.

Stevenson said that he would rather lose an election than “mislead the people by representing as simple what is infinitely complex.” That statement of principle turned out to be prophetic. He lost to Eisenhower in 1952 and again in 1956. From 1961 until his death in 1965, he served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Betty Friedan

2009-11-28T06:31:00.000-08:00

Betty Friedan’s early life and career were far from revolutionary. She was a college-educated housewife, mother of three children, and writer for women’s magazines. For her 15th college reunion, Friedan sent a questionnaire to members of her class (all women), asking them to describe their lives after college. Their surprising answers inspired her to write The Feminine Mystique, a book that ignited the women’s-liberation movement in 1963.

Friedan’s research revealed that many American women were not as happy as people told them they should be. Contrary to popular belief some women did not find fulfillment as housewives and mothers. The Feminine Mystique was an instant best-seller.
In 1966, Friedan was one of the founders of the National Organization for Women (NOW). As NOW’s president, she fought for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), legalization of abortions, and better job opportunities for women.

In 1971, she helped found the National Women’s Political Caucus to encourage women to seek public office. A decade later, in 1981, Friedan looked at the progress of the women’s movement in her book The Second Stage. She stressed the important of family life for women and urged that more men be brought into the movement.

In 1993’s The Fountain of Age, Friedan wrote about discrimination against older people.

Wordless: The Battle of the Somme

2009-11-18T18:06:00.001-08:00

Today in history…..

The Battle of the Somme ended on November 18, 1916. The Somme Offensive was one of the largest and longest battles during World War I….the battle raged from July 1 through November 18th.

Cashing in at 1.5 million casualties it is one of the most bloodiest military operations ever recorded.

The Wordless Wednesday hub can be found here

John James Audubon

2009-11-16T13:29:00.001-08:00

In long hair and buckskin clothes, John James Audubon looked like other men on the American frontier in the early 1800s. But Audubon had a unique occupation. His work was the lifelike painting of birds and other wildlife in their natural surroundings.

Born on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo, Audubon was the son of a French trader. He went to school in France, where he learned to paint. In 1803, he came to the uNited DStates to stud farming, but instead spent most of his time in the woods, oobserving and sketching birds and wildlife. Soon Audubon set himself an ambitious goal: to paint America’s bird in realistic settings. He traveled widely searching for birds and painting them. Eventuall, he made New Orleans his home painting portraits to help support his family while continuing to add to his great bird project.

Audubon made the first “banding” experiments on wild birds. He tied threads around their legs when they were babies and later tracked their nesting habits.

No American publisher was interested in Audubon’s work, but a publisher in Scotland recognized his genius. Birds of America was published in four large volumes beginning in 1827. It made Audubon famous. In the 1840s, two volumes of his studies of mammals appeared, adding to his reputation as a superb artist and pioneering naturalist.

The Liberty Bell

2009-07-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

On July 8, 17776, a pealing bell in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House announced the first public reading of the declaration of Independence. Today, that iron bell is known as the Liberty Bell, and it is a treasured symbol of the nation’s devotion to freedom.

The Liberty Bell was made in England and shipped to Philadelphia in 1752. Inscribed on the bell were these words: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” But the first time the bell was tested, it cracked. It was recast and then hung in the State House, which was renamed Independence Hall after the Declaration of Independence was signed there. During the Revolution, the bell was hidden under the floor of a church in Allentown, Pennsylvania to keep it safe. After the war, it was rehung in Independence Hall and rung on important occasisions.

In 1835 while toiling for the funeral of Chief Justice John Marshall, the bell cracked a second time. It was repaired once more, but in 1846, it cracked again as it rang in honor of George Washington’s birthday. This time the bell could not be repaired.

Today the Liberty Bell is enshrined in a special pavilion in Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia, just across from its original home.

The liberty bell weighs more than 2,080 pounds and has a circumference of 12 feet at its widest point. It is about three feet high.

Clara Barton

2009-07-02T03:05:00.001-07:00

She was called the “angel of the battlefield” by those who saw her caring for wounded and dying soldiers during the Civil War. Her role there made her a national heroine. A strong-minded woman, Clara barton then devoted the rest of her life to helping others.
When the Civil war began in 1861, Barton was working as the first female clerk in the Patent Office in Washington D.C. But reports of suffering soldiers roused her to action. Besides nursing the wounded, she carried supplies and medicines to the battlefield.

Clara barton created a bureau to search for missing Civil War soldiers and mark the graves of the dead.

Barton’s war efforts left her exhausted and ill. In 1869, she went to Switzerland to recover. There, barton learned about the International red Cross, an organization devoted to the relief of suffering resulting from war. In 1870-1871, she took part in Red Cross activities during the Franco-Prussia war. Two years later, Barton returned home and set about forming an American red Cross. In 1881, she achieved her goal and served as the organization’s first president for 22 years. Before retiring in 1904, Barton expanded the efforts of the Red Cross to include aid to victims of peacetime disasters, such as floods and hurricanes.

The Alien and Sedition Acts

2009-06-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

In the U.S., the right to speak freely is guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. But in 1798, the country’s leaders tried to limit free speech and freedom of the press. At that time, the new nation was on the brink of war with France. As an attempt to limit criticism of the government and support for France the Federalist Party of President John Adams pushed the Alien and Sedition Acts through Congress.

The Alien Act denied citizenship to anyone who had lived in the U.S. for less than 14 years and allowed the President to deport “dangerous” foreigners. The Sedition Act allowed the government to arrest anyone who criticized its policies. Among those tried and convicted under the laws were several newspaper editors and a congressman. Matthew Lyon, a congressman from Vermont was jailed for criticizing the Sedition Act in a letter to a newspaper.

In 1799, realtions with France improved dramatically, but critics of the government were still being put in jail. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, he immediately pardoned everyone convicted of sedition during the previous three years. The Alien and Sedition Acts were allowed to expire in 1802, and freedom of speech returnmed to the U.S.

1620

2009-06-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

On September 16, 1620, 101 men, women, and children set sail in a small ship – the Mayflower – from the port of Plymouth, England. They were leaving England to escape persecution for their religious beliefs. They wanted to be free to worship in their own way and to create their own community.

The Pilgrims’ goal was the shore of North America, a vast and little known coastline that had only a handful of small European settlements. For eight weeks they sailed, tossed by the stormy North Atlantic. Finally, on November 10, the Mayflower reached Cape Cod, a long sandy peninsula in present-day Massachusetts.

Inside the bay protected by Cape Cod, the Pilgrims found a site that seemed promising for settlement. Before they left the ship, they drew up an agreement to form a government that would pass laws “for the general Good of the Colony.” According to tradition, they stepped ashore on a large boulder, still known as Plymouth Rock. The first winter at Plymouth was terrible. Nearly half of the settlers died of disease or starvation. But the Pilgrims were determined, and their community survived as one of the first European settlements in North America. The first building erected by the Pilgrims at Plymouth was called the Common House, where religious services were held.

Jefferson Davis

2009-05-31T14:25:00.001-07:00

“Oh, the muskets they may rattle…And the cannons they may roar…But we’ll fight for you, Jeff Davis…Along the Southern shore.”
The muskets first rattled and the cannons first roared on April 12, 1861. On that day, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, ordered his troops to fire on Fort Sumter, a Union post in South Carolina. With that, the Civil War between the north and the South had begun.

Davis grew up in Mississippi, attended school in Kentucky, and graduated from West Point in 1824. He served with distinction in the Mexican War, but then left the army and became a prosperous Mississippi cotton planter and respected politician. He was elected to the House of Representatives, then served as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, and was elected to the U.S. Senate. An outspoken advocate for states’ rights. Davis believed strongly that Americans had the right to own slaves. By the time the Union broke apart he was the South’s leading statesman, and an obvious choice for the condederate presidency.

After the war, Davis spent two years in prison and lost his U.S. citizenship. In 1978, almost 90 years after his death, the U.S. Congress restored his citizenship.

June 3rd, Jefferson Davis’ birthday, is a legal holiday in nine southern states.

The papers of Jefferson Davis can be found here

Information regarding Jefferson Davis’ home…Beauvoir….here

The Rocky Mountains

2009-05-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

The Rocky Mountains are the backbone of North America. Their majestic, towering peaks stretch for 3,000 miles, from northern Alaska to New Mexico. In some areas, the mountain band is hundreds of miles wide.

The Rockies began to form 200 million years ago. Powerful forces in th earth buckled the land surface, creating folds and bumps thousands of feet high. The Rockies reached their greatest height about 100 million years ago. Wind and rain have worn them down since then, but they are still spectacular. More than 50 peaks in the chain are ofer 14,000 feet above sea level. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado contains 107 peaks more than 10,000 feet high.

In 1804, explorers Lewis and Clark discovered the huge extent of the range that Native Americans called “the shining mountains.” They were followed by trappers and traders, who found the high mountain passes through which settlers later struggled on their way west.

In the 1850s, prospectors struck gold and silver in the Rockies; some of their mining settlements became cities, such as Denver. Today, the mountains attract skiers in winter and hikers and campers in summer.

National and state parks preserve millions of acres of magnificent mountain scenery and protect wildlife, including grizzly bears, bald eagles, and bighorn sheep.

Find the official site for the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado here and others sites are listed below:

Pikes Peak
Royal Gorge
Rocky Mountain National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Teton National Park
Glacier National Park (U.S.)
Sawtooth National Recreation Area

Pony Express

2009-04-20T17:08:00.001-07:00

A lone rider gallops through the sagebrush, his horse’s hooves pounding rhythmically on the dry ground. Bulging leather mailbags strapped to his saddle show why he is traveling so fast: He works for the Pony Express, a private service that carries mail fromn Missouri to California in just eight days.

Before April 1860, when the Pony Express was founded, mail bound for California went by stagecoach and took three weeks to arrive. Pony Express riders took a more direct – and dangerous – route across praries, deserts, and mountains. They covered the 2,000 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California, in relays. Each rider traveled up to 75 miles, changing horses at stations built 10 to 15 miles apart along the route.

Along the daring Pony Express riders were some of the West’s most famous figures, including “Buffalo Bill” Cody. They faced blizzards, flash floods, mountain lions, bandits, and Indian attacks for a salary of $50 a month. Their bravery captured the hearts of Americans. But the Pony Express lived only about 18 months. The click of telegraph keys replaced the pounding of horses’ hooves on October 21, 1861, when the first transcontinental telegraph line was completed.

The Pony Express charged $5 to deliver each half-ounce letter. Each rider carried 20 pounds of mail.

John Philip Sousa

2009-04-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

With drums pounding and trombones flashing in the sun, a brightly uniformed marching band marches down Main Street. This is a common scene in America on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and other occaisions that call for the snap and flourish of a military band. And such bands usually play at least one rousing march by John Philip Sousa, the composer and bandleader who is known as the “March King.”

Studying the violin at age six, Sousa showed his flair for music early. When he was 13, he began a two-year apprenticeship with the U.S Marine Band. Then he spent several years with theater orchestras. He began composing music – waltzes, orchestral suites, and even operettas. But it was his marches that made him famous. They included “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” “The Washington Post March,” “El Capitan,” and “Semper Fidelis.”
Sousa developed a tuba that rested on a player’s shoulders and could be carried in a march. Called the sousaphone, it is used in marching bands today.

In 1880, Sousa rejoined the Marine Band as its leader. Under Sousa, the band became famous around the world. Many of his best-known marches were written for this band. In 1892, he left the Marines to form his own group, the Sousa Band, which toured America and the world, cementing Sousa’s reputation as the greatest composer-bandmaster of his day.

Here is an example of Sousa's "El Capitan":

Wyatt Earp

2009-04-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

In legend, Wyatt Earp was a brave lawman who cleaned up western towns such as Dodge City, Kansas, and Tombstone, Arizona. In fact, he was not a heroic character. The real Earp was a professional gambler. He worked as a peace officer in a few places, but he broke the law as often as he enforced it. He was arrested at least twice, once for stealing a horse.

Earp is famous for the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” in Tombstone in 1881. In the O.K. Corral legend, Earp, his two brothers, and Doc Holliday saved Tombstone from the Clantons, a gang of cattle rustlers. But the real gunfight was not about rustling. It resulted from a feud between the Earps and the Clantons. Some accounts of the famous gunfight claim that the Earps killed three of the Clanton gang in cold blood. Wyatt Earp was later involved in other gunfights, and he left Arizona with a posse in pursuit. Eventually he moved to California, where he put away his gun and invested in real estate.

Perhaps because he was the only participant unhurt in the O.K. Corral gunfight. Earp was glorified in popular fiction. Later, movies and television made him a hero. As the idealized lawman, Wyatt Earp became one of the enduring legends of the Old West.

The famous Earp-Clanton gunfight didn’t take place at the O.K. Corral. It broke out in an empty lot around the corner.

1682

2009-03-25T04:26:00.001-07:00

The year 1682 was an important one for two adventurous Europeans – French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and William Penn, an English Quaker.

La Salle had set out from Canada in 1689, searching for a great river described by the Indians. In 1682-1682, he traveled down the full length of the Mississippi. When he reached the Gulf of Mexico in April, 1682, he claimed all the land that the Mississippi flowed through for France. La Salle named the vast territory Louisiana, in honor of his king, Louis XIV.

As a Quaker, William Penn was persecuted and jailed in England for his religious beliefs. In 1681, he received a grant of land in America from the English king in settlement of a debt owed to his father. Penn immediately sent agents to the New World to begin building a settlement. The next year, he went to America himself and issued the colony’s frame of government. Penn’s guarantee of religious freedom and his easy terms for buying land attracted many settlers to his colony – “Penn’s Woods,” or Pennsylvania.

Also in 1682 – One of America’s first best-sellers was published in 1682. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God was Mary Rowlandson’s account of her capture by Wampanoag Indians in Massachusetts in 1676.

The painting with this post is titled LaSalle at the Mouth of the Mississippi. The artist is George Catlin. It was painted sometime in the 1840s.

Herman Melville

2009-03-11T06:37:00.001-07:00

A whaling ship scours the seas for a mysterious white whale. Its Captain Ahab is obsessed with hunting the creature down. At last, Ahab himself raises the cry, “There she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!” Those words bring readers to the gripping climax of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, or The Whale , one of the greatest American novels.

Melville knew the sea well. As a young man, he sailed on a whaling ship to the South Pacific, determined to “sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.,” His first books, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life and Omoo, were successful. Typee is based on Melville’s real experiences with cannibals on an island in the South Pacific. But when Moby-Dick was published in 1851, it sold poorly and received bad reviews. Melville continued to write, publishing several novels and many short stories. But he had to work as a customs inspector in New York City to earn a living.

Moby-Dick is unlike any other novel. It is an exciting adventure tale, the story of Ahab’s quest for the white whale. But it also offers long passages about whales and the whaling industry. On a deeper level, the book explores such themes as the conflicts between man and nature and between good and evil.

The novel’s greatness was not widely recognized until many years after Melville’s death.

1492

2009-03-09T06:11:00.001-07:00

On August 3, 1492, three small ships – the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria – set sail from Palos, Spain. Christopher Columbus, the daring captain of the expedition, was convinced that he could reach Asia by sailing westward across the Atlantic. Up to that time, the only way for European traders to reach Asia was by ship to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and then by caravan across treacherous deserts and mountains. Columbus hoped to find an easier route to Asia and to the jewels, silks, and spices that Europeans valued so highly.

As Columbus’ ships sailed day after day across the choppy ocean, his men grew discontented and fearful. But on October 12th, they sighted land. Columbus went ashore on a small island and claimed it for Queen Isabella of Spain, who had financed his voyage. He named the island San Salvador, or Holy Savior. He believed the island was one of the Indies off the coast of Asia, so he called the natives Indians.

In reality, Columbus had landed in the Caribbean Sea, in the group of islands now known as the Bahamas. A huge continent, now called North America, was just 50 miles to the northwest. Instead of finding a sea route to Asia, Columbus had discovered the New World.

Christopher Columbus made three more trips to the New World before his death in 1506, but he died believing that he had discovered an unknown region of Asia.

Use this link to find logs, letters, and journals written by Christopher Columbus.

For an extensive listing of Christopher Columbus images check this Library of Congress page.

Whaling

2009-03-02T06:58:00.001-08:00

From high in the rigging of a tall-masted ship, a lookout cries, “Thar she blows!” The crew springs into action. Quickly they lower their rowboats and set out in pursuit of a nearby whale.

Whaling was a major industry in the first half of the nineteenth century. From ports such as Nantucket and New Bedford in Massachusetts, whaling ships sailed on voyages that lasted for years and took them around the world.

Lookouts on the ships kept watch for whales coming to the surface to breathe. When a whale was spotted, the whalers chased and harpooned it. Then they rowed away to avoid being overturned by their wounded prey.

Sometimes a harpooned whale took a boat on a “Nantucket sleigh ride,” pulling it for hours across the ocean. When the whale finally tired, it was killed with lances. Then the whalers lashed it to the whaling ship and cut it up.

Blubber, or fat, was boiled down to make whale oil, which was sold as fuel for lamps. Corset stays were made from baleen (thin plates of bone from the mouths of right whales). Sperm whales yielded oil used to lubricate fine instruments and waxy ambergris, used in perfume.

At the industry’s peak, there were more than 700 American whaling ships killing some 10,000 whales a year. But whaling declined after 1850 as petroleum replaced whale oil as fuel.

Modern whalers, using harpoon guns and helicopters, brought some species close to extinction.

Here is an article regarding whaling in days gone by.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum site is great place to explore the subject a bit more.

James Whistler

2009-02-19T05:36:00.000-08:00

James Whistler believed that art should speak for itself, and that the subject matter of a painting was not important. To underline this point, he called his paintings symphonies, nocturnes, etudes, and arrangements—names usually given to musical works.

His most famous work is a portrait that carefully balances areas of light and dark. He called it “Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1.” Most people know it by another name: “Whistler’s Mother” seen here with this post.

Born in Massachusetts, Whistler spent much of his youth in Russia, where his father built a railroad for the government. He attended the military academy at West Point, New York, but left to become an artist. He worked as a mapmaker, learning the technique of etching and printmaking.

Then he moved to Paris, where he joined a circle of Impressionists painters. There he began collecting Oriental art, which became a major influence on his work. He moved to London in 1859.

Whistler was famous for his sharp tongue, dandyish dress, and eccentric manner. But he was serious about his art. Many of his etchings and paintings were moody and impressionistic, and his work was often derided.

In 1877, critic John Ruskin accused him of “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” Whistler sued Ruskin for libel and won. In later years, Whistler was acclaimed for his brilliant lithographs and subtle portraits, in which he presented his subjects in silhouette against a black background.

1676

2009-02-16T07:00:00.001-08:00

In 1676, a bloody war between Indians and white settlers raged in New England. And to the south, in Virginia, colonial farmers rebelled against the British government.

The leader of the warring Indians in New England was chief of the Wampanoags, Metacomet, whom the colonists called Philip. Angry over the settlers’ treatment of the Indians and their encroachment on Indian land, Metacomet and his allies began a series of fierce attacks on frontier settlements in 1675. Metacomet was a son of Massasoit, the Indian chief who lived in peace with the Pilgrims when they arrived in the New World.

Many settlements were completely destroyed, and hundreds of colonists were killed. But in 1676, the settlers counterattacked, and the Indians were defeated. Some 600 colonists and 3,000 Indians were killed during King Philip’s War, the bloodiest of the seventeenth-century wars between American colonists and Indians.

Meanwhile in Virginia, a planter named Nathaniel Bacon led an uprising of farmers against the British governor. The farmers were angry because of high taxes and because the government was not protecting them from Indian attacks. Bacon’s men captured Jamestown, and the governor fled. But when Bacon suddenly fell ill and died, the leaderless revolt collapsed. It would be 100 years before American colonists again defied Britain.

The Bustle

2009-02-09T06:57:00.001-08:00

Casual, comfortable clothing is preferred by most people today. But in the nineteenth century, American women chose to be uncomfortable rather than unfashionable. They wore tight corsets and long, heavy dresses that restricted their movements . And they also wore a series of strange contraptions that were designed to give them the shape considered attractive then.

One odd fashion device of the 1870s was the bustle, or “dress improver.” The bustle was either a padded cushion of cork or down, or a frame made of metal or whalebone. A woman tied it around her backside at waist level. When she put her dress on over the bustle, her skirt stuck out in back.

If the bustle was small, it merely gave the impression that extra material had been gathered at the back of the skirt. But some bustles were huge. They jutted out like shelves, provoking jokes about bustles big enough to serve tea on!

By the 1890s, the bustle was no longer in fashion. Women could once again sit down without having to make allowance for the awkward “dress improver” behind them.

Prior to bustles, women wore petticoats with wide steel hoops so that their skirts would swell out into enormous circles. Some skirts were ten yards in circumference!

Scott Joplin

2009-01-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

In the early 1970s, Americans became captivated by piano music written more than 60 years earlier by Scott Joplin. Known as rags, these tunes featured syncopated, foot-tapping rhythms , rich harmonies, and bouncy melodies.

Rags had been popular in the early 1900s, but they were largely forgotten until 1973, when they were featured in a hit movie, The Sting. Suddenly, pianists across the country were playing “The Entertainer” and other rags by Joplin, who received overdue recognition as an important composer.

Born into a musical family headed by an ex-slave, Scott Joplin left home at 17 and moved first to St. Louis and then to Chicago, where he earned a living as a pianist. After studying music at George Smith College in Sedalia, Missouri, he began writing his own songs. One of his early compositions, Maple Leaf Rag, made enough money to allow Joplin to devote himself entirely to composing.

In addition to some 50 piano rags, Joplin wrote operas and ballets. But his wish to be recognized as a “serious” composer was unfufilled until long after his death in 1917. His opera, Treemonisha, was performed to critical acclaim in 1972. Because of the reborn popularity of his rags, recordings of Joplin’s music accounted for an incredible 75 percent of all albums on classical best-seller lists in 1975. And in 1976, the “King of Ragtime” was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his contribution to American music.

Mary Cassatt

2009-01-07T03:33:00.000-08:00

Mary Cassatt lived at a time when women were expected to marry and raise families. They were not supposed to become artists. But Cassatt was determined to be a painter, and she succeeded. She became the first American women to win recognition as an important artist.

Cassatt studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Then she went to Europe to pursue her dream. In 1872, one of her paintings was accepted for exhibition by the French Academy of Fine Arts. She settled in Paris, where she became a lifelong friend and student of the Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas. “How well I remember, “ she recalled, “seeing for the first time Degas’ pastels in the window of a picture dealer. I used to go and flatten my nose against the window and absorb all I could of his art.”

Most of Cassett’s paintings were of women or children. Artists at that time usually idealized their subjects. But Cassatt’s paintings showed people as they really looked. Her work became very popular. And when a gallery exhibted her work in 1893, the catalogue noted, “Cassatt is perhaps along with Whistler, the only artist of eminent talent…that America actually possesses.”

Cassatt’s eyesight began to fail when she was about 60. She grew nearly blind, and had to give up painting.

You can find several links regarding this artist at Mary Cassatt Online and this site has a lot to offer from the National Gallery of Art.

There are also several YouTube videos featuring Mary Cassatt’s work (see list here) including this one:

1718

2009-01-04T20:03:00.001-08:00

In this year, two settlements were founded that would later become important U.S. cities. The year also saw the death of Blackbeard, a notorious pirate who had terrorized ships off the Atlantic Coast and the Caribbean.

In the early 1700s, England, France, and Spain competed for control of North American. England’s colonies grew up along the Atlantic, while France claimed Canada and a vast central area called Louisisana. The Mississippi River provided access to the territory. So the French leader Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, founded a settlement at the mouth of the river in 1718. He named it La Nouvelle Orleans (New Orleans), after the Duke of Orleans, a French nobleman.

Farther west, in today’s Texas, Spain also founded a settlement, San Antonio. One of its first buildings was the Mission of San Antonio de Valero, later known as the Alamo.

In November, 1718, the pirate Blackbeard—an Englishman named Edward Teach—was cornered by two British ships near Ocracoke Island off North Carolina. Blackbeard wore his long, black beard in braids. To look fierce in battle, he stuck lighted matches on his hat, so that his face appeared to be ringed by fire. He was killed in a furious battle, and his head was displayed on a ship’s mast as a warning to other pirates.

Abigail Adams

2008-12-30T05:22:00.000-08:00

In America’s early days, women had no voice in government and were not expected to know much about politics. But Abigail Adams, the wife of the second U.S. Prwsident, was ahead of her time. She was well-informed and held strong opinions about politics and government.

John Adams was a country lawyer when he married Abigail Smith in 1764. He played a key role in the struggles for independence and was often away from home. Abigail Adams raised their four children and managed the family farm, and she kept up a steady stream of letters to her husband.

When a neighbor complained because Abigail had sent a young servant to school, she wrote to John, “Merely because his face is black, is he to be denied instruction?”
And when John Adams was helping to plan the new country’s government, she wrote, “In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.”

Abigail Adams was the first First Lady to live in the White House. But only a few rooms of the mansion were ready in 1800 when the Adamses moved in. In a letter to her daughter, Abigail revealed that she hung her family’s laundry in the unfinished East Room, later the scene of elegant receptions.

Abigail Adams is also remembered as the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President.

Johnny Appleseed

2008-12-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

When Americans bite into crisp, fresh-picked apples or slices of apple pie, they should thank John Chapman. No one did more to encourage the cultivation of apple orchards during America’s frontier days. Chapman’s efforts made him a legendary folk hero and earned him the nickname “Johnny Appleseed.”

Each fall during cider-making time, Chapman collected seeds from the sweet-smelling cider presses. He carefully washed them, and dried them in the sun. Then he planted the seeds in forests and fields. For more than 40 years, beginning in the late 1700s, Chapman crisscrossed Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, tending his budding apple trees and showing people how to start their own orchards.

Dressed in tattered clothes, he cheerfully endured the hardships of pioneer life. People thought him odd, but praised his friendliness and sincereity. However, during the War of 1812, John Chapman saved the hamlet of Mansfield, Ohio, by summoning troops to defend it against a Native American attack.

Not much is known about John Chapman’s life. But as Johnny Appleseed, the sower of tiny seeds that grew into stately orchards, he holds a unique place in American frontier history.

Louisa May Alcott

2008-12-16T07:27:00.001-08:00

Louisa May Alcott wrote almost 300 books, stories, and poems, but she is best known for the novel Little Women. This children’s classic is about four teenage sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March—and their family life in a New England village during the time of the American Civil War. Alcott herself was one of four sisters, and the story is largely based on her own life.

The Alcott family moved to Concord, Massachusetts, when Louisa May Alcott was eight years old. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a teacher, but he had problems supporting his family. Among his friends were two great writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They helped Alcott develop her writing ability. She started writing when she was 19, to earn money for the family.

Alcott’s first book, Flower Fables, was published in 1854. But her first success came in 1863 with Hospital Sketches, which was based on her experiences as a nurse during the Civil War. Little Women, published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, was an immediate success. Her publisher originally decided not to publish Little Women, but his children read the manuscript, loved it, and talked him into it. She later wrote several sequels about the March family, including Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

1735

2008-11-01T20:03:00.001-07:00

By 1735, Britain had established 13 thriving colonies on the eastern coast of North America. But the colonists were chafing under British rule—they wanted more freedom.

In August, that desire for freedom led to a famous trial. John Peter Zenger, a New York printer, was under arrest for publishing a newspaper that condemned the colony’s British governor as a tyrant. There was no freedom of the press in colonial America, and the judges at Zenger’s trial were friends of the governor. The printer’s case seemed hopeless. Yet Zenger’s lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, refused to give up.

Hamilton believed that a person should not be convicted for writing the truth. But the judges didn’t care whether Zenger’s comments about the government nor were true or not. Under colonial law, that made no difference. So Hamilton turned directly to the jury. He told them that the question they had to decide was “not the cause of the poor printer,” but “the best cause…the cause of Liberty.” The jury acquitted Zenger, agreeing with Hamilton that Americans had “the liberty of exposing and opposing arbitrary power…by speaking and writing the truth.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe

2008-10-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

Harriet Beecher Stowe was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel about the evils of slavery that stirred the conscience of Americans and helped to bring about the Civil War.

Stowe’s father and six of her brothers were ministers. All of them were strongly opposed to slavery. After the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1832, she met many other abolitionists. Visiting plantations in nearby Kentucky, she saw slavery in operation, and her hatred of the institution deepened.

Harriet Beecher had married Professor Calvin Stowe in 1832. They moved to Maine in 1850, the same year that the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. The law made it easier for runaway slaves to be returned to the South. Stowe was so angry about this, she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly.

Published in 1852, it is the story of a slave named Uncle Tom who dies after he is beaten by a plantation owner named Simon Legree. The book’s powerful portrayal of the evils of slavery shocked its readers. Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold more than 300,000 copies in its first year and about two million copies before the start of the Civl War. When President Lincoln met Stowe during the Civil War, he said to her, “So this is the little lady who wrote the book that made this great war.”

Civil War, Literature, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1832, 1850, Slavery, 1852, Important People

Benedict Arnold

2008-10-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

Today, the name Benedict Arnold is a synonym for traitor. But in the early years of the American Revolution, Arnold was a hero. He led a daring attack on Quebec in 1775, and in 1777 his boldness and bravery helped win the Battle of Saratoga.

Why did Arnold turn traitor? First, he was deeply in debt and desperate for money. Second, he believed he had not been treated fairly. He felt he deserved more recognition and higher rank. The British promised to pay him handsomely for his treachery and give him high ranking in the British army.

Arnold began passing military information to the British in 1779. After he was named commander of the fort at West Point, a strategic post on New York’s Hudson River, he plotted to turn West Point over to the British.

Major John Andre, a British officer, met secretly with Arnold on September 21, 1780, but was captured by American soldiers, who found incriminating papers in his boot. Andre was hanged as a spy, and Arnold fled to safety aboard a British ship. After his treachery was exposed, Benedict Arnold led small British forces in destructive raids on Richmond, Virginia, and New London, Connecticut.

Although Arnold fought for the British against his own countrymen in the final years of the war, the British didn’t give him the high position or all the money they had promised him.

He died in England a bitter man.

P.T. Barnum

2008-09-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

If you wanted to see a mermaid, a giant, or a bearded lady, P.T. Barnum would gladly grant your wish. During the 1800s, Barnum was one of America’s best-known showmen. He prided himself on being a master of the art of “humbug,” or fooling people.

Barnum’s show-business career began in New York City in 1835, when he exhibited an old woman whom he said was George Washington’s nurse. He claimed that she was 161 years old. Though Barnum’s story was false, people flocked to see the old woman anyway.

Later, Barnum opened his American Museum, where he displayed a variety of heavily publicized attractions, some real and many fake. Among the most popular attractions were Chang and Eng, Siamese twins joined at the waist, and a dancing midget who became famous as General Tom Thumb.

Barnum also presented genuinely talented performers, such as Jenny Lind, the Swedish singer. He sent her around the country on a successful concert tour. In 1871, Barnum launched a traveling circus that later featured Jumbo, which he claimed to be the world’s largest elephant.

Barnum’s circus merged with others owned by J.A.Bailey and the Ringling Brothers to form today’s Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, “the greatest show on earth.”

P.T. Barnum was elected to the Connecticut state legislature and also served a term as mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The First Thanksgiving

2008-09-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

In 1621, Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts was just a year old and progressing well. The Pilgrim leaders decided to give thanks for their survival by holding a festival. Their day of Thanksgiving wa planned for October after the harvest.

Chief Massasoit and his Wampanoag tribe had been helpful to the colonists since the Pilgrims first landed at Plymouth in 1620. Now the Pilgrims decided to show their appreciation by inviting Massasoit and his Wampanoags to the first Thanksgiving. In preparation, the Pilgrims sent out hunting parties to obtain ducks and geese for the feast, and wild turkeys. They gathered corn and fish, and other foods from the forest as well.

On the appointed day, Massasoit arrived with 90 tribesmen, and his hunters brought five deer for the feast. This first Thanksgiving dinner also included lobsters, clams, smoked eels, dried berries, wild plums, and even grapes. The feast was so successful that it went on for three days, until all the food was gone and the Indians returned to their villages. Thanksgiving has been an American holiday ever since.

Thanksgiving was made a national holiday in 1863, during the Civil War when President Lincoln proclaimed the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

2008-09-16T06:41:00.000-07:00

“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” novelist Ernest Hemingway wrote. “It’s the best book we’ve had.” Many critics share this high opinion of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Yet some people have called the book crude and racist, and it has been banned by some libraries.

Set in the South before the Civil War, the book tells the story of young Huck Finn, who runs aways from his abusive father. Huck teams up with a runaway slave named Jim, and the two head down the Mississippi River on a raft. Along the way, they meet feuding families, crooks, and Huck’s friend from an earlier Twain book, Tom Sawyer.

When Jim is captured by slave catchers, Huck and Tom rescue him. At the end of the book, Jim learns that he has been freed by his owner, and the self-reliant Huck heads west to avoid being adopted and “civilized.”

It is a humorous tale, yet the author explores such key themes in American history as slavery, independence, and equality. Moreover, he captures with amazing accuracy the speech of ordinary people of the time. Twain, however, jokingly threatened to prosecute, banish, or shoot anyone who found a motive, moral, or plot in Huckleberry Finn. He wanted people to enjoy reading it. And for more than 110 years, they have.

Like his character, Huck Finn, Mark Twain grew up in a small Missouri town on the Mississippi River.

Timothy O'Sullivan

2008-09-15T06:21:00.001-07:00

Taking pictures in the early years of photography was hard work. Cameras were large, heavy boxes that sat on strong tripods. Bright light, and at least several seconds were needed to take a picture. The negative images were recorded on fragile glass plates that had to be coasted with light-sensitive chemicals just before the exposure was made, then developed immediately afterward. So a photographer working away from his studio had to carry a portable darkroom in his horse-drawn wagon. It would not be until the 1880s when rolls of film replaced glass plates for photographic negatives.

Despite these limitations, some early photographers managed to take remarkable pictures. One of the best photographers was Timothy O’Sullivan, who had a natural talent for selecting interesting subjects and making striking visual compositions. O’Sullivan learned his craft from the famous photographer Matthew Brady. During the Civil War, O’Sullivan accompanied the Union army; his heartbreaking battlefield images were published in a book, Harvest of Death, in 1863.

After the war he traveled with survey expeditions to the American West, taking memorable pictures of the Great Salt Lake, Arizona’s Canyon de Cheily, and other wonders of the then little-known region. He was the first to photograph the ruins of the ancient Native American civilization that flourished in the Southwest around 1100 A.D.

The image with this post is a Timothy O'Sullivan photograph.

Daniel Boone

2008-09-13T12:58:00.001-07:00

Daniel Boone ranks as one of the first American heroes. Short on education, he was long on adventurousness, courage, and frontier skills.

At the age of 21, Boone joined a British military expedition to drive the French out of the Ohio Valley and barely espcaped with his life, as did young George Washington. In 1767, Boone began exploring Kentucky, blazing the Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap and then leading new settlers west. He founded the settlement of Boonesborough in 1775. Because Kentucky was prime Shawnee and Cherokee hunting ground, Indians and settlers often battled one another. At one point, the Shawnee captured Boone and took him far away from home, but he escaped and used his wilderness skills to make the 160-mile trek back in only four days.
In 1782, Boone fought in the so-called “last battle of the Revolutionary War” near Boonesborough against the British and Indian forces. He later served as an officer in the militia and as a state legislator. His claims to land in Kentucky were invalidated because of improper registration, but Congress gave him land in Missouri, where he lived until his death in 1820.

Boone prided himself on being able to find his way anywhere. When asked whether he had ever been lost, he replied, “I can’t say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.”

Squaredancing

2008-09-08T03:20:00.000-07:00

“Do-si-do!” Swing your partner!” “Promenade!” The caller sings out instructions. The fiddler plays a lively tune. Women in swirling skirts and men in bright Western shirts link hands and move in complicated patterns across the floor. This is a square dance, the best known form of American folk dancing.

Square dancing began in early colonial times. Settlers had brought traditional dances from their homelands. In time, these dances had merged and developed into a uniquely American form. Once found in rural areas, square dancing later became popular in cities too.

At house-raising parties in colonial days, cornmeal bran was spread on new wood floors. Couples square danced on the bran to smooth and shine the floors.

Today, square dancing are still performed to traditional country or mountain tunes played on a fiddle, guitar, or banjo. An even number of couples, usually four, face each other either in a square (quadrille), two lines (contra dance), or a circle (running set). A non-dancing caller directs the patterns, singing out or speaking rhythmically (“patter calling”) over the music. Calls, patterns, and dancing styles vary. In general, Western-style square dancing is more vigorous and complex than the older Eastern style. But both styles provide fun and exercise for dancers of all ages.

The Stagecoach

2008-06-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

A stagecoach clatters into a western frontier town and pulls to a stop, sending up a cloud of dust. The excited townspeople crowd around it. They crane their necks to see passengers step off the coach, and they watch as mail and packages are unloaded. The stagecoach is their link to the outside world.

The stagecoach got its name from its long trip in stages, stopping at stations for fresh horses, food, and rest. Stagecoach lines were introduced in Europe in the seventeenth century. In the early days of the United States, they were important links between eastern cities.

As Americans moves west, stagecoaches did too. They were the only means of cross-country transportation in the West until the railroads replaced them in the late 1800s. Western coaches carried six to nine passengers and were pulled by four to six horses. The driver sat outside, and luggage was strapped on the roof. Sometimes coaches were attacked by bandits or Indians, so an armed assistant rode “shotgun” next to the driver. But on most runs, as the coach jolted along rough, dusty trails, a backache was a bigger risk than robbery.

The Overland Mail Company began to carry mail from St. Louis, Missiouri, to San Francisco, California, in 1857. It’s stagecoaches me the trip in 25 days.

New England Town Meetings

2008-06-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

“Hear ye, hear ye!” A gavel slams and a New England town meeting beings. Town meetings have been a New England institution since the seventeenth century. At these meetings, voters elect officials, approve local laws, and levy taxes on themselves. Thus colonists began a strong tradition of self-rule and community responsibility that has continued to the present day.

Town meetings were held at least once a year and were attended by each town’s “freemen”---male property owners. The election of the town officials usually came from prosperous, highly respected families. But all the men in the community were expected to take a turn at some public office---constable, tax collector, fence inspector, or hog reeve (the catcher of runaway pigs).

After the election, the freemen would debate other issues such as proposed new laws, taxes, and public projects. Town meetings served to nourish the New England colonists’ passion for democracy. Not surprisingly, they soon began to resent any interference from a distant king or country.

Today’s town meetings ramain the basic unit of self-government in many New England towns. One major change is that they are now attended by all registered voters, including women and people who don’t own property.

Because of population growth, some towns have “representative town meetings” with attendees elected by their neighbors.

MAS*H

2008-06-03T15:49:00.001-07:00

On February 28, 1983, the biggest audience in television history watched the final episode of a beloved comedy series. That series was M*A*S*H, which ran for 11 years on CBS and is still seen in reruns around the world. All together there are 255 episodes of the show.

M*A*S*H tells the story of the doctors and nurses of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. In many episodes, helicopters bring wounded soldiers to the M*A*S*H unit, where the surgeons and nurses care for them. To keep their sanity under grim circumstances, the M*A*S*H personnel break military rules and engage in a a constant stream of wisecracks, pranks, and loony activities. The show’s underlying message is that war is cruel and inhuman, but the human spirit cannot be extinguished. The fact that a real war was raging in Vietnam at the time of M*A*S*H’s debut made its message especially meaningful.

Among the shows memorable characters are Corporal Kinger, who wears women’s clothes in the hope that he will be sent home; “Hot Lips” Houlihan, the head nurse; and “Radar” O’Reilly, the farm boy who serves as the company clerk.

The heart of M*A*S*H is “Hawkeye” Pierce, a surgeon played by Alan Alda. His brash manner and practical jokes, combined with his compassion for people and hatred of war, are the center of a unique show that touches the heart while provoking laughter.

Mountain Men

2008-05-18T12:17:00.001-07:00

They wore fringed buckskin clothes decorated with porcupine quills. Around their necks they carried sacks filled with salt, coffee, tobacco, gunpowder, and other necessities. They ate whatever they could catch or gather, including buffalo mean, roots, berries, and even ants. During the harsh winters, they often lived with Indians, who taught them survival skills.

These adventurers were known as the Mountain Men. They were hired in the 1820s by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company “to ascend the Missouri to its source” and to send back beaver pelts and other fur. The life of a Mountain Men was hard, but he had a chance to make a lot of money, and he lived free human law and restrictions. Each year in late summer, the Mountain Men gathered at one meeting place, a “rendezvous.” There they traded for furs for supplies and money. Then they celebrated for days with dancing, drinking, target shooting, and storytelling.

By 1840, the fur trade began to decline. The trappers had done such a thorough job that there were few beavers left to catch. Many Mountain Men abandoned trapping and served as army scouts or guildes for the settlers moving to the Far West.

When Mountain Men could find nothing else to eat, they made soup from their moccasins.

Marquis de Lafayette

2008-05-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

He was called “the hero of two worlds” because of his important role in both the American and the French revolutions. He was the Marquis de Lafayette, a French nobelman who devoted his life to fighting for liberty under law.

Lafayette came to America in 1777 to help the 13 colonies in their revolt against England. At first the colonists were suspicious of the 19-year-old Frenchman, but Lafayette volunteered to serve without pay in the colonial army. He fought bravely and was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He lived through the hard winter with George Washington at Valley Forge and became one of Washington’s closest friends and most successful generals. But more important was his key role in convincing the French government to provide support for the colonials.

Lafayette was present at Yorktown, Virginia. In October 1781, when a large British army was trapped by American troops and French forces that had come to help the colonials. The British surrendered, bringing the Revolution to an end. Lafayette returned to France and worked for the liberty of his own countrymen. When he died in 1834, flags flew at half-mast all across the U.S. in honor of the Frenchman known as “America’s Marquis.”

Lafayette visited the U.S. in 1824. When he returned to France, he took with him a box of American soil. Ten years later that soil was used to cover his grave.

The Early Movies

2008-04-21T12:20:00.001-07:00

In the early 1900s, all you needed was a projector, a sheet to use as a screen, some chairs, and an empty storefront. Then you could open up a “nickelodeon” and collect five cents apiece from all the people who wanted to see the newest form of popular entertainment, the movies.

The first movies, just a few minutes long, showed everyday scenes: a sneeze, a kiss, a train. But then the “flickers” began to tell stories. In 1903, crowds flocked to see the Great Train Robbery, which tells, in 12 minutes, the story of a gang of outlaws who rob a train and are then chased and gunned down by a posse. By 1908, there were more than 10,000 nickelodeons in the U.S. alone, serving more than 25 million customers each week. Movies grew longer and more ambitious. And ornate theaters called “picture palaces” were built to show the expensive dramatic epics created by D.W. Griffith and others.

People went to the movies for thrills and laughter. Audiences especially loved the slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett at the Keystone Studios in Hollywood beginning in 1912. Those films featured the wacky “Keystone Kops,” and always included a wild chase during which everything that could go wrong did. Audiences didn’t care that the films were silent; they often laughed too loud to hear dialogue.

Charlie Chaplin, the great comedian began his career in Sennett’s Keystone comedies.

The Wright Brothers Learn to Fly

2008-04-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

On the morning of December 17, 1903, on the windy dunes at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. Orville Wright made the first manned and powered flight.

Orville and his brother Wilbur operated a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They had been dreaming about flying since the 1890s. They were not trained scientists or engineers, but they made a scientific study of the problems of flight. They built and tested gliders to understand the principles of flying. They created a wind tunnel in the bicycle shop to test wing designs, and they studied propeller designs, and control mechanisms. Their machinist built a 12-horsepower gasoline engine for them. By 1903, the brothers had built a twin-winged airplane, the Flyer, and they felt confident it would fly.

At Kitty Hawk, they constructed a wooden track down a hill to provide a smooth surface for takeoff. With Orville at the controls, Wilbur guilded the plane down the track, and it bounded into the air. After covering 40 yards in 12 seconds, it landed gently in the sand. Before the day was out, the brothers had made three more flights, one of which lasted almost a minute. Man, at last, had learned to fly.

The Wright Flyer had twin pusher propellers drive by two bicycle chains from the brother’s shop.

Early Days of Golf

2008-04-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Golf began in Scotland hundreds of years ago, but it did not begin to interest Americans until the 1880s. Golf clubs sprang up in Foxburg, Pennsylvania; Yonkers, New York; and elsewhere. And in 1894, these early clubs banded together to form the United States Golf Association (USGA), which established rules for the game and organized official tournaments. The first men’s tournament was played at the Newport (Rhode Island) Country Club in 1895.

At first, golf was a game only for the wealthy. But in 1913, a young sporting-goods salesman and former caddy named Francis Ouiment beat the best British golfers in the U.S. Open tournament. Ouiment’s surprise victory brought new attention to the sport. Soon there were golfing “duffers” across America, playing on private and public courses. Prizes were offered at major tournaments, and professional golfers could earn a living by competing. Gradually, Americans cam to dominate th game.

Why did golf become so popular in the United States? Because, said one humorist, it combined “two favorite American pastimes: taking long walks and hitting things with sticks,”

Golf was an official event at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. But it was dropped from later competitions because it was not considered an “ideal” Olympic sport.

Roots

2008-03-31T07:13:00.000-07:00

When Alex Haley was a child, his grandmother told him wondrous stories about his family. The stories had been passed down orally from generation to generation for almost 200 years. The “furtherest-back-person” in those stories was Toby, “the African,”, whose real name was “Kin-tay.”

Many years later, Haley began a quest to trace his family’s history back to its African beginnings. Roots, the 1976 book about what he found, was a best-seller. And the following first part of the book made television history. It was watched by more than half of all Americans, many of whom came to understand for the first time the heroic struggle of African-Americans to regain their freedom.

Roots begins in 1750 in Gambia in West Africa. There Haley’s ancestor, Kunta Kinte---Toby, the African, in Haley’s grandmother’s stories---is captured by slave traders and shipped to America in chains. The miniseries then follows seven generations of the Haley family through a century of slavery. It concludes with their emacipation after the Civil War.

Roots won nine Emmy Awards. Its final episode was the highest-rated television program up to that time. And it inspired many Americans of all ethnic backgrounds to search for their own roots.

A second miniseries, Roots, the Next Generation, was aired in 1979. Based on the second half of Haley’s book, it continued the Haley family saga through the 1960s.

Mark Spitz Wins Seven Gold Medals

2008-03-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

The starter’s gun fired, and a 22-year-old American dived into the swimming pool. He plunged in and out of the water as he took a commanding lead in the 200-meter butterfly. Mark Spitz was on his way to his first gold medal at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. Incredibly, he would win six more golds---more than anyone had ever won in a single Olympics.

This wasn’t Spitz’s first success. In 1967, at age 17, he had already set world records in butterfly and freestyle events. His coach predicted that he would win six gold medals at the 1968 Olympics, but he won only two. He continued to compete as a member of Indiana University’s national champion swim team, and was named outstanding amateur athelete in 1971.

At Munich in 1972, Spitz was at his peak. There he won four gold medals in individual races: the 100- and 200-meter freestyle and the 100- and 200-meter butterfly. He also won three other golds in team rely races. All seven events set new world records. Spitz retired from amateur athletics after the Olympics, having set world records 35 times during his sensational career.

During the 1972 Olympics, Palestinian terrorists killed two Isrraeli athletes and took nine others hostage. The tragic incident ended in a gun battle in which 15 people died.

The Founding of Harvard College

2008-03-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

Just six years after the Puritans founded Massachusetts Bay Colony, they decided to start a “schoale or colledge” near Boston. When John Harvard, a clergyman dying of tuberculosis, wrote a will leaving his books and half his property to the new school, the college was named in his honor. Today that college is Harvard University, the oldest university in America and one of the most famous in the world.

Why were the Puritans so eager to found a college? They believed that education would help foster religious beliefs, hold the community together, and produce the leaders and ministers the colony needed. In England, many Puritans had attended Oxford and Cambridge universities. They wanted their sons to have a similar opportunity in America. Newtowne, the site of this new Massachusetts college, was renamed Cambridge in honor of the English university.

In 1640, Harvard admitted its first freshman class---four students. Henry Dunster, the college president, was also the only teacher. For almost 100 years, the Harvard teaching staff consisted of three or four tutors. Each took charge of an entering class and guided it for four years, teaching all subjects. Religion, ancient languages, mathematics, and science made up the core of the studies.

In Harvard’s early days, students sometimes paid their tuition by donating livestock to the school.

Education, 1640, Colleges and Universities, Massachusetts

Lemonade Lucy Hayes

2008-03-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

The press jokingly called her “Lemonade Lucy,” because no alcoholic beverages were served in the White House while she was First Lady. But Lucy Hayes, wife of the 19th President, was widely respected as a kind and intelligent woman. She was, her husband Rutherford B. Hayes said, “the Golden Rule incarnate.”

A doctor’s daughter, Lucy Ware Webb grew up in Ohio. She graduated from Wesleyan Female Seminary, a college, in 1850. Two years later, she married “Rud” Hayes, who became a congressman and then governor of Ohio. Lucy had a keen interest in politics and helped her husband in his career. She worked to outlaw slavery and alcohol, and raised money for the poor. The Hayeses had seven sons and one daughter.

Lucy Hayes was a thoroughly modern First Lady. She was the first one to hold a college degree. And during her time in the White House, a host of new inventions were introduced there. These included indoor plumbing, telephones, typewriters, and record players. But Lucy Hayes also had traditional values. She held family prayers each morning, as well as frequent songfests around the sitting-room piano. And she introduced the Easter egg roll on the White House lawn, an event that has been held ever since.

Because the Hayeses came from Ohio, the rule that no liquor could be served at the White House was called “the Ohio Idea.”

Patrick Henry

2008-03-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?...I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Those famous words were spoken in March, 1775, by Patrick Henry, the great orator of the Revolution. Relations between England and the colonies were at the breaking point, but some members of the Virginia legislature were reluctant to take up arms. Urging action, Henry spoke the words that became a rallying cry for patriots throughout the colonies.

This was not the first time that a speech by Henry had stirred up his countrymen. In 1774, at the First Continental Congress, the lawyer from Virginia spoke these words to inspire the delegates to work together: “The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, New Englanders, are no more…I am not a Virginian, but an American.”
Henry was elected governor of Virginia in 1776 and served for five terms. After indepdence, he worried that a strong federal government would limit the rights of the people and the states. His opposition to ratification of the Constitution in 1788 helped bring about the swift passage of the Bill of Rights, guaranteeing Americans’ basic freedoms.

Patrick Henry was brilliant, but he was not well educated. Thomas Jefferson said he was the “laziest man in reading I ever knew.”

The Log Cabin

2008-03-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

When settlers arrived on the wild American frontier, their first task was to build a home. More often than not, they built a log cabin. These simple homes were common on the frontier because they were sturdy and easy to build. One person, using just an ax and a knife, could do the job. No nails were needed.

The first log cabins in America were built near the mouth of the Delaware River in the late 1630s. They were erected by settlers from Sweden and Finland, where log cabins had been built for hundreds of years. The cabins caught on quickly with other New World settlers. The typical log cabin had just one or two rooms. The walls were made of logs laid horizontally and notched at the ends, so that they interlocked where they met at the corners.

Mud, clay, stones, and chips of wood filled gaps between the logs. Rough-cut boards or tree bark served as roofs.

As the U.S. became industrialized, the log cabin came to symbolize all the hardships and virtues of pioneer life. Politicians boasted that they had grown up in log cabins on the frontier. Three presidents really did: James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, and James Garfield.

President William Henry Harrison, elected in 1840, was called “the Ohio farmer” and used the log cabin as a symbol in his campaign. But he was actually born in a mansion in Virginia.

Irving Berlin

2008-03-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

In an amazing life that stretched for 101 years, Irving Berlin wrote some 1,500 songs. His melodies, sometimes simple and sentimental, other times stirring and swinging, had a profound effect on 20th-century American music. Many of his songs---White Christmas, and God Bless America to name just two---have become American standards.

Born Israel Balin, Berlin was the youngest of eight children. He and his family moved to New York City from Russia when he was five years old. Not long after the move, young Irving left school to earn money by singing on street corners and in saloons. As a teenager, Irving Berlin earned a dollar a day as a singing waiter. At the age of 20, he was hired as a songwriter in a vaudeville theater. Three days later, he wrote his first hit, Alexander’s Ragtime Band.
During World War I, while serving as an infantryman, Berlin wrote the rousing God Bless America. During World War II his armed-services show, This Is the Army, became a hit movie, earned him the Medal of Merit, and forever associated him with patriotic music.

Berlin also made an everlasting mark on America’s holiday traditions with songs like White Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Easter Parade. His numerous stage musicals include the Broadway hit Annie Get Your Gun.