John Jacob Astor

When 20-year old John Jacob Astor arrived in New York City from Germany in 1784, he was almost penniless. But by the time of his death in 1848, his ventures in fur trading and real-estate development had made him the richest man in America.

Astor became his career by trading German toys for furs in upstate New York. He soon made enough money to set up a string of trading posts in the Great Lake region. In 1808, he organized the American Fur Company, which came to control most of the fur trade in the United States as the frontier moved west. Astor’s fur-trading post at Astoria, Oregon, was the first permanent American settlement in the Pacific Northwest. Astor also made a fortune during the War of 1812, buying United States government bonds at low cost and reselling them at a profit.

Astor’s greatest profits, however, came from real-estate investments. When he retired from the fur trade in 1834, he devoted his full time to this endeavor. He made so much money---he left about $20 million when he died---that his enemies called him a “self-invented money-making machine.” Astor loved making money and acquiring property. “Could I begin life again,” he said, “I would buy every foot of land on Manhattan Island.” Indeed, his heirs tried to do just that. They acquired so much real estate that they became known as “the landlords of New York.”

Boston

Every year, more than two million people take a two-mile walk into history along Boston’s Freedom Trail. Among the highlights are the cobblestoned site where British troops fired on colonists in the Boston Massacre of 1770, the meetinghouse where the Boston Tea Party was planned, and the home of Paul Revere.

Because it played such a prominent role in the country’s early history, Boston is known as “the Cradle of Liberty.” It has also been called “the hub of the universe,” because of its importance in the cultural, intellectual, and commerical growth of the United States.

Founded in 1630 by Puritans who fled England in search of religious freedom, Boston became a thriving port and a center for writers, educators, and social reformers. Beginning in the 1840s new immigrants from Ireland, Italy, and other countries brought the city the vitality that helped transform it into an industrial metropolis.

Boston is the largest city in New England. It is famous for its prestigious schools, libraries, and hospitals; its magnificent museums and musical organizations; and its beloved sports teams, including the Red Sox and the Celtics. There are more than 65 colleges and universities in the Boston area, serving 250,000 students. Each April, some 6,000 runners participate in the country’s oldest long-distance race, the Boston Marathon.

Mount Rushmore

Located in the Black Hills in southwestern South Dakota, Mount Rushmore National Memorial celebrates America with images of four of its great presidents. Carved from the granite summit of Mount Rushmore are heads, each about 60 feet high, of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. These presidents were chosen to represent, in order, the nation’s founding, philosophy, expansion, and unity.

The U.S. Congress authorized American sculptor Gutzon Borglum to undertake the Mount Rushmore project. Borglum (1871-1941) had executed other noteworthy commissions, but Mount Rushmore was his crowning achievement. Work began in August, 1927 and took 14 years to complete. Of this time, only six and one-half years were spent on actual carving; the rest of the time was spent waiting for good weather or looking for funding, which took the federal government eventually provided.

The work was precarious, much of it done at the end of a rope harness. Borglum was assisted by teams of workmen and---towards the end of the project---by his son Lincoln. Using pneumatic drills and explosives, they cut, blasted, and chiseled away some 450,000 tons of rock to complete the four huge heads.

The Mount Rushmore Memorial carvings are huge compared to other well-known monuments. Each head is twice as high as the famous Sphinx statue at Giza, Egypt.

(Famous Places, Mount Rushmore, 1941, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson)

The Million Man March

They came to Washington D.C. from all over the United States---hundreds of thousands of African-American men eager to send an important message. They came to accept responsibility for themselves and their families. And they pledged to work toward improving their lives and their communities.

The marchers gathered in front of the U.S. Capitol on the morning of October 16, 1995. For 12 hours, the men listened to speakers such as poet Maya Angelou and civil-rights activist Jesse Jackson. The rally ended with a long speech by the march’s organizer, Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan urged the men to accept traditional values, join religious groups, and register to vote.

The message of the march wasn’t controversial---but Farrakhan was. Some African-American groups didn’t join the march because it was organized by Farrakhan. In the past, the influential leader had upset many people with anti-Semitic and anti-white comments and other opinions that seemed to fan racial and political tensions. Also, some African-Americans were angry with Farrakhan became women weren’t invited to participate in the march. Nevertheless, most people believe the “Million Man March” succeeeded in its goal of uniting and inspiring African-American men.

Government officials estimated that 400,000 men participated in the march. But people still call the event the Million Man March.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson called her poetry “my letter to the world.” But only a handful of her poems were published during her lifetime. Not until after her death did the world take notice of the odd, brilliant woman who was one of America’s greatest poets.

Dickinson was born and lived her entire life in her father’s red brick house in Amherst, Massachusetts. She had a normal childhood, but as an adult she led a largely solitary life. Because Emily Dickinson was rarely seen around Amherst after she reached adulthood, the townspeople called her “The Myth.” She never married. She rarely left her home and she spent many hours alone, writing poetry. Her poems expressed her deepest emotions. Many of them were about nature, death, and God.

In all, Dickinson wrote 1,775 poems. But she never tried to have them published. A few were submitted to newspapers by admirers without her consent.

She hid most of her poems in a bureau in her bedroom. After her death in 1886, her sister and a friend arranged for a volume of her poems to be published. One reviewer attacked them as “barbaric,” because they did not have simple positive messages or tradional forms. But the book became a great success with the American public, which recognized the genius of Emily Dickinson’s “letter to the world.”

The League of Women Voters

“We are not feminists primarily, we are citizens,” wrote an early leader of the League of Women Voters. Her statement reflects the organization’s goal of helping all Americans become knowledgeable participants in government.

An outgrowth of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association, the League was founded in Chicago in 1920. After a long battle, women had been given the right to vote by the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. The League was founded to educate women in the use of that newly won right. At first, members were divided on the role of women in politics. Some felt that they should work through exisiting political parties. Others argued that women should have their own party. Still others believed that women should remain above partisan politics. Finally, members agreed that the League would be nonpartisan, while supporting social and political reform.

Today, the League has more than 1,200 local and state chapters. It concentrates on educating the American public on important local, state, and national issues. It distributes reliable information on candidates and issues, runs voter registration drives, and sponsors political debates. The League remains nonpartisan, although it takes stands on important issues after conducting studies and reaching concensus among its members.

Membership in the League of Women Voters was opened to men in 1974.

The political cartoon pictured with this post is interesting. Click on it to see a larger view. The topic involves passage of the 19th amendment.

Fisk Jubilee Singers

“The magic of their song kept thrilling hearts,” the African-American leader W.E.B. Du Bois said of the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University.

The “Jubilees” were the first choral group to perform slave spirituals such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” for white audiences. Their thrilling concerts made them world famous in the 1870s.

The first “Jubilees” were nine students at Fisk University, in Nashville, Tennessee. Fisk had been founded in 1866 to educate former slaves, and in 1871, George L. White, Fisk’s treasurer, organized the choral group. The Jubilees’ concerts were so popular in Nashville that White thought they might help the school with the financial troubles that plagued its early years. He took the Jubilees on a national tour, which was a great success. Mark Twain, the famous author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, said, “I think that in the Jubliees and their songs America has produced most perfect flower of the ages.” The chorus toured American and Europe for several years and raised $150,000, an enormous sum in those days.

England’s Queen Victoria was so delighted by the Jubilee Singers that she commissioned a painting of the choral group.

The Fisk Jubliee Singers still rank among the nation’s top choral groups. The university invites all students to audition for the group. But it cautions that “only the finest voices on campus are chosen.”

You can learn more here.