The Louisiana Purchase: "An Important Adjacent Territory"

On April 30, 1803, France sold almost 830,000 square miles of territory west of the Missuissippi River to the United States. The price: $15,000,000. The event marked the end of French hopes to establish an empire in North America. Known as the Louisiana Purchase, it also ended a long struggle for access to and politicsl control of the Mississippi River.

Commemorative stamp showing the extent of the Louisiana Purchase

As the United States spread across the Appalachians, the river became increasingly important as a conduit for the produce of America’s West which at that time referred to the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi. Since 1762, Spain had owned the territory of Louisiana, which itoday makes up all or part of fifteen separate states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Friction between Spain and the United States over the right to navigate the Mississippi and the right for Americans to transfer their goods to ocean-going vessels at New Orleans had been resolved by the Pinckney Treaty of 1795. With the Pinckney Treaty in place and the weak Spanish empire in control of Louisiana, American statesmen felt comfortable that the United States’ westward expansion would not be restricted in the long run.

This situation was threatened by Napoleon Bonaparte’s plans to revive the French empire in the New World. He planned to recapture the valuable sugar colony of St. Domingue from a slave rebellion, and then use Louisiana as the granary for his empire. France acquired Louisiana from Spain in 1800 and took possession in 1802, sending a large French army to St. Domingue and preparing to send another to New Orleans. Westerners became very apprehensive about having the more-powerful French in control of New Orleans. President Thomas Jefferson noted,

There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans.

 

President Thomas Jefferson

In addition to making military preparations for a conflict in the Mississippi Valley, Jefferson sent James Monroe to join Robert Livingston in France to try to purchase New Orleans and West Florida for as much as $10 million. Failing that, they were to attempt to create a military alliance with England. Meanwhile, the French army in St. Domingue was being decimated by yellow fever, and war between France and England still threatened. Napoleon decided to give up his plans for Louisiana, and offered a surprised Monroe and Livingston the entire territory of Louisiana for $15 million. Although this far exceeded their instructions, they agreed.

President James Monroe

Robert Livingston, Founding Father, "The Chancellor"

When news of the sale reached the United States, the West was elated. President Jefferson, however, was in a quandary. He had always advocated strict adherence to the letter of the Constitution, yet there was no provision empowering him to purchase territory. Given the public support for the purchase and the obvious value of Louisiana to the future growth of the United States, Jefferson decided to ignore the legalistic interpretation of the Constitution and forgo the passage of a Constitutional amendment to validate the purchase. This decision contributed to the principle of implied powers of the federal government.






Sources:


Text: 

United States Department of State

tutle quote, Thomas Jefferson

Photos and Illustrations:
portraits: Official Portraits, The White House

The Duke Of Washington

 

Smooth, high brow, faultless, sophisticated, American. All of these words describe the music that came out of the world of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington as a composer, performer, and conductor. For fifty years he defined jazz in his own way with his superbly talented jazz orchestra, surviving the onslaught of bebop, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll. His discography includes over seventy hit records out of hundreds of releases spanning seven decades. Here is perhaps his most celebrated song, credited primarily to Ellington's extraordinarily talented composer and arranger, Billy Strayhorn.

Ellington was born on this day in Washington, D. C., in 1899. He formed a band while in his teens and played the circuit in and around the nation's capital before moving to New York in 1923. There, his creative fervor and gentlemanly demeanor made him an influential force in the Harlem Renaissance. He was a star much appreciated in Europe as well as the United States by the mid '30s. His collaboration with the brilliant composer and arranger, Billy Strayhorn, later in that decade and again in the '60s enhanced his fame and helped him bridge gaps between jazz and other musical genres.

We end with a historic moment in jazz history: Duke Ellington and his orchestra at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. Jazz was changing from a dance band to smaller ensemble format and at the same time competing with the rise of rock and roll. Ellington decided to link two compositions with a free-wheeling sax solo. Many jazz historians agree that this was a landmark performance that not only gave the band concept renewed life but also gave jazz a new and expanded direction in sound and listener experience.

The conclusion is obvious: Ellington was an amazing force in American music history. Ellington passed away over forty years ago and with his passing the nation lost both a legendary technician at the piano and its strongest advocate for the American musical invention called jazz. Readers can learn more about this extraordinary entertainer by visit his Wikipedia page, by far the most comprehensive source of Ellington information and references on the Internet. I also recommend Terry Teachout's fine biography, Duke, published in 2015.

Jean Redpath: Recalling Her Passion For Scotland And Its Folk Songs

On this day in 1937 the renowned Scots folk singer, Jean Redpath was born in Edinbrough, United Kingdom. She was a Medieval scholar who focused on Scottish studies and developed a special interest in folklore and music. She came to California to start a singing career that quickly blossomed into tours on the concert circuit and studio recording from 1971 until her death in 2014. She played in smaller venues in the Unitd States, Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia.

Between 1974 and 1987 her audience grew by millions through her many performances as a regular on Garrison Keiler's radio program, Prairie Home Companion. She also became well-known through her collaboration with composer, Serge Hovey, and the release of their collection of songs by Robert Burns. Here are two of the better known songs from Redpath's vast repertoire.

Green Grow The Rashes

1783

Chor. - Green grow the rashes, O;

Green grow the rashes, O;

The sweetest hours that e'er I spend,

Are spent amang the lasses, O.

There's nought but care on ev'ry han',

In ev'ry hour that passes, O:

What signifies the life o man,

An' 'twere na for the lasses, O.

Green grow, &c.

The war'ly race may riches chase,

An' riches still may fly them, O;

An' tho' at last they catch them fast,

Their hearts can ne'er enjoy them, O.

Green grow, &c.

But gie me a cannie hour at e'en,

My arms about my dearie, O;

An' war'ly cares, an' war'ly men,

May a.gae tapsalteerie, O!

Green grow, &c.

For you sae douce, ye sneer at this;

Ye're nought but senseless asses, O:

The wisest man the warl' e'er saw,

He dearly lov'd the lasses, O.

Green grow, &c.

Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears

Her noblest work she classes, O:

Her prentice han' she try'd on man,

An' then she made the lasses, O.

Green grow, &c.

Corn Rigs

1783

It was upon a Lammas night,

When corn rigs are bonie,

Beneath the moon's unclouded light,

I held awa to Annie;

The time flew by, wi' tentless heed,

Till, 'tween the late and early,

Wi' sma persuasion she agreed

To see me thro' the barley.

Corn rigs, an' barley rigs,

An' corn rigs are bonie:

I'll ne'er forget that happy night,

Amang the rigs wi' Annie.

The sky was blue, the wind was still,

The moon was shining clearly;

I set her down, wi' right good will,

Amang the rigs o' barley:

I ken't her heart was a' my ain;

I lov'd her most sincerely;

I kiss'd her owre and owre again,

Amang the rigs o' barley.

Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, &c.

I lock'd her in my fond embrace;

Her heart was beating rarely:

My blessings on that happy place,

Amang the rigs o' barley!

But by the moon and stars so bright,

That shone that hour so clearly!

She aye shall bless that happy night

Amang the rigs o' barley.

Corn rigs, an' barley rigs, &c.

I hae been blythe wi' comrades dear;

I hae been merry drinking;

I hae been joyfu' gath'rin gear;

I hae been happy thinking:

But a' the pleasures e'er I saw,

Tho' three times doubl'd fairly,

That happy night was worth them a',

Amang the rigs o' barley.

Beginning in the late 1980s she returned more and more to her role as a scholar by holding several positions as a visiting lecturer in music, folklore, and cultural history at several universities in Scotland and the United States.

Learn more details about Jean Repath in this obituary which appeared in The Guardian in 2014.

A Birthday For The Airbus A380: The World's Biggest Passenger Aircraft

In 1970 Airbus was formed as a multinational corporation to compete with the highly successful commercial aviation industry in the United States led primarily by Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. By the late 1980s Airbus began studying the potential for a wide-bodied aircraft to compete with Boeing's highly successful 747 which entered service in 1970. Airbus research led the company's management to proceed with development based on significant market interest in the Middle East and Asia. After a decade of design based on efficiency, passenger comfort and innovative aeronautical engineering, the aircraft went into production in 2000. It would go on to makes its maiden flight as the A380 on this day in 2005.The A380 took to the air as - and remains - the world's largest passenger plane. It has a wingspan of almost 262 feet, a length of just over 238 feet, and almost 6000 square feet of floor space on two full length levels that can accommodate up to 853 people. Since production began the aircraft has flown more than 7.5 million flight hours without an aircraft loss or fatality.

Airbus A380 during a landing Paris Air Show 2007

Singapore Airlines was the first to introduce the aircraft to commercial service in late 2007. When production ended in 2021, 251 A380s had been delivered to about two dozen customers with Emirates Airline being the largest at 128 aircraft. By the end of production the cost of each aircraft was $445 million. In addition, the development cost of the 380 program, estimated at $34 billion, had not been recovered.

Most of the aircraft have been configured with typical seating for 525 people, generally divided into the standard three classes. The high option accomodation on some planes is a 130 square foot, three room “Residence” located forward on the upper deck. Other configurations can include bars, beauty salons, shops, cafes and extra features for premium cabins, including showers. The following video will attest that not all the comfort is reserved for the high end traveler.

Despite having 50% less cabin noise, 50% more cabin area and volume, larger windows, bigger overhead bins, and two feet more headroom than the 747-400, the A380 was not a commercial success. Unfortunately, it was developed just as the industry was shifting away from the need for larger aircraft serving hubs and toward a to point to point operation that could be served with smaller planes.

As more and more A380s are being removed from service, sixteen airlines continue to fly it on long range international routes. Emirates operates the largest fleet with 121 aircraft. Only four are based in the United Kingdom and the Middle East, the remainder in Asia and Australia. Every month in 2023 will bring a decline in A380 use despite growing international travel.

There will come a time when the A380 is a museum piece but it will always be remembered as an extraordinary technological achievement that provided in flight luxury unseen since the 1930s.

Singapore Airlines First Class Suite

Sources

Text and Illustrations:

Airbus A380, wikipedia,com

production costs, forbes.com

Chernobyl After 38 Years

 

Abandoned room in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (Ukraine) reactor explosion and fire occurred on this day in 1986. The event remains the worst accident of its kind. A precise number of casualties will never be known beyond the 41 who died during and in the few months following the event.

On the edge of the plant, a city died. Its 50,000 people were evacuated in two days leaving behind a photograph of interrupted lives. In the 38 years since the reactor meltdown and fire the decaying remains of Pripyat have become a prime destination for those seeking the disturbing presence of abandoned and decaying places.

The background radiation in Pripyat remains about three times above normal with hot spots exceeding fifty times normal. The situation has not prevented the growth of a robust tourist industry focused on the event and its aftermath. Although the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought tourism to a halt this site is a good indicator of the response to curiosity surrounding the area. In time I have no doubt that tourists will return to experience what has become one of the strangest places on the planet.

Ella Fitzgerald: America's Unforgettable Jazz Icon

The incomparable jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald, was born on this day in Newport News, Virginia, 107 years ago. When she was 17, Ella Jane Fitzgerald wanted to dance at an amateur night at the Apollo in Harlem, but was intimidated by other dancers and decided to sing instead. It was the beginning of a career that took her magnificent voice through the big bands, to jazz, bop, and the Great American Songbook. With a voice ranging from smoky to bright she put her signature on every note and sharp diction on every word. For people who like to immerse themselves in lyrics, Ella was unbeatable. And when she forgot those lyrics or let the spontaneity flow, the scat singing was priceless.

The First Lady of Song in 1960     Erling Mandelmann

Only once did I see her perform and that was in an overcrowded and hot venue in Washington. After a few songs, the crowd didn't mind the environment. She had us wrapped in music for over two hours and left us wanting more after several encores. Everyone had a great time that evening, especially Ella. Looking back on that concert, I realize how significant it was. She had turned 50 and completed her famous Songbook series a few years earlier. And though her peak years were coming to an end, what she had left exceeded the best of what most 20th century singers ever offered. She went on to perform another quarter of a century dazzling audiences everywhere. Ella passed away twenty-seven years ago, but she's still entertaining fans through a huge discography and video record. In all, it is an immense if not iconic legacy.

Fitzgerald and President Reagan at the White House in October 1981

Throughout her very public life, Ella Fitzgerald remained a private if not shy person. Were she receiving a birthday cake today, I can envision a broad, approving smile and nervous glances from squinting eyes behind those big bottle bottom glasses. She'd respond with a heart-felt "Thank you, thank you," and move into the comfort and safety of song.

Here she is in 1964 performing two Johnny Mercer jazz standards for the last of her now legendary Songbook albums - eight in all - produced by Norman Grantz and released over an eight year period. The series has never been out of print and remains a hot seller over fifty years after its release.

In almost sixty years, few jazz vocalists - there are many fine ones performing today - can approach the significance and near-perfection of Fitzgerald's interpretation of the Great American Songbook. To me, nothing since has quite matched it and I doubt anything in the future will without some extraordinary changes within the music industry and jazz itself.

Though she left us in 1996, Ella simply "is." I can only imagine the look on the faces of the heavenly hosts when she waltzed through those pearly gates scat singing all the way. So here's a happy birthday wish going up to the First Lady of Song. Simply incomparable and yes, sometimes too marvelous for words.




Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Mandelmann photo, commons.wikimedia.org
White House, Item C4495-9A, President Reagan with Ella Fitzgerald after her performance for King Juan Carlos I of Spain in the east room, 10/13/81; Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Simi Valley, California.

St. George's Day 2024

Today is St. George's Day, a festival day in much of the Christian world and in many places, including England, where St. George is recognized as a patron saint. We're happy to acknowledge his connection to England by flying the St. George's Cross - the flag of England - a dominant element in Great Britain's Union flag.

We know little about St. George's life other than his Greek origin, service in the Praetorian Guards under the Roman emperor Diocletian, and martyrdom for his Christian faith. Safe to say, he never set foot in England and his battle with any dragon remains legendary but his place as one of the most venerated saints in Christianity goes without question. In terms of his connection with England we must return to the time of the crusades and the veneration of George as a warrior for the faith. Over the centuries his association with military units and memorial organizations grew large as England took its place in the Age of Empire. Although that age has passed and England now shares it identity of sorts in the United Kingdom, St. George and England remain inseparable.

The finest expression of this fabric of faith, martyrdom, and love of country was heard across England as part of today's celebration, It comes from William Blake's Preface to Milton. 

Preface to Milton from Blake's illuminated version, 1804

In a fitting conclusion for our St. George commemoration I present a rousing song from the Empire period that has survived to become a great symbol of British patriotism and pride. From Last Night at the Proms 2009, it is Rule Britainnia. sung by Dame Susan Connoly.

Rule Britainnia (Complete lyrics)


When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And Guardian Angels sang this strain:

(Chorus) Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never will be slaves.

The nations not so blest as thee
Must, in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish great and free:
The dread and envy of them all.

(Chorus)

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke,
As the loud blast that tears the skies
Serves but to root thy native oak.

(Chorus)

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;
All their attempts to bend thee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame,
But work their woe and thy renown.

(Chorus)

To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles, thine.

(Chorus)

The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coasts repair.
Blest isle! with matchless beauty crowned,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.

(Chorus)

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
Britons never, never, never will be slaves.

Sources

Text:

classicfm.com

Photos and Illustrations:
Family archives
Preface to Milton, public domain, wikipedia.com

Earth Day 2024

Today we celebrate our planet, our earthly home. At our home in the woods a celebration of the planet takes place in some way every day. Perhaps it's a seed order, a letter about water quality in the creek that crosses our property, admiring a blooming orchid or slicing into an amazing tomato harvested a few yards from the kitchen. More often these days I simply watch nature flowing through the seasons.

Our appreciation of nature persists in spite of the full-on seizure and politicization of environmental themes by the radical left - the green movement - that came with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990. Even the unhinged need an anchor and it is after all the birthday (1870) of the Communist butcher, Vladimir Lenin. Still, it's sad they selected such a universal idea. And now even our information technology isolates us from the outside making it more difficult to experience, understand, appreciate, and protect our planet. All of my adult life, I fought hard to dissolve the barriers between people and nature. Whether we like it or not we live IN nature. The sooner we recognize it the better off both we and the planet will coexist.

Father Mississippi Walter Inglis Anderson, U.S., ca. 1955

Experiencing the earth and the built environment upon it has been the greatest teacher over the years. The written word provided significant guidance along the way. First came the foundation heard from childhood:

Psalm 104

1 Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. 2 He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent 3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. 4 He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants. 5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. 6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. 7 But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; 8 they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. 9 You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth. 10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. 11 They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. 12 The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. 13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work. 14 He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate-- bringing forth food from the earth: 15 wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart. 16 The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. 17 There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the pine trees. 18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the coneys. 19 The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. 20 You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. 21 The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. 22 The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens. 23 Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening. 24 How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. 25 There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number-- living things both large and small. 26 There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there. 27 These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. 28 When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. 29 When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. 30 When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. 31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works-- 32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke. 33 I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. 34 May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD. 35 But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the LORD, O my soul. Praise the LORD.

And here, from 1971, are words that to me reinforce that foundation:

...If you think that the world is going somewhere, that there are certain things that are supposed to happen and there are certain things that are supposed not to happen you never see the way it is like music. Music has no destination. We don' play it in order to get somewhere. If that were the way, the best orchestras would be those who got to the end of the piece the fastest. Music is a pattern which we listen to and enjoy as it unfolds. In the same way, "Where is the water going?" Where do the leaves go? Where are the clouds going? There not going anywhere because nature understands that the point of the whole thing is to be here, to be wide awake to the now that is going on. So when you listen to music you don't try to hold in your memory what is past or to think about what's coming. You listen to the pattern as it unfolds and so watch it as it moves now. It's a dance. And dancing is like music for when you dance you dance just to dance. You don't aim at a particular place on the floor that is your destination of the dance. You listen to the music and you move your body with it [as if] your eyes are following the patterns of the water.

 

The secret of...life is to spend some time every day in which you don't think but just watch, in which you don't form any ideas about life but look at it, listen to it, smell it, feel it. And when you get rid of all the talk in your head, all the ideas about what I do as distinct from what happen to me or what's the difference between man and nature or between what's mine and what's yours it all goes. And it's just the dancing pattern, what the Chinese call "li," the word that originally meant the markings in jade, the grain in wood, or...the pattern on water. When you let go of the definitions, of the attempt to try to pin down nature, to pin down life in your mind so that you can feel you are completely in control of it, its all based on the idea that you're different from it, that you have to master it. When you don't pin it down anymore, when you don't try to cling to it as if it was something different from you then your whole life has about it the sensation of flowing like water. It always goes away. but it always comes back because away and back are two sides of the same thing. Let it go!

Earth Day 2023 will soon be over in my woods but these passages where East meets West tell me that every day is an Earth day. For me the celebration indeed flows like water. Every day is a day to spend some time in observing nature and practicing its wise stewardship. Five generations ago the Czech composer, Antonin Dvorak, spent his last summer in the United States in the Czech settlement of Spillville, Iowa. In two weeks there surrounded by a landscape of fields, farms, and families under the open skies of the prairie he composed what has become known as the American Quartet. It is a beautiful expression of the optimism of the American experience (see Alexis de Toqueville's Democracy in America) and a fine way to conclude remarks on what should be an uplifting celebration of the "big blue marble" we call Earth.

I hope this post encourages you to go OUTside and find your INside.

 



Sources

Text:

Psalm 104, Holy Bible, NIV

Alan Watts, writer/narrator, Buddhism, Man and Nature, Hartley Foundation, Inc., Cos Cob, Connecticut, 1968

Photos and Illustrations:
Andrew Weyth, Airborne (1996), porterbriggs.com

John Muir: "The Snow Is Melting Into Music...."

The great American naturalist and conservationist, John Muir, was born in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland, on this day in 1838. Eleven years later he immigrated with his family to a farm in Portage, Wisconsin. Through his personal efforts and the movements he supported with such fervor - he founded the Sierra Club - we can enjoy the spectacular wildness that is Yosemite National Park.

President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, 1903

His efforts also help establish the national park movement that today preserves and interprets 429 units administered by the National Park Service. And modeled after the national park idea, there are more than 6500 state parks and thousands of local parks and preserves to enjoy. Although Muir focused on the preservation of wilderness his work provided a structure for cultural resource preservation and management. That movement originated largely with Civil War commemorations late in the 19th century and accelerated through the benevolence of industrialists including Henry Ford (The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village) and John D. Rockefeller Jr. (Colonial Williamsburg).

Muir in his beloved Yosemite Valley in 1890

Muir was a wanderer both physically and intellectualy building upon his studies in botany and geology as he traveled. In 1868 he saw Yosemite Valley for the first time and soon realized he had found his calling in the world of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is how he described the revelation in his autobiographical notebook:

There are eight members in our family....All are useful members of society - save me. One is a healer of the sick. Another, a merchant, and a deacon in good standing. The rest school teachers and farmers' wives - all exemplary, stable, anti-revolutionary. Surely then, I thought, one may be spared for so fine an experiment.

. . . the remnants of compunction - the struggle covering the serious business of settling down -gradually wasted and melted, and at length left me wholly free - born again! I will follow my instincts, be myself for good or ill, and see what will be the upshot...As long as I live, I'll hear the waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can.

Muir lived to see the creation of Yosemite National Park in 1890 and the consolidation of control of the park - California had retained management of the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove - by the federal government in 1906.

John Muir, seated. reading a book ca. 1912 May 29

Two years following his death in 1914 Congress created the National Park Service to manage the preservation and use of the growing number of national parks and monuments under federal jurisdictions.

To learn more about John Muir. Visit the John Muir Exhibit at the Sierra Club website. Yosemite National Park also has a fine tribute to Muir at this link.





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photos, Library of Congress, Washington

Text:
wikipedia entry, John Muir
title,  John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, ed. Linnie Marsh Wolfe, University of Wisconsin Press, 1979

Adolf Has A Birthday - And A Pin In His Cushion

Yes, today is Der Fuhrer's birthday. We remember him solely as the last century's foremost mass murderer, challenged only by Mao Zedong, and followed by runners-up, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot. Perhaps this day will remind us that our president is pandering for votes from his party's Jew hating faction as they chant "Death to Israel" and equally disturbing, "Death to America". Already, analysts are saying the group could easily cost him the presidential election in November. It reminds me that our national experience today walks uncomfortably close to that of Weimar Germany, the breeding ground for the rise of Adolf and his National Socialist party to victory in 1933. Given the Holocaust and World War II that followed we cannot associate Adolf and his party with any kind of win. 

We could remember Der Fuhrer by listing his atrocities which remain well documented and commemorated in western culture. I choose to build on that foundation through the forms of humor we know as satire and parody. Both have been described as the most effective forms of ridicule by far and a staple in public discourse and entertainment beginning with the Greeks 2500 years ago. Therefore, I present to you the Adolph Hitler Pin Cushion, a most popular item in American households during World War II. The fine specimen pictured below comes from my great aunt's home.

In our time the film industry has produced some wonderful examples of humor applied to Der Fuhrer. For some individuals and groups it is difficult to understand. In a 2018 National Public Radio interview, Mel Brooks, the comic who brought us The Producers (1967 and 2005) and many other masterful comedies, explained his motivations for making the original film:

. . . Listen, get on a soapbox with Hitler, you're gonna lose — he was a great orator. But if you can make fun of him, if you can have people laugh at him, you win. . . . The comedy writer is like the conscience of the king . . . . He's got to tell him the truth. And that's my job: to make terrible things entertaining.

I would add the terrible things not only become entertaining but also allow us to survive, understand, and accept their reality. Yes, there is healing in this humor.

Here are four examples of satire and parody at work from Charlie Chaplin's, The Great Dictator (1940) where Hitler meets Italy's Mussolini; Mel Brooks's, The Producers (1967); and the British Ministry of Information's Schichlegruber Doing The Lambeth Walk (1942).

Horrible voice, bad breeding, vulgar manners, you have everything you need to be a politician.

          from The Knights, a play by Aristophanes, 424 BCE





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Hitler pin cushion figurine, World War II era, OTR personal collection

Text:
NPR Morning Edition interview with Susan Stamberg, April 26, 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/04/26/605297774/mel-brooks-says-its-his-job-to-make-terrible-things-entertaining

A Great Earthquake And Fire Hits San Francisco in 1906

At one time San Francisco was one of my favorite cities and, as cities go, the museums, restaurants, and parks made it one of the best anywhere. Many of those features remain but the social and political climate these days make the city a far less attractive destination for tourists as well as residents. What also remains is that splendid natural setting, a combination of its bay, the coastal mountains, and Mediterranean climate. But there is a more subtle nature to that setting and one that was completely unknown on the early morning of April 18, 1906 when a great earthquake shook the town and started a massive fire. At that time the concept of earth science was a very young discipline. The idea that San Francisco sat astride two massive and drifting plates, one of which was moving toward Alaska, would have been laughable. Fifty years later, such thinking was widely accepted in the theory of plate tectonics.

On that morning and in the days that followed, "theory" wasn't on the minds of San Franciscans. They wanted to survive. This is how the opening paragraphs of the National Archives entry describe the event:

On the morning of April 18, 1906, a massive earthquake shook San Francisco, California. Though the quake lasted less than a minute, its immediate impact was disastrous. The earthquake also ignited several fires around the city that burned for three days and destroyed nearly 500 city blocks.

 

Despite a quick response from San Francisco's large military population, the city was devastated. The earthquake and fires killed an estimated 3,000 people and left half of the city's 400,000 residents homeless. Aid poured in from around the country and the world, but those who survived faced weeks of difficulty and hardship.

 

The survivors slept in tents in city parks and the Presidio, stood in long lines for food, and were required to do their cooking in the street to minimize the threat of additional fires. The San Francisco earthquake is considered one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.

You can read the rest of the article and view scores of historic photographs and documents related to the event here. Below are several stereoscope cards from the family archives showing the scene following the earthquake and fire.

If you want to see remnants of the earthquake first hand and learn a bit more about it, plate tectonics, and continental drift there's no better place in my opinion than the Earthquake Trail at Point Reyes National Seashore. (Point Reyes is a spectacular resource in the National Park Service. Plan two or three days minimum to explore all of it) The Seashore is accessible from Highway 1 at Olema about eighteen miles north of the Golden Gate. The trail - an easy half-mile - is at the Bear Valley Visitor Center. The trail's focal point is the famous old fence displaced eighteen feet by the quake

April 20, 1906 marked the third day following the quake. On that day the horrific fires that had caused far more destruction than the shaking began to decline in part because there was little left to feed the flames. Over 80% of the city was in ruin but a sense of community emerged and its citizens began to think about recovery rather than immediate survival.

Speaking of immediate survival, I have experienced only one earthquake - Alaska in 2000 - that really concerned me. It lasted about thirty seconds and was strong enough to keep me swaying in my seat in a dark theater while the sound of thunder and rock slides rumbled outside. Standing would have been difficult, walking nearly impossible. Our guides told us not to worry because they happened all the time at the site and the building was designed to withstand far worse shaking. Easy for them to say.







Sources

Photos and Ilustrations:
Stereoscope views, OTR family archives

Text:

National Archives, Washington, DC
Point Reyes National Seashore, National Park Service, Washington, DC

Charlie Chaplin: The Consumate Comedian

If you took a photograph of the "Little Tramp" to almost any corner of the world touched by Western culture, chances are, someone would recognize it. That's a powerful statement given that the character hasn't appeared in a film for over seventy years. Greatness persists. And so it is with Charlie Chaplin, born on this date in London in 1889.

In his 88 years, he graced the world of entertainment as a performer, director, producer, businessman, and composer. His concern for everyday people and their often difficult lives was a common theme in virtually all his films as well as his private life. Such humanitarian sympathies led him to ally with well-known leftist in the U.S. and eventually leave the country in the early 1950s'. Through it all, his endearing, bumbling yet refined tramp brought laughter and awareness to millions.


Take some time today to visit Chaplin's official site. The biography page is especially useful, providing information about nine "masterpiece features" and a complete filmography. Chaplin has three films on the American Film Institute's Greatest Films of All Time list. They are: City Lights (1931) at #11, The Gold Rush (1925) at #58, and Modern Times (1936) at #78. It's important to keep in mind that Chaplin was the director, producer, writer, star, composer, and editor for all of these films except Modern Times, edited by Willard Nico.

My personal favorite among all of his films is The Great Dictator (1940). Interestingly, this film was Chaplin's first "talkie." In it Chaplin portrays two characters, the "Little Tramp" variation of a Jewish veteran of World War I attempting to reestablish his life as a barber, and Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomainia. Any resemblance between Adenoid Hynkel and Adolph Hitler is completely intentional. The film is a masterful piece of political satire made as an appeal to Americans and their leadership to wake up to the threat of Nazi Germany. It's often cited as the finest example of the use of ridicule in film in the twentieth century.

Here are two clips from The Great Dictator. First is the famous "globe scene," and second, "Benzino Napaloni - played to ridiculous perfection by Jack Oakie - meets Adenoid Hynkel at the train station." These clips are restricted and can be viewed by clicking on the YouTube link provided. 

 

Happy birthday, Little Tramp. Thank you for being the comedian you were and for helping shape the comedy we enjoy today.

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

                    Charlie Chaplin

Abraham Lincoln: An Honest Man Enshrined For Eternity

Abraham Lincoln Photo Portrait, early 1865 Alexander Gardner

Today marks the 159th anniversary of the assassination (1865) of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington. He was taken across the street to the home of William and Anna Peterson where died shortly after 7:00 a.m. the following morning (April 15). The theatre remained closed for over a century. It reopened in 1968 as a performance venue and national historic site that included the Peterson House. Today it is owned by the National Park Service and operated through a partnership agreement with the Ford's Theatre Society.

Ford's Theatre 514 10th Street NW, Washington, DC

President Lincoln and his son, Tad. February 5, 1865

For more information on this event, the place where it occurred, and its impact on the American experience explore the Ford's Theatre National Historic Site web page.

Lincoln Memorial, The Mall, Washington

Sources


Photographs and Illustrations:

Ford Theatre photographs, Ford's Theatre National Historic Site
Lincoln photograph, Alexander Gardner. Abraham Lincoln with his son Tad (Thomas), February 5, 1865. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (140) Digital ID # cph-3a05994

Lincoln Memorial, Official White House Photo, Chuck Kennedy, 2013, public domain

She Captured The Essence Of A Fast Disappearing American South

Today we remember the celebrated Southern writer, Eudora Welty, on what would have been her 115th birthday. She is remembered as one of the finest short story writers in American literary history. Welty lived and died in Jackson, Mississippi. Although she attended college in Wisconsin and New York, and traveled abroad, she always returned to the house and garden on Pinehurst Street that she had called "home" since high school.

Her skill as a writer enabled her to transform observations of life in Mississippi into a body of literature including novels, short stories, reviews, letters, and an autobiography. Over sixty years she received a host of awards including the Pulitzer Prize for her 1973 novel, The Optimist's Daughter.

Here is a short CSPAN BookTV production exploring Welty and her home in Jackson.

For four years toward the end of the Great Depression (1929-1939) Welty was employed by the Works Progress Administration to document everyday life in Mississippi. Her photography from that period has become well known as an expression of her powers of observation. Smithsonian Magazine produced this short documentary on her photography on the occasion of the centennial of her birth in 2009.

For more information on Welty readers should visit the outstanding website maintained by the Euroda Welty Foundation.





Sources

Text:

Eudora Welty entry, Wikipedia.com

Photos and Illustrations:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington

FDR: A Final Day In His Beloved Warm Springs, Georgia

 

Official portrait of FDR              Frank O. Salisbury, 1947

On this day 79 years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia. It was a place and community he had come to love over the twenty years since his first visit there to treat his polio.

I wish I could be here more.

The Little White House, Warms Springs State Historic Site, Georgia

William Katz, a talented participant-observers of our American experience, said this about Roosevelt at his blog, Urgent Agenda, in 2011:

Roosevelt, of course, was the only American president to be elected for more than two terms. He had just started his fourth when he died. He was succeeded by Harry S. Truman who, contrary to political myth, was not an obscure former senator from Missouri, but a prominent former senator who'd been on the cover of TIME in 1943.One can debate Roosevelt's policies, but he was, as Ed Murrow described him, the central pivot of 12 years of American history, leading the nation through the Depression and World War II. He is considered by most historians one of the great American presidents, often ranked third behind Lincoln and Washington. His policies did not end the Depression, but Roosevelt gave Americans a sense of hope and a sense that he cared, and that he understood the impact of the economic disaster on the ordinary American.

FDR invented the modern presidency, for better or worse. He was the first to use mass media, addressing the nation frequently by radio in his fireside chats. He was the first to fly to a political convention. And he became an internationalist in an age of isolationism. He was not a great intellect, nor was he impeccably honest (to put it mildly), but it is hard to think of American history without him. He had the sense to appoint Republicans to high positions to help fight World War II, symbolic acts that established, at least for a time, a bipartisan foreign- and defense policy. His bond with Winston Churchill during World War II was one of modern history's great partnerships.

The decision, in 1944, to replace the naive left-wing vice president, Henry Wallace, with Harry Truman on the Democratic ticket was an act of political genius, although the Congressional leadership probably had more to do with it than Roosevelt himself. And that act, based on Truman's actual performance in the Senate, demonstrated the enormous value of listening to people who actually know a candidate for high office. It was a far cry from today's "democratic" primary system, where people vote for candidates who may have little actual experience, and who have not been examined by those who understand the pressures of the presidency.

It's remarkable to think that in 1944 the Democratic Party had on its ticket Roosevelt and Truman, two men later seen as great presidents. Compare please to today.

A funeral train carried the late president from Warm Spring to Washington, then on to Hyde Park, New York, for burial at Springwood, his birthplace and beloved life-long home. Hundreds of thousands lined the tracks as the train made its journey. Over 500,ooo watched the coffin travel from Washington's Union Station to the White House.

Funeral procession, April 14, 1945

Any Franklin D. Roosevelt story would be incomplete without reference to his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. Her story is preserved at Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, two miles east of Springwood. For more information on the Little White House and Warm Spring State Historic Site, go here and here.






Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
portrait, White House Historical Association, public domain
funeral caisson, Library Of Congress, Prints and photographs division, public domain