Kristallnacht survivor begs us to remember

November 10, 2015

USHMM: Shattered storefront of a Jewish-owned shop destroyed during Kristallnacht (the

USHMM: Shattered storefront of a Jewish-owned shop destroyed during Kristallnacht (the “Night of Broken Glass”). Berlin, Germany, November 10, 1938. — National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.

I get e-mail from time to time from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, D.C.

Tonight, November 9, is the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938. Jill Pauly lived through it. She tells her story so that we will remember, that we will never forget. “Kristallnacht” is German for “night of crystal.” But in this case, the crystal was broken glass, the broken windows of Jewish shops and homes.  Kristallnacht was the “Night of Broken Glass.”

Dear friend,

I’ll never forget how scared I was 77 years ago on Kristallnacht.

This wave of antisemitic attacks throughout Germany and Austria caused my family to flee our small German town. We drove to a relative’s apartment in Cologne, and my grandparents forced my sister and me to sit on the car floor so we wouldn’t see the violence on the streets.

That evening and for many following it, the men in my family drove all night to evade German officers and avoid becoming some of the 30,000 men who were arrested just for being Jewish.

This was a major turning point for my family, when our lives became dangerous and our future uncertain. Learn more about experiences of families like mine, as well as the origins and aftermath of Kristallnacht.

LEARN MORE

Jill Pauly speaks with Museum visitors. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

LEARN MORE

Kristallnacht was a watershed moment in Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews, indicating an increase in radical, violent antisemitism. Many Jews tried to emigrate as soon as possible after the pogroms.

Today, Kristallnacht is seen as a warning sign of the Holocaust—an indicator of the horrors to come that far too many people ignored.

The Museum strives to learn from this history in order to prevent atrocities in the future. This is why we recently launched, in partnership with Dartmouth College, the Early Warning Project. It aims to give leaders from around the world more reliable information on the risk of mass atrocities to inspire action and help save lives.

On this anniversary, I encourage you to learn more about Kristallnacht and reflect on how we can respond to threats of genocide today.

Sincerely,

Jill Pauly
Holocaust Survivor and Museum Volunteer

Photo: Jill Pauly speaks with Museum visitors. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

“Never again” starts now, if we start it.

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Posted by Ed Darrell

Millard Fillmore’s links to March 8: Hurrah! and R.I.P.

March 8, 2013

I awoke from a particularly hard sleep after a night celebrating ten Cub Scouts’ earning their Arrow of Light awards and advancing into Boy Scout troops, to a missive from Carl Cannon (RealClear Politics) wondering why I’m asleep at the switch.

Millard Fillmore died on March 8, 1874, and he expected to see some note of that here at the Bathtub.  This blog is not the chronicler of all things Millard Fillmore, but can’t we at least get the major dates right?

Carl is right.  Alas, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub is avocation, and at times like these an avocation that should be far down the list of avocations.

To mark the date, here is a post out of the past that notes two key events on March 8 that Fillmore had a hand in, the second being his death.  Work continues on several fronts, and more may splash out of the tub today, even about Fillmore.  Stay tuned.

Fillmore died on March 8, 1874; exactly 20 years earlier, Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed in Japan, in the process of what may be the greatest and most overlooked legacy of Millard Fillmore’s presidency, the opening of Japan to the world.  Here’s that post:

Commodore Matthew C. Perrys squadron in Japan, 1854 - CSSVirginia.org image

The Black Ships — Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s squadron in Japan, 1854 – CSSVirginia.org image from Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, Boston, May 15, 1852 (also, see BaxleyStamps.com); obviously the drawing was published prior to the expedition’s sailing.

On March 8, 1854, Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed for the second time in Japan, having been sent on a mission a year earlier by President Millard Fillmore.  On this trip, within 30 days he concluded a treaty with Japan which opened Japan to trade with the U.S. (the Convention of Kanagawa), and which began a cascade of events that opened Japan to trade with the world.

Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1852 photograph, Library of Congress via WikiMedia

Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1852 photograph, Library of Congress via WikiMedia

Within 50 years Japan would come to dominate the seas of the the Western Pacific, and would become a major world power.

1854 japanese woodblock print of U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Peabody Museum: The characters located across the top read from right to left, A North American Figure and Portrait of Perry. According to the Peabody Essex Museum, this print may be one of the first depictions of westerners in Japanese art, and exaggerates Perrys western features (oblong face, down-turned eyes, bushy brown eyebrows, and large nose). But compare with photo above, right. Peabody Museum holding, image from Library of Congress via WikiMedia

1854 japanese woodblock print of U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Peabody Museum: “The characters located across the top read from right to left, ‘A North American Figure’ and ‘Portrait of Perry.’ According to the Peabody Essex Museum, ‘this print may be one of the first depictions of westerners in Japanese art, and exaggerates Perry’s western features (oblong face, down-turned eyes, bushy brown eyebrows, and large nose).'” But compare with photo above, right. Peabody Museum holding, image from Library of Congress via WikiMedia

Then, 20 years later, on March 8, 1874, Millard Fillmore died in Buffalo, New York.

The Perry expedition to Japan was the most famous, and perhaps the greatest recognized achievement of Fillmore’s presidency.  Fillmore had started the U.S. on a course of imperialistic exploitation and exploration of the world, with other expeditions of much less success to Africa and South America, according to the story of his death in The New York Times.

The general policy of his Administration was wise and liberal, and he left the country at peace with all the world and enjoying a high degree of prosperity. His Administration was distinguished by the Lopez fillibustering expeditions to Cuba, which were discountenanced by the Government, and by several important expeditions to distant lands. The expedition to Japan under Commodore Perry resulted in a favorable treaty with that country, but that dispatched under Lieut. Lynch, in search of gold in the interior of Africa, failed of its object. Exploring expeditions were also sent to the Chinese seas, and to the Valley of the Amazon.

More:

4 Comments | foreign affairs, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, History and art, History images, History museums, Japan, Millard Fillmore, Transportation, Travel, Turning Points | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

6th Floor Museum, Dallas — go see it

November 23, 2011

The 6th Floor Museum in Dallas presents in-depth studies of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, on November 22, 1963.

There’s a lot more to such a study than you might think.  It’s a relatively quick tour — you can view the museum’s displays and films in about two hours, comfortably, stopping to read exhibit cards and really analyze objects on display.  A couple of the films present a great deal of history quickly and well (Walter Cronkite narrates one).

One cannot avoid a great deal of history of the Civil Rights Movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War, and the start of the Vietnam conflict.  Kennedy’s administration covered only three years, but a very active and important three years in the 20th century.

Increasingly the 6th Floor Museum is a stop for researchers and scholars.  The recent addition of a good reading room for scholars is a great asset.

Curator Gary Mack offers a quick introduction in this video:

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Plan to spend three or four hours.  You’ll find the place very interesting.  After the museum, most likely you’ll want to spend some time exploring Dealey Plaza, the road where Kennedy’s car was when he was shot, and the famous grassy knoll.  It’s a part of downtown that is almost always filled with people in daylight in all but the absolute worst weather.  (Check out the EarthCam at Dealey Plaza.)

Old Red, the old Dallas County Courthouse, with its own museum, is just a half block away.

1 Comment | Dallas, History, History museums, JFK assassination, John F. Kennedy, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Teaching with original documents, at the 6th Floor Museum

July 29, 2011

6th Floor Museum Seminar - teachers in the Dallas Police Station, at Oswald's interrogation room

Teachers inspect the Dallas Police station, where accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was held. The door at left opens on the room where Oswald was interrogated by police. Panorama photo by Ed Darrell, use encouraged, with attribution; click for larger version

It’s been a good week of finding sources, for history issues across the spectrum, not just about the Kennedy assassination in Dallas.

Certainly one of the highlights was a bus tour that carried us from Dallas’s Love Field airport, along the route of Kennedy’s motorcade, to Parkland Hospital, and then through Oak Cliff along the route accused assassin Lee Oswald is believed to have traveled after the assassination to his capture at the much restored Texas Theatre on Jefferson Boulevard.

In the photo above we discuss the actions of Dallas Police after Oswald’s capture.  This room is in the old homicide division of the old Dallas Police Station, a building still in use for municipal offices and being renovated after the police department moved to a newer building a few years ago.  The door at the left leads to the room where Oswald was questioned about his actions and his knowledge of the day’s events.

Oswald's interrogation room in the old Dallas Police Department - photo by Ed Darrell, 6th Floor Museum teachers seminar

Cops and their desks departed years ago, but Oswald's interrogation room holds a fascinating, film noir atmosphere; view from inside the room, as teachers discuss events of November 22, 1963, in the larger office outside. Photo by Ed Darrell; click for larger view

Leave a Comment » | History, History museums, JFK assassination, John F. Kennedy, Museums, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

April 10th: High Hopes and Best of Intentions Day

April 10, 2010

RMS Titanic sailing from Southampton, England, April 10, 1912 - Wikipedia/public domain

RMS Titanic sailing from Southampton, England, April 10, 1912 - Wikipedia/public domain

On April 10, 1912, RMS Titanic sailed from England, heading to New York on her maiden voyage.

More:

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Posted by Ed Darrell

Buddy Guy’s Legends will move: Will Mount Bluesmore move, too?

February 11, 2010

Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy is moving his club, Buddy Guy’s Legends.  Guy’s club announced the move last September.

Buddy Guy's Legends, Today's Chicago Blues image

Buddy Guy's Legends, image from Today's Chicago Blues

We visited the club four years ago during the giant Midwest Clinic, where Duncanville’s Wind Ensemble debuted a tribute to Rosa Parks just a few days after her death (Samuel R. Hazo’s “Today Is the Gift”) and *spent a memorable evening going slightly deaf to the Kinsey Report.

Following federal law on how blues club should be, the walls tell stories of blues past, blues well-remembered, good blues players who visited, and stories of blues in general.  A neophyte can get a good education just looking at the walls in a good club.  One wall wore a painting of what could have been Mount Rushmore, which piqued my history radar — but in place of Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln, it had Chicago blues legends:  Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, and Howlin’ Wolf.

Who knows the history of the image?  Did Buddy Guy hire it done?  Did someone do it as a serious tribute?  Was it an image done for a show in the distant past, just pasted onto the wall?

When I heard the club was moving, I feared for the thing, especially since I was not digital at the time and didn’t get a photo of it.  To my shock, I couldn’t find any images on the internet.

Then a couple of days ago I ran across a version of the the image, at Today’s Chicago Blues.  It’s appropriately called “Mount Bluesmore.”

But the same question remains:  Will it be saved with the new venue?

Mount Bluesmore, at Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago - image from Today's Chicago Blues

Mount Bluesmore, at Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago - image from Today's Chicago Blues

Tip of the old scrub brush to Today’s Chicago Blues — go buy the book.

The Kinsey Report:

*  This isn’t blues, below, but it’s worth a listen; I believe it may even be Duncanville’s premiere of Hazo’s tribute to Rosa Parks — alas, without video of the band, and lacking a little on the bass end but otherwise showing off the Wind Ensemble’s performance flair:

4 Comments | Art, History, History and art, History museums, Music | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Let there be light: December 31, Bright Idea Day

December 31, 2009

Here it is, the invention that stole sleep from our grasp, made clubbing possible, and launched 50,000 cartoons about ideas:

The light bulb Thomas Edison demonstrated on December 31, 1879, at Menlo Park, New Jersey - Wikimedia image

The light bulb Thomas Edison demonstrated on December 31, 1879, at Menlo Park, New Jersey - Wikimedia image (GFDL)

The light bulb.  It’s an incandescent bulb.

It wasn’t the first bulb.  Edison a few months earlier devised a bulb that worked with a platinum filament.  Platinum was too expensive for mass production, though — and Edison wanted mass production.  So, with the cadre of great assistants at his Menlo Park laboratories, he struggled to find a good, inexpensive filament that would provide adequate life for the bulb.  By late December 1879 they had settled on carbon filament.

Edison invited investors and the public to see the bulb demonstrated, on December 31, 1879.

Thomas Edison in 1878, the year before he demonstrated a workable electric light bulb. Library of Congress image

Thomas Edison in 1878, the year before he demonstrated a workable electric light bulb. CREDIT: Thomas Edison, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left, 1880. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction number LC-USZ62-98067

Edison’s successful bulb indicated changes in science, technology, invention, intellectual property and finance well beyond its use of electricity. For example:

  • Edison’s Menlo Park, New Jersey, offices and laboratory were financed with earlier successful inventions.  It was a hive of inventive activity aimed to make practical inventions from advances in science.  Edison was all about selling inventions and rights to manufacture devices.  He always had an eye on the profit potential.  His improvements on the telegraph would found his laboratory he thought, and he expected to sell the device to Western Union for $5,000 to $7,000.  Instead of offering it to them at a price, however, he asked Western Union to bid on it.  They bid $10,000, which Edison gratefully accepted, along with the lesson that he might do better letting the marketplace establish the price for his inventions.  Other inventive labs followed Edison’s example, such as the famous Bell Labs, but few equalled his success, or had as much fun doing it.
  • While Edison had some financial weight to invest in the quest for a workable electric light, he also got financial support, $30,000 worth, from some of the finance giants of the day, including J. P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts who established the Edison Light Company.
  • Edison didn’t invent the light bulb — but his improvements on it made it commercial.  “In addressing the question ‘Who invented the incandescent lamp?’ historians Robert Friedel and Paul Israel list 22 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas Edison. They conclude that Edison’s version was able to outstrip the others because of a combination of three factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve (by use of the Sprengel pump) and a high resistance lamp that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable.”
  • Edison’s financial and business leadership acumen is partly attested to by the continuance of his organizations, today — General Electric, one of the world’s most successful companies over the past 40 years, traces its origins to Edison.

Look around yourself this evening, and you can find a score of ways that Edison’s invention and its descendants affect your life.  One of the more musing effects is in cartooning, however.  Today a glowing lightbulb is universally accepted as a nonverbal symbol for ideas and inventions.  (See Mark Parisi’s series of lightbulb cartoons, “Off the Mark.”)

Even with modern, electricity-saving bulbs, the cartoon shorthand hangs on, as in this Mitra Farmand cartoon.

Fusilli has an idea, Mitra Farmand, Fuffernutter

Brilliant cartoon from Mitra Farmand, Fuffernutter

Or see this wonderful animation, a video advertisement for United Airlines, by Joanna Quinn for Fallon — almost every frame has the symbolic lightbulb in it.

Other resources:

Patent drawing for Thomas Edison's successful electric lamp. Library of Congress

Thomas Edison's electric lamp patent drawing and claim for the incandescent light bulb CREDIT: “New Jersey--The Wizard of Electricity--Thomas A. Edison's System of Electric Illumination,” 1880. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number LC-USZ62-97960.

7 Comments | Electricity, Energy, History, History images, History museums, Invention, Science, Technology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Good excuse to get to Houston: QWERTY, a typewriter exhibt at the Museum of Printing History

November 28, 2009

Well, yeah, its that kind of quirky museum you love — one topic, so you know the kind of history you’re going to get.

And this particular subtopic?  Just right square in the middle of the road — that is, up my alley!

QWERTY Exhibit at the Museum of Printing History, Houston

QWERTY Exhibit at the Museum of Printing History, Houston

QWERTY: A Typewriter Retrospective

October 8, 2009– March 20, 2010 Typewriters inhabit a special place in the American psyche. No longer in widespread use, typewriters have been outsourced by the desktop computer, although they maintain a special air of nostalgia. Americans remember their junior high typing class, while many of today’s youngsters have never set eyes on such a machine. Tucked away in closets and in office corners, many typewriters are still occasionally put to good use. In addition to being beautiful specimens of design, who can forget the characteristic music of taps and bells created by a manual typewriter? From the collection of the Museum of Printing History.

More details on the Museum:

The Museum of Printing History
1324 W. Clay Street
Houston, Texas 77019
Hours:
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Tuesday – Saturday
713-522-4652
Free admission for self-guided tours

1 Comment | History, History museums, History of Science, Technology, Texas, Travel, Typewriters | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

150 years ago, a book that changed history: Charles Darwin, Origin of Species

November 25, 2009

150 years ago today Charles Darwin’s “big book,” On the Origin of Species, was first published.  The entire publication run of more than a thousand copies sold out within a few days, making it a certified best-seller of its day.

A rare copy of the first edition, found in the loo of an old house, sold at auction at Christie’s for US$172,000.

Olivia Judson’s already got her day-after blog post up at the New York Times site, talking about a key issue in evolution:  Extinction.  She already blogged on the importance of the Big Book.

And the “Origin” changed everything. Before the “Origin,” the diversity of life could only be catalogued and described; afterwards, it could be explained and understood. Before the “Origin,” species were generally seen as fixed entities, the special creations of a deity; afterwards, they became connected together on a great family tree that stretches back, across billions of years, to the dawn of life. Perhaps most importantly, the “Origin” changed our view of ourselves. It made us as much a part of nature as hummingbirds and bumblebees (or humble-bees, as Darwin called them); we, too, acquired a family tree with a host of remarkable and distinguished ancestors.

The reason the “Origin” was so powerful, compelling and persuasive, the reason Darwin succeeded while his predecessors failed, is that in it he does not just describe how evolution by natural selection works. He presents an enormous body of evidence culled from every field of biology then known. He discusses subjects as diverse as pigeon breeding in Ancient Egypt, the rudimentary eyes of cave fish, the nest-building instincts of honeybees, the evolving size of gooseberries (they’ve been getting bigger), wingless beetles on the island of Madeira and algae in New Zealand. One moment, he’s considering fossil animals like brachiopods (which had hinged shells like clams, but with a different axis of symmetry); the next, he’s discussing the accessibility of nectar in clover flowers to different species of bee.

At the same time, he uses every form of evidence at his disposal: he observes, argues, compares, infers and describes the results of experiments he has read about, or in many cases, personally conducted. For example, one of Darwin’s observations is that the inhabitants of islands resemble — but differ subtly from — those of the nearest continents. So: birds and bushes on islands off the coast of South America resemble South American birds and bushes; islands near Africa are populated by recognizably African forms.

Of course you –you cognescenti, you — know Judson is the wit behind Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation, a thoroughly delightful, funny and scientifically accurate book.  Which brings to my mind this question:  Why are scientists, and especially evolutionary scientists, so funny and charming, in stark contrast to the dull proles of creationism?

And, were he not ill at the time, can you imagine what a fantastic dinner guest Charles Darwin himself would be?

Darwin's hand-drawn "tree of life"

Darwin's hand-drawn "tree of life"

Meanwhile, at PBS, NOVA already featured “Darwin’s Darkest Hour” earlier this year.  NOVA research Gaia Remerowski alerts us to a coming production, “What Darwin Never Knew,” featuring progress made in evolutionary development, “evo-devo.”   Science marches on.

Remerowski illustrated her post with Darwin’s quick, hand drawing of a “tree of life,” a drawing that has become iconic in biology circles — like the one to your right.  This one comes from the website of “Speaking of Faith,” another PBS production that featured Darwin earlier this year.  SOF offered an online tour of some of the work of Darwin, too — other drawings from Darwin’s own hand.  Nice exhibit.

Our country’s advocates for good science education, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) carried Origin Day greetings and a rundown of a dozen projects commemorating the 150th year of the book, and the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.

Happy Origin Day, indeed.

5 Comments | Books, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Education, Evolution, Higher education, Historic documents, History, History blogs, History museums, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Museum of North Texas History: 100 years of Scouting

October 3, 2009

Wondering what to do while you’re in Wichita Falls, Texas?

Through March 2010, you can view a display commemorating Scouting’s 100th anniversary in the United States, featuring nearly 100 years of Scouting history in Wichita Falls.

Stephanie Wood, assistant curator of the exhibit “Boy Scouts of America: 100 Years,” hangs Boy Scout uniforms at the Museum of North Texas History. Photo by Photos by Marissa Millender/Times Record News

Stephanie Wood, assistant curator of the exhibit “Boy Scouts of America: 100 Years,” hangs Boy Scout uniforms at the Museum of North Texas History. Photo by Photos by Marissa Millender/Times Record News

Again showing the value of local “mainstream” media, the Wichita Falls Times-Record News featured a story on the exhibit on September 14, “Scouting through the ages.”

History teaches us if you learn from the past, you’ll be better prepared for the future. But being prepared is a quality also embraced by another organization — the Boy Scouts of America.

And so it seemed fitting that when the Boy Scouts reached their 100th anniversary this year, the Northwest Texas Council would commemorate the event at the Museum of North Texas History.

The downtown museum will open its latest exhibit, “Boy Scouts of America: 100 Years,” with a preview dinner at 6 p.m. Thursday at the dowtown museum, 720 Indiana, though more than 400 visitors got a sneak peek of the display Saturday during the Wichita Falls Museum Coalition’s Stroll ‘N’ Roll Museum Day.

The $40 preview dinner will include a viewing of the exhibit and a talk by Jim Hughes, George Adams and Darrell Kirkland.

Hughes, the Boy Scouts Chartered Organization Representative at Floral Heights United Methodist Church, has been involved in Scouting for about seven decades. A lot of his Scouting memorabilia peppers the exhibit, such as his Order of the Arrow badges and Boy Scout, Cub Scout and Explorer awards.

One of the most valuable pieces of memorabilia in the display, he said, is a flag hand-sewn by Scouts in 1913.

“Boys didn’t have money back then and had to make their own flag,” Hughes said.

Another impressive contribution to the exhibit is Bill McClure’s Eagle badge. McClure received his Eagle rank — the highest rank that can be achieved in the organization — in 1921. He was the first Eagle in the Wichita Falls Council to do so. He earned 21 merit badges and would eventually become a journalist for the Times Record News and sold advertising for KWFT before his death in 1982.

Hughes said what he treasures most among his scouting collection over the years is his own Eagle badge.

The exhibit, curated by Betsy O’Connor with Stephanie Wood as assistant curator, also includes a Pinewood Derby track on which visitors can race wooden cars, along with a display of a tent and camp fire.

Visitors will see Boy Scout, Cub Scout and Webelos uniforms on display, as well, such as the 1930s-era uniform of Billy Sims, the 1961 outfit of Tim Hunter and the 1998 uniform of Cory Wood, along with the “brag vest” of Cole Watson.

One area features information about Philmont Scout Ranch, a 137,493-acre ranch in the mountains of northeastern New Mexico in the Sangre de Christo Range of the Rockies, donated by Oklahoma oilman Waite Phillips.

Posters in the exhibit show various ropes and knots Scouts learn to tie, and things Scouts can do in nature conservation.

From left, Betsy O’Connor, curator, and Stephanie Wood, assistant curator, set up a camping display in the “Boy Scouts of America: 100 Years” exhibit at the Museum of North Texas History. Photos by Marissa Millender/Times Record News

From left, Betsy O’Connor, curator, and Stephanie Wood, assistant curator, set up a camping display in the “Boy Scouts of America: 100 Years” exhibit at the Museum of North Texas History. Photos by Marissa Millender/Times Record News

Other items to look for: Carl Watson’s walking stick, an Order of the Arrow Native American headdress and Eagle Claw necklace and photographs of local scouts.

The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated on Feb. 8, 1910, by William D. Boyce and others. It was modeled after an organization in Great Britain founded by Lord Baden-Powell.

In 1911, Dr. J.L. McKee, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, organized the first troop in Wichita Falls with 27 members before the troop disbanded after McKee left town. But two years later, four more troops were organized. The Wichita Falls Council became the Northwest Texas Council in 1937.

All three of Jim Hughes’ sons, like their father, earned the rank of Eagle Scout. So has one of his grandsons. Another grandson is a Cub Scout who is continuing the tradition of Scouting in the Hughes family.

“I got so much out of it,” Hughes said. “I wanted to have my kids have the same experience.”

Following the exhibit’s opening, “Boy Scouts of America” can be viewed through March 2010.

Do museums in your area have Scouting exhibits planned, or already up?  Let us know in comments.

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Leave a Comment » | Boy Scouts of America, History, History museums, Museums, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

World history sources and images from the Library of Congress

July 19, 2009

World Treasures of the Library of Congress looks like a good source of images and information for world history classes and student projects.

Magna charta cum statutis angliae, (Great Charter with English Statutes). Library of Congress

Magna charta cum statutis angliae, (Great Charter with English Statutes). Library of Congress

These links are to exhibits that are closed, but whose images are still maintained on line.  The Library promises to update exhibits, and on line collections will grow, too.

There really is some remarkable stuff, most of it obscure enough to be really cool, still.

A 16th century miniature pictures Rustam, the hero of the Persian national epic, The Shah Namah, tossed into the sea by the demon Akwan. (Library of Congress, Near East Section).

A 16th century miniature pictures Rustam, the hero of the Persian national epic, The Shah Namah, tossed into the sea by the demon Akwan. (Library of Congress, Near East Section).

Leave a Comment » | Art, Historic documents, History, History images, History museums, Images, World history | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Typewriter of the moment: Hemingway’s, at Key West

June 18, 2009

The man wrote, wherever he was.

Hemingways typewriter at Key West, Florida - Stefan Möding, copyright

Hemingway's typewriter at Key West, Florida - Stefan Möding, copyright

Ernest Hemingway often wrote standing up at his typewriter.  Obviously, here in Key West, he wrote sitting down.  At every home, it appears, he had a typewriter.

In Key West, early on in an apartment near the Ford dealership, where they awaited the delivery of the Ford purchased for Hemingway and his wife Pauline, by Pauline’s Uncle Gus, Hemingway wrote most of A Farewell to Arms, published in 1929.

The house was purchased later.  I can’t tell — some say he used here a Royal Quiet DeLuxe.

Pauline and Hemingway divorced in 1939.

In Key West, visit the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum.

2 Comments | Books, History, History and art, History museums, Literature, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

New blog from the Texas Historical Commission

June 8, 2009

Texas Parlor notes that the Texas Historical Commission has gotten into the blog business, with a blog called See the Sites.

New logo and slogan for the Texas Historical Commission

New logo and slogan for the Texas Historical Commission

A lot of photos from the sites the Historical Commission operates, news of special events, and links to the Commission’s sites’ websites.  As yet there are not any substantive historical analyses.

The new blog accompanies a redesign of the Texas Historical Commission’s website, and the creation of a new logo for the agency, with a new slogan.

The new website makes navigation a good bit easier, to get to information about cemeteries, or the LaSalle Projects, Texas’s remarkable collection of county courthouses, Civil War monuments, or any of a number of other categories.

Historians begin to make the internet a real tool for education and learning, and the practice of history recording.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Will’s Texas Parlor, a site every Texas history teacher should have bookmarked, and should visit often.

Leave a Comment » | History, History and art, History images, History museums, Internet, Technology, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Bathtub reading on a warm June Sunday

June 7, 2009

I thought everybody does serious reading in the bathtub, no?

The Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona; the Pima Air & Space Museum now offers bus tours of the 309th Maintenance and Regeneration Groups collection of scrapped and very historic airplanes

The Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona; the Pima Air & Space Museum now offers bus tours of the 309th Maintenance and Regeneration Group's collection of scrapped and very historic airplanes

Can’t soak all day.

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Posted by Ed Darrell

FDR’s First 100 Days – tailored for the classroom

April 4, 2009

The FDR Library in Hyde Park has an exhibit on FDR’s legendary First 100 Days.  Accompanying the exhibit is a flyer, available on-line in .pdf, that is tailor made for a quick PowerPoint on the events.

Cover of the .pdf flyer on the FDR Librarays exhibit on the First 100 Days

Cover of the .pdf flyer on the FDR Libraray's exhibit on the First 100 Days

A 24-page guide to the exhibit is also available, with even more details — though a lot of the images would be more difficult to put into a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation.

For government classes, these guides might offer a project on comparing Roosevelt’s first three or four months to Obama’s first months in office.

I’m wondering about printing at least a class set of the guide . . .

Resources:

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Posted by Ed Darrell

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