Except of course for you, Dear Reader, who knew that January 7 is the anniversary of the birth of Millard Fillmore, our 13th president.
But, did Brian Crane know that when he penned this Pickles strip for January 7?
Pickles cartoon strip, for January 7, 2011 - Brian Crane, Washington Post Writers Group
Could it really be just coincidence that Crane picked Fillmore for the punchline, on Fillmore’s birthday? Or is it really that great an inside joke?
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Cartoons, History, Humor, Millard Fillmore | Tagged: Brian Crane, Cartoons, Coincidence, Comics, History, Humor, Millard Fillmore, Pickles | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore was born January 7, 1800. Had he lived, Millard Fillmore would be 211 years old today, very cranky, and looking for a good book to read.
Millard Fillmore clipart from University of South Florida - Free! Click image to go to USF site.
Would you blame him for being cranky? He opened Japan to trade. He got from Mexico the land necessary to make Los Angeles a great world city and the Southern Pacific a great railroad, without firing a shot. Fillmore promoted economic development of the Mississippi River. He managed to keep a fractious nation together despite itself for another three years. Fillmore let end the practice of presidents using slaves to staff the White House, then called “the President’s Mansion,” eight years before the election of Abraham Lincoln.
Then in 1852 his own party refused to nominate him for a full term, making him the last Whig to be president. And to add insult to ignominy, H. L. Mencken falsely accused him of being known only for adding a bathtub to the White House, something he didn’t do.
As Antony said of Caesar, the good was interred with his bones — but Millard Fillmore doesn’t even get credit for whatever evil he might have done: Fillmore is remembered most for being the butt of a hoax gone awry, committed years after his death. Or worse, he’s misremembered for what the hoax alleged he did.
Even beneficiaries of his help promoting the Mississippi River have taken his name off their annual celebration of the event. Fillmore has been eclipsed, even in mediocrity (is there still a Millard Fillmore Society in Washington?).
Happy birthday, Millard Fillmore.
Millard Fillmore, free clipart from University of South Florida
Millard Fillmore was a man of great civic spirit, a man who answered the call to serve even when most others couldn’t hear it at all. He was a successful lawyer, despite having had only six months of formal education (a tribute to non-high school graduates and lifelong learning). Unable to save the Union, he established the University of Buffalo and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. During the Civil War, he led the local militia in support of the war effort, many rungs down from his role of Commander-in-Chief. And, it is said of him that Queen Victoria said he was the most handsome man she had ever met.
A guy like that deserves a toast, don’t you think?
Resources:
Leave a Comment » | Civil War, H. L. Mencken, History, Japan, Millard Fillmore, Politics, Presidents | Tagged: Civil War, H. L. Mencken, History, Hoaxes, Japan, Millard Fillmore, Politics, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Baird Point at University of Buffalo's North Campus; tradition holds that the university was founded by Millard Fillmore, its first chancellor
John B. Simpson, President of the University of Buffalo, will speak at a ceremony honoring President Millard Fillmore on the 211th anniversary of Fillmore's birth.
Press release from the University of Buffalo:
News Release
Simpson to Speak at Ceremony Commemorating 211th Birthday of Millard Fillmore
Release Date: January 4, 2011
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The 211th anniversary of the birth of Millard Fillmore, the University at Buffalo’s first chancellor and 13th president of the United States, will be celebrated at a ceremony to be held at 10 a.m. Jan. 7 at Fillmore’s gravesite in Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery.
UB President John B. Simpson will present the memorial address at the annual observance, which honors Fillmore, who played a major role in the founding of numerous cultural, civic and community organizations in Erie County.
Hosted by UB, the Forest Lawn Group and the Buffalo Club, the event will be free and open to the public, and each year draws a wide range of community supporters.
“The annual Millard Fillmore commemoration is a time-honored tradition that celebrates the life of a man who made considerable contributions to Buffalo and the United States,” said William J. Regan, director of special events at UB.”
Col. Jim S. McCready, vice wing commander of the 107th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard based at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, will place a wreath from the White House at the gravesite.
Officials from the Buffalo Club, the Forest Lawn Group and UB will also be on hand to present wreaths.
The Rev. Joel Miller of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo will provide an invocation. The UB Police Color Guard will present the flags. To close the ceremony, West Richter, a UB undergraduate and a member of the UB Marching Band, will play taps.
A reception will follow immediately in the Forest Lawn Chapel.
Born on Jan. 7, 1800, Fillmore was instrumental in founding the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society, the Buffalo Club and the Buffalo General Hospital. His activities also led to the creation of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy and the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.
Some historians credit the former teacher, postmaster, lawyer and member of Congress with establishing the White House Library.
This year’s commemoration marks the 46th consecutive year UB has programmed the ceremony, a tradition that dates back to 1937.
From 1937 until 1965, the anniversary ceremonies were a cooperative staging by the City of Buffalo and the Buffalo Board of Education.
The events were administered by Irving R. Templeton, a 1909 graduate of UB, who scheduled two programs annually on or near Jan. 7, one in City Hall and one in Forest Lawn. Templeton was a partner in the law offices of Templeton, Turnabull & Templeton.
Following his death in 1965, responsibility for the event shifted to UB through an agreement between Chancellor Clifford C. Furnas and Alfred E. Kirchhofer, editor of The Buffalo Evening News. While UB participated in programming prior to Templeton’s death, the 1966 event marked the start of UB’s role as official steward of the annual community event.
The vice president for university relations and the Office of Public Affairs programmed the event from 1966-87, when the Office of Special Events began managing the program.
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB’s more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.
Leave a Comment » | Education, History, Millard Fillmore, Presidents | Tagged: Education, History, January 7, Millard Fillmore, Presidents, University of Buffalo | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You could call it art.
Millard Fillmore, holding a ham - by the artist known as Bijijoo
Perhaps it is related to the rain and the clouds: An Oregon artist painted portraits of the U.S. presidents, each holding a pink ham. A big ham.
No kidding. Salon explained:
As it turns out, “The Presidential Ham” is both real and utterly hilarious. Since 2006, Oregon artist bijijoo (real name: M.T. Horne) has painted pictures of each president holding a giant, pink piece of pork. Some, like Abraham Lincoln, are fiercely protective of their meat; others, like Richard Nixon, look proud and dismissive. But each image has a very clear and important message: I am a president, and I am holding this ham.
Some people may be suspected of having too much time on their hands. Or too much ham.
No, Millard Fillmore was not the first president to put ham into the White House.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Dr. Bumsted.
3 Comments | Art, Humor, Millard Fillmore, Presidents | Tagged: Art, Ham, Humor, Millard Fillmore, Portraits, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
History item: On July 8,1853 four black ships led by USS Powhatan and commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, anchored at Edo (Tokyo) Bay. Never before had the Japanese seen ships steaming with smoke. They thought the ships were “giant dragons puffing smoke.” They did not know that steamboats existed and were shocked by the number and size of the guns on board the ships.
President Millard Fillmore, defying H. L. Mencken’s later, crabby, hoax claim of do-little-government, sent Matthew C. Perry to Japan to open Japan as a refuge for shipwrecked sailors, and as a coaling stop for steamships. For the previous 200 years, Japan had been closed to all but a few Dutch and Chinese traders. On July 8, 1853, Perry’s small fleet sailed boldly into restricted waters of Japan and anchored.
Delivering the American presents to the Emperor of Japan, at Yokohama. A. O. P. Nicholson image, 1856 publication, “Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan” – artist not identified (Washington, A. O. P. Nicholson, 1856); Nimitz Museum, Annapolis. A list of the presents can be seen at a link near the end of this post; some of the gifts, such as the model of the steam engine, can be identified in this picture.
Perry told the Emperor he would return the following year for an answer. Perry returned on March 8, 1854, and within a month concluded the Convention of Kanagawa, opening Japan to trade from the west. Generally unheralded, this may have been one of the more important pieces of U.S. diplomacy in history, especially considering the dramatic rise of Japan as an economic and military power, on the basis of the trade Commodore Perry demanded Japan engage in.
More:
Japanese woodblock print showing one of Perry’s ships – Nagasaki Prefecture, via MIT
Documents below the fold
2 Comments | Age of Imperialism, DBQ sources, Diplomacy, Explorers and Exploration, foreign affairs, History, Japan, Millard Fillmore, Trade, Travel | Tagged: Age of Imperialism, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, Convention of Kanagawa, History, Japan, Millard Fillmore | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Some of the most interesting stuff of history can only be found accidentally. You don’t know what you don’t know, and so the only way to find it is to stumble into it in the dark.
Pamela Bumsted sent me a link to this site, which describes the travails of the Winnemem Wintu, a band of people native to the area of California from Sacramento, going north. It is an American Indian tribe, except under the view of the U.S. government.
Their troubles relate to their giving up claims to their traditional lands in a treaty with the U.S. government, during the administration of Millard Fillmore. Alas for the Winnemem Wintu, the treaty was not ratified by the U.S. Senate, and their own claims to their own lands fell out of law and out of history.
In the 1851 Treaty at Cottonwood Creek, the Winnemem (represented by the signature of Numterareman), along with other Wintu bands, ceded a vast territory from Sacramento to near the Oregon border to the United States in exchange for a 25-square-mile reservation along the Sacramento River. The California legislature lobbied against the treaty to the U.S. Senate which, in turn, pressured President Millard Fillmore to refuse ratification of any of the 18 treaties signed “in peace and friendship.” As a consequence, the Winnemem never got their reservation and started losing their traditional lands to encroaching settlement and the designation of the Shasta National Forest in 1906.
Eighteen treaties were not ratified by the Senate? Which 18? What happened to those bands? Were they all California bands?
We know the Winnemem Wintu are fighting for recognition now. What happened to the other 17 nations, and the other 17 treaties? Got resources? List them in comments
More:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Alexander Stephens, Portage Publications image
Elektratig found the most delightful thing, and wrote about it on his blog — Georgia politician and future vice president of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens wondering about this new guy on the hustings, Abraham Lincoln, and comparing him to Millard Fillmore, in a letter from July 1860. You gotta read it there.
You couldn’t make this stuff up. Real history is always better than fiction. There’s a delightful surprise around every bend of the river.
Also:
2 Comments | Abraham Lincoln, Historic documents, History, Millard Fillmore | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, History, Millard Fillmore, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore’s dollar got a bit of coverage — well, more than the dollar for Zachary Taylor, so far as I can tell. It was not a big story.
The Wall Street Journal carried a page 1 feature. Some of the most fun coverage came out of local newspapers in Buffalo and Moravia, New York.
From the Berkshire-Hathaway-owned Buffalo News:
MORAVIA — When the U.S. Mint wanted to unveil a new $1 Millard Fillmore coin, it went to the 13th president’s birthplace to do the honors.
That’s this town of 4,000 in the Finger Lakes, where about a quarter of the population turned out Thursday to pay tribute to their favorite son.
But what about Buffalo, where he served as the University of Buffalo’s first chancellor and helped found a historical society and a hospital?
No problem. The same U.S. Mint official came to Buffalo to hold a second unveiling in Fillmore’s adopted hometown, where about three dozen people showed up at City Hall.
And in the Auburn, New York, Citizen, a story of a crowd much larger than anticipated:
MORAVIA – With close to 1,000 witnesses watching, a young Millard Fillmore impersonator and his equally sprite make-believe wife Abigail poured from a wooden bucket a stream of coins bearing the face of the 13th president and Moravia native.
The United States Mint Thursday released its 13th presidential dollar coin, honoring Millard Fillmore, at a ceremony in the Moravia Junior Senior School cafeteria, which was not large enough to accommodate the crowd of community members who had come to celebrate a president whose national legacy is not legendary, but whose roots are their roots.
“This is a grand, grand event,” Moravia Mayor Gary Mulvaney said, as he waited in a line that started at the cafeteria doors and wound through the school.
James P. McCoy’s photos of the unveiling and the large mockup of the dollar itself are good (you could steal them for a PowerPoint in your classroom), but I especially enjoyed the pictures in the Auburn paper, by Sam Tenney. Two middle school students played Abigail and Millard Fillmore at the ceremony in Moravia.
Caption from the Auburn, New York, Citizen: "Eleanor Younger, 10, and Colton Langtry, 12, portraying Abigail Powers Fillmore and Millard Fillmore, help Andy Brunhart, deputy director of the United States Mint, pour a bucket of $1 coins bearing Fillmore's likeness during a ceremony celebrating the release of the coin Thursday morning at Moravia High School. The Fillmore coin is the 13th in a series honoring past presidents." Photo by Sam Tenney, Auburn, NY, Citizen
Uncharacteristically, the U.S. Mint offered some of the $1.00 coins to students for free — perhaps the only recorded time that the Mint has handed out money for free.
Looks like they had a good time.
3 Comments | Government, History, Journalism, Millard Fillmore, Newspapers | Tagged: Buffalo New York, Journalism, Millard Fillmore, Millard Fillmore dollar, Moravia New York, Newspapers, U.S. Mint | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Oh, yeah, I forgot: The U.S. Mint is giving away dollars to kids. Free money.
Look at all the grousing about it in comments at Buffalo Rising. Some people are never happy. Not even with free money for the kids.
1 Comment | Education, History, Millard Fillmore, Presidents | Tagged: Buffalo New York, Education, History, Millard Fillmore, Presidents, U.S. Mint | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
At a ceremony in Moravia, New York, today, the U.S. Mint will officially unveil and release the Millard Fillmore one-dollar coin. Moravia is Fillmore’s birthplace.
Anna Prior’s story in the Wall Street Journal notes the contest between Moravia and nearby Buffalo for the heritage of Fillmore. (Fillmore spent most of his life in Buffalo.) All told and totalled, there may be more information out on Millard Fillmore in the newspapers today than you can find in most U.S. history texts.
Prior wrote:
Members of Moravia’s historical society say there’s more than enough Millard Fillmore to go around. Buffalo can claim Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president, who began his career there. “As a small town, we just have a few moments of history that are ours—and Fillmore is one of them,” says Roger Phillips, president of the Cayuga-Owasco Lakes Historical Society
Joyce Hackett Smith, former president of the historical society and a distant cousin of Fillmore’s, notes that the 13th president is more apt to be overlooked in a big city like Buffalo, which has a population of about 272,600, while every child at Millard Fillmore Elementary School in Moravia learns a lot about Fillmore.
“You ask a kid in Moravia, what was the first thing that Fillmore bought with the money he saved from working when he was young? They’ll tell you—a dictionary!” she says.
“We spent quite a lot of time in history class going over the things that Fillmore did,” says 57-year-old Lee Conklin, a lifelong Moravian and owner of an auto-parts store there. The late Robert Scarry, a Moravia history teacher, wrote a book detailing the president’s life.
Buy a newspaper today; buy a Wall Street Journal. See if you get a Millard Fillmore dollar in change.
Resources:
2 Comments | History, Millard Fillmore, Presidents | Tagged: Dollar, History, Millard Fillmore, Presidents, U.S. Mint, Writing history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore dollar, scheduled to be released to the public on February 18, 2010, at Fillmore's birthplace, Moravia, New York
A golden-hued dollar coin honoring our 13th president, Millard Fillmore, will be released to the public by the U.S. Mint this week. A ceremony at Moravia Central School officially released the coin, in Moravia, New York, Fillmore’s birthplace.
The dollar makes no mention of H. L. Mencken nor Mencken’s hoax that has eclipsed Fillmore’s reputation for 93 years. Can the dollar’s own shine do anything to improve the lustre of Fillmore’s reputation?
CoinNews.net reports that a local teacher of history will help with the unveiling in Moravia:
Fillmore was born only five miles east of Moravia. He served as the 13th President of the United States from 1850-1853 after assuming the office when President Zachary Taylor passed away. These were tremulous times for the country which was already on the verge of a civil war, postponed by the Compromise of 1850. Fillmore is credited with the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa effectively ending the isolationism of Japan.
US Mint Deputy Director Andrew Brunhart will present the new dollar at the ceremony. Master of Ceremonies will be local history teacher John Haight. Sheila Tucker, Cayuga County historian, is scheduled to speak.
Children 18 and under will receive a free Fillmore dollar while others may exchange dollar bills for the new coins. The Mint will also offer 25-coin rolls for $35.95 from either Philadelphia or Denver that may be ordered directly from its Web site (http://www.usmint.gov/.)
Don Everhart designed the portrait of Millard Fillmore that is featured on the obverse or heads side. It also includes the inscriptions “MILLARD FILLMORE,” “IN GOD WE TRUST,” “13TH PRESIDENT” and “1850-1853.”
Much of the ceremony is fitting. Fillmore himself helped organize local historical societies and promote education — he was the first president of the Erie County Historical Association, and he is celebrated as the founder of the University of Buffalo.
Reverse view of the 2010 Millard Fillmore U.S. dollar. Don Everhart designed both sides of the coin.
Golden coloring of the coin comes from the alloyed metals that comprise the coin. It is 77% copper, 12% zinc, 7% manganese, and 4% nickel. Coins will be struck at all three coin minting plants, in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco.
Coins can be ordered from the U.S. Mint.
2 Comments | Education, History, History and art, Millard Fillmore, Politics | Tagged: Education, Fillmore Dollar, History, Millard Fillmore, Numismatics, Politics, U.S. Mint | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
No kidding:
Good Day:
My name is Owen Clive and i will like to make an enquiry on some bath tubs, could you advise if you have or can get me the size below bath tub?
Acrylic Bath Tub with fiberglass reinforcement
6′ x 35-3/4″ x 19-3/4″
Thank you and i await your reply.
Best RegardsOwen Clive
2 Comments | Administrivia, Humor, Millard Fillmore | Tagged: E-mail, History, Hoaxes, Humor, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 4, 1861: Millard Fillmore wrote:
May 4, 1861, letter from Millard Fillmore to Abraham Lincoln – Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
Transcription of the letter:
From Millard Fillmore to Abraham Lincoln, May 4, 1861
Buffalo May 4, 1861.
My Dear Sir,
The bearer, Dr. Martin Mayer, a Stranger to me, has asked of me a letter of Introduction to your Excellency, and produced such high proofs of character, that I do not feel at liberty to refuse it; and therefore while I decline any interference, in any appointment he may desire, (which is my uniform practice) I desire simple to ask that he may be heard.
Respectfully yours
Millard Fillmore
1 Comment | Abraham Lincoln, Historic documents, History, Millard Fillmore, Presidents | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, DBQ, Historic documents, History, Millard Fillmore, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Interior of main floor (second floor) of Utah Capitol, looking west from the Rotunda to the House of Representatives' chamber - Wikimedia photo by BigBen
Got a couple of hours in Salt Lake City?
Utah’s copper-domed capitol building is among my favorites in the U.S. for style and grace. The high-hillside location gives one a hawk’s eye view of Salt Lake City and especially State Street (which runs, by tradition, south about 400 miles to the Utah-Nevada border). So it’s a good piece of architecture to tour.
Starting March 3, it will also have a display on Utah’s many attempts to become a state. Between 1847 and 1896 when finally admitted to the union, Utah submitted seven different constitutions trying to get approval of Congress. Utah relocated its capital to the center of the state, named the town Fillmore and the county Millard to flatter the sitting president. That didn’t work, either. Later the capital was moved back to Salt Lake City, nearer to where most of the people resided.
To assuage fears that Utah would upset the balance of power in Washington, at one point Latter-day Saint church authorities designated every-other household Democrat or Republican, giving Utah a 50/50 split electorate that survived in that fashion until the 1970s.
It’s all there at the exhibit, in the capitol building.
It took 7 Constitutions and 47 years to get Utah admitted as the Nation’s 45th state. The Utah State Capitol celebrates that effort in a free exhibit opening on March 3,2010. Open March 2010 through Jan. 2011! Free to the Public! Docent guided tours available! For more information visit www.utahstatecapitol.utah.gov Hours: Mon-Fri: 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Sat & Sun: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. This exhibit is a building-wide exhibit. Main displays are located on the 1st and 4th floors. Ask any Capitol Docent for additional help.
Tip of the old scrub brush to UtahPolicy.com.
Utah Capitol, photographed from the headquarters of the LDS Church - dlmark photo
2 Comments | Historic documents, History, History images, Millard Fillmore, Statehood, Utah | Tagged: History, History Exhibit, Millard Fillmore, Statehood, Utah, Utah Capitol | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore was born January 7, 1800. Had he lived, Millard Fillmore would be 210 years old today, and probably very cranky, and looking for a good book to read.
Millard Fillmore (unknown artist, circa 1840) - National Portrait Gallery
Would you blame him for being cranky? He opened Japan to trade. He got from Mexico the land necessary to make Los Angeles a great world city and the Southern Pacific a great railroad, without firing a shot. Fillmore promoted economic development of the Mississippi River. He managed to keep a fractious nation together despite itself for another three years. Fillmore let end the practice of presidents using slaves to staff the White House (then called “the President’s Mansion”).
Then in 1852 his own party refused to nominate him for a full term, making him the last Whig to be president. And to add insult to ignominy, H. L. Mencken falsely accused him of being known only for adding a bathtub to the White House, something he didn’t do.
As Antony said of Caesar, the good was interred with his bones — but Millard Fillmore doesn’t even get credit for whatever evil he might have done: Fillmore is remembered most for being the butt of a hoax gone awry, committed years after his death. Or worse, he’s misremembered for what the hoax alleged he did.
Even beneficiaries of his help promoting the Mississippi River have taken his name off their annual celebration of the event. Fillmore has been eclipsed, even in mediocrity (is there still a Millard Fillmore Society in Washington?).
Happy birthday, Millard Fillmore.
Millard Fillmore was a man of great civic spirit, a man who answered the call to serve even when most others couldn’t hear it at all. He was a successful lawyer, despite having had only six months of formal education (a tribute to non-high school graduates and lifelong learning). Unable to save the Union, he established the University of Buffalo and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. And, it is said of him, that Queen Victoria said he was the most handsome man she had ever met.
A guy like that deserves a toast, don’t you think?
Resources:
5 Comments | History, History images, Hoaxes, Japan, Millard Fillmore, Politics, Presidents | Tagged: History, Hoaxes, Japan, Millard Fillmore, Millard Fillmore's Birthday, Politics, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 