Category Archives: American History

January 2, 2013

Martha Carey Thomas 1.2.13 Thought of the Day

John Singer Sargent’s Miss Carey Thomas [Image courtesy Jssgallery.org]

“One thing I am determined on is that by the time I die my brain shall weigh as much as a man’s if study and learning can make it so.”
—Martha Carey Thomas

Martha Carey Thomas was born on this day in Baltimore, Maryland, USA in 1857. Today is the 155th anniversary of her birth.

M. Carey Thomas as a child [Image courtesy National Portrait Gallery]

She was the eldest of ten children in a prominent Quaker family. She got her feminist streak from her mother and maternal aunt, Hannah Whitall Smith. She studied at the Society of Friends school in Baltimore, then at Howland Institute, a Quaker boarding school near Ithaca, New York. When her education at this “dame’s school” ended in the 1860’s she yearned for the chance for further education open to her brothers.

So, in 1872, Thomas persuaded her father to allow her to attend a newly opened school for girls in New York. While studying there her father asked her to investigate Cornell University for him. He later decided that it had been a mistake, because as soon as she saw it, she was determined to attend. [Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame]

She received her bachelor’s from Cornell in 1877. She did graduate work at both Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and at the University of Leipzig, but withdrew from both — Hopkins did not permit her to attend classes and Leipzig did not grant degrees to women. In the end she earned her PhD. in linguistics from the University of Zürich. She graduated summa cum laude. She stayed in Europe for a while, living in Paris, before returning to the US.

M. Carey Thomas. [Image courtesy Explore PA History.com]

While studying in Europe she heard about a “proposed women’s college at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and applied for presidency.“ [Ibid] Although she didn’t get the presidency of the college — that went to a man — in 1884 she became the Dean of Bryn Mawr and the chair of the English department. She was instrumental in forming the college’s curriculum.

She desired to build it into an institution that would encourage women to follow careers without having to face the difficulties with which she had struggled. Convinced that women deserved exactly the same education as men and needed even higher standards than men to succeed, she molded a curriculum that offered more advanced work than that given in many men’s colleges and upheld the highest academic standards. [Bookrags.com]

She also continued to work in Baltimore to help form a “school where girls could obtain an education which would prepare them to attend a good college.” [Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame] In 1885 that school, The Bryn Mawr School for Girls in Baltimore, opened its doors.

She was also instrumental getting Johns Hopkins Medical School to change their admission policy on Women.

With the help of four of her friends, a total of $500,000 was raised to aid the Medical School in its financial struggle. The funds raised were used as a leverage to get the University to accept women. Thus, thanks largely to the efforts of these five women, women were to be admitted on precisely the same basis as men. [Ibid]

She was active in the suffragette movement and in 1908 became the first president of the National College Women’s Equal Suffrage League. She became the first woman trustee at Cornell. And she helped organized the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers.

[Image courtesy: Geni.com]

In 1894 Thomas became president of Bryn Mawr College. It was a post she held until she retired at age 65 in 1922.

Carey Thomas died in Philadelphia on Dec 2, 1935.

Leave a comment | tags: Baltimore, M. Carey Thomas | posted in American History, Baltimore, Martha Carey Thomas, postaday, suffragette, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

December 26, 2012

Thomas Nelson, Jr. 12,26.12 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

Thomas Nelson, Jr was born on this day in Yorktown, Virginia in 1738. Today is the 274th anniversary of his birth.

Nelson was a planter, statesman, and soldier. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and he was Virginia’s fourth Governor (he followed Thomas Jefferson in the post.)

English: Portrait of Governor Thomas Nelson at age 15. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

His grandfather and namesake, Thomas “Scotch Tom” Nelson was one of the first men to settle in the Yorktown area. And the family was prominent in local and regional politics. Young Thomas traveled to England for his formal education. He went to Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1760 he graduated and returned to the family home.

Capitol Building from the North side. [ritaLOVEStoWRITE]

One year later, 1761 he was elected to the House of Burgesses, Colonial Virginia’s legislative house in Williamsburg, Virginia. His time in the Capital wasn’t all business, in 1762 he met and married Lucy Grymes, niece of one of the richest and most powerful men in the Colony, Peyton Randolph. He and Lucy had 11 children in their 27 year marriage. (One son, Hugh Nelson, served in the US Congress.)

In 1774, after hearing about the Boston Tea Party, he [Thomas] performed an act against the British Tea Tax by boarding a merchant ship, Virginia, which was anchored near his home, and dumped several chests of tea into the York River. [Geni.com]

He was a member of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1775 to 1777. A supporter of the independence cause, he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

English: This is a high-resolution image of the United States Declaration of Independence (article (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In May of 1777 he suffered the first of a series of strokes and returned to Yorktown. He also suffered “periodic bouts of asthma”[Geni.com] but remained active in politics.

He also became a General in the Virginia Militia. He and his 3,000 Militiamen were part of George Washington’s Army during the siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis, the British commander had taken Nelson’s home for one of his head quarters. The

American artillerymen refused to fire on the house, in respect to General Nelson. Nelson then aimed … a cannon at his own home, and ordered the men to fire at his house…. [Ibid]

He offered a bounty of five guineas to the first American gunner to hit the house. The house, now a part of the Colonial National Historical Park system, still shows “evidence of damage from cannon fire.” [National Park Service]

Nelson House, York County, Virginia. [Image courtesy: National Park Service]

In 1781 he succeeded Thomas Jefferson as Governor Virginia. He retired to his “son’s estate, ‘Mont Air,’ Hanover County, Va., and died there on January 4, 1789” [Congress.gov Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress] He was buried in Yorktown, in Grace Churchyard.

Leave a comment | tags: Colonial National Historical Park, House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Nelson, United States Declaration of Independence, Virginia | posted in American History, Declaration of Independence, England, History, Jr, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, Virginia

December 20, 2012

Samuel Mudd 12.20.12 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

English: Samuel Mudd (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Samuel Alexander Mudd was born on this day in Charles County, Maryland, USA in 1833. Today is the 179th anniversary of his birth.

Mudd grew up on a tobacco plantation about 30 miles southeast of Washington DC. He was the fourth of ten children . He was home schooled until age 15 when he went to St. John’s boarding school in Frederick, MD. He went to college at Georgetown in Washington, and graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore having studied medicine with an emphasis on dysentery. In 1856 he returned to Charles County and began a family with his long time sweetheart Sarah “Frankie” Dyer. Mudd’s father gave the couple a 218 acre tobacco farm called St. Catherine’s. He supplemented his income as a doctor with the sale of tobacco from the farm. (He grew the tobacco with the help of five slaves.)

Dr. Mudd’s House (Photo credit: jimmywayne)

When the Civil War began Maryland was a border state. If Washington, with its large number of Union soldiers had not be located in its southern border along the Potomac River the state may have voted to succeed from the Union. When Maryland abolished slavery in 1864 ( a year after the Emancipation Proclamation) Mudd could no longer effectively run his farm. He began looking for a buyer and was introduced to a young, dashing, actor in the market for some property. That actor’s name was John Wilkes Booth.

Booth and Mudd met in November at St. Mary’s Catholic Church to discuss the purchase. Booth stayed overnight at the farm before returning to Washington. Unbeknownst to Mudd, Booth wasn’t interested in real estate at all, but was scouting out an escape path from the Nation’s Capital. The actor was planning on kidnapping President Lincoln to bring him to Richmond (the capital of the Confederacy). He would ransom Lincoln for a large number of Confederate POWS.

Portrait of John Wilkes Booth (1838–1865) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mudd and Booth met again shortly before Christmas 1964, this time in Washington. They met John Surratt and Louis Weichmann for drinks.

Before Booth could pull off his ill-advised and grandiose plan Lee surrendered at Appomatox, Virginia and the War was over. Booth was furious. He altered his plan and decided to kill the president instead of kidnapping him. Booth shot Lincoln in the head five days after Lee surrendered. The President and Ms. Lincoln were watching a play, Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. After shooting Lincoln at point-blank range he jumped down from the Presidential Box to the stage to escape. He broke his leg in the fall but managed to get out the stage door and onto his horse and escape the city.

English: Interior of Ford’s Theatre, Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The presidential box is towards the right. The theatre is still in operation and the stage is set up for a current stage play (i.e., it is not set up as it was when Lincoln was shot). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

About four o’clock on the morning following the Lincoln assassination two men on horseback arrived at the Mudd farm near Bryantown. The men, it turned out, were John Wilkes Booth–in severe pain with a badly fractured leg that he received from his fall to the stage after shooting the President–and David Herold. Mudd welcomed the men into his house, first placing Booth on his sofa, then later carrying him upstairs to a bed where he dressed the limb.

After daybreak, Mudd made arrangements with a nearby carpenter to construct a pair of crutches for Booth and tried, unsuccessfully, to secure a carriage for his two visitors. Booth (after having shaved off his moustache in Mudd’s home) and Herold left later on the fifteenth, after Mudd pointed the route to their next destination, Parson Wilmer’s. [UMKC.edu]

Military investigators followed Booth’s trail to the Mudd farm and Dr. Mudd admitted to having seen a patient, but claimed…”‘I never saw either of the parties before, nor can I conceive who sent them to my house.” [Historynet.com] When Lt. Lovett, the lead investigator on the Mudd end of the trail returned again to the farm Sarah “brought down from upstairs a boot that had been cut off the visitor’s leg three days earlier.” [Ibid.] Booth’s initials were in the boot’s cuff, but Mudd still denied knowing who it was.

Booth’s boot, found at the Mudd’s farm . [Image courtesy UMKC.edu]

During the trail Mudd’s lie about not recognizing Booth, compounded by his not coming forward about “suspicions … aroused by a broken-legged visitor who, during his brief stay the Mudd farm, shaved off his moustache” [Ibid] stained his character far more deeply than the circumstantial evidence of witnesses who claimed he knew of the conspiracy.

Defense Attorney Thomas Ewing argued to the Commission that it is no crime to fix a broken leg, even if it were the leg of a presidential assassin and even if the doctor knew it was the leg of a presidential assassin. [Ibid}

Mudd was convicted by a Military Commission and sentenced to life in prison.

English: Broadside advertising reward for capture of Lincoln assassination conspirators, illustrated with photographic prints of John H. Surratt, John Wilkes Booth, and David E. Herold. Français : Avis de recherche avec prime de 100.000 $ pour la capture de John Wilkes Booth, le meurtrier du président Abraham Lincoln, et deux de ses complices, David Edgar Herold et John Harrison Surratt. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He, and the other conspirators who escaped the noose were sent to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas 70 miles west of Key West, Florida. He tried to escape once, but was quickly discovered. He and other prisoners were transferred to “the dungeon” a ground-level gunroom. They were let out six days a week to work, but were forced to stay inside the dungeon on Sundays and holidays. He wore leg irons while outside the cell.

Dr. Mudd as he appeared when working in the carpenter’s shop in the prison at Fort Jefferson. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 1867, an outbreak of yellow fever overtook the Dry Tortugas, claiming the lives of fellow conspirator and inmate Michael O’Lauglin, as well as the prison doctor. Mudd assumed the role as the new prison doctor. [Ibid]

Mudd was pardoned in March of 1869 by President Andrew Johnson. The Doctor returned to his Maryland farm and his wife (they had 4 more children.) He had always been interested in politics and in 1877 he ran (unsuccessfully) for the Maryland House Delegates. In 1880 his farm was destroyed by a fire. and by 1883, at just 49 years old, Mudd was dead of pneumonia.

———————————————————————–

Lincoln’s death brought on a media circus the likes of which we are only all too familiar with in 2012. But then, when the nation need to be healed from its bloody civil war a swift and definitive trial was essential. Yellow journalism was in full swing. Certainly some of the men (and possible the one woman) on trial were guilty … but what do you think? Did was Dr. Mudd innocent or guilty?

‘The Lincoln Assassination’ is a good history lesson (examiner.com)
Front Page News: Questionable Lines From The Lincoln Movie (somethingawful.com)

2 Comments | tags: Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln Assassination, John Wilkes Booth, Mudd | posted in American History, Baseball, Civil War, Dr. Samuel Mudd, History, Maryland, postaday, Slavery, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, United States, Virginia

December 11, 2012

Emily Dickinson 12.10.12 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“Saying nothing…sometimes says the most.”
—Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on this day in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830. Today is the 182 anniversary of her birth.

Emily was the second of three of three children born to Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson. Her brother William Austin Dickinson was born a year before her, her litter sister Lavinia (“Vinnie”) three years after. Her father was a lawyer who served in the Massachusetts State legislature and Senate and the US House of Representatives.

The Dickinson children (Emily on the left), ca. 1840. From the Dickinson Room at Houghton Library, Harvard University. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Emily was a proper Victorian girl and was well-educated in English, History, Science (especially Botany), the Classics, Literature, and Math at Amherst Academy.

“By Emily Dickinson’s account, she delighted in all aspects of the school—the curriculum, the teachers, the students … At the academy she developed a group of close friends within and against whom she defined her self and its written expression. …the time at school was a time of intellectual challenge and relative freedom for girls, especially in an academy such as Amherst, which prided itself on its progressive understanding of education.” [Poetry Foundation. org]

At 16 she entered Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. She found her time at the Seminary less agreeable and less challenging and she only stayed a year.

In February, 1852 the Springfield Daily Republican published “Sic transit gloria mundi,” Dickinson’s first published work.

The speakers in Dickinson’s poetry, like those in Brontë’s and Browning’s works, are sharp-sighted observers who see the inescapable limitations of their societies as well as their imagined and imaginable escapes. [Poetry Foundation. org]

Only 20 of her 1700 poems were published in her lifetime. She collected her writing in notebooks and shared her poems with her family and close friends, especially her sister-in-law Susan Gilbert Dickinson.

In 1864 and 1865 she went to stay with her Norcross cousins in Boston to see an eye doctor whereupon she was forbidden to read or write. It would be the last time she ventured from Amherst. [Online-Literature.com]

By 1870 she and Lavinia were staying at home to care for their bed ridden mother. In 1872 “Dickinson enjoyed a romance with Judge Otis Phillips Lord, a friend of her fathers.” [Emily Dickinson Museum.org]

Austin Dickinson house, Amherst, Massachusetts. View of facade from left. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 1874 her father died unexpectedly. At that point Emily stopped going out in public. She lost her nephew Gib in 1883. Judge Lord died in 1884. And her dear friend Helen Hunt Jackson passed in 1885. Death seemed to surround her. Emily herself was very ill with an sickness “affecting the kidneys, Bright’s Disease, symptoms of which include chronic pain and edema, which may have contributed to her seclusion from the outside world.” [Online-Literature.com]

To make the abstract tangible, to define meaning without confining it, to inhabit a house that never became a prison, Dickinson created in her writing a distinctively elliptical language for expressing what was possible but not yet realized.[Poetry Foundation. org]

“She remained in poor health until she died at age 55 on May 15, 1886. She was buried four days later in the town cemetery, now known as West Cemetery.” [Ibid]

English: Grave of Emily Dickinson in Amherst, Massachusetts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then ’tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.

Emily Dickinson: celebrating a soul who selected her own society (acpladult.wordpress.com)
Saturday Review: Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson (tomatoesandespresso.com)

8 Comments | posted in American History, Emily Dickinson, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, Victorian, Writing

December 6, 2012

Williamsburg (part 4)

By ritalovestowrite

[This is part four of my What To Do in Williamsburg Blog for part one go HERE. For part two go HERE. For part three go HERE. ]

Previous tips included:

Planning your trip in the Fall or Winter to avoid the heat and crowds.
Staying in a Colonial House.
Engaging with the locals.
Visit the Wren Building
Take the Rubbish, Treasures and Colonial Life Tour & the Behind the Scenes Tour
Visit the De Witt Wallace and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museums
Tour the Governor’s Palace
Tour the Thomas Everard House.
Visit Bassett Hall.
Get spooky with it.

Today we’ll touch on some odds and ends in Williamsburg and travel down the road to the current capital of Virginia, Richmond.

11. Stop in to see the craftsmen making things with wood. Bill likes woodworking so we spent time at the joiners near the Capitol on Frances Street…

Saw envy at the Joiners.

Where they do ordinary work, like making sashes for windows and bellows for the Gunsmith Shop….

Making 1 of three large wooden panels for the bellows.

…and fancy work, like this decorative piece.

The craftsmen at the Joiners used a lot of fine carving skills to make this wooden ornamental panel.

We also went to the Cabinetmaker’s shop, which is on Nicholson Street, closer to the Palace Green.

Bill has a talk with one of the cabinet makers.

Both shops had beautiful sets of hollows and rounds for making moldings.

Hollow and round plane sets on the shelf.

12.) Get your Ps and Qs in line at the Printers. Bill indulged my love of graphic design with a trip to the Printers. We had a nice long talk with printer and he was kind enough to let me have a go at the press.

First I inked the plate.

Added paper, cranked the carriage into place then PULLED the press down.

Cranked the carriage back out and lifted the paper tray and…

Taadaaa… my impression of a colonial paper. (Get it? IMPRESSION? It’s a letter-press. Never mind, it’s a printing joke.)

13.) Stroll along Duke of Gloucester Street. We especially enjoyed the Blacksmith, the Silversmith and the Milliner.

The Milliner shows off a hat that would have been popular around 1790. I like to think of it as a Mrs. Bennett or Mrs. Dashwood appropriate hat. (Yes that is Jane Austen reference.)

14.) Stand witness for the prosecution at the Courthouse. Learn about the 18th Century justice system first hand with the Order In The Court program (it runs several times a day and is free with your Williamsburg pass).

The Williamsburg Courthouse is one of the original buildings and was still in use when Goodwin and Rockefeller began to rebuild the town.

We saw several civil trials which required audience participation.

A Williamsburg visitor takes on the roll of a towns person who has failed to come to church — an offense which was against the law.

You MIGHT even get a chance to be on the judge’s bench (even if you’re a woman == as long as you go along with premise that you are a man for the purposes of historical accuracy.)

Yes, that’s judge Rita conferring with the bearded judge to the right on the fate of some poor soul. Don’t worry I was very easy. Every body else was a hangin’ mood, but not me.

15. EAT. There are four Colonial Taverns to choose from in the city, Christiana Campbell’s, Shield’s, King’s Arms, and Chownings. I liked King’s Arms the best because they have an amazing Peanut Soup. Dinner at any of the Taverns is by candle light and includes period entertainment, but be warned … it will be an expensive meal. You might choose to eat at one of the restaurants at Merchant’s Square (which is between Colonial Williamsburg and Williams and Mary. The bus that runs in a clockwise circle around the historic district has a stop at Merchants Square so you wont have to get in your car.) We liked the Cheese Shop on the square, and especially the Aroma Coffee Shop on Prince George Street. If you do decide to step into your horseless carriage just go out Richmond Road and you’ll find the usual suspect of chain eateries, an oddly prolific collection of pancake establishments and some rather nice restaurants of the non-chain variety (yes, there are still some of them out there.) We enjoyed sushi at Kyoto and American fare at Food for Thought (the best food I ate all week was the Food for Thought’s quinoa salad.)

Time to travel down the road and into the present, leaving 18th Century Williamsburg for 21st Century Richmond. Well, almost… there’s still a lot of history to explore on this trip.

Richmond is the capital of Virginia and during the American Civil War it was the Capital of the Confederacy. The city is ripe with monuments & museums to the South (and given the whole Slavery thing, that made me a mite itchy. But I do love my history, so…) While in the city you can visit the Museum and White House of the Confederacy, the Virginia Historical Society, Hollywood Cemetery or take a stroll down Monument Avenue.

We went to Tredegar Iron Works on the James River. You get two museums in one location here. One is run by the National Park Service and the other is part of the American Civil War Center. We went into the (free) Park Service museum and enjoyed the displays and movie on the third floor. The Map Room is a great way to orient yourself on Richmond’s role in the war.

Photograph of the Tredegar Iron Works, shortly after the Evacuation Fire of 1865; despite the original caption of the image, the works themselves survived largely unscathed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The outdoor exhibits had seen better days, but this museum is a gem in the rough. I hope they get some funding and can restore all the exhibits to top-notch condition.

Next stop: Shopping. Carytown is Richmond’s “Mile of Style” and we enjoyed a mild weather stroll down the main drag of boutiques and unique shops. This quaint shopping district won Southern Living Magazine’s “Best Neighborhood to Shop In” nod by the magazine’s readers.

Flower Power Case at Anthill Antiques, Carytown, Richmond, VA (Photo credit: kayadams.com)

We ate at the Can Can Brasserie a beautifully restored building that made you feel like you’d stepped off the streets of Paris. I kept expecting to see Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec stroll by the table. The atmosphere was delightful, so was the food (I got half a Roast Chicken Salad and a half order of their Roasted Apple & Rutabaga Soup. ) And don’t forget to order a Eloise (their special version of a Shirley Temple.)

But our big find in Richmond, besides the wonderful company, was the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts… which I will talk about tomorrow.

2 Comments | tags: Colonial Williamsburg, Richmond Virginia, Tredegar Iron Works | posted in American History, Architecture, Civil War, History, postaday, Thought of the Day, United States, Virginia

December 6, 2012

Williamsburg (part 3)

By ritalovestowrite

[This is part three of my What To Do in Williamsburg Blog for part one go HERE. For part two go HERE. ]

Previous tips included:

Planning your trip in the Fall or Winter to avoid the heat and crowds.
Staying in a Colonial House.
Engaging with the locals.
Visit the Wren Building
Take the Rubbish, Treasures and Colonial Life Tour & the Behind the Scenes Tour
Visit the De Witt Wallace and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museums

Today we’ll go inside some of Williamsburg’s beautiful houses and get a little spooky after dark.

7. Tour the Governor’s Palace. It is the largest and finest residence in Williamsburg and it is meant to awe, inspire and intimidate all who see it. The moment you walk into the entrance hall lined with fire arms and crossed swords you know the power behind the man who lives here. It was home to seven colonial governors and two elected Virginia governors before Thomas Jefferson moved the Capital further west to Richmond in 1780.

Front gate leading to the Palace.

Tours, which require a separate ticket, will bring you through the public and private portions of the house.

One of the beds in the Palace.

After your tour explore the vast gardens. Don’t miss the box wood maze. And be sure to climb the pyramid over the ice house. I found the gardens more enchanting than the building itself.

View of the box wood maze taken from the top of the pyramid. This was from our 2010 trip, and it had just snowed.

There were dozens of hidden treasures.

Window through the garden wall looking out to the canal.

Even if you don’t take a formal Palace tour be sure to stop in to see the cellars and the kitchen. It will give you a fascinating glimpse on how they kept this huge home running. The cook, a man, was one of the highest paid and best regarded people in Williamsurg btw.

They made one big meal for the day. What kept was “left over” for breakfast.

8. Tour the Thomas Everard House. On a prime piece of real estate on the Palace Green is the Thomas Everard House. Everard was an orphan when he arrived in Virginia as an apprentice to Matthew Kemp. Everard trained for seven years as a clerk. Soon after his apprenticeship was finished he was appointed clerk of Elizabeth City County court. Eventually he became the clerk of York county court for 36 years, Mayor of Williamsburg and held other prestigious post in the city. He purchased the house on the corner of Palace Green and expanded it.

The front of the Everard House faces the Palace Green.

His wife died fairly young but his two daughters, Fanny and Patsy lived with him as they grew up.

One of the girl’s bedroom.

Fanny married Rev. James Horrocks in 1765. He was the rector of Bruton Parish Church and president of Williams and Mary. He was a powerful man in the colony. When Rev. Horrocks died she returned to her father’s house. Sadly she died a year later. Her sister, Patsy lived, there until 1774 when she married.

The house is in a “U” configuration. On the main floor the parlor and dining room face the front. The Parlor is a public room in the house. This multi use room can be set up for music, games or dancing.

Thomas’ bedroom was accessible through the drawling room.

He had a quieter prospect of the yard and garden out his window. A back door allowed for special friends to enter his cozy retreat.

Like the Parlor, the Dinning Room also faces the Palace Green.

The door in the back of the dining room led to Thomas’ study. This room was also accessible through a rear door.

The Thomas Everard House is open 9-4 Tue, Wed & Friday.

9. Visit Bassett Hall. Williamsburg would not have been possible without the vision of one man and the generosity of another. The first man was Rev. W.A.R. Goodwin, The second was John D. Rockefeller, Jr.. Goodwin convinced Rockefeller to help him rebuild the Revolutionary City to its Colonial glory. Rockefeller and his wife Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.

It was their retreat from the outside world. The Rockefellers visited there twice each year. The house and grounds have been restored not to the colonial era, but to the 1930s when the Rockefellers lived there.

Abby filled the rooms with her folk art finds.

Folk art graces the walls at Bassett Hall.

One of her special interest was “School Girl Art.” A sub set of her Folk Art collection the School Girl Art was literally done by girls who were away at school, usually finishing school in the 19 and 18th centuries.

A sample of School Girl Mourning Art memoralizing some one close to them who has died.

A sample of School Girl Mourning Art. The artist was encouraged to memorialize some one close to them who had died.

The family entertained the locals — rich and poor– at their dinner table.

Dining Room decorated to Christmas

During the summer guest were often invited to tea in the Tea Room which was in a building overlooking the garden.

Looking back at the house from the garden.

Bassett Hall is open Wed-Sun 9-5. Don’t miss the informative movie at the beginning of the tour. You’ll learn a lot about the Rockefellers and the re-making of Williamsburg.

10. Get spooky with it. When you visit a 300 + year old city you expect a lot of history, and probably a few ghosts. So join in the fun and take a Ghost tour. We did the Tavern Ghost tour and it was fun (if not very scary.) Better still participate in the Cry Witch Program at the Capitol.

The Capitol Building at night before the Cry Witch program.

You’ll witness the trial of Grace Sherwood with first person interpreters bringing the transcript and court room drama to life. We don’t know what the actual verdict was, those documents have been lost. So the audience in the courtroom gets to weigh the evidence and decide Grace’s fate.

Tomorrow we finish up with Williamsburg and move up the road to Richmond.

Williamsburg (part 2) (ritalovestowrite.com)
Williamsburg (ritalovestowrite.com)
Wreaths of Colonial Williamsburg (virginiaplantation.wordpress.com)

Leave a comment | tags: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, John D. Rockefeller, Palace Green, Thomas Everard, Williamsburg | posted in American History, Europe, History, Patriotic, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, United States, Williamsburg

December 4, 2012

Williamsburg (part 2)

By ritalovestowrite

[This is part two of my What To Do in Williamsburg Blog for part one go HERE.]

Yesterday’s tips included:

Planning your trip in the Fall or Winter to avoid the heat and crowds.
Staying in a Colonial House.
Engaging with the locals.

Today we’ll focus on some [FREE] tours.

4. Visit the Wren Building.

The first State House of Virginia was in Jamestown. But it burned down. Then it burned again. And again. And a fourth time. The governor and the citizens of Jamestown thought they’d better look for a better location for their capital. They chose Williamsburg (then known as the Middle Plantation) because the town already had a market, a church — Burton Parish, and a school — William and Mary. The architectural gem of William and Mary is the Wren Building. It sits at the opposite end of Duke of Gloucester Street from the Capitol and it is definitely worth a visit.

English: The front of the Wren Building at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The building began construction in 1695 and was completed in 1699. It is the oldest restored building in Williamsburg. It has suffered three major fires (in 1705, 1859 and 1862) and been rebuilt each time. Between 1928 and 1931 it was restored to its Colonial appearance. Every student at William and Mary has at least one class in the historic Wren Building during their time at the college. The college counts three US presidents among its alumni; Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler. Their portraits hang in the Great Hall.

Free tours of the building are available M-F 1-5 when school is in session. Hint: As you climb the steps to the front door look for a patch of darker red brick to your left. You’ll see the initials of some of the school’s earliest residents carved in the bricks.

Wren Building from the William and Mary Campus side. (Photo credit: Bill.)

5.) Take the Rubbish, Treasures and Colonial Life Tour. Rev. W.A.R. Goodwin, the pastor at Bruton Church convinced John D. Rockefeller Jr. to join him in a dream of restoring the sleepy little 1920’s country seat back to the glorious colonial capital it had once been. That took a lot of money, a lot of research and a lot of digging. There is no better way to learn about how that transformation took place than on the 90 minute Rubbish, Treasures and Colonial Life tour. Meet members of the staff, learn about how archaeological methods have changed over the years, and see the treasures that await their turn to be cataloged. Tickets are FREE with your Williamsburg Admission Pass, but you must make a reservation prior to the tour.

6.) Another great free tour is the Behind the Scenes tour. This tour takes place at the Bruton Heights School and focuses on preservation techniques (as opposed how the objects are found, put together and cataloged.) You’ll see the studio where educational videos, Emmy Award winning broadcasts and blogs are made…

…then go to one of the restoration labs to see work being done on an 18th century item. We visited the Textile Lab where they were restoring some quilts for an upcoming show at the De Witt Wallace Museum.

Over sized quilt being restored at the Textile Lab

Detail from an over sized quilt being restored at the Textile Lab.

Detail of quilt

6.) Go to the De Witt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. With a substantial permanent exhibit and wonderful traveling exhibits we have never been disappointed by a stop at the twin museums that are accessible through the recreated Public Hospital on Frances Street.

The Frenchman’s Map was on display as part of a temporary exhibit on maps and map making. Drawn when the French moved into the city after during the Siege of Yorktown, It is the Rosetta stone for Archeologist trying to restore Williamsburg. The Bodleian Plate, another key to what the Colonial Capital looked like, is also on display.

This is a terrific way to spend a rainy (or cold) afternoon. And if you are traveling with youngsters the Children’s room in the Abby Aldrich Museum is delightful.

: Looking up to the past.
A young visitor finds both human and equine re-enactors equally fascinating and friendly on Duke of Gloucester street.

To read my article on Williamsburg: A Winter Escape in 2011’s Mason-Dixon ARRIVE Magazine click HERE and scroll down == it is the third article on the page.

Williamsburg (ritalovestowrite.com)
A Walk through Virginia’s Historic Triangle – Williamsburg, VA (travelpod.com)

2 Comments | tags: Colonial Williamsburg | posted in American History, Architecture, England, History, Non Fiction, Patriotic, postaday, Thought of the Day, United States, Williamsburg

November 24, 2012

Harpo Marx 11.23.12 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“He looked like something that had gotten loose from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”
–Harpo Marx

Adolph Marx was born on this day in New York City, New York, USA in 1888. Today is the 124th anniversary of his birth.

The second of five brothers in the Marx family, Adolph didn’t make it past second grade in school. He was small for his age and he was picked on by the bigger boys because he was Jewish. Two boys literally threw him out of the (first floor) classroom window on several occasions before he gave up and left school. He joined his brother Chico in doing odd jobs to help the family.

His uncle Al Schoenberg (stage name Al Shean) was in a Vaudeville act. His older brother Chico played piano, and his younger bother Julius (Groucho) was a boy soprano. Adolph joined Julius and Milton (Gummo) to form “the Three Nightingales” in 1910. Lou Levy joined them to make the group “The Four Nightingales.” When their mother, Minnie, and Aunt Hannah joined the act they changed the name to “The Six Mascots.”

The five Marx brothers with their parents in New York City, 1915. From left to right; Groucho, Gummo, Minnie (mother), Zeppo, Frenchy (father), Chico, and Harpo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 1911 he changed his name to Arthur because he didn’t like the sound of Adolph. He adopted the stage name of Harpo when his mother sent him a harp. He didn’t know how to tune it or play it. He didn’t even know how to hold it until he found an image of an angel holding a harp at the 5&10 store. He tuned it the best he could and taught himself to play.

At that point Harpo’s two-fold schtick — he “couldn’t talk” so he blew his horn or whistled to communicate; and he played the harp — was in place. (He could, in fact, talk. And he did so — a lot — off stage/scene. His “speaking career” stopped after he received a bad review for a largely ad-libbed performance in the play Home Again.)

A critic in the local newspaper described the show by saying, in part, “Adolph Marx performed beautiful pantomime which was ruined whenever he spoke.” Harpo then decided he could do a better job of stealing focus by not speaking. [The Marx Brothers; Harpo Marx from an article in Theatre Arts Monthly, October 1939]

The four Marx Brothers stowing away on an ocean vessel by hiding in barrels in this promotional still for Monkey Business. Left to right: Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, Groucho. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the Vaudeville stage the Marx Brothers moved on to Hollywood. They made the short, Humor Risk, in 1921. (The film has since been lost.) Harpo was then in Too Many Kisses as the character “The Village Peter Pan.” He actually has a line in this movie, but, as it’s a silent film, you don’t actually hear him speak it. His brothers did not appear in the film.

In 1929 the brothers put out The Cocoanuts.The film was based on their Broadway play of the same name. In it…

the Marx Brothers run a hotel, auction off some land, thwart a jewel robbery, and generally act like themselves. [IMDB]

They shot during the day and performed in the stage show of Animal Crackers at night. It was an exhausting schedule and the Brothers were not happy with the result. They were “so appalled … that they offered to buy the negative from Paramount so that they could burn it.” [Ibid]

Marx Brothers, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front. Top to bottom: Chico, Harpo, Groucho and Zeppo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Brothers made Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers , Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Room Service, At the Circus, Go West, The Big Store, A Night in Casablanca, and Love Happy in quick succession.

Starting in 1952 Harpo started doing guest spots on Television, most notably on the I Love Lucy Show.

His last film was The Story of Mankind in 1957. He played Sir Isaac Newton.

Off screen Harpo, the elementary school drop out, rubbed shoulders with some pretty high level literary types. In the 1920’s he held his own at the Algonquin Round Table with writers such as George S. Kaufman and Dorothy Parker. In 1928 he spent the summer on the French Riviera with George Bernard Shaw.

He attributes his welcome hanging out with the fast literary crowd at the Algonquin Round Table in New York in the 1920s to his ability to listen — in fact, to being the one real listener in that set. [Robert Wilfred Franson’s review of Harpo Speaks]

In 1933 Harpo did a 6-week goodwill mission in the Soviet Union. He was the “first American to perform in the Soviet Union after the United States government officially recognized it.” [Harpo’s Place] According to his autobiography, Harpo Speaks, the trip was part performance and part spy caper. He smuggled papers out of the USSR by taping them to his leg.

Marx died while having open-heart surgery on September 28, 1964.

Here’s a clip of Harpo actually speaking (and honking):

1 Comment | tags: Harpo Marx, Marx Brother | posted in American History, Broadway, Film, Harpo Marx, postaday, Theatre, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, Uncategorized, United States

November 22, 2012

Abigail Adams 11.22.12 Thought of the Day

By ritalovestowrite

“We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.”
— Abigail Adams

Abigail Adams by Benjamin Blythe, 1766 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Abigail Smith was born on this day in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1744. Today is the 268th anniversary of her birth.

Abigail was literally born in a church. Her father, Reverend William Smith was the pastor at the North Parish Congregational Church, her mother, Elizabeth Quincy Smith was first cousins to Dorothy Quincy Hancock (John Hancock’s wife). Reverend Smith believed in reason and morality and he imparted those lessons to his daughters Mary, Elizabeth and Abigail. Her mother home schooled the girls with the aid of her extended family’s libraries. The girls studied English and French literature, philosophy, history, and the Bible. Abigail
“was a keen political observer, prolific writer…” [abigailadams.org]

Abigail’s third cousin John Adams visited the Smith’s with his friend Richard Cranch. Cranch was engaged to Mary Smith, the eldest Smith sister. Adam’s was just a country lawer, and Abigail’s mother didn’t approve of him as a suitor, but the couple prevailed.

On October 25, 1764 Abigail married John Adams, a Harvard graduate pursuing a law career. Their marriage was one of mind and heart, producing three sons and two daughters, and lasting for more than half a century. [Ibid]

As a young married couple they lived on the farm John inherited, Braintree. Later they moved to Boston. She stayed in Massachusetts when John went to Philadelphia to participate in the Continental Congress (1 & 2), travelled abroad as an envoy, and served in elected office.

Abigail struggled alone with wartime shortages, lack of income, and difficult living conditions. She ran the household, farm, and educated her children. Abigail’s letters to John were strong, witty and supportive. The letters, which have been preserved, detail her life during revolutionary times, and describe the many dangers and challenges she faced as our young country fought to become independent. Most of all, the letters tell of her loneliness without her “dearest friend,” her husband John. [Ibid]

She joined John in Paris in 1784 and travelled with him to England the following year. In 1800 she became the First Lady to preside over the White House as John Adams became the second President of the United States. (The Capitol had recently been moved to Washington DC).

English: “Abigail Smith Adams,” oil on canvas, by the American artist Gilbert Stuart. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When John Adams lost his bid for a second term he and Abigail moved back to Braintree …”and for 17 years enjoyed the companionship that public life had long denied them.” [Ibid]

Abigail Adams died on October 28, 1818. She was a woman …

often ahead of her time with many of her ideas. She opposed slavery, believed in equal education for boys and girls, and practiced what she learned as a child – the duty of the fortunate is to help those who are less fortunate. [Ibid]

Thought of the Day 10.30.12 John Adams (PART ONE) (ritalovestowrite.com)
Thought of the Day 10.30.12 John Adams PART TWO (ritalovestowrite.com)

1 Comment | posted in Abigail Adams, American History, Europe, History, John Adams, Patriotic, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

ritaLOVEStoWRITE

Category Archives: American History

Martha Carey Thomas 1.2.13 Thought of the Day

Thomas Nelson, Jr. 12,26.12 Thought of the Day

Samuel Mudd 12.20.12 Thought of the Day

Emily Dickinson 12.10.12 Thought of the Day

Williamsburg (part 4)

Williamsburg (part 3)

Williamsburg (part 2)

Harpo Marx 11.23.12 Thought of the Day

Abigail Adams 11.22.12 Thought of the Day

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