Notes from the Road, September 12, 2016

This past week, I drove (and bicycled) to more 19^th century historical sites. Last Monday, I went to Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was assassinated on April 14^th, 1865. The museum in the basement is a good overview of the Civil War and its ending, which happened just days before Lincoln’s death. His balcony box seat looks much like it did the night he was murdered.

Lincoln's balcony seat at Frod's theater (Photo by Hunner)

That night, I watched the Washington Nationals defeat the Atlanta Braves with friends and parkgonauts Laura and John.

The Nats get a curly W (win) against the Braves (Photo by Hunner)

Laura suggested that I tour the Frederick Douglass house which I did the next day. I had crossed his path at Seneca Falls, New Bedford, and Harper’s Ferry so it was interesting to learn more about this escaped slave who became a powerful abolitionist at his home overlooking D.C.  

Douglass's House (Photo by Hunner)

That afternoon, I bicycled around the National Mall, which I think is the best way to see the heart of our capitol. I started off at Jefferson’s Memorial, went to Washington’s Monument (closed because of elevator problems), then passed by several Smithsonian units including the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian.

On top, the Capitol. On bottom, NPS 100th birthday banners at the National Archive (Photos by Hunner)

I then circled around the Capitol and rode past the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court buildings. I took a break and had a beer at the Dubliner near Union Station, then pedaled down the north side of the mall passing by the art, natural history, U.S. history, and African American history museums as well as the National Archives.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture set to open later this month.
(Photo by Hunner)

I spent some time west of the Washington Monument at the World War II Memorial paying tribute to my dad who fought in New Guinea and the Philippines and continued along the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Monument. I sat with many people on the steps thinking about Lincoln and looking back over the mall to the Capitol. It is a glorious site.

On top, the view from the steps of the Lincoln Monument. On bottom, Lincoln peering out from inside the monument. (Photos by Hunner)

I walked my bike over to the stark Vietnam Veterans Memorial with its list of over 50,000 names of the Americans who died in that war and I then rode over to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial with his inspirational quotes etched on the marble walls.

On top, the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. On the bottom, King's Memorial (Photos by Hunner)

Similarly, I walked around the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and read many of the famous things that he said. Then I noticed something bizarre. A lot of people were wandering around, looking at their phones and then around the plaza. I even saw the Park Ranger on his cell phone walking around. I asked him what was going on and he said that this site is one of the best places in the country to play Pokémon Go. In fact, he told me that people come from around the world to play there. At night, hundreds of people arrive, wander around, capture the pocket monsters, and acquire candies and stardust. When someone sees a rare Pokémon and shout out its name, like “Bellossom,” ? says it is like a herd of wildebeests running across the plaza looking for this creature. I must admit I don’t play this game and have mixed feelings about people using a place like FDR’s Memorial for it. But ? talked about bringing new groups of people into the parks and maybe they will look up and read one of the FDR quotes as they capture Pokémons.

On top, Pokemon Go players at the FDR Memorial. On bottom, a ranger has to keep current with Pokemon Go to assist visitors (Photos by Hunner)

Leaving Washington the next day, I stopped at the Chancellorsville National Military Park and visited the spot where in 1863 Confederate troops accidentally shot General “Stonewall” Jackson. He died several days later, depriving Robert E. Lee and the South of perhaps its best general. Nearby, I visited the Wilderness Battlefield which was the beginning of the end for the Confederates as the Union troops led by General Grant ground towards Richmond in 1864-1865.

I visited my old friend George at Shannon Farms near Charlottesville. Thanks for all the people at Shannon Farms for their hospitality, especially Barbara and George. George and I drove to see Appomattox Courthouse NHP where General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant on April 9^th, 1865, effectively ending the war. It is a place of quiet dignity which honors the more than 600,000 men who died in our Civil War. 

On top, George talks with first person interpreter Carl at Appomattox. On bottom, a painting of the surrender by General Lee to General Grant which ended the Civil War (Photo by Hunner and from exhibit at Appomattox)

Now, I take a break from driving to our National Parks and fly to Scandinavia where I attend the annual conference of Bridging Ages in Kalmar Sweden and then go to my nephew’s wedding in Denmark. Here's a link to this living history conference if you are interested: Bridging Ages 2016. I’ll post something next Monday so stay tuned. In the meantime, get out, go to a park, and enjoy the natural and cultural wonders of the United States.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monument, New York and New Jersey

I went to a birthday party on August 25^th and fell in love with a French woman. I have seen her several times over the years, but this time we clicked. Maybe it was the celebration, maybe it was all the people flocking to her, whatever the chemistry, I was smitten. She had an entourage that accompanied this elegant lady as she landed in New York. Artists and industrialists brought her to New York from Paris. I admired her like millions of others past and present, for her call for freedom and liberty. Of course, I am talking about the Statue of Liberty.

Statue of Liberty and downtown Manhattan from the ferry to the islands (Photo by Hunner)

On the 100^th birthday of the National Park Service, I went to the islands of Liberty and Ellis to celebrate. Hand in glove, you can’t separate them. Liberty and seeking a better life, freedom and the American Dream, the Statue of Liberty is the face on our proud tradition, and Ellis Island is where millions arrived to actualize that dream.

I took a tour led by NPS Ranger Tom Tauscher around the base of the pedestal. He joked that a French lady that size is going to require a lot of maintenance. For example, the torch that is a beacon for the world has had several major alterations. At first, the light from the torch was dim. So six portholes were cut in the flame. Still dim, another 194 holes were cut. Still not enough, so in 1916, the original torch was replaced by a stained glass one, which leaked and weakened the hand and arm that held up the torch of freedom. Finally in 1986, the Lady underwent a major renovation which included removing the stained glass torch and replacing it with the current golden flame in time for the centenary of her arrival in the New York harbor.

Stained Glass torch on exhibit in the Liberty pedestal museum (Photo by Hunner)

Her original name, “Liberty Enlightening the World,” began as an idea of Edouard de Laboulaye and a group of French intellectuals who wanted to protest political repression at home. Laboulaye’s artist friend Auguste Bartholdi seized the idea of creating a new Colossus and in 1876, displayed the arm and torch at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The French public financed the statue while the American peopled funded the pedestal that the Lady stands on.

Auguste Bartholdi (From exhibit in the Liberty pedestal museum)

Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer championed the statue by launching a fundraising campaign in his New York World. The names of all donors were published in the newspaper. Circulation increased as the public bought the daily to see their names in print, and competition among the wealthy occurred since Pulitzer also printed the amount of each donation.

Lady Liberty being built in Paris (From exhibit at Liberty pedestal museum)

A replica of Liberty's face (From exhibit at Liberty's pedestal museum)

To support a statue that stands 151 feet (46 meters) high, in 1879 Bartholdi turned to Gustave Eiffel to design the infrastructure for the copper covered lady. By 1885, the statue was completed in Paris, disassembled, sent to New York, and reassembled on Bedloe’s Island in its harbor. On October 28, 1886, Lady Liberty was dedicated. Contrary to Ranger Tom’s assertion that the lady needs a lot of maintenance, copper does not need that much. The 62,000 pounds of copper give a green coloring to Liberty and like a good sunblock, protects her from the elements.

Above, a model of Eiffel's structure to support the statue. Below, Gustave Eiffel
(From exhibit at the Liberty pedestal museum)

The meaning of Lady Liberty has evolved over the years. At first, Liberty Enlightening the World had a goal of protesting Napoleon III’s oppression in France by sending her to the United States. Once in New York, the statue’s meaning changed, especially after Ellis Island opened in 1892. As immigrants arrived, the “Mother of Exiles” greeted them with her torch of liberty and her promise of freedom and opportunity. Emma Lazarus’s poem, “The New Colossus,” has Lady Liberty saying:

Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 

The wretched refuge of your teeming shore. 

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, 

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Emma Lazarus's full poem "The New Colossus" (From exhibit at the Liberty pedestal museum)

With immigration on hold during World War I, Lady Liberty served as a patriotic symbol to urge the public to buy war bonds and enlist in the armed forces. Now the Lady is used for a variety of purposes from marketing products and services to advocating for political candidates to attracting tourists. Three million people flock to her each year. She is a powerful symbol.

From Liberty Island, a short ferry ride took me to Ellis Island where I spent the afternoon. Beginning in 1892, immigrants arriving into New York had to go through Ellis. Part of the exhibits at Ellis Island illustrate how officials processed the newcomers —sometimes as many as 5,000 a day. There, arrivals were vetted for their nationality (since quotas limited people from certain countries), for how much money they had (at one point, a new law required at least $25), and for any physical or mental health issues that would make one an unfit immigrant (only 2% of the arrivals were sent back to where they came from). At times, family names were Anglicized and radically changed. It often was a confusing time.

Immigrant ship landing at Ellis Island (From Ellis Island exhibit)

The exhibits at Ellis cover the push and pull of immigration. First, why did people leave their home countries? Graphic images of war ravaged villages, destitute families living in ruined buildings, pogroms and purges, droughts and starvation illustrate what pushed people to leave their homelands. Some of the images in the galleries speak to such desperation.

Poverty in Eastern Europe (From Ellis Island exhibit) 

After making the difficult decision to leave one’s country of origin, the next question was where to go? What places pulled people to relocate and to start a new life? The promise of America from the 16^th century on served as a magnet for such aspirations. Whatever the reasons for leaving a home, millions came to North America for a better life, for freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. This freedom drew people to these shores long before Lady Liberty symbolized this desire.

Granted, many millions of Africans were brought here as slaves, and for them, the dream of liberty remained at best a remote and dangerous possibility. We will explore this aspect of the American experience more fully when we visit Civil War sites.

Little Italy in New York City (From Ellis Island exhibit)

Once allowed to enter the United States, many immigrants stayed in New York. They moved into neighborhoods that became havens for them and their fellow countrymen. They worked where they could, dreamed of a better tomorrow for themselves and their children, and innovated to make that dream happen. Others spread out from the large railroad station near Ellis Island in New Jersey to farm or work in factories and raise families across the country.

Immigrants at work (From Ellis Island exhibit)

We are a stronger and more lively country for the presence and contributions of immigrants to the U.S.  Diversity is our destiny. It has been from the beginning, even before Europeans arrived on these shores. Humans need each other, both family members as well as strangers, to thrive. We culturally code-switch—we borrow from other peoples to make our lives better and more interesting. We find new ways, either by inventing something or by borrowing from a different culture. With such innovations and peoples’ motivations to have a different life, society adopts and adapts and often improves. I have written more about cultural code-switching at Contact: Encounters and the Colombian Exchange.

Ellis Island processed 12,000,000 people from 1892 to 1954 when it closed. Interestingly, that is the estimate of the number of undocumented Mexicans who now reside in the U.S. Deporting those people would be equal to sending all of those who passed through Ellis Island back to their country of origin. What would the United States be if the people who entered through Ellis Island had not built their lives and families here?

The motto of the United States is E pluribus unum – out of many, one. Out of the indigenous people who had lived here for millennia, out of the immigrants who came here, out of the slaves forced to come here, and from the descendants of all of these people, we have created one nation.

Newly arrived children (From Ellis Island exhibit)

At the birthday party for the National Park Service at Liberty Island, a Girl Scout troop stood at the base of the pedestal and sang “This Land is Your Land.” See the video at Statue of Liberty Facebook page. Rangers held up cue cards with the lyrics, and we all sang along. I got chocked up. Later I asked Melissa Cannady why they chose that song, and she replied: “Because the parks are all our lands.” Enough said.

Rangers holding up cue cards with the lyrics of "This Land is Your Land" (Photo by Hunner)

The Statue of Liberty became a National Monument in 1924. Ellis Island became part of the NPS by proclamation by President Johnson in 1965 and was reopened to the public in 1990 as the country's primary museum devoted to immigration.