Kate Kelly2013-05-24T22:23:03-04:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=kate-kellyCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Kate KellyGood old fashioned elbow grease.Woman-Owned, Minority-Owned Construction Company Marks 108 Years and Countingtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.31501552013-04-25T11:10:09-04:002013-04-25T11:10:16-04:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
In her position as company head, Cheryl Daniel represents the fifth generation of the oldest family-run minority and woman-owned design and construction firm in the country. For more than a century, McKissack family members have stood on the shoulders of the previous generation to build what is now a multi-million dollar company with 160 employees. In the last few years the company has been growing 17-20 percent in both revenue and clients.
The company was founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1905 by Cheryl's grandfather, Moses III (1879-1952). Cheryl McKissack Daniel's father, William DeBerry McKissack, took over in 1968 and ran the company until 1983 when he suffered a serious heart attack. Next, his wife and Cheryl's mother, Leatrice Buchanan McKissack, stepped in to effectively managed and grow the business.
Today clients include Columbia University, the NYS Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the NYC School Construction Authority, and in 2013, McKissack & McKissack was announced as part of the construction team that will be working on the re-build of the Tappan Zee Bridge, the 3.1 -mile bridge that spans the distance between Rockland and Westchester Counties and is a vital link across the Hudson River, carrying 138,000 cars per day.
The Family Story in the U.S. Began with Slavery
The tradition of working in the building trade dates to the first family member to arrive in this country. Moses was kidnapped from his home in West Africa; he was only 12 at the time. He was purchased by a Scotsman named John McKissack who provided him with a surname and put the slave to work in the brick-building and construction business McKissack ran with his son, William.
The story expands when William McKissack's daughter, Susan, caught the eye of a French Huguenot, but the young man's father opposed the marriage. All the other men in the family lineage had married a "Sarah." Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV's father wanted his son to hold out for a woman with the correct first name. However, William McKissack felt the two young people belonged together so he offered an incentive: free bricks for a new home for the couple and slave labor to build it.
Susan and Nathaniel were married in 1841 but construction on the house did not begin until 1852 and was completed in 1855. The mansion now known as Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill, Tennessee, still stands and is open to the public as a museum and an educational site. (Leatrice McKissack is on their Board of Directors.)
At some point, William McKissack granted Moses his freedom. Moses married a Cherokee woman with whom he had 14 children, 12 of whom survived. His ninth son, Gabriel Moses II, picked up the building trade where his father left off. Gabriel worked out of Pulaski, Tennessee, and became well-known as a craftsman and builder. He was highly sought-after for his intricate work building spiral staircases and adding beautiful finishing touches to buildings.
Two sons of Gabriel's were interested in continuing in the building trade -- Moses III (born in 1879) and Calvin (born in 1890). This is the generation that started the family business that exists today. Moses III began work in Pulaski but started getting jobs in other locations, and soon moved to Nashville where he formally began the business in 1905. His first big commission occurred in 1908 when he was hired to build the Carnegie Library at Fisk University. He continued to obtained plum assignments, building the home of Governor A.H. Roberts, dormitories at Roger Williams University, the AME Sunday School Union Building, and many residences and other churches. Four of the Nashville buildings built by the McKissacks are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Younger brother Calvin started his own company in Dallas, Texas, and after building in both Texas and Oklahoma, he accepted a teaching position and came to Nashville where he devoted part of his time to helping his brother with the business.
New Requirement for Licenses in Architecture
The McKissacks were very much in demand, but in 1922, Tennessee -- along with some other states -- began requiring building designers to be licensed. (Up until this date, builders developed designs and executed what they planned.)
Moses and Calvin began taking a correspondence course to learn the technicalities they would need to pass the exam. When they appeared before the state licensing board, the administrators did not want to permit the two men to take the test.
"After discussing it among themselves, the board supervisors reluctantly decided it wouldn't do any harm," explains Cheryl McKissack Daniel. "It was unlikely that the men would pass the test anyway, so why not let them take it and fail?"
Both men passed, sending the administrators back into a huddle. Now what could they do to keep the men from getting their licenses?
By that time, the national press had the story, and negative publicity about Tennessee was increasing, so the board of administrators decided to award the licenses. Then the board itself pushed for the men to be given licenses in 22 additional states.
Company Continues to Grow
Moses and Calvin were getting work throughout the South. As black businessmen, they knew the only safe time to travel was during the day, and they could not stop along the way because of Jim Crow laws. They had to carefully plan their travel and eating so that they could be at a friend's or relative's home by nightfall.
Both men were community leaders. Moses was director of the National Negro Business League of America and was a major stockholder in Penny Savings Bank of Nashville and the Universal Life Insurance Company of Memphis. Calvin was president of the Negro Board of Trade and was also a trustee at Fisk University.
In 1942 the men received national recognition when they secured what grew to be an almost $8 million contract to build the 99th Pursuit Squadron Air Base at Tuskegee, Alabama. At the time, it was the largest government contract ever awarded to African-Americans.
During the Roosevelt administration, Moses McKissack was invited to the White House to confer on housing issues. Their College Hill housing development in Nashville had come to national attention.
In 1942 Moses and Calvin were awarded a Spaulding Medal for operating the outstanding Negro business for that year.
At Moses' death in 1952, Calvin stepped in. Calvin had no children, so when he passed away in 1968, Moses' son, William succeeded him.
William had three daughters, Andrea, and twins, Cheryl and Deryl. Given the era, his initial dream was that the girls would marry and sons-in-law would join the business, but he and Leatrice clearly instilled in each daughter a can-do attitude and a strong work ethic. When he returned to work in the evenings or on weekends, the girls often went with him and were kept busy tracing documents or working with T-squares and rulers. Clearly, the underlying family message was one of equal opportunity.
Graduation
In 1983, Leatrice traveled to Washington, D.C. where the twins were both graduating from Howard University. William had remained at home and was planning a big graduation party for the family's return. In D.C. the family received a terrible phone call. William McKissack had suffered a very serious heart attack.
It did not take long for Leatrice to decide who was going to run the business -- she would. Lea had been a homemaker, but she was well-educated and aware of the issues her husband dealt with as she frequently accompanied him on trips to various jobs.
Many relatives worked in the business or had money invested, and they were all concerned. When Lea and the girls returned to Nashville, a meeting was scheduled, and over some objections, Lea announced her plan. "My husband ran a wonderful business, and I often said, "The good Lord let me rest for 15 years and then put me to work.
"I found it more trouble being a woman than being an African-American," Lea said recently in a phone interview. "I had four brothers; I was the only daughter. We were all given the same education, and my parents always told me I could be anything."
She took the company in her control and ran with it. In 1990 Leatrice B. McKissack was honored by President George Bush with the award for National Female Entrepreneur of the Year.
McKissack & McKissack Today
Cheryl McKissack Daniel grew up knowing she would work in the building industry in some way. She trained as a civil engineer, and an early job involved working as part of the team building missile silos. After a couple of years at Weidlinger Associates, she moved on to the "estimate" division at Turner Construction, a job she describes as excellent training for anyone. (Cheryl was not the only family member to follow the family passion; older sister Andrea spent many years as an interior designer for Stickley, only recently retiring. Cheryl's twin sister Deryl became an architect and runs McKissack & McKissack of D.C. The company provides architecture, engineering, program and construction management services in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles, and Deryl was the chief architect for the Martin Luther King Memorial, established on the Mall in Washington in 2011.)
Shortly thereafter, Cheryl, then living in New York City, decided she could ease the burden on her mother by commuting to Nashville to help out for a couple of days each week. After a couple of years of commuting, Cheryl Daniel set up a New York office. She began specializing in design and planning, but she soon found that she preferred construction. "The jobs span a longer time, and for that reason, they can be more profitable," she says.
In 1999, her mother was ready to get out of the business, so Cheryl bought the company from her. Now her mother sits on her board of advisors, and the New York office is the hub of all activity.
Cheryl McKissack Daniel's first big job was the Germantown High School in Philadelphia, and while the company still does some work in Philadelphia, the firm mainly works in the New York area. Over the last decade, McKissack & McKissack has been working to relocate the Atlantic rail yards in Brooklyn so the Barclay Center could be built. In the process, the company also had to move Carlton Street Bridge. The job started as $250,000 contract and is still ongoing and is expected to be about an eight-year project by the time the company completes the permanent installation of the new rail yards.
They also are part of the group working on the construction of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. The original commission was 48 months but they were retained to do more work, and the project has expanded to last six years. They are also among the subcontractors to Granite Construction for the re-build of the Tappan Zee Bridge. The 3.1 mile bridge project will be the single largest bridge project in New York's history.
Being a minority and woman-owned business helped McKissack& McKissack get a foothold on certain jobs. "The challenge -- and a place where we have succeeded -- is converting that client contact into a long-term relationship," says Daniel.
In 2005 McKissack & McKissack was hired to demolish Harlem Hospital in preparation for its re-building. They were kept on as a subcontractor for the construction phase. One of the issues Daniel felt strongly about was hiring workers from the community. As they began accepting resumés, Daniel saw that they had so many applicants that they could funnel workers to other businesses looking to hire. McKissack now has a Harlem office on 125th Street and still helps companies who are looking for qualified applicants.
While the midtown office is designed to impress future clients, Daniel's designers, EcoChi, agreed with Daniel that a different atmosphere was important in circumstances where people are looking for work, so the Harlem office is set up to be welcoming and friendly. Among its features is a "green wall," made entirely of plantings to offer a feeling of relaxation and nature for those who come in to apply for work.
Planning for the Future
Four years ago Cheryl McKissack Daniel knew she had to plan for growth. She set up a board of advisors to provide her with additional knowledge and as a sounding board as she grows the business. Her strategy has worked. This year the company expects to grow from a $25 million to a $50 million business.
"In the next three years, we'll hit $100 million," says Daniel.
This is quite an accomplishment for any business owner, but particularly notable because their success tells a particularly great American story.
For more inspirational stories about America, visit www.americacomesalive.com ]]>What Happened on Terminal Island, Why It Matters and What Is at Risktag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.30150522013-04-10T11:24:09-04:002013-04-10T11:24:15-04:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/ Los Angeles Conservancy, as we toured Terminal Island.
In the late 1800s, the island was an artists' colony known as Brighton Beach, but starting at the turn of the 20th century, the island took on great importance as a port. This new status as a transportation hub has led to the fact that Terminal Island now has three separate and very different stories that can best be told by a short trip to the island via one of the four bridges that connects it to the mainland:
1. Long before filmmaking was even being done for commercial purposes, Los Angeles was already becoming an important town because it had a port with a growing number of land transportation options that were vital for the movement of people and goods.
In the early 1900s when the California Fish Company created a way to cook, preserve, and pack tuna, they gave birth to an entire industry -- there was no canning of tuna before this. They not only created this food-packing system but they successfully promoted it as an alternative to chicken. This innovation took the port from "useful" to "Big Industry," and in so doing greatly contributed to the development of Los Angeles as a vital American business center. By the 1920s, Chicken of the Sea, Starkist, and nine other canneries were located here. So vital was tuna to L.A. that the fish appears on the official seal of Los Angeles County.
2. An entire Japanese fishing village grew up on Terminal Island to support this very important American industry. The Japanese men knew fishing, and their wives soon joined them to live on the island and work in the canneries. Soon Terminal Island was a "company town" with a school, local businesses, and places of worship for its community of first and second-generation Japanese Americans.
All that changed after December 1941 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A decision was made to immediately round up the Japanese (many of whom were second-generation citizens) on Terminal Island. By February 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that provided for the removal of all Japanese-American and Japanese nationals in the western part of the country and to place them in guarded camps where they were held for two years. The Terminal Island residents were removed long before this Congressional action.
All those sent off to these camps had everything taken from them -- their livelihoods, their homes, and their possessions. The government razed the homes on Terminal Island.
3. Starting in World War I, Terminal Island had become important as a ship-building center. In World War II, destroyers were being built there in great numbers. This use of Terminal Island was one of the prime reasons that Terminal Island residents were the first to be taken from their homes.
So many people were hired for the war effort at the port that jobs opened for African-Americans, providing new opportunities. Discrimination was still widespread but the NAACP stepped in to fight for work rights for these Americans -- another important aspect of this story.
While no government facilities currently build ships on Terminal Island, boat-building does continue, most notably the 110-year-old yards of the Al Larson Boat Shop.
Past at Risk
Today Terminal Island's story is at risk of being wiped out. The property is owned by the Port of Los Angeles, and a new land use proposal is nearing the final stages of approval. The plan has no provision for adaptive reuse of the older buildings and foresees razing and starting new in most areas. (Even some of Al Larson's boat-building property is at risk with the re-design.) It is part of the larger Port Master Plan Update.
Hearings have been taking place on whether or not the land use proposal will be accepted. If you have concerns, please check the L.A. Conservancy website for updates or email them directly: info@laconservancy.org
Based on the status of the report, Terminal Island has been placed on the Most Endangered Historic Places list (one of 11 spots currently being watched carefully) by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Both the National Trust and the L.A. Conservancy would like to have an impact on the proposal; they do not want to halt progress but would welcome adaptive reuse of some of the historic buildings.
An Effort to Be Remembered
In 2002, family members of former Terminal Island residents placed a Japanese Memorial at Fish Harbor, but this sculpted fishing scene -- beautiful as it is as a reminder of the original lifestyle here -- does not begin to tell the story Terminal Island has to tell about a company town, its people, and the vital importance of the ship building and the fishing and canning industries that thrived here.
National Trust president Stephanie Meeks issued a statement noting that "We look forward to working with our partners to ensure that Terminal Island continues to thrive as a center of commerce in Los Angeles, and that its role in American history is preserved for future generations."
Today -- in a perfect blend of old L.A. with more recent L.A. -- Terminal Island is frequently used in filming. It has been a location in CSI, Dexter, and 24 along with films such as Spider-Man, Charlie's Angels and Mr. and Mrs. Smith and many others.
For more stories about America's past, visit www.americacomesalive.com.]]>The Red Heads, Famous Professional Women's Basketball Team, Honored at Big East Tournamenttag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.28209062013-03-14T13:08:34-04:002013-05-14T05:12:01-04:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
Some former Red Heads were in attendance at the Championship and were honored in front of 10,000+ basketball fans at the semi-finals.
Who Were the Red Heads? The All American Red Heads were the female equivalent of the all-male Harlem Globetrotters. Like the Globetrotters, they were stellar at the game of basketball but also delightfully pleasing entertainers.
The team grew out of a business run by C.M. Olson of Cassville, Missouri. Olson was a player/coach who came up with the idea of sending barnstorming basketball teams across the country to play against local teams wherever they went. Beginning in the 1920s, Olson's men's teams-the Terrible Swedes and the Famous Giants -- traveled to small towns for one-night stands. The local gymnasiums would be packed with huge paying audiences; commonly most of the town would turn out to see the excitement. Then the teams would move on to the next location.
Olson's wife, Doyle, owned five beauty parlors in Arkansas and Missouri, and with the success of the men's traveling teams, the couple decided that a female team could make good business sense all-around. In 1936 Olson recruited and hired seven female players who had all played on various basketball teams that were part of the American Athletic Union. The women were great players, one of them was 6-feet tall, and two of the seven women had red hair. (After the first few years, Olson or team members must have turned to dye or henna treatments as later descriptions of the team report them all as red heads.) They were also reported to be attractive.
The game the Red Heads played was according to the rules of men's basketball. Their competition was always a local men's team.
On the Road The All American Red Heads traveled cross-country, playing to packed houses almost every night; occasionally they played double-headers. A reporter for Life magazine (4-17-39) writes that audiences paid 25-40 cents to come to the games to "see female muscle seriously pitted against male muscle."
The women were more than great athletes -- they were great performers. The Life reporter described their "circus like shooting" and "rough style."
Over time, the women perfected a system. They would try to start the game strong and get ahead; then they would ease off and do more fancy dribbling and trick shots. This was accompanied by a good amount of flirting with the opposing team, with the referees, and with the audience. Toward the end of the game, they would reapply pressure with the intent of bringing in a win. The system was entertaining and very successful. They won more games than they lost, with a 70 percent win rate for most years.
Off court, the women who signed on to play for the Red Heads also agreed to a strict behavior policy. Olson knew that impeccable behavior in public -- including no smoking or drinking -- was vial to their image.
Popularity Soared The popularity of the team grew exponentially. In 1948, Olson sold the team to Orwell Moore, a basketball coach whose wife played for the Red Heads for a time. Moore hired a second team of Red Heads to travel; by 1964 (until 1971) he had three teams touring during the season.
From the photographs, the first uniforms were navy -- very short shorts and short-sleeved shirts. Later a freelancer for the New York Times wrote a reminiscence of when he was in the Army and played against Red Heads in the mid-1950s. He described their uniforms as "skating-style skirts" that were very short, midriff blouses, knee highs, and red sneakers.
Sam Toperoff, the freelancer who wrote the article, actually writes a very amusing account of that long-ago game (NY Times 6-11-89). He was a guard and just before the game started he was approached by the opposing guard. The Red Head introduced herself as Zethel, winked at him, and then partly shook/partly held his hand. She kept a running patter with him throughout the game, and at one point explained to him a set play the Red Heads hoped to carry out. She asked him to please cooperate and let her carry through with her trick play. Toperoff didn't want to look foolish in the eyes of his team so he ignored her and played against her for all it was worth, foiling Zethel's trick shot.
Clearly this was part of her plan because she then made another request for him to let her play through. Again, Toperoff was determined to block her, but Zethel faked him out and veered another direction and completed the play. Toperoff tried to respond, lost his balance and fell. By this time, Zethel's fancy shot was well on its way to a successful basket, and she turned, offering Toperoff a hand to help him up. He instinctively accepted the help, and once he was up she patted him on the butt. The crowd went wild.
Re-Discovering the Red Heads The Red Heads were pulled from obscurity by a lucky find by John Molina. One day when hunting around his grandmother's attic in Glastonbury, Connecticut, Molina found an old photograph of his grandmother, Bernice Gondek Molina, with some of her fellow teammates who played in an amateur league for a local soap factory. The photo was dated 1934.
Molina was fascinated and wanted to know more. His grandmother had passed away so there was no opportunity to ask about her experiences but he did begin to track her basketball-playing history. That's how he came upon the Red Heads and began to hunt up everything he could find about this forgotten team that had been quite a phenomenon for fifty years (1936-1986).
Over time, he got to know the second owner of the Red Heads, Orwell Moore. Moore began to entrust Molina with his collection of materials. Molina now has the largest collection of team memorabilia, and after several unsuccessful attempts to get the Red Heads accepted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, he and the Red Heads were rewarded for his efforts on September 7, 2012 when 65 of the surviving Red Heads appeared at a ceremony at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to represent the team's induction.
Molina now maintains an extensive website about the team; the personal stories of a great number of the players make for hours of fascinating reading. His two websites, allamericanredheads.com and womensbasketballmuseum.com, contain some of the highlights.
For more stories about Inspirational Women, visit www.americacomesalive.com or to receive the profiles by email, write me with "profiles" in the subject line: kate@americacomesalive.com.]]>New PBS Program Makers Puts Women's Movement in Contexttag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.27598872013-02-25T15:08:16-05:002013-04-27T05:12:01-04:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/MAKERS: Women Who Make America is debuting on PBS on Tuesday night, February 26, at 8 p.m. and has established a strong and ongoing web presence at www.makers.org . Thus far, the media coverage has focused on Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. She is included in the third hour of the show and makes salient points about the need for fathers to be co-participants.
Yet, the media stories have used this as an opportunity to draw attention to Sandberg's forthcoming book, where she expresses hope that she will establish a new social movement, via "Lean In Circles," leading women to the next stage.
What is missing here is context. Men and women should all watch this program to understand where we have been and then to decide where we are going.
MAKERS, narrated by Meryl Streep, provides badly-needed context and does so perfectly by explaining what has happened with the women's movement over the past fifty years.
Context: 46 Years Ago, Women Were Not Permitted to Run In Marathons Kathryn Switzer is the first woman introduced, and she is notable because she was the first woman to ever run in the Boston Marathon. The year was 1967, and she gained entry by using only her first initials on her entry form. She completed the marathon in 4 hours and 20 minutes, but what really surprised her was that newspapers were filled with coverage of her -- the first woman to run a marathon. Switzer says: "I started the race as a girl and finished it as a woman."
Context: 50 Years since Betty Friedan's Book; 49 Years Since Civil Rights Act Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, was published 50 years ago and gave voice to housewives who were beginning to realize that cleaning house and doing laundry wasn't exactly fulfilling.
That same year, 1963, President John F. Kennedy receives a report indicating widespread discrimination of all types in the workplace.
Kennedy had no time to do anything about it but his successor, Lyndon Johnson, put through a sweeping civil rights bill in 1964 in response to the report. Congress made a last-minute addition and added that it was also illegal to also discriminate based on gender. (Insert your own comment here about what it would be like to have a "do something" Congress.)
Context: Stewardesses Led the Way One of the first class fights actually occurred in the airline industry. Stewardesses, as they were called at the time, operated under strict rules. To be hired, they had to be between 21-28 and the top age at which they could work was 32. They had to be single, between 5'2" and 5'6", of "normal weight" and when interviewed, they were evaluated as to whether they had attractive legs. Once hired, they followed a careful beauty regimen and strict uniform requirements.
On their 32nd birthdays, they were called in by a supervisor and fired. One former flight attendant said: "The message was clear. At 32, we were too old to be out in public."
In July 1965, stewardesses made an appointment to meet representatives at the offices of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The commission expected to be meeting a group of black women, and were surprised when white women arrived.
Nonetheless, the EEOC refused to take action. The airlines had been in touch.
Context: O'Connor and Ginsburg Could Not Find Employment When They Started Legal Careers In the film, we also hear from both Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, neither of whom could find employment with legal firms after law school because "the firms were only hiring men." Both women went on to be Supreme Court justices, but it is important for society today to acknowledge that it is harder for women (and minorities, for that matter) to dream big dreams if it looks as if they won't even be able to get a foothold on the lowest rung of the career ladder.
Context: First Gender Discrimination Case Came Out of Georgia One of the first test cases of gender discrimination in the workplace was brought by Lorena Weeks of Wadley, Georgia. She was a mother of three and working as a telephone operator. She and her husband had dreams of sending all three children to college, and the family needed her income if they were to do so. Weeks was well aware of the fact that the jobs held by men paid better. When a switchman's position opened up, she knew she was the most senior person for the job, and she put in an application. She was denied -- told the job was reserved for men. The year was 1966.
Weeks sued Southern Bell. Soon NOW (the organization had just been formed in 1966) became involved and provided her with legal representation. One of the issues was whether women could lift 30 lbs. The attorney, Sylvia Roberts, a particular petite woman, had boxes weighing 30 pounds into the court room and she demonstrated multiple times how even she could lift 30 pounds. Initially, Weeks lost her case, but eventually, a federal appeals court heard the case and ruled against Southern Bell. The year was 1969, and Lorena Weeks was given the job.
Moves to Campus The message of the movement began to be picked up on college campuses where civil rights campaigns and anti-war marches were going on. In the process, the movement became more radicalized, which began to cause factions. However, Gloria Steinem stepped forward as a leader who could bridge different groups, and her creation of Ms. Magazine society-changing. One example was the subject of battered women.
Context: Domestic Violence Was Not Discussed Openly Until 37 Years Ago In 1976, Ms. Magazine featured a photo on the cover of a woman whose face was badly bruised. It was the first time the subject of domestic violence had been addressed by a national magazine. Rose Garrity, a mother in Binghamton New York, tells her story in MAKERS.
Garrity was a victim of spousal abuse; she felt very alone and kept hoping "things would get better." When she saw the article, she suddenly knew she was not alone. "Ms. Magazine was my only window to the outside world."
And There Is More
The subsequent hours of the program go on to provide more context:
• Women did not have reliable control over their bodies until the Pill was made available to all women (by prescription) in 1972.
• Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion in 1973. Until that time, women who were desperate to end a pregnancy for all sorts of reasons (rape, already had four children, unmarried, unable to care for a baby) had to resort to backroom medical options, many of which were unsafe, even leading to death. (Note: Today, these hard-won abortion rights are slowly being chipped away.)
As Gloria Steinem says in the program: "Whether or not you can decide to have children is the whole ball game [in being able to choose a future.]"
And there is more:
• Title IX was not passed until 1972. This has primarily affected women in providing greater access to sports opportunities, but the provision requires equal opportunity in all aspects of educational life if a school is receiving federal funds.
• Young women today might be quite shocked to learn that we do not have an Equal Rights Amendment guaranteeing women equal opportunities. The constitutional amendment was passed by Congress in 1972 but then could not get ratified by the required number of states. What was the wording that couldn't get ratified? "Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." Couldn't get ratified? What's going on here?
• It was only 1991 when Anita Hill was dragged through the mud by the public and press for bringing up the fact that she was subjected to sexual harassment by Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Thomas was still appointed to the life post of being a Supreme Court Justice.
• Women still make only 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, delegate to the U.S Congress representing the District of Columbia (a non-voting position), places our lives in some perspective toward the end of the program: "The revolutionary movement may be gone but the world for women has changed forever."
Watch the Program and Then Look Forward If men and women understand that only 50 years ago, it was still "all about the engagement ring" and that we are still fighting to claim equal opportunity and equal pay for equal work, then women will be better prepared to decide whether Sheryl Sandberg's forthcoming book and her suggestion of "Leaning In" is the only solution.
Perhaps it's just one part of a package that involves continuing to demand equal pay for equal work, better opportunities for both men and women to balance work and parenting and to work generally for a less biased world toward all people.
MAKERS: Women Who Make America is produced by Kunhardt McGee Productions, Storyville Films and WETA Washington, D.C., in association with Ark Media. It will air Tuesday, February 26, 2013, at 8:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings). Visit MAKERS.com to access more than 1,000 videos of remarkable stories of groundbreaking women.
If you would like to receive regular mailings of Inspirational Women sent out during the month of March by America Comes Alive, please email me with "Profiles" in the subject line: kate@americacomesalive.com
www.americacomesalive.com]]>The Other Lincoln Movie: Saving Lincolntag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.24725642013-01-15T11:12:29-05:002013-03-17T05:12:01-04:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
From the moment of Abraham Lincoln's election on November 6, 1860, tensions in the country were high. Within four months, seven southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederacy. Lincoln's safety had already been threatened with rumors of an assassination plot to be carried out on his trip to the Inauguration when he would be traveling by train from Springfield to Washington, DC.
The railroads hired private detective Allan Pinkerton to safeguard the trip for the president-elect as there was no Secret Service at that time. While the rest of the entourage remained on the presidential train, Pinkerton put Lincoln on another train unannounced and Lincoln arrived safely in Washington where he was inaugurated on March 4, 1861.
One of the men accompanying Lincoln on that trip was Ward Hill Lamon, a friend and former law partner, whom Lincoln specifically requested join him in Washington. Shortly after assuming the presidency, Lincoln appointed Lamon to be U.S. Marshall for the District of Columbia. Lamon observed the lack of security and the number of threats that surrounded the wartime president, and Lamon appointed himself as personal bodyguard.
Saving Lincoln is the story of Abraham Lincoln as told by Ward Hill Lamon, who accompanied Lincoln whenever possible. It was not unusual to find Lamon, covered by a blanket, stretched out on the floor outside of wherever Lincoln was sleeping. Lamon sometimes left Lincoln when he needed to track down plots against the president, and Lamon frequently patrolled the perimeter of the White House. On one of these patrols, Lamon killed an armed Southerner who was skulking in the bushes.
Creating the Film
The husband-wife duo Salvador and Nina Litvak began shopping around a Lincoln script about a dozen years ago, but Spielberg's Lincoln plans were already in the works and they found that there was no funding for their movie because of that.
Their obsession with Lincoln, however, continued, and while they made other films including the award-winning, When Do We Eat?, they mulled over ways they could return to Lincoln. As they continued to read, they came upon different stories than the one they had originally planned. After reading Carl Sandburg's description of Ward Lamon in Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, they became convinced that this was the story that needed to be told.
Lamon had written his own biography of Lincoln, and his family had pieced together other recollections, and so there was material to work with -- but still there was the challenge of finding funding for a period drama. Eventually they connected with producer Reuben Lim, who believed the Litvaks were on to a great story.
They still needed to come up with a way to do a period drama on an independent film budget. Sal Litvak, who directed the film, describes their plan: "We knew of the wonderful collection of Civil War-era photographs available at the Library of Congress, and we came up with the concept of using these historical glass plate photographs for the backdrop.
"The entire film was recorded in front of a green screen, and working with a committed and talented team, we invented a way to layer the photographs in such a way that the actors can 'move through' the setting." A video that demonstrates how the film was made shows the magic that occurred, going from green screen to a historically accurate background.
Though Ward Hill Lamon halted many attempts on President Lincoln's life, Lincoln was killed shortly after his second inauguration. The Litvaks are certain about one thing:
"Ward Hill Lamon did not fail Lincoln," says Sal Litvak.
To understand why, audiences need to see the movie and hear Lamon's story.
The movie will premiere at the Abraham Lincoln Association symposium being held in Springfield, Ilinois on February 11. It will then open in select theatres and be available on DVD. For more information about Saving Lincoln, see SavingLincoln.com or the Saving Lincoln Facebook page.
For more stories about Lincoln and America's past, visit America Comes Alive.]]>The Culture of Clowning: Discussion and Exhibit in NYCtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.24352822013-01-08T11:24:20-05:002013-03-10T05:12:01-04:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
This guest lecture, held from 6:00-8:00 p.m. on January 10, is part of the Bard Center Galleries current exhibit, "Circus and the City: New York 1793-2010," an ambitious and superbly presented show.
"The circus clown is a worker, one increasingly buried in symbolism," says Dr. Carlyon. None of the stereotypes of clowns get at the heart of what a clown actually does. The caricatures of clowns---sad clown, happy clown, scary clown, kids' clown, and that academic pet, the trickster--have little to do with the work of a comedic performer.
"Like Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, or Bert Lahr -- a clown's vaudeville cousins who became known because they made the leap to the movies -- the circus clown uses the tools of verbal comedy, of physical comedy, and especially of human psychology to engage audiences. He is little-recognized for the art he practices.
David Carlyon was a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus clown who later earned a Ph.D in theatre at Northwestern University. He has published scholarly work on performance, on nineteenth century culture and politics, and on Shakespeare. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Theatre at Iona College.
Dan Rice (1823-1900) was an early circus entertainer, and Carlyon has also written a book about him: Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of.
"Dan Rice is a perfect example of symbols burying performer, person, and work," says Carlyon. "Rice was one of the most famous people of the mid-19th century. When circus was adult fare, rife with sex, violence, and politics, he was celebrated for his lightning-quick wit, his political 'hits on the times,' and his sophisticated appeal to the emerging middle class, echoing their urge for an unnamed but potently aspirational 'something higher.'"
Carlyon's talk will explore the historical origins of the popular symbols and clichés that obscure the work.
About the Circus Exhibit
The exhibit itself has been described as one of best circus exhibits ever mounted and it continues at the Bard Galleries until February 3, 2013. Though the circus has usually been passed over in favor of dance, drama, or music when "the arts" are discussed by scholars, the Bard exhibit, as curated by Matthew Wittmann, uses the city as a lens through which to explore the development of the American circus. It also places the circus very much in the center of the cultural arts as they were developing.
In a tour through the exhibit, Carlyon notes what is available: "In addition to the traditional posters, costume pieces, and trunks that might be expected of a circus exhibit, there are candid photographs of circus audiences, a cane with a commemorative sword hidden inside, a 150-year-old wooden ball used for foot juggling on horseback, children's toys, women's scarves, a wagon wheel with a rainbow-burst paint job, a human-size frog disguise, and a two-foot high carved bust of Dan Rice, looking like an ancient Roman senator."
He also points out an amazing circus poster that is currently on display in the stairwell. The poster is rarely seen as it is too big for its home museum to display, so this giant marvel of lithographic art has been out of public view for years.
How Jumbo Changed the Circus
Until the arrival of Jumbo in 1882, the circus was a bawdy entertainment that drew a mostly male audience. The scantily clad female performers showed more "leg" than most performers of the time, and the entertainment had many acts that catered to that prurient interest.
But showman P.T. Barnum knew that if he could get families to come, he could sell more tickets, more food, and more merchandise. When he and partner James Bailey bought Jumbo from the London Zoo, Barnum billed him as "the children's giant pet." And just as Barnum hoped, families followed.
The exhibition features more than two hundred objects and images selected from both local and national collections, including the New-York Historical Society, the International Center of Photography, the Somers Historical Society, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the New York State Museum, the Circus World Museum, the Barnum Museum, the Library of Congress, the Witte Museum, and the Shelburne Museum.
Susan Weber is founder and director of the Bard Center and helped to organize the exhibit. The Bard Graduate Center Galleries are at 18 W. 86th Street, New York City.
For more stories about popular entertainment in America, visit www.americacomesalive.com.]]>Car Safety Initially Considered "Undesirable" by Manufacturers, the Government and Consumerstag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.22321832012-12-04T16:41:54-05:002013-02-03T05:12:01-05:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/released the results of a new seat belt survey. While there are statistical variations by region and "day of the week," the overall take-away from the survey is that passengers of today use seat belts 86 percent of the time... an all-time high.
However, as recently as the late 1950s and early '60s, auto manufacturers were comfortable with their impression that consumers didn't care about safety, and the government was reluctant to step in to regulate the industry.
Here's why today's drivers enjoy a relatively high degree of car safety.
Early Innovators/Crusaders
George Cayley (1773-1857) was a British engineer and inventor who dedicated his life to experimenting with flying machines. He was the first inventor to develop a seat belt of any kind. Cayley eventually crafted a glider he thought would fly. History is vague as to whether he asked his footman, his coachman, or his butler (one source says it was a "small boy") to act as the pilot. However, one of these brave people successfully guided Cayley's flying machine on a 900-foot flight across a small valley (Brompton Dale) in 1849. The pilot was presumably wearing the seat belt Cayley is credited with having invented.
The first American to patent a seat belt was Edward J. Claghorn of New York, N.Y. who was issued a patent in 1885 for a "safety-belt for tourists, painters, or firemen who are being raised or lowered." Claghorn's belt was not tested in cars until the 1920s.
In 1935 DeWitt Wallace (1889-1981), publisher of Reader's Digest, commissioned writer Joseph C. Furnas (1905-2001) to prepare an article about auto accidents. Furnas' article, "---And Sudden Death!", was the most reprinted article in Digest history and certainly brought to light the topic of car safety. As it happened, Furnas relied on experts who agreed that the interiors of cars were dangerous, but felt that passengers were actually safer being thrown out of the car in an accident rather than being belted into a seat.
Next Crusaders: Medical Doctors
Dr. Claire Straith (1891-1958), a plastic surgeon in Michigan, was so upset by the types of injuries he saw on patients arriving at his clinic that he began visiting crash sites and photographing what seemed to cause the injuries.
Straith became adamant that car dashboards, then made of metal with sharp angled edges, were dangerous. He also pointed out that the mounted control knobs sticking out from the dashboard were unsafe. Unbelted passengers in both the front and the back seats were at risk for cascading forward in an accident and being hurt by something sharp. The steering wheel shaft was also an issue, placing the driver at high risk of being impaled.
Dr. Straith started an organization called the Automobile Safety League of America. Straith urged for padded dashboards and flush mounts for the controls in the dashboard. He experimented with lap belts and also patented a dashboard crash pad. (He shared what he could make with friends and co-workers who wanted them.)
For the first few years of his safety campaign, he did not get much attention. Perhaps as a result of the Reader's Digest article that was published in 1935, Straith finally got a meeting with Walter Chrysler. In 1937 Walter Chrysler saw that the Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, and Imperial cars featured recessed knobs, rubber buttons, padded seat tops, and gently curved door handles. This was the first time an auto manufacturer promoted designs for safety instead of styling.
Another Doctor Stands Up for Safety
In 1946 Dr. C. Hunter Shelden opened a neurological practice at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. Like Straith, he became concerned about the injuries he was seeing, and in November 1955, the Journal of the American Medical Association printed an article by Dr. Shelden suggesting retractable seat belts, recessed steering wheels, reinforced car roofs, roll bars, door locks, and elevated head rests to protect against whip lash. Shelden was also a very early proponent of the air bag.
Safety Wasn't Selling
The industry began to look at safety options, and in 1956 Ford offered to pad the dashboard and install seat belts in their cars for any consumer willing to pay an additional $27. Few took the option; only 2 percent of Ford buyers spent extra for safety.
As the number of cars on the roads increased, Congress agreed to hold hearings on car safety in 1960. Manufacturers testified about their experiences. Some of the items under discussion at this time included things we take for granted today: good brake systems, defrosting systems for front and back windows, and windshield wipers that are effective.
Seat belts were also discussed. American Motors noted they were installing brackets in the 1960 car models and dealers could then use these brackets to attach belts for those who wanted them. Other manufacturers were making indentations in the floorboards with a similar plan in mind. However Chrysler dealers claimed that less than 1 percent of customers asked for seat belts. (One might guess that since dealers had to commit to extra work to install the belts, the dealers may not have pressed consumers on why belts might be a good idea.)
Ralph Nader's Well-Deserved Claim to Fame
Ultimate pressure on Congress and car manufacturers had to come from the court of public opinion, and guiding that opinion was Ralph Nader, a 32-year-old attorney who had written about car safety as early as 1959 while still a student at Harvard. The 1965 publication of his book, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, created waves throughout the country. The book became a bestseller and prompted the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, which created the National Highway Safety Bureau. This marked a historic shift in responsibility for automobile safety from the consumer to the government.
Consumer Compliance
But ultimately, consumer compliance is vital to anything from seat belt effectiveness to ending distracted driving, and the first law requiring consumer compliance was not an American one. It was a regional law passed in 1970 in Australia. Not until 1984 did the U.S. have any legislation at all about seat belt use. New York was the first state to pass such a law, and that did not occur until 1984.
Since this time, automobiles have become far better at protecting their occupants when crashes occur. And while the statistics for the first quarter of 2012 were higher that statistics from a year earlier, overall the trend in auto accident fatalities has been spiraling downward. The statistics for fatalities in 2009 and 2010 were low enough to rival 1949, with 1.09 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, down from the 1.13 fatality rate for 2009.
Clearly, lone crusaders make a difference. It just takes time.
For more stories of Americans who came up with great ideas, see the "Who Thought of That?" section at www.americacomesalive.com]]>Living Legacy Project Gives Thanks to Civil War Veterans By Planting New Treestag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.21671232012-11-21T11:26:09-05:002013-01-21T05:12:01-05:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
The kick-off for the project was held Thanksgiving week at Oatlands Historic House and Gardens, which is a National Trust Historic Site at the geographical center of the JTHG National Scenic Byway. More than 400 trees will be either planted or dedicated at Oatlands as part of this program.
Virginia's Secretary of Transportation Sean T. Connaughton and National Trust for Historic Preservation President and Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Meeks both were scheduled to speak at the dedication ceremony.
Trees Are a Vital Legacy
"Trees play a central role in the history at Oatlands, from the magnificent maples and oaks that line the drive, to the stunning specimen trees that preside over Oatlands' historic buildings and walled garden," said Oatlands Board Chair Michael J. O'Connor in a press release. He continued:
The trees, many of which were standing during the Civil War, are considered premier and priceless specimens.
The planting of over 400 trees for the Living Legacy Project will reduce our carbon footprint, create a wonderful habitat for wildlife, improve air quality, provide shade for our visitors and increase the natural beauty of Oatlands, while honoring the rich history and sacrifice of those who have gone before us.
"We believe this is the time and place to create and implement a living legacy that continues to heal wounds as it humbles every American with a perspective on the tragedy of the war," said David F. Williams, the Board Chair of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, whose family owns property adjacent to the site and has also agreed to participate in the initiative. "These trees will not only improve and unify the landscape along the corridor but are a fitting tribute to the fallen soldiers of America's Civil War."
This is the first phase of the tree planting project, which will eventually stretch along the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Scenic Byway, a 180-mile swath of land that runs from Gettysburg, Pa. to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville, Va.
Lincoln's Words on Saying Thanks by Healing Wounds
President Abraham Lincoln, in his proclamation announcing the Thanksgiving holiday in 1863 invited the country to:
Set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day for thanksgiving and praise... commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
Geo-Tags Permit Donors to Specify a Soldier's Story and a Tree
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership is actively engaged in raising the necessary funds to complete this $65 million initiative. Individuals, businesses, schools and community groups from around the world can contribute to this project.
Donors who contribute $100 may select a soldier to honor, as the trees will be geo-tagged to allow smartphone users to learn the story of the soldier, providing a strong educational component to engage interest in the region's historical heritage and literally bringing the tree to life. For more information on the Living Legacy Project, visit www.hallowedground.org.
The JTHG National Scenic Byway, which crosses the Mason Dixon Line, serves as a link to each of the battlefields and connects over 30 historic communities, each of which was gravely impacted by the Civil War. The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area holds the largest concentration of Civil War battlefield sites in the country, including the beginning of the War (Harpers Ferry and Manassas), the middle (Antietam and Gettysburg) and the end (Appomattox).
Oatlands Historic House and Gardens is a National Trust Historic Site and a National Historic Landmark. Tours of the Classical Revival mansion are offered daily and visitors may enjoy the four-and-a-half acres of historic gardens. The property boasts the oldest greenhouse in Virginia. Call 703-777-3174 for additional information or visit www.oatlands.org.
For more stories of America's past, please visit www.americacomesalive.com]]>Lincoln Film Offers Opportunity to Take a Deeper Look at Aspects of Lincoln's Presidencytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.21564402012-11-19T14:38:18-05:002013-01-19T05:12:01-05:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
But what else do we know about the occasion?
Just as Steven Spielberg used his just-released film to explore Lincoln's effort to abolish slavery, each facet of Lincoln's presidency could be better understood by examining the surrounding details.
The Importance of the Gettysburg Dedication--to the Union and to Lincoln
The Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg was the first federal cemetery ever to be established--pre-dating the Arlington National Cemetery by several years. The need for the cemetery at Gettysburg, of course, was because of the astoundingly high number of dead from the three-day battle that took place July 1-3, 1863. Casualties at Gettysburg totaled 23,049 for the Union (3,155 dead, 14,529 wounded, 5,365 missing or unaccounted for). Confederate casualties were 28,063 (3,903 dead, 18,735 injured, and 5,425 missing or unaccounted for).
Pennsylvania governor, Andrew Curtin, requested that local attorney David Wills develop a plan for honorable burial; Wills bought 17 acres of pasture to turn into a cemetery and formulated a plan for it to be a national cemetery for the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg. (While a few Confederates were mistakenly buried in the Union cemetery, most of them were interred on the battlefield where they fell; later some of the bodies were moved to cemeteries in the South.)
Lincoln Invited to Give "Remarks"
President Lincoln accepted very few speaking commitments, notes historian Allen C. Guelzo, in a recent interview at his office at Gettysburg College where he serves as Director of Civil War Era Studies. To travel outside Washington to address a group required a major investment of time away from the Capitol for a president in the mid-19th century. (Compare that with President Obama's unrelenting travel schedule.)
When President Lincoln accepted an invitation to provide a "few dedicatory remarks" at Gettysburg, he clearly very much wanted to come.
According to Guelzo who has authored several books on Lincoln including Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and a forthcoming book, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (Knopf, 2013), Lincoln had been mulling over when and how he could present to the American people a statement on the larger significance of the conflict and to explain why the enormous sacrifices were necessary.
Lincoln saw Gettysburg as the perfect opportunity for his statement. The 272 words he ultimately presented as the Gettysburg Address had been percolating in his mind for some time.
The morning of his departure, however, Lincoln had to reaffirm his commitment to attend. Son Tad, age 10, had awakened and was too ill to eat breakfast. Since an older son, Willie, had died just over a year ago, this greatly upset wife Mary, and she begged Lincoln not to leave her. The President, however, was fully committed to seize what he saw as an important opportunity to speak to Americans.
Lincoln Not the Main Speaker
Though Lincoln's words are the only ones that live on, Edward Everett, a well-regarded orator of the day, was to be the main speaker for the dedication of the cemetery. Everett had served as Massachusetts governor (1836-40) and U.S. senator (1853-54) and as president of Harvard University (1846-49), and he enjoyed a great reputation as an orator, and would have drawn a good crowd even if the President was not expected to appear.
Simple Trip from D.C. to Gettysburg Required Major Effort
When members of the president's staff realized Lincoln intended to go to Gettysburg, they arranged a special train for him that would leave at 6 a.m. on November 19 for the 12 noon speech.
Lincoln, however, was fully aware of the realities of traveling during war time. The fact that at least ten thousand people were expected to descend upon Gettysburg for the event only added to what would surely be a day of delays.
When told of the plan for a morning departure, Lincoln responded: "I do not wish to so go that by the slightest accident we fail entirely, and at the best, the whole to be a mere breathless running of the gauntlet."
Plans were re-formulated for a day-before departure. Accompanying Lincoln were several members of his cabinet including Secretary of State William H. Seward, Secretary of the Interior John Usher, and postmaster general Montgomery Blair along with some members of the diplomatic corps. In addition, Benjamin B. French, who had composed the hymn that was to be sung at the ceremony came with the group, as did Lincoln's secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay as well as Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln's friend and the U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia. Lincoln's valet, William Johnson, a free black man, also was part of the traveling party.
As it was, the 80-mile trip to Gettysburg took six hours and involved transferring
trains in Baltimore and Hanover Junction. If Lincoln had followed the original
plan of a morning departure, he likely never would have given the Gettysburg Address.
The Dedication Ceremony
At the dedication, the crowd listened for two hours to Edward Everett before President Lincoln
spoke. Everett was known for carefully crafting his remarks, and he researched the three-day battle in order to be explain it to his listeners; he was famous for being able to re-create the emotion of the experience, and it was reported that those who were close enough to the podium to actually hear the speech were moved to tears.
While the speech Everett gave is remembered for its length--he spoke for more than two hours---this was the speaking style of the day. Everett would have been expected to give that type and length of an address.
Lincoln's address lasted just two or three minutes.
We often hear quoted the opening lines of the speech, but his conclusion is particularly meaningful in light of the times:
"...The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
There is no photograph of Lincoln giving the Gettysburg Address. Photographers assumed that he would speak for at least ten minutes, and because photographs of the day required time for the exposure to be complete, the photographers did not have the opportunity to capture the moment.
The Reaction
Afterward, Lincoln was not certain that the speech had been successful, saying to his friend Ward Lamon, "that speech won't scour!" [wasn't effective].
Newspaper reports devoted most of their coverage to Everett's speech, but several papers took special note of the president's remarks. George William Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly wrote that "The few words of the President were from the heart to the heart." The Chicago Tribune said, "The dedicatory remarks by President Lincoln will live among the annals of man."
And Edward Everett himself wrote immediately to note the brilliance and "eloquent simplicity" of the President's brief speech: "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."
Lincoln sent an immediate and gracious response: "In our respective parts yesterday, you could not have been excused to make a short address, nor I, a long one. I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little that I did say was not entirely a failure."
Returning to the White House
Lincoln's humility was part of his personality, but his opinion may also have been colored by how he was feeling. He left Gettysburg that afternoon, and by the time he arrived in Washington he was suffering a fever. His doctor diagnosed him with varioloid, a mild version of smallpox. He spent the next three weeks, quarantined at the White House, but he did recover.
Lincoln's well-loved valet William Johnson (1835-1864) was not so fortunate. He, too, became ill from the disease and died after lingering for two months. Lincoln paid out of his own pocket for Johnson's burial costs.
Walking in Lincoln's Footsteps in Gettysburg
To walk in Lincoln's footstep in Gettysburg--from the David Wills house where Lincoln spent the night, to the Soldier's Cemetery where he gave the address--is now possible through Gettysburg Town Tours (American Stories Historic Walking Tours). The same high level of mastery of history that is required of the battlefield guides is also required of the town guides, who are prepared to talk of Lincoln's visit as well as all of the issues that affected the citizens who were inadvertently in harm's way when the town was overrun by the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Gettysburg Tours are part of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, which helps raise awareness of the historic, natural, and cultural landscape within the swath of land from Gettysburg to Monticello.
For more stories about Gettysburg and other aspects of America, visit www.americacomesalive.com.]]>The Bermuda Triangle 1945: The Veterans Who Never Returnedtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.21196142012-11-13T22:58:42-05:002013-01-13T05:12:01-05:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
What isn't as well known is what first led to the belief that this triangular cut of ocean--from Miami to Bermuda to the island of Puerto Rico--had preternatural powers to suck in any man-made thing that came its way.
The incident that gave rise to the superstition occurred in 1945 when five aircraft disappeared on a training mission in that region.
Flight 19 Three months after the signature end of World War II, training missions were still being conducted for Navy and Marine personnel at the Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
On the afternoon of December 5, 1945, bad weather had blown through Fort Lauderdale, with gusty winds, dark clouds, and rain passing by and blowing out to sea--the same direction that this final training mission of the day would be flying.
The plan was for five U.S. Avenger torpedo bombers, known as Flight 19, to fly with 14 men in a triangular course at an altitude of 1000 feet. Bombs would be dropped during the course of the flight.
The five torpedo bombers left Fort Lauderdale a little after 2 in the afternoon, a little later than expected but there was expected to be plenty of time for what was to be a brief mission. Four hours later, none of the five planes could be accounted for; the fourteen men on the training mission were never found.
A five-day search began shortly after it was realized Flight 19 was missing. Adding to the mystery was the fact that one of the Mariner search planes with 13 men on board is thought to have exploded shortly after take-off. Though the plane had been carefully checked before departure and was filled with 12 hours worth of fuel, an oil slick in the area of the explosion was the only evidence found of the search flight the next morning.
Over the course of the five-day search for the five--and then six--missing planes, there were reported sightings of flares and even a couple of reports of opened life rafts with men in view. However, nothing could be documented, and in the final and official government report there was no conclusive explanation as to what happened to the men or the planes.
Thus, we have the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
Enter a Former Army Pilot In 1982 the story caught the interest of Jon F. Myhre, a former U.S. Army pilot turned corporate pilot who had a layover in Nassau in the Bahamas where he read an item about the disappearance of Flight 19. Myhre had done a great deal of flying in the area and decided to "look into what might have happened."
What started as mild curiosity became an obsession. Myhre soon found enough leads that he undertook what became a 30-year search for answers. He conducted intensive research and connected with people who could help him raise money for deep sea dives to look for wreckage; he also determined that there was reason to believe that two of the planes made it back to land, and he tramped through swamplands and interviewed people who were said to have found debris in the area he targeted. Along the way, his story was featured on Unsolved Mysteries on the Discovery Channel, Larry King Live and other news programs.
Now 30 years after he began, Myhre has written a book that begins by laying out what was known about Flight 19 at the time. The book then tracks back through all the clues that were reported during the five-day search for the planes, and Myhre pieces together a very believable explanation of what happened to each plane and its crew.
The Training Mission The 1945 training mission was led by Lt. Commander Charles Taylor who had arrived for the exercise 25 minutes late and had actually stopped to ask a friend to fly the mission for him. Whether he wasn't feeling well or had a premonition about flying that day will never be known; whatever the reason, Taylor soon found himself guiding 13 men in five separate Avenger bombers on their mission.
The bombing mission was to be a relatively short flight. The planes had been out earlier in the day; not all of them had been re-fueled, and more than one plane was suffering technical problems. One of Lt. Taylor's two compasses was out of commission and his high-frequency radio was on the fritz; the high-frequency radio would have been his only hope for communicating as they flew through the stormy weather in the area. All these details came to light as Myhre worked on the puzzle of the planes' disappearance.
Since there was no evidence at all found of any debris or remains, some theorists thought that the "one for all, all for one" philosophy might have been put into effect. (If one plane ran into trouble and had to ditch into the water, then all the planes would go down at that location so that they could all work together for a rescue.)
Myhre used radio transcripts, weather reports, wind direction, and flying coordinates to investigate what probably happened, and he began to come up with a very different scenario. Myhre's findings indicate that Lt. Taylor, the commander of the group, may have become exceedingly disoriented, and when one of the other pilots realized just how far off Taylor was taking them, the other pilot may have turned around to fly what was actually the correct direction toward land. This pilot was followed by another one of the planes, and though they made it to Florida, they ran out of fuel before they could land safely.
In the book, Myhre carefully explains which plane went where at what time, and explains the "sightings" that were reported but were ultimately discounted when no plane or survivor was found.
Simply put, the training mission was lost because of bad luck, bad weather, and some fatal mistakes that were made.
Three crash sites now have been located and one aircraft has been raised from the sea. The irony of Flight 19 is that none of the men died within the infamous Bermuda Triangle.
Book Brought New News to Light In a follow-up discussion with publisher Douglas Westfall at Paragon, a publishing company that specializes in first-person accounts, Westfall told me that Myhre's suspicion that one aviator may have survived has been bolstered by hearing from the family after the book was released.
Clues uncovered by Myhre indicate that Staff Sergeant George Paonessa, who was in one of the planes that made it to land, parachuted out of the plane before it crashed; he may have survived, possibly deciding to go AWOL after such a horrific experience. After the book's publication, the family sent Myhre and Westfall a Western Union telegram said to be from Paonessa; his girlfriend had also reported to the family that she saw him twice in the early 1950s.
The full story of what happened to Paonessa is currently being investigated by a relative who is a documentary filmmaker. Stay tuned!
For other stories about America's past, please visit www.americacomesalive.com]]>New Book on Social Media Tells the Tasti D-Lite Storytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19689792012-10-16T00:08:21-04:002012-12-15T05:12:01-05:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
Like other New Yorkers in the early 1980s, Carlesimo was health conscious so she knew her waistline required that ice cream be an occasional treat. But she became determined to find a solution. She felt there had to be a way to develop a healthy dairy-based soft-serve ice cream.
Carlesimo's father was a food technologist, and she soon had him stationed in her kitchen whenever time permitted, with the two of them working to find the answer she sought. They eventually created a product that satisfied them both...a good-tasting, low-fat dessert that can be dispensed as soft-serve.
"I didn't reinvent the wheel; I just changed the recipe," says Carlesimo.
The product is too low in butter-fat content to be classified as ice cream, and it lacks the active cultures
that would categorize it as a frozen yogurt, but regardless of what you call it, Tasti D-Lite gained fame
nationally and internationally. It has been featured in several episodes of HBO's Sex and the City (2004), as well as mentioned on The Apprentice and 30 Rock. It made a recent 2012 appearance in HBO's series, Girls.
Originally Carlesimo sold the product only in New York. There were some free-standings stores and
the product was also licensed to other sweets businesses such as the Candy Club, Frozen Monkey, and Sweet City.
After 20 years in the business, a suitor appeared and made Carlesimo an offer that worked for her. In
2007 SPG Partners, a private equity group, purchased the company and re-structured it into a franchise operation, capitalizing on the fact that they had a good-tasting, healthy product. Their vision involved pioneering the use of social media to build the brand and expand internationally.
The Tasti Way
This fall the new owners have come out with a just-published book, The Tasti D-Lite Way: Social
Media Marketing Lessons for Building Loyalty and a Brand Customers Crave (McGraw Hill). Written by chairman and CEO James Amos with BJ Emerson, the vice president of technology, the two men trace how Tasti D-Lite became an early adopter of social media. They credit Chris Brogan and Julien Smith's well-regarded book, Trust Agents, with establishing a foundation for customer engagement.
However, Tasti D-Lite has taken customer engagement several steps farther. They were dealing with a brand that had been around for 20 years, which presented advantages and also some challenges. They also knew that in this day and age they needed to embrace social media, but with franchising, they knew they could not use one corporate mouthpiece to speak to all customers.
First They Listened
To begin to understand how to leverage the brand within social media, they started eavesdropping on
anyplace and anywhere Tasti was being discussed. They found a Yale student who blogged about the
brand, establishing his own star system for various flavors, and they followed Yelp, Flickr, and Facebook to see what people were saying.
"More Valuable Than a Customer Call Center"
That's how the authors describe Twitter, which was beginning to grow during their early listening
period.
Good comments from tweeters were met by a "follow" from @tastidlite. The response from the customer was generally to further tweet his or her excitement and being noticed: "Tasti is now following me!"
Negative remarks could be nipped in the bud with comments like "Sorry about the [whatever the
incident was]. Anything we can do to help?" or "would a coupon help? Send us an email address."
The company had fun with it, too. They discovered that Follower Number 500 worked in the Empire
State Building. Observing the fellow's tweets gave them a company location, so Tasti arranged for a Tasti D-Lite party to be taken upstairs to the customer and his fellow employees. Needless to say, a free Tasti party merited more tweets, more followers, and additional happy customers.
As they mastered the art of working social media, the business community noticed. In 2009 Mashable
listed Tasti D-Lite as one of the 40 best brands using Twitter.
What Will Separate Winners from Losers in the Digital Age?
The authors point out that cold calling (door-to-door or by phone) no longer works, if it ever did. Phone
solicitations are so strongly disliked that the government maintains a Do Not Call Registry, and many
communities outlaw door-to-door selling even for good causes.
Instead of the digital age leading to increased anonymity, the authors make clear that social media
actually offers businesses the opportunity to connect more fully with their customers. "It's giving
customers back the hugs they have been giving us for years."
The book notes that while social media takes time and that there is no good way to measure return on
investment they remind readers: "Not everything that counts can be measured. Not everything that can be measured counts."
There is a great deal of wisdom in this book. Here are just a few of the points I noted down:
• Technology is supplying the connection but only humans can supply the interactions.
• The ability to communicate instantly is perfect for a company like Tasti where various flavors are
offered at different times. Customers can sign up to receive alerts on when their favorite flavors
are being sold; or some locations send out daily emails with their flavors listed.
• Locations differ by culture. For that reason Tasti D-Lite sets up local facebook pages for
franchises and lets them manage their own voice. Franchisees can "like" or feature local
businesses, which permits them to keep the conversation local.
• The authors note that there is no way to know what the next "hot " thing will be, so businesses
need to be paying attention to what comes in their physical door as well as their cyber door.
Jade Fox, who is part of the brand management team for social media is quoted by the authors as
saying, "There is no longer a wall between you and the brand you love."
Building Loyalty Two additional stories are worth sharing. One has to do with the loyalty cards. The new owners found that customers were very committed to the old-style punch cards. (There is an episode of 30 Rock where a crazed Tina Fey is hunting for her wallet which had "no money but a Tasti card that needed only one more punch for a free dessert.") The company is slowly switching over to a loyalty "points" program, but they have listened carefully to their customers and knew that pulling the punch cards out of the system too quickly would be a big mistake.
The other story is a great example of how a company can benefit from customer ideas and enthusiasm. Tasti sponsored a contest to name their mascot (a cartoon version of a Tasti cup).
A room full of high-priced consultants would have been hard-pressed to come up with a better name
than the winner did. Meet the new mascot: Fillmore Cups.
As for founder Celeste Carlisimo; she is still part of the family. She owns two of the franchise operations on Manhattan's Upper East Side, one of which was recently converted to be the first self-serve Tasti D-Lite store. If you stop in one day, you may even see her coming in to check with her associates.
Note: I came upon the story of Celeste Carlesimo and Tasti D-Lite because one of my daughters took part in their 25th anniversary celebration. When I attended the event and met Celeste and heard the company's story, I thought it was well worth sharing.
If you'd like to read more stories about inspirational women like Celeste, please visit my site: www.americacomesalive.com.]]>Rock 'n' Roll Billbords of the Sunset Striptag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19312042012-10-02T16:40:00-04:002012-12-02T05:12:01-05:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
Essentially, these billboards were works of art that required a carefully coordinated collaborative effort among multiple artists and craftspeople. The initial concept might come from the art director, designer, photographer, record producer, or even the recording artists themselves. From there, the idea had to be translated into working parts so that it could be assembled as a 14- by 48- foot billboard that was put up slat-by-slat.
Illustrators, stylists, typographers, retouchers, printers, technical advisors, billboard painters, woodcutters, quality-control experts, and installation crews were all needed to mount this bigger-than-life advertising medium that would be viewed by millions.
When the billboard ran its course, it was removed slat-by-slat. The wood was whitewashed for use in another sign, and the artwork that had been featured on the sign disappeared for all time --- almost.
During the mid-sixties, Robert Landau, now a professional photographer, was embarking on what would eventually become a career of documenting on film the life and the surroundings of his hometown. One of the things he began detailing were these rock'n'roll billboards. The result is his new book, Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip (Angel City Press).
A Kid in the Neighborhood
In the mid-sixties, Robert Landau's parents split up, and Robert moved with his father to an apartment on Shoreham Drive just above Tower Records near the heart of Sunset Strip.
Landau was only 16 when he started snapping photographs of the billboards, but he had grown up surrounded by art. His father ran a fine art gallery where he represented many California artists, but his personal tastes leaned toward German and Austrian Expressionism. At their home and in his gallery, he displayed and talked about what he saw as beautiful works.
Teenager Robert Landau stepped out of his new residence on Shoreham Drive, and he felt excitement at seeing the billboards. He recognized them as art that spoke to his generation and culture, and soon Landau began clicking away. Each time the billboards changed, Landau was there at his regular vantage point to document the new work in his midst.
Decades later, Landau re-discovered his notebooks filled with the Kodachrome slides, and it occurred to him that they ought to be in a book. Landau set out to find and interview the artists, record producers, and designers who came up with the billboards. Their stories are included in the book and provide insight into both the art and the music of the era.
Rock 'n' Roll on Billboards
According to Landau, it all started in 1967 with the Doors.
The Doors were a local group, and Jac Holzman, head of Elektra Records, was trying to find a way to increase their play time on radio -- that meant attracting the attention of area DJs.
Cost was an issue for the label which was small compared to the major labels, but Holzman knew the Doors' new album, "Break on Through" was worthy of attention. As he sat in his office and looked out at the strip where the billboards advertised everything from cars to theme parks, he decided that the number of DJ's who must drive on the Strip every day made the expense of a billboard worthwhile.
"The Doors Break on Through with an Electrifying Album" was the beginning. That's how the culture began.
Landau's Favorite
Robert Landau's favorite photograph and billboard is the Abbey Road billboard for the Beatles' album, the photo that fittingly graces the cover of the book. Not only was it an eye-grabbing, attention-arresting work, but it also has a fine story with it.
Roland Young, the designer responsible for the billboard, shared the background with Landau. Capitol Records decided it needed a presence on the Strip, but the Beatles' records sold themselves with very little effort. The project was not given much priority, and they assigned it to Young, a junior designer in the department.
Young recognized the opportunity he was being given and decided to explore an avenue that fascinated him: the use of cut-outs in advertising, in particular on a billboard. "I knew I didn't even have to put their name on it..." ...and that the cut-out heads of the musicians would be framed perfectly by the blue sky.
The billboard was everything it should have been: iconic and attention-getting. It worked so well, Landau writes, that one day Young received a call from the Foster and Kleiser, the sign company: Some fans had climbed to the top of the sign and cut off Paul's head, taking it as a souvenir.
Young's first reaction was to tell the sign company that the head would be replaced. But then he went out to take a look. Young realized the pranksters had simply taken the billboard to a new level. It had become another type of art -- perhaps the first-ever interactive billboard.
And of course, that alone attracted even more attention.
Important Pictorial Record
The book was designed by Frans Evenhuis and published by Los Angeles' own Angel City Press. "Stunningly beautiful" is the only way to describe the artistry with which they present Landau's work in Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip.
It's probably just as well that 16-year-old Landau hadn't a clue what his ultimate product could be. This way, he, too, can step back and be knocked out, just like the rest of us, by the wonder and beauty of what he has created in documenting an art and a culture that has now completely vanished.
For more stories about America's recent past, see www.americacomesalive.com]]>Has the Kennedy Center Ignored Latinos?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19114992012-09-26T10:05:48-04:002012-11-26T05:12:02-05:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/The Los Angeles Times ran a story generated by two Latino organizations, the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda. The two want to create public awareness that the Kennedy Center Honors Awards largely exclude Latinos.
As most Americans know, each year the Kennedy Center honors living artists who have reached the top of their profession via a lifetime of achievement. The 2012 nominees were announced earlier this month and include actor Dustin Hoffman, bluesman George "Buddy" Guy, late-night TV host David Letterman, ballerina Natalia Makarova, and the three surviving musicians from the Led Zeppelin band, keyboardist/bassist John Paul Jones, guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant.
Only two artists of Hispanic descent have been honored in the last 35 years -- Spanish tenor and conductor Placido Domingo (2000) and actress, singer, and dancer Chita Rivera (2002).
This fall the Kennedy Center also announced the appointment or re-appointment of 10 board members. Out of a total of 53 board members, the two Latino organizations noted that there is one person with a Spanish surname: Giselle Fernandez who is a Mexican-American television journalist.
The Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2011 reached 52 million, making people of Hispanic origin the nation's largest ethnic minority. A 2008 Census Bureau projection estimated that ethnic and racial minorities will become the majority in the United States by 2050, and that about one in three U.S. residents will be Hispanic by then.
From the Past: Who Should Have Been Honored?
Those artists who could have been considered in the past include Anthony Quinn, Ricardo Montalban, Raul Julia, and Rita Hayworth. To provide an understanding of the caliber of these artists, we can more closely examine the careers of Celia Cruz and José Ferrer:
Celia Cruz (1925-2003) was born in Havana, one of fourteen children. She was a Cuban-American salsa performer who earned 23 gold albums and had an international reputation as Queen of Salsa. She became a U.S. citizen in 1959 when Fidel Castro took control of Cuba. When she wasn't traveling, she and her husband lived in New Jersey.
José Ferrer (1912-1992) was the first Hispanic to win an Academy Award for his film portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). He appeared in more than 60 films, and he was also nominated for an Oscar for his performances in Joan of Arc and Moulin Rouge. He also won several Tony awards. In 1981 he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and in 1985 he was awarded the National Medal of the Arts.
Ferrer was born in Puerto Rico in 1912 and attended college in the U.S., gaining admission to the prestigious Princeton University. He planned to be a language teacher and did post-graduate work at Columbia but then discovered acting. He married five times, twice to Rosemary Clooney.
Possible Current Nominees?
Because Kennedy Center honorees are chosen from artists who are still living, those who could currently be considered might include guitarist Carlos Santana, actor and director Edward James Olmos, salsa singer and jazz musician Ruben Blades, singer and songwriter Julio Iglesias and singer and actress Gloria Estefan.
Or what about Joan Baez? She was born to a father from Puebla, Mexico and when she began her recording career in the late 1950s, she immediately had three albums that achieved gold record status; the records stayed on the charts of hit albums for two years.
In addition to her long music career Baez is also well known as a political and social activist. She credited Martin Luther King Jr. with first inspiring her, and she marched with him for civil rights whenever she could. She also actively protested the Vietnam War. More recently, she has taken stands against the war in Iraq and in favor of human rights, gay and lesbian rights as well as environmental causes. She has been romantically linked with Bob Dylan and Steve Jobs. She performed at Jobs' memorial in 2011.
Post your suggestions as to which artists should be considered.
America Comes Alive is celebrating Hispanic Heritage month; if you'd like to receive these posts by email, please write me: kate@americacomesalive.com with Kennedy Center in the headline.]]>The Quack's Daughter: A True Story About the Private Life of a Victorian College Girltag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19007832012-09-24T18:34:35-04:002012-11-24T05:12:01-05:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
Like other families, Nettleton's family saved items in an attic for years and then at some point, it was time to pass on the collection to the next generation. That was how Nettleton came to receive a trunk filled with the diaries, scrapbooks, miscellaneous articles, and keepsakes belonging to her great-grandmother, Cora Keck (1865-1921).
As Nettleton noted in her email to me: "While researching her story, I hit the jackpot; I rediscovered the forgotten career of her mother, Mrs. Dr. Rebecca J. Keck (1838-1904) from Davenport, Iowa, who was second only to Lydia Pinkham as one of 19th century America's most successful self-make female patent medicine sellers." (Mrs. Dr. was the terminology used at this time to distinguish that the woman in the ad or an article was a woman.)
Readers hit the jackpot, too, as Greta Nettleton provides much more than a tale about her family; she provides a fascinating snapshot of life for women of the late 19th century in her new book, The Quack's Daughter: A True Story about the Private Life of a Victorian College Girl.
Focus Is on Cora's College Life As the book title explains, the focus of this book is about Cora Keck, who is sent to Vassar as a way to redeem her family's reputation.
Like Lydia Pinkham, Rebecca Keck turned to healing and the prescribing of patent medicines because she needed to provide for her family. (Cora's father lives with the family but Mrs. Dr. Keck supports the family.) Though Mrs. Dr. Keck is successful enough that she travels to many cities to see patients and sell product, she encounters resistance from physicians who were trained at medical schools, and she spends a fair amount of time in legal battles over her right to practice medicine. These issues pigeonhole the family as "less than" in Danvenport, so Cora and her siblings and parents are looked down upon by others in town.
In the 1880s, Vassar College was facing severe financial difficulties and was seeking income by growing the student body. The college started enrolling "prep" students who might one day qualify for the rigorous college program, and the college opened its doors to special students in music and art. Cora was a very good pianist, and her talent -- and her mother's ability to pay tuition -- bring her to Vassar as a music student.
In offering Cora a socially acceptable escape from Davenport, Iowa, the family must have hoped that some of the luster of Cora's accomplishment in being accepted at Vassar would reflect well on them.
The Collection in the Trunk Cora was a person who saved things, and Nettleton clearly has a wealth of materials to draw from, ranging from diary entries to articles Cora clipped about friends and family; she also saved articles that reflected the alumnae vs. board battles about saving the college.
Cora's scrapbooks are also rich with tantalizing items that send Nettleton off in search of stories: Cora preserved items ranging an unsmoked cigarette saved from a memorable evening socializing with "dudes" (the slang of the day for well-to-do young men) to notes left on her college door.
Because local newspapers often printed gossipy tidbits about the comings and goings of some of the townspeople, Nettleton perseveres and finds additional detail about Cora's visits to friends and relatives.
Tells a Complete Story As a result of Nettleton's dogged research, she tells a very complete and fascinating story of the era. Readers come away with information on what was happening at Vassar during the time Cora was there, what New York City would have been like when Cora goes home with her good friend Kitty Rogers for various weekends and vacations. She also tracks down the backgrounds and of friends and relatives and provides an amazingly complete picture of Cora's life and the world of Cora's day.
Among the surprises that Nettleton notes was how Cora's activities very much reflected what we would consider normal adolescent behavior. While the upper crust young women may have had a more constrained lifestyle, Cora and her friends defy the Victorian stereotype. Cora frequently creates excuses for getting into New York City, assuring administrators that she has parental permission to travel in to see a doctor. There are also a few instances when Cora and friends crawled out a dorm window after curfew in order to have a good time.
In the book, Nettleton writes that before starting the book, she anticipated that Mrs. Dr. Keck would be portrayed as a villain (a quack), but as Cora's story continues, Nettleton comes to respect Cora's mother who seems to practice good-sense medicine. When Cora's daughter is very ill and treatment by Elkhart physicians seems to make her worse, Mrs. Dr. Keck uses common sense (small bland meals, etc.) and very mild medicines, and the daughter improves. Medical professionals in that day had no antibiotics or even aspirin so they used medications that were opium-based or often had a high mercury content; none of these were healing.
Women's Lives Were Very Limited Cora's story illustrates how women then -- and for many years after -- were in a terrible bind. If they got an education there were few acceptable ways to use it. Nettleton shows the battle for parity at several levels.
The Vassar alumnae during this time are fighting to gain representation on the board; they see that the all-male board of trustees is failing the institution, and they want access. (The first female board members were seated in 1888.)
Cora excelled in music, but it was not socially acceptable for a woman to perform. When Cora returns to Davenport having failed to snag a husband, there are few options open to her because of the low-esteem in which her family is held.
Cora's mother is highly successful at what she does but is looked down upon by the community. Regardless of skill or ability, a woman could not make progress unless she achieved social acceptance/success first.
Cora does eventually marry well. She elopes to marry a retired widower who came from a good social standing in Elkhart, Ind. When Cora moves to Elkhart, she is able to participate meaningfully in society by establishing a St. Cecelia Society, dedicated to encouraging musical performance and study. For Cora's era, this was a fitting use of her love and ability in music.
Next Book
Nettleton is now at work on a book about Mrs. Dr. Rebecca J. Keck (1838-1904). The Quack's Daughter: A True Story about the Private Life of a Victorian College Girl is a wonderful addition to the story of college-age women in the late 19th century, and undoubtedly, this next book will be a great contribution to what we know about women entrepreneurs of this time.
For more stories about inspirational women, please visit www.americacomesalive.com]]>First American Woman to Build a Cosmetics Empire: Harriet Hubbard Ayertag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18856412012-09-17T16:03:14-04:002012-11-17T05:12:01-05:00Kate Kellyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-kelly/
In the field of cosmetics, we know the name Helena Rubinstein (1870-1965) but few know how she started with a single cream and built an international company; Elizabeth Arden is also a familiar name but few know Arden's story. Though Rubinstein and Arden seem like they must have been business pioneers, they were not the first American woman to build and run a beauty empire.
In a new book ,Dispensing Beauty in New York and Beyond: The Triumphs and Tragedies of Harriet Hubbard Ayer published by the History Press, Annette Blaugrund tells the fascinating story of a little-known Chicago socialite who overcame many obstacles on her way to be the first American woman to build a successful cosmetics empire. The story of Ayer's life is filled with many challenges, but she finds ways to overcome all -- building not just one career, that of cosmetics mogul, but eventually re-inventing herself to become an influential journalist, writing and eventually editing the women's pages of Joseph Pulitzer's New York World.
Author Annette Blaugrund is an art historian and has worked as a curator and museum director at several prominent New York City museums, including the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts (1997-2007), the New-York Historical Society (1989-1995), and the Brooklyn Museum. She has written six books about American art and contributed to many journals.
Found Subject Because of a Painting
Fittingly, she found Harriet Hubbard Ayer because of a painting. The Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, N.Y., has a collection of work by portrait artist William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), and among his subjects was Harriet Hubbard Ayer.
"The painting of Harriet fully caught my interest," says Dr. Blaugrund. "I began creating a file of information about her. She fascinated me."
Blaugrund was eventually able to devote full-time to the book, which features exhaustive research on Ayer as well as background information on life in Chicago, New York, and Europe during Harriet's day.
Harriet's story is of a woman who married well when she wed Herbert Hubbard and whose life largely involved entertaining and traveling Europe where she could shop extensively. She became mother to two daughters, but while the children were still young, Harriet realized that Hubbard was a drunk and often found companionship with other women instead of coming home.
Divorce at that time was almost unheard of, so Harriet's first step out of her misery was in 1882 when she moved with her daughters from Chicago to New York. She found employment with a home furnishings shop where she had been a well-regarded customer. Eventually, she made buying trips to Europe for the company, which permitted her to reconnect with a Frenchman, Monsieur Mirault, who ran a pharmacy in Paris specializing in perfumes and creams. His grandfather's formula was well-known in France for having been the product that was supposed to have helped French socialite Juliette Récamier (1777-1849) maintain her beauty.
Selecting a Product
Harriet was intent on coming up with a product that consumers would want, and she pursued Mirault until he finally agreed to sell her the formula. But purchase of the formula was only the first step. She needed to find American suppliers of the ingredients and develop a version of the cream that could be manufactured in the U.S. She accomplished those goals by 1886 and started the Harriet Hubbard Ayer Company. As a proprietor, Harriet proved to be a skilled promoter of her products, the main one of which was Récamier Cream.
But life for Harriet was not destined to be easy. She started divorce proceedings against her husband, and she also encountered a ne'er-do-well, James Seymour. Seymour hired her to procure furnishing for his yacht, but after she had begun her cosmetics empire, Seymour orchestrated the theft of Harriet's business. When she fought back through the legal system, Seymour contrived to separate her from her daughters who were in school in Europe. Eventually Seymour arranged to have Harriet committed to an insane asylum.
Blaugrund tells of how Harriet eventually gets out of the insane asylum, but her business was lost. It had been run into the ground and was sold at a receiver's sale. (The Harriet Hubbard Ayer Company was a success under the new owners, who sold it to Lever Brothers in 1947 for $5.5 million.)
Career as a Journalist
After recovering from being institutionalized, Harriet became a writer and editor for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. Her articles and advice columns usually preached common sense regarding diet, exercise, and skin care. Among the societal changes she pushed for was that of more practical clothing for women, a concept that was unacceptable at that time. Her campaign became known as the "Rainy Daisies," as it came from a group of women who called themselves the Rainy Day Club. They advocated for lighter-weight clothing, less constricting corsets, and shorter, less cumbersome skirts. Harriet and others realized that wearing skirts that dragged in the "filth of elevated railway stations and from the mud and dirt of the city streets" was inadvisable.
Harriet wrote: "For twelve year of my business life have sat for hours each rainy day with damp, often soaking skirts about my ankles, and have suffered in health in consequence. Thousands of other women have done the same in this city alone."
Harriet Hubbard Ayer was not active in the suffrage movement, but in word and deed, she set an example of what needed to be done so that women might eventually be able to live independent lives.
The book is impeccably researched, and the intriguing tale is well told. Dispensing Beauty in New York and Beyond: The Triumphs and Tragedies of Harriet Hubbard Ayer is both a fascinating read and a valuable addition to our knowledge about women business owners.