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Pete
New Jersey
Since my first trip to Gettysburg as a young boy, I've been captivated by History. I get it from my mom. Although she passed away when I was just 13, she still had an influence on me. All our family vacations were stitched around some historical site. So, history geeks are in my blood. I'm a graphic designer by profession and a semi-amateur painter. I love to explore history through my paintbrush. I've also done living history to get a first hand feel for "what it was like". Looking at history through the eyes of the common man (or woman) and understanding the personal, human drama is really the spice that flavors the historical stew!
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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Social Media and Social History



This scene is a plein air piece I did a few years ago at a spot that is near and dear to my childhood memories. I grew up in a small town called Little Silver, NJ which is next to the Shrewsbury River. In the summer, this place was the scene of crabbing, seining and the occasional boat ride. In the winter, we skated. Just beyond the train trestle lies Fort Monmouth, whose bugle calls were clearly heard on our side of town, which is due to close in a month. So many adventures we had along that shoreline!






So, what does this have to do with social media? Recently, someone created a Facebook page entitled, You know you are from Little Silver when.... . It prompted such a response that I had to turn off the email alerts for that page because my iPhone was dinging constantly and my inbox was getting choked! Nostalgia is a siren though, and I find myself visiting the page often. Viewing a time a place through the yellowed window of time is somehow soothing. It's also fascinating to see the commonality of experiences, characters and places throughout the generations. The things that made our town special.






It occurred to me that You know you are from Little Silver when.... is more than just an amusing trip down memory lane. It's a social history of what it was like to grow up in a small New Jersey town in the 60's and 70's. This is stuff that normally gets lost to history. It's the children's history; our grammar school principle commonly referred to as "Brick", Henry the candy shop owner, Bella the bag lady who wandered our streets. It's our favorite hangouts, cut-throughs and secret places. It's the old sagging Victorian mansion with the over grown hedge maze that we were certain was inhabited by a witch. It's the pizza parlor where all our initials were carved into the wooden booths.






Taken as a whole, we can see what was important to us then. What we where scared of, how we interacted, what was fun and what wasn't is all on record. Such information is vital to the interpretation of history. I hope that historians will be able to harvest that information from social media tools such as Facebook, rather than simply post and tweet factoids and "today in history" blurbs.






We tend to see social media as a conduit with which we can push information and we forget it is a place that also hosts information. I suppose the challenge for historians has always been simply, knowing where to look.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Who was Amos Alonzo Stagg?


I'll bet that the vast majority of folks who settle in to watch the big game on Sunday have never even heard the name Amos Alonzo Stagg before. Yet, his importance to the game of football is immeasurable.
I painted this old school gridiron grunt in the colors of my Alma mater, Susquehanna University. Stagg naturally came to mind because during my brief college football career as a freshman walk-on lineman there, I had the honor to practice and play (well, stand on the sideline mostly) on the fields where he coached from 1946 to 1953. The stadium is named for he and his son who was also a coach at SU. It was kind of a thrill for a history geek who loves football.
Ok, so what's the big deal about "Lonnie" Stagg anyway? He was born in 1862, right in the middle of the American Civil War, in West Orange New Jersey. This Jersey boy ended up going to Yale and becoming, well, an end. In those days there were no defensive or offensive ends. You just played end. He did it well enough to be on the very first All American Team in 1886. He could have played pro baseball for the NY Nationals but thought there was more honor in amateur athletics and really loved football anyway. He had a connection to basketball too. At what is now Springfield College, he coached John Naismith at football. It was Naismith who would invent the game of basketball.
By 1892 he was the head coach at the University of Chicago and led them to 7 Big Ten conference titles. Oh yeah, he also invented the Big Ten. In fact, he invented a lot of stuff. The tackling dummy, the huddle, the reverse and the "man in motion" were all his ideas. Stagg also created numbers and letters: Jersey numbers and that iconic American tradition, Varsity Letters. On baseball he bestowed the batting cage! He was also involved in setting up coaches associations and a rules committee.
Amos Alonzo Stagg coached football for 71 years, only retiring at the age of 98. He died in 1965 (same year I was born and the year of the first Super Bowl!) at 102. For his effort, he was showered with honors. A number of stadiums where named for him (including Susquehanna's) and the Division III championship is known as the Stagg Bowl. In 1951 he was inducted to College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. If that wasn't enough immortality, he got to play himself in Knute Rockne: All American.
Maybe Rockne himself summed it up best: "All Football comes from Stagg."
So, while you're enjoying your chicken wings, beer, fireworks and over the top half time show, remember it all started with "the grand old man of football" who devoted 71 years of his life to making boys into men on the football field. Wouldn't it be great to get just a little of that nobility back?
No one on Lonnie Stagg's teams ever did a touchdown dance....or even contemplated it for that matter!
Ok, on two......ready-hutt-hutt!
Sunday, December 19, 2010

On Christmas Day in seventy-six....


Well, Christmas is almost upon us. Living in New Jersey, we always think about what might be the most dramatic moment in American history: Washington's crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton. One of my more recent paintings shows a Hessian soldier with old Trenton Barracks in the background.
As a kid I had the National Geographic series of music from various stages in American History and the Revolutionary War album contained a ballad of the Battle of Trenton. It sounded pretty authentic to me and had a haunting melody. I still have that record, scratched though it is, but nothing to play it on! I couldn't find a digital version either. However, I did find the lyrics. So, I give you The Battle of Trenton.
Thursday, October 14, 2010

Museum Design: A Lesson on Getting Kids into History

We've heard the mantra before: " We have to get the kids interested!" All educational disciplines have opined about it before ad nauseum. That very question was recently posted on a LinkedIn Group called Museum Design. A couple of members pointed to the USS Constitution Museum as a place that has really found some great answers to that question. It re-confirmed why I'd someday love to be involved in that industry.

Before I get into that, let me give you a little story. Some years ago, a reenactor friend of mine asked me to help out in a presentation he was giving to a boyscout troop who was about to embark on a field trip to Gettysburg. So a couple of other guys and me donned our uniforms and performed some demonstrations on stage while my friend, a grammar school principal, gave a narration. Like many of us history geeks (myself included) he has endless info stored in his brain that just comes spilling out once the spigot is opened. It wasn't long before I could see he was losing them. It was becoming just another school lecture. So I stepped in. I got them out of their seats, formed them in ranks and taught them how too maneuver like Civil War soldiers. The kids loved it! So did the scout masters who asked us to teach them too so they could use the commands to move the kids around in a orderly fashion on the battlefield that weekend. A boring lecture turned "hands on" proved to be a big success! It was an eye-opener for me.

Ok, now check out The Family Learning Forum which is conducted by the USS Constitution Museum. Take a look at the ReThinking Exhibitions tab and the section called Steal this Idea. Those ideas, which I find instictive, are seldom used by history museums. I don't know why. They use hands on experiences, miniatures (which kids find interesting in and of themselves), and costumes to stimulate interest. Those are all elements children use when they do what they love the best: PLAY! Duh. It seems pretty obvious now, doesn't it? Here's a good article of a mom's account of her and her kids experience there. The method seems to be working.

I've only explored a small portion of The Family Learning Forum but I have a feeling I'll end up reading the whole thing. Designing spaces like the USS Constitution Museum would be a dream job for me. For anyone who wants to pass on their love of history, there is so much to be learned!

It's time to start thinking outside the display case.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Bigfoot: A History of Hoaxes



Bigfoot walks into a bar and says.....






OK, no Bigfoot jokes. Just hoaxes. I did this little doodle while on a less-than-interesting conference call the other day and I thought I'd explore this subject. After all, Halloween is coming up and what better time to turn to the subject of legendary monsters?




I admit that I'm fascinated with the big guy. Bigfoot has a rich and far reaching history, but the biggest headlines come from the hoaxes. Let's take a look at a few.




American Indians may well have been hoaxing Sasquatch for hundreds of years. Some Indians believe that he only manifests himself to those who have lost their way in life as a sort of warning. Can't you just see some tribe throwing a bear skin on the biggest guy and having him stomp around in the woods to scare some wayward teen back to the straight and narrow? They may well have used the same method to scare off early European settlers. OK, I watched a lot of Scooby-Doo when I was a kid but none other than Teddy Roosevelt related his own story that sounds a lot like a scare tactic to me. Europeans reported seeing a big hairy man-like creature as far back as the 1830's. Hmmmm? You can check out some more Bigfoot history here, including a sighting by Leif Eriksen in 986 AD!




The 1884 story of "Jacko" a Canadian Bigfoot reportedly captured turned out to be a hoax. Just over 70 years later, the discovery of foot prints (the very prints that spawned the "bigfoot" nickname) caused a minor sensation. Later, these were found to be the work of Ray Wallace who'd been using wooden "feet" to make the tracks for years. Then, as recently as 2008, two Georgia men claimed to have a bigfoot corpse. It quickly turned out to be just what it looked like: a monkey suit stuffed into a freezer with some road kill gut thrown on it. Hardly worth mentioning really.



Then, in 1967, Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson may have produced the most successful hoax of the 2oth Century. They filmed the creature in the aptly named Bluff Creek area of California. Here's the clip. The only footage subjected to more scrutiny may be the Zupruder film! Experts of all kinds have analyzed the film and most findings are that it can't be disproved. Some even believe it couldn't have been hoaxed as humans aren't capable of duplicating that famous Bigfoot gait. In the end, it may have been good old detective work, not science, that exposed the hoax.


The author of The Making of Bigfoot, Greg Long, has apparently exposed Roger Patterson as an extraordinary con man and connected the dots to the person who made the suit and the one who wore it. Intriguing details, such as the suggestion by Philip Morris, the suit maker, that football shoulder pads be used to bulk up the beast lend an air of authenticity to the story. Experts have always pointed to the fact that Patterson's Bigfoot is obviously female (she's affectionately called Patty) and it's highly unlikely anyone would have thought to hoax a she-squatch. That is unless they were familiar with William Roes famous 1955 affidavit of his sighting and detailed description of a female sasquatch. Patterson was reported to have been interested in the bigfoot mystery so he may have based Patty on that description.


Still, many refute Long's work as flawed. Shows like Monster Quest still analyze the film. People still believe. People still see bigfoot too. Take a trip over to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and check out the recent sightings (attention scout masters: great fodder for campfire stories!). He's seen all over this country and others; Australia, China, and Poland to name a few. It seems every human culture has a legend similar to Bigfoot.


Many of the sightings can be explained has lies, hoax victims, wacko's or mistaken identity. But there are surely a few made by rational people who believe what they saw. Perhaps the great mystery then is: what did they see? Not: is bigfoot real? Maybe there's a deep human instinct that hearkens back to prehistory when Homosapiens competed with other human species. Who knows?


One school of thought is that, for every day that goes by, we are one day closer to finding the hard fast proof that the creature exists. On the other hand, it may be that for every day that goes by without evidence, it becomes less likely evidence exists. I guess it depends on what you believe.


Me? Well, I hope he is out there and that we never find him. I love mysteries....


















Saturday, September 11, 2010

Never Forget....my thoughts

Never forget. Every time I see or hear that it pisses me off. I didn't know why util today. As I took my walk this morning, enjoying the weather that is eerily similar to this same date 9 years ago, I finally understood.

Forget what? Forget that a power crazed pyschopath orchestrated a mass murder of almost 3,000 Americans in one day in such spectacular fashion? Forget the sight of the symbol of US financial power slowly sinking into an awful cloud of dust? Forget the sight of people choosing to meet death on their own terms, with fresh air in their lungs, rather than be incinerated by burning avaition fuel? Forget the smoldering, gaping hole in the symbol of national defense? Only an alzheimer patient could forget that. Even then I'm sure the memory remains. No, nobody can forget the events of this date nine years ago. It's absurd and thoughtless.

We have forgotten something though. We've forgotten how we felt on this date nine years ago. There was a national sense of unity that only an enormous tragedy could produce. We helped each other. We were decent to each other. We cared about each other. A flag flew over almost every front door. I remember calling the Highlands, NJ police to offer to give rides home to evacuees from Manhattan. The dispatcher took my number and asked me to stay home unless they called me. There were already far more rides than riders. Everyone wanted to help. Petty differences and bigotry seemed to disappear for a while. People understood that this idea of America was bigger than any one of us. People believed in selflessness that is usually reserved for the soldier or public servant. There beneath the spooky, quiet sky, we really were one nation under God.

It was a lesson the terrorists never intended nor could have forseen. I was never more proud to be an American than in those darks weeks following 9/11. While we are all busy "not forgetting" today, let's remember more than just the horror. We owe at least that to those who had their lives snatched away that day.

Another thing we should do while we are not forgetting is think. The events of 9/11 weren't about religion, extremist or otherwise. It was about power. Power sought by psychopaths who only use religion to build a fantasy of justification for their blood lust. Burning the Quaran or protesting the building of a mosque only fuels their fantasy. It's exactly what they want. Don't give it to them. We all need to think before we act.
Monday, August 2, 2010

The Question

I just got back from a Food Network event in Atlantic City. Debbie was able to get us press passes through her JerseyBites.com blog and we had the pleasure to talk to Paula Deen, Deb's favorite. What does this have to do with history? Bear with me.

Each press person was allowed to ask one question. Most did the obvious. They asked about food. There were some great questions but Debbie chose a different tact. She referenced Paula's difficult past; divorcing an alcoholic husband, raising two boys on her own, battling agoraphobia and finally getting her own restaurant against all odds. Debbie asked for words of wisdom for other single mom's who aspire to be entrepreneurs. Paula loved the question and offered a moving and lengthy response. She even gave Deb a hug! (check out Jersey Bites)

So, Debbie had the chance to ask one of her idols a great question while sitting next to her at a table. It was a big thrill for her. We history geeks don't quite have that opportunity do we? Most of the people that inspire us are all long gone. Woe is us!

One of my favorite historical characters is U.S. Grant but I'm not getting a hug or a handshake from him anytime soon! I can ask him a question though. No, this has nothing to do with mystic mediums or seances. If you do your research you can make a reasonable idea of how a person would answer a question. Granted it might be a lot of homework and you can't hear the answer in their own exact words, but it's an interesting excercise.

The fun part is coming up with that one, really good question. Oh, I could ask Sam Grant, "What where you thinking at Cold Harbor?" or "How did it feel to capture Fort Donelson?". Hmmm, but what would I really like to know? How about, "After you failed in business and farming, how did you find the courage to soldier on?" or "When you re-entered the military at the start of the Civil War, did you feel like it was a great opportunity or did you just think it was your duty?"

So, maybe it's a good idea to approach history as a journalist would. Ask a deeper question, get a meaningful answer.

What one question would you ask your favorite historical personality? Pick up book and see if you can figure out their answer.