Monthly Archives: April 2011

First Day Issues

12 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in Philately

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One thing I love about philately is that, unlike say beanie babies or the travesty that became baseball card collecting in the 1980s and 1990s, stamps are real.  What I mean is that they serve a useful function beyond being beautiful miniature works of art.  Put it on an envelope and you can send it anywhere in the country, all for a mere 44 cents.

Those who know their Civil War know that letters were indispensable both for military purposes and to the morale of soldiers and their loved ones on the home front.  No one understood this better than the military and civilian leadership of the time, which explains why the mail systems of both the North and South worked as well as they did throughout the conflict.

The United State Postal Service released a beautiful series of stamps during the Centennial fifty years ago and now they are doing the same for the 150th anniversary.  Today in Charleston the Post Office unveiled the first two issues in its Civil War sesquicentennial series.  One is a circa 1861 Currier and Ives reproduction of Fort Sumter in flames and the other is a painting of the fighting on Henry Hill at First Manassas.   There will be two each year through 2015.  Souvenir sheets are also available while supplies last.

I don’t collect stamps as an investment but I was at the ASDA stamp show at the New Yorker hotel this past Sunday and the five souvenir sheets from the 50th anniversary of the Second World War in the mid-1990s were selling for almost $100 a set.  The Civil War stamps will be equally prized in years to come.  First Day Covers are a particularly fun way to introduce kids to philately.  Who doesn’t like getting mail?  To order FDCs for the Fort Sumter and Bull Run stamps, read the USPS press release.

Ulysses Grant Dietz

11 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by in Monuments and Statuary, Museums, Ulysses S. Grant (General and President)

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The USA Today has a short interview with General Grant’s great-great grandson.  Dietz is an author, senior curator, and curator of decorative arts at the Newark Museum in New Jersey.  I have been to the Newark Museum several times over the years and can attest that it is one of the finest museums in the nation.  Sadly many don’t visit because of the location.  The best way to experience the Newark Museum is to visit the site and then have dinner in the Ironbound District.  Both are within walking distance of Newark Penn Station.

An added bonus is the nearby Gutzon Borglum statue of Lincoln.  An audience in the thousands watched Theodore Roosevelt dedicate Borglum’s statue on May 30, 1911.

(Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

(Thanksgiving Friday, 2009)

See you at the sites,

Keith

 

Civil War subway trip

10 Sunday Apr 2011

Posted by in Subway trips

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Hey everybody, the Hayfoot and I took a trip earlier this month to Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island.  It is off the beaten path but worth a visit should you happen to be in New York City and have the time.

As always the first stop was the Visitors Center, where this statue of General James Wadsworth stands in the museum.  Wadsworth was mortally wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864.

Our friend Sami came with us.  He is a volunteer with the National Park Service at Governors Island and knows a great deal about the city.

That is the western tower of the Verrazano Bridge.  Fort Tompkins is on the other side of the hill.  That one cannot see it when approaching is intentional.

This is Battery Weed seen from the top of the hill.  The photo was taken from Fort Tompkins.

It is somewhat confusing.  This particular structure was named Fort Wadsworth after General Wadsworth in 1865 and then renamed Battery Weed in honor of Brigadier General Stephen H. Weed in 1902.  Since then the fortifications have been known collectively as Fort Wadsworth.  Weed was another New Yorker and Union general, killed on Little Round Top on July 2, 1863.

It was cold.

Yes, that is Manhattan in the background.  Brooklyn is to the right.

We took a ranger tour of Fort Tompkins.  The knowledge these people have is astonishing.  I have taken dozens of such tours over the years and this was one of the best.

The ranger did a great job explaining the nuances of the fortification.

This cannon was unearthed during a construction project in Manhattan and donated to Fort Wadsworth.  The archaeology of New York City is fascinating.  There is so much history unseen below our feet.

This is one of the entrances to Fort Tompkins.  The ranger explained how troops would have expelled potential invaders.  This is why one has to take a ranger tour, for the details.

The parade ground

Always pack lunch.

Coming soon: Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton

Thanks for checking in.




The stillness of William Zinsser

09 Saturday Apr 2011

Posted by in Writing

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Over the past few weeks one of my weekly rituals has become checking the American Scholar blog every Friday to read the latest installment from William Zinsser.  Born in 1922, Zinsser is a lifelong New Yorker who began writing for the Herald Tribune after a stint in the Army during World War II.  He went on to freelance for most of the leading magazines of the mid-twentieth century, teach at Yale, edit the Book-of-the-Month Club, and publish eighteen books of his own.  Now, approaching his ninetieth year, he has thankfully taken to the blogosphere with “Zinsser on Friday.” And oh yes, he moonlights playing a little jazz piano in the local clubs as well.  For over half a century he has shared his mantra with students, fellow journalists, and the public-at-large: simplify your language and thereby find your humanity.  Recently he turned his attention to Appomattox, the 146th anniversary of which is today.

Tartan Week wind-up

08 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by in Ellis Island

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Hey everybody, as I mentioned in a previous post the annual Tartan Week celebration came to Ellis Island this past weekend.  There was a sizable turnout to see the exhibit, performances, and the unveiling of the new tartan design.

As always, the bagpipers put on an excellent performance throughout the day.

This guy was spinning plates and entertaining everyone who walked past.

Photo op

There is something for everyone at Ellis Island, the Gateway to America.

 

Play ball!

04 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by in Baseball

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Hey everybody, Opening Day was last Thursday but that seemed a little early for a baseball post so I waited until today.  I was in Green-Wood Cemetery this past weekend and came across a few very special figures from baseball history.

It is now recognized that Union General Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball.  This was total fabrication.  Indeed, he probably knew nothing about the game.  No one person invented baseball; it was inspired by cricket and rounders and evolved independently in different locations throughout the country in the decades before the Civil War.  Still, there is one person who probably did more to institutionalize the game than anyone else: Henry Chadwick.  Chadwick ironically enough was an Englishman, who came to the United States as a young man and settled in Brooklyn.  What is so interesting about Chadwick is that he encompassed both the rational and literary aspects of the game.  He was a numbers crunching statistician who also cared about the written word.  For starters he invented the box score and wrote the first hard cover monograph ever written about the National Pastime, The Game of Baseball, in 1868.  Base hit, left on base, and chin music are just a few of the terms this Englishman added to the American lexicon.

Chadwick and his wife rest here.

The baseballs are not put of the monument but were left by visitors.

I love the base paths around the headstone.  Chadwick died in 1908 and the monument was dedicated a year later.

The bases are made of granite.  The belt buckle is a great detail.

The precursor to the Brooklyn Dodgers started play as a minor league team in 1883, the same year the Great Bridge opened.  The team eventually joined the National League of course.  Charles Ebbets bought the team outright in 1902.  His team moved into Ebbets Field in 1913.  Ebbets was one of many ballparks built in the decade after the first World Series in 1903.  These include Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field (1909); Washington’s Griffith Stadium (1911); Fenway Park, Tiger Stadium, and Crosley Field (1912); and Wrigley Field (1914).  The Dodgers played in Ebbets Field through the 1957 season, after which they moved to Los Angeles.


The headstone is unassuming and lies on a hill surrounded by others.

I’m so glad baseball is back.  Enjoy your spring.