Monthly Archives: October 2011

The economics of preservation

18 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by in Gettysburg

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Finding the balance between preservation and development is a tough order.  On one hand, once historic land and structures are developed they are gone forever.  On the other, communities must have a tax base to thrive and prosper.  We all have a right to live in the present.  It is a mixed blessing, but the economic and housing crises have been playing a role in the preservation of Civil War battlefields.  A slower market means fewer buyers and lower property values, which in turn means owners are more willing to sell to preservationists.  This has been especially true at Gettysburg.

A family life

16 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in New York City, Writing

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Pete Hamill

The first time I ever heard of Pete Hamill was when I was working for a large chain bookstore in Texas.  A customer came through my line and bought Hamill’s then just-released memoir A Drinking Life.  I told him that the book was selling briskly and asked who Hamill was.  The patron defined Hamill as “the Mike Royko of New York.”  Because it was always my goal to live in the ultimate big city, I read the book that week. Soon, I had read all the titles held by the library.  A few years after that, when something called the World Wide Web made it possible for all of us to obtain the previously unobtainable, Hamill’s remaining books were the first things I purchased online from the out-of-print booksellers.  It seems like so long ago, but wasn’t.

A few years later I had moved to New York and was living in Brooklyn not far from where Hamill grew up.  Many in my neighborhood remembered him from the time Park Slope was still a working class enclave in the 1940s-50s.  His brother Denis is also a writer and newspaperman. The younger Hamill chronicles the city from a subtly different perspective.  His New York was that of the flower children and protests of the 60s, tempered by the decline of New York City that began then and accelerated with seemingly no end in sight through the early 1990s. Thankfully both writers lived long enough to see the city’s revitalization. The Hamills are still going strong.  For my birthday this past June the Hayfoot gave me Tabloid City.

The immigration experience is another aspect of both Hamills’ writing.  Their mother and father both came to New York from Ireland in the early 20th century.  Anne Devlin landed on October 29, 1929–the day Wall Street crashed.  She was nineteen. Although she herself did not land at Ellis Island, I always told the immigration story through the personal narratives of individuals like her when I volunteered at the museum.  Now the Hamill brothers’ sister Kathleen has written a moving book about a unique woman.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

(Image/David Shankbone)

The not-so-new South

14 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in The new South

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The South has changed in many ways over the past half century and my own family has been part of that change.  My parents, brother, sister and I moved to Florida in the early 1970s, where I grew up and graduated from high school.  Literally a week later I relocated to Texas where I went to college and lived for a decade.  Eventually I came full circle and moved back to the Northeast, but I never left entirely.  Until he died two years ago I regularly visited my father in Arkansas.  He and I traveled throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and elsewhere during these visits.  Despite being a proud New Yorker, I still consider myself a Southerner in many ways.  My wife and I have many friends in the region and we often talk about moving back when we retire.

The demographic changes of which my family, and millions of others, were a part transformed the South from Heart of the Confederacy to Sunbelt Mecca.  Still, the South’s transformation is not as total as some might imagine.  The Center for a Better South has just released a report documenting the economic and other ways the region still lags behind the rest of the country.  Poor health and lower graduation rates are just two of the seemingly intractable problems found in pockets of the area.  The sobering report is here.

(Image/National Atlas of the United States)

Custer at West Point

12 Wednesday Oct 2011

Posted by in Film, Sound, & Photography, Museums, Washington, D.C.

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One of the reasons for our fascination with the American Civil War is that it coincided with the nascent stages of photography.  Because we have photographs of Lincoln, Grant, and Lee we see them as more human–more like us–than Washington, Jefferson and Madison, for whom all that remain are artists’ renderings.  This sense of shared humanity allows us to relate to the citizens of 1861-65 in a way we never could with the Founding Fathers.  My own interest in the War of the Rebellion began when my uncle gave me a book of Brady photographs when I was ten.

Here is a vignette on the man who finished last in his West Point Class of ’61.

NPS attendance

10 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in National Park Service

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Indian rock shelter, Carlsbad Caverns

You could not tell by the record breaking crowds at Governors Island this summer, but attendance is down this year at the National Parks.  High gas prices and a stronger dollar in relation to the euro seem to be the main culprits.  I imagine this overall drop does not include the Civil War battlefields, where attendance has increased in recent years and is skyrocketing now that the sesquicentennial is in full swing.  When I volunteered in the Interpretation Division at Ellis Island a sizable portion of our visitors came from Europe. This afternoon the Hayfoot and I are having lunch in Little India with one of the Ellis rangers.  I have not seen him in several months and am curious to know if he saw an attendance drop off over the summer.

Fall is a great time to visit your parks.

(Image/Daniel Mayer)

A battle in Atlanta

09 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in Museums

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The Atlanta Cyclorama has been thrilling audiences in its present location since 1921. The heart of the exhibit is a circular, 125-year-old oil painting on five panels of Belgian linen that depicts one of the great battles of the Civil War. It’s so big it could nearly cover a football field, and it hangs like a curtain four stories high in a big, round building in the Grant Park neighborhood…

…There have been renovations over the years, the last in 1996, but the cyclorama and the dated Civil War museum that is part of the attraction might not be good enough anymore. There is talk of moving it elsewhere in the city. A new location might give the cyclorama more pop. Or, barring a move, maybe there is simply a better way for the cyclorama to tell the story of Atlanta’s place in the Civil War.

If they indeed do move the Atlanta Cyclorama, or leave it in its present location but add “more pop,” I hope they think it through. I am not against modernization–I’m typing this on my iPad–but changing something just to appeal a younger, tech-savvy audience seems a mistake.

(Detail of Atlanta Cyclorama courtesy London Looks)

A Bronx Tale

07 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in Monuments and Statuary, Museums, New York City, Uncategorized

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Last Saturday a friend and I ventured to the Bronx.  After Staten Island this is the borough I know the least.  My friend and I made a pact to visit the borough more often this fall.

When one thinks of Colonial America, New York City does not spring to mind.  That is because so little of Gotham’s Colonial past remains.  The Valentine-Varian house lies on the Boston Post Road.

The Valentines were the original owners.  They tried to stay neutral during the Revolutionary War but still lost their fortune. After the war the Valentines began to struggle financially and the estate eventually fell into the hands of the Varians.  When it comes to New York City real estate, the more things change the more they stay the same.

A reminder that for a good portion of America’s history slavery was not confined to the South.

The Bronx River Soldier has a long history.  The Civil War statue was built in the 1890s and was in various locations and states of condition before finding a permanent home at the historical society.  At one point, during New York City’s Dark Years, the statue had even literally fallen into the Bronx River and been left due to scarce financial resources and indifference. Thankfully it was eventually rescued and now serves as a reminder of the sacrifice made by the men of the area.

I am sorry the location names are illegible.  A better camera is in my near future, I promise.  At least one can see from the title that Civil War memory was important to the area in the post war years.  As I always say, history is all around us if we just stop to look.  This particular book covers Brooklyn, not the Bronx, but here is one of my favorite titles.

William Saward was a member of the 9th New York, Hawkins Zouaves.  The 9th New York served under Ambrose Burnside. Saward died in April 1862.

Yes, that is the General Warren statue on Little Round Top.  The Saward family visited Gettysburg in the late 1890s.  I love the lady holding the parasol on the far right.

As elsewhere, the Grand Army of the Republic was a powerful presence in the Bronx.

This is a Decoration Day, 1911.

…and Memorial Day circa 1950.  Note the cars to the right.  In that decade before the Centennial there were still many people throughout the country with a living connection, through their parents or grandparents, to the war.


We walked ten or so blocks to the Edgar Allen Poe house on the Grand Concourse.  The house is closed for renovation but at least we saw it from the outside.  Poe rented the cottage from the Varians.

When Poe lived here the Bronx was rural and remote.  As the photo shows, it now lies in the heart of this vibrant community.

The afternoon made me realize that the Bronx is more than just getting on the subway and going to a baseball game.  I look forward to exploring the only borough that lies within the contiguous U.S. in greater depth.  When I do, I will bring that new camera.