• About

The Strawfoot

~ a New Yorker's American History blog

The Strawfoot

Monthly Archives: February 2016

The war will be over by December

24 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Victor Murdock (1871-1945) led a long productive life as a congressman, newspaperman, and broker. After seeing Europe first hand in 1915 and early 1916 he believed the Great War's end to be imminent.

Victor Murdock (1871-1945) led a long productive life as a congressman, newspaperman, and power broker. After touring much of Europe, including the French front, first hand in 1915 and early 1916 he believed the Great War’s end to be imminent.

That is what former Kansas Congressman Victor Murdock said one hundred years ago today when he stepped off the Nieuw Amsterdam in Manhattan after returning from Europe. That was a bold, curious statement to make with the Battle of Verdun now raging in France. At least a quarter of a million German men were involved in that butcherous campaign, with their French enemies vowing determinedly that “They shall not pass.”

It is easy to scoff but Murdock was no lightweight. He was a respected Midwestern politician and newspaperman. Six months earlier his daughter had married Harvey Delano, a cousin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Murdock was also a Bull Moose Progressive, and good friend and political ally of Theodore Roosevelt as well. Indeed he was the National Chairman of the Progressive Party. With the Roosevelts Murdock campaigned for Preparedness ever since the war had begun in 1914. When Theodore Roosevelt declined to run for the White House in 1916 Murdock supported Wilson over Charles Evans Hughes. Thankfully for Murdock the world did not remember his February 24, 1916 statement about peace in our time coming before the end of the year. For his efforts Wilson appointed Murdock a Federal Trade Commissioner.

(image/Library of Congress)

Coming across a piece of the First Army

22 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Governors Island, New York City

≈ Comments Off on Coming across a piece of the First Army

When we were in the city yesterday we ventured in to a thrift store after breakfast to see what treasures we might find. Such stores in New York can often reveal hidden gems; many people clean out their apartments after decades of living and bring it in without a second thought, not to mention wealthy folks who drop off their high quality clothes, mementoes and what have you just because they’ve become bored with it and are moving on to something else. There’s a whole other way to live.

These did not come home with me but I could not help getting my picture taken with this First Army jacket and helmet. It was not clear if the two came from the same person but they were next to each other in the store. I imagine the jacket is from WWII, which means the wearer served in Europe. Note the thick weight of the garment and also its small size. Men were smaller back then, having grown up during the Depression as they did. The jacket itself is in very good condition, as are the First Army insignia and the staff sergeant stripes. The First Army of course dates back to the First World War when it was commanded by Pershing himself and later by Hunter Liggett. Those who have ever visited Governors Island will recognize the latter’s name. It was one of those small things that added an interesting moment to our Sunday.IMG_2969

IMG_2975

Progress at the TRB

21 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace (NPS)

≈ Comments Off on Progress at the TRB

IMG_2978

I was in the city this morning meeting a friend for brunch. Afterwards, we were headed somewhere else when I realized we were just a block from the Roosevelt Birthplace on East 20th Street. I had not been past since it closed last April and naturally had to swing by and check things out. Work seems to be progressing on the outside of the house. When I know more about the re-opening, I will keep everyone up-to-date.

Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood

21 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Writing

≈ Comments Off on Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood

61Pjg26OJOL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_The other day I finished Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood: A World War I Tale, a graphic novel brought to my attention last summer by one of the rangers at Governors Island. Graphic novels became a thing after Art Spiegelman published Maus in 1986. It is hard to believe that was thirty years ago. Even before then Spiegelman’s work had been published in installments before being anthologized. Spiegelman published Maus II in 1992 and won a Pulitzer Prize that same year. At the library where I work we have an entire section dedicated to the genre. If anything graphic novels have become too big in recent years. The quality of the writing and drawing varies markedly from work to work. It is not an easy thing to pull off, especially when one is writing about history related events. The author/artist must internalize and then condense a great deal of information and then make it understandable to both a general audience and the specialists who might be reading it to get the creator’s take on the topic. At the same time he must be true to historical events and the people who lived through them. And the graphics are equally important. The whole point of a graphic novel is to tell a tell with words and images. That’s why they’re called graphic novels.

One need not worry about that here. The narrative and the sketches here are rendered beautifully and with great thought and care. The narrator is none other than “Nathan Hale,” who in more than one book has avoided the noose by spinning a historical tale from the gallows stand to keep the hangmen entertained and their minds elsewhere. I must say it all works rather nicely. The book is ostensibly written for Young Adult readers but kids of all ages, especially those with an interest in the events of 1914-18, will find this an enjoyable and worthwhile read. Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood captures the entirety of the war, from an international perspective, surprisingly effectively, which is no small feat in a work that is less than 130 pages.

 

Signifying Presidents Day

15 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Memory, Theodore Roosevelt Jr (President)

≈ Comments Off on Signifying Presidents Day

Speaking softlyA friend sent me this image over the weekend. It is an ad for a clothing company’s Presidents Day Weekend sale. He made the interesting observation that former presidents seem to be used more and more often in today’s society to signify something to an intended audience. One sees this invoked in shows like Mad Men all the time. We reflexively use “Eisenhower” as short-hand for the repressiveness of the 1950s without even thinking about it. Juxtapose that with how we invoke “John F. Kennedy” as shorthand for the country’s “innocence” in those years just prior to the escalation in Vietnam, racial unrest, college protests, and assassinations that came in the wake of the young president’s own shooting. Invoking JFK just begs one to think of what might have happened had he not gone to Dallas. We have seen this in a slightly different way these past few months with calls to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name and likeness on the campus of Princeton University in response to his segregationist and other race-based policies.

I know that companies had to pay the Lincoln family to use the 16th president’s name and likeness in the decades after his death. It would be interesting to know more about the hows and whys of using presidents’ images for commercial and other purposes. That said, I have no doubt TR is now safely in the public domain. The purpose of the image above seems to be more mundane than segregation, Vietnam, or misconceptions about 1950s’s America; it’s an ad for a Presidents Day sale. As I mentioned to my friend, I’ll take a stab at this one. The retailer seems to be saying that one should should be reserved (“speak softly”) but also be a little bold (hence the red hat).

(Hat-tip Darrow Wood)

Never Forgotten: the story of Sergeant Paul Maynard

13 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Those we remember

≈ 7 Comments

It is a brutally cold day here. This morning I had the chance to watch the film below. It was produced by Michael Shipman for the American Battle Monuments Commission and tells the story of a young doughboy killed during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on 11 November 1918, the last day of the war. The film showed at last year’s GI Film Festival over Memorial Day Weekend. Carve out 25 minutes this Presidents Day Weekend to watch the poignant documentary.

 

A quick peek at Borough Hall station

12 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in New York City

≈ Comments Off on A quick peek at Borough Hall station

Borough Hall in 1908, the year the subway opened at this location. Note the two subway entrances.

Borough Hall in 1908, the year the subway opened at this location. Note the two transit entrances.

Our class was turing Cadman Plaza yesterday in the second installment of our walk-through of the site. After dipping in to Borough Hall for five minutes to talk and get out of the cold–it could not have been more than 28 degrees at the time–we wrapped up in the downtown Brooklyn subways station. The Borough Hall subway opened in May 1908, a full ten years after the consolidation of the five boroughs. A student noted that the plaque placed during the station’s opening contained the seals of both Brooklyn and New York City itself. This led to a discussion about how strategic and intentional the laying of the subways lines were when the tracks were being planned and laid out in the 1900s. The real answer is I don’t know–a student will be looking into that in the coming months–but it sounds feasible; the main purpose of the Brooklyn Bridge was to link Brooklyn and Manhattan’s city halls, which are only about two miles apart as the crow flies. In this sense the subway was a continuation of the Great Bridge’s main purpose.

The subway did more than ease movement however; it had the ancillary but still important purpose of binding Greater New York together. I made the point to the class that Staten Island is the least New York-like of the five boroughs culturally and politically. It’s more complicated than this, but what does Staten Island lack that the other four boroughs all have? . . . Subway lines.

The mayor at the time was none other than George B. McClellan, Jr., son and namesake of the Civil War general. It has never been clear to me why Mac Jr. gets so little recognition. He did so much to build New York City’s infrastructure and worked tirelessly to make Gotham a twentieth century city. He even served in World War One a few years after leaving city hall. I suspect he has never received his just due because his mayoralty came after that of Seth Low, who with LaGuardia and a few others is remembered as the top-tier of New York City leaders. It is strange how we fixate on some historical figures at the reputational expense of others.

(image/Irving Underhill, Library of Congress)

 

 

Secretary Garrison resigns

10 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Woodrow Wilson, WW1

≈ Comments Off on Secretary Garrison resigns

at his office in the State, War, and Navy Building

Garrison at his office in the State, War, and Navy Building

They have uploaded my article about the resignation of Lindley M. Garrison over at Roads to the Great War. Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of War stepped down one hundred years ago today under intense pressure over a disagreement with the president about how best to prepare for American involvement in the First World War.

(image/Library of Congress)

Five years and counting

09 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Writing

≈ 4 Comments

IMAG0082I received an email from WordPress this past Saturday informing me that I reached my fifth anniversary as a blogger. Five years is a fair chunk of change and I must say that in some respects it does seem like eons ago. I remember getting excited then that the 150th anniversary of First Bull Run was only five months ago. Yikes. I went back the other day and looked at random at a few posts I’ve done over the years, which is something I never do. Occasionally, such as I did with the Pearl Harbor post for a few years, I’ll re-post something. For the most part however, once I have completed a post I am on to the next thing. It’s really the only way. Some of the old posts make me wince. To take a line from George Carlin, I can’t believe the material I once got away with. Usually my weakest posts were those where I failed to stay true to myself. Still, I haven’t posted anything I am truly ashamed or embarrassed about. I guess it all leads up to where one is today.

It may seem that the subject matter has changed here at The Strawfoot, especially as we moved from the Civil War sesquicentennial to the 100th anniversary of the Great War. I myself have never seen it that way, and think I bring the same perspective I always did. There was a shift of emphasis when I began volunteering at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace in October 2013. I always knew a fair amount about both sides of the Roosevelt family, but going to the Roosevelt Birthplace every Saturday and writing regularly for the social media platforms. The TRB forced me to think harder.

I don’t know how much the blog says that is new or earth-shaking but I do like to believe it adds another perspective to the mix. I do know that some of you have been following along for several years now. It’s humbling to know that in the cacophony of modern life there are people out there who have made me part of their routine.

Sunday morning coffee

07 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by Keith Muchowski in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Sunday morning coffee

Three images of the Reverend S. Parkes Cadman from his Brooklyn Daily Eagle obituary

Three images of the Reverend S. Parkes Cadman from his Brooklyn Daily Eagle obituary, 13 July 1936

I’m sorry about the lack of posts this week. It was a hectic one with the start of classes, a meeting in the city toward mid-week, and the wrapping up of a blog post to appear elsewhere later this coming week at another site. I’ll post that when the time comes. The Learning Places class I am co-teaching is off to a good start. We had our first field trip to Cadman Plaza this past week. Before venturing out I spoke to the students about the Reverend S. Parkes Cadman, about whom I knew little before starting my prep for the class. I was making a comparison with Cadman to such figures as Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Knute Rockne’s Four Horsemen, the point being that they all became public figures in the 1920s via the mass communication of radio. Twenty years earlier none of these individuals could have reached the masses in quite the same way that they did. Cadman’s sermons were broadcast nationally from his Central Congregational Church in Brooklyn every Sunday. It is strange that he so forgotten today.

I did not know until starting this thing that he served with the 23rd Infantry Regiment on the Mexican border during the Punitive Expedition. His papers are at the Brooklyn Historical Society and I am hoping 1-2 students pick up the baton and dig a little into why he may not have served a year later in the Great War. We shall see. He later became an outspoken opponent of Hitler and Mussolini. In some ways Cadman was the anti-Father Coughlin. Cadman died in July 1936 and so did not live to see the Second World War.

(image/Brooklyn Daily Eagle via Brooklyn Public Library, courtesy newspapers.com)

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 243 other subscribers

Categories

Archives

  • January 2023 (4)
  • December 2022 (4)
  • November 2022 (8)
  • October 2022 (2)
  • September 2022 (4)
  • June 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • April 2022 (13)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • December 2021 (2)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (3)
  • September 2021 (3)
  • August 2021 (5)
  • July 2021 (1)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (4)
  • April 2021 (3)
  • March 2021 (4)
  • February 2021 (7)
  • January 2021 (4)
  • December 2020 (4)
  • November 2020 (3)
  • October 2020 (4)
  • September 2020 (7)
  • August 2020 (5)
  • July 2020 (7)
  • June 2020 (11)
  • May 2020 (7)
  • April 2020 (9)
  • March 2020 (9)
  • February 2020 (7)
  • January 2020 (6)
  • December 2019 (7)
  • November 2019 (9)
  • October 2019 (4)
  • September 2019 (6)
  • August 2019 (10)
  • July 2019 (8)
  • June 2019 (6)
  • May 2019 (9)
  • April 2019 (8)
  • March 2019 (6)
  • February 2019 (8)
  • January 2019 (5)
  • December 2018 (10)
  • November 2018 (6)
  • October 2018 (9)
  • September 2018 (11)
  • August 2018 (11)
  • July 2018 (17)
  • June 2018 (10)
  • May 2018 (8)
  • April 2018 (9)
  • March 2018 (8)
  • February 2018 (5)
  • January 2018 (7)
  • December 2017 (11)
  • November 2017 (8)
  • October 2017 (9)
  • September 2017 (11)
  • August 2017 (12)
  • July 2017 (14)
  • June 2017 (18)
  • May 2017 (11)
  • April 2017 (10)
  • March 2017 (9)
  • February 2017 (11)
  • January 2017 (14)
  • December 2016 (7)
  • November 2016 (8)
  • October 2016 (8)
  • September 2016 (9)
  • August 2016 (6)
  • July 2016 (12)
  • June 2016 (8)
  • May 2016 (9)
  • April 2016 (6)
  • March 2016 (12)
  • February 2016 (10)
  • January 2016 (9)
  • December 2015 (9)
  • November 2015 (11)
  • October 2015 (8)
  • September 2015 (9)
  • August 2015 (13)
  • July 2015 (14)
  • June 2015 (11)
  • May 2015 (11)
  • April 2015 (18)
  • March 2015 (10)
  • February 2015 (8)
  • January 2015 (8)
  • December 2014 (12)
  • November 2014 (13)
  • October 2014 (16)
  • September 2014 (11)
  • August 2014 (16)
  • July 2014 (12)
  • June 2014 (13)
  • May 2014 (10)
  • April 2014 (10)
  • March 2014 (11)
  • February 2014 (12)
  • January 2014 (10)
  • December 2013 (11)
  • November 2013 (14)
  • October 2013 (14)
  • September 2013 (14)
  • August 2013 (13)
  • July 2013 (17)
  • June 2013 (9)
  • May 2013 (13)
  • April 2013 (13)
  • March 2013 (16)
  • February 2013 (15)
  • January 2013 (15)
  • December 2012 (18)
  • November 2012 (18)
  • October 2012 (21)
  • September 2012 (14)
  • August 2012 (16)
  • July 2012 (21)
  • June 2012 (22)
  • May 2012 (24)
  • April 2012 (20)
  • March 2012 (23)
  • February 2012 (22)
  • January 2012 (15)
  • December 2011 (23)
  • November 2011 (22)
  • October 2011 (23)
  • September 2011 (18)
  • August 2011 (19)
  • July 2011 (20)
  • June 2011 (29)
  • May 2011 (25)
  • April 2011 (18)
  • March 2011 (21)
  • February 2011 (11)

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 243 other subscribers

Categories

Archives

  • January 2023 (4)
  • December 2022 (4)
  • November 2022 (8)
  • October 2022 (2)
  • September 2022 (4)
  • June 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • April 2022 (13)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • December 2021 (2)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (3)
  • September 2021 (3)
  • August 2021 (5)
  • July 2021 (1)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (4)
  • April 2021 (3)
  • March 2021 (4)
  • February 2021 (7)
  • January 2021 (4)
  • December 2020 (4)
  • November 2020 (3)
  • October 2020 (4)
  • September 2020 (7)
  • August 2020 (5)
  • July 2020 (7)
  • June 2020 (11)
  • May 2020 (7)
  • April 2020 (9)
  • March 2020 (9)
  • February 2020 (7)
  • January 2020 (6)
  • December 2019 (7)
  • November 2019 (9)
  • October 2019 (4)
  • September 2019 (6)
  • August 2019 (10)
  • July 2019 (8)
  • June 2019 (6)
  • May 2019 (9)
  • April 2019 (8)
  • March 2019 (6)
  • February 2019 (8)
  • January 2019 (5)
  • December 2018 (10)
  • November 2018 (6)
  • October 2018 (9)
  • September 2018 (11)
  • August 2018 (11)
  • July 2018 (17)
  • June 2018 (10)
  • May 2018 (8)
  • April 2018 (9)
  • March 2018 (8)
  • February 2018 (5)
  • January 2018 (7)
  • December 2017 (11)
  • November 2017 (8)
  • October 2017 (9)
  • September 2017 (11)
  • August 2017 (12)
  • July 2017 (14)
  • June 2017 (18)
  • May 2017 (11)
  • April 2017 (10)
  • March 2017 (9)
  • February 2017 (11)
  • January 2017 (14)
  • December 2016 (7)
  • November 2016 (8)
  • October 2016 (8)
  • September 2016 (9)
  • August 2016 (6)
  • July 2016 (12)
  • June 2016 (8)
  • May 2016 (9)
  • April 2016 (6)
  • March 2016 (12)
  • February 2016 (10)
  • January 2016 (9)
  • December 2015 (9)
  • November 2015 (11)
  • October 2015 (8)
  • September 2015 (9)
  • August 2015 (13)
  • July 2015 (14)
  • June 2015 (11)
  • May 2015 (11)
  • April 2015 (18)
  • March 2015 (10)
  • February 2015 (8)
  • January 2015 (8)
  • December 2014 (12)
  • November 2014 (13)
  • October 2014 (16)
  • September 2014 (11)
  • August 2014 (16)
  • July 2014 (12)
  • June 2014 (13)
  • May 2014 (10)
  • April 2014 (10)
  • March 2014 (11)
  • February 2014 (12)
  • January 2014 (10)
  • December 2013 (11)
  • November 2013 (14)
  • October 2013 (14)
  • September 2013 (14)
  • August 2013 (13)
  • July 2013 (17)
  • June 2013 (9)
  • May 2013 (13)
  • April 2013 (13)
  • March 2013 (16)
  • February 2013 (15)
  • January 2013 (15)
  • December 2012 (18)
  • November 2012 (18)
  • October 2012 (21)
  • September 2012 (14)
  • August 2012 (16)
  • July 2012 (21)
  • June 2012 (22)
  • May 2012 (24)
  • April 2012 (20)
  • March 2012 (23)
  • February 2012 (22)
  • January 2012 (15)
  • December 2011 (23)
  • November 2011 (22)
  • October 2011 (23)
  • September 2011 (18)
  • August 2011 (19)
  • July 2011 (20)
  • June 2011 (29)
  • May 2011 (25)
  • April 2011 (18)
  • March 2011 (21)
  • February 2011 (11)

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • The Strawfoot
    • Join 214 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Strawfoot
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...