Uncategorized

The Childhood of Prince Philip

Posted by

2

Unlike his future wife Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip did not have a stable childhood. His father, Prince Andrew of Greece, fought in a military campaign against the Turks in the 1920s. Philip was born during the campaign. Unfortunately for Andrew, the Greeks lost and he and other military leaders were blamed. Andrew’s wife Alice had ties to Britain, which she used to beg the British king to spare her husband’s life. Prince Andrew, Alice and the children reunited on the British ship HMS Calypso. While on shipboard, young Philip took his first steps.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, Coronation Portrait

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, Coronation Portrait

From the time of his father’s exile from Greece, Philip’s family never had their own home. Instead Philip and his sisters stayed at the homes of relatives or other royal families in Europe. Philip’s parents took little interest in the raising of their son, but Nanny Roose remained a constant presence as the prince grew up. Since his nanny was British, English was Philip’s first language. She tried to train him as an English gentleman. She had her work cut out for her, since the prince delighted in teasing and pranks. For example, Philip loved to escape from his nanny at bath time. He ran naked through the halls of whatever castle he happened to be living in until someone finally caught him and brought him to the bathtub.

Philip’s outgoing personality and kindness helped him get along with the various cousins with whom he stayed. One cousin, Helene Foufounis, felt her mother paid Philip too much attention, but she still “thought he was a very nice little boy.” Helene’s sister had a hip injury and was often unable to play. When Philip received a toy from a family member who neglected to get one for his sick cousin “he came back with an armful of his own toys, and the new one, thrust them on her bed and said, ‘These are for you.’” Philip was not a snob, either. He knew he was a prince, but if an adult called him Prince Philip, he protested that he was “just Philip.”

The young prince attended several schools throughout Europe, but especially enjoyed Gordonstoun, a boarding school in Scotland. The school emphasized athletics and physical labor over subjects like math. Philip excelled there, later remarking that he was “one of those ignorant bums who never went to university—and a fat lot of harm it did me!” Despite the school’s strict rules Philip still pulled pranks—once he sewed up a teacher’s pajama bottoms—but nearly everyone, including the schoolmaster, liked him.

When he turned seventeen Philip left Gordonstoun for Dartmouth Royal Naval College to train for a career in the British Royal Navy. While in Dartmouth, one of his uncles arranged for him to meet thirteen-year-old Elizabeth. Though Philip was unimpressed by Elizabeth at first (after all, a lot of girls closer to his age found him attractive), Elizabeth adored him almost immediately. Several years later, they became secretly engaged.

The History of Mother’s Day

Posted by

0

Maybe you’re planning to go out to brunch with your mom on Mother’s Day or buy her flowers. Whatever your plans are, you probably don’t know how Mother’s Day came into existence.

The first Mother’s Day celebrations occurred in ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece. In those days, people didn’t honor their human mothers. Instead, they held festivals in honor of goddesses. For example, the Greeks used the occasion to celebrate Rhea, the mother of many other Greek gods.

In seventeenth century England, Mothering Sunday was celebrated each year on the fourth Sunday of Lent (the 40 days of fasting before Easter). Christians honored the church in which they were baptized, known as their Mother Church. Mothering Sunday soon began to honor human mothers, too. British servants and employees who worked far from home received time off to visit their moms and share a family meal.

American colonists didn’t adopt the tradition of Mother’s Day, possibly because they were busy trying to survive in their new homes. The idea of celebrating Mother’s Day in the U.S. began with Julia Ward Howe, who became famous during the Civil War as the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Howe thought wars were a waste of young men’s lives, and she called on mothers to protest the killing of their children in wars. In her Mother’s Day Proclamation, Howe wrote, “we women of one country will be too tender to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”  In the 1870s, women’s groups in over a dozen American cities observed Howe’s holiday, but the idea didn’t really catch on until the following century.

In 1908, Anna M. Jarvis campaigned for an official Mother’s Day in memory of her own mother, an activist and social worker who hoped that the contributions of mothers would someday be recognized. Anna Jarvis was determined to make her mother’s wish come true. She petitioned the superintendent of the church her mother had attended and on May 10, 1908, the first official Mother’s Day celebration took place at a church service in Grafton, West Virginia. Jarvis gave carnations—her mother’s favorite flower—to each mother at the service. Later Jarvis and her supporters lobbied for the creation of an official Mother’s Day. In 1914 her dream came true when President Wilson declared the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

Chicago History: Children at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

Posted by

0

In 1893, Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair. The fair was a celebration of the anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to America and included entertainment for all visitors, including children. Though it didn’t open right away, by June 1893 the fair dedicated the Children’s Building. The women who organized it intended the building to be “for the little folks. It was theirs absolutely, and in it they might reign supreme, from the tiniest cradle on the first floor to the playground on the roof.”

The gymnasium, a favorite attraction for young visitors, took up the first floor of the building. Starting at ten o’clock each morning, children took turns swinging from parallel bars, rings, and trapezes. They climbed poles and jumped over vaulting horses. Both boys and girls enjoyed the gym so much that a long line formed outside the building as children waited for their chance to use the equipment. Since there were not many children’s playgrounds in the nineteenth century, the gym offered children a unique opportunity to play outside their homes.

The second floor of the building displayed children’s toys made in different countries. France, a leading toy manufacturer at the time, sent the most life-like toys, including “toy men who performed almost human feats of skill…and toy animals invested with the intelligence of trained domestic beasts.” Toy exhibits also came from other countries, including Russia, Germany, Sweden, and Japan. Children themselves contributed some of the most interesting toys. One young boy contributed a top he had invented and had a patent taken out for it in Washington.

Educational opportunities abounded for children of every age group in the Children’s Building. Girls and boys ages eleven to fifteen attended woodcarving and clay modeling workshops. Children of all ages attended lectures on foreign countries, their history and their customs. After the lectures, the instructors took the children to see the exhibits of the countries they studied. Young girls attended “kitchen gardens” where they learned to make up beds, sweep, and wash clothes.

The most popular part of the Children’s Building was the nursery, where parents could drop off their small children while they visited the other exhibits at the fair. The public could view the babies and toddlers through a windowed partition. One visitor described the nursery as having “the brightest rooms in the building…presided over by trained nurses…there are rows of cradles for very little people, rows of beds for those a little older, toys of all kinds, spring chairs hung from the ceiling, where babies can jump up and down and go, and in the center is a place they call the pond. It is an enclosure fenced off as a playground for the little people who can only creep.” So many spectators were enthralled with the sight of the little ones that some fairgoers believed that the building was for babies only. Parents could drop off a child with a nursemaid during the day and return for the child in the evening. Unfortunately, the building organizers underestimated the popularity of the nursery. As a result, nurses turned away hundreds of parents and their children on a daily basis because they didn’t have enough staff or space.

The Childhood of Queen Elizabeth II of England

Posted by

0

Even though she has been the Queen of England for decades, Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t supposed to inherit the throne. Her father George VI wasn’t born to be king either but his elder brother decided to marry a divorced woman. In those days, an English monarch couldn’t marry someone who was divorced without creating a scandal, so he decided to quit his duties as king and left the job to his brother. In 1952, the eldest daughter of George VI inherited the throne.

As a young girl, Elizabeth, nicknamed Lilibet, didn’t receive the formal education of most previous monarchs since she wasn’t expected to rule. Her parents wanted Elizabeth and her younger sister Margaret to enjoy childhood and they hired a governess that agreed to carry out their wishes. The governess later wrote that the girls’ parents “were not over concerned with the higher education of their daughters. They wanted most for them a really happy childhood, with lots of pleasant memories…and, later, happy marriages.” Elizabeth’s lessons started when she turned six years old. Her governess taught arithmetic, literature, writing, composition, and geography. In all, the lessons only lasted an hour and a half each day. Even when she became heir to the throne Elizabeth’s parents didn’t want her education to be too rigid, though courses on constitutional history and the monarchy were added.

Elizabeth preferred the outdoors to the schoolroom, especially once she learned to ride horses. She received her first pony at age three and was devoted to riding and caring for the animals. When someone asked her what she would like to do when she grew up, she said, “Live the life of a country lady, with lots of horses and dogs.” As queen she couldn’t always be in the country, but she did get her wish for plenty of horses and dogs.

Since she was a member of the royal family, taking her out to meet “normal” girls and boys was almost impossible without being recognized by the public. Eventually her mother invited some neighborhood girls over so that Elizabeth could have her own group of Girl Guides (known in the U.S. as the Girl Scouts).Though her parents had duties that would sometimes take them away from the children, they made family time a priority. The girls spent as much time as possible with their parents, who read them stories, ate dinner with them, and engaged in pillow fights. Although the relationship between the princesses and their parents does not seem unusual today, most royal children, including Elizabeth’s father, were not close to their parents. George VI’s father, George V, thought that his own children needed to fear him; however, Elizabeth brought out another side of her grandfather. She never learned to fear adults, so she simply announced when she wanted to play and her grandfather got down on the floor and let her lead him around by his beard.

Still, her role models and primary companions were adults. She especially admired her father’s courage and sense of duty when he became king. She knew he didn’t want the job and he struggled with public speaking, but he put his duty to his country first. His example taught her more about what it meant to be a good leader than any of her history books.

The Importance of Teaching the Holocaust

Posted by

0

Though by middle school I knew about the murder of Jewish people and others in the Holocaust during World War II, the topic was not emphasized in my history classes. As a teenager, I watched the movie Schindler’s List at a friend’s house. Seeing this movie was an emotional experience for me, particularly at the end when the main character regrets that he could not save more Jews.

After watching Schindler’s List, I came to the conclusion that the Germans were bad people. The movie’s characters are portrayed as either good or evil. If I had only watched the movie, I would have held on to these assumptions. When I finally took a course on the Holocaust in college, however, I realized that the film stereotyped the behavior of Germans and Jews during the Holocaust. For example, Nazis were not simply fanatical murderers. Many of them were well educated, loved their families, and enjoyed classical music. In fact, classical music helped some Nazis relax after the day’s brutalities. They were not terrible people but rather people who did terrible things. Also, not all Jews were helpless victims. Holocaust survivor Primo Levi said that the history of the concentration camps could not be divided into simple groups of victims and persecutors. He talked about a “gray zone” in which corrupt Jews in positions of authority abused fellow prisoners while some Nazis showed they were human by weeping as they killed people.

In addition to the gray boundaries between victims and persecutors, I learned that the German population as a whole was not made up of monsters. Instead, they were mainly worried about their own well being in wartime. Busy with their own concerns, average Germans reacted with indifference when Jews were excluded from certain professions and public places.

While the German indifference towards the Jews is inexcusable, the amount of knowledge that the German population had about the extermination of the Jews is still debatable. Although their indifference to milder forms of prejudice made it possible for others to contemplate extermination, the majority of Germans had little information about the death camps. As one historian suggested, “the very secrecy of the ‘Final Solution’ [the Nazis’ plan to kill the Jews] demonstrates more clearly than anything else the fact that the Nazi leadership felt it could not rely on popular backing for its extermination policy.”

In fact, if faced with enough problems of our own, Americans might act with indifference toward a persecuted group. This is one of the most important reasons that young adults should study the Holocaust. Although the Holocaust happened years ago, prejudice against others who are different can still lead to serious consequences. The underlying dislike of Jews in the minds of Europeans laid the foundation for a catastrophe, particularly when the Great Depression in the 1930s came and people could not find work. Many European countries were also beaten down after losing World War I.  The majority of Europeans blamed the Jews for their sufferings and looked for a leader who would tell them how great their country would be again.

Of course, some Americans might say that we are not prejudiced against Jews, did not elect Adolf Hitler, and our economy is not as bad as it was in the 1930s. Yet some of the same ingredients for another Holocaust exist in America today. Murders of homosexuals, the isolation of some African-Americans and others in ghettos, as well as racial hate groups are all present in American society. Like the majority of the German population during World War II, most people in America do not condone killing minorities, but some feel uncomfortable helping them or associating with them. If this prejudice spreads and other factors like an economic depression and a persuasive leader are added, the world could witness another Holocaust. Teaching the Holocaust is important because it shows students that we must learn from history so the same event cannot happen again.

Deborah Read: Wife of Benjamin Franklin

Posted by

0

Other than a surge of interest in Abigail Adams, wives of the American revolutionary era remain largely ignored, especially in school textbooks. How many of you have heard of Deborah Read? She was Benjamin Franklin’s wife. Their partnership contributed to Ben Franklin’s later successes, which though not always fun for his wife, led him to serve the revolutionary cause.

According to Franklin, he met Deborah Read while walking through the streets of Philadelphia with one bread roll under each arm and one in his mouth. He looked so odd that Deborah laughed aloud. Franklin may have made this part up, but he did end up lodging in her mother’s house. It was common at the time for women with little income to take in borders, and Deborah’s mother was a widow. Franklin proposed marriage to Deborah before he left for London to try and purchase a printing press. Deborah’s mother insisted that they wait until after Franklin’s trip. The idea seemed reasonable, but Deborah heard little from Franklin while he was in London and ended up married to someone else. John Rogers was a potter with a talent for running up debts. Whether they parted mutually or Rogers just left her, Deborah was alone again when Franklin returned.

He didn’t get the printing press, but he met many girls in London. Eventually he ran into Deborah again, who had news that her husband may have died—something that could never be proved. Franklin may have felt responsible for her loneliness or maybe he realized that she had the qualities he wanted in a wife. Either way, they moved in together as husband and wife. They couldn’t legally get married because Rogers might still be alive. The people of Philadelphia, including Deborah’s mother, accepted the match.

Deborah kept busy not only with housework but also with her husband’s printing business. She managed the accounts from Franklin’s business ventures for years and helped him expand printing franchises throughout the colonies. Franklin said of her, “Frugality is…a virtue I could never acquire in myself, but I was lucky enough to find it in a wife, who thereby became a fortune to me.” Thanks to Deborah’s help, Franklin retired early and focused on his inventions and politics. As Franklin became more famous, she entertained the crowds who dropped in to see him and bragged about how quickly she could make cakes for surprise visitors.

Franklin’s notoriety and love of politics led to subsequent trips to London where he represented the Pennsylvania Assembly. Deborah had no intention of coming with him. Instead she ran the postal service in his absence and bought more real estate. She even kept the family home safe from a mob that suspected Franklin of supporting the Stamp Act. Though she sent the children away, she stood her ground. She wrote Franklin, “Cousin Davenport came…Towards night I said he should fetch a gun or two as we had none. I sent to ask my brother to come and bring his gun also…I ordered some sort of defense upstairs such as I could manage myself. I said, when I was advised to remove, that I was very sure you had done nothing to hurt anybody, I had not given offense to any person at all, nor would I be made uneasy by anybody…but if anyone came to disturb me I would show proper resentment.” With the help of a few friends, Deborah saved the home, much to the pride and delight of her husband.

Both husband and wife seemed to sense that Philadelphia gave Deborah her own identity as a businesswoman and Franklin’s partner, whereas in London she would only be the wife of her famous husband. Enjoying his public life, Franklin did not return from London, even when he learned Deborah had a stroke. When she passed away Franklin came home to manage his interests and began to appreciate his “old and faithful companion.”

Life as a Rider on The Pony Express

Posted by

1

“WANTED: young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 a week. Apply, Central Overland Express, Alta Bldg., Montgomery St.” This ad was placed in a San Francisco newspaper in March 1860 when the Pony Express was first hiring riders. Despite the risks involved, hundreds of young men applied to deliver mail on the Pony Express.

Since the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s, more people moved out west to California. The problem: there was no fast way for them to get mail from other parts of the country. William Russell, a partner in one of the largest freighting companies that sent supplies to the West, had an idea. He would generate publicity for the company by starting a “horse express” that promised to deliver mail in ten days from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. He planned to have a chain of riders relaying mail from one station to the next with one rider coming from each direction. Russell set up home stations where riders could rest and relay stations where they changed horses. He sent supplies to each station along the route, bought horses and paid riders with company money.

Riders on the Pony Express had to meet certain requirements. Most riders were under one hundred pounds and were similar in size to horse jockeys today. The lighter the rider, the faster the horse could go. The company preferred to hire orphans so families would not complain if their sons died trying to deliver mail. Pony Express riders were advised never to start a conflict with bandits or Native Americans. They should flee on their horses whenever possible but could use a revolver as a last resort to protect themselves and the mail.

Despite the images of Pony Express riders shooting Native Americans and having adventures popularized by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and dime novels, the life of a Pony Express employee was far from glamorous. As rider William Campbell said, “Riding express had more hard work than fun in it.” The weather often was a rider’s worst enemy. Campbell recalled his route through Nebraska: “Once I spent twenty-four hours in the saddle carrying the mail 120 miles to Fairfield with snow two or three feet deep and the mercury around zero. I could tell where the trail lay only by watching the tall weeds on either side and often had to get off and lead my horse.” Though the men were paid well by the standards of the day, the physical toll of riding long distances and in bad weather led many riders to quit.

Employees of the Pony Express were in greater danger during a war between white settlers and the Native American Paiute tribe, though station masters died more frequently than riders who often fled on their speedy horses. The Paiute War caused the Pony Express to shut down for about one month. It resumed service after the United States Army settled the conflict.

Regardless of their hardships, the riders were determined to get the mail through no matter what. Even on the first run of the Pony Express on April 3, 1860, the riders got the mail to California in the promised ten days. Due to the more widespread use of the telegraph and the railroads, however, the Pony Express only lasted for a year and a half.

The Story of Anne Bonny, Female Pirate

Posted by

0

In most stories about pirates, the women appear as the characters that need to be rescued from the men. But did you know some women became pirates, too? One of the most famous female pirates was Anne Bonny.

Anne was born around 1697 in Ireland. She was the illegitimate daughter of a lawyer and his servant. Once his wife discovered the affair, Anne’s father moved to Charleston, South Carolina to start over with his new family. Unfortunately, Anne’s mother died soon after the move, and Anne grew up headstrong because her father didn’t have the heart to discipline her. One rumor claimed that Anne stabbed the family’s cook over an argument about dinner. Another said she beat a man who tried to harm her.

Anne disappointed her father when she decided to marry a poor sailor. The couple moved to New Providence, but Anne soon became bored with the marriage. She started spending time at local taverns and making friends with the pirates who stopped there. Eventually she met pirate Jack Rackham, known as Calico Jack for the calico-cotton pants he wore. Jack offered to pay Anne’s husband in exchange for her hand in marriage, but he refused. Dressed in men’s clothes, Anne arranged to meet Jack and some of his men at the waterfront. Anne’s career as a pirate was about to start.

Jack, Anne, and the rest of Jack’s crew focused on capturing merchant ships and fishing boats around Jamaica. Though she dressed as a man and used the name Tom Bonny, the crew must have known that Anne was Jack’s common-law wife. That did not mean that she acted like a lady, however. During the crew’s capture of one ship, Anne climbed aboard the other vessel and threatened the men in the ship’s cabin that if they “make a noise, she would blow out their Brains” with her pistol.

At some point, another female pirate joined Jack’s crew, though historians can’t agree on when and how this occurred. We know that Anne and the new pirate, Mary Read, became friends. Because Mary was wearing men’s clothing, Jack was afraid that his wife had fallen in love with her, so she revealed her true identity to him. Jack allowed both women to stay on the ship—a dangerous choice in the 1700s since Jack faced death if disguised female pirates were discovered on his ship. Both women proved to be valuable assets as they fought alongside the men. Anne Bonny was known for her leadership and Mary Read for her navigational skills.

Anne and Mary were clearly the most competent pirates on the ship when it came under attack. Jack and his crew had recently robbed a schooner. Unfortunately, the man they robbed gave a good description of the crew to the authorities. The authorities discovered Jack’s ship in a sheltered cove while the men, believing they were safely hidden, partied and drank below deck. The only two “men” on deck were actually Anne and Mary. They screamed for the crew to come out and help them fight, but they were too drunk. Though the women stood their ground by firing pistols and brandishing their swords, Jack’s entire crew was captured.

The pirates were put on trial and sentenced to death, with two exceptions. Anne and Mary “pled their bellies,” which meant that they were pregnant, so the judges set them free.

Titanic History: The Building of the Titanic

Posted by

0

The plans for building the Titanic began years before the ship sailed. At a London dinner party in 1907, two men decided to create three huge ocean liners. The men were J. Bruce Ismay, president of the White Star Line of passenger ships, and Lord Pirrie, the chairman of Harland and Wolff shipbuilders. As more people crossed the Atlantic—some for the experience, others to start a new life in America—The White Star Line had to compete with other lines to attract passengers. The ships Pirrie and Ismay built offered lower prices for third class tickets and luxury accommodations for wealthy passengers. That evening, they sketched out plans for three ships, Olympic, Titanic, and Gigantic. They enlisted Pirrie’s nephew Thomas Andrews to design the Titanic.

Work on the Titanic began on March 31, 1909, in the Belfast, Ireland shipyards of Harland and Wolff. The keel, the bottom center part of the ship, was built first, followed by the frame of the hull, which was made of overlapping steel plates and fastened by over 3 million rivets put in by hand. To do the work, men stood on scaffolding that stood hundreds of feet high. After the keel and hull were finished, the Titanic was moved into the water for its “fitting out.” Fitting out meant putting the finishing touches on the ship, including adding propellers and installing the engines. On April 10, 1912, passengers boarded the ship. At the time, the Titanic was the largest ship in the world, as long as four city blocks and as tall as an eleven-story building.

Obviously, many laborers were needed to build such an impressive ship. Over four thousand men worked on the Titanic, putting in such long hours that they had to pack both breakfast and lunch before they left home. Shipbuilding in the early 1900s was dangerous. Eight people died while working on the Titanic, some from falls, others from equipment collapsing on top of them. Shipbuilders received slightly better than average salaries for the time period ($10 a week), but the pay wasn’t always consistent. Dick Sweeney’s relatives worked on the Titanic as riveters. Sweeney explained how riveters were paid: “They’d do about 200 rivets a day in the Titanic time, provided it didn’t rain. If it did, the wet horn would sound and they all had to go home. For the time they had to be at home, they didn’t get paid, they were paid from horn to horn by the number of rivets they put in.”

Ironically, working on the Titanic proved to be safer than traveling as a passenger or crewmember in the supposedly unsinkable ship. The Titanic struck an iceberg at night on April 14, 1912 and sank early the following morning. Out of 2,200 people onboard, only 705 survived.