Today in History: August 26
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Burma
Sun, Jan 04 at 09:34 PM
Burma
Burial Ceremony of a Priest Near Mandalay,
William Henry Jackson, photographer, 1895.
On January 4, 1948, the British colony of Burma, now Myanmar, became an independent nation after more than sixty years of colonial rule. England had established control of the country in 1885, designating Burma a province of India. Ten years later, the U.S.-based World's Transportation Commission, organized and led by American railroad publicist Joseph Gladding Pangborn toured the country. The Commission sought to gather information about transportation systems for the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago. The Commission included photographer William Henry Jackson, who visited Burma in the course of a two-year journey (1884-96) through North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania.
Myanmar is located on the eastern coasts of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea in Southeast Asia. Thailand (formerly Siam), Laos, China, and India border Myanmar. Much of the terrain is mountainous and heavily forested. Myanmar's rich natural resources include silver, copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, and tin. Tropical rain forests support a wide variety of animal life, including tigers and elephants.
Elephant About to Lift Large Beam, Rangoon,
William Henry Jackson, photographer, March 1895.
William Henry Jackson's photographs of Burma capture everyday life in this predominantly Buddhist country. Jackson photographed everything from men walking on a street and a woman selling refreshments at a railway station, to the emblems of segregation. He also documented the region's impressive architecture. One photo shows the photographer riding in a railroad trolley car.
To further explore The World's Transportation Commission Photograph Collection:
•Browse the Subject Index to examine nearly nine hundred photographs from two dozen countries, or retrace the commission's trip by viewing the photographs from each country in the order listed in the Trip Itinerary.
•Read Today in History features on Sri Lanka, the Suez Canal, and Yosemite to learn more about the World Transportation Commission and photographer William Henry Jackson.
•The Library of Congress Country Studies provide online information about 101 countries and regions around the world. Search on the names of countries such as China, India, or Thailand to learn more about these nations.
From the Halls of Montezuma
Fri, Jan 02 at 06:21 PM
From the Halls of Montezuma
Group of Sixty to Seventy Marines at Attention,
Nicaragua,
between 1927-1929.
LC-USZ62-99697
(negative of lantern slide)
On January 2, 1933, the 5th Marine Regiment, United States Marines Corps, withdrew from Nicaragua. It trained and left behind a powerful National Guard in a country beset by struggle between liberal and conservative forces centered respectively in the cities of León and Granada.
Founded by the Spanish in the early 1550s, the two cities became competing poles of power. Their militant rivalry often left Nicaragua subject to outside interests even after the country gained independence from Spain in the early 1800s.
British and U.S. interests in Nicaragua grew during the mid-1800s because of its strategic importance as a transit route across the Central American isthmus. With the advent of the California gold rush, Nicaragua proved a popular interoceanic shortcut. Cornelius Vanderbilt's steamship company transported supplies and prospectors from the Atlantic, along Nicaragua's San Juan River, then across Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific.
John M. Letts wrote of his 1849 travels through Nicaragua:
…arrived at Lake Leon. The appearance of this lake as it opened to our view was peculiarly striking. It is shut in by lofty mountains, which tower up in innumerable peaks of volcanic origin…the smoke curls gracefully out, commingling with the clouds…
We passed along down to Mat[e]ares, a small town situated on an eminence overlooking the lake, and inhabited by descendants of the African race. We breakfasted on chickens, frijoles, tortillos[sic], eggs…and after an hour's detention started for Managua. We passed through a delightful region of country, the soil, in many places, highly cultivated, bearing the impress of thrift and industry, I had not before seen in the country. Fruits grow in abundance, cattle had an unlimited range, and were the finest I ever saw; the country was broken, the mountains towering up to the clouds, and some covered with perpetual snow; but at their base were vales watered by mountain rivulets, and shaded by groves of orange and fig, seeming a retreat fit for the angels.
John M. Letts,
California Illustrated; Including a Description of the Panama and Nicaragua Routes,
pages 153-154.
John Hill Wheeler,
United States Minister to Nicaragua,
studio of Mathew Brady, photographer,
between 1844 and 1860.
In 1855, at the invitation of Nicaraguan liberals, a Tennessee filibusterer named William Walker invaded Nicaragua with a small armed force and the hope of extending the southern U.S. slave culture overseas. He enjoyed initial success, however, when he presumed to establish himself as president of Nicaragua, Walker was routed by the joint efforts of Nicaragua's opposing political factions, Vanderbilt's steamship company, the British government, and other Central American republics. Walker narrowly escaped their capture only to surrender himself to the U.S. Navy in 1857.
In 1897, President William McKinley appointed the Nicaragua Canal [first Walker] Commission to reexamine the logistics of a canal route through the Isthmus of Nicaragua. The commission estimated the cost of construction at $118,113,790 not including interest and administration. However, when Nicaragua's President Zelaya invited both Germany and Japan to compete with the United States for construction rights, the U.S. built through Panama instead.
Beginning in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt framed the Big Stick policy to advance U. S. interests and to restrict European influence in the Americas. In 1909 this corollary to the Monroe Doctrine affected Nicaragua. Responding to the execution of two of its citizens, the U.S. landed four-hundred marines on Nicaragua's shore. In a 1912 effort to retain power, conservative forces requested aid and the U.S. landed 2,700 marines. Thereafter, the U.S. maintained a presence in Nicaragua almost continually until 1933.
• Learn more about the role of Spain in the early development of Middle America, see the online exhibition 1492: An Ongoing Voyage.
•Search on the term Nicaragua in the collection California As I Saw It: First Person Narratives, 1849-1900 to find travelers' accounts of the area.
•Search on the term Nicaragua in the online Handbook of Latin American Studies to develop a bibliography on the nation. The Handbook is an annual bibliography on Latin America consisting of over five thousand works selected and annotated by scholars from around the world.
• Search on Latin America, Spain, Theodore Roosevelt, the Monroe Doctrine, steamships, Dominican Republic, or the Panama Canal in the Today in History Archive for relevant features.
•Search on the term spanish in California Gold: Folk Music from the Thirties, 1938-1940 to find some 100 songs sung in the language.
The Library of Congress | LegalLast Updated: 01/25/2007
Frederick Douglass
Fri, Jan 02 at 06:21 PM
Frederick Douglass
Street Scene,
Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
1901.
We should not forget that the freedom you and I enjoy to-day… is largely due to the brave stand taken by the black sons, of Haiti ninety years ago…striking for their freedom, they struck for the freedom of every black man in the world.
address delivered by Frederick Douglass at the dedication of the Haitian pavilion at the World's Fair [Columbia Exposition],
January 2, 1893.
On January 2, 1893, Frederick Douglass delivered an address at the dedication of the Haitian Pavilion at the World's Columbian Exposition located in Jackson Park in Chicago. Douglass, a prominent writer, abolitionist, and publisher of the North Star, spent the years 1889 to 1891 in Haiti serving the Benjamin Harrison Administration as United States minister and general consul.
World's Fair,
1893.
In his speech, Douglass discussed the character and history of Haiti, its evolution from slave colony to free and independent republic, and its relevance to African Americans. He expressed optimism about the country's future despite its numerous problems. Douglass used the occasion to speak of the commercial potential and historical importance of Haiti and to argue for improved relations between Haiti and the United States. "It is a land strikingly beautiful," Douglass explained, "diversified by mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers and plains, and contains in itself all the elements of great and enduring wealth."
With one out of every three men in Haiti engaged in military service, Douglass observed, the prosperity of the country depended largely upon the women:
They supply the towns and cities of Haiti with provisions, bringing them from distances of fifteen and twenty miles, and they often bear an additional burden in the shape of a baby…Thousands of these country women in their plain blue gowns and many colored turbans, every morning line the roads leading into Port au Prince.
Frederick Douglass,
January 2, 1893.
Douglass understood the complex history of Haiti and how its French colonial experience had laid the ground work for poverty, inequality, and military rule. "Economic Conditions in Haiti," an 1899 consular report issued by the U.S. Department of State, echoed Douglass's message about the economic potential of Haiti, "There is probably no other country in the world where capital is so greatly needed as in Haiti, or where it ought to yield greater results, all things considered."
•Search the American Memory collections on Haiti to locate more photographs of the island nation as well as documents pertaining to its history. See "Decades of Instability, 1843-1915," in Haiti: A Country Study for information on conditions in the country at the time of Douglass's visits.
• Learn more about Frederick Douglass and abolition. Search The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress using those terms. Learn about other events related to Jackson Park or the Columbia Exposition. Search on those terms.
• Go to Session 3 of The Progress of a People, a special presentation in the collection African American Perspectives, 1818-1907 to hear an excerpt read from Booker T. Washington's address at the opening ceremonies of the 1895 Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition. Select "An Address Delivered at the Cotton States Exposition" by Washington, then choose either to listen to a recording or read a transcript.
• Also on January 2, 1893, the Emancipation Clubs of Salem and Roanoke, Virginia gathered at the Salem Town Hall to hear an "Emancipation Address" by Professor Daniel B. Williams on the subject of civic responsibility. This address can be found in African American Perspectives, 1818-1907.
Letter to a Jailer
Wed, Dec 31 at 03:18 PM
Letter to a Jailer
New Year's Greeting from Presidential Assassin Charles Julius Guiteau to his Jailer, December 31, 1881.
On December 31, 1881, Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James Garfield, wrote a New Year's greeting to his jailer.
Charles Julius Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield in the back on July 2, 1881. Guiteau was captured at the Washington, D.C. railway depot, the scene of the assassination. President Garfield died seventy-nine days later.
Guiteau's trial was not only a national sensation but, as one of the first insanity pleas, an important legal case. Guiteau's attorney argued that his client was insane at the time he shot the President and thirty-six doctors testified as expert witnesses. Nevertheless, the jury rendered a guilty verdict in January 1882, and Guiteau was executed the following June.
•Read the Today in History feature for July 2nd on the assassination of President Garfield.
•Read the Special Presentation, Collecting, Preserving, and Researching History: A Peek into the Library of Congress Manuscript Division for a closer look at its mission and holdings of special collections such as the Charles Guiteau Collection.
•View the Learning Page special feature Presidents for information about our nation's presidents.
The 17th President
Wed, Dec 31 at 03:18 PM
Today in History: December 29 31
You write that you are sick and have been for a fortnight and did not inform me before. Is this right? I should have informed you if I were sick…I have been meditating what I should do…I ought to be with you to take care of you for I am sure we can take care of each other better than any body else can.
Letter, Amasa Parker to Harriet Parker, December 31, 1837.
On December 31, 1837, Democrat Amasa J. Parker, Congressman from New York, sat down at his quarters in Mrs. Pittman's boarding house in Washington, D.C. to write a letter to his wife, miles away at their Catskills home in Delhi, New York.
Delhi, New York, drawn and published by L. R. Burleigh, 1887.
When Amasa Parker served in the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Congress, going home for the holidays was considerably more involved than jumping on an airplane. As John J. McDonough of the Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress writes in his feature on Parker's letter:
In the earlier years of the republic, wives and families of members of Congress often did not accompany their husbands and fathers to Washington. Demands at home were pressing, distances were great, and travel slow and hazardous…Many of the members, therefore, congregated in boardinghouses located near the United States Capitol. During these periods of enforced separation and loneliness, distance was frequently bridged by the writing of letters.
Letter, Amasa Parker to Harriet Parker [detail] December 31, 1837.
Parker's letter of December 31 includes a seating chart indicating Mrs. Pittman's regular diners, a group that included future presidents Millard Fillmore of New York and James Buchanan of Pennsylvania.
The Amasa J. Parker Papers include more than sixty letters written by Parker to his wife during his term, of 1837-1839. Perhaps Parker's frustration at being far from his wife during her illness was a factor in his decision not to run for reelection. At the end of his term, he returned home to Delhi to private life.
Resuming the practice of law, Parker continued his political service, but confined his activities to the state of New York. Parker went on to become a circuit judge in Albany, and one of the founders of Albany Law School.
•Words and Deeds in American History is a rich source of material on Congress, Law and Politics. To locate more items, browse the item list for these categories.
•Search the collection A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation to peruse the records and acts of Congress. The collection presently makes available the journals of Congress, covering the period from 1774 to 1873, as well as the debates from 1789-1873. Future additions to the online collection will include the American State Papers, which contain the legislative and executive documents published by Congress from 1789 to 1838.
•To access the contemporary Congressional Record go to THOMAS, the Library of Congress's legislative information site.
•For further information about Members of Congress, search the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present created by the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
•The "birds-eye view" maps in the Panoramic Maps, 1847-1929 collection, just one category of the Map Collections (1500-Present), may be viewed at different magnifications with the "zoom" feature. This feature permits the viewer to take a closer look at the fine detailing of the images of the towns pictured here.
To experiment with the "zoom" feature, take a closer look at the picture of Congressman Amasa J. Parker's town, Delhi, New York, as it appeared fifty years after he wrote this letter. Or, browse the Geographic Locations Index to locate a picture of your own home town.
Here's the start of Feedwhip's latest snapshot
taken Sun, Jan 04 at 09:34 PM
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Today in History
The Library of Congress > American Memory Home > Today in HistoryToday in History: January 4
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[image: Burial ceremony of a priest near Mandalay] Burial Ceremony of a Priest Near Mandalay, William Henry Jackson, photographer, 1895. Around the World in the 1890s, 1894-1896
On January 4...
