Analyzing Tom Horn

Tom Horn. 

A simple name for a man yet it appears he lived a very complex life.  In fact, Tom Horn himself said of his life, “I have lived about fifteen ordinary lives.  I would like to have had somebody who saw my past and could picture it to the public.  It would be the most interesting reading in the country.”

Once guilty, now innocent, but still dead – the description the New York Times gave Tom Horn in 1993.

A man Steve McQueen chose to portray in a movie – though historians have several issues with the treatment’s accuracy.

Tom Horn is an excellent historical figure for students to analyze while learning a little about the American Southwest during the late 19^th Century.   The details surrounding his life, the historical events swirling around him, and the issue of right and wrong regarding those events in relation to Mr. Horn’s actions could lead to a classroom of very engaged students on various levels.

Upon running away from home at the age of 16 Horn headed for the American Southwest.  He became involved with the Apache Wars and was hired by the U.S. Cavalry as a civilian scout.   He was a member of the party who captured Geronimo.

He became a hired gunman and took part in the Pleasant Valley War between cattle ranchers and sheep men in.

He also took a position for a time as a deputy sheriff in Arizona and later in 1899 or 1890 was an employee of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.   However, he was a suspect in a couple of killings and Horn and the agency parted ways in 1894.  Horn hired himself out as a range deputy and detective for various wealthy ranchers in Wyoming and Colorado mainly during the Johnson County War where he became involved with a few other questionable murders.  Many sources regarding Horn’s life define Horn’s job as a range deputy essentially as a killer for hire.

During the Spanish American War he served as a soldier for a brief time before coming down with malaria and returned home.

In 1901 he began working for John C. Coble, a cattle baron.   On July 18, 1901 Horn was working near Iron Mountain when a sheepherder’s son, 14-year-old Willie Nickell, was murdered.   Horn was arrested, tried, and convicted.  He was hanged for the crime in 1903 using “The Julian Gallows”, which made the condemned man actually hang himself.   It is said that Horn made the rope that was used to hang him.

Following the Nickell murder and subsequent Horn trial the cattle barons in Wyoming had less influence legally and politically.

Two great sites to visit for more regarding Tom Horn can be found here and here.

The OTHER Greatest Generation

Our greatest generation, those men and women who got us through World War II, keeps getting smaller as time marches on.  In fact, it is estimated 1,000 to 1,200 men and women who lived through the Great Depression and volunteered to serve during the war are dying every day.  In just a few short years we will see the sad story on the news telling us how the very last World War II soldier has passed on.

 

 

This really hits home with me since I firmly believe that one of the most important stories regarding World War II to get across to students has to be the various stories of the people who participated in the war effort.   They volunteered, they participated, and they sacrificed.  In today’s society of entitlement and sensationalism I think it’s important for students to see a different view regarding citizenship.

Sonlight Pictures Blog explains the importance of teaching about the greatest generation much more eloquently than I can stating, “They understood that the world doesn’t revolve around them, but instead they were simply a piece of the puzzle within it and it was up to them to determine how important of a piece they would become.”

Unfortunately, there isn’t just a generation of men and women rapidly leaving us.   Another generation is almost gone.

I’m talking about the generation of heavy bombers with four engines developed in the 1930s for the United Army Air Corp.  

Yes, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress planes.

The B-17 could fly long range distances, was able to defend itself and could often withstand heavy damage in order to make its way home.  Of the 1.5 million metric tons of bombs dropped on Germany approximately 640,000 tons were dropped from B-17s.

During the early 30s several companies were vying for the bomber contract from the U.S. government.  In 1934, there was a “fly-off” held where the prototypes were rolled out.  Boeing’s model was quite impressive….so much so a reporter with the Seattle Times dubbed the plane a flying fortress due to the multiple machine-gun installations.   Boeing eventually trademarked the name, and it stuck.

Boeing got the contract nod, but in 1935, during a second test evaluation flight the crew forgot to engage the “gust lock”, a device that held the bomber’s moveable control surfaces in place while the aircraft was parked on the ground.  Once airborne the plane went into a steep climb, but stalled.  It then nosed over and crashed killing two crew members.  Boeing was disqualified from the contract.

However, by January, 1936 a legal loophole was found and Boeing was considered once again.  The B-17 Flying Fortress evolved as it underwent several design advances.

Discussing the use of B-17s in the war effort can bring up other interesting points for students to analyze.   There are several well documented missions and interesting pilots and crew members.  It’s important to remember Lt. Col. Nancy Love and Betty Gillies as they were the first women to fly a B-17 in 1943.   Another interesting dynamic to examine has to do with families divided by the war.  American born Captain Werner G. Goering flew B-17s.  Ironically, his uncle was commander of the German Luftwaffe, Herman Goering.  Hollywood and the world of sports had their presence in the B-17s as well.  Clark Gable had five missions under his belt as a waist gunner while Tom Landry claimed 30 missions.   Norman Lear, Gene Roddenberry, and one of my personal favorites, Jimmy Stewart all served on B-17s as well as several others.

The main image at the top of this post is a drawing created by Lt. Col. C. Ross Greening who created many such drawings while being held a prisoner at Stalag Luft 1 in Bath, Germany during 1944-45.  Greening had quite a distinguished career as a Doolittle Raider.  As a POW he distinguished himself with his art as this article suggests.

Since the war many of the B-17s have been maintained and exhibited at museums and various air shows across the nation.   However, like the men and women who flew them they are becoming worn and parts are becoming harder to locate.   Wikipedia advises there are a total of 51 surviving airframes worldwide with only 10 actively flying.

Courtesy of

SmithImages

Just the other day we lost another one…..the Liberty Belle, when it burned after making a crash landing per this Chicago Tribune article found here.  The Liberty Belle belonged to the Liberty Foundation.  More information regarding the plane can be found here.

You can see a video here of the Liberty Belle taking off from Peachtree-Dekalb Airport in Georgia and this video is from Rocky Mountain Municipal Airport.

The crash scene can be seen here.

Even Harry Got to Go to the Beach....

I love the beach.  The sand, the sparkling water, the sound and smell of the pounding surf, walking the beach with my head down hoping….hoping…. hoping for the perfect shell find. 

The beach at morning……the beach at night…….seafood…..even the sunburn…..I love it all.

I miss the beach, and the beach misses me.  Seriously....

I hope we can reunite soon, until then I soothed my longing for the beach by doing a little research regarding Harry Truman’s White House at the beach.

Yes!   Even Harry was able to have some beach time!

Read my post over at American Presidents here!

Is It Flag Day Already?!?

We drove through a little town close to our house Sunday, and they had our nation’s flag everywhere - on buildings, houses and up and down the main street every few feet. Dear Son wondered aloud what was going on, and we immediately decided that it must be early decorations for the Fourth of July. It seemed a little early, but we had been to a family reunion all day and my mind was on other things.

I had forgotten. There IS an important holiday for our nation in June every year.

Flag Day…..

….and sadly, Flag Day is often rushed through or forgotten entirely.

We remember Flag Day to commemorate the day the Second Continental Congress adopted the U.S. Flag in 1777. It is also the date they adopted the Continental Army.

Perhaps the reason the date is often glossed over is the fact it’s not an official American holiday – government offices and banks don’t close. You still get your mail. President Woodrow Wilson declared June 14th Flag Day, but it has never been an official United States’ holiday and observances are at the President’s discretion.

It doesn’t matter to my family. Our flags are flying today at our house on the front and back porch.

Are yours?

Here are a few past postings here at History Is Elementary regarding the flag…..

13 Things Concerning the Display of the Flag

The Star Spangled Banner – Why It Should Be Our Anthem

The Red Skelton Pledge

Take a few minutes and think about that rectangle of cloth and what it means to you….

History Hodgepodge...A Little This and That

Did you know…..32 years today CNN made its debut with a lead story regarding the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan.

New to my blogroll here at History Is Elementary is the blog Text Message, the blog of the textural archives services division of the National Archives. The most recent posting deals with the education program during World War II getting people to save their kitchen fat known as the Fat Salvage Campaign.

I wish my hometown of Atlanta would have its own free mobile app like Cleveland. The app, known as Cleveland Historical is free and developed by the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University. The app lets you explore the people, places, and monuments that shaped the city’s history per their website's “about” page.

Here’s another did you know…..a cold snap in Greenland in the 12th century may help explain why Viking settlers vanished from the islands, scientist said earlier this week in a Reuters report.

Five hundred eyes were on the President-elect as he lifted the top of the dish and gazed at the boast of Georgia……Find out what the boast of Georgia was in my most recent postings at American Presidents and Georgia on My Mind

and finally……This link will take you to my column Every Now and Then at Douglasville Patch where my very real and non-cartoon self writes every week about local history where I live. This week I write about the poor farm.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see links to past columns.

You didn’t really think I was a cartoon, did you?

Memorial Day and My 800th Post....

I find it appropriate that this post is my 800th posting for History Is Elementary.

Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays, so it makes sense I’m writing about it again for post number 800. I knew the milestone post was coming up. I had thought about what I would write. I had even asked friends on Facebook what I should write about, and they came up with several interesting ideas. Then I realized Memorial Day was rapidly approaching…..and I couldn’t go without saying something.

What does Memorial Day mean to you? Cookouts, picnics, trips to the beach, perhaps a sale at the mall, time off from work, a cold beer or two, the Indianapolis 500, a slab of ribs on the grill……

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a problem with any of those things, but I wouldn’t be the ElementaryHistoryTeacher that I am if I didn’t point out what the original intent behind Memorial Day is.

Yes! These sweet young ladies, two of which I have the pleasure of knowing, have the right idea. Hannah and Claire are the daughters of a couple who are great friends of mine.  Paula and Scott felt it was important to teach their daughters the true meaning and intent of Memorial Day. Their family along with several other people decorated the graves at Marietta National Cemetery where there will be a ceremony today at noon.


I applaud them heartily!

Yes, Memorial Day is the official day to recognize men and women who have died while serving our country in the military.

Originally, Memorial Day morphed from a day that became popular soon after the end of the Civil War that was known as Decoration Day. Not only was it a day of remembrance, but it also served as a day for reconciliation as the North and South tried to heal.

The war dead was remembered by decorating their graves with flowers. On the very first Decoration Day, General James Garfield, future President of the United States, made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery where 5,000 people had gathered to decorate more than 20,000 Union and Confederate graves.

As there are with most things there are a few cities and/or groups who vie for the credit regarding who began the custom of decorating the graves of soldiers…..in the end it only matters that it’s done, right?

Over the years Decoration Day began to include soldiers from other wars and officially the day become Memorial Day when President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the last Monday in May as an official holiday in 1966.

Here are a few more pictures depicting Decoration Day events.

And of course looking back on other Memorial Day postings here at History Is Elementary…..This post is from 2009 and discusses heroes and this post is from 2008 when I was fortunate enough to spend Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery.


Whatever you do today......take a few minutes to remember those brave men and women who answered the call gave their lives in the cause of freedom.

Signs of the Times

I found out this morning in a roundabout way the high school I graduated from will be hiring an art teacher for grades 4, 5, and 6 for the fall. The teacher will be employed full-time and will teach darkroom photography and printmaking to elementary classes.

Yes, you read that right.


Students in upper elementary grades will be learning darkroom photography and printmaking.


First of all, I don’t have to tell you the economic climate of the United States over the last couple of years hasn’t exactly been agreeable to many in the teaching profession. Education has experienced delays with contracts, budge cutbacks, and programs have been pared down or cut out all together. Teachers have been required to take furlough days and in many instances positions have been deleted totally.


Art and music have been hit especially hard in public school systems. Unfortunately, they always seem to be the first programs to go when there are money issues.


I doubt there are very few public schools today teaching darkroom photography and printmaking to any class let alone a class of young children, and of course, one of the main reasons Woodward Academy can afford this “extra” for students is Woodward is one of the top private schools in the Atlanta area.


Still….


What a terrific opportunity to teach what may be a dying art. Bob Smith, a local photographer in my neck of the woods states, “This is interesting …I guess it’s great to expose them to the way [photography] used to be done, but in ten years, they may have to buy the chemicals themselves to do the developing. I wonder what types of film will still be sold in ten years. You have to go to professional photography shops……just to buy old 120 film that went in every camera since World War II…and they have to wait on the manufacturer to produce the next allotment.”


Think about the implications for teaching history by having a darkroom photography and printmaking class. Even our youngest students are familiar with digital cameras. Many are very savvy with the Internet, camera phones and Photoshop. They know modern photography, but by teaching older methods students can learn about the methods of Mathew Brady whose Civil War images still get history students involved directly in the war.


Students can view this image….a street scene by Nicephore Niepce, one of the earliest photographic images from 1826. The method used for this print is called Heliogrgraphy, which means ‘sun writing’. The process took eight hours of exposure time…..notice the light is on BOTH sides of the street.

This image is an iconic one showing the damage from the San Francisco Earthquake in April, 1906 by Arnold Genthe. 

Young students can relate to this image since the age of these young boys is close to their own.  The title of the photo is “Breaker Boys”.   Lewis Hine used his photograph to change life for children all across the United States in 1910.   Breaker boys were employed in coal mines to separate the coal from slate.   Hine travelled the country taking images of child laborers.   Soonafter, a law was passed outlawing child labor.

The next image is the most famous of the four I’m featuring here.   Who hasn’t seen this haunting image of Florence Owens Thompson taken by Dorethea Lange in Oklahoma during the Great Depression in 1936?  It's called "Migrant Mother."

Photography is a powerful way to study history. Images of the past are signs of the particular times we are viewing. We can see how things looked, how people dressed, and how they wished to portray their present for future generations to see.



Historical images are great hooks to draw students in, and what better way to draw them in further than by teaching photography methods that seem to have gone by the wayside in many circles.


In today’s digital world anyone can snap an image and manipulate any way they wish and in doing so they can call themselves a photographer. Mr. Smith states, “I have a pro version of Photoshop CS4 now, and I can take a DSLR color photo and make and make it look like an old fine art black and white print from 60s. I can burn and dodge the photo just like Ansel Adams except it is digital and not like taking your hands to block out the light when the print is being exposed to the negative like Adams did.”


I have to agree.


Where is the knowledge….the craft, and does it suffer at the hands of technology?


Signs of the time, indeed.

Change in an Instant!

Without a question…..without a doubt history and time are inexplicably intertwined. You can’t have one without the other. During my 49 years riding around on this planet there have been events that serve as turning points in my life – meetings, births, marriages, deaths, reunions, actions that show strength and truthfulness and those that scream weakness and betrayal. Yes, we all have those moments in life….during our time here……embedded in each of our personal histories.

Collectively, historical events have their impact as well. We all have those, “Where were you?” moments such as JFK’s assassination, the Apollo Moon Landing, the Challenger Explosion, the Oklahoma Bombing, and of course…….the tragedy of September 11th, a date that needs no year to identify it because it was that terrible, that horrible, that defining in the psyche of each and every American who experienced it.

Last night was another one of those defining moments in our collective history. While it can be argued the death of Osama bin Laden is actually the closing act to the tragedy of September 11th it is yet another of those events which define our lives.

September 11th changed our lives in so many ways all in an instant just as last night changed it as well. Some of the changes are short term such as the elation, the relief, and the renewed anger as we remember what his policies and philosophy led others to do in the name of religion….of all things. Other changes will be long term. It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall fifty or even one hundred years from now to see how September 11th and the death of bin Laden is treated in history classrooms.

Will the whole series of events be taught in a entire instructional unit lasting several days? Then again, it might just become a mere mention before launching into an even more important event….though now we can’t even fathom that. The worse thing that could happen is if future historians and educators decide the whole thing was much ado about nothing.

I doubt that will happen since these events did occur during the age of technology and instant news, and not just news of the collective kind but personal news. We all have Facebook pages, blogs, pictures on line, the ability to interact with newspapers and other columns leaving our comments to express our thoughts and feelings.

Yes, within the last decade our lives have been changed in an instant. Last night’s news made of all of us recall those events of September 11th – where we were, what we were doing and how we came to be where we were last night.

Over the last few years I’ve re-posted my September 11th story because it’s that important personally for me to remember. I’m re-posting it again below, and I ask you to remember and reflect how you came to where you were at when you heard the news last night……

However, this time I will use the young’s man real first name because he finally got the chance to read my recollection of that tragic day not too long ago, and gave me permission to use it.

September 11, 2001 began like any other September school day; however, it was abnormally quiet since Tyler’s seat was uncharacteristically empty. He had not missed a day of school since we had started around the first of August.


Tyler was my assigned rambunctious, outspoken, almost uncontrollable young man for the year. There is always at least one. He was a handsome ten year old who adored baseball, adored going to church, and was very in touch with his feelings. While his brain usually moved ahead of his feet by about ten steps he never intentionally meant to interrupt me for the five thousandth time in one class period, never meant to cause me frustration, and he never meant to get on my nerves. Tyler simply had no clue that a one-to-one ongoing conversation between a teacher and himself was not the proper procedure in a classroom with 24 other students.


He blurted out constantly attempting to finish my sentences, anticipate my questions, and interrupted his classmates every time the notion slapped him in the head. He also had a problem many young men do…..he couldn’t sit still. His parents had long since solved the energy problem by making sure Tyler was signed up for every sport that came along. Unfortunately we don’t run bases in my classroom.


After the second week of getting used to Tyler’s energy level he and I conferenced and we worked out a management plan for mysanity. He and I developed hand signals so that he would know when I had had my limit of interruptions. He honestly didn’t realize what he was doing. Sometimes kids have to be taught social limits regarding space and conversation limits. We worked out a plan where Tyler could stand at his seat every so often to ease any discomfort as he sat. I arranged for his seat to be towards the back of the group so he wouldn’t interfere with another student. Tyler seemed grateful for the strategies as he commented, “Gee, maybe this will work. Lord knows you were ready to strangle me yesterday.”


Tyler was right. So on that September morning his seat screamed at me in the quiet as the class proceeded through their morning work.


We were about to transition into Social Studies when Tyler suddenly burst through the door out of breath speaking as fast and as loud as he possibly could. “Oh my gosh, Mrs. Cooper, a plane crashed in New York City and the whole place is on fire.”


It was very confusing to say the least. I mean where had he suddenly come from? The classroom had gone from very orderly and quiet to some town crier bursting through the door screaming New York City was on fire. My mind was attempting to process all of this. Where had Tyler been? Why was he just now coming to me? What had he been doing? What is this about a plane?


Huh?

I grabbed Tyler by the shoulders. “Darlin’, what are you talking about?”


Tyler was still trying to speak between deep breaths. “I don’t…..know. The man…..said a plane……had crashed…….in New York.”


“What man?” I quizzed.


“The man…..on the radio,” Tyler gulped.


The room was totally disrupted by now with students watching my question and answer session with Tyler their heads bobbing back and forth like they were watching a tennis match.


“Back up, Tyler,” I lobbed, “Where have you been?”


Tyler fired back, “The dentist. By the way, Dr. C. says hello.” Dr. C. is a local dentist and I had taught his son a couple of years before. He was always sending my students back to school with a “Hey, how ya’ doing?” message.

I countered impatiently with, “Yes, yes, hey to Dr. C.” I waved my hand to the air. “Tyler, tell me what’s going on?”


I was getting exasperated. The rhythm of my class had been disrupted, precious instructional minutes were being lost, and I still didn’t know what was going on.


Finally, Tyler served up, “On the way over here from Dr. C’s office the guy on the radio said the World Tower or something has been hit by a plane.”


“The World Trade Center, is that what you mean?” I struck back.


“Yeah, I think so.”


I walked over to the television, hit the on button and switched the channel to CNN……the only twenty-four hour news channel our school could get at the time. The image hit me like a ton of bricks.


“Oh my gosh, Tyler. You’re right.” I said as I backed up from the screen. The room got very still and we listened to the announcer. It was still early enough that both towers were still standing. The announcer was still getting information in his earpiece so he could explain what was going on.


I offhandedly began telling students that many years before a small plane had hit the Empire State Building and the same thing had probably happened again. I told them that, but I wasn’t so sure.


I stepped into the hallway and got the attention of my teaching partner. I lovely woman who was still trying to figure this Southern gal out considering she grew up in New York. Her eyes immediately filled up with tears as she pulled her door behind her and mouthed the words, “Those bastards!” to me.


“What do you mean?” I asked.


“I guarantee you this is the same group who tried to take the towers down before.” We exchanged a few more words before she stepped back in her room to turn on her television as Tyler came to my classroom door.


“Mrs. Cooper,” he said. “The tower just fell.”

“Don’t be silly,” I told him as I reentered my room. A few of the girls had heard me and were agreeing with Tyler.


I looked at the screen and there was nothing there but one tower and smoke. It simply did not register with me the building were gone. The announcer was speaking about planes, large planes had done this. My mind screamed. Jetliners, how could two jetliners hit the towers on the same day?


Another student asked, “Mrs. Cooper, what’s the pentagram?”


A bossy little girl shot back at him, “Pentagon, pentagon.”


I didn’t take my eyes from the television as I said, “Ummm, it’s a building in Washington D.C. where all the branches of the armed forces have their offices including the Secretary of Defense. Why?”


“The guy on television said a plane crashed into it. It’s on fire too.”


I closed my eyes. I could not deny something was going on. We had to be under attack, but from who? I wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. I wanted to get my purse and go get my kids. I wanted my husband. I wanted my mother and father. I couldn’t. I was the teacher. I was the adult in charge. I couldn’t let them see me upset. I had to turn off the television and get on with our day.

I walked over to the set at the same time my vice principal came into my room. She smiled and motioned to the television and said, “Turn it off.”


“I know,” I said. “I was about to.” We both knew this wasn’t the same thing as our first walk on the Moon or MLK’s funeral. Our students didn’t need to see anymore unfolding events. Luckily they didn’t see any bodies falling from the sky and they had not yet begun to show footage of the plane flying into the tower and the resulting explosion. It was bad enough they witnessed the fall of the building.


Some of the children, being children, went right back to what they were doing. Tyler walked over to me and said, “Mrs. Cooper, we need to pray for those people. There are people who died this morning. It’s so sad.”


“Yes, Tyler. It’s so sad. Tyler, you know I can’t ask you to pray.”


“I know, but I don’t think you’ll stop me. Will you?”


“No, I won’t. Do what you need to do.”


Tyler walked around the room to every student saying, “C’mon guys. We need to pray for those people. Let’s hold hands and get in a circle.”


Every boy and girl stood up, formed a circle and grabbed each other’s hands. No one argued about holding a girls hand or a boy’s hand. Boys didn’t balk at holding each other’s hands. They just did it. Once they were all were in place each one turned and looked my way as if to say, “C’mon!” I was sitting alone at a student’s desk confused and needing information so terribly. At this point all I knew was someone had an undetermined number of American planes, some were missing, some had crashed horribly, and my husband who works in the air freight industry had his office very near the Atlanta airport.


As the kids looked at me two students broke ranks and opened up a place for me. They just stood there looking at me. I just sat there looking at them. Finally, I got up and joined them in their prayer circle. I looked across the circle to Tyler and nodded at him. He began his very heartfelt, innocent prayer for the people in the buildings, the people in the planes, the people on the ground, our president and other government leaders and as he ended each child went around the circle and said something squeezing the next person’s hand as they were through. Finally, the prayers ended up at Tyler again and he finalized the prayer.


I don’t remember what we did that day. I don’t remember what I taught, or if I taught. An hour later the exodus started. Child after child was called for check-out until I only had three or four left.


Finally, the last student was on a bus and I was on my way home. Hubby had contacted me earlier in the afternoon to tell me he was ok and had gone to get both our kids. They were all at home waiting for me.


The ride home was so eerie. The message boards over the normally backed-up Atlanta interstates flashed the words NATIONAL EMERGENCY. The most surreal thing was there was no traffic on the streets or in the sky. The skies around Atlanta’s busy airport are always filled with planes. You can always look up and find at least one in any direction you gaze. Not that afternoon. It was so quiet. It was four p.m. before I really knew what had happened and saw the same footage that everyone else had seen over and over all afternoon.


I learned many things that day. I learned that my country was as vulnerable as any other. I learned that your life can change direction in one single instant. I learned that citizens can put politics aside and come together in one voice when they realize they have a common enemy. I learned the frantic fear of wondering where your family is and realized we would need an emergency game plan. I learned that people hate me just because I was born an American.


The most important thing I learned, however, was from a ten year old young man and his fellow classmates who did what they felt in their hearts and lived up to their convictions no matter the consequence.

What's Your Royal Title?

Well, the Royal Wedding is almost upon us. Many of us wish we could be on the guest list to have one of the treasured seats in the congregation, but unfortunately, we don’t have the right kind of name – one containing a royal title.

Since it is the time for all the wedding hoopla to take place I decided to have some fun with my Facebook status by posting the following – “What is the name of your Royal Wedding Guest name? Start with Lord or Lady…Your first name is the first name of your grandparents….Surname is the name of your first pet….The name of the street you grew up on with “of”.”

Who knew I had such important friends? They came up with names like Lord Everett Pretzel of Viceroy, Lady Lilby Piper of Preakness, Lord Wilbur Smokey of Welcome Hill, Lady Elizabeth Pepe of Pullen, Lady Annie Bucky of Chapel Hill, Lady Sarah Tinkerbell of Valencia and last but not least Lord Charlie Hotdog of Windridge.

The made up names are rather comical, aren’t they?

However, real royal titles can be a little strange also and some are downright funny.

Take King Niall of the Nine Hostages, for example. You don’t know about him? He’s the one who kidnapped Saint Patrick.

Sir William Douglas the Hardy at Scone also known as Black Douglas fought alongside William Wallace.

The Marquess of Bute was create in 1796 and the title is still in use today by a British racecar driver. Dumfries House serves as their family seat.

Then , of course, we have the more familiar Earl of Sandwich. While he didn’t invent the sandwich the food is attributed to him. Seems he liked the gaming tables so much he would have servants bring him some meat between two slices of bread to eat. Hmmmm…..I wonder if he hung out with the Earl of Mayo or the Earl of Munster.

….and what about Baron Strange? Hmmm…..that’s just strange.

The Earl of Inchcape is a title that was created in 1929 for a shipping magnate, and one of the Earls of Jellico commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland.

Earl Nugent brings to mind Wango Tango Cat Scratchin' Ted.... and The Earl of Rocksavage sounds like a wrestler with the WWF, but it’s actually the courtesy title for the heir of the Marchess of Cholmondeley which is pronounced “Chumley”. Doesn’t that name make you think of Chumlee from the History Channel’s Pawn Stars.

What about the Earl of Camperdown as in “Did you take the camper down after our NASCAR weekend at Rockingham?”

The Duke of Atholl makes me think of “The Focker’s” series of movies for some reason.

Thankfully the title Earl of Wigtown was surrendered in 1372 because……well, seriously…..Wigtown????

And finally…..the Earl of Lovelace….when I mentioned this title to my husband he asked, “Is he kin to ‘Duke’ Throat?”

After this I doubt I will ever be invited to any royal parties.

Oh well…..

Many congrats to the Happy Couple!

An Interview With ElementaryHistoryTeacher

Occasionally a former student or a young friend will contact me and want to interview me about my writing. Recently a young friend had an assignment to complete and during the process of answering his questions I decided I would share the answers here.


1. What stirred your ambition to be a writer, specifically non-fiction?

I always enjoyed writing essays, research reports, and term papers in school. I know that is very unusual, but the truth is the truth. I don’t write non-fiction the way most folks do. I have to infuse something of myself – my thoughts, my feelings, my emotions – into the piece. Many of my postings and articles contain bits and pieces from my personal life or real situations that have happened in the classroom. Relating a bunch of facts to people can be boring. Using facts and making a parallel to something personal seems to draw others in because the process enables them to open their own doors and make connections to the content.

I was fortunate to have a wonderful teacher by the name of Cleo Hudson at Woodward Academy in College Park, Georgia. While in her class I wrote all sorts of things including fiction. I still have all of my assignments and have looked at them from time to time. Let’s just say I have a formula that is comfortable for me now, and I’m smart enough to stick to it. Fiction is so foreign to me it would be like a right handed person trying to hold a fork with their left hand. Mrs. Hudson was very encouraging, however, and one piece of advice she gave me holds true now……write what you know.

2. Even though you write non-fiction, have you ever written fiction?

I wrote a terrible story of fiction in high school about a very wealthy family. The plot involved a drug overdose, and Mrs. Hudson had me conduct all sorts of research regarding drug interactions. I had to learn how to write exchanges during conversations in such a way the reader could keep up. Mrs. Hudson’s lessons have paid off sometimes at History Is Elementary when I have included a conversation between students and myself.

3. Have you ever sent any work to a publisher? If so, whom?

I sent a couple of short stories to a few magazines. It was required in the class I was taking, and I received the expected rejection notices. I still have them somewhere in a scrapbook.

I’m currently 75 percent complete with a book titled, 1620 Days: My Walk through an American Classroom regarding the nine years I taught fourth and fifth grades. Each chapter parallels a historical focus along with some sort of situation in my classroom. The book also hits on educational reform issues. The content is very similar to my postings at History Is Elementary.

I plan to publish the book myself first unless a publisher knocks on my door. Do you know one? :)

4. Even if you haven't sent anything to a publisher, surely someone has reviewed your work? How do you handle negative criticism?


My work is reviewed all the time online by readers who post comments. My post Oh, I love to Tell the Story is a good example regarding reader comments.

Recently my Patch column received a negative comment. Someone accused me of whitewashing history. Here is the link….you can see how I handed it.

I agonize most over historical accuracy. Do I have my facts straight? Are they clear to the reader? I have to have my facts straight or someone will let me know. When I’m wrong I admit it. I try to thank everyone for their comments, but there are many history bullies out there who like to throw their knowledge around and post a comment just to see their own writing online. Still, I love the blog process because you can have a conversation with so many people across the country and the world. As a teacher it helped me to see my issues in the classroom were the similar to other teachers.

5. How has being a writer affected aspects of your life, particularly social, spiritual, and familial?

Apparently when I’m in top form I can put a word or two together. I praise God for that gift, and I try to improve upon it when I can.

I find that people are usually interested to discover I’m a writer/educator even if history is not their thing. It’s a great conversation starter.

I believe my family is used to seeing stacks of research materials and things to do around my chair. They realize it is just something Mom has to do, and they like the fact that every now and then I include them in a particular piece, but only in a positive way.

6. Are you a writer who sets personal deadlines, or is your work "done when it's done?"

I’m terrible at deadlines. I let other things get in my way, and I don’t consistently work at it like a job. I know what I should be doing, but I don’t do it. My book should be finished, but it’s been a challenging year for my personal life. I’m paid to write my column for the Douglasville Patch page. So far, I’ve met every deadline, but I agonize over every submission.

I enjoy writing for my blogs because I’m in control. I can publish when I wish. I can write what I want when I want. I feel I have more creativity because I write when something moves me to write and update the site.

7. Is there anything that helps you concentrate on your work and get past writer's block (I.E. music, some idiosyncrasy, etc.)?

Since I stick mainly to history topics I do find that if I stay immersed in history publications online and off I stay motivated. Sometimes when I don’t like the way a piece is going I step away from it for a bit. I rest and read it with fresh eyes. Amazingly, I can see a conversation thread on Facebook or a friend’s link to something and that will inspire me in some way. My most recent piece at the history blog titled A Message to Garcia started with a friend’s posting on Facebook.

8. Who are you biggest inspirations and literary influences?

Mark Twain is a favorite and the historian, Shelby Foote. Winston Groom is a favorite. My best loved local writer is Ferrol Sams. I used to read his book Christmas Gift! aloud to my fifth graders. It’s a wonderful look at life in Georgia during the Depression…..and you can’t be an Atlanta gal without appreciating the work of Ludlow Porch, Lewis Grizzard, and Celestine Sibley.

9. Not every writer has a big break like J.K. Rowling or Christopher Paolini, and every writer at some point cannot make a living simply off writing alone. How do you compensate for this?

I take freelance assignments when I can. This summer I wrote a lesson plan for this website, and I am having such fun learning all about Douglasville history with my Patch column, Every Now and Then. I have a few advertisements on my blogs, but I’m far from supporting myself. I have a great family that lets me take a seat at the table, and my husband owns his own business. I admire anyone who can manage to make writing their sole income source.

10. I know from personal experience that every writer wants to give up at some point. What keeps you going?

Rabid determination is the only way I know how to describe it. I have had all sorts of challenges since I started History Is Elementary and Georgia on My Mind.

My mother passed away after a very lengthy illness, I had two major surgeries five months apart, a long recovery, and other issues that have challenged my love of writing. I think I keep going because I denied it for so long. It wasn’t until 2006 that I picked up my pen and started writing seriously. I simply feel the need to do it, and as an educator I feel I can reach a much broader audience online.

A Message to Garcia

You reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office--six clerks are within call. Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio."

Will the clerk say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task? On your life he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:

Who was he?

Which encyclopedia?

Where is the encyclopedia?

I was hired for that?

Don't you mean Bismarck?

What's the matter with Charlie doing it?

Is he dead?

Is there any hurry?

Sha'n't I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?

What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him to try to find [Correggio]--and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course, I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average I will not. Now, if you are wise, you will not bother to explain to your "assistant" that Correggio is indexed under Cs, not in the Ks, but you will smile very sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it up yourself.

Hmmm…..Integrity. Resourcefulness. Independent action.

They might as well be words from a dead language in today’s world.

However, the test situation posed above was not put forth recently but was asked on February 22, 1899. Yes, one hundred and twelve years ago it seems we had problems with folks not being able to carry out a mission. Apparently moral stupidity was rampant, and folks were unwilling to cheerfully catch hold and lift.

This situation was posed by Elbert Hubbard in a pamphlet he wrote titled, “A Letter to Garcia” in reaction to an observation his young son had made at the dinner table regarding the outcome of the Spanish American War. His son had remarked that the success the United States had experienced could all be boiled down to one man…..Andrew S. Rowan.

Never heard of him? I’m not surprised since most folks don’t know many details regarding the Spanish American War past the fact the USS Maine exploded in Havana’s harbor and one Theodore Roosevelt went up San Juan Hill.

Prior to the war the Cubans had attempted more than once to gain their independence from Spain. In May, 1898, the leader of the Cuban rebels, Garcia Y’iniguez Calixto, was hiding out in the jungles of Cuba. Once the United States became involved President McKinley knew it was imperative he get some sort of message to Garcia and knew that information was key regarding a successful U.S. operation there.

When the President asked, “Who can deliver a message to Garcia?” his advisors were quick to indicate Andrew S. Rowan was his man. This is certainly one situation where a president was advised correctly.

Later in his account of his mission Rowan wrote, “The President was anxious for information. He realized that success meant that the soldiers of the republic must co-operate with the insurgent forces of Cuba. He understood that it was essential to know how many Spanish troops there were on the island, their quality and condition, their morale, the character of their officers, especially those of the high command; the state of the roads in all seasons; the sanitary situation in both the Spanish and insurgent armies and the country in general; how well both sides were armed and what the Cuban forces would need in order to harass the enemy while American battalions were being mobilized; the topography of the country and many other important facts.”

Rowan was advised by his commanding officer, “Means will be found to identify you in Jamaica, where there is a Cuban junta. The rest depends on you……..After that, providing the United States declares war on Spain, further instructions will be based on cables received from you. Otherwise everything will be silence. You must plan and act for yourself. The task is yours and yours only. You must get a message to Garcia. Your train leaves at midnight. Good-bye and good luck!”

That was it. Those are the only instructions Rowan received. He did the rest on his own. His full account regarding his time in Cuba gathering information and delivering that all important letter to Garcia can be found here....just scroll down a bit.

Getting back to Hubbard he sat down after his dinner and wrote out a four page pamphlet titled, A Letter to Garcia” that within days would go viral in 1899 terms. Once it was published business people got hold of it and passed it along. Extra copies were ordered at twenty-five cents each. “A dozen, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, and yes, a hundred thousand. Then in half million lots until finally it was translated into nearly every language…..At one time during the 1920s more copies of “A Message to Garcia” were in print than any other publication except the Bible.”

The question, “Who can send a message to Garcia?” become synonymous with being resourceful and having integrity to do one’s job without dissolving into a puddle of helplessness. Hubbard stated later, “The hero is the man who does his work – who carries the Message to Garcia.”

I think the most powerful portion of Hubbard’s pamphlet is this……

THE WORLD BESTOWS ITS BIG PRIZES, both in money and honors, for but one thing, and that is Initiative. What is Initiative? I'll tell you. It is doing the right thing without being told. But next to doing the thing without being told is to do it when you are told once. That is to say, carry the Message to Garcia: those who can carry a message get high honors, but their pay is not always in proportion. Next there are those who never do a thing until they are told twice: such get no honors and small pay. Next, there are those who do the right thing only when Necessity kicks them from behind, and these get indifference instead of honors, and a pittance for pay. This kind spends most of its time polishing a bench with a hard luck story. Then, still lower down in the scale than this, we have the fellow who will not do the right thing even when someone goes along to show him how and stays to see that he does it: he is always out of a job, and receives the contempt he deserves, unless he happens to have a rich Pa, in which case Destiny patiently awaits around the corner with a stuffed club.

To which class do you belong?

Chain...Chain....Chain..Chain of Fools

I walk over to my laptop and make a quick “click”. The sounds of Aretha Franklin fill the classroom….

Chain, chain, chain, chain, chain, chian
Chain, chain, chain, chain of fools
Five long years I thought you were my man
But I found out I'm just a link in your chain....
 found out I’m just a link in your chain….

Go ahead – click on the video and listen. I’ll wait.



I’m certain you are thinking I’ve lost it. Why is ElementaryHistoryTeacher playing this particular song for nine and ten year olds as the opening salvo to a lesson regarding an aspect of the American Revolution?

Don’t click off just yet. I have a connection.

Teaching history isn’t all about reading a lesson in a book or having a teacher tell a fascinating story for kids to take notes from.

Teaching history is all about making connections and visualizing the links – links in a chain of events that ebb and flow through history to the present day. In this particular exercise where I play the Queen of Soul’s famous song for my students I’m trying to allow them to own and claim the content and build some links of their own to the content.

I want them to listen to the song. I might even play it two or three times.

Okay, I might even play it a fourth time just for me.

I pop the lyrics up on my classroom screen and we read through them together. Some of my more talented students actually sing through them having already picked up the melody.

I pick up with the lyrics where I left off above….. (Read through them very carefully)

You got mw where you want me
I ain't nothing but your fool
You treated me mean oh you treated me cruel
Chain, chain, chain, chain of fools
Every chain has a wink link
I might be a weak child, but I'll give you strength
You told me to leave you alone
My father said come on home
My doctor said take it easy
Whole bunch of lovin is much too strong
I'm added to your chain, chain, chain
Chain, chain, chain, chain
Chain, chain of fools
One of these mornings the chain is gonna break
But up until then, yeah I'm gonna take all I can take
Chain, chain, chain, chain of fools

Students are sitting in small groups, so I proceed to tell them to take another look at the lyrics and discuss how the situation between the British and the American colonies is similar to the lyrics of the song.

Seriously…….think about it. I’ll wait. They don’t tell you in teacher education school, but most of good teaching is knowing when to hush and let the student’s think.

So?????

What did YOU come up with?

My students don’t disappoint me. They make some great connections between the contemporary lyrics and the plight of the American colonists.

Students volunteer the following:

*The British government had the colonies where they wanted them. Taxing them, but not allowing them any representation in Parliament.
*The colonist felt they were being treated mean and cruel. Students cited situations like the Intolerable Acts as proof.
*The colonists were a chain of fools. They were being taken advantage of and needed to stand up for themselves.
*The weak links in the chain were Tories.
*Everyone has an opinion regarding what should be done…….the Sons of Liberty, Committees of Correspondence, newpapers, the members of the Continental Congress.
*The chain is finally broken with Lexington and Concord.

Yes, this lesson is a great way to review. It’s also a great way to bring up new content tying into the chain theme.

Let me throw a few names out to you…..Peter Townsend, Sterling Iron Works, Captain Thomas Machin, Colonel Timothy Pickering.

Do they ring a bell?

What about New York, West Point, the Hudson River? Those are more familiar, aren’t they?

They all have something to do with one another. Early on during the American Revolution the Patriots were concerned about the security of the Hudson River and the military outpost at West Point. To keep the British from advancing up the Hudson they installed a chain across the river from Constitution Island over to the west bank of the river. It wasn’t the only chain, but it is remembered as The Great Chain. It was an ideal place in the river since a heavy S-curve existed there. Ships had to slow down because of the curves and it was the perfect location for artillery to shoot at enemy ships.

Peter Townsend was the owner of Stirling Iron Works, the company hired to build the chain. The Stirling name hails from William Alexander, Lord Stirling – the one-time owner of the land where the ironworks was located and a Major General in the Continental Army. Captain Thomas Machin and Colonel Timothy Pickering oversaw the project.

The whole thing weighed around 65 tons and stretched out to 600 yards. Each link in the chain was two feet in length and weighed 114 pounds.

To compensate for the changing current and tide pulleys, rollers, ropes, and mid-stream anchors were used in tandem with the chain. The chain was supported by huge logs. To avoid damage by ice the chain was removed each winter during the war and replaced each spring.

One point of interest about the chain regards Benedict Arnold who informed the British it was possible to break the chain because he had actually weakened it. Arnold escaped to the British when he realized the Patriots knew he had been an informer.

The picture below shows 13 links of the chain that are on display at Trophy Point, West Point. Yes, 13 links for the 13 colonies.

History tells us the British fleet never attempted to break the chain.


You can find out more about the chain and Peter Townsend at this link.

This post from The New York Times dated February, 1895 provides more detail regarding how the chain was installed.

Scattering Seeds

I visited my father a couple of weekends ago and walked over some of his property. Today, most of it is heavily wooded, but in the early days when my great grandfather and grandfather farmed for a living most of the land was covered in cultivated fields of some sort. My father left the land in the 50s to join the Army and later settled in Atlanta to raise my sister and me. He said he was done with farming, but……..

The land lured him back, and I’ve never known him to not have a tractor of some sort even when we lived in the suburbs. Eventually, he began to return to the farm on the weekends and helped his father with a huge garden. My father is a huge proponent of child labor, so my sister and I were schooled in the ways of plowing a field, scattering seeds, and my favorite farming activity…..picking up rocks. My grandmother and mother taught my sister and me the other side of farming – food preservation. You know…….canning and freezing.

During the work week Daddy would visit the local feed and seed place to gather up supplies for our weekend of farming. During those days since I pretty much took every step that Daddy took, I would go along. The feed and seed store was an interesting place…….hay was scattered about on the floor, there were interesting smells, at Easter there were always colored chicks and bunnies for sale, and there were always those racks of seed packets with the colorful pictures. While Daddy would conduct his business I would stand in front of the seed rack flipping through the packets looking at all of the colorful flowers and various vegetables that could be grown in our area. Occasionally, Daddy would allow me to purchase a packet or two of the precious seed……petunias or zinnias to plant in a bed along the side of our front porch.

So, I’ve been thinking which usually leads me to do a little investigating and I’ve come up with some interesting points that could infuse any course of study regarding the 1800s along the lines of agriculture, inventions, women’s rights and North-South relations during Civil War. The most important thing I discovered is it seems we have the Shakers to thank for those little seed packets.

Yes, that’s right. Those folks that followed the Shaker religion are more formally known as The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. They rejected sex and believed in social equality. In fact, instead of using the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 and the work of Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott as the starting point for women’s rights in the United States it would be more correct to examine Ann Lee who led the Shakers and came to the colonies as early as 1747. She is the prime reason the Shakers practiced equality.

Most people today equate the Shakers with their music and furniture. The furniture was plain and functional, and today it is highly sought by collectors. Their songs and dances were very important to Shaker worship services and are very unique. In fact, their frenzied movements during worship earned the sect the Shaker name.

The Shakers had an excellent work ethic and were fond of saying, “Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you were to die tomorrow.”

The Shakers invented many items, but are rarely given credit since they did not patent their inventions. The rotary harrow, circular saw, clothes pin, the wheel driven washing machine and flat broom can all be traced back to Shaker communities.

In 1802 Brother Jefferson White founded the seed business at the Enfield Shaker Community.

As early as 1816 they were the first ones to place seeds in packets. Before the seeds were placed in packets they sold them via wooden boxes which can still be found today in antique stores.


They were sold to stores and individual farmers via Shaker Seed Wagons. Most farmers wanted to purchase the seeds because the Shaker Seed Company had a great reputation for great business ethics and quality seeds and herbs. Plus….there was over 100 varieties.

The Hancock Shaker Community had at one time over 10 acres devoted to the cultivation of seeds and herbs. Eventually the business grew and the Shakers had to contract local farmers to grow seeds under the Shaker label.

Another curriculum area where the Shaker Seed Company can be discussed is the Civil War. The company was Northern business concern…..one that had a large customer base in the South. Once the Civil War began the seed business began to decline since most of the customers were in hostile territory and the product could no longer be delivered to customers. The seed company never could recover from significant southern debts. By the 1870s the Shaker Seed Company had been discontinued.

PBS has an excellent site for Ken Burn's Shaker series here.

Remembering Old Weather

I can remember how the painted wooden planks of our front porch felt on my bare feet during the hot and lazy days of July. I can remember the smell of the dirt in Pa Land’s garden after it had been churned up during a night of pelting rain. I can remember the delight of looking out my bedroom window and discovering a blanket of snow had fallen making even the ugliest parts of my yard beautiful. I can remember heading off to school on cool crisp mornings that gradually morphed into bitterly cold trips as October and November became December and January begging for coats, ear muffs and mittens. I can remember the beginning of Atlanta’s Great Ice Storm of 1973 – the clink, clink, clink of sleet as it began to coat every surface signaling we would be homebound for the next fifteen days or so.
Weather has an important role to play in our historical memory. It changes our picnic plans. Derails a lunch we might have planned with an old friend or hits us in the pocketbook. It does not matter if we are the farmer with a ruined crop or the grocery store customer having to pay a higher price for a scarce item.

Remember the Battle of the Bulge? What about the Challenger Explosion or the Dust Bowl? The outcomes of many important battles have been affected by weather as I recounted here. Hurricanes such as Katrina are remembered for their long-lasting effects on our lives. Television shows such as the Weather Channel’s When Weather Changed History and books like Laura Lee’s Blame It on the Rain (Harper, 2006) help us to see weather and history go hand in hand.

Yes, old weather data provides details to help us figure out why certain decisions were made, helps us to analyze various outcomes, and can help us make predictions regarding the future due to climate cycles.

The folks at OldWeather.org are doing what they can to fill in the gaps regarding the Earth’s observational weather record primarily for the years around World War I. The majority of the work is being done strictly by volunteers who are working from their own homes to pour over the scanned log books of over 250 Royal Navy ships. Even YOU can be a volunteer at OldWeather.org!

Each volunteer is assigned a ship and records the information from their home. They note the date, location or voyage, and the individual keeper’s weather records – wind direction and strength, cloud cover, and weather conditions. Barometric pressure is noted along with temperature observations, interesting events aboard ship and landmarks.

So why would this weather data be important?

This article from Science News states:

Some of the voyages are interesting to social sciences, too. The logbooks from the H.M.S. Beagle, which carried Charles Darwin around South America between 1831 and 1837, had careful weather observations…..and out of William [Edward] Parry’s three tries to reach the North Pole, he covered the most seas in 1819 – a surprisingly warm year in the Arctic…with very little floating ice.


The aim of the project is to predict how climate affects weather variability. But accumulating a massive bank of data won’t necessarily help weather stations make guesses about the weather more than 10 days in the future.

A person connected to the program is quoted saying, “It’s not possible to predict when it will start raining in Baltimore. But it is possible to predict how the chance of rain in Baltimore changes if there is a massive drought in California or a heat wave in New York City.”

Another long-term goal of the project is to mesh the data together in a user-friendly website where people could enter a date and location and find out what the weather was like for that day….

The blog for OldWeather.org provides further implications regarding how the project can impact historical information:

….quite a few people are getting interested in the sickness records in the logs, and their relationship to the well-known ‘spanish flu’ outbreak in 1918. Many of the logs contain a record of the ‘Number on Sick List’; we didn’t ask for this number to be recorded, but some people have decided to record it anyway, and so far the database has accumulated values from almost 10,000 log pages from 126 different ships.

The article goes on to state:

On September 2, 1918 the Spanish flu caught up with HMS Africa, and the cases mounted fast – reaching a peak with 476 people ill on the 9th. The Africa was a big ship, a King Edward VII-class battleship, but even so 476 people is nearly 2/3 of the crew; and it must have been a major challenge to keep her operational.

This project really excites me as a historian, writer, and educator. What a wonderful tool for reference and further analysis, and what a wonderful project a class could undertake! Younger classes could follow the actions of a volunteer as log pages are examined and digitized and make judgements based on the data. Older classes under the direction of their teacher could possibly volunteer and do the work themselves.

Bravo OldWeather.org!!!!