Please follow me to my new website.....

Here's a big HELLO to those of you who might find yourself here through a Google search, or you are a long-time subscriber to this site via Feedburner and/or RSS Feed.

I've moved!

I'd love to have you visit me at my own domain where I come out from behind the ElementaryHistoryTeacher name, but continue to share the stories behind the history.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take my current subscription list to the new site. You will have to join my new mailing list  to receive information regarding blog updates, new books as they are published including my own brand of history curriculum for educators.

My teaching memoir will be published in 2016 along with the first of my curriculum units.

The new website, LisaLandCooper.com is up and running! 

Come on over, have a look around, and introduce (or reintroduce in some cases) yourself by leaving a comment or sending me a message.

Feel free to "like" one or all of my pages on Facebook, too!

History Is Elementary - for history teachers and anyone else who enjoys history and history education

Georgia on My Mind - for those who love Georgia history with an occasional travel or opinion piece thrown in here and there

Every Now and Then - focusing on the history of Douglas/old Campbell County, Georgia

All three pages contain hundreds of vintage images with new ones being added daily!

Yes, I've Published a Book!

I've written and published a book!

Of course, that was my intention when I began this blog way back in 2006 when I was still in the classroom, but the book I've published isn't exactly the book I had planned.

The planned project - a teaching memoir - will still be published along with a few other projects, but the book you see to the left is what fell in my lap along the way.

It needed to be done.

History education is my prime focus along with writing curriculum. Over the last couple of years I've written a few college courses used by teacher candidates at Johns Hopkins University School of Education, and I have some other curriculum ideas up my sleeve, but local history has taken a front-burner position over the last year.

I've been researching and writing the local history of Douglas County for the past four years, and have had a weekly column the Douglas County Sentinel for a year and a half.

I've been a longtime fan of the Images of America series of books from Arcadia Publishing. Several towns across the nation are included including several in Georgia, but my town of Douglasville was missing.

When Arcadia contacted me last year, there was no other alternative than to sign the contract and get busy. The book was released on July 14th, and I'm very proud of it. 

The book contains 200 vintage images depicting the history of Douglasville, Georgia some dating back to the 1870s and covering the next one hundred years. 

As far as southern towns go, Douglasville is a bit unique as it IS the quintessential New South town having been birthed in 1875 during Reconstruction

You can Google a preview of the book HERE, and you can purchase it via Amazon HERE.

Getting to the Tooth of the Matter

 

Do you know what these are?

If you guessed dental tools you would be correct?

Now, who owned them?

None other than America’s silversmith and favorite son of Liberty who rode the countryside warning the folks that the British were coming. 

No…not William Dawes, but that other one.  Yes, old what’s his name?

Yes!  Paul Revere!

Following the French and Indian War the economy in the colonies had been what is described by some today as an economic downturn.

Actually, folks were really hurting financially. Not only did the colonies take a hit with the French and Indian War there was something called the Stamp Act that severely impacted Paul Revere’s business.

With creditors after his property and no orders coming in for his metal working Revere turned towards dentistry.

Seems logical. Right?

A surgeon staying with a mutual friend taught Revere some of the tricks of the trade.

Yes, five years before his midnight ride the following ad appeared in the Boston Gazette and Country Journal dated August 20, 1770 titled “Artificial Teeth” that stated:

“Paul Revere, Takes this Method ‘of returning his most sincere Thanks to the Gentlemen and Ladies who have employed him in the care of their Teeth, he would now inform them and all others, who are so unfortunate as to lose their Teeth by accident or otherways, that he still continues the Business of a Dentist, and flatters himself that from the Experience he has had these Two Years (in which Time he has fixt some Hundreds of Teeth) that he can fix them as well as any Surgeon-Dentist who ever came from London, he fixes them in such a Manner that they are not only an Ornament, but of real Use in Speaking and Eating:  He cleanses the Teeth and will wait on any Gentleman or Lady at their Lodgings, he may be spoke with at his Shop opposite Dr. Clark’s at the North End, where the Gold and Silversmith’s business is carried on in all its Branches.”

Revere made his dentures from walrus ivory.

Now, I know what you are thinking…

No, as far as I know Revere never crafted a set of dentures for George Washington.

I’ve written here about the tragic death of Dr. Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s) using Trumbull’s iconic painting with students.

Amazingly, Paul Revere was the one who was able to identify Warren's body nine months after the battle because he recognized a tooth he had replaced in Dr. Warren's dental work.

Paul Revere...forensic dentistry.

Don't you love the twists and turns of history? 

Frank Carpenter: World Traveler and Photographer

Over on the Facebook page for this blog I’ve been posting a series of pictures this week I’ve simply sourced as “Library of Congress”, but the source goes much deeper than that.  The pictures are wonderful depictions of world scenes beginning in the 1890s through the 1930s. I’ve featured some here.

The collection was put together by Frank and Frances Carpenter, a father-daughter team, during their world travels. The photos were used to illustrate his writings regarding travel and his world geography textbooks.

I love to snap pictures myself. Over the last five years I’ve taken approximately ten thousand photos, myself, but over his lifetime no telling how many photographs Frank Carter produced. The Library of Congress collection contains 5,400 photos in albums, 10,400 loose photos, and 7,000 glass and film negatives.

 

 

Frank Carpenter was a journalist whose assignments took him many interesting places.  Being a writing myself, I love the fact that he took his interest in travel and photography and more or less created a job for himself.

He took a trip around the world from 1888 to 1889. During that time he wrote a letter per week that was published in twelve different periodicals which led to more letter-writing travels.

Where can I get a job like that?

Not only were Frank Carpenter’s geography books used in schools for over 45 years, his writings helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography.

Carpenter died a millionaire, but not necessarily from his writing and photography. He used his money to invest heavily in real estate in the Washington D.C. area, and at one point was then able to fund his world travels and photography “habit” on his own terms.

Frank Carpenter died in China during his third trip around the world.

Use the “like” button above in order to join the history conversation on Facebook and view more of Carpenter’s fantastic images.

5 Ways to Keep Your Alumni Base Lively

Great advice for folks who control alumni groups!!



Via: iContact

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep....An Old Spin

This past February Mr. Elementaryhistoryteacher and I ran off for a quick weekend in Charleston. It was rainy and cold most of the time, so we didn't get a chance to walk around very much, but we did take a turn through the visitor's center and then headed across the street to The Charleston Museum.

The museum was founded in 1773 and is commonly referred to as America's first museum.

While I found all of the exhibits informative and well done, one of the smaller ones simply astonished me.

I love learning new things, and these types of cemetery markers were TOTALLY new to me.



Yes, that's a four poster bed headboard and for some people in the 18th century this served as their grave marker.

I came home from Charleston and began digging a little deeper. I found an article from The Milwaukee Journal dated June 17, 1927 titled, "Four Poster Bed Headboard Marks Grave 189 Years".

From the article: Still intact after serving 189 years [in Charleston, South Carolina] as a tombstone in St. Michael's Cemetery here a four poster headboard of an old wooden bed has been uncovered by a cleanup crew working in a cemetery.

The unusual marker was part of the bed used by Mary Ann Luyten during her lifetime. Some years before her death she decided that its enduring tidewater cypress wood should make a particularly satisfying tombstone. In writing her will she directed that this be done and ordered the inscription which was to be carved on the bed.

The words were plainly visible when workmen removed leaves and moss which had partially covered Mrs. Luyten's grave marker.

They read, "Mary Ann Luyten, wife of William Luyten Died September 9, 1770 in the twenty seventh year of her age"

...and here it is in the cemetery:

Apparently, this practice was repeated by others. In a more recent newspaper article from April, 1982 published in The News and Courier advised that for years the St. Michael's grave rails such as Luyten's were thought to be the only ones remaining in North America, but now there is a third "bedstead" shaped wooden grave rail that has been stashed away at St. James Santee Episcopal church for many years...It resembled the headboard of a bed and was designed to be set in the ground over the grave.

I find the markers to be very interesting....a whole new spin on "Now I lay me down to sleep." 

The Artist Explorer

The Age of Exploration.

What do you immediately think of as you read those four words?

More than likely, you would throw out some of the more famous explorer's names and where their expeditions took place.

Some of you might tell me about their goals such as claiming land for the monarch who financed the expedition and how in the case of some bringing Christianity to the natives was in most cases a guise to seize lands and riches.

You most certainly wouldn't be wrong, but as many expeditions to the New World continued more people arrived who weren't just fortune hunters, soldiers and religious men wanting to save souls.

Sometimes the monarchs themselves would order certain people to go along,  and in the case of explorers Jean Ribault an Rene Laudonnere, the French monarch ordered an artist to go along and capture not riches or natives but capture images of the things he saw in the New World.

The artist was Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues who lived between 1533 and 1588.

Le Moyne went along on Ribault's expedition in 1566 to what we would consider to be north Florida near the St. John River. Ribault hoped to establish a colony near present day Jacksonville, and he ended up building Fort Caroline.

Le Moyne not only served as an artist but was very useful as a cartographer.

The expedition erected a stone marker near the mouth of the St. John River which happened to be a standard French marker used in the New World. It was a hexagonal column of white stone engraved with the royal standard. Eventually, Le Moyne writes that the Timuca, a Native American tribe in the area, began to venerate the marker as if it was an idol.

Eventually, relations with the natives soured, some members of the expedition grew weary of the leaders and led mini revolts, and rival expeditions from other nations caused problems.

In 1565, a group of Spaniards led by Pedro Menendez de Aviles attacked the men at Fort Caroline.

Le Moyne made his escape with a few others, but only one of his drawings survived. What we do have are engravings which are recreations based on Le Moyne's memory. They are important because they happen to be the earliest images from the New World. Engravings of his work exist today as only one of his New World drawings was saved.  I've posted one of the engravings at the beginning of this post. Le Moyne also penned an account of the voyage titled Brevis Narration Eorum Quae in Florida Americai Provincial Gallis Acciderunt in 1591.

Le Moyne never returned to the New World. He devoted the last years of his life creating botanical art.

You can see more engravings based on Le Moyne's drawings here.

Another great source you could explore is The New World.