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Thomas Gallaudet and the American School for the Deaf

April 16, 2024May 7, 202419th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On April 15, 1817, what is now called the American School for the Deaf opened its doors in Hartford, Connecticut. Inspired by his young, deaf neighbor, theologian Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet teamed up with French sign language instructor Laurent Clerc to open a residential school where deaf children would have the opportunity to be educated. The opening of the American School for the Deaf instigated the creation of a deaf culture in America that thrives to this day.

In 1814, Thomas Gallaudet met his nine-year-old neighbor, Alice Cogswell, who was deaf. He watched her struggle to communicate with her family and as a theology school graduate, saw Alice as part of a community that had not yet been proselytized to due to a lack of language skills. Alice’s father, Dr. Mason Cogswell, sponsored Gallaudet’s trip abroad, urging him to learn more about the teaching methods of the Braidwood Academy, a school for the deaf, in England. Gallaudet was not satisfied by Braidwood’s method of teaching, which focused on speaking and lip reading. While in London, Gallaudet chanced upon a group of teachers from the National Institute of the Deaf in Paris. Intrigued by their sign language, he followed them back to their school to learn with them. At the end of his own instruction, Gallaudet persuaded the distinguished instructor, Laurent Clerc to return to Connecticut and aid Gallaudet in opening the first school for the deaf in America. Alice was their first student.

At their school in Hartford, Gallaudet and Clerc joined deaf students from around the country together. Clerc’s French sign language mixed with the signs used by students from around the U.S. evolved to form American Sign Language. Of it, Thomas Gallaudet said, “The heart claims as its particular and appropriate language that of the eye and countenance, of the attitudes, movements, and gestures of the body.” With a shared language, as it often does, developed a culture. Gallaudet and Clerc traveled the country, training teachers and advising additional schools for the deaf.

In 1857, Thomas Gallaudet’s wife, Sofia Gallaudet, and their son, Edward Gallaudet, moved to Washington D.C. to run the School for the Deaf in Washington D.C. This school eventually became Gallaudet University, the premiere school for the education of deaf individuals in the U.S, and is the legacy of Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc.

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An American English

April 12, 2024May 7, 202419th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On April 14, 1828, the American Dictionary of the English Language was published. It was the first dictionary of the American English language. Compiled by Noah Webster, it contained 70,000 words, including many of the spelling changes between British English and American English that we see today. In addition to creating for Americans a distinct version of English, Webster is also well-known for championing the idea that “grammar should be formed on language, and not language on grammar.”

Noah Webster was a law student at Yale University when he took a leave of absence to fight in the American Revolution. Upon his graduation, Webster chose to take a job as a teacher in Goshen, New York. While teaching, Webster was unimpressed by the spellers and readers available to his students. He felt that the texts they used, written and published in England, ignored some distinctive aspects of American life. His quest to champion an American English began with his writing and publishing a series of books to be used by educators: a spelling book, a grammar book, and a reader.

Webster began working on the dictionary in 1807. He said, “It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is an expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language.” He is responsible for many of the common spelling differences in words between British English and American English, including the removal of “u” in words like “color” and the switching of “e” and “r” in words like “center” or “meter.” The American Dictionary of the English Language was far from a bestseller in the 19^th century. Webster was berated for the inclusion of some colloquial words; however, Webster believed that public use was an important factor in an ever-changing language.

After Webster’s death, the rights to his dictionary were sold to George and Charles Merriam, who created the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. This dictionary is one of the most reliable and recognizable collections of American English today.

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1 . https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/noah-webster-dictionary#:~:text=Happy%20Birthday%2C%20Webster’s%201828!&text=April%2014%20is%20the%20anniversary,Dictionary%20of%20the%20English%20Language.

2. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Noah-Webster-American-lexicographer

Lost and Found Series: Four-Year-Old Boy Lost in Coney Island in 1967

April 11, 2024April 11, 20241960s, US HistoryLeave a Comment

Nearly 60 years ago on the Fourth of July, four-year-old George D’Angelo, Jr. became separated from his parents while celebrating near West 12th Street at Coney Island in New York.

As reported by the New York Times, a massive search was undertaken including both police and federal agents as they sought to find young George. The search went on through the night and into the next day when a call came into an emergency line claiming that George was alive and well in the apartment of a Brooklyn woman some 25 blocks away.

When police arrived at the address provided by the caller, they found a 54-year-old woman, her 26-year-old daughter and young George in flowered pajamas. George’s first words to the police were, “I want my mommy.”

Apparently the woman, Elizabeth Bermudez, found George wandering in the streets and led him back to her apartment where she took care of him until her daughter came for a visit the next day.

After questioning, it was confirmed that Mrs. Bermudez did try to reach out to two different police officers on the street while she led George back to her apartment, but was told to call the station. She then became “confused” and took George home to wait for her daughter who did not arrive until the next day.

When her daughter encountered the strange child in her mother’s apartment, she immediately asked him if he was “Georgie,” having heard about his disappearance on the news.

What is remarkable about this story is not only that George was recovered, but also that his parents, Elaine and George D’Angelo, did not wish to press charges against Mrs. Bermudez.

“I’m glad that she did not hurt him and that she kept him safe,” Elaine D’Angelo told the NYT. George D’Angelo Sr. echoed his wife’s sentiments, however, he added “I’m just hoping that they take care of her and give her some help so that she won’t do this thing again to someone else’s child.”

This story would have likely been very different had it happened today. How do you think it would have turned out?

Sources: The New York Times Archives

The Beginning of the End of the Civil War

April 9, 2024May 7, 202419th Century, Civil War, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Despite Lee’s surrender, the fighting dragged on for months. However, the surrender at Appomattox was not only a huge loss for the Confederate Army but the beginning of the collapse of the Confederate government.

On March 25, 1865, General Lee’s army attacked Fort Stedman in Petersburg, Virginia. On April 1, the Union Army responded by attacking the Confederate troops at Five Forks. During the retreat from battle, the Union Army was able to surround the Confederates. In addition to this difficult tactical situation, the Confederate Army was also out of supplies. They moved west toward the Appomattox railroad station, where supplies should have arrived; however, the Union Army arrived first and captured the supply trains. With this, General Lee found himself in a difficult situation. On April 7, amid discontent and desertions, Lee received a letter from General Grant requesting his surrender. Grant wrote: it is “my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army known as the Army of Northern Virginia.” Lee did not agree.

On April 9, the Union Army surrounded Lee’s men, forcing Lee to order a retreat across the Appomattox River. By the afternoon, Lee sent a message to Grant, agreeing to meet at the home of Wilmer McLean, local resident. The terms of the surrender were generous, allowing all Confederate soldiers and officers to retain their horses and weapons so long as they peacefully returned home. The terms also said that Confederate officers would not be prosecuted. These surrender terms were used again and again as the war ended. Following Lee and Grant’s meeting, Lee and almost 30,000 soldiers returned home. The war was officially declared over on August 20, 1866.

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The Creation of NATO

April 5, 2024May 7, 202420th CenturyLeave a Comment

On April 4, 1949, twelve nations signed a treaty, creating NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The goal of the treaty was to create a united front against the threat of Communist expansion beyond the Soviet Union. Each of the signed nations agreed that an attack on one was an attack on all. Since its inception, the organization has grown to include 32 countries. It is the largest peacetime military alliance in the world.

In the aftermath of World War II, the United States leadership became concerned about the rising tide of communism. Besides its strong presence in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, large communist parties were emerging in France and Italy. The U.S. government enacted the Marshall Plan (named after then Secretary of State, George C. Marshall), which was a large-scale aid program for European countries devastated by the war. The U.S. also pledged aid (military and otherwise) to any country fighting against a Soviet takeover. Several Western European countries had already signed the Brussels Treaty, which created a military alliance between them, but the U.S. agreed that the risk was great enough to warrant their first-ever alliance with European countries since the 18^th century.

12 countries worked together to write the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed by the U.S., Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom on April 4, 1949 in Washington, D.C. It stated, most notably that, “An armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all; and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.” This section of the treaty, Article 5, was used for the first time in 2001, following the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11.

Since the original creation of the organization, 20 countries have joined the pact, including Greece and Turkey (1952); West Germany (1955); Spain (1982); Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999); Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (2004); Albania and Croatia (2009); Montenegro (2017); North Macedonia (2020); Finland (2023); and Sweden (2024).

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The House Select Committee on Assassinations

March 29, 2024April 2, 2024Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On March 29, 1979 the House Select Committee on Assassinations released a report that compounded years of research on the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The committee, which performed its research from 1976-1979, released a report of their findings, which included their belief that federal intelligence agencies did not perform adequate investigations into the possibility of conspiracy in the assassination plots of the two American leaders.

In September 1976, the U.S. House of Representatives formed a committee to investigate the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (Dallas, 1963) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Memphis, 1968). The House of Representatives believed they had cause to open such an investigation given their responsibility to respond to their constituents’ concerns about how government intelligence agencies performed during the investigations. According to a Gallup Poll taken at the time, 80% of Americans believed that President Kennedy’s assassination had been a conspiracy, and 60% believed that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination had been a conspiracy despite reports from the government indicating otherwise. Conspiracy theories had begun to take root among the American public, and the nation’s representatives felt it was wise to put the issue to rest.

As the committee began their research, they identified four issues to be investigated in particular: “First, who was or were the assassin(s) of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Second, did the assassin(s) have any aid or assistance either before or after the assassination(s). Third, did the agencies and departments of the U.S. Government adequately perform their duties and functions in (a) collecting and sharing information prior to the assassination; (b) protecting John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. and (c) conducting investigations into each assassination and coordinating the results of those investigations? Fourth, given the evidence the committee uncovered, are the amendment of existing legislation or the enactment of new legislation appropriate?”

The report, released in March 1979, found that, in the case of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, there was acoustic evidence that there was a second shooter (this evidence has since been debunked). The committee felt that this evidence pointed to the possibility of a conspiracy that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failed to adequately look into. The report also said that the committee did not believe that the Soviet or Cuban governments, the anti-Castro Cuban groups, the organized crime syndicate, or the various U.S. intelligence groups were involved in the assassination plot. In the case of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the committee reported that they believed there was a possibility of conspiracy. They believed that the FBI, in the process of their own investigation of King, “grossly abused and exceeded its legal authority and failed to consider the possibility that actions threatening bodily harm to Dr. King might be encouraged by the program.” They also reported that they felt the FBI failed to adequately investigate the possibility of a conspiracy. The report ended by recommending that the Department of Justice review the committee’s findings and decide whether to further investigate the claims. Both cases have been reopened and investigated at various times over the ensuing 45 years; however, no concrete evidence of larger conspiracies have surfaced.

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Tennessee Williams and the American Gothic

March 26, 2024April 2, 2024US HistoryLeave a Comment

On March 26, 1911, Tennessee Williams, née Thomas Williams, was born in Columbus, Mississippi. Williams would go on to become one of the most celebrated American playwrights in history, penning such southern gothic classics as The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. During his lifetime, Williams’s work was met with intense criticism from those who thought the subjects of his play were inappropriate for public consumption. The legacy of Tennessee Williams, however, is built upon his ability to poetically portray the range of human emotions and the tragic events that cause them.

Tennessee Williams remembered his childhood in Mississippi as idyllic. He spent those years being doted on by his grandparents and enjoying the space and freedom of living in a rural town. At age seven, his father, a traveling salesman, moved the family to St. Louis. This upheaval was difficult on Williams, and in reading his anthology, we see Williams look to the South as the inspiration and setting for many of his stories. His distaste for his life in St. Louis was the catalyst for his art. He began writing because, as he said, he “found life unsatisfactory.” He spent the next decades of his life moving around the country and writing. He moved several times for his father’s job, including to New Orleans, which provided him with the setting for two of his most famous plays. He attended three different universities, finally earning his degree in dramatic writing from the University of Iowa in 1938.

Williams’s first play that made it big was The Glass Menagerie, which made its way to Broadway. This was followed shortly by A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sweet Bird of Youth, and The Night of the Iguana, most of which featured on stage and on television. All of Williams’s plays addressed topics that would have been considered taboo for the time, including cannibalism, violence, lobotomy, and homosexuality. While Williams claimed his works were not autobiographical, readers can’t help but see the distant father, the overbearing mother, and the fragile sister depicted in many of his works as commentary on his personal relationships. Williams also wrote often about themes such as desire and sexuality, the difficulty of being an outcast, and the facades put on to cover the darkness of humanity. His works have become classics of the American Gothic for his poetic treatment of these themes.

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The Almost Amendment: Constitutional Rights for Women

March 22, 2024April 2, 2024Uncategorized, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On March 22, 1972, the U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. The Equal Rights Amendment banned discrimination on the basis of gender. As is law, once the amendment passed in the Senate, it was sent to the states to be ratified. 35 of the required 38 states ratified, but the amendment failed to be added in the end.

The proposed amendment was first written in 1923 by Alice Paul. Though the language has changed slightly, the idea remains the same: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” It wasn’t until March 1972 that the amendment was brought before the Senate and the House and passed. Upon its passage in Congress, a seven-year deadline was set for its ratification by ¾ of U.S. states. By the deadline, 35 of the 38 states had ratified. The deadline was extended to 1982 by a congressional bill; however, in the ensuing years, conservative and religious right Americans took up arms against the amendment, claiming that it would open the door to gender-neutral bathrooms and same-sex marriage. The deadline passed, and the amendment was three states short of being ratified.

In 1992, the 27^th Amendment, often called the Madison Amendment after its author, was added to the Constitution. This Amendment, which prohibits members of Congress from giving themselves pay raises during the current session, had been passed by Congress in 1789 but was not ratified until 1992. While this amendment did not have a time limit attached, its passage still opened up legal precedent for old ratifications to continue to hold power. In 2017, the state of Nevada ratified the amendment. Illinois followed the next year. In 2020, Virginia became the 38^th and final state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Constitutional scholars argue that upon this ratification, the Equal Rights Amendment became an official part of the Constitution, however, the final step, which requires the U.S. Archivist to publish the amendment along with the ratification documents has never been done. Unfortunately, the entire matter is embroiled in legal conflict, and no decisions have been made.

A 2022 survey done by the Data for Progress organization showed that 85% of Americans, including 93% of Democrats, 79% of Independents, and 79% of Republicans support Congress in passing the Equal Rights Amendment. However, efforts in Congress have been blocked by Republican leadership, leaving women in 2024 with no guaranteed Constitutional rights other than that of the vote. May they use it wisely.

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The Origin of Daylight Savings

March 19, 2024May 7, 202420th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On March 19, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson signed “The Standard Time Act” into law. This act divided the U.S. into five time zones and established daylight savings. The act said that the clock would be advanced one hour on the last Sunday in March and pushed back an hour on the last Sunday in October. The idea of daylight savings came and went several times over the ensuing decades, becoming permanent in most states in 1966.

The idea of daylight savings time actually originated in Europe. Embroiled in World War I, European countries adopted the practice to reduce the amount of fuel needed to illuminate and heat buildings. It was also suggested that adjusting the time would increase productivity and have positive health effects. The U.S. took several years to jump onboard, with Congress finally passing the bill to instate daylight savings time on March 16, 1918. According to a Washington Herald article published on that day, the benefits of the bill for Americans would include: “Saving of one to one and a half million tons of coal per year, according to Fuel Administration estimates. Increased food production by suburban gardeners. Less traffic accidents. Improvement in health of all the people. More fresh air. Women workers will return from work in daylight. Speeding up of freight transportation by giving extra hour at docks and terminals. New York and London Stock Exchanges will be open for one hour together . . . More time for golf, amateur baseball and tennis.” President Wilson signed the act three days later.

The bill that President Wilson signed only enacted daylight savings for a few years. It took Congress several tries to repeal the act because President Wilson kept vetoing it. In 1919, Congress was finally able to override the veto and repeal daylight savings. Another daylight savings act was passed during World War II. It expired in 1945 at the end of the war. Over the next two decades, the observance of daylight savings was a local decision. It meant that one might pass through several different time zones within the same state. It wasn’t until Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that the issue was solved, and daylight savings became a permanent fixture in most states in the union.

Studies have debated the usefulness of daylight savings in our time. Some studies have suggested that daylight savings contributes to a decrease in productivity and an increase in accidents of all sorts. Furthermore, in 2022, a study done by Monmouth University said that 61% of Americans would like to do away with the twice-yearly time change.

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“Beware the Ides of March”

March 15, 2024May 7, 2024European HistoryLeave a Comment

You may have heard the famous phrase penned by William Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar: “Beware the ides of March.” What are the ides of March, and why should we be wary of them?

According to the ancient Roman calendar, the ides were the 13-15^th day of each month. The calendar the Romans were using was extremely inconsistent. The calendar was on a four-year cycle with 12 months in the first and third years and 13 months in the second and fourth. The months could have anywhere from 23-31 days in them. To provide some uniformity, the months had three important days: the first day, called kalends, the fifth or seventh day (depending on how many days in the month), called nones, and the thirteenth or fifteenth day, called the ides. It was Julius Caesar himself who adjusted the calendar after coming into power. The Julian calendar he created had 365 days and 12 months.

Now that you know what the ides are, why should you beware them? Shakespeare’s line refers to the fact that Caesar was murdered on the 15 of March 44 BCE. Caesar had risen to power in the government of the Roman Republic over the last 20 years. He made himself prominent as a lawyer and invaluable as a military leader before appointed to the office of consul, the highest in their government. As such he pursued an expansion of the empire and became its dictator. A group of senators conspired to kill Caesar, hoping that they could restore the republic. They attacked Caesar on the ides of March, stabbing 23 times. Unfortunately, the assassination didn’t yield the hoped-for results. Instead, it caused a civil war from which Caesar’s heir apparent, Augustus Caesar, emerged the leader. This was the official beginning of the Roman Empire and the death of the Roman Republic. The ides of March turned out to be unlucky for both Caesar and the Roman Republic. Thus, Shakespeare’s warning against the ides of March.

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