George Herbert Putnam: The Saving Of The Declaration Of Independence.

GEORGE HERBERT PUTNAM , Librarian of the Minneapolis Athenaeum (1884-1887), the Minneapolis Public Library (1887-1891), the Boston Public Library (1895-1899), and the Library of Congress (1899-1939), was a leading figure in the American Library Movement. He was the first experienced librarian to hold the post of Librarian of Congress, and by his direction, converted the then Library of Congress from an ill-functioning book depository into the model of efficiency that it is today. Among the many great achievements of Putnam is his successful effort to rescue the decaying Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States from the State Department, then having them both preserved properly at the Library of Congress, thus enhancing the image of the Library as a symbol of American democracy. He developed a new classification scheme which was soon shared with the rest of the nation, started the sale and distribution of printed catalog cards, interlibrary loan, and a National Union catalog.

   In 1921, at the urgency of Putnam to the President of the U.S., the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were transferred from the State Department to the Library of Congress. Up until that time, both documents were stored along with others without the benefit of the proper techniques needed to  preserve these treasures. Both documents were showing heavy signs of deterioration and decay, and probably would not have lasted for more than 25 years before becoming crumbling masses of pulp.
  After the signing in 1776 ,over the next 200 years, the nation whose birth was announced with a Declaration "fairly engrossed on parchment" was to show immense growth in area, population, economic power, and social complexity and a lasting commitment to a testing and strengthening of its democracy. But what of the parchment itself? How was it to fare over the course of two centuries?
   In the chronicle of the Declaration as a physical object, three themes necessarily entwine themselves: the relationship between the physical aging of the parchment and the steps taken to preserve it from deterioration; the relationship between the parchment and the copies that were made from it; and finally, the often dramatic story of the travels of the parchment during wartime and to its various homes.
   Chronologically, it is helpful to divide the history of the Declaration after its signing into three main periods, some more distinct than others. The first period consists of the early travels of the parchment and lasts until 1814. The second period relates to the long sojourn of the Declaration in Washington, DC, from 1814 until its brief return to Philadelphia for the 1876 Centennial. The third period covers the years 1877-1921, a period marked by increasing concern for the deterioration of the document and the need for a fitting and permanent Washington home.
Early Travels, 1776-1814
   Once the Declaration was signed, the document probably accompanied the Continental Congress as that body traveled during the uncertain months and years of the Revolution. Initially, like other parchment documents of the time, the Declaration was probably stored in a rolled format. Each time the document was used, it would have been unrolled and re-rolled. This action, as well as holding the curled parchment flat, doubtless took its toll on the ink and on the parchment surface through abrasion and flexing. The acidity inherent in the iron gall ink used by Timothy Matlack allowed the ink to "bite" into the surface of the parchment, thus contributing to the ink's longevity, but the rolling and unrolling of the parchment still presented many hazards. Being moved numerous times during the course of the Revolutionary War to avoid the pursuing British troops, the Declaration soon found it's way to Philadelphia. In 1800, by direction of President John Adams, the Declaration and other government records were moved from Philadelphia to the new federal capital now rising in the District of Columbia. To reach its new home, the Declaration traveled down the Delaware River and Bay, out into the ocean, into the Chesapeake Bay, and up the Potomac to Washington, completing its longest water journey. For about 2 months the Declaration was housed in buildings built for the use of the Treasury Department. For the next year it was housed in one of the "Seven Buildings" then standing at Nineteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Its third home before 1814 was in the old War Office Building on Seventeenth Street.
The War Of 1812
   In August 1814, the United States being again at war with Great Britain, a British fleet appeared in the Chesapeake Bay. Secretary of State James Monroe rode out to observe the landing of British forces along the Patuxent River in Maryland. A message from Monroe alerted State Department officials, in particular a clerk named Stephen Pleasonton, of the imminent threat to the capital city and, of course, the government's official records. Pleasonton "proceeded to purchase coarse linen, and cause it to be made into bags of convenient size, in which the gentlemen of the office" packed the precious books and records including the Declaration. A cartload of records was then taken up the Potomac River to an unused gristmill belonging to Edgar Patterson. The structure was located on the Virginia side of the Potomac, about 2 miles upstream from Georgetown. Here the Declaration and the other records remained, probably overnight. Pleasonton, meanwhile, asked neighboring farmers for the use of their wagons. On August 24, the day of the British attack on Washington, the Declaration was on its way to Leesburg, VA. That evening, while the White House and other government buildings were burning, the Declaration was stored 35 miles away at Leesburg.
The Declaration remained safe at a private home in Leesburg for an interval of several weeks--in fact, until the British had withdrawn their troops from Washington and their fleet from the Chesapeake Bay. In September 1814 the Declaration was returned to the national capital. With the exception of a trip to Philadelphia for the Centennial and to Fort Knox during World War II, it has remained there ever since.
Washington, 1814-76
   The Declaration remained in Washington from September 1814 to May 1841. It was housed in four locations. From 1814 to 1841, it was kept in three different locations as the State Department records were shifted about the growing city. The last of these locations was a brick building that, it was later observed, "offered no security against fire."
One factor that had no small effect on the physical condition of the Declaration was recognized as interest in reproductions of the Declaration increased as the nation grew. Two early facsimile printings of the Declaration were made during the second decade of the 19th century: those of Benjamin Owen Tyler (1818) and John Binns (1819). Both facsimiles used decorative and ornamental elements to enhance the text of the Declaration. Richard Rush, who was Acting Secretary of State in 1817, remarked on September 10 of that year about the Tyler copy: "The foregoing copy of the Declaration of Independence has been collated with the original instrument and found correct. I have myself examined the signatures to each. Those executed by Mr. Tyler, are curiously exact imitations, so much so, that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the closest scrutiny to distinguish them, were it not for the hand of time, from the originals." Rush's reference to "the hand of time" suggests that the signatures were already fading in 1817, only 40 years after they were first affixed to the parchment.
   One later theory as to why the Declaration was aging so soon after its creation stems from the common 18th-century practice of taking "press copies." Press copies were made by placing a damp sheet of thin paper on a manuscript and pressing it until a portion of the ink was transferred. The thin paper copy was retained in the same manner as a modern carbon copy. The ink was reimposed on a copper plate, which was then etched so that copies could be run off the plate on a press. This "wet transfer" method may have been used by William J. Stone when in 1820 he was commissioned by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to make a facsimile of the entire Declaration, signatures as well as text. By June 5, 1823, almost exactly 47 years after Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration, the (Washington) National Intelligencer was able to report "that Mr. William J. Stone, a respectable and enterprising Engraver of this City, has, after a labor of three years, completed a fac simile of the original of the Declaration of Independence, now in the archives of the government; that it is executed with the greatest exactness and fidelity; and that the Department of State has become the purchaser of the plate."
   The longest of the early sojourns of the Declaration was from 1841 to 1876. Daniel Webster was Secretary of State in 1841. On June 11 he wrote to Commissioner of Patents Henry L. Ellsworth, who was then occupying a new building (now the National Portrait Gallery), that "having learned that there is in the new building appropriated to the Patent Office suitable accommodations for the safe-keeping, as well as the exhibition of the various articles now deposited in this Department, and usually, exhibited to visitors . . . I have directed them to be transmitted to you." An inventory accompanied the letter. Item 6 was the Declaration.
The "new building" was a white stone structure at Seventh and F Streets. The Declaration and Washington's commission as commander in chief were mounted together in a single frame and hung in a white painted hall opposite a window offering exposure to sunlight. There they were to remain on exhibit for 35 years, even after the Patent Office separated from the State Department to become administratively a part of the Interior Department. This prolonged exposure to sunlight accelerated the deterioration of the ink and parchment of the Declaration, which was approaching 100 years of age toward the end of this period.
   During the years that the Declaration was exhibited in the Patent Office, the combined effects of aging, sunlight, and fluctuating temperature and relative humidity took their toll on the document. Occasionally, writers made somewhat negative comments on the appearance of the Declaration. An observer in the United States Magazine (October 1856) went so far as to refer to "that old looking paper with the fading ink." John B. Ellis remarked in The Sights and Secrets of the National Capital (Chicago, 1869) that "it is old and yellow, and the ink is fading from the paper." An anonymous writer in the Historical Magazine (October 1870) wrote: "The original manuscript of the Declaration of Independence and of Washington's Commission, now in the United States Patent Office at Washington, D.C., are said to be rapidly fading out so that in a few years, only the naked parchment will remain. Already, nearly all the signatures attached to the Declaration of Independence are entirely effaced." In May 1873 the Historical Magazine published an official statement by Mortimer Dormer Leggett, Commissioner of Patents, who admitted that "many of the names to the Declaration are already illegible."
The Centennial and the Debate Over Preservation, 1876-1921
   In 1876 the Declaration traveled to Philadelphia, where it was on exhibit for the Centennial National Exposition from May to October. Philadelphia's Mayor William S. Stokley was entrusted by President Ulysses S. Grant with temporary custody of the Declaration. The Public Ledger for May 8, 1876, noted that it was in Independence Hall "framed and glazed for protection, and . . . deposited in a fireproof safe especially designed for both preservation and convenient display. [When the outer doors of the safe were opened, the parchment was visible behind a heavy plate-glass inner door; the doors were closed at night.] Its aspect is of course faded and time-worn. The text is fully legible, but the major part of the signatures are so pale as to be only dimly discernible in the strongest light, a few remain wholly readable, and some are wholly invisible, the spaces which contained them presenting only a blank."
   By late summer the Declaration's physical condition had become a matter of public concern. On August 3, 1876, Congress adopted a joint resolution providing "that a commission, consisting of the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Librarian of Congress be empowered to have resort to such means as will most effectually restore the writing of the original manuscript of the Declaration of Independence, with the signatures appended thereto." This resolution had actually been introduced as early as January 5, 1876. One candidate for the task of restoration was William J. Canby, an employee of the Washington Gas Light Company. On April 13 Canby had written to the Librarian of Congress: "I have had over thirty years experience in handling the pen upon parchment and in that time, as an expert, have engrossed hundreds of ornamental, special documents." Canby went on to suggest that "the only feasible plan is to replenish the original with a supply of ink, which has been destroyed by the action of light and time, with an ink well known to be, for all practical purposes, imperishable."
   The commission did not, however, take any action at that time. After the conclusion of the Centennial exposition, attempts were made to secure possession of the Declaration for Philadelphia, but these failed and the parchment was returned to the Patent Office in Washington, where it had been since 1841, even though that office had become a part of the Interior Department. On April 11, 1876, Robert H. Duell, Commissioner of Patents, had written to Zachariah Chandler, Secretary of the Interior, suggesting that "the Declaration of Independence, and the commission of General Washington, associated with it in the same frame, belong to your Department as heirlooms.
Chandler appears to have ignored this claim, for in an exchange of letters with Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, it was agreed-with the approval of President Grant-to move the Declaration into the new, fireproof building that the State Department shared with the War and Navy Departments (now the Old Executive Office Building).
On March 3, 1877, the Declaration was placed in a cabinet on the eastern side of the State Department library, where it was to be exhibited for 17 years. It may be noted that not only was smoking permitted in the library, but the room contained an open fireplace. Nevertheless this location turned out to be safer than the premises just vacated; much of the Patent Office was gutted in a fire that occurred a few months later.
The Library of Congress . . . and Fort Knox, 1921-52
   There was no action on further recommendations of preservation until after the Harding administration took office. On September 28, 1921, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes addressed the new President: "I enclose an executive order for your signature, if you approve, transferring to the custody of the Library of Congress the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States which are now in the custody of this Department. . . . I make this recommendation because in the Library of Congress these muniments will be in the custody of experts skilled in archival preservation, in a building of modern fireproof construction, where they can safely be exhibited to the many visitors who now desire to see them."
President Warren G. Harding agreed. On September 29, 1921, he issued the Executive order authorizing the transfer. The following day Secretary Hughes sent a copy of the order to Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam, stating that he was "prepared to turn the documents over to you when you are ready to receive them."
Putnam was both ready and eager. He presented himself forthwith at the State Department. The safes were opened, and the Declaration and the Constitution were carried off to the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill in the Library's "mail wagon," cushioned by a pile of leather U.S. mail sacks. Upon arrival, the two national treasures were placed in a safe in Putnam's office.
On October 3, Putnam took up the matter of a permanent location. In a memorandum to the superintendent of the Library building and grounds, Putnam proceeded from the premise that "in the Library" the documents "might be treated in such a way as, while fully safe-guarding them and giving them distinction, they should be open to inspection by the public at large." The memorandum discussed the need for a setting "safe, dignified, adequate, and in every way suitable . . . Material less than bronze would be unworthy. The cost must be considerable."
   Before long, the "Shrine to the Declaration" was being designed by Francis H. Bacon, whose brother Henry was the architect of the Lincoln Memorial. Materials used included different kinds of marble from New York, Vermont, Tennessee, the Greek island of Tinos, and Italy. The marbles surrounding the manuscripts were American; the floor and balustrade were made of foreign marbles to correspond with the material used in the rest of the Library. The Declaration was to be housed in a frame of gold-plated bronze doors and covered with double panes of plate glass with specially prepared gelatin films between the plates to exclude the harmful rays of light. A 24-hour guard would provide protection.
On February 28, 1924, the shrine was dedicated in the presence of President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, Secretary Hughes, and other distinguished guests. Not a word was spoken during a moving ceremony in which Putnam fitted the Declaration into its frame. There were no speeches. Two stanzas of America were sung. In Putnam's words: "The impression on the audience proved the emotional potency of documents animate with a great tradition."
With only one interruption, the Declaration hung on the wall of the second floor of the Great Hall of the Library of Congress until December 1952. During the prosperity of the 1920s and the Depression of the 1930s, millions of people visited the shrine.  The Declaration of Independence had been removed and housed at National Archives from 1952 to the present.

 

Shown here is a letter from my personal collection written on Library of Congress stationery and signed by George Herbert Putnam dated 1912.  'Herbert Putnam", as he liked to be refered , was considered by many historians and researchers alike as "The Father Of The Modern Library", contributing so much to the cause of education and to the conveyance of the written word had somehow driven off of the highway to fame and taken the road to obscurity.

Charles A. Davidson and Robert E. Lee's Amnesty Oath.

   After the Civil War in October 1865,when Robert E. Lee went to Rockbridge Co., VA to become the president of Washington College, he was required to sign an “Amnesty Oath.” The notary public who co-signed and administered that oath was Charles A. Davidson.
   Shortly afterwards, Lee applied to General Ulysses S. Grant for pardon.  Grant enthusiastically forwarded it to the President "with the earnest recommendation" that Lee's request be granted.  The White House apparently received Lee's application, but failed to act on it. Some say, because this separate Oath of Allegiance to the United States was not attached. The missing Amnesty Oath that Lee signed was submitted through the proper channels by Davidson, but was intercepted by a Washington Bureaucrat who decided to keep it as a memento of the Civil War, and it was pigeon-holed in his desk for many years and then forgotten. Some rights of citizenship were restored on Christmas Day 1868 when the President declared a general amnesty for all Confederate officials.  Lee's citizenship could not be restored because of a provision in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution barring certain rights to anyone who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the U.S.  Full citizenship could  be restored only by a two-thirds vote by both houses of Congress.
   Actually Lee had never renounced his U.S. citizenship.  That precious right was lost when he took up arms against the United States.  Confederate General Robert E. Lee  died without citizenship, a man without a country even though he had taken an Amnesty Oath of allegiance to the U.S. on October 2, 1865.  More than a century after Lee's death the old general finally became a full citizen of the United States.
   In 1970, a century after General Lee's death, a former school teacher unearthed a long lost paper that led to the restoration of U.S. citizenship for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.  Elmer O. Parker found Lee's signed Amnesty Oath that had been buried in a 12 inch cardboard box in the National Archives.  The 100 year-old oath immediately became the efforts of Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, to restore Lee's citizenship, which became embroiled in acrimonious Congressional debates over amnesty for draft dodgers and Vietnam deserters.  A second attempt to pass the bill also failed, but was passed on the third attempt.  Support came from as far away as Japan, Denmark, Sweden,  Iceland and Puerto Rico.  The bill also had cosponsors representing states that had fought on opposing sides of the war. The Bill was finally passed by Congress and signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1975, granting Lee citizenship 110 years later.

                                                      Lee at his home in Rockbridge,VA

   Charles A.Davidson was a Captain in Company E, 1st Va. Battalion, C.S.A serving under Lee. Several of his brothers were killed in the war, one of which was the noted Greenlee Davidson.  He outlived all of his brothers, and he is said to have died in a sanitorium at Clifton Springs, New York in 1879, possibly of Tuberculosis. Davidson was responsible for the erecting of the Lee Memorials now displayed at Washington and Lee University and was a champion for the cause of ex-Confederates everywhere.

                                    

 Shown here is a note signed by Charles A. Davidson dated 1860 taken from my personal collection. Davidson spent the remaining years of his life attempting to vindicate Robert E. Lee's memory and to establish his citizenship for the sake of Lee's heirs and all ex-Cofederates alike. Failing at this task, Charles A. Davidson had joined the ranks of the "Historically Obscure"

  




 

HAROLD FOWLER McCORMICK : THE REAL "CITIZEN KANE"

HAROLD FOWLER McCORMICK, The son of Reaper-inventer Cyrus McCormick, was the CEO of International Harvester of Chicago, Illinois. Harold had married Edith Rockefeller,daughter of multimillionaire John D. Rockefeller of the Standard Oil Co. and was a very generous philanthropist when it came to funding causes in his interest. He was an early supporter of aviation, purchasing property to create the Cicero Airfield and even founded an aircraft manufacturing company. After years of marriage to Edith, he divorced and married famed Polish opera diva Ganna Walska. Ganna Walska had a reputation of not being able to carry a single note while singing, but Harold nevertheless poured millions of dollars into her career for singing lessons and stage bookings.

                                                               Ganna Walska circa 1920

   Many folks have heard of the RKO classic movie "Citizen Kane", a movie written by and starring actor/screenwriter Orson Welles. "Citizen Kane" is considered by many to have been one of the greatest motion pictures of all time. Popular opinion has assumed that the fictional character of Charles Foster Kane was based on the real life antics of millionaire publisher William Randolph Hearst, with the role of Susan Alexander based on Hearst's real-life mistress, actress/singer Marion Davies.

                                                              Susan Alexander and Kane

   It has been revealed by many persons related to the making of the movie, movie historians, and even Orson Welles himself, that Welles' chief inspiration came from the highly-public lives of Harold F. McCormick and Ganna Walska.
  Orson Welles claimed that business tycoon Harold Fowler McCormick's lavish promotion of his second wife, Ganna Walska, was a direct influence on the screenplay. McCormick spent thousands of dollars on voice lessons for her and even arranged for Walska to take the lead in a production of Zaza at the Chicago Opera in 1920. Like the Susan Alexander character, she had a terrible voice, pleasing only to McCormick. But unlike Alexander, Walska got into an argument with director Pietro Cimini during dress rehearsal and stormed out of the production before she appeared. Roger Ebert, in his DVD commentary on Citizen Kane, also suggests that the Alexander character was based on Walska, and had very little to do with Marion Davies. The film's composer Bernard Herrmann also suggested that Kane is based on McCormick but also in great part on Welles himself.
   Also from an article about the making of "Citizen Kane" titled "RKO 281"(The secret codename of the pre-production picture) :
   One detail which has been lost with time is that the character of Susan Alexander, Kane's mistress, was nothing at all like the beloved Marion Davies, Hearst's mistress. Many of the details of the Kane/Alexander relationship did come from Welles, but those embellishments had nothing to do with William Randolph Hearst. Welles appropriated details from the lives of two magnates from the Chicago area, where Welles had grown up.

"The story of how Kane built Chicago's opera house for his wife was partially derived from the true story of Samuel Insull's construction and funding of Chicago's Lyric Opera building which featured performances by Insull's own wife, Gladys.

The Insull story was simply folded neatly into the story of another Chicago baron whose relationship with his mistress was directly appropriated for Citizen Kane. Harold Fowler McCormick, chairman of International Harvester, was the youngest son of the inventor of the McCormick reaper. He was married to Edith Rockefeller, but fell in love with an aspiring opera singer named Ganna Walska. He spent millions on Walska and her opera career despite the fact that she was known to lack the necessary talent. McCormick went so far as to finance an entire Chicago Opera production starring Walska, although the ill-fated production never did open. McCormick eventually divorced his rock-solid society wife and married Walska. Walska eventually abandoned him. If you know the story of Citizen Kane, you will recognize the correlation".

Shown above is a typed letter from my personal collection signed by Harold Fowler McCormick. It is dated May 12, 1927 mentioning Ganna while away in Paris and is addressed to Mrs. Aida de Acosta Root, wife of magnate Orin Root. Even before Wilbur and Orville Wright’s epochal flight in December 1903, Aida de Acosta became the first woman to pilot a gasoline-powered airship. Born in Elberon, New Jersey on July 28, 1884, de Acosta grew up in New York City, the daughter of a prominent immigrant family. Her Cuban-born father was raised in Spain, then subsequently returned to Cuba to help drive out the Spanish during the Spanish-American War of 1898. A daughter of privilege, Ms. Acosta became fascinated with Brazilian-born aviation pioneer Santos-Dumont’s airship while traveling in Paris in the summer of 1903. After striking up a friendship with the airman, she convinced Santos-Dumont to allow her to pilot his famed dirigible "IX." Because the basket was so small, she would have to fly solo. After three lessons, on June 29, 1903 de Acosta became the first woman to pilot a powered aircraft, nearly six months before the Wright brothers’ flights at Kitty Hawk. Santos-Dumont’s "handy little runabout" traveled at about 15 miles per hour, and the Brazilian tracked the dirigible while riding a bicycle. The flight lasted "considerably over a half mile."  Aida de Acosta Root has many other credIts to her name, the most noteworthy is the formation of the famous Wilmer Opthalmological Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

                                                            Aida de Acosta Root   Aida had famous siblings, sister Rita de Acosta Lydig, a socialite considered "The Most Picturesque Woman In America", and sister Mercedes de Acosta, Author, Screenwriter, Social Critic, and famous lesbian who was the lover of many top female movie stars, including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Isadora Duncan, and Tallulah Bankhead.

THE FATHER OF THE NEON LIGHTBULB: DANIEL McFARLAN MOORE

DANIEL MCFARLAN MOORE is little remembered today. However, he invented one of the first commercially available discharge lamps as well as a small glow lamp that can still be found in almost every American home.
   Moore began his lighting career working for Thomas Edison, but turned to experimenting with the idea of obtaining light from electrical discharges. While not a new idea -- Henrich Geissler made light emitting tubes in the 1850s -- Moore felt that glass sealing techniques had advanced enough since then to allow a commercial product. Edison was not keen on the idea of something which might compete with his incandescent lamp, and reputedly asked Moore, "What's wrong with my lamp?" Moore's quick response of " It's too small, too hot, and too red" should leave little wonder why Moore soon started into business for himself.
By 1898 Moore had devised his "Moore Lamp." The lamp consisted of gas-filled glass tubes about 2 inches in diameter joined together in lengths up to 250 feet. Once installed, air was removed from the tube and a small amount of gas, usually nitrogen or carbon dioxide, inserted. An electric current passed between electrodes mounted in either end of the lamp, just as in later neon tubes inspired by Moore's work. Current and gas pressure were regulated by devices installed in a box from which both ends of the tube emerged.
   The Moore lamp proved difficult to install, requiring the services of a "glass plumber" who custom fit 10 foot lengths of tubing to a customer's space. The tubes also leaked. But carbon dioxide gave a good quality white light at an efficacy of about 10 lumens per watt -- almost triple the efficacy of Edison's lamp. Moore lamps sold modestly well for commercial installations, until 1910 when William Coolidge's tungsten filament lamp also achieved 10 lpw. Moore's company failed and he went to work for General Electric.
   Moore's lasting legacy was his 1920 invention of the glow lamp. These small, low power devices use a physical principle called "coronal discharge." Moore mounted two electrodes close together in a bulb and added neon or argon gas. The electrodes would glow brightly in red or blue, depending on the gas, and the lamps lasted for years. Since the electrodes could take almost any shape imaginable, a popular application has been fanciful decorative lamps. Glow lamps found practical use as indicators in instrument panels and in many home appliances until the acceptance of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in the 1970s. The next time you see a coffee urn with an orange, glowing light above the spigot, think of D. McFarlan Moore. 
   In 1924 he invented the vacuum bulbs used in telephotography, and in 1925 improved it for use in television. Moore was awarded the John Scott Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1911.
   A protege of fellow scientist and inventor Nicola Tesla, Moore is reported to have worked closely with Tesla on many experiments dealing with light refraction and harmonics, though records of the results of these experiments have been lost to time.
   On June 15, 1936, at the age of 67, Moore was thrust into the realm of obscurity when he was shot to death on the lawn of his home in East Orange, New Jersey by an unemployed inventor who became enraged after finding that an invention he filed for, was already the subject of a patent granted to Moore.

Shown above is a letter from my personal collection typed on Edison Light Works stationery signed by D. McFarlan Moore. This letter concerns a board meeting of the I.E.S. (Illuminating Engineering Society). It is addressed to W.T. Blackwell of the New Jersey Public Service Gas Co. and is dated May 24, 1923.

Aviatrix Laura Ingalls was "Wilder" than Laura Ingalls Wilder!

LAURA HOUGHTALING INGALLS was an early pioneer and advocate of female aviation during the "Golden Age" of the 1930's.  As fearless as she was headstrong, Laura Ingalls, often confused with popular author Laura Ingalls Wilder of "Little House on the Prairie" fame, accomplished more aeronautic feats and established and / or broke more aviation records than most men of her day.
   Born in 1901 and passing from this life in 1967, her obituary from the Daily Review of Burbank, California, January 17, 1967 reads:
"LAURA INGALLS, FAMED EARLY AVIATRIX DIES"
{Miss Laura Ingalls, who became the first flyer to complete a solo flight around the South American continent in 1934, died recently [January 10, 1967] in Burbank. She was 66.
Miss Ingalls had lived in California 30 years and at 1027 Country Club Drive 12 years.
The daughter of a socially prominent New York family, Miss Ingalls' great love was flying.
She placed second in the 1936 National Air Races in a special contest for women. She completed a transcontinental trip, flying alone in her Lockheed Orion, in 15 hours and 39 minutes.
Miss Ingalls was also enthralled by aerial acrobatics. The first woman to earn a transport pilot's license, she performed 980 continuous loops in her DH Gypsy Moth and 714 consecutive barrel rolls over St. Louis.
In 1935 Miss Ingalls set out to set a record for the first non-stop coast-to-coast flight from east to west. She made the flight in 18 hours and 19 minutes. She then broke Amelia Earhart's nonstop record by 5 1/2 hours.
Miss Ingalls leaves a brother in Paris, France and a sister-in-law in New York. Private funeral services and burial were held.}
   This obituary, though telling, does not come close in describing the many achievements of her career. From her solo South American flight alone, Laura established the following records:
The longest solo flight ever made by a woman - 17,000 miles
The first solo flight by a woman from North to South America
The first solo flight around South America by man or woman
The first complete flight by a land plane around South America by a man or woman.
The first land plane to negotiate the perilous route up the East coast of South America
The first American woman to fly the Andes solo.(Miss Ingalls was awarded the Harmon Trophy for Women in 1934 for this outstanding achievement.)
   Born into a prominent family, she was one of the heirs of the Houghtaling Tea fortune, but her dedication and her love of flying took her out of the realm of her family business.
   Destined to become even more popular than aviation icon Amelia Earhart, Laura's leap into obscurity began during the early days before the U.S. entry into World War II when she flew over the nation's capitol building throwing out "America First" pamphlets. The America First movement was believed to be a Nazi-sponsored outfit advocating U.S. isolationism and promoting Americans to stay out of the War in Europe. Laura Ingalls, being of German Descent, was accused of being a Nazi spy and was indicted and sentenced to Federal Prison for violating the "Foreign Registration Act", where she served time for having failed to register as a German Agent in the United States. These charges she denied up until the time of her death and most suspect that she was used as a "Patsy" to further the gain of certain political careers in Washington.
   She was released from Alderson West Virginia Woman's Reformatory in October 1943 after serving 18 months of her sentence. Her conviction effectively snuffed out one of aviation's most promising participants and launched her into obscurity.

Shown here from my collection is an airmail postal cover signed by Laura Ingalls with her famous logo, which she called  "My Cresent and Cross", a combination of her initials L.I. This cover was carried with Laura Ingalls during her record-breaking transcontinental flight of 1935, as shown by the cancels. Her logo was prominently displayed on the side of her aircraft as shown in her picture above.

He Didn't Do Right By The Founder Of The Mormon Church: Judge Richard M. Young

RICHARD MONTGOMERY YOUNG born 1798 in Kentucky and moving to Illinois in 1817 wore many hats in his lifetime. He was an Attorney, Captain of the Illinois State Militia, Land Office Commissioner, and U.S. Senator. For those who have heard of him though, he was most remembered for his role as the presiding judge at the 1844 murder trial of the accused murderers of the founder of the Mormon Church Later Day Saint's movement Joseph Smith Jr. and his brother Hyrum. This infamous charade, held in Carthage, Illinois, is known today as the "Carthage Conspiracy".
  One of the most consequential crimes in United States history occurred on a summer day in 1844 when a mob stormed a jail in Carthage, Illinois and murdered two of its occupants, Joseph Smith, Jr. and his brother, Hyrum. The killing of Joseph Smith, the charismatic founding prophet of the Church of Latter Day Saints, America's most important homegrown religion, led to a schism among Mormons and the trek west to Utah of Brigham Young and his followers. The story of the 1844 murders (or "martyrdoms," as they are often called in LDS accounts) and the trial that followed is much less known than it deserves to be--largely owing to the over-sensitivity of American textbook writers on all matters religious. Events so pivotal in the history of the Mormon Church, which today boasts a worldwide membership of over 14 million and exerts an important influence on debates of moral issues ranging from same-sex marriage to gambling to euthanasia, deserve a broader understanding
   The growing Mormon economic and political influence in Hancock County did not sit well with all county residents. In 1841, Thomas C. Sharp of Warsaw, Illinois organized an anti-Mormon political party and began publishing vitriolic editorials in his Warsaw Signal newspaper attacking Joseph Smith's concentration of power, the creation of a Mormon military force called The Nauvoo Legion, and Mormon land speculation. From within the Mormon population there was dissension too, with former church leader John C. Bennett publishing charges that Smith and other church officials were practicing polygamy.  Conflict further escalated in 1843 following the arrest of Joseph Smith by Illinois deputies who sought to send Smith back to Missouri to face charges pending there. Following Smith's rescue by the Nauvoo Legion, the Mormon-dominated Nauvoo City Council adopted an ordinance authorizing review by the mayor of all legal process issuing from outside the city. The city council's action inflamed anti-Mormon sentiment, with Sharp and others complaining that Smith "was above the law."
  In the spring of 1844, tensions finally overflowed into violence. In May, a group of about 300 dissenting Mormons headed by former Mormon counselor William Law started holding meetings to voice their outrage over the practice of polygamy and Smith's ever-growing theocratic power in Nauvoo. Among the actions advocated by the group was repeal of the Nauvoo Charter, the state document empowering Nauvoo to exercise legal authority. On June 7, William Law and six associates published what would be the first and only issue of the Nauvoo Expositor, a newspaper created to expose the "abominations and whoredoms" of Smith and other high church officials.Publication of the Nauvoo Expositor prompted an emergency meeting of the Nauvoo City Council to consider what if any action should be taken against what most city council members considered to be a libelous and incendiary newspaper. On June 10, the Council adopted an ordinance ("Ordinance Concerning Libels") that declared the Expositor to be a public nuisance. Immediately following the Council's action, Nauvoo Mayor Joseph Smith issued an order authorizing the destruction of the paper's publications, press equipment, and type: "You are hereby commanded to destroy the printing press from whence issues the Nauvoo Expositor, and to toss the type of said printing establishment in the street, and burn all the Expositors and libelous handbills found within said establishment." At about eight o'clock that evening, Smith's order was carried out.
  The destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor whipped anti-Mormon feelings in Hancock County into a frenzy. In Carthage, citizens met and adopted a resolution expressing outrage with Smith's order and with a decision of the Nauvoo Municipal Court dismissing an arrest warrant for Smith, on the charge of inciting a riot, that had been issued the day before by a Hancock County judge. The resolution castigated "the wicked and abominable Mormon leaders" who were behind the destruction of the paper and warned that "a war of extermination" might be necessary. In response to the resolution issuing from Carthage, Smith wrote to Governor Thomas Ford inviting him to come to Nauvoo to help resolve the growing controversy and met with the Nauvoo Legion instructing them to resist if a mob of anti-Mormons attacked the town. Governor Ford declined the invitation. Rumors of an imminent assault on Nauvoo circulated in the town.
   Four days after giving a final speech to the Nauvoo Legion in which Smith declared, "I am willing to sacrifice my life for your preservation," he and his brother Hyrum and a small band of followers crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa, their first stop on a planned journey that would take them to safety in the Rocky Mountains. The next day, however, Smith aborted his journey and returned to Nauvoo after becoming convinced that his surrender to Illinois authorities was the only hope for preventing an anti-Mormon mob from attacking Nauvoo. On June 25, after meeting with Governor Ford in Carthage, Joseph and Hyrum agreed to voluntarily submit to arrest on the charge of inciting a riot at the building housing the Nauvoo Expositor. Later in the day, a second charge was added--treason!--and Justice of the Peace Robert Smith ordered the two Smiths to be held without bail in the Carthage Jail until a hearing, scheduled for June 29, could be held.
While Joseph and Hyrum Smith waited in their jail cell, a number of men broke into the jail and, firing pistols, killed both brothers in their cell. After a complicated array of events, a grand jury handed down indictments against nine men for conspiracy to murder Joseph and Hyrum Smith. The three indicted men most closely linked to the actual shootings fled the county and were never arrested. An eyewitness to the murders, Jeremiah Willey, said that John Wills, Gallaher (a man whose first name has fallen out of the historical record), and William Voras were among the men that broke into the jail room. Willey reported that Gallaher shot Joseph Smith in the back as he ran to the window.  In the end, just five of the nine indicted men would face trial: Levi Williams, Thomas Sharp, Mark Aldrich, Jacob Davis, and William Grover. In accordance with an agreement reached by the prosecution and the defense, that trial would not begin until the May 1845 term of court.
   On the morning of May 21, 1845, in a two-story brick courthouse in Carthage, the case of People v Levi Williams was called. Standing trial before Judge Richard M. Young were five Hancock County residents accused of conspiring to murder Joseph and Hyrum Smith. After nine days of testimony by anti-Mormon witnesses, the Defense suggested to the jury that by the acquittals of the Defendents they will "restore peace" to the county and prevent "a bloody and terrible war" that could result from their decision to convict.  At 11:30 on May 30, 1845, the jury began its deliberations. Two hours later, the jury reported its verdict: acquittals for all five defendants. Few Mormons in Nauvoo were surprised with the jury's decision. Brigham Young wrote in his journal that the verdict was just as he "had anticipated." A story on the trial in the Nauvoo Neighbor noted that convictions never are to be expected in "martyr cases." The trial outcome, to a large extent, vindicated the prediction that the Defense Attorney made in his closing argument: it restored a measure of peace to Hancock County.

   Shown above from my personal collection is a letter signed by Richard M. Young, addressed to Joel Wright of Quincy, Illinois dated 1835. Young had sold his farm and wanted to move to Quincy to set up his law practice. This move would begin his first of many contacts with various Mormon figures who, like Richard M. Young, have faded into the abyss of history.   

The Confederate States of America Marine Corps history saved by this man:Richard Taylor Allison

RICHARD TAYLOR ALLISON was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky on June 6, 1823. The son of Captain John S. Allison USA and the nephew of President Zachary Taylor, he was appointed Purser in the U.S. Navy on October 30, 1849. Allison served onboard the USS Benicia and the USS Princeton until he was transfered to service onboard the USS Macedonia, were he accompanied Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan in 1852. On May 7, 1859, Allison was appointed Paymaster at the Washington Navy Yard.
   At the outbreak of the Civil War with him being a native Kentuckian, he tendered his resignation from the U.S.Navy on April 20, 1861, but remained on duty until May 1st  at the request of Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. Allison then left for Richmond, VA where he telegraphed CSA President Jefferson Davis at Montgomery, Alabama offering his services to the Confederacy. Summond to Montgomery, he accepted an appointment as Major and Paymaster of the Confederate States Marine Corps, moving to Richmond and remaining there on station until the evacuation in 1865.
   Though out of town from time to time during the War, Allison was in Richmond in April 1865, leaving there on April 2nd and making his way to North Carolina. With his baggage was included most of the remaining CSMC records which he saved from being ultimately burned and destroyed by the conquering Union troops. Very little written evidence of the CSMC had survived the War intact, and Allison's cache of records ensured that the history of the CSMC would be preserved for future study. He surrendered as a part of the command of General Joseph E. Johnston,CSA and was paroled at Greensboro as of April 28, 1865.
   In time, Allison moved to Maryland where he became the Clerk of the Superior Court of Baltimore, serving for many years.
   Stemming from a prolific family, his uncle, Brigadier General Joseph Pannell Taylor and two cousins, Lt. Colonel John McLean Taylor and Colonel Joseph Hancock Taylor fought for the Union during the Civil War. Two other cousins, Lt. General Richard Taylor and Albert Seaton Berry both fought for the Confederacy. Married three times, one of Allison's wives was Maria Key Taney, the daughter of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney.

Shown here from my personal collection is a legal document signed by Richard Taylor Allison in 1883 while acting as Clerk of the Supreme Court of Baltimore,MD.
   Very few people have ever heard of the Confederate States Marine Corps, though it played a considerable role in the military history of the CSA . It's existence is still often disputed by historians. If Allison had not salvaged the last remaining records of this organization and safeguarded them until his surrender in 1865, it is quite possible that the history of the CSMC may have been lost to obscurity, as was their savior Major Richard Taylor Allison, CSMC (ex-USN).

The Man Who Put Yellowstone National Park On The Map: Philetus W.Norris

PHILETUS WALTER NORRIS was born in Palmyra, New York  Norris left school early to become a trapper. He traveled all around the midwest to trap and trade. In 1838, Norris settled in northwest Ohio near the home of a good friend. In 1845, Norris married Jane K. Cottrell of Fayette,Ohio. Once married, the couple became two of the original settlers of Pioneer,Ohio.  During the Civil War, Norris joined the Union troops eventually rising to the rank of Colonel. He served as a spy behind Confederate Lines and Captain of the West Virginia Mountain Scouts. While fighting near Laurel Mountain, West Virginia, Norris's horse was shot out from underneath him, severely injuring his shoulder and spinal cord.After his injury, Norris returned to Pioneer and was elected to the Ohio Legislature. Later, he became a member of the United States Sanitary Commission. After the Civil War, Norris moved to Michigan and founded the town of Norris. To ensure the success of his community, Norris drained the creek that ran through the area to open up land for farming. In 1870, Norris again traveled west, entering the Yellowstone Park area; he returned again in 1875.
In 1877, Norris became the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, a position he held until 1882. It was only in June 1878, however, that Congress finally approved a salary of $10,000 a year for the park's superintendent, as well as minimal funds "to protect, preserve, and improve the Park." Norris hired Harry Yount to control poaching and vandalism in the park, leading Yount to be considered the first National Park Ranger. When Norris arrived in 1877 there were approximately 32 miles (51 km) of roads and 108 miles (173 km) of trails. By the time he left in 1882, there were five times as many roads and twice as many trails. The roads were crude and many described them as only "fair" wagon trails. Still, they provided access to "the land of wonders."
Norris was removed from his post at Yellowstone in 1882 due to political maneuvering. Afterward, he worked in ethnological research of the local Native Americans for the Smithsonian Institute. In 1885, Norris fell ill in Rocky Hll, Kentucky  while working for the Smithsonian. After a brief illness, he died in Rocky Hill, on January 14, 1885. He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit three days later, and shortly thereafter his body was moved to Woodmere Cemetery

Shown here is an 1878 postcard written and signed by Norris from my personal collection. Norris writes to Lawyer Townsend Wandell of New York concerning business between himself and famed artisan Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany was a man of many talents and was also an accomplished landscape artist. Tiffany traveled to Yellowstone National Park in the late 19th century. Many of his creations, including his paintings, were inspired by the beauty and magnificance of the park. This postcard shows a Norris, Michigan cancelation. Today the "Norris House" National Monument in Detroit, Michigan is in such a state of disrepair that it has become a condemned building due to lack of proper maintenance and the effects of vandalism. The house has become forgotten, just like it's original owner Philetus W. Norris.