Tag Archives: History

African American History along the Cincinnati Riverfront

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I took this Harriet Beecher Stowe House walking tour last Saturday with the idea that it would be the subject of last Sunday’s blog post but it was not. I told myself there wasn’t enough time to create a post for Sunday morning, which was certainly one reason, but another reason was that I felt slightly disappointed in the tour. I should not have. The problem was my expectations were off. For no good reason, I had thought we would visit spots where historic things happened but with just a little more thought I realized how ridiculous that was—the Cincinnati riverfront of 2024 bares little resemblance to the riverfront of the past. The tour took us to places where historic things are commemorated. I enjoyed the tour as it happened and now appreciate it with the passage of a little time.

We met tour guide Zinnia Stewart by the statue of John Roebling near the south end of the bridge that bears his name. Other than a meeting point, the statue plays no role in the tour. Neither does the bridge as anything other than a walkway across the river. I chose the particular opening photo that I did because it mimics the photo that has appeared at the front of this blog since the beginning. Its purpose is to show the river of the tour’s title. Dredging, dams, and other feats of engineering have made the Ohio River consistently navigable for large barges which is something it was not in the days when it separated the free North from the slaveholding South.

The tour began by heading east along the river to a statue representing James Bradley. We were supplied with small wireless (Bluetooth I assume) listening devices so that we could easily hear Stewart as we walked. Bradley was abducted from Africa and worked as a slave until he was able to buy his own freedom in 1833. He then moved to Cincinnati and was the only former slave participating in the pivotal Lane Debates of 1834.

We then headed west past the Roebling Bridge to the string of Robert Dafford murals on the riverfront and stopped at The Flight of the Garner Family. In 1856, Margaret Garner escaped from slavery by crossing the frozen Ohio River with her husband and children. They were captured in Cincinnati and Margaret killed her daughter to save her from a life of slavery. She was prevented from killing herself and her other children as planned. Toni Morrison’s Beloved was inspired by these events.

It was now time to cross the river ourselves. I had taken that opening picture of the River Queen during our visit to the murals and now caught it from the middle of the Roebling Bridge after it turned and headed back. We stopped twice while crossing as Stewart shared stories and photos of people and places along both sides of the river.

On the Ohio side, I spent more time at the Black Brigade Monument than I have ever spent before, and as a result, I know I need to spend a lot more time here in the future. I simply did not realize the many facets of this monument that it seems I’ve only glanced at before. One bit of information that made the whole tour worthwhile is that William Mallory, who was instrumental in getting the monument constructed, was the model for the face of Black Brigade member Marshall P.H. Jones. I thought I knew the story of the Black Brigade but, just like the memorial, there is a lot more for me to learn.

Our last stop was at this statue of politician Marian Spencer. Spencer left her mark on the area in many ways but she is probably best remembered for her efforts to desegregate Coney Island Amusement Park.

A House Twice Storied

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I have heard it said that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written in this house. It was not. Until recently, I had not heard that it was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book. It was.

Although the book was not written here, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, did live in the house at one time and the house has long borne her name. It has just reopened after an extensive restoration that recognizes its importance both as the Beecher family home and as a tavern and boarding house a century later.

There was a ribbon cutting for the restored Harriet Beecher Stowe House last Friday with special events continuing through the weekend. I missed the “Housewarming Weekend” but did reserve a ticket for the first regularly scheduled tour on Thursday. The site is closed Monday through Wednesday. I arrived early enough to look over the many informative panels placed around the grounds. Note the National Register of Historic Places plaque with both of the building’s claims to fame listed, beside the new entrance ramp.

Executive Director Christina Hartlieb was our guide, and, despite it being the first “regularly scheduled” tour following the reopening, it was pretty obvious that this was not her first time as conductor. I’m guessing that the “Housewarming Weekend” had given her and other guides ample experience. It is also the case that much of the information provided is about the house’s residents and unchanged by the restoration.

The house was built by Lane Seminary in 1833 as a home for its new president, Lyman Beecher.  The Seminary is a most interesting part of history in its own right. Particularly the slavery-related debates of 1834 and a related mass exodus of students that has been called the “first major academic freedom incident in America”. The tour began in the parlor where 25-year-old Harriet Elisabeth Beecher became Mrs. Calvin Stowe in 1836. The original part of the house has been restored to its 1840 appearance. A strip of original wallpaper once covered by a temporary wall has been saved and copied. In the kitchen, the original beehive oven and its surroundings have been retained.

Even though Harriet lived in Cincinnati for less than twenty years, it was here, with slavery in operation just across the river and fallout from it everywhere she looked, that the memories that became Uncle Tom’s Cabin were formed. In an upstairs hallway, beside a section of original brick wall intentionally left exposed, there is a photo of the Hartford, CT, statue of Stowe’s meeting with Lincoln. There is no recording and no proof that Lincoln actually said, “So you’re the little lady who started this big war”, but I like to think he did.

The Monfort family lived in the house from 1865 to 1930 and in 1908 they built a large addition. The addition’s exterior is currently painted white to distinguish it from the original building’s yellow. This was their formal dining room. During the 1930s and ’40s, it served as the Edgemont Tavern with a listing in The Negro Motorist Green Book. During that same period, the obviously updated second floor served as a boarding house. As a long-term residence rather than an overnight stop for tourists, only the tavern portion appeared in The Green Book. By coincidence, a traveling Green Book exhibit recently opened at the nearby National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and was the subject of a previous blog post.

So, no, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was not written here but its author did live here, and a lot of other pretty darned important stuff also happened here. The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is back and ready to let you peek at 1840 and a little 1940 too.

Trip Peek #136 Trip #142 Common Ground on the Hill

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This picture is from my 2017 Common Ground on the Hill trip. I had wanted to attend the Common Ground on the Hill Roots Music & Arts Festival for several years and this was the year that I finally made it. The photo shows the all-musicians-on-deck finale of the showcase concert that took place on the day I reached the festival in Westminster, MD. This was the ninth day of the trip because once I decided to attend Common Ground, I started adding items from my “someday” list to the agenda. Before I reached the pictured concert, I had been pulled to the top of West Virginia’s Bald Knob by a Shay steam-powered locomotive, toured James Madison’s Montpelier, treated to a tour of Richmond, VA, by a friend, celebrated Independence Day in Williamsburg, VA, got rear-ended at a stop light, and sideswiped in a parking lot. Those last two events led to replacing my Subaru once I got home but, despite taking a beating, the 2011 Forester took care of me on what was a very enjoyable trip.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full-sized photo and the associated trip journal.

Book Review
Tracing a T to Sebring
Denny Gibson

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This book is an odd one that probably doesn’t deserve a review in even this little corner of the internet. On the other hand, this little corner is just about the only place where its oddities can be discussed. It is identical in concept to 2021’s Tracing a T to Tampa. Both tell about retracing an Ohio-Florida trip 100 years after the Model T Ford-powered originals. There are two huge differences, however. The Model T trips were undertaken by my great-grandparents and modern knowledge of them comes from my great-grandmother’s real-time reporting. For the 1920 trip, her writing covered the drive to Florida, significant time in the state, and the drive home which included some real sightseeing in the east. Only 48 handwritten pages exist from the 1923 trip and that barely gets them to Florida, covers very little of their time in the state, and none of the drive home.  The second big difference between the two books is that Tracing a T to Tampa contains a fair amount of background on the travelers and the times in which they lived. That information does not appear in Tracing a T to Sebring.

Both “Tracing…” books have obvious personal and family connections. Among the reasons for publishing both books was a desire to preserve Granny’s letters and make them available to the family. But the story those letters tell is of interest well beyond the family. Anyone curious about early auto travel or just life in the 1920s in general can probably enjoy them. I would like to think those same people can enjoy the expansion and updates I have tacked on. Actually, I guess I really only believe that about the first of the pair. It’s not impossible for people unrelated to Frank and Gertrude to enjoy this oneway tale of their second Florida trip. Nor is it impossible for it to be enjoyed by people unfamiliar with the “…Tampa” book. But I do think it’s not very easy. It really is a sequel and one that almost requires reading the earlier work to appreciate. It also helps if you have some idea of who Frank and Gertrude were. This book is clearly in a niche more deeply than any of my others. My relatives and/or folks who read and enjoyed Tracing a T to Tampa will probably like Tracing a T to Sebring. Everyone else, not so much.

Tracing a T to Sebring, Denny Gibson, Trip Mouse Publishing, 2024, paperback, 9 x 6 inches, 62 pages, ISBN 979-8875936098.

Available through Amazon.

Reader reviews at Amazon and Goodreads are appreciated and helpful and can be submitted regardless of where you purchased the book. All Trip Mouse books are described and signed copies are available here.

Mound Cold War Discovery Center

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I don’t know that rainy days were actually made for museums but the two do fit together nicely. A visit to the Mound Cold War Discovery Center was a very nice fit for this week’s rainy Friday. Before stumbling upon a reference to the Miamisburg, Ohio, museum, I had no idea of the area’s role in both the Cold War and the “hot war” that preceded it.

When I first read — or possibly heard — that there was a museum nearby dedicated to nuclear research and development, I pictured a musty warehouse-type place with some old lab equipment on display. What I found was an excellent presentation of history and science put together by Dayton History. The complex may have once contained some unattractive buildings but the museum is housed in an inviting former administration building built in the 1980s.

The Manhattan Project started in New York, but it soon involved locations throughout the entire country.

As noted in one of the photos above, the Dayton Project was responsible for the separation and purification of the plutonium used in “Gadget” and “Fat Man”. “Gadget” was the bomb exploded in the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945. “Fat Man” was the bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. “Little Boy”, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, used enriched uranium rather than plutonium. That’s “Fat Man” in the photo at left. “Bockscar”, the plane that dropped “Fat Man”, is displayed at the Air Force Museum in Dayton along with a full-size replica of the bomb.

Construction of the first seventeen buildings comprising Mound Laboratory began almost immediately after World War II ended. The facility opened in early 1948 to support atomic weapons production.

One section of the museum offers some general science information without any obvious direct ties to Mound Laboratory. Perhaps its purpose is to tamp down visitors’ concerns over strolling about an area where radioactivity was once a major feature.

Yes, it does look like letting visitors know that a little radiation never hurt anybody just might be a goal.

Due mostly to the invention of the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator which uses radioactive fuel to generate electricity, Mound Laboratory made significant contributions to a variety of ventures into space. Eventually, all of its missions were ended or moved elsewhere and the complex is now an industrial park much like those in other towns.

Anyone unfamiliar with the area and wondering where the laboratory got its name can probably figure it out with a glance out the museum’s front door. Read about that here.

2024 Hollow Earth Fest

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Once upon a time, in a land very very near, there lived a man who declared that the earth was hollow. Among the man’s disciples was his son who eventually erected a tombstone topped by a 3D representation of the earth with entrances to its interior at both poles. On Saturday, April 13, that marker was the focal point of the first-ever (AFAIK) Hollow Earth Fest.

That very near land is southwest Ohio with the Hollow Earth Monument standing in the city of Hamilton. The man buried beneath it is John Cleves Symmes Jr., who served in the US Army during the War of 1812 before moving to Saint Louis, MO, then Newport, KY, and then Hamilton, OH. He was the nephew of a more famous John Cleves Symmes who fought in the Revolutionary War, served in the Continental Congress, and bought and resold a major chunk of southwest Ohio. The elder John Cleves Symmes had no male children. It was his nephew who was named after him with the “Jr.” suffix often used to distinguish the two.

John Cleves Symmes Jr. died in 1829 at the age of 48 and was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Hamilton. When that cemetery was replaced by Greenwood Cemetery in 1848, his body was left behind for some reason. His son, Americus, erected the hollow earth marker in 1873.

The marker’s original carvings have become nearly unreadable and have been reproduced on metal plaques mounted on a pedestal below. The monument was rededicated in 1991 as noted by a fourth plaque on its otherwise blank side.

Music at the festival included a fife (or maybe flute) and drum trio, native American drummers and singers with spontaneous dancing in the audience, and a father-son duo.

Food trucks and other vendors were present including Municipal Brew Works with a Belgian ale, Earth Donut, brewed especially for the occasion.

There were also some more formal ceremonies and presentations but I did not do a very good job of documenting them. I can, however, show that the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, and Boy Scouts of America were all represented.

It goes without saying that this was absolutely the best Hollow Earth Fest that I have ever attended. It wasn’t huge but it had a blend of history, patriotism, civic pride, and debunked science that I can see leading to real growth in the future. It’s the sort of thing that people of all ages, from all walks of life, and from all over and within the globe can enjoy.

Miami Valley Veterans Museum

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It was during September’s Waco Aircraft Company centennial that I first became aware of the Miami Valley Veterans Museum sitting about a hundred yards south of Historic WACO Field. My friend Terry and I attended the centennial and have talked ever since about visiting the museum. We finally got it done on Thursday. I was surprised to see a dozen or so cars in the lot when I arrived a little ahead of Terry and a little ahead of the museum’s 10:00 opening. I initially thought I might have the opening time wrong but soon realized that the cars that beat me there belonged to volunteers taking care of things inside. This place clearly has a dedicated and energetic crew. During my brief wait, I snapped the picture at right and noted that the building’s signage included the first USSF insignia I had seen in the wild.

The museum was established in 2009 and spent its early years in the Masonic Building in downtown Troy. It moved here in 2021. One of the first things encountered on entering the museum is the History in a Box series. These are portable displays that are used in presentations at schools and such. Each box represents a different period beginning with pioneer days and currently ending with the Vietnam War. Assembling a box for the Middle East conflicts is in progress.

There are several other exhibits in the lobby area but the bulk of the displays are in a huge room behind it. Women are well represented throughout the museum but because March is Women’s History Month some items related to women in the military are displayed just outside the entrance to the main exhibit area. The 42-foot “Veterans Marching Through Time” mural is just inside the entrance. 

Exhibits in the big room are arranged chronologically beginning with the pioneer period. Marine uniforms from 1776 and 1863 can be seen in the first picture. The drum visible in both pictures is from the War of 1812.

These two photos are of more or less random items that caught my eye. The genuine “bolt action” long gun was handmade by the Viet Cong but doesn’t appear all that crude until you get close. The “ITALY SURRENDERS!” headline stood out because it is a lot more common to see headlines announcing the Japanese or German surrender. That’s quite understandable since those surrenders actually ended campaigns whereas defeating Italy was just a step on the way to victory in Europe.

Terry and  I had heard good things about the museum but it exceeded our high expectations in both the number and range of artifacts displayed. The friendliness and energy of the volunteers we met were also quite impressive. Open 10:00-2:00 Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. There is no admission charge but donations are welcomed.

Small Wonders (And More)

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It was several years ago that I first heard about a collection of miniatures in Maysville, Kentucky. I made a half-hearted attempt to find it one day but that was before smartphones, or at least before I learned how to use one, and I failed completely. A recent online mention again brought the collection to mind and this time there was enough information to easily locate it. I filled a wet and idle Wednesday, perfect for being inside a museum, with a visit. Those trip-triggering miniatures are housed at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center along with two other major permanent exhibits and a research library.

One of those permanent exhibits is the Old Pogue Experience which provides a look at the area’s bourbon history. That’s where I began my visit. The photo at the top of the page is of the museum’s main entrance. Old Pogue has its own entrance although the two buildings are connected by a second-floor walkway. Production has not quite been continuous (Remember that Volstead Act thing?) but fifth and sixth generations of the family operate Old Pogue Distillery today with tastings available at the museum. The model of the 1910 Pogue Distillery could be considered a preview of coming attractions.

The Wormald Gallery is the other section of the museum I was thinking of when I spoke of two major permanent exhibits in addition to the miniatures. It is a mixture of truly permanent and rotating displays of regional history.  Among the many displays are two devoted to major exports of the past: tobacco and Rosemary Clooney.

Backstage Hollywood – The Photographs of Bob Willoughby is on display in the museum’s Calvert Gallery through March 16. Willoughby is the first still photographer to be invited by movie studios to work behind the scenes. The exhibit features unstaged glimpses of the likes of Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and others from the 1950s and ’60s.

My decision to save the Kathleen Savage Browning Miniatures Collection for last was indirectly validated when a docent I was chatting with remarked that this is where people spend the most time. This model of the Catherine Palace is currently displayed in what might be considered the museum’s lobby area as a bit of a tease. I passed it on the way to the Backstage Hollywood exhibit then studied it closer on my return. The palace and all items in the miniature collection are said to be 1/12 scale.

Spenser House stands just inside the entrance of the main gallery of miniatures.

Local landmarks also get space in the collection. The Russell Theater, where The Stars Are Singing, with Rosemary Clooney, premiered in 1953, and the 1886 Cox Building are both still standing in downtown Maysville. After leaving the museum, I grabbed pictures (here and here) of both.

The whole world of Mother Goose doesn’t take up a lot of space here. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod are quite small and so is that contrary Mary. The pretty maids in a row, and in her arms, are even smaller.

The tinyness of displayed items is not always apparent in photos so I propped a real U.S. quarter up in front of some musical instruments. The diameter of the quarter is 0.955 inches or 24.26 millimeters.  I can only guess at the diameter of the valves on that trumpet.

The First Day of Pompeii:
The Exhibition

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Pompeii: The Exhibition opened at the Cincinnati Museum Center on Friday. I would have been in the first group admitted and possibly even the first person admitted if a guard had not blocked the stairs and escalators until precisely 10:00 AM. That was the official exhibit opening time but an unguarded elevator a few feet from the stairs meant that a group of patrons were receiving their pre-entry briefing when I and the rest of the walkers arrived. It’s always good to begin the day with something funny.

Following our own briefing, we entered, received another short briefing beneath the screen in the opening picture, and were then treated to an introductory video on that screen. At the video’s end, doors opened on a life-size marble statue of the goddess Aphrodite. Much like the moon, this is the view of the goddess that we most often see although there is another.

Pompeii was a prosperous port city and art was plentiful. Public spaces and private homes contained decorative mosaics, frescoes, fountains, and more statues.

There were plenty of practical items too. Examples are scales used in the market, fishing hooks, and cooking utensils. I know I’m not the only one with a cast iron skillet that looks almost exactly like this bronze one from Pompeii.

I suppose these items are also practical in their own way. Gladiatorial contests were primarily held for entertainment but staying alive was definitely a practical concern for the participants. Next to the displays of weapons and armor, a holographic video about the various types of combat got its share of attention.

Also getting attention was a small room offset from the primary flow. Both entry briefings had described the special markings for this adult-oriented display in case parents wanted to make sure their charges avoided it. If any did, it wasn’t obvious. A sign begins with the astute observation that “Ancient Roman sexual customs were different from those of our contemporary society.” Back then arriving with bells on really meant something.

Theatrical entertainment was quite popular in all of Rome including Pompeii. Actors wore masks to establish their characters. Here is a fresco depicting a pair of masks and a full-size marble mask. Both of these were purely decorative as masks actually worn on stage were made of lighter materials such as linen.

Another set of warnings in those entry briefings concerned loud noises and bright lights in the “4D eruption theater”. I do not doubt that these could be disturbing for some but most will find them underwhelming. Same with the slightly moving floor which I assume is the fourth dimension. If you enter expecting a high-definition video of the eruption shown on a large flat screen you will see an extremely good one. Expect more and you might be disappointed.

Images of the casts of the victims of the eruption are the most familiar and also the most disturbing. These are not human bodies but shapes formed within the volcanic ask where bodies once were. The quote on the wall in the first picture is from Pliny the Younger who watched the eruption from a little more than a dozen miles away and then documented it. In this exhibit, many of the casts are displayed in front of large photographs which I assume depict the situation in which they were found.

Exit is, of course, through the gift shop where we are reminded that striking a good final pose will greatly increase your chances of appearing on a shot glass or refrigerator magnet in a couple of millennia.

Aphrodite’s butt and iffy shot glasses aside, this is an impressive exhibit that provides a detailed and accurate look at a real Roman city of two thousand years ago. Pompeii: The Exhibition runs through July 28.

Don’t Christmas My Yule

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Heavens to Murgatroyd! How did I not know that? Until a few weeks ago I thought Yule was just another word for Christmas. Latin maybe. Or maybe German or Old — I mean Olde — English. Nope. The word itself is probably Norse in origin and the holiday it identifies predates Christ and Christ’s Mass by a bunch. There are many descriptions of Yule floating around and they vary quite widely but one of the things they all agree on is that Winter Solstice is involved. That’s important. It’s the thing I did not know. It’s something that distinguishes it from modern-day Christmas.

Of course, common sense and history point to a connection between Christmas and Solstice but these days no answer to the question “When is Christmas?” will contain the word Solstice. Conversely, the word Yule is used frequently in discussions of Christmas. It appears in officially designated Christmas carols and in greeting cards mailed from deeply religious homes. There are times when the words Christmas and Yule seem to be used interchangeably. That, no doubt, is why it took me three-quarters of a century to realize they are not interchangeable. One is tied to a naturally occurring planetary event. One is not.

The 12 Nights of Yule at the top of this post appears on numerous websites. I was unable to determine its origin so am unable to give credit. One of those sites is The Viking Dragon where an Origins of Yule post is quite informative. One bit I thought interesting is the fact that a King of Norway (Haakon the Good, 920–961) decreed that Yule and Christmas were to be celebrated at the same time. What better way to show the lack of a natural connection than a law arbitrarily linking them? The law also required every free man to consume a quantity of ale during the holiday which I assume is the reason that “the Good” was attached to his name.

The twelve days of observation is one of the more obvious things that the new guys copied from the old guys. The 12 Days of Yule begins the day before Solstice and runs through New Year’s Eve. The 12 Days of Christmas begins the day after Christmas and runs through January 6 which is the day associated with the arrival of the Magi or maybe Jesus’ christening. The Catholic Church calls this day Epiphany, and yes, I suppose you could use that word to describe my discovery that Yule was absolutely not another word for Christmas.

A Cosmic Reason for the Season — Reredux is this blog’s most recent previous post on the Winter Solstice. With plans to reference that post here, I looked it over and discovered that a website it linked to had disappeared. Since I thought its discussion of Solstice and Christmas a good one, I located the desired content through the WayBack Machine, fixed the existing links, and am including a direct link here. In previous Solstice-related posts, I’ve been upfront about the amount of time separating the post and the precise moment of Solstice. This year the event follows this post by 4 days 16 hours and 27 minutes.