Left: Pres. Roosevelt at the wheel of "Amberjack II" while sailing from Marion, MA, to Campobello, New Brunswick, Canada, June 16, 1933. Right: Pres. Kennedy sits with his daughter, Caroline, aboard the presidential yacht, the “Honey Fitz,” off the coast of Hyannis Port, MA, August 25, 1963.
Left: The post office serving Gen. Grant’s Army of the Potomac, Brandy Station, VA, 1865. Right: The federal Post Office Dept. created a special “soldier letter” stamp to speed delivery of soldiers’ mail during the Civil War.
Left: A “bathing beauty” poses in a publicity still for Mack Sennett’s California film studio, 1922. Right: Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster in “From Here to Eternity” (Columbia Pictures 1953), IMDB image.
In 1909, soon after leaving the presidency, Theodore Roosevelt, his son, Kermit, and Smithsonian scientists traveled through eastern Africa for several months to collect species remains for the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum then under construction on the Mall. These photos were taken in Kenya.
A TR quote for our times:“Our country will never be safe until the time comes when it will be an insult to any man in public place to think it necessary to say that he is honest.” June 3, 1899.
Left: Clam harvesters in Maine, 1947. Right: Nuns digging clams on Long Island, 1957.
Left: Staff Sergeant Leroy Hooten on the telephone in the US 8th Air Force headquarters operations room, southeast England, Jan. 1945. Right: American soldier in a church somewhere in Europe during WWII.
Left: Fred Rogers takes off his shoes, his opening bit on his long-running children's television program, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" (1968-2001.) Right: Rogers testifies before a Senate subcommittee in support of federal funding for public broadcasting. LBJ had recommended an initial $20M in funding before leaving office, but Nixon wanted only $10M. Congress appropriated $22M after Rogers' testimony.
Left: The first basketball court, at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, MA (today, Springfield College), used a peach basket attached to the wall. The game was invented there in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a PE teacher, in response to a request to devise an indoor sport that would keep track/field athletes in condition during the winter. Right: Center George Mikan, 6’10”, considered the first basketball superstar, was a standout at DePaul Univ in the 1940s and then played professionally, for Chicago and Minneapolis, from 1946-1956. This guy had an ambidextrous hook shot!
Left: A white mob beats Freedom Riders attempting to forcibly integrate interstate bus transportation lines. Birmingham, AL, May 14, 1961. Right: Deputy US Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach confronts Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who unsuccessfully attempted to block court-ordered racial integration at the Univ. Alabama, June 11, 1963.
and finally,
“Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold onto -- usually a mop or a leaf blower.” — Johnny Carson
