Philly Favorites
June 23, 2008
Gettysburg 6-13-08
June 14, 2008
Onward to Gettysburg!
Our first order of business was stopping at Professor Gabor Boritt’s home. He had a large property not too far from the college. He spoke with an accent; he came from Hungary in his teen years after World War II, and then put himself through school. He became interested in Lincoln we he received a free brochure at a Lincoln anniversary celebration; he’s loved Lincoln ever since. Boritt said that the part of the Gettysburg Address he liked the most was “…government of the people, by the people …” I learned that Lincoln only gave 4 speeches during the war. Professor Boritt signed some of our books after! There is a documentary about his life – my students could learn a lot knowing that hard work and determination can take you places.
We had lunch at a historical tavern; the Dobbin House. The Dobbin House was also one of the first schools in the Susquehanna River area.
From there we picked up our guide; John Russ, who took us on a whirlwind tour of the battlefield. Wow was the battlefield extensive, it stretched miles! The terrain was not difficult; there are rolling hills and in some areas tree covered hills. The National Park Service owns all of the land and is in the process of making it look like it did during the battle. They are planting trees, taking out modern building, putting up rail fencing and much more. As you travel through the streets of Gettysburg you notice placards near the door fronts to show that it existed during the battle. Some homes and building still bear scars of the event; bullet holes, shrapnel, and canon holes! He explained that the armies met by chance, near the McPherson farm. The Union was led by Meade and the Confederates were led by Lee. The battle turned so deadly on July 2nd near Little Round Top that they renamed the stream “Blood Run” instead of “Plum Run”. We also learned that Sickles had to have his leg amputated, he asked that his limb be saved and today it can be seen in the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington D.C. My students will love to hear that story. About 20,000 wounded soldiers were left in Gettysburg after the 3 day battle and 51,000 had to be buried, only 1 civilian died (Ginny Wade, from a stray bullet while baking bread for the soldiers. The North started the Gettysburg battle with approximately 93,000 men and the South had approximately 70,000.
We were able to convince the bus driver to take us to the National Cemetery; where Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address to dedicate the cemetery. Lincoln’s speech was about 2 minutes long but remains one of the most famous speeches ever given. Union cannons line the crest of the cemetery. They reburied about 3500 bodies of Union soldiers – this took several months. Behind the National Cemetery is the Evergreen Cemetery; it was dedicated in 1863 as the Soldiers National Cemetery.
Winterthur 6-12-08
June 13, 2008
Our presenter, Cathy Matson, gave a presentation on the CONSUMER REVOLUTION. This was a period of time when there was a noticeable spike in production and consumption of goods. We began to use up resources and there were more ships, more income. She spoke of triangular trade and the growth of cities and specialization of products that began to develop based on people’s WANTS and needs. This period of time as transformed the way people worked with tools; the steel plow, basket making, red-ware, textiles, and multiple household gadgets. The demand for products such as sugar led to increased trade of slaves. People grew wealthier; everything seemed to get bigger and better. Coffee houses (taverns) seemed to be the meeting place of the elite. She had some great pictures I can use in the classroom in different ways; compare and contrast and what, where, when, who, why, and how. I most likely would not take pieces of each of the drawings put look at the picture in its entirety.
We took a tour of the library at WINTERTHUR and saw only a few of the items they have located here. Some of the books and documents we viewed were “How To” books, paper dolls, merchant logs, and cookbooks. The library serves as a research center. They have a list of some of the items you might be able to access elsewhere, just not from their catalog without being a member. We then took an excellent trolley tour after lunch that gave us a bit of background history of WINTERTHUR and its wealthy owners the duPonts. As a horticulturist he designed, with the help of multiple landscapers, the 60 acre garden around the estate. We then went to the home Henry F. duPont which is now set up as a museum. Everywhere we turned we saw Americana period furniture; duPont wanted to preserve these handmade artifacts and was an active collector. The estate is now an educational facility; it includes and enchanted forest, a vignettes of life between 1700 and 1900 America. I loved the Touch-it Room; children can play with objects used from long ago, use their imagination and become a merchant, and learn the barter system. Students can be archaeologists and decipher where it might have come from – students would learn how far trade goods traveled and why they were so valuable (supply and demand).
Lectures then Downtown Philly 6-11-08
June 12, 2008
David Waldstreicher was very interesting. He put a new twist on Benjamin Franklin’s life surrounding slavery. He stated Franklin and others like Franklin have gained popularity recently because they opposed slavery. Franklin was also a politician and leader. Waldstreicher said that Franklin experienced conflict among these roles. Franklin’s view was likely caused by his own servitude to his brother as an indentured servant. Franklin escapes while his brother is put in jail for speaking out against the government’s way of handling a smallpox outbreak. Franklin seized opportunities and used trickery to go from a runaway to a businessman and to a gentleman. Slavery is not mentioned in Franklin’s autobiography, Waldstreicher believes he doesn’t mention it because he was embarrassed. Franklin may have owned as many as 5 slaves at one time, yet hew wrote an anonymous anti-slavery pamphlet. Franklin writes to his mother telling her he would free his slaves, yet states that it would be better to make America white and that he was against importing any more slaves. Franklin also blames Britain for forcing slavery on America, then plays the part of an anti-slavery Quaker to gain the support of France. You could speak of the times with your students and analyze why Franklin had so many differing views.
Bob Engs talked of Civil War myths. The first myth was that Lincoln freed slaves. Engs states that the slaves freed themselves by joining the Union army and through quiet rebellion – they simply quit working. He also stated that the Emancipation did not free slaves, it oppressed them.
· Would slaves rebel?
· Did the slaves want freedom?
· Were they willing to fight?
· Would they know what to do with their freedom?
Many slaves abandoned their masters and joined the Union effort. Many feared that if slaves were willing to kill their masters with guns who else might they kill. The North needed more men. So many joined the army that their conditions were worse than if they would have remained slaves; there was little food, many times they were not paid, and working conditions were poor. Of course slaves wanted their freedom; they wanted the same freedoms and rights as the whites – land, education, political power, and autonomy with their own. The slaves that joined the Union army contributed to the Union victory. Most of these men did not see battle, but did logistic work. Black units began to appear in 1862; when they went off to battle they came back with more men than what they left with. Engs stated that whites hid the achievements made by the blacks.
This will be of great value when we discuss the Civil War – Dr. Engs even gave us his electronic archive with 270 documents, cartoons and full texts:
- Go to the Penn home page
- Click on Library
SCETI – “Crisis of the Union: Electronic Archive” (list title date and subject)
He also said the movie “Glory” wasn’t too bad?!
We had the afternoon on our own. Our 1st stop:
Second Bank of the US
Our next stop:
Carpenter’s Hall
First Continental Congress
Then on to:
Franklin’s Underground Museum
Atwater Kent Museum 6-10-08
June 11, 2008
This museum was one of the smaller we’ve visited but one of the most impressive. They had a wide variety of material. I know my students will love seeing the photo of John Brown’s rifle used at Harper’s Ferry along with a portrait that can be compared to others done of him. My students do a pretty extensive study of the Underground Railroad and I now will have new information to add: as photos of documents like the freedom certificate, shackles, the Wedgwood medallion, and the story of the Robert Norris dish, these will add interest to my lessons. I learned about the anti-slavery society of Philadelphia, and the law of how a slave could claim their freedom; such was the case of Jane Johnston. Stories like these add life to history and make it more interesting. The Fugitive Slave law and having such close proximity to slave states had to be difficult for those who opposed slavery in Philadelphia!
American Philosophical Museum 6-10-08
June 11, 2008
The Philosophical Society was started in 1743, its member were all men (no surprise there). The first women joined in 1789. Most of the men were self educated, and they taught each other what they learned. They were given assignments to share with one another; they were not allowed to attack one another personally when they disagreed. The society took the official name of “The American Philosopical Society” in 1769.
Benjamin Franklin was probably one of the most popular members. I learned than Franklin came to Philadelphia at age 17 and only had a 2nd grade education. He was a strong man, he liked to swim, invented fins, and did electrical experiments. My students would love to hear about his love life; how he rented a room from the Reed’s, fell in love with the daughter, had her mother pay off his debts. Before Debra Reed married Franklin she was previously married, but her husband ran off – so Franklin and Reed had a common law marriage.
Some members today my students might recognize are Sandra Day O’Connor, Jimmy Carter, and Neil Armstrong.
I was surprised to see that Benjamin Franklin’s artifacts are so scattered throughout the city in differ collections. The APS said they hold about 75% of Franklin’s remaining papers.
What’s the Difference?
June 10, 2008
FYI: I found an interesting article on teaching religion in the classroom: http://socialstudies.org/positions/religion/?print-friendly=true
I didn’t know there was much difference between being Amish or being a Mennonite before today. I will be able to explain the difference to my students. After the shooting in the Amish school students were very interested in their culture. We found some information on-line, but it was very limited. Students wanted to know why they didn’t have cars, and why they dressed the way they did.
It was amazing to see the rolling hills; green with planted crops. There were very few power lines scattered across this landscape. I had a sense that these people may have it right; I took a picture of an Amish man in his horse-drawn carriage passing a gas station. The Amish believe that machines separate people more than they bring them together. They are facing the problem of finding land, their families are growing and it’s difficult to find areas where they can by large plots of land close to their communities that are so important to their way of life.
Timeline:
- 1525 Anabaptist (3rd option) movement in Switzerland
- 1536 Menno Simons (at one time; a Catholic priest) united the scattered Anabaptist into Mennonites William Penn (Quaker) offered them land
- 1693 – Jacob Amman formed the Amish group; this group sought a purer and stricter form of the religion
- The Mennonites and Amish have split many times
The Older Order Amish wear simple clothing, ride in horse-drawn buggies, and live a simple life with the smallest amount of technology as they can. There are 25-30 families in a district, each district holds church services every other Sunday. They hold their services in High German (Pennsylvania Deutsch). Women usually marry between the ages of 18-21, and the men are 21 or older. The wedding takes place in the bride’s home on a Tuesday or a Thursday. The bride’s dress is purple, green, or blue and is new. They usually have 8-10 children, and the youngest son inherits the farm.
There are usually 30-35 students to a school. There are 280 schools in a 50 miles radius of Intercourse. The Amish do pay taxes, but take no funding for their children’s education from the government. My students will be interested to hear that the Amish do not attend school after 8th grade (since I teach 8th graders). The children are required to keep a journal between the ages of 13 and 15. This is an important difference between the Amish and Mennonites.
The Mennonites also believe in higher education, they drive cars, and are not required to dress so conservatively. Many Mennonites are not farmers; they hold a variety of occupations. The Mennonites are very accepting to those that want to join their religious group.
The both emphasizepeace and simplicity. They both refuse to go to war, but agree to go into alternative services rather than the military. They are both Christian groups.
I started my day with a caffeine boost! Little did I know I was really going to need it. After breakfast Dr. Harris and his harem took a free ride to Christ Church. We had a quick lunch and from there winged our way across Philly; from 2nd and Market to 28th and Pennsylvania. There was a very nice subway guy that told us to take bus 38, however it was complicated by a bike race going through the heart of town. We walked a few blocks. Kelli saw that the buses were being diverted, so we walked some more. By this time we were already thirty minutes late – just about the time we were ready to hail a cab, we hailed the city bus. It took us just one block from the museum. The problem we had was the bike race was going on between us and the museum – another delay. By the time we reached our entrance we were only one hour late.
We actually didn’t miss much. The museum had floors and rooms of artwork from around the world: Asia, Europe and Central America. What interested me the most was the American collection. It was a relief to connect with the rest of our group and get out of the heat (95 degrees) and humidity!
We had another great meal at the New Deck Tavern for dinner - if you haven’t tried this place you should, the food is great!
GW’s Crossing and Monmouth
June 7, 2008
The Crossing
I was surprised to see that the Delaware River, for now anyway, isn’t very deep. You can see that a fisherman has walked out quite a ways. We were informed that the river could swell at times and can be very deep. When Washington crossed in winter of 1776, there were sheets of ice, not the icebergs shown in the painting. As you can see the boats were much larger and heavier. It took 11 hours for the soldiers to cross – our guide believed that Washington most likely took his horse across on a ferry and not in the Durham boats that you see photographed.
There were 8 classes of militia!? If you failed to show up when your class was called to serve you were fined. Each class served for about 2 months at a time. The coming and going of soldiers frustrated Washington.
Monmouth
Monmouth is huge – and the weather was supposed to be as hot as it was today – TOTALLY MISERABLE, 94 degrees and 100 percent humidity. They lost soldiers on both sides to (heat) exhaustion. The wounded were taken to the Meeting House, it was established as the hospital, and soldiers from both sides were treated there. The location was called White Oak Hill because of the White Oaks; one still stands there in the cemetery (pictured).
- Did you know when they baked bread they would serve the upper crust to guests; given us the term “Upper Crust”.
Franklin Institute 6-6-08
June 6, 2008
We rode the subway to 15th and Market and walked to The Franklin (Institute). NO!! We did NOT see the Silence Dogood letters! We SAW and TOUCHED many great artifacts of Franklin’s though: a glass tube he used for his electricity experiments, a lightning rod he made, a Terra Cotta plaque with his likeness, a sword, a stein, and a will just to name a few. We toured the building – it’s a great place for kids; they can walk through a giant heart, you can see how paper is made, they see how magnets are used to create electricity, and you can see how tornadoes are formed. I saw the “Franklin” stove, a version of our fireplace insert that keeps the heat in the house rather than it escaping up the chimney. I saw how Franklin developed bi-focal glasses and some of his other inventions and experiments. Some of us went to “Bugs”; a 3D movie in the Franklin Theater about, you guessed it, BUGS!
Before heading back to the dorms we walked to Reading Terminal, it’s like an outdoor market only indoors; there were many types of vendors, , there were farmer’s markets, there were craft corners, icecream parlors, and much more. We boarded the subway at 12thand Market and headed back to the dorms with a slight diversion to see the Amtrak station. Lights-out early tonight; we have seen so much in just a few days!
