August 30, 1890

September 17, 1862 is well known in US Civil War history because it was the date for the one-day Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American history. The Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of Robert E. Lee, had invaded the North for the first time and was attempting to scare the Union into a surrender. 

The Army of the Potomac, under the command of George McClellan, pursued the Confederates and met them near Sharpsburg, Maryland on Antietam Creek, a battle that resulted in a combined 22,000+ casualties. No clear winner emerged but the battle was viewed as a strategic victory for the Union and ended the first invasion by the Confederacy into the North.

Photo: nps.gov

By 1890, the US government designated five Civil War battlefields as military parks to be administered by the War Department: Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Antietam. Of the five, Antietam was given the least attention because it was viewed as being in the middle of nowhere and was given the least amount of money for its designation as a military park.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

Ezra Carman is considered the leading expert on the Battle of Antietam. Whenever a new interpretive program is developed at Antietam National Battlefield, the park rangers first look at Carman's manuscript on the battle before moving forward.

Carman led the 13th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry at the Battle of Antietam, but it was not just his experience at the battle that made him an expert. In 1894, Carman was appointed to the board that was working on establishing the Antietam park and he was assigned tasks that included mapping the battle, marking important locations, acquiring land for the battlefield park and directing visitors to the important locations. To do this, Carman consulted hundreds of Confederate and Union veterans of the battle as well as citizens of the area. Very rarely in his manuscript does he include his own experiences from the battle.

Photo: 8cv.org (Brevet Brigadier General Ezra Carman)

The battlefield was administered by the War Department until 1933 when President Franklin Roosevelt had all military parks transferred over to the National Park Service, an agency that was only 17 years old at the time. When Antietam was turned over, only 65 acres were protected; locations like Dunker Church and Burnside Bridge were still in private hands. But local historical societies had begun purchasing land associated with the battle to preserve them and turned the land over to the National Park Service once the NPS could accept donations.

Photo: onlinelibrary.wiley.com

This past July, the Civil War Trust acquired 44 acres at the heart of the battlefield and will turn it over to Antietam National Battlefield.  This piece of land, beside the "Bloody Cornfield" actually saw more casualties than the cornfield, according to Dr. Thomas Clemens. Ezra Carman's work is not finished yet and his research is still being used to remember those who gave their lives on the single bloodiest day in American history.

Photo: Antietam National Battlefield brochure map

Antiquing with the National Park Service

When you think of a national park, what comes to mind -- Old Faithful at Yellowstone? Bears fishing in a waterfall at Katmai, or the magnificent depths of the Grand Canyon? These are all iconic national parks, but there are more than 400 units with multiple designations that are protected by the National Park Service, not just the 59 National Parks. Many protect cultural and historical treasures, what once were called "antiquities".

Photo: pbs.org

In northwest New Mexico lies Chaco Culture National Historical Park, one of the most important pre-Columbian archaeological sites in North America. Prior to 1150 CE, Chaco was a ceremonial center aligned with solar and lunar cycles, the center of culture for the Ancestral Puebloans. These people were forced to leave their homes and this ceremonial center beginning in 1130 CE due to an extremely severe drought.

Early Spanish explorers discovered the remains of these ancient people but the location was not written about until 1823, when New Mexico Governor Jose Antonio Vizcarra led an expedition through the canyon. A quarter century later, US Army Lieutenant James Simpson's reports brought Chaco Canyon to the attention of the American people.

The "discovery" of Chaco would be an important step in the creation of a new federal agency, the National Park Service.

Photo: nps.gov

Excavations began at Chaco and objects of the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly called Anasazi) were loaded up on trains and shipped back east. At the turn of the 20th century, growing cultural sensitivity led to efforts to preserve Native American culture rather than disturb and display it. Instead, archaeologists began to use less disruptive techniques like stratigraphy so that objects that were buried deeper could be dated and recorded. These scientists were also interested in revealing buildings and leaving them open, rather than buried, which had been a previous practice. 

Photo: npshistory.com

Archaeological practices were not the only things that changed due to Chaco Canyon. In 1902, Iowa Congressman John F. Lacey traveled to Chaco to see the impact of earlier practices and treasure hunting on the impressive examples of pre-Columbian culture. Lacey's findings helped Congress to draft and pass the Antiquities Act of 1906. 

Photo: loc.gov (John F. Lacey)

The Antiquities Act protects "antiquities" for historic and scientific interest. In addition, the act protects federally owned land from excavation and destruction. But most importantly for Chaco Canyon (and the future National Park Service), it gave the president the opportunity to designate historic locations as national monuments, and President Theodore Roosevelt used this act to designate Chaco Canyon as a national monument in 1907. In total, President Roosevelt used the Act to protect 18 locations, including the Grand Canyon.

Photo: loc.gov (President Theodore Roosevelt)

Today, the National Park Service administers many types of units, from national parks to national monuments, national seashores, national preserves, national trails, national parkways, national memorials and many more, 18 different designations in all. Most people understandably if inaccurately just call them all "national parks".

Photo: printcollections.com

The Antiquities Act allowed the president and Congress to establish national monuments in 1906, but it wasn't until 1916 that the National Park Service was established to administer and protect these national treasures. Today, the National Park Service turns 99.

So, happy birthday, National Park Service! #FindYourPark 

Photo: nps.gov

The Cornerstone of the Modern Civil Rights Movement

On Sunday, August 16, 2015, a small group of people quietly walked around the foundation of a building in a field above the Shenandoah River. Some of them had removed their shoes, and as they circled the building they sang the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "John Brown's Body." They gathered on this warm August morning to commemorate the pilgrimage of the Niagara Movement that took place in 1906. The event was made poignant by the death of civil rights leader Julian Bond the night before.

Photo: John Grabowska

In 1906, Jim Crow laws reigned supreme in the United States, especially in the American South. Reconstruction was officially over and appeared to have failed. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, prominent African Americans gathered at the campus of Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. In opposition to Booker T. Washington's strategy of accommodation, these African Americans, led by W.E.B. DuBois, did not believe in appeasement to the white majority culture.

Photo: tuskegee.edu (Booker T. Washington)

In 1905, Du Bois founded a civil rights group called the Niagara Movement. Due to racial issues, their first meeting was held in Canada near Niagara Falls but their second meeting took place in the United States at a significant location in African American history. For the 1906 meeting Du Bois chose Storer College at Harpers Ferry as the venue. Storer College had originally been established as a school to educate former slaves until it became an integrated Normal College.

Photo: nps.gov (W.E.B. DuBois)

Du Bois selected Storer for a number of reasons: it was an integrated school that did not prevent admission based on race, it was in the south, and the legacy of John Brown was prevalent in Harpers Ferry. On the third day of the public meeting, the Niagarites commemorated John Brown's raid on the federal armory by making a pilgrimage to the building in which he was captured. Historians today say that Brown's actions at Harpers Ferry sparked the Civil War.

Photo: kshs.org

As they approached the fort, the Niagara Movement members removed their shoes and socks and began to walk around the building. They removed their shoes because the ground near the fort was considered to be hallowed ground. As Frederick Douglas once wrote, "John Brown could die for the slave," and that is why these early civil rights activists honored Brown's actions by singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "John Brown's Body" while paying homage to John Brown and his effort to bring about the end of slavery.

109 years later, a group of clergy, staff from Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and other local citizens honored the efforts of the founders of the modern civil rights movement. The Niagara Movement would evolve into the NAACP, chaired for many years by Julian Bond.

Photo: wagner.edu

Guest Post: Interpretation

A couple of months ago, I guest wrote a post for my friend and fellow blogger Ryan O'Connell. Ryan and I met five years ago when we both worked at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park's education division. That summer, we taught middle school students from around the country about John Brown and what life was like during the Civil War. Now, Ryan has guest written a post for me! Enjoy!


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Freeman Tilden is not a name many people know. He was not someone important on the world stage. He will probably not appear in any history book or be remembered for being a leader. Yet this humble and down-to-earth man has indirectly affected the experiences of millions of people visiting the National Parks since 1957. 

Photo: vialibri.net

He was born in 1883 in Massachusetts to a well-to-do newspaper family. He became a writer traveling the world penning articles for notable periodicals such as the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the New York Evening Post, the Ladies' Home Journal, and the Saturday Evening Post. He also spent his spare time to writing creatively, authoring 25 books of fiction and nonfiction, hundreds of articles, short stories, poems, plays, and radio serials. To some, it would have been enough to retire after a long career of journalism and writing at 58. Instead, it was a new beginning for Freeman, which goes to show you that it is never too late to find a new calling.

Photo: npshistory.com

He met Newton Drury, the director of the National Park Service (NPS) at the time and eventually given a title of Administrative Assistant and given the opportunity to travel the NPS and write public relations and interpretation. He could see that it was not enough to give a tour, or set up an exhibit, or have a class. Education was simply not enough. The Parks needed to be sublime, transcendent, and meaningful. Tilden wrote about the National Parks for over 40 years based on his observations and his travels within the parks. Nothing speaks for itself because as Tilden states, 

"Through interpretation, understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection." 

To this end is what the Parks were originally set up to do, to protect the resources of our shared iconic environment and our cultural heritage.

Photo: communicationconstipation.wordpress.com

            Tilden's best known work was entitled Interpreting Our Heritage. It was the result of years of observing visitors and park rangers giving tours of National Park sites, often giving talks himself. The book centered on “The Six Principles of Interpretation,” which were designed to be easy and common sense. The principles are:

1. Interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile. Interpretation should be personal to the audience.
2. Information, as such, is not interpretation. Interpretation is revelation based upon information. Successful interpretation must do more than present facts.
3. Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts. Any art is in some degree teachable.
4. The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation. Interpretation should stimulate people into a form of action.
5. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part. Interpretation is conceptual and should explain the relationships between things.
6. Interpretation addressed to children should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should follow a fundamentally different approach. Different age groups have different needs and require different interpretive programs.

Photo: amazon.com

The chapters of the book illustrate and give examples of how each of these principles work and things to consider, enhance, or avoid in order to make each site meaningful to each individual visiting a Park. Since the book was published in 1957, the NPS as well as other organizations have used the Six Principles as the basis for their interpretive programs. So not only has Freeman Tilden affected the National Parks, but also state, local, and other places where the public can visit and so indirectly he affects the education and the experiences of visiting public everyday these places are open.

Freeman Tilden passed away in 1980; 97 years young.

"It’s pretty terrific. What a relief it worked" -Enola Gay crewman

On August 6, 1945, the world changed. That was the day that the first atomic bomb, known as "Little Boy," was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Ten days earlier, on July 26, the Allies had issued the Potsdam Declaration, giving the Empire of Japan the opportunity to end the war in the Pacific with unconditional surrender. Japan refused and in response, US President Harry S. Truman gave the order to drop the atomic bomb.

Photo: nuclearweaponarchive.org

In 1939, the Allies learned that the Nazis had discovered how to split uranium atoms. The fear was that the Germans would be able to develop this energy into an extremely dangerous weapon. In response, the Manhattan Project began, begun by Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, both refugees from Fascism. The utmost secrecy surrounded the project because neither the Germans nor the Japanese could know what was being developed in the United States.

Photo: biography.com

Photo: hanford.gov

July 16, 1945 was the first test of an atomic bomb at Trinity Site, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The result was unexpected. The force of the bomb blew out windows in homes 100 miles away, sand was turned into glass, a mushroom cloud arose and a half-mile wide crater was all that was left at the test site. While at the Potsdam Conference in Germany, President Truman learned of the successful test. 

Photo: atomicheritage.org (Moving the bomb, Jumbo, to the Trinity Site)

On the morning of August 6, the atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" was loaded onto the B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay, named after the pilot's mother. At 7:00 a.m., the Japanese early warning radar detection network discovered the plane and its two escorts and sent out an alert to halt radio broadcasting. But by 8:00 a.m., it was determined that three planes did not present enough of a threat and the air raid alert was lifted. At 8:15 a.m., the bomb exploded over the port city and army base of Hiroshima. 70,000 people died instantly. Military leaders in Tokyo did not receive confirmation as to what exactly had happened at Hiroshima until President Truman issued a statement about the event the next day. 

Photo: atomicarchive.com

Today is the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The official death count of people who died because of the bomb is now recorded at 292,325. The survivors of the bomb, known as hibakusha, are now over the age of 80. Up until now, they have been working diligently to convince the world that development of nuclear weapons needs to end but they are unsure how much longer they will live. Despite this, many will continue to fight the existence of nuclear weapons and so will their families.

The decision to drop the bomb was made because Japan refused to surrender and the normal path to victory would cost countless Allied lives. But was it worth it to destroy the lives of more than 290,000 people? The hibakusha deal with illnesses and cancer that are related to the radioactive fall-out they endured.

Photo: theguardian.com (Sunao Tsuboi points to himself in a photo taken three hours after the bombing)

Follow the link to watch a video about a 14 year-old girl's experience at the time of the bombing. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/33772230?OCID=twitterasia)

"Shoot if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country’s flag"

During the first invasion of the North in September of 1862, Confederate troops passed through the pro-Union town of Frederick, Maryland. It was here that General Robert E. Lee drafted his Special Order 191, which commanded Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson to capture the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry while the rest of the Confederate army continued further north, through the town of Frederick. 

Photo: teaching.msa.maryland.gov

The march through Frederick has been memorialized in the poem The Ballad of Barbara Frietchie by John Greenleaf Whittier. The story goes that in the morning, Union flags decorated the town of Frederick, but by the afternoon, when Stonewall Jackson and his men came through town, only one flag was flying. When Jackson saw the flag, he ordered his men to shoot at it, and in the words of the poet Whittier, Barbara Frietchie responded:

"Shoot if you must, this old gray head,

But spare your country's flag," she said

The nobler nature within him [Jackson] stirred

To life at that woman's deed and word:

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head

Dies like a dog! March on!" He said

All day long that free flag tost

Over the heads of the rebel host.

Photo: loc.gov

While this is an inspiring story and has been taught in schools, it is, unfortunately, not a true story.

Barbara Frietchie was indeed a real person and she did live in Frederick at the time, but she was not the one who waved the Union flag above the Confederate soldiers. Also, it was not Jackson who rode through town, but rather A.P. Hill and his men. Instead of the elderly Frietchie (or Fritchie) having an altercation about the flag, it was in fact her neighbor Mary Quantrell, a 30 year old woman. After the poem was published in 1863, Quantrell sent Whittier a letter asking him to correct the poem, but the story of a 96 year old woman scolding the famous Confederate officer Stonewall was more dramatic than the real story, and instead, Barbara Frietchie became famous, so much so that on a visit to America in 1943, Winston Churchill recited the entire poem while visiting Frederick. 

Photo: library.brown.edu

Frietchie was a strong Unionist and made her views known, but when Quantrell flew the flag defiantly, Frietchie was not seen in public. Instead, in the days after the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, Frietchie stood on her porch as Union General Ambrose Burnside and his men passed by and she waved a Union flag for their success. In response, the men cheered her and told her they hoped she lived a long life. Frietchie died that December but she has been immortalized in the Ballad of Barbara Frietchie. 

Photo: goodreads.com