WPA Guide Series#

By Fern Nesson

Fern Nesson takes us on the road following the original WPA Guidebooks. Follow along as she re-enacts these journeys, discovering what’s old and what’s new.

Travels with The WPA State Guides: The Lowell Mills

Essay by Fern L. Nesson and Nico M. Nesson

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


When my granddaughter, Nico, was researching the history of the Lowell Mills Girls for her AP American History class, we spent a fascinating day together in Lowell. This essay is the result of our combined research and it includes photos that we shot during our visit.

Lowell, Massachusetts was at the forefront of the industrial revolution in the 19th Century. As a result of the War of 1812, our country could no longer rely upon receiving manufactured goods from England and we turned instead to establish our own factories. New England was the logical location for these efforts. 

There the Yankee farmers, long accustomed to the production of household goods, had a training in handicraft that equipped them to organize and manage the mills that dotted the countryside. The many streams that coursed the State’s valleys furnished a plentiful supply of water-power. Labor could be secured as in no other section of the Union, for thousands of Massachusetts farmers were ready to abandon their unequal struggle with a stubborn soil and drift into industrial employment […] MASSACHUSETTS STATE GUIDE, P. 46.

In 1814, Francis Cabot Lowell built the first textile mill in Waltham, Massachusetts and outfitted it with power looms. Within 10 years, textile mills had sprung up in Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, and New Bedford and, by the time of the Civil War, more than one-third of all the cloth of the nation was produced in the state (Massachusetts State Guide, p. 50).

Lowell and his partners then built a complex of larger mills on the  Merrimack River in northeastern Massachusetts. The first of the Lowell Mills were opened in 1822.

Overnight, the company founders became the first city fathers in what would today be called a huge company town. Both men and women slept in corporation lodging houses, ate in company dining-rooms, shopped in company stores, and were buried in company lots. 

Employees worked from five in the morning to seven at night.  Women received from two dollars and twenty-five cents to four dollars a week, men about twice that. 

Agents of the company scoured Europe in search of cheap labor, painting glowing pictures of the promised land  across the sea and luring thousands of immigrants into the  maw of the hungry, growing city.

On March 1, 1826, the district was incorporated as the township  of Lowell…. Europe watched Lowell with something like amazement. Its rapid rise to industrial eminence interested and  astounded economists, historians, and writers all over the  world. 

Massachusetts State Guide, p. 51.

 Along with Lowell’s newly-constituted labor force came the creation of  the country’s first labor unions.

These pioneers were responsible for the recognition by their  State of the right to join a labor union, for the spread of free education, for at least the partial freeing of women and  children from industrial slavery, and for the relaxation of laws  that penalized a man and his family for being poor. 

Most of these pioneers of Massachusetts democracy, like the majority of Western pioneers, remain  anonymous, their names and deeds either lost altogether or buried in the files of old newspapers, union journals, trade union records, Labor Department reports, ships’ logs, and other  obscure sources from which much of even so brief an account as the present must be derived.

A few outstanding names emerge: those of George McNeill, a  weaver of Fall River, of Ira Steward, a machinist of Boston, of  the Lowell textile workers Sarah G. Bagley and Lucy Larcom,  the latter a poet and author of ‘A New England Girlhood.’ 

Massachusetts State Guide, p. 65.

The Lowell Mill Girls

Of particular interest to Nico, and the subject of her research, were  the Lowell Mill Girls. The following section is her contribution to our essay.

Starting in 1822 and all throughout the 19th century, hundreds of  young, unmarried women left their family farms and accepted the offer of  jobs working in the cotton mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. These young  women, who became known as “Lowell Mill Girls,” lived in company-owned  boarding houses and their work life, education and recreation revolved  almost totally around their employment in the mills. 

Typically 30 to 40 young women lived together in a boardinghouse,  sharing meals and bedrooms where they slept two to a bed. Mill girls were  required to report for work at 5AM and to work until 7PM, with only a 20  minute break at 7AM for breakfast and a 45 minute break at noon for lunch.  Work on Saturday was from 5AM to noon. 

We have only thirty minutes or at most three quarters of an hour, allowed us to go from our work, partake of our food, and return to the  noisy clatter of machinery. Up before day, at the clang of the bell— and out of the mill by the clang of the bell—into the mill, and at work,  in obedience to the ding dong of a bell—just as though we were so many living machines. I will give my notice to-morrow: go, I will—I  won’t stay here and be a white slave.” 

Anonymous Letter to the Lowell Offering.


In the absence of any safety codes, the Lowell Mill Girls worked at their own (considerable) risk. Harsh working conditions and long hours of operation in demanding environments led to physical strain and health problems. In a letter to the editor of the Boston Daily Evening Voice, one  Mill Girl wrote, 

I attended school three months during the following summer;  then worked about eighteen months longer in the factory;  afterwards worked in the weave room, in all three years, but  only about six months at a time, as my health would not allow  me to work longer. The labor of attending three or four looms  thirteen hours a day, with no time for recreation or mental  improvement is very severe.

Despite the fact that they worked in the same long hours and faced  the same risks, Mill girls were paid substantially less than their male  counterparts, making it difficult to support themselves let alone save for the future. Job security was virtually nonexistent, leaving them vulnerable to sudden dismissals or layoffs.

Given the long working hours and the difficulty of transportation, most Mill Girls rarely returned to their homes. Instead, they turned to each other for companionship. The camaraderie that developed greatly aided in successful labor organizing.

However arduous, jobs for women in the Lowell Mills provided a unique source of economic opportunity for them during a time when other employment options were limited. Prior to the establishment of cotton mills, women’s opportunities for working outside their homes were quite limited.

Before the arrival of steam-powered machines, most women of the lower classes worked in their homes under  the control of their fathers or husbands. Many women took in work spinning thread or weaving cloth. Any money made by women at home was the lawful property of their  male guardian.

Brownson, Women and The American Story.

But in the Lowell mills, women were able to earn their own money and to spend it as they wished.

For the first time in this country women’s labor had money value. She had become not only an earner and a  producer, but also a spender of money, a recognized factor in the political economy of her time.

Jeff Levinson, Mill Girls of Lowell.

Equally important, employment outside the home brought a sense of freedom. Unlike most young women of that era, the Mill Girls were free of parental authority and had access to education. In Lowell, they formed an active community of learners, attending public lectures in the evenings.

Many of the prominent men of the country were in habit of  giving Lyceum lectures, and the Lyceum lecture of that day was a means of education, conveying to the people the results of study and thought through the best minds. At Lowell, it was more patronized by the mill-people than any mere entertainment. 

Lucy Carcom, A New England Girlhood.

The Lowell Mill Girls played a pivotal role in the early labor rights movement and became some of the earliest advocates for women’s rights as well. They fought against the harsh conditions and their unequal treatment by forming associations and published the “Lowell Offering” magazine, which allowed them to express their grievances.



After staging a walk-out in protest of lay-offs in 1834, the Mill Girls went out on strike in 1836, protesting proposed wage cuts. 

One of the first strikes of cotton-factory operatives that ever took place in this country was that in Lowell, in October, 1836 […]

One of the girls stood on a pump, a gave vent to the feelings of her companions in a neat speech, declaring that it was their duty to resist all attempts at cutting down the wages. 

This was the first time a women had spoken in public in Lowell and the event caused surprise and consternation among her audience.”

Harriet Robinson, Loom and Spindle.

A few years later, the Mill Girls established their own labor union, the Female Labor Reform Association, led by Sarah Bagley, one of the first labor organizers in the country. The Association organized the first public campaign for reduced working hours by petitioning the Massachusetts legislature for a 10-hour work day. The petition eloquently described their intolerable working conditions:

We toil from thirteen to fourteen hours per day, 

confined in unhealthy apartments, exposed to 

the poisonous contagion of air, vegetable, 

animal and mineral properties, debarred from 

proper Physical exercise, time for Mental discipline 

and Mastication cruelly limited; thereby hastening us on

through pain, disease, and privation, 

down to a premature grave.



Subsequent Labor History

The Lowell Mill Girls’ experiences marked a significant chapter in the history of the labor and women’s rights movements in the United States but success in ameliorating working conditions was long in coming. It was not until 1874 that the legislature enacted a law limiting working hours in textile mills to 10 hours per day. (Workers in other mills did not see their hours  reduced to 10 hours per day until 1921.)

As of the writing the Guide in 1939, hours had been reduced, but very little else had improved in Massachusetts mills. Women and children still worked under horrendous conditions:

Of the 122,389 workers in the textile mills of the State in 1937, forty per cent were women. In the textile industry, women are a permanent labor force. Most of them enter the mills at a very early age and remain therefor the greater part of their lives. Even marriage does not always  take the textile working girl out of the mill, for the earnings  of her husband seldom suffice to meet the family expenses.

[Wage parity was certainly not achieved.] Weekly wages for women range from $8 per week for ordinary workers to $27 for the most highly skilled spinners or weavers. Since there are seasonal periods of unemployment, weekly earnings over long periods naturally average considerably less. [Moreover] The ‘speedup’ and ‘stretchout’ systems, together with improvements in machinery, have vastly increased the machine load per worker. Ten years ago an operative commonly took care of a single loom, now he or she cares for thirty or more. According to the May, 1937 issue of the “Textile Worker of New England,” ‘Within the past two months the textile mills, while announcing a 10 per cent increase in wages, have actually increased the work load of the operatives from 25  to 200 per cent.’

Massachusetts Guide, p. 77.

For children, the situation was even worse. The Guide reports that in  1930 Census, there were 60,524 children from ten to seventeen years old  employed full time in Massachusetts mills. Of this number 9824 were  younger than fifteen. Although children’s hours were reduced to eight hours per day in 1913, their work outside of the mills was totally unregulated. Minors could still be bound as full-time apprentices or hired out as servants, and full-time farm and piece work within their homes was at the discretion of their parents.

The City of Lowell, Then and Now:

The peak of the city’s industrial development was achieved prior to 1924. After that, the mills lost profitability and, one-by-one, they all closed. 

In the devastating debacle of 1929, many of the mills moved south [where labor was non-unionized and cheaper.] The whole textile industry of the city was reduced by fifty percent, and thousands of workers were left jobless and homeless. Lowell lost its position as the most important textile center in the world. It ceased to be the ‘Spindle City.’ 

Massachusetts Guide, p. 262-3.

But the story does not end there. In the 1960’s, Lowell undertook to restore the Lowell Cotton Mills for use as an educational tourist center. Now  the Lowell Mills are a National Historical Park:

By the 1950s, all ten of the large textile companies that had  driven Lowell’s economy since the early 19th-century were  closed down or moved elsewhere. The closings caused unemployment, depression, and a loss of Lowell’s sense of itself. 

The closings also left nearly five million square feet of abandoned mill space. The crumbling brick complexes stood as  mute reminders of Lowell’s heyday and the loss of the city’s  principal industry. Some of these complexes were torn down,  some fell to arson and accidental fire, and all continued to be  ravaged by the effects of weather, vandalism, and the passing years.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, a new preservation ethic emerged in Lowell. Concerned citizens and local institutions worked with the city, state and federal governments to save Lowell’s history  and to use that history as an engine for economic growth. That effort resulted in the establishment of Lowell National Historical  Park in 1978.

https://www.nps.gov/lowe/planyourvisit/redevelopment

The renovated Lowell Mills Park is nothing short of spectacular. The 19th century mill buildings are structurally impressive and immensely  beautiful and have been renovated with the utmost good taste and care. Many of the buildings contain historical exhibits and, in the main building,  the entire first floor recreates the cotton weaving room exactly was it was in the 19th century. The looms are operable and you can see—and hear—them in operation when you visit. 

There is a lot to learn from the early history of the Lowell Mills and its revived historical spaces provide much to admire in the present. Nico and I urge you to visit.

 Nico and Fern Nesson 

 December, 2023.















Travels with the WPA State Guides: Faneuil Hall

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




In a time when threats to our democracy seem all too real, it is inspiring to visit places where the American colonists first espoused the ideals of liberty and democracy. Faneuil Hall in Boston is just such a place. The scene of many meetings both pre- and post-Revolution, the hall resonates with the stirring speeches and brave deeds of our ancestors. It serves as a reminder that it takes persistence and courage to maintain those ideals as we approach the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

Maddeningly, the Massachusetts Guide acknowledges the importance of the hall but neglects to describe any of the specific events that took place in it or to name any of the speakers who spoke from its stage:

Many dramatic episodes [of the American Revolution] took place in Boston’s crooked streets … The rafters of Faneuil Hall rang with the impassioned oratory of the champions of liberty … Called the ‘Cradle of Liberty’ because many important meetings of protest were held here before the Revolution … [it was] completed in  1742 … It contained a town hall above and a public market below. 

Massachusetts Guide, p. 140, 157

Just to cite a few important details that the Guide leaves out:

1)  Pre-Revolution:

As Boston’s town meeting hall, Faneuil Hall hosted most of the protest meetings leading up to the Revolution. It was here that Samuel Adams and James Otis railed against British tyranny embodied in the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts and the British military occupation of the city of Boston.  It was in this stage that Otis coined the famous phrase “no taxation without representation.”

       In 1770, after the Boston Massacre, the bodies of the American victims lay in state in the hall before their burials.

        In 1772, the Boston Committee of Correspondence was created at Faneuil Hall to connect Boston with the other American colonies.

        In 1773, meetings here lead to the Boston Tea Party.

2) Pre-Civil War:

In the early decades ion the 19th Century, Faneuil Hall was the locus of abolitionist meetings in Boston. Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, and William Lloyd Garrison all spoke here.

In 1854,  the hall was the site of one of the most dramatic events of the pre-Civil war era. In May of 1854, Anthony Burns, an escaped slave from Virginia, was arrested in Boston and his extradition sought under the Fugitive Slave Law. Burns was tried before Judge Loring, who ruled that he had no choice but to enforce the Act and to send Burns back to his master.

Bostonians were outraged. At a meeting in Faneuil Hall on May 26, a group of citizens, The Committee of Vigilance, resolved to storm the jail and free Burns. At 9PM, twenty-five men, armed with axes, marched from Faneuil Hall to the courthouse jail, picking up volunteers along the way. They broke down the courthouse doors and once inside, attacked the men guarding Burn’s cell.

Police reinforcements soon arrived, the attack was thwarted and many abolitionists were arrested. As a result, Burns remained imprisoned.

On June 2, Burns was scheduled to be moved from his cell to a boat in the harbor. Aware that Bostonians were still outraged, the city arranged for 140 marines and an entire brigade of state militia to police the streets. But Bostonians were not to be silenced. All along the route to the harbor, citizens hung black banners protesting Burns’s return and crowds lined the streets shouting and attempting to interfere. In some spots, soldiers charged the crowd, beating back the protestors with bayonets.

Eventually, Burns was delivered to the ship but the consequences were momentous. Burns was ransomed from his master by Bostonian abolitionists and he returned to Boston as a free man. Most of the the arrested rioters had their cases dismissed; the remainder were were all acquitted at trial.

Judge Loring fared less well. He was removed from his judgeship by the Governor and Harvard refused to let him return as a professor. Anticipating future slave extradition cases, the Massachusetts legislature passed a law subverting the Fugitive Slave Act by requiring that fugitive slaves be granted jury trials.

Southern slave owners never attempted another extradition in Boston. And the abolitionist movement, which had previously been the ill-supported  province of men seen as hotheaded radicals gained immense political and financial support from prominent, more conservative Bostonians. Outraged by Burn’s return to slavery, Amos Adams Lawrence, a Boston cotton manufacturer with close ties to the South, turned fervent abolitionist and contributed his time and a good deal of his fortune to the cause. He stated in his autobiography:

“We went to bed  [on the night of June 1] old-fashioned, conservative, compromise Union Whigs & waked up stark mad Abolitionists.”

A.A. Lawrence, Conscience Whig

3) Post-Civil War to the present:

Faneuil Hall has continued to provide a home for post-Civil War protest movements right up to the present. In 1873, 3000 people packed the hall to hear Lucy Stone argue for women’s rights and numerous labor union meetings were held here throughout the last half of the 19th century movement.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy gave his final campaign speech on the Faneuil stage and Boston’s civil rights movement held meetings here through in the 60s and 70s.

In 1997, Boston’s LGBTQ+ community initiated its first annual town hall meeting at Faneuil Hall and continued the tradition for many years.

Although the hall is now managed by National Park Service, it is still used for political debates, community meetings, Martin Luther King Day celebrations, and naturalization ceremonies.

Ironically, Peter Faneuil, the wealthy businessman who built and donated Faneuil Hall to the City of Boston in 1743, derived his wealth, in large part, from the Atlantic slave trade. Continuing to use his name to grace our “Cradle of Liberty” has recently come to seem utterly inappropriate to most Bostonians. In October 2023, after a years-long campaign, the City Council of Boston voted to change the name of the hall. The Council issued the following statement:

Faneuil Hall represents the persona of Peter Faneuil, who was a white supremacist, a slave trader, and a slave owner …. [The majority of] Bostonians believe that the name of Faneuil Hall should be changed because of its deep and tragic association with the trans-Atlantic Slave trade.

Changing the name of Faneuil Hall to the name of a true freedom fighter, such as Crispus Attucks, Elizabeth Freeman, or Frederick Douglass, or to a noble concept, such as “Freedom Hall” or “Liberty Hall” facilitates the flourishing of democracy and educates the local and national public about how we should best use our public spaces and memorials.

Changing the name of Faneuil Hall would not erase history but enhance our sense of history and place history in its proper perspective.

The Council’s name change request was sent to the Public Facilities Commission of Boston where it now awaits formal action.

Although its current name is problematic, Faneuil Hall’s history and legacy is not. The persons who met and spoke in Faneuil Hall exemplified their dedication to the highest ideals of democracy. Let us all strive to live up to their example.

December, 2023.








Travels with the WPA State Guides: The Big Duck, NY

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




When the New York Guide was written, Suffolk County on Long Island was an agricultural paradise. Acres of potato fields, fruit tree farms, wheat fields and vegetable gardens stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to Long Island Sound. Among these fields were at least 90 duck farms. The breed of duck — Pekin — was so tasty that it known ever after as Long Island duck and has always been considered the best duck one could eat.

The Guide describes the scene in Suffolk County:

At EASTPORT , 72 . 8 m . ( 964 pop . ) , the Long Island duckling whitens the shores and waters of inlets . From an obscure beginning, the industry has grown in recent years to a $ 3,000,000 business, which gives employment to many during the summer months . Bordering the highway in this section are several large duck farms, each with an annual production of from 40,000 to 200,000 of the snow-white birds.

Inexplicably, the writers seem to have missed the Big Duck! Located in Flanders, the Big Duck was the brain-child of Martin Maurer, a local duck farmer. He enlisted the aid of two theatre set designers, William and Samuel Collins. They tied a live duck with a string to their porch to serve as a model. George Reeve, a local carpenter built the duck’s wooden frame  copying the carcass of a cooked chicken. He then covered the frame wire mesh and molded concrete.

The Big Duck is huge: 18 feet wide, 30 feet  long,  20 feet tall with eyes made from Ford Model-T tail-lights that glow in the dark. Until 1987, Mauruer sold (delicious) rotisserie ducks from the building. Surrounded by Suffolk County’s  duck farms,  it was both the epicenter and the classic symbol of  Long Island’s duck-farming industry.

Quite soon after its construction, its fame spread world-wide. In November, 1932, Popular Mechanics magazine featured the Big Duck on its cover, and, in the 1960s the architect, Robert Venturi, named a whole category of  roadside architecture –“Duck Architecture” — after  The Big Duck. Its photo graces the cover of his book, Leaving Las Vegas, which includes within it it other prominent examples like the Giant Hot Dog in Coney Island, an immense Pineapple fruit stand in Australia and, surprisingly, Chartres Cathedral in France. According to Venturi, duck buildings express their function — often boldly. [They are] special buildings that [are] symbols as well.”  

Sadly, there are no more duck farms in Suffolk County, Long Island. The relative proximity of  the county’s beautiful beaches to New York City transformed the eastern part of the county into “The Hamptons.” Wealthy summer home owners don’t tolerate the odors, feathers and general muck of duck farms, and so the duck farms had to go.

Along with the surrounding duck farms, the Big Duck closed in the early 1980s. Thankfully, its owners donated it to Suffolk County in 1987. Since that time , the County has preserved it and it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

Although the Guide never mentions the Big Duck, it is not to be missed. Back in the day, I used to love it for both its rotisserie ducks and its pop architecture. Now it functions only as a gift shop. But the architecture alone suffices. Go and see it; its a beauty!




Travels With The WPA State Guides: The Battles of  Bennington and Saratoga (1777)

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




The turning point in the American Revolution dates from 1777 on the border of Vermont and New York State. In that year, British General Burgoyne, leading a large British force, decided to march down from Canada along the Hudson Valley in a push to capture New York thus isolating New England from the rest of the colonies. He took Fort Ticonderoga easily but the colonists rallied and met his forces again at Bennington, Vermont and Saratoga, New York. The outnumbered American volunteers from MA, NH, VT, and NY won both battles against high odds and the ultimate defeat of the British became almost inevitable.

The writers of the Vermont and New York State Guides do a wonderful job of describing these battles and their significance and it is still possible to recapture the excitement of that moment by visiting the battlefields. Two hundred forty-six years later, I did just that. It was a raw, cold, cloudy day but worth every bit of effort to walk the bucolic sites on which our freedom was won.

The Battle of Bennington predated Saratoga and, in large part, determined the victory that would be achieved there. The Vermont Guide reports the events of the battle with evident pride:

In the summer of 1777, General Burgoyne pushed down the Champlain Valley, taking Ticonderoga and Mount Independence without a struggle [making] the British drive seem irresistible. The whole country was alarmed.

On July 30, Burgoyne tardily reached Fort Edward on the Hudson, after some days spent in dalliance with his mistress at Skenesboro. It appeared merely a question of time before he would join up with the British forces at Albany. But Burgoyne needed supplies badly,  … and was fatally overconfident.

Learning of a storehouse in Bennington guarded only by militia, he dispatched Colonel Baum … under the following cocksure instructions, “Mount your dragoons . . . send me 1300 horses . . . seize Bennington . . . cross mountains to Rockingham and Brattleborough … take hostages and meet me a fortnight hence in Albany.” [Although Burgoyne] expected little or no opposition from the [Americans] he sent Breymann’s German regulars to support Baum in case of unexpected developments.

Meanwhile the fear-stricken Colonies were striving to raise volunteers for defense against Burgoyne’s advance. Colonel John Stark, veteran of the French War, Bunker Hill, Trenton, and Princeton, had retired to his New Hampshire farm in disgust when Congress promoted undeserving junior officers over his head. He was called back into service and given command of the forces gathered by New Hampshire.

On his withdrawal from service, writers of the day had referred to him as ‘ a rustic Achilles sulking in his tent.’ Now the promise of leadership filled him with eager activity, and he marched his men over the mountains to Bennington, arriving on August 9.

On the 12th, Baum started his eastward march, unaware of the increased strength at Bennington. His detachment of eight hundred included musicians, officers’ servants, and women camp-followers. His main strength was three hundred and seventy-five dismounted German dragoons, fifty British infantrymen, and some three hundred Indians, Tories, and Canadians.

By the 14th, Stark knew definitely of Baum’s advance and moved his militiamen up to meet them, strengthened by volunteers from Bennington and other towns in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, a total force of eighteen hundred. At Sancoick Mills a vanguard of American riflemen fired on Baum’s ranks from the brush, and  they sniped at the enemy, as they fell back. Eleazer Edgerton stayed behind to burn St. Luke’s Bridge over the Walloomsac, and Baum, forced to halt and restore the bridge, took his position on a steep  hill overlooking  the river.

After some further skirmishing, Stark withdrew to plan the attack. On the 15th, it rained hard all day, and fighting was out of the question; sharp-shooting American scouts managed to keep enough powder dry to harass the enemy and pick off some outpost victims. Baum’s position [was] naturally strong. On the hill-shoulder three hundred feet above the Walloomsac River, he built a breastwork of felled trees to bolster his main defense. But the wide scattering of his four detachments was poor strategy.

August 16 was bright and clear after the storm. Wet leaves glistened and the green earth steamed in the sultry sunshine. It is legendary that the lean, grim-mouthed Stark said, ‘We beat them today, or Molly Stark’s a widow.’

At three o’clock in the hot afternoon, the American  attack started, with Nichols and Herrick carrying the left and right flanks respectively. The Indians and Canadians fle[d] after but little show of opposition. [and the enemy’s front outpost, manned by Tories behind a flimsy barrier of fencerails and loose earth, fell before Hubbard and Stickney. The Tories [then] fled across the river and up the hill, and Stark and Warner launched the big drive at Baum’s main defense on the hill crest.

Swarming across the bridgeways or splashing through the stream, the Americans clambered up the blazing hillside, a motley army in tattered shirt-sleeves and sweaty jackets. Stark and Warner were greeted by a ball from the Hessian four-pounder. ‘The rascals know we’re officers, all right,’ cried Stark.

‘They salute us with big guns.’

A powder explosion threw the English redoubt into confusion, and the charge of ragged farmers and tough woodsmen cleared the barricade. Deserted by their allies and hopelessly outnumbered, Baum and his Germans stood firm until their ammunition gave out; then, drawing their great broadswords and led by Baum, they tried to cut their way out. Baum fell, shot in the belly, and the rest, who were still alive and unwounded, either fled or surrendered.

By five o’clock the [British] forces were smashed and broken, and the Americans scattered in pursuit, … gathering plunder, or herding of prisoners.

In the meantime, Breymann was marching his five hundred and fifty Germans regulars to the aid of Baum at the rate of only one-half mile per hour, dragging their cannon through the mud. [Breymann] halted ten times to the mile to dress and re-dress his ranks with eighteenth century Prussian precision. But for these foolhardy parade-ground tactics, Breymann could have been there a day earlier and the issue might have been entirely changed.

[On August 17 Breymann finally arrived at Bennington but],  instead of meeting Baum’s detachment, he ran into a scene of utter confusion. Rifle-fire raked his lines from rail-fences and wooded ridges but he marched doggedly on.

The Americans, scattered and disorganized now, were wearied from their exertions in the August heat, wilted by the scorching sun…. Stark was in favor of falling back to re-form his ranks and prepare to meet the German reinforcements, but Seth Warner persuaded him to stay and fight it out on the spot. When the tired volunteers turned Baum’s cannon on Breymann, Stark had to dismount and show his inexperienced men how to load and fire the guns.

[Although] the Hessians were fatigued from marching through mud in their heavy equipment, they were forcing the farmers back when, just before sunset, Warner’s company of three hundred and fifty arrived from Manchester. The only fresh men on the field, they again turned the tide of battle and the Continentals surged forward. The German ammunition was running low, and Breymann’s retreat in the fading light of day was turned into a rout.

At dusk the Colonial victory was complete. Stark took about six hundred prisoners, and over two hundred of the enemy were left dead on the field. The American losses were small, thirty killed and forty wounded. Baum and Tory Colonel Pfister were carried to a farmhouse, where both died of wounds, and were buried on the bank of the Walloomsac. The prisoners, many of them wounded, were paraded along the street between the log huts of Old Bennington, before being lodged in the original Meeting House, the schoolhouse, and other houses and barns. The dead soldiers of both sides were interred in the Old Burying Ground.

Vermont WPA Guide, p. 88-90.



The loss at Bennington was devastating to Burgoyne. Fully aware that his professional soldiers were beaten by untrained volunteers, Burgoyne wrote to his superiors:

‘The colonies and the Hampshire Grants in particular—a country unpeopled and almost unknown in the last war — now abounds with the most active and rebellious race on the continent, and hangs, like a gathering storm, on my left.’

Vermont WPA Guide,  p 90.

The Battle of Bennington was followed swiftly by the decisive Battle at Saratoga. Burgoyne had expected to meet General Howe and General Clinton at Albany, thus establishing control over New York. This plan was jeopardized, and eventually foiled in large part by by the loss at Bennington. Howe left for Philadelphia instead and Clinton remained tied up with the colonials in the lower Hudson Valley. When Burgoyne arrived in Saratoga in September with his force of 10,000 British soldiers, he had failed to replenish his supplies, his ability to fight indefinitely was compromised.

The Americans, on the other hand, were rested and they skilled in fighting in countryside comprised of farm fields and patches of woods. On September 19, the two armies met at Freeman’s Farm. The Americans were greatly outnumbered. The British lined up in ranks on the open field while the colonists led by Benedict Arnold (who was still loyal to the American cause at this point) peppered them with fire from the surrounding woods. After three hours, Burgoyne was forced to retreat.

Arnold asked Gates for permission to pursue Burgoyne, but Gates refused and the battle ended at that point with 590 British and 320 American casualties.

Three weeks later, on October 7, with his food supplies running low, Burgoyne led a group of 1700 men to raid nearby farms for food. Gates sent Arnold with orders to investigate but Arnold  initiated a full-scale assault instead. Again, Burgoyne withdrew,  but Arnold turned to attack a small fort held by Breyman’s Hessian forces. This second attack was disastrous for the British. By nightfall, they had lost 630 men, while the Americans lost only 150.

The next morning,  Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga in a torrential thunderstorm. Exhausted and half-starved, his army camped in Saratoga on October 9. Gates laid siege and  Burgoyne was forced to surrender on October 17.

Within 24 hours after receiving the news of Saratoga , the French Government decided to come to the aid of the Colonies and to declare war on Great Britain. It was the beginning of the end for the British and a new beginning for us.

December, 2023



Travels with the WPA State Guides: Penobscot Nation

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Last week, I drove to Maine to visit the island home of the Penobscot Nation, one of the two remaining native American tribes in the state. During my visit, it felt almost like time had stood still. The Maine Guide had much to say about the Penobscots in 1938 and its sensitive reporting holds remarkably true to this day:

Of the many tribes of Indians that inhabited Maine at the time of the white man’s coming in the early 17th century, only two remain: the Penobscots and the Passamaquoddy. They are all that is left of the Abenaki people of the dawn, a once powerful nation of more than 20 tribes, inhabiting parts of Canada, Maine, New Hampshire, and northern Massachusetts. …

The Penobscots live on a reservation at Indian Island. … The Indians of Maine have always been a peaceful and friendly people living chiefly by agricultural activities. It was they who kept the early settlers of Massachusetts alive by sending presence of food to the settlements. They were ultimately aroused to violent action only by the prolonged aggression of the settlers and by being forced to take sides in the English French struggles and when they did rise up, whole tribes were remorselessly exterminated.

                               …

The Indian village [is] autonomous in government, electing its own officers. The tribe may send representatives to the state legislature, [and has its own school. … They [speak English but] are, however, taught to speak their native language at an early age and much is being done among them to preserve their native traditions and arts.

In 1786, a treaty confirmed to the Indians certain lands [which ] were sold at various times to Massachusetts and to Maine. [Currently,] the tribe owns all of the 146 islands above Old Town with a total area of 4,500 acres. The Indians work as river drivers and as guides to hunting and fishing parties.

                            …

The Office of Chief or Sagamore was formerly held for life, but in 1862 it became annually elective…. The Indians used to wander with the seasons according to the location of food supplies. In spring, they went to the rivers for alewives, shad and salmon on the banks. They planted corn, squash, beans, and other vegetables. In June, they went to the sea for porpoise and seal in order to get oil and skins and for clams and lobsters …. In September, they returned to the river valleys to harvest their crops, and in October they went into the big woods to hunt.

Before Christmas, they held their annual Thanksgiving feast for not less than two weeks. Our national Thanksgiving day is a direct imitation of the Indian festival, even to the kinds of food served: turkey, cranberries, Indian pudding. When snow came, they went into the deep woods hunting for moose and setting traps.

Before the ice broke up in March or April, they had made their spring catch of Otter and Beaver. When the river was clear, they were ready for the catching of muskrat and they could start out in their canoes to fish and to go to the lower valleys for the planting.

Throughout Maine, the scene has actually changed but little since the time of the Indian supremacy. Today in the great woods or by the lonely shore one can still see them in the mind’s eye.

The home of the remaining members of the Penobscot tribe, numbering about 400 on Indian Island in the Penobscot River. The Penobscots own the island under state supervision and send a non-voting representative to the main legislature.

The village centers around a main street extending back from the wharf, [and] has a church, school and … weather-beaten residences. Many of the old customs are still retained. During the tribal celebrations held several times a year, centuries slip away and once again, the island rings with the chanting of old songs and flashes.

[W]ooden crosses mark the  [graves in the] cemeteries on the island. … Among those buried are Andrew Sockalexis, a marathon runner and member of the American team in the fifth Olympiad at Stockholm, Sweden in 1912, and his brother, Louis, a  Holy Cross graduate and baseball player on the Cleveland American League Club. At a grassy spot on the island stands a monument to the Penobscot Indians killed in the revolution. A bronze tablet on the monument lists the names of the men who fought with the continental forces.

Maine Guide, p. 24-27.

Prior to 1980, the Penobscot Nation was not formally recognized as a tribe by the United States government. In 1975, the Penobscots and Passamaquoddy  sued for recognition. Five years later, they received the recognition that they clearly deserved. The Penobscot/Passamquoddy Wabanaki Alliance website describes the result:

The Penobscot Nation supported the Americans of the Revolutionary War, largely on the basis of promises and assurances to respect Penobscot territory and provide aid. These promises were supported and endorsed by General George Washington in a 1777 letter, but were quickly forgotten. Once the Americans defeated the British in the years to follow, the Penobscot Nation petitioned Congress to honor their promises and provide aid, but their requests were ignored.

The Penobscot nation fared a little better under the stewardship for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and after 1820, the state of Maine. Neither government honored the agreements to provide for the needs of tribal people in exchange for thousands of acres of land they occupied and sold. By the mid 1830s, the Penobscot nation had been dispossessed of much of its Aboriginal territory, retaining possession of only the Penobscot River and its islands from Indian Island north. State appointed Indian agents exercised total control over the dispensing of food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and other necessities purchased with the money from the sale of the misappropriated tribal lands.

For many generations, the Penobscot people lived at a bare subsistence level. Not until 200 years after the Revolutionary War did the federal government acknowledge its obligation to the native tribes. [Although] Congress in 1790 had passed legislation to curtail exploitation of Indian lands,  The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act,  the United States historically took no action against states for violations of the act. [As a result,] the legal presumption arose in Maine that the tribes were not protected by this legislation and that the federal government had no responsibility towards them.

[It was only in] 1975, [that] a United States District Court ruled that the 1790 Act was applicable to the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Nations. In the case of Passamaquoddy v. Morton, the federal government [was ordered] to litigate a claim against the state of Maine for damages arising from the illegal taking of thousands of acres of tribal lands.

The subsequent negotiated settlement of this case culminated in the passage by the US Congress of Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act in 1980, mark[ing] a critical turning point in the history of the Penobscot Nation.

wabanakialliance.com

For the Penobscot Nation, the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act provided a an opportunity to improve their educational and social resources on their island. In the ensuing 40 years, the infrastructure and services on Indian Island have dramatically improved. Just as in 1938, the population of Indian Island remains in the low 400s but the native government provides more robust services for its members:

There are 417 tribal members living on Indian Island. The Penobscot Nation followed a hereditary chief system until the early 1800s when they began operating as a democracy. While leaders are elected democratically, the entire adult tribal membership constituted as the general meeting serves as the legislative body of the nation. The executive and administrative functions of the nation are delegated to Penobscot Nation chief, a vice chief, and a 12 person council. A tribal ambassador appointed by the Chief and Council serves as liaison between the nation, the federal government, and the state of Maine government.

The nation’s administrative functions … are carried out by 16 tribal departments, including housing, health, social services, and tribal court. The Penobscot Nation Judicial System comprised of the tribal court and the Court of Appeals is the adjudicatory branch of the nation’s government. The nation is governed in accordance with its 31 chapters of tribal law. …Notably, the Penobscot Nation’s healing to Wellness Court has been nationally recognized for innovative, culturally based intervention that combines judicial oversight with tribal healing and wellness services.

wabanakialliance.com

A visit to the island offers both an opportunity to see the new improvements but also to experience the remoteness and beauty of the community as it was in the 19th and 20th Centuries.  Main Street looks just as described in 1938: modest houses, a graveyard, a tribal courthouse and a wood-framed church, A few blocks down a side road stand the modern buildings housing  the health center, a school, and a police/ fire station.

Set in the wide Penobscot River, the views from Indian Island are extraordinary and the island feels serene and protected. It seems a wonderful haven for the practice of native ritual and the transmission of native values for generations to come.
















Travels with the WPA State Guides: Roosevelt Island

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


One of the greatest transformations in the landscape of New York City has been on Roosevelt Island, a small island located in the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens.  Originally named Minnahannock by the native Americans, it has had a long and somewhat checkered past.  According to the New York City Guide, Governor Van Twiller of  the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam purchased the island from the native Americans. Used by the Dutch colonists as pasture for their hogs, the island became known as Varcken (Hog) Island.

In the 1600s, the British took over the colony and Varken island became known in English as Perkins Island and was the home of several successive British owners, including Robert Blackwell. At his death in 1717,  the island then became known as Blackwell Island.

The City of New York bought Blackwell Island in 1828 and built poor houses, a penitentiary and a charity hospital on it but things went downhill from there. The Guide reports that, “by 1921, the reputation of the workhouse and penitentiary on the island had attained such notoriety that the Board of Aldermen, with Coué-like faith, changed its name from Blackwell’s to Welfare Island. ”   

WPA Guide, p.422

Émile Coué was  the originator of the theory of auto-suggestion. He asserted that, merely by wishing it so, any situation could be improved. Coué recommended a mantra:  “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.

 Not surprisingly, the island’s name change did nothing to improve conditions on the island:

“Critics called the obsolete buildings”a sin-steeped pile.” Reports of serious overcrowding, favoritism, degeneracy, and intramural violence brought frequent scandals. Cliques of favored prisoners virtually ruled the institutions and controlled a heavy traffic in narcotics.”

WPA Guide, p. 422.

In January, 1934,  Austin MacCormick, the Commissioner of Corrections took action:

“[MacCormick] led a spectacular raid on the island that shattered the ugly system”whereby 200 men lived like kings and 1,200 almost starved.” It was recognized, however, that the ancient structures were ill-suited to modern penal methods and the quarters that had housed such notorious convicts as the Tammany leader “Boss” Tweed […] were razed. The prisoners were moved to the new Rikers Island penitentiary. After more than a century’s use as a place of punishment, Welfare Island was entirely given over to the care of the aged and the poor.”

 WPA Guide, p. 422.                                                              

When the NYC Guide was written, change was in the air again. Its writers reported that ” Welfare Island [was] a jumble of institutional masonry, ill-assorted piles of […] hospital and asylum architecture.”

“The eighteen light gray buildings of New YORK CITY HOSPITAL occupy the southern end of the island […] It was founded as Penitentiary Hospital in 1832. Despite an early history of scandal and mismanagement, it has come to be recognized […] as one of America’s fine hospitals, and its staff includes many eminent physicians.

WELFARE HOSPITAL FOR CHRONIC DISEASES, immediately north of City Hospital, represents one of the most advanced hospital designs in the world. Four four-story pavilions, [are] arranged in chevron-shaped pairs on either side of an […] administration building. […] The unusual shape of the buildings permits a maximum of sunlight to reach every ward and gives every patient a river view […] The hospital will be opened in 1939.

The New YORK CITY HOME FOR DEPENDENTS […] is a community in itself, with churches, stores, long dormitories, and smaller houses arranged about a central square. There are fifty-six buildings covering almost twenty acres. The home is equipped to furnish food, shelter, recreation, and care for 1,747 indigents, including aged and blind people. […]

To the north, the 470 CENTRAL NEUROLOGICAL HOSPITAL is devoted to the treatment of organic nervous diseases […] The  hospital was opened in 1909 […]

The METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL occupies the northern end of the island. This century-old institution is one of the largest hospitals in the city (1,385beds). With some 1,250 employees, it is equipped to give free service of many kinds: general medical, surgical, obstetrical, etc. The main buildings were erected in 1839.   

Guide, p.421-23.

Over the next three decades, many of the hospitals closed and, by the 1960s the island was abandoned. Finally, In the early 1970s, when the City was experiencing a crisis in available housing, it leased the land to the New York State Urban Development corporation which built condominiums to house over 20,000 city residents. With no direct access to Manhattan, the UDC also built the Roosevelt Island Tramway linking the island to Manhattan. In 1973,  the UDC renamed Roosevelt Island in honor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and announced plans to build “Four Freedoms Park” (after a famous speech by FDR)  at the southern tip of the island. The park opened in 2012 and in 2017, Cornell University opened a tech campus on the last remaining  open space.

Each year, FDR is celebrated at a summer garden party in Four Freedoms Park and, this summer, I rode the tram to attend the party. It is a journey that I recommend highly.  The tram itself is a wonderful adventure, providing vast 360° views high above the of the city and the park is lovely. Its angular marble walls and allées of stately trees jut out into the East River like the prow of a sleek sailboat. It was 90° on the day I visited and Manhattan was unbearably hot, but the breeze upon the river was refreshing and cool. Four Freedoms Park is a spot to be cherished and its name suits it well.                 

 September, 2023




Travels with The WPA State Guides: Rhode Island Red

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Little Compton, Rhode island, a small rural and extraordinarily beautiful old seaside town in the quietest part of Rhode Island has several claims to national fame. The land originally named Sakonnet (“the black goose comes”), belonged to the Sakonnet tribe, led in the 17th century by Sachem-Squaw Awashonks, the niece of the renowned Chief Massasoit of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The first Europeans settled in Little Compton in 1674. In 1675, war broke out between the Narragansett and Wampanoag tribes, led by Metacomet, the son of Massasoit (also called “King Philip”) and the British settlers of New England.

Attempting to stay clear of the fray, Benjamin Church, one of Little Compton’s original settlers, Benjamin agreed with Awashonks that neither the tribe nor the settlers would join in the fighting.  King Philip’s war raged for two years across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and  New Hampshire and Maine and in 1676, the battles reached Mount Hope,Rhode Island,  a few miles from Little Compton. At this point, the settlers and the Sakonnets combined to fight against Metacomet. The Rhode Island Guide describes the culminating events of the War in lively detail:

“[King Philip’s War] was an armed conflict between a confederation of Native American Indian tribes led by Metacomet, chief of the Wampanoag, who was also called Philip. The war was sparked by disputes over land and poor treatment of the Wampanoag by the British colonists. After three Wampanoag men were executed by Plymouth Colony in 1675, the natives attacked English settlements in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine. A confederation of colonists responded by calling out militia forces and attacking Narragansett settlements in Rhode Island and [in 1676] they overwhelmed King Philip’s forces.

On August 12, 1676 […] Little Compton’s Benjamin Church led the small band that finally captured King Philip. Church described the final scene thus:

‘Some of Captain Church’s Indians took hold of him [Philip] by his stockings, and some by his small breeches, being otherwise naked, and drew him through the mud to the upland; and a doleful, great, naked, dirty beast he looked like. Captain Church then said, forasmuch as he had caused many an Englishman’s body to be unburied, and to rot above ground, that not one of his bones should be buried. And calling [Alderman] an old Indian executioner, bid him behead and quarter him. . . . And so [Alderman] went to work, and did as he was ordered. Philip having one very remarkable hand, being much scarred, occasioned by the splitting of a pistol in it formerly, Captain Church gave the head and that hand to Alderman […]'”

Rhode Island Guide.

Admirably, the Guide assigns the blame for the war on the English settlers’ violations of native rights and predation of territory. It stresses that, although the losses were great on both sides, they were most devastating to the natives and were squarely the fault of the settler’s aggressions:

“The war greatly affected both sides. The Wampanoag and Narragansett tribes were almost exterminated. English villages and towns suffered severe damage and roughly a tenth of the men who fought in the war died. The final acts of the victors in this war, which had resulted from the first flagrant violation by the English settlers of an agreement [between them and the natives] set the tone for future relations between the races and undoubtedly had permanent influences on the attitude of the Indians in dealing with the expropriators of their lands.”

Things quieted down considerably in Little Compton after 1676 and haven’t picked up much ever since. With one notable exception: the Rhode Island Red:

“Rhode Island [agriculture is] noted for […] white corn meal […] and Rhode Island Red chickens. The corn meal is made from white hard ‘ flint ‘ corn, ground slowly (to avoid frictional heat) between old-fashioned millstones turned by water-power. From the resulting meal the famous Rhode Island johnnycake is made.”

One can still purchase Gray’s Mill stoneground johnnycake meal at Wilbur’s General Store in Little Compton (and can eat johnnycakes for breakfast at the store café but it cannot be said that the taste for johnnycakes has spread much beyond Rhode Islands’s border (if at all.) But it is a totally different story with Rhode Island Reds. These Little Compton chickens have achieved world-wide fame.

“Rhode Island Red hens were developed in Little Compton. Captain William Tripp and […] John Macomber […] began poultry experiments in 1854, crossing Malay and Java cocks with Cochin China hens, and then crossing the resulting breed with Light Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks, and Brown Leghorns, the final product being a breed with both a high egg yield and sound flesh for the table. The name is generally credited to Isaac C. Wilbur of Little Compton; and the Red was recognized as a legitimate breed at the Providence Poultry Show in 1895.”

Rhode Island Guide 94-5.

Even today, on the small green of the part of Little Compton called Adamsville, pride of place is still accorded to the Rhode Island Red Hen Monument. “A pointed granite stone on which is a bronze plaque commemorating the origin of this notable breed.”

Rhode Island Guide 94.                   

August, 2023






Travels with the WPA State Guides: On the Trail of the Marquis de Lafayette

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Aerial photograph of Castle Clinton in Battery Park (New York City), Castle Clinton National Monument.

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de la Fayette, joined the French Royal Army in 1771. After having achieved the rank of general in 1776 at only 19 years of age, he became inspired by stories of the American colonists’ struggles against British oppression and sailed across the Atlantic to join the uprising. Lafayette was shot in the leg at the Battle of Brandywine and spent the winter of 1777-8 in Valley Forge with George Washington. The two became quite close and Washington began to refer to him as “my adopted son.” In May 1778, Lafayette successfully led American troops in defending Monmouth Courthouse in New Jersey from attack.

By 1779, the Americans desperately needed more money and arms. Lafayette sailed back to France to persuade King Louis XVI to offer more help. When he returned with both money and arms in 1780, Washington gave him command of the Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army. In 1781, Lafayette laid siege to the British at Yorktown until Washington arrived with additional troops. Surrounded by the Americans, General Cornwallis was trapped and forced to surrender, thus ending the war.

After the war, Lafayette returned to his estate, Château de la Grange-Bléneau, in France where he lived until his death in 1834.

The Americans never forgot Lafayette. In 1824, President Monroe invited him to revisit the United States in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Revolution. Accompanied by his son, Georges Washington de Lafayette, Lafayette arrived at Castle Clinton on the Battery in Manhattan on August 15, 1824. He was greeted by a military escort which accompanied him to City Hall. Their route was lined by over 50,000 people (a third of the city’s population). In his journal, Lafayette’s personal secretary, Levasseur, described the parade:


“The general, attended by a numerous and brilliant staff, marched along the front; as he advanced, each corps presented arms and saluted him with its colours; all were decorated with a riband bearing his portrait. During this review, the cannon thundered from the shore, in the forts, and from all the vessels of war. At the extremity of the line of troops, elegant carriages were in waiting. General Lafayette was seated in a car drawn by four white horses, and in the midst of an immense crowd, we went to the City Hall. On our way, all the streets were decorated with flags and drapery, and from all the windows flowers and wreathes were showered upon the general.”

For the next eighteen months, Lafayette toured the United States, traveling to each of the 24 states. He attended the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, revisited the Brandywine battlefield in Pennsylvania, met with former officers and soldiers in his regiment and paid his respects at the graves of George and Martha Washington at Mount Vernon.


Lafayette statue in Union Square, NYC

Wherever he went, Lafayette was greeted with an extraordinary outpouring of patriotic emotion. His visit could not have come at a better time. The presidential election of 1824 had just ended with Andrew Jackson winning the popular vote, but the House of Representatives giving the victory to John Quincy Adams. Party politics and sectionalism were dividing the country, endangering the spirit of unity evinced by the Revolution. Lafayette was the last living general of the Revolutionary era, a throwback to better times, a reminder of our revolutionary ideals, a figure whom all could celebrate.

Lafayette was welcomed across our country with parades, cheering crowds, bands, cannonades. At Bunker Hill in Boston, Daniel Webster declared that Lafayette was “the man who spread the electric spark of liberty to the world.”

Lafayette ended his tour in New York in July, 1825. In Brooklyn, he was asked to dedicate the Library (predecessor of the Brooklyn Museum). At the dedication, he was surrounded by young children and he lifted up one small boy so that he could watch the ceremony. That boy was the six-year-old Walt Whitman.

On the evening that Lafayette set sail for France, 40,000 people gathered at Castle Clinton to see him depart. After a fireworks display, Lafayette cut the anchor cables to The American Star, a hot-air balloon. Its pilot, Eugene Robinson, tossed American and French flags to the crowd below as Lafayette’s boat pulled away from the wharf. Levasseur reported that “profound dejection was imprinted on every face and, although the wharfs were covered with a huge crowd, a solemn silence alone reigned.”


Lafayette by Bartholdi.

 Washington and Lafayette Statue in Morningside Heights, NYC.

At the launch, French President Hollande said, “The Hermione is a luminous episode of our history. She is a champion of universal values, freedom, courage and of the friendship between France and the United States.” President Obama wrote in a letter of congratulations: “France is our nation’s oldest ally. For more than two centuries, the United States, Lafayette and France have stood united in the freedom we owe to one another.”

In honor of Lafayette’s visit, streets, schools, cities, colleges were named after him and monuments were erected through the country. In new York City alone, he was honored with Lafayette Square in Morningside Heights, Lafayette Street in lower Manhattan, and Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. In 1876, on the 100th anniversary of the American Revolution, the French donated a statue of Lafayette on horseback to New York City. Fashioned by Bartholdi, the same sculptor who later made the Statue of Liberty, it was placed it at the entrance to Manhattan’s newest park, Union Square.

New Yorkers were not the only Americans to honor Lafayette. Cities were named after him in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Indiana, California, North Carolina and Colorado. Lafayette (or Fayette) counties can be found in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana. Lafayette Squares anchor the downtowns of Washington D.C. and New Orleans and countless streets bear his name throughout our country.

Equally prevalent are statues of Lafayette by renowned sculptors, both French and American. Jean-Antoine Houdon, Bartholdi and Daniel Chester French each contributed statues of Lafayette to Richmond, Virginia; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Easton, Pennsylvania and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Statues and monuments have often become the subject of controversy in our country but Lafayette’s likenesses have never raised any issues. He was and continues to be revered, no matter the political climate of the times. (In contradistinction to others of our American patriots, Lafayette publicly opposed slavery. Throughout his life, he was an ardent and outspoken abolitionist and a friend and supporter of Frederick Douglas.)


Dedication of Lafayette Monument in Prospect Park Brooklyn, 1917.

The Lafayette House in Upstate NY.

Even now, two hundred years after Lafayette’s triumphant return tour, Lafayette’s contributions have not been forgotten. Every year on July 4 in France, the flag on Lafayette’s grave is replaced with a fresh one in a joint French-American ceremony. And in 2002, Congress granted Lafayette honorary U.S. citizenship.

In 2024, celebrations will be held through the 24 states that Lafayette visited in 1824-5. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lafayette’s tour, the American Friends of Lafayette will hold a bicentennial celebration in Lafayette’s honor. The celebration will begin on August 16, and will include “hundreds of events planned tracing the footsteps of Lafayette on his tour of America as the “Guest of the Nation” between 1824–1825, in the exact order he traveled.” Detailed information can be found on their website: lafayette200.org.

We Americans have never forgotten Lafayette. When General Pershing and the first U.S. troops arrived in Paris to fight in World War I, one of their first stops, on July 4, 1917, was a visit to Lafayette’s grave. Standing at the gravesite in Picpus Cemetery, Pershing’s aide, Colonel Stanton, declared “Lafayette, we are here.” and Pershing then placed a United States flag on his grave.


Lafayette’s Grave, Paris.

A Memorial celebrating Lafayette’s visit to Public School #3 in NYC in 1824.

Even in the 1930’s, Lafayette remained fresh in peoples minds. References to Lafayette in the WPA Guides abound. Just a partial list includes:

New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina Pennsylvania, and Louisiana.

With any of these guides in hand, you can find houses where Lafayette stayed, where he fought, courthouses where he was feted with speech and parades, inns where he ate (and even the menus that he was served), Lafayette oaks, Lafayette elms, Lafayette memorials, Lafayette avenues, Lafayette statues.

Here are just a few very brief samples of what the guides have to say:

From the Virginia Guide:

“Lafayette’s role in winning the American Revolution:

During May and June 1781, Lord Corwallis led campaigns north and west of Richmond, opposed by Lafayette […] Washington and Rochambeau then joined Lafayette at Williamsburg. Meanwhile Comte de Grasse, sailed his French fleet from the West Indies […]

By September 29, the American and French forces had surrounded Yorktown, making the British surrender inevitable. On October 19, the English marched out between the American and French forces, laying down their arms while the band played ‘The World Turned Upside Down.'”

From the New Jersey Guide:
“The Boudinot House, in Elizabeth NJ:

Lafayette was entertained here in 1824, leaving a touch of Old World romanticism to color the dreams of the young ladies attending Miss Spaulding’s school on the same spot 20 years later.”

From the Pennsylvania Guide:

“The Scene of Lafayette’s Toast in York, PA:

At a dinner in a house here in 1778, Lafayette proposed his memorable toast of fealty to Washington, thus thwarting the “Conway Cabal” led by General Gates and fellow conspirators who were plotting to unseat the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.”

From the South Carolina Guide:

“The Lafayette Cedar in Camden, SC

The Layette Cedar […] is the sole survivor of a group of cedars planted on the grounds of the new home of Congressman John Carter in 1824. There, Lafayette was entertained on March 8, 1825.

In Lafayette’s honor, all of Camden’s best [silver] and mahogany were sent to Carter’s [And] a set of china [was] specially made for the occasion. A few pieces [of the set] remain.”

Yet another extraordinary event took place more recently. In 1780, Lafayette sailed from France with reinforcements for the American troops on the French ship, L’Hermione. Lafayette rejoined the fight in Virginia; L’Hermione also joined the war, doing battle against the English in Chesapeake Bay.

In 1997, the French people raised $27 million dollars to build a replica of L’Hermione in Rochefort, France, the same shipyard in which the original was built. Finished in 2015, L’Hermione redux set sail for a 27-day trip across the Atlantic. She arrived in Yorktown, Virginia in May and, later that summer, she visited Annapolis, Boston, Philadelphia and New York City.


L’Hermione replica in Rochefort, France


One can still participate in Lafayette events to this day. May 19 is Lafayette Day in Boston. Every year, the current members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (which dates back to the Revolutionary War) march to the Boston Common to place a wreath on Lafayette’s memorial. After a speech by the French Consul, the group retires to the French Consul’s residence for a formal lunch.

Truly, Lafayette is a hero for the ages.

June, 2023

Travels with The WPA State Guides: Brattleboro, Vermont

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




In the 1930s , Brattleboro was a scrappy industrial town, known for the Estey Organ factory  and other assorted manufacturing businesses.  The Vermont Guide mentions a few artists  who were born and (pretty quickly) left the town and praises the architecture of a few of its buildings.   But, in a state where beauty both natural and architectural abound, Brattleboro was not suggested as a place in which it might be found:

“Brattleboro  spreads  along  the  Connecticut  from  its  junction  with  the West  River  south  to  Whetstone  Brook,  and  climbs  an  irregular  chain  of plateaus  to  the  west.  The  rocky  wooded  height  of  Wantastiquet  Mountain on  the  New  Hampshire  shore  of  the  Connecticut  presses  down  upon the  town  from  the  east.  Main  Street  passes  from  the  brief  charm  of  the Common  into  one  of  the  most  crowded  business  sections  in  Vermont, winds  steeply  down  between  darkened  brick  buildings  to  the  native  stone railroad  station,  south  of  which  lie  the  yards  and  factories  of  the  industrial flats  along  the  river […] From  the  semi-circle  of  terraces  that  rise  west  of  Main  Street,  houses look  down  upon  the  jumble  of  shed  roofs  and  smokestacks […] [The town has] something  of  the  loud,  unlovely  industrial  atmosphere of  Bellows  Falls,  where  the  Connecticut  is  even  more  sharply  walled-in  by  hills. 

In  1771,  Stephen  Greenleaf,  from  Boston,  opened  what  is  believed  to  have been  the  first  store  in  the  present  State.  Not  of  much  significance  in  itself, the  fact  exemplifies  the  zeal  for  trade  and  industry  that  Brattleboro  has always  manifested  to  a  degree  equaled  by  few  other  Vermont  towns. Of  the  many  manufacturing  firms  that  came  into  being  during  the  last century,  the  most  widely  known  was  the  Estey  Organ  Company […] The  ‘parlor  organ’  is  almost  as  obsolete  as  the  top  buggy, but  the  Estey  Organ  Company  now  leads  in  the  manufacture  of  multi-manual  pipe  organs  for  churches  and  private  homes. Other  commercial  products  of  Brattleboro  include  cotton  goods,  pen-holders, brush  handles,  lacquer,  heels,  bathroom  accessories,  finished woods,  toys,  overalls,  paper,  soft  drinks,  and  granite  monuments  and memorials.”

Vermont Guide, p. 95-7.

Almost 100 years later, Brattleboro the town looks remarkably similar to its 1930s aspect but the nature of the community has changed radically. Instead of factory workers and mills, Brattleboro is now the center of a thriving arts community.  The town’s red brick and granite buildings have been repurposed into art galleries, artisanal coffee shops, sophisticated farm-to-table restaurants, music venues, and bookstores.

In one of the most radical changes, the original  railroad station has become The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center. This transformation was accomplished in 1972 by a group of volunteers from the town without sacrificing either the dignified exterior or the elegant, airy interior. The waiting room still contains the original ticket windows with their extraordinary dark wood moldings and a multitude gallery spaces have been carved out of the space.

Currently, the museum is displaying the work of six artists.  I was especially impressed with  the work of two of the artists: Keith Haring, “Subway Drawings” and Cathy Cone, “Portals and Portraits.”  Haring and Cone take radically different approaches. Haring is all about surface. His drawings fill the page with energetic outlines of figures who dance with each other in a burst of energy. They have no depth, no shadows, no mystery.  Everything  that Haring wants you to know about them is right there for you to see. The life that they have  is one of motion, openness, and joy—and they’re eager to share it with you.

Cathy Cone’s subjects, however, are all about depth and mystery. They are masked or veiled, shaded, half—or even more than half—hidden. They keep their secrets, reminding us that we can never truly know another fully. Try as we might, there will always be something that remains hidden. This is disquieting but also reassuring. Even in an age when all seems to be public and exposed, we can take reassurance that we can keep a certain amount private, choosing to divulge some but never all of who we are.

While Haring and Cone take such different approaches, they have one essential quality in common. They are both exquisite artists. Their command of their medium and their ability to convey meaning through the visual is unsurpassed. Early spring is mud season in Vermont. You might want to skip a sightseeing drive through the Green mountains. But a trip to Brattleboro to see these exhibits, to browse in art galleries, to hear some folk music,  and to eat superb fresh farm cuisine is an utterly satisfying way to spend a spring weekend.

May, 2023.









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Travels with the WPA State Guides: John Paul Jones

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




John Paul Jones, the “Father of the American Navy” was our country’s first well-known naval commander. Jones was born in Scotland, became a sailor at thirteen, and ascended to the position of commander on British merchant ships. After he killed a mutinous crew member with a sword, he fled to Virginia in 1775 and volunteered his services to newly-formed Continental Navy. For two years, Jones commanded several small ships with which he raided British vessels in the Bahamas, Nova Scotia and Ireland. Two notable successes were his capture of the Mellish, a British ship carrying a supply of winter clothing intended for British troops in Canada and the Drake, a British military vessel in the Irish Sea. The capture of the Drake was one of the Continental Navy’s few significant military victories during the Revolution and it came to symbolize the American spirit and serve as an inspiration for the permanent establishment of the United States Navy.

In 1779, Jones was given command of a 42-gun ship donated by the French. He renamed it the Bonhomme Richard in honor of Benjamin Franklin. On the evening of August 14, Jones, accompanied by five smaller American ships, engaged two British ships, the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough, in a battle at Flamborough Head in the Irish Sea. It was a historic battle!

Recognizing that he could not win a battle of big guns, especially at night with the wind dying, Jones attempted instead to block the Serapis’s path of escape. When this appeared likely to fail,  the captain of the Serapis demanded his surrender. Jones refused uttering his most famous words, “I have not yet begun to fight!”  Continuing to fire at the Serapis, Jones made it possible for the American ship, Alliance, to approach nearer and to fire a broadside at the Countess.The broadside hit both the Bonhomme Richard and the Countess. Soon after, the Countess surrendered.

With Bonhomme Richard burning and sinking, her flag was shot away. The British commander asked if the colors had been struck as a sign of surrender and Jones replied  “I may sink, but I’ll be damned if I strike.” An attempt by the British to board Bonhomme Richard was then thwarted, and Jones launched a grenade which caused the explosion of a large quantity of gunpowder on Serapis‘s lower deck. While the Serapis was fighting the onboard fire, the Alliance fired two more broadsides again damaging the Bonhomme  Richard but also rendering Serapis unable to move. Serapis surrendered. The Bonhomme Richard  sank and but Jones was able to repair the captured Serapis and sailed it to Holland.

After the Revolutionary War ended, Jones received a gold medal from the Continental Congress and King Louis XVI of France named him a “Chevalier.” But Jones was not ready to retire. Having no further commissions from the US Navy, he volunteered and served in the Russian Navy from 1787 to 1790 when he was accused of rape (apparently unjustly) by a young Russian woman. Although his guilt was much in doubt, Empress of Catherine II exiled him from the Russian Navy for two years. Jones left for Paris where he died in 1792. He was buried in the French Royal family’s Saint Louis Cemetery but, four years later, France’s revolutionary government sold the property and the cemetery was closed and all-but forgotten.

In 1905, after a search lasting six years, the U.S. Ambassador to France, Horace Porter, located the cemetery.  Apparently, Jones’s body had been preserved in alcohol and interred in a lead coffin. Horace dug up five lead coffins on the grounds and exhumed the bodies. The body in the third coffin, unearthed on April 7, 1905, was identified as Jones by comparing his preserved face to the bust of him done by Jean-Antoine Houdon in 1780.

Porter sailed with brought Jones’s body on a Navy cruiser, which was met in the Chesapeake Bay by a procession of seven  Navy battleships. On April 24, 1906, his coffin was installed at the US Naval Academy and Teddy Roosevelt gave a eulogy. Finally, in 1913, the Academy placed Jones’s remains in a bronze and marble sarcophagus located in a crypt below the Naval Academy Chapel:

“NAVAL ACADEMY CHAPEL, The dome over the crossing, with its glittering gilded cupola, rises more than two hundred feet above the ground. Its former terra-cotta decorative work drums, flags, and festoons—has been replaced with plain sheet copper; the coffered ceiling is ornamented with symbolic designs in plaster. Stained glass windows in the apse and transepts commemorate naval heroes Sampson, Mason, Porter, Farragut—and Academy men who served in the World War. Under the crossing is the crypt, a round colonnaded chamber containing the bronze and marble sarcophagus holding the dust of John Paul Jones, who on his death in 1792 was buried in Paris. In 1905 the coffin was ceremoniously transferred to America. The sarcophagus somewhat resembles Napoleon’s in the Hotel des Invalides, Paris.”

Maryland Guide p. 192.



I visited the Academy Chapel and Jones’s crypt on a quiet day in early March. Both the Chapel and the crypt are impressive. The theme of sailing, its perils and its glory, is consistent throughout and the scale of the architecture and elegance of the materials is amazing. Jones’s sarcophagus does indeed resemble Napoleon’s and the crypt rivals the magnificence of European royal tombs. From the Navy’s point of view, Jones was never, and should never be forgotten. He was larger than life and he remains possibly even larger in death.

March, 2023

















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Travels with the WPA State Guides: Smoky Mountains National Park      

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




The Smoky Mountain National park is the most visited national park in our country. Traffic through the park in high season is bumper to bumper. But in early spring, the tourists (and the bears) are just beginning to emerge.  When I visited in April, the dogwoods, violets and trillium were in bloom, bumble bees and butterflies swarmed around me, and flies were hatching on the many creeks and rivers, encouraging  fishermen to wade into the icy water.  The air was clean; traffic was nonexistent in the early morning, becoming moderate on the roads and the hiking trails as the day progressed.

Every corner of the park is beautiful from meadows to waterfalls and stately trees to historic wooden churches and cabins, to blue-tinged mountains receding into the distance. There is a reason that so many people vist: the Smoky Mountains inspire dreams and fire the imagination. The Tennessee Guide gets it just right in describing the natural beauty of the park:

“A part of the Appalachian escarpment, the Great Smoky Mountains form the towering eastern wall of the Great Valley which stretches southward into Tennessee from Virginia. Geologists estimate that the range, composed of sixteen peaks rising more than 6,000 feet, is the oldest mountain formation on the North American continent.

Veil-like mist, called by the mountain-dwelling Cherokee the “Great Smoke,” hovers over the blue peaks and shifts constantly with the wind. The Indians called the range “Great Mountains” – – a name [still] applied to the Smokies today.

The boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee follows the crestline of the mountains for approximately seventy miles. The entire park – – mountain, ramparts, and wooded valleys stretching northeast and south-west into both States — has a total area of 643 square miles.

Almost wholly forestland, it includes 200,000 acres of virgin hardwoods, one of the largest stands in America. In the 50,000 acres of red spruce are many trees more than 400 years old. Beech forests cover the

lower slopes, and reach even to some of the higher peaks, with especially magnificent specimens at Trillium Gap. There are some fine stands of yellowwood, or “gopher tree,” which the mountain people believe furnished the wood for Noah’s ark.

Treeless areas or “balds”—called “slicks” by the natives because of their deceptive appearance of smoothness—are found on some of the ridge-tops. Some, known as “heath balds,” are covered with shrub growth and are the result of windfall, landslides, and fire.

Others, with neither trees nor shrubs, are of unknown origin. The belief that these open meadows, called “grassy balds,” are old Indian camp sites is strengthened by the fact that good springs are usually found nearby and the areas show the impress of more than a century of grazing. The grassy balds were used as grazing lands until the establishment of the park. Andrew’s Bald on a southern spur of Clingman’s Dome is one of the largest of the grassy balds.

The great variety of both trees and flowers in the Great Smokies is due to the varied character of the terrain and to climatic conditions, which are similar to those of several floral zones. Because of good soil conditions and consistently high rainfall, maple, oak, buckeye, basswood, and chestnut trees reach their largest growth within the park area, and many shrubs attain tree dimension. The largest tree is the yellow poplar or tulip tree,which often reaches a height of nearly 200 feet and a diameter of nine feet.

The mountain laurel—sometimes towering to forty feet—and the rhododendron are the commonest shrubs. Since William Bartram, the first botanist to visit the Great Smokies, reported his findings in 1778, scientists and student groups have regarded the region as one of the richest botanical collecting grounds in America.

Approximately 3,710 varieties of plant life have been listed, including mosses, liverworts, fungi, lichens, ferns, and 1,500 species of higher plant life. From the mountain bases to the high peaks grow almost every kind of wild flowers found from the deep South to Canada. Tree trunks, rocks, and seemingly every inch of soil have some kind of floral coverage.

Masses of color clothe the park from early spring to late fall. Violets, trillium, both white and yellow, trailing arbutus and phlox, open the pageant, and are followed by the azalea, which Bartram so aptly described as enveloping the hillsides in flame. In July, the wild tiger lilies, some with stalks six feet high, cover the open fields with vivid orange. Laurel and rhododendron reach their fullest glory in June, their pink and white blooms giving a roseate glow to the mountainsides.

Later come the white and purple asters and, less profuse, the golden. In October dogwood, witch-hazel, and sumac add a variety of tints; and the winter evergreens with festoons of icicles ‘complete the twelve-months’ cycle of color.”

Tennessee State Guide, p. 514-16

When the Tennessee Guide was written, Smoky Mountains National Park was just about complete after many years of planning and 15 years of work:

“A movement for a national park was started by Asheville, N. C. in 1899 with the organization of the Appalachian Park Association, but it was not until 1924 that the first definite move was made to create a national park along its present lines. In that year Congress appointed the Southern Appalachian Park Commission to investigate and determine a possible area for such a project.

Through the cooperation the U. S. Secretary of the Interior, and on recommendation of the commission, provision was made for the Government’s development of 150,000 acres of land as soon as 427,000 acres—stipulated as a minimum by law—were turned over to it.

The bill to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was signed by President Coolidge on May 22, 1926. In 1928, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial donated $5,000,000 to purchase the required amount of acreage. This gift helped smooth out legal difficulties and litigations with lumber companies [who owned the land.]

The suit to condemn a single tract of 38,288 acres owned by one company was the largest of its kind ever filed in the United States. In 1930, two land grants of 158,876 acres and 138,843 acres were transferred to the Government, and in the following year the park was officially established.”

Tennessee State Guide, p. 516-17

Much of the work of building bridges and roads was done by the WPA.  Its characteristic stonework can be seen and admired throughout the park. The WPA also took care to preserve some of the old homesteads and churches of the original 18th century settlers and their descendants.  Appalachian families who lived in original cabins on park land were were permitted to stay on their farms during their lifetimes and to maintain their traditional way of life.

“[In the 1920s and 30s,] the pioneer way of life was still to be found within [the park’s] boundaries. During the great westward migration of the eighteenth century, when thousands of English and Scotch-Irish home seekers poured over the Appalachians, many families halted and took up land in the mountain valleys rather than undertake the hard journey westward. Stragglers coming into the mountains after the coves and bottoms were taken up were forced to settle on the ridges where the soil was thin and stony.

Even today a sharp distinction is drawn between the “Covites” — prosperous valley farmers — and the ridge-dwellers, called “Ridgemanites,” a term synonymous with “poor white” in other parts of the South.

Most of the Parks’ cabins were built by early settlers at “log raisings [of] notched logs, cut at the right turn of the moon to insure proper seasoning. [T]he logs were assembled, and a house was often erected in two or three days with the assistance of neighbors. Chimneys were sometimes constructed of logs, laid in clay, and fired hard by chimney heat. Because large families prevailed, [a] loft provided sleeping quarters for youngsters when they graduated from trundle beds.

The conversion of the heart of the Great Smokies into a national park ended the isolation of its people. The swift drastic changes, however, have affected chiefly the younger generation; older people still cling to traditions and customs practiced by their forefathers. In character, the highlander remains independent, unaffected and sure of himself, and never seems hurried about his work or his play. His tastes are simple, and his tradition of open-handed hospitality has the force of a religious law. Much of his social life centers about the little “church house.” Congregations are predominantly Baptist, with a sprinkling of Methodist and Presbyterian.”

Guide, p. 517-18

After the owners died, most of the old cabins were razed but the Park preserved  some of their houses so that visitors might see how authentically they lived 200 years after their ancestors first came to farm the land.  

In Cades Cove, the park has restored several old farm structures as well including a grist mill and a cantilevered barn and the Cades Cove loop takes you to three of the original churches, along with their graveyards.

Also on the new parkland was the tiny mountain town of Elkmont,  a 19th century summer resort community consisting of a small hotel and a few dozen wood cabins:

“ELKMONT (2,146 alt., 110 pop.), 1 m., a resort (hotels and cabins) on a farm once owned by Drury P. Armstrong, Knoxville merchant, whose diary (1844-49) tells of an abundance of game fish, wild fowl, wild animals and large crops here. The railroad of the Little River Lumber Company was the first means of access to the spot.  An excursion of the Knoxville Elks caused the place to be called Elks Mountain, but this was later shortened to Elkmont. The Wonderland Club Hotel, built in 1912 and since enlarged, is one of the few resort hotels in the park.The Appalachian Club maintains a smaller clubhouse and a number of cabins.

Across the road from the hotel is the entrance to Le Conte, a private camp for boys.”

Guide, p. 357

When the government bought the land, it  allowed the former owners in Elkmont to remain as renters for their lifetimes. The hotel burned but the houses remained. By the 1960’s , the town was deserted and its cabins were falling down. They now have been restored and are open for visitors. It’s great fun to wander through them, wondering what it must have been like for a Knoxville family to spend the summer in these simple surroundings.

When the park was created,  the hope was that its creation the would revive the native populations of wild life — and that hope has been amply  realized. Even in 1939, the Guide points to the increase in numbers:

“With the exception of waterfowl, all the birds and animals common to Tennessee are found in the Great Smokies. Wasteful hunting and lumbering have depleted the supply of game, but under the present program of conservation wild turkeys, ruffed grouse, white-tailed deer, and black bear are increasing. …

In 1926,  at least 80 species [of birds lived in] elevations ranging from 1,500 to 6,642 feet…. Since that time the protection of bird life has resulted in an increase of both the number and kinds of birds. The golden eagle and the northern raven, at present rare species, are among those which have [now] found sanctuary within the park.”

Guide, p.516

Wildlife is flourishing in the park today. It is common to see turkeys and deer in both field and forest and the songs of birds greet you everywhere. Black bear not scarce either. One very fun part of the experience of driving through the park is to come upon a (mini) traffic jam. You learn quickly that this is most likely the result of the sighting of a bear. Cars stop in the middle of the road, people line the verges taking photographs with their cellphones.

Do not drive by (even if you can!) If you stop, you will likely be rewarded with a sighting. In just one afternoon this week, I saw two large bears and two cubs.

The Tennessee Guide is justifiably proud of its national park, Truly it is one of the most beautiful places that I have visited on my travels guide in hand.

April, 2023.




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Travels With the WPA State Guides: The Minneapolis Post Office

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




Minnesota is the epitome of an unprepossessing state. It is interesting, friendly, varied, cultured, but above all, it is modest. The Minnesota State Guide, like the state that produced it, tends toward matter-of-fact statements. Even when it describes a gem of a building, it underplays its aesthetic impact.

There is no better example of understatement than the Guide’s entry about the Minneapolis Post Office. Built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1933 to 1935, the post office is a remarkable example of Art Deco architecture on a grand scale. But reading the Guide, you would likely never be tempted to visit:

“The Minneapolis Post Office is a four-story building with a base of black granite and superstructure of Shakopee dolomite. The [cornerstone of] the modern structure, designed by the local firm of Magney & Tusler […] was laid in 1933; in February, 1935, the building was ready for occupancy.

The main building is on the approximate center of a three-block area; its four stories reach a height of 100 feet. The design—dignified and impressive—is based on utility rather than artistic embellishment. In addition to mail-handling facilities, there are a cafeteria, an assembly room, meeting rooms, a gymnasium and rifle range.”

Minnesota Guide, p. 183.

Last week, I went to see it anyway. I was encouraged to do so when I read on the Living New Deal site that the main floor of the Post Office possessed the world’s largest light fixture:

“The lobby within the Minneapolis Post Office remains largely intact today. The lobby’s most prominent feature is a 365-foot-long bronze chandelier that runs along the entire length of the lobby. This astounding fixture is perhaps the longest in the world of its kind (Mack, 2004). The interior lobby also features inlaid terrazzo floors and many original bronze features including teller windows, freestanding mailing stations, and bulletin signs.”

Reader, I was blown away. The interior of the post office is truly beautiful. The proportions of the mail room are truly grand and the architectural details are stunning. The post office boxes, the mailing stations, the booths for postal workers’ booths, the signs and directories are all in bronze polished to a beautiful sheen. The floor and the walls are inlaid with black marble and the light fixture is definitely impressive. It stretches the length of three city blocks and each bay of post office boxes contains a similar smaller version.

Minnesotans could afford to brag about this building. A visit returns us to the best of the 1930’s and speaks volumes about the achievements of the WPA. 

March 2023.














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Travels with the WPA Guide: Pirates!

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




The Outer Banks of North Carolina are stunningly beautiful and, for the most part, their gorgeous beaches are replete with summer homes and tourist attractions.  A notable exception to the crowds and hustle is the small town of Southport, just inland on the Cape Fear River. Little changed from its colonial era founding, Southport is relatively modest, masking its extraordinary history. For a small town, a lot happened here.

The North Carolina Guide aptly describes Southport today: 

“Southport, the seat of Brunswick County, [is] on a beautiful estuary of the Cape Fear River with bathing beaches; still- and deep-water fishing and  hunting. Founded in 1792, it [is] was midway between New York and Florida on the Intracoastal Waterway. Sea breezes make the summers cool, and proximity to the Gulf Stream tempers the winters. The town is attractive with groves of wind-swept live oaks, spiny Mexican poppies growing along the streets, and a profusion of western gaillardia and sea evening primrose.”

North Carolina Guide, p. 289.

But drama lies beneath the placid aspect of today’s Southport. The town intersected with the sweep of history in 1718. Just offshore from Southport is Bald Head Island which forms Cape Fear, a dangerous location for ships, which the Guide described in romantic detail:

“The extreme tip of Bald Head Island forms the dread CAPE FEAR, the “promontorium tremendum.”  FRYING PAN SHOALS, 20 miles off Cape Fear, marked by a lightship, are among the most dangerous along the coast. Cape Fear [was] described by George Davis in 1879 in the South Atlantic Magazine:

‘Looking then to the Cape for the idea and reason of its name, we find that it is the southernmost point of Smith’s Island, a naked bleak elbow of sand jutting far out into the ocean. Immediately in its front are Frying Pan Shoals pushing out still farther 20 miles to sea.

Together they stand for warning and woe; and together they catch the long majestic roll of the Atlantic as it sweeps through a  thousand miles of grandeur and power from the Arctic towards the Gulf. It is the playground of billows and tempests, the kingdom of silence and awe, disturbed by no sound save the sea gull’s shriek and the breakers’ roar.

Its whole aspect is suggestive, not of repose and beauty, but of desolation and terror. Imagination cannot adorn it. Romance cannot hallow it. Local pride cannot soften it. There it stands today, bleak and threatening and pitiless, as it stood three hundred years ago when Grenville and White came near unto death upon its sands.

And there it will stand bleak and threatening and pitiless until the earth and sea give up their dead. And as its nature, so its name, is now, always has been, and always will be the Cape of Fear.'”

NC Guide, p. 289.

In the early 1700’s, Cape Fear’s combination of danger to navigation and a river which afforded numerous creeks in which to hide drew notorious pirates to Southport where they preyed upon ships in the region.

In 1718, the pirate Stede Bonnet was hiding out in oner such  creek in his vessel, the “Revenge.” Bonnet, who customarily dressed in stylish clothes and wore a powdered wig, was nicknamed “the Gentleman Pirate.” Formerly a sugar plantation owner in Barbados with no experience as a sea captain, Bonnet inexplicably took up piracy in 1717. Unlike most pirate captains who obtained their ships through capture, Bonnet bought his ship with his own money and outfitted it himself.

Bonnet first sailed the Revenge to Virginia to raid English ships. Later that year, he met Edward Teach (“Blackbeard”), the most feared pirate of his day and they set off to cruise together. Taking advantage of Bonnet’s inexpertise, Blackbeard betrayed Bonnet, taking command of his ship and holding him captive. When they reached North Carolina, Backbeard stripped and abandoned the Revenge and sailed away, leaving Bonnet and his crew stranded on a small island in the Cape Fear River.

Bonnet make repairs to his boat and resumed his raids. By the fall of 1718, the Governor of South Carolina had had enough. On September 26, he commissioned William Rhett to take two ships, “The Henry” and “The Sea Nymph,” to Southport to find and capture Bonnet.

Rhett and Bonnet battled for twenty four hours. When the Revenge became trapped between Rhett’s two ships, Bonnet ordered his crew to blow her up. They refused and instead surrendered to Rhett. Bonnet and his crew of 29 were captured and imprisoned in Charleston. Somehow Bonnet managed to escape by dressing in woman’s clothing but he was soon recaptured.

On November 8, 1718, all 29 of the crew were hanged and their bodies thrown into Charleston Harbor (Guide, p. 290). After a protracted trial at which Bonnet defended himself, he was found guilty of piracy and on, December 10, holding a cluster of flowers “in his manacled hands,” he too was hanged.

Today, Bonnet’s Creek looks much as he left it 300 years ago: nearly invisible from the shoreline and from the road that leads to town. If not for the historical marker set in a grove of trees across the road, one would never guess that such a quiet setting had been the scene of a fierce battle and the demise of a legendary pirate.

July, 2022


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Travels with the WPA State Guides : Barnard College

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



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Until the 1960’s, the elite Ivy League colleges did not accept women students. Women who wanted the highest quality education sought and achieved it through the establishment of the Seven Sisters. All founded in the 1880’s and 90’s, the Seven Sisters schools are Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke,  Smith, Wellesley, Vassar and Radcliffe. Today, the first five are still all-women’s colleges; Vassar is co-ed, and Radcliffe has been absorbed by Harvard College.

Most colleges now accept women, but the Seven Sisters advocate for the single-sex educational environment. In their schools, women have the opportunity to fill all of the leadership positions, they are encouraged to speak up, unfettered by traditional notions of women’s roles and stereotypes.

Statistics bear out these arguments. The honors and accomplishments of Seven Sisters graduates in academic fields ranging from science to art and in professions of every kind, are notable. Single-sex schools my have been a necessity prior to co-education; now they are privilege and a rare opportunity for women students in a co-ed world.

The New York City Guide describes the founding of Barnard but says little about its campus on Morningside Heights or the current state of education at the college:

“Barnard College, named  for  one  of  the  outstanding  presidents  of  Columbia University,  Frederick  A.  P.  Barnard,  was  established  in  1889.  At that  time  higher  education  for  women  was  still  considered  generally  to  be unnecessary  and  inappropriate.  Despite  opposition  on  the  part  of  trustees, faculty,  and  students,  in  1883,  [President ] Barnard  succeeded  in  establishing  at  Columbia a  course  for  women  equivalent  to  that  offered  male  students,  although graduates  received  only  a  specially  invented  degree,  Bachelor  of Humane  Letters.  It  was  not  until  1889,  when  a  separate  college  was  established for them that women were granted academic equality with men.”

NYC Guide, p. 384.

In fact, the campus is quite attractive in a traditional college style, augmented by a modern student center, library and science center. And, the education has always been superb.

I graduated from Barnard College in 1968. We were encouraged to think for ourselves and to advocate passionately for our ideals and to pursue our goals relentlessly. When I went on to Harvard Law school,  women were greatly outnumbered by men (600 men in my class, 35 women) but I was not at a disadvantage. I could think and write and make a persuasive argument—and I wasn’t shy about doing so. Barnard had prepared me very well for the rigors to come.

It is a delight to see women striding through campus on their way to class and to overhear their lively conversations. When I revisited Barnard, I sat in on classes and felt the same energy that I had experienced: women thoughtfully expressing their opinions, arguing with fierce intelligence, heading clearly for untold successes in the future.

The Seven Sisters are now only five. Vassar is now co-ed and Radcliffe College is no more, having been absorbed into Harvard College in 1969. The Radcliffe Quad now houses a theatre and a library, but classes have moved to Harvard buildings and the dorms are now co-ed. Even single-sex women’s organizations are discouraged under Harvard’s rules.  

If you want the full experience of a single-sex Ivy education, head elsewhere. You’ve still got five excellent colleges that do it wonderfully well. I recommend Barnard. 

July, 2022







Travels with the WPA State Guides : Bridgehampton, NY

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




Bridgehampton was farmland from the first three centuries of its existence. Settlers in the 1640s displaced the Shinnecock natives (who called the area Sagaponack) and they soon discovered that plowed, flat, farm fields bordering the Atlantic Ocean were perfect for growing potatoes.

For the next three hundred years, potato farming and fishing supported a sparse population. When the New York State Guide was written in 1940, nothing much had changed. Bridgehampton was deemed of so little interest to tourists, that the Guide devoted exactly three sentences to its entire 13.6 square miles.

Bridgehampton, settled in 1660, is a lively shopping center for the countryside. Wick’s Tavern, a two-story white-shingled building was built in 1686. During the Revolution it harbored British soldiers.

New York State Guide, p. 712.

After World War II, Bridgehampton was been totally transformed. At first, the town began to attract artists and writers for its beauty and isolation. In the 1970’s, they were followed by wealthy sunseekers looking to build beach homes within reach of New York City.

Now the epicenter of the Hamptons, Bridgehampton has become an elegant ocean playground for the super-rich. Traces remain of old Sagaponack including its one-room school house, a few 18th century churches and houses, scattered potato fields and street names like Butter Lane and Lumber Lane that recall the town’s farming past. But mostly, the town is unrecognizable from its modest beginnings.

The stores on Main Street now sell fine art, designer clothes, rosé from Bridgehampton’s vineyards, and lobster salad at $100/lb. Prices are stunningly high for just about everything. Last summer, the French bakery was charging $7 for a croissant. Martha Stewart was in line ahead of me. She ordered one. When the cashier told her the price, she turned to me and exclaimed the classic Hamptons line: “Can you believe the prices they charge out here?”

Yesterday, I ordered a BLT to go at The Candy Kitchen, a 1925 luncheonette with an original, old-fashioned soda-fountain. It was nothing special—white bread, store-bought tomato, a few slices of bacon, iceberg lettuce. Price $14.99!

Visually, it is the land that has changed the most. The immense potato fields are mostly gone. The duck farm that raised the famous and delicious Long Island ducks is no more. Porsches and Ferraris have replaced tractors on the roads. Small farmhouses are extinct. In their place are mansions of every style. They occupy large lots, each with its own tennis court, swimming pool, and extensive flower garden, some even with grass landing strips for small planes.

Sagaponack is now the most expensive neighborhood in the United States with a median home price of $8.5 million. The Renner home on 100 acres, is the largest home in this country. It has 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, its own power plant, three swimming pools, a 164-seat home theater, a basketball court, a bowling alley, and a garage with space for 100 cars. It is valued at $249 million dollars.

Current real estate ads (shown below) indicate that the trend continues.

Unimaginable wealth and ostentation aside, Bridgehampton still has natural beauty aplenty—ocean views, a magnificent beach, with clear temperate water, rolling waves and powder-white sand, a gentle climate perfect for growing wine, and the fantastic light that has always attracted artists from Fairfield Porter to Jackson Pollack. If you can afford to stay for a few days, Bridgehampton is worth the trip.

July, 2022








Travels with the WPA State Guides: William Lloyd Garrison, Newburyport Hero

                                

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




Massachusetts claims William Lloyd Garrison as a native son. Garrison founded of the anti-slavery movement in our state and was among its most powerful spokespersons. Garrison is best know as the editor of The Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper, founded  in 1830, and as the co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. His leadership of these two organizations constituted the heart and soul of the abolitionist movement.      

Garrison condemned slavery on the first page of the first issue of the Liberator and his words served as the call to action for the burgeoning movement:

“In Park-Street Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, I unreflectingly assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. I seize this moment to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice, and absurdity.

A similar recantation, from my pen, was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in September 1829. My conscience is now satisfied.

I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation.

No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.

I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard.”

Despite the central role that Garrison played in the abolition of slavery, the WPA Massachusetts Guide is not as effusive as it could (or should) be about his life’s work. Ever faithful to the conservative views of 1930s Harvard historians who wrote the Guide, it credits Garrison with launching the anti-slavery campaign but peppers its paragraphs with disparaging words and tone and asserts that the movement would not have been successful had it not been taken up by more “respectable” Boston Brahmins:

“It was in Boston that William Lloyd Garrison established his newspaper The Liberator in 1831, committed to the immediate emancipation of all humans held in bondage and vitriolic in the abuse which it heaped on slaveholders.”

Massachusetts Guide, p. 42.

“William Lloyd Garrison had no respect for the interests of cotton, whether expounded by planters or manufacturers. He invaded Boston and founded the Liberator (1831) […]

Garrison attacked the Constitution because it recognized slavery as legal, and Boston patriots could hardly suffer so sacred a document to be disparaged […]

Garrison’s fervor attracted Wendell Phillips, a brilliant orator whose lineage was almost as old as Boston, […] and [Brahmins] Channing, Parker, Lowell, Longfellow [and] Dana and under the championship of such ultra-respectable persons, the anti-slavery crusade gained ground rapidly.”

Massachusetts Guide, p. 142 (emphasis added).

The Guide’s section on Newburyport fails to mention Garrison at all. Instead, it focusses only on the remarkable Federalist mansions in the town (which still exist in glorious profusion today.)

“ONCE seagoing vessels huddled so close in the Merrimack that they almost bridged the river from the Newburyport to the Salisbury shore. Now the great river runs placidly by the city, and the harbor is clogged with sand. Along the shore still stand a few factories, their red-brick walls faded and picturesque against the background of moving water.

A dignified and charming city rises from the river level […] a monument to the glorious days of Newburyport’s maritime supremacy. Shipowners and their captains built the stately houses which border High Street for several miles; square three-storied dwellings with hip roofs, often crowned by cupolas, their severity of line relieved by cornices, doorways, and window treatments, skillfully executed by men who had learned their craft as shipwrights in the famous Newburyport yards. Throughout the country the street is known as a distinguished survival of the best in Federal architecture.”

Massachusetts Guide, p. 293.

Newburyport was, in fact, Garrison’s hometown and the city itself has not forgotten him. Garrison, son of a merchant seaman, was born on School Street in 1805 just a block from Newburyport Harbor and within two blocks of High street, the site of the truly impressive mansions of shipowners and rum manufacturers. His intimate knowledge of the city’s economic structure directly influenced his anti-slavery position.

Newburyport’s astonishing wealth came from slave labor—a fact hat the Guide neglects to mention. It was a major participant in “the triangle trade” in which England captured slaves in Africa, shipped them to Caribbean sugar plantations where the slaves produced molasses which was then shipped it to the US (including Newburyport) and used to make rum. Garrison objected to the exploitation of slaves in the creation of Newburyport’s wealth and he began his journalistic career by publishing anti-slavery articles in the Newburyport Free Press well before he moved into Boston.

One would be hard-pressed to find any of this rich history with only the Guide in hand. The only reference to Garrison in the Newburyport entry is a short note on p. 294 indicating that there is a statue of him in Brown Square with no explanation of why that might be so.

I discovered all the rest when I went to Newburyport to see the mansions and happened to stay overnight in one that was now an inn named “The Garrison.” Just outside, on a small square, was the statue to which the Guide referred. This got me thinking. A short web search revealed the rest.

It turned out that the “The Garrison Inn” was originally the home of Moses Brown, an early 19th century rum manufacturer whose factory and wharves are still nearby (now filled with upscale gift shops and restaurants.) Brown himself owned no slaves but he was a direct beneficiary of their labor as a purchaser of molasses from the Caribbean sugar plantations.

In the Civil War, Newburyport sided with the abolitionists and, in, 1893, the city commissioned a statue of Garrison and placed it right in Brown’s front yard, directly in front of his former mansion. In 1923, when Brown’s last great-grandchild died, the purchaser of his house turned its 24 (!) bedrooms into The Garrison Inn—a gesture of renaming that would certainly please the modern proponents of this practice.

Garrison’s modest home and his newspaper office are still standing in Newburyport but they are privately owned and cannot be visited. Since both are listed on the National Register, their exteriors cannot be changed in any significant details, and they look as they did when Garrison lived there.

Take the guide with you to Newburyport when you visit. It is wonderful in describing the mansions. But think of Garrison as well. The city has not forgotten him. Throughout its extraordinarily beautiful streets, there are echoes and reminders of him everywhere.

July, 2022








Travels with the WPA State Guides: North Carolina A&T, Greensboro, NC

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




In 1939, North Carolina was segregated and the Guide had a lot to say about that:

“In North Carolina towns, as in most southern towns, there are segregated sections for Negroes, and in these sections housing and sanitation generally have been inadequate. Exploitive landlordism on the part of many white owners […]  has been an almost unregulated evil.”

Education:

“An amendment to the State constitution was made in 1875, providing that ‘the children of the white race and the children of the colored race shall be taught in separate public schools; but there shall be no discrimination in favor of, or to the prejudice of, either race […]’

White schools at the turn of the century were inadequate, and Negro schools lagged behind them […] The total enrollment of Negro college students in NC [was only] 4,000 in 1935-36. In 1935, […] the University of North Carolina, and Duke University announced plans to make available to Negro scholars the library resources of these institutions; to hold clinics for Negro physicians and surgeons, and institutes for Negro ministers, and to encourage research in several phases of Negro history.”

Customary Racial Discretions and Discriminations: 

“Until recent years in North Carolina, but few recreational facilities were available for Negroes. […]

The races are separated in jails, prisons, and poorhouses […] Negroes have their own motion picture houses, restaurants, and hotels, and occupy gallery seats at some white theaters. They have had only limited use of public libraries. Separate coaches are provided on trains. Pullman tickets can be bought on some lines, but the use of the dining car is prohibited. Separate waiting rooms are the rule in train and bus stations. Buses and streetcars assign the Negroes seats in the rear.

Even educated Negroes frequently find it difficult to register and vote. Participation in civic affairs such as officeholding, policing, and jury service is practically nonexistent.”

North Carolina Guide, p. 53-7.

In Greensboro, a small city in the center of the state, social conditions were no different:

“GREENSBORO (838 alt., 53,569 pop.) is an educational and textile-manufacturing center […] The city’s 14,050 Negroes, 26 percent of the total population, live in […] segregated areas […] The largest Negro section is in the eastern part of the city, where the professional and cultural groups occupy attractive homes. Negroes of the city maintain their own library, theater, dramatic and literary societies […] ball parks, swimming pools, and play-grounds.”

North Carolina Guide, p. 203-4.

Since the 1890’s, Greensboro had the distinction of being the location of two historically black colleges: Bennett College (for women) and the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina (A&T). The Guide describes A&T as it was in 1938:

“The AGRICULTURAL AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE OF NORTH CAROLINA (Negro, coeducational), a standard four-year college, occupies a 28-acre campus lying between Laurel, Dudley, Lindsay, and East Market Streets. The institution was established in 1891 by an act of the general assembly for the instruction of Negroes in agriculture and the mechanical arts. The course was later expanded to include the liberal arts. The plant includes 11 buildings and two farms. The college maintains a Little Symphony Orchestra which tours adjacent States, and a band. The enrollment for 1937-38 was 655.

The buildings, two and three stories in height, are of brick with sandstone trim, arched doorways, balconies, and balustrades. Forming sides of a quadrangle are the Dudley Memorial Building, housing the college library of 20,000 volumes; Morrison Hall, and Noble Hall.”

North Carolina Guide, p. 214.

It is unlikely that the Guide’s writers could have foreseen the outsized impact of A&T on the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. In 1959, four of its students, Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and David Richmond, decided to take action against segregation in Greensboro by sitting-in at the whites-only F. W. Woolworth’s lunch counter. Knowing that they would be asked to leave, they planned to refuse and to repeat this process every day for as long as it would take.

On February 1, 1960, at 4:30 PM, the four sat down at the lunch counter. Each asked for a cup of coffee and a donut. The waitress refused. When the store manager asked them to leave, they stayed seated and spent the rest of the time until closing studying from their textbooks.

The next day, twenty black students (including four women from Bennett College) joined the sit-in and, a few days later, they sent a letter to the CEO of Woolworths:

“Dear Mr. President:

We the undersigned are students at the Negro college in the city of Greensboro. Time and time again we have gone into Woolworths in Greensboro. We have bought thousands of items at the counters in your stores. Our money was accepted without rancor or discrimination, and with politeness towards us, while at a long counter just three feet away our money is not acceptable because of the colour of our skins […] We are asking your company to take a firm stand to eliminate discrimination. We firmly believe that God will give you courage and guidance in solving the problem.

Sincerely Yours,

Student Executive Committee”

Woolworths responded that it would “abide by local custom” and maintain its segregation policy.

By February 6, 1960, the number or student protesters had grown to 1000, filling the store. In addition to the daily sit-ins, A&T students began a boycott of all Greensboro stores with segregated lunch counters. Many whose sales dropped precipitously, abandoned their segregation policies in response. Woolworths held out until July 25, 1960, when, after nearly $200,000 in losses (over a million in today’s dollars ) the store manager asked four black employees, to change out of their work clothes and order a meal at the counter. They were the first to be served at the desegregated Woolworth’s lunch counter.

The sit-in movement in Greensboro spread to other Southern cities, including Winston-Salem, Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte, Richmond, Virginia, and Lexington, Kentucky. and Nashville, Tennessee and then to transportation facilities, swimming pools, libraries, parks, beaches and museums. Its success was pivotal in fueling the Civil Rights Movement and the passage of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In the past few years it has been responsible for transforming downtown Greensboro as well. The Woolworth Building now houses The International Civil Rights Center & Museum. In addition to exhibits highlighting the various phases of the Civil Rights Movement the Museum has preserved the original lunch counter (except for four seats which were donated to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.)

A&T, too, has grown immensely since 1938. It is now part of the University of North Carolina System and, with over 13,000 students, is the largest historically black college in the U.S. and The university ranks third in sponsored funding  in the University of North Carolina system institutions, conducts over $78 million in academic and scientific research annually, and operates 20 research centers and institutes on campus.

The old buildings on the main campus are surrounded by scores of newer ones, and the campus now spans 600 acres plus a 492-acre working farm and two research parks. One of the most moving sites is a memorial dedicated to Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and David Richmond which has pride of place in the quadrangle directly in front of Dudley Hall.

April, 2022











Travels with the WPA State Guides: Wolf Slabs, Salisbury, Massachusetts

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



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“Left from Salisbury Square on State 1 A is the Old Burying Ground at the junction of State 1A and Beach Rd. In this cemetery, laid out in 1639, may be seen large flat stones known as ‘wolf slabs’ placed on the graves to protect them from hungry wolves.”

Massachusetts State Guide, p. 410.

It is astonishing how detailed some of the state guides can be. The paragraph above, in tiny lettering, is included in a suggested tour of  Massachusetts’ Route 1A from the New Hampshire border to the Rhode Island border. I couldn’t resist checking it out.

The fear that wolves would invade graveyards was commonplace in medieval European legends of the 16th and 17th century. The first British settlers of Salisbury brought it with them in the1630s. Whether these legends are based in fact has never been proved. Wolves are scavengers who do eat carrion when they cannot find live meat. Some biologists speculate that they might have dug up shallow graves during the wars and plagues of the Middle Ages. Others scoff at the idea.

Legend vs. fact aside, what is clear is that fear of wolves motivated wholesale slaughter of the native grey wolf population in the original colonies. Among the first laws instituted by the settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 was a bounty on wolves, referred to as “fierce, bloodsucking persecutors.” As a result, the gray wolf has been extinct in our state since 1840.

Finding extant wolf slabs is almost as hard as finding wolves, so the brief mention of them in the Guide was sufficient incentive for me to drive to Salisbury’s Old Burying Ground to see if they were still there.

400 years later, they are. Set at the foot of graves dating from the 1630’s, they are clearly distinguishable from gravestones. Large, irregular boulders, unadorned, they are sprinkled throughout the cemetery alongside the graves of the earliest settlers. I was not entirely sure that I had found what I was looking for until I came upon the grave of William Worcester. It is marked with a historic plaque (dated 1913) noting the presence of its wolf slab:

“Here lies buried the body of Rev. William Worcester, the first minister of the parish of Salisbury who came from England about 1639 and died August 28,1662. This stone was laid on his grave to prevent disinterment by wolves.” 

The moral of the story: read the fine print.

July, 2022





Travels with the WPA State Guides: Sheridan Square and the Stonewall Inn

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




 Sheridan Square, in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village was named for General Philip Sheridan, a Northern general in the Civil War. The Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, he defeated Confederates in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 and then pursued Robert E. Lee, forcing him to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865.

After his death in 1888, New York city named the square in his honor.  “At the northeast end is a small park, containing a bronze statue of General Sheridan […]  erected in 1936.” (New York City Guide, p. 141) It’s a strange spot for a Civil War tribute to a now all but forgotten army officer. But the Square has taken on great significance since 1969. It is now a place of pilgrimage.

The Stonewall Inn, an old dive bar, sits directly across from the Square on Christopher Street. In the 1960s it became a popular gay bar. Throughout the decade, police raids were common; customarily the police would enter, separate dancing couples, collect a cash payoff and leave.

But on June 28, 1969, nine police officers from the Vice Squad, Public Morals Division, entered the bar, arrested some of the patrons and seized some liquor. By the time the patrol wagons had arrived to transport the arrestees, a crowd of patrons has begun to grow in the square. When the police attempted to place a handcuffed woman into a van, she shouted to the crowd “Why don’t you guys do something?” An officer picked her up and heaved her into the wagon, whereupon the crowd erupted in protest.

The officers called for back-up from the Tactical Police Force (TPF) who formed a phalanx and cleared the street, ending the protest but the resistance to police harassment was path-breaking and liberating. It became a great source of pride in the LGBTQ community and led to the first gay pride parades in the United States.

In 2000, both the Stonewall Inn and Sheridan Square were  declared National Historic Landmarks and the Square is now maintained by the National Park Service. Visitors come mostly for the Rainbow flags and the statues commemorating Stonewall but, when they do, they catch a glimpse of General Sheridan as well. The intertwining monuments are quite moving, exemplifying the passage of time and the pressing social issues in our country’s history.

April  2022


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Travels With The WPA State Guides: City Island, New York

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




City Island, a small dot in Long Island Sound just east of the Bronx, was purchased by Thomas Pell from the native Lenape tribe in 1654. The next generation to live on the island had big plans. They renamed it City Island hoping that its harbors would attract ships from Europe and that a new city that would emerge on the site.

Nothing happened then and, even in 1939, when the New York City Guide was published, not much had changed:

Here is the Guide’s description:

“CITY ISLAND, [is] connected to Rodman’s Neck by City Island Causeway. [T]he dull rubbed brass of sextants gleams in the shop windows and white sloops stand like herons in the cradles of the boatbuilders. Clam chowder and popcorn are sold.

City Island owes its ambitious name to a scheme devised by its inhabitants in 1761 to erect a municipality complete in itself with a port rivaling New York. The project collapsed, and the 230-acre island became a small town with some of the traits of coastal New England.

A number of boating clubs have their headquarters on the island, and, in the summer, the surrounding waters are cross-hatched with the wakes of every sort of small craft. City Islanders themselves are concerned with the building of boats. [S]killed workers are employed at this occupation, the island’s major industry. George Vanderbilt’s Crusader and Vincent Astor’s Nourmahal were built in the yards here […]

A few of the City Islanders still call themselves ‘clam-diggers,’ and the island’s numerous sea-food restaurants …  are as varied as the pockets books that are meat to accommodate. The inhabitants, boasting of the healthful climate, like to repeat the traditional apothegm of New England: “‘Round here we don’t die. We just dry up and blow away.’”

Guide p. 549-50.

It’s 2022 and nothing has happened since. City Island remains just as it was: a small village with one main street, populated mostly by boatbuilders and fishermen. The original buildings and boatyards remain, and new construction is rare.  For the most part, the houses and shops are utterly modest. There are no big- box stores, no chain stores, one or two local banks, a few small grocers, a liquor store to two and a post office. Boatyards line the shore.

There is nothing to do in winter. In summer, you can dig for clams, fish, enjoy the view, sail small boats. When I visited in March, the boatyards were closed and the town was so quiet that I saw, at most, two other cars and one seafood truck. Few restaurants were open, but I was lucky to find a small fish market that sold me some delicious fried oysters and clams. It too was empty of customers and the young man behind the counter seemed so delighted to see someone that he threw in fresh-baked cornbread for free.

Like most native New Yorkers, I had never visited City Island. Now I am very glad I did. In Covid times it feels like a long way away—a small-town, nearly silent, thoroughly removed from the crowds and clatter of New York. I could have been in Maine. My new friend at the fish store told me that summer brings crowds to the restaurants from the neighboring Orchard Beach but that they come for lunch and leave directly after. Even in summer, quiet reigns every evening. It’s a peaceful and magical spot.

March, 2022


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Travels with the WPA State Guides: Asbury Park, NJ

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



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One of the mysteries of the New Jersey Guide is the short shrift that it gave to the town of Asbury Park. Sited on a lovely stretch of the Atlantic Coast that provides a miles-long beach, a boardwalk filled with restaurants and amusement arcades, bookended by marvelous architecture, it was a major destination for summer vacationers from the late 19th Century until the 1970s—and it appears to have become one again.

The Guide had only this to say:

 “ASBURY PARK, 26 m. (15 alt., 14,981 pop.), is one of the best-known resorts in northern New Jersey. The streets are closely built with cottages, boarding houses, and hotels, some of them open all year. In 1870, when this region was a wilderness, James A. Bradley, a New York businessman, visited the adjoining Ocean Grove camp meeting. He saw the possibilities of developing a large summer resort and bought 500 wooded acres, which he developed primarily as a summering place for temperance advocates…. The city today reaches nearly 2 miles inland from the beach. The long boardwalk is lined with eating places, a fishing pier, recreational attractions, solariums, and shops where [souvenirs] are sold.

The city has erected on the oceanside a CONVENTION HALL and an AUDITORIUM. The entire boardwalk and its facilities have been leased to an operating company.At the southern end of the boardwalk, swinging (R) past a PENNY ARCADE (L), the route passes WESLEY LAKE with its flotilla of bicycle- motored swan boats.”

New Jersey Guide, p. 682.

There’s much more to it that that.

Architecture first of all :

Asbury Park’s boardwalk was bookended by two spectacular buildings: A Casino and Carousel House on the southern end and the Paramount Theatre and Convention Hall at the north. All were designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Warren and Wetmore, the New York architects who designed Grand Central Station and built between1928-29.

Spectacularly beautiful in their day, they remain wonderful to visit today. While the main building of the Casino is in ruins (and its carousel relocated to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina), the Carousel House, Paramount Theatre and Convention Center have all been renovated and are now used as concert venues. Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, and the Rolling Stones performed there in years past and Ringo Starr is scheduled for next month.

The Boardwalk itself is a joy. Even in winter, it offers restaurants on one side and unlimited views of the Atlantic on the other.

One must-see destination is the Silver ball Museum—voted by New Jerseyites as “the number one tourist attraction in the state.” The Silverball houses collection of pinball machines dating from the 1930s to the  present. Instead of using quarters, you pay an entry fee for an hour and can play any (or every) machine. Each pinball machine is labeled with the date and name of its manufacturer. There are hundreds, all chock-a-block, creating a riot of color and a room alive with the sounds of the flippers, balls, and bells.      

One aspect that the Guide could not have foreseen was Asbury Park’s importance to music lovers. It is a town that loves rock and roll. The Stone Pony, opened in 1974 and still thriving today, anchors the music scene. Robert Santelli, music historian, called it “the greatest rock club of all time.”

Bruce Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt got their start at the Stone Pony and still return to play there from time to time. Other legendary performaners have included Bon Jovi , Stevie Ray Vaughn, Elvis Costello, The Ramones, Cheap Trick, Blondie, Meatloaf, Todd Rundgren, Jimmy Cliff, Joan Jett, Blue Oyster Cult, Gregg Allman, Kiss, Levon Helm, and Van Morrison.

A visit to Asbury Park in winter was a treat. In summer, when the water is warm and the crowds are partying, it can’t help but be even more fun!  

April, 2022


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Travels With the WPA State Guides: Thomas Edison, Menlo Park, New Jersey

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




Thomas Edison died in 1931. One of the world’s greatest inventors, Edison invented the phonograph, the microphone, the electric light bulb, the fluoroscope, the stock ticker, the kinetoscope, the rechargeable battery, and countless other more obscure inventions.

Edison’s lab was in Menlo Park, New Jersey, which, by the time of the writing of the New Jersey Guide, had begun to memorialize his contributions. The Guide reports the beginning of the construction of a tower on the site.

“MENLO PARK (355 pop.), is known for the SITE OF EDISON’S LABORATORY, marked by a rough-hewn granite boulder (R). In a hillside park behind the boulder stands the 129-foot MEMORIAL TOWER, topped by a huge electric light bulb about 14 feet high and 9 feet in diameter. The eight-sided tower is built of reinforced colored concrete. The great bulb is made of prismatic pyrex glass and illuminated by 12 lights inside. Bronze tablets to be placed on seven of the eight sides will tell of Edison’s inventions. A bronze and glass door will give a view of the perpetual light at the base, burning since 1929. The tower stands on the spot where the first incandescent bulb was made.

[F]or years following 1876, Edison worked night and day at Menlo Park testing thousands of ideas and materials. He even tried the red whiskers of

Mackenzie, the station agent, for a lamp filament and rejected them. The laboratory was lighted by gas when he began work. When he moved his shop to West Orange in 1887, the incandescent lamp was being used in many cities. Edison here developed his system of electrical distribution, his commercial dynamo, the carbon transmitter for the telephone, the phonograph, the automatic telegraph, and other devices […]

The glamor of great discovery has faded; Menlo Park now is simply a residential district.”

New Jersey Guide p. 485 (1939).

Well, not quite. There is still glamour to be found in Menlo Park. The tower was completed in 1938 and renovated in 2015. The bronze plaques are in place, the eternal light bulb shines from within the base of the tower and there is a giant light bulb sculpture at the entrance to the site.

Each year, on February 11, Edison’s birthday, the volunteer firefighters of Menlo Park lay a wreath at the base of the tower. I visited on an April morning when not another soul was around so I could not see the bulb at the top lit at night but, fortuitously, the sun was positioned just low enough to light it with natural light. It was an inspiring sight—a fitting memorial to the man whose greatest contributions was to bring light to the darkness.

April 11, 2022








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Travels with the WPA State Guides: North Carolina Pottery

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




When its Guide was published in 1939, “North Carolina had no publicly owned art museums or galleries.”  (North Carolina Guide p. 116)  But art was by no means lacking. The practice and profession of fine crafts in the form of pottery had been thriving in the central part of the state since the early 1700s.

“In the 18th century a colony of potters from Staffordshire, England, settled in the Piedmont at the juncture of Moore, Randolph, and Montgomery Counties. Here their descendants continue to fashion churns, crocks, bowls, and jugs, grinding the local clay by mule power and turning it on the old-fashioned kick wheel. Best known of the potteries of this region is Jugtown Pottery […] In addition to preserving the native traditional designs, the Jugtown Pottery has produced many special forms inspired by old Chinese pottery.

At Cole’s Pottery, near Seagrove, where the pieces are also made by hand, some of the most beautiful glazes in the South have been developed. Hilton Pottery in Catawba County has also produced special glazes, particularly combinations of gray and blue.”

Guide p. 120

The tradition of fine art pottery continues to this day in the Piedmont, with some of the same families still engaged in making elegant work. Seagrove, a tiny rural town remains the epicenter of North Carolina pottery. 200 potters work in and around the town. In November for the past 40 years, Seagrove hosts  the Festival of North Carolina Pottery and the town recently opened the Museum of North Carolina Traditional Pottery on its main street. The Museum suggests tours of the area and displays  historic pottery dating back to 1740 alongside more modern examples from local potters.

In addition to the Museum, visitors can visit the studios of potters including those of long-standing families such as the Owen Pottery and the Jugtown Pottery. You can meet the potters, watch them at their wheels and purchase work ranging from kitchenware of modest cost to museum-quality work costing thousands.

A day or more exploring North Carolina pottery is wonderful fun and truly educational. There’s beauty everywhere as the following photographs will demonstrate. North Carolina now has public art museums but its pottery studios can compete on every level for beauty and artistic importance.

April, 2022











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Travels with the WPA State Guides: Traditional Foods of Maryland

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




The Maryland State Guide is an excellent source book for Maryland’s traditional foods. As the Guide makes clear, cooking and eating have been a preoccupation in the state since colonial times. The Guide’s section on food is perhaps the longest, most detailed of any state guide:

“Appreciation of good food and the art of cooking it are traditional in Maryland, harking back to provincial days […]

The waters of the Chesapeake supply crabs clams, and the famed oysters; and salt-water and fresh-water fish are plentiful. The tidewater regions produce a variety of wild fowl—duck, geese, swan, and brant. The mountain regions in western Maryland […] yield […] wild turkey, ruffled grouse, game fish […] partridges, doves, rabbits, and even an occasional pheasant.

Most sacred to epicures, however, is the diamondback terrapin, a land tortoise caught in the tidewater marshes and kept in the cellar against the day of his sacrifice.

With such a wealth of native produce to draw upon, it is not surprising that Maryland should have made cooking her principal art.

Old-fashioned fried chicken, Maryland Style, has attained nation-wide fame, though discriminating Free Staters often have difficulty in recognizing the concoction of that name foisted on a gullible public outside the State. The standard recipe calls for a young chicken, cut into pieces, floured, and fried in deep fat. According to the oldest custom it is served on a layer of fried cornmeal mush or a crisp johnnycake with cream gravy poured over the cornbread but not over the chicken.

The choicest Maryland foodstuff, the diamondback terrapin, is no longer as plentiful as it once was…. The terrapin, after being carefully washed, are dropped into boiling water and cooked until […] the toenails can be pulled out. The terrapin are then laid on their backs (so that the shell holds the juices) and, when cool enough to handle, the front shell is removed. The meat and eggs are taken out and the liver is cut into small pieces […] Butter is added in large quantities and a slight seasoning of salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne. All other seasonings are taboo. The subtle and delicate flavor of the terrapin must not be smothered […] Sherry, or preferably dry madeira, should be served with the course.

Of equal  merit with chicken, and terrapin are the seafoods from the waters that bound much of the State. Numerous ‘raw bars’ in the towns proffer Maryland oysters in a natural state […]

The crab is another staple among the sea foods of the State. Soft-shell crabs are very lightly sprinkled with salt and flour, then fried for about 20 minutes in butter […] Hard shell crabs are steamed, made into crab cakes or soup, or deviled.

According to one time-honored recipe for deviled crabs, two tablespoonfuls of flour are rubbed into one of butter and put into two cups of hot milk. When the mixture comes to a boil, two pounds of crab meat are added and a well-beaten egg is stirred in. The shells of the crabs are then rubbed with onion, filled with the mixture, covered with bread crumbs, and browned in a moderate oven […]

A discussion of Maryland cooking would not be complete without mention of beaten biscuit, produced by generations of cooks who would have considered that a recipe degraded their art into a trade. One and all of these virtuosi would have assured the reader that Maryland biscuit made by rule is an impossibility and a sacrilege […]

Another illustration of the methods that placed emphasis upon quality rather than speed is the recipe for Maryland apple toddy as it should be made. Around Thanksgiving, a dozen large red apples are baked until their skins burst. While still piping hot, they are covered with a mixture of spirits, usually in the proportions of 1 quart brandy, 1 pint rum, and 1/4 pint peach brandy. After being sweetened to taste and, according to some recipes seasoned with nutmeg, allspice, and clove, they are sealed in a stone jar. And woe unto him who opens it before Christmas Day!

Though the best Maryland cooking is found in private homes […] public eating places have had their share in making Maryland food famous. Along old Market Street in Baltimore there [are] numerous oyster ‘bays’ or bars, usually in cellars, each with its distinctive clientele. Most famous of these was one on South Street near Lovely Lane, rim by a Scotsman named Boyd, and frequented by many of the actors of its day.

After the presidential election of 1936, Maryland hospitality was sampled by the Republican candidate, Alfred M. Landon, at a dinner given by H.L.Mencken. The menu included:

Chesapeake Bay Oysters, Olives, Stuffed Celery, Nuts, Terrapin a la Maryland, Maryland Beaten Biscuits, Fried Chicken à la Maryland in Cream Sauce, Grilled Bacon, Corn Fritters, Potato Croquettes, Maryland Ham, Maryland Hearts of Lettuce, Maryland Water Ices. And good Maryland rye whiskey was used in the cocktails.

It is Maryland’s belief that Mr.Landon was somewhat consoled [by this dinner] for the loss of the election.”

Maryland Guide p. 168-9.

With such enthusiastic a recommendations in mind, I set off with my husband to see whether Maryland could still offer a foodie adventure. Oysters were our first stop. We ordered a dozen at a traditional raw bar in Baltimore and quickly asked for more. All told, we ate two dozen (and one crab leg).




Our first stop the next morning was at Faidley’s for crab cakes in Baltimore’s historic Lexington Market. The Guide’s description of the Market perfectly represents its aspect today:

“LEXINGTON MARKET […] is one of the oldest and most picturesque markets in the nation. It has been operating since 1803. Flowers, vegetables, fish, poultry, homemade candy, cake, pickles, and preserves are displayed on open counters or modern display cases. Stores lining the street have merchandise ranging from cheap liquor to socks at five cents a pair. Sidewalk ‘competitors’ overflow the surrounding curbs to the dismay of motorists and traffic police.

The market is part of the pre-Revolutionary estate of John Eager Howard, who presented the land to the city in 1782. In spite of congestion, any effort to replace the old market is apt to raise a storm of protest.”

Faidley’s Seafood anchors the market. Founded in 1886, it still draws crowds and praise for its iconic crab cakes, “bigger than a baseball, smaller than a softball.” (Style Magazine, November, 2003.)

Although it was only 10 AM, customers were standing at the counter eating oysters and crab cakes were emerging hot from the frying pans. We couldn’t resist. And, just as USA Today put it, we enjoyed every bite.

 “You don’t sit at Faidley’s, you stand, leaning against waist high counters bolted to the old market’s floor. And in that position, you enjoy perhaps the best crab cake you’ll ever have the pleasure of eating.”

USA Today, Life Section, November 19, 2003.






 Next, hard shell crabs:

Hard shell carbs were plentiful in the Lexington Market but we drove to the source, the Eastern Shore of Maryland for steamed  blue crabs, rubbed with Maryland’s famed Old Bay Seasoning.


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The next day we ate spoon bread:



And fried chicken in cream sauce:



And biscuits:



But terrapin was not on offer. A bit of research explains why. Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, Maryland diamondback terrapin was in great demand at the world’s finest restaurants. In the 1920’s in New York City, one serving could cost $100 dollars. The demand was  such that terrapin were close to becoming extinct.

Finally, in 2007, the Maryland legislature banned commercial harvesting of terrapins. This from the Baltimore Sun in 2018, “So have your oysters, your crab cakes, heck, even snack on some frog legs. But leave this delicacy to the history books, and to the University of Maryland, which boasts the turtle as its mascot.”

No more turtle soup was a good outcome for the terrapins and the planet and perfectly fine with me. Maryland food is rich, delicious and just plain wonderful. It was no hardship to be limited to traditional foods that were still plentiful.

February, 2022

Travels with the WPA Guides: Floyd Bennett Field

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson





In 1939, Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn was one of two New York City airports, the other being North Beach Airport in Corona, Queens. Today, Fort Bennett Field is part of the Gateways National Park while North Beach, now called Laguardia Airport, is greatly expanded and transformed.

The Guide describes Floyd Bennett Field as follows:

“Floyd Bennett Field covers a rectangular expanse of 387 acres surrounded by fens bordering Jamaica Bay. It was dedicated by Mayr Walker in 1931 and named for Floyd Bennett, the aviator who piloted Admiral Byrd across the North Pole in 1926.

Carefully planned to handle a large volume of traffic and built on reclaimed marshland […] Floyd Bennett Filed has not been a commercial success because of its distance from the heart of the city.”

New York City Guide (1939) p. 503.

Perhaps due to its failure as a commercial success, the airfield remains exactly as it was in 1931. Its terminal and eight hangars are wonderful examples of art deco industrial architecture at its best. Even in semi-ruined condition, they are beautiful.

For an out-of-the-way airport, Floyd Bennet has been the scene of a considerable amount of drama over the years.

The dedication itself was a lively affair. On June 26, 1930, while a crowd of 25,000 watched, a flotilla of 600 US Army Air Corps aircraft led by Charles Lindbergh circled high above the the airport. In the crowd was Admiral Byrd himself.

In the 1930s, Floyd Bennett Field was the scene of a great many path-breaking feats of aviation. The Guide lists quite a few:

“The field’s strategic location, its long runways and clear approaches have made it a frequent base for long distance flights. The first was the nonstop transatlantic trip of 5014 miles to Istanbul, Turkey in 1931 by Russell Boardman and John Polando. In 1933, Wiley Post began and ended here his sensational solo flight around the word in 7 days, 18 hours and and 49 1/2 minutes. In 1938, Howard Hughes, embarking from Floyd Bennett Field, circled the globe and reduced Post’s record to 3 days, 19 hours and 8 minutes […] The register of the airport, signed by all flyers as they arrive and leave, is a signal collection of names famous in American aviation history.”

New York City Guide p. 504.

One significant omission from the Guide’s list was Beryl Markham, the first person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic from Britain to North America. Markham took off from England in on September 16, 1936 bound for Floyd Bennett Field. No pilot had yet flown non-stop, westward from Europe to America. nor made the flight solo, though several had died trying. Markham hoped to claim both records. On September 16, she did. After a 20-hour flight, her plane’s fuel tank vents iced up and she crash-landed on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. On September 21, she flew to Floyd Bennett Field where she was greeted by a huge crowd and honored with a New York City ticker-tape parade.

Markham’s extraordinary courage and accomplishment are matched fully by her literary accomplishment in her compelling and beautiful memoir, West With the Night, written in 1942.

Drama at the airport was by no means confined to aviation. In 1936, the Works Progress Administration funded new construction at the airport and, the Federal Arts Project commissioned August Henkel and Eugene Chodorow to paint murals for the airport’s main terminal. Henkel and Chodorow completed four large murals on canvas with the theme “The History of Flight.” Several photos exist of them sketching the work in one of the airport hangars.

The final versions of the murals were finished on July 7, 1940 and hung in the mezzanine of the terminal building. There was an immediate uproar. One mural depicting famous aviators in particular gave offense. Some thought that Orville Wright resembled Lenin. (In fact, the portrait was of an Austrian parachutist, Franz Reichfelt. Others objected to the depiction of aviation workers with their fists raised. Still others claimed that some of the workers looked “foreign” and that one on the aviators resembled Stalin.

When the New York Times reported on the controversy the next day, the Administrator of the Federal Art Project in New York City, Lieutenant Colonel Brehan Somervell, ordered the murals taken down immediately and, defying a call for hearings on the matter, he ordered them to be brought to the FPA headquarters in Manhattan where they were ripped up and burned on July 8.* [Footnote: The history of this episode is well and completely recounted in an article by Gerald Monroe. It can be accessed online at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1086/aaa.16.3.1556863. The article contains the only photographs taken of the completed murals. There are only three; the 4th panel is lost completely to history.]

Floyd Bennett Field is now part of the Gateway National Park in Brooklyn, New York. It is evocative—a wonderful place to visit.

February, 2022











Travels with the WPA State Guides: Fort Wadsworth and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




The entrance from the Atlantic Ocean to New York Harbor is through The Narrows. Only one mile wide, the Narrows is bounded by Staten Island to the West and Brooklyn to the East. Whoever controls the Narrows effectively controls maritime access to the entire metropolitan New York area.

Not surprisingly, the land abutting the Narrows has been the site for military forts dating back to colonial times. The British built the first fort on the Staten Island site in 1663. It remained a key military outpost until 1994.

Named Fort Wadsworth in 1865 in honor of James Wadsworth, an Army General who died in the Civil War at the Battle of the Wilderness, the Fort is now a part of the Gateways National Park. In 1939, a visitor to the Fort had to take a ferry from Manhattan and to obtain permission from the Commanding Officer to tour the site:

“Fort Wadsworth guards the Narrows, the water gate to Upper New York Bay […] [It] is garrisoned by the Second and Third Battalions of the Eighteenth Infantry, a detachment of the Fifth Coast Artillery, units of the Quartermaster Corps […] and the First Infantry Brigade.”

NYC Guide p. 723.

Fort Wadsworth was key in the Revolutionary War. Captured by the British in 1776,  General Howe assembled his troops there and then ferried them across the Narrows, landing in Brooklyn and routing Washington’s Army at the Battle of Long Island. With military control of the harbor from both sides, Britain was able to hold all of New York City for the duration of the War.

The Guide reports that, “on Evacuation Day, 1783, the commander of a British warship, goaded by the jeers of the onlooking victorious rebels, fired at the fort a shot that may be considered the last one of the Revolution.”

NYC Guide p. 723.

Not much changed at Fort Wadsworth between 1783 and 1939 but change was in the works. The construction of a bridge spanning the Narrows was proposed in the 1920s, but action was delayed until the after World War II when Robert Moses convinced the city to build the bridge. Construction began in 1959, and the bridge opened on November 21, 1964.

When it opened, the bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world (4,260 feet center span), a record not surpassed until 1981. The bridge’s suspension towers, at 693 feet, were so tall, and the span so long, that the the curvature of the earth had to be taken into consideration in the design. The towers are thus not parallel to each other. Instead, their tops are almost two inches farther apart than their bases.  The length of the span also created another interesting  issue. In the heat of summer, the bridge’s steel cables expand making it sag. The bridge’s roadway is thus 12 feet lower in summer than in winter.

Since the The Narrows is the only entry point for the large cruise and container ships that dock in New York City, all ships that wish to enter New York City now have to be built with enough clearance to sail under the bridge. In 2004, for example, the design of the Queen Mary 2 had to be modified to reduce the height of its funnel so that it could pass beneath the bridge.

Settling upon a name for the bridge was a lengthy, complicated and somewhat comic affair. In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European explorer to sail through the Narrows into New York Harbor.

While the bridge was under construction in 1958, New York Governor, Averell Harriman proposed naming the bridge after Verrazzano. He was succeeded by Nelson Rockefeller, who asserted that “Verrazano” should be spelled with only one “z.” But at the groundbreaking ceremony on August 13, 1959, the Mayor of New York, Robert Wagner, proclaimed the day “Verrazzano Day.”   

None of this pleased the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce. It opposed the Verrazzano name altogether, saying that the proper name of the bridge should be the “Staten Island Bridge” to give Staten Island the same dignity as the other borough’s bridges, each of whom had a bridge named for itself: the Brooklyn Bridge, the Queens Bridge, the Bronx Bridge. That proposal went nowhere. Opposition from New York’s Italian Historical Society was swift and fierce. The Chamber of Commerce retreated to a new proposal: a hyphenated name “Verrazano-Narrows.”  

That solution appeared to hold the day in 1960, when Governor Rockefeller officially named the bridge the “Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.” But the matter was not fully settled until 1963. After President Kennedy was assassinated, a petition was circulated to rename the bridge for Kennedy. The Italian Historical Society reached out to Robert Kennedy who agreed to oppose the renaming and, instead on December 24, 1963, in a deal that finally put the matter to rest, Idlewild Airport in Queens was renamed for Kennedy and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge kept its name.

All controversy and statistics aside, the Verrazano- Narrows Bridge is an awesome site. Its western end lands right at the base of Fort Wadsworth. The juxtaposition of old and new makes a stunning site. Standing on the shore overlooking the fort, you have an amazing view of the bridge overhead and of all on New York Harbor laid out before you. Both the ride on the Staten Island Ferry and the access by bridge are their own rewards. A visit to the Fort is the icing on the cake—a wonderful addition to either experience.

March, 2022







Travels with the WPA State Guides: The Biltmore Estate, North Carolina

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




In 1889, in a Gilded Age exploit, rivaling those of his contemporaries Whitney, Rockefeller and Carnegie,  New York millionaire George Vanderbilt completely transformed the small city of Asheville, North Carolina. Formerly a small mill town, Vanderbilt arrived in Asheville, purchased 130,000 acres of Blue Ridge mountain land, and built an estate in the style of a French chateau. At 175,000 square feet, it was (and still is)  the largest house in the United States.

The North Carolina Guide devoted many pages to describing this fantastic, over-the-top creation:

“The BILTMORE ESTATE (open 9:30-6 daily; adm. $2 per person), entrance on Lodge St. from Biltmore Village, comprises 12,000 acres of farm and forest lands including the landscaped grounds surrounding Biltmore House, the Biltmore Dairies, a reservation for wildlife propagation, and 15 highly developed farms operated by tenants.”

Vanderbilt hired the best. Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park in New York City, was his landscape architect.

“The 50 acres immediately surrounding Biltmore House are laid out in terraces and gardens. The front approach is a grass-carpeted esplanade with a circular pool in the center. At the eastern end of the esplanade the Rampe Douce, an ornate stone structure designed in the manner of the one in the gardens of the chateau of Vaux le Vicomte in France, gives access to bridle paths that traverse the thickly wooded slopes. Beyond a hedge are the spring gardens containing one of the most complete collections of trees in the South.”

The house itself was designed by Richard Morris Hunt. Hunt trained in architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The guide praises “Hunt’s intelligent handling of the mass of the [Biltmore Estate] building and of the beautifully executed details. There is revealed an understanding of the spirit that produced the original style, instead of the copybook attitude of most of his contemporaries.” 

NC Guide p. 133.

Completed in 1895 after five years of construction, the Biltmore resembles the French Renaissance chateuax at Blois and at Chambord in the Loire Valley:

“The house covers an area of 4 acres with frontage of 780 feet. The facade rises in three distinct stories, graduating in height from the elaborate portal to the finial cresting on the roof. The severity of the mass is relieved by the characteristic French peaked roof with dormer windows and lofty chimney stacks. The walls are of hand-tooled Indiana limestone; the roof is of slate.”

NC Guide p. 144.

The interior is vast: 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces and room after room of high-ceilinged spaces for entertaining guests. The interiors are elaborate, filled with  art, books, furniture, carved wood, stained glass and finely-cut stonework:

“The main portal opens into the front hall, 75 feet in height, with Guastavino tile ceiling. At the left of the hall a spiral stairway, modeled after that of the Chateau de Blois, and supported by its own arch construction, leads to the topmost floor. The hand-wrought bronze railing of the stair encircles a chandelier of wrought iron with a cluster of lights for each landing. Adjoining the front hall is the court of palms containing a fountain ornamented with the figures of a boy and a swan.

The dining room walls are covered with Spanish leather above a marble wainscot. At one end is a Wedgwood fireplace. The banquet hall is designed in the Norman tradition. Over the triple fireplace that almost covers one end of the room is a frieze representing the Return from the Chase. Five 16th-century tapestries depicting the story of Vulcan and the loves of Venus and Mars, hang from the wall […]

In the print room […] the family tree of Maximilian the Great [and] the six engravings on each side of this piece are by Durer. In this room is an inlaid chess table reputed to have been used by Napoleon I during his exile on St. Helena. A dull stain in the table drawer, tradition relates, marks the place where the heart of the Emperor lay hidden until it could be smuggled into France for burial […]

The library is paneled in Circassian walnut. The ceiling painting is the work of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), last outstanding artist of the Venetian school […] The shelves contain some 25,000 volumes, among them rare works on art, architecture, and gardening. An upstairs corridor displays the red velvet train of Cardinal Richelieu.”

North Carolina Guide p. 145-46.

Although the Vanderbilts indulged in extravagantly European-style decoration in their house and garden, they were equally  devoted to conservation of the natural forest surrounding the grounds:

“In 1892, Mr. Vanderbilt appointed Gifford Pinchot superintendent of the Biltmore forests, enabling him to institute the first large-scale reforestation project in the United States. (In 1895, Pinchot left Vanderbilt to become first Chief of the United States Division of Forestry where he worked tirelessly and successfully to conservation of American forest lands.)

And after the death of her husband in 1916, Mrs. Vanderbilt sold 80,600 acres to the United States Government to form the nucleus of the Pisgah National Forest.”

NC Guide p. 144-5.

The Biltmore estate is now run by a trust. As the Guide noted, in 1939, it cost $2 to visit, Now, it costs $86. But, aside from the price, nothing has changed. Every stick of furniture, every book in the library, every painting is still in its original place and in perfect condition. Sprinkled throughout are family mementos and the  guides in delight in pointing out the personal details. In the library, for example, the guide told me that Vanderbilt kept a handwritten  list of every book he had read. On each guest bedroom door the slot to hold the calling card of a visitor contains the card of an actual person who stayed in that room.  It’s not homey  and it is somewhat exhausting to take it all in but a visit is definitely an interesting experience—the gilded Age at its most extravagant but by no means totally vulgar.

February, 2022






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Travels with the WPA State Guides: Washington’s Crossing, Concentration Valley, PA

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Picture 2

“On Christmas night, 1776, General Washington and  2,400 soldiers crossed the Delaware to surprise the merry-making Hessian mercenaries. During a blinding snowstorm, the Continentals entered the roomy Durham boats for the perilous trip and [succeeded in capturing] Trenton.”

Pennsylvania Guide, p. 513

Concentration Valley, just east of New Hope, would be lovely on a warm day. But I chose to visit at dusk on a cold day in February to better experience as much as possible the perils of Washington’s troops as they rowed across the swiftly-flowing, icy Delaware River in cold and darkness.

The Guide’s brief description of Washington’s brave feat does not do it justice. In the fall of 1776, Washington had been defeated at the battles of Long Island, Harlem Heights and White Plains. He’d also lost control of New York City for what was to be the duration of the War.

The Continental Army had retreated to Pennsylvania. Food and clothing Supplies were low and the army’s tents gave no shelter from the cold. Scores of soldiers were unwilling to re-enlist and potential new recruits were not forthcoming.

The Hessians were occupying Trenton, New Jersey just across the Delaware. They greatly outnumbered Washington’s men.  The only possibility of a victory was a surprise attack.  Washington A few weeks before the raid, Washington’s soldiers began to collect local Durham boats—arge wooden, flat-bottomed, double-ended rowboats used on the Delaware to transport farm crops to mills in New Hope. They concealed the boats in a nearby barn, waiting for the order to cross.

The wait was agonizing. The weather that December was brutally cold. Dozens of the American soldiers died of cold and hunger while preparing for the raid.

On the night of the 25th, ice sheets prevented two-thirds of Washington’s troops from crossing the river, but, at Concentration Valley, 2400 soldiers managed to make it across. From there they marched nine miles south to Trenton. Not fearing Washington’s  army in its defeated and weakened state,  the Hessians had failed to post sentries or to send out patrols. Washington’s forces caught them off guard, and after a short resistance, most of the Hessians surrendered. Losses to the Continental Army were minimal and the victory revived the Americans’ spirits. Soldiers were inspired to re-enlist and new recruits joined the ranks.

Pennsylvania established Washington State Crossing Park, on the site of the crossing in 1917. It is a lovely and solemn site that honors not only the Crossing but also the men who died there, most of whose names remain unkown. In December each year, local folk re-enact Washington’s crossing in replicas of Durham Boats. I’d like to return next December to see the reenactment but my visit alone in winter, in snow and cold, amid the sound of rushing water, studded with ice floes, was truly evocative of one of our Nation’s pivotal, historic events.

February, 2022





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Travels With The WPA State Guides: The Cherokee Removal

                           

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




One of the most shameful episodes in our history was the Cherokee Removal in 1838. The original homelands of the Cherokee consisted of 10 million acres of land in eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia and Alabama.  The Cherokee were highly sophisticated, educated, able to read and write in their own language and had a representative form of government which was based in part on the United States Constitution. The Cherokee National Assembly met in New Echota, in northern Georgia, the capital of the Cherokee Nation.The National Assembly consisted of a council and a national committee which was empowered to elect a president. As of the end of the 18th Century, the Cherokee were economically thriving on their fertile small farms. 

After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton farming on a large scale became feasible. Inevitably, white Americans began to covet Cherokee farmlands, envisioning the prospect of establishing large cotton plantations on them. Making matters even worse, gold was discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia in 1828.  

Whites began a concerted campaign of harassment, often violent, in an attempt to oust the Cherokee. In Georgia, the campaign was led by the state legislature:

“Georgia passed a law in 1828 extending its jurisdiction over the Cherokee Country and revoking recognition of Indian self-government within the state. [After] gold was discovered in north Georgia in 1828, the Georgia legislature enacted a law prohibiting any Indian from bringing suit or testifying against a white man in state court.  [Prospectors then] seized Cherokee lands. Indians who resisted were forcibly removed or even killed. 

In 1832, the state arbitrarily divided the territory into lots and sold them … to homesteaders. In the same year, a law was passed forbidding the Cherokee to hold public meetings, thereby forestalling any organized move toward the defense of their property.”

Georgia State Guide  p. 45-46

Not satisfied until the last Native American claim to the land was permanently revoked, Georgia then called on the federal government to evict the remaining Native Americans.  Andrew Jackson, our first “Western” President, and a compliant Congress were happy to oblige.

In 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, giving the federal government the power to exchange native-held land east of the Mississippi for land in Oklahoma. Although the law required the government to negotiate removal treaties, in practice, coercion ruled the day. The first tribes forced to leave were those who had the least power to resist. In 1831, under threat of invasion by the U.S. Army, the Choctaw left for Oklahoma. Forced to march in winter without adequate food or supplies, thousands of Choctaw died along the way. This pattern was repeated with the Creek nation with the same tragic results. The route of march was aptly named “The Trail of Tears.”

At this point, guns were squarely trained on the Cherokee. Wealthy and relatively powerful, the Cherokee resisted removal. Their first move was to sue the state of Georgia in the United States Supreme Court, challenging its law that purported to deprive them of their sovereignty and property.

Georgia lost the suit—resoundingly. Writing for the Court, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that dispossession of the Cherokee would violate their treaty rights under the US Constitution:

“The Treaty of Holston, negotiated with the Cherokees in July, 1791, explicitly recognis[es] the national character of the Cherokees and their right of self-government, thus guaranteeing their lands, assuming the duty of protection, and of course pledging the faith of the United States for that protection. [It] has been frequently renewed, and is now in full force. [Specific pledges] restrain the citizens of the United States from encroachments on the Cherokee country, and provide for the punishment of intruders.

… The Indian nations have always been considered as distinct, independent political communities retaining their original natural rights as undisputed possessors of the soil, from time immemorial…. The very term “nation,” so generally applied to them, means “a people distinct from others.” The Constitution, by declaring treaties already made, as well as those to be made, to be the supreme law of the land, has adopted and sanctioned the previous treaties with the Indian nations, and consequently admits their rank among the powers who are capable of making treaties.

… The Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community, occupying its own territory, with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can have no force, and which the citizens of Georgia have no right to enter but with the assent of the Cherokees themselves, or in conformity with treaties and with the acts of Congress. The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation is, by our Constitution and laws, vested in the Government of the United States.

The act of the State of Georgia under which the plaintiff in error was prosecuted is consequently void, and the judgment a nullity.”

Worcester v. Georgia, 1832, (emphasis added).

Jackson was undeterred. He famously said: “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.”Of course, as all law students learn in their first year of law school, the Supreme Court has no power to enforce its decisions. For that, it must rely on the cooperation of the President. Only he can call out the National Guard. As Jackson well knew, Justice Marshall could not prevent the Cherokee removal.

The next move was made by the Congress in 1835. It sent representatives to attempt to negotiate a new treaty with the Cherokee government council. Finding the council and the great majority of Cherokee tribal members intractable to concession, the representatives negotiated the Treaty of New Echota with a small splinter group of Cherokee and submitted it to Congress for formal approval. This treaty committed the Cherokee nation to leave for Oklahoma in exchange for $5 million, a vast underestimate of the worth of their land.

John Ross, the President of the Cherokee Council, protested by petition to Congress: “The instrument in question is not the act of our nation. We are not parties to its covenants; it has not received the sanction of our people.” 16,000 Cherokees signed Ross’s petition,  but Congress approved the treaty anyway:

“The treaty of removal was itself unfair. The Senate had hurriedly ratified an agreement which although signed by some of the Cherokee headmen, had never been accepted by the majority of the tribe.”

Alabama State Guide p. 306.

By 1838, fewer than 2,000 Cherokees had left for Oklahoma. President Van Buren then sent General Winfield Scott and 4,000 soldiers to expedite the removal. 4000 local whites joined them as volunteers. “Forts were built and Indians herded into them.

“In October, the Indians were assembled at Rattlesnake Springs .. divided into thirteen detachments … and the great removal began.” 

Tennessee Guide p. 42.

The Cherokee were forced to march over 1,200 miles to the Oklahoma Indian Territory. Whooping cough, typhus, dysentery, cholera and starvation were epidemic along the way. More than 5,000 (of 13,000) perished during the journey.

In the process of removal, some of the Cherokee escaped and fled eastward into the Smoky Mountains. General Scott’s pursuit of the escapees was greatly hampered by the terrain and approximately 1000 Cherokee managed to elude him. Using money from the Treaty of New Echota, the government set up a reservation for them in Cherokee, North Carolina. Now know as the Eastern Cherokee, their descendants still live there to this day.

The Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia guides are refreshingly honest about the injustice done to the Cherokee by their persecution and removal. They recommend dozens of historic markers and town sites that may be visited related to the events. The most interesting of these is the Eastern Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina.  In 1930s, there were 3300 descendants of the Cherokee living on the reservation. The North Carolina Guide describes the reservation as it was then:

“The reservation comprises [63,000] acres. The Oconaluftee River flows through the reservation lands, which are mostly mountainous, though coves provide arable land. The mountains are forested with hardwoods and evergreens.

This is largest organized Indian reservation east of Wisconsin. The lands are held in common for the tribe under the supervision of the Office of Indian Affairs. Domestic matters are administered by a chief.. and a tribal council of 12 , all of whom are elected. Tracts are assigned to family groups who may erect improvements …. Most of the Cherokee are members of the Baptist or Methodist Churches. Nevertheless, traces of their past are evidenced by the 15 or more practising medicine men and women and the survival of conjuring societies.

Modern brick buildings [in the town of Cherokee] contain the administrative offices, hospital, school and dormitories. Approximately 600 Cherokee children are instructed in the central boarding school and in five outlying community day schools. One half day is devoted to training in industries and crafts, [including] basketry and pottery. Emphasis is placed on farming, dairying, and forestry.

A large athletic field [is the site] of the annual Cherokee Indian Fair. (1st wk in Oct; adm. 50 cents), a tribal gathering and exhibition of handicrafts and agricultural products. Archery, blowgun contests, and dances are presented. One of these, the Green-Corn dance, an ancient ceremonial celebrating the coming of the harvest, is the Indian Thanksgiving. A feature of the the fair is the game of Cherokee Indian ball, similar to lacrosse, but much older. A purification rite lasts the entire night before the game.

In and about the reservation the .. Indians go about their everyday pursuits. They have for the most part adopted modern attire, though tribal dress is used on festive occasions. Many of the women still wear the .. red bandanna head covering and carry their children in slings on their backs and some of the men wear long hair and a bandanna neckerchief.”

North Carolina Guide p. 455-6

Life may have been pretty quiet in the town of Cherokee when the Guide was written but it is a totally different story today. The town’s website, https://visitcherokeenc.com/# , boasts that it is now a premier tourist destination in Western North Carolina. Anchored by two main sites, Harrah’s Casino and the Museum of the Cherokee, it offers cultural experiences, craft and gift shops, restaurants, and sports like trout fishing, hiking, blow gun shooting, and golf on the Sequoyah National Golf Course. You can attend outdoor performances of the historical play, “Unto These Hills,”  or you can gamble 24 hours day at Harrah’s, the Holiday Inn Cherokee Casino, the Tribal Casino or the Cherokee Grand Hotel.

Thankfully, outside of the town center, the reservation remains peaceful and unspoiled. Just as the Guide describes, the backroads wind through forests and across streams, passing only occasional small cabins and trading posts. All of the signs are bilingual in English and Cherokee. The mountain vistas are stunning. It is a beautiful place to visit.

January, 2022


Travels with The WPA State Guides: Currier Museum in Manchester, NH

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



20210424-DSC070001617

Visiting the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire is a bittersweet experience. Built in 1927 , the museum was a magnificent structure. The New Hampshire Guide aptly described it as massive and beautiful:

“In a setting of old hemlocks and bordering a shallow reflecting pool [the Currier]  is designed with the classic dignity and grandeur in the Italian Renaissance style. The main entrance is recessed behind a vestibule [within which are] mosaic designs — that on the left of the door symbolizing the pagan art of the Classical world, and that on the right representing Christian art through five figures symbolizing the Byzantine, Romanesque, Renaissance, and modern modes….The mosaics are the work of Salvatore Lascari of New York City and were assembled in Venice, Italy.”

N. H.  Guide p. 201-202.

The Museum galleries were designed around a central courtyard of considerable elegance:

“The galleries are built around a central court, open to the top of the building and surrounded by arcades. The ceiling is decorated in a pattern of Italian Renaissance design. [M]odern Ionic columns supporting the upper arches are soft buff with capitals picked out in colors and gold. The mosaic floor of the open court has the signs of the zodiac in black and cream [and ] a fountain basin, with the bronze figure of a girl.”

N. H.  Guide p. 202

In 1927, the Museum opened with an impressive collection that included Greek and Roman sculpture, Colonial furniture, silver, glass and pewter and  paintings by both European and American artists (including John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, and Winslow Homer.)

Today, much has changed and not all for the better.  Two subsequent renovations of the Museum have changed its physical aspect almost entirely. In 1982 and again in 2008, the museum built additions for new galleries and a cafeteria/lecture hall. In the process, it reoriented the entrance. Now visitors no long enter through the original vestibule and proceed into the central court. Instead, you enter through a new wing added to the back of the original building. and then directly into the courtyard.

And, since all of the art is accessible from the Courtyard, it is very likely that you will not see the original mosaics at all. In fact, the Museum’s website does not even mention them!

But they are there. If you exiting the courtyard at the back, you will enter the new cafeteria/lecture room. Stand in the middle of that room, turn back to face the courtyard and you will be looking at the original entrance. The absolutely stunning mosaics are there in the shadows but still gleaming out from under the original vestibule.

Admittedly, there were benefits to the new additions as a well. In the process of expansion, The Currier purchased two Frank Lloyd Wright houses in the neighborhood which are now part of the Museum. It also expanded the galley space and amassed a wonderful modern American crafts collection.  Win some; lose some.

January, 2022




Travels with the WPA State Guides: The Brooklyn Museum

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




The Borough of Brooklyn has always had a somewhat fractious, competitive relationship with its neighbor, Manhattan. Founded as a separate village — later a separate city — Brooklyn resisted incorporation into New York City until 1898. The New York City Guide references the tension:

“When in 1838, it was [first] proposed that the village of Brooklyn become incorporated into the city of New York, [a prominent Brooklynite] declared ‘there is nothing in common, either in object, interest or feeling — nothing that even apparently tends to their connexion.'”

New York City Guide p. 431 (1939).

After incorporation, the traces of this rivalry remained. A beneficiary of this competitive spirit was the Brooklyn Museum. Designed in the Beaux Arts style by the noted architects, McKim, Mead and White in 1897, the plan was to build the largest museum in the world:

Only the central portion and one wing of the plan were completed but the building is immense huge and and impressive nonetheless:

“The building, constructed in four sections between 1897 and 1925 at a cost of $3,300,00 … is an impressive monument … with four galleries for special temporary exhibits ….

The permanent exhibitions on the first floor embrace the Indian cultures of North and South America, Malaysia, Polynesia, Melanesia, Northern Japan and … Africa. The American Indian collections, including rich specimens of pre-Columbian gold ornament are among the finest … to be seen in any museum. …Whether it is an Ecuadorian jaguar in clay. exquisitely woven shrouds from Peru, totemic carvings from the northwest American coast. … or the sturdy fetish figures from the Congo, each local culture is seem to produce objects which are at once useful and beautiful.

On the second floor is the permanent collection of the arts of Persia, India, Japan and China and .. the well-equipped library.. The Greek and Roman collections [are] on the third floor [as are ] the Egyptological collections. …

The gallery of medieval art on the fourth floor provides examples pf painting, sculpture and craftwork from the late Roman Empire to the Renaissance as well as the Byzantine Empire…”

New York City Guide p. 489-91.

And there is much, much more: colonial American furniture, medieval tapestries, gorgeous American, Renaissance Impressionist and modern paintings. You get the idea. There is more than enough to at least forestall a subway ride to the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan.

As a born and bred Manhattanite, I had never visited the Brooklyn Museum. I went for the first time see the museum’s blockbuster exhibition: Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams. After acclaimed stops in Shanghai, London and Paris, Dior opened at the museum this September.

The exhibition includes over two hundred Dior gowns plus photographs, videos, perfume bottles and accessories. Every era of Dior designs is represented, including the “New Look,” which debuted in 1947. Dresses by Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Gianfranco Ferré, and John Galliano, among others, are admirably represented.

The Brooklyn Museum provides a wonderful venue for the exhibit. As the Guide notes, its galleries are spacious, beautifully lit and “devoid of the elaborate decorations which so often clutter up … public buildings. [They are] ideal backgrounds for the display of works of art.” (New York City Guide p. 489)

The entire third floor of the Museum is devoted to Dior. It has vast amounts of space for the artfully-grouped dresses. Its walls and passageways are dramatically lit and its ceilings seem to reach to the sky. The exhibit winds through gallery after gallery culminating in the Museum’s famed Beaux Arts Court, which has been transformed into an enchanted garden. “This magnificent, timeless space measures 10,000 square feet and two stories high, rising 60 feet above the floor to culminate in a dramatic skylight. It boasts historic features such as original archways, a large brass chandelier, and an updated glass-tile floor originally completed in 1927.” (Brooklyn Museum website) The Court provides a perfect backdrop, not only for the ball gowns, but for the spectacular light show that accompanies the exhibit.

Since it opened in September, Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams has been sold out continually, but the space never feels crowded. There is plenty of room to wander, contemplate and enjoy. This makes a big difference, not only in the aesthetic experience, but in the mood of the (very diverse) crowd. I watched as visitors exclaimed over the dresses and the setting and started up friendly conversations with others who happened to be nearby. No one appeared impatient or hurried. We all had a really good time.

Dior will be at the Brooklyn Museum through February. I encourage anyone who can to make the trip to visit. And save plenty time for the rest of the Museum as well. As the Guide indicates, there is lots to see in the permanent collections.

November, 2021











Travels with The WPA State Guides: The Eastern Shore of Maryland and Harriet Tubman

                                       

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Tubman photos-1-3

 Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryand was the birthplace of Harriet Tubman. The Maryland Guide noted that slavery and post-Civil war Jim Crow were particularly harsh on the Eastern Shore.

“In the counties of Maryland particularly on the Eastern Shore and in southern Maryland, the Negro lives under much the same conditions as his ancestors knew. Oyster shucking, crab-picking, truck farming, work in canneries — these are chief means of earning meager livelihood, dependent largely upon a white employer or landowner ….

Of the sixteen recorded lynchings in Maryland since 1885, eleven have occurred in southern Maryland or on the Eastern Shore.*”

Maryland State Guide , p.60                                            

[FN*  It is almost impossible to determine who wrote the sections of any of the State Guides but I did some serious research and was able to trace the origin of this quote to Earle Moses, a professor of sociology at Morgan State College, one of Maryland’s historically Black colleges. Professor Moses’s contribution to the Guide’s sections on history, race and education were forthright and invaluable.]

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery at the southern tip of Maryland’s Eastern Shore — a low-lying marshy environment. This was a hellish place in which to be enslaved— hot, humid, mosquito-ridden, malarial —  and, for the same reason, the marsh’s thick growth and unhealthy conditions provided a possible avenue of escape by making recapture more difficult. If a slave could hide in the marsh, he might make a successful escape.  Tubman knew this country well and, after she herself escaped, she risk her life by returning to help her fellow slaves escape from the area.

The Guide recognizes Tubman’s heroic efforts:

“Harriet Tubman, variously called the ‘heroine of the Underground Railroad’ and the “Moses of Her People,” escaped from her Eastern Shore master into Pennsylvania [in 1844] when she was about twenty-five. She first returned to assist members of her own family to freedom and later so extended her activities that between three and four hundred liberations are credited to her. She so infuriated the slave-owners that a price of $40,000 was set on her head.”

Guide p. 56.

In 1931,  the federal government created The Blackwater Migratory Bird Refuge in Dorchester County, an 8000-acres of marsh along the Big and Little Blackwater Rivers. Included in thr Refuge was the former slave plantation of Tubman’s master. The Refuge is now called The Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and it is a beautiful place to visit. There are wooden boardwalk trails through the marsh and spectacular vistas across the Chesapeake Bay at every turn.

 Adjacent to the Marsh is Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park and Museum, created  in 2014. The Museum traces the history of the Underground Railroad and features Harriet Tubman’s role in aiding escaping slaves.

Since 2014, archaeologists had been searching for the site of Tubman’s cabin. Unable to locate the site they speculated that it was located just outside the Refuge, on land still privately owned. Then, in 2020, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service purchase the 2600 acre private parcel and incorporated it into the Refuge.

Just one week after my visit in April, 2021, the site of the Tubman cabin was definitively identified. This excerpt from an article in the New York Times by Sarah Barr details the find:

“Julie M. Schablitsky, the chief archaeologist at the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, led an excavation of the swampy terrain on Maryland’s Eastern Shore beginning last fall. “We couldn’t understand why we weren’t finding anything. It was like, ‘Where is this place?’”

Then, on a whim, Schablitsky swept a metal detector along the side of an abandoned road, closer to the river. And she found a coin from 1808 — the same year that Tubman’s parents, Ben Ross and Harriet Green, known as Rit, were married. And, not far away, she found ceramic shards that dated to the 1820s to 1840s.

It was then that she knew: She had located the cabin of Benjamin Ross, the father of Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad conductor. She had lived there roughly between the ages of 17 and 22, from 1839 to 1844. ‘We could tell from the glaze that the time period coincided perfectly with the Ross cabin,’ she said of the ceramic pieces. ‘I was like, ‘OK, this has to be it.’

Her discovery made waves among historians when it was announced by state and federal officials at a news conference at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Church Creek, Md., on Tuesday morning. ‘We knew it was out there,’ she said. ‘We just had to find it.'”

Timing is not everything, however. I missed seeing the cabin but the Museum was rewarding the in and of itself. The exhibits are both informative and moving, especially punctuated as they are with quotes from Tubman.  One very special exhibit is a list of the names of the escaped slaves that she assisted.  The Guide recommended a visit to the Refuge for its natural beauty and its historical connection to Harriet Tubman. The addition of this wonderful museum makes the trip even more worthwhile.

November, 2021










Travels with the WPA State Guides: Springfield Armory

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




Guns are much in the news today. Thinking about the genesis of American fascination with them, and the terrible consequences of our misuse of them, inspired me to visit the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Springfield was our country’s first federal factory for the manufacture of guns. The next was in Harpers Ferry, VA—the site of John Brown’s raid. Springfield guns were used in every war, from the War of 1812 through the Vietnam War. In 1932, the Armory was still producing weapons and the small museum on site could be visited only with permission:

“The U.S. Armory and Arsenal occupies a site selected by George Washington. It was established by Congress in 1794 and the first muskets were manufactured here in 1795. The Civil War brought a great influx of workmen and in 1864 over 3000 men were employed turning out 1000 rifles a day. The Springfield rifle is still made here. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stopped at the Arsenal on his honeymoon; his wife noticed the resemblance of the tiers of stacked arms to the pipes of an organ, and Longfellow afterward wrote ‘The Arsenal at Springfield.’

The Museum has an excellent collection of small arms. Of especial importance is the old Blanchard lathe, an invention for turning gunstocks.”

Massachusetts Guide,  p. 365.

The Armory ceased production in 1968 and the entire site is now a museum run by the National Park Service. Many of the old machines dating from the early 1800s are on display, including the fabled Blanchard lathe. In addition there are rooms displaying every gun that the Armory produced from early muskets, to single-shot revolvers, to rifles, to the very first machine guns.

Of immense historical interest (and particularly elegant beauty) are the famed Springfield rifles. The first Springfield rifles were designed in 1795 by Eli Whitney (of cotton gin fame!). They were standard issue to US troops in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War (1846–48) and to the North in the Civil War. The rifles were highly sought-after by the Confederacy as well. Several cases in the Museum display Springfield 1795 were captured in raids upon Southern arsenals. 

After 1865, the 1795s were replaced by Model 1873, designed by Erskine Allin, master armorer at the Springfield Armory. The Model 1873 was easier to load and more accurate and powerful that the 1795. It could kill a person (or a horse) at up to 1000 yards. The recoil of the gun was so powerful that soldiers would joke that it could knock down two men with each shot—the man it hit and the man who fired it.

While one could arguably claim that Springfield rifles were serving a just cause in the Civil War, they were turned to more nefarious uses when that war ended. In the 1870s, the Army began a campaign to exterminate the Native Americans in the West. Model 1873 was its weapon of choice during these Plains Indian Wars. Our soldiers carried Springfield rifles at all of the significant battles in the West, including the battle at Little Big Horn in 1876. Over twenty years later, the rifles were still in use in the Spanish-American War.

As the Guide describes, in early days at the Armory, guns were placed on open racks while awaiting shipment to the troops. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited the Armory in 1843 and was inspired by his wife’s comment on these racks to write a poem decrying war:


The Arsenal at Springfield

This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling

      Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms;

But from their silent pipes no anthem pealing

      Startles the villages with strange alarms.

Ah! what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary,

      When the death-angel touches those swift keys!

What loud lament and dismal Miserere

      Will mingle with their awful symphonies!

I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus,

      The cries of agony, the endless groan,

Which, through the ages that have gone before us,

      In long reverberations reach our own.

On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer,

      Through Cimbric forest roars the Norseman’s song,

And loud, amid the universal clamor,

      O’er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong.

I hear the Florentine, who from his palace

      Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din,

And Aztec priests upon their teocallis

      Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent’s skin;

The tumult of each sacked and burning village;

      The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns;

The soldiers’ revels in the midst of pillage;

      The wail of famine in beleaguered towns;

The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder,

      The rattling musketry, the clashing blade;

And ever and anon, in tones of thunder

      The diapason of the cannonade.

Is it, O man, with such discordant noises,

      With such accursed instruments as these,

Thou drownest Nature’s sweet and kindly voices,

      And jarrest the celestial harmonies?

Were half the power, that fills the world with terror,

      Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,

Given to redeem the human mind from error,

      There were no need of arsenals or forts:

The warrior’s name would be a name abhorred!

      And every nation, that should lift again

Its hand against a brother, on its forehead

      Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain!

Down the dark future, through long generations,

      The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease;

And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,

      I hear once more the voice of Christ say, “Peace!”

Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals

      The blast of War’s great organ shakes the skies!

But beautiful as songs of the immortals,

      The holy melodies of love arise.


Longfellow was the most famous American poet of his day, but his call for peace had no effect. The Mexican and Civil Wars followed directly afterwards with Springfield 1795s dominant on the field.

The open racks of rifles were eventually phased out but, in 1871, the Armory designed the double musket rack mentioned in the Massachusetts Guide as the centerpiece of its (then) small museum. This rack still stands today and it is stunning. At 12-feet  tall, 11-feet long, and 7-feet wide, it holds 1100 Springfield rifles. Mrs. Longfellow was right: it does resemble an organ and it is truly an impressive sight.

 November, 2021














Travels with the WPA State Guides: Paul Revere

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




No person is mentioned more frequently in the Massachusetts Guide than Paul Revere (At least 12 times, and that doesn’t include the references to the city of Revere and the countless streets, squares, statues, businesses, and schools that bear his name as well.)  Revere Church bells still ring in churches throughout New England; his engravings and silver are collected all of our best museums.

Revere’s exploits in the Revolutionary War—rom his midnight ride to his presence at the Battle of Bunker Hill and his near capture by the British are each recounted in the Guide’s history section. Further instance of the remarkable breadth of his talents are described on page 615 of the Massachusetts Guide.

“Paul Revere is best known for his midnight ride in 1775 but he had a long and storied career as an artisan and a factory-owner until his death in 1818. A talented silversmith, Revere also manufactured church bells, cannon, muskets, gunpowder, and copper for use in Boston businesses, churches, and in its battles with the British.”

This is a good summary, but all too brief.  Revere began his career as an apprentice silversmith in Boston. Far surpassing his mentor, he became the premier silversmith in the American colonies. Much of Revere’s silver is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Worcester Art Museum, and the Fogg Museum at Harvard but, every so often, a piece still comes up for auction. In 2015, a Revere teapot sold for $233,000 at Christie’s. And, in 2017, a single Revere teaspoon became the world’s most expensive spoon, selling at auction for $32,500.

Revere was also an engraver. His produced his engraving, “The Bloody Massacre in King-Street,” depicting the Boston Massacre, in 1770, just three weeks after the event. The engraving shows the British soldiers firing into a peaceful gathering of citizens, a somewhat sanitized view of the colonists’ behavior at the actual event. Copies of Revere’s engraving appeared in the newspapers of the time and countless numbers of prints were sold on the streets of Boston. Many historians cite this engraving as the most effective piece of war propaganda in American history. Even today, Revere’s Boston Massacre prints decorate bank and law firm offices throughout the city and the original is housed at the Met.

After the War, Revere established a metals foundry in Boston and cast 398 bells for churches, schoolhouses, and town halls. Revere bells were known for their resonance and beauty. The bells  were all made individually but, in 1808, Revere became an early adherent of the industrial revolution. He built a mill on the Neponset River in Canton to mass produce cannons, gunpowder, and rolled copper sheathing. The Revere Rolling Copper Mill was the first of its kind in this country. It made cannons and gunpowder for the War of 1812, the copper sheathing for the Massachusetts State House dome and for the hull of “Old Ironsides,” more formally known as the USS Constitution:

“During the late 18th Century and the early part of the 19th, Canton was a busy manufacturing center […] [O]n Revere Street is the site of a foundry Paul Revere set up in 1808, the first copper-rolling mill in the country, which supplied the rolled copper for the State House dome and the copper boilers used in Fulton’s first steamboat. This versatile hero also operated a powder mill here during the revolution and the War of 1812.”

Massachusetts Guide, p. 614-15.

Revere’s Mill ceased production in the late 19th century but, in 2015, it was renovated by the town of Canton and opened as Revere Heritage Park. The mill is now a museum containing a delightful restaurant serving “New American” cuisine. 

The span of Revere’s life—from 1735 to 1818—and his energetic participation in it, are the very definition of a life lived in interesting times. In his youth, he was a British subject and an apprentice, in young adulthood he fought for our independence. In middle age, became a prominent citizen of the new country that he had a good deal to do with creating. And even into his old age, he experimented with new manufacturing methods and supplied our country with the goods necessary for both war and peace. Active, capable, intelligent, ambitious, artistic, and, above all, energetic, Revere never quit. (And his two wives more than matched his energy and productivity. Revere’s first wife, Sarah, had eight children in their fourteen years of marriage. After her death, he married Rachel, who assumed the care of those eight, still-young children and added eight more to the family.

Revere lived in what is now the oldest house still standing in Boston. Built in 1680, it  is one of the most popular sites on Boston’s Freedom Trail. You can commune with him there or in churches and museums, but visit the Paul Revere Heritage Site in Canton as well. The mill is beautiful and I recommend the restaurant’ s really delicious french fries, a fitting nod to Revere’s French ancestry.  (His family name, originally Rivoire, was changed by his father, Apollos, when he emigrated from France to Boston in 1715.)                      

September, 2021









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Travels with The WPA State Guides: You Can Go Home Again: The Apollo Theatre, Harlem, New York City

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


Apollo Theatre

“At 253 West 125th Street, near Eighth Avenue, is the Apollo Theatre, known as Harlem’s “opera house.” Opened in 1913, … in 1934 it [began] to present weekly all-Negro revues, with outstanding dance orchestras.”

New York City Guide, p.259.

The Guide’s brief description of the Apollo Theatre is understandable. Published in 1939, only five years after the Apollo began to feature Black musicians, the Guide’s writers could not have foreseen the outsize importance, either to Harlem, or to the history of 20th century music, that the Apollo was shortly to assume. By 1940, the Apollo became the premier venue for blues, jazz, swing, gospel, rhythm, and blues, and soul musicians—and it remains an icon even today.

An astonishing number of Black musicians got their start at the Apollo by daring to appear on Wednesday’s “Amateur Nights.” The audience for Amateur Nights was highly sophisticated and critical. If you were no good, their boos would prompt an “executioner” to sweep you off the stage with his broom. If you were particularly bad, the executioner might chase you off the stage with a cap pistol, accompanied by the sound of a police siren.

To win on Amateur Night, on the other hand, was pretty much a guarantee of stardom. Musicians who got their start at Amateur Night at the Apollo include Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson, and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Sam Cooke, B.B. King, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Wilson Pickett, Michael Jackson, and Aretha Franklin.

When I was in college at Barnard in the late sixties, we were just 10 blocks away. This was the era of James Brown, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Wilson Pickett, Stevie Wonder and “the Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin.

On many summer nights, I walked uptown to the Apollo to see them perform. I heard Aretha sing new song, “Respect” at the Apollo in July,1967. It was magical. The theatre is large, but not overly so and the seats were inexpensive. You felt a connection with the singers.

Wednesday concerts began early in the evening and they lasted for hours. The performers never phoned it in; they sang (and danced) their hearts out. Concerts the Apollo were the soundtrack of my college years.

Just last Sunday, I dropped by to see The Apollo again. In most respects, it hasn’t changed at all. The marquee is exactly the same as it was in 1967. So is the lobby. One quite moving addition is the array of brass plaques in the sidewalk out front. Most of those memorialized were just starting out when I saw them perform there; now almost all are deceased.

On a Sunday morning, all was quiet. The theatre itself was closed but the lobby was open. Inside, a Motown song track was playing. Stevie Wonder was singing “You Are the Sunshine of my Life” and I sang along with him. The two gift shop salespersons joined in and we finished the song together. “Her voice isn’t half bad,” one of them commented to the other, and we all laughed.

Throughout the time that I was there, a steady stream of visitors came to pay their respects. Like me, they were eager to visit such an important landmark in the community and to relive the scenes of their youth.

September, 2021
















Travels with the WPA State Guides: Newport Rhode Island, The Gilded Age 

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




Newport, Rhode Island during the Gilded age (post-Civil War – World War I) is a particular focus of the Rhode Island State Guide. In contrast to the colonial, religious roots of the city and its sea-faring enterprises before the Civil War, the establishment of a unique culture of ostentatious wealth and privilege in the second half of the nineteenth century both fascinated and repulsed the guide’s writers. Devoting over seven pages to the era, they just couldn’t get enough of it. 

Here is a representative sampling: 

“Following the Civil War the social life of Newport, which had been rather simple and restrained for more than a half century, suddenly expanded and became much more sophisticated. The city … became the summer playground for wealthy northern families. 

Probably America will never again see such lavish entertaining as took place at Newport during the summer seasons of the ‘gilded years,’ 1890-1914. Into six or seven weeks of each season were crowded balls, dinners, parties of every description, each host or hostess striving to eclipse the others in magnificence. Huge sums were spent in the prevailing spirit of rivalry. Mrs. Pembroke Jones set aside $300,000 at the beginning of every Newport season for entertaining, and some hostesses spent even more. Sometimes a single ball cost more than $100,000. So much prestige was attached to spending July and August at this exclusive resort of the period that to have neglected to do so 

would have exposed a definite gap in one’s social armor. Some might talk of the charms of a summer spent in Europe, but their acquaintances knew that they stayed away from Newport because they were afraid of their social position; for Newport was the millionaires’ playground, from which all unacceptable intruders were excluded by a set of ironclad though unwritten rules. 

Harry Lehr [w]as the Four Hundred’s playboy; Mrs. William Astor, the leader of society. They were dubbed the ‘Queen and her Jester.’ Mrs. Astor reigned supreme and her decisions as to things social were final. She could make or break the ambitious climber. 

The greatest social event of the year was the annual ball at the Astor house. Mrs. Astor and Harry Lehr scanned the Social Register and decided who should be invited; since the Astor ballroom only held 400, the invitations were limited to that magic number. 

Newport Society was composed of a series of cliques, presided over by reigning queens, and to offend any one of them was to court disaster. Harry Lehr was the most popular man in each of the little cliques, and the first to be consulted when a party was in prospect. One day Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish and Lehr announced that they were to give a huge dinner party for the charming Prince del Drago from Corsica. On the night of the dinner all the guests assembled, eagerly expecting a thrill, which they certainly received when at eight o’clock in walked Lehr holding by the hand the guest of honor, a small monkey correctly attired in full evening dress. The dinner was a great success, but newspaper reporters accused Lehr and Mrs. Fish of having held up American society to ridicule. 

Another of the decidedly ‘different’ entertainments was the ‘Dogs’ Dinner,’ to which Harry Lehr invited about a hundred dogs and their masters. The menu was stewed liver and rice, fricassee of bones, and shredded dog biscuit. The dinner was greatly appreciated; the guests ate until they could eat no more, and Elisha Dyer’s dachshund so over- taxed its capacities that it fell unconscious by its plate and had to be carried home. A reporter happened to crash the party and the next day scathing columns appeared in the newspapers. Preachers throughout the country denounced Lehr for wasting on dog food money that would have fed hundreds of starving people. 

The Gilded Age’s grand mansions on Cliff Walk and Ocean Drive (many of which are now museums and can be visited today) were sardonically criticized by the Guide: 

An 11 -mile highway loop connects up the estates of the area [affording] scenes of that spectacular effort of America’s first big crop of millionaires to establish themselves as the top crust of the social pie. Just as the returning generals and colonial administrators of ancient Rome, the new- rich of the Roman Empire, spent fabulous sums reproducing the art works of the older Greek civilization and sent their antique- dealers scurrying to the older cities to buy up statues by Praxiteles and other choice bits to adorn their show-places, so the new American millionaires built elegant copies of the chateaux and palaces of Europe, or, more often, grotesque combinations of the most expensive and ornate features of half a dozen of them, and raided Europe for ornaments and furnishings. Many of these structures remain along the drive, weathered now and softened by thick shrubbery. 

The mansions are described in (justifiably) sarcastic tones. Here are two: 

The Breakers … is a pretentious palace of Caen stone with red tiled roof. The original house, owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt, was burned in 1893. Soon afterward $3,000,000 was spent to make the present mansion the most striking and magnificently appointed of Newport ‘cottages.’ This three-and-a-half- story stone structure, of which R. M. Hunt was the architect, has on one side a semicircular porch resembling the apse of a cathedral. The center of the house has a two-story loggia facing the garden. The interior is embellished with mosaic work and carved stone. Some of the interior walls are finished in light-green Cipollino marble. A mosaic in one of the ceilings portrays a bathing chamber in ancient Pompeii. The loggias and the tympani of the arches are decorated in Italian Renaissance designs. 

The Marble Palace, 1.7 m. (L), the home of Frederick Prince, … is in the Renaissance vernacular. An imposing Corinthian portico, extending to the roof, dominates the front. The exterior is of white Rutland marble and stone from Caen, France. A curved balustraded driveway hides the base of the portico. 

The front doors are protected by ornate Louis XIV metal gates that cost more than $50,000, and required the labor of 50 men for more than a year. They are 25 feet wide by 16 feet high and are of bronze and iron, with gold leaf on the inside. 

The vestibule of the house has walls and floor of yellow French marble, with a paneled ceiling 60 feet high supported by heavy columns. The dining-room from floor to ceiling is finished in different shades of Numidian marble, carved with 

figures in bas-relief. The walls of the drawing room blaze with crystal and gold. The walls and ceiling of the mistress’ chamber are of carved black walnut with padded silk panels. The master’s chamber is finished in light woods. The portable furnishings of the house are worth more than a million dollars. 

You get the idea. 

Instead of visiting the Newport 400’s homes, I decided to have a look at their cars. Automobiles were a new invention and a major preoccupation with the swells: 

Automobiles were introduced in Newport about 1899. An automobile parade given on September 7, 1899, by a number of cottage residents is said to be the first parade of horseless carriages in the country. There were nineteen automobiles in the parade, prizes being won by Mrs. Herman Oelrichs and Mrs. Stuyvesant Le Roy. Electric runabouts were the most useful and fashionable cars with the summer residents, for they were easily managed by ladies. The society women gave pet names to their automobiles, such as ‘Puff-puff,’ ‘Angelica,’ and ‘Toby.’ 

A number of these spectacular vehicles can be seen at the Audrain Automoblie Museum on Bellevue Avenue. I found it impossible to choose a favorite among the Rolls Royces, 

Deusenbergs and Packards. Each one was not only splendid but was of infinitely better taste that the mansions of its owner. 

The Gilded Age began to draw to a close after World War I and the passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act . For decades after, the houses of Cliff Walk were threatened with destruction but, in the past 30 years, the Newport Preservation Society has worked to preserve them. Today, just as in 1939, modern visitors find them pretentious but impossible to ignore. The Audrain museum was virtually empty when I visited but I saw streams of tourists visiting the nearby mansions on the same day. 

Fern L. Nesson August, 2021 









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Travels with the WPA State Guides: Herreshoff Boatworks Bristol, Rhode Island 

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




This August, my husband and I sailed into Bristol, Rhode Island to visit the famed Herreshoff boatworks. Since 1863, Herreshoff has been designing and building sleek wooden sailboats, which are prized and still in use throughout New England’s sailing waters. In addition to several classes of recreational sailboats, Herreshoff was the premier designer of 12 meter racing yachts for the America’s Cup races.

In 1939, the Rhode Island State guide urged a visit to the boatyard but noted that permission from the foreman would be required. Not so today; on site is a wonderful museum which houses many of Herreshoff’s most beautiful, carefully restored sailboats.

The Rhode Island Guide features Herreshoff and its place in sailing history: 

“When John Brown Herreshoff, a lover of boats who was stricken with blindness at the age of 18, accepted a commission to design and build a yacht for Thomas Clopham, he began an industry that throve beyond all expectations and brought international fame and honor to himself and to Bristol. 

In his early years, Herreshoff had acquired such a knowledge and ‘feel’ of boats that his blindness was no obstacle. The handwork, however, was done by his brother, Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, called ‘ The Wizard of Bristol.’ John had an exceptional memory and a photographic mind. His method was to dictate specifications to his brother, who would construct a model; then by feeling of the model, he could find defects and suggest improvements with uncanny intuition. A secondary faculty was his ability to estimate the cost of a boat down to the last dollar, and no one was ever able to take advantage of him. 

Though the name Herreshoff has come to connote a long list of successful America’s Cup Defenders, dating back to 1893 and including the ‘Vigilant,’ ‘Columbia,’ ‘Reliance,’ and ‘Resolute,’ this plant has designed and built hundreds of pleasure craft and service vessels. In beginning his work in 1863, John B. Herreshoff, then only 22 years old, hired a crew of men, procured supplies of seasoned lumber, and fitted up an old tannery as a shop. In the next year, nine sailing craft, ranging in length from 22 to
35 feet, were launched. […] 

From time to time cup defender yachts can be seen at the Herreshoff Company’s dock. The ‘Resolute’ was built to defend America’s Cup against Sir Thomas Lipton’s ‘Shamrock IV in 1914, but owing to the World War, the race was postponed until 1920 when the ‘Resolute’ was again named to defend the Cup. This series (1920) was the first in which the defender and challenger were sailed by amateur crews. In the first race of the series, the ‘Resolute’ parted the throat halyard of her mainsail and broke the gaff-jaws, so she had to be towed back. This is the first instance of a defender failing to cross the finish line. The second race was also won by the challenger, but the ‘Resolute’ won the remaining three races, and retained the Cup.”

Rhode Island Guide 195-6. 

Today, the Museum recounts the stories of Defiance, The Resolute, and other famed yachts. It displays trophies and lists of crews dating from the very first races to those of the present. But the most beautiful boats here are the small ones. Handcrafted, perfectly balanced, utterly graceful. They put our modern fiberglass sailboats to shame. 

August, 2021 


Wade Hampton State Office Building








Travels with the WPA State Guides: North Adams, Massachusetts

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




For much of its history, the western Massachusetts city of North Adams was a mill town. In 1937, the Massachusetts Guide could imagine no other purpose for its existence:

“This little mill city bursts suddenly into view in a setting of striking mountainous beauty […] Woolens cotton goods, silk and rayon goods, shoes and radio and electrical supplies are today produced in the plants of the city.”

Massachusetts Guide p. 459 

With the exception of Mt. Greylock, the state’s highest mountain, the Guide found nothing to attract tourists. 

Were the writers to return today, they would find the geography and architecture familiar, but would likely be astonished at the city’s transformation. In 1860, the Arnold textile mill  produced uniforms for Civil War soldiers and, by 1905, it employed 3,200 workers. During the Depression, the company to was forced to close. Sprague Electric took over the buildings, producing weapons components during World War II and consumer electronics thereafter. In 1966, it employed 4,137 workers, but it, too, was forced to close in 1985 due to foreign competition.

After 1985, North Adams was no longer a mill city. Its economy tanked and the old brick buildings sat empty.

Here’s where the sad story starts to get good. In the late 1980s, Thomas Krens was the director of the Williams College Museum of Art. Krens, who later became the director of the Guggenheim Museum, suggested that the Sprague Mill would be a perfect space in which to exhibit large works of contemporary art that would not fit in conventional museum galleries. 

Krens and the Mayor of North Adams raised $8 million dollars and hired a bevy of talented architects, including Frank Gehry and Robert Venturi, to design a museum. The vast Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1999. It is the largest contemporary art museum in the world. 

Mass MOCA’s mill buildings house galleries, indoor and outdoor performing arts venues, and all forms of contemporary art from sculpture, from painting to photography to sound and light installations. The buildings house cafés, restaurants, a coffee shop, and a microbrewery as well. Mass MOCA hosts music festivals in the summer and music and dance performances year-round. 

Renowned artists are featured, the immense spaces permit them to show work that could not be installed in conventional museum settings. For example, the museum has a whole wing of James Turrell light sculptures, and its grounds have one of his  sky gardens.  Sol Lewis has an entire floor of the largest mill building for his outsized paintings. A visit to Mass MOCA for an art lover is a dream come true.

North Adams now draws tourists and artists from across the globe. There are hotels, restaurants, artist’s lofts, and galleries. This little mill town has transformed the Northwestern corner of the state into something completely unique. 

August, 2021





Travels with the WPA State Guides: Grand Central Station, New York City

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




When the New York City Guide lavished praise on Grand Central Station in 1939, it gave no hint that this extraordinary building would face destruction thirty years later. In a city chock full of interesting architecture, Grand Central merited three full pages of text in the Guide. Here is some of what the writers had to say:

“Huge GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL, set squarely athwart Park Avenue on the north side of Forty-second Street, is one of the great railway passenger terminals of the world. Long-distance travelers use the terminal [as do] daily commuters. [On] an average of every four seconds during the day, three  subway lines discharge and receive passengers in stations connected with the terminal. The number of people who pass through Grand Central in a year approximates the total population of the United States. (Now, 750,000 persons pass through each day!)

The terminal covers three blocks between Forty-second and Forty-fifth Streets.  The monumental Forty-second Street front of the terminal is surmounted by Jules Coutan’s massive statuary group, forty-eight feet high, in which figures representing Mercury, Hercules, and Minerva are arranged about a clock thirteen feet in diameter […]

Indoor ramps lead from the terminal’s entrances to the impressive main concourse, 125 feet wide and 385 feet long… Around the sides, great square piers rise 125 feet to support a vaulted blue ceiling in which illuminated constellations of the zodiac twinkle […] The enormous size and lavish use of marble on floors as well as walls give the concourse an aspect of grandeur that is emphasized by shafts of sunlight pouring through the seventy-five-foot windows. Ticket windows line the south wall, while directly opposite are the gates to the track platforms. The circular information booth in the middle of the open floor is one of New York’s most popular meeting places. 

During the nine o’clock and five o’clock rush hours, this great hall swarms with scurrying crowds in which the red caps of [495 porters] stand out. Shortly before the Twentieth Century 

Limited leaves for Chicago at six in the evening, a gray and red carpet is unrolled between the gate and the platform.”

p. 221-23

Built in 1913, Grand Central was a magnificent presence in New York City although its beauty became steadily dimmer. Blackout paint was applied to the windows during World War II and never removed. By 1998, the Main Concourse ceiling had accumulated a half-inch-thick layer of residue from cigarettes, diesel fumes, steel dust, and lead, obscuring the constellations almost entirely.

In the mid-1970s, a developer sought to partially demolish the station and build a 53-story office tower on top. The construction would have obscured the original façade and demolished the Main Concourse. The Municipal Art Society of New York (which included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Mayor Ed Koch) sued the developer but lost in the New York state courts. Kennedy was undeterred; she was quoted in the New York Times saying “We’ve all heard that it’s too late … Even in the 11th hour, it’s not too late.” The Municipal Art Society pressed its case, appealing to the US Supreme Court and, in 1978, the Court ruled in its favor.

Grand Central Station was saved and the case was a landmark victory for preservation efforts across this country. But there was considerable work left to be done. In 1998, the station underwent a $113.8 million renovation. Art restorers cleaned the Main Concourse ceiling revealing the original azure blue sky and gold stars. A grand staircase (designed in 1913 but never built) was constructed at the east end of the main concourse. At a rededication ceremony in October, 1978, the main entrance on the 42nd street side was renamed the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Lobby. 

Grand Central is even more beautiful now than it was in 1939. The constellations twinkle at night; the lobby glows with light from its enormous, now clear windows; marble floors and brass fixtures gleam; you can have drinks at a restored jazz age library/cocktail lounge on the mezzanine and the posh, Edwardian Grand Central Oyster Bar still serves the best oyster stew in town. Good outcomes like this one give hope to those who fight for the preservation of our cherished architectural legacy. They signify that, when the stars align,  passionate, committed advocacy can succeed. 

July, 2021











Travels With The WPA State Guides: Iconic Art Deco Architecture in New York City

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



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The New York City Guide’s writers had a passion for the city’s architecture of all periods.  Grand Central Station, St Patrick’s Cathedral,  the Metropolitan Opera House, City Hall and Gracie Mansion, The Flatiron Building , the NY Public Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Plaza Hotel are each described in lively, intelligent detail. 

The writers saved their highest praise for the flourishing Art Deco Movement of the 1920s and 30s.  Midtown Manhattan abounds in fine examples of art deco from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to countless office buildings, subway stations and restaurants. There are some on almost every block. One could spend weeks trying to see them all. 

For a first cut, iconic buildings such as the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center present the full experience, every detail designed and embellished  in the most refined art deco taste. Describing these newly-built sites inspired the Guide’s writers to reach for superlatives.  Visiting seventy-five years later  may be even more  thrilling. Each one is perfectly preserved, sparkling clean, architecturally refined and just plain gorgeous. The WPA New York City Guide in hand, I spent days exploring them. I just couldn’t get enough.  

The Chrysler building was the first of these three iconic buildings to be built.  The story recounted by the guide is that, in 1929, two architects were competing for the distinction of building the tallest building in the world: William Van Alen, the architect of the Chrysler Building and his former partner, Craig Severance, the architect of the Bank of Manhattan headquarters at 40 Wall Street:

“When the Chrysler tower seemed likely to terminate at 925 feet, the builders of the Manhattan Company structure […] decided to halt their operations at 927 feet. Meanwhile, steel workers were secretly assembling the rustless steel sections of the Chrysler spire which, when lifted lifted through the dome and bolted into place, brought the building to its triumphant height of 1048 feet.”

(New York City guide, p. 224)

Van Alen’s victory was pyrrhic. Just two years later, “the Empire State building stole the laurels” rising to 1250 feet.  (p. 224, 319.)

Tallest or not, the Chrysler Building is a triumph of design; for sheer Art Deco beauty it is unmatched, especially at night when the top is lit to spectacular effect.  

The Guide’s description barely does it justice:

“The building’ s [modernist] architecture […] avoids historical precent [and] achieves freshness, originality, and a striking effect. The angular lobby is finished in sumptuous African marble […] sharp contrasts of color and line appear in the tower treatment, the corners of the fourth state flare outward, projecting great metal discs that resemble 1029 Chrysler radiator caps.” (p. 224)

The Empire State Building gets more thorough treatment in the Guide:

“The great limestone and steel structure [is] a monument to […] the boom years from 1924-29. The supreme shaft of the building rises out of a broad five-story base [and] at the eighty-sixth floor level is a 200-foot observation tower—sixteen stories of glass […] 

The coloring of the building […] is spectacular in sunlight [when] the aluminum spandrels and soft-textured limestone are tinged with gray and lavender, and the silvery sheen of metal on the walls creates and effect of airy lightness. The Fifth Avenue entrance […] opens into a long hall […] lined with marble. The high silver-leaf ceiling is painted in metallic colors with geometric patterns suggesting stars, sunbursts and snowflakes.”  (p. 320-21.)

Rockefeller Center, the last great Art Deco building project in New York City, brought the era to a spectacular close. In both scale and elaborate design, it surpassed its predecessors. Completed in 1939, Rockefeller Center is sited on 12acres on Fifth Avenue in the very heart of Manhattan. It includes twelve buildings, most of them skyscrapers, included radio (and now tv) stations, foreign consulates, an underground shopping mall, street and roof top-level restaurants, outdoor cafes, an observation deck, an ice skating rink, outdoor sculpture gardens with fountains and pools, rooftop gardens of  Spanish, Italian, Japanese, American and aquatic designs. Below ground, are a subway line and a trucking and shipping terminal. 

Everyone visits Rockefeller Center, NYC residents and tourists alike, to form the audience for daytime tv shows, to see productions at Radio City Music Hall, and, at Christmastime, to see NYC’s official Christmas tree on the plaza overlooking 5th Avenue. 

Although the plan for Rockefeller Center was criticized as undistinguished and inartistic before it was built, by 1939,  it had garnered great acceptance and accolades: 

“Rockefeller’s position among the city’s institutions is secure. Reproach has given way to respect. In its architecture , Rockefeller Center stands as distinctively for New York as the Louvre stands for Paris. Composed of the essential elements of New York skyscrapers — steel framing and curtain walls —  the group relies almost exclusively for exterior decoration on the pattern of its widows, piers, spandrels and wall surfaces. Its beauty derives from a significant play of forms and light and shadow.” (NYC Guide, p.334)

Like its NYC’s other two Art Deco masterpieces, Rockefeller Center exhibits sleek and stunning design. But it tops them all in the riotous profusion of its decorative artwork. The Center’s many murals, mosaics , sculptures, and friezes depict aspirational themes: 

  •  Murals by Jose Maria Sert are titled “Man’s Intellectual Mastery of the Material Universe” and include images of the eradication of disease, the abolition of slavery, the suppression of war, and the hope of mankind’s  salvation. 
    • Mosaics over one of the 6th Avenue entrances depict “the genius which interprets the laws and cycles of the cosmic forces of the universe to mankind”,
    •  Sculptured panels by Gaston LaChaise portray “Genius Receiving the gift of the Sun,” “ The Conquest of Space,” “ Gifts of Earth to Mankind” and “The Spirit of Progress. 
    • Carved wood panel in The RKO Building show “ Radio Spreading the Inspiration of the Past and Present” 
    • A mural “Concerned with the Spiritual Challenge of Modern Civilization” graces the elevator bank of one of the 5th Avenue skyscrapers.  
    • A gold-leafed sculpted panel on the facade of “La Maison Franchise is represents Paris and New York joining hands over the figures of Poetry, Beauty and Elegance.  

            There are far too many more artworks to count. You have to see them to believe it!

One dark note: Originally included in this exuberant decoration,  was a fresco  by Diego Rivera,  “Man at the Crossroads,” commissioned for the lobby of Rockefeller Plaza (“30 Rock”.) Rivera’s subject, endorsed by Rockefeller,  was to be the contrast between capitalism and socialism in contemporary social, scientific and material culture. In 1933, while the work was still in process, the New York World Telegram called it anti-capitalist propaganda. In protest, Rivera secretly added an image of Lenin (between the helicopter blades on the right) to the fresco. Although Rockefeller liked the work, he asked Rivera to remove Lenin’s portrait but Rivera refused. Rockefeller then ordered the panel to be plastered-over.

Thankfully for us, Rivera took photographs of the work in progress and then recreated the fresco in Mexico City at the Palacio des Bellas Artes.

July 2021







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Travels with the WPA Guides: Black Mountain College, North Carolina

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Black Mountain Dormitories

Black Mountain College was founded in 1933 by several professors who had been fired by Rollins College for refusing to sign a loyalty oath. The founders purchased land outside Asheville, North Carolina and both students and teachers pitched in to design and build the campus. Conceived as a progressive college, Black Mountain stressed a balance of education and cooperative labor. Students and faculty worked together on an equal footing in farm work, construction projects, and kitchen duty.  Students participated on all levels in the administration of the school. Only two courses were required—a course on materials and form taught by Albers and a course on Plato—and there were no grades. Students could decide when they were ready to graduate and were presented with handcrafted diplomas when they did so. 

The North Carolina Guide was written just after Black Mountain College was founded and it’s writers expressed greatest interest in the the radical organization of the school:

“The aims of [Black Mountain College] are to keep it so small that no one person will ever have to devote full time to administrative work and, by integrating academic work with community life, to develop resourcefulness and general intellectual and emotional fitness.

Students and instructors associate on an equal basis, residing in the same building and working together in classroom, dining hall, field and forest. There are no required courses, no fraternities and sororities, and no football team […]  Emphasis is laid upon the plastic arts, music and dramatics.”  

North Carolina guide, p.531.

The Guide did not anticipate the outsized influence that the college was to have upon the arts. But it is for that influence that Black Mountain is so well-known and admired. Black Mountain placed arts at the center of its curriculum and, in 1933, the college welcomed Anni and Josef Albers and Walter Gropius, prominent members of the Bauhaus School in Germany, who came to teach at the school as refugees from Nazi Germany. With Albers as college president, Black Mountain attracted an amazing group of talented artists as both teachers and students. Buckminster Fuller built his first geodesic dome on the campus. Painters Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly, Franz Kline, and Willem DeKooning all taught there. Choreographer Merce Cunningham formed his legendary dance troupe at the school.

Avant-garde musician John Cage gave his first performances at Black Mountain. His most famous composition, 4’33″, was first performed there in August,1952. The piece lasted for precisely 4 minutes and 33 seconds during which time pianist David Tudor sat at the piano, consulted a stopwatch and turned the pages of the score, but never played a single note. 

The atmosphere at Black Mountain was one of rich collaboration. Students and faculty lived together in the dorms and met for inspirational “happenings” in the living room of the main dormitory. Multi-disciplinary performances were staged throughout the campus.

Black Mountain had no endowment and, over time, it incurred significant debts. The college was forced to close in 1957. Albers left to chair the Art Department at Yale and Gropius joined the faculty of the Design School at Harvard. Despite having to leave, they and the other faculty and alumni kept the spirit of Black Mountain alive well after it closed. Albers’s seminal book, Interaction of Color, remains required reading in art schools everywhere. Gropius designed a major part of the campus at the Harvard Law School and Anni Albers furnished his buildings with her weavings and original textile designs. Cage, Fuller, Cunningham dominated their fields for years to come while the school’s painters captured the hearts and pockletbooks of museums and collectors everywhere. It is no stretch to say that late 20th Century art, music and dance all sprang from a tiny college in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Today, The Black Mountain Foundation maintains a small museum and research library in Asheville. The Museum hosts rotating exhibits of alumni art work and its library contains the full and impressive array of the art books that alumni have produced. It also displays Anni Albers’s original loom and original photos of the faculty and the campus. 

A visit to the Museum is impressive but I found it more exciting to visit the campus itself. The property is now home to the Camp Rockmont for Boys. I telephoned the camp office and was warmly invited by the Assistant Director to stop by for a tour. The campus remains almost exactly as it was in the days of the college. The original classroom building now houses the camp’s offices and in summer the campers live in the original dorms. The buildings ring a pond and the grounds are lovely. Echoes of art remain. You can sit in the original chairs in front of the huge stone fireplace where “happenings” were held and imagine the scene. You can view frescoes that a faculty member painted on the walls of the pottery studio in 1944. The feeling of a lively art community is palpable even 60 years later.

The Black Mountain College campus has started to offer guided tours of the campus in partnership with the land’s new stewards, Lake Eden Preserve. Find out more details about the tours here.

March, 2021


Anni Albers Loom
Anni Albers’ Loom

Black Mountain Classroom building

Black Mountain Classrooms and Ceramics Studio
Black Mountain Classrooms and Ceramics Studio

Black Mountain Dining Hall

Black Mountain Dining Porch

Black Mountain Dining Room

Black Mountain Living Room

Black Mountain Pond and Blue Ridge Mountains

Black Mountain Pond

Black Mountain Pond

Black Mountain Museum

Black Mountain Museum

In the Museum

In the Museum

Travels with the WPA State Guides: West Street/Hudson Riverfront Manhattan

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Buildings seen from the High Line

Perhaps the most striking change that I have seen in two years of travels with the State Guides is the nearly total recreation of the waterfront on the west side of Manhattan below 34th Street. The neighborhood was once a warren of shipping docks, bars, tenements, warehouses, elevated train tracks, and wholesale meat markets. Grimy gray was its most predominant color, vehicle exhaust its prominent odor, industrial bustle its overwhelming noise.  Access to the Hudson River, both physically and visibly, was nearly totally blocked but this provoked no particular complaint from the New York City Guide since the sights were not pretty. 

In a masterful and lively piece of writing, the Guide described the West Street environs:

“It is the domain of the river-boat and the soot-faced tug. The broad highway, West Street, which skirts the river, is a surging mass of back-firing, horn-blowing, gear-grinding trucks. All other waterfront sounds are submerged in the cacophony of the daily avalanche of freight in transit. 

Ships and and shipping are not visible along much of West Street. South of Twenty-third Street, the river is walled off by an almost unbroken line of bulkhead sheds and docks. Opposite the piers … nearly every block houses cheap lunchrooms, tawdry saloons catering to the thousands of polyglot seamen who haunt the ‘front.'” 

“Activities begin at 4 A.M. [at] Gansevoort Market. Farmers in overalls and mud-caked shoes stand in trucks shouting their wares. Commission merchants, pushcart vendors, and restaurant buyers trudge warily from one stand to another, digging arms into baskets of fruits or vegetables to ascertain quality. Trucks move continually in and out among the piled crates of tomatoes, beans, cabbages, lettuce and other greens in the street. Hungry derelicts wander about in the hope of picking up a stray vegetable while patient nuns wait to receive leftover, unsalable goods for distribution to the destitute.”

(NYC Guide p. 69.)

Labor unrest was an integral part of the 1930s West Street scene. Strikes and violence were common and the guide described them with sympathy for the workers:

“Because of the heavy concentration of shipping at the Chelsea Piers, this area has been a strategic sector in the industrial conflicts between maritime labor and shipowners. During the 1936-1937 strike, when rank and file seamen tied up the ships in their struggle for a better agreement, Eleventh Avenue was the scene of frequent clashes between pickets and scabs, “goon squads” (thugs) and defense squads, strikers, and police. 

The port’s “dock-wallopers” (longshoremen), thousands of whom live in slum areas adjoining West Street, have been quiet in recent years, although they steadily oppose the hiring system, called the “shape-up,” whereby the boss stevedore selects his working force several times daily from crowds of longshoremen massed before the dock gates.”

(NYC Guide p. 71-72 .)

Fast forward to the present. West Street is now one of the most desirable places to live and to visit in all of Manhattan. The old shipping piers have been renovated, planted with greeenery and furnished with benches. All along West Street, the river is lined with parkland, bike paths. Across the street, upscale apartment buildings provide glorious views of the river. Standing at the corner of West and 11th Streets, for example, you can see the spire of the new World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, a wide swatch of the river and the glittering new skyscrapers of Fort Lee, New Jersey.

In the 1990s, the neighborhood became a magnet for art galleries which relished the space that the old warehouses provided. As a thriving art district grew, the Whitney Museum moved to Gansevoort and West St. in 2015 to occupy a building designed by Renzo Piano. With immense glass walls overlooking the River, the new Whitney is a joy to visit. 

One interesting reminder of the area’s maritime past is the old Lifesaver Factory at the corner of 18th and West Streets. Now a residential loft building, the factory was built in 1913, just one year after the Titanic sank. The ship was due to dock at the pier across the street afrom the factory after its maiden voyage from England. After it sank in the North Atlantic in April, 1912, the new company designed its candies in the shape of a life saver and named them as such to commemorate the disaster.

In 2009, one block east of the river, from 16th to 30th Streets, the elevated train tracks were replaced by the High Line, a park that provides garden paths, benches, food stalls, and outdoor performance spaces and views of the river and of innovative new architecture. Below the High Line, the old meat-packing warehouses were likewise totally transformed. A (very) few of the old food businesses remain; now, most of them are houses are occupied instead by designer shops, French cafés and hip new restaurants. 

In the 1930s, The New York Guide did not recommend that tourists visit this neighborhood. But now, with the area completely transformed, a visit should not be missed.                   



















World Trade Center seem from West ST&11th St

February, 2021

Travels With the WPA State Guides: Shays’ Rebellion

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




When the Revolutionary war ended in 1783, many Massachusetts soldiers returned to find themselves in debt. In addition to debts incurred by their families while they were at war, the state was proposing to increase taxes to cover its own war debts. Facing bankruptcy and at risk of losing their farms, western Massachusetts farmers, led by Daniel Shays, took up arms against state and local authorities. Shays, a farmhand from the tiny town of Pelham, had fought at the battles of Lexington, Bunker Hill, and Saratoga. He and his fellow farmers blockaded courthouses in Worcester and Great Barrington, and attempted unsuccessfully to seize the federal armory in Springfield. Massachusetts unsuccessfully asked the federal government to send troops, but no troops were sent since the Articles of Confederation did not to permit taxation to pay for an army. Instead, Massachusetts opposed the rebels with a combination of state militiamen and privately paid soldiers.        

The Massachusetts Guide has much to say about Shays’ Rebellion, most of it negative. In the history section, we hear from Arthur Schlesinger, Professor of American history at Harvard, who tells the story from his characteristically conservative point of view:

“[After the Revolutionary War] a new aristocracy arose which drew its wealth […] from the sea. [The] financial resources of the Commonwealth concentrated along the coast, leaving dissatisfied farmers of the interior struggling vainly against the stubborn soil. [O]n the hilly country around Worcester and in the Berkshires, the farmers began to demand legislative relief in the form of […] laws which would prevent mortgage foreclosures. These discontented elements united under the leadership of Daniel Shays, a revolutionary veteran. In 1786, he and his disheveled followers closed the courts in Worcester […] until an army hastily formed and financed by Boston merchants, quelled the uprising.”

Massachusetts Guide p. 43-44

The regional WPA guide, The Berkshire Hills (1939), presents a contrasting view. Out of the clutches of Schlesinger we get a more balanced picture of both the causes and the participants in the rebellion:

“Hard on the heels of the American Revolution came Shays’ Rebellion. The Berkshire farmers, oppressed by heavy taxes, hard times and the almost worthless post-Revolutionary currency, understood better than the “city folk” in Boston the real purpose of Daniel Shays’ uprising.”

The Guide’s treatment of a skirmish in Lee is noticeably more empathetic:

“In the winter of 1787, [the town of Lee] was in particularly hard straits. A battle […] took place between the Shaysites and the government troops. General Patterson, drew up on a hill in East Lee. Opposite […] were lined up the ragged and hungry rebels. They had only a few old-fashioned muskets, little ammunition and no cannon.”

The rebels avoided defeat by an ingenious trick:

“Someone had an inspiration: ‘Bring out Mother Perry’s [loom] and we’ll make it look like a cannon to scare the sheep across the way.” Quickly the ponderous piece of weaving machinery, looking remarkably like a cannon, was mounted on a pair of ox-cart wheels. A ramrod and other military gadgets were flourished for the benefit of the enemy. Peter Wilcox roared the order, “Fire!” and a blazing tarred rope was brandished like a fuse. Before the flames could damage Mother Perry’s property, General Patterson’s troops were in flight. In a twinkling, the hill they had occupied was bare.”

Wilcox was captured a few days later, tried for treason and sentenced to death. While imprisoned in the county jail awaiting hanging, his cause was widely supported by the townspeople of Lee:

“[The jailer permitted Wilcox’s wife] to bring him food and comforts. [One day,] seemingly bent with sorrow, she left the jail [and] the guard discovered that his prisoner was a woman in man’s clothing. Wilcox in disguise had gotten safely out of the way.”              

The Berkshire Hills, p. 137-8

With apparent cooperation from all concerned, Wilcox hid out in the town for a full year without being re-captured and was subsequently pardoned.   

Shays’ Rebellion ended in Sheffield in February, 1787. During the rebellion, dozens of rebels and state militiamen lost their lives and scores more were injured. While the rebels ceased armed resistance, their goals were in large part achieved. Four thousand rank and file farmers were granted a general amnesty. Although eighteen of their leaders were tried and sentenced to death, all but two (including Shays himself) were pardoned. Governor Bowdoin, who led the effort to put down the rebellion, was defeated in the next election by John Hancock who had supported it. In its next session, the Massachusetts legislature granted the farmers both debt relief and a tax cut.

Shays’ Rebellion had important consequences for the nation as well. It underscored the defects in the Articles of Confederation and served as a direct catalyst for the Constitutional Convention in May, 1787. The draft of the new Constitution strengthened the federal government considerably, permitting it to raise taxes and an army. But, there too, the rights of the people were not ignored. Ratification of the new document was understood to be unlikely unless the Constitution guaranteed the right of the people to be free from the arbitrary unfairness of a powerful central government. The Bill of Rights was the result. Shays Rebellion may be almost forgotten today, but it was key to the structure of our Constitution and the fundamental nature of our Republic. 

July,  2021




Daniel Shays of Pelham Memorial

Petersham Memorial

                                                                            

Travels with the WPA State Guides: Cookies and Candy, Cambridge Massachusetts

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Picture3

“The Cambridge [of Harvard] is famous…. But the story of Cambridge the Unknown City has seldom been told. Yet this is a very real Cambridge. A hundred and fifty thousand people throng its streets, stores and crowded subway stations. Five hundred distributing and manufacturing plants pour out a score of nationally known products … including candy. Call the roll of industries today and Kendall Square will answer:  machineries and foundries; glass, rubber, food and cracker factories.”

Massachusetts Guide p. 184, 191

 In Harvard Yard nothing much has changed since 1936. But Kendall Square has been totally transformed. In place of factories, there are labs. Kendall Square is now home to the world’s largest collection of biotech companies. Their gleaming glass headquarters crowd the space and butt right up against the MIT campus.

Until 1946, Kendall Square was the center of candy and cookie manufacturing in the United States. We made Tootsie Rolls, Sugar Daddys, Charleston Chews, Necco Wafers, Good and Plenty, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Fig Newtons, and countless other sweets. All production has now ceased except for Junior Mints which are still manufactured in Kendall Square. In fact, on summer nights, when the workers leave the back door open, the aroma of mint and dark chocolate wafts through the air, drawing kids and parents alike to beg for samples.

Cantabridgians love and honor history, especially when it comes in the form of beautiful old buildings. Several  of the candy factories have been repurposed and traces of their history remain. The Squirrel Nut Brands factory is now an apartment building but its delightful sign has been carefully preserved. The Necco factory complex remains, now housing biotech giant, Novartis, ironically the invenor of Ritalin. 

The Kennedy Bakery (later Nabisco) has been renovated into condos providing relief for the eyes in a neighborhood of glass and steel. Kennedy opened its factory in Kendall Square in 1845, and was the largest bakery in the country in the late 19th Century. The company was merged into Nabisco decades ago and moved out of state but the Kennedy Condominiums have not forgotten the company’s path-breaking industrial bakery. The brick gateposts at the main entrance are embedded with tiles in the shapes of Kennedy’s cookies and a Lorna Doone-shaped plaque indicates that the building was pre-eminent once in our nation’s culinary and industrial history.   

Many of Kennedy’s cookies are rare if not extinct now. You can still buy Arrowroots, Social Tea Bicuits, Lorna Doones on the internet but they don’t take up much space on the cookie shelves in local markets. In contrast, Kennedy’s Fig Newtons, first made in 1892, are still popular, at least here in Massachusetts. 

                                                           

September  2021


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Picture6
Picture4

                     

Travels with the American Guide Series, A WPA Federal Writers’ Project: Rhode Island – Federal Hill in Providence

                                         

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



The Rhode Island Guide contains a section on ethnic groups entitled ”Foreign Born.” But it notes that 75% of those termed foreign-born are, in fact, American citizens born of immigrant parents. The Italians are the largest group. In 1936, 19% of the state’s population were of Italian descent, exactly the same percentage that pertains today.

The Guide describes the Italian population in detail:

“The Italians make up about 19 per cent of the total foreign-born group. Though some Italians came to Rhode Island in the latter halfof the nineteenth century, the ‘big immigration’ took place between 1900 and 1915. The great majority of these newcomers were of the peasant class. On their arrival they were perplexed by radical differences in language, customs, and environment. Added to these difficulties was the pressing necessity of earning a livelihood. At first the majority worked as unskilled laborers, while some became street vendors and small shop keepers. In more recent years the migration to this country has included a larger number of professional men and others who were able to establish themselves economically immediately upon arrival. The Italians have come largely from the provinces of Frosinone, Naples, Campobasso, and Palermo; only a few are natives of northern Italy. 

The Italians tend to settle solidly in particular sections of a new country or city, forming ‘colonies.’ Several such Italian districts are located in Providence and its vicinity on Federal Hill, around Charles Street and Hartford Avenue, and in Thornton and Manton. The Italians now living in Providence, 53,000 in number, would form a good-sized city. 

Though most of these people are still classed as unskilled workers, an increase in the number engaged in skilled occupations is evident. The trades practiced by most Italians are barbering, tailoring, shopkeeping (especially in food and produce), shoe-repairing, music, and bricklaying. Providence has several jewelry factories, a large artificial-flower shop, two lumber companies, macaroni factories, and many soda-water and ice-cream plants, all established by Italians. The skilled or learned professions in which they are found include medicine, law, and dentistry. 

A particularly colorful custom which the Italians have brought to Rhode Island is the celebration of feast days, such as those of the Blessed Virgin and of the patron saints of various provinces and towns in Italy. The celebrations are partly religious and partly secular. There is usually a High Mass, followed by a procession, then dinner, and afternoon music. 

A typical Italian feast is that in honor of Santa Maria di Prata, which originated in the Italian town of Prata Sannita, in the province of Caserta. The festival begins with a High Mass at Saint Rocco’s Church in Thornton, after which the priest delivers a sermon on the life of the saint, whose statue is believed by the devout to have saved many people from harm in a storm at Caserta in 1688. Following this is a parade. Young girls, dressed as angels, march from the church to the rear of the Thornton School, where a girl-angel is swung from the top of the school to place a crown on the head of the portable statue of the patron saint. Bombs are set off as the coronation takes place. After the coronation, the parade continues through the streets of Thornton, and flowers are dropped on the moving statue from an airplane. The customary evening attractions are band concerts and a display of fireworks, but the latter has recently been outlawed by the city.”

Rhode Island Guide p. 98-100. 

The festival of Santa Maria di Prata is no longer held at St. Rocco’s, but Federal Hill hasn’t changed at all. Still the epicenter of Italian culture in Rhode Island, the Guide’s description fits it exactly today.

The Federal Hill section of Providence maintains an Old World atmosphere. The shopkeepers fill their windows with piles of hard cheeses, fresh and dried sausages, bottles of olive oil, and small casks of almonds, dried cherries (used in making wine), and chestnuts, pistachios, and other nuts. 

On Atwells Avenue, the neighborhood’s main street, Italian restaurants, outdoor cafés, coffee and bakeries abound, bookended by well-stocked Italian gourmet stores. Fresh ricotta and mozzarella, prosciutto and salamis, dark-roast coffee beans, artisanal oils and balsamic vinegars are for sale alongside espresso machines and Italian pottery. It’s in Providence in 2021, but it could just as well be 1936 or even 1900 in Naples.  

September, 2021





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Travels with the State Guiles: Harvard’s Houghton Library

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



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In 1937, the entrance to Harvard’s rare books collection was housed in one room in Widener Library. The Guide has this mystifying description of the collection:

“The Treasure Room, reached from the southwest corner of the entrance hall, is allotted to such rare books as […] the various editions of the ‘Imitatio Christi,’ issues of ‘the Compleat Angler,’ and the George Herbert Collection given by George Herbert Palmer […]”

(Massachusetts Guide, p.196)

But don’t be put off. Now housed in its own building, the Houghton Library, Harvard’s collection of rare books is outstanding and the building itself is a gem. The extensive library contains true treasures. Harvard was named as a result of the gift of books. When Massachusetts resident, John Harvard died, he left 780 pounds and his 400 volume Iibrary to the school which honored him by changing its name from New College to Harvard.

All but one of the volumes of John Harvard’s books were lost in a fire in 1764, but the college continued its tradition of acquiring books. Houghton now contains such such rarities as a Gutenberg Bible, the papers of John Keats and Emily Dickinson, a extensive collection of early

19th century daguerreotypes, the original manuscripts of St. Augustine and St. Jerome, and a 6th Century trove of Egyptian papyri written in Greek and comprising the complete works of Homer, Plato and Thucydides.

The interior of the building itself is particularly beautiful. Harvard students and professors use a reading room for research on the original texts and the public is welcome to visit the library’s book-lined sitting rooms and special exhibits. On the day that I visited, I saw an enchanting exhibit focusing on hand-painted maps in fantasy literature. For book lovers, treasures and pleasures abound.

August, 2021








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Travels with the WPA State Guides: Quincy, Massachusetts, home of the Adams family

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




The small city of Quincy has an outsize place in Presidential history. John Adams, second President of the United States and important contributor to the draft of our Constitution, was born here in 1735.  His son, John Quincy Adams, our sixth President, was born in the house next door, in 1767.

Also born in Quincy were Adams’s grandson, Charles Francis Adams, ambassador to England during the Civil War and his son, Henry Adams, a distinguished 19th Century American historian.

Quincy was the hometown of Josiah Quincy III, first Mayor of Boston and, later, President of Harvard College and John Hancock, bold signatory of the Declaration of Independence and first governor of Massachusetts. 

Quincy respects its history. The houses of each of these notables are now museums that compromise the Presidents’ Trail.  And the Stone Temple houses the tombs of both Presidents and their wives.

The Guide points out all of these sites in laconic, uninflected language:

“John Adams Birthplace […] adm. 25 cents, is a small red clapboard salt-box farmhouse built in 1681 […] with a small steep, winding stairway, huge central chimney, and mammoth fireplace […] The ceiling beams are hand hewn.

The Stone Temple, “Church of the Presidents,” was built in 1828 of Quincy Granite […] in the style of the Greek Revival. The name is derived from the fact that John Adams and John Quincy Adams worshipped and are buried here. The Old Cemetery, opposite, is the burial place of many members of the Quincy and Adams families.”

Massachusetts Guide p. 339-40 

Reading the Guide, I had assumed that these places were skippable. But I was wrong. Visiting the Adams’s simple country houses, I found the contrast between their modest upbringing and the sophistication of their thinking and accomplishments to be surprisingly moving. 

Throughout the interior, the spirit of John Adams was palpable. I was escorted by the custodian into the crypt and he permitted me to pay my respects by touching the tomb. He also showed me the handwritten register of the church recording Adam’s death on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Upstairs, I sat in pew 54, in which John Quincy Adams worshipped on Sundays. 

The adjoining graveyard contained not only the graves of Josiah Quincy and dozens of Adams’s and Quincy’s but many other early settlers and American Revolutionary War veterans. Any Bostonian would recognize their names; their descendants live among us to this day.

A modern downtown surrounds the Common but within its confines, all is quiet and our cherished American history reigns supreme.

Fern L. Nesson

August, 2021



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Travels with the WPA State Guides: Fruitlands, Harvard, MA

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


In the first half of the19th century, Massachusetts was the scene of the  intersection of two social movements: Transcendentalism and Utopianism. Best known in the writings of Emerson and Thoreau, Transcendentalism taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity. Emerson, and especially Thoreau, were individualists who prized self-reliance and living alone. In contrast, Utopian transcendentalist Bronson Alcott purchased farmland in Harvard, Massachusetts and founded Fruitlands to test his communitarian principles.

The Massachusetts Guide tells the story of Fruitlands succinctly (and somewhat sarcastically) in only slightly briefer form that the life of the farm itself:

“Fruitands is the farmhouse of Bronson Allcott’s New Eden. This community lasted only a few months.[It was] established in [May,] 1843 as the nucleus of a new social order in which neither man nor beast should be exploited. Following this principle, the Con-Sociate Family adopted vegetarianism, eschewed the use of wool (obtained by depriving sheep of their covering), cotton (the product of slave labor), and leather. To provide garments for the members, mulberry trees were planted [but the members failed to produce silk since they were unwilling to] exploit the labor of silkworms. The Con-Sociates attemplted to pull their plows [without the use of animals], compromising on this point only when the planting season was too far advanced to produce [crops.]  Practical difficulties were so great that the experiment ended [in December, 1843] before there was an opportunity to demonstrate the high spiritual principles on which it was founded.”

 Massachusetts Guide, p. 512 

The after-life of Fruitlands has been considerably more robust. Interest in Alcott’s experiment  (perhaps due to the populairity of his daughter, Louisa May Alcott) has persisted ever since.  The old farmhouse and its grounds were purchased and preserved by Lucy Sears who re-opened Fruitlands as a transcendentalist museum in 1914. 

“[The farmhouse] has been carefully restored… aided by “Transcendental Wild Oats,” Louisa May Alcott’s record of her father’s venture, in which she took part as as child. The visitor may see the fireplace where the Alcott ‘little women’ hung their stockings at Christmas time, and Louisa’s attic bedroom where she used to lie awake and listen to the rain. Two old mulberry trees, survivals of the abortive experiment in silkworms, stand near the house.”

 Massachusetts Guide, p. 512

Fruitlands is now run by the non-profit organization, Trustees of Reservations, and it has been expanded over the years to include a Native American museum, an art museum, and a Shaker farmhouse and herb gardens. There are hiking trails throughout the property and crafts fairs and performances are held on the grounds in summer. One of the mulberry trees still graces the original farmhouse. It is a magical place for a visit.

                                 Fern L. Nesson

                                      July, 2021

Travels with The WPA State Guides: 19th Century Firehouses of Greenwich Village


The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


Pre-Civil War firefighting in New York City was done by volunteer groups who built and equipped their own neighborhood firehouses. In 1865, when the city created the Metropolitan Fire Department (MFD), it acquired these buildings and hired distinguished architects to design many additional ones. 

The Nineteenth Century firehouses in Greenwich Village are of singular beauty and emotional resonance.  The custom has always been to honor colleagues lost in fires with plaques on the facades of their firehouses. On September 11, 2001, a large proportion of the firefighters who died at the World Trade Center were from Village fire stations. Their names are inscribed on plaques at these stations and their photos are displayed at the 2001 Memorial  at the Fire Museum on Spring Street (itself a Nineteenth Century firehouse.)  

As architecture-centric as the New York City Guide is, it fails to mention the firehouses. The omission is a shame but it should not discourage exploration. These charming buildings are architectural treasures; they are worth a visit.

July, 2021


Jefferson Market Clocktower Fire Lookout  (1877)

Engine Company 18, 132 West 10th Street (1892)

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Engine Company 18, 132 West 10th Street (1892)

Engine Company 18, 132 West 10th Street (1892)

Engine Co. No. 55, 363 Broome Street (1899)

Engine Co. No. 55, 363 Broome Street (1899)

Engine Co. No. 55, 363 Broome Street (1899)

NYC Fire Museum

NYC Fire Museum

NYC Fire Museum

NYC Fire Museum

NYC Fire Museum

NYC Fire Museum

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NYC Fire Museum

NYC Fire Museum

Former Perry Hose Company, 48 Horatio Street (1856) 

              Former  Columbia Hook and Ladder Co., 102 Charles Street  (1854)

              Former  Columbia Hook and Ladder Co., 102 Charles Street  (1854)

Former Empire Hose Company No. 40, 70 Barrow Street (1852)

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Former Engine 24, 78 Morton Street (1864)

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Former  Fire Patrol No. 2, 84 West 3rd Street (1906)

Former  Fire Patrol No. 2, 84 West 3rd Street (1906)

Former  Fire Patrol No. 2, 84 West 3rd Street (1906)

                                                                                        

Travels With the WPA State Guides: The Civil War in Boston

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




“I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch – and I will be heard!”

William Lloyd Garrison, “The Liberator”

Boston was the center of the pre-Civil War abolition movement.  The Massachusetts Guide’s history section, edited by Arthur Schlesinger Senior, eminent professor of history at Harvard,  takes a relatively dim view of the movement. In his own historical scholarship, Schlesinger, stressed material causes such as economic profit and downplayed ideology and values as motivations for the American Revolution and the Civil War.  Note the skepticism permeating the Guide’s account of pre-war events in Boston (highlighted in italics):

“From the mad, shifting world of [reforming idealists] emanated the crusade against slavery…. It was in Boston that William Lloyd Garrison established his newspaper“The Liberator” in 1831, committed to the immediate emancipation of all humans held in bondage and vitriolic in the abuse which it heaped upon slaveholders. It was in Boston that the New England Anti-Slavery Society was formed … stirring sentiment everywhere in favor of uncompensated emancipation. The movement that was to plunge the nation into civil war was within two decades was launched in Massachusetts. …

Garrison was opposed by many moderate men .. who favored legal and peaceful means of freeing the slaves and by most of respectable society, who soon became alarmed lest the agitation check the flow of cotton from the South….

The turbulence of these trying days [persisted] until, by 1856, the Republican party with its anti-slavery principles invaded the Commonwealth and the votes of Massachusetts … helped elect Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860.”

Massachusetts Guide  p. 47- 49

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Boston, then and now, did not share Schlesinger’s views.Throughout the 1830’s-60’s, thousands of Bostonians attended rallies at Faneuil Hall and the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill where William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass and Sarah Grimké decried the inhumanity of slavery. Bostonians protesting the enforcement of Fugitive Slave Laws attempted to block the return of escaped slaves to the South both by litigation in the Massachusetts courts and by direct action outside them. 

On October 30, 1842, when escaped slave George Latimer was arrested and threatened with return to his master, Bostonians meeting at Faneuil Hall resolved that:

“[I]f the soul-traders and slave-drivers of the South imagine that Massachusetts is slave-hunting ground, on which they may run down their prey with impunity…they will find themselves mistaken. Massachusetts is solemnly bound to give succor and protection to all who may escape from the prison-house of bondage, and flee to her for safety.”

The Liberator (1842)

They purchased Latimer’s freedom and their petition to the Massachusetts legislature containing 64,000 signatures resulted in the passage of the Personal Liberty Act of 1843, which forbade Massachusetts officials or facilities from being used in the apprehension of fugitive slaves.

After the Northern states were required by the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Massachusetts abolitionists refused to concede. Thousands gathered again at Faneuil Hall in 1854 to protest the capture of Anthony Burns who was being held at the nearby courthouse. Abolitionist Theodore Parker declared that, “Liberty is the end, and sometimes peace is not the means towards it…” (The Liberator, 1854). The crowd then flooded out of Faneuil Hall to attempt a courthouse rescue. The rescue attempt failed and Burns was sent back to slavery but Bostonians subsequently raised the funds to purchase his freedom. He returned to the city a free man.

In the decades after the Civil War, the abolitionists were widely celebrated as heroes. Statues of William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, William Ellery Channing and Frederick Douglass were erected throughout Boston in its most prominent, honored places.  

Channing, the Unitarian minister of the Arlington Street Church, had written a path-breaking essay supporting abolition in 1836 despite opposition from his wealthy parishioners: “The first question to be proposed by a rational being is not what is profitable, but what is Right.”  His statue was erected in the Public Garden directly opposite his Church.

Phillips’s statue in the Public Garden styles him “Prophet of Liberty; Champion of the Slave” and memorializes his opposition to slavery with his famous quote: “Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing but victory.”

Garrison ‘s monument on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall is engraved with his stirring words from The Liberator in 1832.  Of this statue, the Guide comments:

“The declaration inscribed beneath [Garrison’s] statue is dynamic. ‘I am in earnest, I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.‘ Yet the seated figure by Olin  L. Warner shows him as a kindly deacon. It was James Russell Lowell who said: “There’s Garrison, his features very benign for an incendiary.”

Massachusetts Guide, p. 149

Military heroes and presidents were not neglected either. On the front lawn of the Massachusetts Statehouse, General Hooker, who led the Union troops at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, sits on horseback. Lieutenant Thomas Cass, commander of Massachusetts’ 9th Regiment is honored the Public Garden. Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant share an extraordinarily tall monument on the Cambridge Common. William Sumner sits both in the Public Garden and in the middle of Harvard Square, just outside the gate to Harvard Yard.

Not only were monuments erected after the War, there were celebrations as well. The Guide gives an astonishing description of Boston’s “Peace Jubilee” in 1869:

 “A coliseum seating 30,000 people was erected in Copley Square housing an Angel of Peace, thirteen feet high, together with an extinguished torch of war, frescoes, doves and angels, medallions, emblems,  flags, as well as the largest bass drum in the world, constructed for the occasion, and four organs that required relays of twelve men to pump. Ten thousand choral singers combined with an orchestra of 84 trombones, 83 tubas, 83 cornets, 75 drums, 330 strings, and 119 woodwinds to produce an awe-inspiring “Niagara of harmony.”

At one stage of the celebration, a hundred members of the Boston Fire Department, clad in red shirts, blue pants and white caps, suddenly appeared and beat upon a hundred anvils in what was doubtless the loudest performance of the Anvil Chorus from “Il Trovatore” ever given.

President Ulysses S. Grant, who attended, appeared unimpressed [while Boston’s] foremost music critic of the day fled [the city] in order to escape the din.”

Massachusetts Guide p. 142-3.

Even today, we are reminded of the union’s cause throughout the city. One of the Boston’s  loveliest parks opened in 1853. Anchoring a beautiful residential part of the South End, it  was named Union Park to underscore the city’s support for the cause. The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, dedicated to the 54th Regiment, comprised of free Black Soldiers, stands directly opposite the Massachusetts State House on the highest corner of the Boston Common. The Massachusetts Guide has nothing but praise for this monument:

“Facing the State House from the edge of the Common is a notable group statue in high relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Colonel Shaw, his horse, and the [Black] troops are all sculptured with sensitivity to the medium and the subject.”

Massachusetts Guide p. 153

Erected in 1897, the monument was renovated in 2021 to restore it to its original luster. It was re-dedicated on Memorial Day with appropriate fanfare including a re-enactment of the departure of the troops to Fort Wagner, South Carolina where the majority lost their lives. I visited on the day after Memorial Day. I was not alone. Groups came by at a steady pace to pay their respects.

Visit Boston—the Civil War will come alive for you as well.







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Travels with the American Guide Series, A WPA Federal Writers’ Project: The Lower East Side

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The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


       The Lower East Side is likely the most colorful and diverse neighborhood in all of Manhattan and it inspired equally colorful descriptive language in the New York City Guide. First home to many immigrant groups “straight off the boat,” this tiny neighboorhood housed thousands of emigrants from Eastern Europe, Ireland, Italy, the Caribbean and elsewhere, all in the space of two square miles. 

         Today the neighborhood combines past and present on each block. Many of the old tenement houses, ethnic food stores, Irish taverns and shops remain but they are now interspersed with modern luxury residences, art galleries, underground music clubs, bars and hip new restaurants and coffee shops. The streets are not as crowded as in earlier days but the diversity remains. People of every age and background mingle and dozens of languages can be heard in passing.The markets vary from Italian to Cantonese to old-fashioned delis even on the same block. 

        Visually, the Lower East Side is gritty but also a feast for the eyes with narrow streets, tiny pocket parks, ebullient graffitti, school playgrounds, outdoor vegetable stands, myriad small storefronts and churches. With the exception of a few new tall apartment buildings, everything is on a human scale. It’s noisy and it’s fun!

    And so it was (even more so) in 1939. Rather than summarize the Guide, I offer it to you directly:

 “The dramatic, intensely human story of the Lower East Side is a familiar chapter in the epic of America…. Here have dwelt the people whose hands built the city’s elevateds, subways, tubes, bridges, and skyscrapers. Its two square miles of tenements 

and crowded streets magnify all the problems and conflicts of big-city life. The inhuman conditions of its slums and sweatshops brought about the first organized social work in America. Crowded, noisy, squalid in many of its aspects, no other section of the city is more typical of New York. 

       The district is best known as a slum, as a community of immigrants, and as a ghetto. From its dark tenements, 

generations of American workers of many different national origins and an amazing number of public figures have emerged; politicians, artists, gangsters, composers, prize fighters, labor leaders. 

        In 1881, the great influx of Italians, Russians, Rumanians, Hungarians, Slovaks, Greeks, Poles, and Turks, into the Lower East Side began. Between 1881 and 1910, 1,562,000 Jews came to America. Most of these new Jewish immigrants worked as peddlers or entered the expanding needle trades. Workshops, established in the tenements, enslaved entire families, and the sweatshop era began, with its disease and egradation. 

     “[G]reenhorns” — new and bewildered immigrants, Jew and Gentile —  continued to augment the population of the East Side until the third decade of this century, when quota laws severely restricted further immigration. During that decade the population remained between five and six hundred thousand. 

        There were almost no play areas. Boys formed themselves into gangs, roamed the streets in search of mischief and money; many became gangsters. One of the toughest thugs in the city’s history, “Monk” Eastman, rose at the turn of the century, commanding hundreds of gunmen. From his headquarters on Chrystie Street came in a later period, Johnny Torrio, “Legs” Diamond, and Jacob (“Little “Augie”) Orgen. 

      During the latter part of the nineteenth century the writings of Jacob Riis and others stimulated the housing reform movement and social-welfare work…[ The newcomers] took an important step toward combating their intolerable living conditions by forming [ trade unions] and such centers as the Educational Alliance and the Henry Street Settlement. 

        Unionism, anarchism, capitalism, socialism, and communism have been thoroughly discussed in the streets and parks of the East Side….Anarchist and Socialist papers and periodicals, … have been issued in many languages. [In]1906, Emma Goldman founded Mother Earth [and] the Jewish Daily Forward, a labor paper in [Yiddish,] has been most influential, and still has a circulation of about 170,000. 

       The intellectuals among the immigrants brought with them their old- world avidity for culture, and their influence on the East Side provided thousands with their first contact with art and literature. A lunch hour at a garment factory would find many of the workers absorbed in Tolstoy,

Kropotkin, or Heine. Maeterlinck, Hauptmann, Sudermann, Gorky, and other European dramatists had their American premiers in the ghetto. While Broadway was receiving Ibsen coldly, the East Side was enthusiastically applauding Nazimova in Ghosts.

       The ghetto has produced a remarkable Jewish literature of its own, much of it mirroring the harsh life of sweatshop and slum. The Yiddish poet, with his relatively small public, ordinarily sells many more copies of his works than a poet who writes in English.

       … Jacob Epstein, sculptor, and Max Weber, the painter, are from the East Side, as are scores of younger artists whose works have gained wide recognition. Jazz owes much to the district where George and Ira Gershwin and Irving Berlin started their careers. The wise-cracking brand of humor, and much of language which has become part of popular speech, have roots in the Lower East Side. Such expressions as gabfest, plunderbund, it listens well, bum, dumb (in the sense of stupid), come from the Germans; the Jews have given words like kibitzer, kosher, mazuma, phooey; and the Irish, shillelagh, smithereens, ballyhoo, and shebang. The district’s environment has influenced Jimmy Durante, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Fannie Brice, George Jessel, Lionel Stander, Milton Berle, and the Marx brothers.

        Throughout most of the section the smothering heat of summer drives East Siders to the windows and fire escapes of their ill-ventilated dwellings, to the docks along the river or to the crowded smelly streets, where half-naked children cool themselves in streams from fire hydrants. In winter, basement merchants sell coal and kindling in minute portions for the stoves of unheated cold-water flats.

      In 1939 a Federal-financed housing project was considered for the Lower East Side. Other changes are in prospect and even the pushcarts may yet be housed in respectable markets. But the tenements that have been home to so many generations will probably be home to many more. Shored up with great beams against their sagging walls or vacant and crumbling, they still seem defiant. Great slums die hard.

                                                         ... 

        Among rancid tenements, at Cherry and Catharine Streets, stands the immense KNICKERBOCKER VILLAGE, a housing project completed in 1934 by a limited-dividend corporation with assistance from the Federal Government’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Built on the site of a notorious “lung” block, it rents 1,600 apartments for an average of $12.50 a room a month to better-paid white-collar workers. The average rental elsewhere in the district is nearer five dollars and the former occupants of this site have moved to other slums. With a total of twelve floors, the buildings form an overcrowded group whose essential monotony is barely relieved by the sparse planting which differentiates it from hundreds of equally undistinguished apartments farther uptown.

     The famous HENRY STREET SETTLEMENT, at 265 Henry, a block south of East Broadway, still maintains its modest main house. Opened in 1893 by one of the great pioneers in social work, Lillian Wald, the settlement has attracted world-wide attention through its work in nursing the sick, aiding in the solution of domestic and social problems, and striving for better housing, recreation, and education facilities in the slums of the Lower East Side. …During the depression of the early 1930’s, before public relief was taken over by the Federal Government, the settlement issued thousands of food tickets, gave aid, and directed relief.

         Three blocks north, at 466 Grand Street, is the Henry Street Settlement’s Playhouse. Organized in 1915, … it saw the American premieres of The Dybbuk and of James Joyce’s Exiles. Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian poet; and the Isadora Duncan dancers appeared here. …

       [In the Jewish Quarter] tiny shops huddle between … shoe stores and clothing establishments. Housewives carrying shopping bags walk to the dimly lighted food stores; shriveled old women sit on the steps before the tenements; an occasional elder in beard and yarmalka (skull cap) climbs the steps to a tiny synagogue…; a Jewish passerby may be solicited to come into the synagogue to make up a minyan (quorum of ten) so that the service may start.

        The famous ORCHARD STREET PUSHCART MARKET, which stretches for several blocks above and below Delancey Street, fruits, vegetables, bread, hot knishes (boiled buckwheat groats or mashed potatoes, wrapped in a skin of dough and baked), bagel (doughnut-shaped rolls), and hot arbes (boiled chick-peas) are offered for sale. … The three blocks south on Division Street, from Eldridge Street to the Bowery, are occupied by an unbroken series of women’s apparel shops…. In the doorways schleppers (pullers-in, a recognized profession on the East Side) stand ready to draw prospective customers into the stores

       In Little Italy… according to a 1932 survey, 98 per cent of the heads of households in this area were of Italian birth or parentage, mainly from Sicily and the south of Italy. During church festivals the streets are festooned with colored electric lights, the sidewalks lined with booths selling souvenirs and delicacies, and there is music, along with dancing, and a parade in the streets.

     [O]n Mulberry Street between Bayard and Park, … one of the worst slums in the city, was torn down in 1892 and replaced by Columbus Park, after drawing the fiery criticism of the reformer, Jacob Riis. However, many five-story tenements remain decked with cluttered fire escapes, washlines, and crowded stoops. The pushcarts on Mott Street from Canal to Broome … sell ripe and green olives, artichokes, goats’ cheeses, finochio (sweet fennel), and ready-to-eat pizza, an unsweetened pastry filled with tomatoes and cheese.

        [Running North/South is] the Bowery. Today [it] is chiefly given over to pawnshops  … beer saloons. Flophouses offer a bug-infested bed in an unventilated pigeonhole for twenty-five cents a night. … Thousands of the nation’s unemployed drift to this section and may be seen sleeping in all-night restaurants, in doorways, and on loading platforms, furtively begging, or waiting with hopeless faces for some bread line or free lodging house to open. No agency, at present (1939), provides adequate food, shelter, and clothing for these wanderers. Missions furnish food and lodging for a few, and try by sermon and song to touch the souls of the down- and-outers and the sympathies of generous tourists.”

        [The] FIRST HOUSES …  opened in 1935. Of the old slum tenements which formerly occupied this space, some were torn down and others were completely rebuilt by WPA labor, using the old materials. Unfortunately the attempt to utilize old structures has forced the new ones into a dull scheme. Bathrooms, sound-proofed partitions, gardens, and playgrounds promote the health and comfort of the occupants, who pay five dollars to seven dollars a room a month.” 

NYC Guide  (p. 108 et seq.)

      The Lower East Side still offers an experience of immigrant life, including, now, the Tenement Museum in a classic old tenement building. In addition, there are newer treats. While the  luxury buildings are closed-off and anaomlous in the neighborhood,  the International Center of Photography is open for visitors to its museum as well as for classes for photographers. When it opened on Essex Street a few years ago, several art galleries followed. And, in the grand tradition of the pushcarts of Orchard, Mott and Mulberry Streets, is the new (and stunningly beautiful) Essex market.   

      There are glitzier parts of Manhattan but few as interesting, block for block. Make the trip, guide in hand. You won’t regret it.

 
                                                         Fern L. Nesson
                                                                   May, 2021
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Travels With the WPA State Guides: The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


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The New York City Guide has lots to say about New York’s impressive harbor. Foremost among the sites that it describes are the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. One is little changed, the other almost totally transformed.

It is hard to describe the feeling of awe mixed with patriotic uplift that one gets when approaching that Statue by boat. The Guide does not do it justice:

“New York’s harbor is one of the finest in the world: a magnificent water gate that is well protected, open the year round, deep enough for the largest vessels, and spacious enough to hold the entire United States Navy without obstructing normal traffic …The Upper Bay [is] at once the front door of a nation and the service entrance. Long piers reach out from every shore. Chuffing tugs wrestle determinedly with car floats and clumsy barges, single-minded ferries cut one another’s wakes, tankers with their snake-nests of deck hose veer westward to the Bayonne refineries, and occasionally a deep-chested liner rears through the thin haze, easing her way to a Hudson River berth ….  Well over on the New Jersey side, the Statue of Liberty salutes New York from Bedloe Island.”

In fact, the approach by ferry from Battery Park to the Statue is thrilling. I visited the Statue of Liberty as a child in the early 1950’s and the 65 intervening years have neither dimmed that experience nor diminished any of my subsequent ones. It is grand in every sense. The Guide tells its history:   

“Perhaps the best-known piece of sculpture in America, Bartholdi’s huge female figure of Liberty Enlightening the World, commands [New York Harbor.] The 151-foot figure, atop a 142-foot granite and concrete pedestal, portrays Liberty as a woman stepping from broken shackles. The uplifted right hand holds a burning torch, while the left hand grasps a tablet representing the Declaration of Independence, inscribed “July 4, 1776.” The statue, of hand-hammered copper plates supported by an inner iron frame-work, [has weathered,] covering it with a soft verdigris. A circular [interior] stairway leads from the top of the pedestal to the spiked crown. From sunset to sunrise, ninety-two 1000-watt bulbs floodlight the structure and fifteen more illuminate the torch.

The statue is a gift of the French people to commemorate “the alliance of the two nations in achieving the independence of the United States of America, and attests their abiding friendship.” … Bartholdi chose the site, modeled the statue [and] worked indefatigably to raise funds on both sides of the Atlantic to bring the plan to completion. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the French engineer, built the supporting framework. By 1879, one billion francs had been raised by popular subscription.

The statue was formally presented to the United States in Paris on July 4, 1884 [and] shipped in 214 cases, arriving here in May,1885. President Cleveland dedicated the monument on October 28, 1886.”

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Since 1939, the admission fee has increased from 10¢ to $12 but the experience is worth every penny. Approaching on a boat, it is easy to relive  the emotional reactions of the millions of immigrants who first glimpsed it as they sailed into New York Harbor. 

Ellis Island was the entry point for those twelve million immigrants between 1892 and 1951. lt lies just beyond the Statue of Liberty.  In 1939,  you needed special permission and private transportation to visit the island but now there is regular ferry service.  In fact, the ferries are identical to the ones that were used to transfer immigrants from the transatlantic oceanliners’ piers of Manhattan to the island.

In 1939, Ellis Island was still operating as the headquarters of the New York Immigration and Naturalization District. Then (and now) the etxerior  looked much as it did the the 19th century:

“The bulbous towers of some of the island’s buildings give it a faintly Byzantine appearance. The buildings on the east side house administrative offices, a dormitory with space for one thousand beds, a dining hall that can seat a thousand people, rooms for hearings, a recreation room, a room for social welfare workers, a library, and a kindergarten. On the north wall of the dining hall, a mural done by the Federal Art Project depicts the contributions of immigrants to the building of America. The most modern building is a ferry house, near the center of the island, built with PWA funds in 1935.”

Now, however, the interior is a very different. Totally renovated to its original condition, the main buildings are now the National Museum of Immigration. The arrival hall is spectacular. It houses a multi-media museum including dozens of exhibits, registry records of ships and their immigrant passengers, stunning phoographs by Lewis Hine, informative and compelling transcripts of interviews and galleries depicting the immigrant experience in work, education, housing, etc. You could easily spend days there trying to absorb it all. 

The grounds have been replanted and a low granite wall of immigrants’ names was constructed around the perimeter inscribed with many thousands names of immigrants who landed here. The wall was paid for by contributions from their descendants.

 Still to be renovated are the hospital buildings and gymnasium. It is possible to visit them on a “Hardhat Tour” (which I did.) In unrenovated condition, these buildings tell the story of immigration in an equally affecting way.

Although the Guide does not dwell upon it, Ellis Island saw many fewer immigrants after World War I due to nativist, anti-immigration legislation that repealed open immigration and established quotas dependent upon nation of origin. The results were drastic:

“Long the wide-open door to the New World, Ellis Island is now barely ajar. In 1907, the station’s peak year, 1,285,349 immigrants were admitted.The total fell sharply to 326,700 in 1915 and to 23,068 in1933. Strict adherence to quota limits checked the influx.”

                                    NYC Guide   p. 416

Although the writers of the Guide in 1939 did not anticipate the Holocaust, their statistics alone tell the story of the tragedy and US complicity in it in just one sentence:

“Early in 1939 the quotas of Central European countries were filled.” (p. 417 emphasis added)

                                     Fern L. Nesson

                                                                          



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Travels With the WPA State Guides: New York State Guide – Thomas Paine

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Abraham Lincoln once greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe saying, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!” A similar claim can be made for Thomas Paine and the American Revolution.

Good writers can do that.

Before Common Sense was published in January 1776, the American colonists nurtured grievances against the British Parliament but, by and large, they remained respectful and loyal to the king, mistakenly believing that he had their best interests at heart. Thomas Paine’s brilliant essays destroyed that illusion with their scathing take-down of King George. Paine changed the narrative dramatically, calling King George a “Royal Brute.” His eloquence broke the sentimental bonds that tied the colonists to Britain, and the rest is history. Here’s how he did it:

“The King […] hath shown himself such an inveterate enemy to liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power, [that] he is not a proper person to say to these colonies, “You shall make no laws but what I please?!” [I]s there any man so unwise as not to see, that (considering what has happened) he will suffer no law to be made here but such as suits his purpose? [T]he whole power of the crown will be exerted to keep this continent as low and humble as possible. [W]e shall go backward [;] we are already greater than the King wishes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavor to make us less? [T]he King [is] the greatest enemy this continent hath, or can have.

Where, say some, is the King of America? I’ll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain. [No] naked and untutored Indian, is less Savage than the King of Britain. [H]e hath wickedly broken through every moral and human obligation, trampled nature and conscience beneath his feet, and by […] insolence and cruelty procured for himself an universal hatred.”

Common Sense was first published in January 1776, and sold almost 500,000 copies in the colonies (whose total population was only 2.5 million.) Paine donated all of the profits of this book to support the Revolution. The ringing first line of his subsequent essay, The Crisis, was read aloud to the troops at Valley Forge in 1776 and at army camps throughout the War. It is justly familiar even now: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

Paine’s words reportedly persuaded George Washington to forswear his allegiance to Britain and inspired Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence. John Adams said: “[W]ithout the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain.”

At the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress, in gratitude, gifted Paine a thirty-acre farm in New Rochelle, New York, and he lived there for a few years in the early 1800s. But he wasn’t much of a farmer and he eventually went bankrupt. In his last years, he boarded with a friend on Grove Street in Greenwich Village. His funeral, in 1809, was a sad, sparse affair with a bedraggled cortège of six mourners. A lonely death to be sure, but immortality in the power of his words.

Paine’s farm in New Rochelle is exactly as desribed in the New York Guide. Now set now among the tony houses of a New York suburb, the site includes the original Paine’s farmhouse (complete with an unnerving, life-size wax sculpture of Paine at his writing desk), a few outbuildings, a small field, and a lovely stream.

Paine is clearly appreciated there. Abutting the site is a large monument inscribed with many of his most renowned phrases and a small museum housing even more Paine memorabilia:

“The Thomas Paine Monument […] enclosed by iron fence consists of a bronze bust on a square granite column. [It was] originally erected 1839 and was restored 1881. The monument stands close to the site of the grave in which Paine was originally buried.

The Paine Cottage is a two-story post-Colonial frame house with shingle exterior and rough stone foundation. [Its] collection includes Franklin stove given Paine by Benjamin Franklin and the chair that Paine always used when writing.

The Museum, a two-story structure of natural stone was erected 1925 by the Thomas Paine National Historical Association. Ground for the building was broken by Thomas Edison, an ardent admirer of Paine’s writings. The museum contains a number of Paine’s personal effects including the State papers he carried to the Second Continental Congress after Howe captured [Philadelphia] in 1777, Paine’s Rainbow Flag which he proposed as an international symbol [to be] used by neutral ships in time of war, photostatic copies of Paine’s extant letters and first editions, Paine’s death mask and the mutilated fragments of his gravestone.”

P. 246, NY Guide

The Grove street property, however, is a dump. Shut tight and crumbling on a quiet street in Greenwich Village, it looks much worse for the wear. The New York Guide mentions the site, but, with only a small plaque to mark the spot, it goes pretty much unnoticed in the bustle of the city around it:

“On narrow Grove Street, just west of the square, at No. 59, a bronze PLAQUE memorializes the site where Tom Paine, greatest literary force of the Revolution, died in 1809. It was then the home of Mme. Nicolas de Bonneville, whose husband befriended Paine after his release from prison in France.”

I stop by often to pay my respects, but I’ve never encountered another visitor.

Fern L. Nesson April 1, 2121



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Travels With the WPA State Guides: Coney Island, New York

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



In an absolutely masterful piece of writing, the anonymous writer of New York City Guide described Coney Island in profusely colorful, engaging language.  It is hard to imagine that any writer could have done it better: 

“CONEY ISLAND, the sand bar that became the “world’s largest playground ,” fronts a six mile long beach on the Atlantic Ocean. Into Coney Island proper are crammed rows of flimsy shacks, modern apartment houses, two-story residences, an occasional cottage surrounded by lawns, and a wild array of bathhouses, dance halls, freak shows, fun houses, carrousels, roller coasters, penny arcades, assorted game booths, waxworks, Ferris wheels, shooting galleries, souvenir shops, restaurants, tearooms, chop suey parlors, hot dog stands, and custard counters to feed and divert the millions. Two miles of excellent boardwalk, a steamboat pier, two large amusement parks, and a number of famous restaurants maintain the popularity of the resort.

In 1829 the first hotel was built, and other hotels soon sprang up. In 1844, Eddy and Hart erected the pavilion and bathhouse which began the spectacular career of the place as a summer resort. Later, race tracks opened … and gambling flourished openly. Championship prize fights attracted “Diamond Jim” Brady and Lillian Russell … and in the wake of this gaiety came the three-card monte man, the prostitutes, and the peep shows.


With the introduction of “rides” the island began to take on the aspects of a true amusement park. The Ferris Wheel, a device introduced at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, carried passengers to great heights [and] the roller coaster, designed by Stephen E. Jackman, hurtled crowds over its “gravity road.” Steeplechase Park opened in 1897, Luna Park soon followed.

Coney entered its present phase when the extension of the subway in 1920 made the beach available to millions of lower-income New Yorkers. The beach was widened, and breakwaters and jetties were constructed for its preservation; in 1921 the boardwalk was opened. A plague of hot-dog stands and cheap amusements followed. Coney Island was now a play-ground of the people, the ’empire of the nickel.’

Summer crowds are the essence of Coney Island. From early morning, when the first throngs pour from the Stillwell Avenue subway terminal, humanity flows over Coney seeking relief from the heat of the city. Italians, Jews, Greeks, Poles, Germans, Negroes, Irish, people of every nationality; boys and girls, feeble ancients, mothers with squirming children, fathers with bundles, push and collide as they rush, laughing, scolding, sweating, for a spot on the sand. 

The mass spreads southward in the direction of the beach and boardwalk and the numerous bathhouses … From the boardwalk the whole beach may be viewed: bathers splash and shout in the turgid waters close to the shore; on the sand, children dig, young men engage in gymnastics and roughhouse each other, or toss balls over the backs of couples lying amorously intertwined. 

Luncheon combines the difficulties of a picnic with those of a subway rush hour; families sit in wriggling circles consuming food and drinking from thermos bottles brought in suitcases together with bathing suits, spare clothing, and water wings. A moving throng covers the boardwalk from the outer rail to the food and amusement booths. The air is heavy with mixed odors of frying frankfurters, popcorn, ice cream, cotton candy, corn-on-the-cob, and knishes (Jewish potato cakes). Skee ball, ping pong, beano and other amusements and games of chance are played and watched by hundreds. 

After sunset the Island becomes the playground of a mixed crowd of sightseers and strollers. Barkers become more strident, the crowds more compact. Enormous paintings in primitive colors advertise the freak shows, shooting galleries, and waxworks “Chamber of Horrors.” Riders are whirled, jolted, battered, tossed upside down by the Cyclone, the Thunderbolt, the Mile Sky Chaser, the Loop-o-Plane, the Whip, the Flying Turns, the Dodgem Speedway, the Chute-the-Chutes, and the Comet. Above the cacophony of spielers, cries, and the shrieks and laughter, carrousel organs pound out last year’s tunes, and roller coasters slam down their terrific inclines. In dance halls and honky-tonks, dancers romp and shuffle to the endless blare of jazz bands. 

About midnight, the weary crowds begin to depart, leaving a litter of cigarette butts, torn newspapers, orange and banana peels, old shoes and hats, pop bottles and soiled cardboard boxes, and an occasional corset. A few couples remain behind, with here and there a solitary drunk, or a sleepless old man pacing the boardwalk. The last concessionaire counts his receipts and puts up his shutters, and only the amiable roar of the forgotten sea is heard.”

New York City Guide p. 471-475

The Guide mentions that Robert Moses (New York’s famous highway builder and destroyer of neighborhoods) was planning to “clean up” Coney Island:

“A Coney Island of the future has been projected by Park Commissioner Robert Moses. Less room for the midway and more for bathers is planned: the beach will be widened and the boardwalk lengthened. Landscaped play areas and ten acres of parking space will be provided and a cleaner and more orderly recreation center is foreseen.”

New York City Guide p.475

I visited Coney Island this month and was absolutely delighted to find that Moses was never able to get this done. Even in Covid time, and devoid of visitors, it offers joy and color to the eyes. Coney Island is a trashy masterpiece; it truly has to be seen to be believed.





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Travels With the WPA State Guides: The Carlisle Indian Industrial School

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson




Attitudes change over time. What once seemed “progressive,” can now be seen as truly repressive. This is certainly the case with the Carlisle Industrial School for Indians. The Carlisle School was founded by U.S. Army Colonel Richard Pratt in 1873. The Sioux Indian Wars had just ended with the complete defeat of the Plains Indians. The tribes were decimated, their leaders imprisoned and their members in dire poverty. Pratt proposed that the tribes send their children to a boarding to be “assimilated” into American culture. His most famous plea was to Chief Spotted Tail:

“Spotted Tail, you are a remarkable man. You are such an able man that you are the principal chief of these thousands of your people. But Spotted Tail, you cannot read or write. You claim that the government has tricked your people and placed the lines of your reservation a long way inside of where it was agreed that they should be […] You signed that paper, knowing only what the interpreter told you it said. If anything happened when the paper was being made up that changed its order, if you had been educated and could read and write, you could have known about it and refused to put your name on it. Do you intend to let your children remain in the same condition of ignorance in which you have lived, which will compel them always to meet the whiter man at a great disadvantage through an interpreter, as you have to do? […] As your friend, Spotted Tail, I urge you to send your children with me to this Carlisle School and I will do everything I can to advance them in intelligence and industry in order that they may come back and help you.”

Pratt convinced the US government to fund the school and, when attempts at persuasion largely failed, the government forcibly removed over 10,000 children from their homes and sent them to Carlisle. The school formally opened in 1879, with an enrollment of 147 students ranging in age from 6-18 from the Lakota, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Pawnee, and Apache tribes. Until it closed in 1918, children from 140 tribes were forced to attend.

Carlisle’s educational and social program was designed to wipe out any traces of Native American heritage. Upon arrival, the children were assigned American names and their hair was cut short. The boys were required to wear military-style uniforms; the girls had to wear long dresses. Students were forbidden to speak in their native languages and were deliberately assigned roommates from other tribes to force them to speak only English.

Although students were required to write home (in English!) letters from their parents were seldom delivered. The program for each student could last up to ten years and no visits home were permitted. Instead, students were assigned to work on local farms in the summer or were taken on school camping trips. The children were also required to attend Christian churches in the town and expected to give up their native spiritual beliefs.

Not surprisingly, graduates of the school found it very difficult if not impossible to return to their families and reservations. Many now spoke only English and were completely unacquainted with tribal traditions. Rejoining family and tribe was often too difficult to negotiate for both children and parents.

Tragically, several hundred children died at the school (mostly of diseases but some of assertedly harsh treatment) and their bodies were not returned to their families. They are buried to this day on the grounds of the school. (Very recently, a number of tribes have petitioned come to Carlisle to disinter the remains of their children and to return them to the reservations. In several cases, this has now been done.)



To be fair, the school’s legacy is not solely one of unmitigated tragedy. Many graduates of the school praised the education and found success (if not happiness) in the white world. A few went on to graduate from Dickinson College in Carlisle and to become journalists, lawyers, businessmen, etc. Some became artists, after studying with Native American teachers at the school who taught weaving, painting, and crafts. Sports were a highlight. The Carlisle school football team, coached by Pop Warner, became famous for defeating Harvard’s team and other Ivy League teams.

The best known graduate of Carlisle was Jim Thorpe, often called the best athlete of all time. He attended Carlisle from 1904 to 1905 and played football there. After winning gold medals in pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 summer Olympics in Sweden, he  played baseball for the New York Giants for six seasons in between 1913 and 1919 and, simultaneously, football for six teams in the NFL.

Visiting the Carlisle School is an emotional experience, not presaged by the limited entry in the Pennsylvania Guide. The Guide gives only the briefest hint of the troubled history of the school:

“In 1879 a young army officer, Lieutenant Richard H. Pratt, established here the Carlisle Indian School. Its football teams, coached by Glenn (‘Pop’) Warner, gained wide fame. ‘Jim’ Thorpe, football star and Olympic champion, was trained at the school. During the World War the Government distributed the pupils among the western schools and converted the plant into an army hospital. […]

The older barracks, of brick painted a light yellow, have long verandas on each floor. [T]he HESSIAN GUARD HOUSE, erected by prisoners captured in Washington’s surprise attack on Trenton in 1777, [is a] rectangular one-story structure of local limestone, with walls four feet thick and arched cells […] It was used as a magazine during the Revolution and as a guardhouse for unruly Indians after Lieutenant Pratt established his school.”

                   PA Guide 472-3

The school grounds now house the Army War College. Visitors need a security clearance to enter the grounds and the buildings are off-limits. But the children’s cemetery can be visited without entering the campus. It is a distressing site. The graves lie in rows of identical plain headstones. The deceased children are identified by their English first names, sometimes with their original name underneath, and their tribal affiliation. Some graves are marked merely as “unknown.” One needs no more than a visit to this cemetery to feel the pain of the tragic separation of families that occured here 140 years ago. 


20210303-DSC0455764



                                                                               Fern L. Nesson

                                                                               March 2021

Travels With the WPA State Guides: Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



One of the great pleasures during a New York winter is a visit to the Metropolitan Museum. Not content to display its immense and broad collections in the simple, airy rooms of most museums, The Met has gone to great lengths to recreate the architectural settings that once housed its artistic treasures. Visitors to the Fifth Avenue branch can enter Egyptian pyramids, stroll through rooms of French royal furniture or through garden conservatories peopled with Art Nouveau statuary. 

For its Medieval collection, the museum went all-out, constructing a separate museum, the Cloisters, designed as a monastery. The Cloisters is set in Fort Tryon Park in Northern Manhattan on a promontory overlooking the Hudson River. You can approach it either by walking through the park from the neighborhood below or by a circular drive to the heights. Either way, the views are wonderful. 

The New York City Guide is a perfect companion for your visit. Nothing has changed in either Fort Tryon Park or in the Cloisters since the Guide’s writers described it in 1939. As you ascend, the noise of the city ceases and you can feel the centuries drop away. Truly, you are walking back in time. The park is exactly as it was in the 1930’s. With views across the Hudson, it is a majestic site even on a grey winter day: 

“FORT TRYON PARK is one of the most beautiful public parks of America landscaped with trees, lawns, terraces, rock gardens, paved walks, and many benches, all cleverly ordered in harmonious composition. The precision of its design is explicitly urban. The views from its heights are perhaps the finest Manhattan offers, for they sweep mile after mile of the Hudson and the Palisades.”

NYC Guide p. 303 





The park’s cobblestone paths and carefully constructed stone walls lead to the highest point in the park where you encounter Fort Tryon, the site of a notable battle in the Revolutionary War. You are now back in 1776: 

“A large sloping rock garden forms an approach to the stone ramparts marking the site of old Fort Tryon, built in the summer of 1776.” 

NYC Guide p. 303 




Fort Tryon was the site of a battle in the Revolutionary War. Following the battles of Long Island and White Plains in 1776, 3000 American troops occupied and fortified Fort Tryon hill. On November 16, 1776, they were attacked by 4,000 Hessian mercenaries fighting on behalf of the British. Among the Americans were John Corbin, a cannoneer, and his wife, Margaret, who was fighting alongside him by helping him to load the cannon. 

(This was by no means the only interesting aspect of Margaret Corbin’s life history. In fact, her life was filled with adventure from the start. Born in western Pennsylvania in 1751, Corbin’s father was killed by Native Americans and her mother captured when she was five years old; she survived because she was away visiting an uncle, who then raised her. Corbin married John Corbin in 1772 and, when he enlisted in the First Company of Pennsylvania Artillery, she joined [him] in the war.) 

During the battle at Fort Tryon, John Corbin was shot and killed. Margaret took his place the cannon, continuing to fire at he enemy. She was hit three times by gunfire and subsequently captured. In 1779, the Continental Congress awarded her half the pension of a soldier. She objected and the Congress eventually awarded her a full pension. 

In 1926, on the 150th anniversary of the battle, Corbin was reburied at West Point; she was the only Revolutionary War veteran to receive that honor.) A plaque was placed in her honor at the base of Fort Tryon and, in 1970, the city renamed the access road to the Fort “Corbin Drive.” 

Beyond Fort Tryon, you enter the Middle Ages. The Met received its Medieval collection for John D. Rockefeller who purchased it from George Barnard in 1925: 

“George Grey Barnard, a sculptor, spent many years in France gathering examples of medieval art;
a few of them were found in barns and pigsties near ruined churches and monasteries. […] The Metropolitan Museum bought [Barnard’s] collection in 1925 with funds provided by Rockefeller.” 

NYC guide, p. 303 

In 1930, Rockefeller purchased Fort Tryon Park and traded it to the city in exchange for a site on the East River where he subsequently built the Rockefeller Institute. Rockefeller reserved four and a half acres of Fort Tryon Park, and donated them to the Met as a site for a museum devoted exclusively to the Medieval collection. He also bought four acres of land across the Hudson in New Jersey to preserve the view. 

Construction of the Cloisters was completed in 1938. In keeping with the Met’s desire to display its art in original settings, the interior of the building is comprised of intact cloisters, chapels, and arcades transplanted in their entirety from their original sites in Europe: 

“[It] includes four cloisters and an arcade of a fifth, a chapel incorporating the remains
of a Romanesque twelfth-century church, an original chapter house, and nine other exhibition areas, all chronologically arranged and so constructed as to include original structural or decorative members. […]

The central and largest cloister is that of St. Michel de Cuxa. Open to the sun, and surrounded by pink marble arches and columns, it dates from the twelfth century. Other cloisters are those of St. Guilhemle-Desert (late twelfth to early thirteenth century), Bonnefont-en-Comminges (thirteenth
to fourteenth century), and Trie (second half of the fifteenth century). The latter two overlook the park to the south and the Hudson River.”

NYC Guide. p. 304 

From tomb effigies, to stained glass, to statues and carved pediments, the graceful Medieval courtyards and rooms contain treasures that rival the best of European collections. 








The Guide reserves special praise for a compete set of unicorn tapestries: 

“A set of six hand- woven, fifteenth-century tapestries depicting the Hunt of the Unicorn was given by Mr. Rockefeller in 1935; they are displayed in a special room. These textiles […] portray an allegory of the Incarnation, with Christ represented by the fabulous unicorn, symbol of purity. [They] are remarkable for their beauty of color and design and the intensity and vitality of their pictorial realism.”

NYC Guide p. 304 




For a trip in which the glories of history are on full display, you could not do better than a visit to Fort Tryon Park. 

Fern L. Nesson February, 2021 

Travels with the WPA State Guides: Union Grove Baptist Church, Union Grove, NC

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


The state guides use two different sizes of type: 12-point type for major sites, 8-point for byways and places of less importance. But it is often these 8-point type blurbs that prove the most interesting.

A perfect example is the 8-point type entry for Union Grove Baptist Church in North Carolina.

The Guide gives wonderfully detailed directions to the church:

“Left from Prospect Hill (100 pop.) on unpaved State 144 to Bushy Fork Crossroads 7 miles; Right 2 miles on an unpaved road to the junction with a dirt road at a white house; Right 1.5 miles on a dirt road to Union Grove Baptist Church.”




I followed the directions exactly, aided by my GPS and by the fact that these roads were now paved.   

The Guide’s 1939 description of the Church is exactly as I found it in 2020:

“The original wood-frame one room church, dating to 1893, built by Negroes, remains in its original location on the property.” (Although the congregation now worships in a newly-built brick church next door.)

Behind the church, the graveyard churchyard contains the grave markers of its four founding families. And, judging by the recent burials, the very same families worship in the church today. 

One of the most delightful aspects of the Guide’s entries is its story about the rooster:

“The leader of  a church-owned flock of chickens, a pet rooster named for the Apostle Paul, lies buried [in the graveyard] beneath a marker inscribed ‘PAUL, Killed Nov. 10, 1933, aged 10 years.'”

NC Guide p. 367



It was Paul who inspired me to seek out Union Grove. I combed the graveyard looking for his grave marker. No luck. Several markers could have been his, each inscription washed away by the rains of almost 100 years. I like to think it is this one:



In my search, I did meet two elderly Deacons of the Church, who were delighted that, so many years after the fact, someone from Massachusetts was interested in their church’s history. They confirmed that the Guide was accurate; Paul lay somewhere in the graveyard. As young boys, they had been raised on their fathers’ stories of Reverend Bradsher and his pet rooster. 

The reverend was “a really great old-time preacher” who also brought his pet, a black snake, to services on Sundays. Even had his sermons been less fiery, the snake ensured that parishioners paid close attention to his every word! 








Travels with the WPA State Guides: Monticello, Virginia

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



Thomas Jefferson is one of our most interesting, brilliant, and complicated historical figures. A polymath who authored the Declaration of Independence and founded the University of Virginia, a philosopher and political scientist of the highest quality, a naturalist, an inventor, an architect, a sparkling writer on many varied subjects, a diplomat, a wine connoisseur and a convivial host—he did it all. He was a talented President who believed the slave trade was unjust, but he was also a slave owner, and thus he left behind a complicated legacy.

The WPA Virginia State Guide, ” Virginia: The Old Dominion State,” has plenty to say about Jefferson:

“Thomas Jefferson was born near by at Shadwell, the farm of his father, Peter Jefferson, on April 13, 1743. His mother was Jane Randolph, daughter of Isham Randolph. In 1760, after attending school in several places, Jefferson entered an advanced class at the College of William and Mary. He was admitted to the bar in 1767. Entering the house of burgesses in 1769, he became almost at once the author of the first American antislavery bill, which failed, however, of passage. His marriage in 1772 to Mrs. Martha Wayles Skelton doubled his fortune. The next year he helped devise the intercolonial activities of the Committees of Correspondence and was a member of the Virginia Committee. He was only 32 when sent to the Continental Congress in 1775 and only 33 when he phrased the Declaration of Independence. 

In 1779 Jefferson succeeded Patrick Henry as governor of Virginia and while in office wrote the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom. He served his country as minister to France during the years 1785-89 and was thus abroad at the time of the Constitutional Convention. His known aversion to strengthening the Federal Government caused considerable concern to Washington and Madison, who kept him apprised of what was going on and endeavored to disarm the objection they knew he would raise. On his return he reluctantly agreed to argue out his objections privately provided the sponsors would move immediately after adoption for inclusion of a bill of rights. 

Washington appointed him the first Secretary of State. It was as antagonist of Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, that he drew to his side the agrarian, democratic, antifederal elements throughout the States, enabling him to found the Democratic (then Republican) party, to become Vice President in 1797, and third President in 1801. The most important acts during his two terms in office were the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the promotion of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and his advocacy of the Embargo Act of 1807. After his retirement from public life in 1809, Jefferson devoted much of his time to promoting education. In 1819 he founded the University of Virginia. America’s ‘great commoner’ died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.”



A visit to Jefferson’s home at Monticello certainly gives you a good idea of the breadth of his talents. The guide describes Monticello in detail:

“MONTICELLO (Open 8-5 daily; adm. $0.50)  is approached by a private road that winds up through woods from a brick lodge. The notable mansion, on the leveled top of a ‘little mountain,’ looks across a wide lawn shaded by scattered trees to far horizons, embracing the crest of the Blue Ridge and many miles of the Piedmont. 

The red brick house with snow-white trim, roughly oval in plan and in a green frame of trees, is an example of Classical Revival design. To the southwest it presents a fine Roman Doric portico before the projecting end of a salon designed in the French manner. The room is topped by a large white-domed octagonal clerestory with circular windows. Behind a similar portico, the eastern and newer side has a low second story with half windows immediately above the lintels of the first floor windows, and a half story set back inconspicuously. The whole, tied together by a balustraded parapet and by a continuous Doric entablature, seems much smaller than it is. The house is at the center of a formal plan that embraces sunken and terrace-covered passages leading away from it on both sides to small templelike pavilions at the far ends of service quarters set in the hillside. 

The interior is distinguished by beauty of woodwork and many evidences of Jefferson’s ingenuity. The large entrance hall opens, beneath a balcony, into the salon. Lateral halls lead to four chambers, to the dining room with monumentally proportioned arches over alcove, and to Jefferson’s study. Two steep staircases, hidden in closetlike alcoves because the builder regarded stairs as unattractive architectural features, lead to low bedrooms above the high first floor and to a ‘ballroom’ in the cupola.”






“Jefferson loved a gadget and invented many clever devices still in use. At Monticello are dumb-waiters, disappearing beds, unusual lighting and ventilating arrangements, one of his duplicate-writing machines, the forerunner of the one-arm lunch chair, folding doors of the type now used in streetcars-all devised by the builder of Monticello, who attached a contrivance to a wheel of his carriage to record the revolutions. Over the entrance is an extraordinary clock with a series of weights and pulleys that are incongruous in the formal room. 

Assimilating the Graeco-Roman designs of Palladio and using materials—even nails—made by his slaves on the spot, Jefferson began building with painstaking care from his own design in 1770 and by 1775 had completed the western part, including a two-tiered portico. In 1771 after Shadwell burned, he moved into the first completed pavilion and a year later he brought his bride to it on horseback through a blizzard. Stimulated by what he saw on his European travels, he enlarged the house between 1796 and 1809 in a style even more Roman, making it an example of classical design adapted to its environment and uses. Jefferson was the leader in as purifying a movement in architecture as in government. He had a far-reaching influence in developing the style of architecture now called Early Republican or Federal. The Marquis de Chastellux, visiting here as early as 1782, wrote later: ‘We may safely aver that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather.’ Though the house has great interest it is less satisfactory from an architectural point of view than others Jefferson designed. 

During Jefferson’s last years Monticello was a mecca for all distinguished travelers, European and American. He often received 40 or 50 guests a day in spite of his love of quiet for study and contemplation […]

Soon after Jefferson’s death in 1826 the house and estate were sold for his only surviving child, Mrs. Martha Jefferson Randolph […] In 1923, [Montcello was purchased by] the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation.”

Several important details have changed since 1941. Admission now costs $33 and there is a recently-built visitors center and museum. Most important, the role of slaves at Monticello and in Jefferson’s personal life has been well-researched and documented. The history of slavery at Monticello, and specifically Jefferson’s Black family, is now fully presented  in the form of a video and museum exhibits in the Visitors’ Center and on its website. https://www.monticello.org/thomas-jefferson/jefferson-slavery/   

Today, the house, gardens, forests and farm fields are beautifully tended and the grounds are pristine. Truly, the visit is worth the high cost of admission!  

As the guide points out, Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In one of most interesting and moving stories in our history, Jefferson and John Adams, who had long been political rivals, were among the last last Revolutionary heroes who were still alive 50 years later.

Toward the end of their lives, they formed a close friendship, maintained by regular correspondence. Both were ill and dying on July 4. Adams’s last words to his wife before he died were “Jefferson still lives.”  But he was wrong.  Jefferson had died just a few hours prior.



For me, the most moving part of my visit to Monticello was a visit to Jefferson’s graveyard. It is in a forest glade, a short walk from the more manicured grounds. Jefferson’s grave is maked by a simple granite shaft engraved with an epitaph that he composed.

“Here was buried 

Thomas Jefferson 

Author of the Declaration of American Independence 

Author  of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom 

Father of the University of Virginia.”

Much to be proud of in that short statement.

Travels with the WPA State Guides: Watertown Arsenal, Massachusetts

By Fern L. Nesson

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



There’s not much to see in Watertown, Massachusetts, a quiet suburb of Boston on the banks of the Charles River. The Massachusetts guide mentions a few historic houses and historical markers memorializing the first settlement in Watertown dating back to 1630. But there is one site of real note—the U.S. Arsenal.

The Guide describes the Arsenal laconically, perhaps because it was not possible to visit the site in 1937:

“U.S. Arsenal (not open to the public). During the World War, the Arsenal was enlarged by $24,000,000 worth of new buildings devoted to the manufacture of ordnance, employing over three thousand persons.” (p.377)

But it would be a mistake to fail to visit the Arsenal today.

The federal government acquired 40 acres on the Charles River in 1816 in Watertown for an arsenal, and engaged Alexander Parris, later architect of Quincy Market in Boston, to design it. By 1819, construction had been completed on 37 buildings, including an arsenal, factories, shops and housing for army officers and men. The design was spacious and superb in early 19th century federal style. All of the buildings were made of brick with enormous floor to ceiling glass widows, stone lintels on doorways, and slate roofs. Manicured paths and gardens connected each building to the others and roads were paved with cobblestones. The Arsenal resembled a perfect town—spacious, light and air, no poverty, no traffic, clean streets, beautiful views.

Until it closed in the 1980’s, the arsenal was one of the most important sites for storing and manufacturing and testing army weaponry. In the Civil War, the arsenal supplied the Union Army with field gun carriages. (Field gun carriages were used to deploy cannon on the battlefield. Several Civil War era field gun carriages are scattered throughout the Arsenal site. See photo below.)

During World War I, several large buildings were constructed to accommodate the manufacture of larger gun carriages and the equipment used to construct them, but the architectural integrity of the site was maintained. These buildings are also brick construction, with beautiful windows and elegant doors.

After World War II, a nuclear reactor was constructed onsite, but that program was disbanded in the 1970s and, in 1995, the Army abandoned the site. In 2000, Harvard purchased the property, commissioning the architectural firm of Bruner/Cott & Associates to renovate the buildings for civilian use. Bruner/Cott did a wonderful job, returning the buildings to their pristine original condition.

The Arsenal buildings now house high tech companies, a theatre, a health club, several restaurants, and art galleries. The grounds are planted in flower and vegetable gardens, and playgrounds and paths lead down to the Charles River. The original Commander’s house, built in 1861, is now used for parties and community events. The renovation effort was more than worth the $40 million it cost; what was once a deserted industrial site is now extraordinarily beautiful and well worth a visit.










Travels with the WPA State Guides: North Carolina Food

  By Fern L. Nesson and Sasha Wolfrum, October, 2020

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson



One of the most charming aspects of the WPA State Guides are their sections on culture. Aside from the requisite essays on geography, economy, and history, the authors were free to write about specific topics that interested them. Happily, food was a focus in the North Carolina guide. 

According to the guide, North Carolina foods and cooking haven’t changed much since colonial times. In the first years of colonial settlement, “a traveler, lost in the wilds of North Carolina was hospitably received at a farmhouse [and served] fat roasted turkeys, geese and ducks, boiled fowls, large hams, barbecued pig, etc. — enough for five-and twenty men.”

        North Carolina WPA Guide  (p.101)

Peaches, corn, apples, pies of all sorts, corn breads and puddings, scuppernong grape wine were also popular in the colony. (p. 102)

In the 1930s, North Carolina cooks were still using “old recipes that have been handed down by word of mouth and cookbooks” and their ingredients and cooking techniques were unchanged:

“Fried chicken and country ham, corn, sweet potatoes, okra, corn fritters […] are food experiences not to be missed […] Fried chicken in North Carolina is […] seasoned with salt and pepper, rolled in flour, and sizzled in hot lard […] Biscuits are made with buttermilk, soda and lard. They are lightly kneaded to produce a fine texture, rolled and baked in a hot oven until brown, then split open and buttered while still hot […]

Every North Carolinian thinks that country-fried hams are among the finest foods. They are fried and served with red gravy […]

Cornnbread in some form is served every day in many homes, as pone or corn sticks, muffins or spoon bread, grits or pudding. Dear to the hearts and health of every Southerner are the greens or ‘sallet’—mustard, turnip, poke, collards, watercress or ‘creases’ according to the section from which one comes. A mess of ‘sallet’ boiled with […] fat meat is a common dish [served in its] “pot likker.”

To a Southerner, potatoes always mean sweet potatoes […] baked until the juice oozes out and served with butter [or] candied […] with butter, sugar and water in a deep dish until tender.

The best native grapes are the scuppernongs, which have thick white skin and delightful fragrance and taste […]

Barbecues [are] popular throughout the state—a relic of old time cooking. Whole pigs […] are roasted over live coals, basted with highly seasoned sauce.  In the fall, along the highways are jugs of fresh apple cider for sale.”

Reading this delightful description made me hungry. And so, on my last visit to North Carolina to visit my grandchildren, I set out with my granddaughter Sasha to make a true North Carolina feast. Here was our menu:

1) biscuits with stawberry jam and butter

2) collard greens in pot likker

3) candied sweet potatoes

4) fried chicken with pepper relish

6) bread and butter pickles

7) pickled beets

8) corn pudding

9) apple pie

10) pumpkin pie with whipped cream

11) scuppernong grapes

12) fresh apple cider

And here were the results:















Both Sasha and I recommend that you try some or all of these dishes for yourself. The cooking techniques are simple and recipes are available in any good Southern American cookbook (or The Joy Of Cooking.) You won’t be disappointed. The tastes are both authentically Southern and exquisitely delicious. It become quite clear that, early on, North Carolinians learned to cook what tastes  good and that they have stuck to it admirably ever since.

                         

                                

Travels with the WPA State Guides: Whaling Towns of Massachusetts – Nantucket

By Fern L. Nesson

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


Main Street at dawn.

Even in the depths of the Great Depression, Nantucket drew tourists for its quaint, but stunning beauty. Here’s what the Guide had to say:

“Nantucket is an experience. The steamer rounds Brant Point Light and comes suddenly upon the little gray town in the sea, a town today full of visitors all frocks, polo shirts and white ducks, [and] striped shorts … yet the little gray town has not lost its sense of the past … when it was the great whaling port of the world… . [C]rooked paths from house and warehouse, copper shops and rigger ships …  the quays …the old cobblestoned streets, the comfortable homes, … the stately trees [all] still entitle the island to its Indian name Canopache (‘the Place of Peace.’)”

Massachusetts Guide p. 560

                      

Nantucket’s phenomenal wealth was derived from whaling. The Guide reports that there were 115 whaling ships in Nantucket in 1768, making it the most important whaling center in the world until New Bedford surpassed it in the 1830s. The houses of the whaling captains were lavish and they continue to impress today.

Melville places Nantucket at the heart of Moby Dick. When Ishmael decides to ship out with a whaling vessel, he chooses Nantucket in which to do so:

“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago never mind how long precisely having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

[…]

My mind was made up to sail in no other than a Nantucket craft, because there was a fine, boisterous something about everything connected with that famous old island, which amazingly pleased me […]

Where but from Nantucket, too, did that first adventurous little sloop put forth, partly laden with imported cobble-stones so goes the story to throw at the whales, in order to discover when they were nigh enough to risk a harpoon from the bowsprit? 

Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it [standing] there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone lighthouse. [T]hey are shut up, belted about, every way enclosed, surrounded, and made an utter island of by the ocean.

What wonder, then, that these Nantucketers, born on a beach, should take to the sea for a livelihood […] launching a navy of great ships on the sea, explored this watery world; put an incessant belt of circumnavigations round it; peeped in at Behring Straits.

[…] conquer[ing] the watery world like so many Alexanders. …Two-thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer’s. For the sea is his; he owns it, as Emperors own empires; other seamen having but a right of way through it. 

The Nantucketer alone resides and riots on the Sea […]  He lives on the sea. [F]or years he knows not the land; [with] the landless gull, that at sunset folds her wings and is rocked to sleep between billows; so, at nightfall, the Nantucketer, out of sight of land, furls his sails, and lays him to his rest, while under his very pillow rush herds of walruses and whales.”

Given his admiration for Nantucketers, it is no surprise that Melville named the Pequod’s first mate Starbuck, after a family prominent in Nantucket in 1851—and today. There are no fewer than six historic Starbuck houses in Nantucket town and 9 Starbuck families live in the town today.

Melville describes Starbuck as a classic, cautious, shrewd, and courageous Nantucket whaling man:

“The chief mate of the Pequod was Starbuck, a native of Nantucket, and a Quaker by descent. He was a long, earnest man.… Only some thirty arid summers had he seen; those summers had dried up all his physical superfluousness. But … his thinness seemed no more the token of wasting anxieties and cares. … It was merely the condensation of the man. 

Looking into his eyes, you seemed to see there the yet lingering images of those thousand-fold perils he had calmly confronted through life. A staid, steadfast man, whose life for the most part was a telling pantomime of action, and not a tame chapter of sounds. 

[…]

‘I will have no man in my boat,’ said Starbuck, ‘who is not afraid of a whale.’ By this, he seemed to mean […] that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward […] For, thought Starbuck, I am here in this critical ocean to kill whales for my living, and not to be killed by them for theirs; and that hundreds of men had been so killed Starbuck well knew […]”

Nantucket remains a sailor’s town and the reminders of its whaling past recommended by the Guide remain unchanged since 1937:

“The Whaling Museum sits a block from the harbor. It contains all sorts of whaling gear:  whalebones, ships’ logs, models ships, whaling boats, try pots and paintings. With such a large and elegant collection, it is easy to spend days taking it all in.”

But there is much else to see:

The Guide mentions the Atheneum:

Merchant’s Warehouses:

Straight Wharf:

The Houses of the Crew and of Shipbuilders:

Widows’ Walks (for sighting returning ships):

The Pacific Club—“a rendezvous of old whaling captains”:

The Fire Station:

In the nineteenth century, Nantucket was for whalers. In the twentieth, it was for fishermen in winter, the wealthy in summer. Now it is the summer playground of the super-rich. Up and down the old cobblestone streets, historic buildings have been repurposed for high-end shops and restaurants. Megayachts and sleek sailboats crowd out the fishing boats in the harbor.  Hotels and inns cost well upwards of $500 per night and, even so, rooms are hard to come by.

Still, it is possible to visit for the day and the trip is well worth the crowds and the cost. Nantucket is one of the rarest places in our country—packed with history, overwhelming in its beauty, and unique in its location.  The French Michelin Guide would say, it is “vault le voyage,” or, as the Massachusetts Guide so aptly put it, “Nantucket is an experience.”

Travels with the WPA State Guides: Durham NC – The New South

By Fern L. Nesson

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


In 1939, the North Carolina Guide unflinchingly described the plight of Blacks in the state. Twenty-nine percent of North Carolina’s population was Black, down from 50 percent before the Civil War.

The decline was no mystery; in the decades after the Civil War, Blacks fled North Carolina in great numbers to find better jobs and to escape segregation and discrimination. 



The Guide describes the extent of discrimination in matter-of-fact but compelling, unvarnished terms:  In 1938, there were 30 public hospitals for whites in the state, only 11 for Blacks. Tuberculosis and malaria were rife among Blacks and their death rate almost twice that of whites. Much of the difference was due to death in childbirth, since most Black women had no access to doctors when giving birth.

Most Black farmers were sharecroppers with no possibility of owning the land they farmed.  In the cities, Blacks might find jobs as domestics, tradespersons in their own communities, teachers in Black schools, but only at the lowest rung of employees in the larger, better-paying factories. “In the textile plants, they do only sweeping, cleaning and freight-handling.”  A not-insignificant proportion of whites were unionized in the factories and trades; Black unions were non-existent.

All across the state, segregation was complete and strictly enforced:

“The races are separated in motion picture houses, restaurants, hotels and … libraries. There are separate coaches on trains, separate waiting rooms in bus and train stations…. Buses and streetcars assign the Negroes seats in the rear.”

Schools were segregated and, while “white schools were inadequate; Negro schools lagged far behind them.” Less than half of the teachers in Black schools were college graduates and over 30% of Blacks in the state were illiterate.

Blacks could not vote. “Participation in civic affairs such as office holding, policing and jury service is practically nonexistent”. Churches were segregated as well. “The color line has divided all the churches since emancipation.” 

While it maintained strict segregation, Durham was a bright spot for Blacks in the state, offering economic advancement that was unavailable in other cities and rural areas. In large part, the enormous demand for workers by the tobacco industry provided that opportunity.

American Tobacco, the world’s largest tobacco company, dominated the town’s center, its economy and its cultural institutions. Organized by James B, Duke in 1890, American Tobacco “established Durham as the world’s tobacco capital, manufactured one-fourth of all of the tobacco products in the country and the wealth that James Duke amassed was so great that he endowed $80,000,000 to establish Duke Unversity,” several large hospitals, and formed the Duke Power company which provided water power and electricity to all of central and western parts of the state.

Employment in the American Tobacco enterprises provided a stepping-stone for Blacks to advance economically and Durham’s downtown became the locus of a growing number of Black-owned businesses careering to Black customers and neighborhoods. In particular, Parrish Street, in the center of town, came to be known as the “The Black Wall street.” 

The Guide reports: 

“Notable in Durham is the status of the Negro population. The Negroes have a college and operate businesses including banks, a large insurance company, schools, newspapers, a library, and a hospital. [They] own land [worth] $4,000,000 and businesses [worth] 7,000,000.

The North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company [is] the largest Negro Insurance Company in the world, operating in eight states and employing 1267 persons.”

Visiting Durham today, it is wonderful to see that these landmarks are preserved, marked with respect and, in the case of the American Tobacco property, converted in to a thriving residential, business and entertainment center in the heart of the city.

Here’s how the American Tobacco mill was described in the Guide: 

“The American Tobacco Company plant manufactures Bull Durham smoking tobacco, Lucky Strike, and some 35 other brands of cigarettes. It employs about 2,500 persons. The Plant manufactures 5,000,000 Lucky Strike cigarettes per hour. 

The air of Durham is permeated by the pungent scent of tobacco from the stemmeries and the sweetish odor of tonka bean used in cigarette manufacture. From 9 to 5 o’clock Durham’s streets reflect the activity of its [mills]. Then the hoarse bellow of the bull whistle at the American Tobacco factory reverberates over the town…. The iron gates of the factory yards are flung wide and an army of workers pours forth, — men and women, white and [Black]. Buses and trucks, heavily laden, rumble along thoroughfares. For an hour or two the streets are alive with the hurry and noise of a big city. Them the bustle subsides and calm is resumed.”







( American Tobacco Factory Buildings)

The American Tobacco Company is no more, having closed some of its divisions and sold the rest to R.J. Reynolds. But its Durham campus has been completely transformed in a truly interesting way. 



The old factory buildings are now upscale condominiums and offices, with their original features highlighted as interesting aspects of the new spaces.





         The iconic old outdoor landmarks—the Lucky Strike water tower and smokestack, the railroad delivery system, the water power channels have all been preserved as design features of an interesting and quite beautiful outdoor recreation space. Even old advertising signs (like the original “Bull Durham” billboard) have been preserved as art. 









The complex now houses restaurants, outdoor cafes, human-sized chess boards with cigarette- themed pieces, health clubs, the WUNC public radio station, theatres, microbreweries, art galleries and Burt’s Bees.  



Surrounding and harmonizing with this extraordinary panoply are DPAC, a performing arts center featuring Broadway shows and concerts and a new baseball stadium, home to the Durham Bulls.

What could have become the centerpiece of a ghost town has become the engine for a revival for the entire downtown. 

Most heartening to see is the respect that remains for Durham’s history, especially the extraordinary history of its Black population.  Black Wall street looks almost as it did in 1939, with the Mechanics and Farmers Bank and the North Carolina Mutual Insurance building preserved in its original form. 






The Bank is still operates in the building but the insurance company now occupies in a much larger modern building one-half mile away. 

A skyscraper, housing expensive new condominiums opened in early 20219 but, with respect for Parrish Street’s history, it, that building designed its storefronts in the 1930’s architectural styles that surrounds it. 



The city is determinedly modern (and its downtown streets are lively and no longer deserted at night) but it honors its past. We could all learn from Durham’s example.   



Travels with the WPA State Guides: Muir Woods

   By Fern L. Nesson, June, 2020

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


        In these days of pandemic and civil unrest, lay-offs and economic insecurity, anxiety and depression, the WPA Guides can be a source of comfort. The Guide’s writers would have related to our pain, as it mirrors so eerily their own experience in the Great Depression. Our capacity to travel is now limited, as it surely was back then, but we can look to the Guide for descriptions of natural places that provide us solace at least in our minds. One truly magical place is Muir Woods.



Muir Woods National Monument is an old-growth redwood forest just across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Donated to the US government in 1908, it is named after John Muir, the most famous and ardent conservationist of the late19th century. Muir first hiked through California in 1868 and throughout the West in later years. He published more than 300 articles and 10 books recounting his travels, expounding his naturalist philosophy, and urging conservation of American wilderness lands. Due in great part to his efforts, Congress created Yosemite National Park in 1890, and Sequioa National Park, the Pertrified Forest and the Grand Canyon National Parks shortly thereafter.



The Calfornia Guide’s succinct description of Muir Woods hardly does it justice:

“MUIR WOODS NATIONAL MONUMENT (picnicking facilities), [is] a 427-acre grove of redwoods in Redwood Canyon. The grove, named in honor of John Muir, the naturalist, contains redwoods as much as 2,000 years old and as tall as 250 feet, frequently growing in great circles around the fire-blackened stumps of trees burned in the remote past.  Among the other trees found in the woods are California laurel, tan-bark oak, Douglas fir, alder, madrone, nutmeg, and buckeye. Ferns and wild flowers grow in abundance. The park owes its existence to William Kent, an ardent conservationist, who purchased the nucleus 295 acres and donated it to the Government in 1907 to save the grove from destruction by a water company which had filed condemnation proceedings to secure Redwood Canyon for a reservoir. The grove became a National Monument in 1908.” (p.366)

Thankfully, photographs can supplement it quite nicely. 


Of Muir, the Guide says little, but no matter, he spoke very well for himself:

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” 

“Going to the mountains is going home; wildness is a necessity; mountain parks are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”

“Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.” 

                                                                                                   —  John Muir                      

Travels with the WPA State Guides: The Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge Massachusetts

 Fern L. Nesson, April, 2020

An Introduction: On The Road With the WPA’s American Guide Series

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.  

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.  

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. In this series, I will be posting photo essays and articles based upon tours recommended in the guides.

Fern L. Nesson


The Massachusetts State Guide devotes an entire page to the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and it urges a visit. Rightly so. 

“Mt. Auburn Cemetery has famous graves of nearly everyone of note who has died in or near Boston for the past hundred years […] The reason for the choice of Mt. Auburn by the families of so many celebrities, before it became so historically noted, was that it was for many years the only garden cemetery in the environs of Boston […] It is still the most beautiful. Its grounds are thickly wooded with rare trees and shrubs, landscaped with occasional ponds, and they rise to a commanding hill from which is a dreamy view of the winding Charles River, Cambridge, Boston and the distant hills.”  (p.102)  

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw’s memorial at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery

In fact, although the Guide does not mention it, Mt. Auburn was the first garden cemetery in the United States. Founded in 1831 according to the  principles of transcendental philosophy,  it  was designed intentionally to place the dead in a beautiful, pastoral setting.  Right from its opening, Mt. Auburn has been a coveted burial place for interesting and renowned families of Cambridge and Boston. Among the notable persons buried here are:

Oliver Wendell Holmes (author)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (Supreme Court Justice)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poet)

Amy Lowell (poet), 

John Bartlett (compiler of the Familiar Quotations), 

Dorothea Dix, who pioneered humane treatment for insanity

Winslow Homer (artist)

Julia Ward Howe, author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” 

Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science

Margaret Fuller (author)

Henry Cabot Lodge

Edwin Land (inventor of Polaroid camera)

numerous presidents and professors of Harvard

Felix Frankfurter (Supreme Court justice)

Buckminster Fuller (architect)

Charles Bulfinch (architect)

Isabella Stuart Gardner

Nathaniel Bowditch (mathematician)

Elizabeth Cary Agassiz (first president of Radcliffe College)

But one of the most renowned heroes from Boston is buried elsewhere. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the commanding officer of the 54th  Massachusetts, the first black Regiment to fight in the Civil War, was buried in a common grave with his soldiers at Fort Wagner, South Carolina in 1863. Rather than separate him from his troops, his family, erected a memorial to him in their family plot in Mt. Auburn.  It is one of the most moving places in a cemetery that contains many of them. 

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw’s memorial at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery

The charm and popularity of Mt. Auburn set the pattern for the creation of garden cemeteries throughout our nation and the founders’ choice to design it as a welcoming park for the living spurred the founding of city, state and national parks.

Fifty years after the Guide described it, Mt. Auburn remains utterly pastoral, peaceful and beautiful. Its 178 acres comprise two lakes, rolling hills, shaded pathways, forested sections, stately trees and flowering shrubs. Unusual trees are labelled for naturalists and the cemetery is home to a considerable and varied bird population, wild turkeys, great blue heron and the occasional deer.   

Pastoral views at Mt. Auburn

The graves are often as beautiful as the natural elements. Some of the grave sites are enclosed by black wrought-iron fences; others are graced with statuary; many have interesting inscriptions about the deceased.

In recent years, gardeners, landscape historians, and architects have joined forces to maintain its natural settings and to renew some of them by replanting them with original, native grasses. 

The two nineteenth century chapels have also recently been renovated. Their original stained glass windows now sparkle and one now has a stunning, modern glass addition. 

Bigelow Chapel
View of the Bigelow Chapel
Interior view of the rose window at Bigelow Chapel
Stained glass window at Bigelow Chapel

 The cemetery continues to be one of the most well-loved Cambridge landmarks. Memorial services are held in its 19th century chapels, bird-watchers come at dawn; landscape architects and historians lead walks for visitors, families wander on  the forest paths. At the top of the cemetery’s highest hill, visitors can still climb the Bigelow Tower for 360 degree views of Boston and the surrounding towns. 

The first president of the Mount Auburn Cemetery was Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story who delivered the dedication address on September 24, 1831 to a crowd of 2000:

My Friends, –

The occasion which brings us together, has much in it calculated to awaken our sensibilities, and cast a solemnity over our thoughts. We are met to consecrate these grounds exclusively to the service and repose of the dead. The duty is not new; for it has been performed for countless millions. The scenery is not new; for the hill and the valley, the still, silent dell, and the deep forest, have often been devoted to the same pious purpose. But we address feelings intelligible to all nations, and common to all hearts. 

…It is to the living mourner – to the parent, weeping over his dear dead child – to the husband, dwelling in his own solitary desolation – to the widow, whose heart is broken by untimely sorrow – to the friend, who misses at every turn the presence of some kindred spirit. Thus, these repositories of the dead caution us, by their very silence, of our own frail and transitory being. They instruct us in the true value of life, and in its noble purposes, its duties, and its destination. They spread around us, in the reminiscences of the past, sources of pleasing, though melancholy reflection.

We dwell with pious fondness on the characters and virtues of the departed; and, as time interposes its growing distances between us and them, we gather up, with more solicitude, the broken fragments of memory, and weave into our very hearts, the threads of their history. As we sit down by their graves, we seem to hear the tones of their affection, whispering in our ears. We listen to the voice of their wisdom, speaking in the depths of our souls. We shed our tears; but they are no longer the burning tears of agony. They relieve our drooping spirits. We return to the world, and we feel ourselves purer, and better, and wiser, from this communion with the dead.    (excerpt taken from Joseph Story’s Address Delivered on the Dedication of the Cemetery at Mount Auburn, September 24th, 1831.)

 If you notice a similarity in language and theme with Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, that is no accident. Historians note that Lincoln studied Story’s Dedication when drafting his own speech in 1863. See Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg, p.64-65 (1992).

Justice Story’s tomb at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Ironically, Justice Story’s tomb in the cemetery is one of the few that has not been maintained well. The contrast with his memorial statue at entrance to the Harvard Law School Library (where he is still considered to be a hero) is quite stark:

Justice Story’s memorial statue at entrance to the Harvard Law School Library

In these times of peril, one would not customarily think of a visit to a cemetery as a comfort  but I and many others in Cambridge definitely find it to be so. On a recent Sunday afternoon during this, our year of the plague, I passed dozens of other visitors strolling the grounds and admiring them in exactly the spirit that the founders envisioned 189 years ago.    

Travels with the American Guide Series, A WPA Federal Writers’ Project: Cambridge, Massachusetts During the American Revolution

 Fern L. Nesson, April, 2020

An Introduction: On The Road With the WPA’s American Guide Series

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. I will continue posting a series of articles based upon tours recommended in the guides. See my past travel series essays here.

Cambridge and the American Revolution

         Cambridge, Massachusetts played a significant role in the American Revolution and the Massachusetts State Guide gives it due credit. The locations of several important scenes of revolutionary activity have been preserved intact for almost 250 years.

        On April 18, 1775, the American militiamen got word of a British plan to march upon their armory in Concord. The Guide describes the result:

      “Clashes between the soldiers and patriots … in the winter of 1775 served to hurry the process by which the colonists were arming themselves, drilling their militia and forming groups of Minutemen who were ready to swing into action against the British at a moment’s notice. On April 19, 1775, the opportunity came. General Gage had resolved to send a detachment of troops to Concord  to … [capture the weapons]  accumulated there by the colonists. The march began on the night of April 18, but the patriots were prepared for such a step and immediately dispatched two riders to warn their countrymen.

        Paul Revere was captured before he could reach Concord; [but] William Dawes succeeded in spreading the alarm.”  (p.42)

         Although the Guide neglects to mention it, Dawes rode directly through the Cambridge Common on his way west. Cambridge takes great pride in remembering his ride. The location is set off as a small park and marked with brass hoofprints to indicate the Dawes’s path. Every year, a rider on horseback dressed as Dawes recreates his ride each on Patriots Day, a cherished Massachusetts State holiday.

         After the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, British troops retreated back to Boston and blockaded its port of Boston. War became inevitable and the Americans recruited George Washington, a hero of the French and Indian Wars, to assume command of the American troops. He did so under an elm tree on the Cambridge Common on July 3, 1775. The exact spot is marked with a monument and three cannons captured from the British at Fort Ticonderoga. A successor to the famous “Washington Elm” referred to in the Guide has been planted in its spot on the Common. 

     Washington remained in Cambridge for almost a year, training the troops and directing the Battle of Bunker Hill. His headquarters were located on Brattle Street in the luxurious house of Major John Vassal, a wealthy Tory who fled Cambridge for England in 1774. The Guide  describes the house in detail and it looks exactly the same today:

      “The house is  a three-story square yellow clapboarded mansion with white Ionic pilasters, a white roof-rail and yellow brick chimneys capped with ornamental hoods. Side piazzas, east and west, overlook wide lawns and in front of the house a formal park runs down almost to the Charles River.” (p. 192-3)                                                                     

         The laconic mention by the Guide that  “[Washington’s] study and the grounds [are] open Sat. 2-4)” understates the potential for an interesting visit. In fact, the National Park Service historical tours are fascinating and the formal garden at the rear is beautiful in all seasons. The garden was specifically designed with Washington in mind with heritage plantings and  a lay-out similar to Mount Vernon. The house and gardens are not to be missed!

        Many places can claim that “George Washington slept here” but few can match the Vassal house, where Washington lived for a year. One charming detail from the Guide:

“After George Washington made the house his headquarters in July 1775, Martha Washington joined him in December and on the sixth of January they celebrated their wedding anniversary here.” (p. 193)                                                                                                            

        Of equal interest to the house is Christ Church and its graveyard. The church was attended by the Washingtons when they lived here and the graveyard contains the graves of the Cambridge men who died in the Revolutionary War. One monument references the Cambridge men who died at Lexington and were buried there. Another memorializes the black soldiers who fought and died alongside their white fellow colonists. The graveyard is set opposite the main entrance to Harvard College, but despite the bustle of passers-by, it is tranquil, tree-shaded and lovely. Together with the the traces of Washington and Dawes, it forms a moving monument to our country’s founding and to the enduring power of American revolutionary ideals.

        In 1776, Washington and his troops moved elsewhere and civilian life in Cambridge resumed. The rest, as they say, is history.

Travels With the WPA State Guides: Appomattox, Virginia

The American Guide Series by the Federal Writers’ Project have a lot to say about the Civil War, none more than Virginia where the greatest number of battles were fought from the first land battle at Bull Run in 1861, to the last at Appomattox. 

On the morning of April 9, 1865, with Lee’s army reduced to two corps and Grant’s far outnumbering and surrounding it, the two sides faced off for a last brief skirmish. And then it was all over. Lee surrendered to Grant at noon that day.  

The Virginia Guide is at once eloquent and understated in its description of this extraordinary scene. I will let it speak for itself: 

“On the evening of April 8, 1865, Lee’s weary army encamped [at Appomattox] starved and ill-equipped, flanked by four times its number…and surrounded by many times its number…depleted by desertions and convinced that further resistance was futile. […]

 At 8:30 on the morning of April 9, General Lee rode to the rear [of his army] intending to surrender. [Grant, from 15 miles away hurried] to the field.  

The Generals met in McLean’s parlor – Lee in a new uniform and dress trappings and Grant dusty, in fatigue dress, and without side arms. They had known each other in years past. Once, in Mexico years before, Lee has reprimanded Grant for his unkempt experience. Now the tension was relieved by the casual conversation of old friends…General Lee [then requested] General Grant to tell him the terms of surrender… 

Grant wrote out the terms and handed the paper to Lee. The officers and men were to be paroled… Only public property was to be surrendered and officers were to retain their side arms and horses. Lee was pleased [but explained that] the cavalry and artillery horses were owned by the rank and file in the Confederate service and would be of great help to the men when they got home. Grant then gave orders to exempt these horses when they were claimed by their riders. 

Generously, Grant ordered Sheridan to supply Lee’s [starving soldiers] with 25,000 rations. Then [he] apologized for the condition of his dress and lack of sidearms saying that he had been at some distance from his headquarters and believed that Lee would rather receive him as he was than to be detained…and the meeting ended.  

When firing of salutes and the playing of bands began in the Federal camps, Grant gave orders that all such demonstrations cease.”  (p. 397)  

WPA Guide to Virginia: The Old Dominion State, Federal Writers’ Project

Note the wonderful details that the Guide provides: Grant’s dusty clothing compared with Lee’s formal attire and careful grooming, the conversation between old friends and the humane behavior of both Lee and Grant: Lee in avoiding  the unnecessary slaughter of his remaining troops and Grant in paroling the Confederates , allowing them to keep their side arms and horse, sending food to the soldiers and quelling all celebrations of Lee’s surrender. 

With neither preachiness nor partisanship, the writer accords dignity and praise to both sides. He (or she) conveys a deep sense that this was a war between brothers, — both officers and foot soldiers, North and South. But, at the same time, he asserts the futility of choosing war as a strategy for solving the problems between North and South. Unusual for this guide and for the guides as a whole, the author permits (but limits) himself to one direct statement of opinion:

“The tragic, unnecessary war had come to an end; and another era, more tragic and equally unnecessary, was about to begin.” (p.398)  

Only six days after Appomattox, Lincoln was assassinated. 

I visited Appomattox on the morning of April 9, 2019, exactly 154 years after Lee’s surrender. I arrived at 7AM, as groups of re-enactors were in their separate tent camps, drinking campfire coffee out of tin mugs preparatory to re-staging the 8:30 battle.  They were a friendly but serious bunch, dressed in authentic battle uniforms. The first person I met was I met was Theodore Chamberlain who, remarkably, is the great, great grandson of the renowned Northern general, Joshua Chamberlain of Maine. He was about to lead his troops into the battle.  He introduced me to his second in command and to his aide.  (When I emailed him some of my photographs , he signed his reply:

I am, your obed’t serv’t                                     

Joshua L. Chamberlain                                              

Major General, US Vols. 

AKA: Ted  

 At 8:00, the Confederate troops lined up to march to the field and I listened in on their captain’s encouraging speech, urging them to be brave in such dire circumstances. At 8:30, the battle commenced with cannons blazing, parties advancing and retreating, rifle firing. It was loud but not chaotic. Clouds of smoke drifted in the warm humid air. After an hour or so, all was silent again and the troops marched, or straggled back from the fields.  

At noon, I attended the surrender in the Mclean parlor, complete with the Generals’ writing desk, their pens, and their arms. 

Lastly, I visited the graves of the soldiers killed on that last day of war. All but one were Confederates, but equal honor was provided to the one Union soldier by the Ladies of the Confederacy who tend the grave site. 

The noise and smoke of the battle, then the silence as the troops retreated, and the ceremony of surrender, all set amidst the peaceful, early spring Virginia countryside was just as it must have been in 1865, even 154 years later. It reminded me that our country is still young and our sacred sites are still with us. Our history and our shrines are just as pertinent to us now. So are our problems.  

When Lincoln delivered his second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865, he had the end of the Civil War definitely in mind. Speaking to all of our countrymen—northerners, southerners and freed slaves—he enjoined us to continue to fight the unjust effects of human servitude and he recommended that we do that with compassion and respect for all: 

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace.”

Recalling Lincoln’s words and visiting the scene of reconciliation at Appomattox can inspire us continue the fight. 

Travels with the American Guide Series, A WPA Federal Writers’ Project: Walden Pond

By Fern L. Nesson 

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.  

   Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854) 

Historical marker at Walden Pond.

Henry David Thoreau made Walden Pond immortal. The Massachusetts Guide, however, gives it barely a mention: 

By the shores of Walden Pond, Emerson’s intimate friend, Henry David Thoreau, the naturalist, fled from society, built his hut and studied the trees and birds he was to write about in ‘Walden, or Life in the Woods. (p.213) 

Strange oversight, and a shame for many reasons.  

Walden Pond

Walden pond is the site of one of the most cherished classics in American literature.   Thoreau built his small cabin at Walden Pond in 1845 and lived in it for two years. His goal was to live simply and to explore the connection between the natural and spiritual worlds. 

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”  

              Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854) 

View of Walden Pond from the hiking trail.

Thoreau’s narrative of his time at the pond is captivating, beautifully expressed, and offers profound insights into living in deeper communication with nature. 

Even without any connection to Thoreau, the pond is scenic and a wonderful place to visit. It is a kettlehole pond, formed by the retreat of the glaciers after the Ice Age, nearly round and quite deep. The water is calm and clear. Surrounded by woods and hiking trails with evergreens providing green throughout the year, you cannot not find a more beautiful natural setting so near to Boston.

Hiking trail at Walden Pond.

In three seasons of the year, the pond is peaceful, permitting the contemplative experience of nature that Thoreau so prized. Summer is a different story. The pond’s two swimming areas are crowded with families spread out everywhere on the narrow shore. The sounds of swimmers splashing in the lake water dominate the scene. 

The beach at the Walden Pond State Reservation.
The beach at the Walden Pond State Reservation.

Even so, a quieter, Thoreauvian experience is possible. Forested paths lead around the pond. On the north side, a ½ mile path leads to the original site of Thoreau’s cabin home. The site has become a shrine. Stone pillars mark the outlines of the tiny cabin and just a few feet away are rock cairns placed there by visitors, many inscribed with quotes from Thoreau’s book. The scene is lovely and moving.  

Commemorative site at the Walden Pond State Reservation.
Commemorative site at the Walden Pond State Reservation.

The south is even more peaceful—only forest. Even in summer, there is rarely anyone on the trail; a hiker can be quite alone.  

View of Walden Pond from the hiking trail.

The pond and its surrounding woods are an example of good conservation practices at work. In the late 19th century, an amusement park was located at the western end of the pond, but it burned down in 1902 and was never rebuilt. Then, in 1922, the Emerson family, who owned the land surrounding the pond, deeded it to Massachusetts with the stipulation of “preserving the Walden of Emerson and Thoreau, its shores and nearby woodlands for the public who wish to enjoy the pond, the woods, and nature, including bathing, boating, fishing and picnicking.” Since then, Walden Pond has been run by the State.  

In 1961, the State considered selling some of the land, but the Massachusetts courts enjoined the sale, ruling that the Emerson deed required preservation of the land and barred further development.   

In 1990, when developers were proposing to build on land adjacent to the Emerson land, The Walden Woods Project, a privately-organized fund, raised enough money to purchase 85 additional surrounding acres of land protecting it from development forever.  Now all is as near as possible to how it was in Thoreau’s time.  The Massachusetts State Guide underplays the significance of a visit but you should not. 

   Thoreau’s cove 

                             

                                                                 

Travels with the American Guide Series, A WPA Federal Writers’ Project: Massachusetts Whaling Towns – New Bedford Travels with Herman Melville

Whaling in Massachusetts ceased in the early 20th century, but the wharves, chandleries, captains, and customs houses remain, offering scenic and fascinating reminders of the trade.

Home of Benjamin Rodman, a whaling merchant, 1821

In 1939, the writers of the Massachusetts State Guide took a great interest in whaling and its history, especially when describing New Bedford. The town makes for a wonderful visit today for its bustling, deep-water harbor, its well-preserved classic architecture, and its museum showcasing whaling paraphernalia.

Customs House (1834)
Scrimshaw carved by sailors on whales’ teeth
Whaling ship log book
Fully rigged Whale Ship in New Bedford Whaling Museum
Whale skeletons in New Bedford Whaling Museum

In 19th century New Bedford, whaling was king. The Guide recounts the profitable history of the trade:

New Bedford, once a famous whaling port, has a nautical flavor, perpetuated by awhaling museum, a seaman’s Bethel and substantial old houses once the homes of captains and early traders. [As early as] 1760, Joseph Russell…was already engaged inwhaling and … by 1820… New Bedford … led the industry, gradually absorbing almostall the entire whaling fleet of the Atlantic Seaboard. The year 1845 saw New Bedford’s greatest receipts from its fleet—158,000 barrels of sperm oil, 272,000 barrels of whale oil, and 3,000,000 pounds of whalebone.

But the Guide’s statistics cannot possibly paint a complete picture of 19th century Bedford, especially when compared to Herman Melville’s description of the town. Melville knew it well. In December,1840, heshipped out from New Bedford as a sailor on a whaler named the Acushnet. He drew upon his adventures asa sailor for many of his novels—Redburn, Typee, Omoo—and for Moby Dick, one of the most renowned andnotable novels in all of American literature (1851).

New Bedford is a queer place. Had it not been for us whalemen, that tract of land would thisday perhaps have been in as howling condition as the coast of Labrador. As it is, parts of her back country are enough to frighten one, they look so bony.

The town itself is perhaps the dearest place to live in, in all New England. It is a land of oil,true enough: but not like Canaan; a land, also, of corn and wine. The streets do not run withmilk; nor in the spring-time do they pave them with fresh eggs.

Yet, in spite of this, nowhere in all America will you find more patrician-like houses; parks and gardens more opulent, than in New Bedford. Whence came they? how planted upon thisonce scraggy scoria of a country?

Go and gaze upon the iron emblematical harpoons round yonder lofty mansion, and yourquestion will be answered. Yes; all these brave houses and flowery gardens came from theAtlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. One and all, they were harpooned and dragged up hitherfrom the bottom of the sea.

Melville went on to describe the abundance that whaling bestowed on New Bedford:

In New Bedford, fathers, they say, give whales for dowers to their daughters, and portionoff their nieces with a few porpoises apiece. You must go to New Bedford to see a brilliant wedding; for, they say, they have reservoirs of oil in every house, and every night recklessly burn their lengths in spermaceti candles.

In summer time, the town is sweet to see; full of fine maples in long avenues of green andgold. And in August, high in air, the beautiful and bountiful horse- chestnuts, candelabra-wise, proffer the passer-by their tapering upright cones of congregated blossoms.

So omnipotent is art; which in many a district of New Bedford has superinduced bright terraces of flowers upon the barren refuse rocks thrown aside at Creation’s final day. And thewomen of New Bedford, they bloom like their own red roses. But roses only bloom in summer;whereas the fine carnation of their cheeks is perennial as sunlight in the seventh heavens.

Still more fun to read is Melville’s description of the whaling crews that roamed the town:

In thoroughfares nigh the docks, any considerable seaport will frequently offer to view the queerest – looking nondescripts from foreign parts. But New Bedford beats all [others.] Inthese last-mentioned haunts you see only sailors; but in New Bedford actual cannibals standchatting at street corners…It makes a stranger stare.

Besides the Feegeeans, Tongans, …and [other] wild specimens of the whaling-craftwhich unheeded reel about the streets, you will see other sights still more curious, certainly more comical. There weekly arrive in this town scores of green Vermonters and New Hampshire men, all athirst for gain and glory in the fishery. Many are as green as theGreen Mountains whence they came. In some things, you would think them but a few hoursold. Look there! that chap strutting round the corner. He wears a beaver hat and swallow-tailed coat, girdled with a sailor belt and a sheath knife. Here comes another with a sou’-wester and a bombazine cloak.

New Bedford’s age of opulence is long past. But plentiful evidence of the trade has been preserved aswell, if not better, than it was in 1937. The Guide recommends visits to the Whaleman Statue on the Harbor, the Bourne Building on School Street (which opened in 1842, collected whale oil in barrels on the wharf, and sold whaling supplies and sails), the 1830’s granite Customs House on North Second Street, the numerous captains’ and merchants’ houses of the whaling era, and the Whaling Museum. All of these are still openfor visitors and the harbor and the cobblestoned streets surrounding them have a distinctly 19th centuryfeel.

In many ways, whaling is still king here. Each January, the Whaling Museum holds a round-the-clock community reading of Moby Dick. Tickets to the event are always sold out far in advance and theopportunity to participate in reading the text is considered to be quite an honor. The Museum’s website describes the event:

One of the world’s best known live readings of Herman Melville’s iconic American novelMoby-Dick takes place every January at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The Moby-Dick Marathon draws readers and enthusiasts from around the globe to the Museum’s campus and to the livestream reading online. Obsessive literary aficionados, local school children, and everyone in between travel back in time toaccompany narrator, Ishmael, on the epic whaling journey and hunt for the elusive whitewhale.

But most interesting and moving attraction in New Bedford is The Seaman’s Bethel. Several whaling ports have whaling museums—Sag Harbor, New York, New London, Connecticut, Nantucket—but none have the Bethel. Nor did any of the others have the honor of being visited and described by HermanMelville.

The guide’s description of the Bethel is accurate today:

“Dedicated on May 2, 1832 to give moral and religious inspiration to the thousands of sailors, foreign and native-born,who frequented the city. It was immortalized by Herman Melville in Moby Dick and has been little changedsince Melville’s time. Still adorning the walls are the black-bordered cenotaphs inscribed in terms of bitter andhopeless grief; still from the ship’s prow resound the chaplain’s salty sermons

Melville’s own whaling voyage began with his visit to the Seaman’s Bethel. On Sunday December 27, 1840, he attended services at the Bethel and heard the Reverend Enoch Mudge preach to the assembled congregation.

In Moby Dick, he brings the scene to life:

But the Bethel is best seen through Melville’s eyes:

In this same New Bedford, there stands a Whaleman’s Chapel, and few are the moody fishermen, shortly bound for the Indian Ocean or Pacific, who fail to make a Sunday visit to the spot. I am sure that I did not. …

Entering, I found a small scattered congregation of sailors, and sailors’ wives and widows. A muffled silence reigned, only broken at times by the shrieks of the storm. Each silent worshipper seemed purposely sitting apart from the other, as if each silent grief were insular and incommunicable.

Next, Melville turns our attention to those lost at sea:

The chaplain had not yet arrived; and there these silent islands of men and women sat steadfastly eyeing several marble tablets, with black borders, masoned into the wall on eitherside the pulpit. Three of them ran something like the following:

SACRED OF JOHN TALBOT,

Who, at the age of eighteen, was lost overboard, Near the Isle of Desolation, off Patagonia,November 1st, 1836.

THIS TABLET Is erected to his Memory BY HIS SISTER.

SACRED to the memory of ROBERT LONG, WILLIS  ELLERY, NATHAN COLEMAN, WALTER CANNY, SETH MACY,

AND SAMUEL GLEIG,

Forming one of the boats’ crews OF THE SHIP ELIZA,

Who were towed out of sight by a Whale, On the Off-shore Ground in the PACIFIC,

December 3lst, 1839.

THIS MARBLE Is here placed by their surviving Shipmates

SACRED to the memory of the late

CAPTAIN EZEKIEL HARDY,

Who in the bows of his boat was killed by a

Sperm Whale on the coast of Japan,

August 3d, 1833. THIS TABLET

Is erected to his Memory BY HIS WIDOW.

This was not just Melville’s creative imagination. Here are photos of some of the actual tablets on the Bethel’s walls:

Next, Melville brings in the preacher:

I had not been seated very long ere a man of a certain venerable robustness entered …. It was the famous Father Mapple [who] had been a sailor and a harpooneer in his youth, but for many years past had dedicated his life to the ministry […]

And what would a Sunday service be without prayers and hymns?

Father Mapple rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming authority ordered thescattered people to condense. ‘’Starboard gangway, there! side away to larboard; larboardgangway to starboard! Midships! midships!“

There was a low rumbling of heavy sea-boots among the benches, and a stillslighter shuffling of women’s shoes, and all was quiet again, and every eye on thepreacher.

He paused a little; then kneeling in the pulpit’s bows, folded his large brown handsacross his chest, uplifted his closed eyes, and offered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying at the bottom of the sea.

This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog. In such tones he commenced reading the following hymn; but changing his manner toward the concluding stanzas, burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy:

The ribs and terrors in the whale Arched over me a dismal gloom,

While all God’s sun-lit waves rolled by, And lift me deepening down to doom.

I saw the opening maw of hell, With endless pains and sorrows there; Which none but they that feel can tell Oh, I was plunging to despair. In black distress, I called my God,

When I could scarce believe him mine, He bowed his ear to my complaints No more the whale did me confine. With speed he flew to my relief,

As on a radiant dolphin borne; Awful, yet bright, as lightning shone The face of my Deliverer God.

My song for ever shall record That terrible, that joyful hour; I give the glory to my God, His all the mercy and the power.’

Nearly all joined in singing this hymn, which swelled high above the howling of the storm.

And did you think you’d escape without a sermon? Not a chance! Here, much shortened, is the dramatic conclusion of the chapter:

“ Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the first chapter of Jonah “And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.”

“Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters, four yarns is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet what depths of the soul does Jonah’s deep sea-line sound! what a pregnant lesson to us is this prophet! What a noble thing is that canticle in the fish’s belly! How billow-like and boisterously grand! We feel the floods surging over us; we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the waters; sea-weed and all the slime of the sea is about us! […]

But the sea rebels; he will not bear the wicked burden. A dreadful storm comes on, the ship is like to break. […]

The indignant gale howls louder; then, Jonah is dropped … seething into the yawning jaws awaiting him and the whale shoots-to all his ivory teeth, like so many white bolts, upon his prison.

Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord out of the fish’s belly.

But observe his prayer, and learn a weighty lesson. For sinful as he is, Jonah does not weep and wail for direct deliverance. He feels that his dreadful punishment is just. He leaves all his deliverance to God, contenting himself with this, that spite of all his pains and pangs, he will still look toward His holy temple.

And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance, not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment. And how pleasing to God was this conduct in Jonah, is shown in the eventual deliverance of him from the sea and the whale.

[…]

Then God spake unto the fish; and from the shuddering cold and blackness of the sea, the whale came breaching up toward the warm and pleasant sun, and all the delights of air and earth ; and ” vomited out Jonah upon the dry land “; when the word of the Lord came a second time ; and Jonah, bruised and beaten his ears, like two sea shells, still multitudinously murmuring of the ocean Jonah did the Almighty’s bidding. And what was that, shipmates? To preach the Truth to the face of Falsehood! That was it!

This, shipmates, this is the … lesson; and woe to that pilot of the living God who slights it. Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale! […]

With church service over, we leave New Bedford, chastened but uplifted.

Herman Melville
Plaque in the Seaman’s Bethel

Travels with the American Guide Series, A WPA Federal Writers’ Project: Wiscasset, Maine


The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project, is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included recommended tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. This post, following a suggested tour in Maine, is the second in a series of articles based upon the guides.


Wiscasset Scene

Wiscasset is a historic town that sits directly on Route One; its main street is, in fact, the route itself. Although the American Guide Series asserts it was “a ghost town” in 1938, reduced in population by 50% since the 19th Century, this is not true today. The population in 1938 was 1186; currently it stands at 3290. The town is thriving. 

The Guide dwells mostly on the architecture and provenance of Wiscasset’s colonial era houses. In 1938, some may have been empty or dilapidated, but today, every house appears to be in its magnificent and graceful original state. The sights of the colonial houses with their manicured, flourishing gardens are stunning. 


Houses on Route One

 Daffodils

Garden path

Wiscasset (justifiably) calls itself “a living museum” and present-day writers are lavish in their praise.

Here is just one sample:

The historic town ofWiscassetis fondly known as the prettiest village in Maine. Historic homes and antique shops dominate the center. You don’t have to walk far to witness Wiscasset’s historical charm—there are interesting sites on just about every corner. The town boasts some of the region’s most famous architectural landmarks. 

The Boston Globe

I spent an entire day in Wiscasset. I stated my visit in the morning by photographing some of the houses mentioned in the Guide. First up was the Nickels House:



Nickels House (1807)

The author of this section of the American Guide Seriesmust have been a keen student of colonial architecture, and a stern critic. The writer criticizes the Nickels House for its “unfortunate arrangement of windows” on the third story-facade and its “inharmonious railing” on the second story portico:

The WILLIAM NICKELS HOUSE (1807-08), corner of Main and Fort Sts. [Route One] is a massive three-story structure with a one-story entrance portico, Corinthian pilasters, a long central Palladian window in the second story, and a large semicircular window above it interpolated between the square windows on each side in the third story. 

This unfortunate arrangement of windows is a characteristic central motif of the facade in houses on the Maine coast. The inharmonious railing above the portico is a later addition (c. 1890). 

But other architectural details of the house are noted and highly praised:

An interesting variation in the detail of the main cornice is the omission of the modillions and the use of a double row of dentils in their place. 

The main portal with its elliptical fan light and elaborately mullioned side lights is particularly notable for slender pilasters and delicately carved transom rail and architrave. The face of the pilasters is carved in herringbone pattern. 

In contrast, the Abiel Wood House receives only praise. Showing a sophisticated understanding of classical architectural principles, the writer draws our attention to the decorative elements of the house:

The ABIEL WOOD HOUSE (1812) however, has greater distinction because of the more pleasing proportions of its Palladian window, and the lack of such superficial embellishments as the Corinthian pilasters. 


Abiel-Wood House (1812)

But despite offering stern critique of the builders’ unconventional use of Classical motifs, the writer is not a snob. The Guide describes the Lilac Cottage, an older, vernacular house from an earlier century, with clear affection: 

The CLAPP HOUSE, or Lilac Cottage, on US 1 opposite the Common, is an old story-and-a-half structure of unknown date, now painted white with green shutters. The front yard, which is fragrant with lilacs in the spring, is enclosed by a picket fence. 

 The cottage remains exactly as the guide described it in 1938 and it is still surrounded by a white picket fence and scores of lilac bushes. Only the green shutters are missing.


Lilac Cottage (front view)

Lilac cottage side view (The Clapp House)

The town’s public architecture is also classic New England, restrained and elegant. The Congregational Church and the Lincoln Courthouse sit next to each other at the highest point on the Wiscasset Common. They, too, remain unchanged since 1938.





It is possible to spend the entire day admiring the towns’ historic architecture, but the guide led me in another direction. It referred, mysteriously to “a very old piece of fire apparatus” in the town library. Off I went in search of what that might be.




Public Library

 There was nothing obviously fire-related in the reading room, so I asked the librarian where I might find the fire-fighting apparatus that was mentioned in the guide eighty years earlier. At first, she responded that she knew of no such thing, having been born after (but not much after) 1938. But then she paused, a light dawned, and she told me that, several years ago, she’d noticed four glass balls filled with a clear liquid mounted on iron brackets near the ceiling. The balls were labelled: “In case of fire, throw these balls at the flames.”

These instructions alarmed her and she called in the fire chief to consult. The chief agreed that the balls seemed more dangerous than helpful and he replaced them with a standard-issue fire extinguisher. The librarian thought that the chief had destroyed them by detonating them. I hoped not.

I next went to the Fire House. The building was locked, but several persons standing outside chatting had volunteer fireman’s badges on their windbreakers. (It turned out to be just as it was in 1938, when the guide noted that Wiscasset depended solely upon volunteers for its fire protection.)

I described my conversation with the librarian to the volunteer firemen and they were able to compete the story. The glass balls were indeed a form of firefighting equipment not uncommon in Maine in the late 1800’s. Called “fire grenades,” the grenades were filled with carbon tetrachloride and, yes, they were meant to be thrown at fires in order to extinguish the flames. 

It turned out that the fire chief had not immediately detonated the grenades. Instead, he put them on display in the fire station where, one of the volunteers said, “I actually got to see them.” Although they were no longer on display, if I could come back on a Wednesday evening at 6PM, when the volunteers had their weekly meeting, we might be able to locate the balls. 

 I hope to do that very soon, but, for now, here is a picture of a typical 19thcentury fire grenade:


Fire Grenade

Travels with the American Guide Series, A WPA Federal Writers’ Project: US Route One, Maine


Owl’s Head Lighthouse Lighthouse Entrance

The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project is one of the most well-known WPA projects. Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested tour routes as well as essays on the history and culture of each U.S. state and territory. Major U.S. cities and several regions were also given their own separate guidebooks.

The state guides give a fascinating snapshot of American life in the 1930s. Written in a lively and approachable style, they detail and celebrate the rich diversity that our country displayed at that time. The writers’ enthusiasm is infectious and their guide is as much fun to read today as it must have been for travelers in the 1930s.

Several historians have written about the American Guide Series over the past 80 years, but no one, to my knowledge, has used them as current-day travel guides. That is just what I set out to do. I am an American historian, art photographer, and enthusiastic traveler. I have read each of these guides. I love them for their wonderful enthusiasm and their curiosity about every aspect of regional life—from food, to linguistics, to folklore, to statistics, to geography, to environment, to history—and especially for their liberal attitudes and respect for diversity. Beginning with this photo essay, I will be posting a series of articles based upon tours recommended in the guides. This post, following a suggested tour in Maine, is my first offering.

Route One, Rockland

Part 1

U.S. One: From Maine to Florida

This guide was written in 1938. As its name suggests, it follows the original North/South route on the East Coast. With the construction of Route 95 in the 1950s, most highway traffic was diverted, but U.S. 1 has remained the major route passing through all of the towns and cities on the coast. The guide is a captivating mix of history, stories, and architectural information containing both factual and fanciful information.

Most Easterners know Route One for its gas stations, fast food restaurants, and strip malls. But in Maine, large portions of the route still retain a small town feel, with beautifully preserved 19th century architecture and stunning views of the ocean. Driving down Route One, one can easily follow the highlights of the 1938 Guide, enjoying, as its authors did, the world of lobstermen, clipper ships, small harbors, wharves, ferries, pine trees, and ocean views.

The Guide’s description of this route, the ocean, and the communities that bordered it in 1938 is positively lyrical:

US 1 in Maine runs close to the coast from one end of the State to the other. It runs through resort areas, rolling and rocky farmlands, and along the banks of broad rivers; it crosses high hills locally called mountains and blueberry plains. It connects the two ends of the 2,500-mile coast line, which are but 225 miles apart by air line.

The […] whole of the broken and jagged coast has a picturesque charm that makes it a favorite with summer travelers. South of Maine, land and sea have few rigid boundaries; the waves encroach and retreat, the land is washed away and built up. But on the Maine shore they meet abruptly; that old devil sea at times comes dashing in as though it had been gathering force halfway around the earth to break the stubborn, granite headlands; it attacks with a roar, retreats, and returns to attack again.

The Guide aptly describes everyday life in 1930s Maine:

There are two coasts of Maine. The coast known to most visitors has spruce-tipped hills and hard beaches dappled with the red, orange, green, blue, and white raiment of visitors, blue-green waters broken by tilting sails and the wakes of speeding motorboats, and a brilliant blue sky […]

The second coast of Maine is for four or five months muffled in snow; travel is at times difficult and most hotels and many of the rooms in homes are closed. But this Maine has its own charm. The rural inhabitants, even though striving to add to their limited incomes, have time to relax and they accept the comparatively few visitors as members of their families, telling them long stories of grandfathers and uncles who never returned from the sea, of the great-aunts who heard voices, and other tales characteristic of a country that part of the year has almost pioneer isolation.

There are other rewards for those who visit this coast out of season. The chowder and baked beans, made in family quantities and eaten after strenuous climbs over snowy hills, have a finer flavor than those of summer; the headlands, snow-crowned, take on an icy glaze that sharpens their strange silhouettes; and the sea in acrobatic assaults causes the very rocks to tremble. But the glory of this Maine is its sky, unreal saffron after the gray light that comes before the dawn, blue as Persian tiles for a brief time at midday, and an unearthly pale green streaked with rose in the late afternoon, turning the snow pale heliotrope with purple shadows.


For a first exploratory foray, I chose to explore a stretch of Route One in mid-coast Maine, running south from Rockport, through Rockland and Owl’s Head. Several of the sights mentioned in the guide are slightly off the route, but in places, the route itself is the star.


Route One, Rockport

Rockland: Rockport and Owl’s Head are completely recognizable from the guide’s descriptions. In particular, Rockport seems unchanged. The guide recommends a visit to the harbor and then to the “Spite House.” Its description of the harbor is apt today:

From the bridge at the S. end of the village is a remarkable view of the harbor and the white lighthouse jutting out on the point. Goose River forms a V-shaped waterfront that has been landscaped by Mrs. Mary Louise Bok.


 


Spite house is also as it was in 1806 and in 1938. Here is the guide’s description:


SPITE HOUSE (L), on Deadman’s Point: Sometime after his third marriage, James McCobb built a house for his family. He died while his son Thomas was at sea. The third Mrs. McCobb, who had also been previously married, arranged a marriage between her son by her first husband and her stepdaughter, the sister of Thomas McCobb, thereby obtaining control of the large house.

When Thomas McCobb returned and learned of the marriage and its consequences, he became incensed, declared he would build himself a mansion large enough and sufficiently grand to overshadow the nearby residence occupied by his stepmother, and in 1806 built this beautiful structure which, from the day of its completion, has borne its present name.

In contrast to Rockport, Rockland has always been a more commercial town, oriented toward fishing, shipbuilding, and serving as the gateway to the Maine’s offshore islands.


Plaque at the Residence of Edna St. Vincent Millay

The guide recommends visiting the residence of Edna St. Vincent Millay (at the time a very well-known poet, lesser known today) and the public landing. Millay’s house is now owned by a foundation that is raising money to restore it.

 


Residence of Edna St. Vincent Millay

 


Rockland Fishing Wharves

Rockport Harbor is large and well-protected, and seems relatively unchanged since the 1930’s. There is a new ferry terminal, but nearby are wharves harboring several 19th century commercial schooners and clipper ships. The view of the lengthy breakwater and the islands is unimpeded and very scenic.


Schooner Under Repair

 

Rockland Harbor Dawn

 

Owl’s Head Harbor

The most remote of these three villages is Owls’ Head. To reach it, one needs to take a four-mile detour off Route One, but the journey is worth every bit of the drive. Owl’s Head is tiny settlement located at the end of a peninsula just south of Rockland. But despite its isolation, a lot of historical events happened here, perhaps due to the fact that Owls’ Head is strategically placed at the confluence of several ocean waterways.

Samuel Champlain visited Owls Head in 1605 when it was called Bedabec Point (“cape of the waters.”) Then, in 1755, the Guide recounts a massacre:

The town was the scene of a bloody encounter in 1755 when Captain Cargyle, famous Indian fighter employing Indian tactics, killed and scalped nine braves, receiving a bounty of 200 pounds sterling each.

Lobster Traps Owl’s Head Harbor

As late as 1820, the guide tells us, American and British pirates used the harbor as a base for their raids, but by 1938, the harbor was occupied only by lobstermen. The same is true today.


Buoys, Owl’s Head Harbor

The number of boats in Owl’s Head’s small harbor is impressive. A lobsterman explained to me that the cross-currents from the outer islands had created a deep trench just outside the harbor whose steep sides were a perfect place for lobsters to breed. Boats working out of this harbor can bring in a haul of 400-600 lobsters per day.

Just past the harbor, on Owl’s Head Point, is the Owl’s Head Lighthouse. It has remained in continuous use since it was built in 1826 and it looks exactly as the guide describes:

OWL’S HEAD LIGHT […] was built in 1826, during the administration of President John Quincy Adams. The old white tower is only 26 ft. high; but because of its situation the light can be seen 16 miles at sea. In summer, yachts cruising in these waters are welcomed by three strokes of a bell. Snowshoeing parties from Rockland visit the snow-clad headland in winter.

The road ends [a quarter mile from the lighthouse.] From this point it is but a short walk to the shore, where the red and yellow quartz-streaked face of the headland, worn smooth by the pounding of the surf, rears itself nearly 100 ft. above sea level. Tall spruces, their roots clinging tenaciously to the few inches of soil, crown the summit.

Owl’s Head Lighthouse

The description is apt, but, in true guide style, understated. I was completely alone during my visit to the lighthouse. As I walked the path, the views were stunning. It could have been 1826 or 1938; the beauty and seclusion of the Maine Coast were undiminished.


 

Lighthouse Keeper’s Cottage And View to the Islands

 

Own’s Head Coast

Following the guide on my short Route One trip, I was impressed yet again by its writers. Their infectious enthusiasm for each community they encountered, from the larger picture to the smallest detail, gave me much to think about and even more to see. I can’t wait to set out again, exploring many other places in our country, American Guide Series in hand.

 

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