The 981 Project Podcast Por arte de portada

The 981 Project Podcast

De: Tamela Rich
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  • Resumen

  • Join Tamela Rich for dispatches from all 981 miles of the Ohio River: people, places, history, culture, and more.

    the981project.com
    Tamela Rich
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Episodios
  • I Need a Pair of European White Swans

    I Need a Pair of European White Swans
    Jul 11 2024
    WELCOME NEW SUBSCRIBERS!Last summer I spent a couple of days in Louisville at the Filson Historical Society doing archival research on Cave Hill Cemetery. I have never done this kind of research before and the Filson staff patiently taught me the ins and outs of choosing boxes from its vast collection that might have artifacts that would shed light on burial regulations from the cemetery’s earliest days (1848-1900). This was of course the heart of the Victorian Era, and those Victorians had, ahem, “interesting” ideas about death. They were obsessed with elaborate mourning rituals, and creepy hair jewelry and hair art, as pictured below. Americans at this time were also very particular about whose mouldering bones could lie in proximity underground. The cemetery’s 1879 rules, regulations and bylaws, which the Filson stored, specified that Cave Hill was established "for the white race exclusively" and provided that "colored persons, when admitted, must be accompanied by a lot-holder, or some member of the family of the lot-holder, or may be admitted by the written permit of a Manager..." Interestingly, women were not allowed to enter the grounds unaccompanied because, hey, when you’ve got your foot on the neck of an entire race of people, why not put the other on women? They probably couched this rule in terms of female safety, or perhaps the feminine propensity to faint at the thought of death, or some other patriarchal subterfuge. I’m happy to report that a lot has changed since then. I have freely perambulated the grounds without an escort, and native son Muhammad Ali is buried there, along people of all ethnicities, religious affiliations, professions, and persuasions. I count this as progress.One thing that hasn’t changed since its founding is the cemetery’s fondness for swans, which was also a Victorian obsession. It still features one in its logo today. This sent me digging around to figure out why. In this Smithsonian article, I learned that beginning in 1482 only English landowners of a certain income could keep them, and any bird found without a “swan mark” on its beak to denote its owner, was automatically the property of the crown. You could think of a swan mark like a cattle brand, but carved into the beak. According to the Smithsonian:The prestige of swan ownership went far beyond their appeal as a delicacy. They were impressive enough as the centerpiece of a feast, but a swan in itself was not particularly expensive. The real desirability came from the right to own swans at all, because purchasing a swan mark was so expensive. To have a “game” of swans elegantly sculling around the lake of your stately pile required funds and status.The rules relating to swans prevented ordinary people from interacting with them at all, beyond being able to see them on the river. If you weren’t an officially recognized swan keeper it was forbidden to sell swans, to drive them away from your land, to mark them or even to hunt with dogs or lay nets and traps on the river at certain times of year in case swans were injured.Side note: here we have an economic lesson in how to drive up the price of something that doesn’t cost much at all. Swan prestige traveled across the Atlantic like Victorian Christmas tree traditions. The Victorian influence on American culture likely can’t be overstated.So, there I was in the Filson’s reading room, perusing a file of correspondence from the 1890s to and from Mr. J. G. A Boyd, who managed cemetery operations and was Secretary-Treasurer of the company. Among invoices and mundane requests for maintenance and landscaping, I continued to see letters from the W.A. Conklin Company of New York City, which, according to its fancy letterhead, traded in wild animals, managed zoological gardens, and supplied private menageries. I’ve since learned that William Conklin of the W.A. Conklin Company was Superintendent of the Central Park Menagerie from the 1860s through the 1880s. Apparently, Boyd had written to Conklin about something befalling the Cave Hill swans, to which Conklin replied in his spidery hand: “Very sorry to hear of your misfortune with the swans. They were certainly a very nice lot. If you care to try again, will have some more while over this month, but am right out of the black…” He then went on to mention his current inventory of a white goose, a Brent goose, and a Rosybill duck, and claimed, “they will breed with any of the ordinary waterfowl.” Other letters discussed which swans would interbreed—it wasn’t often. Before going any further, check out Conklin’s letterhead!Conklin’s swan inventory and sales price updates continued throughout 1893 and into ‘94. I was itching for resolution on this obviously important matter! What had happened to the swans! Were they replaced? If so, did the replacements survive?Then, I came upon correspondence from Littleton Cook, District Attorney for Kentucky for the Louisville ...
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    15 m
  • June '24 Trivia Time!

    June '24 Trivia Time!
    Jun 20 2024
    When people hear the word “reparations” today, it’s usually in a context of compensating African-Americans or Indians for damages they suffered, including forced and unpaid work, or for theft of their land and livelihoods among other harms. As a reminder, Japanese-Americans received reparations after they were deprived of their liberty (internment) and for property that was confiscated from them during WWII. Today, we broaden that lens and look at the instances when Ohio was carved up as a form of reparations to Revolutionary War veterans and other classes of people who Congress wanted to “restore to good condition,” before Ohio became a state.Before we go to this month’s trivia, let’s get clear on the definition of the word reparation(s). I lifted this directly from Dictionary.comReparation: noun* the making of amends for wrong or injury done:In reparation for the injustice, the king made him head of the agricultural department.* something done or given to make amends:The prosecutor has requested a reparation of $32 million to victims of the crime.Synonyms: compensation, satisfaction, atonement, indemnification* Usually reparations.* compensation in money, material, labor, etc., payable by a defeated country to another country or to an individual for loss suffered during or as a result of war:The U.S. government eventually disbursed reparations to Japanese Americans who had been interned during World War II.* monetary or other compensation payable by a country to an individual for a historical wrong:The article is about reparations to Black people for the enslavement of their ancestors.* restoration to good condition.Synonyms: repair, renovate, renewalREMINDER: It’s the rare person who can answer all ten trivia questions without any prep. I couldn’t answer them without a significant amount of research, either! Do your best and enjoy learning something new. Answers in the footnotes.QUESTIONSAll questions refer to this district map. For this quiz, try thinking of Ohio as a clock face. The districts in question start at the 12:00 position with the district labeled “The Fire Lands 1792.” We’ll move clockwise from there. All answers are in the footnotes.* Moving to the 1:00 position on the map, we find The Connecticut Western Reserve 1786. When King Charles II granted Connecticut’s 1662 Charter, he defined it broadly and ambiguously. Settlers in the newly-chartered colony seized upon the ambiguities to make the largest claims possible, which stretched from the East Coast through Ohio all the way to the Pacific (which is also what Virginia did earlier). They refused to concede this little patch in The Ohio Country after a series of concessions to other colonies and countries for their western lands until forced to do so by Congress in 1786. Which of the following is true about the Connecticut Western Reserve? More than one may apply.* Connecticut yielded claims to the region to Congress in 1786 so that Congress could establish the Northwest Territory. * Connecticut drove a hard bargain when yielding its claims in 1786. When the Continental Congress created the Northwest Territory the year after the Connecticut cession, it was assumed that Connecticut, not the territory, was empowered to exercise political jurisdiction over the Reserve. The ambiguity lasted until the Constitutional Congress approved the "Quieting Act" in 1800, whereby Connecticut surrendered all governing authority. * The Fire Lands (at 12:00) were carved out of the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1792, and the rest was sold to the Connecticut Land Company in 1795 to fund public education. If this is true, the only lands from the Connecticut Western Reserve that were given in reparation were The Fire Lands.* How did the Fire Lands 1792 district get its name? More than one may apply.* It’s the shortened version of Fire Suffers’ Lands.* It was set aside for anyone who owned Connecticut property that had been burned by the British during the Revolutionary War.* Working for the British, Benedict Arnold raided and burned 140-plus buildings in New London, Connecticut, along with ships docked in the port. Those who suffered in this attack were eligible for land in Ohio as reparation.* The Seven Ranges (at about 3:00), is sometimes referred to as the Old Seven Ranges, and was established the same year as the Connecticut Western Reserve (1786). The Continental Congress needed a survey system for a systematic expansion into Ohio, so the Seven Ranges was a demonstration project of sorts. The ranges were surveyed in what became the Public Land Survey System, still in use today (discussed in May ‘24 Trivia). After the survey was complete, the Secretary of War was to choose (by lot) one seventh of the land to compensate veterans of the Continental army. The rest of the lots were to be sold at auction in New York. Which of these lands were excepted from the New York auction? More than one may apply.* A wealthy merchant, ...
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    39 m
  • In the Heart of Lincoln Country, I toured Lincoln Gardens

    In the Heart of Lincoln Country, I toured Lincoln Gardens
    Jun 2 2024
    When I visited Evansville, Indiana, on a bright summer day in 2021, its revived waterfront and fabulous murals captivated me. Since then, I delved into Timothy Egan’s book about the Midwestern Klan, where I discovered that Evansville was a hotbed for KKK activity in the 1920s. Unlike the Klan that terrorized the South during Reconstruction, its second wave looked beyond Blacks to hate and harass. It was nativist, focused on driving out Catholics and first-generation immigrants, as well as Jews—together with Blacks they’d always targeted, they manufactured a much wider target for hate. It’s important to note that Blacks had been unwelcome in Indiana since its first Constitution specified, “No negro or mulatto shall come into, or settle in the State, after the adoption of this Constitution.” Intrigued by Indiana’s history of trying to maintain a WASP state (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), I decided the Evansville African American Museum would be a vital stop. The museum sits in a neighborhood that’s been called Baptisttown since the 1800s, in a building dating back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal Era. Constructed in 1938, it narrowly avoided demolition in the 1990s and opened as a cultural institution in 2007. Its story as compelling as those it narrates.Evansville in the New Deal EraBy the turn of the (last) century, 54 percent of Evansville’s Black citizens lived in Baptisstown, and by WWI, the neighborhood became overcrowded to where a third of its residents had no access to sewage systems. Think for one second how miserable that must have been on a hot summer’s day (any day for that matter). Racial segregation in Evansville was of course rooted in Indiana’s Constitutional “Black Laws” but it was later exacerbated by racial restrictive covenants known as “deed restrictions” banning Blacks from living or owning property in most parts of the city. The use of deed restrictions were widespread throughout the country, with more cities adopting them than not. Although the Supreme Court ruled the covenants unenforceable in 1948, it took the Fair Housing Act of 1968 to outlaw them. But Indiana’s segregation predated deed restrictions. By the time the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) analyzed Evansville neighborhoods in 1937, segregation was well-entrenched: 90% of Evansville's Black population lived in one of four neighborhoods. The HOLC outlined those four neighborhoods in red on the maps that they provided to lenders and insurance companies to use in deciding whether to do business in an area. Most companies avoided “redlined” neighborhoods, but if they did business there, it would be at a higher interest rate or insurance premium than offered elsewhere.As I hinted earlier, FDR’s Public Works Administration (PWA) tried to ameliorate the nation’s Depression-induced housing crisis by building 51 projects in 31 cities (seven were in Ohio River cities, including Evansville). The PWA was not focused on desegregation. It followed a “neighborhood composition rule,” meaning PWA housing projects should reflect the previous racial composition of their neighborhoods. Legal scholars note that this violated African Americans’ constitutional rights, but that was a battle for another day. To Evansville’s credit, local leaders resisted efforts to place the housing project outside the city limits, or to use the PWA to clear the neighborhood for white residents, as had happened in PWA communities elsewhere, despite the guidelines.Evansville is in the heart of Lincoln Country, so the community’s name, Lincoln Gardens, resonated. For about $1m, Lincoln Gardens housed roughly 500 residents in 16 buildings of 182 low-cost apartments. It was the second PWA community to be built in the country.First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt brought a touch of celebrity to Lincoln Gardens when she visited Baptisttown in November, 1937. Here’s an excerpt from her “My Day” newspaper column:First we went to lay a wreath on the tomb of Private Gresham, who was the first solider killed overseas during the World War. Then to look at the slum clearance project in the colored section of the City, which is evidently a matter of great pride to the Mayor. He is very happy that this undesirable section from the point of view of housing, has been wiped out. He told me that the new houses would rent at approximately the same amount per room as the old ones which had been extremely high considering what they were. That is one point in any slum clearance project which has to be watched, for there is no use in providing new housing at a cost beyond the incomes of the former residents of the neighborhood.As much as I love Eleanor, her fusty descriptions are cringy.Visiting the MuseumOn a balmy late-April morning, Ms. Janice Hale took me for a personal tour of the museum. She had lived in Lincoln Gardens with her mother and sister in the sixties, so her memories and reflections resonated ...
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    13 m
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