Grand Rapids, Ohio: Then and Now

I was doing a bit of research for a listing I made today on eBay, and found it amazing that this town has basically stayed almost untouched for over 100 years. The buildings look almost the same today as they did in 1911. Nice job maintaining your historical character Grand Rapids, Ohio!

In Defense of America

This election cycle, it is all the rage to hate on the United States. On the political right, Trump's campaign slogan implies that America needs to be fixed. On the political left, political discourse can often make it sound like America is the most racist, mysogynistic, and unjust country on the planet. It has gotten so bad, in fact, that Canadians have even rallied to try to buoy the spirits of their neighbors to the south.

I teach high school social studies, this year to sophomore United States History students. It is a very difficult year to stand in front of students and try to provide a fair and balanced perspective. I can hear the disillusionment about government in the things they say to each other about the election, and I fear their generation may already be jaded about America's political process. And of course the rude debate styles and personally insulting rhetoric of the candidates for President are to blame. Or are they? Certainly there is an unprecedented level of animus between the candidates, but we as Americans are just as culpable for the prevailing attitude about our country.

This country was founded by “a bunch of old, privileged white guys” to be sure, but along the way we have fought to enfranchise more Americans, make working conditions better for employees, create safe places to live for our citizenry, and create an inclusive society. Yes, we have failed in many ways, but we have always been willing to confront our problems as a society and work to solve them, even if we are often unsuccessful at first. Even when Americans have attempted to block what many of us view as progress, it has been a vocal minority. Even today, a large portion of Trump’s supporters are not racists slathering at the mouth, but rather white, working class Americans frustrated that the changing global economy seems to have left them behind.

I am teaching my students about the turn of the twentieth century in the United States right now, and it seems to me that we should pause to think about that America. That America in which people left behind nearly all of their belongings and sometimes family to come to our nation. That America, where reformers worked tirelessly to make living and working conditions better. That America, where people worked back-breaking jobs to provide for their families. That America, where our patriotism was not based solely on the power of our military, but on what we could achieve together. Where we built skyscrapers that astonished the world, and where a majority of the population in some American cities was foreign born. These are the people who built our nation, and we do them a great disservice by disrespecting what they sacrificed so much to build. They endured racism and political corruption too, but through it all, they survived.

Few nations on earth would have weathered the storms that America has faced, and we still have a long way to go, but we are a great nation. Right now. At this moment, there are millions of people waiting in line to come into this country, from all over the world. I hear the saying, “If you don’t like America, you can leave.” Perhaps a better saying might be, “If you don’t like America, do your part to make it better.” The people who fled from global religious and ethnic persecution, economic disaster, and political strife throughout history did their part when they arrived here, and we enjoy standing on the foundations that they built with blood, sweat, and tears. The American Dream only dies if we all stop believing in it.

Roadside Americana

One of the postcard genres that I have really enjoyed lately is motels and roadside motor courts from the 1950s and 60s. America's highway system was expanding rapidly during this time period, and post-war spending on cars was on the rise. In many ways, it was the golden age of roadside Americana. Here are some fun cards I've found lately.

Journeys of the U.S.S. Mercury

The Cross-Atlantic Journeys of the U.S.S. Mercury

One of my favorite things about collecting, buying and selling antique paper is the thrill of a truly great find. Too often, antique paper is thrown away by people who have no idea about its historical and monetary value. Fortunately, many items are rescued by those with a keen eye. When I saw this album online, I was skeptical because of the scant photos provided by the person listing it. They must have been in a hurry, because there were only a handful of blurry images. A gut feeling told me I should take a chance and buy the album, and so into my shopping cart it went. My instinct (full disclosure: my instinct is often wrong, just ask my wife about the piles of paper in my office) turned out to be spot on, and I was astounded when I opened the package to find an album stuffed full of over 100 photo postcards from the U.S.S. Mercury. Many are typical photos of distant boats, but some were truly incredible, a real glimpse into what it was like to be a sailor in a convoy crossing the Atlantic during World War One. 

This is most likely the owner of the album, looks like he made it through World War One unscathed!

 The ship was originally the Barbarossa, a German cruise ship, but was seized by the US Navy when we entered the war in 1917. In typical American fashion, the first thing we did was load it with guns. Sailors passed the time with boxing matches and games of tug-of-war on the deck.

 The German crew tried to sabotage the engines before the ship was seized, and repairs took quite a while.

Incredible view of soldiers loading onto the ship for one of its seven wartime journeys from the United States to Europe.

 Despite attempts to identify which group of African-American soldiers this is, I was unsuccessful. This is certainly a rare photo, though, and one of the best in the album. These troops were likely returning from service in France. America continued to struggle with racism during World War One, in fact there were race riots in many U.S, cities in 1919 as whites grew fearful that black soldiers returning home would demand equality.

Many of the photos don't have a caption, and I am still doing more research to try to better explain the photos, but this appears to be a submarine at the surface.

Returning home from one of many voyages across the Atlantic.

 Soldiers often collected postcards from the places they spent time on leave. "How are you going to keep them down on the farm, now that they've seen Paris?"

Source: http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacunithistories/USS_Mercury.htm