clair057

This past February Mr. Elementaryhistoryteacher and I ran off for a quick weekend in Charleston. It was rainy and cold most of the time, so we didn't get a chance to walk around very much, but we did take a turn through the visitor's center and then headed across the street to The Charleston Museum. The museum was founded in 1773 and is commonly referred to as America's first museum. While I found all of the exhibits informative and well done, one of the smaller ones simply astonished me. I love learning new things, and these types of cemetery markers were TOTALLY new to me.  Yes, that's a four poster bed headboard and for some people in the 18th century this served as their grave marker. I came home from Charleston and began digging a little deeper. I found an article from The Milwaukee Journal dated June 17, 1927 titled, "Four Poster Bed Headboard Marks Grave 189 Years". From the article: Still intact after serving 189 years [in Charleston, South Carolina]...

The Age of Exploration. What do you immediately think of as you read those four words? More than likely, you would throw out some of the more famous explorer's names and where their expeditions took place. Some of you might tell me about their goals such as claiming land for the monarch who financed the expedition and how in the case of some bringing Christianity to the natives was in most cases a guise to seize lands and riches. You most certainly wouldn't be wrong, but as many expeditions to the New World continued more people arrived who weren't just fortune hunters, soldiers and religious men wanting to save souls. Sometimes the monarchs themselves would order certain people to go along,  and in the case of explorers Jean Ribault an Rene Laudonnere, the French monarch ordered an artist to go along and capture not riches or natives but capture images of the things he saw in the New World. The artist was Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues who lived between ...

In my opinion the least taught war in United States classrooms has to be the Korean War. The U.S never declared war on North Korea because we weren’t there on our own. Our involvement was a result of the United Nations aiding South Korea with the United States supplying 88% of the forces. The People’s Republic of China entered the war helping North Korea. Officially the Soviet Union provided material aid as well for the North Koreans, but talk to anyone involved, and they firmly believe the Soviet involvement included men on the ground and in the air. I feel that events in Korea during the 1950s have a real place in the classroom, but ignorance keeps it from being fully explored in the curriculum. We don’t take the time to fully explore all the possibilities the content of the Korean War could have in our classrooms. Take any history textbook and thumb through pages and you see that very little is given about the Korean War. Most of the time it’s treated as a “breather” of sorts betwee...

If you hang around here any length of time you realize that my Wordless entries are never entirely wordless......just more brief than normal. This is Countess Virginia Oldoini....more than likely the very first fashion/photography model.  She was also the mistress of Emperor Napoleon III and held the ear of many powerful people. I posted another picture of her earlier this week on my Facebook page.  Like it today! The Wordless Wednesday hub can be found here .

Ever wonder how those billionaires reach their goals? Education figures in there somewhere.... Put yours to work for you! Via: Grown Up Me

Last week I shared some information about the Washington Monument and the Pope's stone which was destroyed by the political party known as the Know Nothings. During my research I took a little side tour and found some interesting things about the panels that decorate the interior walls of the monument. As I advised in my earlier posts: In 1849, funds had begun to dwindle. The Society began the commemorative stone program where states could donate engraved stones that would go on the interior of the monument. The program got a little out of hand as more folks got involved. Stones began arriving from territories, groups, organizations and even a few individuals. The purpose of the program was to help all Americans feel a part of the memorial and more importantly to the society the stone donation program would cut the cost regarding the number of stones to be purchased. So, I thought I would post some of the bits of information I found on 13 of the stones since it is Thursday, and it...

A few years ago I paid homage to my Uncle Buck for his service to our country during the very early morning hours of June 6, 1944 by writing Gliding Into D-Day .   Feel free to obtain a little background if you wish by clicking through and reading it first. My uncle….Flight Officer Cyrus S. Carson…. was a glider pilot. Gliders were actually the first stealth aircraft used by the military. The Gibson Refrigerator Co. received contracts from the U.S. Army Air Force for the production of CG-4A troop carrying gliders, and was one of 15 companies to do so. Each glider was made up of 70,000 individual parts.   Gibson built over 1,000 of the nearly 14,000 CG-4A gliders constructed during the war. On the morning of June 6, 1944, Cyrus S. Carson was flying as pilot in command and John Winkler was flying co-pilot in a WACO CG-4A glider similar to the one I’ve posted below. Both men had graduated as second lieutenants from advanced flight training in 1943 from Lubbock, Texas. A WA...