History > 17th -18th - 19th century > America, USA

Timeline in pictures

Rear Admiral Dewey's flagship "Olympia."

Lithograph by Kurz & Allison, 1898.

Digital ID:

pga 01940 Source: digital file from original print

Reproduction Number:

LC-DIG-pga-01940 (digital file from original print) ,

LC-USZ62-5336 (b&w film copy neg.) ,

LC-USZ62-28011 (b&w film copy neg.)

Repository:

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?pp/PPALL:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3a08644))

Pictorial Americana

Selected Images from the Collections of the Library of Congress

SPANISH AMERICAN WAR AND PHILIPPINE INSURRECTION

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/paSpanAmer.html - broken link

https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/paSpanAmer.html

Klondike Gold Rush    1896-1899

Klondikers ascending to the summit of Chilkoot Pass,

Alaska. 1898.

Photograph:

University of Washington Libraries,

Special Collections

The Age of Gold and Daguerreotypes

NYT

Jan. 23, 2018

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/
the-age-of-gold-rush-and-daguerreotypes/
 

The Klondike Gold Rush

was a migration

by an estimated 100,000 prospectors

to the Klondike region of the Yukon

in north-western Canada

between 1896 and 1899.

Gold was discovered there

by local miners

on August 16, 1896,

and, when news reached

Seattle and San Francisco

the following year,

it triggered a stampede

of prospectors.

Some became wealthy,

but the majority went in vain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush

Spanish-American war    1898

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Promises.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-American_War

http://www.pbs.org/crucible/

https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/ 

http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html

http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/trask.html

https://www.loc.gov/collections/
spanish-american-war-in-motion-pictures/about-this-collection/

https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/paSpanAmer.html

http://web-static.nypl.org/exhibitions/spanexhib/index.html

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/spring/spanish-american-war-1.html

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/spring/spanish-american-war-2.html

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/spring/spanish-american-war-marines-1.html

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/spring/spanish-american-war-marines-2.html

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/february-15/

Thomas Edison

Kinetoscope / Phonograph    August 31, 1897

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/august-31/

https://www.loc.gov/collections/
edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/about-this-collection/

Laura Ingalls Wilder

A Journey from South Dakota to Missouri    1894

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=23 

Votes for women

Susan Brownell Anthony    1820-1906

 champion

of the women's movement in the U.S.

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/march-08/

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/03/08/
591633331/on-the-road-to-womens-rights-susan-b-anthony-stomached-plenty-of-bad-food

Votes for Women

The Struggle for Women's Suffrage

Selected Images

From the Collections

of the Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/076_vfw.html

https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/076_vfw.html

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/14/
805725359/power-of-the-past-
retelling-utahs-suffragette-history-to-empower-modern-women

"Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free"

Ellis Island  / Immigration / Immigrants    ca. 1880-1920

https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/070_immi.html

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/january-01/

Ulysses S. Grant    1822-1885

Brady-Handy Photograph

Photograph: Collection/Library of Congress

Grant’s First Tomb

Ulysses S. Grant, inaugurated as president 150 years ago today,

missed a chance to reconstruct the South economically as well as politically.

NYT

March 4, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/
opinion/ulysses-grant-president.html

Ulysses S. Grant

(born Hiram Ulysses Grant;

April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885)

was an American soldier

and politician who served as

the 18th president

of the United States

from 1869 to 1877.

Before his presidency,

Grant led the Union Army

as Commanding General

of the United States Army

in winning

the American Civil War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant - November 7, 2020

Grant’s inauguration

felt like the beginning of a new era

of reform and revitalization.

For nearly four years,

Americans had suffered

through the tumultuous presidency

of Andrew Johnson,

who drove the nation

to political crisis

with his virulent racism,

erratic behavior and leniency

toward the defeated

secessionists.

Grant, by contrast,

backed the rights and privileges

of freed black Americans.

He supported

the 15th Amendment

to the Constitution

(ratified in 1870)

extending voting rights

to black men

and deployed federal troops

against vigilante groups

like the Ku Klux Klan

(whose first grand wizard,

Nathan Bedford Forrest,

was a former battlefield foe).

But the laudable

commitment from Grant

and the Republican Congress

to the political rights

of the former slaves

was fatally undermined

by their indifference

to the vast social

and economic inequality

of the postwar South.

Unable to see past

an ideology of “free labor”

and “free soil,”

they also couldn’t grasp

how slavery and racial stigma

gave black Americans

a fundamentally different

relationship

to economic life.

The result was actions

that ultimately sowed

seeds for new relationships

of race hierarchy

in the South

and the nation at large.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/
opinion/ulysses-grant-president.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Ulysses_S._Grant

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/
grant/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/
opinion/ulysses-grant-president.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/
books/review/american-ulysses-ronald-c-white.html

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/
98/02/22/home/12457.html - October 21, 1990

The Statue of Liberty    June 19, 1885

On 28 October 1886,

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi unveiled the Statue of Liberty

in front of a crowd of around 1m people.

It became the tallest structure in New York City.

Photograph: Library of Congress

Ken Burns’s photographic history of America – in pictures

The acclaimed documentarian has assembled a book called Our America:

A Photographic History

which contains some of his favorite photographs

of the US and the people within it.

‘I’ve needed 45 years of telling stories in American history,

of diving deep into lives and moments, places and huge events,

to accrue the visual vocabulary to embark on this book,’ he said

G

Fri 4 Nov 2022    05.03 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2022/nov/03/
ken-burns-history-of-america-pictures

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/a/a20/a2069/
"L-I-B-E-R-T-Y,"

words and music by Ted S. Barron, 1916.

Illustration

Historic American Sheet Music,1850-1920

A landmark at the entrance

to New York Harbor since 1886,

the Statue of Liberty is a national

and international symbol

with multiple meanings.

Intended as a sign of friendship

between the United States and France

and as a monument

to political liberty in both nations,

it has come to represent

a broader vision

of freedom and democracy

and the promise of a better life

for the millions of immigrants

who passed by her

as they entered the country.

Although the French proposed

the statue as a gift to the United States,

the project became

a joint effort of the two countries,

with France  responsible for the statue

and the Americans

for its pedestal and base.

The French commissioned

sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi

to create the statue,

and he hoped to complete it

for the US centennial in 1876

in recognition of France's assistance

in winning the Revolutionary War.

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/statueofliberty.html

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-19/

https://library.harvard.edu/collections/immigration-united-states-1789-1930  

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/statue-of-liberty/timeline/  

https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/joseph-pulitzer.htm

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/
how-photography-helped-build-the-statue-of-liberty/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/nov/22/
featuresreviews.guardianreview33 

First skyscrapers

Illustration

Sketch For A Skyscraper, 1923

Executed by Michael Goodman

(J.R. Miller & T.L. Pflueger Architects)

graphite, charcoal on paper        14 x 8"

http://www.wirtzgallery.com/
exhibitions/2003/2003_06/arch/arch_2003_frame.html - broken link

1893

Supreme Court decision

Fong Yue Ting v. United States

The Supreme court ruling

held that the government’s power

to deport foreigners,

whether here legally or not,

was as “absolute and unqualified”

as the power to exclude them

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/nyregion/30chinese.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/nyregion/
30chinese.html

Rutherford Birchard Hayes

(October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893)

was the 19th president of the United States

from 1877 to 1881,

after serving

in the U.S. House of Representatives

and as governor of Ohio.

A lawyer and staunch abolitionist,

he had defended refugee slaves

in court proceedings

during the antebellum years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes - Ovember 7, 2020

With the future of Reconstruction

on the ballot,

the presidential election of 1876

was hard fought.

Tilden

decisively defeated Hayes

in the popular vote

by about 250,000 votes,

but in four states

— Florida, Louisiana,

Oregon, and South Carolina —

both parties claimed

to have won electoral votes.

At that point, Tilden needed only

one more electoral vote to win,

so any of the four would suffice.

However,

Republicans still controlled

the election canvassing boards

and governorships

in the three southern states,

which led to

the manipulation of vote counts

and the subsequent awarding

of electoral votes to Hayes.

Democrats refused to give up

and sent competing slates of electors

for Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina

to Congress.

In addition,

the Democrats challenged

the eligibility of one of Oregon’s electors,

a fail-safe that would lead to a Tilden win

even if Hayes claimed victory

in the three Southern states.

In January 1877,

Congress convened

a special Electoral Commission

to resolve the disputes,

and the Commission broke 8 to 7

in favor of Hayes

in all four of the contested states.

Democrats, undeterred,

tried to delay

the counting of the electoral votes

before the joint session

of Congress on Feb. 28,

which would deny Hayes a majority

and send the election

to the House of Representatives.

The inauguration

was only four days away,

and there was a real danger

of both parties

trying to have their candidate

take the oath of office.

Enter Samuel Randall.

As the newly appointed

speaker of the House,

Randall refused

to allow members of his party

to delay the vote count,

which they had sought to do

by producing

yet another competing slate

of electors of dubious origins

from the state of Vermont.

When Randall rejected

these efforts,

one of his fellow Democrats

tried to physically attack him,

and others began

reaching for their guns.

Randall

had to call the sergeant-at-arms

to restore order.

Remarkably,

Randall

halted the delaying tactics

that would have increased

the likelihood

of dueling inaugurations

and subsequent violence.

His actions brought the count

to a nonviolent end on March 2,

just two days

before the inauguration.

Upon becoming speaker,

Randall had pledged

“absolute fairness to both sides …

in exercising

the parliamentary powers

of the chair.”

With his decisive action

in resolving

the disputed election of 1876,

he kept that promise,

even when doing so

required decisions

not in his party’s interest.

In the end,

Democrats acquiesced

to the election

of the Republican Hayes

over their own candidate, Tilden,

on the condition that Hayes agree

to remove federal troops

from the Southern states.

Hayes’s

elevation to the presidency

effectively ended Reconstruction

and changed the trajectory

of American history,

but in the months

between the election

and the inauguration,

a nonviolent resolution

was far from certain.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/us/samuel-randall-1876-election.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherford_B._Hayes - November 7, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/
us/samuel-randall-1876-election.html

May 6, 1882

Chinese Exclusion Act

The first significant law

restricting immigration

into the United States

is passed by Congress

and signed by President

Chester A. Arthur

(...)

The Chinese Exclusion Act

was the first major law

restricting immigration

to the United States.

It was enacted

in response

to economic fears,

especially

on the West Coast,

where native-born Americans

attributed unemployment

and declining wages

to Chinese workers

whom they also viewed

as racially inferior.

The Chinese Exclusion Act,

signed into law on May 6, 1882,

by President Chester A. Arthur,

effectively halted

Chinese immigration

for ten years

and prohibited Chinese

from becoming US citizens.

Through the Geary Act of 1892,

the law was extended

for another ten years

before becoming permanent

in 1902.

After the Gold Rush of 1849,

the Chinese were drawn

to the West Coast

as a center of economic opportunity

where, for example, they helped build

the first transcontinental railroad

by working on the Central Pacific

from 1864 to 1869.

The Chinese Exclusion Act

foreshadowed

the immigration-restriction

acts of the 1920s,

culminating

in the National Origins Act of 1929,

which capped overall immigration

to the United States

at 150,000 per year

and barred Asian immigration.

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/exclusion.html

https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=old&doc=47  

https://library.harvard.edu/collections/
immigration-united-states-1789-1930

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/
opinion/sunday/anti-immigrant-hatred-1920s.html

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/06/16/
532697303/how-american-unions-tried-to-wage-a-war-against-chinese-restaurants-in-the-u-s

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/05/05/
527091890/the-135-year-bridge-between-the-chinese-exclusion-act-and-a-proposed-travel-ban

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/24/
306457412/long-lost-wreck-off-san-francisco-recalls-anti-chinese-history

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/nyregion/
30chinese.html

1876

The Battle of the Little Bighorn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn

The Compromise of 1877

The Compromise of 1877

was an informal agreement

between southern Democrats

and allies of the Republican

Rutherford Hayes

to settle the result

of the 1876 presidential election

and marked the end

of the Reconstruction era.

https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/compromise-of-1877

- UPDATED:NOV 27, 2019

https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/compromise-of-1877

- UPDATED:NOV 27, 2019

presidential election    1876

The highly polarized political climate

in the years leading up to the 1876 election

had many fearing armed conflict.

Photograph:

The New York Historical Society/Getty Images

In the Messiest Contested Election, One Man Saved the System From Itself

Samuel Randall went against his own party’s

wishes to keep the U.S. political system from falling apart.

NYT

Nov. 6, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/
us/samuel-randall-1876-election.html

the Republican nominee,

Rutherford B. Hayes,

and the Democratic nominee,

Samuel J. Tilden,

each presented themselves

as the lawfully elected

president of the United States.

(...)

With its heady mix

of voter disenfranchisement,

election fraud

and extreme partisanship,

the Hayes-Tilden dispute

was a political maelstrom

for which the U.S. Constitution

had no specific remedy.

The Constitution

leaves significant discretion

in the hands of officials

who are tasked with facilitating

the selection of the president.

This discretion was often misused,

and the years leading up to 1876

would set the stage for such abuse.

The social, economic

and political unrest of the 1870s

created the ideal conditions

for an election meltdown.

The Panic of 1873

triggered an economic depression

that led to widespread job losses

and business failures.

Because of the bad economy,

voters repudiated

the Republican Party

at the polls.

The Democrats

took the majority in Congress

and were unwilling

to extend Reconstruction policies

designed to protect

the civil and political rights

of African-Americans.

From 1874 to 1876,

Democrats began to “redeem”

state governments in the South,

displacing Republican Party control

and disenfranchising African-Americans

through fraud and violence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/
us/samuel-randall-1876-election.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/
us/samuel-randall-1876-election.html

Martha Coffin Wright    1806-1875

American feminist and abolitionist

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/
books/review/the-agitators-dorothy-wickenden.html

The Panic of 1873

Since the end of the Civil War,

railroad construction

in the United States

had been booming.

Between 1866 and 1873,

35,000 miles of new track

were laid across the country.

Railroads were the nation's

largest non-agricultural employer.

Banks and other industries

were putting their money

in railroads.

So when the banking firm

of Jay Cooke and Company,

a firm heavily invested

in railroad construction,

closed its doors

on September 18, 1873,

a major economic panic

swept the nation.

Jay Cooke's firm had been

the government's chief financier

of the Union military effort

during the Civil War.

The firm then

became a federal agent

in the government financing

of railroad construction.

The railroad industry

involved a huge amount of money

— and risk.

Building tracks where land

had not yet been cleared or settled

required land grants and loans

that only the government could provide.

The nation's

first transcontinental railroad

had been completed in 1869.

Entrepreneurs planned a second,

called the Northern Pacific.

Cooke's firm

was the financial agent

in this venture,

and poured money into it.

On September 18,

the firm realized

it had overextended itself

and declared bankruptcy.

Mirroring the firm's collapse,

many other banking firms

and industries did the same.

This collapse was disastrous

for the nation's economy.

A startling 89

of the country's 364 railroad

crashed into bankruptcy.

A total of 18,000 businesses

failed in a mere two years.

By 1876,

unemployment had risen

to a frightening 14 percent.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/
americanexperience/features/grant-panic/ - 7 November 2020

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/
grant-panic/

1872

Mining law

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/
opinion/21tue3.html

1872

Woman suffrage

Victoria Claflin Woodhull

- the first woman to run for president

http://www.npr.org/templates/
story/story.php?storyId=95579577 - October 13, 2008

1872

Woman suffrage

Susan B. Anthony at the Voting Polls

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=3

1870

The Fifteenth Amendment

extends the right to vote

to former male slaves

"The right of citizens

of the United States to vote

shall not be denied or abridged

by the United States

or by any state

on account of race, color,

or previous condition

of servitude."

In 1870

the 15th Amendment

was ratified,

which provided specifically

that the right to vote

shall not be denied

or abridged

on the basis of race, color

or previous condition

of servitude.

This superseded state laws

that had directly prohibited

black voting.

Congress then enacted

the Enforcement Act of 1870,

which contained

criminal penalties

for interference

with the right to vote,

and the Force Act of 1871,

which provided

for federal election

oversight

http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_a.php

https://guides.loc.gov/15th-amendment 

https://www.justice.gov/crt/introduction-federal-voting-rights-laws

February 14, 1870

Utah

Women in Utah

became the first to vote

under an equal suffrage law

on Feb. 14, 1870

Women

in the Wyoming territory

had been enfranchised

a few months earlier,

but Utah had an election first.

On Valentine's Day in 1870,

the women of Utah

started voting.

Women's suffrage

— and voting rights in general —

did not extend to most

of the Native Americans in Utah

for decades.

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/14/
805725359/power-of-the-past-retelling-utahs-suffragette-history-to-empower-modern-women

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/14/
805725359/power-of-the-past-retelling-utahs-suffragette-history-to-empower-modern-women

Transcontinental railroad completion    May 10, 1869

East and West Shaking Hands at Laying of Last Rail, 1869

Western Union offered coverage direct from the scene,

the first major news event carried ‘live’ from coast-to-coast.

Telegraph wires were attached

to one of the ceremonial spikes

and as it was gently tapped with a silver maul,

the ‘strokes’ were heard across the country

Photograph:

Andrew J Russell/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum

The transcontinental railroad at 150 – in pictures

East and West Shaking Hands at Laying of Last Rail, 1869.

In a new travelling exhibition,

the significance of the transcontinental railroad,

finished in 1869,

will be celebrated in a series of images

capturing its arduous construction

through to its triumphant completion.

The Race to Promontory:

The Transcontinental Railroad and the American West exhibition

is now at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City

G

Wed 6 Feb 2019        07.00 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/feb/06/
the-transcontinental-railroad-at-150-in-pictures

May 10, 1869

First transcontinental railroad

Officials and workers

of the Union Pacific

and the Central Pacific railways

held a ceremony

on Promontory Summit,

in Utah Territory

—approximately

thirty-five miles away

from Promontory Point,

the site

where the rails were joined—

to drive in the Golden Spike

on May 10, 1869.

The spike symbolized completion

of the first transcontinental railroad,

an event that connected

the nation from coast to coast

and reduced a journey

of four months or more

to just one week.

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-10/

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-10/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/feb/06/
the-transcontinental-railroad-at-150-in-pictures

On Dec. 25, 1861,

America almost went to war with Britain

https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/24/
a-fateful-christmas-meeting/

The American West

Railroads

The history of immigration

and emigration

in the United States

is closely linked

to the history of railroads.

Immigrants were not only

integral to the construction

of the transcontinental railroads

that facilitated western expansion,

but they also used the railroad

to migrate west and to form

new immigrant settlements

in western states and territories.

Work on the first

transcontinental railroad

began after

President Abraham Lincoln

approved

the Pacific Railway Act of 1862,

a landmark law that authorized

the federal government

to financially back the construction

of a transcontinental railroad.

Due to the American

Civil War,

work was delayed

for several years.

By 1866, however,

the great race was on

between

the Central Pacific Railroad,

which was charged

with laying track

eastward from Sacramento,

and the Union Pacific Railroad,

which started laying track

westward from Omaha,

to see which railroad company

could lay the most

miles of railroad track

before the two railroad lines

joined up.

Because the federal government

subsidized at least $16,000

for each mile of railroad laid

as well as generous land grants

along the track, each company

had a strong financial incentive

to lay track as quickly as possible.

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/railroads.html

https://library.harvard.edu/collections/
immigration-united-states-1789-1930

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2018/
mar/02/early-american-photography-in-pictures

Locomotive and passengers on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,

near Oakland, Maryland, about 1860.

Photograph: Unknown

Early American photography – in pictures

G

Fri 2 Mar 2018    07.00 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2018/mar/02/
early-american-photography-in-pictures

The American West    Photographs    1860-1920

Over 30,000 photographs,

drawn from the holdings

of the Western History

and Genealogy Department

at Denver Public Library

The Continental Summit, Denver
Northwestern & Pacific Railroad,

Louis Charles McClure, photographer,

between 1904 and 1913.

History of the American West, 1860-1920    http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct20.html

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+00071617

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

http://digital.nypl.org/surveyors/

http://www.nypl.org/west/

Homesteaders poster

Millions of acres. Iowa and Nebraska.

Land for sale on 10 years credit

by the Burlington & Missouri River R. R. Co.

at 6 per ct interest and low prices ...

Buffalo. N. Y. Commercial advertiser printing house

[1872].

http://memory.loc.gov/
cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbpe&fileName=rbpe13/rbpe134/13401300/rbpe13401300page.db&recNum=0

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/rbpe:@field(DOCID+@lit(rbpe13401300

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/pehome.html

A wagon train of American homesteaders

moves westward across the open plains,

circa 1885.

Photograph: American Stock/Getty Images

Fewer Americans Choose to Move to New Pastures

NYT

MAY 24, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/25/
business/economy/fewer-workers-choose-to-move-to-new-pastures.html

The Homestead Act of 1862

President Abraham Lincol

signed the Homestead Act

on May 20, 1862.

On January 1, 1863,

Daniel Freeman made

the first claim under the Act,

which gave citizens

or future citizens

up to 160 acres of public land

provided they live on it, improve it,

and pay a small registration fee.

The Government granted

more than 270 million acres of land

while the law was in effect.

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/
homestead-act#background

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/
homestead-act#background

African American Odyssey

The African American mosaic

Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection

Black Ohio from 1850 to 1920

Time Line of African American History

1852-1880

Lynching and Race Riots in the United State

1880-1950

jazz

A Terrible Blot on American Civilization.3424 Lynchings in 33 Years [detail], 1922. An American Time Capsule

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbpe&fileName=rbpe20/rbpe208/20803600/rbpe20803600
page.db&recNum=0&itemLink=r?ammem/rbpebib:@field(NUMBER+@band(rbpe+20803600))&linkText=0

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr07.html

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ohshtml/aaeohome.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/timeline.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct11.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr07.html

  https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/jazz

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/peopleevents/e_lynch.html

  https://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aapmob.html

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/10/lynching.exhibit/

When Anti-Immigration

Meant Keeping Out Black Pioneers

In the 1850s,

Midwestern states

used harsh laws to deny

free African-Americans

wealth and property.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/
opinion/sunday/anti-immigration-laws-black-pioneers.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/
opinion/sunday/anti-immigration-laws-black-pioneers.html

Andrew Johnson (1808-1875)

17th president of the United States    1865-1869

Johnson,

a Tennessee Unionist

and ardent proponent

of white supremacy,

had hoped to restore a version

of the antebellum status quo,

with white planters

taking the reins of black labor

with as little federal intervention

as possible.

He quickly brought

secessionist states

back into the Union

and gave

ex-Confederates a free hand

in directing the South,

which they used to impose

slavery-like conditions

on the formerly enslaved.

He vetoed civil rights bills

and condoned racist violence

against black Americans

seeking equal political rights.

His disregard

for the sacrifices of the war

put him in fierce conflict

with the Radical Republicans

in Congress.

Eventually,

the House impeached him,

and while he wasn’t

removed from office

— the Senate fell one vote short —

Republicans had neutered him

as a political force.

Democrats declined

to nominate him for re-election,

and an openly contemptuous Grant

refused to ride with him

to the inauguration.

He left Washington in disgrace.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/
opinion/ulysses-grant-president.html

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/
andrew-johnson

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/
opinion/ulysses-grant-president.html

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/25/
697896407/high-crimes-and-misdemeanors

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1229.html 

http://www.nytimes.com/1865/05/05/
news/letter-from-andrew-johnson-samuel-hanson-cox-dd-lld.html

Scandinavian Immigration    late 19th century

Liv Ullmann on THE EMIGRANTS/THE NEW LAND

Video        Criterion        5 February 2016

THE EMIGRANTS and THE NEW LAND,

the incredible pair of films

made by Swedish director Jan Troell in the early 1970s,

remain two of the most authentic and powerful cinema portrayals

of the mid-nineteenth-century wave of emigration

from Europe to the United States.

For our release of these films,

we were fortunate to have the chance to speak with Ullmann,

who recounted her experience making the film.

In the clip below,

watch the actor reflect on Troell’s filmmaking genius,

as revealed in one the film’s most poignant scenes.

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ4UvOczjnw

Immigration to the US

from the Scandinavian

countries

of Sweden, Norway,

Denmark, and Finland

increased dramatically

in the late 19th century,

due to mounting

economic pressures

and overpopulation.

In the late 1860s,

for example,

Sweden was struck

by crop failures and famines

that stimulated

massive emigration.

High unemployment

and a lack of open land

for new farms

caused increasing numbers

of Norwegians and Danes

to emigrate to the US.

The Homestead Act of 1862,

which gave free land

to settlers

who developed it

for at least five years,

was a particular magnet

for Norwegians, Danes,

and Swedes.

Facing internal

political instability

as well as persecution

by the Russian government,

Finns in large numbers

began to emigrate to the US

at the beginning

of the 20th century.

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/scandinavian.html

https://library.harvard.edu/collections/
immigration-united-states-1789-1930

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/
1165-the-emigrants-the-new-land  *****

July 1, 1862

The Pacific Railway Act

signed into law

by President Abraham Lincoln

on July 1, 1862.

This act provided

Federal government

support for the building

of the first

transcontinental railroad,

which was completed

on May 10, 1869.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/PacificRail.html

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/

1855

Benjamin Silliman's

"Report on Rock Oil,

or Petroleum,

from Venango County,

Pennsylvania"

indicates the wide range

of useful products

that could be made

from petroleum.

Silliman's report lends

credence to the idea

that oil could be

a profitable commodity.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/extremeoil/history/1850.html

https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/extremeoil/history/1850.html

March 31, 1854

The Treaty of Kanagawa

Setting the Stage

for Japanese-American

Relations

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/
treaty-of-kanagawa

Civil War and Reconstruction    1850-1877

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/
american_originals/civilwar.html 

The Chinese in California

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/07/13/
536822541/the-forgotten-chinese-who-built-sonoma-s-wineries

1848

Seneca Falls Convention in New York

one of the nation’s

first organized events

for women’s rights.

Back then,

about 300 people gathered

for the two day convention

in upstate New York

and more than

100 women and men

signed the manifesto,

declaring it time for women

to claim their rights

in society.

One,

albeit low down on the list,

was the right to vote.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/09/
nyregion/declaration-of-sentiments-and-resolution-feminism.html

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/09/
nyregion/declaration-of-sentiments-and-resolution-feminism.html

California Gold Rush    1848-1858

Unidentified prospectors, circa 1860

Lebart continues:

‘I once read a letter written by Samuel Morse

after he visited Louis Daguerre in March 1839,

in which he described the work of his French colleagues

as perfected Rembrandts’

Go for gold! Vintage portraits of California prospectors – in pictures

G

Fri 16 Feb 2018    07.00 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/feb/16/
gold-stars-portraits-of-california-gold-rush-in-pictures

The great California gold rush

began on January 24, 1848,

when James W. Marshall

discovered a gold nugget

in the American River

while constructing a sawmill

for John Sutter,

a Sacramento agriculturalist.

News of Marshall’s discovery

brought

thousands of immigrants

to California from elsewhere

in the United States

and from other countries.

The large influx of "'49ers,"

as the gold prospectors

were known, caused

California's population

to increase dramatically.

In San Francisco,

for example,

the population grew

from 1,000 in 1848

to over 20,000 by 1850.

California's overall

population growth

was so swift

that it was incorporated

into the Union

as the 31st state in 1850

—just two years

after the United States

had acquired it

from Mexico

under the Treaty

of Guadalupe-Hidalgo,

which ended

the Mexican-American War.

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/goldrush.html

An estimated 300,000 people

flocked to California

between 1848 and 1854,

hoping to find their fortune

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/feb/16/
gold-stars-portraits-of-california-gold-rush-in-pictures

https://library.harvard.edu/collections/immigration-united-states-1789-1930

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/goldrush/

https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/paGold.html 

https://www.loc.gov/collections/
california-first-person-narratives/about-this-collection/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/feb/16/
gold-stars-portraits-of-california-gold-rush-in-pictures

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/
the-age-of-gold-rush-and-daguerreotypes/

Early California History

1847-1848

Discovery of Gold

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbgold.html

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/women/women.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbhome.html

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/january-24/

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/
the-age-of-gold-rush-and-daguerreotypes/

1846-1847

The United States and California

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbstates.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbintro.html

May 24, 1844

Samuel F. B. Morse

dispatches the first

 telegraphic message

over an experimental line

from Washington, D.C.,

to Baltimore

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-24/

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-24/

1843

John C. Frémont

Exploring Expedition

to the Rocky Mountains

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=22 

Irish emigrants

The Story of Irish Immigration to America

during the 19th century

Ireland’s

1845 Potato Blight

Anti-immigrant

and anti-Catholic sentiments

Racial tensions

"Potato crop fails in Ireland

sparking the Potato Famine

that kills one million

and prompts almost 500,000

to immigrate to America

in the next five years."

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/immig/irish8.html

https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/  

1850-1920

Emergence of advertising in America

https://repository.duke.edu/dc/eaa

Manifest Destiny  / John L. O'Sullivan    1840's

".... the right

of our manifest destiny

to over spread and to possess

the whole of the continent

which Providence has given us

for the development

of the great experiment of liberty

and federaltive development

of self government

entrusted to us.

It is right

such as that of the tree

to the space of air

and the earth suitable

for the full expansion

of its principle

and destiny of growth."

(Brinkley 352)

George Armstrong Custer    1839-1876

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Armstrong_Custer

 https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-west/

https://www.loc.gov/item/2005686078/

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-25/

https://www.npr.org/2015/10/29/
452763187/custers-trials-examines-the-legacy-of-a-complicated-american-figure

April 21, 1836

Texas

The Battle of San Jacinto

(fought) in present-day Houston, Texas,

was the decisive battle

of the Texas Revolution.

Led by General Samuel Houston,

the Texan Army engaged and defeated

General Antonio López de Santa Anna's

Mexican army

in a fight that lasted just 18 minutes.

- May 21? 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Jacinto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Jacinto

Texas’ war

for independence from Mexico

Battle of The Alamo

Texans or Texians,

according to some sources,

began fighting for independence

from Mexico in 1835.

By December

the small Texas army

had captured the important

crossroads town

of San Antonio de Bexar

and seized the garrison

known as the Alamo.

Mexican General

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

recaptured the town

on March 6, 1836,

after a thirteen-day siege;

the Mexican army suffered

an estimated 600 casualties.

Of the official list

of 189 Texan defenders,

all were killed.

(...)

The defense of the Alamo

is well-known for those

who fought for Texas.

David Crockett,

James (Jim) Bowie,

and William Barret Travis

were among those remembered

by the "Remember the Alamo"

reported to be yelled at the victory

at San Jacinto.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar06.html

https://www.history.com/topics/mexico/alamo

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/march-06/

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/16/
1006907140/forget-the-alamo-texas-history-bryan-burrough

May 28, 1830

Indian Removal Act

The Indian Removal Act

was signed into law

by President Andrew Jackson

on May 28, 1830,

authorizing the president

to grant unsettled lands

west of the Mississippi

in exchange for Indian lands

within existing state borders.

A few tribes went peacefully,

but many resisted

the relocation policy.

During the fall and winter

of 1838 and 1839,

the Cherokees were forcibly

moved west

by the United States government.

Approximately

4,000 Cherokees died

on this forced march,

which became known

as the "Trail of Tears."

https://guides.loc.gov/indian-removal-act
#:~:text=Introduction,many%20resisted%20the%20relocation%20policy.

https://guides.loc.gov/indian-removal-act#:
~:text=Introduction,many%20resisted%20the%20relocation%20policy.

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/23/
881983918/jackson-statue-near-white-house-still-standing-after-protesters-fail-to-topple-i

Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)

Seventh President of the United States    1829-1837

The quintessential self-made man,

Andrew Jackson,

the son of poor Irish immigrants,

rose from his humble background

to become a national military icon

and the 7th President

of the United States.

During his terms as president,

Jackson confronted

some of the defining issues

facing a nascent nation

still searching for its identity.

By moving beyond

the politics and ideologies

set in place

by the Founding Fathers,

Andrew Jackson became

one of the most striking,

polarizing,

and influential figures

in American history.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/alife/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/presidents-jackson/

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-west/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/30/
why-racist-symbols-persist-in-america

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/23/
881983918/jackson-statue-near-white-house-still-standing-after-protesters-fail-to-topple-i

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/
arts/robert-v-remini-andrew-jackson-biographer-dies-at-91.html

John Quincy Adams    1767-1848

Sixth President of the United States    1825-1829

In foreign affairs

Adams demonstrated a true genius,

favoring a measured policy

that eschewed foreign entanglements

and missionary zeal

but advocated a strong military

to protect the fledgling nation

from the predations

of European powers.

As secretary of state

under President James Monroe,

he deftly negotiated

a treaty with Spain

that ceded Florida

to the United States

and relinquished to America

any lingering Spanish claims

to lands north of latitude

42 degrees.

In exchange,

Spain got clear title to Texas

and lands south

of the 42-degree boundary.

This accomplishment,

he confessed to his diary,

induced in him a rare feeling

of “involuntary exultation.”

He also conceived

the audacious

diplomatic warning

that became known

as the Monroe Doctrine.

In domestic matters

he fully embraced

the philosophy

that became the bedrock

of Henry Clay’s Whig Party

— a strong central government

dedicated

to federal public works

like roads, canals and dams;

a national bank

to serve as repository

for federal monies;

sale of federal lands

in the West and South

at high prices

to pay for

the federal government’s

expansive programs;

tariff levels designed

to protect domestic

manufacturers;

a governmental commitment

to the “moral, political

and intellectual improvement”

of American citizens.

He also became

one of the country’s

most formidable

moral critics of slavery

— “the acutest, the astutest,

the archest enemy

of Southern slavery

that ever existed,”

as one fierce opponent

described him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

speculated

that he “must have sulfuric acid

in his tea.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/books/review/john-quincy-adams-by-fred-kaplan.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/books/review/
john-quincy-adams-by-fred-kaplan.html

The North American Indian

by Edward S. Curtis

one of the most significant

and controversial representations

of traditional American Indian culture

ever produced.

Issued in a limited edition

from 1907-1930

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/curthome.html - broken URL

https://www.loc.gov/item/2003557114/ 

American Indians of the Pacific Northwest

https://www.loc.gov/item/2001562057/

American Natives / Indians

Destroying the Native American Cultures

The national atlas

of the United States of America

 Indian tribes, Cultures

Indian reservations

History of the American West    1860-1920

Bureal [i.e. Burial] of the dead

at the battlefield of Wounded Knee S.D.

copyrighted Jan 1st 1891, N.W.

Photo Co Chadron Neb.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER%2B@band(codhawp%2B10031292))

http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?10031292%2BX-31292

"When European settlers arrived

on the North American continent

at the end of the fifteenth century,

they encountered

diverse Native American cultures

—as many as 900,000 inhabitants

with over 300 different languages.

These people,

whose ancestors crossed

the land bridge from Asia

in what may be considered

the first North American

immigration,

were virtually destroyed

by the subsequent immigration

that created the United States."

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/immig/native_american.html

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/native1.gif 

Kno-Shr, Kansas Chief (1853)

a daguerreotype by John H. Fitzgibbon.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Met Museum Acquires Gilman Trove of Photos

By Randy Kennedy, Published: March 17, 2005

The Gilman Paper Company Collection

is widely considered

to be the most important

private photography collection

in the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/17/arts/design/17gilm.html

https://americanindian.si.edu/ 

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwss-ilc.html

NARA    Indians/Native Americans

https://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/
native-americans.html

1828-1900

Railroad maps of the United States

https://www.loc.gov/collections/
railroad-maps-1828-to-1900/about-this-collection/

James Madison    1751-1836

Fourth president of the United States    1809-1817

Madison was the rarest

of American politicians:

He understood

the nitty-gritty

of democratic government

and was skillful

in engineering legislation

through the most

difficult circumstances,

yet always tried

to make sense

of what he was doing;

he wrote some

of the most incisive

essays on politics

that we have.

Not only was he

the major architect

of the Constitution,

but he was also one

of the strongest proponents

in American history of the rights

of conscience and religious liberty,

as well as the co-author

of “The Federalist Papers,”

surely the most significant

work of political theory

in American history.

(...)

He worked

with Gov. Thomas Jefferson

for several months in 1779,

and, Madison said,

“an intimacy took place”

that began a lifelong friendship

between the two Virginians.

It became

the most important

political friendship

in American history.

The two men

shared a liberal passion

not just for toleration

but for full religious freedom.

In the mid-1780s

Madison shepherded

through the Virginia legislature

Jefferson’s famous bill

neutralizing the state

in religious matters.

From this success

he went on to engineer the calling

of the Constitutional Convention in 1787

and the writing of the Virginia Plan

that scuttled

the Articles of Confederation

and became the working model

for the new federal Constitution.

The Confederation

had been a league

of 13 independent states

held together by a treaty

not much different

from those undergirding

the European Union today.

Madison’s

1787 Constitution

created a very different kind

of national government,

not a union of states

but a real government

that operated directly

on individuals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/books/review/james-madison-by-lynne-cheney.html

http://www.npr.org/2017/03/28/
521804754/a-woman-reconnects-with-her-ancestors-slave-past-
at-james-madison-s-estate

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/
books/review/james-madison-by-lynne-cheney.html

1826

The Capitol

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/uscapitol/

The War of 1812

For two and a half years,

Americansfought against

the British,

Canadian colonists,

and native nations.

In the years to come,

the War of 1812

would be celebrated

in some places

and essentially forgotten

in others.

But it is a war

worth remembering

—a struggle that threatened

the existence of Canada,

then divided

the United States

so deeply that the nation

almost broke apart.

Some of its battles

and heroes

became legendary,

yet its blunders

and cowards

were just as prominent.

http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of-1812/

The War of 1812 enflamed

Andrew Jackson's

life-long hatred of the British

and rekindled his dreams

of military glory.

Though he had already

achieved much,

it was his military successes

in the next five years

that captured

the imagination of the nation

and put him on the path

to the presidency.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/alife/war_hero.html

Mohawk people,

from one of the six

American Indian nations

in the Iroquois Confederacy,

have hunted, fished and lived

by the St. Lawrence River

for hundreds of years.

But after the War of 1812,

their sovereign territory

known as Akwesasne

was bisected in two

when the United States

and Great Britain

drew a line on a map,

creating today's

northern border

between New York state

and Canada.

http://www.npr.org/2017/10/28/
560436303/at-u-s-canada-border-reservation-mohawks-say-they-face-discrimination

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/1812/ 

https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/war_1812.html

https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2012/05/picturing-the-war-of-1812/  

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-18/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/
opinion/sunday/anti-immigration-laws-black-pioneers.html

https://www.npr.org/2017/10/28/
560436303/at-u-s-canada-border-reservation-
mohawks-say-they-face-discrimination

The American West (1750 onwards)

The Frontier

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/
lewisandclark/lewisandclark.html

https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/
getting-started-with-primary-sources/

Alexis de Tocqueville    1805-1859

Democracy in America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville

Thomas Jefferson    1743-1827

3rd President of the United States    1801-1809

In national lore,

no Revolutionary leader

except George Washington

looms larger than Jefferson.

''People seem to think

that if not for Jefferson,

we would not

be created equal

and we wouldn't have

inalienable rights,''

said Pauline Maier,

a historian

at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology.

But the Declaration

was hardly Jefferson's

solitary work.

He drafted it

as part of a five-man

committee.

John Adams

and Benjamin Franklin

edited his version,

and the Continental Congress

substantially revised

the document

(to Jefferson's irritation),

excising a fierce

condemnation of slavery.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/29/
weekinreview/the-nation-debunking-america-s-enduring-myths.html

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffwest.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/timeline/timeline.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/timeline/timeline.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/

http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/creatingtheus/
DeclarationofIndependence/RevolutionoftheMind/ExhibitObjects/PursuitofHappiness.aspx

https://founders.archives.gov/ 

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=1

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/
opinion/editorials/monticello-sally-hemings-black-family.html

http://www.npr.org/2017/06/28/
534765046/smithsonian-exhibit-explores-religious-diversitys-role-in-u-s-history

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/20/
516292305/monticello-restoration-project-puts-an-increased-focus-on-jeffersons-slaves

http://www.npr.org/2016/07/04/
483757766/the-declaration-of-independence-240-years-later

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/
opinion/what-did-lincoln-really-think-of-jefferson.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/02/
thomas-jefferson-monticello-slaves-quarters

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/
upshot/the-near-death-and-revival-of-monticello.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/
opinion/sunday/the-uninhibited-press-50-years-later.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/29/
weekinreview/the-nation-debunking-america-s-enduring-myths.html

Thomas Paine    1737-1809

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm028.html

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefffed.html

Lewis and Clarke expedition / American Indians    1804-1806

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewisandclark.html 

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/lewis-clark/ 

Alexander Hamilton    1755 or 1757-1804

This Founding Father

came to America alone

at age 15.

He fought at Washington's

side in the Revolution,

helped ensure

the ratification

of the Constitution,

and saved

the fledgling United States

from financial ruin.

He died in a tragic duel

with his political rival,

Aaron Burr.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande06.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/
duel-alexander-hamilton/

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/
alexander-hamilton

1803

The Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Purchase

is considered the greatest

real estate deal in history.

The United States purchased

the Louisiana Territory from France

at a price of $15 million,

or approximately

four cents an acre.

The ratification

of the Louisiana Purchase treaty

by the Senate

on October 20, 1803,

doubled the size

of the United States

and opened up the continent

to its westward expansion.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Louisiana.html 

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Louisiana.html  

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/louisiana_res.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/louisiana5.html

December 15, 1791

The new

United States of America

adopts the Bill of Rights,

the first ten amendments

to the U.S. Constitution

Freedom of speech,

freedom of the press,

freedom of assembly,

the right to a fair

and speedy trial

–the ringing phrases

that inventory

some of Americans'

most treasured

personal freedoms–

were not initially part

of the U.S. Constitution.

At the Constitutional

Convention,

the proposal to include

a bill of rights

was considered

and defeated.

The Bill of Rights

was added to the Constitution

as the first ten amendments

on December 15, 1791.

http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters_of_freedom_7.html

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/december-15/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.24404400/

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/

http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters_of_freedom_7.html

http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_founding_fathers.html

http://myloc.gov/exhibitions/creatingtheus/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/billofrights.html

http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/bill_of_rights.html

http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/declaration.html

http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/constitution.html

http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_
experience/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html

Benjamin Franklin    1706-1790

Born in Boston

on January 17, 1706,

young Franklin struck out

on his own in 1723,

eventually finding

employment

as a journeyman printer

in Philadelphia.

Franklin's newspaper

The Pennsylvania Gazette,

his Poor Richard's Almanack,

and work

as an inventor and scientist

propelled him

to the front ranks

of Philadelphia society

and made him

a well-known figure

throughout

the American provinces

and England.

In 1757,

at age fifty-one Franklin

began his career as a diplomat

and statesman in London

where he essentially remained

until the outbreak

of the American Revolution.

When Franklin returned

to Philadelphia in 1775,

he served as a delegate

to the Continental Congress,

where he was instrumental

in drafting

the Declaration of Independence

and the Articles of Confederation.

Because

of his international experience,

Franklin was chosen

as one the first ministers

to France.

In Paris

Franklin reached

his peak of fame,

becoming the focal point

for a cultural Franklin-mania

among the French

intellectual elite.

Franklin ultimately

helped negotiate

a cessation of hostilities

and a peace treaty

that officially ended

the Revolutionary War.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/franklin-intro.html

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/benjamin-franklin/    

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/franklin/

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/franklin/loc.html

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/franklin/autobiography.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/us/
claude-anne-lopez-expert-on-franklin-dies-at-92.html

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1967/jan/26/
franklin-unbuttoned/

Timeline > 1789-1930

Key Dates and Landmarks

in United States Immigration History

https://library.harvard.edu/collections/
immigration-united-states-1789-1930

September 29, 1789

An Act for the Establishment of Troops

On September 29, 1789,

the final day of its first session,

the United States Congress

passed

“An act to recognize and adapt

to the Constitution

of the United States,

the establishment of the troops

raised under the resolves

of the United States

in Congress assembled.”

The act legalized

the existing U.S. Army,

a small force inherited

from the Continental Congress

that had been created

under the Articles of Confederation.

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/september-29/

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/september-29/

Eleven years after

the Declaration

of Independence

announced the birth

of the United States,

the survival

of the young country

seemed in doubt.

The War for Independence

had been won,

but economic depression,

social unrest,

interstate rivalries,

and foreign intrigue

appeared to be unraveling

the fragile confederation.

In early 1787,

Congress called for

a special convention

of all the states to revise

the Articles of Confederation.

On September 17, 1787,

after four months

of secret meetings, the delegates

to the Constitutional Convention

emerged from their Philadelphia

meeting room

with an entirely new

plan of government

–the U.S. Constitution–

that they hoped

would ensure the survival

of the experiment

they had launched in 1776.

They proposed

a strong central government

made up of three branches:

legislative, executive, and judicial;

each would be

perpetually restrained

by a sophisticated set

of checks and balances.

They reached compromises

on the issue of slavery

that left its final resolution

to future generations.

As for ratification,

they devised a procedure

that maximized the odds:

the Constitution

would be enacted

when it was ratified by nine,

not thirteen, states.

The Framers knew

they had not created

a perfect plan,

but it could be revised.

The Constitution

has been amended

twenty-seven times

and stands today

as the longest-lasting

written constitution

in the world.

On September 17, 1787,

two days

after the final vote,

the delegates signed

the engrossed parchment

shown in the Rotunda's

centerpiece case.

http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters_of_freedom_6.html

http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters_of_freedom_6.html

The Federal Convention

convened in the State House

(Independence Hall)

in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787,

to revise

the Articles of Confederation.

Because the delegations

from only two states

were at first present,

the members adjourned

from day to day

until a quorum of seven states

was obtained on May 25.

Through discussion and debate

it became clear

by mid-June that,

rather than amend

the existing Articles,

the Convention would draft

an entirely new frame

of government.

All through the summer,

in closed sessions,

the delegates debated,

and redrafted the articles

of the new Constitution.

Among the chief points at issue

were how much power to allow

the central government,

how many representatives

in Congress

to allow each state,

and how these representatives

should be elected--directly

by the people

or by the state legislators.

The work of many minds,

the Constitution

stands as a model

of cooperative statesmanship

and the art of compromise.

http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs

The Founding Fathers

Delegates to the Constitutional Convention

On February 21, 1787,

the Continental Congress

resolved that:

...it is expedient

that on the second Monday

in May next

a Convention of delegates

who shall have been appointed

by the several States

be held at Philladelphia

for the sole and express purpose

of revising the Articles

of Confederation...