Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is observed annually on the third Monday of January, which usually falls within a few days of Dr. King’s birthday on January 15.  King was a Baptist minister who rose to prominence as a leader of the civil rights movement.  He is best known for having organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and delivering the speech entitled “I Have a Dream” at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism.  Tragically, King was assassinated on March 29, 1968 on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King, Jr. at the March on Washington in 1963. Image courtesy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Though passed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1983, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was not celebrated by all fifty states until the year 2000.  In some states, the holiday is meant to commemorate civil and human rights more broadly. In the state of Pennsylvania and in many universities and organizations across America, residents, students, and employees are encouraged to use the holiday as a day of volunteer service in honor of Dr. King.

A memorial march in Mobile, Alabama following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. Image courtesy of the University of South Alabama.

Further images and documents relating to Dr. King may be found across multiple collections in Opening History.

Connecticut Becomes Fifth US State

On January 9, 1788 Connecticut, one of the original 13 colonies, ratified the United States Constitution, thus becoming the nation’s fifth state.  Seven days prior, Georgia had achieved statehood, and seven other colonies would follow suit over the course of the year.  By September of that year, the Constitution went into effect through a resolution passed by the Continental Congress.

A map of Connecticut and Rhode Island circa 1776. Image courtesy of Connecticut History Online.

Opening History is rich with primary sources relating to United States history. For more information on the state of Connecticut, see Connecticut History Online.

March of Dimes

On January 3, 1938, President Roosevelt announced the creation of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, known today as the March of Dimes Foundation.  Originally founded in response to a series of polio epidemics, the organization was designed as a coalition between scientists and volunteer fundraisers.  The volunteers raised $233 million dollars by 1955, and the scientists created the Salk vaccine, effectively eliminating the threat of polio in the United States.

Mrs. Eunice Cook and a girl in a wheelchair representing the March of Dimes. Image courtesy of the Carnegie Museum of Art via Historic Pittsburgh.

With volunteer organizations across the country, fundraising efforts for the March of Dimes are documented in many local history collections, which can be found through Opening History.

Happy Pepper Pot Day!

National Pepper Pot Day is a little-known holiday observed on December 29 each year in commemoration of a dish served to the Continental Army during the brutal winter of 1777, which George Washington spent with his soldiers in Valley Forge.  Supplies were scarce, and the army subsisted on a simple stew made of tripe, available vegetables, and peppercorns.  The stew became a staple family meal after the war concluded, and it is often known today as “Philadelphia Pepper Pot Soup.”  The following recipe is transcribed below:

A recipe for Pepper Pot, courtesy of Hudson River Valley Heritage.

After your sheep feet and belly is well clean’d and wash’d in salt and water cut the belly in small pieces, and put that and the feet in a kettle of cold water over a pretty good fire, when boiled tender put in your herbs, thyme onions parsley &cc and thicken it with a little flour, if you have any fragments mutton beef or pork, put them in, Potatoes, turnips or any other roots, add plenty of red pepper.

For more historic recipes, visit Opening History, which includes related collections such as Feeding America: the Historic American Cookbooks Project.

South Carolina Secedes from the Union

On December 20, 1860 South Carolina seceded from the Union after it became clear that Abraham Lincoln would become President of the United States of America.  South Carolina was the first of the southern states to secede, but it was followed by six others during the secession winter before Lincoln took office.  Together with Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, South Carolina founded the Confederate States of America.  In April 1861, the American Civil War began when Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

"Epitaph on the United States of America" presumably issued during the secession crisis of 1860-1861. Image courtesy of the University of South Carolina.

"The Secession Movement - Entrance Hall to an Hotel at Charleston, South Carolina" as depicted in The Illustrated London News. Image courtesy of the University of South Carolina.

The University of South Carolina has digitized 14 collections relating to the Civil War, including South Carolina and the Civil War, The Citadel and the American Civil War, and Reminiscences of the Sixties to name a few.  For a national perspective, visit the Opening History aggregation, which contains rich historical collections from across the country.

Gone with the Wind Movie Premiere

On December 15, 1939, Gone with the Wind premiered at Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.  For the three days leading up to the premiere, the city of Atlanta celebrated with parades, parties, and a costume ball.  The occasion was further marked when the governor, Eurith D. Rivers, declared the day of the premiere a state holiday.

View of the crowd of people outside Loew's Grand Theater for the premiere of the movie, Gone With the Wind in Atlanta, Georgia. Image courtesy of the Atlanta History Center Album.

In the midst of the celebrity gatherings and celebrations, there were some notable absences in the crowd.  No black actors from the film were allowed to attend due to Georgia’s Jim Crow laws.  Clark Gable threatened to boycott the premiere until Hattie McDaniel, the actress who played Mammy in the film, urged him to attend.  McDaniel did, however, attend the Hollywood premiere, and she was the first African-American to win an Academy Award for her role in the film.

View of author Margaret Mitchell arriving at the premiere of the movie Gone With the Wind outside the Loew's Grand Theater on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Image courtesy of the Atlanta History Center Album.

Opening History provides access to documents from this and other moments in film history.  The Atlanta History Center Album has a large collection entirely devoted to the premiere of Gone with the Wind and its subsequent anniversary celebrations.

Petrified Forest National Park

On December 9, 1962, the Petrified Forest National Monument was officially established as a national park.  The park extends over 146 square miles of northeastern Arizona and is named for its numerous fossils and petrified trees dating as far back as the Late Triassic period.  The Arizona Territorial Legislature had first requested that Congress grant the area national park status in 1895 when tourism and commercial interest in petrified wood were both on the rise.  In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act, and the area was first declared a national monument.

Five people stand on a petrified log forming a tree bridge in the Petrified Forest of Arizona, ca.1900. Image courtesy of the California Historical Society Digital Archive and hosted by the University of Southern California Special Collections.

Since 1962, the National Park Service has worked to protect the land for future generations, but petrified wood is regularly stolen. Approximately 12 short tons of petrified wood are taken off the land illegally each year.

Petrified Forest Nat'l Monument, Arizona, April 13, 1952. Image courtesy of the Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection at Indiana University.

Discover more about this and other national parks at Opening History.  Many historic images of Petrified Forest National Park can be found through the California Historical Society Digital Archive, the Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection at Indiana University, and the Library of Congress collection Panoramic Photographs: Taking the Long View, 1851-1991.

Louisa May Alcott Born in 1832

On November 29, 1832, Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, PA.  She shared a birthday with her father, Amos Bronson Alcott, an American educator and transcendentalist.  Her family moved to Massachusetts when she was two years old, and she spent her childhood surrounded such family friends as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.  Alcott embarked upon her own literary career with a selection of stories called Flower Fables in 1849, and she gained critical recognition in 1863 for Hospital Sketches, a collection of her letters home to Massachusetts while serving as a nurse in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War.  She is, of course, best known today for her semi-autobiographical novel, Little Women, a celebrated classic of children’s literature.

Home of Louisa May Alcott in Concord, Massachusetts. Image courtesy of the J. Willard Marriott Library at The University of Utah.

In addition to her literary career, Alcott was also an outspoken abolitionist and later became an advocate for women’s suffrage.  You can learn more about Alcott’s life, philosophy and politics at Opening History where several of her lesser known works are available through University of Pennsylvania’s A Celebration of Women Writers Collection.

Scott Joplin: The King of Ragtime

Though the exact date of his birth is unknown (and presumed to be sometime during the latter half of 1867), Scott Joplin’s birthday has historically been observed and celebrated on November 24. Joplin was an American composer and pianist best known for his Ragtime compositions.  During the late 1890s and early 1900s, he composed “The Maple Leaf Rag,” “The Entertainer,” and many of his most enduring works.  Toward the end of his life, he focused on composing and producing an opera, Treemonisha, which proved a failure in 1915.  Long after Joplin’s death, however, Treemonisha was revived to critical acclaim, and he was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

Cover art of sheet music for "The Maple Leaf Rag." Image courtesy of the University of Indiana.

At Opening History, you can find audio recordings and notated sheet music of Scott Joplin’s works through the Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection and Indiana University’s Sam DeVincent Collection of American Sheet Music, respectively.

The United States Congress holds its first session.

On November 17, 1800, the United States Congress held its first session.  It was not the first time Americans would meet as a government body. The First Continental Congress was a government formed by represents from twelve of the thirteen British colonies. The Second Continental Congress formed shortly after the Declaration of Independence to represent itself as the United States of America. However this Congress was weak and lacked power to collect taxes or enforce laws.  The problems of this ineffectual Congress led to the Convention of 1787 to form the bicameral Congress that is familiar to Americans today.

The House called to order. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Since its beginnings, Congress has seen two major political parties raise to dominance, passed several amendments to the Constitution, and experience several shifts in power between the three branches of government. You can see Congress in action on Opening History. The image was provided by the Library of Congress.