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The Captain’s Log: A Firsthand Account of the Honolulu Fire Department’s Response on December 7, 1941

Authored by Cuyler K. Otsuka

An excerpt of page 95 of the captain’s log of the Honolulu Fire Department, from December of 1941, showing the captain’s handwritten notes from December 6 and December 7, 1941.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, shortly before 8:00 a.m., Imperial Japanese airplanes approached the island of Oʻahu and began their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field, two United States military installations on the island. The alarm sounded at 8:05 a.m., and Engines 4 and 6 were promptly dispatched to Hickam Field to respond to the blazes and medical emergencies caused by gunfire and bombs (Bowen 1979, 126). As part of a “mutual aid pact,” the Honolulu Fire Department, a civilian fire department, assisted the United States military, and vice versa (Bowen 1979, 127).

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The Freedom Train

Authored by Candyce Valor

Taken during the Freedom Train Tour October 19, 1948, this photo illustrates anticipation to explore the traveling archival exhibit visiting their small community in Red Bank, NJ. The Freedom Train traveled from September 1947 to January 22, 1949 through many cities in 48 states to provide all people in the community the chance to view historical documents and artifacts.

The journey of the Freedom Train Tour started in Philadelphia on September 17, 1947, on the 160th signing anniversary of the United States Constitution. The seven-car train traveled thirty-seven thousand miles utilizing 52 different railroads with Presidential priority across the United States (Wines, n.d.). The initial tour consisted of 326 city stops (Wines, n.d.). The goal of the Freedom Train Tour was to bring historical documents to those not able to visit the National Archive in Washington DC. The funding for the Freedom Train could not be generated from Congress. The American Heritage Foundation was founded to garner financial and infrastructure support of the Freedom Tour (Wines, n.d.).

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More Than Just One Man: Haviv Scheiber’s Case Against Social Injustice

Authored by Jiaqi Chang

This Washington Observer Newsletter article, dated November 15, 1971, prints the affidavit of Haviv Scheiber. Claiming that Scheiber “is a man of courage,” the article depicts Scheiber’s case against deportation and sheds light on his years-long proceedings with the United States courts.

On November 15th, 1971, the Washington Observer Newsletter published an article titled Courageous Jew. Within the Center for Migration Studies of New York’s archives, various court proceedings accompany this article which documents Scheiber’s battle with the United States immigration courts. “The respondent is …last a citizen of Israel. On March 15, 1961 he was found deportable…[and] a warrant for his deportation…was issued November 19, 1964” (United States Department of Justice Board of Immigration Appeals 1970), one of those court proceedings states. Purely reading these sterile court proceedings, one is inclined to view Scheiber as an individual defiant of laws. However, Courageous Jew provides an opportunity for Scheiber to convey the context for his decades-long battle with the United States courts.

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William Floyd: The “Signer”

Authored by Erica Chandler

Taken circa 1950s, this photograph displays the end of William Floyd Parkway, named after the man who fought for the town of Brookhaven. This photograph was taken before the bridge connecting the town to Fire Island was built.

Between 1760 and 1800 occurred one of the most significant events in the history of the United States; The American Revolution (Allison 2011). During this time, the American people shook free of British control and started their own independent government. Although much has changed since then, it was the start of what we now call our nation.

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Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4

Authored By Sarah Shelly

This photograph was taken of The Union Specific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 in 1941 in Scranton, PA.

The Big Boy was the biggest locomotive in the world in 1940, weighing 560 tons and going up to 80 mph (“Big Boy No. 4014”, n.d.). Before the 1940’s the railroads in America were struggling to move large freights over the mountains and treacherous landscapes throughout the United States. Then in 1940, the Union Pacific gathered mechanical engineers and teamed them up with the American Locomotive Company to build one of the world’s largest steam locomotives. The name of this new locomotive was the Big Boy (Franz 2018).                                                                                                                                            Providing jobs was one of the main benefits of the railroad. Jobs ranged from unskilled freight handlers to engineers. Unfortunately, the jobs tended to segregate the workers due to their ethnicity. The majority of the engineers were American or native-born men, while immigrants were used to build the trains and tracks. Even among the immigrants there were separations and classifications depending on where they came from. At first, Chinese, Irish and Italian immigrants were used for the most brutal work. Then in the 1900’s Romanian and Mexican immigrants as well as African Americans became the primary day laborers on the railroad (Thale 2005).

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Busy Women: Women’s Clubs and the Drive for Social Reform

Authored by Eva Rapoff

Newspaper clipping taken from the scrapbook of Mrs. William Grant Brown, in storage at the Schenectady County Historical Society.

Women, no matter where we are in history, and how little agency we are given, will always find a way to drive social reform, and in few places is this ability to persevere, to create agency rather than to wait to be given it, shown as well as in the women’s clubs movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Women’s clubs, such as Jane Cunningham Croly’s Sorosis, which formed the origin of the Federation of Women’s Clubs, were first borne out of consternation at exclusion (Scheer, 2002). These clubs were originally literary clubs, full of predominantly upper- and middle-class women, but as the concept grew, and spread across the country, the purpose bloomed into a vehicle for social reform. As well – as perhaps somewhat of an ironic legacy of Sorosis – these clubs were often unpopular, or merely tolerated by men, while women flocked to them in droves, driven by the prospect of social life and work. (Savage 1916)

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Letter from Edgar Allan Poe to Colonel Sylvanus Thayer: One Last Request

Authored by Robert B. Repenning

Four days after his official court-martial dismissal from the United States Military Academy, West Point, this handwritten letter from Edgar Allan Poe requests the assistance of the USMA Superintendent, in securing an appointment into the Polish Army. At the time, Poland was embroiled in the Polish-Russian War of 1830-1831 (the November Uprising).

On May 26, 1827, Edgar Allan Poe, under the alias of Edgar A. Perry, enlisted as a private in the United States Army (Howard 2003, 55). Thus began a curious, lesser known, chapter in the life of one of America’s greatest writers. In less than a year, serving in the 1st Artillery Regiment, Poe was promoted to the unit’s artificer. As artificer, “both officers and gun crews relied on him to craft the artillery bombs properly and oversee the ammunition supply for the battery” (Hecker 2005, xxxiv). Within seven months, Poe would be selected “from the regiments nearly 500 authorized enlisted men to become” (Howard 2003, 56) sergeant major.  

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Ahead of Her Time: Mayor Edith P. Welty

Authored by Marnie Mallah

Edith P. Welty taking the oath of office as Mayor of Yonkers, NY in 1949. She remains the only female Mayor that Yonkers has ever had. Taken from Edith P. Welty’s scrapbook, which is held at Westchester County Historical Society.

In 1949, at a time when few women worked outside of the home, let alone were politicians, Edith Welty became the first female mayor of Yonkers, NY. She remains the only one the city has had since its founding, over a century ago. 

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Helping on the Home Front: Canning in the Time of War in Hicksville, NY

Authored by Shannon Jaeger

Taken during WWI, this slide shows a woman working in an American Red Cross canning kitchen in June of 1917 located in Hicksville, NY. Canning and canning stores were a major part of the war effort due to food preservation and those on the home front doing their part for the war effort. These stores often brought the community together.

During World War I, canning became a way to help the war effort at home. Canning was seen as a patriotic practice during wartime and led those in the United States to believe that it would help ensure an Allied victory due to posters that were being printed (Sullivan, n.d.).

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Vincentian Lens: Erasure of Southern Historical Documents

Authored by Lauren King

This photograph shows the early members of the Emmaus Christian Church outside of the church building, date the picture was taken is unknown.

Emmaus Christian Church was founded in 1826 as the first organization for the Disciples of Christ located in Caroline County; it is described as “rather small” but with approximately a 100 living members at the time of survey (Farmer and George 1937, 1). The survey conducted by Farmer and George (1937) describes the current church members as being a prominent part of the community providing a list of names. Yet, that is all that is known about those members. Without existing church records there is no supplemental information is available (i.e. marriages, deaths). The records from the churches are a vital source of social information that can increase the available knowledge to the public that might be lacking otherwise (Olson 1942). However, the records from Emmaus Christian Church were destroyed in 1864 during the Civil War (Collins, n.d.).

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