Photo Credit: Arthur E. Scott/Reni News Photos/Courtesy of WHNPA/NPR
Television cowboy and roping legend Montie Montana lassoes President Eisenhower in the presidential reviewing box during his 1953 inaugural parade.
Photo Credit: Museum of the American West/LA Times
Photo Credit: Library of Congress
- President Theodore Roosevelt
A young Joe Medicine Crow. His grandfather was a chief of the Crow tribe. Photo Credit: PBS
Joseph Medicine Crow was born near Lodge Grass, Montana on October 27, 1913. The step-grandson of White Man Runs Him, a scout for General Custer and an eyewitness to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Medicine Crow was raised by his elders in the warrior way. He grew up listening to stories of battles and of a time before tribes were sent to reservations. He was 11 years old when his grandfather died in 1925. Medicine Crow is the last living person with a direct oral history from a participant of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Medicine Crow was the first member of the Crow tribe to attend college and, in 1939, he also become the first to receive a master’s degree. His thesis from the University of Southern California (“The Effects of European Culture Contact upon the Economic, Social, and Religious Life of the Crow Indians”) is widely utilized by historians and scholars alike. He became well-known for his work regarding the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Of the war, he once stated “No One wins. Both sides lose. The Indians, so called hostiles, won the battle of the day, but lost their way of life.”
Joseph Medicine Crow, about to enter the dance arena at the annual Crow Fair, holds a dance stick representing the horses he captured from German SS officers in World War II. Photo Credit: Glen Swanson/The National Museum of the American Indian.
Medicine Crow was working on his doctoral dissertation when the United States entered World War II. At the age of 34, he joined the U.S. Army, serving as a scout in the 103rd Infantry Division in Europe. Whenever he went into battle he would paint red stripes on his arms under his uniform. He also carried a yellow-painted eagle feather in his helmet to shield him from harm. During the war, Medicine Crow successfully completed the four required tasks to become a Crow war chief.
According to Crow tradition, in order to achieve war chief status, one must fulfill the following deeds:
He accomplished the first two deeds at the same time. His unit came upon a small town housing some German soldiers. Sent around a street and into an ally, Medicine Crow literally ran into a German soldier. After knocking the enemy’s rifle to the ground the two fought hand-to-hand. After going back and forth with the opposing soldier, Medicine Crow finally had his opponent in a choke hold but spared his life when the German started saying “momma.”
Another time Medicine Crow, armed with seven men and explosives, successfully placed the explosives along German positions on the Siegfried Line. This fulfilled another war deed. The last of the four deeds he needed to accomplish – steal an enemy horse – took place towards the end of the war. One day, Medicine Crow was scouting ahead of his company and saw Germans riding horses along a road to a farm. It was decided to attack the Germans in the early morning while they slept. Medicine Crow asked the Captain to give him a couple of minutes to take care of the horses. The Captain agreed. In the early hours, Medicine Crow and another soldier crawled into the horse shed. Fashioning an Indian bridle out of a little rope, they chased the horses out of the shed and over a hill. As he rode away, Medicine Crow sang a traditional Crow honor song. Around 50 horses were stolen from the battalion of German officers.
Medicine Crow, in his own words, describe the horse event during an interview with the National Museum of the American Indian:
In World War II, I managed to have captured fifty head of horses. These were not ordinary horses. They belonged to SS officers, you know? During the last days of the war over there, there was a lot of confusion, so a bunch of these SS officers got on their horses and took off … They were heading back to Germany. And here’s that old sneaky old Crow Indian now following them, watching them. So they camped for the night. I sneak in there and took all their fifty head of horses, left them on foot. So I got on one, looked around there and I even sang a Crow victory song all by myself. Crows do that when they think they’re all by themselves, they do things like that. So I sang a victory song.
President Obama awarding Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Photo Credit: Bacone College
Through his actions in World War II he is the last Crow Indian to become a war chief and, as he states, the last Plains war chief. He returned to the Crow Agency after the war and was appointed tribal historian and anthropologist in 1948. He received both the Bronze Star and France’s Legion of Honour on June 25, 2008. On August 12, 2009, Medicine Crow, at the age of 95, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama. The Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award in the country. Upon hearing he was selected to receive the award, Medicine Crow said, “I am humbled and honored to join the ranks of the renowned citizens who have received this medal over the last 62 years.” Ken Burns featured Medicine Crow in the 2007 PBS series “The War.”
Medicine Crow lives on the Crow Indian Reservation in Lodge Grass, Montana. He is said to be the oldest living man of the Crow tribe.
Video of Dr. Joe Medicine Crow recounting his actions during World War II in Ken Burns’ The War.
Dr. Joe Medicine Crow, among others, honored in 2009 with the Medal of Freedom by President Obama. His sections appear around the 7:15 and 24.35 marks.
Sources
Lorna Thackeray, “Crow Tribal Historian to Receive Medal of Freedom,” Billings Gazette, July 30, 2009.
Allison Engel, “Medal of Freedom Goes to Medicine Crow,” University of Southern California, August 27, 2009.
“Joseph Medicine Crow,” National Park Service.
“Joe Medicine Crow: Life and Work,” World Wisdom.
“The War” PBS.
Custer Battlefield Museum
The National Museum of the American Indian
Photo Credit: Maurice Johnson/International News Photos/Courtesy of WHNPA/NPR
President Eisenhower and former President Herbert Hoover cook steaks on a grill in Fraser, Colorado in 1954.
President Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the Medal of Freedom at a White House Ceremony, 1985. Photo Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library/Source
- Mother Teresa
Samuel J. Seymour was five-years-old when he went to see Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater. He saw a man jump on the balcony and was afraid the man might have hurt himself. The man was John Wilkes Booth, he jumped onto the stage after assassinating President Lincoln. This is Seymour on the February 9, 1956 episode of “I’ve Got a Secret.” The host was Garry Moore and the panelists included Bill Cullen, Jayne Meadows, Henry Morgan, and Lucille Ball. Seymour died two months later, 63 days after his game show appearance, on April 12, 1956. He was the last surviving person who had been present at Lincoln’s assassination.
In the article, “I saw Lincoln shot” by Samuel J. Seymour as told to Frances Spatz Leighton, Seymour recounted the fateful night.
All of a sudden a shot rang out – a shot that always will be remembered – and someone in the President’s box screamed. I saw Lincoln slumped forward in his seat. People started milling around and I thought there’d been another accident when one man seemed to tumble over the balcony rail and land on the stage.
“Hurry, hurry, let’s go help the poor man who fell down,” I begged.
But by that time John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, had picked himself up and was running for dear life. . . .
Only a few people noticed the running man, but pandemonium broke loose in the theater, with everyone shouting:
“Lincoln’s shot! The President’s dead!”
Snapshot of Seymour’s article. Photo Credit: The Milwaukee Sentienel
Click here for a closer view of the article.
William McKinley by Courtney Art Studio, 1896 (source) & a yellow-headed parrot at the Vancouver Aquarium, Canada (source).
President William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, had a Yellow-headed Mexican parrot named “Washington Post.” Reportedly, the parrot was quite patriotic. When McKinley whistled the beginning of “Yankee Doodle” the parrot would complete it.
Sarah D. Bunting, “Presidential pet stories,” Animal Nation, February 22, 2012.
“Wings for This Man” is a propaganda film produced in 1945 by the U.S. Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first unit of African-American pilots in the US military. It was narrated by Ronald Reagan.
Photo Credit: Bryon H. Rollins/AP/Courtesy of WHNPA/NPR
President Truman, wearing a shirt that reads “Coach Truman, Athletic Department,” leads exercises on the deck of the USS Missouri on his return trip to Washington from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 1947.
Photo Credit: Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Photo Credit: Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Photo Credit: Library of Congress
Braille letter with handwritten transcription:
Perkins School For The Blind
Watertown 72, Mass.
Dear Ike,
I decided to write you a little speech which might help you to win the election.
Vote for me. I will help you out. I will lower the prices and also your tax bill. I also will help the negroes, so that they may go to school.
Good Luck in November.
John Beaulieu
Age 13 Grade Six.
Image Credit: NASA (S69-21365)
“(July 24, 1969) President Richard M. Nixon was in the central Pacific recovery area to welcome the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the USS Hornet, prime recovery ship for the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. Already confined to the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) are (left to right) Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot. Apollo 11 splashed down at 11:49 a.m. (CDT), July 24, 1969, about 812 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii and only 12 nautical miles from the USS Hornet.”
The cover illustration for the official program of the Woman Suffrage Procession of 1913, which brought the issue of voting rights for women to the forefront of national discussion. (Library of Congress)
Lawyer Inez Milholland prepares to lead the Suffrage Parade. (Library of Congress)
One hundred years ago today, over 5,000 women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. for universal women’s suffrage. Marching on March 3, 1913, one day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, women demanded the right to vote. The Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 was the first major national effort calling for a constitutional amendment.
It was organized by Alice Paul, who was born in New Jersey and earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She traveled to England and became involved with the suffrage movement. Upon her return to the United States she joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The Washington parade was her first duty as part of the suffrage association. Paul later commented on why the parade was held the day before Wilson’s inauguration and how it all came about.
That was the only day you could have it if you were trying to impress the new President. The marchers came from all over the country at their own expense. We just sent letters everywhere, to every name we could find. And then we had a hospitality committee headed by Mrs. Harvey Wiley, the wife of the man who put through the first pure-food law in America. Mrs. Wiley canvassed all her friends in Washington and came up with a tremendous list of people who were willing to entertain the visiting marchers for a day or two. I mention these names to show what a wonderful group of people we had on our little committee.
When they went to obtain their police permit for the parade, the police tried to have the women march on Sixteenth Street, past the embassies instead. After the police chief was visited by a committee member’s mother, who happened to be the wife of a congressman, the group obtained authorization to use Pennsylvania Avenue.
Diagram of the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913. Women marchers organized by country, state, occupation, and organization.(Library of Congress)
On Monday, March 3rd, more than 5,000 marchers descended on Washington D.C. for the parade. The parade included nine bands, four mounted brigades, 20 floats, and an allegorical performance near the Treasury Building. The marchers were separated into different categories. Leading the parade, wearing a crown and long white cape on top a white horse, was labor lawyer Inez Milholland. Women from countries that had already enfranchised women were first, along with officers in the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The “Pioneers”, women who have been working on suffrage for decades, came after. Celebration of working women followed the Pioneers section and included nurses, farmers, homemakers, doctors, college women and more. Other sections included the National Association of Colored Women, individual state delegations and male supporters.
The parade began late. There was a very large turnout, in part because many tourists came to see the inauguration the next day. The association was worried that the police were going to underestimate the parade’s audience and not make preparations. Committee member Mrs. John Rogers went to see her brother-in-law the night before about crowd issues. He just happened to be Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War. Secretary Stimson promised to send over the cavalry from Fort Myer if trouble should arise.
The parade appeared to have a good start; however Pennsylvania Avenue soon became chocked with thousands of spectators. At the same time a few blocks away, president-elect Wilson arrived at the railway station to very little fanfare. When they asked where everyone was, they were told everyone was “watching the suffrage parade.”
Mostly men, the spectators began to jostle and hurl insults at the parade members. With massive crowds, the parade could barely get past. Some women were tripped and assaulted while the police did little to stop it. One policeman even told some women that they should have stayed home where they belonged. Over one hundred marchers were hospitalized due to the injuries they received from the crowds.
It took six hours to go from the Capitol to Constitution Hall. Finally, Secretary Stimson was called and quickly sent over the troops to clear the way for the parade. It was reported that Helen Keller “was so exhausted and unnerved by the experience in attempting to reach a grandstand . . . that she was unable to speak later at Continental hall [sic].” The majority of the women finished the parade and the event continued as scheduled.
Crowd converging on marchers and blocking parade route during March 3, 1913, inaugural suffrage procession, Washington, D.C. (Library of Congress)
There was much furor over the mistreatment of the marchers and it became a major news story. It led to congressional hearings with more than 150 witnesses telling of their experiences and resulted in the firing of D.C.’s superintendent of police. While suffragists around the country were up in arms about the hostile crowds against the peaceful parade goers, Alice Paul remembers it differently in a 1974 interview.
The principal investigation was launched at the request of our women delegates from Washington, which was a suffrage state. These women were so indignant about the remarks from the crowd. And I remember that Congressman Kent was very aroused at the things that were shouted at his daughter, Elizabeth, who was riding on the California float, and he was among the first in Congress to demand an investigation into why the police hadn’t been better prepared. As I said, the police just didn’t take our little procession seriously. I don’t think it was anything intentional. We didn’t testify against the police, because we felt it was just a miscalculation on their part.
Whether it was a “miscalculation” or blatant indifference by the police, the Women’s Suffrage Parade of 1913 was just the start of using public protests as a tool to achieve universal rights. It would take another seven years, and many pickets and parades later, for Congress to pass the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 giving women the right to vote.
Sources
Sheridan Harvey, “Marching for the Vote: Remembering the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913“, American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States, 2001.
“Battle for Suffrage“, American Experience, PBS.
Robert S. Gallagher, “I was Arrested, Of Course…“, American Heritage, Vol. 25, Iss. 2 (February 1974).
All photos are from the Library of Congress
Presidents of the United States morphed in sequence from George Washington to (President Elect) Barack Obama.
Happy President’s Day Everyone! If you’re interested in presidential trivia check out the Presidents category for a whole slew of it!
Zim’s Side Note: I finally figured out how to upload videos…after a year and a half….
James Knox Polk, three-quarter length portrait, three-quarters to the right, seated. Photo Credit: Mathew Brady/Library of Congress
James K. Polk, the 11th President of the United States, was the first president to be photographed while in office. The daguerreotype was taken by famous photographer Matthew Brady in New York City on February 14, 1849. Polk was also the first president to be extensively photographed during his presidency.
Photo Credit: Cecil Stoughton/LBJ Presidential Library
First daughter Lynda Johnson and friend Warrie Lynn Smith throw snowballs on the White House Lawn on February 11, 1964.
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