what about the plastic animals?

Another Abe Lincoln on a Horse

Oh, this is exciting!  As some may recall, I included Lincoln City, Oregon in my Pacific Northwest trip to see this sculpture of Abe Lincoln on a Horse (I believe the proper name is The Circuit Rider).  In that post from August I mentioned that there were two more copies of the sculpture.  Yesterday I got to see one of them.

Abe Lincoln on a Horse stands on the lawn in front of Bray Hall on the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) in Syracuse.  Across the parking lot is Syracuse University's Carrier Dome.  The sculpture was moved to its present location a year-and-a-half ago.

I took the bottom photo at work this afternoon.  Our Abe on a Horse is much greener than the sculptures in Oregon and Syracuse!

Guess I've got to go to Connecticut to see the remaining copy.

Christmas Break

I don't have a good Christmassy photo to share this year so the colorful lights at One World Trade Center will have to do.  Time to take a few days off.  Happy Holidays everybody!

Leak No More

Morningside Park has had a bad leak for the better part of a year.  The earliest photo above is from February 13th but the leak began before then.  Week after week I'd climb the stairs at 116th Street only to be met with a mysterious stream of water.  Week after week I'd take a few pictures and muttered that somebody ought to do something.  Week after week I'd forget to report the problem.  Sigh.

The flow was strong enough in the cold weather that the stream did not freeze.  Since either side of the stream was ice that meant the only safe place to walk was in the water.  In spring the stream filled up with pollen.  In the summer there was all sorts of organic matter and algae growth in the stream. 

The stream would flow down the trail and cascade down the middle set of stairs.  Usually the waterfall would disappear after a few steps only to reappear at the bottom of the stairs.  Sometimes, though, it was water all the way down.

On the Sunday after I returned from San Francisco there was a carefully arranged medial moraine of leaves and an abundance of caution tape near the source of the leak. This past Sunday there was a trench and the leak had stopped.  Thank you leak fixer!

The Old Courthouse Rotunda

I don't really have much to say about the old courthouse in St. Louis.  It's really pretty on the inside.  The rotunda was all decked out for a naturalization ceremony.  We walked in just about when several dozen people were taking their citizenship oath.  As expected from a National Park Service site there was a very informative exhibit outlining the tangled history of the Dred Scott case and putting that case in the context of what the country was going through in the 1850s.

Views From the Arch

Not a week before visiting the Gateway Arch I had climbed up to the Statue of Liberty's crown with my sister and nieces.  The two experiences could not have been more different.  At the statue the National Park Service lets small groups of people climb up the stairs every 15 minutes or so.  Once at the crown you can rest and have the place for yourself for a few minutes.  At the top of the Arch you step out of the tram and onto the observation deck of chaos.

To the east the Mississippi was slightly over flood stage.  The flooding messed with our plan to walk the trail along the river.  That was probably for the best as the weather was really hot and humid while we were there.

To the west is the courthouse where Dred and Harriet Scott filed suit to win their freedom in 1846.  It is also where Virginia Minor filed suit in 1872 after the registrar denied her the right to register to vote.

The Gateway Arch

Marie was right! The mystery object earlier this week is indeed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

Over the fourth of July weekend my friend Donna and I met up in St. Louis for a holiday weekend of Americana.  Our first stop was the arch and the rest of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.  The arch has a timeless look about it.  You would almost think it was there before St. Louis was settled, but it is actually fairly new.  Well, it's newer than me, which makes it a youngster.

To get to the top of the arch you follow the tour guide to a tiny little door.  While waiting you chuckle to yourself and wonder if a dozen clowns will come out when the doors open.  When the doors open and you see that the little pod (that's a model in the last photo) seats five adults you chuckle no more!  It makes for a cozy, four minute, half-escalator, half-elevator, half-ferris wheel, ride to the top.

Back on the ground we were treated to a practice run for the air show that was to take place that weekend.

Views from the top coming next.

What is it?

Quiz time!  What is this?

Morningside Park Stairs: 1889 and 2011

This past August Harlem Bespoke featured an 1889 photo of Morningside Park's 116th St. stairs.  The photo is a cyanotype in the collections of the Museum of the City of New York.  A week after the photo appeared on Harlem Bespoke I put up a leaf-obscured view of the stairs.  I took another picture this morning with far fewer leaves, but still lots of branches, present.

Construction on the park began in 1883.  The park was still several years from completion when the photo was taken in 1889.  The Carl Schurz monument was added at the top of the stairs in 1913 (Andrew Carnegie was there!).   The apartment houses under construction on Morningside Avenue are still there today.

Emma and Zoe's

In case anyone was wondering where I've been the past week, I was in San Francisco visiting Emma and Zoe.

Killed by ye Bloing up of ye School houfe

Young Richard Bernham of Hartford, Connecticut had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The British Parliament repealed the hated Stamp Act in May 1766.  Later that month there was to be a celebration.  Gunpowder and fireworks were stored in the brick schoolhouse.  There was an explosion and Richard Bernham along with five other men were no more.  Bernham is buried at the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford.

Doctor Nathaniel Ledyard was among those killed.  His tombstone, which I didn't notice, has this poetic epitah:

Excerpt from The Magazine of American History (Vol. 7, 1881) found via Google Books.