Former inmate Robert Luke at Exhibit

The very name, Alcatraz, stirs fear and a twinge of excitement at the thought of the stories of the men incarcerated there. From 1934 to 1963 Alcatraz Island served as the first maximum security federal prison in the United States. It was hoped that the location would make it escape-proof, and therefore, a good place to put the worst-of-the-worst.

Some of the criminals housed at Alcatraz included Chicago gangster Al Capone; Robert Stroud, known as the Birdman of Alcatraz; kidnapper George “Machine Gun” Kelly; bank robber Floyd Hamilton, an accomplice of Bonnie and Clyde; Arthur “Doc” Barker and Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, members of the infamous Ma Barker Gang; Roy Gardner, last of the “Old West” train robbers; and “Bumpy” Johnson, the Godfather of Harlem.

The prison was closed in 1963 for financial reasons. Some staff lived on the island, but others had to be ferried out each day, and all food and water had to be brought in; 300,000 gallons of water came by barge every other day from San Francisco. On a per-prisoner basis, it was more cost-efficient to put the prisoners elsewhere.

Today those prisoners would most often be sent to the super max facility in Florence, Colorado.

Taken Over by the Park Service

In 1972 Congress created the Golden Gate National Recreation Area to be run by the National Park Service. Alcatraz Island, located 1.5 miles off shore of San Francisco,

Richard Weideman

was included. The island was opened to the public in the fall of 1973, and it has since become a very popular site for tourists.

“We expected interest in Alcatraz to fade after two to five years,” says Rich Weideman, associate director for partnership and civic engagement for the NPS. “After 35 years, we are still not seeing any drop in interest.”

Each year more than one million visitors come to Alcatraz, but almost that many are turned away because of the logistical difficulties of having to bring all people via boat. One out of every four visitors is from outside the U.S.

Weideman attributes the continuing interest in the prison to the mystique built by Hollywood. As early as 1937, two films were made about Alcatraz. One was called Alcatraz Island with John Litel and Ann Sheridan, followed by The Last Gangster starring Edward G. Robinson.

In the 1930s, security was so tight that no filming was allowed on the island. Filmmakers built a sound stage in Hollywood for all interior scenes. To obtain footage of the island, they used a boat to get as close as they could before being chased away.

To date there have been approximately 30 films about Alcatraz; two of the best known are Escape from Alcatraz (1979) with Clint Eastwood and The Rock (1996) with Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage, and Ed Harris. Myth-making will continue.

This January, J.J. Abrams, who created Lost (ABC) and Person of Interest (CBS) will debut his version of Alcatraz, with a plot centering on the disappearance of all the inmates.

“The Federal prison system soon realized that the myth created by the media was beneficial to them,” says Weideman. “Wardens at other prison systems simply had to mention to a troublesome inmate that he could be shipped off to Alcatraz, and chances were that his behavior would improve.”

Weideman makes a point that is emphasized in the traveling exhibit. “Treatment at Alcatraz was actually relatively good. It was a modern facility with good food and the prison warden, lawyer and businessman James A. Johnston, felt that the most exquisite form of torture was absolute routine. There were religious services on Sunday but otherwise, the prisoners had to fall in line every day for the same activities at the same time done in the same way.

“Former prisoners who return to visit all remember the monotony,” says Weideman.

The Exhibit — Alcatraz: Life on the Rock

The traveling exhibit, co-sponsored by the NPS and Alcatraz Cruises, displays the rich past of the island.

Alcatraz first served as a fortress to protect the coastline shortly after gold was discovered in California. During the Civil War the North stored firearms there to prevent them from falling into the hands of Southern sympathizers; it was also used to imprison Confederate sympathizers and those who refused military assignment.

The story of prison life includes an interactive exhibit where visitors can hear prisoners describe their experiences and learn about The Rock’s place in popular culture. “Life on the Inside” shows a cell as well as a tunnel similar to the one dug by prisoners attempting escape. (Fourteen escape attempts were made over the prison’s 29-year history. None are known to have been successful, though three escapees from a 1962 attempt were never found, and movies have been woven around the theory that the men made it to land.)

The exhibit also highlights the island’s occupation (1969-71) by Native Americans who used the takeover to rally for justice. A final section talks about preservation of the island’s lush flora and fauna.

When asked what most surprised him about his experiences, Weideman who has worked on projects connected with the island for approximately thirty years, mentions two: “I am surprised at the number of former inmates who return as tourists. Despite their time incarcerated there or at other prisons, there is a fascination for them to see Alcatraz.”

“I also love the gardens. In the midst of such bleakness, the gardens are so beautiful,” he notes. “When restoration of the gardens began in 2003, they even found a Scottish rose that was thought to be extinct.”

The gardens were first planted on Alcatraz by the U.S. Army in 1865. In the 1930s one warden fought for the prisoners to have the right to work in the gardens. In 2003 an effort to restore the gardens was undertaken by several conservancy groups, and today there are five gardens and more than 300 species of plants.

The exhibit is in place on Ellis Island through January 12; there is no additional admission fee other than the price of the ferry ticket; available from www.statuecruises.com.

Why the Exhibit Is Important

When asked about the reason behind the exhibit, Weideman answers: “The job of the National Park Service is to educate people by making these sites accessible to the public. Then visitors can make up their own mind about what a place like Alcatraz means to them.”

Weideman, who has spent much of his career involved with Alcatraz, says, “I hope seeing the island or this exhibit has helped deter many people from crime, but if we keep just one person out of prison, then all of the work that goes into these projects is worth it.”

 

A series of circumstances on two continents was to change all that, and in the process, provide dignity and independence to those with visual impairment.

The Woman Who Led the Way
Dorothy Harrison Eustis (1886-1946) was born into a prominent family in Philadelphia and married Walter Abbott Wood, Jr., whose family had become wealthy farm machinery manufacturers. She moved to Wood’s hometown of Hoosick Falls, New York (near the border with Vermont) where she and Wood lived on a farm and ran an experimental cattle breeding program to increase milk production. In 1914 the couple traveled to Germany, and Dorothy, who loved dogs, brought home her first German shepherd.

Not long into married life, Wood contracted typhoid fever and died, leaving Dorothy, 29, a widowed mother of two. She returned to Philadelphia where she met and married George Eustis. The family moved to the Swiss Alps where Dorothy began breeding German shepherds, bringing with her some of the knowledge gained from cattle breeding. She partnered with a fellow named Elliott Humphrey to breed dogs for the Swiss State Police and for liaison service in the Swiss Army. The dogs could also be used to find missing people. With those tasks in mind, Eustis and Humphrey bred for intelligence and reliability.

Eustis’ police dog program was becoming well-known, and she was approached by The Saturday Evening Post to write about it. Eustis opted instead to write about a Potsdam program she had observed that used German shepherds to guide World War I veterans who had been blinded by mustard gas. The resulting article was published on November 5, 1927, and the information she shared was to change the lives of blind people everywhere:

The future for all blind men can be the same, however blinded. No longer dependent on a member of the family, a friend or a paid attendant, the blind can once more take up their normal lives as nearly as possible where they left them off, and each can begin or go back to a wage-earning occupation, secure in the knowledge that he can get to and from his work safely and without cost; that crowds and traffic have no longer any terrors for him and that his evenings can be spent among friends without responsibility or burden to them; and last, but far from least, that long, healthful walks are now possible to exercise off the unhealthy fat of inactivity and so keep the body strong and fit. Gentlemen, again without reservation, I give you the shepherd dog.

The article spawned a huge response from readers, including a letter from Morris Frank, a young American insurance salesman who lived in Nashville. Frank had lost the sight in one eye as a result of a childhood accident; he lost the sight in his other eye in 1924 in a boxing match when he was 16. He wrote: “Thousands of blind people like me abhor being dependent on others. Help me and I will help them. Train me and I will bring back my dog to show people here how a blind man can be absolutely on his own.” Frank offered to help her set up a school in America if she would help him.

The Plight of Those Without Sight
Jim Kutsch, current president and CEO of The Seeing Eye (founded by Eustis and Frank and now located in Morristown, New Jersey) notes that the reality of being without sight at that time meant that people really had no life. “The use of canes trailed the use of dogs by at least a decade,” he says. “If you were blind at that time, you were totally dependent on being cared for or guided around by others.”

This context explains Frank’s excitement. As a man who had lost his only working eye at the age of 16, Frank knew what life might have offered him and longed to recapture what he could.

Eustis responded to his letter and invited him to Switzerland. Because he could not fend for himself on his travels, Frank had to be classified as a “package” and sent via American Express by steamship from Nashville to Switzerland. He had a room but he was not permitted to move around the ship unless someone from the ship’s staff was available to accompany him.
When Frank arrived in Vevey, Switzerland, Eustis was busy working with two possible dogs so that they could see which one was more compatible with Frank. Ultimately, the dog with whom he did best was a dog named Kiss; Frank who was then only 20 and quickly changed the dog’s name to Buddy, feeling that a young man should not own a dog named Kiss.

After his training, Eustis parted with Frank temporarily, offering a warning: “If people won’t let you in [to restaurants, hotels, modes of transportation], Buddy will do you no good.”

Morris Frank left Europe to embark on opening doors for the blind.

Eustis Returns to America
Morris Frank was a man of his word, and he arranged to bring Eustis and the dogs to Nashville where 150 blind solders awaited dogs and instruction. In 1928 Eustis’s arrival was noted in The New York Times: “Shepherd Dogs Coming for American Blind” (12-14-1928). The article goes on to describe that Mrs. Dorothy Harrison Eustis was sailing with three German shepherd dogs “the first contingent of the great canine army which will eventually go to the United States as leaders for the blind.”

In January of 1929 Dorothy Eustis gave a lecture at the New York Association for the Blind, and she described how dogs could help in NYC:

“…The dog is taught to go always at a fast walk, so that the slackening in his gait for an obstacle is instantly felt through the rigid handle in his harness. At curbs he pulls back and stands still so his master can find the edge with his cane. For steps, for approaching traffic and all obstacles barring progress, he sits down. A perfect working team can be made of the trained shepherd dog and the blind man, once the latter has become familiar with his city by raised maps of the streets.”

The school formed by Eustis and Frank took the name The Seeing Eye (now trademarked), and while they began in Nashville, Frank’s hometown, trainers also traveled elsewhere to hold classes. In 1931 Eustis bought a ten-bedroom mansion in Whippany, New Jersey so that they could have a permanent base. Frank remained as vice president of the school and did just as he promised–traveling everywhere with the original Buddy as well as subsequent Buddys (Frank preferred to maintain the same name for all his dogs) to break barriers that prohibited guide dogs from leading their owners where they needed to go (including restaurants, hotels, and various modes of transportation).

The School Today
Today The Seeing Eye, Inc. still exists and is the oldest school for guide dogs in the country. In 1965 they moved to a newly designed special facility in Morristown, and today its president and CEO is Jim Kutsch, a Seeing Eye dog user himself who is married to another Seeing Eye user.

Most of the school’s dogs are bred in Chester, New Jersey, and while many are German shepherds, today the school also works with Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, or Labrador-Golden crosses. Continuing in Eustis’ footsteps, a breeding program is carefully monitored by a geneticist to see that the qualities needed for a service dog are in place. Puppies are raised by volunteers who work on training and socialization until the dogs who qualify are ready for additional training at 18 months old. Formal training to be a Seeing Eye dog lasts four months, and they learn obedience as well as “intelligent disobedience” to understand when following an order might cause danger. The dogs then spend another month being trained with their human partners.

Jim Kutsch notes that in addition to the continuation of careful breeding and training of the dogs, there have been changes: “When Morris Frank first learned to work with a guide dog, the method involved holding a harness and leash in one’s left hand, and then holding a relatively short cane [compared to what people use today] to check the space ahead.”

“Since that time, a lot has been learned to improve the system. Today the harness can be adjusted ergonomically to make the person most comfortable, but more important, the harness is fit more precisely, which means the dog’s owner gets more accurate information from the dog more quickly,” explains Kutsch.

Despite Progress in Some Areas, Dogs Still Vital
Despite the improvement in helping the visually impaired with computers and audio systems, etc., when it comes to mobility, dogs today are just as important as they always were. Kutsch continues: “The street environment is more complex than ever. It used to be that all traffic lights changed predictably after a certain number of seconds. Today lights change according to the traffic, and so it is no longer possible for a person to anticipate a light change.”

Catalytic converters–and hybrid cars– that permit cars to run more quietly are also a negative for the visually impaired. “We’ve added hybrid cars to our training program. You can’t hear them when they are at a full stop. We now teach dogs that a car is a car, whether it’s making a noise or not.”

While so much progress has been made since Morris Frank’s day, Kutsch notes that there are still battles to be fought. While his own Seeing Eye dog has gone many places with him–including the hospital delivery room when his children were born–he and his wife, who also uses a Seeing Eye dog, still find that an occasional restaurant or taxi cab will refuse to take them.

“But overall, Dorothy Eustis and Morris Frank have enabled me to have a normal life and pursue my dreams… (Kutsch holds a Ph.D. in computer science, has worked as a professor, and held several positions with AT&T including working at Bell Labs before taking his current job).

And to that end, he and the school continue to raise money to fund the continuation of the program, so that they and others can follow their dreams. Currently, Kutsch is training for the Gran Fondo (“big ride” or “big endurance” in Italian) in late August. Kutsch and his wife Ginger will both be paired with a sighted couple for tandem biking to raise money for this important cause: Visit: www.seeingeye.org/ride.

And for a profile of Buddy, Morris Frank’s first “seeing eye” guide dog in America, please visit the “Dog Days of Summer” at www.americacomesalive.com

 

In 1868, General John Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Northern Civil War veterans, proclaimed that May 30 each year should be known as Decoration Day.

The South was not comfortable accepting Logan’s proclamation of a date, and they set their own timetable for honoring their departed loved ones; some states picked June 3, which the birth date of Jefferson Davis, who had served as president of the Confederacy.

Time Heals Some Wounds
As World War I veterans returned, Memorial Day (as it had been renamed in 1882) grew to be a day to remember all of our military, no matter what war they served in. While there have been other changes in the holiday over time (including the fact that the holiday is now celebrated on the last Monday of May regardless of the date), the successful raid on Osama Bin Laden also brought a detail to public attention of something else that has changed.

Today military honor — in survival and in death — now includes canine members of the military.

On Friday, May 6, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky when President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with the units that carried out the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, all reports in the press noted that present at the ceremony was the military dog who had also been part of the team.

Dogs have not always come home and been so honored.

Dogs in the Military
While dogs have almost certainly followed along with military units knowing they might find men who would pet them and slip them a bite to eat now and then, there was no official program to train and use dogs in the military until World War II.

William W. Putney, a Marine Corps officer, who had just earned a degree in veterinary science when he went into officers’ training school at Quantico, Virginia, was instrumental to beginning such a program for the marines. Putney was asked to organize a newly established war dog training program that was to be based at what is now Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Today’s dogs are raised to be in the military, but when Putney began the program, dogs were pets recruited from families. The dogs then had to be conditioned not to react to gunfire and other loud noises; they needed to learn to signal danger to their handlers via body stance or ear movement, not barking. They were also trained to sniff out land mines and trip wires and carry messages.

After the invasion of Guam, Putney and a unit of men with their dogs were sent to the South Pacific where the use of the animals was credited with saving many lives, including Putney’s.

Captain Putney was leading a patrol of men with three of the dogs to flush out Japanese soldiers hiding in caves on one of the surrounding islands. A Doberman named Cappy was out in front of the unit when a shot rang out; Cappy was killed, but the men were alerted to the danger. Had Cappy not been in the lead, Putney would have been ahead of his men, and he likely would have been shot instead.

No Honor Awaited
As the war ended and the men and dogs started being sent home, Putney came home to learn that as the dogs came back, the plan was to euthanize them; those in the States assumed that dogs who had been trained to fight and protect could not be returned to lives with families. Putney felt otherwise, and Putney convinced the officers at Camp LeJeune, to permit him to start a program to desensitize the dogs — a multi-step process.

The dogs had been trained to answer to a single person, so they had to become accustomed to several handlers (male and female). They had to acclimate to normal street sounds and movement, and many other aspects of daily life. An ultimate test was whether a dog could be taken for a walk in the community; would the dog be all right if someone walked past quickly, or if a person approached to pet him or her? Each of these milestones had to be reached very gradually.

Of the 559 dogs who were in the Marine Corps at the end of World War II, 540 were discharged to civilian life. Of the 19 who had had to euthanized, 15 were because of health reasons. Only four could not adapt to civilian life.

In his book Always Faithful Putney noted that because the canine corps was not maintained in the years immediately following World War II, some of the lessons they had learned about working with the animals had to be re-learned by those working with the next generation of animals. Unfortunately, one of the lessons — that the dogs could be desensitized — was never passed on, and from 1949-2000, euthanasia for former military animals was the law of the land.

Though Captain Putney returned to civilian life and had become a veterinarian in Los Angeles, he continued to advocate for change to the system, and three years before he died — sixty years since he had trained the dogs in the first canine unit, the Senate pass as house bill that permits handlers to detrain and adopt their dogs when their military usefulness has ended (October 24, 2000).

Today all branches of our Armed Forces use trained military dogs to patrol air bases, military compounds, ammunition depots and military checkpoints. There are approximately 600-700 of these canines in the Middle East in such places as Kuwait, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. They continue to guard and protect our military personnel as they were trained to do, with courage, loyalty and honor.

While our hearts go out to the families of the men and women of the military who have lost their lives in service to our country, we should also include gratitude for the men and women who have trained the canine team members — and the dogs themselves — whose efforts have helped reduce the toll on human life in the many conflicts where these animals have served.

More stories of heroic dogs will be featured at America Comes Alive! during the month of July. Daily profiles of dog heroes, “first family” dogs, and dogs who have starred in movies and television shows will be posted. Check the site regularly, or write me put you on the e-mail list: Write “dogs” in the subject line and send to kate@americacomesalive.com

 

1. Friday night we met a staff member with a job that puts him in the Situation Room whenever major action is taking place. He was cool, calm, and professional, and never once looked distracted or in any way indicated that it was anything other than a normal weekend around the White House.

He also said something that will stay with me forever. He had been hired for his job under the Bush administration and had clearly survived to work in the Obama White House. When we asked about this, he replied: “I am not political — I don’t align with Republicans or Democrats; I am a patriot. I am here to serve my country.”

2. While the take-away in the news that was reported after the Correspondents’ Dinner seemed to be about how Trump had felt about the barbed comments directed at him, one wise editor noted: “President Obama was addressing the room. It’s the media that gives so much extra oxygen to these inconsequential stories.” While I have not received the email myself, someone described to me the cartoon that is being sent around the Internet where Obama indicates that he hadn’t released his long-form birth certificate earlier because he had more important things to do, like catching Osama bin Laden. Let that be a lesson to the media — and to the public. We need to demand that reporters use shoe leather research methods on issues affecting the economy, energy development, and how we are going to repair or replace our aging infrastructure. Let Donald Trump be in a room alone to discuss his concern about President Obama’s birth or his skepticism about the president’s academic record.

3. After a correspondents-related event at the wonderful relatively new Newseum (the museum was completed in 2007 and is filled with a fascinating and well-thought-out series of exhibits about news coverage and its history), we had time to explore for awhile. I find 9/11 exhibits very painful, but the Newseum exhibit is compelling; and even more so in light of this week’s news. The Newseum 9/11 Gallery notes that seven news employees died in the attack on the World Trade Center; six were broadcast technicians who were at their posts atop the World Trade Center.

The seventh victim was photojournalist William Biggart, who was nearby when the first tower went down and kept snapping photos on his way to get closer to the story. He died when the second tower came down. For four days his family had no idea what happened to him, but eventually, his camera and gear were located and were returned to his wife. Part of the exhibit is a continuously running short film about Biggart, Running Toward Danger. It includes an interview with his wife about her trepidation about seeing the last photos taken by her husband before he died. The film also shows those last photos. The recent news has made this story even more moving, and my visit to the Newseum one I won’t soon forget.

This week we turn a page in our American story; let’s all do our part to help keep our country — and the news coverage — on the high road.

 

The museum itself is a gem that is worthy of visits from old and young.

The New York City Fire Museum houses one of the nation’s most prominent collections of fire related art and artifacts from the late 18th century to the present. Its holdings range from badges and speaking trumpets (early megaphones) to hand-pumped fire engines and early motorized apparatus.

Damon Campagna, executive director and curator of the museum, had been kind enough to start me off with a tour of some of his favorite items in the collection. (We had met–and I had learned about the museum–through the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition that organized the many activities commemorating the centennial of that tragic fire.) After walking through with Campagna, I wanted to go back and read plaques and look closely, at which point I was joined by several different retired firemen who usually serve as guides for school groups as well as members of the public. (They had a little extra time for me because I visited during a week when most schools were on vacation.) From them, I got additional information, wonderful stories, and needless to say, some great one-liner jokes. The visit couldn’t have been more rewarding or more fun.

A Few Firefighting Facts
The information I gained has sent me on a quest to learn so much more about firefighting in this country, and later on I’ll bring to you what I learn, but in the meantime, I will share with you a few of the nuggets of information I gathered at the Museum:

• One of the purposes of night watchmen in communities was being alert for fires. If a watchman spotted flames, he set in action his watchman’s rattle to awaken the community to come to fight the fire. With many buildings made of wood, fire was a full-out community emergency.

• The original fire departments were volunteer, and as a result, they took on a very club-like presence in a community since they consisted primarily of men from a neighborhood, gathering to protect their homes and businesses. This eventually made them entities to reckon with politically; if you could influence a fire department, politicians could get a lot of support. Tammany figured this out quickly.

• Because they were volunteer, they had to exist on a tight budget, so until after the Civil War when more departments hired professional firefighters, the companies could not afford to maintain horses. As a result, the fire wagons/engines were drawn to the fire by the men themselves. The pumping of the water was also done by hand and on display at the museum is one particularly beautiful pumping engine that was a double-decker (two levels for pumping), requiring 48 men to operate it. (Part of the high labor requirement has to do with the fact that pumping was really hard work, so there needed to enough men that they could trade off frequently.)

• Dalmatians became associated with the fire department when horses started to be used to pull the engines. Dalmatians could run beneath the team of horses to keep them moving on the way to the fire, and most importantly, they kept the horses collected and calm while the men fought the fire. Upon arrival at a fire, the men would unhook the horses and send them out of danger; the horses were covered with blankets to keep them warm or to keep them from being burned by embers from the fire; and the department dog would stay with the horses and keep them calm and in place.

• The museum has a collection of over 2,000 fire marks, the fire insurance company advertising emblems that were posted on buildings to show that the building was insured; this meant that those who helped put out the fire would also reap some financial gains for helping to save the property.

• A source for water was a constant problem. There were a few ponds and streams in Manhattan, but it was difficult to pump out enough water. (The opening of the Croton Aqueduct in 1842 brought about a major change.) Early on, water pipes consisted of downed trees where a hole had been bored through the trunk so that water could travel through it. Water pressure was inconsistent, and of course, finding a source close the fire was a constant challenge. Fire departments had permission to drill into the tree trunks wherever they could, to find a source for water, but it can’t have been easy.

If You Visit
A specialty of the museum is instruction for school children in fire prevention and response. The building also houses a special memorial to the 343 firefighters who died on 9/11–a poignant reminder of that day and the importance of keeping fire safety front and center for those who build and work in big buildings, but also those who are called on to fight the fire.

The museum is actually a combination of two different collections. The NYC Fire Department had begun a collection in the 1930s that was originally housed on Long Island and then for a time at a firehouse on Duane Street, but in 1981, they were offered a remarkable collection by Home Insurance Company. One of their former presidents, Harold V. Smith, had become a collector just after the turn of the century, and when he became president of Home Insurance Company in the 1930s, he eventually installed his collection in the insurance company’s home office on Maiden Lane where it could be on display to others on occasion. When the two collections were combined in the early 1980s, larger quarters were needed. After a fundraising drive by the Friends of The Fire Museum, the 1904 Beaux-Arts firehouse was renovated and now offers a pleasant space for visitors.

The Museum is located at 278 Spring Street, between Varick and Hudson, and is open Tuesday-Sunday (with slightly shorter hours on Sunday). Admission is very reasonable, particularly since one could spend hours going through the items on the two floors: $7 for adults; $5 for children; those under age 2 are free.

My latest newsletter is about traditions that surround the All-American sport of baseball. If you like Cracker Jacks or remember the Dodgers when they were in Brooklyn, you will want to check out “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

 

I arrive at today with mixed emotions: Part of me will be very glad not to have the pressure to post every day, but a bigger part of me will miss the inspiration I found from these women. There is not a woman I have written about where I did not stop to say, “Wow. Thank goodness I’m telling her story.”

Telling these stories reminds me of why I believe in America, and why each of us must feel empowered to encourage goodness and strength in others. Whether in the workplace or in friendships or in doing volunteer work, one American saying to another, “That’s a great idea—let’s do it” is a powerful thing.

My blogs often quote Margaret Mead’s statement: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” And I have been reminded this month that it is often female activism that leads to important political and social changes.

Next March, “30 Under 30” will return with new women, so if you have favorites I should include, send them along.

In the meantime, I’m switching topics for a bit. I’m introducing a new series that will start next week, called “Close Up of the Week.” The next four weeks will be short takes on the history of some our favorite baseball fields; in May, we will celebrate changes in parenting—there were many theories that preceded helicopter parenting!

If you signed up for “30 Under 30″ you’ll begin to receive these weekly notices as well as my monthly e-letter (March was on scouting). If it’s ever too much, let me know, I can take you off until Thirty Under Thirty returns next March.

In the meantime, I appreciate your reading and your comments more than you’ll ever know.

 

Penny Colman’s new book, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship that Changed the World, tells a compelling story for readers, and Colman also masterfully presents the facts — that women in the 19th century operated under many societal restrictions:

* They were considered weaker and inferior to boys and men;
* Women were to confine their activities to the home;
* Married women could not own anything. After marriage their possessions were owned by their spouses;
* For a woman to give a speech in public was considered scandalous;
* If women were to go anywhere, they were to do so only with a male escort;

And of course, they could not vote.

Colman’s book, a Henry Holt title for Young Adults to be published in May, communicates this by focusing on the friendship of two of the leaders of the suffrage movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Another masterful aspect of the author’s choice is that readers are able to better understand the personalities of the women who began advocating for women’s rights. So often when one reads of Seneca Falls and the women’s rights conventions that followed, the names — Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Grimke sisters, and Lucy Stone — almost become one. Because Colman begins her book by telling of Susan’s and Eliabeth’s upbringings, we get a strong sense of who these women were and what the motivating forces of their lives were.

Susan, a Quaker, came from a background where girls were valued and educated just as Quaker boys were, but Susan began to see the real world when she became a teacher and was routinely paid about one-quarter of the salary she would have received if she had been a man.

Elizabeth was from a well-to-do family where boys were favored. Elizabeth married and began having children, and while she very much loved her family, she saw how trapped and isolated she was by mothering. At that time, women had little opportunity to control whether or not they became pregnant, and it frequently happened that just as Elizabeth was about to attend a new round of meetings or take on a new push for voting rights, she would find herself pregnant and more or less homebound again. Despite this, Elizabeth attended everything she could and when she was needed at home, she served their team effort by writing speeches that Susan could use at conventions or on the road.

While women’s rights and suffrage were the important points these women campaigned for, there were other aspects of women’s lives that they recognized as very limiting. Colman tells a story of Elizabeth planning to visit her son at boarding school; she receives a letter from him requesting that she please not wear bloomers when she comes. (Bloomers were just beginning to be worn in the late 19th century.) Elizabeth writes back pointing out that if the two of them were walking in a field and they were to encounter a bull, Neil, her son, would be able to run away but she would be encumbered by her petticoats. “…why do you wish me to wear what is uncomfortable, inconvenient and many times dangerous?”

Later on, however, Elizabeth stops wearing bloomers and urged Susan to do so as well, pointing out that the response to them (derisive comments in the press, men accosting them, young boys throwing rocks at them) was simply distracting everyone from the issues that really mattered.

The heart of the book, of course, is what Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony do for women’s rights. From 1848 and Seneca Falls where Elizabeth coauthors a Declaration of Sentiments that spells out the changes that need to come about for women to be equal citizens to the time of their deaths (Elizabeth 1902; Susan 1906), these women fought ceaselessly for the rights of women. They held conventions, published newspapers, testified before Congressional committees, wrote to presidents, gave speeches, and traveled the country for 51 years on behalf of women’s rights.

In 1895 Elizabeth’s 80th birthday party was celebrated at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City by the National Woman’s Council, and her good friend Theodore Tilton, a newspaper editor and abolitionist, who was living in Paris at that time sent poignant remarks: “At the present day, every woman who seeks the legal custody of her children, or the legal control of her property, every woman who finds the doors of a college or a university opening to her; every woman who administers a post-office or a public library; every woman who enters upon career of medicine, law, or theology; every woman who teaches a school, or tills a farm, or keeps a shop’ every one who drives a horse, rides a bicycle, skates at a rink, swims at a summer resort, plays golf or tennis in a public park or even snaps a Kodak [camera]; every such woman, I say, owes her liberty largely to yourself and to your earliest and bravest co-workers in the cause of woman’s emancipation…” Of course, he included Susan B. Anthony in these laudatory comments.

In 1898, 50 years after Seneca Falls, Elizabeth was not willing to travel because of her health but at the 50th anniversary convention, Susan noted the historic moment. She pointed out that the Declaration of Sentiments, penned at the Seneca Falls convention, had been ridiculed and denounced from one end of the country to the other but that by 1898 all the points had been conceded “but the suffrage, and that in four states.” (Four western states had given women limited suffrage rights.)

While the 250-page book is written with young adults (readers 12 and up), I urge anyone of any age or any gender to read it: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship that Changed the World.

Today we take for granted that women can vote and that for the most part, women are treated equally in our society. The narrative is a reminder of how long social change takes and how many hands and hearts must work tirelessly to bring about long-term modifications to our society.

Whether your cause is the environment, financial reform, education, or anything else you consider important, this book serves as a reminder that if you have a strong cause, keep going.

Susan B. Anthony’s last words uttered in public were “failure is impossible.” She was right then, with the 19th Amendment finally going into effect in 1920; and her words can be right again for anyone else with an important cause they are willing to work for.

Penny Colman is the author of many well-regarded books for young readers, often focusing on women who have not always received their due: Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories about Women Who Made a Difference; Rosie the Riveter; and A Woman Unafraid: The Achievements of Frances Perkins, to name a few. For more information on her visit: www.pennycolman.com

 

In the mid-1950s, so great was the public concern about the dangers of comics (and some comics did contain violence and crime), that the industry created a Comic Code Authority to self-police content.

But children — and some adults — knew all along that comic books had value. In Comic Book Literacy, a documentary film produced by Todd Kent, the value of comics through the ages is reported on many levels.

The documentary is being screened at various locations throughout the country, with the next screening scheduled for this weekend’s seventh annual Staple! Independent Media Expo on March 5 & 6, 2011 in Austin, Texas. This event was begun by Chris Nicholas, often referred to as “Uncle Staple,” to support independent comic creators in the Southwest and provide them with an opportunity to get together and exhibit their work for interested fans.

Learning to Read Using Comics
Among the highlights of this year’s two-day event will be the screening of Todd Kent’s documentary, which was sent to me to preview. I was struck by many fascinating points made by the film. To begin with, numerous people in the industry, including Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman and Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, are interviewed about what drew them to comics, and invariably, they remember comic books as the way they learned to read. Several excellent points are made:

• Things happen in comic books, and that’s exciting for a young reader. Art Spiegelman speaks of the Dick and Jane books as pretty dull “training wheels” on the way to literacy. “If you’re reading a comic, you’re trying to figure out an exciting story, and that drives a desire to read.”

• The vocabulary in comics is more advanced than “early reader” books because readers can get the meaning from the context of the picture. Several of the illustrators interviewed talked about going to the dictionary to look up new words.

• Comics teach “visual decoding,” something that is more important today than ever, with visual messages bombarding us from television and computer screens and from billboards and signage. One of the educators interviewed notes that in a comic, the readers see and observe body language that goes with the word balloon. Today we know the importance of being able to interpret all types of indicators, so if children learn to pick up on visual messages, that’s all to the good.

• Long before there were “graphic novels,” there were comics known as “Classics Illustrated,” and again, those interviewed talked about how reading the comic about a classic book led to reading the book itself.

• Many myths are also told in comic book form, providing young people with the background for plot lines we now know have been used for great literature through the centuries.

• “Four-color crack” is the way one young girl interviewed for the documentary describes comic books. Certainly an advantage of comics is the fact that publishers get behind a popular character and publish a series of titles about that character. Most educators would be thrilled with anything that got kids “hooked” on reading.

Early Texans Knew the Value of Comics
In 1926 E.B. Moran, whose title was Director of News and Telegraph for the Dallas News and the Dallas Journal (predecessor of today’s Dallas Morning News), came up with the concept of telling the history of Texas via a comic strip that ran in the newspaper. The strip was titled Texas History Movies and after beginning in the fall of 1926, they suspended publication of the strip the following June at the request of teachers who didn’t want the students to miss installments that ran during the summer. (The strip picked up again the following year.)

This little-known history was later uncovered by Weldon Adams who found a bound copy of the strips and began investigating the history. It turns out that the comic was so popular that Magnolia Petroleum (which became Mobil Oil, now part of ExxonMobil) paid for the strips to be collected into a book format and distributed them to schools. The book remained in print until the mid-1950s. Adams, who is at work on a book about the strips, notes that the books would not be considered politically correct today.

“When Your Life Depends on It, You Can Depend on Comics”
That great quote comes from Scott McCloud, the writer/artist of Understanding Comics. As McCloud notes, comics have long been used for communicating emergency information, and one need only pull out the instruction card in the back of an airplane seat to have this verified. When the chips are down, pictures provide a more effective way than words to convey needed information, and they can be understood by a person speaking any language.

The military figured this out many years ago, and young illustrators such as Will Eisner, who found himself in the military during World War II, was put to work writing and illustrating very clear instruction manuals on all sorts of military equipment. Eisner went on to be a very successful cartoonist and came to be known as the “father of graphic novels.”

Social Commentary
The Denys Wortman exhibit still at the Museum of the City of New York (until March 20) tells another important story about the use of comic-style illustrations: Particularly when Wortman was just beginning to work in the mid-1920s, newspapers did not cover much news of the lower classes. Without Wortman and other illustrators like him, there would have been no telling of the stories of tenement life and that of others who were struggling to make a living in New York. Those stories were noteworthy then, and they are vital now for us to understand the past.

A Diversion for the Military
Comic Book Literacy also tells stories of comic book collectors who are giving back. Kent tells of organizations like Heroes4Heroes that collect comic books to send to the military. While today’s military has access to computers and the Internet some of the time, there are still times when they are stuck in today’s equivalent of a “foxhole,” and comics are a light-to-carry perfectly pleasurable diversion for those hours that can drag by. One illustrator notes that comics are a perfect way to fill “hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror.”

But Where are the Women?
This is Women’s History Month, and while I have on order a book entitled A Century of Women Cartoonists and another about the first African American woman cartoonist, Jackie Ormes, my early research into this subject still makes it look like a boy’s club.

I see that in Austin there will be some female cartoonists, and I’ll report back on what I learn from the books, but if you’re a female cartoonist… or want me to take note of a female cartoonist whom you loved, or want to comment on why girls haven’t gravitated to comics in the same way boys have, send me an e-mail: kate@americacomesalive.com

 

“Consumers need to remember that this is no time to relax and assume the world has changed,” says Jacquelyn A. Ottman, business consultant and author of The New Rules of Green Marketing. “Consumer awareness is still just as important as ever.”

Environmental Awareness Began as a Social Movement
Almost fifty years ago Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson (1916-2005) floated out a concept for Earth Day to highlight the need for awareness of environmental preservation. But good ideas often need to percolate, and Nelson couldn’t get much momentum at first. Then in 1969, a major oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara raised Nelson’s alarm level, and that autumn, Nelson proposed a “national teach-in” about the environment to be held in April 1970.

Even before Twitter and Facebook, good ideas could grow into great ideas, and soon the movement Nelson started grew bigger than he had ever imagined. That year 20 million people across the country rallied on behalf of protecting the environment. By 1990 the movement became global and 200 million people in 141 countries were mobilized to focus on environmental issues of the time.

Now, forty-one years after the first Earth Day, the attitude toward environmental concerns has changed significantly. Earth Day 2011 will be celebrated with many signs of progress–communities with excellent recycling programs and more manufacturers creating green products. The public push for “green” and “sustainability” has led to more energy-efficient light bulbs (with better ones on the way), more Energy Star products, and the current and most recent movement away from plastic shopping bags. “Green marketing” has become important as part of consumer outreach.

There are also some worrisome signs. In addition to major pushbacks from well-organized and well-funded lobbyists who still favor such things as deep-water oil drilling and hydrofracking over conservation, there is a risk that consumers will feel the battle is over–they can buy green so buy they will.

“In many cases, businesses have re-formulated their products and created a ‘greener’ product,” says Ottman. “But one of the points I stress in my new book is that consumer education needs to continue.”

Responsible Consumption
Ottman says the first thing to remember is that green marketing has become “hot,” and therefore, consumers need to be aware that “greenwashing” (like “brainwashing”) can be part of the game. She uses the example of the hotel that encourages the guests to re-use their towels but makes no provisions for any sort of recycling, such as separating out newspapers from regular trash. (Leave them a note that you care.)

“Every consumer needs to use good judgment,” continues Ottman. “The SunChips bag that got all the negative publicity because it crackled so loudly was marketed as ‘compostable.’ Well, if you live in a city where you don’t compost, then that is not really a benefit to you.

“The diaper wars are a similar issue. In the northeast, we have plenty of water so cloth diapers may be advantageous. But in the southwest where water is at a premium and landfills are more readily available, disposable diapers may be a tolerable option.” (Tomorrow I’ll list some of Ottman’s ‘products to watch,’ including a new type of diaper.)

Shared Responsibility
“Even if a company re-formulates a product to make it more environmentally friendly, the way the product is used–or tossed away–is ultimately in the hands of the consumer,” says Ottman. “Today most laundry detergents will wash just fine in cold water, but consumers have to remember to select the ‘cold’ cycle when they do their laundry. They need to turn off the lights as they leave a room, and even if they have a new Energy Star air conditioner, it needs to be turned off when no one is home.

“We need to continue to encourage companies to create products that are environmentally-friendly but it’s ultimately up to us to use them responsibly or dispose of them in a way that the product will be recycled,” she says. “I call this ‘shared responsibility.’”

Company Leaders
Her book concludes with two companies–Timberland and Starbucks–that are setting positive examples. I was particularly interested in what she had to say about Starbucks. With 50 million customers a week, all of whom leave the store with greater or lesser forms of a paper product, they have their work cut out for them.

Ottman notes that Starbucks knows that caring for the environment is vital to them because coffee beans are an agricultural product. The company that started in Seattle in 1987 began contributing to CARE, an international and development aid relief organization that supports coffee-producing countries, as early as 1991. In 2000 Starbucks began purchasing fair trade coffee and became the largest buyer in 2009. They also have established its own CAFÉ Practices (Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices developed with Conservation International to support their belief that a good cup of coffee starts with good and well-cared-for farmers.

In 2008 Starbucks launched their Shared Planet initiative with very specific goals to reduce their environmental footprint. A couple of their targets:
• Recycling is to be available in all the stores.
• By 2015 one hundred percent of cups will be reusable or recyclable.

At this point, Starbucks’ hot cup is made with only 10 percent recycled material, but Ottman points out that though this percentage sounds small, it add up quickly with Starbuckian volume. This cup eliminates 5 million pounds of solid waste, 11,300 tons of wood, 58 billion BTUs of energy and 47 million gallons of waste water a year.

“It’s not easy being green,” warbled by Kermit the Frog might well be a good theme song for the environmental efforts of the future. Companies need to continue to “go green” and consumers need to keep their eye on the “green prize” as well. A pact of “shared responsibility” makes all the sense in the world.

 

Then the world began changing. Will Eisner (1917-2005), known as the “father of the graphic novel,” expanded his cartooning, and he began using sequential art to tell visual narratives that were of interest to adults. The first book of this type created by Eisner was “A Contract with God and other Tenement Stories.” During the next decade, Art Spiegelman wrote his two-volume Maus, about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, and in 1992, Spiegelman was given a special Pulitzer Prize for his work.

From that day forth, comics — graphic novels — took on a more literary reputation, and the watch words were that “comics weren’t just for children anymore.”

And it hasn’t been just literary comics that have pulled the attention of adults; they have also flocked to Comic-Con now in its 42nd year, where super heroes rule the day. Attendance at this annual event is over 100,000 (and is limited by being held in the San Diego Convention Center, a quite large venue that the convention has actually outgrown). The convention reached a new milestone for 2011; all attendance badges sold out online in one day.

Enter the Authors, Publishers, and Educators

As educators have struggled to compete for children’s attention with the new technologies and the graphic presentations of websites, they have come to realize that comics — graphic novels — are a great asset for school teachers and librarians. As a result, publishers are investing in producing these books on all types of subjects.

The Center for Cartoon Studies, a two-year MFA program in cartooning in White River Junction, Vermont, entered into a contract with Hyperion Books that appears to be a win-win relationship. Hyperion has thus far contracted with the Center for Cartoon Studies for historical biographies about Houdini, Satchel Paige, Amelia Earhart, Thoreau, and a forthcoming title on Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller.

“We knew we didn’t want to create the equivalent of a Wikipedia entry with pictures, so we’ve shown students the process of researching these figures and selecting some compelling aspect of their story that can resonate with readers,” explains James Sturm, director and co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies. “Our students get to observe and help with the process from concept through production.”

Sturm and artist and writer Rich Tommaso worked together on “Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow,” released in 2007. Satchel Paige’s story is told in short scenes by a former Negro League baseball player. Through the narrator’s eyes we experience the culture that not only barred African-Americans from playing Major League baseball but also kept them from sitting in the stands at baseball games played by white players. Through words and pictures, readers feel the incredible power of Satchel Paige and witness how he understood just how to play the crowd, play the game, and then leave quickly to keep on going to his next paying gig as a showman/Negro League player.

By choosing a former player to tell the story, Sturm and Tommaso are able to provide perspective on life for “coloreds” in this country in the 1930s and ’40s where the narrator is regularly subjected to taunting by whites and harbors a very real fear of being lynched.

Through the sequential art, readers feel the tension of the various scenes, and perhaps because the words are so spare, they have more impact. When the lead character wonders aloud about the men who have threatened his family’s security, he says: “How do men so small get so large? Who made it so?”

What more needs to be said?

“Today instructors have come to evaluate comics as just another form in which to tell a story, and they ask ‘what can comics do well that other forms can’t?’” says Joe Sutliff Sanders, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Children’s Literature who will be speaking on comics at a Celebration of Teaching and Learning, a professional development conference sponsored by WNET and Channel 13 in New York City in March.

Sanders feels strongly that the nuances of literature can be discussed in a classroom when the focus is on a good graphic novel. “Students are less likely to be intimidated by a graphic novel; dramatic irony, point of view, and foreshadowing are just a few of the literary devices that can be viewed when discussing comics.”

Sanders, who is currently at work on a book about classic orphan girl novels for Johns Hopkins University, first realized how strongly comics sometimes related to literature when he was taking a college honors class in mythology: “I kept knowing where the professor was going with the different myths; I was so familiar with the plot lines which are often re-told in super hero comics. Ultimately — albeit reluctantly — the professor let me write my paper on that topic.”

Other educators agree that graphic novels have value. “So many nonfiction text books assume a level of background knowledge that not all students have,” adds Jill Lauren, a learning specialist in New York City. “When a graphic novel format is used, it brings the concepts into 3-D. Research shows that the more senses we activate with kids, the better they will remember what they read.”

Joanne Kaminski, of the website, www.theskypingreadingtutor.com, says, “With graphic novels, children can jump into the past,” she adds. “I also find it interesting that the wording used in many of these books is at a higher level than an author might have selected otherwise; they know that kids will also have picture clues for understanding the story.

“But ultimately, when you have kids who are struggling at reading, what you really want is to find something that excites them,” says Kaminski.

Enter the Kids

Graphic novel artist and educator Alex Simmons, has a long list of professional credits in cartooning, voice-over work and teaching, but among his projects is an Imagination Literacy Program where Simmons works directly with kids as well as sharing his methods with teachers via professional development programs.

“When I work with students, we may read a graphic novel, but I also want them to create their own,” says Simmons. “I’ve found that if students are introduced to the concept that drawing — even with something as simple as stick figures — is a way to get a story going, you have given them yet another pathway to explore.

“You can’t build a house with just a hammer,” says Simmons. “Teachers need many ways to engage students. Once you have them involved, they’ll go on and explore something else. To take ownership of their actions today, they need to be able to imagine a future, and that’s what I stress in my teaching.”

In 2007, Simmons put together the first of what has become an annual Kids Comic Con with supplies donated by Canson Art Papers. “Kids meet professional artists, and they learn to create their own comic books; it really stimulates their imagination.”

Simmons adds: “As a matter of fact, one of the reasons we were able to get backing for the second year of the convention was because that first year, Hyperion had donated copies of the Satchel Paige book that had just been published. When adults came and found kids sprawled all over the floor reading that book, we didn’t have to say much more.”

This year’s Kids’ Comic Con will be Saturday, April 16 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Bronx Community College. For more information, check out the Kids’ Comic Con website.

And, in a perfectly timed moment, Joe Sutliff Sanders shared with me an e-mail that came into his inbox just before I interviewed him. For the first time ever, a sitting member of Congress, John Lewis D-GA, has signed to write a graphic novel about his life experience. The book will be called “March” and will focus on Lewis’ involvement in the Civil Rights movement. It will be published in 2012 by Top Shelf Productions.