Tag: new_jersey

National Geographic October 1888, Part 2

So, with the aid of Librivox, I knocked out another three articles from this issue during my lunch hour on three consecutive days.  I have since decided that my store is too noisy for me to really hear the articles to make this a worthwhile long-term plan.   I’m going to try to continue to listen to the articles on LibriVox, only in a not-so-noisy environment.  I am off this coming Wednesday, so while Alex is in school, I’m going to try to get some walking done on the Leon Creek Greenway.  If I have sufficient time and energy to do so, I hope to listen to one article on the way out and another on the way back.  On to the articles.

The Classification of Geographic Forms by Genesis, by W.J. McGee (no photographs, since this is 1888)

The Classification of Geographic Forms by Genesis is a stupor-inducing look at the state of geomorphology (the study of how forces affect the forms and structures of geographic features. In addition to lists of forces and their effects, we also get vague references to people (presumably men, since this is 1888) who were apparently well-known in geographic circles back in the 19th Century.  Perhaps Lyell, Powell, Gilbert, Lesley, Richthofen, and Dana are prominent enough that today’s geographers will know the reference just by the surname, but McGee apparently thinks that his Victoria-era target audience should know these people, as we never get any more information than just the surnames and their opinions.  Also, in the case of Richtofen (uncle of the “Red Baron,” from what I can tell), we get the German-language terms he used.

The Great Storm of March 11–14, 1888: A Summary of the Remarks Made by Brigadier-General A. W. Greely, Chief Signal Officer of the Army

The best thing I can say about this article is that at least it’s short. Greely talks about the path of the storm and lists lots of barometer pressure readings.  From what I can tell, this storm, which hit the northeast between New Jersey and Boston. Over 400 people died and it is still one of the worst blizzards in United States history.

This article concludes with the confidence-inspiring sentence, “These remarks are necessarily imperfect, as my official duties have been such as to prevent any careful study or examination of the storm apart from that possible on the current weather maps of the Signal Service.” So that’s exciting.

The Great Storm Off the Atlantic Coast of the United States, March 11th–14th, 1888, by Everett Hayden

This article has more detail on the formation of the storm and the effects when the storm finally hit.  The article actually does have illustrations, perhaps the first ones in the magazine’s history.  Well, charts, at least, but they were in color. The presence of these charts made the LibriVox reading interesting because the references to the charts did me no good.

We’ll be back to 1888 perhaps on January 30, if I can get two more articles done on January 27.  If not, I’ll go on to November 2015 on January 30.  The weekend of January 30 is my weekend off and Alex’s weekend with his dad, so I’ll try to walk-and-listen my way through the second article sometime that weekend.

2015 Vacation Destinations: Ellis Island, New York/New Jersey

After we finished at the Statue of Liberty, we took the ferry to Ellis Island.  We did a few of the activities in the museum, but I had another goal in mind.  You see, my maternal grandfather and his mother (my great-grandmother, of course) came in through Ellis Island very early in the 20th century.  I was far more interested in sort of getting in touch with their experiences while they were there.  I looked at floors and walls and doors, searching for things that were probably there when my ancestors were.

The Main Building has been restored and looks beautiful. The museum was mostly photographs and interpretive signage and things of that nature and didn’t have much in the way of artifacts.  We spent some time exploring the building and discovered the Great Hall, which I was totally unable to do justice to in photographs.

Then we went outside and my son got some rest while I examined the Wall of Honor.  The Wall of Honor is a series of metal plaques that have immigrants’ names inscribed on them.  The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation raised the money to renovate the north side of the island by putting names on the wall in exchange for a donation.  I am not sure if they are still adding names to the wall.  The Foundation’s website seems to indicate that they are, but I thought I saw something at Ellis Island indicating that they are not taking any more names.  If they are, I am very tempted to add my great-grandmother’s name, since she has many more descendants than my grandfather does.

The area behind the Main Building is well worth visiting, if you go to Ellis Island.  The Wall of Honor circles a little bit of greenspace.  There is also a place where one can see some of the foundations of Fort Gibson, which stood on the island before Ellis Island was used for immigration.  You can see the skylines of both Manhattan and Jersey City from the grounds of Ellis Island, as well.  And off tucked by the northeastern corner of the Main Building, there was the prettiest little bed of lilies (see image).

Lillies on the north side of the main building of Ellis Island
A bed of lilies on the northeast side of the main building of Ellis Island.

Overall, I was not terribly impressed by the museum, but I found that my visit to Ellis Island was definitely worth the time it took to explore the island, nonetheless. And maybe someday they will get the money to complete the restoration of the south side of the island, the buildings of which are falling into disrepair.