FEATURE image: Paul Revere, c. 1770, by John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Public Domain. Unlike Copley’s portraits of Samuel Adams and another of John Hancock, both of which were displayed in Boston’s Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere’s portrait was relegated to the Revere family attic, disliked by his family after his death for its informality. With Paul Revere’s fame assured following the publication of “Paul Revere’s Ride,” a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) in 1861, the painting was restored in 1875 though not publicly displayed until 1928. It was given to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1930 by Revere’s descendants. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32401/paul-revere?ctx=00d797a8-0c5a-4d78-ba26-db22eb858902&idx=5 – retrieved April 19, 2025. 250th Anniversary: The beginning of the American War for Independence started at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on the morning of April 19, 1775. | CORRIDORS: The Blog.
America at 250: The Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary War, and the Founding as Seen Through Modern Film.
Feature Image: Freedom Bell at Union Station. “Freedom Bell at Union Station” by dbking is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Early Encounters with History and Film I first saw 1776 on an eighth‑grade field trip, and it hit perfectly. The music, the narrative, and the historical framing made it both fun and instructive. The year before, I had…
Beginning of the end of a life of violent crime: the story of John Dillinger’s first hideout in Chicago at 3512 North Halsted on March 3, 1934, to his being killed at the Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, by the FBI.
FEATURE IMAGE: On March 3, 1934, John Dillinger (left in a mug shot) used the second floor of this three-flat building on Chicago’s north side as his first hide out after he and another criminal, murderer Henry Youngblood, drove directly here from a jail in Crown Point, Indiana following their break-out. In January 1934 Dillinger…
50 years ago today: The Wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald (November 10, 1975).
FEATURE image: Edmund Fitzgerald in 1971. “Edmund Fitzgerald, 1971, 3 of 4 (restored; cropped)” by Greenmars is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot began releasing solo albums in 1966. The first six were on United Artists label and sold moderately well (up to 200,000 copies). Switching to Reprise in 1969 his debut album with the…
250th Anniversary: The beginning of the American War for Independence started at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on the morning of April 19, 1775.
PUBLISHED APRIL 19, 2025 7pm CT. Feature image: Lexington Minute Man, 1899, by H. H. Kitson (c.1863-1947) stands in Lexington Green west of Boston, Massachusetts. Although called Minute Man, the statue is meant to represent the local Lexington militiaman, colonists of many ages and backgrounds, who volunteered to be first responders to military and other threats.…
BELOVED HOMETOWN OF PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN (1911-2004): DIXON, ILLINOIS.
Feature Image: June 2017. 4.37mb DSC_0785. The statue of Ronald Reagan by American sculptor Donald L. Reed in DIxon, Illinois, was dedicated on August 14, 2009. It is based on a photograph of Reagan when he visited Dixon in 1950 and rode a horse through its streets in a parade. The statue itself is nine…
BLOG PAGE: JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY (May 29, 1917–November 22, 1963), 35th U.S. PRESIDENT.
FEATURE image: Portrait of President John F. Kennedy. “President John F. Kennedy” by U.S. Embassy New Delhi is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0. January 3, 1960 — Kennedy Confronts Charges of “Divided Loyalties” on Meet the Press: (20) Looking back at JFK discussing his faith 60 years after his assassination – YouTube – retrieved June 2, 2026. January 3, 1960 — Announcement:…
Bessie Coleman, First Black Woman Licensed Aviator and Pioneering Civil Rights Figure, Born on This Day in 1892
FEATURE image: Contemporary poster of American aviator Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) along Bessie Coleman Street in the Gateway Gardens district at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. PHOTO CREDIT: DSC06136 Frankfurt Flughafen Gateway Gardens Bessie-Coleman-Straße” by X-angel is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Early Life in Texas Bessie Coleman, the first licensed Black female aviator, was born on January 26, 1892,…
In November 1963 FOR “BILL OF RIGHTS WEEK,” President John F. Kennedy made a short film introduction addressing the nation on the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution that JFK called “the most extraordinary and detailed guarantees of individual liberty that any people on earth now possess.”
FEATURE Image: “bill of rights day tribute” by Demetrios Georgalas aka brexians is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. On November 5, 1963, President John F. Kennedy reminded his fellow Americans of the detailed guarantees of individual liberty found in the Bill of Rights that “perhaps we take for granted but which we are guaranteed in the United States…
2024 & THE CALIFORNICATION OF EVERYWHERE, U.S.A.
FEATURE Image: “California” by Thomas Hawk is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris supporter in 2024. Author’s photograph. Sept 2024 8.96mb California as National Vanguard San Francisco Democrat and longtime U.S. House Representative Nancy Pelosi recently told Bill Maher on Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO) that California “is always in…
50 years ago today: President Richard Nixon Resigns.
Feature Image: Richard Nixon flashes his double‑V salute as he boards the helicopter moments after his resignation on August 9, 1974. “RICHARD NIXON FAREWELL” by manhhai is licensed under CC BY 2.0. I was on one of my backpacking canoe trips into Quetico Provincial Park in Canada during the week of Nixon’s resignation on August 9, 1974. Up…
THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809), Author of “Common Sense” (1776) and “The Rights of Man” (1791), American revolutionary and founder, political theorist and writer, French revolutionary, philosopher.
FEATURE Image: Thomas Paine, by engraver William Sharp (1749-1824), after portrait painter George Romney (1734-1802), 1793. NGA, London. Public Domain. See – https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw35502/Thomas-Paine?LinkID=mp03422&search=sas&sText=thomas+paine&role=sit&rNo=6 – retrieved June 1, 2024. With the capture of Manhattan, British Army Commander in Chief William Howe sent Cornwallis to pursue Washington into New Jersey just sixty miles north of Philadelphia. Washington’s…
Why America’s Racial Crisis Was a Moral Crisis: The Enduring Vision of C.T. Vivian (1924-2020).
FEATURE image: Rev. C.T. Vivian. PHOTO: CC BY-SA 4.0 President Barack Obama delivers the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Cordy Tindell “C.T.” Vivian, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 20, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)/ Public Domain. America’s racial crisis was not fundamentally a Black problem…
Watching U.S. PRESIDENTS.
FEATURE Image: “White House” by Diego Cambiaso is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. “The advent of the new president changed everything. The Roosevelts transformed the White House as completely as the swift march of public thoughts and events had changed the country. No longer did the Executive Mansion resemble a medieval castle besieged by the forces of progress.…
From the Lincoln Memorial to the White House: Civil Rights Leaders Press Kennedy for Action After the March on Washington, August 28, 1963.
FEATURE image: This historic photograph captures the August 28, 1963 meeting between President John F. Kennedy and civil rights leaders in the White House Oval Office immediately following the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The photograph (left to right) includes Willard Wirtz (U.S. Secretary of Labor), Floyd McKissick (National Chairman of the Congress…
Never Sell the Bones of Your Father and Mother: Chief Joseph and the Nez Percé Fight for the Wallowa Homeland.
FEATURE image: Portrait of Chief Joseph in native dress with ornaments, 1900, by Lee Moorhouse (1850–1926). Public Domain. Chief Joseph became the moral voice of the Nez Percé struggle against dispossession, forced removal, and broken treaties, using dignity, reason, and appeals to justice even as his people lost their homeland. His life story and quotations reveal…
UNITED STATES. Henry Miller (1891-1980), Author.
FEATURE image: Henry Miller, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1940. Public Domain. This work is from the Carl Van Vechtan Photographs collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work. As the restrictions on this collection expired in 1986, the Library of Congress…
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (b. 1942). American businessman and politician.
FEATURE image: Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “File:Mayor Michael Bloomberg (cropped).jpg” by Rubenstein is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Michael Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, and author. He is the CEO and majority owner of Bloomberg L.P, which he co-founded. Bloomberg was the mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. His tenure was marked by…
From Li-Li to Lee Miller: The Making of an Artist Before Paris, 1907-1925.
FEATURE image: The Millers in 1920. Lee, Erik, Theodore, Florence and John. Public Domain. Lee Miller’s extraordinary artistic career did not emerge suddenly in Paris or the Surrealist movement, but was rooted in the unique environment of her Poughkeepsie upbringing, where family affluence, her father’s intense photographic interests, early exposure to cameras, artistic encouragement, and…
Christmas Choral Concert: THE TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY GOLDEN VOICES CHOIR, University Chapel, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama.
FEATURE image: In each academic year the Tuskegee University Golden Voices Choir performs extensively throughout the state of Alabama, as well as nationally and internationally , including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Canada in 2018. Fair Use. Tuskegee University Golden Voices Choir The Christmas Concert is held each December in the University Chapel under the direction…
Politics of Inclusion: ROBERT F. KENNEDY, 50 years Later (1968-2018).
FEATURE image: “‘Some men see things as they are, and say ‘Why?’ — I dream of things that never were, and say, ‘Why not?”” by gwilmore is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. PHOTO CREDIT: “No Known Restrictions: Robert Kennedy Speaks to Civil Rights Demonstrators at Justice Department by Warren K. Leffler, 1963 (LOC)” by pingnews.com is marked with CC PDM 1.0. By John…
5 African-American Classical Composers: WILLIAM GRANT STILL, FLORENCE B. PRICE, HARRY T. BURLEIGH, WILLIAM LEVI DAWSON, and MARY LOU WILLIAMS.
FEATURE image: Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), African-American poet, standing, at right, in a photograph of the Howard University Class of 1900. William Grant Still extensively used Dunbar’s poetry in his Symphony No. 1 in A-flat, “Afro-American” in 1930. African American pianist, composer and arranger, and vocalist Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981). She demonstrated remarkable musical talent in…
The Kennedy Model: Avoiding War in an Age of Nuclear Threats.
FEATURE image: Hawker-Siddeley Blue Steel was started privately in 1954. A contract was placed in 1956 for a stand-off missile to carry a thermonuclear device with a 1 megaton yield by the British Ministry of Supply. Blue Steel was powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Motors that were ignited on launch and enabled the missile to…
WALTER CRONKITE (1916-2009), the “Most Trusted Man in America,” gives advice to the news media on what would be his 100th birthday.
FEATURE image: Walter Cronkite in November 1983 by photographer Bernard Gotfryd (1924-2016). Library of Congress. Public Domain. By John P. Walsh, November 4, 2016. INTRODUCTION The date of November 4, 2016 is American newsman Walter Cronkite’s 100th birthday. The CBS News anchor died in 2009 at 92 years old. Employed with CBS News since 1950, Cronkite…
PART 3 – MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND THE CHICAGO FREEDOM MOVEMENT: Marches and Rallies of Summer 1966.
FEATURE image: At Chicago’s City Hall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Chicago Freedom Movement leaders, July 10, 1966. Following a speech in front of thousands at Soldier Field and a march downtown, Dr. King presented Mayor Daley with fourteen demands for a racially open city. August 5, 2016 – by John P. Walsh. Released…
PARTS 1 & 2 – MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND THE CHICAGO FREEDOM MOVEMENT: Coming to Chicago and the Start of the Campaign in 1966.
FEATURE image: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is joined (from left) by Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, James Forman, Rev. Jesse L. Douglas, and John Lewis at a march for voting rights in Alabama in 1965. King would come to Chicago in January 1966. Fair Use. By John P. Walsh The first nonviolent civil rights…
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968).
FEATURE image: “martin luther king” by caboindex is licensed under CC BY 2.0. “The Other America” speech, Stanford University, April 14, 1967 – In “The Other America” speech Dr. King presents “two Americas” – one that is “beautiful” and the “other America ” that is an “arena of blasted hopes and dreams.” In these remarks on racism and civil…
Nation Divided: Violent Crime and the “Renaissance of GUN OWNERSHIP” IN THE USA.
FEATURE image: “and more guns… 121228.223” by Patrick Feller is licensed under CC BY 2.0. By John P. WalshPosted December 6, 2014. updated: October 2, 2015;updated: February 14, 2018 (Parkland high school shooting — at least 17 killed, suspect in custody, Florida sheriff says). On a typical day in the United States, not all firearms (a.k.a. guns) are…
FRITZ REINER, JEAN MARTINON, & GEORG SOLTI: A Critical Look at the Modern Music Directors of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Part 1.
FEATURE image: Sir Georg Solti conducting the CSO in Orchestra Hall in November 1971. By John P. Walsh PART I: Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, & Georg Solti. In 2013 just ahead of Game Four of the Stanley Cup Finals the principal conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra dressed up in a Chicago Blackhawk’s sweater…
