American Memory

This is from the Library of Congress. Note to me: this link will be useful when we study US Government

American Memory/A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation: US Congressional Documents and Debates

A great collection of source documents. . .

WWI / Arthur Mole and John D. Thomas

I just found out about this guy, Arthur Mole. Apparently he visited many army, navy and marine camps across the country during WWI. He created "living sculptures" and took pictures of them. According to the record, he was born in England and his family moved to Zion, IL when he was 12 years old. He met John Thomas, the director of the choir at Zion's Christian Catholic Tabernacle which was just being built, who would ultimately be Mole's choreographic collaborator. He would stand on an 80 ft. platform so that he could get an idea of perspective for the final picture. It said that Mole and Thomas donated the entire income from their endeavors to the families of the returning soldiers and the government's efforts to re-build their lives.

The link has more information and more pictures. http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/24/kaplan.php This picture of the Statute of Liberty used 18,000 men!

Pilgrims v. Indians

Since it was Thanksgiving this week, I took the time to listen to the Pilgrims v. Indians CD that is put out by Vision Forum. This is a presentation by Doug Phillips (definitely one of my favorite speakers to listen to - quite possibly my #1 favorite). I have probably listened to this at least 4 times.

It reminds us of our Godly Christian heritage with the pilgrims and how history is being revised. How the pilgrims viewed the indians as being one of the lost tribes of Israel. They considered them as a people in need of God's saving grace - not some group that was living on land they wanted. They worked with the local indian tribe and many came to a saving knowledge of Christ. It was reported that all of the indians at Martha's Vineyard were converted.

It tells of how his family (along with Richard "Little Bear" Wheeler) went on a vacation to Plymouth one Thanksgiving for the purpose of remembering our Puritan heritage and to pray over his children and to to help them realize the importance of a multi-generational vision. What they found was desecrated historical markers and new markers placed which gave an amended version of the historical record which claimed that the pilgrims were responsible for acts of genocide against the indians as well as

The CD talks about John Eliot, a Puritan missionary who was instrumental in converting the Massachusetts Indians. Note to me. . .find a biography of John Eliot. They had no written language and he devised an alphabet for them. He also translated the Bible into their language - which was the first Bible printed in North America. Another note to me. . .read The Christian Commonwealth: or,The Civil Policy Of The Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ, by John Eliot. This was considered the first book on politics written by an American and also the first book to be banned by an American government. Written in the late 1640s, and published in England in 1659, it proposed a new model of civil government based on the system Eliot instituted among the converted Indians, which was based in turn on Exodus 18.

This CD was worth every penny (and much more) that I paid for it. In listening to it again, it says that it is the first in the series "Christian Controversies in American History". Note to me. . .find out what other CDs he has in this series.

Early American Favorites

Since I was in elementary school I have loved early American history. Here are a couple of pics of two of my favorites from the Civil War - Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.