Photoessay #1985 - Writing Workshop

So with all this new business about using copyrighted material, if I link to an image on another site, is that ok, rather than outright lifting it?  This picture is from a great looking food writing workshop in Italy.

Last night I read an article in the New Yorker, a 2009 issue, that's not really THAT far behind considering.  "Show and Tell" by Louis Menand.  Mainly critical of the entire creative writing workshoping model.  That 'creative writing', whatever that is, cannot be taught this way.  The class I took all last year was taught in this model.  And the author, at the end, twists and says how personally useful this format was for him.

It is odd and difficult.  But it gave me courage to try my hand at writing.  I do it every day on this blog, for better or for worse.  I started out last year with the anthem "I'm all about the arts and I won't let my lack of talent stop me"  I've gotten a few pieces published in modest arenas.

I'm now working on two big historical papers for my class I'm taking this year.  They only require one, but I can write two, if I want, right?  What's stopping me?  And, as many people like myself facing that Landmark Birthday reflect, what am I waiting fo?.  I've got the time so just go for it.  What's the worse that can happen?  I'll write a lousy paper?  So what????

Personally, I'm glad that I got to experience a creative writing class taught in a workshop model.  She told us she teaches the class on a MFA level.  I believe it.  I learned a lot and had to work hard doing it.  My friend Ann (who I'm working with) is taking the class this year and she loves it.  So much to learn!

Photoessay #1984 - Trail of microfilm machines

Today, after a rare mid-week daytime team meeting, I went down to UW Seattle to read some microfilm reels that I obtained from Interlibrary Loan.

Alas, I have left a trail of broken microfilm machines in my area.  There's not very many around here.  One at the Bothell Public Library which I used for awhile.  You can make copies for a dime.  I can do that, lotsa dimes no  problem.  But then it stopped making copies.  They called in the service guy who said he fixed it but he didn't.  I hadn't been there for several weeks, figured it must be fixed by now.  But it wasn't.  But you can't really figure that out until you have completely set up, put your reel in, find something to print.  Then you find it doesn't work.

Also a machine at University of Washington, Bothell.  Not too far away (six miles) but you have to pay $5 parking no matter what.  They have a machine hooked up to a PC.  You scan the image into a file and then put it on your little drive or email it to yourself.  OK, that's fine and I like the UW Bothell library.  But, most of the time, I couldn't get the reel to load, it's tricky.  But most of the time I could get the scan function to work.  Except for that tricky bit that you have to manually save the image if there's multiple pages.

But this weekend, I couldn't get the machine to work.  Part of the problem might be that one of the reels is a little broken.  But the weekend staff couldn't figure out  how to get it to work.  So I did at least read some articles so I had a few to print.

I find myself getting confused about what I do  and don't have.  Picking things off of Genealogy Bank is fine and you can feel good that you have satisfactory bunch of articles.  But do you have everything?  Is it maybe missing November 1877?  Or not give you all of December 1878?  You just do not know.  Plus I keep getting the dailies mixed up.  Is it July-Dec of the Journal or Courier that I didn't have?  Or was it the Register?  I thought I had the Register but it turned out today that I certainly did not!

But you don't need EVERY article, just like you don't need to have every house.

I met with my friend Anne last night and she started talking about my thesis sentence for my Maier piece.  Oh oh oh, this sounds like school stuff.  But useful, very useful.  So I'm trying to develop one.

Here's my latest:

Maier Zunder, a participant in the large migration of Bavarian Jews to the United States in the mid 19th century, used his considerable personal talents to establish become of prosperous merchant, bank executive, community leader and member of the Board of Education in New Haven Connecticut.

I appreciate the help so much, I really want to get this right.

Anyway, I decided to try luck at the main campus today.  A whole different setup.  But, like the others, once you get the hang of it, it works well.  I didn't have my camera but I saw a similar one at the Dartmouth library which I am using here.  Without permission.  With this, the film is separate from the screen, it's not just magnifying and projecting on a screen, it's actually scanning.  I found a ton of letters, articles and speeches in the Register leading up to the Sept 1878 School Board election.

That's for the second paper about the Devotional Exercise controversy.  It's SO timely.

Photoessay #1983 - Middle vs United Front

Today at a team meeting, we spent almost the whole time discussing whether a parent should try to get herself out of the middle between her child and her husband... or ... was it more important to put the united front?

The topic (unimportant) concerned a nose ring.

The dad insisted that he strongly opposed the ring, the mom didn't feel strongly about it. The 16 year old had recently returned from treatment and doing very well.

Back and forth, the debate went. The consensus emerged that the united front was the most important. The mom has been in the middle for years; a bit longer won't make that much difference. The parents want to send a strong message that the parents will work together and won't be split. That's easier for a struggling teen when they really are working to craft a life without substance abuse. Split parents can be exploited, the easiest thing in the world. But if your parents put up a strong front, you know you can count on them.

Okay, these are young otters used without permission from the zooborns website. But they could be parents working together.

Photoessay #1982 - Rockford glass

My parents belonged to a reform Jewish congregation in Rockford, IL. Sometimes on my trips there, I would take my mom to Temple on Friday night; once on Yom Kippur. But she really didn't feel like she could leave my dad.

After my father died, a couple about my age, Stern and Mary invited my mother to come with them to services every Friday night. They went regularly and they would come to pick her up. She loved it! It's so much nicer when you have someone to go with. She would take them out to dinner regularly. On my later trips to Rockford, I would tell them how much I appreciated them including her. And they would tell me how much they had gained by spending time with her. I still am grateful to them for doing that.

My sister wanted to have her own bat mitzvah, who knows what year it was. I could look it up. Not too long ago. Teresa, my niece was having hers as part of a big deal in Lafayette. I convinced Pam to separate hers out.

"I don't know if mom could make two trips to Lafayette!" fretted my sister. "And my friends won't be there."
"Who do you want me more?" I pressed her, I'm good at that. "Your friends or Mom?"
"Mom!" She was definite about that.
"Then have it in Rockford."
"You just can't have a bat mitzvah in some other temple, they would probably charge a fortune." Pam continued to fret.
"Hey, mom's a member", I pointed out. "You're allowed to have a bat mitzvah for your daughter in your own temple, doesn't matter how old she is. I'll come if you have it here," I added.

So it was set. It worked out very well. We had it on a Friday night with a slightly expanded oneg at the end. We had flowers and a cake. It was good for Teresa to participate in something honoring her mother.

"I really like this!" she commented. A modest but nice affair. My mother insisted on supervising the setup. We tried to get her to stay home. "This is my event so I want to be sure it's done right!" A few people came from the community. And her close friend, the Hebrew teacher Karen, came from Layayette (4 hours away) and surprised her. Some friends of my parents invited a group over for a nice dinner in their appartment before.

This stained glass is in the temple in Rockford, really very pretty. We had the event in April so it wasn't green outside yet. Rockford held a transitory place for me. In those last years, I went there a lot but I knew that, someday, I would never travel there any more.

Nothing's stopping me, I can go back to Rockford if I want.

That unseen hand drawing everybody to the Midwest, now Ilana.....

Charlie took this picture on the bat mitzvah weekend.

Photoessay #1981 - Future of this blog?

I've been faithfully writing this blog every day for almost 5 years now. Every day I write something. I've made 3 blog books and am putting together another one for 2011. I did get a letter about using copyright material for some blog entry from 2009. I think I took an image of a redwood from a nursey website. Giving credit nut not permission. I took out the picture and republished but it still didn't seem to work. So i don't get it.

I have used pictures from other places. Is that fair use? Who can say?

My husband says I reveal too much to the general internet on this blog, maybe so. My daughter doesn't want the name of her employer up. She says my blog comes up very high on a google search because I update every day. I certainly never put the name of my previous employer up. Ever. Especially as things started to fall apart. So I can understand.

I have a bigger readership than ever before. How big? Hard to say, 50-80 people per day? So what do you all think?

Picture today is the logo of blog2print, which I've used to print my annual blog book.

Photoessay #1980 - New job

Ilana has accepted a VERY good job at a prestigious Midwestern University. Her working title will be Business Information Specialist at the business library. She has faculty ranks; this is considered a tenure track position. She starts a week after she graduates. This library emphasizes information literacy so she'll have opportunities to teach. A plum job just coming out of school (University of Michigan School of Information) with a masters degree. At a prestigious university. In Indiana.

The Indiana part; wish it wasn't so far away. Or is it part of the continuing action of the unseen hand determined to make my entire family Midwestern. Matt will join her there and they will really get to set up housekeeping together. So very busy time for both of them as Ilana has to finish up at school plus she's working 28 hours/week at various libraries in Ann Arbor. Matt's finishing up school this week. They need a place to live and get themselves moved. Dennis, Naomi and I will be going to Ann Arbor at the end of April for graduation.

Ilana's usually very very busy and she just got busier. But they're young and they'll work it out. They will even help Matt get a job as a faculty 'follower'.

My sister lives in Lafayette and works at the same university at the NPR station. She can be a home base for them. It can all work! I've very excited for her. After it all happened, it was so hard for her because she had quite a few other places who wanted to interview her.

Finally, today, I feel like I'm back in the land of living, whew....

Go Boilermakers!

Photoessay #1979 - Spring again

I know it's still early but spring is showing in my neglected yard.

In the Puget Sound, spring lasts a long long time. Sometimes, it never quite gets into summer at all. But the weather is cool and things start blooming. Soon, the rhodies will come out which adds brilliant color all around the region.

Daffodils come first. Somehow I never quite think we appreciate them enough. Mine have fallen down a bit as they started to open up and then it snowed.

I'm feeling that maybe, just maybe, I could be improving from this cold. I haven't been sick for a week in years. I'm still not showing up for events. So, for those close to me, I will start showing up any day now.

Photoessay #1978 - More pictures of Matt

I haven't seen the actual G4 show but I did see some of the stills they released of Matt taking advantage of G4's offer to fly him to LA and stake him to a professional photo session. Some show too much skin. They don't have the playfulness of Matt's pictures he took of himself.

My friend Gin tivo0ed the show and I want to go over there to look at it. But I've been too dang sick. Still!! When I went to the doctor today, she declared I had a fever with a temp of 98.3. Because my usual temp is 97.2 So I'm still cancelling events left and right. Very fortunate for me that I don't really have stressful components. Like a job. Or young kids. Or both. That was one of the hardest parts of parenting. You're running a fever, feel like death warmed over...and you still have to watch two preschoolers and a baby. All day. ikes. NOT good times.

So here's one of the pictures. He did have a real good time.

Susanna's had two successful interviews at Eastern Washington and Midwest in Arizona. Cross your fingers for her. As she told me on the phone, I just need one 'yes'.

Photoessay 1977 - Something green and warm

So the cold finally caught up with me. Sneezing and coughing, can't concentrate. I did put together the epilogue for my Maier Zunder paper but that's about it in the production department. I've already bailed out the speaking event I was going to help out at tonight. I do want to finish reading some of those 1878 papers but its freaking snowing out there. I could go out to UW Bothell or Bothell public library where the microfilm readers are. Surely, I'm the only using them right now.

The dog is antsy, he wants to do SOMETGHING!

So I wanted something warm. Aha, how about some Hawaii pictures? Sounds warm. So a picture from the Waipi'o valley, a side trip taken December 2010 on the sibling trip to the Big Island. An anicent taro growing valley on the coast. You have to take a special trip town there. Some small taro growers, little farms, just a different view into an ancient culture and those who are trying to keep it going not by interpretational exhibits but by actually growing taro.

This was a creek that ran through that curious valley.

Photoessay #1976 - Matt's new car

Matt just bought this (new to him) car. It IS practically a new car. But he doesn't have anywhere to park it in the short term. He's finishing up at UW then off to Michigan for a few weeks all in preparation for a move to Indiana that will be here before you know it.

So it's going to live in our driveway for the short term. Every time I come home, I wonder who's here? Until I remember. It's fine. And a nice start for a new midwest adventure.

If you needed a midwest adventure.

But it's all part of the unseen hand which has directed all of my family to move to the midwest. I used to say "My family got midwestern when I wasn't looking".

Photoessay #1975 - Jim's birthday today

Today would have been my father-in-law Jim's birthday. He would have been 85 today. He died in 2006, the first of our parents to pass. We miss him; I know Dennis misses him. He lived nearby and Dennis went every weekend to go help him. Dennis would bring the dreadful can Jennyfur to the nursing home to visit his mother who was very debilitated. He would also take out the garbage, clean the catbox, lay out the pills for the next week. Maybe take Jim shopping or whatever else needed to be done.

Dennis did this every weekend and never complained, just had to be done.

The last time he came over, Jim and I watched the super bowl and I'm sure I made dinner. I did every Sunday. Jim appreciated Dennis and liked being around all of his grandchildren. He had gone to softball and soccer games when he was able. He bought one of every flavor when Ilana or Naomi sold girl scout cookies.

He resisted moving from his condo. He did the drop dead thing. A blessing was that he never had to do those things that he didn't want to do. He stayed in his own place and drove his car until the end.

So we all miss him.

I'm using a picture I've already used twice on this blog but not for almost five years. The iconic picture of Jim and Lanaya probably soon after their marriage.

Don't they look sharp? They eloped at age nineteen. Jim's mom put her on the bus to San Francisco where Jim was stationed.

No doubt about it, Lanaya was a looker big time. I've always loved this picture; it just has so much optismism and energy. These two young folks were going to take the world by storm.

Happy Birthday James Antony Barnes (1926-2006)

Photoessay #1974 - Going to LA

So a certain young man I know went to LA this past week for a professional photo session. Not saying who he is but you just might watch "around-the-net" on g4tv.com on Monday.

The show had featured his calendar a few weeks ago and at the end of the segment (which we can't find any more), on air, the host invited him to come to LA for a professional photo shoot. Were they for real? Apparently they were.

So when our friend came out of security at LAX, he saw this guy holding a sign with his name on it. This was his driver, who would take him to his hotel. I blurred out the name for confidentiality purposes. I lifted it off his blog. Wow, were his friends ever impressed. Heck, I am. And does this guy look tough or what?

He had a blast during the photo shoot, they really did it up with the make up and the lighting and the costumes. All day! And they took footage to show on the show.

Hee hee, he's a star. He'll graduate in engineering soon and, if he can't get an engineering job, he can always model, right?

Photoessay #1973 - Hot hand

Today, I had the hot hand on my Maier Zunder project.

Sarah, our geneaalogy teacher was teaching us about using probate records. Part of it involves a clerk copying in somebody's will into the official record on their death. Maier Zunder died in 1901. There's some official notices from 1902. A few weeks ago, I visited the Family Search Center at the local LDS church. I saw a multi-volume Germans to America set of books. Tons of passenger lists from 1850 on. Couldn't find anything. I ordered the 1901 probate microfilms.

One out of the three reels was in. I went over to give it a shot. Sure enough, wills all copied in by one person longhand. No index, no order, they didn't even start at the top of the page for a new will. Paper was too dear?

A long reel, I thought, I will never find it, I don't even know if it's here. Well, I told myself, I'll just look for awhile. And then I found it. Right near the beginning of the first reel I tried. Maier Zunder's will! I was shocked. With much effort, we managed to make copies on their special machine.

Some surprises, the family story was that he only give each family member a small amount and expected his sons to continue to run the business and provide for everybody. He gave $500 to each of his children, he referred to my great grandmother as Othilea which I have NEVER seen before.

We have a mystery on our hands. The eighth section where he specifically bequeaths his niece $100. But who IS that? Livia Kalberger?? Or similar. Anybody have any ideas???

So that's all great. I attacked the Germans to America books and I found records for

a. Besla, Getta and Sara Zunder coming in 1854 on the Germania
b. Babette Zunder in 1850 on the Charles Edward (I can see that on Ancestry)
c. Flora (age 12) and Carl Rosenthal (age 10) coming in 1877 on the Hermann

I can't see Mina or Albert coming. Did those two children travel by themselves? Maier came in 1848 and these records started in 1850.

I also spent quite a long time with somebody I met there trying to see if she has any Jewish heritage. You just can'te tell by name.

But pretty good haul. I truly had the hot hand today!

Phiotoessay #1972 - Box to Japan

I sent a box to Japan today. Nobuko who is a bit stocky in build, really has trouble finding clothes to fit in Japan. In fact, when we went to visit in April 2010, at her request, I left most of my clothes there with her. They had all been bought at Penneys, most were new, inexpensive. So now, every once in a while, when I'm at Penneys I buy some things for her. Things she could wear to work, she is director of a center for autistic children and adults in Yamagata City. You may remember hearing about it a year ago. This city, across the mountains (and they are BIG mountains) from Sendai. Reporters broadcast from Yamagata City and I think refuges were sent there. There's no way to get directly from Yamagata to Sendai, you have to go around.

I really like the larger size department at Penneys (since I've lost some weight, I have made it down one department). So a few weeks ago, I was there and I picked out some clothes and finally got around to sending them this morning. I knew already that it almost costs as much to send the box as to buy the clothes. I knew it. Yup, I spent $73 on the clothes and $51 to send the box.

But it's something I do, it's ok. It's hard to communicate with Nobuko. She doesn't use her English. She can speak better than write. So Skype works better than email. But the time zones, yikes. Sometimes I can go through her daughter Natsuko. But last I heard, Natsuko was in Mongolia studying snow leopards. Readers of this blog may remember that Natsuko came to Seattle for two weeks to work with a group of Snow Leopard people right before we went to Japan. It worked out perfectly. She stayed here and took the bus to where she needed to go. Then, when she got ready to go, she said "This is not goodbye, this is see you in two weeks in Narita airport!"

So a picture of the box on the stairway with Teddy in the background. He's going through his abandonment thing that I'm going to leave him and he's afraid of the box. It looks like it's squirrel food but it's not.

Stay tuned, readers. I'm going to have an exciting announcement about a great job for Ilana just as soon as it's official to mention it. Turns out that my blog comes up quite high in Google. She says it's because I update every day.

Photoessay #1971 - The paper trail

The Maier Zunder paper trail is taking over a lot of our downstairs office. And I still need to reaed July-Dec issues of the New Haven Journal and Courier and the New Haven Palladium. I have two big binders with newspapers articles and I'm going to have to go to three soon.

Now some of this doesn't directly name him; some portion of it is directly about the devotional exercise controversy. But he will play a pivotal role in the resolution.

But a lot is about him.

It occurs to me that I certainly could not have built a paper trail of this magnitude about my father or my grandfathers. Let alone my mother and grandmothers. This group certain did have their successes. Really no shirkers.

But I can pick up just about any book about the 19th century Jews in America and look in the index and there's "Zunder, Maier" with a sentence about how he was the first Jewish member of a Board of Education. He also had a successful merchant business and was president of a bank. His brother, step-sons and sons worked in his enterprises. He made sure that his daughters and step-daughters married well and were provided for.

Shocking, really, to think about how my grandmother, his granddaughter, was thrown into such an impoverished state during the depression.

Meanwhile, my Maier Zunder stuff is swallowing up our downstairs.

Photoessay #1970 - Quote by Mr. Zunder

I'm going to ask at my class tonight about ways to refer to my subject. Great great grandfather, Maier Zunder. For whom I have great respect. It just doesn't seem right to me to refer to him by his first name.

The newspaper especially in regards to the School Board refer to him as Mr. Zunder. This somehow feels right to me. Channeling my grandmother, who was his granddaughter thought he died when she was about 5 years old, she certainly would have referred to him as Maier. I've thought often how he likely would not have had much to do with me as a girl descendant; he certainly acted as the partiarch, taking care of everybody.

Referring to him as Mr. Zunder somehow feels right to me. I will discuss it soon, very soon.

I'm also reflecting that I do not even have such a complete paper trail on my father or grandfathers, let alone the mothers or gransmothers.

But Mr. Zunder, I got a bunch.

One of my favorite Maier Zunder quotes. He's being interviewed here by one of the dailies asking him about the proposed changes to the devotional exercises for the schools in 1878. He's a member of the Board of Education. He will later engineer the failure of this plan. I told the stories to the Thuleans last night and they reacted just like Dennis "Where is he now? We need him!"

I don't think that either Protestants or Catholics will look upon the proposed plan as being anything except ridiculous, and think there is no more probability of its being adopted than there is of the Hebrew Talmud. Our Jewish children wouldn't be hurt by hearing the proposed exercises but a trial would show the ministers how impractical the plan would be. It is proposed that a certain percentage of children should withdraw from the room for devotional exercises, but we have no rooms in our buildings for the children to withdraw to. Now there is a room in Cedar Street where there are about fifteen jews, fifteen Catholics and the rest Protestants, but how can we provide a room for these sets of children. For the highest room in the school in each school there are recitation rooms and there the children might withdraw, but there are no such accommodations in the other rooms. Even with those accommodations a great deal of time would be consumed in the devotions. To be practicable there must be one service for all. The Jews have no objection to the reading of the Psalms or the Proverbs, and little to the saying of the Lord's Prayer. Neither have they much objections to most of the hymns excepting those of Moody and Sankey. The proposed plan would be very disastrous to this country as a Republic for it will engender a great deal of feeling for when the time for devotions comes there will be lines drawn between Jews, Protestants and Catholics, and children will learn to distinguish each other by their religious faith, and will be influenced by same throughout their lives. This plan proposed reminds me of the features of the middle ages when Jews were obliged in Spain and Portugal to be distinguished by the badge of a yellow ribbon on one arm, and of the time in France when the Huguenots of France were obliged to wear a badge indicative of their faith. There can be no doubt that this plan must create among children a sense of religious distinction. If the children of various faiths are to be separated, some must either go into entries or hallways or we shall have to build a withdrawing room for each school room. All classes in this country have always lived in harmony and peace together, but if these distinctions were made, the result, I think, will be very disastrous.

Picture is an engraving of State Street in 1860, 18 years before the above quote. Mr. Zunder's business was nearby. Picture used without permission from Magrisso Forte.

Photoessay !969 - Youth Symphony

We had a lovely afternoon and evening with the Thuleans, some of my all-time favorite people. We had bought an item donated by them at the Changes auction. Tickets to the Seattle Youth Symphony at Benaroya Hall followed by dinner in their condo on First Hill.

How long has it been since I've been to a symphony concert?? Long long time. Don is a retired music conductor and he knows and loves music. This orchestra is the top tier of a very impressive youth program.

We've never been in Benaroya Hall. Embarrassed to say that Don and Meryl have seats in one of the boxes like you can see across the way. It'a at an angle so I had to adjust the chair. But fun, sitting in the cool seats and enjoying the music. I liked all the music; the one that drew me in was the one I might least expect William Walton's Violin Concert, a syncopated varied rhythm harmony piece. As mentioned in the program, it is romantic, maybe love regained. I found myself rather lost in it and when it ended, I thought, that's it? It's over? Music does not usually affect me like that and felt it rather satisfying.

Then an nice dinner and chat at their home. Fun! First shot is taken in the lobby of Benaroya of Dennis, Meryl and Don. The second taken from our seats looking across the hall.

Photoessay #1968 - 1971 California and me

I would like to say that this is Santa Cruz. But it just isn't Santa Cruz. That would be me (that IS me) (a long long time ago). But where am I? It's tempting to say that's Santa Cruz Bay with the pier and Hwy 1. But it isn't. Santa Cruz didn't have highway one running that close to the beach. And the business district was not oriented to the pier like that.

Dennis says the light looks like Southern California. And my father must have taken this picture. I regret to add that almost all of the pictures taken by my father when I was a teenager and a bit beyond, I am always scowling. Nasty. Because I didn't want to be there. My goodness, look at that ugly expression. But I'm not featuring any of those. Not in my blog.

So, geography buffs. I pretend to knowing a lot about California landscapes. Where is this taken??? It's California all right and looks like Southern California. Southern California in 1971.

I'm lost in time and space.

But not scowling, that is an improvement.

And I'm really really resisting writing about 19th Century New Haven. Because these days, I have a lot to say.

I heard from a well-established New Haven historian today who's research Paul Weil. How about that??? Another of my great great grandfathers. I really need to talk to him some more! I did get to the UW Bothell library before they closed this afternoon and read May 1878 of the Journal and Courier. More and more Christian revival stuff.

So please, my California readers, tell me where I was!

Photoessay #1967 - Moody and Sankey

I forget sometimes the timeline of my research. For example, I didn't even know about the devotional exercise controversy of 1878 before I went to New Haven and saw the clippings. Soon after, I read an interview with Maier Zunder and he said he wouldn't mind the singing of hymns except for those of Moody and Sankey.

I thought who? Moody and Sankey? Who are they?

Now I know. Dwight Moody (preaching) and David Sankey (singing) toured around the country as evangelical revivalists. Tremendously popular in the 1870s, they drew huge crowds around the country and the UK, preaching a born again devotion to Christianity.

In 1878, they announced they wanted to come to New Haven. An organizing committee of businessmen and ministers decided there was no building large enough so they decided to fund and build a huge building over a period of six weeks. The Tabernacle, as it was called, seated 6000 people, had a special rail spur for those traveling from other cities, was near the intersection of Dwight and Whalley Streets just a few blocks north of Yale and the Nine Squares.

Moody and Sankey preached during all of April into early May, three sessions/day. Between two and six thousand people attended every single session. They had a huge influence on Yale Divinity and the development of the YMCA. Pretty impressive when you realize that the population of New Haven at that time was only about 65K

This morning, I was at the University of Washington, Bothell campus reading March and April of 1878 New Haven Journal and Courier. Unlike January and February, I didn't find much writing about the Bible in the Schools

But I saw a LOT about Moody and Sankey's visit. Most days, the entire local section of the Journal and Courier (which was quite a comprehensive daily) was completely devoted to the Moody and Sankey crusade including detailed reporting on all of the sessions with excerpts from the preaching.

Check out the drawing of the 'tabernacle'. A huge deal in New Haven. So, if you figure that many of the citizens attended these charismatic sessions, is it any wonder that a few months later, the populace enthusiastically endorsed a ticket for election to the Board of Education to "put the Bible back in the schools". Moody and Sankey were just warming everybody up.

Photoessay #1966 - Report on the Committee on Schools

This document is a crucial part especially in my second proposed paper on the Devotional Exercises controversy of 1877-8.

The Board of Education removed the requirement for devotional exercises in December 1877. There was a huge outcry involving petitions, sermons and letters screaming about "Taking the Bible out of the public schools" The Board of Education decided to publish a Majority Report and a Minority Report and issued it printing at least 2000 copies in Feb 1878.

I have a copy that I donwloaded through Interlibrary Loan from Yale. I've been reading it closely today. It runs 36 single spaced pages. But looking for an image maybe better than the one I had. To my surprise, I found dozens of internet booksellers featuring three different editions one issued in 2009. Note the new covers.

Why do you think that is?? It's true that the debates in New Haven 1870s about school prayer could be taken verbatim from today's publications and views. And vice versa.

But why would people re-issue this?? Just because they can as it's in the public domain. Even on sale for pounds on an English site.

It's well written. I'm biased. On the side against student prayer. Which is the majority opinion of the Board at that time. It's hard for me to accept the other side's views. Just makes no sense to me. Maybe because I'm outside the majority and it's been my experience that the majority cannot even conceive the minority's view.

Part of this document is an interpretation of from the Connecticut State constitution "No preference shall be given by law to any Christian sect or mode of worship". The majority opinion says that the State must be indifferent in religious terms. The minority opinion believes that the word "Christian" also modifies "mode of worship", therefore the State is, by definition, Christian. So the Christians (self defined as the Protestants) can lawfully put their prayers in the schools.

Um, that sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it.

The story I will tell is how Maier Zunder upended an elaborate devotional exercise scheme designed by the leading pastors and clergyman in the Elm City.

That's our man. Dennis said, even last night, bring him back!!!

The book websites are selling this document for at least $10. What's up with that?