Lauren's History Blog: 2012

Monday, November 19, 2012

History of Coney Island

Coney Island at one point was one of the biggest attractions in the US. Even though it is not near as popular today, it still has many visitors. Coney Island started as a "quiet seaside town" and went on to the "boom years" in the 1880s. The attractions at Coney Island reached their peak during the first half of the 20th century. Because there were so many tourists, immigrants, and just visitors in general at Coney Island many entrepreneurs used it as a way to make their fortunes.

Many amazing attractions were first started or seen at Coney Island. For example, they had their first roller coaster in 1884 and also had the largest cyclone in 1927. Coney had the worlds biggest Ferris wheel at one point, the Wonder Wheel, which reached 150 feet into the sky. The largest pool was also another thing Coney had which at one point filled with 670,000 gallons of salt water. The hotel at Coney Island, made in 1882, was unlike any other. It was made of tin and in the shape of an elephant with a roller coaster that ran over the top of it. This was one of the first sights to see when people came to the amazing Coney Island. Another very important thing that got started at Coney was the good ole hot dog. In 1867, Charles Feltman sold his first "red hots". Rumors actually spread that it was "stuff with dog meat". When the ridiculous rumors were immediately reported false, he sold 5 million red hots during 1923 which gave Coney a tremendous amount of money.

When the three enchanting parks were built at Coney Island, that brought in even more people which made them reach their peak. Steeple Chase was one of the three parks that had many strange attractions. At steeple chase visitors could visit a human zoo or even watch a women's skirt fly up from being forced to stand above blowing air. Sadly in 1907, Steeple chase park burned to the ground, efforts were immediately made to rebuild it and it was up and going again a year later. In 1904, senator William Reyonald and a group of local speculators opened Dreamland. Dreamland was completely painted white and had crazy, exotic things such as the Lilliputian Village which had 300 "little people" living there. Dreamland also had an African Village with costumed somali warriors who also lived there. The many beautiful lights at Dreamland also attracted many people because electricity was not very common in their homes at that point. For people who did not have enough money to travel all over the world, Dreamland was the perfect preview of what it was like. This was all thanks to Samuel Gumpertz because he went all around the country and brought crazy, interesting stuff back to Coney. In 1911, another fire broke loose and Dreamland burned down which was not as lucky as Steeple chase to start back.

The last amazing attraction was Luna Park. Luna opened May 16th, 1903 and was built by Thompson and Dundy. Luna had many illusion rides such as "Trip to the Moon", "War of the Worlds", and the "Kansas Cyclone". These rides were designed to keep people on the move. Yet again, another fire burned down the park and Luna was not rebuilt. Steeple Chase was the only park that made it for a while and Coney started to lose many visitors.

Coney Island has a huge connection with urban life. When people wanted to get away from the stress of the city, they could go take a fun break at Coney. Back in the earlier days, only wealthy families could travel to Coney because it was very expensive to travel there. Eventually subways were built and they became known as the "Nickel Empire". Since the subways became cheaper, many more people could go to Coney Island. The middle class first viewed Coney as "a rough and unsavory place", but to the working class and middle class it was "a place of wonder, excitement, and escape." The huge ballrooms and restaraunts, 300 foot high iron tower, all attracted people. Coney was also a popular site for real horse racing, boxing, and other sports. This all brought on even more attractions such as gambling casinos and saloons. Many have said that Coney Island showed the American culture with all of the different people that went there.

ebscohost

neonatology

ebscohost

Wikipedia

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abebooks

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Faces of America

While watching Faces of America, I learned many eye-opening things. It truly is amazing to see how much history is in your families background and how only few people are aware of all of their families past. Watching this movie makes you realize that everyone has some sort of immigrant or ethnic surprise in their family. Figuring out all of the details of how your family came into the world can also be very sad because you learn that previous members of your family sometimes risked their lives in order for the next generation to have a better one. Pretty much every single character that was being interviewed in this show learned something important about where they came from and perhaps maybe would have never known if this show did not take place. Knowing about how you came into the world only makes you more thankful because it makes you understand all of the hardships it sometimes took.

Being a "nation of immigrants" means to me that everyone has different backgrounds and it shows that the world is pretty much a melting pot. Many people left their home towns just so they could make not only their own lives better, but the lives of the new members of their family to come better. Though many times the journeys many immigrants made were very dangerous and expensive, they knew in the long run that it would be better for the generations to come. If America did not have immigrants, then everything would be completely different. Because we have immigrants, it makes us able to see how people every where in the world are and how coming to America sometimes changes them.

Sadly I do not feel closely aware to the connection of my ancestors. Though after watching the Faces of America it has made me more interested to learn about my families past. I have heard a few things about my ancestors here and there from my family but not enough to fully understand how it all got started. It really is crazy to think about all of the different ethnicity that is in your family background.

Immigrants

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Henry Ford

Since day one, Henry Ford grew up having a very interesting life. Henry was born July 30th, 1863 in Greenfield Township, Michigan and had five other siblings. Henry and his father had a strong hate for Jews and Adolf Hitler thought Henry to be a great image of the "perfect German". He also published the book "The Internation Jew". Throughout his younger years of life, Henry looked up to his mother and loved her very much. When she died, Henry was devastated. During these hard times of accepting reality that he lost someone very close to him, Henry's father expected him to eventually take over the family farm. Henry, having no desire to do so, refused his fathers proposal and left home at age 16 to go work as an apprentice machinist in Detroit so he could have a life style more suitable for him.

When Henry moved to Detroit, he met the love of his life Clara Bryant and married her in 1889. They had one child named Edsel Ford. One thing that Henry was always doing was working until he was completely satisfied. Henry invented the "Quadricycle" in 1890. Though this invention was successful, Henry wanted to invent affordable cars so everyone could buy them, not just the rich. The Assembly line made it possible for Henry to produce more cars faster which also made them cheaper. Since the Assembly line worked out very well, in 1903 he established the Ford Motor Company. After having his company, Henry began making models of cars named with letter of the alphabet. Model T was Henry's most famous creation. By the 1920's majority of American drivers learned how to drive and also owned a Model T.

One of Henry's Models

Henry Ford

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford
http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Native Americans as Mascots

Mascot- a person or thing that is supposed to bring good luck or that is used to symbolize a particular event or organization. This definition of a mascot clearly shows that a mascot is used as an honorable symbol, so many of us probably wonder why the Native American mascot controversy is such a problem in the world today. Mascots are something schools, businesses, etc always honor and support. The mascot really brings out who the school is and defines them in such a way that is indescribable. Over the years, mascot controversy is becoming more and more common because people are getting offended because of race discrimination, especially the Native Americans. Because of this problem, many mascots have changed in order to eliminate arguments and problems.
Since the mascot controversy began to get out of hand, the N.C.A.A. had to step in control. The N.C.A.A. announced that teams could keep their names if they got permission from tribal leaders. If the tribal leaders were not ok with it then the teams would be forced to find a new name or they would be excluded from hosting championship games. Changing a teams mascots came with many difficulties believe it or not. Not only were the fans/team mates angry because tradition was suddenly getting forced to end, but the cost to do so was quite expensive. Some college teams then and today are changing their names and mascots without being forced too while other colleges stubbornly refuse. For example, Marquette University changed their team name from the Warriors to the Golden Eagles in 1994 to avoid controversy and cruel actions/words. There are also some teams such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa that refuse to play teams with Native American mascots because they think it is so disrespectful to the Native American race.
Native American mascots seem to be one of the most popular for schools and colleges. For example, Miami (the Redskins), North Dakota (the Sioux), Florida State (the Seminoles), Utah (the Utes), Illinois (the Illini), Central Michigan (the Cippewa's), and etc. Miami changed their name to "Redhawks" with little to no problem at all. North Dakota is in the process of dropping "Sioux" upon losing its final appeal to the N.C.A.A. after many years. Florida State, Utah, Illinois, and Central Michigan were all able to keep their names after getting "waivers" from the N.C.A.A, pretty much stating that the tribes did not mind their name being used as a mascot. Polls were taken all around to see how everyone felt about Native American mascots. In 2004, a poll by the Anneberg Public Policy center at the University of Pennsylvania concluded that 91% of the American Indians surveyed found the name "Redskins" acceptable. Because of these polls, this made it a fair and organized way to decide whether or not the mascots/team names could stay.
When it came to the Native Americans, they had many different view as to their character being used as a symbol and mascot. Some Native Americans admired the heroism and romanticism shown by the Native American mascot/team names. Many others viewed it as offensive and racist. When fans yell certain phrases at games like "kill the Indians!" or "murder the Red Skins!" that is when it starts to become really offensive to the Native Americans, even though fans are just referring the names to other teams and not directly to the Indians themselves. Trying to put how the Native Americans feel into perspective of others, someone once said "Could you imagine people mocking African Americans in black face at a game? Yet go to a game where there is a team with an Indian name and you will see fans with war paint on their faces. Is this not the equivalent to black face?"- Teaching Tolerance. This quotation shows why it is not right and why it is racist for Native Americans to be used as mascots. Moving in the other direction, someone said, "The use of Aztec or Seminoles as a nickname by itself would not appear to be racist, as such names refer to a particular civilization rather than entire race of people."- Anil Adyanthaya from the Boston Globe. This person is explaining that since Native Americans were more like a culture rather than a race, it is ok to have mascots because it is not directed towards a group of people.
My opinion on the Native American mascot controversy is that it is totally ok. To me, it seems like being a mascot of a team would be an honor rather than an insult. I do not think anyone is trying to be racist or discriminating against Native Americans, I think they are trying to show how important they were to our history and even today. Though in some ways I can see at times where sayings such as "Kill the Indians!" might be offensive because they are a race of people too just like anyone else.
This issue for the Native Americans has been and probably will be continuing for a long time. Native Americans just want to find a fair and equal balance so they are not offended neither or the team players/fans. Many things have changed over the years so the Native Americans would not feel discriminated and angry. Because of this controversy, it makes it easier to see in the point of view from someone else's eyes rather than your own.