July 23, 2018 Happy Monday! This installment of the Victory & Valor Blog turns a few pages back in history to look at one connection between two figures from World War One, and another connection between 1859 Britain and modern-day Washington, D.C. In separate posts earlier today, we recalled that “On This Day”, July 23, 1973, World War One fighter ace, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, died in Zurich, Switzerland. Pre-war, Rickenbacker was an accomplished racecar driver. During the war, he was the most successful of American aviators, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions. The other World War One figure we featured was Glenn Curtiss. Curtiss designed motorcycles… and he was a pioneer in designing aircraft. His company produced the Curtis JN-4 “Jenny” for the Army and Navy during WWI. Glenn Curtiss died “On This Day”, July 23, 1930, in Buffalo, New York. The connection? Prior to going to war, while in Riverside, California for a car race, he took his first airplane ride… with Glenn Curtiss. By 1918, Rickenbacker was flying with the 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron, shooting down 26 German planes in 134 air battles. While the planes he flew during those WWI battles were of French design, many of the WWI aircraft flown by his comrades-in-arms were sold to the Army by Glenn Curtiss. It’s by mere coincidence that these two men both died on July 23. While their deaths occurred forty-three years apart, their lives and their talents intersected at a pivotal time in history. So… it’s evident and unavoidable: I am a history buff. And finding that connection between Rickenbacker and Curtiss might not be news to the countless historians who preceded me, but it was interesting. And while it may seem a trivial coincidence, it’s the kind of coincidence that keeps me digging for other connections in history. There are many. But here’s the one I promised from 1850.
While I was conducting the research on Rickenbacker and Curtiss, as I do with almost every figure I feature in a story, I research the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the White House websites to see if there are any articles or images associated with the person. (These websites are great sources for teachers: that’s why Mistletoe Enterprises and Victory & Valor refer to them often!) Anyway, while browsing the White House website, I browsed through many presidential photographs, hoping to find one featuring both men with the President. No such luck. Although, while perusing the images, I did enjoy seeing the iconic photo of John Kennedy, Jr. playing under the desk while JFK worked. But that caught my attention, and I did some comparisons with other presidential photos from the Oval Office. The thing that caught my attention was that all our modern Presidents have not used the same desk. Further research showed that since the Oval Office was built, six different desks have been used by the Presidents. And I was unaware of the history of the most famous of those desks… until today. In 1850, the British Navy commissioned the HMS Resolute. The Resolute was designed to navigate and explore the arctic waters; it’s specific purpose was to help find Sir John Franklin who departed Britain in 1845 on an expedition to find the North West Passage but his fate was a mystery. While searching for Franklin in 1852 the Resolute was abandoned after being locked in the ice. In 1855 it was discovered adrift in the ice by an American whaling ship, and after being restored by the United States, it was returned to Queen Victoria in December 1856 as a gesture of friendship and goodwill. In 1879 the British Navy retired the Resolute, and it was salvaged for timbers. The British government ordered at least three desks be built from the salvaged wood. One of them, the Resolute Desk, was presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 as a gift of thanks from Queen Victoria. Since then, every President has used the Resolute Desk except Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. It has been used by seven Presidents in the Oval Office; and it has been used by others in their private study in the Executive Residence, or in other rooms in the White House. The Resolute is just a desk. But as an artifact of history, it is among the most visible and longstanding. It connects us to our past. See you Wednesday! Motor Sports Hall of Fame Library of Congress National Museum of the United States Air Force The Royal Collection (royalcollection.org) White House Historical Association (whitehousehistory.org)
2 Comments
Irene Alberto
7/24/2018 06:54:26 pm
Wonderful! Congratelations
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Thomas Davis
7/24/2018 06:55:13 pm
Merci beaucoup!
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AuthorTom Davis is the owner of Mistletoe Enterprises LLC. He also publishes and distributes the Victory & Valor Flyer, it tells the stories of heroes from all walks of life. Archives
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