Museum Trip 2 - The New York Historical Society

            This week was our Museum trip to the New York Historical Society. The gallery displayed an assortment of images, documents, and documentaries during World War II. A significant discovery during World War II was nuclear fusion. One display from January 1939 showed John Dunning and Herbert Anders confirming the discovery of nuclear fusion. In a letter, Einstein himself saw the potential of nuclear fusion and warned the president to prevent other nations from gathering a stockpile of plutonium.

            World War II coincided with the Golden Age of Comic Books. Comics such as Captain America, Joe Palooka, and The New Yorker were read at home by citizens and shipped to soldiers. Artists and crafters during this time were encouraged to help the war effort by constructing miniatures of actual fighter planes so that schools and the military could train the people to identify a friendly plane from a hostile one.

            In the documentary shown at the library, the camera man traveled the world during World War II and documented what he saw. In my scene, the camera man showed what I believe was the Assault on Omaha Beach. The camera man says the beach and sea was bathed in the color red. Planes would drop bombs and ships would be shooting mortars at enemy ships and/or into land. In France, the camera man also came to meet Picasso. After the Surrender of Germany, in cities many people were beating up any residual Germans. Cheers and yelling could be heard from everywhere.

            I enjoyed the trip very much. I’d never been to The New York Historical Society before and it was interesting to see the exhibit. The entrance into the gallery displayed images and artifacts from September 11^th that just shows us violence isn’t just in the past, it is still here now.

Extra Credit Blog

On Tuesday, I was grouped with Judy and we were given the task of analyzing pages 95 to 97. In the text, the Minute Men are portrayed as the authority and also an extension of Buzz’s control. The Minute Men assault people who speak out against Buss. The Minute Men are enforcing Buzz’s ideals through violence. Among those are assaulted include a middle-aged man who is explaining Jeffersonian and a female communist speaker. What we discovered is the MM were assaulting anyone who they deemed unappealing or were against them. This shows that they are using violence to enforce “thought control.” Anyone who was a free-thinker could be arrested.

The short trip to the LaGuardia Archivists was interesting. We went over Major Wagner’s televised speech to the city after a riot in Harlem broke out. Major Wagner, we discussed, was trying to appeal to all races as to lower the tensions building by each racial group. Although Major Wagner tries to defuse the situation, he does not give any clear plans to prevent this from happening again. One discussion in Group 2, was if we thought police officers should carry guns. I believe the question can be answered by when and where police officers lived. In New York today, it is a necessity if you’re a police officer due to New York being a huge place for drugs and the target for many unsolicited terrorists acts. However, in some parts of New York and probably other parts of the world are peaceful enough that police officers can walk around with a stick instead of a weapon

MET Class Trip Blog Assignment

Today was our class trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It had been a while since I took a step into the museum which was probably my freshman year in high school. There was also a class assignment that was required and had to be handed in at the end of the day before leaving. I digress but the museum didn’t appear to change much since my last visit but more exhibits and galleries such as the Civil War Photography gallery were added since.

The gallery showed images of both white and black people during the Civil War and what they endured. The most violent and graphic image I saw in the gallery had to have been “A Harvest of Death,” Gettysburg July 1863 (Artifact 1). The image showed a field of bodies and gave everyone a glimpse as to why more people died in the Civil War than any other war. Medical images showed malnutrition and bullet wounds to various body parts.

The only artifact I could find which portrayed slavery and the brutality if you tried to run away was Gordan, A Runaway Mississippi Slaver, or “The Scourged Back” (Artifact 2). The image showed a black man’s back which was heavily scared. Reading and hearing about punishments is one thing but seeing it is much more impressionable and leaves a “scar” in your image of slavery.

The gallery showed various images of President Abraham Lincoln and his numerous visits to the field to show his support to the army. Further in the gallery, there is section devoted to his assassination and the pursue of his killer and accomplices. “Broadside for the Capture of John Wilkes Booth, John Surratt, and David Herald,” April 20, 1865 (Artifact 3) was a gigantic wanted poster for the aid and capture of the 3 suspects in their direct or indirect murder of President Lincoln.

I enjoyed the visit to the museum however; I wished we could’ve seen a much larger gallery with less constraints. The gallery was dimly lighted which made it somewhat difficult to view some of the small prints.