Talk20 presentation at Hub-Bub's Showroom

This past Saturday, November 10, I had the privilege of participating in the Talk20 event over at The Showroom. This event, in case you don't know, is a great time and is structured thus: 10 presenters choose 20 slides and they have 20 seconds to comment on each slide. The topics and images are totally up to the presenter. Some of the topics on Saturday included a white rhino named Tank, honeymooning in Virginia, trying 20 new things, someone's crazy parents, recent events in Jena, Louisiana, and the use of coal in producing electricity. I did my presentation on materials from the Littlejohn Collection and will share with you some of the images and comments from my presentation.

I opened with some introductory comments about the origins of the Collection. Here, I'll skip those bits and refer you to my first post on this blog, which contains much more detail.

My presentation was subtitled "Two Hundred and Eleven Years of History in Under Seven Minutes." (Twenty slides at twenty seconds each is about six minutes and forty seconds.) It was pretty difficult, considering that it'd be hard to exhaust the discussion of any one of the subsequent items in seven minutes. Anyway, here we go, starting with third slide, when I started talking about items in the collection.

"This is a fold-out map depicting Southeastern North America as it was known in 1775. This item is from a book entitled "The History of the American Indians" (etc.) by James Adair. This work is commonly known as "Adair's Indians" and was published in 1775. Adair's main thesis in this work is that Native Americans were descended from the lost tribes of Israel."

[For a more detailed description and discussion of this work, see my recent post here.]

"Here are two images from the 1850's. First is a letter from Daniel Webster dated February 27, 1850. It was written just prior to the delivery of one of his most famous speeches, the one which both supported the Compromise of 1850 and effectively ended his legislative career."

[For a more detailed discussion of this letter, please see this post.]

"The second image is the cover of a Senate document from 1855 advocating the use of camels as beasts of burden in the Southwest. A major proponent of this policy was Jefferson Davis."

[For a more detailed discussion of this pamphlet, please see this post.]

"This is a letter of introduction from Sam Houston (as Governor of Texas) to a newspaper editor in New York City. He writes, in part, 'You will find [Mr. Logan, the man being introduced] ...anxious to promote harmony and good feeling with our Northern brethren.' The letter is dated April 16, 1860."

"This is a letter from Horace Greeley, the Rupert Murdoch of his time, dated July 2, 1860, just prior to the election of 1860. He writes 'I have never yet had any influence with any Federal Administration, and may fare no better with the next than with the last.' "

"This item is dated June 5, 1861 -- the Civil War had begun. The Southern writer, whose identity is unclear, writes in the numbered bullet points:
'1. We will all have to fight.
2. We will all have to spend our substance in support of the war.
3. We can die but once.' "

"This is a war-date requisition form for 20 bushels of corn, created by the Confederate States Army on January 16, 1862. You will note that this used to be a United States form, as in the upper left corner the word 'United' has been crossed out and replaced with 'Confederate.' "

"This is a letter from a spy in Charleston, South Carolina, written to President Lincoln in 1863. It was delivered via the underground railroad. The writer claims that a strong majority of Charleston was pro-Union at the time."

"This is a letter from W.E. Johnson, a Confederate officer, to his wife, written from a prisoner-of-war camp. He writes, in part, ' I am afraid you have suffered much anxiety about me not knowing whether I was killed or captured...and hope this letter will relieve your anxiety about me."

"This is a battlefield note from Wade Hampton which reads, in part, 'Send all information to General Lee.' By the date (May 8, 1864) and location (Stony Creek, Va.) noted, this item can be dated to near the beginning of the Wilderness campaign."

"These two items are from the end of the war. The first letter is from C.S.A. General Joseph E. Johnston to 'Winnie.' Several days after this letter was written, Johnston would surrender to General Sherman.

The second item is a discharge form. It discharges Myron Kennedy of New York who, at 19 years old, had already served three years in the Union army."

[For a more detailed discussion of the letter from Joseph Johnston, I refer you to this post.]

"These four pictures are from a photo album created in 1901 and 1902. They show, clockwise from top left: Clifton Cotton Mill, Spartan Cotton Mill, Winter Scene Main Square, and Main Street (all in Spartanburg.)"

[For more detail on this photo album, please go here.]

"This is an image of a scrapbook created by Associated Press correspondent Phil Powers from 1914 through 1916. He covered the German and Austrian armies prior to U.S. involvement in the war."

[For more information on this scrapbook, see this post.]

"This is a panoramic photo of downtown Spartanburg taking during a Liberty Loan Parade, 1918. The regiment seen marching was camped in CampWadsworth and eventually fought in France. The annotation [not pictured here] explains that the photo was taken from the Cleveland Hotel."

[For more detail on this image, please see this post.]

"This [above] is a letter from Mohandas Gandhi to Harry Deutch of Bronx, New York. It is dated January 12, 1933 -- Gandhi writes from prison: 'When the conviction goes deeper than the intellect, you will brave all dangers and risks and live the true life, and you will at once find it is its own reward.' "

"Here is a letter [German original on left, English translation on right] from Albert Einstein to Lionel Ettlinger, dated March 31, 1940 (prior to the Battle of Britain.)
Regarding the refugee crisis, Einstein writes: 'Meanwhile terrible things happen and one cannot do anything about it, except for troublesome help in individual cases.'

"These images [above] are from a book entitled, in English, at least, 'Our Destruction in Pictures.' It was published by liberated Jews in the British-occupied zone in 1946. It was published in Hebrew, German and English - ironically this testament is in fragile condition due to the scarcity of quality book-making materials of the time."

Moving from the tragic to the truly absurd....

"This item [above] is a letter from Mark David Chapman -- the man who killed John Lennon -- dated April 10, 1986. He queries a manuscripts and collectibles dealer concerning a personal matter. He also asks: 'Any J.D. Salinger letters available? I would like any holograph letters.'

"This picture illustrates some miscellaneous multimedia items and objects in the Littlejohn Collection. On the left is a Stella music box, circa 1900, which plays the steel discs seen here. In the middle is a number of cellulose music cylinders, circa 1910-1930. On the right is a stereopticon, and behind it all on the wall are two prints by John Gould."

That's it. All that in under seven minutes.

I'd like to publicly thank Cate and Aaron Ryba for curating the show, and Alix Refshauge and Cate for letting me in on the fun. I can't fail to also thank everyone else over at Hub-Bub for all of the good things they do -- these folks include Stephen Long, Sara Hamilton-Steinecke, Brad Hamilton, Darryl Harmon, the Artists-in-Residence Derya Hanife Altan, Nicholas Dowgwillo, Arielle Angel, and Rachel Harkai, and, of course, Betsy Teter.

If you want to check out another presentation from Saturday night, check out Rachel's blog (post is dated November 10) -- she has posted her images and comments, too.

Comments

[Brad Steinecke]

Hi Luke,

I enjoyed your Talk20 presentation and enjoyed reading it again here. Just a note... the panoramic photo of downtown Spartanburg features soldiers from Camp Wadsworth; Camp Croft was the military camp here during WWII.

Take care!

Brad

[Luke]

Thanks, Brad. You're quite right about that - my mistake. This has been corrected in the post.

[angie]

Incredible post!