Perpetuated. What i like about this is you get to not only debunk these things but try to figure out where they started and why people grew so attached to them because that also tells you a little bit more about how people understand the past and how they use it or misuse it. So, remember earlier in the semester we talked about the Jackson Magnolia. Who remembers the story . Andrew jacksons wife died right before he went to office so he planted this tree because it was her favorite tree. Matthew and he brought the seeds from the hermitage in tennessee and do you remember what jonathan told us . He said there isnt any contemporary evidence, Andrew Jackson never mentions planting a tree, theres nothing in newspapers so it seems like this is a story that has these romantic origins and its continued to grow from that ever since. So this is actually first known exterior photograph of the white house taken by a welsh born photographer named john plume jr. In january 1846. So if youre looking
Times, whether you were researching them on the internet or doing research for your papers in this class but there are a number of stories that continue to be circulated and perpetuated. What i like about this is you get to not only debunk these things but try to figure out where they started and why people grew so attached to them ecause that also tells you a little bit more about how people understand the past and how they use it or misuse it. So, remember earlier in the semester we talked about the Jackson Magnolia. I think a number of you went into detail about the Jackson Magnolia. Alex, was it you who wrote about the Jackson Magnolia . You already know this. But think about to when johnson pivska visited the class and we talked about the Jackson Magnolia. Who remembers the story . Andrew jacksons wife died right before he went to office so he planted this tree because it was her favorite tree. Matthew and he brought the seeds from the hermitage in tennessee and do you remember wh
Theyre also very different. And i suspect that the truth is somewhere in the middle here, and i couldnt tell you which one is better. And this is another one. This is an image that came out of one of the books that i did and it is showing the british piling up material, and this is in the Capitol Building. And if youll notice, the guy on the left, on the back, hes carrying a backpack that would carry two cases for a congrieve rocket. Rocket and if youll notice the man standing on top of the pile, hes literally taking the projectile material that would have been inside of that rocket and hes sprinkling it over the top and then thats how they would light that fire and here is the actual account and this is by Benjamin Henry latrobe. There was no want of material for the conflagration. For when the number of members of congress was increased the old platform was left in its place and another raised over it giving an additional quantity of dry and loose timber. All the stages and seats of
In the war of 1812, obviously. So its my pleasure to welcome colonel eshelman to the podium. [ applause ] good morning, everyone. Thank you. That was a kind introduction. I have never been called colonel when im been introduced. Thank you very much. I want to add to the accolades expressed about the wonderful job the partners and all the individuals have done to put this symposium together. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you have as well. We still have an afternoon to go as well. Itis not over and im looking forward to it. Before lunch, which is an important thing for all of us, i have a few words i would like to say about some of the myth that surround washington, d. C. Specifically, im going to talk about three myths. Im going to present them to you in the form of a question. The first one is did the british really burn Washington City . Question number two. Is the white house really called the white house because it was painted white because of the scorch marks when the britis
Accounts are not necessarily the most accurate thing in the world. But if these had been supported by other information, primary documents, id be more likely to believe that they also burned but i cant find any of that. I just want to remind you that the americans were very upset about what was going on and when they talked about what had happened to washington, they tend to embellish the true facts. And then if you go down below, these were the things that were burnt after the evening of august 24th. So a better way to look at all of this is to compare what was actually burned on the evening of august the 24th. During that night. And you can see theres a very, very big difference there. And when we talk about the british burning washington, were leaving the average citizen with this impression that the british came in and they burnt the entire city of washington, d. C. And if you look at this, you can see that the americans burnt a heck of a lot in the city, but you dont hear anybody