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How to Get Ahead: Century-Old Advice for the “Woman of Business”

Monday, February 6th, 2012

From The Idaho Statesman (April 30, 1911). Source: American Newspaper Archives

Today’s woman has a wealth of information at her fingertips on how to get ahead at work. Books such as Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, Hard Ball for Women and Play Like a Man, Win Like a Woman; magazines such as Pink; and numerous blogs all offer advice to the up-and-coming woman of business. In the 19th century unprecedented numbers of women joined the workforce and thus entered into the public sphere for the first time. Many did so out of necessity, but some were motivated by ambition. What advice was available to the ambitious woman of business in the 19th century?

Along with books and women’s magazines, mainstream newspapers began to offer advice to women on achieving business success. Much of this advice literature was written by women. Women held each other to high standards. Even by their own sex, women were often thought too naturally tender-hearted and sentimental to be good at business. An article from The Chicago Record, written by a woman and reprinted by The Kansas City Star, sternly advised women to be appropriately business-like and not to confuse business with philanthropy for “it may be questioned whether half the failures in business ventures by young women do not arise from this simple fact.”1

The author warned the woman of business that she had exchanged “the privilege of special courtesy to her sex” for “independence and business reciprocity.” In other words, a woman should expect no special treatment because she was a woman.

Others argued that the very skills that enabled a woman to be a good wife and mother also made her a business woman. Mrs. S. M. Perkins in the Cleveland Plain Dealer asked:

A woman who carefully looks after the details of housekeeping and trains up a family of children, taking them through the mumps, measles, whooping cough and the teething period, and attends to getting of twenty-one meals, such as his lordship will not grumble about; and keeps a house in order—bed making, sweeping, dusting, house cleaning, washing and ironing, finding school books for children and mending their little torn garments—is not such a one a businesswoman?2

The “world is full of business women,” Mrs. Perkins continued, but what made women different from men is that “women [had] more conscience, more moral integrity.”3

As a result, she concluded, “we somehow expect unusual worth in a woman.”4 Once a woman had established her business reputation, she must work hard at keeping it because, as the author said, “a woman cannot afford to break her word. It will ruin her reputation to do it.”5 By keeping her word, people would trust her and help her succeed, the author advised. It was universally acknowledged that standards were higher for women.

Women business pioneers were often interviewed by the press. One such business pioneer was Mrs. Frank Leslie, born Miriam Follin (1836-1914), once known as “the handsomest newspaperman in the United States.”6 When her second husband, Frank Leslie, died in 1880, Miriam was left with a contested will and a publishing enterprise in deep debt. Upon the deathbed request of her husband to save his business, Miriam legally became Frank Leslie. This gave her legal rights to all Frank Leslie publications, even over the objections of her stepson, Frank Leslie, Jr. and his brother. She turned the enterprise around by selling off unprofitable publications and developing a new publishing strategy that returned the business to profit.

From The Idaho Statesman (April 30, 1911). Source: American Newspaper Archives

In 1902, she sold the business and gave up the name Frank Leslie, stylizing herself as “the Baroness de Bazus,” which she claimed was an old family title. The Baroness made several observations about business women in her interview with Ada Patterson in The Idaho Statesman.

First, she said that women were too conservative: “They are too timid to essay new paths.”7 She also said that women sometimes expected special treatment:

I had 50 women in my employ at one time, and I noticed their tendency to arrive late and stay late. They would say to me, “But so long as I do my work does it matter whether I come into the office at 9 or 11?” And I would answer, “Perhaps not in your individual case. But If I granted this privilege to one, the other women, and the men too, would have a right to expect it. The office would be demoralized.”8

But what was essential for a woman’s success in business was “to forget her sex in dealing with men,” she said.”9 Business women were often seen to be using feminine wiles to get ahead. Or at least they had to fight the perception they were. The illustration (by a male artist) that accompanied her interview is a good example of such perceptions, depicting a woman coquettishly trying to balance on a tight rope, while holding a pole with a businessman on one end and a bag of money labeled business on the other.

Not surprisingly, many women were often subject to sexual harassment. The New York Tribune reported that women who had gone out to solicit advertising were repeatedly subjected to “improper advances.” The Tribune displayed an unsympathetic attitude towards such reports, saying merely that advertising, being too public a profession, may not be suitable for young women and perhaps should be reserved for those over 40. It recommended less public pursuits such as handicrafts, nursing, designing, and higher levels of domestic service for the young career woman. But no matter the profession, the New York Tribune stated unequivocally, “a pure woman, provided always that her dignity and pure manner express her purity, needs no lion to protect her, wherever she may go.”10

Over 40 years later in 1911 the Baroness admitted that she smiled when she heard of women being harassed in offices, stating, “if women are preyed upon, it is because they allow themselves to be preyed upon. If women practice allurements during business hours, they must not be appalled if men regard these coquetries as overtures.”11

Given that the Baroness, a reputed beauty of her times, divorced her second husband and married her boss, Frank Leslie, one wonders what means she used to get ahead. She did, however, have a pragmatic attitude toward life, recommending that business women marry because men were “necessary evils.”

If you are traveling you are treated with more respect, and you are not so likely to be cheated if you are attended by a husband….when I walk downstairs, I need the support of a man’s arm or a banister, I don’t care which, but I need one. As society is in the world today, it is almost necessary to have a husband.12

In sum, advice given to business women of the 19th century:

• Don’t play “nice”

• Utilize women’s traditional skill sets and strengths

• Expect standards to be higher for women

• Be more adventurous; try new paths

• Expect and give no special treatment

• Be pragmatic.

In over 100 years, has business advice for women changed much?

Notes

1“Some Hints and Good Advice to Business Women,” Kansas City Star, January 23, 1894, p.  14.

2“Business Women,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 21, 1897, p. 10.

3Ibid

4Ibid

5Ibid

6“Hints to Business Women by a Baroness: The Former Mrs. Frank Leslie Tells How To Succeed.”  The Idaho Statesman, April 30, 1911, p. 3.

7Ibid

8Ibid

9Ibid

10“For Business Women,” The New York Tribune, June 21, 1871, p. 4.

11“Hints to Business Women,” ibid.

12Ibid

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Press Release: Announcing Afro-Americana, 1535-1922 — the online edition of the Library Company’s unparalleled collection

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Today we distributed this news release:

Readex to Launch Digital Edition of the Library Company of Philadelphia’s Unparalleled Collection of Afro-Americana

More than 12,000 searchable books, pamphlets, and broadsides will stimulate new research on centuries of African American history, literature, and life 

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

January 16, 2012 (NAPLES, FL) – A digital edition of Afro-Americana, 1535-1922: From the Library Company of Philadelphia will be introduced in late Spring 2012 by Readex, a division of NewsBank. Created from the Library Company’s acclaimed collection—an accumulation that began with Benjamin Franklin and has steadily increased throughout its entire history—this unique new online resource will provide researchers with more than 12,000 wide-ranging printed works about African American history. Critically important subjects covered include the West’s discovery and exploitation of Africa; the rise of slavery in the New World along with the growth and success of abolitionist movements; the development of racial thought and racism; descriptions of African American life—slave and free—throughout the Americas; and slavery and race in fiction and drama. Also featured are printed works of African American individuals and organizations.

“The Library Company’s Afro-Americana Collection is one of the most comprehensive and valuable archives of printed material by and about people of African descent anywhere in the world,” says Professor Richard Newman of the Rochester Institute of Technology. “From early descriptions of African society and culture to the black struggle for justice in the Americas during the 19th century, it remains a touchstone for scholars and students alike. To have it available online and at your fingertips in a searchable format will be a dream come true.”

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

The works in this collection, many of which are quite rare, span nearly 400 years, from the early 16th to the early 20th century. Examples include David Walker’s 1829 Appeal . . . to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly to Those of the United States of America, a militant attack on both southern slavery and efforts to colonize free blacks; Lydia Maria Child’s 1833 essay, An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans; William Still’s The Underground Rail Road: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters, &c., Narrating the Hardships, Hair-breadth Escapes, and Death Struggles of the Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom (1872); William J. Simmons’ Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising (1887); and Booker T. Washington’s The Story of the Negro: The Rise of the Race from Slavery, published in 1909.

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

Also included are such important but lesser-known works as Joseph Sidney, An Oration, Commemorative of the Abolition of the Slave Trade (New York, 1809) and Russell Parrott, An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade . . . First of January, 1814 (Philadelphia, 1814), two works by African American authors celebrating January 1 anniversaries of the end of the slave trade; Grand Bobalition of Slavery! (Boston, 1820), a satire of such celebrations, one example of a long-overlooked genre; Robert B. Lewis, Light and Truth (Portland, Maine, 1836), which champions the central role of black Africans in laying the basis for ancient civilization; William Wells Brown, The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements (an 1865 republication in newly-liberated Savannah of an 1863 collective biography of prominent blacks, many still alive, and most, like the author, former slaves); Martin R. Delany, Principia of Ethnology: The Origins of Race and Color, with an Archeological Compendium of Ethiopian and Egyptian Civilization (Philadelphia, 1879), a work by an African American analyzing the origins of color and race and championing black creativity; Charles Carroll, “The Negro a Beast” or “In the Image of God” (St. Louis, 1900), one of many savage works by whites denying the humanity of blacks; and three works by the preeminent African American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois: The Atlanta Conferences (Atlanta, 1902); Some Efforts of American Negroes for Their Own Social Betterment (Atlanta, 1898); and A Select Bibliography of the Negro American (Atlanta, 1905).

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

The Library Company’s Afro-Americana Collection began to gain international renown for its size, range, and significance in the late 1960s as scholars, influenced by civil rights activism, initiated fresh studies of slavery’s part in the American story. “As researchers rediscovered the importance of the long-neglected writings of African Americans, they told us that our collection was vital to new scholarship in African American studies,” says Librarian James N. Green. The Library Company mounted the path-breaking exhibition “Negro History, 1553-1903” in 1969, and followed that with the publication in 1973 of the magisterial bibliography Afro-Americana 1553-1906: A Catalog of the Holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Since then, Afro-Americana has been a priority of the Library Company, and the collection has grown with each year. A second edition of the Catalog, including 2,500 works acquired since 1973, was published in 2008, preserving and extending the legacy of this landmark work and now providing the bibliographic control for Readex’s online edition. Afro-Americana, 1535-1922 will be fully integrated into America’s Historical Imprints for seamless searching with Early American Imprints, Series I and II: Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker, 1639-1819 and the recent Supplements from the Library Company of Philadelphia, which have added nearly 2,000 newly discovered items. In addition, Afro-Americana, 1535-1922 will be cross-searchable with all Archive of Americana collections, including African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 and African American Periodicals, 1825-1995.

Source: Library Company of Philadelphia/Afro-Americana Collection

Researchers around the world have praised advance word of the partnership between Readex and the Library Company to digitize this landmark collection. UCLA Emeritus Professor Gary Nash writes, “The benefits to scholarship and teaching that will come when the Library Company’s Afro-Americana Collection is made into a digital database are virtually immeasurable. This will be a major step in infusing American history in general with its vitally important African American component. Teachers at all levels will find this a gold mine.”

And University of Michigan Professor Martha S. Jones says, “Today, early African American studies is a global enterprise that includes researchers throughout the United States as well as Europe, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. This collaboration between the Library Company and Readex will bring new resources into reach and enrich this still expanding field of research and study.”

About the Library Company of Philadelphia

The Library Company is an independent research library specializing in American history and culture from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, the Library Company is America’s first successful lending library and oldest cultural institution. Free and open to the public, the Library Company houses an extensive non-circulating collection of rare books, manuscripts, broadsides, ephemera, prints, photographs, and works of art. The mission of the Library Company is to preserve, interpret, make available, and augment the valuable materials within its care. It serves a diverse constituency throughout Philadelphia and the nation, offering comprehensive reader services, an internationally renowned fellowship program, online catalogs, and regular exhibitions and public programs.

With the creation of the Program in African American History in 2007 (currently directed by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, an associate professor of history at the University of Delaware), the Library Company has expanded fellowships, conferences, exhibitions, publications, public programming, teacher training, and acquisitions to help achieve the full potential represented by its holdings in this area. For more information about this Program, see http://www.librarycompany.org/paah/

About Readex, a division of NewsBank

For more than sixty years, the Readex name has been synonymous with research in historical materials and government documents. Recognized by librarians, students, and scholars for its efforts to transform academic scholarship, Readex offers a wealth of Web-based collections in the humanities and social sciences, including the Archive of Americana, a family of historical collections featuring searchable books, pamphlets, newspapers, and government documents printed in America over three centuries, and the World Newspaper Archive, created in partnership with the Center for Research Libraries. Also available are the Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports and the Joint Publications Research Service Reports, two of the U.S. government’s fundamental sources of political, historical and scientific open source intelligence during the second half of the 20th century.

# # #

For more information, contact Readex Marketing Director David Loiterstein by calling 1.800.762.8182 or emailing dloiterstein@readex.com.

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The Real War Horses of America

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Michael Morpurgo’s fictional story “War Horse” has gone from a beloved children’s book to successful stage production to bestselling Hollywood movie directed by Steven Spielberg. But who were the real war horses of America?

American Red Star poster. Credit: www.usmilitariaforum.com

Between 1914 and 1918, the United States sent almost one million horses to the European forces, particularly the British. When America entered the war, another 182,000 horses were taken overseas by the American Expeditionary Forces. Only 200 horses returned to the U.S., and 60,000 were killed outright.1 As the nation’s equine population and trained cavalry mounts became seriously depleted, many wild horses, including American Mustangs, were utilized. Supplying war horses was considered a patriotic act, and Americans were proud of their contribution.

In 1916 the Idaho Daily Statesmen declared about the Mustang: “The little western pony may not be up to cavalry standards, but he is a good little Ford, and will get you there and be up and about the next morning, and if cactus is the only food, he will take it and smile, leaving the regulation Packard waiting for the oats to catch up.”2 The quality of Allied war horses was seen as a key differentiator in the war. As the Duluth News Tribune asserted in 1918: “When the enemy finally begins its big retreat, it is the Allies’ horses that will keep the Germans on the run.”3

Horses were mainly used for transport, not only of solders but also for hauling artillery, ambulances and supply wagons. They were better suited than vehicles to traveling through deep mud and over rough terrain. They were also helpful in raising soldier morale. The bond between soldier and horse was well documented in the newspapers at the time.

In a feature on how farm horses were trained to become war horses, a Kansas City Star reporter wrote in 1917: “A private will tell how some particular horse will follow him about the lot. ‘Somebody’s pet,’ he explains. ‘I’ve taken a fancy to the darn little cuss.”4 

All the men feel that way about horses, explained the Star’s reporter: “A young lieutenant has a pony with a coffee pot brand on him. He calls him ‘Coffee’ and talk to him as if he were a human.”5

News reports of horses’ heroism, loyalty to their soldiers, and grief when they were lost were common. Typical headlines read: “Charger stood beside Dead Master between Firing Lines for Two Days” and “Faithful Horse Returns to Master.” The Kansas City Star published the photograph above in 1916 with the headine “Faithful Horse Awaits Master in Vain.”6

Not surprisingly, individual horses also became heroes during World War I. One example was Kidron, the war horse ridden by General John J. (“Black Jack”) Pershing, leader of the American Expeditionary Forces. A striking dark bay horse with two white hind socks, Kidron captured the imagination of the American people because he was often used by Pershing in victory parades and seen in ceremonial photos. He became a symbol of all that was noble about the war, despite huge losses of equine and human alike. The news of Kidron’s release from quarantine and his safe entry into the United States in 1920 made headlines across the country.

Unfortunately, most horses did not make it back. They were killed by artillery fire, suffered from skin disorders and disease, and were injured by poison gas. An article published in the Aberdeen Daily News in 1915 estimated that twenty days was the war horse’s average existence at the front.7

Moved to action by the plight of war horses, Americans appealed to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker to help equines overseas. On May 22, 1916, Baker asked the American Humane Association to establish a welfare service for horses and mules in the U.S. Army. This organization became the American Red Star Relief, which still exists today as part of the American Humane Association’s emergency services.

After the war, relief societies sprung up across the U.S. to help bring the horses home and to provide care for them after the war. On October 15, 1921, a plaque commissioned by the American Red Star was unveiled in the War Department in memory of the equine suffering during World War I. It reads:

This tablet commemorates the service and sufferings of the 243,135 mules and horses employed by the American Expeditionary Forces overseas during the Great World War, which terminated November 11, 1918, and which resulted in the death of 68,682 of those animals. What they suffered is beyond words to describe. A fitting tribute to their important services has been given by the commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces, General John J. Pershing, who has written: “The army horses and mules proved of inestimable value in prosecuting the war to a successful conclusion. They were found in all the theaters of preparation and operation doing their silent but faithful work without the faculty for hoping for any reward or compensation.”8

For more remarkable stories in America’s Historical Newspapers, search “war horse,” “war horse relief,” “American Red Star” or “American Red Star Animal Relief.”

Notes

1 International Museum of the Horse (The Horse in Transition: The Horse in World War I, 1914-1918). Retrieved 1-3-2012).

2 “American War Horse,” Idaho Daily Statesman, June 21, 1916, p. 4).

3 “War Horse Gets Full Education,” Duluth News Tribune, (Aug. 30, 1918, p. 2).

4 “When the Plough Horse Changes to a War Horse,” Kansas City Star (Nov. 25, 1917, p. 1).

5 Ibid

6 “Faithful Horse Awaits Master in Vain,” Kansas City Star, (Dec. 28, 1916, p. 4).

7 “War Horses’ Brief Life,” Aberdeen Daily News (Feb. 4, 1915, p. 3).

8 Spielberg’s War Horse: Animal Heroes of the Great War (Part 1).   Accessed  Jan 3, 2012.

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The Top-Ten Readex Blog Posts of 2011

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Of the 75 or so posts published here this year, these were the ten most-read: 

February 27, 1923. Miss Alice Reighly, Anti-Flirt Club president, Wash., D.C.

1. Preserving the Library in the Digital Age

2. In Praise of Librarians and Archivists

3. Researching Nat Turner’s Slave Revolt in American (and African American) Newspapers

4. 100 Years Ago: A Look Back at 1911

5. Anti-Flirtation: There Ought to Be a Law

6. The Bomarc Missile Plutonium Spill Crisis: Exercises in Propaganda and Containment in 1960 and Beyond

7. “Information Wanted” Advertisements: Searching for African American Family Members

8. Law & Disorder: Urbana University Students Bring an 1857 Court Case to Life

9. Civil War Imagery on Clipper Ship Sailing Cards

10. Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire on its 100th Anniversary

Thank you for reading the Readex Blog. We want to hear from our readers. To leave comments, or to propose a topic for a future blog post, please use the space below or write to dloiterstein@readex.com.  To subscribe to the Readex Blog, please use our RSS feed. We’ll see you back here in 2012. Happy New Year!

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Amundsen, Scott and Their Race to the South Pole

Monday, December 12th, 2011

The Morning Oregonian (Aug. 23, 1908)

It was 100 years ago this month that Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, reached the South Pole. For the first time, two expeditions were making attempts to get there in the same summer season. Amundsen had been a member of an earlier expedition to Antarctica and had led expeditions in the Arctic. Robert F. Scott had led an earlier British expedition to Antarctica, and he was back to make another attempt to reach the pole. Their expeditions and their leadership styles continue to fascinate us.

Here’s how a new business book excerpted by Fortune Magazine (Oct. 17, 2011), Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen, compares them:

Cleveland Plain Dealer (June 2, 1901)

“It’s a near-perfect matched pair. Here we have two expedition leaders—Roald Amundsen, the winner, and Robert Falcon Scott, the loser—of similar ages (39 and 43) and with comparable experience. Amundsen and Scott started their respective journeys for the Pole within days of each other, both facing a roundtrip of more than 1,400 miles into an uncertain and unforgiving environment, where temperatures could easily reach 20° below zero even during the summer, made worse by gale-force winds. And keep in mind, this was 1911. They had no means of modern communication to call back to base camp—no radio, no cellphones, no satellite links—and a rescue would have been highly improbable at the South Pole if they screwed up. One leader led his team to victory and safety. The other led his team to defeat and death.”

Macon Telegraph (July 14, 1903)

Here are some other differences: Amundsen had raised all his money and obtained his ship, the Fram, by saying he was going to the North Pole. Competing claims by two Americans to have reached the North Pole first changed his mind. Scott had publicized his expedition to the South in advance. Amundsen stopped along the way to send a brief telegraph to Scott, telling him that he too was heading south. This was seen as bad sportsmanship by many—it being Scott’s turn on the ice. Scott had been angry when a former subordinate, Ernest Shackleton, had started an expedition from a part of Antarctica that Scott considered “his.” Amundsen was also starting from that region.

Dallas Morning News (Oct. 3, 1910)

Amundsen had no scientists with him. Scott had a party of 38 men, many doing research. Amundsen barely took any photographs of his expedition. Scott had along a professional photographer. Amundsen had a single goal and achieved it. Scott’s group had many goals and succeeded in many of them. He only failed at the biggest one, as viewed at that time.

Yes, Amundsen took the Pole. Scott’s body wouldn’t be found until the following spring. Discovered with his remains were his diary and other final writings, which upon publication would move the English-speaking world. More importantly, found with his body was a fossil Scott had collected on his failed return from the Pole. This ancient specimen demonstrated that Antarctica had been part of a supercontinent, as comparable fossils were found in South America and Africa. Who can call that a failure?

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (May 7, 1911)

Grand Rapids Evening Press (Feb. 2, 1913)

It’s not surprising that students of leadership would try to glean lessons from these two expeditions, for all the reasons Collins and Hansen list. It is also not surprising that the reputations of each have ebbed and flowed over time. Ernest Shackleton, who launched an expedition in 1914 to cross Antarctica, is another explorer whose leadership skills are examined. Shackleton’s boat got trapped in the ice and was eventually crushed. He and the ship’s captain were able to get all the men to Elephant Island in small boats; then, with a smaller crew, sailed to South Georgia Island, landed on the uninhabited side and pioneered a new route across the mountain chain that formed the island’s spine. They were able to rescue all they had left behind.

Ernest Shackleton died at the beginning of a post-war return to Antarctica. He is buried on South Georgia Island. Roald Amundsen was on an airship lost during a rescue attempt in the North Polar region, and his body never found. It was estimated in 2001 that Robert Scott and his companion’s bodies now lie under 75 feet of ice.

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A uniquely valuable archive of translated foreign materials

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

 

Discover Joint Publications Research Service Reports

China has emerged as a global power. We can all recite the formidable facts: most populous state on earth. Second largest global economy. World’s largest military. But what do we really know about a culture half a world away, the machinations of the country’s ruling party, or the day-to-day lives of its citizens? Where can one find authentic accounts that provide unfiltered insight into a nation’s socioeconomic, political, environmental, military, religious, and scientific issues and events-including those that reveal the naked truth about China’s inexorable rise?

Enter Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS) Reports, 1957-1994, the ideal resource for developing a holistic understanding of cultures across the globe. This digital collection features English-language translations of foreign-language monographs, reports, serials, journals and newspapers from regions throughout the world—four million pages from 130,000+ reports, all told. Much of the information is quite rare; in fact, few libraries or institutions outside of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Library of Congress hold a complete collection. With an emphasis on communist and developing countries, this fully searchable resource is an essential tool for students and scholars at academic institutions worldwide.

The comprehensive Readex digital edition of JPRS Reports, 1957-1994, is now available by request for live preview. It features an intuitive interface that includes digital full-text searching, metadata search assistance and an individual bibliographic record for each JPRS Report. In addition, JPRS Reports, 1957-1994, will be cross-searchable with the Readex digital edition of Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports, 1941-1996.

For more information or to arrange a product trial, contact Readex at 800.762.8182, sales@readex.com or use this form.

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D.B. Cooper: An American Original

Monday, November 21st, 2011

Artist's sketch of D. B. Cooper (Photo: Seattle FBI)

The first aircraft hijackings were political. Leave it to American ingenuity to monetize the action! D.B. Cooper, not his real name, did it in 1971.  

Dan Cooper bought a ticket on Thanksgiving Eve 1971 from Portland to Seattle on Northwest Orient Flight 305. During the brief flight, he passed a note to a stewardess claiming to have a bomb and showed her a briefcase containing eight red cylinders wired to a battery. His instructions were for four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills to be delivered to the plane at the Seattle Tacoma Airport and for the plane to be refueled.

This was done. He released the passengers and stewardesses. Flight 305 took off, headed for Mexico via Reno, Nevada. Somewhere along the way, over southern Washington, Cooper parachuted out of the plane. It was dark and rainy and he was jumping into a wilderness area wearing a trench coat and street shoes, carrying the money and his briefcase. He has never been found. Nor has his body.

The Seattle Times, Nov. 25, 1971

A few days later a letter from Cooper or someone else was received by authorities:

The Oregonian, Nov. 30, 1971

In the fall of 1973, a Portland paper offered a $1,000 reward for the first person to bring in a $20 bill with a serial number from the list of twenties the FBI had released. They had filmed all the bills to get this information. The reward was never claimed. None of the bills have circulated since 1971.

Dallas Morning News, Nov. 23, 1973

 Six years later in 1979 a placard from the plane about the operation of the rear stairs was found: 

The Seattle Times, Jan. 17, 1979

And in 1980, some of the money was found along the Columbia River. The rest, which has a 2011 purchasing price equivalence of over $1 million, has never turned up.

This past summer it was reported in The Telegraph of London, UK, that the FBI are now investigating an individual who has been dead for 10 years. He had not previously been under suspicion. They are hoping to find fingerprints to compare to those taken from the cabin of the plane back in 1971. They also have some DNA evidence from a tie clip of Cooper’s which they can compare to the suspect, if they find any of his DNA.  

Here’s the key paragraph from the July 30, 2011 Telegraph story, “The 40-Year Mystery of America’s Greatest Skyjacking.” Ayn Dietrich, described in the article as “a former analyst with the bureau who is now tasked with handling inquiries about the Cooper case,” is speaking to Alex Hannaford, the Telegraph’s reporter:

 “You’re the first to know this, but we do actually have a new suspect we’re looking at. And it comes from a credible lead who came to our attention recently via a law enforcement colleague.” I’m stunned. Dietrich says she can’t tell me much more, but like all the Cooper sleuths I’ve met over the past few days, I too have become a little obsessed with the case. “The credible lead is somebody whose possible connection to the hijacker is strong,” she says. “And the suspect is not a name that’s come up before.” Dietrich says agents have sent an item that belongs to him for testing at the forensics lab in Quantico, Virginia. “We’re hoping there are fingerprints they can take off of it,” she says. “It would be a significant lead. And this is looking like our most promising one to date.”

D.B. Cooper was not merely a successful criminal, assuming he survived the jump. He became a folk hero. Within a week or so, tee shirts were for sale with the slogan “D.B. Cooper – Where are you?” 

The Oregonian, Dec. 2, 1971

Later that December a bowling alley advertised a cash prize tournament with the tagline “D.B. Cooper didn’t get all the money in the northwest.”   

The Sunday Oregonian, Dec. 12, 1971

I don’t know why Cooper would have been viewed in this positive light. I’m guessing that it was the fact his crime was seen as successful—relatively nonviolent, if stressful for the passengers and crew. The victim was a corporation and in the late 1960s and early ’70s corporations were often cast as the villain by members of the counterculture. One of the interviewees in Hannaford’s story basically says he was “sticking it to the man.” A bar in Ariel, Washington, has been holding a D.B. Cooper Day since 1973 on the day after Thanksgiving . They’ll hold it again this month, on the 40th anniversary of this unsolved crime.

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The Readex Report: In Praise of Librarians and Archivists; Of Presidents and Papers; Ephemeral Loyalties; and Playing Hardball

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

In our latest issue: A professor lauds his colleagues in the library; dissecting a timeless inaugural speech; consumption versus nationalism in early America; and the unheralded impact of a hard-swinging civil rights giant.

In Praise of Librarians and Archivists: Appreciating the Colleagues Who Make Professors’ Jobs Easier

By Mark Cheathem, Associate Professor of History, Cumberland University

Since I was a child begging my mother to take me to the library on a daily basis, I have appreciated the designated keepers of books. Conducting research as an undergraduate student made me aware of the specialized jobs that academic librarians did every day to make life easier for the clueless young people like me who wandered into the building with no idea about how to find academic journal articles or primary sources…. (read article)

Of Presidents and Papers

By Martha King, Associate Editor, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, established at Princeton University, is preparing the authoritative and comprehensive edition of the correspondence and papers of our nation’s third president. As historians editing Jefferson’s incoming and outgoing correspondence, we are responsible for gathering documents and making them available to posterity in an accurate, transcribed, and contextualized format through our published and digital editions…. (read article)

Ephemeral Loyalties? Consumption, Commerce and Jeffersonian Politics, 1806-1815

By Joanna Cohen, School of History at Queen Mary, University of London

While the Revolution may have secured Americans their political independence, economic independence remained elusive. As early as 1783, Americans realized that they had not extricated themselves in any meaningful way from the mercantile system of the Atlantic world, still dominated by European imperial might…. (read article)

Playing Hardball: Brushing Off the Memory of a Civil Rights Giant

By Harvey M. Kahn, Humanities Reporter

Many scholars consider Rube Foster’s impact on the civil rights movement as important as that of Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, or any other early twentieth-century figure. Today, with the exception of diehard baseball fans, few people recognize his name…. (read article)

Subscribe today to receive the next quarterly issue of The Readex Report in your inbox. Browse previous issues in our archive. If you would like to comment, contribute or suggest an article, please email The Readex Report editor: readexreport@readex.com.

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A Sports Legend and His Dream: Bobby Jones, the Augusta National Golf Club and the Birth of the Masters

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Bobby Jones entered the Roaring Twenties still the teenage prodigy who had first come to the public’s attention when he qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship at the age of 14. By the end of the 1920s, Jones was firmly established as a major star. The only golfer considered one of the true icons of the Golden Age of Sports, Bobby Jones stood alongside Babe Ruth, Red Grange, Jack Dempsey and Bill Tilden as giants in the public eye.

Jones’ road to success was not as quick, or easy, as his precocious abilities might have made it appear. It took several years, a few near-misses, and evolving maturity before Bobby broke through. Although winning the amateur championships brought enough glory and achievement to earn him a place in golf’s pantheon, Bobby took his fame a major step further by regularly beating the top professionals of the day.

He won three British and four U.S. Opens against strong fields that included such legends as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen—the only two U.S. golfers of that period whose triumphs earned them a mention alongside Jones. Beating professionals at their own game elevated Jones beyond golf and made him one of the most popular sports stars in the United States. Such was the public affection for Bobby Jones that he remains the only individual athlete to be honored with two New York City ticker-tape parades. The second ticker-tape parade, in 1930, celebrated Jones’ unprecedented Grand Slam.

By winning both the Open and Amateur Championships of Great Britain and the United States, and thus triumphing both at home and overseas against fields made up of the finest players in the world, Bobby’s accomplishment was unparalleled.

After his Grand Slam, Jones was eager to escape the pressures of both celebrity and championship-caliber golf.

For a one-dimensional athlete, retirement from his or her chosen sport can be a challenge greater than any faced on the fields of competition. Jones, however, was a well-educated, intelligent soul interested in much more than the game of golf. Not only had he earned undergraduate degrees from Georgia Tech (B.S., Mechanical Engineering) and Harvard College (B.A., English Literature), but after just one year of law school at Emory he passed the Georgia bar exam.

Jones looked forward to embracing the rewards of a well-rounded life. Determined to remain part of the golf world, Jones sought to establish a club with members from across the nation. It was to be situated in a climate warm enough for winter play. Members were to be successful men who took their golf seriously and had the financial standing necessary to form the type of club that Bobby envisioned.

On July 15, 1931, The Augusta Chronicle devoted most of its front page to coverage of the announcement that Jones and his associates were founding the Augusta National Golf Club. Nearly six of its eight columns were necessary to display four articles on Jones and his new club.

Among the specific details in the Chronicle’s reporting were items such as:

The site Jones chose was a former nursery with enough land to build several courses:

Jones discussed his intentions for the club:

O.B. Keeler, famed golf writer and long-time chronicler of Jones’ career, made a prediction that at the time might have seemed more fantasy than fact, but now seems remarkably accurate:

Even with Jones’ involvement, building a new golf course in the early years of the Great Depression was no small challenge. Few private clubs would open during the 1930s, and many established clubs closed, falling victim to the tough economic times. Not until the Works Progress Administration began building public courses later in the ‘30s would course construction resume with any regularity. By encouraging a national membership, Jones and his backers had access to enough capital to make this confident statement:

Jones intended to use his experiences playing the world’s great golf courses to lay out the new course, but realized he needed a professional golf course architect to ensure the greatest success. He chose Alister MacKenzie, a Scottish physician-turned-course designer as his architectural partner:

With sufficient financing, excellent topography and natural features, as well as the best design instincts of both Jones and MacKenzie, the course was ready for its debut in January 1933. The Chronicle’s coverage is replete with interesting details:

The reporting hints at the affluence of the visiting golfers:

In addition to the obvious attractions of warm southern weather and Jones’ hospitality, the course itself was to be the star of the gathering:

The Masters, world famous as one of golf’s major championships, has been played since 1934. Conceived by Jones, the annual event was intended to bring the top professional and amateur players together in the spring when the Augusta National course would be at its best. Originally called the “Augusta National Invitational Tournament,” the hometown Chronicle began referring to it as the “Masters’ Invitation Tournament.” By 1939 this was shortened to the Masters, a name known today by even the most casual sports fans.

At first the Masters’ primary draw was less the prospect of seeing out-of-town competitors than watching the great Bobby Jones in action once again. Jones had entered no important tournaments since his post-Grand Slam retirement in 1930, but was still in the public eye thanks to a series of instructional films made in Hollywood as well as golf equipment endorsements which he had accepted after retiring from amateur competition. While Jones intended the tournament to be a gathering of old friends and top-level players, his other aspirations were publicity and recognition for his new club and the resulting prestige that would come from hosting such an event. Though he was firmly retired there was much speculation about how Bobby would do in his dual roles of host and competitive golfer. 

Speaking to reporters on the eve of play, Bobby said, “I hope to step four fast rounds,” but sportswriters knew that his putting was not thought to be tournament-ready.

Veteran Atlanta Journal reporter O.B. Keeler, who had gained fame as Jones’ Boswell after years of chronicling Bobby’s triumphs, gave the details:

The first Masters was a rudimentary affair compared to today’s professional production with its worldwide live media coverage and sold-out crowds proudly holding one of the toughest tickets in all sports. Prize money in the heart of the Depression was far more modest than today’s seven-figure purses and first-place checks. The first playing featured a total purse of $5,000, $1,500 of which went to winner Horton Smith. The March 26 edition of the Chronicle featured extensive coverage:

The following year would see changes to the course, something that would become a regular occurrence at the Augusta National through the decades. Although the course remains basically the same as the original design by Jones and MacKenzie, it has continued to evolve. In 1935 the tournament drew extra attention when winner Gene Sarazen holed his second shot at the par-five 15th for a headline-making double-eagle during his triumphant final round.

Bobby Jones would remain an integral part of both Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters tournament through the remaining years of his life. Even today he is still listed as the Club’s President-in-Perpetuity.

This view of the 1990 Masters shows the gallery watching play on the 12th tee with the 11th green in the background. (Copyright: Larry Petrillo)

Forty years after Jones’ death, the Masters retains its unique position in championship golf—the first men’s major of the year. For many northern golfers the Masters is proof that spring is on its way. It remains the only major championship played at the same course each year, a course that thanks to extensive television coverage is as well known to many golfers as their own home course, despite the club’s exclusive nature during the other 51 weeks of the year.

Today, the lasting popularity of Augusta National Golf Club, and the continued success of the Masters, is a fitting legacy for Bobby Jones, a legendary champion and stellar sportsman.

[Editor's note: The articles and black-and-white images above are found in America's Historical Newspapers. To learn more, please contact readexmarketing@readex.com.]

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Key Titles in African American Periodicals, 1825-1995: Part One of Three

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

African American Periodicals, 1825-1995, reflects more than a century and half of the African American experience. The first collection in Readex’s new America’s Historical Periodicals series, this wide-ranging resource features more than 170 titles from 26 states. Below is a brief description of seven of these publications. For descriptions of fourteen others, please visit the Key Periodicals page on the Readex website.

The Voice of the Negro (Atlanta, Georgia)

A literary journal aimed at a national audience of African Americans, The Voice of the Negro was published from 1904 to 1907. It published writings by Booker T. Washington, as well as a younger generation of black activists and intellectuals, including W.E.B. Du Bois, John Hope, Kelly Miller, Mary Church Terrell and William Pickens. It also featured poetry by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, James D. Corrothers and Douglas Johnson.

• Includes issues published between 1904 and 1907

The Colored American Magazine (Boston, Massachusetts)

One of the most prominent vehicles for black intellectual, artistic, and political expression during the first decade of the 20th century, The Colored American was edited by Pauline Hopkins, African American novelist, playwright and journalist. The magazine’s masthead read: “An Illustrated Monthly Devoted to Literature, Science, Music, Architecture, Facts, Fiction, and Traditions of the Negro Race.”

• Includes issues published between 1902 and 1908

The Horizon: A Journal of the Color Line (Washington, D.C.)

Edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, The Horizon was the precursor to The Crisis—Du Bois’ groundbreaking publication for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. However, The Horizon was a very different publication in that it functioned as an aggregator of news from other sources, as well as an outlet for its editors’ views. It had three main sections: “The In-Look” was a digest of the “Negro-American press,” “The Out-Look” was a digest of the periodical press, and “The Over-Look” was a digest of opinions and general catch-all for books, political discussions, and the views of Du Bois and his editors. It ceased publication in 1910 when Du Bois started The Crisis.

• Includes issues published between 1907 and 1910

The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races (New York, New York)

The official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The Crisis was founded by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1910 and is widely considered one of the most important African American publications of the twentieth century. Primarily a current-affairs journal promoting the NAACP’s liberal program of social reform and racial equality, The Crisis also included poems, reviews and essays on culture and history. “The object of this publication,” Du Bois wrote, “is to set forth those facts and arguments which show the danger of race prejudice, particularly as manifested today toward colored people. It takes its name from the fact that the editors believe that this is a critical time in the history of the advancement of men.”

• Includes issues published between 1910 and 1922

The Negro: A Review (St. Louis, Missouri)

Billed as “America’s Best Negro Monthly,” The Negro: A Review contained articles, illustrations, advertisements and short stories. Edited by Frederick Bond in St. Louis, it was one of the only general interest African American magazines published in the Midwest during World War II.

• Includes issues published between 1943 and 1948

The African World (Greensboro, North Carolina)

Published first by the Student Organization for Black Unity, The African World described itself as the “Voice of the Revolutionary Pan-African Youth Movement in the Americas.” It contained articles and photographs covering civil rights, the youth movement, prison abuse, and the exploitation of African American workers. Its founders later helped form, and publicize, the February First Movement, the civil rights group named for the date in 1960 when four African American students asserted their right to sit at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

• Includes issues published between 1971 and 1975

Black Careers (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

A bi-monthly journal that did much to educate African American job seekers about the importance of Equal Opportunity Employment legislation, Black Careers contained articles on employment trends, educational opportunities and discrimination in employment. It was also popular with teachers in inner city schools due to its profiles of role models from the African American business community.

• Includes issues published between 1977 and 1982

For more information about African American Periodicals, 1825-1995, please write to readexmarketing@readex.com. To request trial access for your institution, please use this form.

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