Cradle of American Liberty

(June 8 – 11 2017) Boston, Lexington, and Concord, Massachusetts  

My son Harry and oldest grandson, Will, and I spent four glorious days checking out American history and culture in America’s Cradle of Liberty. We headquartered in Back Bay Boston in one of America’s trendiest neighborhoods.

During our few days in Bean Town we explored America’s founding and though we barely scratched Boston’s surface we checked off many must see boxes. The best part in addition to learning was bonding as Rosenthal men. It was wonderful. Harry and Will were first timers, though it was a return trip for me.

Our itinerary included the Freedom Trail, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Public Library, Harvard Yard, Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill battlegrounds, a Red Sox – Tigers game at Fenway Park, and the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Boston Science Museum.

Highlights of our first day were visits and tours at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Public Library and checking out Boylston and Newbury Streets. Our first stop was a quick lunch at Luke’s Lobster, where I consumed an appetizing Back Bay Shack crab roll with blue coleslaw, and craft root beer (cane sugar). We window-shopped after lunch and walked to the Museum of Fine Arts.

Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) is among America’s top five arts’ palaces. Our focus was on American art and we weren’t disappointed. After a quick walk through of the massive American Art wing we found the visitor’s center to join the 3 o’clock tour of American masterpieces. Promptly at 3 we found our terrific volunteer docent, Sharon Johnson, who was holding a small paddle indicating Free Tour!

For nearly two months Boston had experienced dismal weather but the sun began shining on our arrival that morning. The weather during our stay was nearly idyllic, sunny and seventy. It was Boston’s first nice day after two months of a dismal spring sending locals and most visitors outside, not inside museums; consequently our free public tour was exclusive.

Ms. Johnson began our orientation in the courtyard of the American Art’s wing at the Dale Chihuly glass sculpture, “LimeGreen Icicle Tower.”   She explained the Tower had been placed at the MFA for the opening of the new American Arts wing and when the people of Boston saw it they fell in love. Enormous and amazing, Bostonians decided to make it theirs and a public campaign commenced to raise the substantial sum necessary for the Towers purchase.

Sharon’s anecdote about the Chihuly Tower emphasized her theme; Boston is City with a Strong Spirit and a Can Do Attitude!

Her theme resonated throughout our stay.

The quantity of great art at MFA is not surprising, but many of the pieces are not just interesting but historically significant. Two signature pieces of significance were John Singleton Copley’s ”Portraitof Paul Revere” 1768 and Revere’s silver “Sons of Liberty Bowl.” Our docent’s interpretation of these two objects revealed insight to Revere ‘s character and highlighted the role the Sons of Liberty played in the Colonies’ quest for American independence, freedom, and self-government.  

In the American wing we viewed one of the important and unique features of the MFA, the imposing and massive John Singer Sargent murals. Before leaving the MFA we spent a brief thirty minutes at the Museum’s current special exhibition, Matisse in the Studio. The exhibit detailed Henri Matisse’s life and art technique.

Preparing for our trip I checked out Fodor’s Boston Travel Guide. Fodor led us to an overlooked Boston gem, the Boston Public Library. We scheduled our Library visit to attend the 6pm Thursday public tour, Art and Architecture of the McKim Building.

The Citizens of Boston built a new library building on Copley Square in 1895. The architect selected was Charles Follen McKim, America’s foremost Beaux-Arts architect. Following his mandate for a building that would inspire (learning and the arts) a gorgeous building was constructed.  McKim’s masterpiece cost 2 million dollars.

The building is inspiring and a wonderful special place. A few spots are in need of a little freshening up. Renovation is not being ignored but our guide acknowledged funding is not sustaining the building’s needs.

Sidebar – ALL of the important cultural venues in Boston have their hand out. While Boston has large resources (State Street Bank, Fidelity, John Hancock, Liberty Mutual among many others) the Goliath cultural icons need deep pockets.

Adorning the Library’s walls, inside and out are sculptures and murals by various important artists including (again) John Singer Sargent, Edwin Austin Abbey, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and Daniel Chester French. I particularly liked Abbey’s murals portraying Lancelot in pursuit of the Grail.

While the reading rooms are spectacular, the building’s Courtyard and garden was dazzling. The McKim Building is used solely as a research library. The lending library is contained in an adjacent building, another spectacular architectural feat. Designed by important 20^th century American architect, Philip Johnson, the lending library was constructed in 1972. Contained in the Johnson Building are also other treats including the Leventhal MAP Library (fantastic), and a WGBH television studio.  I am passionate about libraries but without Fodor’s heads up I would have missed this delight.

For dinner, our destination was EATALY at the Prudential Center. EATALY is one a few but growing chain of Mario Batali large food boutiques containing gourmet Italian foods and restaurants. Will, Harry, and I each chose satisfying pasta dinners at La Pizza and La Pasta sit down restaurant at EATALY.

Prior to my trip, another heads up was from a friend’s son who was visiting his Dad in South Dakota. The son, a New Hampshire resident, advised when touring Boston’s Freedom Trail be sure to employ a costumed guide. His tip was good advice.

We joined our tour guide at the Visitor’s Center on Boston Common the morning of our second day. Our guide outfitted as a British Revolutionary War officer, was a sixty some year old history professor from one of the Boston area’s 52 colleges and universities. Our guide was garrulous and extremely knowledgeable.

His tour was a combination of sightseeing and college lecture. The Professor described the historical sites along the Freedom Trail and interspersed his lecture with insights of events of the Revolutionary period (circa 1765 thru the securing of Independence.)

Our tour ended at Faneuil Hall where we lunched at Boston Chowda on a lobster roll and fries – a solid B, just above average, overpriced and on par for a tourist stop.

After lunch, we looked over the merch at the Faneuil Marketplace and Ubered to Breeds Hill in Charlestown to view and learn about the Bunker Hill National Monument.

The site and the monument are impressive. Learning of the battle put in better perspective the Sons of Liberty’s role in fermenting our Revolution. In particular I learned of the leadership role played by Dr. Joseph Warren (who died in the battle). The monument and Ranger’s narrative improved my understanding of the strong relationship between Freemasonry and the American Revolution.

The Bunker Hill Obelisk was constructed as a result of the efforts of local Masons. In 1825 Marquis de Lafayette laid the monument’s cornerstone and Congressman Daniel Webster gave the oration. To facilitate construction, the first commercial railroad in America (Quincy to Charlestown) was constructed to transport the granite for the monument. The capstone was laid in 1842 and the monument dedicated in 1843 and again Secretary of State Daniel Webster orated.

Unlike my high school history, scant mention was made of the

Colonist’s being ordered, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.”

We next stopped at the Old North Church and adjacent Paul Revere Mall on Hanover Street. While I was historically enchanted by Bunker Hill, the most emotional place visited on our stay was the Mall. Central to the Mall is the statute of the mounted Paul Revere. Surrounding the park like mall are bronze plaques memorializing North End Bostonians who made the ultimate sacrifice for their Country in America’s Wars. There is plaque for each War.

The spirit in the North End is the story of local guy’s banding together and through action becoming the catalyst for the Colonies to take up arms in revolt to overthrow the King.

Boston’s North Enders and the Son’s of Liberty are the embodiment of the aphorism, “All Politics is Local” that is closely associated with another Bostonian, former U. S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill.

The Old North Church, gained notoriety as a result of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1861 poem, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” The North Church is significant and one of the must sees on the Freedom Trail. The Church and the history it contained are engaging. Will was enchanted.

Harvard Square was our next stop. It was fun checking out the Harvard campus, nearby trendy shops, and so many bookstores. Just in front of the entrance to the campus was a freestanding small but very extensive newsstand. Going inside to look around was a living in the past moment. I guess old school newsstands only exist at old schools.

From Harvard and Cambridge we headed back to Boston for dinner. We went to Legal Seafood. As named it was a seafood restaurant with proficient service but not very good food, especially given its $$$$ rating. My son always makes good restaurant choices, but he and the Legal Seafood don’t get a passing grade.

Our third day began with a bus tour of Lexington and Concord greens and battlegrounds. A Grey Line like bus tour is not the best way to tour these important historical places but it was efficient. In part the tour was very scenic and did allow us time at both villages to get off the bus to view the statuary and historic landscape. In Lexington after viewing the Battle Green, we went into Buckman Tavern, where Paul Revere stopped when he reached Lexington. In Concord we viewed the North Bridge where the Colonists and the Red Coats skirmished and nearby is the famous Minuteman statue sculpted by Daniel Chester French dedicated on the Centennial of the Battle of Concord in 1875. History is not settled precisely where the first shot of the War was fired. However Concord is most attributed to where “the shot heard round the world” happened.

Returning to Boston, after two and one half active days we ran out of gas. We took the late afternoon off before walking from our hotel to relatively nearby Fenway Park for the evening Red Sox game.

The current ownership of the Sox has done an excellent job of updating the Park while retaining it’s historic and intimate feel. I was not only impressed by the Green Monster, but also how the under the stands concessions were laid out, and vendors were aligned outside the Park along the adjacent Avenues. Both the game and the prices at the concessions were Major League. The game was competitive. The concessions are monopolistic.

I ate a modest dinner, cheeseburger, 16-ounce coke, and small bag of crackerjacks, $19.00. The food was worthy. Price tag aside, we had a great time at Fenway, a memory maker!

Sunday we were up, packed and hustled to make a couple of last stops before flying home mid afternoon. We had a yummy breakfast at Trident Booksellers and Café nearby on Newbury Street, a unique combination. Then quickly we returned to Cambridge and the Hayden Planetarium located within the ginormous Boston Science Museum. As expected the Planetarium show was top notch.

Boston is a great destination with a great history and Great Spirit.

Happy Trails - Part I

(May 18 - 21, 2017) Abilene, Kansas, Independence and St. Joseph, Missouri

Professor Mydland, my close friend and former neighbor, and I hit the road for a long weekend to the Presidential Museum sites in Kansas and Missouri. A special exhibit on the Chisholm Trail provided the perfect excuse to get away to visit General and President Eisenhower’s boyhood home and Presidential Museum complex in Abilene, Kansas,

Abilene, Eisenhower’s hometown, is also the terminus of the historic Chisholm Cattle Trail. I feel a connection with the Trail, as my hometown, Fort Worth, was the Trail’s jumping off point. Both Fort Worth and Abilene currently are celebrating the Chisholm Trail’s Sesquicentennial.

We left Sioux Falls just after noon on Thursday, a bright and fairly warm South Dakota spring day. We headed south on Interstate 29, looping around Omaha and west onto Interstate 80 before heading south again and through Beatrice, Nebraska toward Kansas on the two-lane. Crossing into the Jayhawk State, the weather changed dramatically. Mother Nature greeted us to Kansas with a combination of “The Wizard of Oz” and “Twister.”

The rains came, then the winds, the skies blackened, followed by our cell phones sounding their sirens with imminent weather warnings. We arrived in Abilene in a downpour with flash flooding; two and one-half inches of rain in twenty-five minutes. Fortunately the twister did not touch down in Dickinson County.  

Uniquely with the Eisenhower Museum you get a double, covering both a distinguished military career and the Presidency. The impressive Eisenhower historical campus includes Visitor Center, Grave Site, Boyhood Home, Library, and Museum.

Ike’s World War II Chief of Staff, Walter Bedell “Beatle” Smith, organized the early creation and development work on the complex. Smith began work on the Museum prior to Eisenhower’s Presidency, organizing and raising funds from the multitude of Eisenhower associates, admirer’s and many of the soldier’s who served with Ike. Smith contributed $79,000 to the museum’s founding and his papers are housed in the Eisenhower Library.

After the War, Smith served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1946-1948) and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1950-1953) in the Truman administration. In the Eisenhower years he became an Under Secretary of State going on to serve in the Executive Office of the President.

Our first stop was a brief guided tour of Eisenhower’s boyhood home. The six-room home that housed Ida and David Eisenhower and their five sons contained a rarely used parlor, three bedrooms, a kitchen, a den, and one closet. The home was utilitarian. Young Ike liked the out of doors. His favorite pastimes were hunting, fishing, and playing football. The future President also liked reading history. His childhood heroes were Hannibal, George Washington, and Robert E Lee.

The guide emphasized the strong work ethic of the five Eisenhower sons. Ike’s four brothers while they would not become Supreme Allied Commander or U.S. President were also successful. Edgar was a corporate lawyer in the Pacific Northwest; Milton an educator who became the President of Kansas State College, Pennsylvania State (Milton was instrumental in Penn State becoming a University), and Johns Hopkins University; Earl an electrical engineer for a suburban Illinois newspaper chain and member of the Illinois State House of Representatives; Arthur a banker in Kansas City.

Dwight Eisenhower was in the spotlight on the world stage for twenty years, as long if not longer than any American President. His museum reflects his long career and dedicated service. There is almost as much exhibit space dedicated to his military career as to his Presidency.

The museum is laid out topically and well organized appropriate for a General. Early in Eisenhower’s military career his superiors identified his organizational skills and strategic military abilities. The most important U S Military leaders, Generals Fox Connor, John J Pershing, and Douglas McArthur, mentored him.

The museum told of Eisenhower’s close friendships with George Patton, Omar Bradley, and Abilene school classmate Swede Hazlett.

Television came of age during the Eisenhower presidency, including the 1952 campaign and how issues were framed. The museum covered in depth the important issues of the 1950s: the Cold War, McCarthy and the Red Scare, Civil Rights and Integration, Sputnik, and the Interstate Highway System.

I learned during the 34^th President’s eight years in office he played a lot of golf, in fact eight hundred rounds. A putting green was installed on the White House grounds nearby the Oval office, and Augusta National Golf Club built for the President a cabin on the grounds of their historic course where he frequently vacationed. Another impressive fact was Congress passed an act in 1961 restoring Five Star General Dwight David Eisenhower to active duty.

Eisenhower quotes I liked”     

On organizing the White House and Sherman Adams, White House Chief of Staff,

“I shouldn’t have to be my own Sergeant Major.”

On security,

“If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison.”

Coincidently my travel on this outing centered on trails, Eisenhower’s vision and leadership in building the Interstate Highway System may be judged by history as the most important trail built in America.  I touched on the story of Eisenhower and the Interstate System, a few years ago on my political blog.

My greatest impression, reinforced the next day with my visit to the Harry Truman Museum was the imense Character of Eisenhower and Truman. History will judge if their character was caused by their times or by where they were raised. Was it Time or Place?, I say both!

Chisholm Trail and the Cowtown that Raised a President – Abilene was a Cowtown essentially as a result of the Chisholm Trail. Life in Abilene was the personification of the Wild West. Though wild, it was at a time nearing the closing of the western frontier. The CT was simply a product of economics. Cattle in Texas were worth $4 a head and at the railhead in Abilene were worth $40.

Given the costs of a cattle drive, manpower, provisions, and loss of livestock, it was a profitable endeavor. The Texas Longhorn was the breed of choice because of its disease resistance and ability to withstand the drives.

The cowboys typically spent between two and three months herding the steers from Fort Worth to Abilene. Besides spending each day in the saddle, the cowboys crossed Indian Territory (what is now Oklahoma) at some person risk of attack. After their monotonous days in the saddle living in the dust from their herds, when they arrived at their destination and payday were looking for a good time and what was call hell raising. This meant baths, a bed, good food, whiskey, gambling, and girls. The cauldron of hell raising, money, and bad men who wanted the cowboy’s money produced Trouble. Abilene is also known for their famous Marshall, James Butler Hickok.

As the railroads moved further south and west the cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail ceased. However some of the cowboy culture remained. In 1870 one of the owners of the local stockyards, and a local realtor, Theodore “T. C.” Henry became Mayor of Abilene. Mayor Henry hired as Marshall Tom Smith who brought law and order to Abilene.  As the cattle drive played out, Henry began promoting the crop “winter” wheat. The Kansas soil and climate were perfect for the wheat crop. A result of his success Henry became known as “The Wheat King of Kansas.”

A bonus of our visit to the Eisenhower campus was White House correspondent, Paul Brandus, who lectured in the Visitor Center’s auditorium. Brandus also a White House historian, lecture topic was “Under This Roof: A History of the White House and Presidency.” Essentially his “lecture” was a series of anecdotes about several of the Presidents and First Ladies interaction with the physical White House. Brandus was a very polished and informed speaker but his anecdotes were simply facts lacking the analysis I hoped for. Brandus impressed me enough to add him to my Twitter feed.

The lecture included a very nice free sandwich buffet lunch compliments of the local Eisenhower historical group.