From Canal Boy to President

From Canal Boy to President

One of the more common campaign items for James Garfield is a token that celebrates Garfield’s humble beginnings working as a tow boy on the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal.

   

After President Garfield’s assassination in 1881, the theme from Garfield’s campaign became the perfect basis for a biography by the popular children’s author, Horatio Alger Jr.

Horatio Alger Jr. (January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific American author whose writings were characterized by a "rags-to-riches" narrative.  In January 1867, the first of 12 installments of Ragged Dick appeared in a magazine, Student and Schoolmate. The story, about a poor bootblack's rise to middle-class respectability, was a huge success. It was expanded and published as a novel in 1868.  It proved to be Alger’s best-selling work, and a model for his many children’s novels that followed.

In 1881, Alger wrote “From Canal Boy to President; or, The Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield.”

The book sold well, but more factual biographies are available. 

I also found the pin that, I believe, completes my collection of Bud Fisher designs for the Mutt and Jeff series of cartoon pins--30 pins, 29 phrases.  All of them were also issued as black and white images.  About 19 of them were used in a 1 1/4-inch color set.

I am glad to have found the original photograph from which Underwood & Underwood made the framed poster I have.  They cropped, re-touched, and colored the image.  It is amazing what they accomplished without having Photoshop software.

Theodore Roosevelt Picture Restored

A photograph of Theodore Roosevelt, probably taken during his 1904 presidential campaign, was hand-tinted, reproduced as a poster, and framed.  Most likely it hung for many years in a school class room somewhere.

When I acquired it, the frame was dirty and the glass had a six-inch crack across the lower right corner.  The backing board was a piece of (very acidic) corrugated cardboard.  One day, the picture fell from my office wall and the glass shattered.

I carefully removed the print and sprayed both sides of it with. Krylon Acid Free.  I cleaned the frame.  A local gallery re-mounted the picture in the original frame with an acid free back board and non-reflective museum glass.  The well-protected 18-inch by 22-inch framed picture again hangs in my office, looking much liked it did in that class room.

Mutt and Jeff Update.

I thought there were 28 Bud Fisher designs in the Mutt and Jeff pin series, but apparently there are 29.  I just won the most recent in an auction:

 I still need 3 more to complete (I hope) the series:

Buttons from The Pan American Exposition, 1901

The event was organized by the Pan-American Exposition Company, formed in 1897.  Buffalo, New York, was chosen as the place to hold the Exposition.   The city was within a day's journey by rail for over 40 million people.  The "Pan American" theme was carried throughout the event with the slogan "commercial well being and good understanding among the American Republics."

The advent of the alternating current power transmission system in the US allowed designers to light the exposition in Buffalo using power generated 25 miles away at Niagara Falls.  The newly-developed X-ray machine was displayed at the fair.  Lina Beecher, creator of the Flip Flap Railway, attempted to demonstrate one of his looping roller coasters at the fair, but the organizers of the event considered the ride to be too dangerous and refused to allow it on the grounds.

The exposition is most remembered because President William McKinley was shot by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, at the Temple of Music on September 6, 1901.  The President died 8 days later.  President McKinley's speech at the exposition on the previous day included the following words:

"Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world's advancements. They stimulate the energy, enterprise, and intellect of the people, and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of information to the student...."

These three souvenir buttons from the exposition are displayed side-by-side, possibly for the first time in over 100 years.  The first one has the words, “Official Button,” printed along the upper edge.

The picture of the bison obviously represents the city of buffalo. The symbolism of the dust pan and brooms is a little more obscure.  The middle badge alludes to “IN-DUST-RY,” while the button on the right proclaims, “NO DUST FOR US,” and “CLEAN SWEEP.”  Other souvenirs of the exposition were made in the shape of frying pans. One theory is that the pans somehow relate to the “pan” in “Pan American.”



Double Entendre

I just could not resist this pin: