Jerome Dwight Davis (December 2, 1891 – October 19, 1979), was an American activist for international peace and social reform, a labor organizer, and a sociologist who founded the organization Promoting Enduring Peace. Early in his life, he campaigned to reduce the workweek and as an advocate of organized labor.

Background

Davis was born in Kyoto, Japan on December 2, 1891 to American missionaries Jerome Dean Davis and Frances Hooper. His father helped found Doshisha University and then taught there.  Davis spent his early childhood in Japan.

In 1904, Davis came to the US with his parents to get an American education. He attended Newton High School in Newton, Massachusetts and Oberlin Academy. In 1913, he graduated from Oberlin College, where he had served as president of the local Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).  He spent a year in community service at the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Association, through which he helped obtain a half holiday for workers in some larger local factories.

Career

In 1914, Davis started a doctorate simultaneously at the Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University. He financed his studies through work.  He performed social work, worked as assistant at Broadway Tabernacle, and lectured for the City of New York.

During the summer of 1915, he worked as a private secretary to Sir Wilfred Grenfell in Labrador, Canada, and helped him in a wide array of services. Grenfell arrested felons and also extracted teeth. In the fall of 1915, Davis took leave from his studies to travel to Europe and work with prisoners of war (POWs) during the Great War. Their plight became a lifelong interest.

YMCA (Russia)
Davis spent 1916–1918 in Russia.  He was sent to Russia by the YMCA to work with German POWs. He also set up YMCA centers for Russian soldiers. Upon American entry into World War I in 1917, he was appointed as head of all YMCA work in Russia. For the US Government, he oversaw distribution of more than a million copies of President Wilson's "14 Points" message to German soldiers.

He opposed US military intervention in Russia during its civil war in favor of working with the new Soviet Union. During the 1920s, Davis returned to Russia several times and continued to advocate for Soviet cooperation. His chart of the construction of the Soviet government was published in Workers' Dreadnought. By 1920, however, he had returned to the States, and finished his studies at the Union Theological Seminary. In 1922 he obtained a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University.

Academia
From 1921 to 1924, Davis worked as an associate professor of Sociology at Dartmouth College. There, he also advocated for organized labor. He investigated and published findings on a strike in Manchester, New Hampshire.  The Federal Coal Commission asked him to investigate operations of West Virginia coal mines.  He also served as chairman of the Social Service Commission of the Congregational Church.

In 1924, he founded the Jerome Davis Research fund to support students at Oberlin who "worked with labor" to facilitate "mutual understanding and cooperation in the field of industry."

From 1924 to 1936, Davis was appointed a Gilbert L. Stark professor of "practical philanthropy" at the Yale Divinity School.  He helped organize labor forums for the New Haven Trades Council.  He developed labor ideals adopted by the Congregational and Christian Churches of America. He chaired the Social Service Commission of Protestant churches in Connecticut. From 1924 to 1936, he also chaired the Legislative Commission on Jails of the State of Connecticut for twelve years. He  used a $50,000 Federal grant to review Connecticut prisoner records, with findings published in 1932.

In 1928, Davis was a member of the American Society for Cultural Relations with Russia, part of VOKS (Russian "Vsesoiuznoe Obshchestvo Kul'turnoi Sviazi s zagranitsei" — Всесоюзное общество культурной связи с заграницей, All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries).

When he did not receive tenure at Yale, the decision was controversial and was widely believed to be a result of his socialism. The National Education Association, the American Federation of Labor, and the American Association of University Professors investigated the case. Yale denied permission to US Supreme Court Justice Ferdinand Pecora and US Senator Gerald P. Nye to speak on campus for fear of their support for Davis.

American Federation of Teachers
From 1936 to 1939, Davis served as president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). During his second term (1936–1937), Davis joined Lovestoneites and others in trying to lead the AFT out of the AFL and into the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).  However, the Communist Party USA, although it supported the CIO as a policy, itself did not want certain AFL unions like the AFT to leave, because the CPUSA might lose influence in the AFL.

In the late 1930s, Davis (along with Denis Nowell Pritt, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger, and others) defended the Moscow Trials of the Stalin purge era in the Soviet Union from critics. Davis claimed that, as a former Chairman of the Legislative Commission on Jails in the State of Connecticut, he had seen hundreds of criminals confess based on overwhelming evidence against them. He compared that experience to the confessions given by defendants in the Moscow Trials. He did note that "there is a lot of false testimony in a trial of this kind."

For the rest of his life, Davis worked on and off as visiting professor at colleges and universities. During the 1940 presidential elections, Davis served as delegate from Connecticut to the Democratic National Convention.

World War II
During World War II, he headed YMCA POW efforts in Canada. From 1943 to 1944 Davis worked as a correspondent for the Toronto Star in Moscow. In January 1944, he was part of the delegation of Western correspondents who visited the graves in Katyn forest at the invitation of the Soviets. He believed the Soviet version that the Germans were the perpetrators.

From 1939 to 1945, Davis was involved in a libel lawsuit he filed (see below). In 1949, he led a peace mission to Europe.

Promoting Enduring Peace
In 1952, Davis founded the organization Promoting Enduring Peace, Inc., in which he remained active through 1974.  The group issued reprints of articles in pamphlet form that opposed the militarism of the mid-1940s, and formally formed the organization in 1952. As its first director, Davis organized many trips to the USSR during the Cold War, in an effort to continue communicating with Russian leaders. In 1957, his group met for two hours with Nikita Khrushchev. In 1970, his group met with Alexei Kosygin. In 1973 and 1975, Davis led similar trips for educators to China, which had been controlled by Communists since shortly after World War II.

He proposed creation of the Gandhi Peace Award on March 13, 1959. He presented it to the first recipient, Eleanor Roosevelt, the following year.

Controversy

Davis supported world peace and international cooperation with all nations, which included working with the Communist states of the USSR and China.  Most scholars recognize that his support was based on admiration for Communism and its leaders.  Scholar Judy Kutulas writes that Davis found Joseph Stalin to be an impressive intellectual and one useful during a revolutionary period, yet she carefully described him as a non-communist who supported the USSR as an "inveterate front supporter."

During the Cold War and anti-Communist fears in the United States, Davis's efforts were considered suspicious and he earned many opponents to his work. In 1961, the Church League of America wrote:    Jerome Davis, who was kicked out of office in the American Federation of Teachers because of his long pro-Soviet, pro-Communist record, has been identified in numerous pages of Government hearings as one of the top Communist Front joiners in the United States. Davis, according to Biddle, had decided that the Fish Committee of 1930 investigating Communism had been "far more dangerous to liberty and freedom than the pitiful handful of Communists in the United States ever has been.      Of all his publications, Behind Soviet Power stirred up the most attention, at least among anti-communists. Ilya Ehrenburg, a "Soviet newspaperman," wrote its foreword.  In 1951 the libertarian The Freeman magazine wrote about him:
  There is that strong group in the Methodist Church led by Bishop Ward. Many have belonged to every subversive group in the nation. They love Soviet Russia; they apologize for her all the time... The Methodist Church is the largest of the Protestant denominations. Its Federation for Social Action publishes a Social Questions Bulletin, which goes to every Methodist clergyman.  The Federation has among its members half the bishops of the church. It includes the heads of their largest theological schools, editors of their papers, heads of various important boards, ministers of their largest churches. To date none of them has been heard to object to what their Federation says.  Take Jerome Davis, who apologizes for Russia every day and has backed many organizations which have been named as Communist fronts. His book Behind Soviet Power is one of the most outspoken apologies for Russia yet published. It was sent free of charge to more than 23,000 Methodist clergymen. With it went a letter stating that it was a gift from the Methodist Federation and adding that every clergyman must read it. There are some queer things in that book, as odd as some statements that Davis made when he spoke to the National Convention of the Methodists. Read them and wonder!  Soviet concentration camps, according to Davis, are "simply places to keep criminals." On the jailing of innocent people, the shooting of those who oppose Russia in the slave nations, Davis has this to say: "If Russia sends innocent people to concentration camps and tightens up civil liberties, it's the fault of the American government." Just how is not revealed. He further says: "In the last thirty years the Soviet Union has a record for peace the equal of the United States." Again, "Back of all our fear is the demonstrated success in planned economy, first in the Soviet Union, then Poland and Czechoslovakia." I wonder what Davis has read lately?

Libel suit against Saturday Evening Post (1939-1945)

From 1939 to 1945, Davis pursued a libel case against the Curtis Publishing, owners of Saturday Evening Post, then the most widely circulated magazine in the US, for an article in published in 1939.  In "Communist Wreckers in American Labor," from the  September 2, 1939 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, reporter Benjamin Stolberg described Davis as a "Communist and Stalinist", and said that the American Federation of Teachers was "the only AFL union controlled by the Communists" (at a time when Davis headed the AFT).

Davis hired ACLU co-founder and nationally known lawyer Arthur Garfield Hays to represent him in the suit.  Stolberg hired Louis Waldman, an "Old Guard" Socialist and anti-communist labor lawyer. The case reached the New York Supreme Court, with Justice John F. Carew presiding.

Plaintiff
On December 4, 1939, Davis brought a $150,000 libel suit in Manhattan against Curtis Publishing and Stolberg.  Davis testified that, while in Russia, Stalin admitted to him that the USSR supported the CPUSA. He also testified that AFL president William Green had asked him to take "decisive action against the communistic influences" in AFT's Teachers Union Local 5 of New York.  He admitted that in the past he had not done enough to fight communism in American labor unions. Dr. Sherwood Eddy, former YMCA president, testified that Davis was a "loyal American who has always attacked the evils of communism, as I have."  As proof of damage done, National Youth Administration (NYA) head Aubrey Williams testified that he had refused to hire Davis as NYA's educational director based on the Saturday Evening Post article.  Hays rested the case for Davis by calling two last witnesses, Reverend Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick of Riverside Church (New York) and Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise of the American Jewish Congress. Dr. Rev. Fosdick stated, based on a 29-year acquaintance, that "Jerome Davis couldn't be a Communist if he tried."  Rabbi Wise said, based on more than 30 years of acquaintance, that Davis had "never, never" been sympathetic to communism.

Defense
Stolberg testified that the late Dr. Henry R. Linville, who left the AFT to form the Teachers Guild, considered Davis a communist or fellow traveler.  The defense introduced evidence from former CPUSA head Earl Browder, AFL president William Green, and others to document how Stolberg developed the allegedly libelous article. Waldman read from a book by Browder that showed that religiosity does not preclude adherence to communism.  The AFL letter called on the expulsion of communists from the AFT, implying that Davis had failed to do so. In 1935 there was a split between the AFT and Teachers Guild. The defense argued that Davis had a standing reputation as a communist or sympathizer. Former Saturday Evening Post editor William W. Stout testified to that effect; AFT vice president John D. Connors said that Davis followed the Communist party line. AFL vice president Matthew Woll said that even some communists considered Davis a communist, while Stolberg testified that he still considered Davis a communist.  American Mercury editor Eugene Lyons, also a former Moscow correspondent, testified that passages from Davis's book The New Russia (1933) showed a "type of Soviet propaganda" which he called a "whitewash of terror."  He also said that in 1939, Davis had the reputation of "a fellow-traveling Communist." Georgetown University president Dr. Edmund A. Walsh testified that Davis "accepts the ultimate objective of communism and belongs psychologically and morally to the group that advocates it," though he falls short of 100% advocacy because he is "not prepared to go the last ten per cent".  After hearing Curtis Publishing attorney Bruce Bromley read from several books by Davis, Dr. Walsh upped his estimate to "95 per cent" and then "96 per cent."

Rebuttal and verdict

Former AFT secretary-treasurer Florence Curtis Hanson stated that Davis was not a communist but instead "motivated by humanitarianism."  Rev. Dr. Halford E. Luccock, a professor of Homiletics at Yale Divinity School, testified that Davis had criticized the USSR for "disregard of the human values of free speech and its intolerance of religion." He affirmed that Davis was "against the use of violence and terrorism" and no "Stalinist, Communist or labor wrecker." Davis shared letters of advocacy from the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church for services rendered to the church. With the court's agreement, attorney Hays added $100,000, bringing the total suit for damages to $250,000.

On June 8, 1943, Hays summarized Davis's lawsuit as a "patriotic service." That afternoon, just before deliberation began, Judge Carew advised the jury that, under the laws of New York State, "no man has a legal right to be a Communist." On June 9, 1943, the New York Supreme Court discharged the jury for failing to reach a verdict. Justice Carew ordered the jury not discuss their deliberations. On June 14, 1943, New York Supreme Court Justice Louis A. Valente denied a second motion for immediate retrial and set October 1, 1943, as the date to assign retrial action.

Settlement

On January 18, 1945, Davis settled with Curtis Publishing and Stolberg in court for $11,000 of his $250,000 libel suit, before New York State Supreme Court Justice Ferdinand Pecora.

Personal and death

At the height of anti-Communist concerns in the 1950s, Davis refused to testify against colleagues and acquaintances, and was blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

He had one daughter, Patricia Davis, and one adopted son, Wilfred Grenfell Davis.

He died at home in Olney, Maryland, aged 87, on October 19, 1979.

Papers

There are two major sets of his papers:
 University of Oregon holds the "Jerome Davis Papers, 1915-1963," which include correspondence, speeches, articles, book drafts, and manuscripts
 FDR Library holds "Papers of Jerome Davis: 1912 - 1965," which includes subject files plus speech and writing files

Works

Davis wrote more than 20 books and numerous articles, including:

Books Authored
 The Russian Immigrant (New York: Macmillan, 1922)
 Russians and Ruthenians in America; Bolsheviks or Brothers? (New York: George H. Doran, 1922)
 Christian Fellowship among the Nations; A Discussion Course Which Will Help Groups of Young People and Adults to do Straight Thinking on Our Greatest Problem with Roy B. Chamberlin (Boston and Chicago: Pilgrim Press, 1925)
 Adventuring in World Cooperation (Boston and Chicago: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1925)
 Business and the Church with introduction by Jerome Davis (New York and London:  Century Co., 1926)
 Christianity and Social Adventuring edited and with introduction by Jerome Davis (New York and London:  Century Co., 1927)
 Labor Speaks for Itself on Religion; A Symposium of Labor Leaders Throughout the World edited and with an introduction by Jerome Davis (New York: Macmillan, 1929)
 Contemporary Social Movements (New York and London: Century Co., 1930)* Report of the Legislative Commission on Jails with a Special Study on the Jail Population of Connecticut (Hartford, 1934)* Capitalism and its Culture (New York:  Farrar & Rinehart, 1935)
 Behind Soviet Power; Stalin and the Russians (New York: Readers' Press, 1946)
 Character Assassination with introduction by Robert Maynard Hutchins (New York:  Philosophical Library, 1950)
 Peace, War and You with introduction by Clarence E. Pickett (New York: H. Schuman, 1952)
 Religion in Action with an introduction by E. Stanley Jones (New York:  Philosophical Library, 1956)
 Citizens of One World (New York:  Citadel Press, 1961)
 World Leaders I Have Known (New York:  Citadel Press, 1963)
 Disarmament: A World View (New York: Citadel Press, 1964)
 New Russia Between the First and Second Five Year Plans (Freeport, NY:  Books for Libraries Press, 1968)
 Russian Immigrant (New York: Arno Press, 1969)

Books Co-Authored
 Labor Problems in America with Emanuel Stein (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1940)
 On the Brink with Hugh B. Hester (New York:  L. Stuart, 1959)

Books Edited
 Introduction to Sociology, edited by Jerome Davis and Harry Elmer Barnes (Boston: DC Heath & Co., 1931)
 New Russia between the First and Second Five Year Plans, edited by Jerome Davis (New York: John Day, 1933

Articles
 "Should America Recognize Russia?" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 114 (July 1924)
 "Human Rights and Coal," Journal of Social Forces 3:1 (November 1924)
 "An Educative Program for World Peace," Social Forces 4:1 (September 1925)
 "Finding the Truth on Current Issues," Social Forces 4:4 (June 1926)
 "A History of Russia" (review), Social Forces 5:3 (March 1927)
 "The Church of England and social reform since 1854" (review), American Economic Review 21:2 (June 1931)
 "Social Pathology" (review), American Economic Review 23:2 (June 1933)
 "The Meaning of Right and Wrong," Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 24:24 (Nov/Dec 1933)
 "The Assimilation of Immigrants and Our Citizenship Process," Social Forces 12:4 (May 1934)
 "Education Under Communism Contrasted With That Under Capitalism," Journal of Educational Sociology 9:3 (November 1935)
 "The Social Action Pattern of the Protestant Religious Leader," American Sociological Review 1:1 (February 1936)
 "Towards a Rehabilitation Quotient for Penal Offenders," Social Forces 14:4 (May 1936)
 "The Minister and the Economic Order," Journal of Educational Sociology 10:5 (January 1937)
 "Conflict and Community: A Study in Social Theory" (review), American Sociological Review 2:4 (August 1937)
 "Sociology, Past and Present, in Japan" (review), American Sociological Review 3:2 (April 1938)
 "The Sociologist and Social Action," American Sociological Review 5:2 (April 1940)
 "Stalin" (review), American Sociological Review 5:4 (August 1940)
 "Adult Education in the United States," Journal of Educational Sociology 14:3 (November 1940)
 "Dilemmas of Leadership in the Democratic Process/An Introduction to Public Opinion/The Plans of Men" (review), American Sociological Review 5:6 (December 1940)
 " The Politics of Democracy: American Parties in Action" (review), American Sociological Review 6:1 (February 1941)
 "Prisoners of War" (review), American Sociological Review 7:5 (October 1942)
 "Natural gas trade in North America and Asia" (review), International Affairs 62:3 (Summer 1986)
 "Thirty years of competition," New York Amsterdam News 87:37 (September 14, 1996)
 "Please, reader beware of wolves in sheep clothing," New York Amsterdam News 88:3 (January 18, 1997)
 A little pride? Go figure!" New York Amsterdam News 89:6 (January 29, 1998)

Articles with others
 "Labor Problems in America" with Gordon S. Watkins and Emanuel Stein, American Economic Review 30:3 (September 1940
 "Complimentary Roles of the Pediatrician and Educator in School Planning for Handicapped Children" with Raymond L. Clemmens, Journal of Learning Disabilities 2:10 (October 1969)

Quotes

"If democracy is to endure, capitalism as we know it must go." (From Capitalism and Its Culture, 1935, p. 519.)

See also
 Promoting Enduring Peace
 Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA)

References

External sources

 Jerome Davis Case (Chicago:  American Federation of Teachers, 1937)

1891 births
1979 deaths
American socialists
American sociologists
Yale Divinity School faculty
Newton North High School alumni
Oberlin College alumni
Columbia University alumni
Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni
Dartmouth College faculty
People from Olney, Maryland

Jerome Davis (sociologist)


A henge is a Neolithic earthwork.  Henges are typical of the British Isles (for example Stonehenge), but there are a few similar structures in continental Europe.

Henges have a ring bank and ditch. They are not thought to be primarily defensive, because their ditch is inside the wall or rampart. For defence, it would seem better to have the ditch outside the bank. That way, attackers would need to climb up further. Their function is thought to be mainly ceremonial. This is discussed often in relation to Stonehenge.

Henges are divided into three types:
 Henge (≥20 m). There is usually little evidence of occupation in a henge, although they may contain ritual structures such as stone circles, timber circles and standing stones. Examples of henges are at
Avebury, in Wiltshire, which contains the largest stone circle in Britain,
The Great Circle at Stanton Drew in Somerset, which contains the second largest stone circle in Britain.
The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney, which contains the third largest stone circle in Britain.
Notes: example of henges without other significant internal monuments are the three henges of Thornborough Henges in Yorkshire. Stonehenge is not a typical henge because the ditch is outside the main earthwork bank.
 Mini henge (<20 m). Like an ordinary henge, except the central flat area is less than 20 m in diameter. An example is the Neolithic site at Dorchester on Thames.
 Henge enclosure (>300 m). A Neolithic ring earthwork with the ditch inside the bank, with the central flat area having abundant evidence of occupation and being more than 300 metres in diameter. Some true henges are as large as this (e.g., Avebury), but lack evidence of domestic occupation. Examples of henge enclosures are Durrington Walls in Wiltshire, and Mount Pleasant Henge in Dorset.

Source
Malone, Caroline. 2005. Neolithic Britain and Ireland. Tempus, Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Buildings and structures in Europe
Archaeological sites

Henge


Herpolsheimer's was a department store company headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

History

At the end of the Civil War in 1865, Prussian-American businessman and Union Army veteran William G. Herpolsheimer co-founded the dry goods business Voight, Herpolsheimer & Co. in Michigan City, Indiana, in partnership with Charles G. A. Voigt. In 1870, he opened a second store in Grand Rapids. He handed over management of the business to his son Henry B. Herpolsheimer in 1902.

In 1928, the store was acquired by Hahn's Department Stores, a holding company which later morphed into the Allied Stores conglomerate in 1935. In 1933, the Hahn's group would also acquire L.H. Field & Co. of Jackson, Michigan, with the Jackson "Field's" stores becoming a sister operation to the Herpolsheimer's store in Grand Rapids. (In later years, advertisements would note customers could use their "Herpolsheimer's/Field's Credit Cards" at locations of either store.)

After suffering a fire almost three years prior and following subsequent litigation between the parties, the William D. Hardy Company of Muskegon, operating Hardy's Department Store, agreed in 1947 to merge its operations with a newly opened Herpolsheimer's branch location in Muskegon and proceed as Hardy-Herpolsheimer's. A brand new building for the flagship downtown Grand Rapids location was constructed and opened in 1949 at the northwest corner of Fulton Street and Division Avenue, also fronting on Monroe Street, on which its former store was located two blocks to the west. The former location was sold to local competitor Wurzburg's. In a departure from the traditional department store format, Herpolsheimer's opened location selling only furniture, appliances, televisions and limited hardware in the Tower Building at River Avenue and 8th Street in downtown Holland in October 1948. It operated until at least 1955 before closing. The first suburban full-line department store outlet for the growing chain was acquired from Wurzburg's in Wyoming in 1974 and the Hardy-Herpolsheimer's in Muskegon was later assumed into the Muskegon Mall development in 1976. With the opening of the Southland store in suburban Wyoming in 1974, the store officially rebranded themselves as "Herp's," which is how they had been colloquially referred to for many years, including a new logo. In 1981, L.W. Robinson, an old-line department store in downtown Battle Creek, was purchased and rebranded as Herp's.

Starting in 1985, the downtown Grand Rapids store was reduced in size, with the remainder being converted to a shopping mall called City Centre. With the City Centre "grand re-opening," Herpolsheimer's officially reverted to its full name, giving up on the shortened "Herp's" version from eleven years prior. The full Herpolsheimer's name was restored to the downtown Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Muskegon, and Battle Creek stores. In 1987, the two Herpolsheimer's stores in the Grand Rapids area, were merged into Allied Stores' Indianapolis-based William H. Block unit and were sold to Federated Department Stores. At that same time, the downtown Battle Creek and Muskegon stores were sold to separate local groups of investors—the Battle Creek location reverted to its former "Robinson's" name while the Muskegon store returned to its "Hardy's" moniker, while the three L.H. Field & Co. (Field's) stores in Jackson were shuttered. Later in November of that year, the two remaining Herpolsheimer's stores, now under Federated ownership, adopted the Lazarus name. As part of Federated's bankruptcy proceedings after having been purchased, ironically, by Allied—the entity that had spun off Herpolsheimer's to Federated in the first place in 1987—the Lazarus division announced it would shutter the two Grand Rapids area stores in the City Centre and Wyoming Village (Southland), on September 8, 1990. Thus ended 120 years of retailing, 117 years with the Herpolsheimer name and the final three as Lazarus. The City Centre itself would finally close at the end of July, 1993 after most of its shops closed.

During the pre-Christmas shopping period, Herpolsheimer's operated the "Santa Express" miniature train on a monorail suspended from the ceiling of the basement in its downtown Grand Rapids store. The train is now located at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

In popular culture
Herpolsheimer's was also featured in the 2004 film, The Polar Express. The film's "Hero Boy" has a picture from Herpolsheimer's of himself ripping the fake beard off the store's Santa Claus. Later, as the boy is riding the train to the North Pole, the "Know-It-All kid" exclaims "Hey, Herpolsheimer's! Herpolsheimer's!" as the train passes the store in what is presumably downtown Grand Rapids. The children aboard the train admire the store's window displays as they pass, with the hero boy smirking at an obviously animatronic Santa placing presents in one display.

Notable employees
Betty Ford, former fashion coordinator
Scott Haraburda, former department store Santa

See also
List of defunct department stores of the United States

References

External links

Herpolsheimer's train video via YouTube.

1865 establishments in Indiana
Companies based in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Defunct department stores based in Michigan

Herpolsheimer's


The Mont Alto Rail Road was a railroad in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, originally built to connect the blast furnaces of the Mont Alto Iron Company to the Cumberland Valley Railroad. It was later extended south to reach Waynesboro.

History
Incorporated as the Scotland and Mont Alto Railroad on May 3, 1864, it was proposed to run from the Cumberland Valley Railroad near Scotland to the iron company's furnaces near Mont Alto. Renamed the Mont Alto Rail Road on November 22, 1871, it opened from Chambersburg to Mont Alto in October 1872.

In 1875, the iron company opened Mont Alto Park on its property, and the railroad began carrying picnickers to the park. In May 1878, the company began extending a new line south from Ledy, near Mont Alto, to Waynesboro. This was done in part to interfere with the Harrisburg and Potomac Railroad. The new line was completed in April 1879, and the Mont Alto Rail Road was leased to the Cumberland Valley Railroad. However, it continued to operate its own locomotives until 1894.

In 1891, the short-lived Chambersburg and Gettysburg Railroad opened from a connection with the Mont Alto RR at Conococheague Junction, near Fayetteville. The iron ore and lumber it hauled proved insufficient to sustain it, and it ended operations in 1893.

On April 27, 1901, the Mont Alto Rail Road was sold at foreclosure, and reorganized on June 7, 1901 as the Cumberland Valley and Waynesboro Railroad. Mont Alto Park was turned over to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1902. The new company was sold to the Cumberland Valley Rail Road on June 30, 1906.

The Cumberland Valley was itself merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad on 1919; the bulk of the Cumberland Valley & Waynesboro became the Waynesboro Branch, and the spur from Ledy to Mont Alto Park the Mont Alto Park Track. The PRR List of Stations and Sidings (CT 1000) from 1923 reveals a mostly rural branch, with little industry online except for sand mining at Pond Bank and manufacturing in the town of Waynesboro. Passenger service on the Waynesboro and the Mont Alto Park Track ended June 28, 1933. The 1945 CT 1000 shows a picture not dissimilar to that of 1923. The sand companies at Pond Bank had disappeared and an elevator company opened in East Fayetteville, but the branch was still essentially rural, except for the industries it served at Waynesboro.

The Mont Alto Park spur was the first part to be dismantled; then in 1972, the entire railroad from Chambersburg to Waynesboro was abandoned by Penn Central. After a brief revival of service in 1975, it was permanently abandoned in 1976 on the formation of Conrail.

Stations

Waynesboro Branch

Mont Alto Park Track

References

Defunct Pennsylvania railroads
Predecessors of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Transportation in Franklin County, Pennsylvania
Railway companies established in 1871
Railway companies disestablished in 1901

Mont Alto Railroad


Kenneth Walter Davidson (born July 28, 1937) is a former political figure in British Columbia, Canada. He represented Delta in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1975 to 1991 as a Social Credit member.

He was born in Georgetown, Ontario, the son of David Douglas Davidson and Helen Tessman, and was educated in Welland and at the University of British Columbia. He was a city planner for Vancouver and a director for the Vancouver public library. Davidson lived in Delta. He was speaker for the assembly from 1982 to 1986.

References

1937 births
Living people
Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
British Columbia Social Credit Party MLAs

Walter Davidson (Canadian politician)


Snow Village Sketches, aka  Soconyland Sketches, was a comedy-drama radio series broadcast on three different networks from 1928 to 1946.

Beginning February 29, 1928, on NBC, Socony Oil sponsored Soconyland Sketches, scripted by William Ford Manley (1896-1954). The series featured Arthur Allen and Parker Fennelly as rural New England farmers. Socony continued to sponsor the show when it moved to CBS on October 16, 1934, and was retitled Snow Village Sketches. It continued on CBS until May 21, 1935.

Loose Wiles Biscuit was the sponsor for a run on NBC from October 3, 1936, to June 26, 1937, broadcast on Saturday evenings. During the early years of World War II, Procter & Gamble sponsored the series as a weekday quarter-hour serial, airing from December 28, 1942, to November 12, 1943. The final series was heard on Sunday mornings on the Mutual Broadcasting System from January 13 to June 16, 1946.

The stories took place in the small New Hampshire community of Snow Village where truant officer Hiram Neville (Parker Fennelly), a man of old-fashioned values, often encountered game warden Dan'l Dickey (Arthur Allen) and Dan'l's wife, Hattie Dickey (Agnes Young, Kate McComb).

Scripter Manley lived in Snowville, New Hampshire, named after the Snow family who had operated a sawmill there in 1825. In the mid-1930s, because of the radio program, Snowville temporarily changed its name to Snow Village.

References

1920s American radio programs
1930s American radio programs
1930s in comedy
1940s American radio programs
NBC radio programs
CBS Radio programs
Mutual Broadcasting System programs

Snow Village Sketches


Carlos Perón (born 9 June 1952) is a Swiss musician. He was a founding member of the band Yello.

Career
Born in Zürich, Switzerland, his first solo album was Impersonator (1981). Perón founded the TRANCEONIC studio in Zürich together with Boris Blank. In this experimental studio the two developed what would later on become the famous Yello sound. In 1978 Perón and Boris Blank made a trip to the U.S. to sell their music to the U.S. music industry. They visited RCA in Los Angeles and the Residents' label Ralph Records in San Francisco. After they returned to Switzerland Dieter Meier joined as a vocalist to form the trio Yello. The first maxi single of Yello came out (with "I.T. Splash" and "Glue Head") on the local label Periphery Perfume.

In 1980 Yello released their first album Solid Pleasure. In 1981 Perón released his first solo album Impersonator on the label Konkurrenz/Phonogram, and Yello got a long term major deal on Phonogram through the managing director Louis Spillmann.  In the same year the Yello album Claro Que Si came out, and also Yello's first video (to the track "The Evening's Young"). In 1983 Perón released the soundtrack to the film Die Schwarze Spinne by director Mark M. Rissi on the label Milan Disques. The same year Yello issued their third LP You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess.

In early 1983, just after release of You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess, Perón left Yello in order to pursue a solo career. In 1985 he released his first oratorio Die Schöpfung der Welt; oder 7 Tage Gottes, again on Milan Disques. On the same label he published the video soundtrack to the war movie Commando Leopard by producer Erwin C. Dietrich. From 1991 on he worked with label owner Lothar Gärtner of Strange Ways Records; he produced solo works, solo artists like Joachim Witt and Peter Heppner and also bands like Wolfsheim, Sielwolf, The Cain Principle, Stalin, Cyrus, Recall and many others. In this phase he created the so-called fetish soundtracks like Terminatrix and La Salle Blanche. From 2006 on the music company SPV began to re-release Perón's entire solo works on Revisited Records worldwide. Perón now works worldwide as a music producer. In 2022 Perón took part in the "6122 - To Andy Fletcher Of Depeche Mode" project together with another 30 international artists.  The project was a double CD with charitable purpose in memory of Andy Fletcher, founding member of the British synthpop band Depeche Mode, who died on May 26, 2022.

References

1952 births
Living people
Musicians from Zürich
Swiss record producers
20th-century Swiss musicians
Swiss people of Spanish descent
Synth-pop musicians
21st-century Swiss musicians

Carlos Perón


Fulvia (;  – 40 BC) was an aristocratic Roman woman who lived during the Late Roman Republic. Fulvia's birth into an important political dynasty facilitated her relationships and, later on, marriages to Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gaius Scribonius Curio, and Mark Antony. All of these men would go on to lead increasingly promising political careers as populares, tribunes, and supporters of Julius Caesar.

Fulvia remains an important figure in ancient Roman history due to her perseverance as a woman heavily involved in politics, as well as her role in the Perusine War against Octavian (future emperor Augustus). She played an important political role behind the scenes of her three marriages. Though she is most famous for her involvement in Antony's career, there are many scholarly debates taking place over whether or not Fulvia was already involved in politics before her husbands or as a result of marrying them. However, one thing is for sure: she was highly interested in politics and developed an increasingly strong public voice over time. She is most famous for her activities during her third marriage and her involvement in the Perusine War of 41–40 BC. She was the first Roman non-mythological woman to appear on Roman coins.

Birth and early life
Fulvia was born and raised either in Rome or Tusculum. Her date of birth is not known. Fulvia was a member of the Fulvia gens, which hailed from Tusculum. The Fulvii were one of the most distinguished Republican plebeian wealthy families in Rome; various members of the family achieved consulship and became senators, though no member of the Fulvii is on record as a consul after 125 BC. Fulvia was the only child of Marcus Fulvius Bambalio and Sempronia. As a result, Fulvia may have also represented the last of both the Fulvii and the Sempronii families, which meant she was likely an heiress of extreme worth and value. Her father Marcus received the nickname "Bambalio", from the Latin "to stutter", because of his hesitancy in speech. Her maternal grandfather was Sempronius Tuditanus, who was described by Cicero as a madman, who liked to throw his money to the people from the Rostra.

Marriage to Clodius Pulcher

Her first marriage was to Publius Clodius Pulcher, circa 62 BC. Fulvia and Clodius had two children together, a son also named Publius Clodius Pulcher and a daughter, Claudia. As a couple they went everywhere together. Claudia later married the future Emperor Augustus.

In 52 BC, Clodius ran for praetor and political competition with a consular candidate and rival, Titus Annius Milo, escalated to violence. Milo and his gang killed Clodius on January 18 on the Appian Way, the road built by Clodius's ancestors. Fulvia first appears in the record after his death. Fulvia and her mother Sempronia were present at the trial of Milo, and Fulvia's was the last testimony given by the prosecution. Milo was exiled for his crime.

While alive, Clodius had control of many gangs, and Fulvia retained the power and status that came with their loyalty. There is some evidence that she may have been involved in organizing the collegia. Even after Clodius' death, however, the Clodian following remained strong because of Fulvia's understanding of her political potential, and Fulvia used this strong political following to avenge his death: she and her mother brought his body to the streets of Rome so the Roman citizens would see his wounds and grow angry towards Milo.   as a sign that she was to be his avenger. Fulvia would therefore actively invest herself into the political atmosphere that followed the death of her first husband, as a "visible symbol and reminder of his presence."

Marriage to Scribonius Curio
With Pompey's seizure of power in Rome, he militarily forced out any remaining supporters of the late Clodius, including captains and tribunes, which actions prompted Fulvia to uphold on her late husband's legacy alone within the city, taking advantage of every opportunity that allowed her to extend her influence and political prestige.

Her widowhood did not last long, as the customary period of mourning for Romans was ten months. Fulvia most likely married her second husband, Gaius Scribonius Curio, soon after his return from Asia and her mourning period had passed. They were married in 52-51 BC, ultimately solidifying him as the legitimate "continuator and heir of Clodius' popularis policies," though initially an optimate. Like Clodius, Curio was very popular with the plebeians. He was from a less distinguished family than Clodius, being from a new consular family, but he may have had more wealth. He soon became important to Gaius Julius Caesar and Clodian supporters, becoming a trusted and valued political ally to these vitally important individuals because of his marriage to Fulvia and her emphasis on promoting the Clodian legacy. In 50 BC, the year after he married Fulvia, Curio won election as a tribune.

Curio died in 49 BC, killed during the Battle of the Bagradas in North Africa, fighting for Julius Caesar against King Juba I of Numidia. During the civil war, Fulvia was most likely in Rome or nearby, because Caesar's troops had taken over Italy. At the time, she would have had her two children by Clodius and was either pregnant with Curio's son or had delivered him.

Marriage to Mark Antony

After Curio's death in Africa, Fulvia was still an important widow in elite circles and her political interests were well known. Marriage to her would provide an important tie to Clodius and his clientela, and could offer a husband money and political organization. Also, her next husband would become the stepfather to Clodius' children, further linking him to Clodian politics.

As it turned out, Fulvia's third and final marriage was to Mark Antony in 47 or 46 BC. a few years after Curio's death, although Cicero suggested that Fulvia and Antony had had a relationship since 58 BC. Cicero wrote about their relationship in his Philippicae as a way of attacking Antony. According to him, while Fulvia and Clodius were married, Antony once left a military post to sneak back into Rome during the night and personally deliver a love letter to Fulvia describing his love for her and saying he had stopped seeing the famous actress Cytheris. Cicero also suggested that Antony had married Fulvia for her money, though at the time of their marriage, Antony was an established politician. He had already been tribune in 49 BC, commanded armies under Caesar and was the Master of the Horse in 47 BC.

Fulvia's marriage to Antony was not one of subordination; rather, they had become a "formidable political force" within the crucial city of Rome.
Fulvia played a very influential role in Mark Antony's political career. She was the brains behind many of his policies, such as the decision to give Sicilians Roman citizenship, as well as to confirm Deiotarus in his kingdom), and she was a very persuasive campaigner for her husband. It is also possible that former Clodian policies were continued through him. They had two sons together, Marcus Antonius Antyllus and Iullus Antonius, and throughout their marriage, Fulvia defended Antony from Cicero's attacks, sustained his popularity with his soldiers and hindered Octavian's ascension to power. In fact, Fulvia still retained the support of gangs formerly ruled by her first husband, Clodius. By publicly associating himself with Clodius' children, Antony was able to gather that support and, through Fulvia's influence, to use what was left of Clodius' gangs in his own gang wars against Dolabella and his supporters.

Through the political connections of his wife and his close friendship with Caesar, Antony was found to be the most powerful man in Rome after Caesar's assassination.  Therefore, it was only fitting that Fulvia was to be heavily involved in the political aftermath. After Caesar's death, the senate realized his popularity and declared that it would pass all of Caesar's planned laws. Antony had attained possession of Caesar's papers, and with the ability to produce papers in support of any law, Fulvia and Antony made a fortune and gained immense power. She allegedly accompanied Antony to his military camp at Brundisium in 44 BC. Appian wrote that in December 44 and again in 43 BC, while Antony was abroad and Cicero campaigned for Antony to be declared an enemy of the state, Fulvia tried to block such declarations by soliciting support for Antony.

Antony formed the Second Triumvirate with Octavian, the future emperor Augustus, and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 43 BC and began to conduct proscriptions. To solidify the political alliance and to advance Clodian interests, Fulvia's daughter Claudia was married to the young Octavian. Appian and Cassius Dio describe Fulvia as being involved in the violent proscriptions that were used to destroy enemies and gain badly needed funds to secure control of Rome. Antony pursued his political enemies, especially Cicero, who had openly criticized him for abusing his powers as consul after Caesar's assassination. Although many ancient sources wrote that Fulvia was happy to take revenge against Cicero for Antony's and Clodius' sake, Cassius Dio is the only one who describes the joy with which she pierced the tongue of the dead Cicero with her golden hairpins, as a final revenge against Cicero's power of speech.

Perusine War (41 BC to 40 BC) and Fulvia's death
In 42 BC, Antony and Octavian left Rome to pursue Julius Caesar's assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Fulvia was left behind as the most powerful woman in Rome, seeing as though she had already manifested her political aptitudes throughout the decades. According to Cassius Dio, Fulvia controlled the politics of Rome. Dio wrote that "the following year Publius Servilius and Lucius Antonius nominally became consuls, but in reality it was Antonius and Fulvia. She, the mother-in‑law of Octavian and wife of Antony, had no respect for Lepidus because of his slothfulness, and managed affairs herself, so that neither the senate nor the people transacted any business contrary to her pleasure."

Shortly afterwards, the triumvirs distributed the provinces among them. Lepidus took the west and Antony went to Egypt, where he met Cleopatra VII. Octavian returned to Rome in 41 BC to dispense land to Caesar's veterans, divorced Fulvia's daughter and accused Fulvia of aiming at supreme power. Fearing that Octavian was gaining the veterans' loyalty at Antony's expense, Fulvia traveled constantly with her children to the new settlements in order to remind the veterans of their debt to Antony. Fulvia also tried to delay the land settlements until Antony returned to Rome, so that the two triumvirs could share the credit. With Octavian in Italy and Antony abroad, Fulvia allied with her brother-in-law Lucius Antonius and publicly endorsed Mark Antony in opposition to Octavian.

These actions caused political and social unrest. In 41 BC, tensions between Octavian and Fulvia escalated to war in Italy. According to Appian, Fulvia was a central cause of the war, due to her jealousy of Antony and Cleopatra's affair in Egypt; she may have escalated the tensions between Octavian and Lucius in order to draw back Antony's attention to Italy. However, Appian also wrote that the other main causes were the selfish ambitions of the commanders and their inability to control their own soldiers.

Together with Lucius Antonius, Fulvia raised eight legions in Italy to fight for Antony's rights against Octavian, an event known as the Perusine War. The army occupied Rome for a short time, and Lucius organized his troops at Praeneste, but eventually retreated to Perusia (modern Perugia), where Octavian besieged him. Lucius waited for Antony's legions in Gaul to come to his aid. However, unaware of the war, Antony was still in the eastern provinces, and his legions were unsure of his commands and did not assist Lucius. Although during this conflict, Fulvia was at Praeneste, there is evidence she helped Lucius. According to Appian, she "urged Ventidius, Asinius, and Calenus from Gaul to help Lucius, and having gathered another army, she sent it to Lucius under the command of Plancus." During the war, Octavian's soldiers at Perusia used sling bullets inscribed with insults directed at Fulvia personally and Octavian wrote a vulgar epigram directed at her in 40 BC, referring to Antony's affair with the ex-courtesan queen of Cappadocia Glaphyra. It is recorded by Martial within one of his own poems:
Spiteful censor of the Latin Language, read
six insolent verses of Caesar Augustus:
"Because Antony fucks Glaphyra, Fulvia has arranged
this punishment for me: that I fuck her too.
That I fuck Fulvia? What if Manius begged me
to bugger him? Would I? I don't think so, if I were sane
"Either fuck or fight", she says. Doesn't she know
my prick is dearer to me than life itself? Let the trumpets blare!"
Augustus, you certainly grant my clever little books pardon,
since you are the expert at speaking with Roman frankness

The siege at Perusia lasted two months before Octavian starved Lucius into surrender in February 40 BC. After Lucius' surrender, Fulvia fled to Greece with her children. Appian writes that she met Antony in Athens, and he was upset with her involvement in the war. Antony then sailed back to Rome to deal with Octavian, and Fulvia died of an unknown illness in exile in Sicyon, near Corinth, Achaea. After her death, Antony and Octavian used it as an opportunity to blame their quarrelling on her. According to Plutarch, "there was even more opportunity for a reconciliation with Caesar. For when Antony reached Italy, and Caesar manifestly intended to make no charges against him, and Antony himself was ready to put upon Fulvia the blame for whatever was charged against himself."
After Fulvia's death, Antony married Octavian's sister, Octavia Minor, to publicly demonstrate his reconciliation with Octavian, but Antony never regained his position and influence in Italy.

Once Antony and Octavia were married, she took in and reared all of Fulvia's children.  The fate of Fulvia's daughter, Clodia Pulchra, after her divorce from Octavian is unknown. Her son Marcus Antonius Antyllus was executed by Octavian in Alexandria, Egypt in 30 BC. Her youngest child, Iullus Antonius, was spared by Octavian and raised from 40 BC by Octavia Minor. Iullus married Octavia's daughter and Octavian's niece Claudia Marcella Major and they had a son Lucius Antonius and possibly a daughter Iulla Antonia.

See also
Women in Rome
List of Roman women

References

Citations

Bibliography

 L. Fezzi, Il tribuno Clodio, Roma-Bari 2008.
 Eleanor G. Huzar, Mark Antony: Marriages vs. Careers, The  Classical Journal, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Dec. 1985-Jan. 1986), pp. 97–111.
 W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, pp. 187-188.
 G. Traina, Marco Antonio, Roma-Bari 2003.
 C. Virlouvet, Fulvia, la pasionaria, in A. Fraschetti (ed.), Roma al femminile, Roma-Bari 1994.
 Kathryn E. Welch, Antony, Fulvia and the Ghost of Clodius in 47 B.C., Greece and Rome, Second Series, Vol. 42, No.2 (Oct., 1995), pp. 182–201.
 Allison J. Weir, 2007, A Study of Fulvia, Masters Thesis, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, see , accessed 18 April 2015.

Further reading
 G. Dareggi, "Sulle tracce di Fulvia, moglie del triumviro M. Antonio", in G. Bonamente,  Augusta Perusia: studi storici e archeologici sull'epoca del bellum Perusinum, Perugia, 2012, 107-115.
 M.-C. Ferriès, F. Delrieux, "Un tournant pour le monnayage provincial romain d'Asie Mineure: les effigies de matrones romaines, Fulvia, Octavia, Livia et Julia (43 a.C.-37 p.C.)", in L. Cavalier, M.-C. Ferriès and F. Delrieux,  Auguste et l'Asie Mineure, Bordeaux, 2017, 357-383.
F. Rohr Vio, "Dux femina: Fulvia in armi nella polemica politica di età triumvirale", in T. Lucchelli and F. Rohr Vio, Viri militares: rappresentazione e propaganda tra Repubblica e Principato, Trieste, 2015, 61-89.
Susanna Roxman, 2007, "Fulvia at Sicyon" (poem), in Imagining Seals, Edinburgh:Dionysia Press.
 C. Schubert, "Homo politicus - femina privata? Fulvia: eine Fallstudie zur späten römischen Republik", in B. Feichtinger and G. Wöhrle,  Gender Studies in den Altertumswissenschaften: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen, Trier, 2002, 65-79
Celia E. Schultz,  Fulvia: playing for power at the end of the Roman republic. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021. ISBN 9780197601839

External links

 Bust of Fulvia
 Sculpture of Fulvia
 Statue of Fulvia

80s BC births
40 BC deaths
Ancient Roman women in warfare
1st-century BC Roman women
1st-century BC Romans
Achaia (Roman province)
Ancient Roman exiles
Fulvii
Wives of Mark Antony

Fulvia


The Medisch Spectrum Twente (MST) is the hospital of the city of Enschede. It is a top-clinical center offering secondary and limited tertiary care.

Facilities
The hospitals has a license for 1070 beds, over 200 medical specialists and circa 4000 total employees.

Aside from the regular clinical departments, it also has tertiary care departments such as cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, advanced oncological care, radio therapy, bone marrow transplantations, hemodialysis, a large hospital pharmacy, and a regional level I trauma center. It is one of the largest non-academic hospitals of the Netherlands.

The hospital does not have its own trauma helicopter, but an ADAC helicopter from the neighboring German town of Rheine frequently crosses the border when the local (Dutch) ambulance control center requests it. The hospital has a brand-new helicopter platform.

Satellite locations

Oldenzaal
The MST includes a small location in the town of Oldenzaal. It is mainly an ambulatory facility, though some small low-risk surgeries which do not require more than two days of hospitalization are also performed there. Most regular diagnostic procedures can be carried out in the Oldenzaal facility. Almost all specialties have a satellite department there.
It also has a small urgent care department which is open in the morning, afternoon and evening but not at night; ambulances do not bring patients here, but drive them directly to the main facility in Enschede instead. The hospital's 1070 beds include the Oldenzaal location as well.

Haaksbergen and Losser
Only ambulatory care is offered at the Haaksbergen and Losser facilities. A number of MST specialists spend one or two days per week in Haaksbergen or Losser.

Hospitals in the Netherlands
Hospitals with year of establishment missing
Buildings and structures in Enschede

Medisch Spectrum Twente


Through a Glass Darkly is a 1986 historical fiction novel by American author Karleen Koen. A former magazine editor, Koen had never before written a novel and spent four years developing it while living as a housewife with her family. She sold the hardcover rights to Random House for $350,000, which was then a record for a new novelist. The circumstances behind the work's publication led to Koen becoming the subject of much media attention in the late 1980s.

Koen's story is set in the midst of the turbulent politics of the English and French aristocracy as well as the South Sea Bubble. The novel begins in 1715 England, when teenage protagonist Barbara Alderley becomes married to the handsome, older Earl Devane. Though in love with him, Barbara soon discovers a secret from his past that threatens to tear their relationship apart. Barbara must learn to navigate courtly intrigues and financial crises while experiencing personal tragedies.

Released on July 12, 1986, by Random House, Through a Glass Darkly landed on The New York Times Best Seller list. Critical reception was largely mixed, with reviewers focusing on the novel's prose and attention to historical detail. It has been translated into more than ten languages.

Background
Through a Glass Darkly was the first novel written by American author Karleen Koen. She had previously been a reporter for the Houston Business Journal and also served as the editor of Houston Home & Garden before leaving to spend more time with her husband and two children. Desiring to once again have her name in print, Koen was persuaded by her husband to write a novel to help keep busy in between housework. At first sceptical at writing fiction, Koen began mentioning the idea at parties to avoid appearing as a mere housewife. "When you're at home raising children your status is – well, there is no status," Koen later recalled. Commencing the novel in 1980, she wrote three long drafts during a four-year period; the final manuscript ultimately contained 1,300 double-spaced pages.

Koen found inspiration from her interest in the eighteenth century. Rather than use the "virginity-sexual tango" trope of most historical romance novels, Koen sought to circumvent the "rules" of the genre and concentrate on characterization. Koen engaged in an intensive research period on the eighteenth century using approximately 300 books, which she often obtained from a local university's library. She also traveled briefly to England and France. Koen found writing the novel to be "a very intense thing" and became very attached to her characters, even the villains. She sought to "hook the readers emotionally and make them care. I guess it's soap opera (but) there's a kind of sigh you heave when you finish a certain type of book. I wanted that sigh." She added:

To gain a publisher for her novel, she sent the manuscript to several literary agents she had discovered in Writer's Digest. Though two turned her down, one agent, Jean Naggar, encouraged Koen to continue finishing the book, believing it to be "the launching of a major author." Naggar mailed the manuscript to five major publishing companies, with Random House purchasing it for a "whopping" $350,000 in August 1985, which was at the time a record for a new novelist. Random House's publisher, Howard Kaminsky, wanted to publish "Oprah Winfrey-type books" in the "how-to-be-the-best-you-can-be" genre. He reasoned, "I'm sure that's up there with the highest prices ever paid for the hardcover rights alone to a first novel. But then it is not that big a price when you consider that it's such a deserving novel – and it will undoubtedly go for a very large amount in paperback later."

Plot summary
In 1715 England, fifteen-year-old Barbara Alderley lives with her widowed grandmother, the Duchess of Tamworth, and her younger siblings on their family's country Tamworth estate. Barbara's indebted and calculating mother, Lady Diana Alderley, arrives to inform them of Barbara's possible marriage to Roger Montgeoffry, Earl Devane, a former aide to the deceased Duke. Barbara is pleased with the news, believing herself to be in love with the handsome, wealthy, and popular earl despite his age (nearly thirty years her senior).

Roger in turn desires Barbara's dowry of land in London, which he hopes to develop into an opulent estate and townhouses; she and her mother travel to London to make arrangements for the betrothal. Due to Diana's greed, negotiations almost fall apart until the intervention of the Duchess results in Barbara and Roger finally marrying. The couple travel to Paris. While learning to navigate through Parisian society, Barbara remains in love with her husband but Roger has no thoughts at all for his young bride other than mere fondness.

Roger however has a secret: he once had a long-term affair with the French aristocrat the Prince of Soissons, with whom he begins anew soon after arriving in Paris. Through the actions of courtiers jealous of Barbara's devotion to Roger, pamphlets eventually spread about the affair. The young and naive Barbara is among the last to hear of it and breaks down in tears and shock.

The plot jumps forward to 1720 England, where the country is unknowingly approaching the South Sea Bubble economic collapse; Barbara has separated from her husband and conducted affairs with several men in Paris and London. Still in love with Roger despite his affair, she is unhappy and becomes horrified when she discovers that one of her jealous lovers, Lord Charles Russel, killed Jemmy, a young nobleman who she accidentally slept with for one night.

Later, the bursting of the Bubble causes chaos and violence through London. Barbara's only surviving sibling, Harry, is in severe debt and commits suicide; many citizens blame Lord Devane, who helped run the South Sea Company, for the country's finances. At the Tamworth estate, Barbara and Roger attempt a reconciliation but he collapses from an apoplexy soon after while evaluating his own precarious financial situation in London.

With the help of several of Roger's friends, Barbara attempts to oversee his finances and takes him out of the still-chaotic city. At Tamworth, Roger gradually becomes worse and dies. Stricken and in mourning, Barbara holds a public memorial in London for her deceased husband, despite being warned that it would draw attention to his estate during the Parliamentary inquest into the financial crisis. To give her peace, the Duchess develops a scheme of spiriting her granddaughter out of the country by having her visit their plantation in Virginia. The novel ends with Barbara and several servants leaving on a ship intended for the colonies.

Main characters
 Barbara Alderley, Lady Devane – young, naive, devoted, and beautiful, she is the protagonist of the novel and Roger's wife
 Roger Montgeoffry, Earl Devane – wealthy, charismatic, handsome, and popular, he is Barbara's husband and Philippe's lover
 Alice Saylor, Duchess of Tamsworth – the venerable dowager of the Saylor family, she is Diana's mother and Barbara's grandmother
 Tony Saylor, Duke of Tamworth – young, shy, and kind, he is in love with his cousin Barbara
 Lady Diana Alderley – calculating, cold, promiscuous, and greedy, she is mother to Barbara and Harry
 Philippe, Prince of Soissons – a sophisticated and dangerous French aristocrat, he is Roger's lover
 Harry Alderley – impetuous and handsome, he is Barbara's brother
 Jane Ashford, later Cromwell – kind and serious, she is a childhood friend of Barbara's and Harry's early love

Themes

Through a Glass Darkly is a long, complex narrative that features more than 60 characters and at least 15 subplots. The title of the novel comes from the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 13. Before she began writing it, Koen envisioned creating a story about the relationship between a young woman and an older man, a plot element riddled with emotional tension that required much planning and foresight. Koen also sought to create a story that featured issues relevant to contemporary women, such as the non-existence of "legal rights. If a husband wanted to beat his wife to death he could do it, and if her parents didn't care... No birth control. If you had any normal sexual urges you were pregnant all the time, and half the women died in childbirth. Life was very violent and short and I just wanted to show how it was without getting up on a soapbox, so someone reading it would say, 'I'm glad I live now.'" According to Koen, another consistent theme throughout Through a Glass Darkly is how vital family is to our well-being, family in this case being a loose term that does not necessarily equate to being biologically related. She was also interested in writing how people are connected to each other.

Release and reception
Through a Glass Darkly was first released in hardcover on July 12, 1986. Koen became known as the "unknown author who hit the jackpot" of a book that "everyone's been talking about." Media stories angled the book's backstory as a "phenomenon," particularly because it was purchased by a prestigious publisher at such a high price for a first time novelist. After its release, Koen began a seven-city promotional tour that ended in late September 1986. Avon Books paid more than twice Random House's price to gain paperback rights, and released the novel on paperback on September 1, 1987. Even before it was officially published, Through a Glass Darkly landed on The New York Times Best Seller list, where it stayed for more than a year. It was translated into ten languages the year it was published. In February 1987, People reported that "plans to turn the book into a big-budget miniseries are also underway."

Critical reception
After reviewing the hype surrounding the book, author Barbara Schaaf concluded that its prose "was first-rate – literate and with flashes of timeless insight. Anyone who can take a 15-year-old heroine... and dash off over 700 pages just to get her to age 21 without losing the reader, has real talent." Schaaf added that Koen has a "fine eye for art, architecture, fashion, manners and relays the everything," though she critiqued the author for sometimes inserting too many historical details. She believed that the book especially shone in depicting the South Sea Bubble; "most historical writers," Schaaf opined, "neglect the economic background of their periods, regardless of its importance, and [Koen's] grasp of a complicated situation makes it as fascinating as her descriptions of the sexual behavior of the upper and lower classes."

Peoples Harriet Shapiro declared that Through a Glass Darkly "is no run-of-the-mill bodice buster, trade slang for bosom-heaving historical romances. Koen paints a lavish, carefully researched portrait of a young woman's turbulent coming of age in 18th-century England and France." Texas Monthly asserted that characterization was Koen's greatest asset, though the story's "sense of pacing falters" after two hundred pages. Another criticism was directed at the numerous monologues, which felt like having "commercials stacked toward the end of a late-night TV movie." Texas Monthly ended their review on a positive note, giving praise to the historical detail as well as the story's ending, which the reviewer believed would encourage readers to buy the forthcoming sequel.

In a guest column for The New York Times, author Erica Jong called Koen's work a "well-researched, workmanlike historical novel [...] of the sort that Kathleen Winsor or Thomas B. Costain used to write: packed with details of costume, architecture and cuisine, populated by rudimentary paper-doll characters, full of undigested Continued on next page gobbets of research." Jong shone a negative light on some of the characters, which she believed "seem[ed] derived from movies, mini-series and other books" and overshadowed by the attention to historical detail. She concluded that "Koen's publishers [did] her a disservice in presenting this rather routine and turgid book as though it were Gone With the Wind," when it was actually a "well-researched bodice-ripper."

Phoebe-Lou Adams of The Atlantic gave a negative review and criticized the "enormous, gigantic, monstrous historical novel" for containing a protagonist who "suffers and suffers and suffers while innumerable soap-opera types minuet about in fancy dress. The period is early eighteenth century, and the research underlying the gallimaufry is thorough beyond the call of duty." In response to some bad attention her novel received, which she said "hurt like hell," Koen noted the persistence of "in-fighting" within the publishing industry. "Who reviews your book has a lot to do with the kind of review you get," she said.

See also

 List of romantic novelists

References

1986 American novels
Novels set in London
Novels set in Paris
Novels set in the 1710s
Novels set in the 1720s
Fiction set in 1715
Fiction set in 1716
Fiction set in 1720
Fiction set in 1721
1986 debut novels

Through a Glass Darkly (Koen novel)


Freedom Schools were temporary, alternative, and free schools for African Americans mostly in the South. They were originally part of a nationwide effort during the Civil Rights Movement to organize African Americans to achieve social, political and economic equality in the United States. The most prominent example of Freedom Schools was in Mississippi during the summer of 1964.

Origins

Despite the Supreme Court's ruling of 1954 in the Brown v. Board of Education case striking down segregated school systems, in the mid-1960s Mississippi still maintained separate and unequal white and "colored" school systems. On average, the state spent $81.66 to educate a white student compared to only $21.77 for a black student. Mississippi was one of only two states in the union that did not have a mandatory education law and many children in rural areas were sent to work in the fields and received little education at all. Even the curriculum was different for white and black. As a typical example, the white school board of Bolivar County mandated that "Neither foreign languages nor civics shall be taught in Negro schools. Nor shall American history from 1860 to 1875 be taught."

In late 1963, Charles Cobb,
a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activist, proposed the organization sponsor a network of Freedom Schools, inspired by examples of the concept used previously in other cities.
In the summer of 1963, the county board of education in Prince Edward County, Virginia had closed the public schools rather than integrate them after having been sued in a case following Brown vs. Board of Education, and so Freedom Schools emerged in their stead.
In September, 1963, about 3,000 students participated in a Stay Out for Freedom protest in Boston opting instead to attend community-organized Freedom Schools.
On October 22, 1963, known as Freedom Day, more than 200,000 students boycotted the Chicago Public Schools to protest  segregation and poor school conditions, with some attending Freedom Schools instead.
Subsequently, on February 3, 1964 in a similar Freedom day protest, over 450,000 students participated in a boycott of the New York City public schools in what was the largest civil rights demonstration of the 1960s,
and up to 100,000 students attended alternative Freedom Schools.

Mississippi Freedom Schools
The Mississippi Freedom Schools were developed as part of the 1964 Freedom Summer civil rights project, a massive effort that focused on voter registration drives and educating Mississippi students for social change.  The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO)—an umbrella civil rights organization of activists and funds drawn from SNCC, CORE, NAACP, and SCLC—among other organizations, coordinated Freedom Summer.

The project was essentially a statewide voter registration campaign, and the framers called for one thousand volunteers to assist in the undertaking. Activists made plans to conduct a parallel Democratic primary election, because the systematic exclusion of black voters resulted in all-white delegations to presidential primaries.  These efforts culminated in the creation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Both the official delegation and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party went to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

In December 1963, during planning for the upcoming Freedom Summer project, Charles Cobb proposed a network of "Freedom Schools" that would foster political participation among Mississippi elementary and high school students, in addition to offering academic courses and discussions. Activists organizing the Freedom Summer project accepted Cobb's proposal and in March 1964 organized a curriculum planning conference in New York under the sponsorship of the National Council of Churches. Spelman College history professor Staughton Lynd was appointed Director of the Freedom School program.

Over the course of Freedom Summer, more than 40 Freedom Schools were set up in black communities throughout Mississippi. The purpose was to try to end political displacement of African Americans by encouraging students to become active citizens and socially involved within the community. Over 3,000 African American students attended these schools in the summer of 1964. Students ranged in age from small children to the very elderly with the average approximately 15 years old. Teachers were volunteers, most of whom were college students themselves.

Political and educational objectives
The Freedom Schools were conceptualized with both political and educational objectives. Freedom School teachers would educate elementary and high school students to become social change agents that would participate in the ongoing Civil Rights Movement, most often in voter registration efforts. The curriculum adopted was divided into seven core areas that analyzed the social, political, and economic context of precarious race relations and the Civil Rights Movement. Leadership development was encouraged, in addition to more traditional academic skills.  The education at Freedom Schools was student-centered and culturally relevant. Curriculum and instruction was based on the needs of the students, discussion among students and teachers (rather than lecturing) was encouraged, and curriculum planners encouraged teachers to base instruction on the experiences of their students.

Curriculum
Curriculum development revolved around The Curriculum Conference, which consisted of teachers and directors discussing the type of education that would be taught at the freedom schools.  The teachers were to write an outline for their curriculum planning.  They were told to keep in mind what life was like in Mississippi and the short amount of time that they had to teach the material.  The curriculum had to be teacher-friendly and immediately useful to the students, while being based on questions and activities. The primary focus was questions and discussion rather than memorization of facts and dates. Instructions to teachers included:

In the matter of classroom procedure, questioning is the vital tool. It is meaningless to flood the student with information he cannot understand; questioning is the path to enlightenment... The value of the Freedom Schools will derive mainly from what the teachers are able to elicit from the students in terms of comprehension and expression of their experiences.

Since the curriculum conference brought together citizens of different backgrounds and origins, the final curriculum outline incorporated material from different origins and consisted of three different sections.

The three sections of the Freedom School curriculum were the Academic Curriculum, the Citizenship Curriculum, and the Recreational Curriculum.  The purpose of these sections was to teach students social change within the school; regional history; black history; how to answer open-ended questions; and the development of academic skills. The Academic Curriculum consisted of reading, writing, and verbal activities that were based on the student's own experiences. The Citizenship Curriculum was to encourage the students to ask questions about the society. The Recreational Curriculum required the student to be physically active.

In most of the schools, the Citizenship Curriculum focused on two sets of inter-related questions for class discussion:

 Why are we (teachers and students) in Freedom Schools?
 What is the Freedom Movement?
 What alternatives does the Freedom Movement offer us?

 What does the majority culture have that we want?
 What does the majority culture have that we don't want?
 What do we have that we want to keep?

First year
Freedom Schools opened during the first week of July 1964, after approximately 250 Freedom School volunteer teachers attended one-week training sessions at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. The original plans had anticipated 25 Freedom Schools and 1,000 students; by the end of the summer, 41 schools had been opened to over 2,500 students.

Freedom Schools were established with the help and commitment of local communities, who provided various buildings for schools and housing for the volunteer teachers. While some of the schools were held in parks, kitchens, residential homes, and under trees, most classes were held in churches or church basements. Attendance varied throughout the summer.  Some schools experienced consistent attendance, but that was the exception.  Because attendance was not compulsory, recruitment and maintaining attendance was perhaps the primary challenge the schools faced. In Clarksdale, Mississippi, for instance, the average student attendance during the first week was fifteen, the second week was eight, but at any point during the summer the school may have had in attendance as many as thirty-five students. It was not uncommon for adults to attend class regularly.

Instruction was changed based on local conditions. In rural communities where students were expected to work during the school day, classes were often held at night. In schools that maintained traditional school hours, typically in urban areas, citizenship curriculum and traditional academic courses were offered in the morning and special classes such as music, drama, and typing were offered in the afternoon. In many instances, entire school days would be devoted to voter registration efforts. It was imperative for SNCC activists that students would be invested in civil rights activity because this cadre of students was expected to remain in the state to enact social change.

At the conclusion of the Freedom School term, activists and students organized a student-led conference on August 8, 1964, the day after the funeral of James Chaney, one of the victims in the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. The conference was held in Meridian, Mississippi, at the former Meridian Baptist Seminary. The school was described as "the palace of the Freedom School circuit." Each Freedom School sent three representatives to the conference to form a youth platform for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The student delegates discussed issues related to jobs, schools, foreign affairs, and public accommodations and proffered recommendations for the state party. By the end of the conference, students prepared a statement that demanded access to public accommodations, building codes for each home, integrated schools, a public works program, and the appointment of qualified blacks to state positions.

Freedom School teachers and students remained committed to the Freedom School concept. In early August 1964, plans were being made to continue the Freedom Schools during the upcoming school year, and some volunteer teachers had already agreed to stay. Students decided, however, during the Freedom School Conference in early August to not continue the schools. Yet students implemented the leadership and activism experienced during the summer in their own schools. Some students returned to school and demanded better facilities and more courses. Students in Philadelphia, Mississippi, returned to school wearing SNCC "One Man, One Vote" buttons—for which they were expelled.

Freedom Library Day School, Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Freedom Library was founded by John E. Churchville in 1964.  Over the next few years he began to offer evening classes and eventually converted the library into a school.  Upon the founding of this school, he prepared a short set of essays which were published in the book, What Black Educators Are Saying, edited by Nathan Wright Jr. and published in 1970.  This essay includes much of Churchville's thoughts on the state of the Black Power movement as well as his ideas for the pedagogy of his new Freedom School.  He denigrates the ideas of both the cultural and progressive nationalist movements as being facades and without teeth.  For him, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement which called for total and complete revolution both here and everywhere on earth, was the most accurate and true to its principles.  They identified both intragroup and intraindividual issues facing black people in America and the only way to truly become a revolutionary was to be born-again; acted on by an outside power which began to rid you of these deficiencies.  The schools themselves were based on a simple set of priorities.  If education is the indoctrination of the young into an ideological system, then the Freedom School must reeducate black children to reject the dominant ideology and construct a new system.  To do this, the first element of pedagogy to be established must be the new ideology of the school.  After this, teachers must be found who can bridge the gap between identity and alienation, being object lessons for their students both inside and outside the classroom. Finally, the curriculum was designed to explain the objective situation of black people and teach the tools and skills to deal with this reality.  The curriculum as described by Churchville was merely a vehicle for teaching revolutionary truth; the content was mostly irrelevant as it was the analysis which would demonstrate the reality. The school was raided by the FBI on August 13, 1966 on suspicion of harboring militant groups.  After the raid, Churchville dropped out of activism.

Legacy

Part of the Freedom School legacy can be seen in the schools that hold the name today: Akwesasne Freedom School on a Mohawk Indian reservation; The Freedom Schools in St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois, the Tyree Scott Freedom School in Seattle, Washington, and the Paulo Freire Freedom School in Tucson, Arizona.

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) operates a nationwide modern Freedom School program.  This program is coordinated through the Children's Defense Fund's Black Community Crusade for Children initiative.  The CDF Freedom Schools national program operates over 130 summer program sites in 24 states across the country serving nearly 7,200 children.

In Michigan the Black Radical Congress in Detroit launched a campaign to create a model based on the Freedom Schools.

Philadelphia Freedom Schools is an independent community education initiative operating a modern version of the Mississippi curriculum with an emphasis on academic scholarship,  social action and intergenerational leadership. Philadelphia Freedom Schools are organized through a lead agency, Communities In Schools.

Atlanta's Freedom University, a modern-day freedom school and only school in the world where all students are undocumented immigrants, offers a tuition-free, liberatory college curriculum that helps undocumented youth access higher education.

See also
Ruleville, Mississippi
Gluckstadt, Mississippi
Carthage, Mississippi

Footnotes

Further reading

 William Sturkey and Jon N. Hale (eds.), To Write in the Light of Freedom: The Newspapers of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2015.
 Jon N. Hale, The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016)

External links
 1964 MS Freedom School Curriculum
 History of the Mississippi Freedom School & Freedom Summer
 Lessons from Freedom Summer ~ textbook support for studying the 1964 Freedom School Curriculum
 Spartacus Educational Site
 Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School
 Information about Black Community Crusade for Children
 Freedom Summer and the Freedom Schools
Philadelphia Freedom Schools Program Description
Freedom Schools ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive
Chicago Freedom School
Gary Freedom School
San Francisco Freedom School
Sunflower County Freedom Project

African-American history of Mississippi
Education segregation in Mississippi

Freedom Schools