Gibson Girl vs Flapper Girl and the Evolution of Women's Clothing

     Through the years, women's clothing has changed a lot. First, they were wearing full ballgowns, then they were wearing slim and short dresses, now they are wearing ripped jeans. None of these styles or fads are wrong in any way, they are just evidence that women's clothing has evolved a lot. And this didn't happen for no reason, women had role models that helped shaped these changes.
     One of these role models was the Gibson Girl. The Gibson Girl was nothing more than a mere fictional character, or at least she was to some extent. Although she was based off a real person, the Gibson Girl herself was not a real person. This, however, did not lessen the impact she had on women at all.
     The Gibson Girl was depicted as many things: athletic, inelegant, independent, and much more. Dana Williams wrote that the Gibson Girl was the "New Woman" of the nineteenth century in her article on loc.gov . She also provided pictures that were drawn of the Gibson Girl. Some of these pictures included her bicycling, playing golf and tennis, horseback riding, mountain climbing, and swimming to show her athletic side. Others showed her playing instruments such as the piano or violin, or drawing or painting a portrait to show her artistic side. And others showed her serving on a jury or helping out her community to show her intelligent side. All of these depictions of The Gibson Girl made people wonder if all women could do the same things that she was doing and also made them view women in an entirely different way. But after her debut, there would soon become another role model for women: the Flapper.
     The Flapper was first introduces to us in the Roaring 20's. History.com says that these "Flappers" were young women who were known for their energetic freedom and they embraced a life style that was viewed to be very "outrageous" at the time. Women were supposed to act very proper and conservative, but as soon as the 1920's and the Flappers came around, this would all change.
     Contrary to societies beliefs of women at the time, Flappers were energetic and they embraced their new freedoms that they were achieving. In August of 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed which gave women the right to vote. This also game women a sense of freedom and equality that they had been urging for a while. And History.com also states that in the early 1920's, Margaret Sanger made it a goal of hers to provide women with contraception. She made this goal and it started a domino effect of women's rights that later led to things such as birth control.
     Flappers have a classic image of which they are known by. This would be a "party girl" who smokes and drinks in public, danced in front of everybody in jazz clubs without a care, and practiced a sexual freedom that women did not have until this time. All of these things that they were known for shocked and repelled their parents who were raised under different standards in the Victorian Age. They were also known for their attire. This attire included a shorter dress that what society was used to. This dress came down to only their knees, which showed their calf and they also had lower necklines on the dress. They were not formfitting at all. In fact they were straight and slim which matched the preferred silhouette at the time.
    Both of these role models shaped the evolution of women in many ways. Julia Hider states in her article that both of these women had very defined roles in society. They were upper class and athletic and intelligent and much more and this paved a new road for women. They even eventually made a mark on women's fashion. Kelly Richman-Abdou said that fashion illustration is intended to showcase the materials, colors, and designs of the clothing. Women went from wearing ballgowns to pants and all of this had something to do with the Gibson Girl and the Flapper. Not only did they make an impact in regular clothing, they made an impact in athletic wear as well. Bbc.com states that in the early 20th century, women's athletic wear was uncomfortable and restricted their performances. But that soon changed when the Gibson Girl made her impact. Now, thanks to her, women's athletic wear is just as good as men's. All of these examples are just a few on how the Gibson Girl and the Flapper helped form women into what they are today.

Multiple Depictions of the Gibson Girl

 1920's Flapper girl 

Comparison of the Gibson Girl vs Flapper 

Thanksgiving Essay

Although the United States celebrates Thanksgiving every year, we do not know as much about it as we think we do. As research has shown, half of the ideas people are being taught about Thanksgiving are false myths such as the idea that “Thanksgiving” was the first time that the indians and the pilgrims feasted together, they had turkey on the first Thanksgiving, and that “Thanksgiving has been around forever. We need to be more educated about our country and its background so that we can stop lying to ourselves and so we can start properly learning about and celebrating traditions like these.

To settle one of these myths about Thanksgiving, in the article Everything you Learned about Thanksgiving is Wrong, Maya Salam touches on the fact that this event wasn’t even called “Thanksgiving” until the 1830’s when the New Englanders decided to call it that. In 1863, President Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official, national holiday. He did this as a “thank you for civil war Victories”, stated Salam. So contrary to the worldwide belief that Thanksgiving has been around forever, it has only officially been around since 1863.

Thanksgiving didn’t just happen out of nowhere because two different groups of people ate together, a large part of it becoming a national holiday is because people worked for it to be. In the article Abraham and the Mother of Thanksgiving, Maranzani states that Sarah Josepha Hale is “the Mother of thanksgiving”. After growing up ritually celebrating Thanksgiving, Hale published a book called Northwood: A Tale of New England. This showed how much of a committed advocate she was for women’s education. Another thing that shows this is how she consistently wrote and published editorials about the holiday, lobbying to make a “national holiday of thanks”. She did all of this with the hope that it would eventually settle all of the disagreements between the North and the South and maybe even come to unify them. So again, contrary to the belief that Thanksgiving has always been around, people like Sarah Josepha Hale had to work to get this to become a celebrated national holiday.

Along with these two myths, there is also the myth of what the pilgrims and indians ate at this giant harvest of theirs. It is believed by the majority that the indians and the pilgrims had the best feast with a giant turkey and delicious cranberry sauce, when in reality, they only had deer and harvest foods such as corn. The reason we believe this is because of all the marketing that goes into Thanksgiving. Whenever November rolls around, people suddenly get the craving for turkey and cranberry sauce and all of the “traditional Thanksgiving foods”. Why do you think this is? It is because of all of the marketing. From the start of November to Thanksgiving we see TV ads, newspaper articles, and billboards of this giant Thanksgiving feast which of course includes a giant turkey. In the article The Invisible Way that Marketers Set the Menu for Your Thanksgiving Feast, Smithsonian says that marketers not only help create many of the rituals and cultural myths associated with the Thanksgiving meal, but they also legitimized and maintained them. So not only did we get wrong when and how Thanksgiving started, but also what they actually ate at the First Thanksgiving.

https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/irish-americas-halloween-ragamuffins-thanksgiving

Ragamuffin Day is still celebrated each year with a Thanksgiving parade in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave Film Review ( Rolling Stone )  

In this review from the Rolling Stone, Peter Travers talks about how a free black man mistakenly takes a job in Washington but later finds out that he was captured into slavery. "Ancient history?" says Travers, "Only if you believe that freedom has lost its fragility in the modern world." Travers says that people have kind of lost what the real definition of freedom. Since some people have had it for all of their lives, it is taken fro granted. Like Solomon, he took his life of being a free man for granted and when he a free man, then when he became a slave he was shocked and realized that he took his free life for granted. 

Primary Source Analysis

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Ann Jacobs 

In this primary source, the author is Harriet Ann Jacobs. She tells her life story about how she was born into slavery, but escaped.

She starts out with a notice to the readers. She says that even though some of these events are very dramatic and incredible, they are nonetheless true. She also tells the reader to try and look at these events from her perspective and the situation that she was in.

She touches on how she thought she was born free, but she was really born a slave. She thought this for 6 years. She also talks about how there is a Slaves' New Year day. This is where they receive their new jobs and new masters.

Newspaper Article

Tri-Weekly Standard Newspaper (North Carolina) 

This Newspaper is from North Carolina, which is a state that played a great role in the Reconstruction. This article starts out by saying how it is hopeless for reconstruction in the south. Then it goes on to say how people need to be more involved in their state's reconstruction. It also says that they don't want to have Reconstruction through violence. Then he starts talking about how Reconstruction will help the community. Then he questions it. Then he ends with how people accept the good faith of Reconstruction.

Paraphrase Practice

Lincoln Movie Review ( rogerebert.com )

"Lincoln lacked social polish but he had great intelligence and knowledge of human nature. The hallmark of the man, performed so powerfully by Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln," is calm self-confidence, patience and a willingness to play politics in a realistic way. The film focuses on the final months of Lincoln's life, including the passage of the 13th Amendment ending slavery, the surrender of the Confederacy and his assassination. Rarely has a film attended more carefully to the details of politics." 

My paraphrase of this passage:
Lincoln possessed a large sum of knowledge about the art of interacting with people. Though he may have been a little informal with how he handled politics, he got the job done. The retired English actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, who played Lincoln in this film, reflected many great characteristics of Lincoln such as people skills in both the political world and outside of it. This film carefully depicts the events leading up to end of Lincoln's life which include him pursuing the amendment to abolish slavery, Robert E. Lee agreeing to stop the war, and of course Lincoln being shot in a theater. This is one of a select few films that go deep into the bits and pieces of the political world.

Reconstruction

Why did Reconstruction come to an end in 1877?
-The Compromise of 1877 ( apstudynotes.org )

The Reconstruction came to an end in 1877 because of The Compromise. When Ulysses S. Grant won the election, he found out that it wasn't necessarily what he had in mind. Being in charge of the US was vastly different that being in charge of a military. This led to the country having financial problems which led to Grant having to make a Compromise to save the Us from being in debt.

Lincoln Questions

Lincoln Questions


                                       
President Lincoln: Celebrate President Lincoln's Birthday  

1. Lincoln was "uncompromising" because he would not step back from the 13th Amendment being passed. Thaddeus Stevens was "uncompromising" because he would say that he thinks all men are equal then change it to only under law. They were willing to compromise on the good of the people but they weren't able to compromise on every single thing that Lincoln wanted for the abolishment of slavery.
2. The movie showed how Lincoln was always against slavery, like in the letters, and they showed his emotions towards it like when he slammed his fist down on the table out from running out of patience on getting the last two votes.
3. Lincoln believed that the 13th Amendment was essential because it would end slavery for good, unlike the Emancipation Proclamation. He also told the people that it would "end the War".
4. The film complicated that the South was for slavery and the North against it by having characters from both places voice their opinion on the matter to Lincoln or a Representative.
5. People seemed to resist the end of slavery because they were afraid that the freed slaves would be fired up and rebel against them and take over. The film showed this by a wife and her husband talking to Lincoln about how if the War ended before the vote for the Amendment then they probably would not vote for it but if the War was still going on when the vote came around then they would.

5 Civil War Letters

5 Civil War Letters

     The Civil War lasted from 1860-1865 and during all of these years, men in the war wrote to their wives and vice versa. It's crazy to think how these women felt having the love of their lives leave their home to go fight for their country. I don't know how they did it. On top of this, they always found the time to write each other. With the men constantly on the battlefield, I'm not sure how they find the time and energy to write back home, but they always do. These men and women mus really love each other. 

LETTER #1

July 15, 1863

William Gaston Lewis writes to his wife Martha Lucenda Pender : The Civil War Day by Day 

     In this letter, Lewis is "safe in Va" after making his way through some war zones. The command of regiment died during one of the invasions so now Lewis is taking over, even though he has never been one to like invasions. He tells her that he misses hearing her "little stories" and tells her to send them directly to Richmond so that he will for sure get the letter and it won't be stolen. He even says himself even though he loves writing her, he hates to waste his energy on it. He then tells her that he thinks of her often and when he's going through hard times, he always thinks of her to get him through them.

LETTER #2

March 30, 1865
Edward Porter Alexander to his wife : The Civil War Day by Day 

     In this letter, Alexander writes about how he tries to write his wife every day. He goes on to tell her how much he could have breakfast together and how his heart yearns for her day by day. He goes on and says how even though he hasn't been the best husband, she has been the best wife and that he misses her greatly. He also talks about how he loves the children. He finishes with saying that he thinks there will be another raid soon and that he loves them.

LETTER #3

October 6, 1862
Eli Fogleman to his wife Lucy Fogleman : The Civil War Day by Day 

     In this letter, Fogleman first writes about how he is so happy to hear from his wife and Anna. He then talks about all of the work he has done including going 4 miles to cut tops and pull corn on a farm for 2 or 3 weeks. He then writes how he'd like to be doing other jobs such as artillery. He finishes with how he wishes he was there to do things like eat with her and Anna.

LETTER #4

December 26, 1861
Elisha Franklin Paxton to his wife Elizabeth Paxton : The Civil War Day by Day

     In this letter, Paxton writes about how he applied for a furlough, but did not get it. He talked about how he was really excited to be spending Christmas with his wife and then wrote that he was really disappointed to find out that he could not. But he said that he would come whenever he could get the opportunity and get cleared to. Lastly, he talks about winter is approaching and the weather will turn bad soon.

LETTER #5

September 28, 1861
Elisha Franklin Paxton to his wife Elizabeth Paxton : The Civil War Day by Day 

     In this letter, Paxton writes about how he is responding to his wife's last letter. He starts out by telling her that he got offered a job as Commission as Major. He then talks about how the weather is getting really cold and frosty. Lastly, he ends by saying he needs some sleep and that he will say goodbye.

13th Amendment

13th Amendment

                                
Image of the 13th Amendment


The 13th Amendment States: constituteproject.org
             " Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.  "

What did the 13th Amendment do? archives.gov
            The 13th Amendment abolishes slavery completely. The Emancipation Proclamation did not abolish it "completely".

American Flag

American Flag

                                                   
DIY American Flag Backdrop: via Laughing Latte

                 I did some research on the US Flag and it was made in Philadelphia on June 14 of 1777. The flag was made to establish an official new flag for the nation. The stripes on the flag represent the 13 colonies and the stars represent the 50 states of the Union. A flag represents a country and we know all of the different flags for each country, it's a worldwide known fact. The colors of the flag are symbolic too. The red represents valor, the white symbolizes purity and innocence, and blue represents vigilance, perseverance and justice. We call our flag "Old Glory" and this is because one day out at sea, the flag was hoisted into the wind and a sailor captain exclaimed, "Old Glory!" and that has been its nickname ever since. The "Star Spangled Banner" was written about our flag. During the war, our flag was still standing so Francis Scott Key wrote the "Star Spangled Banner" in his room looking out of his window. Our flag is widely accepted by our people. We see it everywhere: from hanging in peoples yards to people having flags printed in many different ways on their clothing. The US people are proud to wear the flag. It is a disgrace if our flag touches the ground so that is another way people respect and accept it. People have started to disrespect our flag however. They have put it on the ground and stomped on it and they have also set fire to it. And in some cases, people have not stood for the national anthem. These are just some of the controversial things that are happening in our society today.


Work Cited:
USFlag.org 
PBS.org 
FlagPro.com 
History.com 

What does "annotation" mean?

Definitions of "Annotation" and "Annotated Source"

                                               
Campus Press Annotated Paper
Annotations: A Visual Record of the Reading Experience 


Oxford Living Dictionaries Definition 
Annotation: A note by way of explanation or comment added to a text or diagram.


Cornell University Library Definition 
Annotated Source:  a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. 

Civil War Casualties

Civil War Casualties
US History


                                     https://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos
A Southern Refugee Family : As Union and Confederate armies swept back and forth across northern Virginia and other War zones, civilian population feared for its property and personal security. 



This event is mentioned in Chapter 13 of the text book. This topic occurs on pages 402, 404, 405, 413, 416- 417, 418, 423, & 428.

It is found under the heading "Road to Union Victory, 1864-1865" and the sub-heading "The World the War Made.

This text gave me a rough estimated number of how many people were killed and dead from the Civil War.

I learned that a portion of the Civil War casualties was from slavery when Abraham Lincoln was president.

This blog post is about the casualties of the Civil War (ex. number of deaths during the War).

All of this information is found in the America's History Textbook

Source & Citation

US History - Case Study: Source Use & Citation


Vanderbilt historian offers unsettling look at bioeningeered near future


reverse engineer: to disassemble and examine or analyze in detail (a product or devise) to discover the concepts involved in manufacture usually in order to produce something similar.

1. Bess states the last name of the source author, and then if he has already stated a source he will say ibid under that which refers to the previous source. If the quote has come from a book that quoted it also, he will say “Quoted in…”. If the source is from an online article, he will state the slide number first, then the title, and the link last. If the source is from a certain page or chapter of the book, not the general whole, he will state the page number or chapter last.

2. Bess includes annotations in his bibliography to say why he chose a source, what he did/didn’t like or left out about a source, his own opinion on a source previously stated, to offer the reader more sources with his same argument,  or to give credit to a person who has given him information or their personal experiences.

3. There are sources in the notes that are not mentioned directly and explicitly in the text itself. One source is Rene Girard. Bess did not physically read the book himself so he couldn’t cite it. However, he did read Milgram’s book which talked about Girard's book. So Bess is following the rule that if you don’t read the physical book yourself, then you can’t cite it, you have to use “ibid” 

4. Bess credited the sources in text by putting their words in quotations and mentioning them in the sentence, paraphrasing their opinion and mentioning their name again, or by inserting their longer quote without quotations in a smaller font with lines spaced on top and under the quote with the last name in brackets if not already mentioned. In the text, he is literally naming and identifying the sources he used. 

5. Bess’s argument is original because unlike Browning he does not only focus on the negative side of human choices. In Ordinary Men, Browning only gives examples of how people will submit to obedience or peer pressure and ignore their morals, making the bad choice. This implies Browning believes humans are immoral, easily impressionable creatures by nature and are able to justify their wrongdoings. Whereas, Bess creates a contrast to this by including the Le Chambon story, showing people can make good or bad choices depending on the morals built in them. Thus, Bess is saying that humans can be good but they have to put in the effort of making a positive, moral, and responsible society.

First Blog Post

Golf Ball

          Golf is an interesting sport, to say the least. There are a bunch of weird facts about it. Some of which are: 

             - a golf ball will travel further on hot days because the air is less dense 
             - golf balls used to be made of  leather and chicken or goose feathers 
             - only 20% of golfers have a handicap below 18
             - a golfer with a handicap of 18 is called a "bogey golfer" 
             - golf is one of the only two sports that have been played on the moon 
             - before tees were invented, golfers used hand made sand piles every time they teed off