Springfield's Wandering Statue of William McKinley

This statue in tribute to President William McKinley made a curious exodus through Springfield, Massachusetts, several times.  Tributes were quick to follow in the wake of the assassination of McKinley in 1901, and this statue was commissioned and monies raised by subscription drive by the citizens of Springfield.  It was slated to be placed in a spot of honor in downtown's historic Court Square.

By the time it was finished in 1905, enthusiasm had waned, and it fell to noted wealthy citizen Everett Barney to offer to give the statue a home on his estate.  It was dedicated in October 1905.  Mr. Barney's estate, of course, is now the expansive Forest Park.

At the time, Springfield's citizens were less than impressed with the statue, which featured a bust of McKinley perched on a short obelisk, at the foot of which was a life-size figure of a woman in the act of paying tribute to the fallen president with the offer of what appears to be a large olive branch.  Or palm frond.  It was ridiculed.

When Mr. Barney passed away and his estate donated to the city, there was again a debate as to what to do with the statue.  In 1928 it was moved back to Court Square and placed behind City Hall, and neglected and forgotten about, until the early 1960s when it was suggested to move it back to Forest Park where it might at least be seen.  By that time, a chunk of Barney's lovely estate, including his villa on Pecousic Hill, was destroyed by the construction of I-91.   

In 2015, the statue was on the move again, this time back to Court Square at a spot on the Extension behind the Old First Church.  Traffic passes by, but McKinley and the mysterious lady at his feet are a bit more visible to cars and pedestrians alike.

Interestingly, the back of this postcard mailed in 1908 makes a reference to some convention of women in town.  On June 1, 1908, Mrs. Freeman of Westerly, Rhode Island, writes:  "Arrived in Springfield at 12:45.  Had a nice trip.  There is a delegation of 110 women here of course there is lots of noise."

Have a look here at a previous post on the William McKinley monument in Adams, Massachusetts.

Source:  Springfield Union-News, October 13, 1997, article by Carol Malley.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England, 

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

March of Time - New England

 

Here is a brief 11 minutes of tourism and history.  These old The March of Time newsreels ended in 1951, due to the advent of television news, but they were a window on the world of the era.  Here, the window is on New England.

Happy New Year, and thank you for the pleasure of your company!

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England, 

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

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My new non-fiction book, CHILDREN'S WARTIME ADVENTURE NOVELS - The Silent Generation's Vicarious Experience of World War II -- is now available in eBook here at Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and a wide variety of other online shops.

And it is here in eBook, paperback print, and soon, hardcover, from Amazon.

From Cherry Ames, to Meet the Malones, from Dave Dawson to Kitty Carter - Canteen Girl, the Silent Generation spent their childhood immersed in geopolitical events through the prism of their middle grade and young adult books.  From the home front to the battlefield, these books are a window on their world, and influenced their hard-working, conformity-loving generation.

New England Calling - 1949

 

Take a tour of New England in this Esso Marketers travelogue from 1949 - "New England Calling."

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England, 

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

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Half-price sale! Now through Sunday, December 1st!

My "Black Friday" Sale starts today & runs through this Sunday! 

 You'll get half off my eBooks when you visit my Shopify store (Books by Jacqueline T. Lynch). I have 18 eBooks up on the site. 

Happy Thanksgiving and an early Merry Christmas to you!

https://67db75-35.myshopify.com/

Thank you for reading!   

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England, 

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING - SEE MUGS, SHIRTS, AND MUCH MORE HERE!!!

The Lure of New England 1940s

 

The Lure of New England, produced by Martin Bovey Films in the mid-1940s for the Minneapolis-Moline Company is a travelogue of the New England states in a slower, perhaps simpler time.  Have a look!

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England, 

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

***********************

HAPPY THANKSGIVING - SEE MUGS, SHIRTS, AND MUCH MORE HERE!!!

It Happened in Springfield - The Springfield (Mass.) Plan

It Happened in Springfield (1945) is a short subject produced by Warner Bros. starring Andrea King as a teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts, where a new approach and emphasis on citizenship in a multicultural society was taught during World War II, which came to be called The Springfield Plan.  This included teaching students to identify racist propaganda and to foster democracy.

Also in the cast were Warren Douglas, John Qualen, Charles Drake, William Forrest, and Arthur Hohl.

The differences between the shameless lies about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, by Traitor Trump and the radical right MAGA fascists -- and the nobler intentions of the wartime Springfield Plan of Springfield, Massachusetts, are stark and rather jolting, but it further illustrates our choice in November.

Vote accordingly.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Movies in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century and Hollywood Fights Fascism and Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

***************

My new non-fiction book, CHILDREN'S WARTIME ADVENTURE NOVELS - The Silent Generation's Vicarious Experience of World War II -- is now available in eBook here at Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and a wide variety of other online shops.

And it is here in eBook, paperback print, and soon, hardcover, from Amazon.

From Cherry Ames, to Meet the Malones, from Dave Dawson to Kitty Carter - Canteen Girl, the Silent Generation spent their childhood immersed in geopolitical events through the prism of their middle grade and young adult books.  From the home front to the battlefield, these books are a window on their world, and influenced their hard-working, conformity-loving generation.

***********************

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - SEE MUGS, SHIRTS, AND MUCH MORE HERE!!!

John (Jack) Hayes - Requiescat in Pace

 This is to post a belated public farewell to a dear friend and colleague, John Hayes.  I "met" John in the early years of this blog, and some of you may remember his eclectic blog, Robert Frost's Banjo.  A musician as well as a poet, some years ago John and his partner wrote and performed on the movie track a musical score for Nell Shipman's silent film The Grub-Stake (1923) which I covered in this previous post on my Another Old Movie Blog.

Most recently, John published a three-volume book set of poetry, which I posted about here.  Another volume of poetry will be published by Askance Publishing posthumously.  He was overjoyed at the contract and the accomplishment even as he bravely faced rapidly declining health.  A gentle man of extraordinary perspective, he faced his mortality with grace and gallantry.

For many years he was also my proofreader of my books, and I will miss his friendship.  Unlike most of the dear friends I've gratefully come to know through this blog, I actually was delighted to have met John in person.  He had been living on the West Coast, but on a trip to Boston to visit his mother, he kindly made arrangements to visit me in western Massachusetts, and we went to lunch.  

I read his poems from time to time and I feel the comfort of his big heart, his intellect, and his spirituality.  He has left us in his poetry a precious gift: himself.

Here is his obituary as published in The Oregonian.

John Hayes Obituary

John (Jack Hayes, his pen name) entered the light of heaven July 12. Born in 1956 to Elizabeth (Atkinson) and John Hayes Sr. in Bellows Falls, Vt., Jack was a warm, loving man with a generous, kind spirit. He received his BA in English from UVM and his MFA in Poetry from UVA and had a lot of passions, including music, baseball, and Tai Chi, but poetry was his calling. He published 11 books of poetry, most recently Prayer Wind (Askance), and has one more collection slated for publication posthumously. In life, as in his poems, John saw beauty in the ordinary and the unordinary, often in nature. He shared music that he loved, played with, and taught both guitar and ukulele.
In 2018, John married his true love, Sandy Pullella. Besides her, he leaves behind her family; his sister, Naomi (Mort) Rosenberg; niece, Jessie; nephew, Ethan; their children; several cousins; and his beloved dog, Chloe; and cat, Curious.
John felt enormous gratitude to the Taoist Tai Chi Society, where he practiced in Portland, Ore. for many years. He developed lifelong friendships with two nuns from the Marymount Hermitage in Mesa, ID and also felt deeply connected to his editor and friend, Sheila Graham-Smith.
Thank you to the teams of Kaiser Permanente Hospice and Palliative Care, Portland, Ore., OHSU, and the Alpha One Foundation. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Kaiser Hospice, the Alpha One Foundation, or the Marymount Hermitage. John's body has been donated to the OHSU Body Donation Program. Mass will be at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church 7600 N. Hereford, Portland, July 28, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. 

Published by The Oregonian from Jul. 22 to Jul. 28, 2024.