Matthew Henson (1866–1955) was the ultimate American explorer—brave, skilled, and unbreakable. For decades, however, history relegated him to the shadows because he was Black.

Hired originally as a personal valet by well-known explorer Robert Peary, Henson proved to be far more than a servant. He was the critical asset that made Peary’s obsession with the North Pole possible. Yet, in 1909, when Peary and Henson reached what was determined to be the North Pole, Peary was hailed as a hero. Henson, the African American who actually reached the point first, was largely ignored.

Only much later was he recognized for his achievements.

Matthew Henson: The Early Years

Mathew Henson was born in Charles County, Maryland, in 1866 to freeborn Black sharecroppers. His father took the family to Washington, D.C. in search of better job opportunities. However, before the family could settle in, both parents passed away.  The children were left in the care of relatives.

At age 11, Matthew ran away and found work as a cabin boy on a ship. The captain saw that he was a bright boy. He helped him improve his reading, taught him navigation skills, and familiarized Henson with all aspects of running a ship. The captain died when Henson was 18. With the loss of his mentor, Henson returned to Washington, D.C. and accepted a job as a salesclerk for a furrier.

Henson became a favorite of the store owner, and one day when Robert Peary, then a civil engineer for the U.S. Navy, came in to purchase items for a future trip to the jungles of Nicaragua, the store owner suggested Peary hire Henson as his valet. The owner knew that Henson would bring many skills to the work Peary expected to do.

Became a Team

For the first four years of their 22 years together, they struggled with the challenges of the jungles of the Southern hemisphere. Then when Robert Peary committed to an Arctic exploration (Greenland), they needed to hone new skills.

As they worked together, they developed a pattern. While Peary focused on logistics and plans, Henson mastered the day-to-day reality of Arctic survival. He became fluent in the Inuit language, earning the trust of the local guides who affectionately called him Maripaluk (“Matthew the Kind One”).

Henson also became the team’s master craftsman, building the sledges himself using Inuit techniques that could withstand the brutal terrain. From training the dog teams to building igloos for shelter in sub-zero temperatures, Henson possessed a unique combination of technical skill and physical endurance. His knowledge and his ease with the dogs also made him the best person to move forward to break the trails.

Greenland

In the 1890s, explorers were obsessed with reaching the North Pole, and Greenland was considered both the Arctic gateway and the bootcamp for Arctic travel.

In 1891 Peary was ready to take on this first challenge with an exploration of Greenland.  But Peary and Henson had never experienced Arctic ice, and it was much more difficult to navigate. Arctic sea ice is unexpected in every way, shifting from towering, jagged pressure ridges that have been built up over years to crevices that drop into deadly rivers of black water.

As their ship rammed along the coastline trying to break through the ice, a massive chunk of ice struck the ship’s rudder. The force of the ice spun the heavy iron tiller (steering lever) onto the deck, pinning Pary against the wheelhouse and causing him to break his leg.

Many thought they should return home. Eventually part of the group departed, but Peary and Henson remained until 1893. During that time, Henson continued to hone his skills since much of the time, Henson was bedridden.

A few years later their return, Peary mounted another expedition to Greenland to go further north to chart the ice cap. That trip was ill-fated as well. It was a large group, and they ran out of food and supplies and had to resort to eating their sled dogs to survive.

The North Pole: Only 174 Miles Away

After their first effort to reach the North Pole failed, they tried again in 1902. During this expedition, six Eskimos hired to accompany them died from starvation. Again, they had to turn around.

In 1906, Peary and Henson came forward with renewed energy. Peary had been able to give input on the design of the S.S. Theodore Roosevelt that was intended to be an ice cutter. However, the ship was no match for the Arctic ice.  They reached a point farther than they ever had—only 174 miles from the Pole, but they could go no further.

Peary and Henson left the ship to sledge forward on their own (sledging in the Arctic describes going by foot, but men are compelled to push, pull, and drag their sledges, as the sledges have all their provisions). They were halted by a huge black river that was miles wide. They eventually found their way back to The Roosevelt.  The “174-mile heartbreak” trip was a huge disappointment.

Final Attempt in 1908-09: Racing the Sun

In 1908, Robert Peary and Matthew Henson were getting older. Peary was 52 and Henson was 42. They had been close to death several times, and they knew the brutal temperatures and difficult conditions would be even more challenging. What’s more, there could be no “next time.” They were simply too old.

The S.S. Roosevelt spent a year in a New York shipyard being rebuilt and repaired. Finally, on a scorching hot day in July of 1908, it was ready to go. Peary and Henson left with 24 men, 19 sledges, and 133 dogs.

As they had before, they took the ice cutter as far as possible. Then Peary and Henson left with sledges. They were going to cover this last leg of their trip with four Eskimos and 40 dogs. Henson was expected to break the trail. Peary followed behind in a sledge as he was suffering seriously from frostbite.

They took the position needed for the final push and waited out the Polar Night (January and early February) in their chosen location. When Henson started out in late February, they had a full moon that reflected off the white snow, providing enough silvery light to navigate. As twilight arrived (early March), they pushed further north, journeying on.

By April 6 when they arrived at what was deemed the North Pole, the sun was peeking above the horizon. As Henson traveled, breaking the trail, he feared he overshot the mark and tracked back, running into Peary’s group at that time.

As the two together moved forward, calculating carefully where the Pole must be, they found Henson’s footprints.  Unknowingly, he had actually reached the Pole by himself. Initially, no one really addressed the matter. They planted the flag, took photos and measurements to prove their achievement and bedded down for the night.

The Return Trip

They knew they had to race back to the ship to avoid the spring melt. While Arctic ice does not usually fully melt, it does open and shift in unexpected ways, and it’s a dangerous time for exploring.

Throughout their expeditions, Peary and Henson had a custom. When they were ready to leave each morning, Henson or Peary would rap on the ice outside the tent where the other slept. That morning, Robert Peary got up and departed alone. Relations were cold between the two men for the remainder of the trip.

Meanwhile Back in the States

When they returned to the United States, the news did not get any better. Frederick Cook, an explorer who had been on one of the Greenland missions with them, claimed he reached the North Pole a year ahead of them—1908. (While exploring in the arctic, no groups ever received news from elsewhere. Access was too limited.)

Peary was devastated and angry. Cook had already begun making speeches and accepting awards. The general feeling was that Peary had missed out, so he began talking to those who were said to have accompanied Cook on the trip. As he listened to their stories, Peary became suspicious. Perhaps Cook had not actually reached the North Pole.

Robert Peary got in touch with the National Geographic Society and asked that they undertake an investigation. Eventually, Cook’s claim was exposed as a hoax.

Peary Was Recognized; Henson Was Not

While Peary was celebrated with parades and special events, Matthew Henson spent the next several decades working as a clerk in a federal customs house. His role in history was largely erased, though in 1909, a group called the Colored Citizens of New York sponsored a dinner in his honor and presented him with a gold watch.

In his free time, Henson decided to write about his experience. In 1912,  A Negro Explorer at the North Pole  was published  (available online today at no charge through Project Gutenberg). The book expanded public knowledge of Arctic travel as he explained so much about what each journey entailed. From the book, we learn a great deal about the expedition, the Inuit people, and about both Peary and Henson—a remarkable add-on to an extraordinary career.

Peary provided a foreword for the book, though he seemed to use the space to cement his own legacy as the expedition’s mastermind rather than sharing the ultimate glory with the man who actually led the way.

Henson Acknowledgment Comes Slowly

Acknowledgment of Henson began to funnel in slowly. Until Peary’s death in 1920, Peary controlled the story, so there could be only one hero. After he died, other explorers who knew Henson and knew what the expedition entailed, began to step forward. In 1937, the prestigious Explorers Club invited Henson to become a member, and in 1948 the Explorers Club made him an “Honorary member,” a designation given to no more than 20 living members at a time.

In 1944, Congress awarded him a duplicate of the silver medal given to the rest of the Peary expedition. Ten years later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower welcomed him to the White House.

Just before his death in 1955, he was given an honorary doctoral degree from Howard University and Morgan State University.

Since that time, a survey ship has been named in his honor, and the National Geographic Society awarded Henson the Hubbard Medal to Henson posthumously. There have also been streets and schools and centers named for him.

Final Honor for Matthew Henson: Arlington Cemetery

When Robert Peary died in 1920, he received a burial befitting a hero. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. When Henson died in 1955, he was buried simply in a family burial plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.

But in the 1980s, Professor Allen Counter of Harvard undertook a fight on behalf of the man he saw as the true hero. Counter had been studying the expedition and saw clearly that an injustice had been done to Matthew Henson. Henson’s contributions were not properly acknowledged. Professor Counter got permission from Presidnet Ronald Reagan to move Henson’s remains to Arlington Cemetery to be buried near Peary.

Henson and his wife Lucy were reinterred in Arlington with a monument that notes his accomplishments. Though Henson and Lucy never had children, Henson fathered a child with an Inuit woman, and that son and his children were present for the re-burial.

On Henson’s tomb is a quote from his autobiography: “The lure of the Arctic is tugging at my heart. To me the trail is calling. The old trail. The trail that is always new.”

Today, his monument stands directly next to Robert Peary’s, showing that on the ice, they were equals.

In the early 19th century, the American medical field was almost exclusively a men’s club. However, a few resilient women refused to accept the status quo, stepping forward as pioneers to carve out a new path.

Today, that landscape is shifting dramatically. While men currently account for 61% of active physicians in the U.S., women now make up the majority of medical students and residents. We are standing on the brink of a major demographic shift.

Below are the stories of six unsung women who challenged the establishment and moved the field of medicine forward.

Women Medical Leaders: Lydia Pinkham

Lydia Estes Pinkham (1819-1883) was one of the first people to take women’s health issues seriously.  She opened a closed door on the health matters that are unique to women. To help friends and neighbors, she created a vegetable tonic that helped with “women’s ills.” The family decided to package the product, and her sons soon took to the road to help place the tonic in stores.

Up until this time, women had no resources for health advice. Because Pinkham’s product became so popular, women wrote her for advice. Her responses were mostly common sense (eat well, exercise, and avoid the tight, restrictive clothing that was popular in the 19^th century). Eventually some of the advice was collected in pamphlets.

Though the compound has evolved to meet modern FDA standards, Lydia Pinkham’s Compound (now owned by Numark Brands) can still be found online and in major drug stores.

Clara Barton

Clara Barton (1821-1912) is well-known as the “Angel of the Battlefield”for her work during the Civil War. Later she brought the Red Cross to the U.S. and formed the American Red Cross.

Barton is less well-known for running the Office of Missing Soldiers. During the Civil War, the military had no official identification system. Sometimes soldiers caried a note in their pocket or wallet. Other times, their buddies buried them with something saying who they were.

Clara Barton set up an office in Washington, D.C. that operated from 1865-1867. She received 63,000 letters from families whose loved ones were missing, and she or her staff answered them all. They also managed to identify 22,000 soldiers.

Dr. Rebecca Crumpler

Dr. Rebecca Crumpler (1831-1895) was a Black woman who worked as a nurse for several white doctors in Massachusetts in the 1860s. She was so well-regarded by the men that they recommended her for admission the New England Female Medical College; she became the first African American to be admitted.  

Once she became a physician, she cared for Black patients in the Massachusetts area at a time when white doctors refused to treat people of color. At the end of her career, she wrote a home health guide for women about everything from nursing a newborn to managing cuts and wounds.  For the first time, households had a reliable reference as to how to manage various health issues.

Dorothy Harrison Eustis

Dorothy Harrison Eustis (1886-1946) was a dog breeder who became interested in training guide dogs for the blind.  While she was not a medical professional, her service to humanity was important to the health of people with impaired vision.

Eustis trained the first seeing eye dog brought to this country (1928). She went on to dedicate the rest of her life to breeding and training guide dogs. She and Morris Frank, the fellow who received the first dog she trained, created the school, The Seeing Eye. The school still operates today and continues to train and place dogs.

Dr. Virginia Apgar

Dr. Virginia Apgar (1909-1974) hoped to be a surgeon but she graduated from medical school during the Depression when men were taking all the available jobs.  She went into the relatively new field of anesthesiology. This placed her in delivery rooms where she had the opportunity to observe what happened with mothers and babies shortly after birth.

Apgar was alarmed that babies were only cursorily evaluated before being sent off to the hospital nursery. To solve the problem, she developed a method for assessing newborn health.  She originally called it the Newborn Scoring System, and it greatly changed the mortality rate for infants. The system is still used today but it is now referred to as the Apgar Score.  She then went on to run the March of Dimes.

Dr. Antonia Novello

Dr. Antonia Novello (1944–  ) grew up in Puerto Rico and became a physician. She is the first Latino to ever serve as U.S. Surgeon General. Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, she made many contributions to public health, among them working to improve medical care for women and minorities. 

Dr. Novello also targeted underage drinking and smoking, which involved a focus on cigarette advertising.  The cartoon image of Joe Camel was a particular target that she felt made smoking attractive to the young.

***

This information is based on my six-volume history of medicine as well as a speech I gave at Arizona State University for their Barrett Honors Program. If you’d like to see the full presentation given at ASU, click here:

Little-Known Women in Medicine Presentation with Kate Kelly.

Remember foldable paper road maps?

For some of us, the thought of foldable highway maps conjures memories of family road trips where the words, “Let’s stop for a map,” were spoken whenever the family drove into unfamiliar territory.  Parents studied the map for route guidance and then passed the map to those of us in the back seat who yearned for something new to look at during long drives.

Early Drivers Didn’t Need Maps

When people first began driving, there was little need for route guidance. Automobiles were very simple, and people primarily drove around the towns and countryside they knew well. 

But by 1915, the U.S. had more than two million cars, and motorists were beginning to drive from town to town. Maps were needed but they weren’t easy to come by as mapmaking required a great deal of time-consuming and tedious work.

Bicycle Maps Came First

The bicycle craze of the late 19^th century put lots of Americans on the road. As riders ventured farther away from their home bases, bicycle maps came in handy. But most of the information wasn’t transferable to maps for automobiles.

Cyclists could navigate narrow passageways or alleys, and if necessary, riders could carry their bikes across shallow streams. Automobiles could only travel on bigger roads and while they could drive through small rivulets of water, they needed to be careful not to get stuck in mud. Tires on cars made in the early part of the century did not give traction. 

And since there was no master plan for roadways, mapmakers had to create maps on an as-needed basis.

Road Markers Were Also Rare

Often, the best way to navigate was to stop frequently and ask a local resident for directions. Because road markers were rare, a local person’s guidance would likely be punctuated with information about making turns on the street “where the café is” or after “crossing the bridge in the middle of town.”

Many roads had no names at all, and in some parts of the country, roads changed names as they continued into a new county. For that reason, guidance was complicated.

Company-Sponsored Route Guides

Eventually companies like car manufacturers and travel associations began creating “route guides” with advertising placed prominently throughout.  

For a person to make a guide required that they have an automobile with a reliable odometer. Distances needed to be accurate. At least two people needed to be in the car traveling the route. The driver noted landmarks and specific mileages while the passenger carefully wrote down the directions. Andrew McNally II, son of a founder of Rand McNally & Co. created the Rand McNally Chicago to Milwaukee Photo-Auto Guide of 1909 on his honeymoon with the aid of his new bride.

With these early guides, the directions were often similar to what a local person would tell a driver. “After 2.7 miles, make a right turn at the café with the red roof.” (If the café burned down, the guidance became unclear or confusing.) Better guides documented the more complex turns with photographs.

Because it was clear that guideposts were needed, some guidebook makers began erecting their own signs along popular routes. 

Solutions Begin

By the 1920s, there were more roads, more markers, more cars, and more confusion.

Wisconsin was the first state to come up with a solution. In 1920 they established a method for numbering their roads. Soon other states began to follow their lead. By the end of the 1920s, almost 76,000 miles of U.S. roads had been given a number designation.  Odd numbers were used for north-south roads; even numbers were selected for roads running east and west.    

Maps as Promotional Tools

During the 1910s, gasoline companies began opening service stations so drivers could buy gasoline. The Gulf Refining Company established one of the nation’s  first drive-in gasoline service stations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  (Up until this time, drivers purchased gasoline in five-gallon containers. (See “When Gasoline-Powered Cars Were First Used, Where Did They Get Gasoline?”) 

Advertising man William Akin suggested an idea for promoting these businesses. He told Gulf to buy and give away local maps for each area where they had stations.  By 1920, Gulf was giving away 16 million maps of the eastern U.S.  Soon other gas companies followed. 

But as the years went by, the availability of free road maps at gas stations declined. Drivers were generally commuting on a well-known route and didn’t need a map. And because of the oil embargoes in the 1970s, oil companies cut back on promotional items. A free map was no longer going to inspire consumer loyalty.

Maps continued to be made available at gas stations and bookstores, but they had to be paid for. 

Today we rarely think to take a map with us. Though identifying a location on a map is enormously helpful in getting us oriented, today most people are perfectly comfortable simply following the GPS technology.    

A Different Map: Lowell Thomas War Map

During World War II, Americans were desperate for more information about the war, about the troops, and about where their loved ones might be. As a result, maps of the areas where the fighting was taking place were created and distributed in the same manner as road maps. 

Sunoco was the sponsor of a newscast hosted by Lowell Thomas (1892-1981), so he became the “face” of the Sunoco war map published in 1942.  The maps unfolded to reveal four full-color maps on two sides of a 20 x 26-inch sheet. 

Over time the war maps spawned offshoots. In 1944 Sunoco distributed an “air lanes map” with pictures and descriptions of American, British, Russian, German, and Japanese airplanes.

Lowell Thomas was the perfect guide for Americans following the war. He was a pioneer in journalism and was among the first to report from the battlefield during World War I, and he was the first to enter Germany after the war to gather eyewitness accounts. His Sunoco-sponsored program began on NBC in 1930 but soon switched to CBS. Prior to 1947, he was an employee of Sunoco, not NBC or CBS.  Until 1952 he was also the voice of Movietone News until 1952. 

Fast Facts about Early Roads

• The first pedestrian safety island was created in San Francisco in 1907.
• The first road to have a painted midline dividing the lanes was a road in Michigan, and the line was painted in 1911.
• The first electric traffic signal was used in Cleveland in 1914. See “Garrett Morgan: Successful Inventor of Safety Hood/Traffic Signal.”
• The first “no left turn” sign was put up on a busy street in Buffalo in 1916.
• The first school safety patrol program began in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1920.

How did early drivers get gasoline before there were gas stations?

Until “horseless carriages” began traveling along American roads, there hadn’t been much need for gasoline.

 Gasoline was identified during the mid-19^th century, when companies began refining crude oil to extract kerosene. Gasoline was a byproduct of this process, but because it was highly flammable, it was generally discarded.

But with the development of gas-powered automobiles, Americans needed places to buy gasoline.

Early Retail

Sources for gasoline varied from community to community. The key factor was that it needed to be sold by establishments that were accustomed to handling flammable substances such as alcohol or kerosene. In some communities, pharmacies, hardware stores, and general stores tended to be the primary places. In smaller communities, motorists might need to stop at a blacksmith where they might have to scoop gasoline out of a barrel and then take it to their automobile.

In stores, gasoline was generally sold in five-gallon containers. The motorist then used a funnel or a long-necked container to pour it into the automobile gas tank.

Five gallons was generally enough for driving locally for a week or two. If a longer trip was planned, the driver might buy an extra container of gasoline to take on the trip. Some more expensive cars had permanently-installed compartments along the running board for storing extra gas. But because the fuel was highly combustible, any unexpected impact to the car could cause it to catch fire.

To avoid traveling with extra gasoline, some drivers called ahead to retail establishments on their planned route. They then requested that the store hold a supply of gasoline for their arrival.

Kerosene Led to Gasoline

This article would be incomplete if we didn’t take a step back to better understand how gasoline became a preferred fuel source for automobiles.

The process began with lighting. In the late 1800s, Americans had two primary sources of powered lighting.  As households graduated from whale oil, they moved on to kerosene, a fuel that was identified by Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner in 1846. Gesner’s kerosene came from coal.

As use of kerosene became more popular, oil drillers found that they could refine crude oil to make kerosene as well. The production of kerosene from crude oil resulted in a byproduct known as gasoline.

At first, gasoline was viewed as waste and was discarded.

More Progress in Lighting

While kerosene was gaining popularity throughout the country, including in more rural areas, another development was coming along in cities. Starting in London, the British were beginning to use natural gas. Pipes were installed under the streets, and the city was soon well-lit from natural gas. (It was such a novelty that people from the countryside traveled to London just to see this new phenomenon.)  

In the United States in 1802, inventor Benjamin Henfrey, a Baltimore native, suggested natural gas be used to light the streets of Baltimore as well as the nearby harbor lighthouses. While Henfrey suggested the plan, it took the wealthy Peale family (a family of artists who often worked in Baltimore) to help implement it.

As a result, Baltimore was the first city to implement natural gas for street lighting.

New Products Resulted

Some of the machinery and tools created for the use of natural gas turned out to be helpful later on with gasoline. 

One of the items was the Gilbert & Barker Gas Pump. In 1865, two partners, Charles Gilbert and John Barker, created the “Springfield Gas Machine” which was a way of dispensing measured amounts of natural gas. If towns installed the Gilbert & Barker gas pump, then there was a way to measure how much gas was being used, and therefore, how much the municipality would need to pay.

In the early 1900s, some of the early automobiles were made with gas-powered engines. When Gilbert & Barker saw this new development, mechanics in their company re-tooled their natural gas pump so it could be used for gasoline, too.

But Why Was Gasoline Preferred?

Gasoline turned out to be the “secret sauce” for automobiles because of the development of the internal combustion engine. Once the engine was refined so that it was spark-ignited, two German car makers (Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler) experimented with putting the motor in what would become early automobiles.

The success in Europe inspired American automobile inventors to experiment with combustible engines powered by spark plugs. Different fuels were tested, but the inventors soon saw that gasoline was best. It burned relatively cleanly and combined well with air-fuel mixture that was necessary to power the motor.

So while electric cars were still being sold in the early 1900s, gasoline-powered automobiles were taking over the car market. They were much less expensive and very reliable. With that positive sign, inventors and business owners placed their money on new developments that eased the marketing of gasoline.

Invention of the Hand Pump and the Bowser

Stores that sold gasoline were perplexed by the higher demand for the product. It wasn’t safe to store the fuel in large quantities, and customers kept asking for better ways to buy the product. Drivers didn’t love having to come into stores to for their five gallons of gasoline and then having to take it out to pour it in the automobile themselves.

  An entrepreneur named Sylvanus Freelove Bowser (1854-1938) living in Fort Wayne, Indiana, had a solution. Bowser witnessed a similar problem when people wanted to buy kerosene for their homes and businesses. In 1885, he invented and patented a pump that dispensed kerosene. 

When a market for gasoline came along, S.F. Bowser already had the perfect apparatus. He also saw that since customers were using the gasoline for automobiles, it made sense to build storage tanks that could be located outside the store nearer the road.

Bowser started selling 50-gallon tanks (enclosed with wood for added safety) along with a pump that could dispense gasoline. Bowser referred to them as “Self-Measuring Gasoline Storage Pumps,” and introduced them in 1905. Store owners were delighted.

As these storage systems proliferated in the more populous parts of the country, they became known as “filling stations—a term that you sometimes still hear today. 

First Modern Gas Station

One of the first modern gas stations opened in 1913 on Baum Avene in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The street was known as “automobile row,” and the station was run by Gulf Oil (“Good Gulf Gasoline”).

The Texas Company (Texaco) was not far behind with gas stations of their own. (“Trust your car to the man who wears the star”) Other oil companies soon followed.

Initially the gas stations focused on selling gas. They offered free air and water for cars, but not much else.

This was primarily because the Model T initially dominated the automobile market. Henry Ford prided himself on creating cars that didn’t need servicing. Each new car was sold with a grease cup. Ford believed that any owner could grease their own car and keep it running. 

But competition entered the automobile market, and soon more complicated cars were on the road. The need for more service was created, so “greasing palaces” were added to gas stations.

That was the beginning of what we now call “service stations.”

By 1930, America had 15,000 gas stations plus approximately 7500 curbside pumps.  A decade later there were more than 100,000 gas stations. 

Today most gas stations have at least a dozen or so pumps. Some of the larger stations on interstate highways have up to 120 pumps. 

Self Service?

The first self-service gas station opened in Los Angeles in 1947, but drivers at that time showed little interest in getting out to pump their own gasoline. Finally, after the long lines for gasoline during the oil embargo, self-service stations caught on.  For a time, some states banned self-service gas pumps. Today the only state that prohibits self-service is New Jersey.

But today motorists face a new dilemma. Just as motorists used to wonder where they could buy gasoline once they were on the road, today many drivers are looking for where they can stop to charge their electric vehicle.

We’re back to the old dilemma: Gas or electric?

****

For more information on early cars, see “Auto Sales Stimulus, 1909.”

A jukebox!  If you walk into a themed restaurant where they have jukeboxes, it’s still a thrill. The thought of choosing some tunes that remind us of our teen years can’t help but bring back fun memories. 

But times have changed. We all have phones that carry a multitude of our favorite songs, and personal earbuds let us listen anytime and anywhere to what we want.  Opportunities for communal listening are rare. 

When the first jukeboxes (then called “nickel-in-the-slot phonographs”) were created, it was very exciting. The first version played music from a single cylinder. Only the machine owner could change it. What’s more, there was no way to amplify the sound. To listen, the customers inserted a nickel and then had access to one of four listening tubes attached to the machine.

These phonographs were far from the jukeboxes of today, but they were a great novelty.

Who Thought of the Jukebox?

The inventor of the first nickel-in-the-slot phonograph was a man named Louis Glass (1845-1924). He grew up in northern California, and as soon as he could work, he took a job as a telephone operator. (Young boys were initially hired as operators because telephones were expected to replace the need for messengers. The boys proved to be too rambunctious to work in offices since the telephones were not yet very busy. Soon women were hired.)  Glass held the job long enough to set aside savings that he put toward investing in telephone companies in Oakland and San Diego.

Glass also worked as an agent of the Edison General Electric Company and was manager of Pacific Phonograph Company when it was founded in 1889. As a result, he was very familiar with Edison’s inventions. He often demonstrated the Edison phonograph for prominent San Francisco citizens.

Thomas Edison initially envisioned the phonograph as a machine that would be used for playing back information in an office setting. But Glass, working with business associate William S. Arnold, was experimenting with another use for the machine. What if they could rig it to be a coin-operated music-playing machine?

Music-Playing Machine

As early as 1871, inventors created mechanical toys that operated when coins were inserted. This likely inspired Glass and Arnold. The machine they used for their device was the Edison Class M electric phonograph.  If someone deposited a coin in the box attached, this activated the cylinder so that music played. Unfortunately, there was no way to amplify the sound. Listeners had to use one of four listening tubes attached to the machine, inserting the tube in their ear.

An article in Popular Mechanics described the machine as “encased in a lead-lined oak cabinet. It had a 25-lb sulfuric acid battery that provided electricity through wires to the motor.”  The cylinder needed to be changed manually by an operator.

Despite these drawbacks, Glass and Arnold were excited by their invention. They got permission to install the first “nickel-in-the-slot” machine in a San Francisco bar near their offices, called the Palais Royale (1889).

Glass told others that during the first 6 months, the machine made $1000. This was an astounding amount of money for the day. Bar owners likely received a percentage of the take, but having one of the phonographs in their establishment would also help build traffic and sell more drinks.

One bar owner had a worthy suggestion: He said that in order for the device to be installed in his establishment, he wanted the recording to add a line at the end: “Go over to the bar and get a drink…”

Over the next 18 months, Glass approached other locations and placed at least 13 more of these devices. They were in bars, restaurants, and even ferries traveling between Oakland and San Francisco. 

Changes and New Uses

There were no great advancements on these devices for awhile, but there were new uses. Carnivals were thrilled to have a new attraction to feature, so they purchased them and created new cylinders with their own offerings. Because they were hands-on with the machines, they could record new songs or silly speeches and lure customers back again and again.

The Next Advance

The next big change in the coin-operated music machine was spearheaded by a man named John Gabel. He was 12 when he and his family arrived in America from Slovakia in 1884. He eventually moved to Chicago and worked for a company manufacturing calculators. From there he moved on to a novelty company that made coin-operated vending machines.

In 1898, he left the company and started The Automatic Machine and Tool Company, also selling vending devices.

Gabel was convinced he could create a coin-operated music machine that offered choices. The machine was patented in 1906 as the “Automatic Entertainer” and was a marvel.

“The Automatic Entertainer”

The machine had two stacks of 12 10-inch records, offering 24 selections.  The customer used a large dial on the front of the cabinet to choose a song. When a customer deposited a coin, the wonder began. A mechanical arm retrieved the selected record from its stack and placed it on the turntable. The tone arm came down on the outer rim of the chosen record, and the song began to play.

Needles on these machines became dull very quickly and could damage the next record. Gabel created a system where the needles changed automatically. At the end of the record, the old needle dropped out of the tone arm, and a new one was put in place automatically from a “birdcage-like structure” on the side.

Gabel’s other innovation was the addition of a large horn to amplify the sound emanating from the machine. This was a huge leap forward.

The Automatic Entertainer not only offered customers a choice of songs, but it offered a way to amplify sound.  Gabel’s system was soon being placed in bars and dance halls.

New Companies

Justus Seeburg’s (1871-1958)  background was in manufacturing player pianos.  As records were produced, he knew it was time to change his business model and step away from the player pianos. His early phonograph combined an electrostatic loud speaker with a coin-operated record player.  It had eight separate turntables mounted on a rotating Ferris wheel-like device that permitted patrons to select from eight different 10-inch 78 rpm records.

In 1938, Seeburg introduced the Symphanola “Trashcan” jukebox.  It held 20 10-inch 78s that slipped into a shallow drawer when chosen and that drawer rose up to meet the playing arm.

Seeburg created the first device that could play 45s. It had a sideways moving carriage for pulling the requested records.

Perhaps most memorably, the Seeburg company created the iconic table-mounted machines from which customers could select  jukebox choices remotely.

Wurlitzer Jukeboxes

The Wurlitzer name is strongly associated with the jukeboxes of  memory.

The Wurlitzer family had a long history in the music business. In Europe the family was well-respected for making musical instruments. They came to the United States and settled in Cleveland in 1853.  They continued to make instruments but by the late 1930s, the company added jukeboxes to their line.

Wurlitzer’s biggest contribution to the industry may have been the design work. They hired a man named Paul Fuller who came to the company from store design and started with Wurlitzer in 1935. His design ideas forever changed the look of jukeboxes.

His most famous and often-copied model was the 1015, known as the Bubbler. The Wurlitzer 1015 offered a choice of 24 records (78s). It was introduced in 1946. In the following two years, Wurlitzer sold an astounding 56,000 units.

All of Fuller’s designs featured finely polished wood with spectacular designs in chrome, colored plastic, and glass. The Bubbler featured ornate, Art Deco touches. The most distinctive feature of the 1015 was a set of eight transparent, colored tubes on either side of the grille. Inside these tubes, a heated fluid created a continuous stream of bubbling action. The unit’s glass section also held revolving, spotlighted pieces of colored plastic, adding to its visual appeal.

Customers could see into the jukebox and watch the machine move to pull the record that they selected.

And Then There Was Rock-ola

Rock-ola was founded in 1927 by David Cullen Rockola. The company initially manufactured coin-operated scales, slot machines, and pinball games for amusement parks and arcades.

Rock-ola introduced its first jukebox in 1935. It, too, featured great looking jukebox cases that were perfect for what became the “Golden Age of Jukeboxes.” (1940-50s)

And certainly, the company name was an asset as rock-and-roll became part of the culture. Who wouldn’t want a jukebox from “Rock-ola?”

 Today Rock-ola is the last jukebox maker in the business. They are the main suppliers of the Johnny Rocket-themed restaurants. There are more than one hundred diners in the U.S. and a reported 225 worldwide.

The Name “Jukebox”

For almost 40 years, the industry resisted calling these phonographs “jukeboxes.”  “Juke” came from the Gullah (Creole) language, and “juke joint” referred to a place for music and dancing (and perhaps drinking and gambling).  But eventually, the catchier name of jukebox replaced the very awkward “automatic coin-operated phonograph.”

The Military and Music

Jukeboxes changed the music world in many ways, and one of them happened because of the way jukeboxes were used on military bases.

The military in World War II needed an unimaginable number of soldiers, so both the Army and the Navy accepted people from all parts of the country representing many ethnicities. All of them had different tastes in music.

 Jukebox makers saw that their machines needed to offer a wide variety of choices. Soon jukeboxes were loaded with records featuring American blues, gospel music, country music and pop records. 

Over time, musicians, too, began answering this need. Music began combining styles and tempos to grow into the ever-changing music we hear today.

Jukeboxes and the Record Business

In the 1940s, 75 percent of all records manufactured went directly to jukeboxes. It was an important market-testing device for new music. Jukeboxes could tally the number of plays for each title.  Those that were popular on the jukeboxes also sold well to the public. It was a win-win situation. Record producers loved them.

Jukebox “play” during the 1950s, became so significant that Billboard magazine began printing a weekly record chart that listed jukebox plays. 

The music industry also took lessons from what worked and what didn’t. They soon saw that the most popular songs had memorable words and catchy tunes. Listeners particularly loved a chorus that repeated frequently. That way, even if they couldn’t remember some of the verses of a song, they could join in on the chorus.  

Times Change

While most of us still enjoy buying a hamburger at a 1950s-style diner with a jukebox, customers are no longer reliant on this for their music. 

First came in-home record players and radios. Then came the transistor radio. Suddenly people had “music in their pockets.” 

Today of course, the easy availability of digital music is almost all anyone knows. Despite that, the jukebox is still an enormously fun stroll down memory lane.

The United States Constitution is the cornerstone that supports our liberty. Yet most people are only vaguely aware of all that it specifies and why.

What if the Constitution and the disagreements that led to its crafting could be simply explained in about an hour?

That’s why Round Table Companies, a business begun by Corey Michael Blake, decided to do something about helping people understand complex topics. After Blake was joined in the business by a filmmaker, the men decided to create nonfiction comics (sometimes referred to as graphic novels) that tell important stories about our country.

The United States Constitution

Among the books Round Table Companies produced is an illustrated version of The United States Constitution. The comic is nonfiction, featuring how the founding fathers decided what needed to be in the document.

“The comic includes 100 percent of the original Constitution text as well as an illustrated storyline that depicts how the founding fathers created the document,” says a spokesperson for Round Table. “Narratives of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine and James Madison bring in a human component. This is vital to understanding the development of each article of the Constitution.”

Writing the Constitution was only part of the story. After the founding fathers were satisfied with the document, they needed to return to their home states to have it ratified so that it could become the law of the land. Ratification for initial approval took about nine months. (All 13 states ratified it within two years, by May 29, 1790.)

No Founding Mothers but Women Included

While there were no founding mothers who took part in the convention in Philadelphia, Round Table and the comic’s creators have included women as part of the process that looks to the future.

A female in period clothes is used to depict several of the explanations concerning the power of the Constitution. Women are represented in the sections that address Congress and its responsibilities. There’s no changing the all-male past but it’s good to see both genders represented going forward.

Preparing a Graphic Novel is No Easy Task

Though a reader can absorb the contents of the comic in under an hour, a graphic novel can take years to produce. The text needs to be researched and carefully planned, keeping in mind how and where to use illustrations. Once a written draft is approved, an artist takes over. For this comic, writer Nadja Baer scripted this adaptation. All the artwork was completed by Nathan Leuth.

“While the challenge of presenting the story clearly and simply meant that some detail had to be omitted, I wanted to remain true to what the men were discussing that hot summer in Philadelphia,” says Nadja Baer. “I read first-hand accounts of what transpired and then went on to read what historians had to say about the era and the work underway at the Constitutional Convention.

“Next I read six or seven biographies of the men to be featured in the story. I also read several books about both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I needed to have a solid foundation of knowledge.”

The Importance of Discussion

If students can read the story and absorb the detail without struggle, then this leaves classroom time open for discussion. That’s where Professor Katie Monnin came in.

Dr. Monnin is an educational consultant who specializes in educational engagement and outreach. She was hired to work on the project and put together a curriculum for teachers.  

For Dr. Monnin, the project offered an opportunity to help a company practice what she preaches: “Literacy research shows that we are living through the greatest communication revolution of all time. Just as the printing press transformed communication, all of the technologies being released are creating a similar transformation for us now.

“With the teaching options available today, it is vital that we use both images and text,” says Dr. Monnin. “For a long time, we have known that kids learn on more than one level. Today both schools and publishers are beginning to embrace the fact that material needs to be presented both in text and as a visual in order to seal in learning for the students.

“I have worked with graphic novels for over ten years now, continues Dr. Monnin. “I am most proud of this behind-the-scenes look at the Constitution. The book represents an amazing level of scholarship. It is 100 percent accurate to the Constitution, yet there is a modern feel that makes it relevant to life today.”

More Progress in Education

Dr. Monnin’s work continues to focus on way to help students learn through discussion. She is now involved with www.Kialo-Edu.com,  a free digital platform to make classroom give-and-take more constructive, teach civil discourse, and develop critical thinking skills.

Kialo provides templates for discussions. With questions like “Should IDs be required for Americans to vote?” or “Does traditional media help or hinder public understanding of political issues in the United States?” or “What is the best method for peaceful protest?”

Students are led through a thought process and can make up their own minds based on factual materials. Classroom teachers can pick up on what interests the students and expand from there.

Kialo offers innumerable options on many topics. It has been used in high school and college classrooms throughout the country. Because it is run by a nonprofit, it is entirely free. The website has been in operation since 2011.

It is a great companion to the already-published “The U.S. Constitution: A Round Table Comic.” Click the link to order copies.

To read about the American flag, read Mary Pickersgill: Maker of the Star Spangled Banner.