The history of European swordsmanship is often presumed to be the story of white, cisgender men. But people of all genders and races have played leading roles in this story.
On April 23rd, 2023, Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site partnered with the Musicians of Ma’alwyck (including Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz , Norman Thibodeau, and André Laurent O’Neil), actor Devin Funnye, and historical fencer Reily Mumpton, to present The Match!, a celebration of the stories of two 18th century individuals who exemplify these contributions: Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Chevalière d’Éon.
Learn more about The Match event from Schuyler Mansion staff and the actors who played Saint-Georges and d’Éon.
Saint-Georges and d’Éon were both considered celebrities in late-18th century London, and were part of the entourage of the Prince of Wales (through which they made the acquaintance of Schuyler Mansion’s very own Angelica Schuyler Church, of Hamilton fame!). On April 9, 1787, when the Prince of Wales hosted a fencing tournament at his personal residence, contemporary accounts hailed the match between Saint-Georges and d’Éon as the capstone of the event.
In addition to being immensely respected fencers, Saint-Georges was a celebrated musician and composer, while d’Éon had a thrilling past as a soldier and spy in secret service to King Louis XV of France. If this were not enough to capture the interest of their contemporaries and modern audiences alike, neither figure fit neatly into societal assumptions about the identities of aristocratic 18th century courtiers and fencers: Chevalière d’Éon was a trans-woman, while Chevalier de Saint-Georges was a biracial Afro-Caribbean man.
Left: Portrait of Angelica Schuyler Church. She and her two sisters were depicted in the musical Hamilton. Right: Flier for The Match at Schuyler Mansion in Albany, NY.
Possibly born intersex, d’Éon had been assigned male at birth and raised as a son of the French nobility. Her espionage career eventually led to exile, forcing d’Éon to protect herself by threatening to publish incriminating documents about the king of France. In 1777, at the age of forty-nine, d’Éon agreed to return to France and turn over the documents on several conditions: that she be legally recognized as a woman, be given a full feminine wardrobe suitable to her status, and be allowed to wear her military honors earned while presenting as a man. Desperate to avoid scandal, the king agreed. From that point forward, d’Éon was able to live publicly as a woman.
Saint-Georges, on the other hand, was born not into nobility, but into slavery on the plantations of Guadeloupe. His life story is featured in Searchlight Pictures film, CHEVALIER, which hit theaters on April 21, 2023. The son of a white French planter and an enslaved African mother, he was sent to France at the age of seven, where he was legally free. There he studied many topics, including music and fencing. The specter of racism still followed him, however, as the Code Noir (“Black Code”) limited his freedoms. He likewise faced personal prejudices from fellow fencers and musicians. He did not back down to his detractors, however, besting many of them with sword or violin, and eventually secured the patronage of Queen Marie Antoinette herself. He later became an important voice in the French abolition movement, and an officer in the French revolutionary forces.
Saint-Georges and d’Éon are stirring examples of Black and LGBTQ+ excellence in a history from which such voices are often sidelined by traditional narratives. Both openly celebrated who they were, excelling in every area of their lives, even when met with social opposition. They are important reminders that people from these groups have always been part of our shared stories, and that the contributions of marginalized individuals and groups today are part of a living tradition with very deep roots.
236 years later after they crossed swords before the Prince of Wales, visitors of all ages and backgrounds gathered to hear performances of some of Saint-Georges’ compositions by the Musicians of Ma’alwyck (as well as music by contemporaries who drew inspiration from the Afro-Caribbean virtuoso), and to witness an exciting live recreation of Saint-Georges’ and d’Éon’s 1787 fencing match! We are honored to have been able to help share their stories, and look forward to continuing to amplify the many, many voices that make up our whole history.
– Written by Ian Mumpton, Historic Site Assistant at OPRHP Schuyler Mansion
Event photographs courtesy of Madeleine Goodman, Excelsior Service Fellow at OPRHP
Inside Grant Cottage State Historic Site, where former President Ulysses S. Grant died of cancer on July 23, 1885 after spending his final weeks penning his memoirs, national grief remains frozen in time in the form of flowers.
Now nearly 140 years old, five different Victorian-era funerary floral displays in the parlor draw different reactions from visitors, ranging from “amazing” to “creepy.” But given that relatively few examples from that era survive today, these displays are also a rare look into the past.
Ulysses S. Grant on the front porch at Grant Cottage, with his wife, Julia, by his side. Grant was racing against his terminal cancer to finish his memoirs as a way to provide for his family.
While flowers have long been part of burial rituals, it was the tragic death toll of the American Civil War that ushered in the golden age of arranged floral tributes, when such displays became common for soldiers’ funerals.
Upon Grant’s death, such expressions of mourning for a leader who meant so much to Union victory began arriving at the cottage, which is located on Mount Macgregor in Saratoga County, about an hour by car north of Albany. One tribute still on display in the parlor was in the form of an oversized pillow, provided by Union veterans in Philadelphia from the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) that Grant had commanded two decades earlier.
A composite image of the floral pillow arrangement, with its appearance today on the left, and a photograph taken in the late 19th century at the right.
A reporter noted, “Almost every train which arrived at Mt. McGregor has brought beautiful floral mementos from Grand Army Posts and other organizations, and also from personal friends…” making the modest cottage “fragrant with flowers.”
Perhaps the most impressive piece was the enormous six-foot-high “Gates Ajar” tribute which rested in front of the fireplace. Likely custom-built, it was sent by family friend Leland Stanford of California – a native of Watervliet, Albany County who went on to become California Governor and later a U.S. Senator from that state. Its design depicted the gates of heaven, a popular theme of tributes in that era.
The “Gates Ajar” floral arrangement, to the right, with the pillow and cross arrangements on the table to the left. Lighting in the room is normally kept dim to protect the display from potential degradation.
For decades, these displays have remained untouched and undisturbed in the cottage parlor, losing their fragrance and much of their color faded, but otherwise intact, other than being understandably dusty. Last year, these artifacts came to the attention of historical florist expert Robert Treadway (co-author of A Centennial History of the American Florist), who visited in August 2021 to inspect under the supervision of conservators from the New York State Bureau of Historic Sites and site staff.
Treadway immediately cleared up two common misconceptions about the displays _ that they were prepared using fresh flowers which dried over time and had been coated in wax as a preservative, neither of which were the case.
Treadway also found that the most prevalent flowers used were immortelles (Helichrysum), a species in the sunflower family also known as everlastings for their long-lasting nature, which had been dried before use. In the Victorian era, immortelle flowers symbolized remembrance and hope in everlasting life, especially to the families of the deceased.
Historical florist expert Robert Treadway, right, joined by State Parks Conservator Heidi Miksch, examines the floral funerary arrangements at Grant Cottage State Historic Site.
Everlastings were frequently shipped to the United States from Europe and dyed various colors for use by florists. Bunches would be wired to a small stick and inserted into moss which filled a wire framework to create the tributes. It was a painstaking process that involved numerous assistants. Since the displays for Grant were designed only for short-term use, wax coatings on the flowers were deemed unnecessary and not used, according to Treadway’s inspection.
Given that the delicate nature of these artifacts, Treadway and State Parks staff discussed how to best protect and preserve such historic objects for the years to come. Various options were discussed, including coatings, enclosures, and environmental controls, each method with its benefits and drawbacks.
Representing a nation’s mourning over the loss of a war hero and leader, the arrangements reflect a uniquely Victorian outlook on death and the hereafter, each with its own specific meaning.
The “Gates Ajar” symbolized the gates of Heaven, reassuring the grieving that their lost loved one was destined for a better place that, with the gate left ajar so they could follow and be reunited. The pillow set piece represented peace, relief, and eternal rest from the trials of the physical world.
Two floral pieces feature a cross, commonly used as symbols of Christian tenets of grace, forgiveness, and salvation. Two pieces incorporate an anchor, another favorite Christian symbol representing hope amid trial with God being the “anchor of the soul.” One piece features a heart along with the anchor and cross. The heart symbolized the everlasting love of Christ but also the love of those in mourning for the deceased.
The floral cross with sword.
Two pieces – the pillow and one of the crosses – also feature a sword, which reflected General Grant’s military career, as well as the virtues of justice, fortitude, and courage.
Victorian set pieces showcased the artistry and creativity of florists during that period. One of the best-known florists, Adolph Le Moult, operating out of New York City, created one of the largest floral pieces ever made for an event in Grant’s honor during a visit to Philadelphia in 1879. Le Moult also created elaborate floral tributes for Grant’s funeral in New York City in 1885.
The goal of florists in the 19th century was not just making impressive arrangements but also ensuring they would last. Florists boasted in advertisements with statements such as, “I can so perfectly preserve even the most delicate flowers that they will last forever.”
Floral funerary displays line Grant’s Tomb in Upper Manhattan to mark the year after his death.
Preserved funeral mementos from the Victorian era can be found in public and private collections throughout the world. For example, wax-coated and encased floral pieces from the 1881 funeral of James Garfield are displayed at his home in Mentor, Ohio.
What truly makes the tributes at Grant Cottage unique is their sheer scale and survival to the present despite never have been coated in wax, encased or otherwise protected from the onset or in the decades since. Treadway indicated that the two largest pieces are larger than any others known to exist.
Flowers continued to be used in tribute to Grant by his widow, Julia. While staying at the family’s Long Branch, New Jersey cottage, she continued remembering her greatest love through this mourning ritual:
“On an antique cabinet… is a bust in plaster of the brave old soldier… Behind it hangs a wreath of white immortelles -a widow’s first tribute to memory- with a circlet of white ribbon still clinging to it, typical of wedded love. A slender glass filled with geraniums… Every morning this tiny bouquet is gathered… by the lonely wife who kisses the blossoms and tenderly places them before the face of her hero. The faded flowers are dried and, mixed with their own fragrance, go to make those memory-bags so highly prized by the friends on whom they are bestowed.”
For now, these treasures at Grant Cottage will continue to transport visitors to a moment when family, friends, and a nation were in mourning for an American icon. They are tributes not only to a man, but to the character and ideals he lived by. These aging blossoms speak to humanity’s enduring need to grieve and desire to memorialize those they love and respect.
Ulysses S. Grant, and his wife, Julia.
Post by Ben Kemp,Friends of Ulysses S. Grant Cottage Operations Manager
These , our Earth’s perennial flowers—
The fadeless blooms by Poets sung,
Songs, that from Homer’s Age till ours,
Down the aisles of Time have rung—
In many an emblem do we weave
For passionate Remembrance’ sake;
And howe’er we joy, howe’er we grieve,
Sacred pilgrimages make;
For Loss and Grief, the Asphodels
On our graves we mourning lay;
For Memory, the Immortelles—
Our loved ones live for us always.
Death in Life, Life in Death—how we
This, Love’s Faith, keep reverently.
By Laura G. Collins’s from Immortelles and Asphodels (Everlastings) (1898)
More About Grant Cottage
Located immediately below the summit of Mount McGregor in Saratoga County, the cottage and 43-acre site was recently named a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.
The cottage is kept as it was during the Grant family’s stay. Open to the public seasonally by the Friends of the Ulysses S. Grant Cottage, visitors can tour its first-floor original furnishings, decorations, and personal items belonging to Grant.
Tours are scheduled to resume for the season on April 30, 2022. Other artifacts on display include the bed where he died on July 23, 1885 and the mantel clock stopped by Grant’s son Fred at the moment of his father’s death.
Grant Cottage first opened as a historic site in 1890 when it was supported by funds raised by veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic.
The grounds surrounding the Cottage served as a tuberculosis sanitarium beginning in 1914, which in 1945 was converted into a veteran rest camp, until 1960 when it was repurposed and annexed as the Rome State School for disabled children until 1976. The Friends of Ulysses S. Grant Cottage was formed in the fall of 1989 to provide programming and tours, and partner with New York State Parks on site stewardship.
When Ann Rutland Schulze goes to the historic 30 Mile Point Lighthouse at Golden Hill State Park on Lake Ontario, she feels at home.
Inside one of the rooms are black-and-white pictures of a former lighthouse keeper and his family who once lived there. Some show their granddaughter, a little girl named Beverly who grew up to become Ann’s mother.
Not too far away, along the banks of a creek, a teenage boy who was fishing got teased by a friend about that girl who lived in the lighthouse with her grandparents. The boy’s name was Richard Rutland, and he later married Beverly. They had Ann and two other children, Julie and Richard.
The picture to the left shows young Beverly with her grandparents, Glenn and Cora Seeley. Shown right is Beverly with her husband, Richard.
Now, Schulze , her husband Martin, and their sons Tyler and Shaun, run a family-owned vineyard and winery about a half-hour away from the lighthouse in the Niagara County town of Burt, where visitors can hear stories of a time when a family of six lived in isolation and simplicity in the lighthouse on a bluff overlooking the lake.
One of their wines even features a picture of the lighthouse.
Use the slider bar to see on the left, the Schulzes’ wine featuring the 30 Mile Point Lighthouse, and on the right, the lighthouse itself on a bluff at Golden Hill State Park.
“My mother certainly enjoyed growing up here, and she was so pleased that this place wasn’t just let go after it was closed,” said Schulze. “This lighthouse has been so beautifully preserved as an emblem of the history of this region. It is the official town seal of Somerset. The downstairs of the lighthouse is the way it was when they lived here. It has what the park has named the “Beverly Room,” which has a wicker crib, a rocking chair, and pictures of Beverly and my great-grandparents.”
Glenn and Cora SeeleyBeverly as a young girl, with her dog, named Aspirin, in the top right photographBeverly’s recollections of growing up in the lighthouse are displayed in the “Beverly Room” there.
The 30 Mile Point Lighthouse, so named because it is 30 miles east of the Niagara River, was built in 1875 to help warn passing ships of dangerous shoals in the lake. It was decommissioned by the federal government in 1958 and its light removed, and in 1984 the U.S. Coast Guard transferred the lighthouse to Golden Hills State Park. The limestone structure is now on the Federal and State Registers of Historic Places.
During the decades that passed in between, the lighthouse was a residence for 13 different keepers and their assorted families whose job it was to keep the light lit. The longest tenured of those, Glenn R. Seeley served from 1903 to 1945 with support from his wife, Cora. The couple had four children and also raised Beverly, their granddaughter, after their daughter passed away in childbirth.
Glenn Seeley on the front porch of the lighthouse.
“My mother said it was wonderful place to grow up. She remembered her grandfather whitewashing the lighthouse once a year so it could be better spotted by passing ships and making her a concrete pond so she could have goldfish. Her grandfather would walk her to the nearby one-room schoolhouse. And she remembered that the lighthouse got the first telephone in the area,” said Schulze.
Beverly lived there until age 15, when her grandfather retired and moved the family to the nearby village of Olcott. She later went to college, became a public health nurse, and had a family of her own.
All through her life, Beverly remained connected to the lighthouse, coming there with her family for picnics or other events. “My three boys were in the Boy Scouts, and the troop came to the lighthouse when the U.S. Post Office issued a stamp for it in 1995. She was at the ceremony for that,” Schulze said.
The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp featuring 30 Mile Point Lighthouse in 1995.
A year later, the not-for-profit Friends of the Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse group was formed, to support the preservation of the lighthouse. And in 1998, the light, which had been removed four decades earlier, was restored.
In her handwritten note cards, Beverly recalled the family doing its laundry in a washtub that was originally a copper boiler, and initially having no inside bathroom, only a privy that was cold in the winter. They later got the first inside toilet and telephone in town. She wrote how the children of the assistant keeper, who lived there in a separate residence with his family, taught her how to “swim and fish and play cards.” And that she was so afraid of the massive lightning storms that would cross the lake that she would hide in a closet under the stairs until the crashing passed.
Eventually, Beverly’s health began to fail, and such nostalgic trips to the lighthouse became impossible. Beverly passed away in 2010 at age 80.
Visitors who want to get a taste of lighthouse life can rent the second floor “cottage” of the facility for overnight stays. The former assistant keeper’s quarters, the cottage has a living room with an electric fireplace, bath with an old-fashioned tub, three bedrooms, and an awesome view of Lake Ontario.
Guests will notice the craftsmanship of the building, especially the original wooden double doors, with ornate knobs and lock set. All rentals are made through the website https://newyorkstateparks.reserveamerica.com/ or by calling 1-800-456-2267.
Click through the slideshow below to get a look inside…
Renters are provided with a private picnic area with a barbecue grill and picnic table. This vacation rental offers a private entrance, kitchen with refrigerator, electric stove, microwave, coffee maker, cooking utensils, silverware and dishes, living room with electric fireplace, couch, two chairs and a writing desk, full bath with an old-fashioned bathtub, three bedrooms with queen size beds and pillows and a view of Lake Ontario that is stunning.
Visitors looking at the lighthouse’s “memory book” will see some entries written by Beverly herself. The lighthouse cottage is more than just a place to stay. It is place of beauty, reflecting lives filled with long nights, hard work, rough waters, violent storms, joy, heartbreak, and family bonds that don’t break.
Post by Brian Nearing, Deputy Public Information Officer, NYS Parks
About Golden Hill State Park
Located in Niagara County, this park along the Lake Ontario shoreline covers 510 acres. Created in 1962, the park has 59 campsites, six yurts, two pavilions, a new playground, a volleyball court, softball field, two picnic areas, hiking trails, a disc golf course, and a boat launch.
Crown Point State Historic Site lies at the tip of a peninsula, jutting northward into Lake Champlain, a place at one time quite remote with a unique history at the crossroads of war, laced with more than a few tales of folklore, mystery, and imagination befitting the Halloween season.
A calico patchwork in fall of orange, red and gold, the Adirondack Mountains flank the western shore of the lake while the Green Mountains of Vermont rise along the eastern side, just beyond the farmland of the valley floor. It is a majestic, glorious landscape with a sky so expansive, it is a daily reminder of our small place in this universe, a place where young 18th century soldiers who once manned this stone fortress must have felt far removed from the rest of the world they knew
As twilight approaches, the breath and expanse of this geography folds into itself as the darkness envelops the mountains and lake. The mere depth of the night is unnerving enough but without the benefit of sight, sounds are amplified in the deep black of the understory of the trees. Owls calling above and rustling in the brush below are reminders of how vulnerable we seem in the vast darkness of this wilderness even today.
Located in Essex County, Crown Point has been on both the historic State and National Registers of Historic Places since 1976, significant as the location of ruins of the French-built Fort St. Frederic (1734) and the British fort, H.M. Fort at Crown Point (1759), the largest fortification erected on the North American continent at the time. The French and British fought bitterly for decades over control of this place – precisely because of the sightlines the majestic landscape could afford those who wanted command of the waters of Lake Champlain, pointed like a silver dagger from Canada into the heart of Colonial New England.
NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation endeavors to preserve the Crown Point ruins in their current state as part of the 1910 stewardship agreement when New York State was gifted the property. One of the defining features of the site are the officers and soldiers’ barracks in the British parade grounds, stones silently stacked and hidden behind the fort walls. The structures are missing stairways, second story flooring and roofs; there is an ethereal quality upon viewing them, when conscious of the intended permanence of these structures and the ravages of time since people lived, worked, suffered and died within.
Take the darkness of night, mix with centuries old ruins, top off with harrowing local lore and this proves to be the perfect elixir of sinister, spooky, and spine-chilling. Visitors to the Haunted Histories at the Forts scheduled for October 29 will be welcomed with cider and donuts donated by local orchards and greeted with the first of many true, but unexplained tales at the site.
Visitors to a previous Haunted Histories at the Forts events hear tales of some of the mysteries at and around the Lake Champlain historic fortress.
Present day meets the past in the most unfortunate of coincidences – this is not the first epidemic witnessed at Crown Point. The winter of 1775-76 found Boston in the throes of a smallpox epidemic. Many know of the story of the artillery recovered from Crown Point and how General George Washington used the guns to drive out British troops during the Siege of Boston; however less well known, is at the time of liberation, the city was also ravaged by a pandemic of smallpox.
Most British troops had been inoculated or had the smallpox previously and were immune. In Europe, where smallpox was pervasive, most would have been exposed to the disease and likely had antibodies to protect them. 1 This protection was not the case for Indigenous peoples nor the colonists, and the disease persisted in Boston throughout the beginnings of the war, peaking in July 1775 and gradually subsiding by September of that year. At that time, little was known about virology, and isolation was used as the primary control of transmission.
But then as now, that was only the first wave of the epidemic in the Colonies. During the summer of 1775, the Continental Army launched the ill-fated Northern Campaign in an attempt to dislodge British forces in Canada. Crown Point became the launching pad for these Patriot attacks directed at British-controlled Montreal and Quebec on the St. Lawrence River.
The second wave of the epidemic came in the midst of this campaign in 1776. Patriot Major General John Thomas, Commander of the Army in Quebec, died of the disease in the summer of 1776 as the disease-weakened Continental Army was repelled from Quebec. By that point, an estimated 3,000 men of the Northern Army were sick, most with smallpox.2 After a five-month siege on Quebec, defeated, diseased colonial troops withdrew to Crown Point where a hospital was set up.
William Scudder, an officer serving in the New York 4th Regiment during the campaign, wrote in his journal:
“In June, I had the command of some batteaux…that were loaded with provisions to go to Crown Point, where our army then lay, under the command of General Sullivan, having retreated from Canada, – an such a scene of mortality was exhibited at that place, I never had beheld. The hospital I judged to be about one hundred and fifty feet in length; on the lower floor in two ranges on each side, the poor sick and distressed soldiers. Their disorder was chiefly the small-pox – Some groaning and begging for water, some dying and other dead and sewed up in their blankets; let it suffice to say, that by the middle of the afternoon they would begin to carry the dead from the hospital; I counted twenty-one carried out at one time, and it was common to bury fifteen or twenty in a day.” 3
Archeologists have been working at Crown Point from the mid-1950’s to the present. In addition to first-hand accounts of those laying their final rest here, there are the Fort St. Frederic parish birth and death records of the French that inhabited the site prior to both the British and Colonial occupations. Despite all the historical records, and the extensive archeological work throughout the 21st century, no evidence of human remains have ever been found. The French were Catholic, which prohibited them from burning the bodies, and even if the diseased soldiers had been disposed of by incarceration, there would be carbon remains. No reasons can be found to explain this mysterious absence.
It’s not only the history that cannot be explained, but the mountains and lakes that surround Crown Point that are just as elusive and mystifying, as evidenced proven by both news reports and stories local inhabitants have passed down through generations.
Long before any European settlers arrived in the area, both the Abenaki and the Haudenosaunee native people had stories about a large creature inhabiting the lake. It was called Ta-to-skok by the Abenaki, a word meaning creature with two tusks. Early in the 18th century, Abenakis warned French explorers about disturbing the waters of the lake, so as not to disturb the serpent.
Samuel de Champlain’s diary reveals the following entry:
“. . . [T]here is also a great abundance of many species of fish. Amongst others there is one called by the natives Chaousarou, which is of various lengths; but the largest of them, as these tribes have told me, are from eight to ten feet long. I have seen some five feet long, which were as big as my thigh, and had a head as large as my two fists, with a snout two feet and a half long, and a double row of very sharp, dangerous teeth. Its body has a good deal the shape of the pike; but it is protected by scales of a silvery gray colour and so strong that a dagger could not pierce them.”
Never one to miss a trick, showman P. T. Barnum offered a reward of $50,000 in 1873 for “hide of the great Champlain serpent to add to my mammoth World’s Fair Show.” 4 No one ever claimed it.
The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism lists many 19th century sightings, with 1873 being a particularly robust year. A New York Times story reported that a railroad crew had seen the head of an “enormous serpent” in Lake Champlain, with bright silvery scales that glistened in the sun. In July that same year, Clinton County’s Sheriff, Nathan H. Mooney, reported an “enormous snake or water serpent” he thought was 25 to 35 feet long. Then in August, the steamship W.B. Eddy encountered Champ by running into it. The ship nearly turned over, according to many of the tourists on board. Never one to miss a trick, showman P. T. Barnum offered a reward of $50,000 for “hide of the great Champlain serpent to add to my mammoth World’s Fair Show.” 4
The stories continue through the decades, marked by a roadside sign upon entrance to the neighboring town, Port Henry, where they celebrate Champ Day each summer, hoping to catch sight of him again.
Fun folklore or relative of Nessie, world famous occupant of the Scottish Loch Ness? Fast-forward to contemporary times, and a quick Google search on Champ turns up what may be the only existing photo of his presence, taken by Sandra Mansi in 1977 while vacationing in northern Vermont. 5
A 1977 photograph allegedly showing the mysterious Lake Champlain beast, taken by Sandra Mansi. Below, the Champ sign outside Port Henry.
Local newspaper accounts of Champ sightings, (left to right) from the Essex County Republican (1895), and Ticonderoga Sentinel (1929, 1937)
Ronald Kermani, a former investigative reporter for the Times Union, whose family has a camp on Lake Champlain. He has spent summers here for the past five decades and told of his experience, at 7:10 a.m. on July 2, 1983, when he was fishing in a rowboat with a girlfriend.
He said he saw a creature about 30 feet away with “three dark humps — maybe 12 inches thick — protruding about two feet above the surface … two or three feet apart.”
Kermani wrote: “We watched in disbelief for about ten seconds. The humps slowly sank into the water. There was no wake, no telltale sign of movement. Unexplained. Eerie. Unsettling.”
He did not get a picture because he did not have a camera. Ever since, Kermani, who is retired and lives in Guilderland, has carried a camera in the boat with him when he is out on the lake — just in case. 6
It’s not just below the surface that menaces. In the mountains to the west of the peninsula are indigenous burial grounds. Coot Hill near Port Henry has long been a reported locus of visions, vengeful murders, and accumulation of gruesome accidents. Maybe they should have looked for property elsewhere to settle.
There’s not enough space to even address the French werewolves, apparitions appearing in the parade grounds, drowned Scottish soldiers or sounds that emerge and then follow a person as they try to retreat. History books can explain some, but not all. Coupled with deep darkness and imagination, that makes for a chilling trapse across the grounds at Crown Point, particularly in the dark of night. For the Haunted History event, 18th century costumed interpreters will portray the restless soul of French settlers, who would have arrived at Fort St. Frederic with stories of their own to tell.
Keep your friends close and your flashlight on!
Post by Lisa Polay, Site Manager, Crown Point State Historic Site.
SOURCES
1 Gil Jr.l, Harold B. Colonial Germ Warfare. Colonial Williamsburg Journal. Spring 2004.
2 Fenn, Elizabeth A. The Great Smallpox Epidemic. History Today. Vol 53: Issue 8. August 2003.
3 The Journal of William Scudder, an officer in the late New York Line, who was taken captive by the Indians at Fort Stanwix, on the 23rd of July, 1779, and was holden a prisoner in Canada until October, 1782, and then sent to New York and admitted on parole. Evans Early American Imprint Collection
About four times each year, State Parks adds a variety of properties to the State Register of Historic Places, a step towards later being listed on the National Register of Historic Places as important pieces of America’s broad cultural heritage.
But while the vast majority of these listings are buildings, like factories, churches, homes, libraries or schools, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, Parks’ historic researchers like me working on the register listings get to take on the story of something truly out of this world.
Science fiction fans worldwide recognize the name “Enterprise” as the name of the starship in iconic 1960s television series Star Trek. A decade after the show went off the air, those fans helped see to it that America’s first prototype of a reusable orbiting spacecraft would also carry that name. In 2013 I was honored to document that historical connection as part of support for the listing the NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise on the state and national historic registers as culturally and technologically significant.
It was 45 years ago this September when the Space Shuttle Enterprise rolled out of its assembly building at Rockwell International Space Division’s facility in Palmdale, California. Waiting outside were a crowd of VIPs that included six cast members of the Star Trek crew, and series creator Gene Roddenberry.
On Sept. 17, 1976, the crew of Star Trek’s fictional Enterprise attended the roll-out of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Rockwell International Space Division’s facility in Palmdale, California. Show (left to right) are Dr. James D. Fletcher, NASA Administrator; DeForest Kelley (Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy); George Takei (Ensign Hikaru Zulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Communications Officer Hyota Uhura), Leonard Nimoy (Science Officer Spock); Star Trek creator and producer Gene Roddenberry; unidentified NASA representative; and Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov).
NASA had initially suggested naming the prototype Constitution and even wanted to unveil the spacecraft on September 17 – Constitution Day. But as NASA’s plans became publicly known, thousands of fans of Star Trek – which had gone off the air several years earlier in 1969 – began a write-in campaign to the White House urging President Gerald Ford to name the orbiter Enterprise in honor of the fictional starship.
“I’m a little partial to the name Enterprise,” said Gerald Ford, noting that he had served in the Pacific during World War II aboard a U.S. Navy ship that serviced an aircraft carrier of that name. The Star Trek write-in campaign apparently influenced President Ford and the show’s fans are generally credited as being the driving force behind the shuttle’s name change.
While called Enterprise, the prototype NASA orbiter was formally known as Orbiter Vehicle-101 or OV-101, and represented the culmination of years of research, design, and experimentation. Planning for the Space Shuttle Program had begun in 1968, ten months before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. The intent was to develop a reusable and affordable vehicle that could travel to and from space routinely, easily, and affordably.
Unlike typical aviation advancement, the space shuttle was a major technological leap forward. While airplanes tend to slowly evolve over time through constant adjustments based on testing and performance, the systems and design of the shuttle was unprecedented. Space flight capabilities went from disposable rockets and capsules to a reusable cargo space plane in only twenty years; there was no transitional design. As a prototype, Enterprise was largely responsible for making sure these new technologies and concepts worked properly to ensure the safety of the astronauts who would fly aboard the other vehicles.
Two events likely led to the decision to use a rocket/space plane system for the shuttle: the advent of thermal insulation tiles by Lockheed, which made it affordable and convenient to insulate an airplane-like design, and the order by Congress that the next space vehicle meet not only the requirements of NASA but also the U.S. Air Force. One of the biggest requirements of the Air Force was the ability to land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California so that classified missions could be completed quickly and efficiently. After testing it was determined that the sweeping, triangular-shaped delta wing design would be more stable and would allow for the necessary maneuverability at high speeds that a conventional wing design wouldn’t allow.
Enterprise, the first and only full-scale prototype orbiter vehicle of the space shuttle fleet,was first used during the Approach and Landing Tests, one of the earliest missions of the Space Shuttle Program. The Approach and Landing Tests program saw Enterprise fly in Earth’s atmosphere, doing so thirteen times, five of which saw it separate from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to fly and land unaided. The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft is a modified Boeing 747 that is used to transport space shuttle orbiter vehicles in a piggyback-like configuration.
In February 1977, the Space Shuttle Enterprise rides atop a modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft as part of approach and landing tests at the Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
The NASA mission patch for the Approach and Landing Test.
Space Shuttle Enterprise just after releasing from the Boeing 747 carrier aircraft to start a five minute, 28 second unpowered test flight above the Dryden Flight Research Center.
Enterprise was also of paramount importance in planning and preparation at shuttle facilities in Florida and California. In the early days of the Space Shuttle Program, Enterprise was the only completed orbiter vehicle and was therefore the only vehicle capable of ensuring that the facilities were prepared and ready for the first launch. The fit checks, vibration tests, atmospheric flights and landings, and various other development tasks performed on Enterprise enabled Columbia to launch successfully into space during STS-1 on April 12, 1981.
Enterprise was used later in the investigations and procedural revisions following the Challenger and Columbia shuttle accidents. Following the Challenger accident in 1986,Enterprise aided in crew escape tests. Following the Columbia accident in 2003, one of Enterprise’s wing edges and a landing gear door were borrowed for tests related to foam chunks striking an orbiter during launch. Although the loss of two space shuttle orbiters was a devastating loss, Enterprise helped the program return to flight and continue its mission.
In February 1985, the Space Shuttle Enterprise is in launch position d during verification tests at the Vandenburg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex in California.
In 1983, Enterprise began its role as an ambassador and educational tool. Enterprise was first ferried to Paris, France for the Paris Air Show. The international tour continued on with stops in England, Germany, Italy, and Canada. This tour represents the only time an orbiter has travelled internationally. Upon returning home Enterprise was showcased at the World’s Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana. On November 18, 1985 Enterprise became the property of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
In June 1987 Enterprise was used for testing landing barriers. The landing barrier is essentially a large net stretched across the runway that helps the orbiter reduce speed when landing. The tests were successful, and the landing barriers were installed at three Transoceanic Abort Landing sites (Moron and Zaragota, both in Spain, and Banjul, Gambia). Although retired, Enterprise continued to aid NASA throughout the 1990s and 2000s to test new systems and technology.
Enterprise was put on public display by the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. from 2004 to 2012 before being transferred to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan, where it remains on display.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise makes it final flight on April 27, 2012, atop a NASA 747 carrier aircraft on its way to John F. Kennedy Airport for shipment by barge to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, located at the bottom center of the photo.
Accomplishments of Enterprise and the Space Shuttle Program
The Space Shuttle Program is responsible for releasing some of the most significant orbiting telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The shuttles also released many groundbreaking probes and space craft including: the Galileo probe, which explored Jupiter; the Magellan probe, which helped map Venus; and the Ulysses probe, which conducted the first systematic survey of the environment of the Sun.
The biggest achievement of the program was the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). The main purpose of the ISS is to serve as an orbiting laboratory. The station has advanced science and technology in areas ranging from biology and medicine to astronomy and physics. Hundreds of experiments have been conducted in orbit aboard the shuttle and the ISS. Some of them are long term and more publicized, such as the effects of microgravity on the human body. Astronaut John Glenn, who first traveled to space during the Mercury Program in 1962, returned to space in 1998 at the age of 77 as part of an experiment to better understand the effects of microgravity on the elderly. Other experiments are much smaller in scope, such as determining if fish can swim upright and observing seed growth in microgravity.
Leroy Chiao, NASA astronaut on STS-65 (1994), STS-72 (1996), and STS-92 (2000), as well as commander and science officer on International Space Station Expedition 10 (2004-2005), stated that “[The] shuttle, to me, represents a triumph and remains to this day a technological marvel. We learned so much from the program, not only in the advancement of science and international relations, but also from what works and what doesn’t on a reusable vehicle. The lessons learned from shuttle will make future US spacecraft more reliable, safer, and cost effective.”
The space shuttle program was also the first American space program to reflect NASA’s adoption of diverse hiring practices. In the late 1970s NASA became more progressive regarding its astronaut selection process. Test pilots and military personnel were no longer the only recruitment avenue for astronauts. The agency began focusing on scientists and engineers as well as women and minority groups. The space shuttle program provided a platform for NASA’s shift in culture and allowing space to become accessible for everyone in a way that hadn’t previously existed. The first American woman (Sally Ride, 1983), first African American (Guion Bluford, 1983), and first African American woman (Mae Jemison, 1992) flew in space aboard the space shuttle. In addition, many non-US citizens have flow aboard the shuttle, representing a diverse group of people and a high level of cooperation. NASA brought diversity, equity, and inclusion to space exploration via the space shuttle.
“[The space shuttle] will be remembered for being the vehicle that enabled us to get the International Space Station successfully assembled on orbit, but it depends on what your favorite thing is. If you’re a scientist or an astronomer, it will always be remembered as the vehicle that delivered the Hubble Space Telescope, then flew four successful servicing missions capped off by one of the most spectacular flights in the history of the shuttle program, STS-125, when we did five back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back space walks and carried out every objective of that flight when no one thought we would be able to finish everything.
You look at other satellites that it deployed: Magellan, Ulysses. You look at the space laboratory that was flown on it, or the space habitation module. The people that it took to space. We now see, when you look at an astronaut crew, it’s usually a rainbow of people—all races, all genders, all nationalities…There are countless things that the space shuttle will mean, just depending on who you are and where you sit.”
– Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, 2011
Like its fictional namesake, the shuttle Enterprise was the first step of a bold journey further into outer space. It performed a 36-year mission (seven times longer than that of the Star Trek Enterprise) that set the stage for the shuttles Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, and Endeavor and their crews to undertake unprecedented scientific and technological missions in orbit. The pioneering vessel truly has a place in the nation’s history, and State Parks was proud to have gotten it listed to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
Live Long and Prosper!
One of the many letters received by State Parks to support the historic register listing of the Space Shuttle Enterprise was submitted by NASA astronaut Fred Haise, who had been in command of the shuttle on three of its approach and landing test flights. Haise was also a crew member aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970.
The Starship Enterprise as seen in the opening credits of the original Star Trek television series. (Photo credit – Paramount/CBS)
All photos credited to NASA unless otherwise noted.
Post by Daniel A. Bagrow, Historic Preservation Program Analyst, State Parks Historic Preservation Office
New York State Parks and Historic Sites Blog 