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Robert Lincoln – Assassination Jinx?

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Robert Todd LincolnRobert Todd Lincoln was the oldest of Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s four sons, and apparently an assassination jinx in a story that includes several presidents, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison.

Robert died in 1926 after having lived to the age of 82, a longevity quite unusual for his family, as father Abraham was assassinated at the age of 56 and his mother died at 63. Robert was not only the first to be born, he was the last to die, and the only Lincoln child to even reach adulthood. Second born Eddie lived only three years, dying from tuberculosis. Then there was Willie, who died in the White House at age eleven. Thomas (Tad) managed to recover from the same sickness that took his brother in 1862, only to see his father’s life taken a few years later. Tad made it to the age of 18 before dying of heart failure, perhaps from the strain of his mother’s fragile mental state after the trauma of her husband’s demise.

Robert had many great accomplishments in his own right. He served as Secretary of War under President’s Garfield and Arthur, then minister to the United Kingdom under President Benjamin Harrison. He later became legal counsel to the Pullman railroad car company, and eventually became its president.

Perhaps the most interesting factoid is that Robert was either present or nearby at three Presidential assassinations. The first was his father’s, where he was at the White House and rushed to the Petersen House to witness his father’s last hours. Sixteen years later, while serving as Secretary of War, Robert witnessed the assassination of President Garfield at the Sixth Street train station. And if that was not enough bad luck, Robert was present at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo at the invitation of President William McKinley. After McKinley was shot and killed, Robert is said to have refused any further presidential invitations. I suspect Presidents also thought better about inviting him. *(See note)

President McKinley’s assassination happened six months into the second term of his presidency. The exposition was yet another World’s Fair to highlight rapidly changing technology and cultural exchange. McKinley had a busy schedule but managed to slip in a visit to the nearby Niagara Falls. After seeing the gorge with its beautiful falling waters (being careful to remain on the American side to avoid the inevitable political chatter), the President toured Goat Island where a statue of Nikola Tesla would be erected many years later.

One of the main goals of the Niagara Falls trip was to visit the hydroelectric plant, which included the alternating current generators and motors designed by Tesla. It was the alternating current from Tesla’s Niagara Falls system that lit up the entire exposition, including the centerpiece “Electric Tower” and the Temple of Music. There were also electric trains, ambulances, and other vehicles moving people to and from different parts of the fair and the Falls.

After marveling at the ingenuity of Tesla’s designs at Niagara, McKinley returned to Buffalo for a reception at the very same Temple of Music. While shaking hands with well-wishers, McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. It was September 6, 1901.

In an ironic twist of fate, Tesla’s rival Thomas Edison could have saved McKinley’s life. Doctors were unable to locate the bullet in McKinley’s abdomen, and an early X-ray machine designed by Edison was on display at the Fair. McKinley’s doctors, however, deemed the apparatus too primitive to be of use. Edison quickly sent his most modern X-ray machine from New Jersey up to Buffalo, but aides to the President refused to use it for fear of radiation poisoning. While McKinley at first appeared to be recovering, gangrene set into the wound and he died on September 14th, Edison’s unused machine sitting nearby.

There is another odd connection to assassination. Robert Lincoln’s life was saved by the brother of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. Here is more on that story.

[Adapted from my e-book, Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate, available for download on Amazon.]

*Note: The original that this piece was adapted from was written several years ago. Today, Jason Emerson, offered up a clarification on the FB version of this post. I serve with Jason on the Abraham Lincoln Institute Board of Directors, and can safely say he is the reigning expert on Robert Lincoln (as well as Mary Lincoln). Here is what he wrote and readers should defer to his research over my post:

“Actually, Robert was not at the Pan American Expo when McKinley was shot, and he was not invited to be there by President McKinley. Robert was on a train on his way to the Exposition with his family (for a family outing, nothing more) and when he arrived at the Buffalo train station, he was informed of the shooting. Robert also attended presidential events with Roosevelt, Taft, and Harding in later life. It’s all in my biography of Robert Lincoln, “Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln.””

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His newest Lincoln book is scheduled for release in February 2022. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Why Was the Robert E. Lee Statue Removed from Statuary Hall?

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Robert E Lee statuary hallVirginians woke up Monday morning, December 21, 2020, to the news that the statue of Robert E. Lee was removed overnight from statuary hall of the U.S. Capitol. The Lee statue had stood in the hall as one of Virginia’s two designated representative statues for 111 years. Each state is allowed two statues, some of which are in statuary hall while others are located in other areas of the Capitol building. The second Virginia representative is George Washington.

So why was Robert E. Lee removed?

I’ve been addressing the issue of Confederate statues and other monuments to the Confederacy in a series of posts beginning with “The Rational Case for Removing Confederate Monuments.” Two subsequent posts (to date) looked at whether such removal “erases history” and whether “added context” was possible. Those posts provide some needed background for evaluating the current action.

In short, many jurisdictions – states, localities, federal – have been reassessing the message put forward by honoring Confederate leadership such as Lee and Jefferson Davis. Several statues have been removed, most notably statues in New Orleans (Lee, Beauregard) and Charleston, South Carolina (John C. Calhoun). A handful of statues were pulled down by mobs during this past summer’s protests following the death of George Floyd and others. Similarly, a few schools have been renamed (Robert E. Lee High School in Virginia is now Barack Obama High School). The Defense Department has indicated it will rename army bases currently named after Confederate generals. Overall, however, the vast majority of statues and names remain in place, some perhaps forever while others while public discussion continues.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in 2020 ordered the movement of several portraits of prior Speakers who had, after serving as leader of the House of Representatives, then rejected their U.S. citizenship to become leaders in the Confederacy. These portraits remain in the Capitol but now are found in less prominent locations, in essence reflecting their downfall from grace. The current decision by the state of Virginia to remove Robert E. Lee follows in this general reassessment of Confederate iconography. The moves are not restricted to Democratic leaders; Republican Governor Ron DeSantis spearheaded the effort to replace Florida’s statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith with black civil rights activist and educator, Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune also has a large statue in Lincoln Park, where the summer of 2020 saw efforts to save a statue of Lincoln and freedman Archer Alexander from destruction.

Other statues in statuary hall have been replaced for a variety of reasons by their sponsoring states. Ohio recently replaced a statue of former Governor William Allen with famed inventor Thomas Edison. In 2019, Nebraska replaced its statue of William Jennings Bryan with Ponca Chief Standing Bear. Ohio replaced James Harlan with agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug. In 2009, California replaced Thomas Starr King with former Governor and President Ronald Reagan. At least eight states have made recent replacements, seven have replacements pending, and three have replacements under consideration. Some of these are to replace Confederate statues, but most are for other reasons. Reevaluation of which icons of history each state wants to represent them are not unusual.

Which gets us back to Robert E. Lee. As a former Confederate state and location of the capital of the Confederacy, Virginia has had to assess and reevaluate its place in modern America. A statue of Jefferson Davis on Monument Avenue in Richmond was torn down by vandals during the George Floyd protests. A large equestrian statue of “Stonewall” Jackson was removed by the state. The removal of the Lee statue from statuary hall is a continuation of this reassessment.

The likely replacement of Lee is civil rights activist Barbara Johns, who in 1951, at the age of 16, led a walkout at her segregated high school to protest substandard conditions. Her lawsuit against the county was folded into the landmark Brown v Board of Education case resulting in the Supreme Court decision declaring “separate but equal” unconstitutional. Johns would be the only teenager represented in statuary hall. The Commission for Historical Statues approved the Johns statue and the Virginia legislature is expected to agree, after which a sculptor will be commissioned.

As states, local communities, and in some cases, federal actors continue to reassess the historical record, we are likely to see an increased effort for more inclusive representation in public spaces. Each of us can play a role by communicating our views to lawmakers at all levels of government. Meanwhile, I will continue to examine the issues associated with Confederate monuments in future posts. I’ll also take a look at “overflow” of the Confederate monument debate into other potentially controversial figures such as Christopher Columbus, our slaveholding founding fathers, and remarkably, even Abraham Lincoln.

David J. Kent is an avid traveler, scientist, and Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World as well as two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

[Photo Credit: Glynn Wilson, Why is Robert E. Lee’s Statue in the U.S. Capitol Not Yet the Subject of Controversy? | New American Journal]

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Lincoln and the Calcium Light

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In late August of 1864 Abraham Lincoln was still pushing research in technological advancement that might help the war effort. This interest put him in the middle of testing a calcium light between the Old Soldiers Home and the Smithsonian.

Homer Bates is best known for his post-war book, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office, in which he recounts the many visits by the President to the War Department next door to the White House. Bates recalls an incident in which a demonstration was arranged for his benefit while Lincoln was staying at what is now referred to as President Lincoln’s Cottage. Major Thomas Eckert and Bates traveled to the Soldiers Home one night while their colleagues set up a similar array in the tower of the Smithsonian Institute castle. Smithsonian Secretary Joseph Henry was also present to witness the tests.

Calcium light

Calcium light was not exactly new technology. Sometimes called Drummond light, and more commonly referred to as limelight, calcium lights were already in use as stage lighting for theaters and concert halls, hence the derivation of the phrase “in the limelight” for people in the public eye. The intense light is created by directing an oxyhydrogen flame at a cylinder of quicklime (calcium oxide).

According to Bates,

Lincoln was greatly interested in this exhibition and expressed the opinion that the signal system of both the army and navy could and would be improved so as to become of immense value tot he Government.

The calcium light signaling method did go on to be of value to the war effort, as were several other signaling and coding inventions. Lincoln encouraged these developments, and in some cases like this, was intimately involved in the testing of advancements. Calcium lights were eventually replaced by arc lighting, which in turn was replaced by direct current and then alternating current. This development becomes one thread that ties Abraham Lincoln to Joseph Henry to Nikola Tesla (and Thomas Edison too).

[Diagram courtesy of By Theresa knott (original); Pbroks13 (redraw) – Limelight_diagram.png, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4171671]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Lincoln’s Rocking Chair – The Ford Museum and Greenfield Village

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Abraham Lincoln rocking chairMy Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour took me to Dearborn, Michigan to see the chair. “The Chair.” The rocking chair that Abraham Lincoln was sitting in the moment he was assassinated. The chair is in the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, which along with its outdoor venue, Greenfield Village, is a treasure trove for Abraham Lincoln aficionados.

After spending the previous day in the bowels of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Emily Rapoza helped me research their incredible Lincoln collection, I drove from Fort Wayne up to Dearborn to see the original rocking chair. After it had languished for decades in storage at the Smithsonian Institution, the aging widow of Ford’s Theatre co-owner Harry Ford reclaimed it in 1929, and it was soon auctioned for $2,400. The buyer? An agent for automobile pioneer Henry Ford (no relation to the Ford’s Theatre Fords). Henry Ford had revered Lincoln, the “humble, self-made man, the ordinary man who seized opportunity and raised himself up.” The Lincoln rocking chair now sits in a temperature and humidity controlled glass enclosure in the Henry Ford Museum.

But there was more Lincoln to the visit. Prior to the protected spot in which it now sits, the chair was held in the Logan County Courthouse in the adjoining Greenfield Village. This is the actual courthouse from Postville, Illinois (since renamed Lincoln, Illinois) in which Lincoln practiced in during his long months on the 8th Judicial Circuit. Ford had it transported to Michigan and restored to depict Lincoln’s visits between 1840 and 1847.

The chilly, rainy day I visited made the warm and dry courthouse a welcome retreat. A somewhat bored docent was happy to see someone he could entertain. Finding a knowledgeable patron, his love for talking about Lincoln cascading out like the water Lincoln saw flowing over the lip of Niagara Falls. I decided not to tell him about my own book about Lincoln and let him run on with an incredible font of information about the courthouse, Lincoln, and legal circuit. He also told me the wardrobe sitting in the corner of the courthouse was believed to have been built by Lincoln’s father, Thomas. The knowledge and enthusiasm the docent exhibited was exhilarating. He was so enthralling I didn’t even tell him I had written a book on Lincoln.

One of my previous books was about Thomas Edison and Greenfield Village also has a replica of Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park lab, including some original outbuildings and even soil carted in by train from the New Jersey site. I had visited the current Menlo Park site museum and its towering lightbulb, as well as his West Orange (NJ) and Fort Myers (FL) laboratories, so it was a great treat to see one of his first labs as it was. Even more exciting, I fortuitously was there during one of the periodic visits by Edison himself, an actor who came into the lab in character and told us all about his current work. Afterwards I toured some old saw and grist mills important for my research.

Lincoln furniture, Ford Museum

Back inside the Ford Museum I found a small center table and side chair once owned by Abraham and Mary Lincoln in their Springfield, Illinois home. Furniture owned by other writers like Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe were a thrill to see. I also spent some time in the Agriculture section of the museum where I could see some of the technological improvements (e.g., a McCormick reaper) that I’m researching for my next Lincoln book. For the science geek in me they had a Mathematica section with all sorts of cool exhibits.

Both the Museum and the Village have much more worth seeing and I highly encourage everyone to make the trip. There truly is something for everyone here and one can’t help but learn some history and science while being entertained.

My Chasing Abraham Lincoln tours continue! Much more to come.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

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Tesla Book Makes #1 on Illuminating Biographies of Notable Figures

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Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity has made #1 in the list of 13 Illuminating Biographies of Notable Figures created by Ezvid Wiki.

Click here to watch the short video

Tesla Ezvid

Founded in 2011, Ezvid Wiki was the world’s first video wiki, and is now among the top 3,000 websites in the United States. Their YouTube channel has over 425,000 subscribers, 250 million views since founding, and they have informed over $200 million in purchasing decisions to date. They write:

In the #1 spot we have David J. Kent’s “Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity,” which tells the extraordinary tale of Nikola Tesla, the Croatian* genius who invented alternating current, wireless transmission, and the radio. During his nomadic life, Tesla encountered historical figures including Thomas Edison and Mark Twain, all while dealing with the many compulsions of his eccentric nature. Kent explores Tesla’s decidedly unusual career and his many contributions to modern science, which have fundamentally shaped the modern world.

*Note that Tesla was actually of Serbian heritage. The people who made the video and the text above copied from it likely conflated his place of birth (in an area that is now part of present-day Croatia) with his heritage.

This is just one of many acknowledgements of the book in the online and print press. Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity has seen eight printings and several foreign translations (so far) and been read in many countries around the world. I’ve been lucky enough to advise the off-Broadway play TESLA and meet Tesla royalty in Serbia and the book has received widespread accolades.

Want to know more about Nikola Tesla? Click here for previous posts about Tesla and his work.

Take a look at the Ezvid Wiki video and check out all 13 Illuminating Biographies.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

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The Year in Science Traveling – 2018

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Water Buffalo, Boracay, PhilippinesI was traveling. That’s my excuse for being a bit tardy on this wrap of the year in science traveling, 2018. And what a year of traveling it was, with 8 new countries visited, plus a lot of domestic travel. Click on the links for stories about some of the stops.

It was a bit of a slow start, with only one significant trip in the first 2-1/2 months. The end of January took me to Sanibel Island and Fort Myers, Florida to visit the Thomas Edison/Henry Ford Winter Estates, the Mote Marine Lab (in Sarasota), and explore nature on Sanibel. February and March kept me mostly local with tons of Lincoln-related events, including a weekend trip to Newport News for the annual Battle of Hampton Roads event (including touring the facility with none other than Abraham Lincoln).

In April it really got busy travel-wise, a condition that didn’t let up for the rest of the year. Early in the month I was scheduled to give a presentation in West Virginia, after which I was starting my Chasing Abraham Lincoln, Part 1 tour. At the last minute I had to scrap the whole trip and instead drive up to Massachusetts where my father had gone into the hospital. After my return, virtually every day was filled with some sort of event, plus a short trip to Fredericksburg for the annual CPRC meeting.

I finally was able to take my Chasing Abraham Lincoln, Part 1 trip in early May. This had originally been planned for March, then due to a huge snowstorm in my target area put off to April, which as mentioned above was again rescheduled at the last moment. The road trip took me down to Tennessee and Lincoln Memorial University, where I spent the day in the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum. For the next 8 days I wound my up through Lincoln’s birthplace in Kentucky, his boyhood home in Indiana (with a day spent researching in the Allen County Public Library Lincoln Collection), then up to Michigan to see the actual chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated.

Windstar CruisesThe end of June put me on a Windstar Cruise into the Baltic Sea. Windstar specializes in small yacht cruises so we got to know the other 200 passengers well during the 11-day cruise. Starting in Copenhagen, we stopped in Bornholm, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Finland, the Aland Islands, and finally into Stockholm. Windstar offers such great cruises that this was the first of two we took in 2018.

Part 2 of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour took place in mid-July. Over 9 days I zigzagged my way around Illinois to see dozens of Lincoln statues, all 7 of the Lincoln-Douglas debate sites, and other key locations related to research for my next Lincoln book. I even got to see Lincoln and Douglas debate in person.

August took me back up to Massachusetts to visit my family. I made three trips up in 2018, and each time my father was in the hospital or rehab so I never saw him at home. On this one I also drove up to Maine to visit my brother who had become President/CEO of the Schoodic Institute, a non-profit associated with Acadia National Park. On my return I picked up my son for a week’s stay in the DC area.

Crater LakeThree days later we flew out to Oregon to begin a 10-day road trip in early September starting in Crater Lake, up the Oregon coast, through the Columbia River Gorge, into eastern Washington state, through Idaho and into Montana to spend a couple of days in Glacier National Park.

Okay, breathe. The rest of September and October was time to catch up at home and prepare for the next trips. No, we weren’t done by a long shot.

From mid-November until Christmas we didn’t stop. I drove up to Gettysburg for the annual Lincoln Forum conference. A day later I was driving to Massachusetts for the Thanksgiving holiday. Then few days after that we were again on a plane, this time flying to Hong Kong to board our second Windstar Cruise for the year. For 14 days we toured five different parts of the Philippines (Hundred Islands, Manila, Boracay, Coron, Palawan), two parts of Malaysia on the island of Borneo (Kota Kinabalu and Kuching), and the tiny country of Brunei (officially, “Nation of Brunei, The Abode of Peace”). After finishing the cruise in Singapore we spent a four days exploring the city that spawned the book and movie, Crazy Rich Asians.

I flew home from Singapore less than a week before Christmas while Ru flew on to Beijing to spend a few days with her family. When she returned on Christmas eve she was accompanied by her mother, who will spend the next three months visiting.

Clearly 2018 was a busy year. I estimate that I took between 10,000 and 15,000 photos in one year, and going through them is always a slow process. Regular readers of this page will have seen many of the trip posts I’ve done during the year and I’ll continue to write posts to catch up. How quickly that happens will depend on how much time my upcoming travel and writing allows.

So what about 2019? Trips are already booked for Costa Rica and Cuba and I am planning a Part 3 of Chasing Abraham Lincoln, proven necessary after I realized how much I missed on the previous two trips. I’ve had tentative plans to rent an apartment in Paris in the spring to do research for a forthcoming book, but so far haven’t done much to prepare for it. I’ll plan at least one family trip to New England with the likelihood it will end up being two or three trips. I’ll definitely be at the Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg. Where else I go is still rather fuzzy. Domestic options include a Southwest road trip, Chicago, Charleston, and various other Lincoln-related sites. International travel options currently on the radar include Iceland, Banff, Galapagos, and Antarctica/South America.

And somewhere in there I need to keep writing. I was able to write during sea days on both Windstar Cruises, but usually I’m so busy on travel that I can’t get much done on the road (other than writing about the current trip itself, which some day will be fodder for Bill Bryson-ish travel memoirs).

As Mark Twain wrote in Innocents Abroad:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Happy Science Traveling!

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Vote for Allison Gustavson

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Allison GustavsonChange is hard, but there are times when change is necessary. This is one of those times. Following words from Abraham Lincoln, that is how I began my endorsement of Allison Gustavson. Now I am asking my family, friends, and everyone else in the Fourth Essex District to vote for Allison Gustavson for Massachusetts State Representative.

Allison brings a much needed new voice and energy to the district. She is motivated by a strong desire to represent all citizens in the district, not just those of the party. She is driven by her love for all of the towns in the district, not just the one. Ipswich, Hamilton, Manchester, Rowley, Topsfield, and Wenham will all benefit with Allison as their representative.

Yes, change is hard. Many of you have voted for the incumbent Brad Hill every election for the last 20 years. We all have fond memories of Brad’s father, uncle, and the family name. But it’s time to move beyond that family name and get a representative who speaks for all of us.

The recent League of Women Voters Candidate Forum provided ample evidence of the need for change. Whereas Brad Hill prevaricated or offered up boilerplate policies that have failed citizens repeatedly in the past, Allison Gustavson demonstrated that she will take steps to preserve the rights of all citizens in the Fourth Essex district, both now and the future. Allison will protect 2nd amendment rights while keeping our children safe from gun violence. Allison will support economic growth while addressing the real issue of climate change. Allison will ensure the rights of all citizens, not promote bigotry and anti-women policies. Whereas Brad’s incumbent position was gained by adherence to party dogma, Allison is driven by positive movement, service to all the public, and a willingness to listen to people’s views no matter what party.

Allison Gustavson is by far the best choice for all the citizens in all the towns of the Fourth Essex District. So I’m asking you to vote for her.

I’m asking my family and friends who live in Ipswich, Hamilton, Manchester, Rowley, Topsfield, and Wenham to vote for Allison Gustavson on Tuesday, November 6, 2019. Please also ask your friends and neighbors to vote for her. The future of the community depends on making Allison your next state representative.

Thank you.

[This will be the final “political” post on my website as I’ll return to my normal topics of Abraham Lincoln, Science Travel, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison. But as Lincoln said, we must “be active, when action is needed.” I believe action is needed.]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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2018-2019 Travel Preview (and Mini-Recap)

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David J. KentUsually I do a Travel Preview post in early January. I skipped the preview in January 2018 because I suspected my “travel year” would shift…and it did. Thus, this travel preview covers 2018-2019, roughly mid-year to mid-year.

That’s not to say that I’ve been homebound. In January we flew down to Ft. Myers, FL for a long weekend touring Sanibel Island, checking out Thomas Edison’s winter retreat, and notching my 49th aquarium at the Mote Marine Lab in Sarasota (my 50th came last month in Copenhagen). February was spent doing local trips, mostly Abraham Lincoln oriented. March I drove down to Newport News for the annual “Battle of Hampton Roads” weekend. April I made an unplanned trip to Massachusetts when my Dad went into the hospital, as well as a quick drive to Fredericksburg for a CPRC conference. In May I did Part 1 of my “Chasing Abraham Lincoln” tour through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan. And then there were scads of local Lincoln Group of DC-related events, including a Lincoln-Douglas-Douglass debate at the National Archives (check the link for this once-in-a-lifetime event).

But now the fun begins. In early July Ru took a year off from her job with the goal of exploring more of the world. We began by flying to Copenhagen in late June and spent two weeks cruising around the Baltic Sea on a relatively intimate yacht of only 200 passengers, many of whom we came to know quite well. Stops included the Danish island of Bornholm, the Polish city of Gdansk (where the end of communist USSR began), the Curonian peninsula of Lithuania, the gorgeous old Estonian city of Tallinn, and then spent two days (ironically, the 4th of July) in St. Petersburg, Russia. From there we stopped in Finland’s capital Helsinki (where I had been several times when I lived in Brussels) and the oddly confusing but beautiful Finnish/Swedish Mariehamn in the Aland Islands (technically they belong to Finland, but speak Swedish, and have an autonomous government; you figure it out). The end in Stockholm was bitter-sweet.

Two days back from that trip, Ru flew to Beijing for a month, with side trips to Shanghai and Hong Kong. Meanwhile, I did Part 2 of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour, this time a 2905+ mile drive to, from, and around Illinois. My three main goals were to see: 1) the seven Lincoln-Douglas debate sites (plus a live debate between Lincoln [George Buss] and Douglas [Tim Connors]); 2) Rock Island, where a famous Lincoln court case involving a steamboat and a railroad bridge took place; and 3) the Illinois and Michigan Canal area, a key internal improvement project promoted by Lincoln. All these are research for my forthcoming book. Along the way I stopped in tons of tiny towns boasting some connection to Lincoln, all with the requisite Lincoln statue.

Next up is a road trip to Massachusetts and Maine to visit family in August, a September road trip from Crater Lake in Oregon to Glacier National Park in Montana, a trip to Gettysburg for the annual Lincoln Forum meeting followed by another road trip to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving. We’ll likely squeeze in some shorter trips to New York City, Chicago, Charleston (SC), Richmond, and other locations that don’t take too much planning.

Immediately after Thanksgiving we’ll fly to Hong Kong to board the sister of our Baltic yacht, which will take us around several Philippine islands, then to the two parts of Malaysia on Borneo, a day in Brunei, then end in Singapore. Since we’ve now both been to Hong Kong (separately), we’ll focus a few days of extra time on Singapore and probably a trip up to Kuala Lumpur. Who knows, maybe we’ll get to Indonesia while we’re there.

Into 2019 the plans are still fuzzy, but in the works are possible trips to Antarctica, Galapagos Islands, Rio, Machu Picchu, Costa Rica, and more. One relatively sure thing is a month in Paris – the plan is to rent an apartment in the spring so I can do research on a yet another book in the works, with side trips to Brussels, Lyon, Lille, and perhaps other European locales. A friend just mentioned that her family is going to Iceland next month, and since Iceland is on my “must-see” list, it’s a good bet we’ll try to get there in 2019. We also had to pass on a September trip to Petra, so I’m hopeful we can squeeze that visit in within the next year or two along with Egypt, Israel, and environs. And then there is the long-awaited African safari we’ll try to coordinate with my brother and his wife.

I’ve been to over 50 countries (depending on how you count), but there are still so many places I want to see. So many cultures, so little time (and money).

Of course, I’m also working on several books and I’ve yet to figure out how to write productively while traveling. I did have a productive writing and editing day on the Baltic trip during our one day at sea (i.e., not in a port). The December trip is longer and includes four individual days at sea, so there is some hope. But I’m going to have to be more efficient with my writing time (including the time used to write this preview).

Which is what I’ll do right now, as soon as the washer repairman finishes diagnosing my temperamental machine. At least I got this post written while he worked.

Go to the main blog and scroll up and down to see posts on the Baltic, Chasing Abraham Lincoln, and other trips as they happen (or happened). Or keyword search at the top of the page for specific locations and evens. You should also go to Ru’s blog to see how she is documenting her year of discovery.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

 

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Chasing Abraham Lincoln – The Plan

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Chasing Abraham LincolnI’ll soon be off chasing Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is everywhere it seems – Cuba, Norway, Scotland, the UK – but he spent most of his life in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. And that’s where I’m going on my Chasing Abraham Lincoln Tour of 2018.

Like rock star tours, this one will highlight Lincoln’s greatest hits. I’ll be splitting it into two major parts, though the overall tour consists of many smaller parts as well.

Part 1 this spring takes me to Lincoln’s early life…and the end of it. I’ll be speaking at West Virginia Wesleyan College on my book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. Taking advantage of the location, I’ll then drive down to Harrogate, Tennessee to visit the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum at Lincoln Memorial University. From there I turn north and head for Lincoln’s Birthplace National Park, Lincoln’s Boyhood Home, and Lincoln Homestead National Park, all in Kentucky. Then I’ll track his family’s move across the Ohio River at Grandview and Rockport, Indiana before heading up to the exhibits at the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis and the documents at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne. This will get me through the major Indiana stops, but not all my stops.

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHS

A three hour drive north of Fort Wayne gets me into Michigan and Henry Ford’s famous museum. At Ford’s Greenfield Village I’ll find the original Logan County Courthouse where Lincoln practiced law from 1840-1847. And then there is the end of Lincoln’s life – the original high-backed rocking chair in which Lincoln was sitting when he was tragically struck down by John Wilkes Booth.

While I’m at Greenfield Village I’ll also check out the recreated Menlo Park Laboratory of Thomas Edison, star of my second book, Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World. The lab site includes Edison’s original glass house, carbon shed, and even truckloads of Menlo Park (now Edison), New Jersey dirt. Another part of the Village has the Edison Illuminating Company’s Station A, where a young Henry Ford worked as a steam engineer in the 1890s.

Edison at Work, Greenfield Village

From Michigan I’ll pass through Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio to gawk at some famous Lincoln statues before working my way towards home

Keep in mind this is just Part 1 of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln Tour. Part 2 will take me this summer into Illinois to follow Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas around their famous debate sites, plus check out the remnant of the Illinois and Michigan Canal that Lincoln helped create. Of course, these 2018 trips come after my 2016 trip Visiting Abraham Lincoln’s Illinois, which I documented in Part I and Part II and this special post on How Bloomington, IL made Lincoln Great (click on the links).

Eventually I’ll have covered all of Abraham Lincoln’s life (I’ve already lived for three months in Edinburgh, Scotland, which boasts the only Lincoln and Civil War statue outside the U.S.). I’ve also hit most of the Washington, D.C. area sites and was recently down in Newport News and City Point. A bit inefficient to spread this over the years, but it’s slowly coming together. I’ll have plenty of photos and stories from the 2018 tours so keep checking back here for more info.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Hitting all the careers!

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It seems I’ve done a little of everything, and now I’m hitting all the careers at once (except the building bug zappers one).

In my marine biology days I had heard about Mote Marine Lab but had never been there. I also got to see my 49th aquarium. Here is an Australian jellyfish that I didn’t see in Australia.

A tarpon like the ones I saw in Bermuda.

One of many gorgeous reef fish.

At Mote Marine Lab Aquarium.

I also got to see the Addison-Ford Estates and several of Edison’s movie projectors in honor of my book on Thomas Edison.

His botanical Lab where he looked for a domestic source of rubber in his 80s.

Very cool place.

Meanwhile, my Tesla book is back in Barnes and Noble stores with its 8th printing.

And my Lincoln book is coming out soon with a 2nd printing.

Lincoln always watches over me.

More shortly.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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