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The Story of Tennis
in three-parts |
Part
1 The Tennis Racket
1. French monks of the 13th century
played a version of modern-day tennis in the confines of their
monestary courtyard. They whacked the ball with an open hand,
thereby calling it jeu de paune, or "Game of the
Palm."
2. The clerics spent so much time playing the game that the
Archbishop of Rouen banned it in A.D. 1245.
3. The tennis racket evolved slowly. At first players wore bloves.
Then they wound leather cords around the fingers.
4. For a while they used a paddle until someone wrapped parchent
around a frame. Unfortunately....
5. Manuscripts began disappearing from libraries and showing
up on tennis rackets.
6. Around A.D. 1500 the players bagan to run strands of sheep
gut diagonally across the frame.
7. The game spread across the English Channel where the British
started calling it TENNIS, an English spin-of of the term TENEZ, meaning
"hold" or "take" which the server yelled
when he was about to hit the ball to his opponent.
8. William Shakespeare mentioned tennis in his play Henry
V. King Henry V ruled Great Britain 1413 - 1422, and was
an avid player.
9. King Henry VIII loved the game so much that heinstalled a
tennis court at Hampton Court Palace in the late 1520s which
is still there today. |
Part
2 The Opening Serve
1. Mary Ewing Outerbridge
has the distinction of introducing tennis tothe United States
in 1874
She had played the game while on vacation in Bermuda that
previous January and returned home to Staten Island, New
York with rackets, balls, and nets.
2. Mary's brother Emilio set up a tennis court at the Staten
Island Cricket and Baseball Club. That site is now a parking
lot for the Staten Island Ferry.
Regarded as the Mother of Tennis, Mary died in 1886 at
the age of 34.
3. An avid sportsman, President Theodore Roosevelt had
a tennis court built on the south side of the west wing of the
White House around 1902.
Teddy had a unique way to hold his racket. |
Part
3 The Tennis Cabinet
1. (left side) President Theodore
Roosevelt installed the first tennis court at the White House.
Playing alongside Roosevelt were officials high and low, eager
undersecretaries, and foreign diplomats.
Teddy's tennis buddies were called The Tennis Cabinet.
There were more than 30 players during his administration including:
Henry Stimson, U.S. Attorney for southern New York; later
he was the Secretary of State under President Herbert Hoover,
and Secretary of War during World War II.
2. (in circle) The president often invited celebrities to play,
such as...
William "Pudge" Heffelfinger, a noted stockbroker
who, as a Yale guard, made the first All-American football roster
and, in 1892, was the first to get paid to play football.
One of Theodore's favorite sporting diplomats was the french
ambassador Jules Jusserand.
The son of a former predident, James R. Garfield was a
Civil Service commissioner and later TR's Secretary of the Interior.
Garfield was the last survivor of Theodore Roosevelt's administration
when he died in 1950.
3. (right side) A staunch conservationist, Gifford Pinchot
headed the U.S. Bureau of Forestry for Presidents McKinley and
Theodore Roosevelt. He went on to serve as the governor of Pennsylvania
twice, 1923-26 and 1931-34.
|
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House, we recommend...
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The
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The Story of the
first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence
Three parts, which started running on July
4, 2010
July 11, 2010
Proclaim Liberty
Throughout the Land
1. John Dunlap of Philadelphia
printed an estimated 200 handbulls, shown here, of the Declaration
of Independence on the evening of July 4, 1776. The following
morning....
2. He delivered them to John Hancock at Independence Hall. Hancock:
"Send copies to General Washington and other Army commnaders...and
give the rest to the delegates so they can distribute them throughout
their respective states.
3. General George Washington had the Declaration read to his
troops on July 9 in New York City.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are
created equal..."
4. Massachusetts had their own copies printed and sent to priests
and ministers to be read to their congregations. "That they
are endowed by their creator..."
5. The Virginia delegates decided to have the Declaration printed
in newspapers throughout the Old Dominion.
"Certain unalienable rights, that among these..." Kid:
"What 'naliable,' Papa?"
6. Other states spread the news by posting the Dunlap broadside
in public places and by holding readings by local celebrities.
"are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." |
July 18, 2010
1. John Dunlap printed
thefirst copies of the Declaration of Independence on July 4,
1776. He allegedly ran off 200 copies which became known
as the
Dunlap Broadsides.
Only 24 copies were known to survive.* George Washington's copy
is now with the Washington papers in the Manuscript Division
of the Library of Congress.
2. Then, in 1989 a man was browsing through a flea market in
Adamstown, Pennsylvania when he spied a painting and decided
to buy it because he liked the frame.
3. He bought it for four dollars.
4. When he tore off teh backing he discovered a Dunlap Broadside
of the Declaration of Independence in excellent condition.
5. He had it authinticated and sold it for $2.4 million.
6. In 2000 it was put up for auction at Sotheby's in New York
where it "sold for $8.14
million."
The buyers wer internet entrepreneur
David Hayden and...
7. Television writer/producer Norman Lear who sent the broadside
on a nationwide tour "...so people could experience first-hand
our country's birth certificate." |
List
of known existing copies of the Dunlap Broadsides:
1. Beinecke Library at Yale University, New Haven, CT
2. Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collection Division,
Washington, DC
3. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington Papers
- fragment copy with 54 lines, thought to be the copy George
Washington read to the troops on July 9, 1776 in New York City.
4. National Archives, Washington, DC
5. Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, IL
6. Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
7. Maine Historical Society, Portland, ME
8. Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD
9. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA
10. Houghton Library at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
11. Williamson (MA) College
12. Scheide Library, a part of the Firestone Library at Princeton
University, Princeton, NJ
13. New York, NY - last known location. Sold by the New York
Historical Society to a private collector.
14. New York (NY) Public Library
15. Morgan Library, New York, NY
16. American Independence Museum, NH Soc. of the Cincinnati,
Exeter, New Hampshire
17. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA
18. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
19. Independence National Historic Park, Philadelphia, PA . This
copy was originally owned by John Nixon, sheriff of philadelphia
which he read to the public on July 8, 1776 in the yard of the
State House, now Independence Hall. It was presented to the park
by Nixon's heirs in 1951.
20. Dallas (TX) Public Library - "The Leary Copy."
so called because it was found in 1968 in a crate that had been
stored in Leary's Book Store, Philadelphia, PA since 1911. Ira
G. Corn, JR. and HJOseph P. Driscoll of Dallas bought the broadside
on May 7, 1969. Later a group of 17 bought it from Corn and Driscoll
and sold it to the Dallas city government.
21. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. One of two copies
owned by the university. This is the " H. Bradley Martin"
copy.
22. UVA, Charlottesville, VA This Dunlap Broadside was found
in an attic in Albany, NY in 1955. It had been used to wrap other
papers. Purchased by harles E. Tuttle Co. of Rutland, VT, later
sold to David Randall who sold it in 1956 to UVA.
23. John Gilliam Wood, Edenton, North Carolina
24. Public Redore Office, Admiralty Papers, London, England,
United Kingdom. Vice Admiral Richard Howe sent this copy from
his flagship "Eagle," then off Staten Island, with
a letter dated July 28, 1776.
25. Norman Lear's copy, known as the "Roving Copy."
26. Maria Brothers Bookstore, Shimla, India. |
|
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Flashbacks Volume One
A Cartoon of the District of Columbia
Flashbacks Volume One
Patrick M. Reynolds brings history to life with a sense
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conflicts, madness, plus the wheeling and dealing that resulted
in the location and construction of the U.S. capital city. This
book covers the early history of DC from 1776 to 1863. You'll
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be amazed that the city was built--despite all the bickering,
petty jealousies, and down-right stupidity.
11¾" x 7½" 106 pages, full color illustrations,
index, paperbound ISBN 0-932514-31-6
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Flashbacks Volume Two
DC Neighborhoods Flashbacks Vol. Two
Artist-writer Patrick
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see The U.S. capital expanded with the growth of public transportation
into such areas as Shepard Park, Takoma Park, Chevy Chase, Kalorama,
Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, Capital Hill, LeDroit Park, Tenleytown,
Brookland, and others. Stories in this book go back to the explorations
of Capt. John Smith in the 1600s and the Indian Wars of early
Virginia, continuing into the 20th century with the introduction
of the cherry trees to Washington and the end of segregation
in public schools.
11¾" x 7½" 106 pages, full color illustrations,
index, paperbound ISBN 0-932514-33-2
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