It is April 26, 2014 and April 26 is Confederate Memorial Day. This video begins Confederate History Week here at the Michael The Researcher blogspot page. This first episode is very, very special because you get to hear the voice of an actual Confederate Veteran. I have for you a Thomas Edison Company Blue Amberol Cylinder Record. It features "The Bonnie Blue Flag" by Polk Miller And His Old South Quartette. This song is very incredible for a number of reasons. Polk Miller, the lead vocalist, was a Confederate Artilleryman in the American Civil War and The Old South Quartette was comprised of four Black males. Some of them may have been born in slavery or some of them may have had parents who were born in slavery. In addition, this song may be the very first recording of an integrated band in a studio. Yes, the song in this video may be the very first example of a White and Black integrated recording session. The recording of the song "The Bonnie Blue Flag" took place in November of 1909. The first pressing, in wax, was released in 1910 and the second pressing, in celluloid, was released in 1914. This video features the 1914 celluloid record. Both pressings are of the 1909 session. Despite the great popularity that Polk Miller and The Old South Quartette enjoyed, they faced discrimination in both the South and the North. At one point, Polk had hired police protection for The Old South Quartette and eventually called it quits. Polk Miller toured with more than 20 Black males in different versions of The Old South Quartette. Out of the 20-plus, we only know two names: Randall Graves, the tenor vocalist, and James L. Stamper, the bass vocalist. As far as I know, both are in this recording and Stamper's bass vocals are featured prominently. He shines in this song. Polk Miller eventually passed away in October of 1913. He lives on through the Sergeant's pet care company. Polk was also a pharmacist and chemist. He began a pet care named after his favorite hunting dog, Sergeant. I show two old brochures from the company Polk started in this video. Since it is the subject of the song, I show a Bonnie Blue Flag replica in this video and I describe the history of it. The video:
Photographs ...
Here are two Sergeant's brochures from 1927 and 1937 (both make reference to Polk and he can be seen with Sergeant in the 1927 brochure) ...
This final jpeg is a screenshot from youtube's page informing me of a copyright violation: My response to that nonsense is in this video: Public Domain information: https://www.pdinfo.com/PD-Song-List/PD-Song-List-Best-B.php I have to give a world of credit to Vimeo for allowing a clear host of this video. Much thanks. Full Title: "Confederate Memorial Day With The Bonnie Blue Flag By Polk Miller And His Old South Quartette Blue Amberol Cylinder Record (Catalog Number 2175)"
It is April 23, 2014. On this day 450 years ago, it is believed that England's own William Shakespeare was born. In honor of Shakespeare's 450th Birth Anniversary, I pulled out a fragment of his Fourth Folio Edition: The Tragedy Of Locrine. The entire title is Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true Original Copies. Unto which is added, Seven Plays, Never before Printed in Folio … The Fourth Edition. This work was published in London by Bentley, Brewster, Chiswell and Herringman in the year 1685. A miniature bust of the playwright looks on. Someone years ago reinforced the leaves with additional paper. You will note the linen used in the paper. It is also known as rag fiber. Printers used to collect old clothing to boil and flatten into paper in those days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vYJLxU2Os4
Here you can see the clothing or rag fibers in the linen paper:
If you wish to read along with these leaves, I found a copy of the same text on a Shakespeare website: http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/overview/book/F4.html (The Tragedy Of Locrine is the last entry in the menu and after you arrive at the viewer, you would click thirteen times to get to page 299)
The American Civil War Sesquicentennial continues! Today, I am bringing you news of the conflict as it was reported 150 years ago. This blog entry features a newspaper from 1864. It is a copy of The New York Herald Newspaper that was published on April 16, 1864 ... exactly 150 years ago today. It contains American Civil War news. You will note the horrific details of the War as well as advertisements, stock exchange quotes and more.
This video is blurry in parts (I did my best with it) and I accidentally skipped two pages (I took photographs of those pages):
The url for the video above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-zbhNDUoLk
Here is the front page:
This issue cost three cents:
Here you can read the horrifying details of what took place during the War:
Here are two visuals pertaining to Fort Pillow ...
Railroad shares:
Fascinating Wall Street news:
Stock Exchange, sales and marriages:
Sales and deaths:
Deaths and help wanted:
Real estate, "The Turf", horses, carriages and personals:
Instruction, rewards and legal notices:
Dentistry, hotels and insurance:
More news:
The House Of Representatives and a new Internal Revenue bill:
More news War and otherwise ...
More advertisements:
Houses, rooms , boarding and lodging:
Auction sales, other sales and religious notices:
More news War and otherwise ...
"The Bounty Broker Business":
The last page:
There you have it ... a newspaper with first-hand accounts of the American War Between The States from the very day it was printed and published ... literally a century and a half ago!
Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania held the annual U.S.C.T. United States Colored Troops Civil War Reenactment on April 5 and 6, 2014. The following video footage and photographs are from the 6th. First of all, youtube once again allowed someone to "own via copyright" a song that should be in the public domain. Due to this, I deleted the video footage from youtube and uploaded it to another server. I had to decrease the megabyte size of the video in order to upload it to the other server so the quality is lacking compared to how it would have looked on youtube. This caused problems when I blogged about last year's event (Link: http://michael-the-researcher.blogspot.com/2013/04/colored-troops-civil-war-reenactment.html). Here is the footage: *Removed due to old flash technology.* Photographs ...
Here is a mug that I picked up ... You will note the image of the old gate on the front of the mug. I visited and blogged about this gate last year: http://michael-the-researcher.blogspot.com/2013/06/on-this-day-150-years-ago-camp-william.html I would like to have set up a display with Civil War artifacts and presented musical selections of some phonograph cylinders at this event. I was too busy to organize it this time. Next year ...
