18th Harvard Studies & John Quincy Adams

 

John Quincy Adams returned to the newly independent United States of America in 1786 after having spent fully six years with his father in Europe. His father's insistence that he attend Harvard brought him back. After some refresher work in Greek he took the admission exam for Harvard.

"Adams was asked to construe three stanzas from Horace and a passage from the Iliad, then quizzed on the works of Locke, on Euclid, and on geography" and "p  Hresident Willard asked him to translate several English sentences into Latin." Geography, geometry, political science, and Greek . . . maybe we should try a little more of that. I don't think many would muster the necessary skills to get by that entrance exam these days. However, it does beg the question what skills should a student have to advance study at college? We might all agree on crossing out the Greek and even the political science. It may have been included due to the founding struggles of politically putting the new nation together. Well, on second thought, given the recent strains on our political structures, maybe Locke should be included. Given the struggles that more have with writing in English perhaps some foreign language study would help with that as well.

He was admitted, tuition free in recognition of his father national service, but admonished not to wear a hat when crossing the Harvard yard except in inclement weather. Adams graduated second in his class and delivered an English oration on "the necessity of public faith to the well-being of a community," something that many today could benefit from listening to.

John Quincy Adams - One of our Finest!

https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/national-portrait-gallery-acquires-earliest-known-photograph-us-president

The above photo is of John Quincy Adams, our sixth president (1825-29), and the first to be photographed. This photo was taken in 1843.  It was acquired in 2017 by The National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.  for $360,500 (Big Frank's favorite D.C. museum - when in the capital do not miss going there). This particular photo is the first/earliest known photograph of a U.S. president. 

Adams was 76 years old when he had it taken. The photograph of President John Quincy Adams is a unique daguerreotype and was produced by artist Philip Haas just four years after Louis Daguerre’s radical invention was revealed to the world. The portrait has been on view in America’s Presidents since 2018.

In March 1843, Adams visited the Washington, D.C., studio of Haas for a portrait sitting, becoming the first U.S. President to have his likeness captured through the new medium of photography. This sitting took place nearly 15 years after Adams had served as the nation’s sixth President (1825–1829). At the time, he was serving in Congress as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.

Adams meticulously maintained a diary from 1779 until his death in 1848. He noted in his diary the taking of this portrait session in March 1843. He wrote that he walked to the photographer Haas’ studio at 9 o’clock in the morning “my hands in woolen lined gloves bitterly pinched with cold. Found Horace Everett [U.S. Congressman from Vermont’s third district] there for the same purpose of being facsimiled. Haas took him once, and then with his consent took me three times, the second of which he said was very good—for the operation is delicate: subject to many imperceptible accidents, and fails at least twice out of three times.

Adams' diary writing was begun at the urging of his father, John Adams. He urged his son to keep a journal of  "the events that happen to me, and of object that I see, and of characters that I converse with from day to day." What a great prompt for a journal. It obviously inspired Quincy Adams for he started in 1779 at the age of 12 and continued for the rest of his life. On the front of the first journal, a small sheaf of papers bound by a string was written "JOURNAL BY ME." As he progressed Adams later bought five-hundred-page hard-bound volumes. By the end of his life, he had filled up 51!

Below is a cleaned up version of his portrait that can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Daguerreotype of Quincy Adams by Philip Haas, 1843

Southworth & Hawes - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

John Quincy Adams. Copy of 1843 Daguerreotype by Philip Haas. This is apparently a copy by Southworth & Hawes of a lost original daguerreotype by Phillip Haas (active 1839-57), ca. 1843. Oliver (1970a) discusses the Metropolitan Museum dagurreotype as by Southworth & Hawes and two related prints that clearly attribute it to Haas. Marder and Pierce (1995) correct the attribution of the Metropolitan's piece to Haas and describe it as a copy. Newhall (1977) describes a related plate signed by Haas, which Newhall donated to the Metropolitan Museum.

Dirty Money

 

Big Frank watched three episodes of "Dirty Money"  last night. It's s a Netflix original television series that focuses on corporate corruption, securities fraud and other tales on acquiring and moving dirty money. Its producer is Alex Gibney, a pro at this type of documentary having done some 48 in total. Gibney approaches documentary in the expository style like Ken Burns- eliciting testimony from subjects along with voice-over narration.

The series includes two years of programming that came out in 2018 and 2020. Each season has 8 episodes of one hour each. The first year focusses on such areas as the Volkswagon emissions scandal, payday loans, Donald Trump/confidence man, and then in the second season Wells Fargo's fraudulent banking practices, Prime Minister Najib Razak theft of Malaysian funds, slumlord Jared Kusher and more.

"Dirty Money” shows us plenty of crooks, but also shows how it is all too often the systems or lack thereof that allow those people to thrive. The price we pay is huge in terms of the millions of people impacted along with the environmental degradation. This is a current that runs through all the episodes and ties it together as firmly as the corruption.

Big Frank's one reservation about packing so much corruption on one series of films that many, like Big Frank, binge watch, is that en masse it leaves the viewer feeling helpless to oppose such corruption displayed on such a massive scale.

"Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan is one of 13 books nominated this year for the Booker Prize. The Irish author, Cleaire Keegan,  is primarily known as a short story writer and this book, at 128 pages can be classified as a novella. Perhaps because of its condensed length it packs an even bigger punch. Reviews have been generally positive with many remarking on the moral storytelling as being all the more impactful for taking place with a Christmas backdrop. The heroism demonstrated by Bill Furlong is understated and because of this perhaps comes across more powerfully.

The Times Literary Supplement wrote, "Keegan knows how to weigh and pace her sentences, and her fine judgement delivers many subtle pleasures ... [she] fully exploits the power of understatement." We follow the life story of William Furlong from his orphaned childhood through his growth, marriage, and family life. When he displays the bravery that brings into focus the moral clarity of this novella we are not surprised, but the quiet understated way in which Keegan relays it makes it all the more impactful.

The book is short and can be read in less than a couple of hours. It will stay with you for a much longer time. It's a rare book with an even rarer moral punch.

 

The Wire - Songs

 "Way Down in the Hole" is a song written by the singer-songwriter Tom Waits. It was included on his 1987 album Franks Wild Years, which was later made into a stage production. The song was used as the theme for HBO's The Wire. Tom Waits' version of the song was used in season two of the five-season show. You can listen to Waits' version below.

 

A different recording was used each season. Versions, in series order, were recorded by The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits, The Neville Brothers, DoMaJe, and Steve Earle. The version for season four was performed by Baltimore teenagers Ivan Ashford, Markel Steele, Cameron Brown, Tariq Al-Sabir and Avery Bargasse.

Here's Steve Earle singing his version live. By the way Earle appeared in the series as a very sympathetic drug counselor who strove mightily to get Bub off drugs.

Big Frank is currently in the process of watching all five seasons (on season five now). The interweaving of separate plots lines, characters, and themes over the five seasons in masterfully done. The characters are well rounded and go through growth and disintegration as befitting the lines in any real person's life. Baltimore is the backdrop to the series that focusses primarily on the police departments and a wide cast of cops running from those on the beat up to higher ranking officers and commissions as well. Interwoven throughout are stories of the dock workers, the political landscape, the educational system, and the newspaper.

Here is an excellent review of the series from its fifth season. Surprisingly the program garnered few awards while it was still running. Some attribute that to its dense plot line and the fact that it was set in Baltimore rather than LA. However, now, looking back, it is solidly listed among the best television series ever and often in the top two or three.

Today's Forecast -- HOT

Big Frank extends apologies for the lapse in postings. Many may have wondered, "What up, Big Frank; why no postings for so long?" Well, dawgs... I ain't got no good reply to that." Let's just say that certain habits have yet to be firmly in place. Summer is upon us. The heat is sizzling all of Europe and the weather map of the U.S., I kid you not, has no clouds on it - for the entire lower 48 - not one cloud!! The weather man also put one giant sun over the entire country - we gonna bake!

However, not to worry; Big Frank got AC! However, those without AC - some 10% to 15% of American homes -- they have to figure out a way to keep cool during this heat wave. According to Gregory Wellenius, a professor of environmental health, some 5,600 people die per year in the U.S. from excessive heat. The human body functions best at 98.6 degrees. When the temperature outside exceeds that, cooling the body becomes very difficult. “In an average year in the U.S., heat kills more people than any other type of extreme weather,” says Kristina Dahl, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. An article in The Scientific American from last year enumerated how deadly such heat can be by citing fatalities from last year's Northwest heatwave:  "Hundreds of people died in the recent Pacific Northwest heat wave, according to estimates: there were at least 486 deaths in British Columbia, 116 in Oregon and 78 in Washington (by comparison, hurricanes have killed an average total of 46 people a year in the U.S. over the past 30 years)."

Not to make light of the threat of heat, but rather out of an urge to keep cool as cool as the Hippy Dippy Weatherman, George Carlin, there is this.