A little encouragement for the start of the 2008 Red Sox season (as if they needed any!)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Dot Com History of Valentine's Day
Every year since we were little girls, my Dad has given both my sister and I a chocolate heart and a card on February 14th. The card is always witty or humorous, just like Dad, and is always signed “Happy Valentine’s Day. Love, Dad.” The chocolate heart is always the same every year: four little pieces of candy in a small, heart-shaped box. Very sweet. I wondered what compelled my father, and countless other men, to purchase items such as these to “celebrate” a holiday in the middle of February. Why February14? Where did this Valentine’s Day come from, with its red hearts, candy and cards? Why don’t people just give money instead, which I would have preferred over the diet-killing chocolate? (Here’s a hint for next year Dad!) For this assignment, armed only with a Google search engine and my four pieces of chocolate, I went in search of the history of Valentine’s Day.
The origins of this “lovely” holiday are not exactly clear. Some claim that Valentine’s Day dates back to the Middle Ages when the feast was called Lupercalia, an ancient Roman pagan fertility celebration held on February 15. According to University of Notre Dame Professor Lawrence Cunningham, women would write love letters, known as billets, and place them in a large urn. A man would randomly draw a note from the urn and pursue the woman who had written the letter.[1] Another variation on Lupercalia claims that Roman priests, members of the order of Luperci, sacrificed a goat and a dog, sliced the goat hide into strips, dipped the strips in the blood and went around slapping both women and crops with the goat hide.[2] The goat hide was known as Februa, derived from the Latin Februatio for the “act of lashing with a sacred thong,” or goat hide.[3] Far from being horrified by the spectacle, women actually hoped they would be slapped with the goat hide because they believed it would make them more fertile in the coming year.
But the pagan connection was too distasteful for Pope Gelasius. In 496 A.D., he decided to Christianize the holiday in honor of St. Valentine, a young Roman martyred by Emperor Claudius II on February 14, 270 C.E. for his Christian beliefs.[4] According to folklore, right before he died, the jailed Valentine wrote a note to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had become enamored of, and signed it “from your Valentine.” But the identity of Valentine is also shrouded in mystery. According to www.hersheys.com, a Saint Valentine of Rome and a Saint Valentine of Terni, both known for their loving and compassionate acts, were martyred on the same day, February 14, leading to speculation that these two men were actually the same man. The Catholic Church, however, recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus who were martyred on the same day![5]
The goat hide and martyred Valentine not withstanding, other scholars attribute the holiday to renowned bard Geoffrey Chaucer. Henry Ansgar Kelly, director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of California Los Angeles, and author of “Chaucer and the Cult of St. Valentine,” believes that in 1381, Chaucer was in the midst of composing a poem for Richard II in honor of his engagement to Anne of Bohemia. The engagement was announced on May 3rd. Chaucer discovered that a Saint Valentine had a feast day on May 3rd and penned a poem entitled “The Parliament of Fowls” in honor of the engagement.[6] Chaucer ventured to guess that birds mate on May 3rd. After Chaucer died in 1400, the Valentine’s Day celebration was moved from May to February because “the first songbirds that traditionally warble after a blustery winter tend to debut in mid-February,” according the Kelly.[7] Fifteen years after Chaucer’s death, another imprisoned man, Charles, Duke of Orleans, sent a Valentine’s greeting to his wife from his cell in the Tower of London.[8] By 1660, Charles II officially recognized Valentine’s Day in Great Britain and the printing of greeting cards followed shortly thereafter.
In the United States, Valentine’s Day arrived with the Puritans, but it would be over 100 years before the first Valentine’s Day cards made their debut in American society. In 1847, Ester Howland began mass producing Valentine’s Day cards. Made with real lace, ribbons and leaves, her cards became the “hallmark” (excuse the pun!) of the holiday.[9] The real Hallmark cards, created by the Hall Brothers, appeared for their first Valentine’s Day in 1913.[10] But where did Ms. Howland and the Hall Brothers come up with the idea for heart-shaped cards? As far back as the 12th century, the medical community believed that the heart was the source for love and affection in the human body, although a human heart is not exactly shaped in the traditional sense of a heart as is known today. The Valentine’s Day heart derived from a doodle that was supposed to represent a human female’s buttocks or a well-endowed female torso according to interpretations of the doodle![11] Flowers had a less risqué association with the holiday. It seems as though Charles II of Sweden brought the “language of flowers” to Europe. Flowers such as lilacs and lilies represented some form of affection, but the rose became the symbol of love.[12]
Last, but certainly not least, conversation candy hearts have been a tradition associated with Valentine’s Day since the American Civil War. The hearts originally had printed paper notes tucked inside with poetic inscriptions such as “please send a lock of your hair by return mail.”[13] Ah yes, NECCO Sweethearts Conversation Hearts have been the Cyrano for lovers for years. The candy was first factory-made in 1902 and bore such familiar phrases as “Kiss Me” and “Be Mine.”[14] However, Walter Marshall, a retired NECCO vice president, admits that coming up with love-based slogans for the candy is much more of a challenge than people think. As the candy comes in either ½ inch or ¾ inch, two words ranging in length from four to six letters is all there is room for. (I guess “Dad Need Money” would not fit on one heart!) However, thanks to the age of text messages and email with their abbreviated vernacular, phrases such as “EZ 2 Luv” are helping to replace the old, worn-out “Be Mine.”[15]
Although the history of Valentine’s Day has a somewhat interesting past with its bloodied goat hide, imprisoned and martyred men, butt doodles and “Be Mine” candies, rest assured, the holiday is indeed still popular. And while I know why “75% of chocolate purchases are made by women all year long,” it is not so much of a mystery now why “during the days and minutes before Valentine’s Day, 75% of the chocolate purchases are made by men.”[16] Dad, next year, leave a $20!
II. Commentary on the Experience
For this assignment, I must admit that I was not terribly concerned with the accuracy of the information I was obtaining online. Because I was barred from the safety of JSTOR and credible academic sources I am used to consulting for historical information, I was actually looking for, and expecting, outlandish renditions of the history of Valentine’s Day. That is not to say that I did not take the assignment seriously. It would have been out of character for me had I not. But knowing that the World Wide Web is a font of less-than-credible information in some instances, I was ready to accept whatever the Google search yielded. Surprisingly, the sites that I visited all told the same tale of the history of Valentine’s Day in one form or another. All of the sites mentioned a martyred Saint Valentine and the Roman feast of Lupercalia. The site reporting that the origins of the Valentine heart derived from a doodle of a behind or a well-endowed female torso was just too comical to exclude from my narrative. I included references from www.history.com and www.cnn.com because I thought they were interesting and perhaps a bit more accurate than www.howstuffworks.com. As of yet, I still have not consulted JSTOR or ProQuest to find the “real” history of Valentine’s Day, so I do not know if the web sites I found were fairly accurate. This assignment demonstrates the vulnerability of people to information they find on the web. Taken at face value, what is online can be believed as the absolute truth. I am more inclined to think, however, that news sites such as www.washingtonpost.com or www.nytimes.com are posting factual pieces. But private sites, such as www.brownielocks.com, are in more of a position to dissuade. Anything can be posted online, truthful or not, by someone with a web site. I stayed away from Wikipedia because I have no faith in the accuracy of the information contained on that site. I hate to sound like an internet snob, but credentials count. Seeing is not always believing!
The origins of this “lovely” holiday are not exactly clear. Some claim that Valentine’s Day dates back to the Middle Ages when the feast was called Lupercalia, an ancient Roman pagan fertility celebration held on February 15. According to University of Notre Dame Professor Lawrence Cunningham, women would write love letters, known as billets, and place them in a large urn. A man would randomly draw a note from the urn and pursue the woman who had written the letter.[1] Another variation on Lupercalia claims that Roman priests, members of the order of Luperci, sacrificed a goat and a dog, sliced the goat hide into strips, dipped the strips in the blood and went around slapping both women and crops with the goat hide.[2] The goat hide was known as Februa, derived from the Latin Februatio for the “act of lashing with a sacred thong,” or goat hide.[3] Far from being horrified by the spectacle, women actually hoped they would be slapped with the goat hide because they believed it would make them more fertile in the coming year.
But the pagan connection was too distasteful for Pope Gelasius. In 496 A.D., he decided to Christianize the holiday in honor of St. Valentine, a young Roman martyred by Emperor Claudius II on February 14, 270 C.E. for his Christian beliefs.[4] According to folklore, right before he died, the jailed Valentine wrote a note to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had become enamored of, and signed it “from your Valentine.” But the identity of Valentine is also shrouded in mystery. According to www.hersheys.com, a Saint Valentine of Rome and a Saint Valentine of Terni, both known for their loving and compassionate acts, were martyred on the same day, February 14, leading to speculation that these two men were actually the same man. The Catholic Church, however, recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus who were martyred on the same day![5]
The goat hide and martyred Valentine not withstanding, other scholars attribute the holiday to renowned bard Geoffrey Chaucer. Henry Ansgar Kelly, director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of California Los Angeles, and author of “Chaucer and the Cult of St. Valentine,” believes that in 1381, Chaucer was in the midst of composing a poem for Richard II in honor of his engagement to Anne of Bohemia. The engagement was announced on May 3rd. Chaucer discovered that a Saint Valentine had a feast day on May 3rd and penned a poem entitled “The Parliament of Fowls” in honor of the engagement.[6] Chaucer ventured to guess that birds mate on May 3rd. After Chaucer died in 1400, the Valentine’s Day celebration was moved from May to February because “the first songbirds that traditionally warble after a blustery winter tend to debut in mid-February,” according the Kelly.[7] Fifteen years after Chaucer’s death, another imprisoned man, Charles, Duke of Orleans, sent a Valentine’s greeting to his wife from his cell in the Tower of London.[8] By 1660, Charles II officially recognized Valentine’s Day in Great Britain and the printing of greeting cards followed shortly thereafter.
In the United States, Valentine’s Day arrived with the Puritans, but it would be over 100 years before the first Valentine’s Day cards made their debut in American society. In 1847, Ester Howland began mass producing Valentine’s Day cards. Made with real lace, ribbons and leaves, her cards became the “hallmark” (excuse the pun!) of the holiday.[9] The real Hallmark cards, created by the Hall Brothers, appeared for their first Valentine’s Day in 1913.[10] But where did Ms. Howland and the Hall Brothers come up with the idea for heart-shaped cards? As far back as the 12th century, the medical community believed that the heart was the source for love and affection in the human body, although a human heart is not exactly shaped in the traditional sense of a heart as is known today. The Valentine’s Day heart derived from a doodle that was supposed to represent a human female’s buttocks or a well-endowed female torso according to interpretations of the doodle![11] Flowers had a less risqué association with the holiday. It seems as though Charles II of Sweden brought the “language of flowers” to Europe. Flowers such as lilacs and lilies represented some form of affection, but the rose became the symbol of love.[12]
Last, but certainly not least, conversation candy hearts have been a tradition associated with Valentine’s Day since the American Civil War. The hearts originally had printed paper notes tucked inside with poetic inscriptions such as “please send a lock of your hair by return mail.”[13] Ah yes, NECCO Sweethearts Conversation Hearts have been the Cyrano for lovers for years. The candy was first factory-made in 1902 and bore such familiar phrases as “Kiss Me” and “Be Mine.”[14] However, Walter Marshall, a retired NECCO vice president, admits that coming up with love-based slogans for the candy is much more of a challenge than people think. As the candy comes in either ½ inch or ¾ inch, two words ranging in length from four to six letters is all there is room for. (I guess “Dad Need Money” would not fit on one heart!) However, thanks to the age of text messages and email with their abbreviated vernacular, phrases such as “EZ 2 Luv” are helping to replace the old, worn-out “Be Mine.”[15]
Although the history of Valentine’s Day has a somewhat interesting past with its bloodied goat hide, imprisoned and martyred men, butt doodles and “Be Mine” candies, rest assured, the holiday is indeed still popular. And while I know why “75% of chocolate purchases are made by women all year long,” it is not so much of a mystery now why “during the days and minutes before Valentine’s Day, 75% of the chocolate purchases are made by men.”[16] Dad, next year, leave a $20!
II. Commentary on the Experience
For this assignment, I must admit that I was not terribly concerned with the accuracy of the information I was obtaining online. Because I was barred from the safety of JSTOR and credible academic sources I am used to consulting for historical information, I was actually looking for, and expecting, outlandish renditions of the history of Valentine’s Day. That is not to say that I did not take the assignment seriously. It would have been out of character for me had I not. But knowing that the World Wide Web is a font of less-than-credible information in some instances, I was ready to accept whatever the Google search yielded. Surprisingly, the sites that I visited all told the same tale of the history of Valentine’s Day in one form or another. All of the sites mentioned a martyred Saint Valentine and the Roman feast of Lupercalia. The site reporting that the origins of the Valentine heart derived from a doodle of a behind or a well-endowed female torso was just too comical to exclude from my narrative. I included references from www.history.com and www.cnn.com because I thought they were interesting and perhaps a bit more accurate than www.howstuffworks.com. As of yet, I still have not consulted JSTOR or ProQuest to find the “real” history of Valentine’s Day, so I do not know if the web sites I found were fairly accurate. This assignment demonstrates the vulnerability of people to information they find on the web. Taken at face value, what is online can be believed as the absolute truth. I am more inclined to think, however, that news sites such as www.washingtonpost.com or www.nytimes.com are posting factual pieces. But private sites, such as www.brownielocks.com, are in more of a position to dissuade. Anything can be posted online, truthful or not, by someone with a web site. I stayed away from Wikipedia because I have no faith in the accuracy of the information contained on that site. I hate to sound like an internet snob, but credentials count. Seeing is not always believing!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Camelot on the Web
In the two weeks since Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) evoked the images of Camelot in his endorsement speech of presidential candidate Barack Obama at American University, all-things JFK seem to be back in vogue. The spirit, the ideas, and the forward-looking vision of the 35th President of the United States have been resurrected in the hopes of inspiring American voters. Undoubtedly, the notion of the Kennedy era reminded baby boomers of a time when antiquated President Eisenhower was replaced by a youthful-looking politician who believed anything was possible and motivated young adults into public service. But for a whole new generation of Americans, born post-1970s, John F. Kennedy is as far removed from them as the ancient Greeks. Yet there is a place where John F. Kennedy lives on, where the Kennedy mystique is in the air and the promise of his administration still exists. This place is the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.
The purpose of the Library is to house the historical record of the Kennedy administration. From documents, photographs and audio-taped conversations between the President and his staff, the Kennedy Library is a treasure trove for researchers. For the general public, whose interest in JFK is driven less by the thrill of primary source documents, the Museum displays the more popular images of the story of John F. Kennedy: his childhood through his service in World War II, his terms in Congress, his campaign for the presidency, the highlights of his administration and his assassination. The entire Kennedy Library and Museum complex is also an attraction for its beautiful location as much as for its contents. Situated on a ten-acre park overlooking the sea a few miles south of downtown Boston, the campus is delightful. In order for researchers and visitors alike to obtain information on the Library and Museum, www.jfklibrary.org was created. For this assignment, I reviewed the web site. I have visited the Library and Museum several times, both as a researcher and as a tourist and in my opinion, the JFK Library and Museum has by far one of the best presidential library sites in cyberspace. I will explain why.
The splash page, with its audio excerpt from President Kennedy’s inaugural speech, gives way to a home page divided into three separate categories: historical resources, basic information about the Library and Museum, and education and public programs. Each category has been assigned a different color. The historical resources box is a moss green, the basic information category is a shade of orange and the educational box is a washed blue. The Historical Resources category is the gateway to information on Library holdings, research policies and procedures and historical people and events associated with the Kennedy administration. The holdings are arranged alphabetically by individual, with the series and the contents of each box given. A researcher who clicks on the link for Arthur Schlesinger, Jr’s 1939-1989 papers, for example, will learn that the folder containing working papers on the Test Ban Treaty is located in Box WH-20. This is an extremely useful and time-saving breakdown. The Finding Aids save the researcher from combing through boxes that may be irrelevant to their research. If I could make one suggestion, though, to further enhance the user-friendliness of the pages of Library holdings, it would be to request that a .pdf of the holdings for each individual’s papers be provided. Currently, printing the pages out requires switching from portrait to landscape, and in a plain text format there are an abundance of pages that print out. The presentation of the Historical Resources pages is simple: black text on a plain white background. I feel that the simplicity of this design does not detract from the data being presented by cluttering up the pages with pictures or a background image.
At the top of every page is a tool bar listing the same categories found on the home page. Among the features along the bottom of every web page are the functions to search and the site map. The site map is quite comprehensive and laid out in tree format. Again, against a plain white background, the text does not get lost amid a plethora of images. One of the most unique aspects of the web site, and the one that made me want to visit, is the virtual tour of the Museum. This feature, found either along the bottom of any page or by clicking on “Virtual Museum Tour” under the Basic Information category, opens up a separate window. Visitors immediately see images of the introductory film that is shown in the Museum auditorium and can hear John F. Kennedy talking about the various events in his life: his childhood, his experience in World War II and his decision to go into politics. Along the bottom of the window are the different slides that can be clicked on to transport visitors to a different part of the tour. Audio accompanies every stage of the virtual tour so visitors get a truly “Kennedy” experience as opposed to having a narrator describe what is being displayed.
The Library and the Museum are concerned with educating about the life, leadership and legacy of President Kennedy. Under the “Education and Public Programs” category are the links for students, teachers, information on the Library Forums and the two awards that are given out each year by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. The web site’s audience ranges from scholars interested in conducting research to teachers planning a field trip to the Museum. There is something for everyone on this web site and visitors are never lost or forced to continuously click the “back” button in the hopes of escaping.
The virtual tour of the Museum is just one of the many examples of the Library and Museum’s desire to be on the cutting edge of technology. Other high-tech features include podcasts of speeches by, and videos of, President Kennedy, and the White House Diary. The Diary gives visitors a snippet of the President’s schedule for any given day during his administration. On a day in which the President addressed the nation on radio and television, a small video of the event is launched in the lower left section of the diary. I believe this feature gives the viewer a more historical sense of the Kennedy administration. The dates have some significance rather than being merely abstract pages in an appointment book. The use of the multi-media is simple enough to add that essence of history yet reserved enough not to be intrusive and distract from the entire image of the Diary. For any given day, viewers can also click on the “View Appointments” link to obtain the President’s schedule for that day, making the White House Diary both interactive and educational.
With so much to offer, www.jfklibrary.org is a wonderful and user-friendly web site. “And so my fellow citizens, ask not what you can do for technology. Ask what technology can do for you!”
The purpose of the Library is to house the historical record of the Kennedy administration. From documents, photographs and audio-taped conversations between the President and his staff, the Kennedy Library is a treasure trove for researchers. For the general public, whose interest in JFK is driven less by the thrill of primary source documents, the Museum displays the more popular images of the story of John F. Kennedy: his childhood through his service in World War II, his terms in Congress, his campaign for the presidency, the highlights of his administration and his assassination. The entire Kennedy Library and Museum complex is also an attraction for its beautiful location as much as for its contents. Situated on a ten-acre park overlooking the sea a few miles south of downtown Boston, the campus is delightful. In order for researchers and visitors alike to obtain information on the Library and Museum, www.jfklibrary.org was created. For this assignment, I reviewed the web site. I have visited the Library and Museum several times, both as a researcher and as a tourist and in my opinion, the JFK Library and Museum has by far one of the best presidential library sites in cyberspace. I will explain why.
The splash page, with its audio excerpt from President Kennedy’s inaugural speech, gives way to a home page divided into three separate categories: historical resources, basic information about the Library and Museum, and education and public programs. Each category has been assigned a different color. The historical resources box is a moss green, the basic information category is a shade of orange and the educational box is a washed blue. The Historical Resources category is the gateway to information on Library holdings, research policies and procedures and historical people and events associated with the Kennedy administration. The holdings are arranged alphabetically by individual, with the series and the contents of each box given. A researcher who clicks on the link for Arthur Schlesinger, Jr’s 1939-1989 papers, for example, will learn that the folder containing working papers on the Test Ban Treaty is located in Box WH-20. This is an extremely useful and time-saving breakdown. The Finding Aids save the researcher from combing through boxes that may be irrelevant to their research. If I could make one suggestion, though, to further enhance the user-friendliness of the pages of Library holdings, it would be to request that a .pdf of the holdings for each individual’s papers be provided. Currently, printing the pages out requires switching from portrait to landscape, and in a plain text format there are an abundance of pages that print out. The presentation of the Historical Resources pages is simple: black text on a plain white background. I feel that the simplicity of this design does not detract from the data being presented by cluttering up the pages with pictures or a background image.
At the top of every page is a tool bar listing the same categories found on the home page. Among the features along the bottom of every web page are the functions to search and the site map. The site map is quite comprehensive and laid out in tree format. Again, against a plain white background, the text does not get lost amid a plethora of images. One of the most unique aspects of the web site, and the one that made me want to visit, is the virtual tour of the Museum. This feature, found either along the bottom of any page or by clicking on “Virtual Museum Tour” under the Basic Information category, opens up a separate window. Visitors immediately see images of the introductory film that is shown in the Museum auditorium and can hear John F. Kennedy talking about the various events in his life: his childhood, his experience in World War II and his decision to go into politics. Along the bottom of the window are the different slides that can be clicked on to transport visitors to a different part of the tour. Audio accompanies every stage of the virtual tour so visitors get a truly “Kennedy” experience as opposed to having a narrator describe what is being displayed.
The Library and the Museum are concerned with educating about the life, leadership and legacy of President Kennedy. Under the “Education and Public Programs” category are the links for students, teachers, information on the Library Forums and the two awards that are given out each year by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. The web site’s audience ranges from scholars interested in conducting research to teachers planning a field trip to the Museum. There is something for everyone on this web site and visitors are never lost or forced to continuously click the “back” button in the hopes of escaping.
The virtual tour of the Museum is just one of the many examples of the Library and Museum’s desire to be on the cutting edge of technology. Other high-tech features include podcasts of speeches by, and videos of, President Kennedy, and the White House Diary. The Diary gives visitors a snippet of the President’s schedule for any given day during his administration. On a day in which the President addressed the nation on radio and television, a small video of the event is launched in the lower left section of the diary. I believe this feature gives the viewer a more historical sense of the Kennedy administration. The dates have some significance rather than being merely abstract pages in an appointment book. The use of the multi-media is simple enough to add that essence of history yet reserved enough not to be intrusive and distract from the entire image of the Diary. For any given day, viewers can also click on the “View Appointments” link to obtain the President’s schedule for that day, making the White House Diary both interactive and educational.
With so much to offer, www.jfklibrary.org is a wonderful and user-friendly web site. “And so my fellow citizens, ask not what you can do for technology. Ask what technology can do for you!”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)