With a little help from the “inside” (UB alum Jake Rotter, a White House intern), three UB History students and Professor Hudgins got on the list of visitors to tour the East Wing on Saturday, January 17.  We all had to get security clearance beforehand and meet the Secret Service officers promptly at our 9:30am time slot on what was thankfully a sunny Saturday morning!  The officers also act as stationed tour guides, answering visitors’ questions about the Vermeil Room, the Blue Room, Red Room, Green Room, East Room, and more.

Every room is filled with presidential and first lady portraits, beautiful period desks, and antique clocks, books, or figurines.  Did you know that the First Lady need not be the president’s wife?  A couple of our presidents were not married at the time of their administration, and chose a woman to be in charge of the White House social calendar!  Professor Hudgins was also impressed with the array of beautiful chandeliers adorning the rooms.

After a latte break nearby, our group headed to the White House Visitors Center, which is well-worth a visit.  Formerly our national Patent Library, this lovely hall is now full of interesting White House, presidential, and first lady facts and artifacts (don’t miss the video, broadcast at the far end of the hall).  Did you know that Caroline Harrison used her influence to raise funds to establish the Johns Hopkins Medical School, on the condition that the school admit women?

Some of us went on afterwards to Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street (est. 1958), which was packed full of people lined up for Ben’s famous chili dogs and milkshakes.  We agreed that this was the perfect cap to a fascinating day in D.C.

On October 29, 2014, students in Modern Korean history class took a field trip to the Korean Cultural Center on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C.  Students had an opportunity to experience Korean traditional culture by trying on hanbok (traditional Korean clothes), sitting in sarangbang (traditional guest room/living room) and sipping green tea, and playing percussion instruments for samulnori (folk music).  The staff at the center offered a very interactive presentation highlighting the impact of traditional culture in modern Korean society.  We also learned how pop singer PSY’s “Gangnam style” was just a part of the tides of hallyu (Korean waves), the increasing popularity of South Korean popular culture throughout Asia and the world.

Dr. Yi’s HIST 497 Modern Korea students try on some traditional Korean costume in D.C.

On October 29, 2014 Professor Elizabeth Nix took students in the honors learning community “Urban Solutions: Contemporary Issues in Historical Context,” on a field trip to the streets of New York.  Students walked from UB’s campus to the train station and took an early morning Amtrak into the city. We walked to the base of the Empire State Building and then through urban parks to the Flatiron district, then explored Union Square farmer’s market and tasted New York pizza.  Professor Carey Miller guided the group through his old neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Professor Jeff LaNoue discussed gentrification. Back in Manhattan, the group experienced different types of markets and streetscapes in Little Italy, Chinatown, and SoHo.  We were privileged to see the 9-11 Memorial and the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at Ground Zero.  A quick subway ride took us to the newly completed High Line with more evidence of gentrification.  We tried to beat the rain in order to see Central Park, but the drizzle caused us to break up for dinner, and then stroll through Times Square after dark.  We all reunited at Penn Station and were back in Baltimore by midnight.  The Helen P. Denit Honors Program provided the funds for the train tickets.

In an effort to document the ways that our contemporary cities are influenced by the past, students in Dr. Nix’s class will produce photo essays discussing the echoes of historical building styles they encountered.

Last Saturday, Professor Hudgins and UB student Stephanie Danesie met at the War Memorial Building on Gay Street to attend the fall meeting of the Western Front Association East Coast branch.  They heard talks from the translator of a French soldier’s memoir, a member’s account of the German victory over the British navy at Coronel (off the coast of Chile), the director of the Woodrow Wilson House in D.C. discussing American neutrality, and more.  The Western Front Association gathers amateur researchers and experts twice a year to discuss various aspects of the Great War.  The fall meeting of the East Coast Branch takes place at the War Memorial building every year.  At noon, an intermission allowed us to walk just a couple of blocks to the Inner Harbor for lunch.

This year is the centennial of the war’s commencement, and 2017 will be the centennial of U.S. entry in the war.

The War Memorial Building was constructed in 1925 to honor the Maryland veterans of WWI (photo by Wally Gobetz).  WFA member Dane Coffman attended the meeting in a replica of General Pershing’s wartime uniform.

On Tuesday, September 23, Dr. Hudgins’ HIST 313 students walked to the Peabody Library in Mt. Vernon Square to see original editions of the books they’ve been talking about in class.  “Europe 1815-1914” has been reading Heroes of Invention by Christine MacLeod, wherein the author discusses how the great inventors of the Industrial Revolution were celebrated by authors like Samuel Smiles and Bennett Woodcroft.  Students got to handle original souvenirs from the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, and leaf through Victorian editions of the biographies of James Watt and others.  This was the first time this semester that the class got to touch original artifacts.  They are learning that, most of the time, the primary sources that they handle are either transcriptions, translations, or pixelated images on a computer screen.  The class thanks Mr. Paul Espinosa at the Peabody Library for his time and expertise!

A “fisheye” photograph of the library by Jeff Lee.

On Thursday, Sept. 11, local classicist William Scott Proffitt visited UB to introduce the 2007 action movie 300 to students and faculty in the Bogomolny Room.  Proffitt made the screening special by discussing the original sources for our knowledge of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae.  He compared and contrasted the historical and archeological sources to the different scenes in the movie.  Then, the audience enjoyed a free screening of the film with fresh-popped popcorn, courtesy of the UB Students Events Board.

Jacques-Louis David’s painting of King Leonidas hangs in the Louvre, Paris (click to enlarge).