USS Texas. The only surviving dreadnought in the world.

USS Texas. The only surviving dreadnought in the world. San Jacinto Battlefield State Park, Texas.

Keeping with our theme of the 1910s, we're reposting our Holscher's Hub post of photographs of the USS Texas, which was commissioned in 1914 and went right to a mission of the coast of Mexico at the time.

 

These are photographs of the USS Texas. The date stamp, fwiw, is in error. These were taken in  October, 2016.

The  Texas is the last Dreadnought on earth.  One pre dreadnought battleship exists, a Japanese example, and several post dreadnought battleships. But these ships, which formed the backbone of every major fleet in the world in the early 20th Century, are down to this example.  She was launched in 1912 and commissioned on 1914. A major ship in her day, while she served all the way through World War Two, and provided support to amphibious landings in Europe and the Pacific, she was

already somewhat antiquated at the time of her commissioning.  Super dreadnoughts, like the Arizona, were already being launched prior to her commissioning.  Still, she was a ship of many firsts, including being the first US ship to mount anti aircraft guns.

 

 San Jacinto Monument as viewed from the USS Texas.

Battle of Segale

The Battle of Segale took place in Ethiopia on this day in 1916.  Negus Mikael of Wollo marched on Addis Ababa in support of his son, the Emperor Designate Iyasu V.  His forces were defeated by  Fitawrari Habte Giyorgis which secured the throne for Empress Zewditu.

 Empress Zewditu of Ethiopia, Empress from 1916 to 1930.  The defeated Iyasu V outlived her but never returned to power.

A Mid Week At Work Blog Mirror: Kit Up; Trails Found: Training SOF to Operate on Horseback

Trails Found: Training SOF to Operate on Horseback.

Standards of Dress: The high school graduation

 High school students, Pennsylvania, 1942.

I originally started this thread at the time of my son's high school graduation.  Like a lot of threads around here that get sort of started, it marinated a long time and I'm only know just getting back around to it.

Indeed, as an aside, I'll note that some marinate so long they spoil, and are discarded.  I usually have about 100 draft posts, some up to two years old, that are lingering around.  I shouldn't do that, as the older they get, the less likely it is that they'll ever be finished.

Anyhow, what I started to note here is that during the recent high school graduation I was surprised by how dressed down the crowed was, and I don't mean the students.  They were generally better dressed than many of the adults.  There are truly no standard in dress anymore.

Outdoor graduation, 1941.

Even as late as the 1960s a crowd of adults here turned out for a high school graduation would have been well dressed. . . nice dressed for the women, and suits and ties for the men.  Not any longer. T-shirts adorned a lot of the adults.

I'm not much better, I'll note. I think I wore a polo shirt in the school colors.

This probably isn't good, in all sorts of ways. For one thing, it  pre loads an assumption in the minds of the young.  Things here aren't the same as they are everywhere.  Indeed, I was recently in Houston in a business hotel and the men lining up for the early breakfast each day were definitely dressed.  Maybe our standards locally have declined more than they have elsewhere, which means when our kids end up in that environment, which seems to be the direction society is engineered to send them, there will be a bit of a learning curve.

Crowd of parents and well wishers at a segregated high school, Georgia, 1941.

Out of curiosity, if you've been to an event like this recently, how were people dressed?

On the occasion of the commencement of the 2016 World Series

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

Field of Dreams.

Matters of preception: The old and the new?

This late 1910 issue of Puck really shows us some interesting things about conditions and preceptions of little over a century ago.

Viewing Milestone

Sometime yesterday this blog went over the 200,000 views mark.  Pretty remarkable in some ways.

On the other hand, this blog has been around for quite awhile, so perhaps not.   While there are a few postdated entries here, the actual first post came on May 1, 2009.  200,000 views in seven years isn't exactly an Internet sensation by any means.  Of course, early on the blog was very inactive and therefore its not surprising that it received little in the way of readership. 

It's readership has picked up a lot this year.  It has ups and downs, but starting in March it really picked up. That was the anniversary of the Punitive Expedition and we started posting a lot on that.  Searches on that, perhaps, might explain it.  The frequent insertion of newspapers from 1916 also seems to have had a marked impact.  Given that we were basically running some things in "real time", so to speak, we also started linking some of those threads into Reddit's 100 Years Ago Today subreddit, which also had quite an impact.

Indeed, an impact of 100 Years Ago today is that the longstanding list of most viewed threads changed nearly completely.  Only one of the threads on the all time top ten, the one on hats, was on that list before Reddit impacted the list and changed it nearly completely.  Posts on Arminto, Wyoming, young Queen Elizabeth II in Canada and the Niobrara County courthouse left the top ten, presumably for all time.  Most of those thread would have about half of the views they'd need to be on the top ten list, even though some of them had been on it for years.

Indeed, some of the newer threads on the list have gone over 1,000 views in a day, pretty remarkable when we consider that getting about 500 used to guarantee that the thread would be on the top ten list.  Right now, the site gets over 15,000 views per month.  Prior to March of this year, the all time high had been September 2014 which had seen 5,000 views that month.  In February 2015 the number was back down to a little over 2,000 per month.  March of that year brought it back up to a little over 4,000 and it hovered around that for a long time.  March 2016 brought it back up to nearly 5,000.  Last month in had a little over 19,500.  It's had just over 16,000 this month, with the month nearly over, so my guess is that September 2016 will be a peak for some time.

Thanks go out to everyone who reads the blog.  Special thanks go out to everyone who has commented on a thread.  This blog remains mostly a learning exercise, so i particularly enjoy any engagement we receive.

Wyoming National Guard M1917 Helmet

A Wyoming National Guard M1917 helmet.

Neat!

No doubt painted in this fashion after the war.  Generally, it's maintained that US units didn't paint unit insignias on their helmets until after the war.

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Westward Ho the Wagons

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Westward Ho the Wagons: I can remember many years ago watching or listening to  various programs that ended with some form of the phrase – “and the rest is history...

Spillway forms, Keechelus Dam, Yakim River, Washington, October 24, 1916.

LOC Caption:  Photographic copy of photograph, photographer unknown, 24 October 1916 (original print located at U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Upper Columbia Area Office, Yakima, Washington). "Spillway forms." - Keechelus Dam, Spillway, Yakim River, 10 miles northwest of Easton, Easton, Kittitas County, WA

The Big Picture. Inspecting the ore docks.

Members of American Iron and Steel Institute inspecting the ore docks, Cleveland, Oct. 23, 1915

Lawrence meets Feisal for the first time, October 23, 1916

While we've been looking at the Punitive Expedition, momentous occurrences have been going on in the Middle East and more were about to occur.

It was on this date, October 23, 1916, that T. E. Lawrence, then a Captain in the British Army, first met  Emir Feisal, son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca.  As recounted by Lawrence in Seven Pillars of Wisdom:

He led me to an inner court, on whose further side, framed between the uprights of a black doorway, stood a white figure waiting tensely for me. I felt at first glance that this was the man I had come to Arabia to seek – the leader who would bring the Arab Revolt to full glory. Feisal looked very tall and pillar-like, very slender, in his long white silk robes and his brown head-cloth bound with a brilliant scarlet and gold cord. His eyelids were dropped; and his black beard and colourless face were like a mask against the strange, still watchfulness of his body. His hands were crossed in front of him on his dagger.I greeted him. He made way for me into the room, and sat down on his carpet near the door. As my eyes grew accustomed to the shade, they saw that the little room held many silent figures, looking at me or at Feisal steadily. He remained staring down at his hands, which were twisting slowly about his dagger. At last he inquired softly how I had found the journey. I spoke of the heat and he asked how long from Rabegh, commenting that I had ridden fast for the season.

"And do you like our place here in Wadi Safra?"

"Well; but it is far from Damascus."

The word had fallen like a sword in their midst. There was a quiver. Then everybody present stiffened where he sat, and held his breath for a silent minute. Some, perhaps, were dreaming of far off success: others may have thought it a reflection on their late defeat. Feisal at length lifted his eyes, smiling at me, and said, "Praise be to God, there are Turks nearer us than that". We all smiled with him; and I rose and excused myself for the moment.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. Hubert's Catholic Church, Kaycee-Sussex Road

Churches of the West: St. Hubert's Catholic Church, Kaycee-Sussex Road:

This Catholic Church, served by the Parish in Buffalo, is a truly rural church being located on the highway leading east out of Kaycee, Wyoming, which goes to Sussex. The small church is just off the highway, in an area that's otherwise agricultural.