FLAG DAY and OUR WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

The next time you are in the library, you'll want to spend some time looking at the display in the case outside the Bullis Room. This month, the display showcases Bullis books that pertain to Flag Day and our War of Independence.

Here is a partial list of those on display:

The Pictorial History of the American Revolution;

with a sketch of the early history of the country.

By Robert Sears (1810-1892)

      The Life of George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces;

during the war which established the independence of this country, and

first president of the United States

By John Marshall (1755-1835)

Published by Crissy & Markley, and Thomas, Cowperthwait and Co., 1850

The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution;

or illustrations, by pen and pencil, of the history, biography, scenery, relics, 

and traditions of the war for independence

By Benson John Lossing (1813-1891)

Published by Harper & Brothers, 1855

The books will be back in the Bullis Room, available for reading, in mid-July.  So please plan to visit the Bullis Room to take a closer look at some of them. We especially recommend The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution as a reminder of what our military men and women did for us during that war as well as all the wars that have followed.

THE PRESIDENT'S FLAG DAY ADDRESS

In honor of Flag Day, we share with you the first two and last paragraphs of The President's Flag Day Address With Evidence of Germany's Plans, delivered by President Woodrow Wilson on June 14, 1917, in Washington, D.C.

"My Fellow Citizens:

We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag which we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us--speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. We celebrate the day of its birth; and from its birth until now it has witnessed a great history, has floated on high the symbol of great events, of a great plan of life worked out by a great people. We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will draw the fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds of thousands, it may be millions, of our men, the young, the strong, the capable men of the Nation, to go forth and die beneath it on fields of blood far away--for what? For some unaccustomed thing? For something for which it has never sought the fire before? American armies were never before sent across the seas. Why are they sent now? For some new purpose, for which this great flag has never been carried before, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for which it has seen men, its own men, die on every battle field upon which Americans have borne arms since the Revolution?

... We are Americans. We in our turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. We must use her flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at the bar of history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it is we seek to serve."

If you would like to read the entire speech, ask a Bullis Room volunteer to access Document 2634 from our archives.