THE ART OF COMMUNICATION

"I'll write a letter soon but now, as time is pressing hard, to let you know I think of you, I send this postal card."
(Owen Card Pub. Co., Elmira, New York)

Earlier this month, we featured a few vintage postcards from this collection. To use a familiar phrase, there are lots more where those came from. We began this week by poring over another stack of these cards, and smiled at messages written over 80 years ago, such as, "When are you coming to visit us, cousin?" or "I got new boots!"

How many of us today take time to write a note to a friend just to say hello? (No, those on-vacation, "Wish you were here," cards don't count!) Has letter writing become a lost art in our society of almost-instant communication? The cards in this collection are inspiring some of us to pick up our pens a bit more often.

FLYING MACHINES

When did our fascination with flight begin? Perhaps back when our species first walked upright and envied the birds soaring across the skies above. There was certainly an interest in this subject a hundred years ago when William James Jackson authored FLYING MACHINES, which he subtitled construction and operation; a practical book which shows, in illustrations, working plans and text, how to build and navigate the modern airship, and the book lives up to this declaration.

This week our country celebrated the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin's walk on the surface of the moon. In between Jackson's 1910 flying machines and the astronaut's 1969 lunar module, many dedicated people gave their time and talents to getting our feet off the ground in a better way. This effort continues and leaves us to wonder what progress we will see in another 40 years.

In the meantime, Jackson's book is on the shelf here in the Bullis Room and you're invited to pore over its fascinating pages and take an imaginary trip in an early-twentieth century "modern" airship.

DIGGING

No, we volunteers haven't been gardening here in the Bullis Room even though the many books on that subject inspire us to get dirt under our fingernails. Instead we've again been digging through the many papers, documents, and photos we have on the Bullis family and their extended family and friends. This includes the Knapp, Breese, Loomis, and Rodenberger families.

The Bullis Room Committee's goal is: "To present the contents and value of the Bullis Collection and the historical footprint of the Bullis family to the Macedon community." Accomplishing this goal means we need to be familiar with every book, pamphlet, letter, note, journal, and photo in this collection. Obviously, that takes lots of digging, sometimes until our heads are swimming with facts and details and we say "Enough for now." We always come back to the task, though, motivated by our respect for the Bullis family and inspired by our love of the Bullis Room and everything in it.

Last week we were also inspired and motivated by our visit with an extended-family member of the Bullises who shared photos and clippings as well as memories of Nettie, Charlie, their parents, and the Bullis house. This information enhances our understanding of Nettie Bullis and her family and motivates us to do--guess what--MORE DIGGING!

(We'd love to hear from you if you have any memories of or information about these families.)

I LOVE NEW YORK

The next time you're in Macedon Public Library, we suggest that you take a look at the current I LOVE NEW YORK display in the case on the east side of the Bullis Room window. Several Bullis books on our state's history are featured as well as these vintage postcards from the collection:

Camp Watokalo, Adirondack Mountains, New York

Geneva on Seneca Lake

Hotel Rochester in Rochester

The Locks in Lockport, New York

Methodist Church and Parsonage in Sodus

High School in Sodus

Main Street, looking west from Maple Avenue, in Sodus

Ravine and Iron Bridge, near Chautauqua

College Hall Auditorium in Lima

Aqueduct, Palmyra

And if you're familiar with some of the places or settings in these pictures and would like to share a special memory, we'd love to hear from you. You can contact us through this blog or leave a message for us (the Bullis Committee) at the main desk.

THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

We all know that our perspective of a particular situation quite often changes over the years. That's one reason Bullis Room volunteers enjoy the books in this collection--they give us different perspectives on the past.

Author John Fiske's THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (copyright, 1889) looks back on this war over a hundred years later and allows us to form our own perspective from his perspective. Neat,hunh?

Fiske states in his preface: "When I was as boy I should have been glad to get hold of a brief account of the War for Independence that would have suggested answers to some of the questions that used to vex me." Then he lists the questions, which he answers in his book.

1. Was the conduct of the British government, in driving the Americans into rebellion, merely wanton aggression, or was it not rather a bungling attempt to solve a political problem which really needed to be solved?

2. Why were New Jersey and the Hudson river so important?

3. Why did the British armies make South Carolina their chief objective point after New York?

4. How did Cornwallis happen to be at Yorktown when Washington made such a long leap and pounced upon him there?

Fiske states that old-fashioned textbooks not only did not try to answer these questons, they did not even recognize their existence. Therefore he offers to boys and girls "this little book, not as a rival but as an aid to the ordinary textbook."

Chapter titles include The Colonies in 1750, The Stamp Act, The French Alliance, Birth of a Nation.


Illustrations include Paul Revere's Ride, The Boston Tea Party, Invasion of Canada, Signing of the Declaration of Independence, Burgoyne's Campaign, and Washington Crossing the Delaware. You can find it on shelf V-4.