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Month: October 2010

Cristoforo Columbo and Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr.

I’m not sure if this etching can reveal anything about Christopher Columbus, who has a more complex profile these days than when the famous rhyme, “In fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue” became familiar to every kid in the schoolyard. What is interesting to learn about that rhyme is that it is only one couplet in a very long poem, “The History of the U.S.” by Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr. The poem also features other famous folks who had an impact on America, including John Smith, Paul Revere and William Penn. Winifred was considered a child prodigy and wrote many “jingles” from a young age.

Fly Me to the Moon

In 1836, Richard E. Locke, writing for the New York Sun, claimed that the noted British astronomer Sir William Herschel had discovered life on the moon. Flora and fauna included bat-men, moon maidens (with luna-moth wings), moon bison, and other extravagant life forms. Locke proposed an expedition to the moon using a ship supported by hydrogen balloons.