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The award-winning American Spirit magazine is a handsomely illustrated, bimonthly publication focusing on issues that are important to us all. Articles cover such subjects as American history, historic preservation, patriotism, genealogy and education. Whatever your interests, you will find informative, entertaining and engaging articles in each issue of American Spirit magazine.
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May/June 2012
Today's Daughters
Glimpse into the lives and passions of the diverse group of  women who comprise today’s DAR membership.
National Treasures
Take a step inside the DAR Museum for a closer look at its fascinating collection.
More Articles
Learn about the interesting historical articles from this issue.
Upcoming Issues
Details on exciting stories that will be featured in upcoming issues of American Spirit.
Making a Splash
By Lena Anthony
Volume 146, Number 3, May/June 2012, Page 6
Mary Kelly Vowell is proud of the fact that, at 86 years old, she doesn’t take any medication. She knows that good genes have a lot to do with it, but she also gives some of the credit to being an avid swimmer.
 Mrs. Vowell started swimming for health reasons in the 1980s. “My ankles and feet were swelling, and my doctor told me I had a choice to make,” says the member of James Buckley Chapter, Martin, Tenn. “I could either walk more, prop my feet up for a couple of hours each day or start wearing elastic hose. I didn’t like any of those options.”
So she jumped in the pool. She worked her way up to 18 laps (½ mile), alternating between the breaststroke, sidestroke and backstroke. “After a while, I noticed that my feet and ankles weren’t swelling,” she says. “That’s when I decided I would swim for as long as I’m able to, because my health is so much better when I’m swimming.”
The longtime DAR member swims three days a week. She usually spends about 90 minutes in the morning traversing the Olympic-sized pool on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Martin, and occasionally she returns in the afternoon. Sometimes she swims just for fun—or if she’s feeling lonely (her husband, Morris, died in 2002). Other times it’s about getting faster and stronger in preparation for her next competition.
In It to Win It
Mrs. Vowell started competing in the biennial Senior Games in 1999, entering the 50-yard and 100-yard breaststroke events. “I didn’t get any ribbons or medals, but I didn’t finish last either,” she recalls.
She’s gotten even faster since that first race. At last year’s National Senior Games in Houston, Mrs. Vowell won a medal in all six races she entered, even bringing home her first gold, in the 50-yard freestyle. “You never expect to win, but when you do it’s just about the most exciting thing that could ever happen,” she says.
She credits a lot of her success to her volunteer swim coach, Frank Leach, and also to the support of her family, including sons David, Donald and Richard, and her daughter, Carolyn.
Mrs. Vowell learned to swim when she was 11. Her father worked on the construction of Natchez Trace State Park, one of the projects funded by President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and he moved the family to Lexington, Tenn., for the summer so they could be together. A pool had just been built, and Mrs. Vowell and her brother would go there after dinner most evenings. “That summer I learned to dog paddle,” she says.
Back home in Union City, Tenn., Mrs. Vowell sometimes swam with friends at a nearby pool where the water came from an icehouse. “It was really cold, but we had a good time,” she says.
Later when Mrs. Vowell was a teenager and spent a summer in Southern California, she and her family swam in the same lagoon where many of the “Tarzan” movies were filmed. “I was surrounded by water when I was little,” she says. “Every chance I got, I would get in.”
A Sports Addict
A 40-year DAR member, Mrs. Vowell twice served as regent of Reelfoot Chapter, Union City, Tenn. She became interested in the DAR when she started driving her mother to her chapter meetings in the mid-1960s. “I really enjoyed the programs and the fellowship,” she recalls.
In addition to spending time with her family, swimming and DAR activities, the self-proclaimed sports addict enjoys cheering on her alma mater, the University of Tennessee at Martin Skyhawks: “Football, basketball, soccer, baseball, softball—you name it and I’m there.”
For more Today’s Daughters, please click here.
To nominate a Daughter for a future issue, e-mail a description to americanspirit@dar.org.
National Treasures
Let's Go Ride a Bike
Volume 146, Number 3, May/June 2012, Page 7
High-wheeled bicycles, also called penny-farthings, were a craze of the 1880s, when this child’s bicycle was manufactured. They were popular with all ages despite design flaws: They sent riders headfirst over the handlebars when braking or hitting obstacles, and they easily tipped sideways. By the late 1880s and early 1890s the twin-wheeled “safety bicycle,” thus called for its safety in comparison to high-wheelers, replaced this design, and the bicycle craze continued unabated. Susan B. Anthony said in 1896 that the bicycle had done “more to emancipate women than anything else in the world ... It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance ... away she goes, the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.” (See American Spirit’s May/June 2010 issue for more on the history of bicycles.)
The bicycle was a Friends of the Museum purchase.
For more National Treasures, please visit the DAR Museum's Featured Objects.
Class Act
Back to the Source
By Nancy Cooper
Volume 146, Number 3, May/June 2012, Page 8
One of the goals of Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron, Ohio, is to increase knowledge and understanding of our American past—the great story of “us.”
Archbishop Hoban American history teacher Jason Anderson has found an effective way to teach the story of “us”—by throwing out the textbooks.
In order to make the history of the Revolution meaningful for his students, Anderson says he has taken the “edu-tainment,” namely watching movies and videos, out of the classroom and returned to some old-fashioned, hands-on techniques. “Our kids have the technology, but nothing about that is fresh or innovative,” he explains.
“It doesn’t matter if you are talking about Washington or Obama, when you look at history, they both have some of the same needs and wants,” he continues. Anderson exposes his students to primary sources, sharing reports, news accounts, maps, letters and journals kept by real people who lived during the Revolution. “When you use original items, you can easily put yourself in that person. It’s real—unbiased by an author or textbook committee—and today’s students are inspired by those accounts.”
Anderson says his father Duayne was the greatest teacher he ever knew. His dad worked for the phone company, but early in life instilled a sense of history in his son by taking him to Civil War re-enactments. The elder Anderson also was an Eagle Scout and a Boy Scout leader. Learning by doing was a natural part of Anderson’s life, and he now brings those values to his sons, Christian and Dominic, and his students.
After spending time at a Mount Vernon Teacher Institute for history teachers, Anderson created living history experiences and devised ways to incorporate science, math, English and economics into students’ days.
For example, he teaches about the Battle of Lake Erie with a floor-sized map of the lake and shoreline. The students re-enact the highlights of the fight with model ships that they move based on the accounts they have researched. Anderson also teaches the concept of mock trials by assigning students to play the roles of certain historical figures and act out the trials, again based solely on first-hand accounts.
His use of hands-on teaching strategies has grown over the years to include a co-teaching effort, partnering with science and math teachers to show students how to use 18th-century survey equipment. Students also learn how to use a Franklin printing press. All this culminates with a half-day outdoor activity that teaches the historical significance of the British and American Indian attacks on Fort Laurens, Ohio’s Revolutionary War-era fort. Teachers dress in period clothing, and students prepare food from the era.
Based on this experience, his classes have written and filmed documentaries that are now posted on the Society for the Preservation of Ohio History’s website (www.freewebs.com/ohiohistory), which Anderson created and maintains. Documentaries about the Battle of Lake Erie, Fort Laurens and the women of World War II are available free online.
With the financial support of local DAR chapters, Anderson has developed a George Washington Leadership Program. Students celebrate Washington’s birthday Colonial-style, researching the era, preparing and cooking food, and even learning to dance the Virginia reel. The program includes a 10-lesson curriculum culminating in a Mr. George Washington Contest.
In keeping with Ohio’s desire to re-engineer the social studies curriculum to include more science and math connections, Anderson will teach archaeology for the first time next year. He is convinced that this method will help students not only learn and remember historical lessons, but also be exposed to different disciplines.
FEATURES
What the Newly Released 1940 Census Tells Us by Nancy Mann Jackson
The 1940 Census, taken at the eve of World War II, captures a defining moment in our country's history. Its release on April 2 marked the first time census records were readily available to everyone.
A More Authentic Landscape by Stacey Evers
Mount Vernon horticulturalists and archaeologists worked together to restore George Washington's Upper Garden to its 1799 appearance.
A Fighting for British Freedom by Bill Hudgins
Throughout the war, slaves as well as free blacks were instrumental in supporting Loyslist and British resistance to the Revolution.
DEPARTMENTS
Visions of America: Heading Out on the Highway by Megan Pacella
If you're looking for an adventure this summer, stop by and explore these 10 All-American roadside attractions.
Spirited Adventures: Burlington, Vt. By Sara Hodon
Home to Vermont founders Ethan and Ira Allen, Burlington's story is being preserved by history-minded leaders.
Historic Homes: The Phillips House by Sharon McDonnell
The Phillips family's extraordinary collection is on display in this early 19th-century Salem, Mass., mansion.
Our Patriots: Francis Marion by Lena Anthony
The swamp Fox's guerrilla tactics drove the British out of South Carolina in the final year of the Revolution.
Plus: Safeguarding South Carolina's Marsh Tacky Horses by Courtney Peter
These unique animals descended from Colonial Spanish horses are found only in South Carolina. In 2010 the Marsh Tacky became the official State Heritage Horse.
Bookshelf reviews Dining with the Washingtons: Historic Recipes, Entertaining and Hospitality from Mount Vernon.
Also: Whatnot, Letters to the Editor and the President General's Message
To purchase an issue of American Spirit, contact magazinesubscriptions@dar.org
To subscribe to American Spirit, visit Subscribe.
To Come in the July/August 2012 issue of American Spirit:
In Tune with America: Our History in Song
Visions of America: Patriotic Jewelry and Military Decorations
Lay Lights Illuminate Historic Buildings
Historic Homes: Point of Honor, Lynchburg, Va. |
