Transcript

5.28.26 · Smithsonian Magazine

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Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye, and today
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I will be reading the Smithsonian Magazine dated April May
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twenty twenty six. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Please join me now for the first article titled the
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Gunboat Philadelphia lasted one day in battle. It's still telling
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us about the Revolution. Two hundred and fifty years later,
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the twenty nine ton ship went to war against the British,
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then sat at the bottom of Lake Champlain for one
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hundred and sixty years. Now it's a relic of Ragged
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Glory by Covey Biacolo. In the summer of seventeen seventy six,
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when the fifty six delegates of the thirteen Colonies signed
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the United States Declaration of Independence, construction was already under
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way on eight gunboats, part of a planned fleet to
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be commanded by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold. By the fall,
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one of the flotilla's gunboats, the Philadelphia, would join the
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fight against the British Royal Navy at the Battle of
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Valcour Island in Lake Champlain between New York and Vermont.
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The Philadelphia flat bottomed, weighing about twenty nine tons and
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measuring fifty four feet long, was mounted with three cannons,
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one twelve pounder and two nine pounders, and eight swivel guns.
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The Revolutionary War had begun more than a year earlier,
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and Arnold, who would later become infamous as a trader,
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was still working for the Continental Army. The gunboat's construction
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was officially under his directive, but the Assistant Deputy Commissary General,
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Hermanus Schuyler administered the day to day production in Skenesborough,
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New York by soldiers who had previously been ship carpenters.
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Their skills were so valuable that these soldiers became some
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of the highest paid workers in the army, earning an
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estimated thirty four Das dollars a week only Skuyler himself
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made more. Enslaved people of African descent were also vital
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to the completion of the gunboats, particularly in mining iron
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ore and blacksmithing. In fact, the regiments and units stationed
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around Lake Champlain would become notably integrated, comprising free citizens,
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Native Americans, and enslaved black men. Says Kenneth Cohen, Chair
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of Military History and Curator of Early American History at
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the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in m a h.
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In October, after a summer of shipbuilding fighting commenced, the
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Philadelphia was captained by Benjamin Rue from Pennsylvania on October eleventh,
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the day the Battle of Valcour Island began. The noble
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ship's career started and ended with poignant speed. Six hours
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into the exchange of fire, just after sunset, the Philadelphia
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was struck by one of the Royal Navy's twenty four
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pound cannonballs. The vessel swiftly sank. By the battle's end
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two days later, the BRIT's higher caliber arsenal had damaged
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or destroyed much of the American fleet. Defeated, Arnold torched
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the remaining boats as he and the surviving crew retreated,
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eventually reaching the safety of Fort Tykwonderoga, near the south
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end of Lake Champlain. The Philadelphia rested largely undisturbed at
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the bottom of the lake for nearly one hundred and
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sixty years, but in nineteen thirty four, Lorenzo F. Hagland,
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an underwater engineer working for a salvage company, discovered timbers
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in the lake from the wreckage of another ship the
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Patriots had used at Valcour. A World War One vet
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who trained near Lake Champlain, Hagland was also a novice historian,
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and he suspected the Philadelphia might still be under water too.
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The next year, with help from locals who'd passed stone
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stories of the gunboat's demise for generations, Hagland managed to
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locate the Philadelphia and raise it from Lake Champlain. For
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more than two decades, he displayed the gunboat through the
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region as a historical attraction, even exhibiting it at one
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point as a roadside landmark on New York State's Route
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twenty two. In nineteen sixty four, four years after Hagland's death,
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the Smithsonian acquired the vessel. Conservators at NMAH made minor changes,
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shoring up the timbers that fractured when the British shot
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penetrated the Philadelphia's hull, and which decayed further underwater. Starting
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July nineteen sixty five, the boat was on permanent display
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at the museum. Then in the early two thousands, the
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Smithsonian began a decades long conservation project in partnership with
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Texas A and M's Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation.
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In twenty eighteen, the ENDEPHOR entered a more ambitious phase,
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marshaled by Cohen and Jennifer L. Jones, curator and project
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coordinator at n M A H. Jones first encountered the
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Philadelphia in nineteen eighty three when she was an intern
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at the museum. Her first Philadelphia task was simple vacuuming.
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The project's goal, Jones and Cohen say, is not to
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recreate the seventeen seventy six boat. Instead, they're doing something
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more delicate, stabilizing the intricate structure of the craft. We
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are not reconstructing, Jones says, we are cleaning and making
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sure that it lasts for another two hundred years or more. Today,
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the oldest surviving American warship looks undeniably like a relic,
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but it still has a ragged glory. Visitors can see
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precisely where the cannonballs struck the starboard side. The added
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wood is painted gray to distinguish it from the original structure.
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Jones lovingly described the original materials that make up the boat,
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including green oak harvested in and around Skeensborough. Among other
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next steps, the team plans to raise the boat onto
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rubber isolation pads to reduce the impact of low level
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vibrations from the museum floor. In the ongoing preservation process,
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the team will continue to add structural elements to support
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weakening timbers, while replacing any pieces that might threaten the
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overall structural integrity. For example, says Peter Fix, a research
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scientist at Texas A and M, the gunboat's planks were
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originally fastened with iron spikes, which corroded during the one
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hundred and fifty nine year immersion in Lake Champlain. Conservators
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have augmented the fastenings to keep all the planking secured.
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Cowen argues that the importance of the Battle of Valcour
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Island is often overlooked. The battle was significant, he says,
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by virtue of building the fleet. The Americans then forced
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the British to also build a fleet, all of which
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makes this a much more long drawn out war than
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the British had hoped for. That delay proved crucial. The
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British held off their invasion from the North until the
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following year, allowing the Continental Army precious time to regroup
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and triumph at the critical Battle of Saratoga in the
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fall of seventeen seventy seven. The gunboat Philadelphia had served
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briefly but bravely, and to day its planks and cannons
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tell a complicated tale of ingenuity that threw off the monarchy.
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And accompanying that article, did you know Before the Battle
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of Valcour Island? The Continental Army invaded Quebec In September
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seventeen seventy five, about a year before the Battle of
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Valcour Island, the Continental Army invaded British controlled Quebec to
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head off any British forces who might use the province
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to attack the Colonies from the north. That winter, around
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ten thousand British and German troops arrived and routed the Americans,
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who burned its boats and retreated to Fort Taekwonderoga, where
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it began building the fleet that would serve the Patriots
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in the Battle of Valcour Island. Next see the spectacular
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winners of Smithsonian Magazine's twenty third annual Photography Contest. This
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year's best photos command attention by capturing intimate moments and
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bold colors. By Tracy Scott Forsen, Senior Editor. Like rebellious
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bandmates on stage, the three chicks featured in the grand
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prize winning image of the twenty third annual Smithsonian Magazine
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Photo Contest are full of attitude, energy, and individuality, says
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photographer Jacqueline Burke, who playfully titled her entry the punk Rockers.
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Their unruly spiked plumage which gives the unmistakable look of
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tiny mohawks, she says. Photographed at a New Jersey rookery
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or breeding ground, the Egret chicks playing and fighting with
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one another stood out among hundreds of birds. Their little
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necks and heads were writhing. Burke says, one would peck,
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the other would peck back. Although the small birds have
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a huge presence, their parent looms large in the background.
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The photographer framed it beautifully, says Smithsonian Creative director Maria Keyhan.
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The scale jump between the long legs and gnarly imposing
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feet compared to the fluffy heads below is remarkable. Like
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the grand prize photo, the other six winners of this
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year's contest, which received more than seventeen thousand submissions from
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one hundred and eight countries, invite a closer look. A
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bare foot devotee boldly expressing herself during a holy ritual.
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A teenager captured in a symbolic moment between youth and adulthood,
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and a rare encounter with the colorful creature are some
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of the scenes that earned the top prizes. Grand prize
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winner Jacqueline Burke. Burke, a sixty four year old veterinarian,
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observed the recently hatched egrets, each no larger than a
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golf ball, when curled up underneath a ramp at the
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Ocean City Welcome Center in New Jersey, where she was
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visiting from her home in Perkiomenville, Pennsylvania. They were squabbling NonStop,
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she says. She estimates that there were fifty to seventy
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nests that day at the rookery, where native and migratory
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birds choose to breed. It is such a popular destination
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for birds and birders alike that the state's Audubond Society
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hosts events there. Burke's interest in animals led her to
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take up photography in twenty fourteen. That's when she traded
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in bird watching binoculars for a camera. We need to
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save species like this and save moments like this, she says.
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Artistic Irena Denisova, as part of a project organized by
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a local photo club Denisova, forty four, of Melbourne, was
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tasked with taking a picture of a woman wearing a
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cultural head covering. As I worked on it, the idea shifted,
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says Denisova, who decided to create something a bit more
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abstract in her home studio. She used black fabric as
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a veil for her model. She added finishing touches in
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editing using Adobe Photoshop. The white fractures cutting through the
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image hint at inner division, at the layers we are
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made of, and at moments of awareness when that apparent
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wholeness begins to crack. Denisova, who began her photography career
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almost ten years ago, appreciates the complete calm and serenity
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captured in the image. Travel Arun Kumar Malamela during their
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annual Hindu festival of Shivaratri. Nalamela, a thirty three year
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old resident of Telangana, India, watched as devotees lit oil
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lamps or dayas in an act of prayer. Seemingly moved
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by the moment a woman stepped out among the illuminated rows.
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Her bare feet speak louder than anything else, Nlamela says,
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you don't always need a visible face. What truly matters
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is whether you can feel the essence of the scene,
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the devotion, the silence, the energy, everything that exists beyond
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this subject. Nalamela took up photography, a hobby he inherited
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from his older brother, in twenty thirteen. He began capturing
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images of wild life, but his focus has shifted. When
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you photograph culture with true devotion, images reveal themselves as unplanned, unimagined,
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almost gifted. He said, this photograph came to me in
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that way. People Willem Kuipers. During the week leading up
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to Easter, Christians in many cities across the world take
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part in holy observances, But Kuipers seventy three, a retired
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photographer with more than fifty years experience, says no place
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he scene commemorates the holiday like Sicily. In Tripani, you
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find the most intense Holy Week processions full of emotions.
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During the Tuesday procession of the Madonna Dai Masari, Koiper's
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photographed men as they carried floats representing the stations of
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the Cross, supported by bars lifted onto the men's shoulders.
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The heavy floats, many with wooden statues, can weigh hundreds
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of pounds. You can imagine that this becomes very intense
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and painful, says Kuipers, whose photograph represents the intense efforts
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these carriers go through for their faith American experience. Christopher
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Scott Carpenter, at fourteen, Delchha Hennio took part in a
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traditional Navajo canalda ceremony that welcomed her to womanhood. Carpenter,
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thirty two, a Salt Lake City native and a long
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time friend of the family, was there to observe the
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four day ritual of communal meals, chanting, and all night prayer.
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Dalchat worked with horses on the family ranch and competed
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at rodeos throughout her childhood, so she incorporated her horse
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Hazel into the ceremony. As she led Hazel to Gray's
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Dlchhay turned to face a slight breeze. It's a quiet,
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soft portrait of a young woman looking toward her future,
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Carpenter says. Wild Life Victoria West, a conservation photographer based
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in Johannesburg, West twenty nine, usually aims her camera at
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vulnerable species. She's filmed African wild dogs for the Endangered
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Wildlife Trust and rhinoceroses for African parks and wee wild Africa.
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My work is now almost full time conservation story telling.
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West says her winning image of a chameleon, photographed in
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the garden of a boarding school where she was documenting
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a herpetologist, was different from her other work, a creative endeavor.
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She says, I just thought it was really, really beautiful.
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Drone Yongln's son recognized for its award winning architecture. The
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Apo chang An R and D Center is a circular sensation.
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Using a d g I Mavic two pro drone flying
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five hundred feet above, Sun captured the ring structure that
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connects the curvaceous buildings of the campus, which occupies five
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city blocks. He describes the complex as a miniature world
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that includes educational buildings, residences, and an eight hundred and
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twenty foot office tower. The bridge was still under construction
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when Sun took the photo. In the top right of
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the image, the pavement is still gray. Sun, a long
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time freelance photographer, appreciates the juxtaposition of architectural structure and
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random human activity. The movement of vehicles and people inside
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and around the ring weaves a dynamic thread of urban
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life within this geometric city space. He says reader's choice
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Roberto Potzi. Through his work as a travel photographer, Potzi,
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a fifty two year old resident of Spain, seeks to
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chronicle peoples and customs. The Mundari ethnic group of South Sudan,
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known for its cattle oriented culture, is one that captivates him.
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Adolescent members of the tribe are often the primary handlers
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of the ana animals, carrying out daily tasks. His photograph
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captures a typical moment at sunrise, a Mundari child cleaning
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a bull's horns using a mixture of mud and water.
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In capturing the essence of some of the world's most
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remote communities, I pay tribute to the extraordinary beauty of
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human diversity, he says, accompanying this article, facts and figures.
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What to know about the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest. Some
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two thousand, eight hundred and fifteen photographers, both amateur and professional,
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from around the world entered the twenty third annual Smithsonian
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Magazine Photo Contest. The twenty fourth annual contest will open
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for entries in September next The endangered Probasis monkey is
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easily identifiable by one physical trait, its supersized schnas. When
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you see this primates nose you know o in Borneo,
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where efforts are underway to restore its habitat by Alex Fox.
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If Cyrino de Bergerac had been a pis monkey, he
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might not have needed poetry. For this furry primate found
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only on the island of Borneo, a prominent nose is
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an asset. Males with the biggest snouts up to nearly
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seven inches long, usually have the largest bodies overall, and
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because their noses are an indicator of both status and
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reproductive fitness, these fellows attract more mates than their lesser
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endowed competitors. Probasis, monkeys can be seen and heard thanks
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to the male's deep nasal honks in the forests along
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Borneo's inland waterways and coastal mangroves, where they survive on
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young leaves and unripe fruit. Perhaps the world's most aquatic primates,
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they swim across crocodile patrolled rivers in search of fresh foliage,
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aided by partially webbed fingers and toes. Every night, the
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monkeys return to trees at the water's edge to socialize
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and sleep. Researchers think the water mix it harder for
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predators such as tree climbing clouded leopards to sneak up
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on them, but this dependence on Borneo's water front forests
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has put the species in danger, as humans have destroyed
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much of their habitat in the past several decades. In
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some areas of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island,
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the monkeys are also hunted for food and traditional medicine.
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Combining regional estimates based on scant data puts the current
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population at twenty thousand to twenty five thousand. The International
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Union for Conservation of Nature has classified the Probasis monkey
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as endangered since two thousand, calculating in twenty fifteen that
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the population had declined by more than seventy percent over
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roughly four decades. The Kinabatangan River floodplain in the Malaysian
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state of Sabah has lost approximately eighty percent of its
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natural forest to agriculture and logging, leaving the Probasis monkey
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and other wildlife in isolated fragments. To heal the landscape,
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the Malaysian conservation organization Hutan has planted more than two
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hundred and forty six thousand native trees since two thousand
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eight rebuilding forest corridors along the river banks and government
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protected areas and private lands secured by Hutan and its partners.
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Houton is also working with farmers to plant native trees
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on their lands. A few years after the group helped
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in oil palm Plantation add native trees to its riverside land,
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monkeys returned to the area. Today we have a couple
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of families we see regularly, says Mark Ancrenaz, a wildlife
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veterinarian who co founded Huton with primatologist Isabelle Lachmann in
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nineteen ninety eight. In an area with so much degraded forest,
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small sites like this one offer Oncrena's hope. These monkeys
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don't need a perfect pristine forest, he says, with even
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a little restoration, the forest can become usable for the
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prosis monkeys. Again, this gives us a tremendous opportunity to
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link together habitat fragments with agro forestry and restoration work
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to help rebuild this population. And with this article. Fun
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fact a nose by any other name, The appearance of
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newborns monkeys is as distinct as the adults, but for
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different reasons. The baby's noses are small when born, but
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they still have stand out features blue faces and dark,
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nearly black fur. Next, Mohma plans a retrospective for a
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Marcel Duchamp, the Da DA artist, who was unimpressed with
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his own masterpieces. The French American avant garde artist said
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painting and sculpture exhibitions made him sick, but the collection
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of two hundred of his works may tell the story
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of art in the twentieth century. By Amy Crawford. The
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French American artist Marcel Duchamp eighteen eighty seven to nineteen
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sixty eight made a splash when his Fountain, an impishly
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repurposed porcelain urinal, was rejected by a major New York
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art show in nineteen seventeen. But while he became a
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household name through his conception of ready made sculpture, Duchamp
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spent his six decade career experimenting with nearly every available
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medium and subject. In April, the Museum of Modern Art
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in New York mounted the artist's first u s retrospective
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in more than half a century. The exhibition includes more
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than two hundred works, including a nineteen sixty eight replica
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of Fountain, that together tell the story of art in
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the twentieth century. Duchamp, who once confessed to a friend
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all painting and sculpture exhibitions make me sick, might have
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laughed at such a claim. Yet his place in art history,
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he saw, was not up to him. A painting is
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made not by the artist, but by those who look
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at it, says Duchamp. In other words, no painter knows
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himself or what he is doing. And accompanying this article,
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did you know who was Marcel Duchamp? Duchamp experimented with
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Cubist and futurist paintings, cartoon sketches of Paris life, avant
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garde films, and photographic collaborations with the likes of Man Ray.
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The new exhibit runs at the Museum of Modern Art
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in New York April twelfth through August twenty second, twenty
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twenty six. Next, some letters to the editor Real life Drama.
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I read your article on the British propaganda radio station
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during World War Two and thought it so interesting Voice
24:26
of Deception, March twenty twenty six. Then I went looking
24:30
to see if someone had made a movie or PBS
24:33
style mini series, and there was nothing. A ragtag group
24:36
of artists and outcasts fighting Nazis through the power of media.
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How has Hollywood not gotten on top of this? That
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was from bray Wright Clawson, Michigan. And from Clark Carboneau,
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Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was inspiring to learn that
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Agnes Bernauer was half Jewish, she had escaped Germany, and
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then she was aiding the war effort in such a
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significant manner. Congratulations to author April White for a well
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written history that needs to be remembered. And from Sandra
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bow Graham, Washington. Beware of the Dogs. I'm always pleased
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when a natural solution to managing pests as many sea coyotes, wolves,
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and cougars is found. Paul Patrol, March twenty twenty six.
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I'm also always disappointed when an age old solution like
25:30
guardian dogs goes unnoticed and unused for so long. History
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often holds solutions to problems if we take the time
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to learn it. Going Green This is from Tony Ioviccini, Waymart, Pennsylvania.
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There were so many interesting yet relatively unknown facts in
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Shifting Sands March twenty twenty six. I was surprised to
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read about the world's largest aquifer under the Sahara, as
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well as the animal life that existed there not that
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long ago, relatively speaking, then, I was pleasantly surprised to
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read that various species are being introduced back into the region.
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I enjoyed learning as I read the article from Donna
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Cotton Johnson, Mills River, North Carolina. As an art teacher,
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the idea that petroglyphs exist in the vastness of the
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Sahara was surprising. That the artworks depicted animals that no
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longer live in the area is fascinating. And from Sioux Maglietta, Scottsdale, Arizona,
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this was a really educational article about the geological history
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of the Sahara. I am always impressed by the slow
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and thoughtful accumulation of bits of information being put together
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into a larger historical picture. And finally ask Smithsonian, you've
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got questions, We've got experts question, are there any planets
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in space that don't orbit around a star? The answer
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is from Jennifer cy Observational Astronomer, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard
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and Smithsonian. As planetary systems form, its theoretically possible that
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some planets whose orbits haven't fully stabilized could be kicked
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out of their star systems through close gravitational encounters with
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other planets or stars. In stellar nurseries where many new
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solar systems are forming, the James Webb Space Telescope has
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detected hundreds of isolated objects smaller than Jupiter. These might
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be planets based on their small mass. However, they might
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be miniature brown dwarfs, failed stars that are too small
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to fuse hydrogen the way our Sun does. Demonstrating that ejected,
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free floating planets exist and do not have host stars
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is part of the mission of the upcoming Nancy Grace
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Roman Space Telescope. This concludes readings from the Smithsonian Magazine
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for today. Your reader has been Rebecca Shore. Thank you
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for listening, and have a great day.