Castillo De San Marcos

 Castillo De San Marcos

St. Augustine, Florida

March 31, 2022

Constructed from 1672 to 1695, the Castillo De San Marcos has been used to learn about the history of St. Augustine and Florida for nearly 450 years. The original build of 9 wooden forts, Castillo was finally funded by Spain for the protection of Spaniards living here. With 18 years of renovation, the fort in 1756 is what the Spanish would finally call a finished product. With multiple attacks, the fort was home too many innocent people trying to protect themselves along with their city. The attacks and new conquerors also brought a numerous amount of renovations to the fort which makes it a bit different than it was when the Spanish were here. Meticulously and carefully constructed, every aspect of the fort has a purpose that protected the people and the City of St. Augustine.

https://www.nps.gov/casa/index.htm

Exterior Picture 1

A photo from the northwestern corner of the fort, highlighting three of the four bastions.

Exterior Picture 2

This photo displays the fort wall that was put up as part of the moat. When Spain had control over the fort, the moat was never filled with water. It wasn't until 1937 that the National Park Service dug out the moat deeper than it once was, and opened the flood gates letting high tides flood in. Years later, damage to the fort walls resulted from the filled moat leading the National Park Service to drain out all of the water and fill back in the moat to its original depth.

Artifact Picture 1

The Castillo De San Marcos is entirely created from coquina rock. Coquina is composed of shells and sediments that have been compressed together into layers of rock. It is the only source of rock found native to Florida and St. Augustine specifically which made the unique rock the only source for a stone fort. The exceptional rock is porous which was important in the use  of constructing the fort. The top of the fort is about 9 feet thick, while the base stands at a thickness of 18 feet. The porous composition of coquina can absorb the hits of cannons and other attacks, rather than shattering under the impact. National Park Service Ranger Jill explained coquina with the apology of a bb bullet hitting styrofoam. The impact is absorbed rather than deteriorating. It was time consuming to work with the coquina as you had to dry it out to then cut and construct, however the strength and durability of the fort was a successful outcome. 

Artifact Picture 2

The Castillo De San Marcos is a square structure with four bastions at each of the four corners. Inside of the cavity of each bastion is filled with dirt, shells, rock, and construction debris to keep the base solid and durable. The bastions were used to eliminate the blind spots of interlocking fields of fire. The bastions are diamond in shape, and with someone on each corner of the diamond, it ensured that whoever was protecting the fort could see all sides of the structure. Since they are pointed bastions and not curved, there were no blind spots, an enemy or visitor could be spotted from standing at one of the posts on the corners. 

Image 1 In Conversation

https://www.nps.gov/foma/index.htm

Fort Matanzas is another beautiful fort here in St. Augustine. Fort Matanzas was constructed nearly 50 years after Fort Castillo was finished. It stands on A1A heading south towards Daytona, about 30 minutes from Flagler College. Like Fort Castillo, Fort Matanzas is also made of coquina rock to hold its strong structure for almost 300 years. In addition, Fort Matanzas is also on the water on the intercostal. It is much smaller than Fort Castillo in size and in height. Fort Matanzas shares many similarities with Fort Castillo as both have defended the Spanish Military.

Image 2 In Conversation

https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/holocaust-world-war-two-facts-deaths-survivors-jews-concentration-camps-died-final-solution/

On a much larger scale, the containment of Jews in the German concentration camps from the Holocaust, is similar to the containment of the prisoners in Fort Castillo. The Jews under the rule of Hitler, were not able to leave or even live in Germany. They were kept in rooms and inside walls of barbed wire. The prisoners from The Fort were kept behind the walls of the fort in a dark room. The escape from a concentration camp was nearly impossible but few did escape. There are multiple novels on people who had escaped a concentration camp and Germany. Like the few Jews that did escape, the prisoners of Fort Castillo did end up escaping out of a window that was smaller than most of their bodies.

Literature In Conversation

Panel from Parable Of The Sower

"That was before Dad's parents were robbed and murdered. Before there was a neighborhood wall. Crazy to live without a wall to protect you."

These few lines from Parable Of The Sower resonate closely with the purpose of the fort. In these lines, the speaker, Lauren, is describing life before the wall that she currently lives in. The life her father lived without the wall surrounding their community was dangerous and unpleasant to live in such an uneasy fashion. The Castillo De San Marcos was this source of protection for the Spaniards that were being attacked by the British in 1702. They were forced to live inside the fort for 51 days on quartered rations. About to surrender, they were finally able to get a ship to Havana, Cuba. The fort walls saved them from the dangers that the Englishmen from Charleston instilled upon them, much like the walls of Lauren's community were in place to protect her from "maggots" that lived on the outside of the wall.

Creative Component

The wet and saturated ground,

I sink with any sudden movement.

In the dark we all walk around,

One guard to keep our amusement.

He talked of outside and escape,

Us inside, wept and tried to think.

A place of freedom, not stuck in a diamond shape,

The sky would be blue, yellow, orange, and pink.

The guard offered us to leave,

We all followed with a plan.

"Out the window," he said, like thieves,

Twenty of us, squeezing out of the shelter, we ran.

Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center

 Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center

St. Augustine, Florida

March 24, 2022

In 1866, black men and women created a community called Lincolnville that preserves the rich black history is St. Augustine. The Lincolnville Museum was originally the first black high school in St. Augustine and the building was preserved in order to preserve the stories and lives of black folks who lived here. Black history is often overlooked in St. Augustine despite all of the major historical events that have taken place here. The Old Town Trolleys don't even drive by the Lincolnville Museum or any of West St. Augustine, where black families have lived throughout the past. Currently the museum is a space to learn about significant events and people that changed the way that their community is preserved. The museum is also a space of cultural inclusion, with jazz music and more preserved factors of black lives in St. Augustine.

https://www.lincolnvillemuseum.org

Exterior Picture 1

The outside of the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center with the original sign from when Excelsior High School was the first black high school in St. Augustine.

Exterior Picture 2

Artifact Picture 1

This is an image of a red flapper dress on loan from a resident of St. Augustine's black community. In the 1920s young women started to display a careless, free, and independent attitude. The young women were called flappers and they pushed the limits and challenge every aspect of life from social barriers to political issues, as well as economic stigmas. The flappers of the 20s were considered the first free women in America due to their efforts in creating a new approach to how people visualize women. 

Flappers wore these extravagant dresses as a symbol of their freedom because these dresses were used as a statement for open sexuality and high fashion. The dresses were shorter which was considered rebellious because women weren't supposed to show too much skin. The flappers were a huge turning point in the development on women behavior in America's history.

Artifact Picture 2

The counter top showed at this diner is significant to the history of colored people in St. Augustine. Woolworth lunch counter on March 15, 1960 is where Florida Memorial College Students would have held a sit-in to protest against the racism occurring across the country. College students all over the country help sit-ins in protest, however this diner was one of the most well known sit-in locations in St. Augustine between 1960 and 1963.

Image 1 In Conversation

https://www.jwpepper.com/American-Voices/10317459.item#.YjzRZi9h1-U

American Voices is a play created to celebrate the American Century. Being a world leader in the late 1800s, the 20th century of America was looking bright. It touches on the new found patriotism from the end of World War I, the hard work involved during the Great Depression, and the pastimes that Americans enjoyed. Jazz music, singing, dancing, flappers, social and cultural change, and much more.

In third grade my entire class performed this play and this museum brought back memories of the songs that I had to memorize. Martin Luther King Jr., flappers, Elvis Presley and Louis Armstrong, are all people that were significant in the new frontier of American pastimes. I remember the play doing a great job of including the high points, such as jazz, and the low points with the Great Depression and racism. However, the play itself is directly correlated to the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center as it touches on many cultures of the 20th century.

Image 2 In Conversation

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/22/732675892/satchmo-in-his-adolescence-1915-film-clip-may-show-young-louis-armstrong

Louis Armstong is the most influential artist in the history of jazz music. His music played on the trumpet is how jazz is now considered a fine art. He transformed the way that music was classically made, by following notes. Louis was known for improvising solos and his solos created a focal point on the music he played. Now, jazz is most notably known for the instrumental solos that hit a wide variety of notes composed perfectly.

Literature In Conversation

Excerpt from Poetry of St. Augustine by Ann Browning Masters

"My version of this time period, however, represents a pre-memory and memory of the people and situations around me and is not representative of every lived experience of the time. Some of the oral traditions and stories made up and embellished by the tellers, passed along in ears long gone, changed eventually by a telephone game's reputation. Some known-for-a-fact events are occasionally described differently by two different Floridanos, Menorcans, or Crackers. The poetry of place sings here, but not always with the same words for everyone."

Ann Browning Masters is a poet that writes about Menorcan history in St. Augustine from a Menorcan perspective. With the oral history that she does have, she puts together a narrative of what most reliably happened and what life was like. Masters is attempting to preserve the history that wasn't documented by the Menorcans or any witnesses. Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center is carrying out the same acts of preservation for the black community in St. Augustine, as Ann Browning Masters has done for the Menorcan community. Like the Menorcans, black history in St. Augustine has been poorly recorded and preserved. With only oral histories, we make the inferences and stories from the black community as Ann Browning Masters has done for the Menorcans. 

Creative Component

These boots are exhibited in the Lincolnville Museum. They belong to J. Edgar Hoover, the founder and first Director of the FBI in 1935. Hoover has also made a number of modernizations to police technology including fingerprint files and forensic labs.

The Lightner Museum

 The Lightner Museum

St. Augustine, Florida

March 10, 2022

Prior to being a museum, the Lightner Museum was a hotel created by Henry Flagler. Otto Curtis Lightner started out as a typer for The Daily Journal newspaper for Kansas City. He became the president of the Associated Trade Press Company which then led him to the start of his own company The Lightner Publishing Company. Lightner made a magazine named Hobbies where he showed off his collections of antique furniture, coins, rocks, minerals, glassware, autographs, stamps, and so much more. The Alcazar Hotel was bought by Lightner in 1947 as a place to store all of his collections. Currently it is a museum for people to see all of collectibles as well as a restaurant that elaborately stands in St. Augustine on King Street.

Lightner Museum Website: https://lightnermuseum.org

Exterior Picture 1

The Lightner Museum from the east side of the lawn.

Exterior Picture 2

Walking through the initial entrance brings you too an extravagant courtyard with a fountain, mini bridge, and plenty of vegetation. 

Artifact Picture 1

Lithography is an iconic printing process of the 1880s. The process is explained as printing from a flat surface where grease is placed on areas where the ink should stick and not placed where the the ink should not stick or the areas of open space. This is an example of a lithograph printed on parchment done by an unknown artist. The artifact is expected to have come from a Victorian home in Chicago where Lightner had lived. This piece was added to his collection around 1930 and it goes with many of his glasswork pieces.

Artifact Picture 2

Louis Comfort Tiffany was a significant man in the discipline of art, glasswork specifically. His discovery for his love of working with glass started in 1875 where he mainly focused on stained glass pieces. The unique designs and transformation of glass to art made him America's first, and best, glass creator. His business, Tiffany Studios, biggest customer was Louis Comfort Tiffany and he collected his artwork for years.

This piece named Prima is a lead glass window panel made in New York around 1924. It is part of the Aesthetic Movement in art which originated in Britain and swept across America in the mid 1860s. The movement focused on the flamboyant environment of art that allow more individuals to connect to the beauty of art. The environment of this piece includes the floral creations draping down the exterior of the panel, as well as a goddess who is beautifully wrapped in a white robe along with flowers draping around her head. Prima was expected to be made for a buyer who wasn't looking for something too expensive due to its smaller size, however the beauty captured is adored throughout the Aesthetic Movement. 

Image 1 In Conversation

https://visualculturelc.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20History%20of%20VC%20Chapter%202

Analyzing the first artifact pictured previously in the blog, there are numerous messages we can take from the clothing, to the scenery, to the color scheme. It is very similar to this piece of artwork named "Liberty Leading the People" by Eugene Delacriox. Both have characteristics that challenge the authority of male leadership. 

Delacriox's art pictures a women leading the France through the First French Revolution and the artifact in Lightner's collection is an Indian women holding an American flag. Both women are shown above the other individuals in the photo as if they are superior and in power. They hoist their heads high above the rest of the people pictured and they hold their flags high in the air showing their determination and fight for liberty. The women are also wearing red caps on their heads, originally worn by working class people, then changed to a symbol of liberty. Another similarity is the exposed breasts. Exposing of breasts in contemporary art symbolizes goddesses and power. 

In both works of art, the women are represented as a symbol of liberty. 

Image 2 In Conversation

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Dining_Hall_at_Flagler_College.jpg

Flagler College shares a lot in common with the Lightner Museum. The dining hall and the Ponce de Leon Hotel share one of the largest collections of Tiffany stained glass totaling nearly $3.5 million worth. These sites, being only 100 yards apart, both share a presence of Louis Comfort Tiffany and his art. Otto Lightner's fascination with Tiffany's stained glass led not only to the installation of the same glass into the Ponce de Leon Hotel, but he ended his life with his collection right next to another collection as remarkable as his. The Lightner Museum and the Ponce de Leon Hotel show the presence of Tiffany's art, making their structures significantly popular.

Literature In Conversation

Excerpt from "Sonnet XVII" by Pablo Neruda

"I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz / or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: / I love you as one loves certain obscure things,"

The speaker is convincing the subject of his writings that he doesn't love them in the generative way that people adore these precious things. A salt-rose, topaz, and the alluring arrow on fire, are all objects that catch the attention of common people. These are objects traditionally loved by everyone, however, the speaker is saying that his love isn't traditional or typical. His love for her is much deeper than the surface level of the beauty that is adored by these signs of love. 

This is contrary to what Otto Lightner and his museum represent. Otto Lightner is a collector of all things commonly admired by people. Lightner Museum is filled with incredible collections that are respected by everyone that visits and especially Lightner himself. In opposition to the way that the speaker of Pablo Neruda's sonnet expresses his affection for his lover, Otto Lightner is a collector of the typically cherished items that attract the eye of individuals.

Creative Component