FORMED in 1807 to map the nation’s shorelines and chart its coastal waters, the United States Coast Survey was beset for much of its early life by military, political and economic pressures, slowing and sometimes halting the progress of the first scientific agency ever established by the federal government. But the value of its aims … More 106–Between the lines
“LIFE to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.” So heavy was the gloom that descended upon poor Tom Sawyer, before his inborn cleverness got other boys believing that to whitewash thirty yards of fence was anything but drudgery. Facing a similar task, William A. Whitehead seems to have found nothing about life burdensome. … More 105–Whitewash
ONE could fairly call William A. Whitehead a “provincial” historian, on the premise that he devoted a large share of his adult life to chronicling the past of one small American state–often of mere parts of it. Indeed, Whitehead might have humbly accepted the title, and not just because so much of his attention was … More 104–Foreign affairs
AMONG the vestiges of an all-but-forgotten colonial capital and seaport, William A. Whitehead grew to his maturity. He came of age as well within two old and intersecting family orbits. A crucial link had been forged before his birth, by the 1792 marriage of Janet “Jennet” Parker of Perth Amboy to Edward Brinley, scion of … More 103–Dear Cate
POETS of old, and not only poets, looked back with longing to a supposed Golden Age, a remote past in which peace and prosperity reigned supreme. Yet, in the life and times of William A. Whitehead, it was hard for some to imagine things could have ever been better. In one corner of New Jersey’s … More 102–The house of Parker
AMERICANS watched with apprehension, through the winter and spring of 1831-32, as an epidemic of Asiatic cholera swept westward across Europe, conscious that the proliferation of swift oceangoing vessels made it unlikely the plague’s process would stop at the far shores of the Atlantic. Fear combined with a morbid fascination to accelerate the sale of … More 101–This wholesome place
WHEN retained at age 18 to produce a survey of Key West, whose existing streets he could count on the fingers of one hand, William A. Whitehead drew a town “more pretentious on the map than in reality.”1 He would have been unfazed, then, to discover that most streets and squares on a “Plan of … More 100–Last dance
BEHIND the Speaker’s chair and around the perimeter of the Hall rose smooth columns of pudding stone, looking to some observers almost good enough to eat. Festoons of crimson tapestry between them lent an air of luxury to the space.1 An intent observer of the House’s deliberations might pay little heed to such embellishments, but … More 099–So fair a house
“OUR National Flag,” toasted William A. Whitehead, lifting a glass. “May the stars that compose its union forever remain united and as brilliant as they are now.” If, while standing to deliver this invocation, Whitehead seemed a little unsteady, there would have been neither scandal nor surprise, for in a sequence of thirty-five his toast … More 098–Florida man
ON his first Washington visit, William A. Whitehead likely made his way to Capitol Hill as a pilgrim would, on foot. His approach from the west began at “two flights of steps laid in the slope of the eminence.” Above and before him, crowned by Charles Bulfinch’s copper-clad wooden dome–not the massive cupola familiar to … More 097–Pantheon