REFLECTION LOG

December 2, 2022.

After class, we came together as a group and spent a good amount of time searching for a suitable artifact that we could use as inspiration for our essay. We scoured the Library of Congress site far and wide, until Lazar stumbled upon a lithograph titled THE DEFENSE OF THE CALIFORNIA BANK (pictured below), which pictures caricatured leaders of the great nations at war with the American forces on the coasts of San Francisco.

Defense of the California Bank

This piqued our curiosity, and we collectively agreed that we’d like to look into the events of the late 1840s some more, as it was a decade shaken by many different affairs, but most importantly, was marked by this, as Milica referred to it, so-called second invasion, and great migrations from the East to West.

We were quite interested in what the figures in the picture had to say, as well as the symbolism of their words, of the animals they were represented as, and of the myriad details that tied together told an incredible story about this invasion of the US.

What we were initially curious about was – When exactly did this lithograph get made? We knew that the California Gold Rush had begun in the summer of 1848, but soon realized that Polk left office in 1849. This left us with a few months’ worth of time. The next step we took was researching when the rest of the leaders came into power, and found out that the last to get elected, in December 1849, was President Louis-Napoleon. This left us with the conclusion that the lithograph couldn’t have been made before December 1849, but also no later than March 5, 1849, when Zachary Taylor was named the 12th President of the United States.

Next up, it was time to focus on the fine details, such as the symbols presented.

For example, James K. Polk, who was president at the time the lithograph was created, can be seen in the form of a serpent. It is a known fact that Polk was admired by the masses, as he accomplished everything he put his mind to, one of those goals being acquiring the territory of California, which is another reason why he’s represented as a serpent. Serpents symbolize transformation, renewal, and rebirth, and it goes to show that the people of America thought that Polk was leading them down the right path, and would be shining a new light upon their land with his masterful set of ideals.

Pictured in the air above Polk was none other than General Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican-American war, who would go on to become President later in 1849. He is shown in the form of an eagle. Another interesting instance worth mentioning is our understanding of his words written in the speech bubble. We pondered over what “D—s” meant for a long while, and thought it to be a curse word but found no curse words that fit the criteria. Finally, Katarina concluded that he meant to call the invaders “Devils”, as Christians of that age didn’t take God’s, nor Devils, names in vain.

Presented in the form of a rooster, Louis-Napoleon is seen as a symbol of masculinity, bravery and vigilance, the reason being the fact that he was the last Monarch to rule France and the first President of the Second Republic. Having taken the form of a bear, Czar Nicholas I is the embodiment of assurance of renewed power and courage. The ox upon which Queen Victoria sits represents hard work, strength, and self-sacrifice, and it’s important to point out that the song she’s singing is a rendition of Oh! Susanna, a minstrel song better known as the hymn of the Californian gold miners, only she dedicates it to her husband, Prince Consort Albert.

We batted some ideas around, and came up with a great piece of work we are all very proud of. Lastly, it was up to Bojana to put the words on paper and assemble the essay, giving it the final form we turned in. Working on the first essay was quite fun – from finding the right artifact, learning about its history, to putting the words together in a single document and watching our research unify before our eyes.

Artifacts we considered using:

One of the bigger obstacles we encountered was finding/trusting sources on the internet. We found out that a lot of articles won’t give credits where they are due, and that sometimes they are purposefully misleading in order to achieve what the author wants. Every artifact we picked had to be thoroughly checked, to make sure we weren’t making any mistakes.

December 9, 2022.

We started our class as per usual, taking notes of details and tips we deemed important, and were also going over our work. Throughout the presentation, we noticed our group’s name standing as a good example for multiple categories (those being engaging with the material and format correction). Seeing that made us feel confident and joyful, for our hard work was finally starting to pay off. Sadly, one of our members was unable to participate in the class but the rest of us relayed good news to her nonetheless.

Throughout the class, we were given a task of creating a hook and a thesis statement about an anti-slavery medallion made by Josiah Wedgwood.

We experimented with various ways of drawing the reader to our work. What immediately struck us was the irony the artifact presented and manufacturer’s dependence on industries that operated via slave labor, and thus we decided to focus on those two points specifically. We also noticed some other details such as the material of the medallion being ivory (derived from elephant tusk) and the slave's kneeling position, as if they were begging or perhaps even praising someone above them… Perhaps a white man? Racism and white supremacy were omnipresent at the time, and who’s to say that its roots hadn’t taken residence deep within western society?

Overall, we found this assignment very straightforward, due to the contradictory nature of the medallion, and very helpful because we got to work on something we consider to be our weak point. Time constraint was not too big of a deal for this assignment as it was short, but trying to draw readers in with only one sentence while keeping our minds within academic bounds proved to be rather tricky. But much like any other skill we had learned in the past three months, we honed this one in the following weeks.

December 16, 2022.

Looking back, formulating the hook was the most difficult part of the process, but after some trial and error we accomplished this task. When we tried writing one in class, we misunderstood the instructions and directly related our hook to the quote we were given: The primary aim of rhetoric is to create ‘action’ between speaker/writer & audience. We failed to relate our hook to our work, as well as Caleb Bingham’s work.

Our first attempt at writing the hook was: The way Caleb Bingham collected various works throughout his lifetime and published his final thoughts in the Columbian Orator inspired us to follow in his footsteps and display our ideas and interpretations of historical artifacts.

When working on the overall introduction, we also went into the abstract, and failed to tie everything together. We felt quite stressed due to the fact that the time to realize our task was running out, which ended up in us handing in work we weren’t proud of, and failing to realize the task we were given.

We thought long and hard about how to approach this task properly. We skimmed through the original text of Bingham’s, taking notes of what we felt was most important; we read several essays on relating topics and spent a long time poring over the YAWP. It required some more feedback and some trial-and-error to realize what it was that we were doing wrong.

The example where the professor related her laptop case to the painting presented to the class was very confusing at first, but the more we thought about it, the greater insight into the importance of relational thinking we gained. Even though our first take at writing a good hook didn’t succeed, we were set on getting it right. In the following week, we consulted our fellow colleagues, as well as the professor, and came up with a couple of good ideas. We liked the idea of the Gold Rush being referred to as the second invasion of the US, and we kept that part, and discarded the rest that had to do with us serving as the instrument or the vessel meant to communicate ideas of the past to the present and future cohorts.

“The orator does not succeed , as some would insinuate , by dazzling the eye of reason with the illusive glare of his rhetorical art , nor, by silencing her still small voice in the thunder of his declamation; for to her impartial tribunal he refers the truth and propriety of whatever he asserts or proposes. After fairly convincing the understanding , he may, without the imputation of disingenuousness, proceed to address the fancy and the passions . In this way he will more effectually transfuse into his hearers his own sentiments, and make every spring in the human machine co-operate in the production of the desired effect .”

“But while patriotism is the leading principle, and our laws are contrived with wisdom, and executed with vigor; while industry, frugality and temperance are held in estimation, and we depend upon public spirit and the love of virtue for our social happiness, peace and affluence will throw their smiles upon the brow of individuals; our commonwealth will flourish; our land will become a land of liberty, and AMERICA an asylum for the oppressed.”

In the 1797 publication, Columbian Orator collects speeches by George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and some fictional addresses by historical figures such as Socrates and Cato. This is of importance in relation to Republican values, and ideals that the Founding Fathers lived by; influenced by the ancient set of rules they referred to as “democracy”. The only difference between the ancient Roman and Greek democracy and the Republican values is their view towards slavery – while the first encouraged it, the latter were against it, questioning the ethics of slavery with a firm belief that all men are created equal.

The following class we wrote a successful mix of a hook and a quote, and by extension the introduction we deemed satisfactory.

December 23, 2022.

We tried out different hooks for our final assignment, and easily eliminated ones that we didn’t like. Through that process we learned what is acceptable for a hook, and what isn’t, so by the end we were quite confident in what we came up with. Our final take on the hook: A golden promise may not be as fulfilling, but a promise of gold is capable of moving entire masses.

In the meantime, we also found an item we wanted to use as our second artifact – The Bear Flag – and we consulted with the professor to clarify whether it was alright to include something that wasn’t directly mentioned in our mandatory reading files. We were thrilled when met with confirmation, because this gave us space to focus on things other than politics – such as the life of “ordinary” American citizens, and the huge role women played in the events taking place in California starting 1848.

Sadly, due to the word count and the particular set of rules we were given for the essay, we didn’t have much space to talk about feminism, which is why we had to leave out some important information. For example, Nancy Kelsey is a name worth mentioning. She was the first white woman to see Utah, Nevada, to cross Sierra Nevada and the first to travel from Missouri to California on foot. She was a young mother at the time, barely 17 years of age, and she had no idea how important the steps she was taking would be.

Women were important contributors to the society back in the day, and the men heavily relied on them. Surprisingly enough, women had a lot of opportunities in the cities and goldfields because men, who were desperate for female company, paid exorbitant sums to mingle with women or purchase their goods. There are numerous tales of women who out-earned their husbands' mining careers by selling handmade pies, doughnuts, and other goods. Laundries, restaurants, lodging, mending, and waiting tables all paid well; some women became successful entrepreneurs.

On September 9, 1900, The San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “Many and many a time it has been noted that there is nowhere in all this country, a monument to the foremothers of the land…” (…) “…since they not only had to endure the hardships and privations of a new country, but were obligated to endure the forefathers, too.”

Among the things that make Nancy Kelsey special is also the fact that she, along with Mrs. John Sears, and Mrs. Benjamin Dewell sewed the original "Bear Flag" from a pattern drawn by William L. Todd.

the original Bear Flag of California

Because of her contributions to the flag, which the for the Bear Flag Rebellion was named after, Nancy Kelsey has been dubbed the "Betsy Ross of California." The words "California Republic" were originally inked in pokeberry juice. Back in the day, many people thought the bear looked more like a pig than a bear.

Having prepared better and with knowledge of our previous mistakes, we were not caught off-guard and managed to successfully create a detailed mind map. By splitting work between ourselves and combing through the material as well as some external sources tied to topics related to our task, we found details and imagery that we could use for our final assignment. We found this task easier since it allowed us to be a little bit more creative and expressive with the assignment.

Another thing which piqued our interest, but didn’t make it into the final essay or mood board, was an artifact known as “Gold Rush songs”. As the title would suggest, it is a collection of songs sung by miners while they slaved away in the gold mines. We feel like it adds depth to historical facts we have learned, we see these figures as people. Listening to their words, through which they convey their wishes, ideas, living situations and regrets, deeply moved us.

    "Gold"
  • ...
  • Cold, wet, and hungry I slept on the ground
  • While visions of happiness came;
  • But sad and disappointed I awoke at the sound
  • Of the scratch-owl that lit on my claim.”

A song of the forty-niners secured by Miss Hamilton, sung to the tune of “Lily Dale”, composed by Enuel Davis

It felt refreshing and fun to put more focus on the looks of the projects, rather than the content. We realized why mind maps are so important, and decided to incorporate them where we can in the future.

We created an outline for our essay by following the instructions given to us, first by typing all of the ideas out in a document, after which we cherry-picked those we found most useful and wrote them down on a piece of paper that was submitted together with the mind map at the end of the class. We included everything that we found important. We felt that we were way more organized this time and we left the classroom feeling proud of having managed to make our strategy more efficient.

Finalizing the project (Due date: December 30, 2022)

The D-Day is approaching !!

Back in one of the classes, our groupmate Bojana joked about having mastered coding when working on formatting our TextPattern articles, and the professor told us that that would be a lovely if we took it a step further and included coding in our final assignment. Katarina took it upon herself to create the site on Neocities, and we all contributed in all the decision making, from picking the color of the site, to choosing the fonts and the general outlook of the site.

While Lazar and Milica were busy cutting down the words from our first essay, as it exceeded the word limit, Bojana got to brainstorming the moodboard ( draft ex. pictured above). We took turns writing the Reflection Log, and perhaps we even got ahead of ourselves and wrote a word or, a thousand, too many, but we hope that all this information proves to be useful to the professor. Even though we struggled with realizing the tasks we were given at times, this project made every group member’s best qualities shine. We learned a lot this semester, and we had fun learning about the American Culture.