O Say Can You See?

Part I: My experience on set of the movie "Gettysburg"

Editor's note: As part of our Classic Film Festival featuring Civil War movies, you can see Gettysburg (1993) at the museum on Saturday, October 20, 2012. Inspired by the film festival, we’re taking you behind the scenes of Gettysburg with guest blogger Brian James Egen. He is the program development officer at The Henry Ford.

"Tom Chamberlain" (C. Thomas Howell) left and the "Cocky Lieutenant" (Brian James Egen, author of this blog post) right during a break in the filming on the Little Round Top set during filming.

The movie Gettysburg, based on the 1975 Pulitzer Prize winning classic novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, was an on-again, off-again film project, almost since the day it was published. In 1992, after ten years of lobbying studios and distributors, writer/director Ron Maxwell was able to collaborate with Ted Turner and Turner Pictures to finance the film. On July 20, 1992, principal photography commenced in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Although some of the film's scenes were shot on the actual battlefield (a truly unprecedented National Park Service allowance), the vast majority of combat and opposing fire sequences were filmed on set locations three miles west of town. I spent six weeks on the film and, although was I was originally hired as a background extra, my participation culminated in being cast in a speaking role as the "Cocky Lieutenant."

Brian James Egen left with the film’s on-set historical advisor, Brian Pohanka, who also doubled as Brigadier General Alexander Webb. An author, historian, and battlefield preservationist, Pohanka consulted for other Civil War films including Glory, Cold Mountain, and Gods and Generals. Mr. Pohanka died of cancer in 2005.

Having graduated college in the spring of that year and recently been hired as a part-time historical presenter at The Henry Ford (Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village), I applied for a leave of absences to participate in this long-awaited film project. Arriving in mid-August, I participated in what as known as "Pickett's Charge Week" that was highlighted by filming the advance of Pickett's Division from Spangler's Woods along Seminary Ridge to Emmitsburg Road across the same ground as the original participants.

The initial advance of the Pickett's Charge scenes was filmed at the original location on the battlefield. Here, a portion of the 3,000 extras march at the double-quick up to the fence bordering the Emmitsburg Road. For the tourists and those passing by, it was a moment they will probably never forget.

I have never had a more intimate experience with history as I did the day we filmed that scene on the actual battlefield. The step-off point for Pickett's division started in the hollow west of Alexander's Knoll wherein Cemetery Ridge (the Federal position) could not initially be seen by the Confederate soldiers. As I, along with nearly 3,000 extras, marched toward the Federal position and out of the hollow, we could at first see the tops of the taller monuments, then the top of the infamous Copse of Trees, then the Federal regimental monuments, the fences, and finally the stone wall where the Federal Second Corps was positioned. Sans the monuments and markers and with thousands of armed men waiting for them, this is what the original soldiers would have viewed as they approached—for many this was their last view. As we proceeded toward the Emmitsburg Road (our stopping point for filming), I was brought to tears—overwhelmed by the inculcation of the moment, location, and facile understanding of the historical event we were replicating. The remainder of the Pickett's Charge scenes were filmed on the set location.

"Cocky Lieutenant" (Brian James Egen) left, "Tom Chamberlain" (C. Thomas Howell) center, and Captain Ellis Spear (Donal Logue) rehearse scene 68. This is the first scene in which the "Cocky Lieutenant" speaks, "Colonel, it seems to me all the fighting is on the other side of the hill."

In the last part of August, I participated in the filming of General John Buford (played by Sam Elliot) cavalry scenes as part of the Federal First Corps infantry. On September 2, production shifted to film Colonel Joshua Chamberlain (played by Jeff Daniels) and the 20th Maine Infantry—nearly half of the movie's storyline. A general call went out to the 250 remaining core group of extras that six men were needed to help flesh-out the "officer’s corps" of the 20th Maine. Borrowing some of the necessary officer accouterments, I applied for and obtained selection as one of the six.

On September 14, believing my excitement and participation could not be rivaled, Assistant Director Skip Cosper approached another young officer and I, asking if we, "would care to audition for Ron [Maxwell] for the role of the 'Cocky Lieutenant'?" Of course, the answer was yes, and my counterpart and I were given three script scenes to memorize that feature the "Cocky Lieutenant." Two days later we auditioned for director Ron Maxwell, saying the lines to a tree. Subsequently, I was chosen for the role and finished the rest of the filming in my part. Although I was involved in nearly every 20th Maine Infantry scene in the movie, there were three scenes that I had speaking lines all of which were with Jeff Daniels portraying Colonel Joshua Chamberlain.

Copy of a collodion wet plate process photograph taken of the majority of the Federal cast in front of the Leister House (General Meade's headquarters) set building. "Tom Chamberlain" (C. Thomas Howell), "General Winfield S. Hancock" (Brian Mallon), "Colonel Joshua Chamberlain" (Jeff Daniels), and "Lieutenant Pitzer" (Bill Campbell) are around the table. Ken Burns, who had a cameo appearance as General Hancock's Aid, stands to the right of the table with his hand in his blouse. Brian James Egen stands to the right of Ken Burns. This image was used in the opening title sequence of the film.

Filming wrapped on September 30th, with the final scene filmed being the last scene in the movie wherein brothers Joshua and Tom Chamberlain embrace—and yes, that was the real sunset in that scene.

The entire experience was exceptional and informative in many ways and helped fuel my interest in history and film making. I met many people on set that have become life-long colleagues and friends in the field of history. My brother and uncle were able to participate in some of the filming which added to the memorable experience of making of this monumental film.

The back view of the Lutheran Theological Seminary set building used as a backdrop for the first day battle scenes where Federal General Buford’s Cavalry and General Reynolds's Infantry held back the Confederate attack depriving them of the high ground. This scaled version of the Seminary building was built on a farm about 17 miles west of Gettysburg where the large battle scenes could be staged.

Brian James Egen is the Program Development Officer at The Henry Ford. In August 2011, he was appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to the Michigan Historical Commission and recently appointed chairman of Michigan’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee.

 

The tomatillo (tohm-ah-TEE-oh)

Editor’s note: The Smithsonian’s kickoff celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month takes place on September 15, 2012 here at the museum. Since it will focus on Central American traditions, including music, dance, and food demonstrations, Horticulturist Joe Brunetti introduces the tomatillo, a favorite in Mexican and Guatemalan cooking. Our chef’s Chicken and Tomatillo Tortilla Soup will be on the menu at our Stars & Stripes Cafe sometime during Hispanic Heritage Month.

“What is a tomatillo?” “What sort of recipes use tomatillos?” “What do they taste like?” These are just a few of the questions I get asked when I show visitors the tomatillos growing in the Victory Garden at the National Museum of American History.

Right now in the Victory Garden grows a tomatillo that demands attention. Instead of the familiar green, this variety’s fruit and husks are tinted midnight purple.

Simply put, tomatillos (Physalis ixocarpa) are small fruits ensconced in a papery husk. These beauties belong to the nightshade family—yes, the same nightshade family that contains the usual scene-stealers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, tobacco and even petunias. The tomatillo is like the distant cousin that doesn’t make it to the family get-togethers, and it’s high time you two got to know each other.

Tomatillos are a summer annual originating from Mesoamerica and therefore grow best under similar conditions as a tomato plant. In the spring, when the danger of frost is no longer at hand, plant tomatillos in full sun and in rich organic soil. Provide a supporting structure like a tomato cage as it grows. A ripe tomatillo looks and feels much like an un-ripened tomato—typically firm, with a green and/or yellow hue. They vary in size from one inch in diameter to plum-sized. You want to harvest your tomatillos when the husk has not browned and the fruit is still firm to the touch.

Speaking of the husk (which most people associate with corn), it is botanically known as the calyx. Think of it as a paper-like shield protecting your produce from ravenous varmints. Thank you, calyx! When this shell is peeled off of the tomatillo, a sticky resin is left on the skin, but it washes off easily.

The taste of a tomatillo combines the heartiness of a tomato with the citrus zing of a lime. It is sure to get your taste buds dancing. The texture is like an under-ripe, spongy tomato. Trust me, it’s cool.

Tomatillos have been cultivated for millennia and were a staple food in ancient Mayan and Aztec communities. In fact, the Aztecs are credited with domesticating the tomatillo. To this day, this peculiar fruit is a constant component of the Mexican and Guatemalan diet. Traditionally tomatillos are combined with chili peppers to make sauces, with the coolness of the tomatillo balancing out the hot flavor of the pepper.

Have you eaten salsa verde (green sauce)? Well then, you’ve probably eaten tomatillos since they are typically the main ingredient in salsa verde. Other uses for the tomatillo include chopping them and adding them to salads and salsas, or pureeing them into gazpacho and guacamole. Less commonly, but still worth mentioning, tomatillos are used to flavor rice and tenderize red meats.

Joe Brunetti is a Smithsonian Gardens Horticulturist at the National Museum of American History. He has also blogged about the spicy and colorful fish pepper.

Editor’s note: Enjoy this recipe for Chicken and Tomatillo Tortilla Soup, provided Chef William Bednar. If you’d like to try a tomatillo soup with ground bison instead of chicken, check out this recipe courtesy of The Bare Midriff.

Chicken and Tomatillo Tortilla Soup
About ten servings

2.5 cup onion small dice
1 cup carrot small dice
1 cup celery small dice
0.25 cup garlic minced
0.25 cup olive oil
2.5 quart chicken stock
1 quart tomatillo hulled and quartered
2 cup roasted peppers (red/green/yellow deseeded and cut into strips
0.25 cup roated Jalapeno deseeded and minced
0.5 pound corn tortillas rough chopped
0.5 bunch cilantro chopped
2 each limes juice of
1 Tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoon cumin
2 each bay leaf
2 teaspoon thyme
ToTaste Kosher Salt and Black Pepper
2 pound Grilled or Roasted Chicken cut into 1 inch strips
4 each corn tortillas cut into thin strips and deep fried for garnish
10 teaspoon sour cream for garnish
10 sprigs cilantro for garnish

Directions:
In heavy bottom stock pot add oil. Over medium heat saute the mirepoix (carrots, celery and onions) and tomatillos until onions are transparent. Add garlic and cook until aromatic.

Add stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and add the tortillas, chili powder, cumin, thyme, bay leaf, and jalapeno. Simmer until the tortillas break down, then add the peppers and chicken. Season with salt and pepper, lime, and cilantro.

For garnish, place soup in bowls and top with sour cream, tortilla strips, and cilantro sprig.

Fall Fridays

It’s time again to go back to school and at the National Museum of American History that means we get ready to create exciting experiences for students. This fall we are making an extra effort to welcome school groups with Fall Fridays.

Join the Student Sit-Ins

From September 7 through November 16, we are offering historical theater and interactive activities every Friday from 10 AM to 1 PM. Students can join a civil rights sit-in at the Greensboro lunch counter or learn science with Joseph Henry, who in 1846 became the first secretary of the Smithsonian. Hands-on carts and gallery interpreters will be also available for students to discover history. So much is happening on Friday mornings!

Stereoscope object cart

How should teachers get started? Check out the school visits web page for suggestions on logistics such as bus drop-off locations, chaperone-student ratios, and group lunch sales. And don’t miss our pre-visit videos for teachers and students. They are packed with helpful tips. Be sure to look at the events page, too, for specific program times, then visit an information desk upon arrival to find out what hands-on carts and interpreters are on the floor.

As always, admission to the Museum is free and reservations are not required, but we kindly ask teachers to register their group. Doing so helps us learn more about our student visitors—information we use to craft better programs and materials. The registration form is also the place to request special accommodations such as sign language interpreters (please give us 1-2 weeks notice).

To set the stage for a visit, teachers should check out the pre- and post-visit sheets for our living history programs on the Greensboro sit-ins, Join the Student Sit-Ins, and visit our OurStory website for activity sets featuring historical literature for students. I recommend the ones for the John Bull (All Aboard the Train) and the Star-Spangled Banner (Making the Star-Spangled Banner) since the related objects are on view, easy to find, and fun to explore with groups. And, as always, if you can’t visit the Museum, you can find resources for your classroom (including video versions of our theater programs) on Smithsonian’s History Explorer.

We look forward to meeting you during Fall Fridays!

Julia Garcia is an interpretive specialist at the National Museum of American History.

Love on the range: The story of a cowboy

Nat Love (pronounced “Nate”) lived the kind of life that adventure novels and blockbuster movies are built on. Freed from slavery at a young age, Love spent most of his career as a cowboy in the American West, and ended it working as a Pullman Porter on the railroads. Today, his story is being told through a unique theater program.

Love was born on the plantation of Robert Love in Davidson County, Tennessee, in June of 1854. When the end of the Civil War brought the abolition of slavery, Nat Love’s father and his family tried to establish a small farm in the area, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. Love soon left the farming life and headed west to Dodge City, Kansas, looking for work as a cattleman. He was hired by the men of the Duval Ranch in Texas, and it was with them that he began his new life.

Three days a week this summer and once weekly this fall the National Museum of American History has brought Nat Love back to life in the show Love on the Range, one of our many theater program offerings. Portrayed by actor Xavier Carnegie, Love on the Range provides visitors with an authentic look at life on the cattle drives of the Old West.

During his program, Nat Love surrounds himself with the objects that made up his life: a cowhide, a Winchester rifle, and the brands that helped cattlemen like Love identify which cattle were theirs and which belonged to other ranchers.

Love was an expert in cattle brands, which meant that it was his job to recognize the symbols ranchers used to mark their cattle as their own. In a time and region of the country where livestock often roamed freely to graze, and huge cattle drives attempted to keep track of literally hundreds, or even thousands, of cows as they crossed the plains, it was important to use clear brands that made property disputes easy to settle. And, it was critical to employ men who could easily and accurately identify which brands indicated whose ownership.

Visitors of all ages enjoy asking Nat Love questions about his life and the gear he used. Reliable firearms were one of the cowboy’s most important tools. Love himself carried an 1873 Winchester Carbine and a Schofield .44 out on the trail, and could hardly have thrived without them. Love and his fellow cattlemen used their guns to protect themselves, their coworkers, and their cattle from rustlers, bandits, and dangerous wild animals. And in a time when carrying and preserving food was difficult and uncertain, Love and his fellows used their guns to hunt deer and buffalo out on the range to provide food for themselves.

On July 4th, 1876, Nat Love entered a rodeo in Deadwood, South Dakota. His years as a cowboy had honed his natural skills, and he won the rope, throw, tie, bridle, saddle, and bronco riding contests. Thrilled by his victories, the crowd gave him the nickname “Deadwood Dick,” and his fame spread. In 1907, Love published his memoirs under the title The Life and Adventures of Nat Love, Better Known in the Cattle Country as “Deadwood Dick,” by Himself.

Love on the Range is a dialogue-based show which focuses on free and open conversation between Nat Love and curious museum visitors. Love shares stories of his early years in slavery back in Tennessee, of the new skills he learned out west, and the many dangers of living the cowboy life. Facing storms and droughts, competing ranchers and rogue cowboys, encounters with Americans Indians and cattle thieves, Love lived the kind of exciting life that has been mythologized by American culture.

Catch Love on the Range in September and October on Thursdays at 2:30 PM at the National Museum of American History.

Tory Altman is the floor manager at the National Museum of American History. 

 

 

 

Croquet on the Mall

Croquet on the National Mall?

This spring, while researching our series of Meet Joseph Henry museum theater programs, Daily Programs staff at the museum came across several images of the Smithsonian’s First Secretary. Most were formal portraits of the man as Scientist, as Academician; but then it happened. We came across an image of Joseph Henry as Family Man, posing with his three daughters, all outfitted in their summer best, and proudly displaying their croquet mallets. “Croquet mallets?!” we thought, with great surprise. “Croquet on the National Mall?! Who knew?”

Joseph Henry, his wife and daughters posed to enjoy some croquet.

Historians believe that croquet probably originated in France as an indoor version of lawn-bowling, sometime during the 1300s. It was popular enough among the French leisured class that they moved the sport outside and eventually shared “paille-maille” (meaning ball-mallet) with their Scottish allies. The Scots took up the game quite readily; croquet is, after all, very similar to another favorite Scottish pastime: golf. Centuries later, by the 1870s, croquet had become a very popular sport. In fact, as Eric Jentsch, Deputy Chair, Division of Culture and the Arts, points out, “The All England Club, better known as Wimbledon, hosted croquet before they hosted lawn tennis. Wimbledon’s full name is actually the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.” Croquet especially thrived in places like Victorian England, where young, unmarried men and women happily took advantage of the opportunity to spend time together out of earshot of their chaperones!

Professor Henry explains the rules to some first time players.

The Professor demonstrates proper croquet form.

A visitor offers his own version of proper form.

Making it through the wickets is the goal, and earns you an extra stroke!

As part of our research for the program, we were thrilled to discover that the National Museum of American History has a croquet set in its collection! The set was given to the museum, along with many other outdoor sports artifacts (badminton, horseshoes, etc.), by Mrs. Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson. Mrs. Patterson, who went by Marvin, is fascinating in her own right. She was a female cinematographer and debutante who loved to play polo, knew how to herd cattle and was one of the first women to fly a plane in the United States. She also took photographs for fashion magazines, worked for CBS, and was a Congressional Assistant in the 1930s. She was an exemplar of the sporting 1920s woman who continued to challenge traditional gender expectations.

Mrs. Patterson’s croquet set was from the sporting goods company Abercrombie and Fitch.

Despite our eagerness, we could not, of course, grab Professor Henry away from his electromagnet and take Mrs. Patterson’s croquet set outside to begin playing immediately, as we didn’t want to damage such an interesting and unique object. Instead, we acquired a new croquet set for the First Secretary, one that is historically accurate but not a museum object, and took ourselves out to the National Mall to try out our skills. With a little help from the Dwane Starlin, who plays Professor Henry at the museum, we were playing real games in no time!

Playing outside, Professor Henry and his team of museum staff try to encourage as many visitors as possible to join the game. Professor Henry leads the rounds, introducing players to proper 19th-century etiquette as he explains the rules and techniques of a game which he and his family enjoyed together nearly 150 years ago, and which is still popular today. What outdoor sports do you enjoy with your family during the summer? Let us know or visit the museum to strike up a croquet match with Professor Henry!

Katie Macko and Tory Altman are both Daily Programs Floor Managers at the National Museum of American History.