The DC Traveler

Jim Henson is best known as the creator of The Muppets, and the PBS television series for children, Sesame Street.
While in high school in the early 1950s, Henson started creating puppets for local television station, WTOP, (now WUSA channel 9) Saturday morning children’s program.
He later attended college at the University of Maryland’s studio arts program in nearby College Park.  In his first year, WRC-TV (NBC-4) hired him to create a five-minute puppet show called Sam and Friends, which aired from 1955 to 1961.  The puppets Hansen created were the first versions of the Muppets, including a primitive lizard-like …read more

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Managed by the National Park Service, The Old Post Office Clock Tower offers one of the best views of Washington, DC and the National Mall area.
The building houses mostly commercial and governmental offices, along with a large atrium with shops, an entertainment stage, and a food court.
But the highlight of the building is just an elevator ride to the 270 foot-high observation deck. Being the third tallest building in Washington, DC, it offers fantastic panoramas of the National Mall.
Opened in 1899, the Post Office Building was located between the Capitol Building and the White House, an area which …read more

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A memorial to Maine fishermen who have devoted their lives to the fishing the sea is located on Maine Avenue at the Waterfront. 
It’s a curious place for a statue to lobster fishing, considering Washington, DC and the Chesapeake Bay is prime crab territory.

The statute is a copy of the original statute, commissioned by the state of Maine, for display when it participated in the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City.  The state was exhibited the statute in the Hall of States, and intended to show the world what Maine was about and its impact on the global food supply.
Sculptor …read more

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In a prominent location on Constitution Avenue, just off The Ellipse, and only a couple blocks from the White House, is the U.S. Second Infantry Division memorial.
The massive marble and flaming gold sword is dedicated to the “Indian Head” soldiers who fought in World Wars I and II, in Korea and during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
With nearly 15,000 combat-related deaths throughout its 90-year history, the Second Division has sadly suffered more losses than any other U.S. fighting division. 
 
The U.S. Second Infantry Division first saw action near Verdun, France, in its first taste of combat in World War I, during March of …read more

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A sure of spring, tulips on the National Mall in Washington.

Image – from personal collection – © 2008 – Jon Rochetti
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Today in 1865, just 5 days after the end of the Civil War, around 8:00 in the evening, President Abraham Lincoln his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln along with Major and Mrs. Henry Rathbone, visited Ford’s Theatre for a lively performance of the comedy, Our American Cousin.
Just after 10:00, during the third act, the well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth, entered the theatre and walked to the rear of the Presidential box.  With only one body guard, who had wandered off, he easily peered through a small hole in door of the box that he had drilled the …read more

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He was a leader of millions, but had no employees, no direct reports, no staffer nor any hired help.  But he led a nation through a peaceful revolution – Mohandas “Mahatma” K. Gandhi.
He was the pioneer of Satyagraha, mass resistance to government oppression through peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience and non-cooperation. His leadership led to India’s independence from colonial British rule in 1947.  But within six months of India’s independence, he would be dead.
Gandhi’s live principles included simplicity, faith, nonviolence, truth, being a vegetarian, and Brahmacharya – self realization and actualization through spiritual and physical purity (celibacy).
As a …read more

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Today is the 40th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, who was shot dead in Memphis by James Earl Ray.
Within hours of his murder, Washington, DC was poised for one of the most explosive urban riots in American history.

The Washington, DC headquarters of Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Council was located near the intersection of 14th and U Street.  Large crowds of young people were typical in the neighborhood, especially as people headed home from work, as the area was a center of the African-American community in Washington, DC.
Just two …read more

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The pillars at the Jefferson Memorial.
 
Image – from personal collection – © 2008 – Jon Rochetti 
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During my college days, I visited my sister who was studying abroad at the University of Munich.in Germany. While there, a relative who lived in Munich took us on a tour of the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp, just outside of Munich.  Dachau was one of the first such concentration camps designed by the Nazis, and served as a prototype for other future Nazi forced labor and death camps. 
I’ll always remember my visit, seeing the areas where prisoners first arrived and were stripped of their clothing and belongings, then on to the showers, and then the bunker, where …read more

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