Discussing the Impact of Disasters on a Community With Fox News

Various things make up the shared historical memory of a community. These narratives take assorted forms, but the most jarring materialize when an unthinkable tragedy strikes. Whether a storm or accident, the catastrophes are seared deeply into the collective memory of residents. They shatter many lives and became part of history in the aftermath — the shared experience remembered and passed down through the generations.

Disasters impact communities. pan american disaster impact on Elkton
Remembering the impact of the Pan American plane crash in 1963 on Dec. 8, 2022.

These large-scale disasters, which often change a community forever, are part of understanding the story of a place, so people want the disruptive occurrence documented. Thus in my community studies and social history practice, I sometimes do fieldwork centered on researching, documenting, and memorializing them. Often, the process involves oral history interviews, as people reflect and discuss recollections; for others, it happened so long ago that firsthand recall has faded, so the process involves archival research as stakeholders establish a remembrance archive.    

One project I worked on in 2013 was the Flight 214 Remembrance Archive, which marked fifty years since the accident.  On December 8, 1963, at 8:59 p.m. A Pan American jet on final approach to Philadelphia exploded in flight. That night, all 81 people on the jet perished instantly while hundreds of first responders rushed to a cornfield at the edge of the Delaware State Line.  One firefighter answering the alarm was Stewart W. Godwin. While searching the debris field, he suddenly collapsed and died. He was the first North East Fire Company member to die in the line of duty. 

Those connected with this tragedy don’t forget it; this year, as we marked fifty-nine years since the accident, was no exception. Too, major broadcast networks often mark the disaster. And this year, on December 8, 2022, the Fox Network asked me to discuss the disaster’s impact and how a northeastern Maryland town recalls it.    

More on Researching Disasters

Historical Research into a Railroad Disaster: Greenwood, Delaware

Young Railroader Edwin Road Killed in Greenwood Explosion

Interview With WBAL About Hurricane Agnes

Delmarva Pandemic of 1918 Archive

Remembering Three Mile Island in Maryland

Hillside Arizona Santa Fe Railroad Station

THINGS FOUND IN AN OLD PHOTO ALBUM —

This July 2, 1929, photo of the Santa Fe Hillside Arizona train station came from an album full of pictures I purchased thirty to forty years ago. An unidentified adventurer compiled the images as he motored across the country. His series of albums had been dumped in a secondhand shop in Newark, DE. But, one containing photos from Maryland and Delaware Caught my attention, so I purchased that volume, which also had pictures of his western trips.

An internet search revealed that the Santa Fe opened the station in 1902. It was moved to Prescott, Arizona, much later. There the Iron Springs Cafe occupied it, but they closed not long ago. Hillside, an apparently abandoned community, is in Yavapai County.

Here is a link to a 2011 photo of the station when the Iron Springs Cafe occupied the structure.

hillside arizona santa fe railroad station
Santa Fe Railroad Station Hillside Arizona

170,000 Photos of American Life During the Great Depression and World War II

During the Great Depression and World War II, the United States Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information hired photographers to document American life. The documentarians, working between 1935 and 1944, captured 170,000 pictures. This included many in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

It is described as one of the most famous documentary photography collections of the twentieth century, “creating visual evidence of government initiatives alongside scenes of everyday life during the Great Depression and World War II across the United States.”

Once the program ended, The Library of Congress became the custodian of this work. They were placed in public file cabinets where researchers could browse the prints, searching for visual clues of earlier times. In March 2011, Yale University received a grant to create an interactive web-based open soured visualization platform for these images. The free online platform, Photogrammar, allows a rapid search of the large photographic data set. Easy to use, it includes an interactive map, which facilitates locating images of interest.

If you are interested in the images of the photographers who documented America during the Great Depression and World War II check out this free resource https://photogrammar.org/maps

great depression era photo of church dorechester county md
“Dorchester County, Maryland. The congregation of this church are all waterman.”
Jack Collier, Feb. 1942. U.S. Farm Administration
homes of dorchester county great depression era photo
DORCHESTER COUNTY — “Dorchester County, Maryland. Home of an Eastern shore waterman.” Jack Collier, Feb. 1942. The U.S. Farm Administration

Researching First African American Police Officers in Atlantic City

I am investigating the nature of work for African Americans in the public sector during the Jim Crow Era, specifically in healthcare, local government, and public safety.  Drawing on archival research, interviews with local experts, and oral histories with tradition-bearers and pioneers who broke barriers, this research examines the opportunities, obstacles, and challenges for Black Americans before the passage of modern Civil Rights legislation.       

Atlantic City is one place I have included in the study. There a large, vibrant Black community contributed to the growth, development, and culture of the resort. As a result, the city had more public-sector employment opportunities. But it was far from equitable as Black people struggled to break through the barriers of discrimination and segregation. This complicated history is a perspective I am working to understand as I contextualize the opportunities in the public sector as Jim Crow lost its hold over the country.    

As Black Americans held a variety of government and nonprofit positions along the Jersey Shore, this has led me to ask about the first police officers, firefighters, nurses, and doctors.  Noting those who went first is crucial to understanding the forces at work. The published literature, especially the Northside by Nelson Johnson, is of immense help in understanding the healthcare professions and firefighters.

However, law enforcement needs more research as this part of the history of policing is largely unexplored. When did the first Black officer receive his appointment? What was his life story? After he broke the color line, what struggles did he face? These are some of the questions under consideration as I research the first cohort of early pioneers in police work.

Atlantic City Police Department around 1900
Members of what is believed to be the Atlantic City Police Department pose for a photographer, probably around the turn of the twentieth century. There are two African American policemen in the image. (Source: Bob Ruffolo)
Chief Harry C. Eldridge, Atlantic City Police Department, 1906
The Atlantic City Daily Press published this photo of “Chief Harry C. Eldrige, who died on May 4, 1906. (Atlantic City Daily Press, May 5, 1906)

This line of inquiry led me to Princeton Antiques Book Service in Atlantic City. The proprietor, Bob Ruffolo, was of immense help. He has an expansive collection of 20,000 local images and a vast knowledge of the past along the Jersey Shore. In the collection, he had this photograph of police officers, which he thought was from Atlantic City around the turn-of-the-twentieth-century. Standing in the uniformed ranks are two Black police officers.

I am still working on comparing this picture with other images from the force around that time, but only a few surviving images exist.  So I will keep at this. However, in the old microfilm reels at the Atlantic City Library, I located an image of Chief Harry C. Eldridge. He passed away in 1906. There appears to be some likeness to the chief in the group photo.

Finally, the Atlantic City Free Public Library (ACFPL) identified the first Black female police officer. In 1924, Margaret “Maggie Creswell became a seasonal officer and in 1927 she became a permanent member of the force. According to the library, she was the first female officer in the city and the state. Office Creswell retired in 1964.