'The Apprentice'

Benjamin Banneker's Amazing Accomplishments


Benjamin Banneker was a renaissance man.

"You're Fired"

A Milestone Monday Feature:

The story of Benjamin Banneker is forever intertwined with the planning of our nation's capital city. In 1791 Banneker was in the employment of Andrew Ellicott, who was charged with the task of laying out the monumental city plan concieved by French architect Pierre Charles de L'Enfant, who had been hired to design a capital suitable for the new republic.

L'Enfant based his design on the best traditions of Baroque landscape design and his creation resembled the hunting gardens of Louis XIV's massive palace at Versailles. L'Enfant proved to be very difficult to work with... America's first 'rock star' architect, you might say. George Washington fired him.

Here the traditional story says that L'Enfant rolled up his drawings and left the young country in a huff, taking his designs with him. Ellicott turned to Banneker, who had prepared the actual surveys, and Banneker is said to have redrawn the plans from memory!

Though many modern historians doubt that Banneker recreated the plans from memory, the man's documented accomplishments would be in keeping with those of a man capable of such a feat.


The hunting gardens of Versailles...


...inspiration for our nation's capital?

A simple farmer most of his life, Banneker had the good fortune to know the Quaker settlers of Ellicott's Mills in Maryland. The Society of Friends believed in providing basic education to all people and young Banneker certainly received a solid basic education.

Banneker became a student of astronomy and published an almanac. He corresponded with President Thomas Jefferson on the issue of the status of his fellow African Americans. His letter to Jefferson is well crafted, invoking reason as well as compassion. It appears that Banneker took up the craft of surveying in his fifties, looking to a time when he might be physically too old to farm.

Banneker is said to have observed the workings of a clock and then carved his own working clock mechanism from scrap wood. He published his almanac until 1802.

"Banneker lived for four years after his almanacs discontinued. He published a treatise on bees, did a mathematical study on the cycle of the seventeen-year locust, and became a pamphleteer for the anti-slavery movement. He continued scientific studies by night and walked his land by day. He also continued to keep his garden. He hosted many distinguished scientists and artists of his day, and his visitors commented on his intelligence and on his knowledge of everything of importance that was happening in the country. As always, he remained precise and reflective in his conversations with others. His last walk (with a friend) came on October 9, 1806, he complained of being ill and went home to rest on his couch. He died later that day." [1.]


Banneker's Almanac.


The Ellicott/Banneker map of Washington.


The city today.

'The Apprentice'

Benjamin Banneker's Amazing Accomplishments


Benjamin Banneker was a renaissance man.

"You're Fired"

The story of Benjamin Banneker is forever intertwined with the planning of our nation's capital city. In 1791 Banneker was in the employment of Andrew Ellicott, who was charged with the task of laying out the monumental city plan concieved by French architect Pierre Charles de L'Enfant, who had been hired to design a capital suitable for the new republic.

L'Enfant based his design on the best traditions of Baroque landscape design and his creation resembled the hunting gardens of Louis XIV's massive palace at Versailles. L'Enfant proved to be very difficult to work with... America's first 'rock star' architect, you might say. George Washington fired him.

Here the traditional story says that L'Enfant rolled up his drawings and left the young country in a huff, taking his designs with him. Ellicott turned to Banneker, who had prepared the actual surveys, and Banneker is said to have redrawn the plans from memory!

Though many modern historians doubt that Banneker recreated the plans from memory, the man's documented accomplishments would be in keeping with those of a man capable of such a feat.


The hunting gardens of Versailles...


...inspiration for our nation's capital?

A simple farmer most of his life, Banneker had the good fortune to know the Quaker settlers of Ellicott's Mills in Maryland. The Society of Friends believed in providing basic education to all people and young Banneker certainly received a solid basic education.

Banneker became a student of astronomy and published an almanac. He corresponded with President Thomas Jefferson on the issue of the status of his fellow African Americans. His letter to Jefferson is well crafted, invoking reason as well as compassion. It appears that Banneker took up the craft of surveying in his fifties, looking to a time when he might be physically too old to farm.

Banneker is said to have observed the workings of a clock and then carved his own working clock mechanism from scrap wood. He published his almanac until 1802.

"Banneker lived for four years after his almanacs discontinued. He published a treatise on bees, did a mathematical study on the cycle of the seventeen-year locust, and became a pamphleteer for the anti-slavery movement. He continued scientific studies by night and walked his land by day. He also continued to keep his garden. He hosted many distinguished scientists and artists of his day, and his visitors commented on his intelligence and on his knowledge of everything of importance that was happening in the country. As always, he remained precise and reflective in his conversations with others. His last walk (with a friend) came on October 9, 1806, he complained of being ill and went home to rest on his couch. He died later that day." [1.]


Banneker's Almanac.


The Ellicott/Banneker map of Washington.


The city today.

Another American Milestone

The Land of Opportunity


The First African American First Family.

I can't wait until Monday to congratulate Senator Obama. History has been made with his electon. Although we disagree on many issues, I pray and believe that he and I share the desire to give a good Country to our chidren.

Tuesday I was working at the polls for my candidates and had an interesting conversation with Hal, my Democrat counterpart. Hal expressed a desire that political debate would become civil again. I bit my lip, thinking of the unfair treatment of Sarah Palin and her family by so-called 'compassionate' people, and instead expressed agreement. But I went on to say that there were some issues that I could not 'compromise' in the name of politeness. I'm pro-life, I said and that one is non-negotiable.

I opined that we could argue strong positions and when it was over shake hands and have lunch together, but the discussion of issues was essential to the process.

So today's Milestone Monday will take us back in time to one person who had a vision, long before Martin Luther King had a dream. It is this vision that has come to reality.

Meta Warrick Fuller
Sculptor and Visionary


Meta Warrick Fuller envisioned a better world for African-Americans.

The year was 1907. The place was Jamestown, Virginia. Virginia's first [and only] World's Fair took place and featured a pavilion dedicated to the African-American people. Meta Fuller was a sculptor who had studied in Philadelphia and Paris. She created a series of dioramas for the pavilion that examined the past and held out hope for the future.

Beginning with a depiction of the first twenty-four slaves arriving in Jamestown in 1619, Fuller depicted other history such as a fugitive slave's journey.

But then Fuller looked into the future. She envisioned a future where education and literacy created opportunity and her final diorama showed the modern black family enjoying the fruits of literacy and labor.


The World's Fair Pavilion, complete with classical columns!

The new President-elect will ride down Pennsylvania Avenue, laid out by Benjamin Banneker, a free black man who learned surveying in the employment of the Ellicott Brothers. Yes, I know Pierre Charles L'Enfant laid it out based on the hunting gardens at Versailles, but Banneker's photographic memory and design skills were put to the test when the tempermental L'Enfant rolled up his drawings and walked off the job.

The inauguration will celebrate the vision of many heroes, some well known and some obscure, who worked to bring this moment to be. How many people remember when In 1952 Billy Graham Desegregated All His Crusades?

Some Sobering Thoughts
We Forget History at Our Own Peril

"I would be willing to speculate that a person who feels the need to write an autobiography in their mid-thirties might be entertaining an exaggerated sense of self-importance." -- Matthew Edward Roberts

Mr Roberts Gives an Interesting Analysis in this Article. Thanks again to Sarah for America. If you could get your hands on a football team's playbook, the final sections discussing other team's play is sometimes called "Tendencies." Some of us 'back of the book' readers have been somewhat concerned with recent developments. Unfortunately Mr. Roberts thinks there is reason for our concern -- and he's not focusing his analysis on US!