Who Flew?

The two pilots tasked with the ambitious journey were General Sir Helperus Andreas “Pierre” van Ryneveld and Air Vice Marshal Sir Christopher Joseph Quintin “Flossie” Brand. Both men were highly decorated military veterans and had lengthy aviation experience that made them uniquely suited for the expedition. Pierre and Flossie were each highly decorated earning awards such as the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), the Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB), the Distinguished Service Award (DSO), and the Military Cross (MC) during their careers. After their successful flight each man was officially knighted by the British Empire. 

General Sir Helperus Andreas van Ryneveld (aka Pierre van Ryneveld)

Despite Pierre van Ryneveld’s impressive military career, he is most notably known for the trans-African flight. During the first world war Pierre originally served as a part of the North Lancashire Regiment before he transferred to the Royal Flying Corp, and then to the Royal Air Force. After the war, and in addition to his other awards Pierre was given the Chevalier of Legion of Honor by the French government. Part of the reason Pierre was chosen to take on such an ambitious flight was to establish the first South African Air Force (SAAF) on behalf of the British government. Following the success of the flight Pierre established the SAAF and became the director of such until 1933, after which he became the Chief General Staff until his retirement in 1949. 

Air Vice Marshal Sir Christopher Joseph Quintin Brand (aka Flossie)

Commonly referred to as Quintin Brand or Flossie, although did not begin his career within the air force he still managed to accumulate an impressive career. Originally Flossie joined the CID Inspectors Unit (Criminal Investigation Department) in Johannesburg, and only a few years later in 1913 he joined the South African Defense Force, which included the air force at the time. In 1915 Flossie traveled to England to join England’s Royal Flying Corps, and earned several medals of honor which also included the Distinguishable Service Order. After his successful flight to Cape Town, Flossie continued his military career during the second world war and was made a commanding officer with several different air force regiments. 

Jan Smuts
Although Smuts did not personally take to the sky, he was a significant driving force behind the financial and political support for the flight. Before becoming one of the more influential prime ministers of his era, Smuts was a decorated military officer, statesman and philosopher. He took office as the prime minister of the Union of South Africa between 1919-1924 and 1939-1948. His government fueled a large majority of expeditions, and viewed it as a technological opportunity and as a symbolic gesture to link South Africa to the British Empire. 

Reasons for Flight

The origins of the flight were rooted in both competition and imperial ambition. One contemporary report suggested that The Times of London had offered a £10,000 prize for the fastest flight from London to Cape Town. Smuts, eager to demonstrate South Africa’s modernity and its place within the British imperial network, authorized the purchase of the Vickers Vimy for £4,500 and selected Pierre and Flossie to undertake the mission. However several other accounts emphasize the fact that Pierre was also tasked with establishing the South African Air Force after landing in Cape Town.

The only reason the flight was deemed feasible was because of the significant innovation made in aviation technology during the first world war. Such innovations included advancements in propellers, engines and turbines which allowed for longer flight times and more stability while in flight.  

Innovations in Aviation

Although the first world war resulted in mass casualties, violence, and the collapse of several empires, it also provided the world with several innovations in technology. Despite the fact that many of these innovations were a part of destructive machines and weaponry, there were several other developments made that greatly improved modern life. Such as innovations made within aviation. These improvements included the modernization of communication between pilots and those on the ground, within the early years of the first world war these communications mainly occurred through Morse code, however by the end of the war radiotelephone communication made it easier, faster and clearer to communicate. Additionally innovations were made so that planes were able to endure more types of weather conditions, as well as allowed pilots to fly for long times and distances. The installation of oxygen systems allowed for the long-range flights, and several German pioneers created liquid-oxygen systems for extended altitude missions. The development of the Gyroscopic instruments enabled safer night and cloud-covered flights. Several other innovations in engines and propellers, as well as in the very design of aircrafts themselves made flight, and especially long-distance flights more possible. Without these modernizations in aircraft the first trans-African flight would have never occurred, and it’s likely that modern flight would have been different than what many know today. 

The Events of the Flight

The journey itself began on February 4th  1920, when Pierre and Flossie departed from Brooklands in the United Kingdom. They aimed to reach Cape Town, completing a direct air route that had never before been achieved. Their arrival on March 20th 1920 marked the end of a 45‑day odyssey that included multiple crashes, mechanical failures, and aircraft changes. 
The original Vickers Vimy, named The Silver Queen, was forced to land in Wadi Halfa after crossing the Mediterranean and was ultimately deemed beyond repair. A second Vimy, The Silver Queen II, carried them from Cairo until a crash in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) on March 5th-6th. The final leg of the journey was completed in an Airco DH.9, renamed The Voortrekker, provided by the South African government. In total, the flight required 109 hours and 30 minutes of actual flying time. In May of 1920, both aviators were knighted for their achievement. 

The map below is interactive, and details the flight path taken by Pierre and Flossie, the purple pins are confirmed stops within official reports and the blue pins illustrates the flight path Leo Walmsley detailed in his report from March 1920.

Public Reactions

There were several different reactions to the success of the first trans-African flight. Although the majority of the public, both in London and in South Africa, had very positive and hopeful reactions there were also several groups of people who reacted negatively to the flight’s success. 

The divided reactions between populations revealed deeper political and social tensions within Africa, and especially within South Africa and Cape Town. The public’s reactions were sharply drawn by racial and social differences that were already deeply rooted within their society.  For the better half of a century South Africa, and especially Cape Town was colonized by Britain, therefore it’s unsurprising a large population of white people lived within the settlements. The majority of this population was very proud of this achievement, since it not only demonstrated Western superiority in aircraft technology but it also connected the British Empire in ways never before seen. This reaffirmed their connections to their home country. Simultaneously these triumphant feelings exposed racial anxieties of the white population who felt political unrest and resistance from black South Africans even before the flight. The celebration of the flight thus became entangled with efforts to assert control and reinforce racial hierarchies. 
 On the contrary the native and black populations of the settlements often viewed and met the success of the flight with much skepticism and even indifference. Rather than the flight symbolizing progress, it represented a deepening entrenchment of imperial power and the strengthening of settler authority. The aircraft itself, descending from the sky, and bearing the symbols of the empire, became a metaphor for the technological and political imbalances that defined colonial rule. In this sense, the flight encapsulated the contradictions of the early 20th century: extraordinary technological innovation paired with profound social inequality. 

How this reflects themes of the 1920s

The significance of the 1920 trans‑African flight extended far beyond its technical accomplishment. It demonstrated the rapid advances in aviation technology that had emerged from the First World War and showcased the growing ability of aircraft to shrink imperial space. Before this moment, travel between Britain and South Africa required long sea voyages along the western coast of Africa. The flight symbolically collapsed this distance, reinforcing the idea that the empire could be connected through modern technology. It also positioned Britain, and by extension its dominions, as leaders in global aviation. The flight also stands as a representation of the broader themes of the early 1900s and the 1920s in particular. It highlights the transformative impact of wartime technological development, the imperial ambitions of Britain and its dominions, and the racial tensions that shaped South African society. It was both a triumph of engineering and a reminder of the unequal world in which such triumphs were celebrated. 

Conclusion

The 1920 trans‑African flight ultimately stands as far more than a remarkable feat of early aviation. It was a moment in which the technological momentum generated by the First World War collided with the political ambitions of the empire and the deeply hierarchical social realities of South Africa. Pierre van Ryneveld and Quintin Brand’s journey demonstrated how wartime innovations which included stronger engines, improved communications, oxygen systems, and more reliable aircraft designs, had transformed the possibilities of flight, shrinking imperial space and redefining the limits of human mobility. Yet the public responses to their achievement revealed that technological progress did not translate into social unity. Instead, the flight exposed the fractures within South African society: the pride and imperial enthusiasm of white settlers contrasted sharply with the skepticism and apprehension of Black Africans who saw the event as another symbol of entrenched colonial power. In this way, the Silver Queen expedition encapsulated the contradictions of the early twentieth century, an era marked by extraordinary innovation alongside profound inequality. By tracing the story of this flight, its origins, and its reception, we gain insight not only into the development of modern aviation but also into the contested meanings of “progress” in a world still shaped by empire, race, and the legacies of war.

Citations

• Barker, Ralph. “A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I : Barker, Ralph, 1917- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.” Internet Archive, 2022, archive.org/details/briefhistoryofro0000bark/page/n5/mode/2up. 
• Barns, T. Alexander. “A Trans-African Expedition.” Journal of the Royal African Society, vol. 24, no. 96, 1925, pp. 272–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/716208. 
• Biddle, Tami Davis. “AIR POWER THEORY: AN ANALYTICAL NARRATIVE FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR TO THE PRESENT.” VOLUME I: THEORY OF WAR AND STRATEGY, edited by J. Boone Bartholomees, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, 2010, pp. 279–310. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12114.23. Accessed 2 May 2026.
• DEDERING, TILMAN. “Blue Skies into White Space: Southern African Responses to the Trans-African Flight of the Silver Queen, 1920.” Technology and Culture, vol. 59, no. 2, 2018, pp. 289–312. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26804414. 
• Filby, A. E. “A New Trans-African Route.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 93, no. 5, 1939, pp. 419–24. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1788712. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
• Gazette, London. ““The London Gazette” Issue 31900.” The Gazette Official Public Record, 14 May 1920, p. 5480, www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31900/page/5480.
• Masego Panyane. “University of Pretoria Commemorates 100 Years of Trans-African Flight and Re-Installation of Flight Monument.” University of Pretoria, 2020, www.up.ac.za/news/university-of-pretoria-commemorates-100-years-of-trans-african-flight-and-re-installation-of. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
• Stanley, William R. “Trans-South Atlantic Air Link in World War II.” GeoJournal, vol. 33, no. 4, 1 Aug. 1994, pp. 459–463, https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00806430. 
• “The Evolution of World War I Aircraft.” Si.edu, 7 May 2025, airandspace.si.edu/explore/stories/world-war-i-laboratory-air.
• Walmsley, Leo. “The Recent Trans-African Flight and Its Lesson.” Geographical Review, vol. 9, no. 3, 1920, pp. 149–60. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/207254.  

madison

Madison is currently a senior at the Ramapo College of New Jersey, who took this course in the spring of 2026. She has a major in Visual Arts, with a concentration in Art History, along with a double minor in Anthropology and Museum and Exhibitions Studies. After graduating Madison hopes to continue her education in order to become an Archaeologist or Museum Educator.

Background

The entirety of the Leopold and Loeb case was very bizarre from the very beginning. Two teenage boys, Leopold, 19, and Loeb, 18, brutally murdered their young neighbor, seemingly for no reason at all. All three of the boys came from wealthy Jewish families and resided in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood within a walking distance from one another. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb seemed to have everything in life laid out for them.¹ Despite this, the privileged teenage boys threw away their lives through a single act of violence.

The minds of Leopold and Loeb were complex, revealing, and utterly disturbed. Both boys were excellent scholars, but had something darker residing in their minds. Loeb was popular among his peers, and began studying at the University of Chicago at 14. However, he was also involved with drinking and gambling, and desired to become a “master criminal”.² Additionally, he had always been obsessed with crime. He “read about crime, he planned crimes, and he committed crimes”, but he had never physically harmed someone.³ Leopold had graduated from the University of Chicago and had plans to attend Harvard Law School. Despite excelling academically, he was described as “arrogant” by people he encountered.⁴ Aside from law, Leopold was fascinated with psychology, especially with the works of Friedrich Nietzsche.⁵ Leopold “believed that legal obligations did not apply to those who approached ‘the superman’”, and brought his lover, Richard Loeb, into this mentality.⁶ In return, Loeb tied up Leopold in his crime schemes. When these two minds were put together, they became deadly. Historian Paula S. Fass asks the question of “why two rich, gifted boys would commit a murder embedded in the form of a ransom kidnapping”; a question that will likely never be fully answered.⁷ 

Together, the two boys desired to commit the “perfect crime” and the “crime of the century”. The premeditated murder of a random victim fit this criteria. “The two teenagers spent months discussing and refining a plan that included kidnapping the child of a wealthy parents, demanding a ransom, and collecting the ransom after it was thrown off a moving train as it passed a designated point”, and murder was crucial to get away with the crime.⁸ If murder was not involved, they risked being identified by their victim. Leopold and Loeb started planning this murder in November 1923, 6 months before it actually took place. They ruled against deciding who their victim would be beforehand, and instead opted to make it spontaneous.⁹ In the days leading up to the murder, they began to get their supplies together, including a chisel, which would be the murder weapon.¹⁰ Their last step was to rent a car the morning of the murder. 

Kidnapping and Murder

Bobby Franks was walking home from Harvard School for Boys around 5pm on May 21 following a baseball game.¹¹ At the same time, Leopold and Loeb were circling the area hunting for a victim. Leopold, who was driving the rented car, pulled up next to Franks and “asked him to get in the car to discuss a tennis racquet”, to which he complied.¹² Loeb, who was in the back seat of the car, grabbed Franks, covered his mouth, and “struck the boy with [sic] several times on his head with a chisel”.¹³ Loeb then suffocated young Bobby Franks to death.¹⁴ Sometime between 5:15 PM and 9:30 PM, the boys drove to the Illinois/Indiana border to dispose of the body.¹⁵ Leopold and Loeb shoved Frank’s body into a culvert under a railroad, poured acid on his naked body, and returned to Loeb’s home to burn his clothing.¹⁶ 

At 9:30 PM, Mrs. Franks received a menacing phone call from a man identifying himself as “George Johnson”.¹⁷ “Leopold told Franks that her boy had been kidnapped, but was unharmed, and that she should expect a ransom note soon”; the family received the note the next morning.¹⁸ The note reads: 

Dear Sir: 

As you no doubt know by this time, your son has been kidnapped. Allow us to assure you that he is at present well and safe. You need fear no physical harm for him, provided you live up carefully to the following instructions and to such others as you will receive future communication. Should you, however, disobey any of our instructions, even slightly, his death will be the penalty. 

1. For obvious reasons make absolutely no attempt to communicate with either the police authorities or any private agency. Should you already have communicated with the police, allow them to continue their investigation, but do not mention this letter.

2. Secure before noon today ten thousand dollars. This money must be composed entirely of old bills of the following denominations:

Two thousand dollars in twenty dollar bills, eight thousand dollars in fifty dollar bills. The money must be old. An attempt to include new or marked bills will render the entire venture futile. 

3. The money should be placed in a large cigar box, or if this is impossible, in a heavy cardboard box, securely closed and wrapped in white paper. The wrapping paper should be sealed at all openings with sealing wax.

4. Have the money with you, prepared as directed above, and remain at home after one o’clock P.M. See that the telephone is not in use.

You will receive a further communication instructing you as to your future course.

As a final word of warning, this is an extremely commercial proposition and we are prepared to put our threat into execution should we have reasonable grounds to believe that you have committed an infraction of the above instructions. 

However, should you carefully follow out our instructions to the letter, we can assure you that your son will be safely returned to you within six hours of our receipt of the money.

Yours truly, 

George Johnson¹⁹

A second note was to be placed on the train, but Mr. Franks never received this one. The 2nd note reads:

Dear Sir: 

Proceed immediately to the back platform of the train. Watch the east side of the track. Have your package ready. Look for the first LARGE, RED, BRICK factory situated immediately adjoining the tracks on the east. On top of this factory is a large, black watertower with the word CHAMPION written on it. Wait until you have COMPLETELY passed the south end of the factory – count five very rapidly and then IMMEDIATELY throw the package as far east as you can. Remember that this is your only chance to recover your son.

Yours truly,

George Johnson²⁰

At around 12PM the next day, “Leopold (‘George Johnson’) called Jacob Franks, Bobby’s father, shortly before three o’clock to tell him a taxi cab was about to arrive at his home and that he should take it to a specified drugstore in South Chicago”.²¹ Mr. Franks, of course, refused to do so. A few hours before this call, unbeknownst to the killers or Mr. Franks, a laborer had discovered Bobby’s body.²² Bobby’s uncle went to confirm the identity of the body as soon as he heard the news.²³ It was at the location of the body that a clue to the identity of the killer lay.

Linking Leopold and Loeb to the Crime

Little did he know, Nathan Leopold had lost a pair of eyeglasses at the site where he and Richard Loeb had dumped the body. This specific style of glasses “could be traced to a single Chicago optometrist, who had written only three such prescriptions, including the one to Leopold”.²⁴ Investigators began meticulously questioning Nathan Leopold on May 23, and soon after, Richard Loeb.²⁵ They confirmed each other’s alibis of driving girls around in Leopold’s car, but “state’s attorney Robert Crowe, heading the investigation, was skeptical”.²⁶ Upon further investigation and leads from classmates, prosecutors got ahold of a set of notes from a typewriter that belonged to Leopold, and the flaws matched those of the ransom note.²⁷ Leopold’s chauffeur attempted to defend him by saying the car “the boys claimed they had spent the night driving around with girls, had not left the garage on the day of the murder”.²⁸ He had unknowingly destroyed both the boys’ alibis. 

On May 30, 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were arrested for the murder of Bobby Franks.²⁹ The following day, they both confessed to the murder, but neither would own up to actually killing Franks.³⁰ 

Trial

For the trial, “The Loeb and Leopold families hired Clarence Darrow and Benjamin Bachrach to represent the two boys”.³¹ Clarence Darrow was interested in the case due to the opportunity it gave him to “attack the death penalty, which he had called “an abomination”.³² Darrow had persuaded the boys to plead guilty to potentially avoid the death penalty. Professor Douglas O. Linder explains Darrow’s reasoning: 

“It was Darrow’s decision to change the boys’ initial pleas to the charges of murder and kidnapping from “not guilty” (suggesting a traditional insanity defense) to “guilty.” The decision was made primarily to prevent the state from getting two opportunities to get a death sentence. With “not guilty” pleas, the state had planned to try the boys first on one of the two charges, both of which carried the death penalty in Illinois, and if it failed to win a hanging on the first charge, try again on the second. The guilty plea also meant that the sentencing decision would be made by a judge, not by a jury”.³³ 

The defense worked around the testimony of 4 psychiatrists who interviewed the boys.³⁴ The issue was that “the prosecution argued that psychiatric testimony was only admissible if the defendants claimed insanity”, to which the psychiatrists said mental diseases should be considered in the sentencing.³⁵ The judge was convinced and allowed the evidence to be used. The entire trial, which Linder defines as a hearing due to the guilty plea, lasted a little longer than a month.³⁶ The defense claimed that Leopold and Loeb suffered from “emotional immaturity, obsessions with crime and Nietzschean philosophy, alcohol abuse, glandular abnormalities, and sexual longings and insecurities”.³⁷ Leopold was described as paranoid, delusional, and obsessed with Loeb; Loeb was called childish and called out for his lack of judgement.³⁸ Psychiatrist Wiliiam White claimed that “Nathan would never on his own initiative have murdered Bobby Franks. . . And I don’t believe Dickie would have ever functioned to this extent all by himself”, so the two came together to commit the murder.³⁹ The prosecution argued that neither boy was mentally ill.⁴⁰ The Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology highlighted the fact that ”this is probably the first instance of the offer of elaborate psychiatric analyses as the basis for remitting the law’s penalty for a calculated, cold-blooded murder, committed by persons not claimed to be insane or defective in any degree recognized by the law as making them not legally responsible”. This aspect made the case revolutionary when it came to the court becoming less reliant on the death penalty.⁴¹ 

Over the span of 12 hours on August 22, 1924, “Darrow argued that his clients should not bear full responsibility for their crime” due to several external factors.⁴² The basis of Darrow’s argument was that this murder happened due to “a series of infinite chances”; he claimed the boys were victims of nature.⁴³ Darrow had also attempted to sway the jury away from a death sentence by expressing that the boys were too young to have to sit in jail awaiting execution.⁴⁴

Attorney Robert Crowe stated “this was a premeditated crime committed by two remorseless defendants, and the appropriate punishment was obvious”, which he believed to be execution.⁴⁵ After weeks of debating, Nathan Leopold and RIchard Loeb were sentenced to life in prison, mainly due to their age and the inability of the court to determine responsibility.⁴⁶ 

Aftermath

The two boys were held in Joliet Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois. Richard Loeb was killed here in 1936, and Nathan Leopold was released in 1958 due to his excellent behavior.⁴⁷ Leopold then moved to Puerto Rico, where “he earned a master’s degree, taught mathematics, and worked in hospitals and church missions”.⁴⁸ He passed away on August 30, 1971 following a heart attack.⁴⁹ 

Significance

Newspapers were critical to the entire incident, as well as the 1920s as a whole. Several newspapers provided the public with updated stories about a “sensational kidnap-murder”, provided “the prosecuting attorney with material assistance”, and gathered evidence that helped solve the case.⁵⁰ James Mulroy and Alvin Goldstein, two journalists for the Chicago Daily News, received and “shared some of the reward money as well as the Pulitzer Prize for helping to connect Nathan Leopold, Jr., and Richard Loeb to the abduction and murder of Bobby Franks”.⁵¹ Daily papers ”published the confessions, interviewed the families and friends, and speculated about the nature of the “million-dollar defense” to be mounted by Clarence Darrow and his expensive psychiatric witnesses”; this turned into a type of entertainment for some, and turned this into a nationwide phenomenon.⁵² In addition to keeping the public updated on the case, the newspapers also did some strange things, which are now seen as immoral. “On May 23, 1924, the day the newspapers reported that Bobby had been kidnapped, they also contained a detailed description of his dead body”.⁵³ To expose people, and potentially children, to such a disturbing scene was very odd. Despite this, the case would not have been solved without the contributions of press workers. 

The Leopold and Loeb case related to The Modern Temper by Lynn Dumenil in terms of psychology, beliefs, and human morality. Dumenil touches on the ideas of several individuals, including psychologist John B. Watson. Watson “described humans as hollow shells, formed by their environment, who responded to external stimuli”.⁵⁴ Leopold and Loeb’s minds and behavior was shaped by the privileged environment that they grew up in, and this led them to believe they could get away with murder. Fiction writer Sherwood Anderson wrote “fashioned dark, brooding stories dealing with marriage, morality, and individuals destroyed by success”.⁵⁵ It would be plausible to say that Loepold and Loeb were destroyed by the financial success of their parents and their own intellectual success. 

The murder of Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb would go down in history as “cautionary story about the dangers of modern youth”.⁵⁶ The profiles of the killers were vastly different from those of a “typical” murderer. Their portrayals “set them apart and represented them as larger than life”, making the case even more sensational.⁵⁷

Citations

1. “The “Perfect Crime”: The Story of Leopold and Loeb and the Murder of Bobby Franks” ︎
2. “The “Perfect Crime”: The Story of Leopold and Loeb and the Murder of Bobby Franks” ︎
3. Douglas O. Linder ︎
4. “The “Perfect Crime”: The Story of Leopold and Loeb and the Murder of Bobby Franks” ︎
5. Douglas O. Linder ︎
6. Douglas O. Linder ︎
7. Paula S. Fass ︎
8. Douglas O. Linder ︎
9. “The “Perfect Crime”: The Story of Leopold and Loeb and the Murder of Bobby Franks” ︎
10. “The “Perfect Crime”: The Story of Leopold and Loeb and the Murder of Bobby Franks” ︎
11. “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.”; Douglas O. Linder ︎
12. Douglas O. Linder ︎
13. Douglas O. Linder ︎
14. Douglas O. Linder ︎
15. “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.” ︎
16. Douglas O. Linder ︎
17. “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.” ︎
18. Douglas O. Linder ︎
19. Nathan F. Leopold, Jr. and Richard Loeb, University of Minnesota Web Archive ︎
20. Douglas O. Linder ︎
21. “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.”; Douglas O. Linder ︎
22. “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.” ︎
23. Paula S. Fass ︎
24. Douglas O. Linder ︎
25. “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.” ︎
26. Douglas O. Linder ︎
27. Douglas O. Linder ︎
28. Douglas O. Linder ︎
29. “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.” ︎
30. “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.” ︎
31. Douglas O. Linder ︎
32. Douglas O. Linder ︎
33. Douglas O. Linder ︎
34. Douglas O. Linder ︎
35. Douglas O. Linder ︎
36. Douglas O. Linder ︎
37. Douglas O. Linder ︎
38. Douglas O. Linder ︎
39. Douglas O. Linder ︎
40. Douglas O. Linder ︎
41. “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.” ︎
42. Douglas O. Linder ︎
43. Douglas O. Linder ︎
44. Douglas O. Linder ︎
45. Douglas O. Linder ︎
46. Douglas O. Linder ︎
47. Douglas O. Linder ︎
48. Douglas O. Linder ︎
49. “Nathan Leopold – Loeb, Murder & Death.” ︎
50. Paula S. Fass ︎
51. Paula S. Fass ︎
52. Paula S. Fass ︎
53. Paula S. Fass ︎
54. Lynn Dumenil, 146 ︎
55. Lynn Dumenil, 153 ︎
56. Paula S. Fass ︎
57. Paula S. Fass ︎

• Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s, 1995. 
• Fass, Paula S. “Making and Remaking an Event: The Leopold and Loeb Case in American Culture.” The Journal of American History 80, no. 3 (1993): 919–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/2080409.
• “Leopold and Loeb.” Wikipedia, April 11, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_Loeb.
• “Leopold and Loeb Ransom Note: Northwestern Magazine.” Northwestern University. Accessed April 29, 2026. https://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/spring2012/feature/full-of-drama-sidebar/ransom-note.html.
• Linder, Douglas O. “Map of the Scene of the Kidnapping and Murder of Bobby Franks.” Famous Trials. Accessed April 23, 2026. https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1750-map.
• Linder, Douglas O. “The Leopold And Loeb Trial: An Account.” The Leopold and Loeb Trial: An account. Accessed April 23, 2026. https://famous-trials.com/leopoldandloeb/1741-home.
• “Nathan Leopold – Loeb, Murder & Death.” Biography, April 7, 2021. https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/nathan-leopold.
• Nathan F. Leopold, Jr. and Richard Loeb, University of Minnesota Web Archive (The Criminal Court of Cook County 1924). 
• O’Connor Davis, Susan. “Lost Hyde Park: Springtime Is for Lovers.” Hyde Park Herald, May 25, 2021. https://www.hpherald.com/news/local/lost-hyde-park-springtime-is-for-lovers/article_c5af7c6e-bd9f-11eb-aacd-779da1769005.html.
• “Psychiatrists’ (‘Alienists’) Phrenological Assessments of Mr. …” ResearchGate. Accessed April 29, 2026. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Psychiatrists-alienists-phrenological-assessments-of-Mr-Nathan-Leopold-and-Mr_fig5_344804194.
• “The Loeb-Leopold Murder of Franks in Chicago, May 21, 1924.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 15, no. 3 (1924): 347–48. https://doi.org/10.2307/1134803.
• “The ‘Perfect Crime’: The Story of Leopold and Loeb and the Murder of Bobby Franks | WTTW Chicago.” WTTW. Accessed April 23, 2026. https://www.wttw.com/chicago-stories/deadly-alliance-leopold-loeb/the-perfect-crime-the-story-of-leopold-and-loeb-and-the-murder-of-bobby-franks. 

More Resources

For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago– Simon Baatz (2008)

The Clarence Darrow Digital Collection

The Leopold and Loeb Trial: A Brief Account– Douglas O. Linder

PBS American Experience: “The Perfect Crime” (2016) (Documentary)

kconley

Ramapo College sophomore majoring in History and minoring in Museum Studies + Music Industry

 

Entertainment involving performers was immensely popular in the 1920s, such as movies, theater, music, dancing, and sports. Perhaps the most famous performer was illusionist Harry Houdini. Houdini was a living legend, performing seemingly impossible death defying stunts and escape acts on a daily basis, leaving crowds speechless. Harry Houdini popularized escape acts and illusion as a form of entertainment that was distinct from magic shows, exposed frauds, and left behind a legacy many would do anything to achieve. Along with this legacy, he left behind a life of mysteries.  

Harry Houdini, born Erik Weisz in Hungary, moved to the United States when he was four years old in 1878.¹ His father was a rabbi and had accepted a job offering in Wisconsin and had moved there earlier than Houdini, his mother, and his 4 brothers.² The family moved to New York 9 years later, when Houdini’s father decided he was not making enough to support his family in Wisconsin.³ From an early age, Erik, nicknamed Harry, had an immense fascination with magic, especially with “French conjurer Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin”.⁴ Young Harry was so inspired by Houdin that he altered his last name to use as his own future stage name. He began his career at the age of nine in a local circus, alongside his brother, but he did not come into the public eye until his escape acts took off a few years later.⁵ When his father passed away in 1892, Houdini took it upon himself to provide for and support his family, and so he began touring.⁶ He worked his way up in the entertainment and stunt/illusion industry, and by the 1920s, Harry Houdini would have been a household name across the world.⁷ 

Houdini escaped death thousands of times, escaping from straight jackets, jail cells, and handcuffs, sometimes underwater. He made the impossible possible, embodied a new type of superhuman, and fascinated everyone who came to see him perform. There did not seem to be a single situation that he couldn’t overcome. That was, until late October 1926, when Harry Houdini finally met his match. He “so often had seemed to thousands to be cheating the very jaws of death” but this time, he was unsuccessful.⁸ The chain of events leading up to his death were perhaps more mysterious than his actual death. 

Prior to the main series of events leading up to his death, Houdini nearly severed his foot in his water torture cell trick in Albany on October 11, 1926, but emerged with just a fractured ankle.⁹ He visited the hospital several times, first to confirm it was fractured, then for treatments.¹⁰ He was advised to take time off from shows to allow his ankle  to heal and avoid making it worse or causing permanent damage.¹¹ Like many other instances, he ignored this advice, and continued his shows. The continuing of these performances didn’t allow his body to heal his ankle and left his body and immune system significantly weakened.¹² This lowered immunity made him highly susceptible to further infections and diseases. Even if he had been in good health, it was still not likely Houdini would have been able to survive the events that were to come. Contrary to popular belief, he did not actually die in his Chinese Water Torture Cell. This false cause of death was introduced in the 1953 movie titled Houdini, in which Houdini died within this cell.¹³ The truth about his death is much more complex than this Hollywood depiction of drowning. 

October 22: The Punch

Harry Houdini was scheduled to perform a show at the Princess Theater in Montreal on the evening of October 22, 1926. He was preparing and relaxing before the show in his dressing room, when a group of students came to visit him. One of the McGill University students, J. Gordon Whitehead, asked if it was true that he could “withstand hard blows without injury” to the abdomen.¹⁴ Houdini often boasted about the strength of his abdomen, and was very proud of it. Without warning, Whitehead punched Houdini as hard as he could in his stomach, reportedly multiple times, leaving him bent over in pain.¹⁵ Houdini tried to ignore the pain, as he had a show that evening, and one of the physically and mentally strongest men in the world could not show weakness to his fans. Houdini proceeded to perform the show in its entirety, despite suffering stomach cramps and pain throughout it. 

October 23 & 24: severe pain and show

The next morning, Houdini boarded a train from Montreal to Detroit, where he had a show on the night of the 24th. By the time he had arrived, the pain had significantly worsened. After he got settled in his dressing room, a local physician was called due to growing concern and declining condition. After laying his hand on Houdini’s stomach, he diagnosed him with appendicitis.¹⁶ At some point his appendix ruptured, releasing toxins into his abdominal cavity, requiring emergency surgery.¹⁷ Houdini decided to push  through the pain, despite needing emergency surgery, and gave his final performance of his life on October 24, 1926, at the Garrick Theater in Detroit, Michigan.¹⁸ Some spectators described this performance as “disappointing”, as Houdini had made several mistakes.¹⁹ After discovering that Houdini was performing with a ruptured appendix, fans “realized that Houdini had given his life to perform for his admirers right up to the last minute”.²⁰ After finishing the 2.5 hour long show, the pain became more severe and unbearable, but surgery would not be performed until the following afternoon.²¹ Apparently, instead of undergoing emergency surgery, Houdini decided to call his doctor back in New York to get a second opinion, a decision that would soon turn out to be deadly.²² 

October 25: 1st surgery, October 28: 2nd surgery

On October 25, Harry Houdini underwent an operation to remove his appendix at Grace Hospital.²³ When his abdomen was opened up, it was discovered that it was filled with pus and severely infected.²⁴ Because the surgery was so delayed to work around the show schedule, the toxins from his ruptured appendix had already seeped into his bloodstream, resulting in full body poisoning and sepsis.²⁵

Dr. Arnold Van de Laar, a surgeon in Amsterdam, explains “at first, the pus can be contained by the surrounding intestines, but in the next stage the appendix dies off locally and bursts. Feces and intestinal gases are then released into the abdominal cavity. The patient experiences a sudden increase in the pain in the lower right of the abdomen, which then spreads throughout the whole abdomen and becomes so severe that it is no longer possible to say exactly where it is coming from. This is the stage of life-threatening peritonitis”, which is exactly what Houdini experienced.²⁶ 

On October 28, Houdini had to undergo a second surgery to rinse out his abdomen from any remaining pus in an attempt to further remove and contain toxins, but the efforts to save his life came too late.²⁷ The toxins had already poisoned his entire body, which was essentially a death sentence. The next three days would have been filled with hopelessness knowing there was nothing else that could be done to save him, and it was only a matter of time until his body gave up.  

October 31: Houdini’s death

Harry Houdini met his unfortunate demise on the afternoon of October 31, 1926. After being in Grace Hospital for about a week, “Houdini whispered to his brother, Theo, ‘I’m tired of fighting…guess this is going to get me’”.²⁸ Aware that he had very little time left, he took one last look at his wife before closing his eyes and leaving this world at 1:26 pm.²⁹ Despite escaping every impossible situation, he could not escape his death. Houdini passed away alongside two people who had an immense impact on his life and career. His official cause of death was listed as “diffuse peritonitis streptococcal”, a severe abdominal infection caused by his ruptured appendix.³⁰ This would have been an agonizingly slow and painful way to go, especially knowing that there was nothing else anyone could do to save him. 

Even though the punch to Houdini’s stomach did occur a little over a week before his death, some doctors do not believe it had any correlation to his death, while others believe it directly caused it, so it became a topic of debate.³¹ It is unknown if he was suffering from appendicitis prior to the punch and it just made the pain more severe, if the punch ruptured an already inflamed appendix, or if it had caused the appendicitis. 

Significance 

Aside from his career of performing  illusions and stunts, Houdini dedicated a major part of the last years of his life to debunking fraudulent spiritualists and mediums. Spiritualism, the practice of attempting to make contact with the dead, was at an all time high following the end of World War I, with distraught grieving family members attempting to contact deceased loved ones. Houdini reportedly “had little patience for anyone who claimed to be in possession of supernatural powers”, and denied claims that he had supernatural powers that assisted him and allowed him to perform these escape tricks.³² It was thought that towards the end of his life, Houdini “seemed to find more satisfaction in his successful exposure of imposture and fraud” than in his performances, supported by the fact that he “offered a $10,000 reward to any psychic who could present “physical phenomena” that could not be explained rationally”.³³ He even went as far as to testify “before Congress in support of legislation that would have criminalized fortune-telling for hire and ‘any person pretending to … unite the separated’ in the District of Columbia”, or in other words, make it illegal to profit off fortune telling in Washington, DC.³⁴ His whole thought process behind this was that he was keeping “mediums” and “spiritualists” from trying to make a profit off grieving people. There was even talk for a time where people were speculating that angry spiritualists had a role in his death, some of which took credit for killing him.³⁵ To these spiritualists, Houdini was a direct threat to their careers, so having a role in his demise would have been an accomplishment. While he believed it was fake, Houdini was not so much against people practicing these kinds of things as he was people claiming it was real and doing it for money. These practices targeted vulnerable people, which he felt was immoral. Houdini’s death allowed these spiritualists, whether or not they were fraudulent, to continue their practices for a personal profit. 

Ironically, for 10 years after his death, his wife attempted to contact him through a seance on the anniversary of his passing. He had apparently told her that if there was a way for the dead to communicate with the living, he would do all that he could to reach her after he had died.³⁶ His wife, Bess, hosted annual seances every single year for 10 years hoping that one time he would come through. After the 10th seance, Bess stated “‘Houdini did not come through. … I do not believe that Houdini can come back to me, or to anyone”, putting an end to the hosted seances.³⁷ Although Bess stopped, people still perform Halloween seances in an attempt to contact Harry Houdini from beyond to this day. 

Chapter 2 of The Modern Temper by Lynn Dumenil, titled “Work and Consumption”, discusses the aspects of society in the 1920s that allowed Houdini to become so popular. The 1920s was a decade that “embrace[d] leisure, consumption, and self expression”.³⁸ This rise in popularity of leisure activities expanded Houdini’s audience into both the upper and middle class of the United States. People had more extra money to spend on things that they enjoyed, which for many was going and watching performances.³⁹ Without this societal change, Houdini’s career would not have become nearly as successful as it did.

Harry Houdini was one of the most iconic and remembered performers of the 1920s. His role in the entertainment industry defined a new type of entertainment and performance. Additionally, his career showed the immense role that entertainment had in society, the grief that came after WWII, and the popularity of leisure activities during the 1920s. He had immense talent and ‘“a wondrous power that he never understood”, as well as a passion for debunking fraudulent spiritual practices.⁴⁰ Other people had done stunts and escape acts, but not to the level that he did. He was doing hundreds of shows a year, sometimes performing multiple times a day, all across the world. He gained immense fame from these impossible escapes and became a household name and an entertainment, illusionist, and escape icon for the next century. 

Citations

• Andrews, Evan. “10 Things You May Not Know About Harry Houdini.” History.com, May 27, 2025. https://www.history.com/articles/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-harry-houdini.
• Cox, John. The biggest myth, March 23, 2012. https://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2012/03/biggest-houdini-myth.html.
• “Did Houdini Really Die After Being Sucker Punched?” Yale University Press, October 21, 2025. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2020/03/11/did-houdini-really-die-after-being-sucker-punched/
• Dumenil, Lynn. The modern temper: American culture and society in the 1920s. United States: Hill and Wang, 1995
• Greene, Bryan. “For Harry Houdini, Séances and Spiritualism Were Just an Illusion.” Smithsonian Magazine, October 28, 2021. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-harry-houdini-seances-and-spiritualism-were-just-an-illusion-180978944/.
• “Harry Houdini (1874-1926).” PBS. Accessed March 10, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/houdini-biography/.
• Featured Image: Harry Houdini (1874–1926), Stone walls and chains do not make a prison — for Houdini. n.d. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harry_Houdini.jpg.
• “Harry Houdini: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center.” Harry Ransom Center. Accessed March 10, 2026. https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=01275.
• “Houdini in Detroit.” Michiganology, September 3, 2021. https://michiganology.org/stories/stories/.
• “Houdini’s Magic.” The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) 11, no. 1 (1987): 40–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45266473.
• “On This Day”, 2010. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0324.html.
• Featured Image: Thurston, John H, photographer. Houdini jumps from Harvard Bridge, Boston, Massachusetts / John H. Thurston, stereopticons. Boston Massachusetts, 1908. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015650990/.
• Featured Image: Final Houdini seance in 1936. [from a Photo Taken in 1936] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010646059/.
• Featured Image: Schmidt, George. Casket of Harry Houdini being carried to hearse. March 2, 2010. Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/casket-of-harry-houdini-being-carried-to-hearse-news-photo/97296027.
• “Our Point of View.” Scientific American 136, no. 1 (1927): 12–12. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24976961.
• Van de Laar, Arnold. “The Death of an Escape Artist: Harry Houdini – the History Reader.” The History Reader, May 29, 2025. https://www.thehistoryreader.com/historical-figures/death-escape-artist-harry-houdini-appendicitis-surgery/.
• Featured Image: Your appendix is a small, tube-shaped organ that sticks out from your cecum. It’s located in the lower right side of your abdomen. Cleveland Clinic. Accessed March 11, 2026. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/appendix.

1. Evan Andrews ︎
2. “Harry Houdini (1874-1926)” ︎
3. “Harry Houdini (1874-1926)” ︎
4. Evan Andrews ︎
5. “Harry Houdini (1874-1926)”, Evan Andrews ︎
6. “Harry Houdini (1874-1926)” ︎
7. Evan Andrews ︎
8. “On This Day” ︎
9. “On This Day” ︎
10. “On This Day” ︎
11. “On This Day” ︎
12. “On This Day” ︎
13. John Cox ︎
14. “On This Day”, “Did Houdini Really Die After Being Sucker Punched?” ︎
15. Evan Andrews ︎
16. Arnold Van de Laar ︎
17. Arnold Van de Laar ︎
18. “Harry Houdini: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center.” ︎
19. Arnold Van de Laar ︎
20. Arnold Van de Laar ︎
21. “On This Day” ︎
22. “Did Houdini Really Die After Being Sucker Punched?” ︎
23. “On This Day”, “Houdini in Detroit.” ︎
24. Arnold Van de Laar ︎
25. “Houdini in Detroit.” ︎
26. Arnold Van de Laar ︎
27. Arnold Van de Laar ︎
28. “Houdini in Detroit.” ︎
29. “Houdini in Detroit.” ︎
30. “Houdini in Detroit.” ︎
31. “On This Day”, Arnold Van de Laar ︎
32. “Houdini’s Magic”, Evan Andrews ︎
33. “Our Point of View”, Evan Andrews ︎
34. Bryan Greene ︎
35. “Did Houdini Really Die After Being Sucker Punched?” ︎
36. Bryan Greene ︎
37. Bryan Greene ︎
38. Lynn Dumenil ︎
39. Lynn Dumenil ︎
40. “Houdini’s Magic” ︎

More Resources

Great Escapes By Joan Higbee https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/970224/houdini.html

Harry Houdini: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/pdf/01275.pdf

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski

The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini by Ruth Brandon

kconley

Ramapo College sophomore majoring in History and minoring in Museum Studies + Music Industry

 

Overview

The Origin of Winter Sports Competition

Winter sports have existed in some capacity for centuries across the Northern Hemisphere. Speed skating developed in the Netherlands in the thirteenth century, and there are records of cross-country skiing being used as a method of transportation in the ice- and snow-covered countries of Scandinavia for at least 6,000 years.³ However, it was not until the nineteenth century that the more popular and recognizable winter sports developed. Figure skating, while having origins dating back to ancient times, came about in nineteenth-century England. The European Alps officially created alpine skiing around the same time. In the same century, the first ice hockey game was also recorded in Canada in 1875.⁴ With the growing popularity of winter athletics, the predecessor to the Winter Olympics held its first competition. In 1901, the first Nordic Games occurred in Stockholm, Sweden. The winter sports competition was hosted by the Swedish Central Association for the Promotion of Sports. This athletic competition was not only a celebration of winter sports but also of Nordic culture. Instant global attention was brought to the region, especially Sweden, and to the fledgling world of winter sports. These games would occur in the years 1905, 1909, 1913, 1917, 1922, and 1926, always in the month of February and usually hosted in Sweden.⁵

An Olympic Future for Winter Sports

Even though there was not a dedicated winter sports competition under the Olympic name until 1924, two traditional winter sports made appearances at the Summer Games. At the 1908 London Games, figure skating made its Olympic debut. Both male and female athletes competed in the sport, with all three classes of medals—gold, silver, and bronze—being awarded to the top competitors. Following its London debut, figure skating took a twelve-year hiatus from Olympic competition, returning to the list of athletic events for the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium. Once again, both male and female contestants participated in the sport, with all three classes of medals being awarded. Figure skating was not the only winter sport to make an appearance at the Antwerp Games. Ice hockey joined the sports roster for the first time, though the competition was limited to male athletes only. The top three teams from the competition were awarded medals.⁶ 

Following the success of ice hockey and figure skating at the Antwerp Games and taking inspiration from the Nordic Games, France’s Marquis de Polignac came up with the idea for a winter sports competition under the Olympic banner. He presented his idea to the International Olympic Committee at their 1921 biannual meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. However, there was immediate pushback from the Nordic countries. Norway even stated that they would not participate in a winter sports competition created by the IOC.

Despite the concern from Nordic countries, the International Olympic Committee ultimately decided to accept Polignac’s proposal. Because France was hosting the next Olympic Games, the country would be allowed to hold a Winter Sports Week several months prior to the start of the Paris Games. The following year IOC, with the help of sports federations like the International Ski Congress, started to prepare for this new athletic competition.⁷

The Winter Sports Week of the VIII Olympiad

Between January 25, 1924, and February 5, 1924, 260 athletes from 16 countries gathered in Chamonix, France, for the first Winter Sports Week. 

The Week began on January 25, 1924, with the Opening Ceremony. The event was overseen by Gaston Vidal, the Secretary of State for Physical Education. Athletes from the 16 countries in attendance—Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, and Yugoslavia—paraded from the city hall to the skating venue.⁸ Each national team had one representative proudly carrying its flag and another its emblem. Both also held the important task of saying the Olympic Oath for their country, which was said in French. For the United States, Clarence Abel carried the flag and Harry Duruy the emblem. As the teams walked through Chamonix, the band, the Twenty-seventh Alpine Blue Devils, played the national anthem of each country. Athletes from the Allied Countries received the most applause from the crowds. Upon reaching the rink, Vidal “declared the official opening of the sports.⁹” Immediately following his declaration, 150 the athletes in attendance put on ice skates and started skating around the rink. In the spirit of friendly competition, some of the athletes held impromptu skating races, which excited the crowds. Approximately 4,000 to 5,000 spectators attended the opening ceremonies.¹⁰ Overall the Opening Ceremony was considered a great success, exciting the world for the coming days of athletic competition.

“We swear that we come to the Olympic Games as loyal competitors, respectful of the rules that govern them and willing to participate in them in a spirit of chivalry for the honor of our countries and the glory of sport,” – Translated from French to English.¹¹

The Athletic Competition

Click to see video

On January 26, 1924, the athletic competition began with speed skating. Over the course of two days, athletes competed in five different events—the 500, 1,500, 5,000, and 10,000 meter races and the all-around. Some of the standout competitors from these events were Charles Jewtraw, Clas Thurnber, and Roald Larsen. Charles Jewtraw won the 500-meter race in 44 seconds.¹² He holds the title of being the first athlete to win an athletic event at the Winter Olympics, an honor that also belongs to the United States of America. Old Glory was the first flag flown in the gold medal position at the Winter Games. Clas Thunberg and Roald Larsen, both accomplished speed skaters, won medals in all five events. Thunberg won the most gold medals in the speed skating competition, returning home to Finland with three for his country.¹³

The most popular event of the Winter Olympic Sports Week began on January 28, 1924: the ice hockey tournament. It lasted a week, ending on February 3, 1924. This event was extremely popular in the United States and Canada. Newspapers in both countries closely followed the dominating gameplay of their respective teams and published titles like “The Canadian Olympic Team Won 22-0 Today¹⁴” and “American Hockey Team Victorious.¹⁵” Being leagues above the six other teams in the competition, some of the more dramatic game scores were the United States’ 19 to 0 win over Belgium and Canada’s 30 to 0 win over the Czechoslovakian team. After a week of dominating the competition, the United States and Canada met for the final on February 3, 1924. Despite the best efforts of the American team, Canada beat the United States 6 to 1. Both teams had extremely good plays, but the Canadian team was able to defend the American offensive, leading to their win.¹⁶ Congratulations were sent to the team, with Premier Mackenzie King saying, “Please extend to members of the Canadian hockey team my heartiest congratulations… All Canada is proud of this latest feather in her cap.”¹⁷ The Canadian win allowed them to defend their Olympic title in ice hockey from the 1920 Antwerp Games. 

While ice hockey dominated headlines for much of the Winter Sports Week, there were several other athletic competitions underway. One of these was curling, which remained a largely unknown sport until its appearance at the Games. When a Scottish member of the British curling team was on his way to Chamonix from Switzerland for the competition, he was stopped at the border by French authorities.¹⁸ The French border agents humorously thought the curling stone was some type of precious material. The Scotsman almost received a fine for his sports equipment, but he was eventually allowed to bring the stone into France for free.¹⁹ Following the British win over France in the curling final on January 30, 1924, the same Scotsman said, “Tis a precious stone. Indeed, there’s not so precious to me.”²⁰ Britain beat the French team 46 to 6, placing first in the curling competition, followed in second by Sweden, and finally in third by the French team.²¹

Danger and Dominance in the Competition

Unlike ice hockey and curling, which were followed by exciting headlines and humorous tales in newspapers, bobsledding proved to be infamous for other reasons. The bobsled chute at Chamonix quickly proved to be extremely dangerous, seriously injuring several athletes over the course of the competition. On January 30, 1924, two members of the French bobsled team were injured during a training accident. The captain of the team, Count de la Fregoliere, suffered a broken arm, while another member of his team suffered a skull fracture.²² The following day, the skipper of the British bobsled team seriously broke both of his legs when his bobsled overturned. Thankfully the four other members of his team were unscathed. The chute was closed for a time but reopened to allow the continuation of the competition.²³

The Indianapolis Star said, “The bobsleigh chute has been voted the most difficult in the world to negotiate safely.”²⁴ Similar issues occurred with the sky jump. Work crews had to remove sharp, unsafe corners from it before the skiing competition could occur, which still did not prevent an American skier, Ragnar Omtvedt, from receiving serious injuries that left him bedridden for ten to fifteen days.²⁵ Ultimately, both dangerous pieces of equipment were used in competition. In the bobsled competition, Switzerland took first, Britain took second, and Belgium took third. In the ski jumping competition, two Norwegian athletes, Jacob Tullin Thams and Narve Bonna, took first and second. American athlete Anders Haugen took third.²⁶

The remaining athletic events had little coverage in the news, other than to state Norway’s impeccable dominance. Norway took home both first places in the cross-country skiing competitions at the distances of 18 kilometers and 50 kilometers and all three medals in the Nordic combined, which was a combination of both ski events: cross-country and jumping.²⁷ 

Women at the Winter Olympics 

Of the 260 athletes to compete at the First Winter Sports Week, only 13 of them were women. The 13 female athletes were only allowed to compete in figure skating, which was called “fancy ice skating²⁸” by the newspapers. Figure skating had three divisions of competition. Two individual sections, one for the men and one for the women, and a partnered section where a male and female athlete would skate together. In the individual women’s competition, Austrian skater Herma Plank-Szabo blew the competition away. Beatrix Loughran from the United States took second, and Ethel Muckelt of Great Britain took third.²⁹ In partner skating, the team from Austria took first, Finland second, and France third. Even though several were outnumbered and neglected by the press, the 13 women who competed in these Games laid the foundation for all future female athletes at the Winter Olympics.³⁰ 

Closing Ceremonies

 On February 5, 1924, the Olympic Winter Sports Week came to an end. The medals were distributed to the winners at the Closing Ceremony by the IOC president, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. First place received gold, second silver, and third bronze. Norway ranked first among the participating countries, and Finland was a close second. Surprisingly, most of the athletes had left Chamonix by the time the closing ceremonies happened. People from their respective nations were chosen to receive the medals, standing in place of the absentee athletes. Overall, the winter sports week was considered a great success.³¹

The Winter Olympics

On May 6, 1926, at an IOC meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, a vote was taken, and 23 or 24 members of the International Olympic Committee chose to rename the Chamonix Winter Sports Week into the First Winter Olympic Games. Unfortunately, the growing success of the Winter Olympics meant the death of their predecessor, the Nordic Games, with its last competition being held in 1926.³² In 1928, the Second Winter Olympics would occur in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Like their predecessor, the Games proved successful and marked the first time Germany was allowed to compete in an Olympic competition since the end of World War I.³³ Unfortunately, female athletes would have to wait over a decade until the introduction of Alpine skiing at the 1936 Winter Olympics to finally be allowed to compete in more than just figure skating.³⁴

2024 marked 100 years since the creation of the Winter Olympics, and the upcoming 2026 Games in Milano Cortina will mark the twentieth Winter Olympiad.³⁵ Much has changed since the Games originated, but the desire for global athletic competition and celebration of winter sports remains.

Significance To the 1920s

The Winter Olympics came about during a unique period in history as the world started to look for new and existing forms of entertainment and thinking. Gone were the days of Victorian morality and sensibility. They had been replaced by a collection of new technologies and emerging ideas in the changing academic fields of science, psychology, and the liberal arts. People looked at the world with a more transformative and modern outlook on life than they previously had. The rise of popular media outlets like film and the radio further fueled this shift. ³⁶

Pluralism and The Spirit of the Olympic Games

While Europe was planning the next big international athletic competition, the United States was grappling with its own problems around new cultural ideas. For much of the early twentieth century, the country had been welcoming to immigrants. This changed following the passage of the Emergency Quotas Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924. Despite these new laws, millions had already made the U.S. their home. They were expected to abandon their own cultures in favor of the historically white Anglo-Saxon Protestant standard of what it meant to be American. This did not sit well with outspoken writers, who instead called for a pluralist culture in America. Hoarse Kallen argued, “Democracy involves not the elimination of differences but the perfection and conversation of differences.”³⁷ Kallen’s words were not directly related to the Olympic Games, but they beautifully encapsulated the spirit of the sporting event. It was an idealist platform where people from diverse cultures could come together, not to erase their differences, but to celebrate them through the shared experience and enjoyment of athletic competition.³⁸

Further expanding on this idea, sociologist Robert Park advocated for the preservation of cultural identity within American society. He proposed the controversial idea that people should retain their heritage and contribute their cultural practices to mainstream society, making it better in the process. This too aligned with the broader Olympic ideals. The Games were a global stage where the nations of the world could showcase their unique cultures and histories. Like all things, though, the vision is often better than the reality. Had the United States chosen to adopt the pluralistic vision presented at the Olympic Games, it would have been a wonderful example to the world about how a diverse country could look and function. Instead the vision was all but ignored, and the world just got an exhibition of winter sports.³⁹ 

The same year the Winter Olympics were introduced, the U.S. continued to battle with increasingly violent waves of racism and hate. The Ku Klux Klan was growing in power, causing major political upheaval, especially at the 1924 Democratic National Convention. The group terrorized Black Americans, as well as Jewish and Catholic communities. These groups faced intense persecution for their race and religious beliefs. The reality of the American political and societal makeup was a stark contrast to the ideals of the Olympics’ global pluralistic message. The United States government only added to the problem by passing increasingly stricter immigration laws.⁴⁰

Kallen and Park’s hopeful vision for a pluralistic society, where cultural differences would be celebrated rather than erased, fell on deaf ears. Instead, the U.S. clung to its exclusionary practices, furthering the divide between different racial, ethnic, and religious groups. Even though the Winter Olympics showcased a potential for global unity and cultural understanding, it would take decades before the U.S. could begin to reflect this ideal in its own society. The Olympics might have presented an opportunity to demonstrate how diverse cultures could coexist and enrich one another, but the U.S. was still entrenched in ideas of racial superiority and segregation.

Further Readings:

De Coubertin, Pierre, Charles Simon, and International Olympic Committee. “The Olympic Oath: A Century of History.” JOH 2. Vol. 2021, 2021. https://isoh.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/johv29n2e1.pdf

Edgeworth, Ron. “The Nordic Games and the Origins of the Olympic Winter Games.” Journal of Olympic History, 2009. https://isoh.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/187.pdf.

Ioc. “Chamonix 1924 Winter Olympics – Athletes, Medals & Results.” Olympics.com, September 26, 2023. https://www.olympics.com/en/olympic-games/chamonix-1924.

Citations:

Foot Notes:

1. “Olympic Messages: Olympic Ideology and Olympic Social Reality,” 50. ︎
2. Young, “The Origins of the Modern Olympics: A New Version” p 271. ︎
3. Kuch, “47 Winter Sports List .” ︎
4. Kuch, “47 Winter Sports List .”  ︎
5. Edgeworth, “The Nordic Games and the Origins of the Olympic Winter Games,” p 68-70. ︎
6. De Groot, “The Winter Olympics: Driving Urban Change, 1924–2022″ p 84. ︎
7. Edgeworth, “The Nordic Games and the Origins of the Olympic Winter Games,” p 70. ︎
8. New York Times “Olympic Ice Games Open at Chamonix: High French Official Formally Declares Classic Sports Festival Under Way.  ︎
9. New York Times, “Olympic Ice Games Open at Chamonix: High French Official Formally Declares Classic Sports Festival Under Way.  ︎
10. New York Times, “Olympic Ice Games Open at Chamonix: High French Official Formally Declares Classic Sports Festival Under Way.  ︎
11. De Coubertin, Simon, and International Olympic Committee, “The Olympic Oath: A Century of History”. ︎
12. Associated Press, “Americans Score First Points At Winter Olympics.” ︎
13. “Finland First, America Third in Skating Race.” ︎
14. “The Canadian Olympic Team Won 22-0 Today.” ︎
15. The North Adams Transcript. “American Hockey Team Victorious.” ︎
16. “Canada Again Wins Olympic Hockey Title.” ︎
17. “Canada Again Wins Olympic Hockey Title.” ︎
18. “United States with Three Wins Reaches the Hockey Semi-Finals.” ︎
19. “United States with Three Wins Reaches the Hockey Semi-Finals.” ︎
20. “United States with Three Wins Reaches the Hockey Semi-Finals.” ︎
21. “Norway Leads in Olympic Sports.” ︎
22. “Two Contestants Turn in Accident.” ︎
23. “Skipper of British Entry Is Injured.” ︎
24. “England, 11 to 0, in Hockey Competition.” ︎
25. “Olympic Victors Receive Medals: Baron De Coubertin, President of International Body, Bestows Awards.” ︎
26. Ioc, “Chamonix 1924 Winter Olympics – Athletes, Medals & Results.” ︎
27. “Olympic Victors Receive Medals: Baron De Coubertin, President of International Body, Bestows Awards.”  Ioc, “Chamonix 1924 Winter Olympics – Athletes, Medals & Results.” ︎
28. “‘For Countries’ Honor and the Glory of Sport.” ︎
29. “‘For Countries’ Honor and the Glory of Sport.’” ︎
30. Ioc, “Chamonix 1924 Winter Olympics – Athletes, Medals & Results.”  ︎
31. “Olympic Victors Receive Medals: Baron De Coubertin, President of International Body, Bestows Awards.” ︎
32. Edgeworth, “The Nordic Games and the Origins of the Olympic Winter Games,” p 71. ︎
33. Lapchick, “A Political History of the Modern Olympic Games.” ︎
34. Gilgien et al., “The Training of Olympic Alpine Ski Racers.” ︎
35. “Milano Cortina.” ︎
36. Dumenil, 146, 149. ︎
37. Dumenil, 166. ︎
38. Dumenil, 167. Patsantaras, “Olympic Messages: Olympic Ideology and Olympic Social Reality,” 50. ︎
39. Dumenil 167-168. Patsantaras, “Olympic Messages: Olympic Ideology and Olympic Social Reality” 51. ︎
40. Dumenil 240-243. ︎

Bibliography:

“American Hockey Team Victorious.” The Berkshire Eagle. January 28, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/545008772/?match=1&terms=olympics.

Associated Press. “Americans Score First Points At Winter Olympics.” Livingston Enterprise. January 27, 1927. https://www.newspapers.com/image/956756619/?match=1&terms=the%20first%20winter%20olympics.

“Canada Again Wins Olympic Hockey Title.” The Leader-Post. February 4, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/495426061/?match=1&terms=olympics.

“The Canadian Olympic Won 22-0 Today.” The Expositor. January 29, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/732874415/?match=1&terms=olympics.

De Coubertin, Pierre, Charles Simon, and International Olympic Committee. “The Olympic Oath: A Century of History.” JOH 2. Vol. 2021, 2021. https://isoh.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/johv29n2e1.pdf.

De Groot, Stephen J. Essex and Jiska. “The Winter Olympics: Driving Urban Change, 1924–2022.” In Routledge eBooks, 84–109, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315735887-13.

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. First Edition. Hill and Wang, 1995.

Edgeworth, Ron. “The Nordic Games and the Origins of the Olympic Winter Games.” Journal of Olympic History, 2009. https://isoh.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/187.pdf.

“England, 11 to 0, in Hockey Competition.” The Indianapolis Star. February 1, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/104804404/?match=1&terms=bobsled%20winners.

“Finland First, America Third in Skating Race.” The Morning Union. January 28, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1067079773/?match=1&terms=olympics.

“For Countries’ Honor and the Glory of Sport.” The Kanas City Star. February 21, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/654089163/?match=1&terms=fancy%20ice%20skating%20olympics.

Gilgien, Matthias, Robert Reid, Christian Raschner, Matej Supej, and Hans-Christer Holmberg. “The Training of Olympic Alpine Ski Racers.” Frontiers in Physiology 9 (December 21, 2018). https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.01772.

Hearst Networks EMEA. “Homepage,” March 7, 2025. https://www.history.com/articles/ellis-island#Ellis-Island-Timeline.

Ioc. “Chamonix 1924 Winter Olympics – Athletes, Medals & Results.” Olympics.com, September 26, 2023. https://www.olympics.com/en/olympic-games/chamonix-1924.

Kuch, Max. “47 Winter Sports List (Sorted by Popularity).” SportsFoundation, November 16, 2023. https://sportsfoundation.org/winter-sports-list/.

Lapchick, Richard E. “A Political History of the Modern Olympic Games.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 2, no. 1 (March 1, 1978): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/019372357800200102.

“Milano Cortina.” Olympic.com. Accessed May 7, 2025. https://milanocortina2026.olympics.com/en.

Nikolaos Patsantaras, “Olympic Messages: Olympic Ideology and Olympic Social Reality,” Xophia Choregia Sport Management International Journal 4, no. Number 1 (2008): 45–55, https://eclass.uoa.gr/modules/document/file.php/PHED268/o.k….15.%2010%20Olympic%20Messages.%20Olympic%20Ideology%20and%20Olympic%20social%20reality.pdf.

“Nordic Games Hockey Match on the Nybroviken  1901 – Antique Bandy | HockeyGods,” n.d. https://hockeygods.com/images/14171-Nordic_Games_Hockey_Match_on_the_Nybroviken__1901___Antique_Bandy.

“Norway Leads in Olympic Sports.” The Ottawa Citizen. January 30, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/455775740/?match=1&terms=curling%20.

“Olympic Ice Games Open at Chanoix: High French Official Formally Declares Classic Sports Festival 

Under Way. 150 Athletes in Parade March to Rink and Take Oath of Amateurism Before Clamping on Skates. Competitions Start Today Cold Weather Makes Conditions Good For Speed Events – Americans are Confident.” New York Times (1923-), Jan 26, 1924. http://library.ramapo.edu:2048/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/olympic-ice-games-open-at-chamonix/docview/103255490/se-2.

“OLYMPIC VICTORS RECEIVE MEDALS: BARON DE COUBERTIN, PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL BODY, BESTOWS AWARDS. HAUG CROWNED CHAMPION NORWEGIAN STAR OFFICIALLY IS CALLED SKI KING FOR CAPTURING THAT EVENT THREE TIMES.” New York Times (1923-), Feb 06, 1924. http://library.ramapo.edu:2048/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/olympic-victors-receive-medals/docview/103396308/se-2.

“Skipper of British Entry Is Injured.” Nanaimo Daily News. January 31, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/325387717/?match=1&terms=bobsled.

“Two Contestants Turn in Accident.” The Ottawa Journal. January 30, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/48175058/?match=1&terms=bobsled.

“United States with Three Wins Reaches the Hockey Semi-Finals.” The Berkshire Eagle. January 31, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/533876474/?match=1&terms=curling%20.

“U.S. Team in Third Place at End of First Day of Winter Olympic Sports.” Brooklyn Eagle. January 27, 1924. https://www.newspapers.com/image/57546865/?match=.

Young, David C. 1987. “The Origins of the Modern Olympics: A New Version.” The International Journal of the History of Sport 4 (3): 271–300. doi:10.1080/09523368708713633.

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I am an undergraduate teacher education student at Ramapo College, minoring in history. As a future teacher, I hope to inspire my students to love the subject of history and to understand its importance in their lives.

Many historians and political organizations would say the Nazi Party was one of the most powerful and influential organizations of the 20th century. But did you know it took the Nazi party less than 15 years to have control of Germany? In addition, its mere existence lasted for only 25 years. However, in those 25 years, the Nazi Party was able to take a country that was devastated by World War I and took most of the blame for the destruction of Europe. Was able to turn around another world war, almost taking over the entire world. This paper will analyze and understand how the Nazi party was able to gain so much power in such a short time and explain the events that put the party on the map, as well as the people that supported/influenced the rise of the far-right extremist movement. Adolf Hitler might have been the one to bring the party to its highest potential; however, it was the party that started the ideology of a far-right, extremist anti-Semitic movement.

The Aftermath of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles:

On November 11, 1918, the German army and the country finally surrendered, which would mark the end of the First World War. After four years of bloodshed and destruction, as well as the first time the world has ever seen a world war. The world was at ease when Germany took full blame for the destruction and economic hardship of the other ally countries. Despite other countries starting to rebuild after a devastating world war, Germany was the country most affected by the war and had some of the biggest problems within its nation. Poverty, economic, township, and destruction throughout Germany made the country look like a third-world country with no vision of it getting better or easier for the German citizens. In addition, European countries forced Germany to sign an agreement that would inevitably be the reason some would say that caused World War II. This document would be called the Treaty of Versailles. 

The Treaty of Versailles was presented by other European countries to prevent Germany from causing another world war. This treaty made Germany give up land, population, military freedom, and the German economy to rebuild Europe. “Germany lost 13% of its land and 12% of its population to the Allies. This land made up 48% of Germany’s iron production and a large proportion of its coal production, limiting its economic power.² The German Army was limited to 100,000 soldiers, and the Navy was limited to 15,000 sailors”. This treaty devastated the German economy and brought record inflation and massive unemployment, and Germans struggled to understand their country’s uncertain future.³ 

The German government and politicians tried reassuring their citizens, saying it would take a couple of years for the economy to bounce back and look like pre-war times. However, politicians and government officials had no clear vision or opportunities to fix the German economy and solve the unemployment crisis. “Early in 1922, a dollar was worth 1,000 marks—by November, a dollar bought 6,000 marks. On January 4, 1923, a dollar fetched 8,000 marks; less than a week later, it was worth 10,000 marks, and by January 15, it took 56,000 marks to purchase one US currency unit. From then on, the mark skyrocketed with little relation to anything approaching economic reality, reaching 60,000,000 marks to the dollar by the first week of September. 7 Inflation was such that a typical Hamburg dock worker was paid 17 billion marks a day by fall 1923”.⁵ With record spending by the German government, corrupt politicians, a treaty devastating the German economy, and no clear sign of what Germany’s future will look like—this cost far right and far left groups to start gaining momentum and popularity with citizens. Germany’s status in 1919 ultimately created the German Workers Party (DAP), founded by a far-right politician named Anton Drexler. 

The Start of the Party:

In January 1919, Anton Drexler, a far-right extremist, saw the economic status and corrupt politicians within the German country and wanted to make a change and bring Germany back to prosperity. He was the primary founder of the German Worker Party (GAP), which, at the start, had about 30 members. Drexler oversaw the appointment of the chairman of the DAP, Karl Harrer. Harrer was appointed chairman on January 5, 1919, which would mark the start of the DAP party. “The party met weekly in a beer hall in Munich. After the pressures of the war, Munich was politically unstable. People were inclined to support new ideas that advocated extreme change. The party advocated a range of ideas, including hostility toward the Treaty of Versailles, nationalism, concern about the nation’s moral standards and changing culture, and extreme antisemitism”.⁶ In the first year of the parties, they lacked support from outsiders and local party organizations. However, on September 12, 1919, a man walked into a bar hall where the DAP were having their usual meeting. The man sparked interest in what the DAP was campaigning for in terms of the future of Germany. The man ultimately joined the discussion with the DAP members, and the man’s name was Adolf Hitler. “Hitler entered into a discussion with the main speaker at the event, and Drexler, impressed with Hitler’s points and oratory skills, invited him to join the party”.⁷ 

Anton Drexler:

Anton Drexler was born on June 13, 1884, in Munich. In Drexler’s early life, he was a railway toolmaker and a locksmith in Berlin. Sources suggest that Drexler struggled with financial sustainability and alcoholism. He was also summoned to serve in World War I but was ultimately discharged due to being physically unfit. During the war, he joined the German Fatherland Party, which was ultimately a far-right party. Drexler got involved with the Free Workers Committee, and while working on the committee, he met a journalist named Karl Harrer. Both men shared a lot of the same views on nationalism and antisemitism. Ultimately, Drexler founded a new party, which was called the German Worker Party, and appointed Harrer as Reich chairman. On February 24, 1920, the party saw a complete renaming, and Drexler became the chairman of the party. However, despite Drexler being the leader of the party, he was ultimately removed as chairman after falling out with Adolf Hitler. On July 29, 1921, Drexler was removed as chairman, and his replacement was Hitler. He ultimately left the party in 1923 but rejoined in 1933 after the party’s success in Parliament and Hitler’s becoming chancellor. Anton Drexler died on February 24, 1942, at the age of 57 due to his lengthy illness due to alcoholism. Despite being in the party for only a short amount of time, he is the primary reason why Hitler got into politics and the primary founder of the Nazi party. 

The Beginning of the Nazi (1920-1923)

The German Workers Party has finally been established and, at this point, has been around for over a year. The party’s membership of followers varied throughout the year, getting as high as 35 but as low as only 13. However, this would all change when Adolf Hitler joined the party. Drexler showed Hitler the parties, values, and far-right policies he hoped to spread and gain support from outsiders. Drexler did not realize at first how important Hitler would be to the parties, growth, and popularity within a couple of months. Hitler was a phenomenal speaker and passionate about the policy and future that Germany should take. The way that Hitler preached his policies and rhetoric made people listen and want to learn more about what they could do and how to join. Because of this, the party went through a rebranding on February 24, 1920. The party was renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) or the German Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. This would also be the time when the party came up with the ideology of Nazism, a far-right antisemitic movement. In the years following the rebrand, the party expanded little by little, gaining support from middle-class workers and people who had lost faith in the German government. The following shows how the Nazi party progressed through the years with party membership and how they spread their propaganda: 

“These early days of the NSDAP were unspectacular and gave no promise whatever that it would ever achieve prominence, even within Bavaria, for it was competing for support principally among the most radically minded sections of the middle class along with a score of similar groups such as the Germanen-Orden, the Thule Society, and the Deutschvöllische Schutz-und Trutz Bund. The party, whose membership was only 1,100 in June 1920, lay in the twilight world of local Munich politics and several times might easily have collapsed. Even the advent of Hitler as a party member in September 1919 did not immediately produce a significant improvement in prospects. However, the oratorical and propagandistic skills of Hitler eventually allowed the NSDAP to make something of a minor breakthrough in terms of public recognition, mainly on account of his anti-Semitism, which was vehement even by Munich standards. Membership gradually increased to 3,300 by August 1921, and the party managed to secure a more definite foothold in radical rightist circles. Its innately social darwinistic outlook supplied a basic impetus behind NSDAP activity, but of more specific importance were the changes in the organization, leadership, and direction of the party in July 1921”.⁸

Stachura, Peter D. “The Political Strategy of the Nazi Party, 1919-1933.” German Studies Review 3, no. 2 (1980): 261–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/1429723.

The Party’s Takeover of Germany: (1924-1933)

By the middle of 1921, the Nazi parties made a name for themselves and started getting crowds, listening to what they had to say and proposing policies for the future of Germany. Despite Hitler being one of the main reasons why the party was gaining popularity, he still did not have full control. Drexler still was the chairman of the party and still called the shots for what the party should do next. However, Hitler disagreed with most Drexler ideas. One of Drexler’s prominent ideas was to combine forces with another far-right party. In July 1921, Drexler held a secret meeting without Hitler’s knowledge to work with other parties to gain more popularity. Hitler was outraged at Drexler, so the next day he left the Nazi Party. But when other members of the party heard about Hitler’s exit from the party, they were outraged and realized that Hitler was their only hope for the future of the Nazi party. On July 29, 1921, Drexler was kicked out as chairman, and Hitler became the chairman and dictator of the Nazi party. The future of the party was now in Adolf Hitler’s hands.

The Nazi Party’s first attempt to take over the German government was the Beer Hall Putsch. On November 8, 1923, Hitler and his party set up a protest to overthrow the German government. However, Hitler’s plan did not go through as he planned; the next day he was stopped by the German army and arrested for the attempt to overthrow the national government. Yet this did not stop the Nazi party. The party realized that overthrowing the government would take a lot of men and weaponry to have somewhat of a chance. Hitler and the Nazi party realized the popularity his party was getting around Germany. So the party decided to do it the way that all other parties did it: by winning seats in Parliament. The first time the Nazi party gained seats in Parliament was in the election of 1828, where they gained 12 seats. After that election, the Nazis gained momentum and popularity around Germany, and by November 1933, the Nazis had taken over parliament. Despite the Nazi party only being around for about 13 years, the party would get complete control of Germany on January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by President Hindenburg. By 1934, after the death of President Paul Von Hindenburg, the Nazi party had complete control of the German government and the whole country. After 15 years of the party’s founding, the Nazis completely controlled Germany.

Significance:

The reason why I picked this topic for the 1920s project was because I wanted to understand how the Nazi party got its name, its members, and how it became so powerful so quickly. I always thought that Hitler was the one who started the movement and his own far-right policies. But when researching the Nazi Party, I found that that was not the case where the party originated before Hitler even joined. Most of Hitler’s views on ideology came from joining what was then called the German Workers Party. Despite Hitler being the one who took the Nazis from 30 members to taking over the whole country. If it were not for the party and their rallies, Hitler might have never gotten into politics in the first place. It was the German Workers Party that started the evil, bloodshed, destruction, and immoral beliefs of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, A.K.A. the Nazi Party.

Bibliography

1. “File: Nazi Party Rally Grounds (1938) 3.Jpg.” n.d. Wikimedia.org. Accessed May 3, 2024. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nazi_party_rally_grounds_(1938)_3.jpg. ︎
2. “The Aftermath of the First World War – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for Schools.” n.d. Theholocaustexplained.org. Accessed May 2, 2024. https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-effects-of-the-first-world-war-on-germany/. ︎
3. “Aftermath of World War I and the Rise of Nazism, 1918–1933.” n.d. Ushmm.org. Accessed May 2, 2024. https://www.ushmm.org/learn/holocaust/aftermath-of-world-war-i-and-the-rise-of-nazism-1918-1933. ︎
4. Homeschool History. 2021. “The Early Years of the Nazi Party 1919-1923 | GCSE History.” Youtube. November 11, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fkPOpyNVJ8. ︎
5. Pelz, William A. “Economic Collapse and the Rise of Fascism, 1920–33.” In A People’s History of Modern Europe, 127–41. Pluto Press, 2016. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1c2crfj.14. ︎
6. “The Early Years of the Nazi Party – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for Schools.” n.d. Theholocaustexplained.org. Accessed May 2, 2024. https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-early-years-of-the-nazi-party/. ︎
7. “The Early Years of the Nazi Party – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for Schools.” Accessed May 2, 2024. https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-early-years-of-the-nazi-party/. ︎
8. Stachura, Peter D. “The Political Strategy of the Nazi Party, 1919-1933.” German Studies Review 3, no. 2 (1980): 261–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/1429723. ︎
9. Niets. 2023. “Horst Wessel Lied – Co-National Anthem of Nazi Germany.” Youtube. November 7, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awKecML3GXs. ︎
10. Wikipedia contributors. “Nazi Party.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. May 3, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party#Election_results ︎

 In The Modern Temper, the author does not have a whole chapter relating to the KKK but does have a section explaining their beliefs, wrongdoings, and influence in American culture. I believe that this is connected to conformity and community when looking at it within the book. In the book, it explains how the KKK only believed in protestant Christians and being of the white race, and that every other person who was not in the lines of their ideology was beneath them or outright a disgrace to society. These groups of people and beliefs should be stopped and not continue in their country or in their state. We can see this happening with the Nazi party and Hitler’s discrimination against the Jewish people, and how they are the reason that Germany has all of these problems. These communities or organizations believe different types of people are poisoning their bloodline or are the reason for their problems. 

This way, these organizations and groups are sort of a callback to ideas that have been happening for centuries. As the author explains, the KKK discriminated against African Americans and Catholic Americans due to their beliefs and place in society.! We can see this in America with slavery and religious rhetoric when Irish and Italian immigrants started immigrating to America. Most of them immigrating to America had a different religion than what “standard Americans” had at the time. This also connects with the Nazi Party’s very conservative/far-right ideology. Everyone who looked like a German (blue eyes, blonde hair) and had ancestors who were German was the pure blood of the country, and everyone else was the problem in Germany’s downfall. This is a prime example of a call back to two older ideas because conservatism, or very far-right ideology, has been around for decades. As well as discrimination towards people who are slightly different than you in terms of skin, color, religion, class, etc. 

When looking at the framing of the KKK and the Nazis in their decades, it gives me a better understanding that history commonly repeats itself. When comparing the Nazi Party and the KKK, many of their ideas and ideologies are not that different. If you think about it, imagine if the KKK had the kind of support the Nazi Party had. We could have seen a movement where the KKK could have gotten into power and started spreading their propaganda and discrimination throughout the United States. These two crops are more similar than different. The only thing different was that one of them got to power and the other one faded away over the years. However, we have seen throughout history that discrimination and hate still come around but do not ultimately stay.

Bibliography

• Chao, Jade. 2019. “The Everyday and the Extreme: The Far Right in the USA through the Magnum Archive.” Magnum Photos. November 27, 2019. https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/society/everyday-extreme-far-right-usa-magnum-photos-archive-right-wing-extremism/.
• Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper (1995). 

The 1920s aimed to bring American society to the modern world amidst the political corruption, victimization of industrialization, and growth of the Socialist Party.¹ During this time, many social justice and humanitarian laws were produced, such as milk codes, child labor laws, public health laws, and workers’ compensation.² Amidst this was another very overlooked action: the changing of the death penalty.

The first state execution using lethal gas was at Nevada State Prison in Carson City, Nevada, where Gee Jon, a twenty-nine-year-old Chinese immigrant, was the first human to be given this penalty. The switch occurred because lethal gas was considered more humane than the usual execution style of a firing squad, hanging, and electrocution. If done correctly, people would inhale the gas and, within seconds, become unconscious and choke to death. However, it was almost always done incorrectly, and those would suffer for up to twenty minutes in excruciating pain.³

First, officials initially attempted to pump the gas directly into Gee Jon’s cell while he was asleep. However, it was unsuccessful, as the gas leaked out of his cell. In response, a makeshift gas chamber was set up outside of the prison, in the old butcher shop. The gas chamber was eleven feet long, ten feet wide, and eight feet high and killed at least one cat to test the effectiveness of the gas. When Gee Jon was put inside at 10:00 a.m., after eating a last meal of ham, eggs, toast, and coffee, the electric heater failed. The chamber should have been at 75 °F, the ideal temperature, but was instead at 52 °F due to the broken heater. This caused acid to form a toxic puddle on the ground.^{4 5}

One testimony states that after about five seconds, Gee Jon seemed to lose consciousness, and his head nodded up and down for six minutes. After about ten minutes, he was completely immobile.⁶ However, other sources claim he was in more apparent pain and was being berated by the prison officials. It cannot be precisely known what occurred as it was a closed event, and there are few records. The records that are there contradict each other.

Not everyone was in favor for this execution. Four guards who did not want to participate immediately resigned. Many others, some important officials, sent letters to Nevada State Prison pleading to halt the execution and change his sentence. They thought it was cruel and unusual punishment, and that Gee Jon did not deserve to die.

“From my observations of Gee Jon… I am of the opinion that he is in a mental collapse and in a state of mental irresponsibility amounting to insanity… I hope at this time that you… can see your way clear to commute the sentence of Gee Jon to life imprisonment.”

Nevada State Prison. Record Blank. 15.

During the execution, witnesses claim they thought they smelled almond blossoms, which is believed to be the odor of cyanide, leaking from the chamber. That caused Warden Dickerson, who was present at the time of the execution, to clear the area. After Gee Jon’s death, they opened a vent and put on a fan in the gas chamber to clear the air, and waited to open the door until the puddle on the floor evaporated. At 12:20 p.m., Gee Jons’ body was removed and taken to the prison hospital. Seven doctors pronounced him officially dead, but Warden Dickerson said an autopsy was not allowed because they were worried his body would release the toxic gas.⁷

Official records claim that there is no correlation between using an immigrant for the first gas execution. However, one can infer that it symbolizes progressiveness or shows the deep-rooted racism towards immigrants. First, there is symbolism in using an Asian immigrant for the most modern and humane execution style. It shows a step towards a more accepting country, especially since other countries used “outdated” options. For example, the United Kingdom and Japan primarily used hanging, and the Soviet Union and France used the guillotine. Nevertheless, it can also be viewed in a negative light.

It is no secret that Americans and the government disliked immigrants. The National Origins Act, passed in 1924, heavily excluded the amount of Asian immigrants in the United States.⁸ This act highlights the anti-Asian sentiment during the mid-nineteenth century, specifically on the West Coast and among the Chinese.⁹ Chinese immigrants were particularly discriminated against, which is reflected in a law passed in 1882 that stated the Chinese were a “vilified…debased, corrupting race.”¹⁰ Immigrants as a whole were seen as challenging to American culture and society.¹¹ Americans linked immigrants to the crisis of the cities, making immigration seem like a multifaceted threat to American society.¹²

“CHINESE KILLER MUST DIE TODAY.” Nevada State Journal. February 8, 2024.

People

Hughie Sing was a newly recruited Hip Sing Tong gang member and Gee Jon’s apprentice of two months. Sing found and pointed to Tom Quong Kee as the target for the murder. Sing was nineteen at the age of the shooting and got life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. Sing was born in the United States, which helped his case, unlike Gee Jon who was described as an “illiterate Chinese unacquainted with American customs.” Sing was bilingual, unlike Gee Jon, and was told to cooperate more with the authorities. He was released on parole in 1938.^{13 14} The treatment of Sing versus Gee Jon shows a vast difference. Since Sing was more “American,” he was sentenced to a lesser degree.

Tom Quong Kee was an elderly member of the rival gang, the Bing Kung Tong, in Mina, Nevada. Gee Jon murdered him with a .38 caliber revolver with two shots to the heart.¹⁵

James M. Frame was Hughie Sing’s attorney and Fiore Raffetto was Gee Jon’s attorney. Sing and Gee Jon both pled not guilty. Frame argued that Gee Jon’s punishment was a cruel and unusual punishment, but the appeal was denied. Raffetto filed a writ of certiorari but was unsuccessful. Frame and Raffetto tried to keep the execution from happening up until the deed was done.^{16 17}

Denver S. Dickerson was the warden at the time of Gee Jon’s death and oversaw the execution. Warden Dickerson thought the use of lethal gas was impractical and that the best method of execution was the firing squad.¹⁸

Events and Timeline

America in the 1880s had a very negative view of Chinese immigrants, which marked the height of anti-Chinese sentiment. Like most immigrants, Chinese immigrants were more likely to work in cheap labor jobs. This “took away” job security for Americans, and were perceived as a threat. They were also discriminated against due to their cultural and religious differences.

The death penalty in America in the 1880s was much different than it is now. Hanging was the primary execution style; each state had its own laws regarding the death penalty and execution. Public executions were still common, and people started to advocate more for ending it.

• May 6, 1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed.²¹

From 1900 to 1919, America still had a negative view of Chinese immigrants. Their racial stereotypes were strong in popular culture, which highlighted anti-Chinese sentiment.

The death penalty in American in the 1900-1919 had a shift in thinking. The electric chair was starting to replace hanging as it was considered more humane, execution rates had times of increased and decreased, and there was a stricter checklist to qualify for the death penalty.

• 1913: Nevada invents an “automated firing squad.” This is an execution method where three rifles are mounted on an iron frame, and all fire simultaneously. It is used one time in the execution of Andriza Mircovich.²²

In the 1920s, America regarding the death penalty showed a time of change. They now introduced lethal gas, but it was still not widespread. Execution rates decreased, and instead of the death penalty, there was greater advocacy for rehabilitation, reformative justice, and the right to live.

• March 17, 1921: Assembly Bill No. 104 was passed, which authorized the use of lethal gas in Nevada.
• August 28, 1921: Gee Jon murders Tom Quong Kee.
• February 8, 1924: Twenty-nine-year-old Gee Jon dies by lethal gas in Carson City, Nevada.
• May 26, 1924: The National Origins Act passed, which heavily limited the number of Asian immigrants into the United States.

From the 1940s to the 2000s, America experienced major changes regarding Chinese immigrants. During World War II, America and China were allies against Japan, leading to a better portrayal of Chinese people and immigrants in America. An increase in Chinese immigrants in America in 1965 made them more visible, and there was significant political and social reform advocating for their rights.

From the 1940s to the 2000s America, the death penalty had a significant change. Hanging and electric chair were the most common, yet towards the 2000s, lethal injection was the most favored, the legal procedures and reasons why a person is given the death penalty is stricter than ever, there was an increase in abolishing the death penalty, and the execution rates still fluctuated.

• December 17, 1943: The Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed.
• 1955: Eleven U.S. states adopted lethal gas as their primary method of execution.²³
• May 4, 1990: Donald Harding, also known as Jesse Tafero, was executed by lethal gas in Florida. He was convicted of murder in 1976.
• 1996: A federal appeals court says that California’s statute authorizing lethal gas violated the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments. The primary execution style was replaced by lethal injection.²⁴
• The early 2000s: In California and Missouri, there is a right to choose between lethal gas or injection.

In America in the 2020s, anti-Chinese sentiment grew due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While things are better than they were a hundred years ago, Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans are still treated unjustly and unfairly.

In America in the 2020s, a hundred years later after the first lethal gas execution, lethal injection is the primary style as it is the most painless, and more and more people want to end the death penalty.

• January 25, 2024: Kenneth Smith is given the lethal gas execution in Alabama. It is likely to constitute torture, which violates international human rights treaties ratified by the U.S.

Significance

While browsing lesser-known events of the 1920s, this immediately piqued my interest. I had never given the death penalty’s history much thought, so it stood out to me. As I started researching more and more, I realized there was more to this topic than it seemed. The death penalty has been around since humans began walking and has since been a widely debated topic for centuries, with the controversy still ongoing. It is just a prevalent topic now, as it was a hundred years ago when Gee Jon was executed. It also ties into Chinese immigration, which also spans human history. Studying the historiography of the death penalty, not just in the United States, is very interesting, just as the history of immigration. As I was researching, it was fascinating to see the change in the death penalty and Chinese immigration within the United States and compare to how it is now. Presently, the death penalty is still a highly controversial topic that causes quite a stir, which shows the increasing fight for human rights. Chinese immigration and the way Americans view the Chinese and Chinese Americans is a shaky relationship, too. Due to racism and xenophobia, Chinese immigrants and citizens are still heavily discriminated against in the United States. A prime example is the COVID-19 pandemic when anti-Chinese sentiment peaked in the early 2020s. This topic both shows the history of the death penalty and Chinese immigration, where in the present-day conversation, it is vital to stay knowledgeable in the history of it and how it is viewed in the American past.

While lethal gas execution may still whisper within the United States, this torturous method remains largely unused. Nevada State Prison, the infamous starter to the deadly gas execution, executed thirty-two men with this method from 1924-1979. Since then, it has stopped, yet the state’s execution chamber that killed Gee Jon a hundred years ago still remains.²⁵

More Resources

Newspapers.com

“Past to Present: 100 Years Since the United States’ First Lethal Gas Execution, a Recently Renowed Practice.” Death Penalty Information Center. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/past-to-present-100-years-since-the-united-states-first-lethal-gas-execution-a-recently-renewed-practice.

Bibliography

Bye, Raymond T. “Recent History and Present Status of Capital Punishment in the United States.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology 17, no. 2 (1926): 234–45. https://doi.org/10.2307/1134506.

Chan, Loren (1975). “Example for the Nation: Nevada’s Execution of Gee Jon”. Nevada Historical Society Quarterly.

“Chinese Killer Must Die Today.” Nevada State Journal. February 8, 2024. https://www.newspapers.com/article/nevada-state-journal/144232683/.

“Death Penalty Information Center.” Death Penalty Information Center, December 1, 2023. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/.

Denno, Deborah W.. “gas chamber”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Oct. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/gas-chamber.

Gerber, Rudolph Joseph; Johnson, John M. (2007). The Top Ten Death Penalty Myths: The Politics of Crime Control. Greenwood Publishing Group.

“History of the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state/nevada.

Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper (Hill and Wang).

Nevada State Prison. Record Blank.

Reid, John Bevis; James, Ronald Michael (2004). Uncovering Nevada’s Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State. The University of Nevada Press.

“Waiting on Nevada’s Death Row… 55 years ago.” Nevada State Journal. September 23, 1979. https://www.newspapers.com/article/nevada-state-journal/144232683/.

Wikipedia contributors, “Gee Jon,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gee_Jon&oldid=1213442489.

Featured Image: Nevada State Prison. Gee Jon Mug Shot. Photograph.

Citations

1. Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper (Hill and Wang). 17. ︎
2. Modern Temper. 18. ︎
3. Reid, John Bevis; James, Ronald Michael (2004). Uncovering Nevada’s Past: A Primary Source History of the Silver State. University of Nevada Press. ︎
4. Chan, Loren (1976). Example for the Nation: Nevada’s Execution of Gee Jon. Chinese Historical Society of America. ︎
5. “Descriptions of Execution Methods: Gas Chamber”. Death Penalty Information Center. 2010. ︎
6. Reid. ︎
7. Christianson, Scott (2010). Fatal Airs: The Deadly History and Apocalyptic Future of Lethal Gases That Threaten Our World. ABC-CLIO. pp. 49–51. ︎
8. Dumenil. 207. ︎
9. Dumenil. 208. ︎
10. Dumenil. 208. ︎
11. Dumenil. 204. ︎
12. Dumenil. 205. ︎
13. Reid, 108. ︎
14. Chan, 90-106 ︎
15. Wikipedia contributors, “Gee Jon,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gee_Jon&oldid=1213442489. ︎
16. Chan, 90–106. ︎
17. Gerber, Rudolph Joseph; Johnson, John M. (2007). The Top Ten Death Penalty Myths: The Politics of Crime Control. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 9–10. ︎
18. Reid, 108. ︎
19. “Waiting on Nevada’s Death Row… 55 years ago.” Nevada State Journal. September 23, 1979. https://www.newspapers.com/article/nevada-state-journal/144232683/. ︎
20. Nevada State Prison. Record Blank. ︎
21. Dumenil. 207. ︎
22. “Death Penalty Information Center.” Death Penalty Information Center, December 1, 2023. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/. ︎
23. Denno, D. W.. “gas chamber.” Encyclopedia Britannica, October 20, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/gas-chamber. ︎
24. Denno,”gas chamber.” ︎
25. “History of the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state/nevada. ︎

Isabella Apgar

History major and Human Rights and Genocide Studies minor at Ramapo College of New Jersey class of 2025.

In 1929, New York City filled the air with the heat and beat of classic Jazz. Many filled the nights with laughter, endless sleep, and dancing. Through all of New York, its popularity and lifestyle had seized the dream of millions. The city of lights that filled each street corner captured a significant historical moment. Even so, not everyone shared this beautiful moment and enjoyed the music when clubs continued to peak in popularity. Instead, lying in the dark streets, areas where police did not patrol, and ignorant of the possibilities, Albert Fish, also known as the “Moon Maniac“, filled the streets with evil. In the darkness, Albert Fish stalked his victims and did not hesitate to take away their life, a life that could have been long-lived. Still, New York’s streets held significant importance to our generation but avoided highlighting the potential danger that awaited. 

Albert Fish grew up in Washington, DC. There, he had found a lifestyle that suited him to a work life. Instead, Albert Fish’s childhood was filled with tremendous amounts of suffering. Albert Fish was the youngest in the family. He had three older siblings who later on contributed to his life of sadness. Among his family members, many were diagnosed with mental illnesses. His uncle, for example, had developed mania, while one of the two siblings was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and her sister was diagnosed with a “mental affliction” . Unfortunately for Albert, his suffering did not end there as later on in his life, many more came to be diagnosed with mental illnesses, one of them being his mother

The childhood of enjoyment and livelihood Albert Fish had wished to capture as a little boy was repeatedly redirected. Unfortunately, Albert was put in an orphanage where he spent most of his childhood. Albert Fish was physically abused in this Orphanage and grew up in an environment where he was fighting for his life. After years of countless abuse and neglect from those involved with the Orphanage, he was later taken out of the Thai environment by his mother. The history of abuse and negligence continuing in Albert Fish’s life has led to his mental corruption. Albert Fish was not only mentally broken but also started filling up a pool of hate and violence. 

In Albert Fish’s adult life, he took upon the opportunity for a field of change and decided to move to the city of opportunities, New York City, in 1890. Instead of living a life filled with opportunities and potential success, Albert Fish lived a life of evil. Albert Fish filled the streets of New York with terror and preyed on those who were vulnerable. Before his inhumane acts, he started by sexually assaulting male children. This was the beginning of what awaited Albert Fish. 

Little by little, his actions of violence began to grow, each becoming more brutal than the last encounter. Even so, the murder of Grace Budd was different from the other cases. Through the trails and mind of Albert Fish, he took the necessary steps to get away as a suspect.

The enjoyment and laughter that once filled the state of New York shifted into an environment of shock, filled with tension and sadness. The death of Grace Budd left many to wonder what happened to the 10-year-old child. In May 1928, Albert Fish introduced himself to the Budd family when he formally found interest in Grace Budd’s older brother. Albert Fish used another name to disguise his tracks when he decided to pursue his impulsive, horrific actions against Edward Budd. Soon after connecting with the Budd family, Albert Fish shifted his attention to Grace Budd after meeting her. After that encounter, Albert Fish did not hesitate to create a gate of opportunity to move his motives and scheming towards Grace Budd. With this shift of intention, Albert Fish seized the chance to take advantage of Grace Budd. The lies and deception had led to Albert Fish bringing Grace Budd to East Irvington, New York. In the abandoned house, there is where Albert Fish has committed the atrocious murder of Grace Budd, strangling the poor 10-year-old child Grace Budd to death.

1934 Wisteria Cottage building where Albert Fish claimed to murder Grace Budd and disassemble her body for cannibalistic motives

Unfortunately, as time has passed, the case has been apprehended due to multiple roadblocks. The only information and update investigators could follow up with was what appeared to be Grace Budd’s body. As stated in Brooklyn Daily Eagle on December 14, 1934, “…in Worthington Woods, between Ardsley and Elmsford, not far from where the skull of Grace Budd was found, unearthed other parts of a child’s skeleton, believed to be that of the Budd girl. Through the investigation, different pieces and bones were discovered from previous victims of Albert Fish. The ongoing investigation led to more discoveries about the older man Albert Fish and his horrendous actions behind closed doors.

Even though Albert Fish committed the crime in the year 1928, his deception and lies led to his avoidance of getting caught. Still, Albert Fish didn’t stop tormenting the Budd family. Even after the loss of a daughter, a friend, and a sister, Albert Fish would later, in the year 1934, send a letter to the Budd family anonymously, explaining all the horrific things he did to Grace Budd. In November 1930, the Budd family received a letter from Albert Fish. Even though Grace Budd’s disappearance has not been solved yet, receiving a letter jump started another investigation in hopes of finding closure to unanswered questions.

This letter that was sent to the family was a gateway opportunity for the parents to find out who had abducted Grace Budd. An investigator named King has successfully cracked the mystery of who the serial killer is. Through his success and findings, King tracked Albert Fish’s previous apartment, where he found other letters leading to a match. Now, the investigators knew the killer’s name, Albert Fish. Albert Fish’s luck had run out. The man who once terrorized the city would be put in ruins. He will be tracked and arrested for the heinous, inhumane crimes he has committed. On December 13, 1934, Albert Fish was caught and arrested for all the murders he had committed. 

To such an extent, the families and friends who were victims of Albert Fish’s awful murders will find some relief knowing that they have caught the man behind these killings. Unfortunately, those who have lost family or even a friend can not bear the loss. Rest assured, justice was brought to Albert Fish and served. On January 16, 1936, Albert Fish was executed by the electric chair. The streets of New York that once filled the horrors of Albert Fish were once replaced and slowly uplifted by the relief that a maniac wasn’t lurking in the dark areas of New York. 

Timeline of Albert Fish: Grace Budd Murder Case

https://www.sutori.com/en/story/albert-fish-grace-budd-murder-case–mcaUrwuKSAjAsS2YywaUt4zg

Bibliography: 

“Albert Fish.” Wikipedia, March 15, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Fish. 

“Grace Budd: Albert Fish.” Newspapers.com. Accessed April 3, 2024. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle-grace-budd-al/129753874/?locale=en-US.

Carney, Courtney Patterson. “Jazz and the Cultural Transformation of America in the 1920s.” LSU Scholarly Repository. Accessed April 3, 2024. https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/176/#:~:text=Jazz%20greatly%20increased%20in%20popularity,defining%20the%20early%20twentieth%20century.

World War I began in 1914 shortly after Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. The war was fought between the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. Belgium, England, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and the United States of America made up the Allied Powers. The Central Powers were Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, and Turkey. The Great War ended with an armistice on November 11, 1918. At the war’s end, approximately 8.5 million soldiers were killed. Of those 8.5 million, America lost around 116,000 soldiers. Many bodies of soldiers were rendered unidentifiable from artillery blasts and other bodies had no identifiable information. 

Beginnings of the Unknown Soldiers

On November 11, 1920, England buried an unknown soldier in London and France buried their unknown in Paris. Hamilton Fish Jr., also known as Fish III, was a former Army major. As a Representative (R-NY), he created and introduced House Joint Resolution 426. This resolution suggested returning an unidentified American soldier and burying him in the United States. The resolution was brought before the 66th Congress’s Committee on Military Affairs on February 1, 1921. The resolution received endorsements from war veterans Major General John Lejeune (United States Marine Corps), General John Pershing (United States Army), and from organizations such as the American Auxiliary. On March 4, the resolution was signed by President Woodrow Wilson. 

American Unknown Is Chosen

On October 22, 1921, four bodies were chosen to represent the four major battles that America fought in: the Battle of Belleau Wood, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, and the Battle of Argonne. On October 24, American World War I veteran Sergeant Edward F. Younger placed a bouquet of roses on the chosen casket. The remaining coffins were reburied and the chosen casket was transported to the awaiting USS Olympia (C-6) on the French coast. Before the Olympia left France, American Major General Henry Allen proclaimed to the Unknown, “Whoever you be, your gallant deeds are indelibly inscribed in the pages of history to the glory of your nation, and as long as free States endure will your exploits be sung.”¹   

The USS Olympia (C-6) arrived at the Washington Navy Yard on November 9, 1921. The Unknown was carried via horse drawn carriage to the U.S. Capitol Building. The body lay in state for mourners to visit. An estimated ninety thousand mourners from the general public visited the body. 

The Unknown is Buried

On November 11, 1921, the Unknown was carried in a five mile funeral procession from the Capitol Building to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA. He had eight body bearers that represented different military branches. The pallbearers included five Army soldiers, two Navy sailors , and one Marine Corps soldier. For these men, this procession allowed them to carry and bury a comrade. On battlefields, if buried, a soldier would be buried where he was killed. In the procession, there were mourners that included veterans, Red Cross nurses, and Gold Star Mothers (mothers whose sons were killed in action). 

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was to be in the newly constructed Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery. As part of the funeral service Bishop Charles Brent, who had served as a chaplain during the war, spoke, “Help us fittingly to honor our unknown soldiers who gave their all in laying sure the foundations of international commonwealth. Help us to keep clear the obligation we have toward all worthy soldiers, living and dead, that their sacrifices and their valor fade not from our memory.”² Following Brent’s speech and prayer there was a two minute nationwide silence which was issued by a presidential proclamation. These two minutes of silence are indicative of the nationwide mourning of American soldiers lost during the war. 

President Harding spoke after the minutes of silence. His speech was electrically transmitted for the first time over wires that connected to amplifiers in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco. The urge to allow as many Americans access to the funeral service as possible created the need for new technology. When President Harding concluded his speech, the Unknown was awarded with medals. The Unknown was the recipient of: the Distinguished Service Cross (America), the Medal of Honor (America), the Belgian Croix de Guerre (Belgium), the Czechoslovak War Cross (Czechoslovakia), the Victoria Cross (England), the French Croix de Guerre (France), the Medaglia d’oro al valor militare (Italy), the War Order of Virtuti Militari (Poland), and the Virtutea Militară (Romania). Chief Plenty Coups gifted the Unknown his feathered war bonnet and coup stick, which was representative of the Native Americans who served. It was also an attempt to foster good relations between Native Americans and Americans. The giving of these awards to the Unknown makes him a hero, which mirrors the way dead soldiers are seen by society. After the Unknown received his awards, he was placed in the crypt on top of French soil. The conducting of an elaborate funeral/memorial service to the Unknown shows the nation’s gratitude for those who were killed and the high regard for dead soldiers.

Although the public reaction to burying the Unknown was overwhelmingly positive and supportive, there were many who disagreed with the idea. Among those who disagreed were pacifists, socialists, and dissenters of the war. They had two main arguments: veterans were pushed aside for a meaningless effort and patriotic ideals were being pushed on the dead.   

Significance

The funeral and visitation while the soldier lay in state at the Capitol building served as a surrogate funeral service for families who never received a body to bury. Mothers could mourn the Unknown as if he was their son, children could mourn him as if it were their father, and siblings could mourn him as if he were their brother. It was representative of funerals for American soldiers who lost friends or men in their charge. During the funeral ceremony Lieutenant Colonel Charles Whittlesey, an officer whose unit suffered great casualties, was quoted as saying, “I keep wondering if the Unknown Soldier is one of my men.”³ The burying of the Unknown allowed America to mourn, honor, and remember the soldiers killed in action. A quote pasted across page 2 of The Baltimore Sun, published on November 12, 1921, reads, “We Highly Resolve That These Dead Shall Not Have Died In Vain.”⁴

When the Unknown was buried in 1921, the grave had a plain marker. It was thought by many Americans that this was too little of a memorial since this tomb was America’s way of honoring those killed in action, but especially those who died unidentified. Thus, in 1926, Congress allocated funds to create a more elaborate monument. A watch guard was added in 1925 to prevent the general public from disrespecting the grave site. 

America was one of four total countries to bury an unknown soldier in 1921. The following Allied nations buried their unknowns:  Portugal (April 6), Belgium (September 8), and Italy (November 4). Although Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were created after the war ended, they buried their own unknown soldiers in 1922. Romania buried their unknown May 17, 1923. The duty to honor war dead throughout multiple countries demonstrates the moral and emotional toll that World War I took on the countries involved.

Bibliography

“Body of America’s Unknown Soldier on Its Way Home Aboard the Olympia,” New York Times, October 26, 1921.

History.com Editors. “World War I.” History.com, January 12, 2023. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/world-war-i-history.

House Committee on Military Affairs. Return of Body of Unknown American Who Lost His Life in the World War. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1921.

Inglis, K. S. “Entombing Unknown Soldiers: From London and Paris to Baghdad.” History and Memory 5, no. 2 (1993): 7–31. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25618650.

Library of Congress. “Crowd at Burial of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.” www.loc.gov, 1921. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c00143/.

O’Donnell, Patrick K. The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2018.

Reuters Archive. “Burial of America’s Unknown Soldier (1921).” www.youtube.com, November 24, 1921. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-yxRkk30Ck.

Royde-Smith, John Graham, and Dennis E Showalter. “World War I.” In Encyclopedia Britannica, November 23, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I.

Simpson, Kirke Larue. “The Unknown Soldier.” Associated Press, 1921.

Slotkin, Richard. Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality. Henry Holt and Company, 2013.

Society of the Honor Guard. “Centennial of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (1921-2021),” 2021. https://tombguard.org/assets/images/news/TUS100-Advocacy-Packet_v7_122320.pdf.

———. “Timeline (1914 – 1921).” The Library of Congress, 2015. https://www.loc.gov/collections/stars-and-stripes/articles-and-essays/a-world-at-war/timeline-1914-1921/.

“Unknown Soldier Sleeps At Arlington,” The Baltimore Sun, November 12, 1921, p. 1-2.

Vleck, Jenifer van, and Timothy Frank. “From Manila Bay to Philadelphia: The Life and Service of USS Olympia.” Arlington National Cemetery, October 12, 2021. https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Blog/Post/11413/From-Manila-Bay-to-Philadelphia-The-Life-and-Service-of-USS-Olympia.

mkukan

Michelle Kukan is a spring 2023 student of Discovering Digital History at Ramapo College. She is a sophomore studying history, American studies and museum & exhibition studies. She is a volunteer for Mahwah Museum’s Veterans Project and works on the Jane Addams Paper Project.

1920 Timeline of Henry Ford’s transportation innovation  

Henry Ford was born in Springwells Township, Wayne County, Michigan, on July 30, 1863. Henry Ford created the Ford motors with the partnership of 12 others, he owned 25.5% of the stock in the new organization. In 1919, Henry and his family bought the interest of all minority stockholders for $105,820,894 and became the sole owners of the Company. In the 1920’s there were three major car manufacturers Ford, General motors and Chrysler; they were also the major employers of factory jobs.

However, while technology improved car production also improved tremendously with improved technology such as conveyor belts, assembly lines and the spread of electricity which by far revolutionized the industry. These advancements meant that production was improving at a greater rate than never before, due to this it eventually led to mass production. For example, car prices went from being $900+ in the 1920 to $250+ in 1929. This was also one of Henry Ford’s ideas to produce mass production because he wanted to produce affordable cars for the public. Ford was highly successful and created thousands of jobs for hard working Americans. His River Rouge factory in Detroit, Michigan was by far the largest factory in the world. The workers earned $5 per day, which was double the normal rate in any factory employers. As Eric Foner states, “Ford paid the assembly line workers $5 a day when prevailing wages were about $2.50. he also reduced working hours to 8.” By 1929, Americans owned 23 million cars. The best known was the Ford Model T car. By the time the Model T was withdrawn from production in 1927, its price had been reduced to $290. Ford’s mass production proficentices were quickly copied by other American vehicle manufacturers. With more cars being produced that meant that more roads had to be built, and highways and bridges were being built for cars. Furthemore, due to many cars being sold it connected many Americans with each other. Women were starting to leave their homes now because module T was easy to drive. Accessing other places in America was a lot easier which led to more infrastructure; restaurants, stores, and gas stations. This car made America as we know it today, to this day the affordable model T was Ford’s greatest impact on many American’s.

According to history.org in Ford later career there was a lot of controversial moments. Ford’s political views earned him widespread criticism over the years, beginning with his campaign against U.S. involvement in World War I. He made a failed bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 1918, narrowly losing in a campaign marked by personal attacks from his opponent. According to history.org “In the Dearborn Independent, a local newspaper he bought in 1918, Ford published a number of anti-Semitic writings that were collected and published as a four volume set called The International Jew. Though he later renounced the writings and sold the paper, he expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and Germany, and in 1938 accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the Nazi regime’s highest medal for a foreigner.”

Ford’s model T was very pleasing, however he had a bigger goal set. Ford invented his first commercial plane nicknamed the “Tin Goose,” a reference to the Model T’s nickname as the “Tin Lizzie.” The Tin Goose was one of the first airplanes used by America’s early commercial airlines. Just as he put the world on wheels with the Model T, Henry Ford hoped to give it wings with a small, affordable airplane. Henry built three to five prototype planes. Ford later abandoned the project after an unforeseen accident that took place near Melbourne, Florida, in 1928 killing his test pilot Harry Brooks.

Citations

https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/henry-ford

https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/model-t

https://corporate.ford.com/about/history/company-timeline.html