Director's Blog

23 December 2011

Recently, a lot of attention has been focused on the so-called 1%, questioning whether they bear their fair share of the costs of our society. Missing from the discussion thus far is the fact that the "1%" not only pay nearly 40% of all Federal Income Tax collected each year,  but the same "1%" also provide the overwhelming majority of funding for virtually all the cultural and educational opportunities in America. No government every has, or ever could, no matter how high the tax rate, provide the range and depth of cultural and educational opportunities made possible during the past century through the American model of capitalism and philanthropy. This uniquely American perspective was best summed up by America's first great capitalist and philanthropist, Peter Cooper, who said, "The purpose of business is to make money. The purpose of life is to do good." 

Every American owes a great debt of gratitude to the millions of American businessmen and women who have, like Peter Cooper, worked tirelessly during the past 150 years to build businesses, which together have resulted in the largest economy the world has ever seen, and then worked just as tirelessly to invest their fortunes in creating  cultural and educational opportunities  for current and future generations of their fellow Americans. This great promise of an opportunity to make a success of oneself and to give back to one's fellow citizens is the reason so many still risk their lives every day to reach the shores of this great country.

15 November 2010

Rather than updating this blog, I've added a link below to an interview I recently did for the "Manner Of Man" magazine blog.

http://mannerofman.blogspot.com/2010/11/interview-with-john-blades.html

27 October 2010

For more than a quarter century the Museum has worked in cooperation with the Palm Beach County School District to host an intergenerational mentor program for fourth graders to work on creative writing skills. I just loved the following essay written during the current session by Sidney from Grassy Waters Elementary School. The assignment was to choose an object in Whitehall and write an essay from the prospective of being that object. Here's Sidney's essay, exactly as she wrote it.

The great Chandilier

My beautiful, bright lights, and my shiny crystals hanging agape. With my carved fruits, such as juicy, round grapes. My lights lit up the whole room, shining everywhere and on everything. I'm like a gleaming star in the night sky. It only takes one chandilier to light up the whole room and that chandilier is me, bright and bold as I hang from the ceiling.

I really got a kick out of reading Sidney's essay.

Most of Sidney's class had never been to a museum until they came here last week to begin working on their creative writing skills. Her essay is a wonderful reminder that the Museum is creating memoriable experiences - that we here at the Museum are in the experience business - and that we need to be mindful everyday that we want those experiences to be a positive as possible.

In the same vein, but on a more serious note, I received the following letter a few years ago that was an even more poignant reminder of the importance of remembering how important the visitors' experiences can be.

Staff of the Flagler Museum

My husband and I toured Whitehall [recently], and it has turned out to be one of the fondest memories I will ever have.

We planned on going and making it a "tourist" day. We got up early and went to breakfast and drove to Whitehall for our tour. We loved the history told to us by the Tour Guide and Whitehall was beautiful.

After we toured Whitehall we went out to dinner and we went home. My husband was a little tired and laid down on the couch, and said to me "This was such a nice day" and I said "yes it was", and I kissed him on the forehead and went upstairs to bed, leaving him lying on the couch watching television.

The next morning I went down stairs to find that my husband had passed away sometime during the night. He had a heart attack at 47 years of age.  I miss him terribly, but I will always remember his words to me "This was a nice day". I just wanted you folks to know.

Thank you,

We will never really know how what we do affects others, but if only we could treat every visitor as if that day and their visit mattered most of all, no doubt the Museum would make an important difference in peoples' lives. As the professionals and volunteers who, for this brief time, are the team of stewards caring for this National Historic Landmark, we are working on making this our number one goal.

23 October 2010

The current state of the economy might seem like something extraordinary. But, in fact, what is going on now wouldn't rank event a close second to the Nation's worst economic crisis.

In 1893, when Henry Flagler was beginning work on the Hotel Royal Poinciana in Palm Beach, the Nation was in the midst of the worst economic downturn ever seen. It was a horrible time in American history. At a time when railroads were the leading industries in the world, more than 100 of them failed in 1893 alone, as did about 5,000 banks and about 10,000 other companies.

The next year Pullman workers, upset over their reduction in wages resulting from the downturn in the economy and fired up by union president Eugene Debs, staged what the "New York Times" called the "Greatest Strike in History," essentially shutting down railroads across the western states. On the Fourth of July, President Grover Cleveland ordered troops into the railroad stations to get the trains moving again and riots broke out at train stations across the Nation. Eugene Debs was arrested for ignoring the Federal injunction against striking. Outraged by President Cleveland's actions a young lawyer for the Chicago & North Western Railway, named Clarence Darrow, quit and went to work as the attorney representing Eugene Debs and the Union.

And yet, in spite of the Panic of 1893 and all of the fear and worry associated with it, two of the most amazing projects undertaken during the Gilded Age proceeded on schedule. Chicago hosted the most impressive World's Fair ever seen, the Columbia Exposition. And, more people came to see it than had ever come to a fair before - a number nearly equal to half the Nation's population. And, Henry Flagler kept right on building his Hotel Royal Poinciana in Palm Beach. The Hotel Royal Poinciana eventually became the largest resort in the world, establishing Palm Beach as a winter mecca known around the world.