Charles Riggs

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Charles Riggs

On February 10, 1946, Jack Roosevelt Robinson and Rachel Isum were married in a big ceremony in Los Angeles. A couple weeks later, the Robinsons were on their way to Daytona Beach, Florida, and spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Four months earlier, the Dodgers' legendary president Branch Rickey had presented Robinson as the first African American to play in organized baseball. Robinson, Rickey and the Dodgers were breaking the color line in baseball and carving a new reality in American life.

There is a complex history of Blacks in baseball. Major Leagues had existed since the 1870s, and players with African American backgrounds had moments in the sport. But by the 1890s, with Jim Crow firmly entrenched in many parts of America, Blacks were barred from organized — White — baseball. African American players formed their own teams and toured, taking on all comers and making a fair living. Negro Leagues were formed and competed at a high level.

But Blacks would not crack the highest levels, the Major Leagues, as long as the game made excuses for discrimination.

Jules Tygiel was a Professor of History at San Francisco State University until his death in 2008. A gifted historian, and a very fine writer, Tygiel demonstrated that baseball is an excellent portal to historical inquiry. In Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and his Legacy, he wrote about baseball's impact on American society, and how the larger society had reflected baseball's changes as well. Published in 1983, Professor Tygiel's research included interviews with Rachel Robinson.

When Jackie Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, baseball and American society had taken a giant step forward. Robinson played very well for the Dodgers in his major league career — but the pressure he endured as a pioneer under universal scrutiny is the measure of his real greatness. His life with Rachel, Tygiel shows, was fundamental to Robinson's success.

Every history is a chronicle of human life as it plays out. Robinson is a genuine hero, and his story helps us all work to become heroic, or to understand how heroes become heroes. But Robinson's story (and Tygiel's wonderful history) also helps us understand that anyone might emerge as hero — but only when the opportunity is there.

Each of us might not ever be a Jackie Robinson, but we can all make sure the door is open. We can all develop the vision to see greatness, so that it can emerge when we need it. This helps everyone — and it may help everyone see you.

Ileana

Something that has always struck me when reading about the Civil Rights Movement is the courage of those individuals who fought for equal rights under such dangerous circumstances. (I wonder if I would have been as brave as they were if I had been in their situation!)

This week is of particular importance in Black History. Half a century ago, on February 1st, 1960, four Black college students in North Carolina went to a segregated lunch counter and asked to be served. They wouldn't leave until they were.

Though they never got their meal, this quiet incident became one of the most important moments in the fight for civil rights. It sparked a series of "sit-ins" that would take place throughout the segregated South in the early 1960s.

One of the most important aspects of these sit-ins was that they were non-violent. The rules were, dress in your best Sunday clothes, and:

Do show yourself friendly on the counter at all times. Do sit straight and always face the counter. Don't strike back, or curse back if attacked. Don't laugh out. Don't hold conversations. Don't block entrances.

Word about the sit-ins spread through many college campuses, and by August of 1961, over 70,000 people had participated in these demonstrations. The movement caught on even in the North. Supporters there picketed the stores and lunch counters of chains that had segregated locations in the South.

I love that something as simple as asking for a meal, and not leaving until you got it, stirred so many people to action and had such a tremendous effect. No violence, no angry words — just a demand to be treated the same.

Charles Riggs

Black History Month begins today, and it's my annual opportunity to stress the importance of it to us all.

Historians study the field from multiple directions, from uncountable sub-categories. All serve to add a piece to the structure of our understanding — the more histories to consider, the better the facts at hand. History is closer to real truth when there are lots of accounts that zero in on what really happened. The more bricks in a wall, you might say, the stronger it is.

(Or more like, ought to be. Sometimes history seems like dozens of bricks stacked one on top of the other, swaying, about to fall on your head, and you left your hard hat somewhere else. But enough of my grad school fussing.)

Black history is the story of a people who were denied history for generations. Their lives were not their own because they were literally owned by someone else. Routines we take for granted had to be "won": family, recreation, an occasional opportunity to trade possessions , or hiring oneself out to make a little extra. A personal history was denied them. Free African Americans living in colonies, States and territories were so often only tenuously free. Racism kept them separate, watched.

But African Americans carved out their own sense of themselves as people, as communities — as Americans.

That process is the subject of one of my favorite histories: Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America by Ira Berlin. Berlin tells of a great part of America that changed over time, and from place to place. African Americans' experiences were different in North Carolina than in New York, and different in 1710 than in 1860. Berlin posits that work, also, defines African Americans' experiences: gangs of field hands in one place, skilled artisans in another — sometimes living near each other and establishing their own ways of interacting. ("Pecking order" to us. "Hierarchies" to college professors.)

To learn Black History is to learn more history, which is good for you. You need to know different sides to any issue, so knowing more than one version helps you form your own. That's the basic value of Black History.

But the greater value is the wonder — the pride — you feel as you consider the astonishing path that people can carve in spite of their challenges. It's an opinion changer. ("Paradigm shift" to college professors.)

Read Black History. Dig it!

Ryan Baum

Over a century and a half ago, James Marshall's famous gold discovery, in the tailrace of John Sutter's recently completed lumber mill on the American River, easily ranks as one of the world's great events. While Concord's "shot heard round the world" was nearly instantaneous, the momentum of the gold rush actually took a while to gain momentum.

Here's a quick test: What year was that token nugget discovered?

Most people think 1849. The actual year was 1848. And it was even early in the year: January 24 to be precise! And technically this wasn't even the first gold discovery in California.

To understand the delay between the discovery and the actual rush, we need to study the speed of communication before Statehood, from California to the Eastern States. We also have to remember the skepticism of the people of news reports they read in the papers.

The time was ripe for migration, given California was in the process of being ceded to the United States following the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildago, signed February 2, 1848 — a full week after Marshall's discovery.

First reports of the gold discovery arrived in San Francisco within a month and in the East during the summer. Few took notice, however. Even the military leadership in California was initially skeptical of the quantity of riches. Then a combination of marketing and bureaucratic reporting combined to ignite one of the greatest migrations in history.

The marketing started with the famous parade of Sam Brannan in May through the streets of San Francisco exclaiming gold on the American River while holding a bottle of gold. Since he had already cornered the market in mining supplies, the excitement he created drove up the prices of his goods many fold. Within weeks the town of San Francisco began to empty.

Anna Lucas

Thank you to all the smarty pants who submitted a caption for this photograph.

I initially only planned for a Top Ten, but you sent so many wonderful captions that I am posting 15 favorites, in no particular order.

The real story follows below...

Fashion Rule #13: Carrying a big credit card makes your rear end appear smaller.
–Lady Anon

Steve never would have bought his mother a New York Times large-type edition subscription if he had known it would come to this.
–S. Waldron

Who said it was more convenient to carry credit cards rather than cash?!?!
–The Lovely Ladies of the Anaconda, Montana Store

Elizabeth was always so excited to embark upon her retail 'expeditions' that she could often be heard yelling her favorite shopping rally cry: "Fix bayonets — CHAAAARGE!"
–Cat L.

Surprisingly, even unframed versions of the prototype credit poster failed to take off with consumers.
–Maureen

Increase your purchasing power by supersizing your Mastercharge card today!
–Nina

Mr. Hansen felt burdened by the size of his wife's debt, but hoisted the balances dutifully.
–Jessie Jan

Early prototype, just prior to the invention of the wallet.
–Chris S. Ervi

Am I covering enough of my number? While this card is so convenient in all other ways, I can't get past this irrational fear of identity theft.
–AMH

Bob knew Credit Cards were going to be really big; he just didn't know how big!
–Dixie Highfield

First on the shopping list: A bigger handbag...
–AC

Introducing the new product from Wells Fargo designed to curb unnecessary spending.
–psimonis

Always looking to diversify its market, Wells Fargo became the bank of choice for Lilliputians. 
–Dave

Wells Fargo now offers the peace and security of NEVER losing your card.
–Pamela

Let's go to Coach , they have bigger wallets.
–Ian

###

Amanda Hopper

This week marks the anniversary of the discovery of gold in California, which sparked the legendary Gold Rush that resonated the world over — and changed California and the West, pretty much overnight. (CR)

The other day, something made me start to wonder...what ever happened to James Marshall after the California gold rush?

James Marshal was a 35-year old carpenter employed by his friend John Sutter. Marshall went to Coloma, California to build a sawmill for Sutter. It was on a January morning in 1848 , as Marshall was inspecting the sawmill, that he spotted those first flakes of gold that changed history.

Marshall told Sutter right away and hoped the discovery would be the end of his money problems. But the discovery of gold had to remain a secret between the two friends until Sutter could lay claim to the area where the flakes had been found. Unfortunately, rumors began to spread around San Francisco about gold being found in the American river. One man from San Francisco, Sam Brannan , heard the rumors and went to see if they were true. He found gold and returned to San Francisco. He ran through the streets yelling "Gold! Gold! Gold! A bonanza of gold on the south fork. Gold!"

The Gold Rush was on. People from all over the world started coming to California.

For Marshall, a lot changed. The newness and excitement wore off and he was no longer praised for the tremendous find in Coloma.  He went back went back to working for Sutter, then to mining. Unable to find much "color" himself, Marshall sometimes took credit for other miners' finds.

Later, Marshall served as a guide for government inspection parties in the gold fields. He was also formally recognized as the discoverer of gold in California. But with his fame, Marshall found himself trying to escape from gold hungry miners following his every move.

After a short time, Gold Rush miners had found very few riches. Some people, stranded and bitter, actually threatened to hang Marshall if he did not show them where they could find gold!

Marshall was part owner of a lumber mill, but the business failed. He went back into mining and found no success. He was granted a pension by the California legislature, and continued prospecting for the rest of his life.

Living on the edge of poverty, Marshall was reduced at times to selling his autograph for 25 cents. He died in 1885.

Marshall was famous, then forgotten, then famous again — but he never became the great man he'd hoped to be. We remember Marshall, but his life was a common story in the Gold Rush. As with most Argonauts, the dream was all too real, while the reality was all too harsh.

Charles Riggs

This weekend is the celebration of Martin Luther King's life and work. As I've written before, Dr. King is a hero of mine. Each year on this nice, long weekend, I honor him by trying to live the words.

"Yeah, yeah," you say, "Everyone says that about Christmas, Veterans Day, Fourth of July." And I know what you mean. (Try to live the meaning of Valentine's Day and see how far you get. Failure every year!) And three-day weekends are good for recovering from work, living it up with your friends and other legitimate uses of time.

You might also say it's better to live the words every day, not just on the one day. I agree.

But Dr. King is important to me for all the reasons I've stated before: He agitated for justice, he helped people see their own importance, and he delivered a consistent message of peace. Between people one-to-one, and across the entire population. His work embodied all that people hold as real goodness. He lived his faith and his patriotism. That's how someone becomes great. It takes the willingness to risk one's life in service to a higher purpose.

So for me, it's a re-connection with my own higher purposes. It's more than what I feel and then act upon. It's asking again what it is that makes me tick, and what it is I do to be that guy.

OK, I know you've had enough of my syrupy drama. I'll leave it at this: MLK is my Day. I may fall short at Christmas and Independence Day and (Lord knows!) Valentine's Day. But I dig deep on MLK. 

I wish you all a very happy weekend! Peace!

Charles Riggs

And it's been around a while.

I found this video from 1970 in the Archives — it's cool and funny in a variety of ways. Think of that, 1970  — looooong enough for historians to examine.

Two things stand out. One, recycling and "Green" consciousness is, like, 40 years old. "Give a Hoot,"  "Pitch in"  and "Keep America Beautiful"  all happened within a short time of the first Earth Day. Green is full bore these days, after a re-invigoration of sorts when Earth in the Balance  by Vice President Al Gore was re-released during the 2000 Presidential election. But as this video proves, it's been going for quite a while. A pre-internet while, that is.

Second, it comes off like a newsreel from the 1940s or something, but 1970 was well after newsreel stuff was itself old-fashioned in movie production. Throwback then, throwback now.

Incidentally, the $22,000 cost savings mentioned at the end of the piece would be about $125K now.

Charles Riggs

On January 8, 1838, a man named Alfred Lewis Vail  introduced a telegraphic code. It was a forerunner of Morse Code , developed by Samuel F.B. Morse, Vail's colleague and fellow pioneer of the telegraph.

Vail was from a well-to-do manufacturing family. He was fascinated by the technology of rapid communication. Vail arranged to work with Morse for a share of the proceeds when they were ready to market their developments. Vail's code gave way to Morse's, though there are questions about who invented what first. Regardless, Vail eventually tired of his partnership with Morse and returned to the iron biz.

The telegraph changed the way people communicated. Messages could be transmitted over vast distances in a matter of minutes. Indeed, as the transcontinental railroad was built in the 1860s, telegraph poles went in with it—the wires strung over silent prairies, deserts and mountains. In 1869, east and west were connected in the United States by train and telegraph.

Wells Fargo & Co's Express was able to transfer money and other financial services electronically from then on. An agent in California could accept a miner's deposit, wire the details to Pennsylvania and have the funds available to that miner's family almost immediately. The promise of the future had become a reality.

The promise of history is that the most inconspicuous moment or person can end up having an impact far beyond expectations. Vail liked telegraphs and hoped to make a little money from it: He may be forgotten, but his work helped settle the continent.

And another January 8th personage demonstrates history's promise as well: That a poor kid from nowhere can become the absolute King. 

Oh yeah. Totally.

Anna Lucas

Guided by History is pleased to introduce a new blogger, Anna from our Corporate Archives. She comes to us with superior knowledge and experience — a real troublemaker, in short. (CR)

I have a great job. As an archivist in the Wells Fargo & Company Corporate Archives, I get to see all the cool stuff in our collection that hasn't made it out of the vault yet into a museum exhibit or marketing campaign. As a way to share some of these great photographs and objects from the archives and maybe some little-known history of Wells Fargo and our merger partners, I am excited to introduce a photo caption and label writing contest on Guided by History.

Send me a witty and clever caption for this photograph by using the "comments" area in this post. For example, "Elizabeth's husband has tired of these shopping trips" or "Peter was hired because of his Sherpa training." Yours will be so much more clever, of course.

Captions must be submitted by Friday, January 15, and the winners will be featured the following week, along with the real story. Sorry, people, we cannot offer any prizes, just glory.

I look forward to hearing from you.

(Anna shares the winners here.-CR)