Letter from Walter Buckingham to Patriotic Pilgrimage Participants, 1933

Women ambassadors--United States

High school students

Education, Secondary

Letter from Walter S. Buckingham, Florida resident secretary to Congresswoman Ruth Bryan Owen, to Patriotic Pilgrimage participants with an update from Owen regarding her new post as U.S. Ambassador to Denmark and an essay written by pilgrimage participant Frances E. Pearson of Sanford, Florida.

Buckingham, Walter S.

State Archives of Florida, Collection N2004-1

1933-07-20

Rohde, Ruth Baird Bryan Leavitt Owen, 1885-1954

Pearson, Frances E.

letters (correspondence)

eng-US

Text

n2004-1_b001_f08_06

Depression Era Florida (1926-1939)

Washington (D.C.)

Vero Beach (Fla.)

Indian River County (Fla.)

Sanford (Fla.)

Seminole County (Fla.)

Copenhagen (Denmark)

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n2004-1_b001_f08_06_01

n2004-1_b001_f08_06_02

Politics And Government

United States. Department of State

Buckingham, Walter S.

Pearson, Frances E.

Andersen, H. C. (Hans Christian), 1805-1875

Hopkins, Mary Norman

Brown, Helen Rudd Owen Harris, 1920-2015

Spence, Kitty (Ruth) Owen Meeker Lehman Reiner, 1904-1984

Owen, Bryan

Staël, Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine), 1766-1817

Page, William Tyler, 1868-1942

Rohde, Ruth Baird Bryan Leavitt Owen, 1885-1954

Legation of the United States of America Copenhagen, June 18, 1933. Dear R.B.O. brigaders: There is so much I want to tell you about my new post that I have decided to send a news bulletin to Walter Buckingham and ask him to see that it reaches all of you. Mr. Buckingham seems to be able to organize things so perfectly that I am sure he will devise a plan for carrying this bulletin and the package of photographs of Copenhagen around the circle to each of you. When I visited Denmark two years ago with Bryan and his small sister and three of their young friends I did not dream that I would be coming back here as American minister. I was charmed with the Hans Andersen fairy tale country and with the hospitality and kindness of its people and my return has felt like a fairy tale coming true. From the moment that our ship touched the pier after an eleven days voyage from New York all sort of kindly things have been happening. There were so any flowers waiting for me that it looked like a church wedding or a high school graduation. My new home is a gracious roomy place with a garden full of lilacs in bloom and although I cannot speak Danish yet almost every one here can speak English so that does not matter. There are over one quarter of a million bicycles in Copenhagen which makes a new sort of traffic problem and if you look at the pictures which I am sending you will get acquainted with a lot of Copenhagen scenes. It is the custom for the newly appointed minister to present letters of credence to the king and you can imagine how I felt when the royal coach arrived at my door for me with the driver and footman in red coats and yellow breeches and a great deal of gold braid. The coach was lined inside with cream colored silk and a step folded down in order to let one enter. At the palace there was a very impressive formal ceremonial as I went from room to room, finally being presented to the king in the throne room. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated the wrist watch with the inscription from the brigaders on the back. I had no watch and no gift could have been more welcome. Bryan and Mary Norman Hopkins, and Kitty and her three children, as well as my younger daughter, Helen Rudd, are all with me and they ask me to send best remembrances to the brigaders who remember them. Affectionately yours, Ruth Bryan Owen ---------- Dear brigaders: The above mimeographed copy of the letter which Mrs. Owen has sent me for forwarding to you. The pictures to which she refers are 30 post cards [sic] showing beautiful views of Copenhagen (Kobenhavn). The best way for me to get them to you is for you to write me giving your present address and asking me to put you on the list to see the pictures. Then I will group you according to localities and will send the cards with forwarding instructions. It will take some time to go the rounds so do not expect them too soon, and when you do get them please send them promptly to the next address. I am going to add this letter the third brigade essay which won the Colonel Corbett prize. This is the essay of Frances E. Pearson: MY TRIP TO WASHINGTON - ITS GREATEST VALUE TO ME Madame de Stael, a celebrated French writer of the Eighteenth Century has been credited with the remark, “Architecture is frozen music”. If the author could have visited our National Capital at the time and under the same competent guidance as Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen’s third brigade, she would have enlarged on her definition of architecture. For no once can gaze on and enjoy the architecture of Washington without becoming imbued with its wonderful beauty, harmony, and order. It is poetry; music; nature; history; honor. In it the everlasting symbols of our Nation’s greatness meet the every gaze. The symmetry of its buildings; the arrangement of its rives and boulevards; the statutes [sic] of the Nation’s great, set here and there; meeting the traveler’s eye as he turns from one beauty to another,

serve to remind us that while our country’s history and monuments are pleasing and gracious, they are alike serious and masterful, and nowhere to be matched by the created beauty of man. My mind was impressed with an already preconceived idea of Washington; since my studies took me into the history of our Nation, I had believed Washington to be the Alpha and Omega of all things wonderful. Its stately buildings and halls seemed to breathe of the presence and influence of our early heroes; of Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, John Marshall, and latterly, Lincoln and Wilson. The greatness of our Nation is everywhere depicted; greatness in science, literature, arts, war, peace, and in liberty. One could almost visualize that the spirits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson, might be in the picture, unseen but seeing and influencing and driving our consciousness to the realization of the great fact that here, in our beloved central point, lies all power, all honor and all that is or should be uppermost in the minds of the young and old citizens, a Government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Made pure, solid and everlasting on bloody battlefields and through years of peaceful pursuits and struggles of millions of patriots. No one could possibly visit the National Capital, spend three days under competent guides, meet Congressmen and Senators; visit the Supreme Court room; halls of Congress, and Congressional Library; the Smithsonian Institute and the National Museum, all so replete with American life and accomplishments; so full of the urge to do or to die, from the examples to be seen and known of, without coming away fully resolved, as I did, to become a better citizen, and in whatever small measure lies in my power, so to live that there shall never come to me an unworthy thought of my country, its Capital and Government. I cannot think of a more fitting close than a reference to William Tyler Page, the creator of The American Creed. He stood before us with his tear-filled eyes uplifted and in a low, quavering voice repeated his creed and our creed. The noise ceased. And the love of country and his God which seemed to pour from this man’s soul as he addressed us briefly seemed to cast a spell on the entire room and we had a feeling of reverence as in a place of worship. In that brief moment with William Tyler Page, I grasped more clearly the meaning of America, and with the help of God I will fulfill my duty to my country by loving it, supporting its Constitution, obeying its laws, respecting its flag and defending it against all enemies. Frances E. Pearson 1904 Sanford Ave., Sanford, Florida. --------- Isn’t that a splendid essay? I think it would be fine for each of you to write Frances a letter. I know some of you have moved. No doubt some of you have married. If you will tell me your present address and tell me where you have been and what you have been doing I will make up a correct list of names and addresses of all of you (all three brigades) and will send each of you a copy. I will also send you a condensed news summary. The friendships which were established on these Patriotic Pilgrimages to your National Capital will be of value to you. You should keep in touch with each other as much as you can. Finally, remember that the traits of character which your comrades recognized in you when you were chosen as “good citizens” will continue to keep you over at the forefront in your patriotic living. We [cannot] all be super leaders but we can all be “leaders”, each in his own circle. Sincerely yours, Walter S. Buckingham, Vero Beach, Florida. July 20, 1933.

Congresswoman Ruth Bryan Owen hosted a Patriotic Pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. each year from 1930 to 1932. Two senior high school students were selected from each of the 18 counties in Florida's 4th district, which Owen represented from 1929 to 1933. One boy and one girl who exemplified "good citizenship" were selected by their peers to represent their county on the trip. During the trip, students learned about United States history and government and met with politicians, including the president of the United States.