The Woodstock Festival 1969

When Mrs. Lawson assigned this research project I was torn between the two topics of Factory Farming in the 20^th century or the Woodstock Festival of 1969. The Saturday after we were assigned this project I went to Birmingham to see a Bassnectar concert with a lot of friends. After having a great time down there I became even more interested in concerts and wanted to know more about them. I then decided to go with my coice of the Woodstock Festival of 1969.

Authentic photo taken of the miles
long traffic jam outside the festival

To start my research I decided to look in our textbook, American History by Alan Brinkley, on pages 854-856. This is a great secondary source because a professor who teaches history at Colombia University wrote it. His soul purpose in writing this book is to educated students with factual information about history; therefore I trust what he has written. Here I was surprised to find a huge article about Rock Music in the Sixties that mentioned the Woodstock Festival multiple times. I learned that this festival was a legendary rock festival located in Woodstock, New York from August 15-18^th on a remote farmland, where more than 400,000 people gathered to hear a number of very famous rock n roll artists.

The textbook gave only a brief overview of what Woodstock was so I decided to go deeper. This time I wanted a primary source so I went on Google books and typed in Woodstock Festival 1969. One of the first few items that popped up was the perfect fit for what I was looking for. It was a LIFE magazine, I trust what this magazine says because I found it on Google books and because it’s a LIFE magazine; a world famous magazine known for its photographs. This one magazine holds over 55 pages of wonderful pictures that really gave me a sense of what the festival was like. There were pictures of mass groups of dirty hippies sitting on a hillside, groups of skinny dippers washing off in nearby ponds, braless women chilling with their men, a few pictures of some drugs and of course a ton of peace sign. I really loved looking at these pictures because it made me feel like I was part of the festival. From this magazine I learned a ton of details about why this festival was so legendary. First of all the festival was only suppose to be about 50,000 people but ended up being and incredible amount of over 400,000 people! This was due to the amazing line-up of some extremely famous artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Santana, The Grateful Dead and many more. The organizers were not planning on having so many people arrive, so they didn’t set up properly. Overrun with thousands of people the festival ran out of food, space and toiletries. One reason why the Woodstock festival is so famous is because for three straight days this massive amount of people lived in harmony and peace, helping each other out as they faced the uncomfortable conditions of the festival's lack of supplies and preparation. There was a sense of community created between the people at Woodstock that is still talked and wished upon today. 

Original photo of the stadium surrounded
by the overwhelming crowd

The LIFE magazine had some great information and wonderful pictures but I wanted to find out even more about why this festival became so legendary. I went on Google and the first site I thought was a good secondary source was this one. It is a .org website as well as the website of the Woodstock museum. I trust this source because a museum’s purpose is to educate its viewers with only interesting facts about their certain event. On this site I found out that a day before the festival even began, much of the area around it had become one enormous traffic jam of thousands upon thousands of hippies and their Volkswagon bugs. On the third and final day it poured rain, creating massive pools of mud. The remaining 35,000 people that stayed after the downpour, to listen to Jimi Hendrix, last performer, became covered in gooey sloppy mud. One really funny thing I learned from this museum's website was that there was a “freak out” tent which was reserved for people who were suffering from bad trips on drugs. One key aspect of Woodstock in 1969 was the abundance of drugs. They were everywhere and everyone was either high or tripping. Even though people were having a great time, they were still difficulties they had to overcome. The festival’s concessionaire, Food For Love, ran out of supplies due to the huge amount of people that swarmed in, but this was not a problem because residents shared their food and water among the many festivals goers who then shared with each other. Woodstock really created a community where everyone was kind and giving which is one reason why I think it is so famous; so many people in such a small area working so well together.

Original Woodstock 1969 poster

After learning even more about what the Woodstock Festival really was, I wanted to know some specific facts and numbers. I decided to search the web for an article published on the festival because I thought that this would be one very specific way to get some really great in the moment details. Since the festival took place in New York I thought I would take a look in the New York Times magazine archives. Here is found this great newspaper article on the festival itself, I trust this primary source because it is a real article that was published the day after the festival ended. With this great article I learned that two people died, one from a heroine overdose and one from being run over by a tractor in a nearby field. There were two births given at the festival, one being in a car stuck in the miles long traffic jam on Route 17B. There were over 4,000 people treated over the three-day festival for injuries such as falling off a car roof while high, illnesses like influenza from the downpour of rain, and multiple adverse drug reactions. Another interesting fact that this article gave was that there were over 100 campfires made with scraps of wood people could find around the festival. I thought this was a really fun aspect because whenever I think of a campfire I always think of love and spending time with friends, and this is exactly what the people of Woodstock did. They might have been on drugs but they came together with love and compassion for one another, worked together to live in unpleasant crowded conditions, gathered around campfires and bonded while listening to a number of incredible artists.

Jimi Hendrix performing on the last day of the festival

Through all of these great sources I really got to learn a lot about what Woodstock was. This festival was not just another fun music fest that is a day trip adventure, this festival was a massive group of people coming together to listen to one of the most star studded line-ups in history. This group of people, despite its huge numbers, overcame difficulties and helped one another along the way. They stayed a peaceful harmonious group, taking pleasure from the simplest things. The Woodstock festival is looked at as one of the biggest symbols of the 1960's youth culture. This time period was full of drugs, music and peace just as like the Woodstock festival. After this legendary festival occurred people have tried to put on similar fests attempting to become even more than what Woodstock was. Nobody has succeeded so far. Woodstock will forever be known as “Three days of Peace and Music”. After researching about this topic, it really makes me want to go get a time travel machine, dial in August 15^th 1969 and become part of that peaceful loving crowd. Thank you Mrs. Lawson for letting us have the freedom of researching whatever we liked! Now if you could, help me find a time machine! 

Here are the directions to the research project and here is the contract that I have signed. I'm trying to decide between the two topics of the Woodstock festival in 1969 or factory farming in the 1900's.

A Photograph Can Tell A Story Too

This picture illustrates how the families during the Great Depression did not have money to spend on toys and games. It also shows the high unemployment level during this time period. The group of boys don't have many places to go and play so they play outside of their homes. You can see that they don't have any toys with them showing that their families did not have enough money to spend on leisurely things like toys. SInce the boys don't have toys of their own, they play with each other instead. The woman resting on her window sill shows the high unemployment rate during this time. She has nothing better to do than sit and do not do a thing. She obviously has a lot of time on her hands to be able to just sit and gaze down the street. And since she is sitting outside this could show that she isn;t able to afford air conditioning because of her unemployment. Overall this picture shows the high unemployment rate and lack of money during the Great Depression.

New York, New York. 61st Street between 1st and 3rd Avenues. Children playing in the street.
Walker Evans

Hunger Strikes by Suffragists

In US History class this week, everyone was assigned a topic to research and blog about; all relating back to World War 1. I happened to bring my laptop to class on the day we were supposed to, so I got to draw my topic first. I ended up with a very interesting topic which is Hunger Strikes by Suffragists. At first I just typed in Hunger Strikes on Google and got way to many results so I asked my wonderful teacher, Mrs. Lawson, for some guidance and she pointed me in the right direction. With this help I came across three great websites, Woman in History, History Matters and Spartacus Educational. They all provided me with key information about the hunger strikes that I really enjoyed learning about.

Alice Paul

One of the most important woman figures who helped lead suffragists to victory was Alice Paul. Alice was once part of the National American Woman Suffrage Association but separated from it to form the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage which later developed into the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1917. Oh and one really cool thing I learned is that Alice and I have the same birthday, January 11^th! Anyway, back to the subject, while WW1 was going on the NWP's main focus was to win the right for woman to vote. They did this by picketing the White House in Washington, DC. As most strikes go, the police were called and the picketers were sentenced to a few days in jail. But this didn’t change anything in the minds of the suffragists and the picketing still went on. But finally on October 20, 1917 Alice Paul, who was one of the NWP’s main leaders, was arrested by the police in order to break the spirit if the suffragist and end the picketing. Alice was sentenced to seven months in prison and this is where she started a hunger strike.

Woman picketing in front of the White House

 Alice, my birthday twin, would not eat anything while in jail. Alice was deprived of everything she once had while in prison and the only option she had left with was to go on a hunger strike. It was the only thing she could control. Alice once said "It was the strongest weapon left with which to continue our battle.” She was transferred from her cell and into a psychopathic ward. By doing so prison officials hoped to label her as insane. Yet Alice did not eat. Her hunger strike lasted an insane number of 22 days. During the last week of this 22 day strike the prison hired doctors to force feed Alice.

Force feeding

Force feeding is such a disturbing thing, especially during this time period. In this case suffragist on a hunger strike would be forcibly held down by multiple people, sometimes 10 or more were needed for just one suffragist, or the suffragist would be strapped down to a chair and have her hands and legs tied to it. A doctor would come in with a small plastic tube about two yards long and force the tube down either the woman’s mouth or nose and into the stomach. Usually the tube would go down the mouth but occasionally they would do the nose just to scare the woman even more and make them want to eat. This process was extremely painful for the woman. The tube would scrape up the inside of their throat and cause bleeding but when the tube was pushed through the nose it was unbearably painful to the point where the doctor and nurses would have to stop the process because the women would be in so much pain.

Often times the liquid food that was poured through the tube and into the stomach was leftover food from the jail that had gone bad and would have been thrown away. Mixed with whatever liquid the doctors could get their hands on, the food was well blended until smooth. These feedings would go on twice to three times a day per suffragist. It was an event every suffragist dreaded. Many times after a force feeding woman would vomit up the liquid because of either how foul it was on their empty stomach or by the severe trauma they experience during the feeding. Even after starving themselves and forcible being fed through tubes, woman still continued their hunger strike. 

They did all of this so to gain the attention of Americans, turning their views of woman voting into something that should be allowed. When articles published the abuse these women were being put through sent a feeling of sympathy and anger into the American heart and slowly but surely helped change their views on women voting. On November 27 and 28 of 1917 all the suffragists were released from jail due to the public pressure on the government. And in 1920 woman voted for the first time in the presidential election, thanks to the help of the suffragists who went on hunger strikes. 

Woman getting to vote for the first time

My vote counts!

     I find it unbelievable that woman would starve themselves and endure such pain for the right to vote. I use to take the right to vote for granted but now that I have researched this topic I realize how important and what a privilege it is to vote. From now on when I vote I will think about what these woman went through in order for me to have a say in the country that I live in! 

Medical Transport

After looking around for some interesting pictures on this website I decided I would find a picture based around medicine. So I typed in medicine on the keyword finder and the first picture that popped up was this one. In this picture a cargo hold of a hospital barge has been converted into a functioning ward. This shows that there was a numerous amount of injured soldier, so many that there was not enough room for them all. Converting a cargo hold into a functioning ward shows how there was more injured soldiers than people expected there to be. Every inch of floor space that could be used was used during these times. 

Interesting facts

I learned all of the ports that the ship docked at, what day they arrived and what day they departed from this website. I also learned that by sending the 16 ships on their trip around the world Roosevelt was sending the message that the US had arrived as a global naval power. This website has helped me learn all about the Great White Fleet.

Learning in a day

Today I discovered that while in egypt word was received of an earthquake in Sicily. America trying to show off its friendship with Italy decided to offer aid to the sufferers. The ships Connecticut, Illinois, Culgoa and Yankton left for Messina and the crew of the Illinois recovered the bodies of the American consul and his wife who were caught in ruins.  I also learned that 100,000 people showed up for the arrival of the fleet in New Zealand which is 10% of their whole population! In Melbourne, Australia there was a dinner planned for 3,000 soldiers but only 7 of them showed up! They enjoyed Melbourne so much that they wanted to stay out and enjoy the party as long as they could! I learned a lot from these two websites and got most of my information from this website. 

What I've discovered

So far today I have discovered about all the different places where the Great White Fleet landed. They pretty much traveled the world! I would have loved to go on a trip like this for 14 months. It would have been such an amazing experience! One thing I found particularly interesting was that there was a small "hospital ship" following the 16 large battleships. I thought it was interesting that instead of having their own mini hospital in each ship they instead had one large hospital ship. Very cool fact in my opinion. One other thing I found out that was cool was that the fleet on their way to the Suez Canal, celebrated Christmas onboard! They decorated the ship with palm trees and streamers and played holiday games. This trip around the world sounds like a ton of fun to me!