[This is an ongoing Facebook project that I've decided to share here as well,
slightly revised and expanded, with additional photos and links.
Check back for updates through 4 July 2026.]
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Early 1900s A new century, and the first to which most of us have actual, tangible connections, either through our own experiences, or for any youngsters reading this--mirabile dictu!--your parents'.
We were a nation on the move, dynamic and innovative. In 1903 the Wright Brothers made their first flight, and by 1914 commercial air travel had begun. Granted, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line only carried a single passenger and was just a twenty-some minute flight, but it was a start. Further south, America’s construction began on the Panama Canal in 1904, and it too began operations in 1914. In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T. Within a few years over a quarter of a million were coming off his assembly line annually.
So where were all these folks going? To “See America First,” as the slogan touted, coined by travel booster Fisher Sanford Harris in 1906. Trimmed down from its original "See Europe if you will, but see America first," the catchphrase appeared on countless maps and guidebooks, and was so successful it even inspired the title of Cole Porter’s first musical, in 1916, and a silent film comedy a few years later. It is still in use today.
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| from left, a travel brochure, jokebook, and Prohibition era movie poster. |
There was so much to see! Oklahoma entered the Union in 1907, with Arizona and New Mexico completing the “Lower 48” in 1912. Our first National Park, Yellowstone, had been recognized as such in 1872, but it was not until 1916 that our National Park Service was established, President Wilson recognizing that our lands and national treasures belonged to us all, and should be protected.
Where were my ancestors during all this? One of my first cousins, 4x removed, Orrin Budd Hart was there. In 1904, he was one of the builders of the Great Stone Fireplace, in Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Inn. It is still remarkable, and was the inspiration for the fireplace at Walt Disney World’s Wilderness Lodge.
Where were my ancestors during all this? One of my first cousins, 4x removed, Orrin Budd Hart was there. In 1904, he was one of the builders of the Great Stone Fireplace, in Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Inn. It is still remarkable, and was the inspiration for the fireplace at Walt Disney World’s Wilderness Lodge.
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| A vintage photo, and Hart's memorial at Mountain View Cemetery, Columbus MO. memorial photo courtesy FindaGrave. |
Moving on to direct ancestors, we already met my paternal grandparents in the last post. My maternal grandparents, Dana Earl Brown and Myrna Margaret Severin, were born in 1910 and 1907, in North and South Dakota respectively. They were a big influence on me; my love of travel is just one thing I got from them. I loved hearing their stories about visiting Kenya or Japan or Australia or England–and seeing what souvenirs they brought me, of course.
Grandpa Dana got the bug early. In 1931, just twenty-one years old, he and a friend took a Model T touring car–naturally–and headed west on a remarkable Road Trip, all the way to California. They rented an apartment briefly at the site of today’s Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, from which they could see the Hollywoodland sign. I think I got my love of movies from him as well.
Grandpa Dana got the bug early. In 1931, just twenty-one years old, he and a friend took a Model T touring car–naturally–and headed west on a remarkable Road Trip, all the way to California. They rented an apartment briefly at the site of today’s Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, from which they could see the Hollywoodland sign. I think I got my love of movies from him as well.
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| Grandpa Dana is on the left. |
A year later he was back in Minneapolis, and a year after that, he married my grandmother. Within two years the newlyweds headed west together–along with my newborn mother–for another grand adventure: uprooting and relocating to Oakland CA. Within a few years, both my grandmother’s sisters (Arletha and Gleva) and their spouses would move to the Bay Area as well, establishing our roots in California. You can read more about my grandparents' early lives here and here.
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| The Severins, circa 1913. My grandmother is the girl seated on the right. The boy seated on the left is their brother Delmar, who died shortly afterward. |
Of course, not every voyage ends well; the Titanic sank in 1912. But Americans were undeterred. And we weren’t just travelling for pleasure. The Great Migration of African Americans from the Jim Crow South to the more accepting North, a trickle during the Reconstruction, began to surge in 1916.
But in this era of optimism and possibility, let's end on a positive note. Join me in a chorus, won't you?
“Don’t leave America,
Just stick around the U.S.A.
Cheer for America
And get that grand old strain of Yankee Doodle
In your noodle;
Yell for America,
And if you ever take an outing,
Leave the station shouting:
‘See America First!’”
--Cole Porter
