The Trent Affair

The San Jacinto, Having Overhauled the British Mail Packet Trent, Forces her to Heave to…,
Photomechanical print,
1861.
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog

On November 8, 1861, U.S. Navy Captain Charles Wilkes commanded the crew of the U.S.S. San Jacinto to intercept the British mail steamer Trent and arrest Confederate commissioners James M. Mason and John Slidell. En route to Europe to rally support for the Confederate cause, the two men and their secretaries were brought ashore and imprisoned at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor.

The seizure of Mason and Slidell sparked an international controversy that brought the United States to the brink of war with Great Britain. Claiming violation of international law, Britain demanded release of the commissioners and ordered troops to Canada to prepare for a potential Anglo-American conflict. To avoid a clash, Secretary of State William H. Seward apologized for the incident. The diplomats were released in early January 1862, bringing the Trent Affair to a peaceful close.

Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes,
between 1860 and 1865.
Selected Civil War Photographs

Captain Wilkes' naval career continued, but only briefly. In 1864, the officer was court-martialed for disobedience, disrespect, insubordination, and conduct unbecoming an officer. Found guilty, Wilkes was publicly reprimanded and suspended for three years. Later, President Lincoln reduced the sentence to one year, and in 1866 the captain was commissioned a rear admiral on the retired list.

The Trent Affair and his court-martial often overshadow Wilkes' early accomplishments as an explorer, navigator, and surveyor. From 1838 to 1842, Wilkes commanded the U.S. Surveying and Exploration Expedition departing from Norfolk, Virginia, to the Pacific Ocean and "South Seas." The expedition's stops included Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, Tahiti, Sydney, Fiji, Hawaii, the Oregon coast, San Francisco, Manila, Borneo, Cape Town, and St. Helena. His voyage ended in 1842 in New York. Wilkes reported previously undocumented land and is credited as the first person to cite Antarctica as a separate continent.

Learn more about the Civil War and Charles Wilkes from American Memory:

• The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals contains a narrative of Wilkes' expedition.
• View eighteen images from Wilkes’ expedition in American Indians of the Pacific Northwest.
• Search on Charles Wilkes in the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress to read correspondence relating to Wilkes and the Trent Affair.
• For features on other Civil War figures and events such as The First Battle of Bull Run, The Second Battle of Manassas, and Lee's Surrender to Grant, search the Today in History Archive on Civil War.
• Over 1,000 photographs related to the war, including images of military personnel, battle preparations, and battle after-effects, are available in Selected Civil War Photographs. Browse the subject index to locate photographs of interest to you.
• View Primary Documents in American History: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860-1877 for links to materials for this era.

The Skyscrapers of New York

The Skyscrapers of New York, 1906.
The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906

On November 8, 1906, cameraman Fred A. Dobson began filming The Skyscrapers of New York atop an uncompleted skyscraper at Broadway and 12th Street. The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company melodrama tells the story of a construction foreman who fires a crew member for fighting, leading the disgruntled employee to steal. The storyline weaves in and around actual construction of a New York skyscraper. A fascinating record of early twentieth-century building techniques, Skyscrapers captures brick masons in action, workers maneuvering a steel girder into place, and a group of men descending a crane line.

Woolworth Building,
New York, New York, between 1910-1920.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920

Combining several innovations—steel structure, elevators, central heating, electrical plumbing pumps and the telephone—skyscrapers came to dominate American skylines at the turn of the century. The world's tallest building when it opened in 1913, architect Cass Gilbert's 793-foot Woolworth Building was considered a leading example of tall building design. Soon one of many new towering structures, the Woolworth building and other skyscrapers symbolized America's "can do" spirit.

Learn more about skyscrapers:

• See over 140 images of skyscrapers, including New York's Empire State Building and Chicago's Masonic Temple, by searching these collections on skyscraper:
  • American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920: a Study Collection from the Harvard Graduate School of Design
  • Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955
  • Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
  • Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
  • Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959

  
  Flatiron Building,
  New York, New York, 1902.
  Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920

• Read Today in History features on architects Daniel Burnham, Cyrus Eidlitz, and Louis Sullivan, as well as elevator pioneer Elisha Graves Otis, who's work helped to make skyscrapers possible. Also search the Today in History Archive on the term American Mutoscope and Biograph to learn more about that early film company's role in recording U.S. history.

View early motion pictures:

• Browse the film list in The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906 and find additional movies of turn-of-the-century New York.
• See early comedies, dramas, and action films in the collection Inventing Entertainment: the Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies.
• Watch Krazy Kat Goes A-Wooing and twenty additional animated shorts available through the collection Origins of American Animation.