Newsletter5.2RobertaFinal-compressed

UNION CLUB LIBRARY NEWSLETTER __________________________________________________________________________________ Soldiers of the 77th Division parade through New York City on Feb. 22, 1918. (Library of Congress) “You can imagine my pride as I paraded down Fifth Avenue at the head of my platoon on February 22, when our division paraded in New York for the first time” Union Club Member Paul Cushman First Lieutenant of Infantry, 77th Division, A.E.F. __________________________________________________________________________________ WINTER 2019 Volume 5 Number 2

_______________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE: FROM THE CHAIR _______________________________________ From the Chair The Union Club and the Lost Battalion By the middle of the 19th century, as the Union Club library was in its first decades, the modern world was quickly coming Report from the Archives into being. New and Noteworthy In the western world, at least among the upper classes, houses LIBRARY COMMITTEE now had steam heat and running hot and cold water. Cast iron cookstoves got the cooks off their knees in front of the fire- John Steele Gordon, Chairman place. Gas light lit up the evenings. Railroads were making transportation far faster and cheaper. The telegraph was bring- Frank B. Arisman David P. Mandy ing in news from far away in seconds. And the steam-powered Peter deF. Millard Douglas Runte rotary press had made newspapers and magazines much Stephen W. Jenks Lucius Palmer cheaper and thus far more widely circulated. Michael T. Kiesel Stephen D.Perkins Carl V. Layton John D. Phillips The most popular magazine in the United States in these years Michael Loening William Zachary was Harper’s Weekly published by the great New York pub- lishing house of Harper & Brothers, which this year cele- Roberta Munoz, Librarian brates its two hundredth anniversary. [email protected] The magazine provided serialized novels and portraits of fa- 212-606-3413 mous people, as well as the latest news from home and abroad. Most of all, it was both oversized and richly illus- trated. The illustrations were made by means of copper en- gravings that were produced with astonishing speed. The large, centerfold spread was usually the work of several en- gravers working on different parts of the picture simultane- ously (you can usually make out the faint lines where the pieces joined). Thus Harper’s Weekly served the same purpose for the people of the mid-19th century that Life Magazine and the newsreels did for the mid-20th and the cable news networks do today: it provided a window into the world beyond the immediate neighborhood. By the end of the 19th century, the half-tone process had been invented, allowing newspapers to print pho- tographs and the illustrated weeklies began to fade away. The Union Club library is very fortunate to have a run of Harper’s Weekly that goes from 1857 to 1885 (missing only 1859). There is simply no better way to see the 19th century through 19th-century eyes than by taking one of these vol- umes at random, just leafing through it, and seeing events both great and small as they unfolded in real time. This May, for instance, we will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah. It was one of the biggest stories of 1869, and was well covered by Harper’s Weekly, as you’ll see in the first-floor display case in May.

THE UNION CLUB LIBRARY AND THE LOST BATTALION The epic story of the Meuse-Argonne offensive and the “Lost Battalion” is one of World War I’s most powerful. It features flying pigs, hissing Jennies, liquid fire, a homing pigeon named Cher Ami, and heroic members of the Union Club of the City of New York. In October 1918 the 1st Battalion, 308th Infantry Regi- ment of the 77th Division of the A.E.F. (American Expe- ditionary Forces) entered the heart of the dense Argonne Forest in the Meuse-Argonne region of France. During the night, German troops advanced and surrounded the Americans, trapping them in a narrow ravine. The 308th remained there for five long days, cut off from all com- munication and under attack. This was the beginning of the legend of the “Lost Battal- ion” as the 308th came to be known, although one sur- vivor of the campaign takes issue with the description of his company as “lost.” In a lecture given in 1938 James V. Leak, Company E of 308th Infantry explained, “We knew exactly where we were and went to the exact position to which we had been ordered.”

This remarkable story and the history of the Union Club are deeply entwined. The soldiers of the 77th and their commanding officers, with few exceptions, were from New York City and environs. George G. McMurtry, New York stockbroker and Union Club member (1918-1938), was a captain in the 308th during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. In all, 17 mem- bers of the Union Club listed in The Honor Roll of the Members of the Union Club Who Served in the Great War, 1914 -1918, are described as having served with the 77th in some capacity. The 308th was led by Maj. Charles W. Whittlesey, who was called at the time (often disparagingly) the \"New York lawyer.” Captain George McMurtry served as Whittlesey’s second in command. On October 2, 1918, the battalion advanced into the Argonne forest ahead of the other American forces on their right and the French forces to the left. Nearly 700 men entered the small, muddy Charlevaux Ravine – called “the pocket”. Five Union Club member George McMurtry returning from days later 194 soldiers walked out. McMurtry and war 1918 (National Archives) Whittlesey were among the survivors. Serving with the American forces on the right flank of the 308th was Lieutenant Paul Cushman, Union Club member (1917 – 1971) and father of current Union Club member Dr. Paul Cushman (1972 –present). Cushman’s unit was not with Whittlesey in the pocket. His company, the 306th Machine Gun Battalion of the 77th Division, was on the front lines taking fire but had fallen back during the advance. In the days that followed the 306th worked to free the trapped battalion. About five years after the end of the war and newly married, Lieutenant Cushman prepared an account of his experiences in the Great War for his wife. The Library of the Union Club recently had the privilege of examining this rare primary source document. This splendid recollection by an eyewitness has remained with the Cushman family and has never been published. Cushman’s memoir opens as he departs from Grand Central Memoir of Union Club member Lieutenant Paul Terminal heading upstate. He was a young man, still in his Cushman, 77th Division twenties. when he left to train as an officer in Plattsburg, New York, site of the Army's Officer Candidate School, in 1917.

After training, Cushman was commissioned and told to report to the Commanding General, 77th Division, Camp Upton, Yaphank, Long Island, New York. Shortly after he and the other officers from Plattsburgh landed on Long Island, the draftees from New York City and environs began arriving. In a description in the History of the Seventy Seventh Division: August 25, 1917-November 11, 1918 pub- lished in 1919, the motley crew is described as a reflection of the character of the city: Every type was represented, the gunman and the gangster, the student and the clerk, the laborer and the loafer, the daily plodder, the lawyer. They could be divided into two large classes, the man of muscle and the man of brain. Soon they were ready to ship out. In February of 1918, the 77th Division marched in a magnificent parade down 5th Ave in New York, an event noted in Cushman’s manuscript. One month later, the “Liberty” or “Metropolitan” Division, as the 77th came to be known because of its New York roots, left for France. After an interval describing his arrival in France, Cushman’s memoir takes us into the forest as he advances towards the German lines: “The Argonne Forest proper extended from Vienne-le-Chateau – La Harrazze, La Chalade…The country on either side was open, but this forest was so thick with trees, ravines and underbrush…that it had never been fought over. Armies had al- ways skirted it. The Germans had built deep concrete dug-outs and had established machine-gun nests from which poured a deadly enfilading fire as we struggled through the thick woods. Liason, in the forest, was difficult at best, but there were a few narrow gage railroad lines and paths connecting various German camps. An easy place to de- fend, almost impossible to attack.

From September 26th to October 2nd they pushed forward. When the 308th was cut-off, repeated attacks were launched to affect a breakthrough of the German line in order to reach Major Whittlesey's company – all to no avail. Cushman describes efforts to relieve the men: The advance continued … from then to October 7th, frantic efforts were made to relieve Major Whittlesey’s battalion as they were surrounded…This platoon and a platoon from “D” company under Marshall Peabody were luckily with this battalion as their machine-gun fire on the flanks saved the battalion from complete annihilation. The 308th was under constant fire. High velocity German shells fired from field guns and containing shrapnel (hissing Jennies) rained down. German trench mortar shells with hollow stems and wings (fishtails) and larger shells – five feet long – (flying pigs) were everywhere. Gasoline shot from hoses (liquid fire) and was poured down on the men from the top of the hill. The situation was so chaotic that the unit began taking friendly fire. Whittlesey and McMurtry sent “Cher Ami” – a US Army Signal Corps carrier pigeon and the unit’s only form of communication – on a mission to deliver a message to the Americans. The note said simply “For heaven’s sake stop it.” Cher Ami was shot several times by enemy fire but managed to deliver the communiqué in the capsule attached to her wounded leg. Shortly after the message was received, combined American and French forces pushed back the German line. What was left of the Lost Battalion, less than 200 men, wounded, exhausted and starving, were found. Message from Major Whittlesey of the 308th via the carrier pigeon “Cher Ami” (National Archives) Found, after a fashion. The casualties were staggering, and yet some survived, and the battalion as a whole was not lost. The mission was not abandoned. Again, in the words of Lieutenant Leak, ‘The outfit was not \"lost\", its position was held, every attack of the enemy had been repulsed, and they still clung to the objective to which they had been ordered.’

Lieutenant Paul Cushman survived and returned home to New York. He became a stockbroker and devoted himself to social services and child welfare. He remained a member of the Union Club until his death in 1971. Entry for Paul Cushman from “The Honor Roll of the Members of the Union Club Who Served in the Great War” 1914 -1918” published by the Union Club of New York City

George G. McMurtry also survived and returned to New York. He was subsequently awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of honor for conspicuous gallantry in action in the Charlevaux Argonne Forest. He also received the Croix de Guerre with palm (France); Chevalier Legion of Honor (France); Montenegrin Order of Prince Danilo I; Montenegrin Medal of Valor; and the Italian War Cross. In 1938 McMurtry founded the Lost Battalion Survivors Association in New York City. Survivors of the 77th Division had been meeting informally for years and the Association decided to become an official organization with the publication that same year of Thomas Johnson and Fletcher Pratt's history of the episode titled The Lost Battalion. Dudley Davis (Union Club member 1907-1965), Captain of Infantry, 77th Division A.E.F, donated a first edition of this title to the Union Club. Davis, a member of the Survivors Association, seemed impatient with the official account. His copy of “The Lost Battalion’ contains his handwritten notes and marginalia disputing some details. “This gives an unfair picture of Rainsford & Blagden - the 307th withdrawal was absolutely justified”... Dudley Davis The volume with notes by Captain Davis is now in the Rare Book Collection of the Union Club Library. The Library also owns a rare limited edition of the History of the 77th Division published in 1919 by the 77th Division Association of New York. The original donor is unknown, but because the organization was founded by Union Club member George McMurtry, it’s likely that the donor was a member of the Club or was close to one of our members who served. Dudley Davis wrote his own memoir in 1962 which he donated to the Union Club Library titled: A Civilian Soldier: an Uncensored Account of the Experiences

and Thoughts of a Member of the 77th Division, U.S. National Army, in the War Against Germany. He also donated several other books on the subject including: A History of the 308th Infantry, 1917-1919 by L. Wardlaw Miles, 1927 and From Upton to the Meuse with the Three Hundred and Seventh infantry: A Brief History of its Life and of the Part it Played in the Great War by W. Kerr Rainsford, 1920. The Library’s holdings on the subject of the Great War are extensive, and we continue to actively collect significant works. What in our lives is burnt In the fire of this? The heart’s dear granary? The much we shall miss? Three lives hath one life – Iron, honey, gold. The gold, the honey gone – Left is the hard and cold. Iron are our lives Molten right through our youth. A burnt space through ripe fields, A fair mouth's broken tooth. — Isaac Rosenberg August 1914

REPORT ON THE ARCHIVES The Union Club Building Plans Collection By Union Club Library Fellow Kristen Watson Within the portion of the Union Club Archive housed in our Library, a special group of reproductions make up the Building Plans Collection. These facsimiles, created from photographic reproductions of the Club’s original Delano & Aldrich architectural drawings and prints, exist in three microfilm-based for- mats. While microfilm, microfiche, and aperture card technologies have been largely phased out in favor of digitization, they offer reliable, stable means of accessing important architectural information for decades to come. In 1927, the Union Club Building Committee officially commissioned the architectural firm Delano & Aldrich to plan and construct the new home of the Union Club at Park Avenue and 69th Street. Previ- ously, the club had occupied a space at Fifth Avenue and 51st Street. While the firm had already devel- oped a strong reputation in building social clubs and residences within New York City and elsewhere on the East Coast, designing the Union Club was a collaborative effort. The Union Club’s members were de- voted to the architectural styles of the previous clubhouses, and the Building Committee stipulated that the building’s exterior should be limestone and granite, rather than following the Colonial/Federal style Delano and Aldrich favored in many of their other projects, with red brick light stone trim. Delano & Aldrich, under the oversight of the Building Committee, also applied care and attention to designing the Club’s lavish interior. In respect of tradition and under the concurrent influence of the Great Depression, the committee required that the new interior feature pieces from the previous clubhouse. The Committee’s exacting standards made an impact on Delano. In a correspondence between Delano and E.H. Outerbridge, then chairman of the Building Committee, Delano points out the unusually high number of drafts that the firm had to make for the club, and that they “made many more studies than is usual, even with the most exacting clients.” When the building was com- pleted in 1932 the New York Times raved about the new club’s interior: Figure 1 Detail of Delano & Aldrich plan There are other wonders— the “sulphur\" room with its yellow walls, which change to chartreuse at night; the tap-room, with its “concealed” lockers and “oyster” bar; the cardroom, with its old French crystal chande- lier; the backgammon room, paneled in knotted pine and with its floor doweled, not nailed; and the humidor, where $40,000 worth of tobacco, including 100,000 fine cigars, are kept fresh behind cedar walls.”

The French crystal chandelier the Times mentioned had been packed and moved from the location at Fifth Avenue and 51st Street, and appeared in Delano & Aldrich’s detailed plans. This chandelier is represented in Delano & Aldrich’s drawings (fig. 1) and it can be seen in a series of photographic prints in the archive, which were photographed circa 1980-1990. (fig. 2) Within the archive, we have a pair of plan brochures, likely circulated to members when the final plans were first approved. These simplified plans reflect the basic layout of each floor as well as original room names. Originally known as the Card Room, over time the chandelier’s home was rechristened the South Room (fig. 2). The original drawings by Delano and Aldrich are now well over eighty-years- old. Delano & Aldrich, and the later ar- chitects who oversaw renovations and alterations to the Clubhouse, produced over 600 original drawings and prints de- tailing the building. From 1985 to 1986, these drawings were systematically re- produced on microfilm by a now-defunct company on Madison Avenue. Microfilm copies were used to create both positive and negative microfilm rolls, annotated aperture cards, and large-scale Xerox prints. Looking closely at the plans re- produced in these copies, it is clear that the Club sought to create accessible copies of these historic documents. Cre- ating access copies decreased wear and tear on the individual drawings, which had become brittle and discolored with age, and had begun to break down. Microfilm and aperture cards are means of preserving and providing access to Figure 2 The South Room, previously known as the Card Room documents, drawings, and other informa- tion. Microfilm is familiar to anyone who may have frequented libraries during the 20th century. Microfilm typically comes in reels or car- tridges, which can be loaded into viewers so that the user may cycle through frames to reference the infor- mation contained therein. Made with the same components that make up black-and-white silver gelatin camera film, microfilm is still considered an incredibly stable medium. A less familiar format, aperture cards consist of card stock with a 16 or 35 millimeter opening for a rectangle of microfiche (a single frame of a roll of microfilm) applied with adhesive. These can be viewed with the naked eye, a specialty viewer, or with a lightbox and magnifier. The cards could contain handwritten information, but also often included machine-readable metadata about the featured image which was punched into the surface of the card. Using the microfilm copies, the company also produced an 11 x 17 Xerox-printed “flowcopy” of each plan. Inscriptions indicate that these duplicate the first four volumes of the \"Inventory of Plans\" of

the Club and 380-plus other original drawings and plans (fig. 4). The Union Club is situated at the intersection of New York and architectural history. In her 1983 Colum- bia University Master’s Thesis, Erin Drake Gray points out that as one of Delano & Aldrich’s four New York City social clubs, the exterior and interior has remained largely unchanged. As the Club has re- mained, owned and operated by its original commissioners, Union Club staff and members have dedi- cated themselves to preserving the unique space. The Plans of the Club are important historical documents, but also maintain their functional value as the Club completes restoration projects to its inte- rior and exterior. While the delicate originals were transferred to Columbia University’s Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library in 2003 for safekeeping, the Union Club Archive Building Plan Collection offers an incredible reference resource for Union Club administration and for organizations such as the 101 East 69th Street Conservancy. During the past decade The Conservancy has made a significant contribution to the preser- vation of the The Club House. This Union Club Building Plans Collection was brought together and inventoried on behalf of a Library Committee initiative to assess and describe the Union Club’s archival holdings. In addition to print materials, digital architectural plans and project documents are also being evaluated for a inclusion in a future Digital Archive Building Plans Collection.

Figure 4 Examples of a box of microfilm, an aperture card, and a Xerox copy of Union Club Plans For more information about the design and planning of the Union Club, members and researchers can consult these works in the collection of the Union Club Library: Cole, J. S. (2004). Four New York City Men’s Clubs; Their History, Architecture, and Architects. Colum- bia University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York. Gray, E. D. (1983). The Decorative Finishes Employed by Delano and Aldrich in the Principal Rooms of Their Manhattan Clubs: The Knickerbocker, Colony and Union Clubs and The Brook. Columbia Univer- sity, Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, New York. Pennoyer, P., & Walker, A. (2003). The Architecture of Delano & Aldrich. New York: Norton. Townsend, R. T. (1936). Mother of Clubs: Being the History of the First Hundred Years of the Union Club of the City of New York, 1836-1936. New York: The Printing House of W.E. Rudge. Union Club Building Plans Collection: Clubhouse 101 East 69th Street, New York, NY 1002; Delano &Aldrich Architects.

____________________________________________________________________________________________ New and Noteworthy Acquisitions Dice, Cubes and Gentlemen Published by the Union Club and written by Union Club member David Sherrill, Dice, Cubes and Gentlemen is a compendium of the game both ancient and modern, with new insight into the transformation of backgammon in the early part of the 20th century. The modern game of backgammon started in the men’s clubs of New York City and Sherrill delves into the his- tory of the modern game and also traces backgammon’s origins back to its ancient roots. In addition to history, this volume includes appendices packed with rules, variants, traditions and more. Acquired through the generous donation of a Union Club member and signed by the author. The William Astor Drayton Cup - William Astor Drayton, chair of the Backgammon Committee (1947-1949)

The Lawson History of the America’s Cup: A Record of Fifty Years by Winfield M. Thompson and Thomas Lawson This limited first edition of the history of the America’s Cup is number 2130 of 3000 copies. Illustrated with 89 full-page plates (15 in color and many tinted) this work documents the first fifty years of the America’s Cup competition. The Union Club has a long history with yachting and with the America’s Cup. Union Club member John Cox Stevens was a member of the America Syndicate which won the first America's Cup trophy in 1851. Union Club member James Gordon Bennett, son of James Gor- don Bennett the founder and publisher of the New York Herald, was a key figure in reviving interest in yachting in Amercia. In 1866 he won the first trans-oceanic yacht race. The race was be- tween three American yachts, the Vesta, the Fleetwing and the Henrietta. Bennett's ship, the Henrietta, won with a time of 13 days, 21 hours, 55 minutes according to Lawson’s history. This rare and handsome volume was acquired via donation from a member. The Yacht ”Henrietta by Currier and Ives

LIBRARY COMMITTEE John Steele Gordon, Chairman Frank B. Arisman David P. Mandy Peter deF. Millard Douglas Runte Stephen W. Jenks Lucius N. Palmer Michael T. Kiesel Stephen D. Perkins Carl V. Layton John D. Phillips Jr. Michael Loening William C. Zachary Roberta Munoz, Librarian [email protected]