In 1938, fifty years after the blizzard, Samuel Meredith Strong, M.D., “Former President of ‘The Blizzard Men of 1888,’” published The Great Blizzard of 1888, a collection of oral histories and printed articles from those who survived the storm.Below are some selections from the book: 2 Excerpt from an article by Julian Ralph in the New York Sun, September 2, 1933: Many of these states were United States territories at the time: This article is about the blizzard in the northern Great Plains of the United States.
Missing out on the latest scoops? National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Scenes and Incidents from the Recent Terrible Blizzard in Dakota on January 12, 1888. While most New Yorkers hunkered down as the blizzard intensified, Conkling decided to walk 3 miles from his Wall Street law office to The New York Club on 25th Street near Madison Square. Conkling once had an affair with the Kate Chase Sprague, the daughter of Salmon P. Chase, chief justice of the United States, and the wife of William Sprague IV. Through the history of United States, there are more than few seriously devastating blizzards. The death toll was 235. The Great Storm of '88. I ever experienced" had buried New York City. Edward F. Leonard, of Springfield, Massachusetts, reached to pick up a hat on top of a mound of snow, Caplovich relates, and found an unconscious young girl. Not only was the storm momentous, resulting in around 200 deaths in New York City alone, it had a lasting impact on the way the city functions today. "When he was just a few steps from the entrance, the guard locked the gate," the book said. [6] Teachers generally kept children in their schoolrooms. The blizzard was preceded by a snowstorm on January 5th and 6th, which dropped snow on the northern and central plains, and was followed by an outbreak of brutally cold temperatures from January 7th to 11th. He has written three previous blogs based on William Steinway's life. The storm began in earnest shortly after midnight on March 12, and continued unabated for a full day and a half. Within a few hours, the advancing cold front caused a temperature drop from a few degrees above freezing to −20 degrees Fahrenheit (-29 degrees Celsius) [−40 °F (−40 °C) in some places]. Bumps and falls, and strains and tugs made it quite an interesting excursion, but not one worth anyone’s while to talk about.”.
William Steinway, president of the noted piano firm Steinway & Son and a leader in the German American community, provides a firsthand account of the storm in his diary, which he kept from 1861 until he died in 1896.
Between 12th and 14th Streets There was no stopping Americans' ingenuity in a storm with drifts that reached second stories of buildings in New York and other cities.
He died on April 18 at age 58. The diary is in the museum's Archives Center, and, thanks to many years of transcription and research, you can now read the diary online.
. If you couldn't get over a mountain of snow, you tunneled under it. Others turned streams of hot water on the heaps. Don't miss stories like this one. Some enterprising citizens helped others while making a few bucks—sometimes a lot of bucks—for themselves and their businesses. He was congratulated when the storm hit, and his purchase gave the store a quick $1,800 profit, according to Blizzard! As the museum looks back at the 128th anniversary of the March 11–15 storm, the most compelling story is not just the damage that comes with any severe weather.
Washington, D.C. Email powered by MailChimp (Privacy Policy & Terms of Use), The museum is open Fridays through Tuesdays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reserve your, By Larry Margasak, with research by Larry Margasak and Kathy Morisse, March 9, 2016. In addition, the very strong wind fields behind the cold front and the powdery nature of the snow reduced visibilities on the open plains to zero. He kept his appointments until late at night, getting around the city on a horse-drawn sleigh and returning "safe and sound" at 11:30 p.m. March 14: "It is again snowing hard, all business is suspended the workmen cannot reach factories, schools stopped, our R.R. A March 1988 Smithsonian Magazine article by Ezra Bowen, marking the 100th anniversary of the storm, told of a Mrs. M. Brusselars, who was trapped in her Hartford, Connecticut, house for three days with a dozen refugees. In Boston, the Daily Globe's March 13 headline was: "Cut Off.". The official snowfall measuremenet for Hartford was a mere 19 inches, but that was taken at Trinity College, where the howling winds of the Blizzard of 1888 were hurling the snow down to Broad Street. "Snowing stopped but intense cold has set in, nearly freezing me to death on the way," said Steinway's diary entry for March 13. It severely affected the east coast, in states like New York and Massachusetts.
The blizzard claimed more than 400 lives, half of them in the beleaguered metropolis. This wave of cold was accompanied by high winds and heavy snow. Soon thereafter, the state Legislature bolted, quashing Conkling's bid for reelection and ending his political career. The New York Times and other newspapers related how the East and Hudson rivers in New York were frozen, but ice floes formed a natural bridge that allowed commuters to walk across.
In truth, Conkling’s ordeal lasted more than two hours.
that the roof of our (piano) key making factory was nearly blown off. Constitution Avenue, NW I ever experienced" had buried New York City. Cooking your way through this snow day with history. horses starving for want of food, send George (his son) out to buy Oats, learn .
New York City was buried under 40 inches of snow with sustained winds of 45 miles an hour and snowdrifts that reached the second story. O'Gara.[4]. Kathy Morisse is a retired international economist, and a Steinway Diary researcher who has written background information that expands on diary entries, with a focus on trips and modes of travel. Before the day had ended, he wrote in his diary, his carriage had become stuck three times and he had waded through knee-deep snow near his Gramercy Park home, having "a terrible time getting to my house at 6 p.m." Returning from a canceled theater performance, his wife and two adult children came home covered in snow. Thousands of men were sent to free trains blocked for days. Becky Oskin from Livescience.com ranks the Great Blizzard of 1888 amongst the worst blizzards in U.S. history.
What does LaGuardia Airport have in common with piano manufacturer William Steinway's long lost amusement park? Barnum attended the first show. The weather prediction for the day was issued by the Weather Bureau, which at the time was managed by Adolph's Greeley; it said: "A cold wave is indicated for Dakota and Nebraska tonight and tomorrow; the snow will drift hevily today and tomorrow in Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. "[5], What made the storm so deadly was the timing (during work and school hours), the suddenness of the storm, and the brief spell of warmer weather that preceded it.