Burnham and the Philippines

My friend Helen sent me a link that ultimately led me to this, from the Newberry Library site:
Burnham in the Philippines: Plans for Manila and Baguio City
June 1, 2009 to July 15, 2009
In conjunction with the Chicago-wide celebration of the 1909 Plan of Chicago, the Newberry will draw upon its extensive collection on the history of the Philippines to create a free gallery exhibition that will place Burnham's 1904-1905 trip to the new American colony, and his plans for Manila and the new summer capital of Baguio City, in historical context. The small display will include sources in Spanish and Tagalog about the Filipino nationalist and revolutionary movements before and after the United States' 1898 war with Spain; John T. McCutcheon's illustrated reports on the Filipino-American war; contemporary debate about United States' imperialism; early American photographs of Manila and the surrounding provinces; and copies of Burnham's Plans of Manila and Baguio City, as well as photographs of how his plans were implemented in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Who knew? I couldn’t find much more about it on the internet, but I’ll keep looking. I won’t be in Chicago to see the exhibit but I urge those who are there to do so – it sounds interesting. And I’ll have to put Baguio City on my list!

And I’ve been wondering about the Peace Corps Volunteers in Honduras, with the coup there. Since I joined the Peace Corps, several countries have evacuated their PCVs. I am glad I served without incident and inshallah that will be the case this time too! I read that their new stage is spending its first three weeks in the Dominican Republic, but there hasn’t been a press release about the current volunteers. I hope all is well.

And more on the new date – my original Peace Corps departure was supposed to be July 27, 2005 – this is when I was nominated for the Caribbean. So even though the Morocco date was more or less solid once I had it, I interviewed in summer 2004, was nominated for summer 2005 and left in September 2006! As my friend Joy says, “Welcome to the development business! If you don't learn to cope with endless changes of plan, you won't survive.” July 27 was my father’s birthday – that was one of the things I liked about my original original departure date. So to arrive in the Philippines on his birthday, four years to the day (I think I do that, over the date line) will be nice!