Virtual Museum Archive:

Bridget Kennedy

Tusker beer originated in Kenya in 1922. This pale lager has an alcohol content of 4.2% and is popular in Kenya, Tanzania, and the UK. George Hurst, the founder of the company, was accidentally killed while elephant hunting in 1923, and the beer’s logo was chosen to commemorate his life and passions. This spider made from Tusker bottle caps shows just how a love for beer can translate into amazing art. If you would like to share your own beer art with us, please send us pictures using the hashtag #GVM.

Leisa Taylor

The website of the Brewers Association features a Coronavirus Resource Center for breweries.  The Association is also conducting surveys to gauge the impact of COVID-19 on the small brewing industry.  Check out the first study’s result, entitled Impact Survey Shows Extreme Challenges, at www.brewersassociation.org.

A 3/27/20 Forbes magazine article by Michael Humphrey is entitled A Craft Brewery Town is Sent “Packaging” by Coronavirus.  Humphrey writes, “[W]hen Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered that restaurants and bars serve only to-go orders, for Fort Collins, it was like when the theaters and galleries and museums in New York City went quiet.  The drumbeat of our creative workforce was, if not silenced, stymied.  Not just the brewers, but the deeply knowledgeable staff, the musicians, the visual artists who cover their walls with color, the distributors, the builders, the malt houses, the farmers, the barrel makers, the chain goes on.  Not only that, but our breweries gave life to a vibrant tap house and restaurant scene.”

Bridget Kennedy

A highlight in our Mundoville Gallery is this doll of Princess Angeline (or Kikisoblu), the daughter of Chief Seattle. Chief Seattle (c. 1786 – June 7, 1866) was a leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish Native American tribes in what is now Washington state. A prominent figure among his people, he chose to welcome and help white settlers, and the city of Seattle was eventually named after him. Chief Seattle famously addressed settlers with his concerns for the expansion of the city and its detriment to the local environment. Chief Seattle is an important figure in Washington state’s history as well as the history of environmentalism.

Princess Angeline, Chief Seattle’s daughter, was born in approximately 1820 and is a beloved figure in Seattle’s early history. Pioneers told of how under the cover of darkness, she paddled her canoe across Puget Sound to warn settlers of an impending attack on Seattle. Because of her status in the community, Princess Angeline became a model for the photographer Edward S. Curtis, who famously captured the portraits of Native American people across the United States.

This figure of Princess Angeline was made in about 1935 by Lillian M. Smart of Seattle. The hands and head were carved from dried apple and cured through a chemical process. Smart chose to depict Princess Angeline in the later years of her life, when she was commonly seen on the streets of Seattle selling baskets of seafood and carrying a bundle of sticks. The Global Village Museum is dedicated to sharing the hidden treasures behind our closed doors. The true hidden gems of our organization, however, are our dedicated volunteers. We would like to give a special thank you to Jan Painter for providing research on many of the objects in the Mundoville collection.

Bridget Kennedy

In a new segment for our newsletter, the staff at GVM will be highlighting different museums around the world that are offering virtual content.  Each week, we will showcase three museums.  This week, Museum

Assistant Bridget Kennedy picked some famous museums to help you travel the world from your home.

Musée de Louvre (Paris, France)

The Louvre is the largest museum in the world with an amazing collection of 460,000 objects.

  Originally used as a palace, the Louvre was opened at the end of the French Revolution by Napoleon Bonaparte, who wanted the public to see the amazing collection acquired by previous French monarchs.  In its 227 years, the Louvre has become one of the most visited museums in the world.   To view the spectacular collection, check out the link below.  A virtual tour of the Advent of the Artist exhibit explores the different ways the production of art was influenced by hierarchies in France throughout history.

https://petitegalerie.louvre.fr/visite-virtuelle/saison5/

Museo Frida Kahlo (Mexico City, Mexico)

Both an historic house and art museum, Museo Frida Kahlo is dedicated to the life and work

of the Mexican artist.  The building, locally referred to as Casa Azul, was Kahlo’s birthplace, where she grew up, where she lived with her husband Diego Rivera, and where she died.  The Museo explores Kahlo’s life and the inspiration surrounding her work.

https://www.museofridakahlo.org.mx/en/the-blue-house/multimedia/#back-top

The Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

This Dutch museum showcases some of the most famous works created by the 19th century artist, Vincent van Gogh.  While closed due to COVID-19, the museum has provided new ways to look more closely at the artist’s life.  The museum also offers different activities on its website.

https://vangoghmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/we-bring-the-museum-to-you

Leisa Taylor

As part of Brewing History:  Fort Collins’ Global Connections, the Global Village Museum will be highlighting local breweries that are taking initiatives to help the community during the coronavirus pandemic.  New Belgium Brewing is reaching out in several ways, according to Megan Olson, Public Relations Manager.

First, the brewery created The New Belgium Bar & Restaurant Relief Fund to support food and beverage communities in its hometowns of Fort Collins and Asheville, North Carolina.  New Belgium seeded the fund with a $50,000 donation and a commitment to match donations up to an additional $50,000.  Grants in the amount of $350 will be distributed to as many qualified applicants as possible.

New Belgium also assisted a Denver brewery that would have been forced to dump its kegs due to a lack of demand from bars and restaurants.  Ratio Beerworks wanted to can beer for purchases to-go, but it did not have the large crowler cans needed.  New Belgium stepped in and donated the cans, allowing Ratio Beerworks to sell the beer that would have otherwise been wasted.

Finally, New Belgium donated a large quantity of beer to Leopold Brothers Distillery in Denver, so it could be distilled into a 95% alcohol base for hand sanitizer to distribute to hospitals, first responders, and food delivery employees.

Leisa Taylor, GVM’s Outreach Coordinator, has chosen your three must-view museums for this week.  Her recommendations are:

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

The galleries of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, honor the artist’s life, achievements, and continuing legacy.  Her story is presented in nine galleries, tracing a journey that spans the 20th Century and the rise of American Modernism.  The Museum also houses O’Keeffe’s art materials and an extensive collection of her personal possessions.  Online collections share the artist’s works, photographs, belongings, and library.  The website also offers 20 creative activities for artists-to-be of all ages.  Just some of your options:  try a cloud painting; have fun with landscapes; practice notan; and make a zine.
https://collections.okeeffemuseum.org/

High Museum of Art

The High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, is offering virtual experiences to “enjoy The High at home.”  Its permanent collection includes more than 17,000 pieces of artwork across seven collecting areas:  African art, American art, decorative arts and design, European art, folk and self-taught art, modern and contemporary art, and photography.  A video series on Youtube explores artworks from the collection interpreted by the Museum’s curators and education staff.  The website also offers art activities, educational resources, e-postcards, and coloring pages.
https://high.org/stay-connected/

National Museum of the United States Air Force

Located in Dayton, Ohio, the National Museum of the USAF explores military aviation history with more than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles that connect the Wright brothers’ legacy with today’s stealth and precision technology.     A virtual tour allows visitors to take a 360-degree, self-guided tour of the entire Museum.  Icons indicate hotspots for additional information such as videos, audio, and educational activities such as lesson plans, word searches, and coloring sheets.
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Virtual-Tour/

Peter Koschnitzke

Alebrijes are a form of Mexican folk art that originated in Oaxaca in the 1930s. The artist Pedro Linares fell ill with a fever, and while he was unconscious, he dreamt of a strange forest filled with brightly-colored animals with fantastical features — like a donkey with butterfly wings or a rooster with bull horns. The animals began to shout the nonsense word, “alebrije” and when the artist awoke, he began to build papier-mâché sculptures of the animals he had seen.

Oaxaca has a strong tradition of woodcarving, and alebrijes began to catch the eye of artists like Frida Kahlo. Local artists began to produce the sculptures in different mediums, the most popular of which became copal wood. Alebrijes began to be produced out of local copal wood by families who worked together in studios to produce the beautiful works of art. The artist Manuel Jiménez Ramírez is known as one of the first to use copal wood, and his studio became a world-renowned producer of alebrijes. Today his grandson, Angélico, continues the tradition.

In addition to their considerable beauty, alebrijes are an important element of Mexican culture that has survived from precolonial times.  Alebrijes are considered by many to be a representation of a Nahual or Tona, which is a protective animal spirit fused with that of a human.  According to Zapotec culture, each person has a Tona that is part of them from birth.  The Zapotec calendar is used to determine a person’s Tona, and the protective animal will share the person’s fate.  Angélico Jiménez offers to use the Zapotec calendar to determine a person’s Tona when they order an alebrije from his studio.  While a relatively new form of folk art, alebrijes have their roots deep in precolonial culture and continue to be an important way that an indigenous culture is kept alive today.

Leisa Taylor

Last week, GVM highlighted the response efforts of New Belgium Brewing to the coronavirus pandemic.  This week, learn about the response of two local businesses, CopperMuse Distillery and Gilded Goat Brewing Company, who teamed up with Colorado State University to make hand sanitizer for CSU facilities.  Read the full CSU story here:

Get the full story here: CSU Source   

This week, GVM’s Administrative Assistant, Peter Koschnitzke, has selected three virtual
museums for you to visit. His recommendations are:

Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico City, Mexico)

The Museo Nacional de Anropología in Mexico City is home to the largest collection of artifacts from Mexico’s indigenous heritage. The archaeological collection began in 1790 when enormous sculptures — such as the Coatlicue, the Sun Stone, and the head of Xiuhcoatl (the fire serpent) — began to be unearthed. By the 1960s, a more expansive facility was needed to house the collection and conduct important ethnographic research. The current facility was designed by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez to connect with nature in the Chapultepec Forest. Today,
the vast archaeological and ethnographic collections can be viewed online at the museum’s website, available in both Spanish and English:

https://mna.inah.gob.mx/

The National Museum of Australia (Canberra, Australia)

The National Museum of Australia, located in Canberra, tracks the history of Australian peoples from the first indigenous settlers to today. The Museum boasts a large collection of aboriginal art and artifacts as well as a considerable collection of machines and important elements of colonial Australia. The Museum offers a wide variety of online content, including articles, explorations of their collections, and audio and video selections about Australia’s history:

https://www.nma.gov.au/

The National Palace Museum (Taipei, Taiwan)

Located in Taipei, Taiwan, The National Palace Museum houses an enormous collection of Imperial Chinese artifacts spanning thousands of years of history. The collection is comprised of artifacts from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing courts. The artifacts were originally housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing and then in the Nanjing Museum on the mainland. During the Chinese Civil War, the non-communist forces saved as much of the collection as they could, and the artifacts are now housed in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. The Maoist forces would have destroyed them as part of the Cultural Revolution. Today, the Museum carries on the heritage of Imperial Chinese Culture, which the communist regime of mainland China would not allow. The Museum’s website contains an huge number of photographs, videos, and articles which showcase the incredible collections of jades, ceramics, and other mediums:

Bridget Kennedy

The Tengu mask is a new addition to our collection and can be seen in our Masks of the World exhibit!  The Tengu, a legendary creature from Japanese folklore, is depicted as a bird-like creature that lives in mountainous regions. While the origin of the Tengu is unclear, it has ties to the Garuda from Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. In the earliest Japanese stories of these creatures, they are seen as tricksters who aim to sway people away from their Buddhist practice. In these stories, Tengu are considered ghosts of people who were overcome with pride and arrogance.

Leisa Taylor

This week, the Global Village Museum salutes three Northern Colorado breweries that are
reaching out to help during the coronavirus pandemic:

Left Hand Brewing Company in Longmont has teamed up with the Colorado Brewers Guild to present The Colorado Strong Fund, a joint initiative to suppport Colorado craft breweries and suppliers. The project will also raise funds for healthcare, hospitality, service industry, and gig workers in Colorado impacted by COVID-19.
For more information, visit https://www.lhbfoundation.org

Bootstrap Brewing Company in Longmont has donated beer to the local hospital as a treat for the front-line workers. For its production staff, Bootstrap’s owners are ordering takeout from local restaurants to help support these businesses.

Mash Lab Brewing in Windsor donated 100% of its sales for two weeks to the Food Bank for
Larimer County and the UCHealth Northern Colorado Foundation.

Bridget Kennedy

Wayang Golek is a traditional form of puppet performance originally found in Java, where it has been used to entertain and educate.  While their origins are unknown, these expressive puppets have been used to teach Muslim values or recount Hindu epics for at least two centuries.  The dalang, or puppet master, manipulates the puppets by wooden rods attached through the body and to the hands.  The dalang also voices the puppets, and the performance is usually accompanied by a gamelan orchestra.  These performances are often scheduled for special occasions such as festivals and holidays.

Wayang theater has many forms such as Wayang Kulit, where leather puppets cast shadows on a large cloth screen, and Wayang Orang, where people are the actors instead of puppets.

Peter Koschnitzke

The Chupacabra is one of the best-known monsters of the modern age.  The creature, said to walk on two legs, is described as having a large oval head, big black eyes, and spines running the length of its back.  The creature is reported to drink the blood of its victims via two or three puncture wounds in the neck area of livestock, particularly goats (El Chupacabra translates to “goat sucker”).

The first livestock attack attributed to Chupacabra occurred in Puerto Rico in 1995, when many animals were slain and drained of their blood via puncture wounds to the chest.  Previous livestock killings in the area, starting in the 1970s, had been attributed to either a satanic cult (the so-called ‘satanic panic’ of the time) or ‘El Vampiro de Moca’ (the Vampire of Moca).

The 1995 animal deaths in Puerto Rico would begin the legend of the Chupacabra as we know it today.  The name is attributed to Puerto Rican comedian Silvio Pérez, who commented on the reported attack while working as a radio DJ in San Juan.  Perez coined the term El Chupacabra, and reports of the animal exploded.  Attacks were reported throughout Central America, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States.

What is unusual about El Chupacabra is that the description of the creature would change.  The original vampire-like description shifted to something resembling a dog that ran on four legs, had very patchy or no fur, and had a foul sulfurous odor.  Investigators had also found that some attacked livestock had not actually been drained of their blood.  Instead, the blood had pooled in the lower parts of the livestock upon death, a process known as lividity.  Lividity, which discolors the skin, is much less obvious in animals with fur.  Farmers had not previously performed careful investigations to find that the area around the wound was drained, but not the rest of the body.  This likely led to the assumption that the attacked animals had been completely drained of their blood.

Unlike previous animals we have discussed, reported carcasses of Chupacabra began to turn up.  The alleged Chupacabra bodies resembled the dog-like descriptions of the creature; however, DNA and skeletal examinations showed that the so-called Chupacabras were in fact dogs and coyotes.  The gruesome appearance and smell of El Chupacabra was attributed to severe infections of sarcoptic mange in the remains of the dogs.  Sacroptic mange is a highly-contagious infestation of mites called Sarcoptes scabiei, and dogs and coyotes have little resistance to the infection.  A severe infection causes the loss of fur, the development of opens sores and rashes, and the signature foul smell associated with El Chupacabra.  The unusual appearance of these diseased animals is thought to have contributed greatly to identification of animals as El Chupacabra.  Some people continued to argue that dogs and coyotes would not kill livestock without consuming the animals; however, any number of factors can cause canine predators to abandon a kill, including inexperience, difficulty in killing, illness, and interruption. 

Interestingly, an author named Benjamin Radford found during a five-year investigation of El Chupacabra that the original 1995 description almost exactly matched the alien creature Sil in the film Species.  The movie had been released earlier in 1995, leading Radford to speculate that the details of the original report were the result of the imagination of a terrified citizen who had witnessed something attacking livestock. 

So if the creature’s real identity is a dog or coyote, why did the Chupacabra legend spread so far and so fast?  El Chupacabra is one of the first cryptids to be discovered in the information age.  The advent of the internet and growing global connections allowed the legend to become widely known and perpetuated, much more than other legendary creatures.  Reports of attacks by El Chupacabra have even come from as far away as Russia and India.  People tend to fill in the details of something unknown or unusual with their imagination or with things they have heard or seen before.  This, combined with readily-available information that will confirm almost any belief in the age of the internet, has resulted in El Chupacabra becoming a household name in many nations.

Leisa Taylor

In East Africa with a coastline on the Indian Ocean, Kenya is named after Mt. Kenya, the tallest mountain in the country.  Kenya has very diverse and scenic landscapes that encompass savannah, lakes, mountains, highlands, and the Great Rift Valley.  The country is known for its dramatic wildlife, including the Big Five:  lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and rhinos.

1. The two official languages in Kenya are English and _____________?
a. Kamba
b. Kikuyu           
c. Maasai
d. Swahili

2. Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, is a Maasai word.  What does it mean?
a. Place of Cool Waters
b. Realm of Wild Animals
c. Country of Contrasts
d. Nation of Beauty and Beasts

3. What is Kenya’s Lake Nakuru National Park famous for?
a. great white pelicans
b. flamingos
c. pied kingfishers                     
d. long-tailed widowbirds

4. What is the national animal of Kenya?
a. water buffalo
b. elephant         
c. lion     
d. rhinoceros      
 
5. What is the largest national park in Kenya?
a. Tsavo 
b. Amboseli
c. Nairobi
d.  Maasai Mara

1. d) Swahili is thought to have originated on the East African coast as a trade language between the coastal tribes and Arabs.

2. a) Nairobi has also been referred to as the “Green City in the Sun.”

3. b) A birding paradise, the Park has hundreds of species of birds.   

4. c) African lions have been revered throughout history as symbols of courage and strength.

5. a) Although Tsavo is the largest national park, the Maasai Mara National Reserve is the best known and most visited in Kenya.

Martha Denney

Martha’s Picks
Martha Denney, GVM Co-Founder and Board Member, shares the following virtual museums:

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London offers a personal curator tour of its exhibition, Kimono:  Kyoto to Catwalk.  Curator Anna Jackson narrates the history of the kimono, celebrating the garment as a dynamic and constantly changing icon of fashion.  The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design.  Its permanent collection of over 2.3 million objects span 5,000 years of human creativity.  Resources are included for architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewelry, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design, theater, and performance. 

https://www.vam.ac.uk/

The Majesty of Abu Dhabi 

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is a modern metropolis born from the desert.  Ancient forts, gleaming palaces, and exquisite mosques stand alongside modern edifices that reach for the sky.  National Geographic sent three artists and storytellers to explore the UAE, and you can virtually experience their journeys:

• Photographer Renan Ozturk paddles through wildlife-rich mangroves and ventures into the endless expanse of the Liwa Desert;
• Explorer Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) visits the spectacular domed roof of Louvre Abu Dhabi and immerses himself in the rhythm of traditional Emirati performances; and
• Explorer Jeremy Collins discovers the age-old arts and crafts of the capital and investigates a remote desert retreat on the edge of the Empty Quarter.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/exploremoreabudhabi/?cmpid=org%3Dngp%3A%3Amc%3Dps%3A%3Asrc%3Dfacebook%3A%3Acmp%3Dsp_AbuDhabiTCA%3A%3Aadd%3Dfbt2020512sp_AbuDhabiTCA-video-culture%3A%3Arid%3D

International Travel Games Galore

Board Game Geek has thousands of games available for purchase to play and enjoy at home.  Categories include games relating to international travel, civilization, and exploration.  The travel games alone number 1,719.  Explanations of the games include a description, number of players, age recommendations, a “complexity” rating, and consumer ratings.

https://boardgamegeek.com/

Leisa Taylor

Galleria dell’Accademia (Florence, Italy)

Housing Michelangelo’s Statue of David – the most famous sculpture in history – The Gallery of the Academy of Florence is one of the most visited museums in Italy.  Galleria dell’Accademia has other sculptures by Michelangelo as well as a large collection of paintings by Florentine artists from the 13^th through 16^th centuries.  In 2001, the Academy opened the Museum of Musical Instruments, displaying old, one-of-a-kind masterpieces made by Antonio Stradivari and Bartolomeo Cristofori [see question #3 of the Country Quiz!]. 

Galleria Virtual Tour

Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

The Rijks is a Dutch national museum dedicated to the arts and history of the Netherlands from the Middle Ages to the present.  Highlights include:

• Van Gogh’s Self Portrait and Rembrandt’s The Night Watch;
• the Gallery of Honour with famous paintings;
• a spectacular collection of Delft Blue pottery;
• the Cuypers Library, the biggest and oldest art history library in the Netherlands;
• unique dollhouses providing a detailed view of everyday life in the 17^th century; and
• collections of musical instruments, glass, porcelain, ship models, and miniature silverwork.

Rijksmuseum Virtual Tour

Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas)

The oldest art museum in Texas, Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts is also one of the largest museums in the United States.  The Museum’s permanent collection spans more than 6,000 years of history with approximately 64,000 works of art from six continents.  Teaming up with Google Arts & Culture, the Museum offers a variety of online exhibitions, including:

• The Usable Past: Reflections on American History;
• Latino Experience in the USA;
• Funny Faces;
• Korean Art Past and Present; and
• Art of the Islamic Worlds.

MFAH Virtual Tour

Leisa Taylor

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C.)

With the largest natural history collection in the world, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History tells the history of our planet through the human interaction with one another and the environment.  The collections contain over 145 million specimens of animals, plants, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and cultural artifacts.  The Museum offers virtual tours of past and current exhibits.  Free video webinars are also available on a variety of topics, from Live with Jellyfish to The Science of Vaccines.

https://naturalhistory.si.edu/

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY)

Celebrating 150 years in 2020, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the United States.  “The Met,” founded in 1870, presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world.  Digital offerings include The Met 360 Project, an award-winning series of six short videos of The Met’s art and architecture using spherical 360-degree technology.  Timeline of Art History pairs essays and works of art with chronologies to tell the global story of art.  Photography’s Last Century celebrates the remarkable ascendancy of photography with over sixty extraordinary images.  Other virtual resources include online publications, storytelling, live performances, film screenings, art-making programs, and conversations with Met curators and educators.

https://www.metmuseum.org/

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D.C.)

The National Portrait Gallery was founded by Congress in 1962 with the mission to acquire and display portraits of “men and women who have made significant contributions to the history, development, and culture of the people of the United States.”  The only museum dedicated to American portraiture, the Gallery has the nation’s only complete collection of presidential portraits outside of the White House.  Online exhibitions featured on Google Arts and Culture include First Ladies, American Origins, Votes for Women, and Portraits of African Americans. 

https://npg.si.edu/home/national-portrait-gallery

Peter Koschnitzke

The Jersey Devil is one of the best known folk legends in the United States; it has been the subject of movies and was featured in an episode of the TV series The X-Files.  The Jersey Devil even lends its name to New Jersey’s professional hockey team.  The creature is said to stalk the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey, a 1700-mile expanse of cedar forest known for its dark, misty, and swampy nature.  As roads and lighting have improved in the area, reported sightings of the Devil have become less common.  However, even as recently as 2015, renewed interest was sparked in the beast when a man claimed to have photographed the creature while he was driving.  Despite its modern popularity, few know the political and religious origins of this myth – a story involving Quakers, anti-British sentiments of the time, and a Founding Father.  The legend of the Jersey (or Leeds) Devil has its roots in the mid-1700s, a time when print publishing, enlightenment thinking, and religion produced a political climate rife with rumor and intrigue. 

The most common version of the myth is the “Mother Leeds” story about a poor woman married to an alcoholic husband.  Upon finding out she was pregnant for the 13^th time, the woman cursed the unborn child, exclaiming ‘let this one be a devil.’  Later, however, Mother Leeds forgot the curse she had placed upon the child.  In the year 1735, during the night in a particularly violent storm, Mother Leeds gave birth to a seemingly normal baby boy.  The boy, however, began to grow at an incredible rate, developing into the Jersey Devil.  Its features included a horse-like face, enormous teeth, antlers, leathery wings like those of a bats, huge hind legs with goat hooves, and an enormous serpentine tale.  In various versions of the story, the creature maims or kills midwives and attacks children before escaping through a chimney, leaving a pile of rubble in its wake. 

The more likely version of the story arises from a feud between Benjamin Franklin and a man named Titan Leeds.  Ben Franklin was publishing his “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” and Titan Leeds, an Anglican and known British sympathizer, was publishing a rival almanac.  Ben Franklin took advantage of the man’s poor reputation among the Quakers and claimed Titan was a ghost who published blasphemous astrological predictions.  This reputation combined, with the rumor that Leeds’ mother had birthed nine children (quite a number even for the time), is likely the root of the Mother Leeds version of the Jersey Devil’s tale.  After the revolution, the Franklin-Titan feud was lost to history, and Mother Leeds and her demonic child became a part of the folklore of New Jersey.

The rumors of the creature and the description from the “Mother Leeds” version of the legend have persisted.  The Devil was reportedly sighted by a few famous people during the 1800s, including American Naval legend Stephen Decatur, who reportedly hit the creature with a cannonball, but to no effect.  Joseph Bonaparte, the elder brother of Napoleon, reportedly saw the beast in 1840 during a hunting trip.  The creature was also blamed in 1841 for livestock killings that were accompanied by unusual tracks and the Devil’s signature screams.

The legend later exploded over a single week in the Northeast.  From January 16-23, 1909, newspapers in the states of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and New York published reports of hundreds of supposed sightings and encounters.  This resulted in a widespread panic that shut down schools and businesses all over the region.  The fervor sparked a hunt for the creature, and a reward of $10,000 was supposedly offered by the Philadelphia Zoo (the reward was never claimed).  The hysteria also resulted in a variety of hoaxes, including one where the owner of a Philadelphia ‘dime museum’ bought a live kangaroo, painted it green, and attached fake wings with glue.

As with most legendary creatures, a variety of fake corpses have been reported, sightings come and go, and reports of appearance vary wildly; however, the blood-curdling scream of the creature is always recounted.  The Jersey Devil is said to emit a truly horrifying scream, a sound still reported today by campers and residents of the Pine Barrens.  Some locals also claim the creature either heralds war or is an omen of bad things.  Regardless of anyone’s skepticism or belief, the Jersey Devil is a unique and important part of American folklore.

Bridget Kennedy

Serpents have always been a focal point of interest with regard to magical creatures across the globe.  One particularly interesting serpent that has graced Brazilian folklore for hundreds of years is the Boitatá.  The name Boitatá stems from two different words:  boi, which translates to snake, and the word tatá, which refers to fire.  Much like the name might suggest, the Boitatá is described as a large snake surrounded in flames with the horns of a bull.  Despite its fearsome appearance, the Boitatá is depicted as a good entity, coming out at night to protect forests and fields from people who seek to do harm.

The origin of the Boitatá is unclear, but the legend has been passed down for centuries.  In the Brazilian area of Rio Grande do Sul, the story of the creature revolves around a period of darkness in the surrounding forests caused by a never-ending rain.  All the animals in the area ran for higher ground to protect themselves, but one animal was unbothered by the dark – the Boiguaçu.  Boiguaçu was a serpent that lived in caves and was used to seeing through the darkness.  One day after waking up hungry, the snake decided to go hunting, and its ability to see in the dark was an advantage against prey.  In fact, because food was so easy to catch, the Boiguaçu chose to eat only the eyes of the creatures it killed.  The Boiguaçu ate so many eyes that it began to luminate and became engulfed in glowing flames.  It was then known as the Boitatá.

Legend says that if you ever see the Boitatá, it can blind you, kill you, or even make you go mad.  As a result of this folklore, people who believe they see a Boitatá try to avoid the creature by standing still, closing their eyes, and holding their breath.  Those who try to run from the serpent are said not to live to tell the tale.

Although the Boitatá is not commonly known outside of Brazil, the serpent is an important mythological creature in that country’s culture.  There are several versions of the legend, and the Boitatá has been described in various ways.  The common thread, however, is that of a fiery snake.

1. What is the capital of Canada?
a. Toronto
b. Ottawa
c. Montreal
d. Vancouver

2. Canada has more ________ than any other country in the world.
a. forests
b. mountains
c. lakes
d. rivers

3. Per capita, Canada has the most ___________ in the world.
a. doughnut shops
b. bookstores
c. clothing stores
d. florists

4. What is the official animal of Canada?
a. grizzly bear
b. moose
c. gray wolf
d. beaver

5. What popular game was invented in Canada?
a. Sorry!
b. Monopoly
c. Risk
d. Trivial Pursuit

1. b) In 1857, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the country’s new capital. 

2. c) Of all the natural lakes in the world, more than 50% are located in Canada.

3. a) Canadians also consume the most doughnuts per capita.   

4. d) The beaver was given official status as an emblem of Canada in 1975.          

5. d) Trivial Pursuit was released in 1981.  The game involving trivia questions and answers was first conceived by Canadians Chris Haney and Scott Abbott in 1979.