Just in the last couple of days, I have created a new version of my web
site, The Political Graveyard, http://PoliticalGraveyard.com
When I created the site, more than six years ago, I envisioned an audience
maybe in the dozens: a few political junkies perhaps. Maybe someone
writing up a tour for a historic cemetery, who might not otherwise know
that an obscure grave in the back corner is of a U.S. Senator. So I was
more than a bit surprised at the crowds of people who eventually showed up
on my electronic doorstep: one to two million page views per month.
Anyway, partly motivated by all the flattering attention for my little
project, I have steadily built and expanded it. The new version, opened
this week, lists over 107,000 politicians (compared with about 81,000 in
the last one), and introduces a number of new features:
* Politicians Portrayed on Money -- U.S. or Confederate coins or
currency. It is ironic that Andrew Jackson, lifelong foe of paper
money, has his visage printed on so much of it these days -- but that
practice started less than 20 years after his death. Jackson is one
of only two political figures (George Washington is the other) whose
portraits have appeared both on U.S. and Confederate bills.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/special/coins-currency.html
* Politicians Who Were (or took part in a) First. Many of these are
politico-demographic milestones (the first woman, the first Catholic,
the first Republican, the first black, the first Chinese-American,
etc.). Quite a few of the rest are accomplishments of politicians in
other fields: the builder of the first flax mill in America, author of
the first book about American law, captain of the first U.S. war
vessel to carry the Stars and Stripes into battle, and so on.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/special/first.html
* Gay or Lesbian Politicians, with 31 listed: Barney Frank and Tammy
Baldwin and Jim Kolbe and Gerry Studds and more than two dozen others.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/group/gay-lesbian.html
* There are a bunch of additional organizations for which I have
(incomplete) lists of politician members, including the American
Dental Association and the once-mighty Anti-Saloon League. But the
Freemasons continue to lead the list, with 2,294 politician members.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/group/am-dental-assoc.html
http://politicalgraveyard.com/group/anti-saloon-league.html
http://politicalgraveyard.com/group/masons.html
* The Politicians Named for Other Politicians page is back. George
Washington has the most pols named for him (84), followed distantly by
Benjamin Franklin (46), Thomas Jefferson (35), Andrew Jackson (28),
Henry Clay (20), and 53 others, including such unlikely heroes as
Roscoe Conkling, Franklin Pierce, Chester A. Arthur, and Millard
Fillmore.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/special/pols-named-for-pols-index.html
* The Political Families list has been expanded. The threshold for
including a family has been reduced from four politician members to
three, and each family now gets a separate page with full information
about all members. Of particular interest are the Adams, Roosevelt,
Taft, and Kennedy families, but there are more than four hundred
others both famous and obscure.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/index.html
http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/1001.html (Adams)
http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/1196.html (Roosevelt)
http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/1335.html (Taft)
http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/1427.html (Kennedy)
* I already had a page for each of the more than 3,000 counties in the
U.S., listing politicians who were born, lived, died, or buried in
that area. For example, here's the page on Schenectady County, N.Y.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/NY/SC.html
The heads of those pages now have more links relevant to that
particular county, including the county's official web site if
available. And now for the first time I'm treating Alaska's boroughs
and census areas as counties, giving each its own page, even though
some are conspicuously lacking in politician data.
* Entries for some politicians now feature links to biographies and
histories about them at Amazon.com. Naturally, any actual book sales
that result will generate a small kickback to me. Not enough,
unfortunately, to let me quit my day job and work on the web site full
time.
The popup ads, which were NOT my idea, are supposed to go away by
tomorrow. If they didn't annoy me so much, I'd be temped to say: hey,
even the hoary, dignified New York Times web site has popup ads now. They
do generate about an extra $10/day. But I can't stand them.
I hope people have as much fun browsing The Political Graveyard as I have
putting it together!
Larry
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Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
Mailing address: P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106
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