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Curator‘s Notes
Topics of interest to Seton explored by the author of this site
Seton at the Battle of Langside Part V
George (c.1531–1586), 5th Lord Seton, Aged 27. Attributed to Adrian Vanson. National Galleries of Scotland, Scottish National Gallery. (From their website.) Imagine that you have a friend so devoted that he would do anything on your behalf. Even if this meant giving...
Seton at the Battle of Langside Part IV
Title Page, The History of Scotland George, Fifth Lord Seton played a pivotal role in the Battle of Langside on May 13, 1568, determining the future of Scotland. One account comes from William Robertson’s The History of Scotland published in 1761. I have modernized...
Seton at the Battle of Langside Part III
Replica Claymore Sword Mary Queen of Scots experienced a tumultuous period between March 1566 and May 1568. Caught up in Scottish politics, this period began with the murder of her private secretary and concluded with the defeat of Catholic forces at the Battle of...
Seton at the Battle of Langside Part II
Undated Drawing by Ernest Thompson Seton Ernest Thompson Seton’s ancestor George, Fifth Lord Seton, took part in the 1568 Battle of Langside. Four hundred and one years later Roger Waters recorded a performance piece based on the battle. I first heard this work in the...
Seton at the Battle of Langside Part I
Seton was at the Battle of Langside—not the usual Seton I write about, but one George Seton who lived 300 years before Ernest. While I am anxious to explore the battle—which is interesting in and of itself—I find myself waylaid by a different issue also needing...
How to Play Indian According to Seton
The Red Book or How To Play Indian by Ernest Thompson Seton In 1903 Ernest Thompson Seton published a pamphlet through the Curtis Publishing Company titled “How to Play Indian. Directions for Organizing a Tribe of Boy Indians and Making their Teepees in the True...
Identity Is Destiny: Charles A. Eastman and Ernest Thompson Seton
Portrait of Charles Eastman, Wikipedia The turning years from the 19th into the 20th century brought new challenges to the relationship between American Indians—white Americans. The entirely traditional pre-European life of indigenous people was over. The shooting...
Actual True History of the Boy Scouts of America Part III Edgar M. Robinson and Seton
Eagle Award, Boy Scouts of America, ca. 1967 Experimental Camp According to Boy Scouts of America administrator Edgar M. Robinson, planning for the first “official” camp had started nearly a year prior to the 1910 creation of the Scouts. The foresighted YMCA official...
Actual True History of the Boy Scouts of America Part II Edgar M. Robinson
Life Badge, Boy Scouts of America, 1965 Present at the Creation I have written about the creation of American Scouting from Seton’s point of view in my book about him. Here I want to examine a different perspective, that of Edgar M. Robinson, the actual organizer. I...
Actual True History of the Boy Scouts of America Part I Overview
Star badge, Boy Scouts of America, 1964 Short Misleading History of the Boy Scouts Here is the well known if incorrect short history of the Boy Scouts of America: The British general Robert Baden-Powell invented paramilitary Scouting out of whole cloth in 1908 with...