User:Mactographer

About myself

The basics
My name is Dave, I'm a photographer working in the SF Bay Area.

I’ve added many wedding photos to the various pages at Wikipedia because – being a wedding photographer – wedding images make up the bulk of what I have to share here. I also collect vintage wedding images, some of which I’ve also uploaded to Wiki. Be sure to check out the wedding photos of brides in black dresses. (And you always thought they were white.) However, I’ve been digging through my other image files as well and have uploaded other photos for various Wiki entries. My philosophy is summed up by the age old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thus, I will try to find entries that can benefit from a photo or two.

Contributions

Most contributions are photos, but I have created a few initial listings:

 * Manasse-Block Tanning Company: First listing and photos
 * Castello di Amorosa: First listing and photos
 * Dunsmuir House: First listing and photos
 * Cabinet card: First listing and photos
 * Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness: First listing
 * Centerville Pioneer Cemetery: First listing and photos
 * Wedding photography: Photos and professional links to web
 * White wedding: Photos (both historical and contemporary) + some rewrites.
 * Andre Disdéri: First listing
 * Post-mortem photography: First listing and photo
 * Ardenwood Historic Farm: Photo & expanded listing
 * Niles: Fremont, CA: Photo
 * Point Loma Nazarene University: Photo
 * Jousting Image: Photo
 * Cover:Family History Pages:Open Spread: 1859 Bible Photo
 * Worship: Photo of monument to the Right to Worship

Controversial contribution:

 * This contribution I've cobbled together from a Library of Congress web site seems to raise the hackles of the church/state separationists since it keeps getting deleted or edited out of its Wiki listing. But you can’t change the truth by deleting it.  The facts remain as they are, and have been documented by the LOC web site.

Practices of the Jefferson and Madison administrations
Despite the contemporary claims that Jefferson and Madison were strict proponents of the concept of separation of church and state as it is currently presented in modern debate, it is a common misconception to assume that religion was not associated with the practice of politics in early American life. In fact, the Religion and the Founding of the American Republic website exhibit at the Library of Congress states,

It is no exaggeration to say that on Sundays in Washington during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) and of James Madison (1809-1817) the state became the church. Within a year of his inauguration, Jefferson began attending church services in the House of Representatives. Madison followed Jefferson's example, although unlike Jefferson, who rode on horseback to church in the Capitol, Madison came in a coach and four. Worship services in the House--a practice that continued until after the Civil War--were acceptable to Jefferson because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary. Preachers of every Protestant denomination appeared. (Catholic priests began officiating in 1826.) As early as January 1806 a female evangelist, Dorothy Ripley, delivered a camp meeting-style exhortation in the House to Jefferson, Vice President Aaron Burr, and a "crowded audience." Throughout his administration Jefferson permitted church services in executive branch buildings. The Gospel was also preached in the Supreme Court chambers.

In fact, the Library of Congress exhibit clearly states that Jefferson apparently had no objection to non-discriminatory religion being practiced in state, but rather he objected ONLY to the formation of a state supported church – such as is practiced by Britain with her official recognition of the Church of England as the state church.