Provided by Don Morreale
This column tells the stories of the people whose faces appear on “A Colorado Panorama: A People’s History,” a two-block-long tile mural on the southeast side of the Colorado Convention Center. Inspired by Howard Zinn’s groundbreaking book, “A People’s History of the United States,” the mural was created by artist Barbara Jo Revelle in 1989 to celebrate those who rarely make it into the history books, but who have nonetheless had a profound impact on the history of our state. This week we’re featuring profiles of Nikola Tesla and Rose Marie “Silver Dollar” Tabor.
Nikola Tesla – Inventor (1856-1943)
Nikola Tesla was born in present day Croatia and educated in Austria and Czechoslovakia. He arrived in New York in 1884 where he initially worked for Thomas Edison. After the Westinghouse Electric Co. bought the patent rights to his alternating current motor, he established his own laboratory. There he conducted experiments with remote control devices, and invented the “Tesla Coil” which was later used in the manufacture of radio and television sets.
In 1899, Tesla moved to Colorado Springs where he conducted experiments in terrestrial stationary waves to prove his theory that the Earth could be used to conduct electricity. While there, he also figured out a way to turn lights on and off from a distance of 25 miles, created artificial lightning, and claimed to have received signals from intelligent life on other planets. In 1917 he was awarded the Edison Medal from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
“Silver Dollar Tabor” ‒ Daughter of Horace and Baby Doe Tabor (1889-1925)
Nicknamed “Silver Dollar” in recognition of the source of her family’s wealth, Rose Marie Tabor was 4 years old when Congress repealed the Silver Purchase Act, which in turn bankrupted her father, silver magnate Horace W. Tabor. After his death in 1889, the family moved to Chicago to live with relatives. Silver and her mother later returned to Leadville where they eked out a meager living in a tiny shack.
Silver moved to Denver to work as a newspaper reporter and write pulp fiction. A beautiful young woman, she eventually relocated to Chicago to try her luck as a dancer and aspiring actress. Sadly, she was found murdered in her apartment. Baby Doe, however, refused to acknowledge her daughter’s death, insisting instead that she was living in seclusion as a nun.
The Tabor family’s “riches-to-rags” saga was portrayed in the 1932 film, “Silver Dollar,” and in the opera, “Ballad of Baby Doe,” which premiered in New York in 1958.
Week One: Barney L. Ford and Agnes Smedley
Week Two:Benjamin Barr Lindsey and Anne Bassett
Week Three: William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Clara Brown
Week Four: William “Big Bill” Haywood and Anne Evans
Week Five: Buckskin Charley and “Babe” Didrikson-Zaharias
Week Six: Antonia Brico and Chief Black Kettle
Week Seven: Casimiro Barela and Daisy Anderson
Week Eight: Chogyam Trungpa and Ellen Elliot Jack
Week Nine: Elizabeth Hickok Robbins Stone and Chin Lin Sou
Week Ten: Emily Griffith and Dalton Trumbo
Week Eleven: Chipeta and Wallace Werner
Week Twelve: Eve Drewelowe and Davis Waite
Week Thirteen: Dr. Carl J. Johnson and Florence Sabin
Week Fourteen: Damon Runyon and Emma Langdon
Week Fifteen: Ellison Onizuka and Golda Meir
Week Sixteen: John Lewis Dyer and Helen Hunt Jackson
Week Seventeen: Edward Berthoud and Frances Wisebart Jacobs
Week Eighteen: Hattie McDaniel and Enos Mills
Week Nineteen: Isabella Bird and Francis Schlatter
Week Twenty: Laura Gilpin and Henry O. Wagoner
Week Twenty-One: Justina Ford and George Norlin
Week Twenty-Two: George Bent and Julia Archibald Holmes
Week Twenty-Three: Herbert Bayer and Mabel Barbee Lee
Week Twenty-Four: Martha Maxwell and Chief Ignacio
Week Twenty-Five: Isom Dart and Marvel Crosson
Week Twenty-Six: Jack Dempsey and Mary Long
Week Twenty-Seven: Mary Lathrop and James Beckwourth
Week Twenty-Eight: John Otto and Mina Loy
Week Twenty-Nine: Mary Rippon and Joseph Henry Stuart
Week Thirty: Lauren Watson and Molly Brown
Week Thirty-One: Mary “Mother” Jones and Chief Little Bear
Week Thirty-Two: Chief Little Raven and Neva Romero
Week Thirty-Three: Olga Little and Louis Tikas
Week Thirty-Four: Lowell Thomas and Poker Alice Ivers
Week Thirty-Five: Mariano Medina and Dr. Portia Lubchenko McKnight
Week Thirty-Six: Tsianina Redfeather and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez
Week Thirty-Seven: Minoru Yasui and Ruth Cave Flowers
Week Thirty-Eight: Sadie Likens and Neal Cassady