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James Madison Alden (1834 - 1922). Born in Boxborough, MA, he was the great great great grandson of the John Alden who had journeyed across the Atlantic on the Mayflower. He enlisted in the naval force and was assigned to the Pacific Coast charting project.  He created numerous water color drawings as he travel up and down the West Coast and inland areas such as the Sierras and Yosemite. He served in the Civil War and spent his final years in Florida. He is regarded as one of the most highly accomplished of the expedition survey artists. A large body of his work exists.
Sources include The Royal Engineers Living History Group  and Islapedia among others. 

Here I go again,
with a clap of thunder.
Words assault me,
about going down under.

Down under the bridge,
where the troll master
lived, collecting tolls to
the Trolls' new disaster.

An Apricot colored bear,
slept under a tree.
Shade was the target,
a cool, want to be.

He was covered in
gold pollen, from a tree,
a beautiful coat,
it was to be.

He admired his coat,
down by the pool,
so golden in color,
He wasn't a fool.

It started raining
at the end of the day,
but his beautiful coat
with pollen, washed away.

The Sun arose anew
his fur was sheer,
it was the color of
an Apricot beer.

Do you aspire,
to be better than you are.
Do you wish to learn about life
and how to go far?

Step down, step aside.
A lot of men didn't,
although many men tried.

You must stay on schedule,
You must stay the course.
What was the saying,
" You can't beat a dead horse."

You must persevere,
while sticking to your gun,
you have been named
the "anointed one."

Photo shared by Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What would it be like to fly free in space? At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), astronaut McCandless, pictured, was floating free in space. During Space Shuttle mission 41-B in 1984, McCandless and fellow NASA astronaut Robert Stewart were the first to experience such an "untethered space walk". The MMU worked by shooting jets of nitrogen and was used to help deploy and retrieve satellites. With a mass over 140 kilograms, an MMU is heavy on Earth, but, like everything, is weightless when drifting in orbit. The MMU was later replaced with the SAFER backpack propulsion unit.

Listen to the rumble,
listen to the roar.
It's not a new sound,
not new anymore.

The steady beat of a drum,
the snare's rat a tat, tat,
is playing a dirge,
You must understand that.

It's time for sadness,
but also, for joy,
for that little kid,
is now a grown boy.

To humor his parent,
no matter what may,
on this occasion,
celebrating Mother's Day.

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865)

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Our fair planet sports a curved, sunlit crescent against the black backdrop of space in this stunning photograph. From the unfamiliar perspective, the Earth is small and, like a telescopic image of a distant planet, the entire horizon is completely within the field of view. Enjoyed by crews on board the International Space Station, only much closer views of the planet are possible from low Earth orbit. Orbiting the planet once every 90 minutes, a spectacle of clouds, oceans, and continents scrolls beneath them with the partial arc of the planet's edge in the distance. But this digitally restored image presents a view so far only achieved by 24 humans, Apollo astronauts who traveled to the Moon and back again between 1968 and 1972. The original photograph, AS17-152-23420, was taken by the homeward bound crew of Apollo 17, on December 17, 1972. For now it is the last picture of Earth from this planetary perspective taken by human hands.