#1819 nationals

[lauriemarch]

it's national poetry month. thank you poems for sometimes saving my life when i need it the most

[scuderlia]

Deer Theory

WORDS: ‘The Deer’ by Terrance Hayes / ‘I’m Not Calling You a Liar’ (Florence + the Machine) / Aaron O’Hanlon /  The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) dir. Yorgos Lanthimos / ‘The Stag and the Quiver’ by Richard Siken / mine / ‘Salvage’ by Hedgie Choi / ‘A Letter to My Mother That She Will Never Read’ by Ocean Vuong / ‘Little Deer’ (SPELLLING) / ‘Grendel’ by Roger Reeves / ‘Herd of ‘panicked’ deer filmed jumping to their deaths from motorway’ by Tanveer Mann (Metro UK) / ‘Kinder Than Man’ by Althea Davis / ‘Anecdote of the Pig’ by T. Adkisson / ‘Ferrari Drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Are Racing Back to the Top of F1’ by Tom Lamont (GQ Sports) / Deuteronomy 12:23 / ‘‘It’s a kind of religion’ - Ferrari’s popularity and following in Italy dissected’ by Akshat Kabra (Sportskeeda) / ‘Abstract (Psychopomp)’ (Hozier) / ‘Not Strong Enough’ (boygenius) / The Favourite (2018) dir. Yorgos Lanthimos / Enzo Ferrari / ‘Killer’ (Phoebe Bridgers) / CL for ‘Charles Leclerc talks about his “Red Passion”’ by Roberto Croci (L’Officiel Ibiza) / ‘The fragility of a predestined | FormulaPassion.it’ by admin_l6ma5gus (Pledge Times) / ‘Kinder Than Man’ by Althea Davis / Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House / ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’ (Florence + the Machine) / ‘Ferrari Needs to Sign Charles Leclerc for the 2018 Formula One Season’ by Gabriel Loewenberg (The Drive) IMAGERY: Styrian GP (2020) / ? (antlers) / ? (crown of thorns) / Scuderia Ferrari Press Office (2023) / @velvetbambi (x) / Saint Maud (2019) dir. Rose Glass / white-tailed buck shedding its antlers (via Deer & Deer Hunting) / Azerbaijan GP (Baku, 2019) / post-French GP (2022) / Jules Bianchi (via F1 TV) / George Shiras III for National Geographic (1906) / ? (young CL) / ‘Driver-Deer Collisions On The Rise: State Farm’ (WSLM RADIO) / Male Red Deer (antlers) / post-Bahrain GP (2019) (CL looking up from hands) / ‘roadkill’ by Loso (via Flickr) (x) / Saturn Devouring His Son (1819-23) Francisco Goya / post-Belgian GP (Spa, 2019) (CL pointing upwards) / The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) dir. Martin McDonagh / Italian GP (Monza, 2020) / Nathan Sandwell @cuchulainn-4 (x) / ? (camcorder) / ‘Deer Caught Gnawing on Human Bones’ by Jason Daley (Smithsonian Magazine) / A Fragment of Ourselves Returning (2018) Beatrice Wanjiku / @nightcorp-archive (x) / Brazilian GP (2023) (CL figure walking) / Singapore GP (2022) / post-Qatar GP (2021) / The Deer Hunter (1978) dir. Michael Cimino / ? (dogmouth doe) / Brazilian GP (2023) / French GP (2022)

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

John Faed (Scottish , 1819-1902) The Evening Hour (The Misses Bennie and Mr J. Noble Bennie), n.d. National Galleries of Scotland

[artemlegere]

"No class of artists excels the hummingbirds. Their nests are wonders of beauty, delicacy, and architecture-plant down and dried flower petals hold together with silvery spider's web, exquisitely decorated with greyish-white lichens." ~ Royal Dixon, "Feathered Artists," The Human Side of Birds, 1917

Brazilian Hummingbirds

Artist: Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819-1904)

The American painter Martin Johnson Heade started out as a portraitist and took up landscape painting late in life. He spent three years travelling around Europe during his formative years. This first Grand Tour marked the start of an itinerant lifestyle which he continued to lead throughout his entire existence. From 1840 to 1859 he lived in Philadelphia, New York, Saint Louis, Chicago, Trenton and Providence. His second trip to Europe at the end of the 1840s brought about a shift in his style towards a more sophisticated type of genre painting. He moved to New York about 1859; there he came into contact with other landscape artists such as his lifelong friend Frederic E. Church and began to paint landscapes. Despite exhibiting his work at the National Academy of Design on several occasions, he never became a member and nor was he particularly involved in the New York art scene.

Heade’s mature style, characterised by great precision and luminosity and influenced by the work of Lane, whom he may have known, was later dubbed Luminism. The numerous scenes conveying the calm and splendour of the salt marshes are the compositions that have earned him greater fame. This marshy ground provided Heade with the opportunity to capture changes in the atmosphere and light.

Possibly encouraged by his friend Church, Heade travelled to Central and South America (Brazil, Colombia, Panama and Jamaica) three times between 1860 and 1870. During these trips he painted exotic flowers and birds, in addition to scenery. The combination of these motifs resulted in his original still-life paintings of orchids and hummingbirds in tropical settings, which are acknowledged as the most original part of his oeuvre.

In 1883, at the age of sixty-four, Heade married and moved to Saint Augustine, Florida, where he continued to paint the tropical flowers that grew there. He died there years later, completely forgotten by the art world.

[cityof2morrow]

Gallery Collection 001

Published: 2-21-2024 | Updated: N/A SUMMARY This is the first in a series of upcoming investment objects for Sims 2 – things your sims can use to generate income over time. From 1975-2000, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. commissioned 30 paintings of African kings and queens for an extended outreach and marketing campaign. This set of paintings features artwork from this amazing series. Celebrate Black History Month 2024! #co2bhm #bhm2024 #sims2bhm.   *No copyright infringement intended – I own no rights to these images.

DETAILS Requires Sims 2. Requires Apartment Life for shiftability. §1K-15K | Buy > Deco > Wall Hangings Paintings are centered on 1-tile but cover more tiles than that. They come in various gallery sizes and images have been edited to fit the mesh. After purchase, their value increases by approximately 2% daily – watch out for burglars! Files with “MESH” in their name are REQUIRED. Frame recolors include EA/Maxis and yeti textures. Frame and painting recolors are merged into two files so you’ll have to take them or leave them. ITEMS Great Kings & Queens of Africa: Paintings 001-006 (92-764 poly) DOWNLOAD (choose one) from SFS | from MEGA

IMAGES

Akhenaton Pharaoh of Egypt (1375-1358 BC) by Barbara Higgins Bond

Alfonso I King of the Kongo (circa 1486-1543) by Carl Owens (1929-2002)

Askia Muhammaed Toure King of Songhay (1493-1529) by Leo Dillon

Benhanzin Hossu Bowelle—The King Shark (1841-1906) by Thomas Blackshear II

Cleopatra VII Queen of Egypt (69-30 BC) by Ann Marshall

Hannibal Ruler of Carthage (247-183 BC) by Charles Lilly

Hatshepsut The Ablest Queen of Far Antiquity (1503-1482 BC) by Dean Mitchell

Idris Alooma Sultan of Bornu (1580-1617) by Charles Lilly (1949-)

Ja Ja King of the Opobo (1821-1891) by Jonathan Knight

Khama III The Good King of Bechuanaland (1819-1923) by Carl Owens

Makeda Queen of Sheba (960 BC) by Debra Edgerton

Mansa Kankan Musa King of Mali (1306-1337) by Barbara Higgins Bond

Menelek II King of Kings of Abyssinia (1844-1913) by Dow Miller

Moshoeshoe King of Batsutoland (circa 1786-1870) by Jerry Pinkney

Mwana Ngana Ndumba Tembo—Ruler of the Angolan Tchokwe (1840-1880 circa) by Kenneth Calvert

Nandi Queen of Zululand (1778-1826 AD) by HM Rahsaan Fort II

Nefertari Nubian Queen of Egypt (192-1225 BC) by Steve Clay

Nehanda of Zimbabwe (1862-1898) by Lydia Thompson

Nzingha—Amazon Queen of Matambo (1582-1663) by Dorothy Carter

Osei Tutu King of Asante (circa 1650-1717) by Alfred Smith

Queen Amina of Zaria (1588-1589) by Floyd Cooper

Samory Toure The Black Napoleon of the Sudan (1830-1900) by Ezra Tucker

Shaka-King of the Zulus (1787-1828) by Paul Collins

Shamba Bolongongo African King of Peace (1600-1620) by Roy LaGrone

Sunni Ali Beer King of Songhay (circa 1442-1492) by Leo Dillon

Taharqa King of Nubia (710-664 BC) by John Thomas Biggers

Tenkamenin King of Ghana (1037-1075 AD) by Alexander Bostic

Thutmose III Pharaoh of Egypt (753-712 BC) by Antonio Wade

Tiye The Nubian Queen of Egypt (circa 1415-1340 BC) by Leonard Jenkins

Yaa Asantewa Queen of Ghana (1863-1923) by Barbara Higgins Bond CREDITS No copyright infringement intended – I own no rights to these images. Artwork and trademarks are the property of their respective creators and/or owners. If this exceeds fair use, please contact me via private message. Thanks: Simming and Sketchfab Communities. Sources: Any Color You Like (CuriousB, 2010), Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), Console Certificates (d_dgjdhh, 2019; 2011), EA/Maxis, Gyeongbokgung Sajeongjeon Painting (National Heritage Administration, 2024 via CCA; Sketchfab), Great Kings and Queens of Africa Series (Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 1975-2000; Kentake, 2016), Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik), Painting by Zdzislaw Beksinski (Sosnowski, 2018 via CCA), Yeti Metals (Shastakiss, 2017).

[harvardfineartslib]

Happy National Orchid Day!

Orchid and hummingbird Heade, Martin Johnson, 1819-1904, American ca.1885 Oil on canvas 15 x 20 1/8"

Repository: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States HOLLIS Number: olvwork199203

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

[ltwilliammowett]

Today in the 13th door a little beauty that is often forgotten. Once built in India, she is now the oldest English frigate still afloat. We are talking about HMS Trincomalee

HMS Trincomalee

More infos about her here:

Laid down in Honourable East India Company's shipyard in Bombay in 1816, together with her sister ship HMS AMPHIRITE and launched on 12 October 1817, TRINCOMALEE was one of 47, 38-gun Leda class frigates built between 1800 and 1830. Nearly all of them were of oak, but the two Bombay ships were made of Malabar teak.

Her building had been delayed by the plans being lost on HMS JAVA which was sunk by USS CONSTITUTION, a second set of plans not arriving in India until two years later.

When TRINCOMLAEE reached Britain in 1819, she went straight into 'ordinary' for 26 years in Portsmouth harbour. In 1845 she was commissioned for service in areas which lacked adequate coaling stations for the new steam vessels. Her stern was modified to an elliptical style, and she was reclassified as a 26-gun Corvette. In 1847 she served in the West Indies and then in the Eastern Campaign of the Crimean War. After patrols in the Pacific she was again paid off into ordinary in 1857. Three years later she became a Drill Ship for Royal Naval Volunteers. Between 1860 and 1897 she was moored, mast-less and with deckhouses in Sunderland then West Hartlepool and finally in Southampton. She was sold to shipbreakers in 1897.

The philanthropist G Wheatly Cobb bought HMS TRINCOMLAEE to replace the training ship FOUDROYANT which had foundered two years earlier on its way to take up a similar role, and renamed the ship FOUDROYANT. She was moored in Falmouth and later at Milford Haven and finally at Portsmouth. On Cobb's death on 1932 she was managed by the IMPLACABLE Committee of the Society for Nautical Research.

During the war the vessel was taken over for the training of Sea Cadets. In 1947 she was given back to her owners and became an adventure training base for Sea Cadets, Sea rangers, Sea Scouts and other youth groups. From 1957 to 1987 she was moored at the entrance to Haslar Creek, Portsmouth. The Foudroyant Trust later moved her further north to avoid her being rammed by submarines. Training was discontinued due to the poor state of the ship and insufficient trainees. In 1987 the Foudroyant Trust transferred the ship to Hartlepool where a private yard had just paid off after restoring HMS WARRIOR 1860. In 1990 the Trincomalee was restored under the Trincomalee Trust. In 2016 the National Museum of the Royal Navy took responsibility for oversight of Trincomalee.

[southeastasianists]

Singapore’s prosperity has long set it apart from many other former British colonies. There is another difference, too: Singapore has clung to honouring its former colonial ruler — and it wants to keep doing so.

Special accolade has gone to Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who is considered to have founded modern Singapore in the early 1800s. For decades, Singapore’s textbooks credited Raffles with transforming the island from a “sleepy fishing village” into a thriving seaport. He has been the central character in a larger official narrative that says imperial Britain had set up Singapore for success as an independent nation.

Dedications to Raffles dot the landscape of Singapore. A business district, schools and dozens of other buildings bear his name. Two 2.5-metre likenesses of the man loom large in downtown Singapore.

But a new statue of Raffles, installed in a park in May, has revived a debate about the legacy of colonialism in Singapore. On one side is the broader establishment, which has held up British colonial rule positively. On the other are those who want a closer inspection of the empire that Raffles represented and the racial inequity he left behind, even as Singapore became wealthy.

This divide has surfaced before, perhaps most prominently a few years ago when Singapore celebrated the bicentennial of Raffles’ arrival on the island. Now, the new statue has set off a fresh debate, with critics pointing out that other countries have for years been taking down monuments to historical figures associated with slavery or imperialism, or both.

“The thing about Raffles is that, unfortunately I think, it has been delivered as a hagiography rather than just history,” said Alfian Sa’at, a playwright who wants to see the Raffles statues destroyed. “It’s so strange — the idea that one would defend colonial practice. It goes against the grain on what’s happening in many parts of the world.”

The new statue of Raffles stands next to one of his friend Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist, at Fort Canning Park. Tan Kee Wee, an economist who pooled $330,000 with his siblings to commission the statues, said he wanted to commemorate the pair’s role in founding Singapore’s first botanic gardens, which were his frequent childhood haunt. He donated the sculptures in his parents’ name to the National Parks Board.

Opponents have also criticised the government for allowing the statue to go up at the park because it was the site of the tomb of precolonial Malay kings. The parks board said it considered historical relevance in the installation of the sculptures.

Questions about the statue have even been raised in Singapore’s parliament. In June, Desmond Lee, the minister for national development, responded to one by saying that Singapore did not glorify its colonial history. At the same time, Lee added, “We need not be afraid of the past.”

The plaque for the Raffles statue explains how Singapore’s first botanic gardens “cultivated plants of economic importance, particularly spices”. That, critics said, was a euphemism for their actual purpose: cash crops for the British Empire.

Tan defended the legacy of British colonialists in Singapore, saying they “didn’t come and kill Singaporeans”.

He added: “Singapore was treated well by the British. So why all this bitterness?”

Far from benign

But colonial Britain was far from benign. For instance, it treated nonwhite residents of Singapore as second-class citizens. Raffles created a town plan for Singapore that segregated people into different racial enclaves. And he did not interact with the locals, said Kwa Chong Guan, a historian.

“He was very much a corporate company man, just concerned with what he assumed to be the English East India Co’s interests,” Kwa said.

Raffles landed in Singapore in 1819 as Britain was looking to compete with the Dutch in the Malacca Strait, a crucial waterway to China. At the time, Singapore was under the sway of the kingdom of Johor in present-day Malaysia. Raffles exploited a succession dispute in Johor to secure a treaty that allowed the East India Company to set up a trading post in Singapore.

Within a handful of years, Singapore was officially a British territory. Convict labour, largely from the Indian subcontinent, was crucial to its economic development. So, too, were Chinese immigrants, which included wealthy traders and poor labourers.

Singapore achieved self-governance in 1959, then briefly joined Malaysia before becoming an independent republic in 1965. It has since built one of the world’s most open economies and among its busiest ports, as well as a bustling regional financial hub.

In recent years, the government has acknowledged, in small ways, the need to expand the narrative of Singapore’s founding beyond Raffles. Its textbooks now reflect that the island was a thriving centre of regional trade for hundreds of years before Raffles arrived.

In 2019, officials cast the commemoration of Raffles’ arrival as also a celebration of others who built Singapore. A Raffles statue was painted over as if to disappear into the backdrop. Placed next to it, though only for the duration of the event, were four other sculptures of early settlers, including that of Sang Nila Utama, a Malay prince who founded what was called Singapura in 1299.

To some historians and intellectuals, such gestures are merely symbolic and ignore the reckoning Singapore needs to have with its colonial past. British rule introduced racist stereotypes about nonwhites, such as that of the “lazy” Malay, an Indigenous group in Singapore, that has had a lasting effect on public attitudes. Colonialism led to racial divisions that, in many ways, persist to this day in the city-state that is now dominated by ethnic Chinese.

“If you only focus on one man and the so-called benevolent aspect of colonialism, and you don’t try to associate or think about the negative part too much, isn’t that a kind of blindness, or deliberate amnesia?” said Sai Siew Min, an independent historian. (Story continues below)

Role of race

Race relations played a role in Raffles’ ascension in Singaporean lore. Soon after Singapore became independent, the governing People’s Action Party — which remains in power decades later — decided to officially declare Raffles the founder of Singapore. Years later, S Rajaratnam, who was then the foreign minister, said that anointing a Malay, Chinese or Indian as its founder would have been fraught.

“So we put up an Englishman — a neutral, so there will be no dissension,” Rajaratnam said.

The decision was also meant to indicate that Singapore remained open to the West and free markets.

In a 1983 speech, Rajaratnam acknowledged that Raffles’ attitude toward the “nonwhite races was that without British overlordship the natives would not amount to much”.

Critics of the Raffles statues also argue that his legacy should reflect his time on the island of Java. Although Raffles outlawed slavery in Singapore, he allowed trading of slaves in Java, including children as young as 13, according to Tim Hannigan, who wrote a book about Raffles.

The new statues of Raffles and Wallich were created by Andrew Lacey, a British artist. The sculptures evoke the two men as apparitions — symbolism that Lacey said represented the world’s evolution away from the West.

Lacey said he had “wrangled” with the public reaction toward his sculptures and he had no qualms if Singaporeans wanted to take them down, destroy them or replace their heads with the Malay gardeners who were instrumental in creating the botanic gardens.

“I was cognisant of the complexities of making any dead white male,” he said of Raffles. “I wasn’t cognisant of the degree of complexity around him.”

[scotianostra]

On 17th February 1818 the grave of Robert Bruce was uncovered at Dunfermline Abbey.

The body of King Robert was disturbed by workmen clearing the rubble of the collapsed Abbey tower in 1818. It was still wrapped in the winding sheet of gold cloth in which it had been buried in 1329. Following exhumation the body remained unburied for 22 months. During this time a mould was made of the king’s skull and several casts were made.

King Robert I of Scotland – Robert the Bruce as most of us know him – is undoubtedly one of Scotland’s most celebrated monarchs. Much of what we know about his life and reign comes to us through written sources, but archaeology has also furnished us with several artefacts that offer a tangible link with Scotland’s hero-king.

Perhaps the most dramatic archaeological discovery associated with Bruce was the unexpected unearthing of a body believed to be Bruce’s during building work at Dunfermline Abbey in 1818.

As early as 1314, Bruce had expressed a desire to be buried at Dunfermline with ‘our royal predecessors’, as he put it. Seven previous Scottish monarchs had been buried at the abbey, including St Margaret, whose shrine attracted pilgrims from across Europe.

To that end, Bruce paid for an ornate tomb to be made for himself and his queen, made from white marble shipped from Italy with a slab of black Frosterley marble from northern England beneath it. Sadly, the tomb was smashed during the Scottish Reformation, but several fragments of the expensive Italian marble have survived – some of which are now on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

In 2017, specialists digitally recreated Bruce’s tomb and you can read all about it in case study on the ScARF website here https://scarf.scot/thematic/future-thinking-on-carved-stones-in-scotland/future-thinking-on-carved-stones-in-scotland-case-studies/case-study-the-tomb-of-robert-the-bruce/

While it is not entirely clear whether the body found in 1818 was Bruce’s, but the sheet of gold cloth is the clincher for me. I don’t know how much of it remains, but the second pic shows a remnant on display at the National Museum. The body was examined by Alexander Munro, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, and briefly displayed to the public before being reinterred in 1819.

The cast of the skull, as seen in the first pic, has been the basis of several facial reconstructions of the king, with the most recent being undertaken in 2016 using the cast belonging to The Hunterian in Glasgow, as seen in the last pic.

Following his death in June 1329, Bruce’s body was buried at Dunfermline but his heart was removed and – after a brief but eventful trip to Spain – was buried at Melrose Abbey in the Scottish Borders.

While this practice was often frowned upon by the Church (Bruce had to get permission from the Pope before doing it), it appealed to Bruce because it would mean that prayers and masses would be said for his soul by the religious communities of both Melrose and Dunfermline, which would decrease the time he would have to spend in Purgatory for all of the sins he had committed during his lifetime, which would have been considerable, given his fearful reputation.....HOWEVER! For those of you who are religious out there, at least to the Roman Catholic “flavour” King Robert is now definitely in his Heaven as Pope Francis has abolished the places where souls were supposed to go after death

Pics three and four are how the originally tomb would have looked, and how it is today.

[art-that-fucks-you-up-tournament]

SET SIXTEEN FINAL - ROUND FOUR

"Unfinished Painting" (1989 - Keith Haring) / "Saturn Devouring His Son" (c. 1819–1823 - Francisco Goya)

UNFINISHED PAINTING: A self-portrait left intentionally "incomplete". I'm roughly the same age as Haring was when AIDS ended his life and I can only begin to imagine how it must feel to know that your life has been cut short a third of the way through. I get such a lump in my throat each time I look at this. (louisianna)

SATURN DEVOURING HIS SON: This painting already gave me the heebie jeebies a bit but I got the chance to see it in person a while back and WOW. I was just filled with such deep dread and discomfort standing in the gallery, like there was just a gaping hole in my gut. The detail that really was the cherry on top of the experience is honestly how goopy his eyes are. You feel like he's staring right at your soul to be honest. Beyond terrifying (100000/10 would recommend) (broke-on-books)

("Unfinished Painting" is an acrylic on canvas painting by Keith Haring. It measures 39 x 39 in (99 x 99 cm) and is located in National Portrait Gallery, in Washington DC. This was Haring’s last painting and it was intentionally left incomplete.

"Saturn Devouring His Son" is a 1819-23 mixed media mural transferred to canvas (originally painted on the wall of his dining room) by Spanish artist Francisco Goya during one of the darkest periods of his life. It measures 143.5 cm × 81.4 cm (56.5 in × 32.0 in) and is displayed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.)

[sgiandubh]

National personification

The UK has Britannia. France has Marianne. The US have Uncle Sam. National personifications, summing up supposed collective qualities and passing on a message, both to citizens and foreigners alike. Instantly recognizable by just about anyone. To be found everywhere, from city halls (busts, frescoes, tapestries) to subway walls (Army conscription posters - of course it rings a bell!).

Romania has this:

This is Revolutionary Romania, as seen by C.D. Rosenthal, an Austrian painter who found both friendship and an avid clientele among the Romanian young rebels who tried and failed to overthrow the corrupted Ottoman rule, in 1848. Following them in exile and probably also spying on their behalf, Rosenthal was finally arrested in Budapest and tortured to death by the Imperial authorities: a normal occurrence in troubled times. His memory went on and on and on, because the same friends were soon to come back home and become ministers, bankers, newspaper owners: a modern democracy slowly emerged.

This is his most famous portrait and it quickly became our Britannia of sorts. Ceaușescu had it placed in his office, for inspiration - it did not help much, though.

The woman painted by Rosenthal holds the red, yellow and blue flag and is dressed in a Southern peasant costume, as it was worn at the time. She gazes with strength, determination and confidence towards a future that spells free press, parliamentary elections, industrialization and capitalist speculation. In real life, she is Maria Rosetti, a personal friend and sponsor of his. The wife of C.A. Rosetti, an authentic Prince of Genoese and Greek stock, one of the leaders of both the rebellion and the future Liberal Party. Also a many times removed relative of this blogger - but let's not insist. 😉

There is a catch, however, in all this fine and dandy story. Our national personification, the woman I just mentioned, is Scottish. Her life begins in Guernsey in 1819, as Marie Grant, the daughter of Captain Edward Grant, a ship-owner businessman and member of the Clan Grant of Carron and Spey and Marie La Lacheur, a French Huguenot woman.

These people, who fought as Jacobites at Prestonpans and Culloden and whose motto was 'Stand Fast':

Marie came to Wallachia, or what is now the Southern part of Romania, around 1837, following her younger brother, Effingham Grant, who just managed to find a lucrative job as the private secretary of another Scot (Glaswegian, even), Robert Gilmour Colquhoun, the newly appointed British Consul-General. At the time, these were long term postings, not unlike a long sojourn on a space station of sorts: Colquhoun remained in Bucharest from 1835 to 1854, when he eventually was posted to Bosnia.

Because she needed to support herself, Marie found a well paid live-in job as a governess for the family of Ion Odobescu, a high ranking Police honcho (also a far removed relative, this time on my maternal grandmother's side - the world is really, really small). The rest was easy enough: having met Rosetti through her brother, they fell in love, eloped to Plymouth and got married there, for what was to become a life long equal political and business partnership. Because they owned several newspapers, she is our first female journalist. A truly remarkable woman, a philanthropist and an indispensable voice advocating for the dispossessed. Effingham went on to establish the biggest foundry in the country, along with a real estate company, a tobacco manufacture, an orchid greenhouse and a bread factory - all prospered beyond any expectations. A heavy traffic steel bridge in Bucharest still bears his name. Enduring legacies.

For those brave enough or bored enough to look for more, here is the best detailed account on her I could find, based on Guernsey sources (but not only): https://www.priaulxlibrary.co.uk/node/386 .

[my-deer-history]

I also saw La Fayette, whose character having been at one time elevated far beyond its intrinsick merit, has been since as unjustly decried. His object was probably never well defined even to himself, but that he meant the good of his country, connected indeed with his own exaltation, is not, I think, to be doubted. What the effect of the revolution will ultimately be to France, we are yet to learn, but to him it has been certainly productive of every ill. It has robbed him of rank, fortune, and friends, and has subjected him to exile, to imprisonment, and to disgrace. He nevertheless looks better than when I knew him many years ago, during the war, and has an air of tranquillity, and I should say of contentment, if I thought it possible, for he cannot but have some bitter moments; moments during which reflections must force themselves upon him [...] It is singular, that of all the various parties which have succeeded each other in France, no one has expressed itself satisfied with the conduct of La Fayette. [...] You will say, perhaps, that I do not speak as advantageously as I ought of our old friend the Marquis; but his conduct was perhaps never strictly proper; and with respect to America, I do not think it will be approved hereafter, when passion shall have given way to reason. He had made every preparation for an excursion to Greece and Asia Minor in '76, when it was accidently suggested to him that he might serve his country and acquire reputation by taking part with the Americans. Animated by the hostility of a Frenchman towards the ancient rivals of his nation, his object was to render the breach irreparable between the colonies and the mother country

Francis Kinloch, Letters from Geneva and France (1819)

[theworstfoundingfathers]

THE GRAND FINALE WHO IS THE TRULY THE WORST FOUNDING FATHER?

THOMAS JEFFERSON VS HENRY LAURENS

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, and philosopher who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Following the American Revolutionary War and prior to becoming the nation’s third president in 1801, Jefferson was the first United States secretary of state under George Washington and the nation’s second vice president under John Adams.

Starting in 1803, he promoted a western expansionist policy with the Louisiana Purchase and began the process of Indian tribal removal from the newly acquired territory.

Jefferson lived in a planter economy largely dependent upon slavery, and used slave labor for his household, plantation, and workshops. Over his lifetime he owned about 600 slaves.

During his presidency, Jefferson allowed the diffusion of slavery into the Louisiana Territory hoping to prevent slave uprisings in Virginia and to prevent South Carolina secession. In 1804, in a compromise on the slavery issue, Jefferson and Congress banned domestic slave trafficking for one year into the Louisiana Territory.

In 1819, Jefferson strongly opposed a Missouri statehood application amendment that banned domestic slave importation and freed slaves at the age of 25 on grounds it would destroy the union.

Jefferson never freed most of his slaves, and he remained silent on the issue while he was president.

Since the 1790s, Jefferson was rumored to have had children by his sister-in-law and slave Sally Hemings, known as the Jefferson-Hemings controversy. According to scholarly consensus…as well as oral history, Jefferson probably fathered at least six children with Hemings.

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Henry Laurens (March 6, 1724 [O.S. February 24, 1723] – December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laurens succeeded John Hancock as its president. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and, as president, presided over its passage.

Laurens had earned great wealth as a partner in the largest slave-trading house in North America, Austin and Laurens. In the 1750s alone, this Charleston firm oversaw the sale of more than 8,000 enslaved Africans.

Laurens’ oldest son, Colonel John Laurens, was killed in 1782 in the Battle of the Combahee River, as one of the last casualties of the Revolutionary War. He had supported enlisting and freeing slaves for the war effort and suggested to his father that he begin with the 40 he stood to inherit. He had urged his father to free the family’s slaves, but although conflicted, Henry Laurens never manumitted his 260 slaves.

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By popular vote, this final round will run for one full week

Please reblog so we can get the biggest sample size possible and figure who is TRULY the worst

[foggyfanfic]

The Madrigal’s Indigenous Roots

Writing this down because I just got hit with the random urge to make sure my head canons aren’t implausible at 2am and it’s entirely likely I will forget it by morning. So! Assuming that the triplets are born 1900 and Alma is 19 at the time, that means she was born in 1881.

Rabbit hole and rambling under the cut. (Unedited too).

Apparently, according to Wikipedia, colonization of what we now call Colombia (and Panama) started when the Spanish arrived in 1499, and the country won independence from Spain in 1819. We’ll skate over the next few decades of governments, and skip straight to when Alma was alive, so when she’s born it was the United States of Colombia from 1863-1886 when it became the Republic of Colombia. Interestingly, when Encanto was established, Panama would have still been a part of Colombia since they didn’t secede until 1903, which means that for those who head canon that the Encanto is completely cut off from the world, as far as Alma knows, Panama is not a country.

(Vitally important that I make a note that research into the natural history of the land now called Colombia has shown there were once giant sloths there.)

From the art book we know that the family has indigenous roots, so let’s look up the pre-Columbian countries and tribes (since I’m seeing some mention of nomadic people and I don’t think you technically call those countries). When the Spanish started conquering, they conquered the “Chibchan Nations”, which seems to be nations that spoke the shared language of Chibcha, mainly the nations of Muisca and Tairona. Let me click the little links to get clarification if I’m reading that right.

Oh.

I don’t like the little links.

Ok, well that’s not great, it’s estimated that 80-90% of the population of pre-columbian Colombia was killed off due to the invading Spaniards. Partially due to direct conflict, partially due to disease. The city Bogota is named after the way the Spanish pronounced the name of a Muisca leader that tried to oust the invaders, Zipa (that’s his title not his first name) Tisquesusa. They referred to him as Bogota the Elder and he died with the name Facatativá and this article is not explaining to me what the whole name thing is about, other than the fact that his name is apparently debatable. But! If we assume the Encanto is near the city of Bogota, which is named after a Muisca leader, then it seems reasonable to head canon that the Madrigal’s indigenous roots are from the Muisca tribe. So let’s look into them a bit more.

Awesome, geography of this country looks right for what we see in the movie.

So the Muisca were supposedly organized into the Confederation of Muisca when the Spanish invaded, but that comes from Spanish scholars who were recording this history long after the invading had been going on for a long time. In other words, take this information with not just a grain of salt, but like an entire tablespoon of it. Reportedly, the Confederation was made up of a few different tribes led by Zipos, Zacques, priests, and assorted other leader type people. Since this information is coming from a slightly sketchy source I don’t feel too bad wondering if this is an oversimplification of their political system on the part of the Spanish scholars. Real people are never divided up into subgroups that neatly. They seemed to be a largely agricultural nation, although they were also known as “the salt people” because they had profitable salt mines.

(It would also be worth it to look up the Muzo tribe since they were “the emerald people” for similar reasons.)

Ah, here we go, can’t find dates for when Muisca reservations were established, but I can find dates for when they were dissolved, and it looks like the ones in the Bogota region would have still been in Muisca hands up into the 1900’s. So yes, I am going to operate under the assumption that Alma has family that lived on those reservations. Let’s say they lived on the Tocancipá one (dissolved in the mid twentieth century). We can even assume that her ties to the tribe are still relatively recent, if we assume the connection is as recent as her grandmother then we can put on our rose colored glasses and say her grandmother left the tribe for nonviolent reasons. Like true love or something.

Now I just need to find information on Muisca culture that’s as bias-free as possible. I know that some of the cultures in that area were what we would now consider to be liberal leaning, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Muisca tribe living in Tocancipá would be. But that can happen later, Imma stop here for now.

[gagmewitha-spork]

A Hard Time (Vicky Losada x reader)

Warnings: none.

Description: Vicky and reader are married but play for different clubs, so she decides to surprise reader after a tough couple of months apart.

Notes: requested. “reader and vicky are togther and say it's a weekend that vicky hasn't got a game so.goes to surprise reader at a Barca game”

Word count: 1819

It had been almost two months at this point since you had last seen your wife, and it was starting to take its toll on you. All you did was get up, go to training, go home and wait until she too had finished training and was available to call you. You would then spend the rest of the day on FaceTime, until your phone died, or you fell asleep.

Vicky could tell you were struggling, not that you would tell her, you didn’t want her to worry about you, but she could tell. From the way you always answered her calls within seconds of her pressing the call button, to your insistence that you weren’t too tired to keep talking, even though the bags under your eyes always gave you away.

She missed you too, in all the years you had been together, you had never been apart for longer than a week or so. But since her move to city, the two of you had struggled to find more than a few spare weeks here and there to spend together during the season. And since you had spent the summer playing in the euros, and she had her own busy punditry schedule, you hadn’t had much time then either.

Vicky couldn’t help but feel like it was her fault you were so low, she was the one who had left Barcelona. She knew you understood why she had to leave, and you had supported her throughout it all, but deep down she had a feeling like she was abandoning you. You had always assured her you didn’t think about it like that at all, and she believed you, but she still felt it.

It had been over a year now since she had moved to city, and the distance had been getting easier to deal with. Until everything with the national team started happening. She understood, of course she did, she had been through basically the exact same thing, and you had been there for her through it all. But she couldn’t be there for you if she was in Manchester and you were back in Barcelona, and she hated not being able to hold you as you cried.

All this had led to her decision to fly out to Barcelona to see you. With you no longer being called up to the national team, it meant you had a large chunk of the international break off, and you planned to spend the whole time with your wife. You just needed to get this game against Real Madrid out of the way first.

For once you were in a good mood, your teammates all knew why, and it wasn’t because you were playing in the El clásico, though you did always enjoy these games. It was because in a few days time you would be picking your wife up from the airport back in Barcelona and spending four full uninterrupted days with her. What you wouldn’t give for it to be longer, but right now you would take all you could get.

However, unbeknownst to you, Vicky had decided to fly out a few days early, so she could watch and support you and her old team.

The day dragged if you were honest. All you could think about was finishing the game and getting on the train back home where you would be one step closer to seeing your wife in person once more. But of course you were clock watching, and so the minutes dragged by for what felt like the longest day of your life until eventually you found yourself on the pitch warming up before the game.

Vicky sat in the stands, a hat and glasses on in order to ensure you didn’t recognise her too soon. She smiled to herself as she watched you warm up with the team, she couldn’t wait to hold you in her arms again. You seemed happy in the moment, you were laughing along to something with Mariona. Vicky found herself feeling relieved that you were still finding happiness in smaller moments like this, even if overall you were having a hard time.

The game was pretty rough, as they all are against your rivals, and you had taken a fair number of bumps throughout it so far. Vicky had been screaming along with the other Barca fans in the stands around her telling the ref to sort herself out and actually make some calls. You could have sworn that you’d heard her voice amongst the fans, and several times your head had swivelled to scan the stands in search of her face. Of course you never found it, she was in Manchester, you just really missed her that was all.

With about 15 minutes of the game left you were subbed off, Irene taking your place next to Mapi in the back line. You walked slowly down the side of the pitch from where you had exited, clapping to the travelling fans as you walked by them. That’s when you saw her face. It was just a flash and as soon as you blinked it was gone. You blinked a few more times and shook your head to yourself.

Sitting down on the bench next to Keira, who had also just come off, she handed you a jacket and bib.

“I think I’m going insane”, you muttered, partially to yourself but loud enough that the English woman next to you could hear.

“Why’s that?”, she asked you curiously, a look of both amusement and confusion on her face.

“I swear I just saw Vicky in the crowd”, you shook your head again and rubbed your eyes, maybe your lack of sleep was starting to make you see things.

“Maybe she’s come to surprise you?”, Keira suggested, nudging your shoulder, “or maybe you are just going insane”, she continues suggesting when you stay silent. Again you don’t respond, just looking down at the ground at your feet instead, “you’re allowed to miss her”, she says now, getting a little more serious, “she’s your wife, you’ve spent most of your careers together until now”, she wraps an arm around your shoulder, pulling you into her side, “just a couple more days until she’s back here anyway”.

“And then she’ll be gone again almost straight away”, you mumbled, not really meaning for her to hear.

“Hey don’t think like that, it’ll just taint the time you have together if that’s all you can think about”, if you hadn’t known Keira for a while now, through Vicky of course, you would have been embarrassed to be taking advice from someone almost 6 years younger than you, but you also knew that she had quite literally been in this position before.

“You’re right, you’re right”, you sat up, your eyes settling on watching the remaining few minutes of the game, and were just in time to see Frido score. You cheered with the rest of the bench, your mind briefly occupied by something other than missing the love of your life.

——

The game ended 0-4, and Barca’s victorious streak over Real Madrid remained intact. You were celebrating with the rest of the team when you saw her again. You blinked, rubbing your eyes and when you opened them she was gone again. You were definitely going insane you thought to yourself. You wound your way through the moving celebrating bodies around you and found Keira again.

You didn’t say anything but she wrapped her arm over your shoulder and you celebrated with her before everyone started heading inside to change.

Walking up the corridor towards to locker room you heard a familiar voice and as soon as you rounded the corner you recognised her immediately.

“Jennifer Hermoso”, you announced her name loudly. Jenni was one of your best friends, you had played together for Spain and several club teams for a long time. You had missed her since she’d moved to Mexico, though you had to admit, her being missing from your life had been largely overshadowed by how much you had been missing Vicky. Nevertheless, it was great to see her and as you approached she wrapped her arms around you in a classic bone crushing Jenni hug.

“I missed you my friend”, she said in your ear, and proceeded to lift you off your feet slightly.

“I missed you too”, you giggled as she held onto you.

“Jenni, you’d better not be making a move on my wife!”, a voice shouted from down the hallway.

Your face dropped at the voice. It couldn’t be. Jenni dropped you to the ground and you immediately whipped around to look for the source of the voice you had missed so much.

You found her quickly, she stood a little way back up the hallway where you’d come in from, and you froze. It was like you were too scared to move any closer, for her face to become clearer and reveal itself to be someone other than Vicky.

“You better still have time to catch up with me later”, Jenni whispered in your ear and as soon as you were finished, it’s like her voice had cut the cables to the breaks that had your feet rooted to the ground. You took off running towards your wife, throwing yourself into her arms once you were close enough. She had brace herself for it so caught you easily.

“Is it really you?”, you sobbed into her neck.

“It’s me, it’s me”, she held you tight. It was her, even after being away from her for a few months you could tell it was her. Her smell, she feel of her arms wrapped around you, it was her.

You pulled back a bit, though kept your legs wrapped around her waist so she could easily hold you up, and held her face in your hands, “I thought I was going insane”.

“What?”, she questioned, she had expected you to say you’d missed her, or at least something along those lines.

“I knew I saw you in the crowd during the game, and again just after it finished”, you informed her, “but you kept disappearing, I thought I was losing my mind seeing you everywhere”, you laughed lightly.

“Well I’m here”, she smiled up at you, “now give me a kiss”, she had barely finished her sentence before your lips were on hers.

Her lips felt exactly how you remembered them as they moved against your own. Her hands squeezed your hips gently and you hummed into the kiss.

“Okay okay”, a voice interrupted the two of you, “save that for later”, Mapi laughed as Vicky lowered you back to the ground. You rolled your eyes at your blonde teammate as she flung her arms over your shoulders and guided the two of you into the locker room, “we have a win to celebrate first”.

[best-hohenzollern-ruler]

Bonus Round: Best General

Prince Heinrich of Prussia (1726–1802)

Prinz Heinrich prominently served as a general during the Seven Year's War. What contemporaries and historians alike have found so impressive about his leadership was that he made so few, if any, blunders in carrying out the war. This was a sentiment echoed by his brother, Frederick the Great, who absorbs much of the credit by osmosis. His victories and maneuvers allowed his brother to carry on a war that the prince would have preferred to be ended sooner than 1756. Outside of war, he is his own colorful character, in line with that generation of Hohenzollern men and women.

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742-1819)

What hot blooded Prussian does not know the name Blücher? It is he we have to thank for the defeat of the villain Napoleon - not once, but twice! The first great defeat at Leipzig restored Prussia to her place of due prominence among the nations of Europe. At Waterloo, he and his troops arrived as Wellington's guardian angels to defeat the Corsican devil. The main army battered, the reserves shunted away, Blücher became an immortal hero to all who opposed shrimpy French tyranny.

Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)

Clausewitz's greatest achievement is his book Vom Krieg (On War), a tome that rewrote the rules of conflict for a post Napoleonic age. Among many of the revolutionary ideas contained with in it, a few to highlight are the "fog of war", the concept of friction and the idea of a military genius.

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (1800-1891)

As Chief of the Prussian General Staff, Moltke worked hand in hand with War Minister von Roon to deliver three swift victories for the Prussian state. It was his genius on display during Königgratz, during Sedan and Metz and Gravelotte. Without him, Prussia's ascendancy and Germany's unification would not have been possible.

Moltke understood that with the growing size of modern armies, generalship such as that underneath Napoleon or Blücher was unfeasible. Instead of a general leading his army as a whole, Motlke devised a corp system wherein smaller clusters of troops would move independently of each other — Theodor, get your hands off of me!