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rememberthealamoplease · 5 years ago

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Discovering the Alamo Mission in San Antonio: TheStory Behind The History

Whether you picked it up from history class, timely cinematic references, or just through social osmosis, almost everyone out there has at least heard of the Alamo. Or, how it was once called, the “Mision San Antonio de Valero.”

Originally a Spanish mission and fortress compound founded in the 18th century - in what is now San Antonio, Texas. The Alamo Mission in San Antonio would eventually become the stage of the renown “Battle of the Alamo" on March 6, 1836.

Today, it stands as part of the San Antonio Missions World Heritage site. But in between, the location has seen a lot of history, events, and interesting historical figures. So, let's delve a little deeper into the Alamo's background and explore some of them!

The Alamo Mission in San Antonio – A Brief Timeline

Back in 1716, the Spanish established several Roman Catholic missions in East Texas, but they were so isolated that they have difficulty keeping adequately provisioned. To help the situation, Martín de Alarcón – governor of Spanish Texas back then – set out to establish a waystation between the settlements along the Rio Grande and the new missions in East Texas.

Two years later, in April 1718, Alarcón led an expedition to found a new community in Texas. On May 1, the group erected a temporary mud, brush, and straw structure that would be the first to bear the name “Mision San Antonio de Valero.” One of several Spanish missions in Texas.

Within the year, that mission had moved to the western bank of the river to avoid flooding, and it kept growing over the years with new missions being established nearby. Then, in 1724, after remnants of a Gulf Coast hurricane destroyed the then existing structures at Mision San Antonio de Valero, it was moved to its current location.

For decades the complex kept expanding, and the first permanent building was likely the two-story, L-shaped stone residence for the priests. By 1744, over 300 Indian converts resided at the Mision San Antonio de Valero.

That same year, the first stones were laid for a more permanent church building, but that would collapse in late 1750. The reconstruction would not begin until eight years later.

The mission kept expanding between that period and was built to withstand attacks by Apache and Comanche raiders, something it would have to do before long. In 1745, 100 mission Indians successfully drove off a band of 300 Apaches, which had surrounded the presidio. Their actions saved the presidio, the mission, and likely the town from destruction.

Walls were erected around the Indian homes in 1758, likely in response to a massacre at the Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá. For additional protection, a turret housing three cannon was added near the main gate in 1762, and by 1793, an additional one-pounder cannon had been placed on a rampart near the convent.

Eventually, Teodoro de Croix – commandant general of the interior provinces – decided the missions were a liability and began taking actions to decrease their influence. In 1778, he ruled that all unbranded cattle belonged to the government, resulting in a great loss of wealth for the mission. Unable to support a larger population of converts, only 12 Indians remained by 1793

In 1793, Misión San Antonio de Valero was secularized and was shortly after abandoned.

The name “The Alamo” was adopted in the 19th century. In 1803, the abandoned compound was occupied by the Second Flying Company of San Carlos de Parras, from Álamo de Parras in Coahuila, which the locals took to simply calling the "Alamo Company."

The buildings were transferred from Spanish to Mexican control in 1821 after Mexico gained its independence, and soldiers continued to garrison the complex until December 1835, when General Martín Perfecto de Cos surrendered to Texian forces.

One year later, on March 6, 1836, the fabled "Battle of the Alamo” would take place.

The Alamo Mission in San Antonio – A Battle for History

The Battle of the Alamo took place between February 23 and March 6, 1836, and was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution.

After a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo in San Antonio de Béxar - Killing the Texian and immigrant occupiers. Santa Anna's cruelty during the battle would inspire many Texians, both legal Texas settlers and illegal immigrants from the United States, to join the Texian Army.

The Texians would defeat the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. But the battle of the alamo would take place a few months before.

After driving all Mexican troops out of Mexican Texas, about 100 Texians were then garrisoned at the Alamo. The Texian force grew slightly with the arrival of reinforcements led by eventual Alamo co-commanders James Bowie and William B. Travis. This was the stage of the battle that was going to make the Alamo Mission in San Antonio famous, and eventually would be recognized as the San Antonio Missions World Heritage Site.

On February 23, approximately 1,500 Mexicans marched into San Antonio de Béxar as the first step in a campaign to retake Texas. For the next ten days, the two armies engaged in several skirmishes with minimal casualties. Aware that his garrison could not withstand an attack by such a large force, Travis wrote multiple letters pleading for more men and supplies from Texas and from the United States, but the Texians were reinforced by fewer than 100 men because the United States had a treaty with Mexico, and supplying men and weapons would have been an overt act of war.

In the early morning hours of March 6, the Mexican Army advanced on the Alamo. After repelling two attacks, the Texians were unable to fend off a third one. As Mexican soldiers scaled the walls, most of the Texian fighters withdrew into the interior buildings. Occupiers unable to reach these points were slain by the Mexican cavalry as they attempted to escape.

The bloodshed was enormous. Between five and seven Texians may have surrendered; if so, they were quickly executed. Most eyewitness accounts reported between 182 and 257 Texians died, while most historians of the Alamo agree that around 600 Mexicans were killed or wounded.

Several noncombatants were sent to Gonzales to spread the word of the Texian defeat. The news sparked both a strong rush to join the Texian army and a panic, known as "The Runaway Scrape," in which the Texian army, most settlers, and the new, self-proclaimed but officially unrecognized, Republic of Texas government fled eastward toward the United States ahead of the advancing Mexican Army.

Within Mexico, the battle has often been overshadowed by events from the Mexican–American War of 1846–48.

In 19th-century Texas, the Alamo complex gradually became known as a battle site rather than a former mission. The Texas Legislature purchased the land and buildings in the early part of the 20th century and designated the Alamo chapel as an official Texas State Shrine.

The event that took place in the Alamo in San Antonio, the renowned "Battle of the Alamo," has since inspired many works of fiction and non-fiction, due to its historical significance.

The Alamo Mission in San Antonio – Protecting the Legacy

During the next half a decade, the Alamo Mission in San Antonio was sporadically used to garrison soldiers from both the Texian and Mexican armies, but it was ultimately abandoned.

In 1849 – after Texas was annexed to the United States – the U.S. Army began renting the facility for use as a quartermaster's depot. However, by 1876, the Alamo was abandoned once more, once the nearby Fort Sam Houston was established.

The Alamo chapel was eventually sold to the state of Texas, which conducted occasional tours but made no effort to restore it. The remaining buildings were sold to a mercantile company which operated them as a wholesale grocery store.

Then, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) formed in 1895 and began trying to preserve the historical significance of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio. Ten years later, due to the efforts of Adina Emilia De Zavala and Clara Driscoll, the state legislature was convinced to purchase the remaining buildings and to name the DRT as the permanent custodian of the site.

Emilia De Zavala, Clara Driscoll, and the Importance of Preserving History

Adina Emilia De Zavala (November 28, 1861 – March 1, 1955) was an American teacher, historian, and preservationist of Texas history. Clara Driscoll (April 2, 1881 – July 17, 1945), was a Texas-born businesswoman, philanthropist, and historic preservationist.

Together, these two great women were instrumental in the preservation of The Alamo in San Antonio.

With the Mision San Antonio de Valero and others like it falling in disrepair by late 1880, it was clear that these iconic buildings wouldn't last much longer if something wasn't done. In 1887, Emilia de Zavala formed the "De Zavala Daughters” an organization dedicated to preserving and marking Texas history. Shortly after, the organization changed its name and became a chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

In 1903, Adina Emilia De Zavala enlisted Clara Driscoll to join the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and chair the De Zavala fundraising committee to negotiate the purchase of the long barracks. A brilliant decision that secured the fate of the perseveration of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio.

With Clara Driscoll backing, just two years later, on January 26, 1905, Governor S.W.T Lanham signed legislation for state funding to preserve the Alamo property. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The Alamo in San Antonio, Today

The church of the Alamo stands today inside the restored ruins of the original mission walls. It’s a beautiful white stone whose iconic façade is brimming with breathtaking stonework. Looking just as it did back over 170 years back.

It’s a spending display of masonry of the period — four feet thick, 75 long, 62 wide, and 22 and a half feet high. The chapel's cruciform shape encases a baptistery, a confessional, and a sacristy.

The Alamo Mission in San Antonio has seen plenty of restorations over its long history, and while some of the original building didn't survive until today, what did is impressive. The chapel enjoys a metal roof dating from a hundred years back, thanks to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas – who also replaced the woodwork of the side and rear doors, and the windows.

The church, however, is not the only building that has seen restoration and remains until today.

Two of the living quarters in the Alamo can be visited, and a portion of the acequias that fed the mission and village field was preserved in 1968 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Located right in the center of downtown San Antonio, the once “Mision San Antonio de Valero” is open to the public all through the year. And as the most famous of the Spanish missions in Texas, The Alamo in San Antonio is definitely worth your while!

The complex includes the buildings, exhibits on Texas history, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, the museum shop, and gardens. Moreover, the chapel holds a collection of historical paintings and artifacts from Texan history.

You can always find history talks and tours for the public, and other San Antonio missions can be found nearby. If you are nearby, you should definitively scratch visiting “San Antonio Missions World Heritage Sites” from your tourist list!

#the alamo #misionSanAntoniodeValero

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chiseler · 5 years ago

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Peep Shows and Palaces

For all their immense impact on popular culture, movies began humbly, and for a while it looked like they might never be more than a minor amusement. The first movies shown to the American public, Edison's Kinetographs, appeared in the early 1890s. Because neither Edison nor anyone else had yet invented viable projectors, the first short film loops weren't shown on screens. One viewer at a time dropped a penny in the Kinetoscope peep show machine, turned the crank and watched the one-minute loop through the eyepiece. The peep show's appeal was as limited as its technology, and it never caught on outside of penny arcades.

Projectors came along soon enough anyway. Interestingly, given film's later impact on live performance, the first commercial screening of a projected movie in the U.S. was in a vaudeville theater: Koster and Bial's Music Hall on Thirty-Fourth Street, where Macy's is now, in 1896. Other vaudeville theaters followed suit. At first they screened films as what were called "chasers" -- acts at the end of the bill that were so bad or boring they cleared the house, making way for the next paying customers and the next cycle of performers. Because the films often just showed vaudeville acts recreated in silent pantomime, audiences shrugged and walked out on them.

As soon as projectors were developed, small-time showmen were traveling the country with them. They'd come into a town, identify a willing merchant, and set up a "store show" after regular business hours, screening their short films to the accompaniment of a local pianist, with maybe some local live acts as well.

The sea change came when store shows evolved into the nickelodeon (nickel Odeon), a permanent venue for screening short films. When a smal nickelodeon opened in Pittsburgh in 1905, its debut offering was Edwin S. Porter's twelve-minute Western (shot in Jersey and Delaware), The Great Train Robbery. Porter, the visionary head of Edison's movie production studios, pioneered directorial techniques still used in movies today. Both Porter's film and the nickelodeon concept were instant sensations and spread with amazing speed to other cities. In three years there were some ten thousand nickelodeons and small movie houses around the country.

There were around a hundred and twenty-five nickelodeons and movie houses in New York City by then, not counting the vaudeville theaters that also showed films. A third of them were on the Lower East Side. Many were in storefronts strung along the Bowery and other main avenues from Union Square down. Several were crowded around Union Square itself. The neighborhood's new immigrants flocked to movies, which, being simple melodramas and comedies enacted in silent pantomime, presented no language barrier. Nickelodeons and movie houses spread quickly to other immigrant neighborhoods in Manhattan, like the German Yorkville, Jewish Harlem and the Italian East Harlem. As they'd done for decades at live theater, working-class audiences participated fully in the movie, yelling advice to the actors, screaming, crying, leaping into the aisles, throwing things at the screen. Into the twenty-first century movie theater managers would struggle to impose order and quiet.

Although many of the venues on the Lower East Side were the cramped, dingy little nickelodeons of movie lore, some were much grander. In 1908 Tammany Hall's Big Tim Sullivan and his partner George Krause leased the Dewey Theater, their thousand-seat vaudeville house on Fourteenth Street (which they'd named for Admiral Dewey, hero of the Spanish-American War), to William Fox. Born Wilhelm Fried, Fox was a German Jewish immigrant from Hungary. He started a two-hour program combining short films and vaudeville acts, and charged a ten-cent admission. The Dewey was an early avatar of the plush movie palaces to come, with nice seats and uniformed ushers, and it was a huge success. The Dewey made movie-going safe and attractive for the middle class who had stayed away from the rowdy, smelly nickelodeons. Fox next rented the Academy of Music across the street, an 1854 opera house that had converted to vaudeville in the 1880s, and enjoyed similar success there. He went on to found the Fox Film Corporation, ancestor of Twentieth Century-Fox.

By 1915 studios in both New York and Hollywood were making feature-length films. The nickelodeon faded into history, more vaudeville houses were converted into cinemas, and soon the grand movie palaces, built solely and lavishly to screen films, began to appear. By the time sound was added in the late 1920s, movies were indisputably the dominant form of mass entertainment and starting to kill off vaudeville.

Marcus Loew rose up from the Lower East Side to help drive those developments. He was born in 1870 at Avenue B and East Fifth Street, in what was then known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany or Dutchtown. His father, recently emigrated from Vienna, worked as a waiter. Marcus began hawking newspapers on the street at age six to help the family make ends meet; by nine he'd quit school to work six days a week at a printing plant. He earned thirty-five cents a ten-hour day, making his weekly paycheck about fifty dollars in today's dollars. Soon he and a young partner were running their own small printing business and putting out a weekly shopper, the East Side Advertiser. By the mid-1890s he was a partner in a fur company, Baer & Loew, operating from a loft on Union Square.

In 1903 Adolph Zukor, who'd come up through the fur business in Chicago, opened a penny arcade, Automatic Vaudeville, around the corner from Baer & Loew on Fourteenth Street. Loew and Zukor became lifelong friends even after Loew decided to go into the arcade business for himself. He called his operation People's Vaudeville and opened his first one in a storefront on East Twenty-Third Street in 1905. He was on his way to building a chain of arcades in New York and other cities when he visited a newfangled nickelodeon in the Midwest and saw the future. Returning to New York, he converted People's Vaudeville to a nickelodeon. He also experimented with another type of amusement using film, called the scenic tour. A storefront was made up to look like the inside of a rail car. Films of passing scenery played outside the windows, while clackety-clack sounds and swaying seats added to the illusion. Amusement parks have rides today that are not significantly different in concept, just higher-tech.

Pretty soon Loew was building a chain of combination film-and-vaudeville houses, mostly on the East Coast. Loew's State Theatre in Times Square, opened in 1921, was one of the most popular movie-and-vaudeville palaces in the city. New Yorkers decided that Loew's should be pronounced low-eez, and you still meet some older ones who do. The State survived through various incarnations -- films from Some Like It Hot and Ben-Hur to The Godfather had their world premieres there -- until it was torn down for a Virgin Megastore in the 1990s.

Needing product to put in his theaters, Loew had bought William Morris' booking agency for live acts in the 1910s. He then acquired the film production houses Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Mayer Pictures to create MGM. By the time of his death in 1927, Loew's movie theaters, showing primarily or exclusively MGM films, had spread around the country and across the Atlantic to England. Meanwhile, what his friend Zukor started as an arcade with peep shows on Fourteenth Street grew up to be Paramount Pictures.

by John Strausbaugh

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snowdayinthearchives · 6 years ago

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hey i love history but don’t actually know much about anything at all and i was wondering how you got into it and if you have any interesting things/recommendations/time periods that really interest you?

Fantastic questions all around, and thank you so much for reaching out!

I got into history originally because of my family, and very much via the museum route. I visited my first museum when I was two months old (THANKS MOM AND DAD!!) and I still have the phobia of loud machinery because of it (we were at a Western Development Museum for the Threshermans’ Show and it had lotssss of loud farming implements, haha). Every summer after that we went to every small town museum we could manage, and it gave me a huge appreciation for “small” history--that is, not the history of great men a continent away, but of people like us, in places like this, doing their best.

My favourite historical topics and time periods are:

bicycles

fashion

fibre arts (sewing, yarncraft, quilting, darning, embroidery, etc)

the Ukrainian experience in Canada pre-WWII

advertising and propaganda

medical history (esp. epidemics, quarantine, and treatments)

the Long Nineteenth Century (1789-1914) and specifically the Belle Epoque (1871-1914)

Canadian history generally (but especially western Canadian from the 1880s to about the 1930s)

If you’re looking to go from “not knowing much about anything” to “knowing something about something,” I’d recommend:

Bridget’s Guide to Becoming (more of) a Historian

Start by remembering that you’ll never know all of history, which also means that nobody else will. If some guy is coming after your history cred for not knowing the minutiae of WWII battle strategy, he’s a worm and a coward. We all have strengths, and we all keep different knowledge.

Ponder your modern-day interests. If you already like something (which hopefully you do) then you have a starting-off point! It can be a hobby, a cause you’re passionate about, or even a specific person whose creations/contributions inspire you.

Get a library card. Libraries are inherently punk, need your support, and can provide you with nearly unlimited online and physical resources.

Expand your interests into the history realm. Do you like sports? Read about the powerhouse that was Tom Longboat, the fascinating (and sometimes bloody) history of the Mesoamerican ballgame, or the baffling beginnings of the Tour de France. More of a fashion fan? Learn about how tuberculosis affected hemlines, how green dye could maybe kill you, or how colours tell stories, from tartans to Metis sashes.

Read books, use archives to find photos, and look for reputable documentaries. If you’re getting bored, find something better! Listen to the music of the era! Try an old recipe (especially Depression Era ones because yikes)! Work on your family genealogy! Go to a museum!!!!

I hope this helps you on your journey! Let me know what your own interests are when you discover them :)

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awesomecitytravel · 6 years ago

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India best city in Mumbai.

The Indian city of Mumbai, known until 1995 as Bombay, is located in western India. Mumbai is the center of the state of Maharashtra, stands on the island Salset close to the mainland in the Arabian Sea. Certainly, this destination is a great place for touring Asia.

Mumbai is the financial hub of India, in the city, are the headquarters of the Central Bank, the largest stock exchanges and many large Indian companies. Defined as a city of contrasts Mumbai offers everything – from extreme poverty to lavish luxury. In the markets of the city smells like a bouquet of spices, to the streets to expose the Indian traditions, the kitchen is particularly hot. In this Indian metropolitan population of about 13,830,884 people (2010), making it the largest city in South Asia and second in size in the world. Mumbai is located in the center of one of the largest urban groups in the world, including new cities and towns.

In 1995 the town was officially renamed Mumbai because of the campaign to remove the names of European cities in India. The new name is derived from the name of the Hindu goddess Mumbadevi and “aay”, “mother” in Marathi. Hardly mind can clearly imagine the size of Mumbai. It is a vast city – it fit 17 million inhabitants, of which more than 60% live in shacks. Mumbai extends nearly 40 kilometers from north to south and is the main commercial and business hub of India. It was declared one of the world Alpha cities. Mumbai is the largest port in western India and handles more than half the passenger traffic in the country.

Mumbai IndiaIt is also the financial center of India, in the city are the headquarters of the Central Bank, the largest stock exchanges and many large Indian companies. The city produces 5% of the total gross domestic product.

Known worldwide by Bollywood film industry, representatives of which are considered the most influential people in the country. With such gigantic proportions is understandable and concentration of landmarks and beautiful buildings. Most of them can be seen in the south of Mumbai, where they built many neo-Gothic Victorian buildings, shops for antiques. This is actually part of the coastal city where there are a lot of nice restaurants and bars, a walk along the shore is something not to be missed. Here is popular among tourists and Asian travelers Fortress Colaba, and the entrance of India – the country’s national symbol. It is a yellow basalt transit from the Arabian Sea which works to remember King George V and Queen Mary in Mumbai. If you ever go to India Go, you can go to obokash Travel visa Agency.

Nightlife in Mumbai offers all the amenities and can please all parties. Overall, alcohol is prohibited in the city, but tourists can drink if they have a permit. An important condition is the consumption of alcohol is not shown. About Colaba many beer bars and some nice nightlife. Quarter Jarvis is what might be called slums of Mumbai. A unique place in Mumbai is Dhobi Ghat, which is generally open automatic launderette Mumbai. Dirty clothes here are handled by hundreds of laundry, called dhobis, who tossed rocks into lather clothing that was later put into huge vats of starch and dry after the owners returned. Haji Ali Mosque is the 19th century which is located on a scenic spot in the sea.

If you want to enjoy the sunset over the Arabian Sea, the perfect place for this is the Hanging Gardens of Mumbai, situated on the slopes of Malabar Hill, opposite the park “Kamala Nehru”. Ferozeshah Mehta called these hanging gardens were built in 1880, just above the largest reservoir of water in Mumbai. In 1921 they were fully reconstructed. The most remarkable parts of this park in Mumbai are cleverly hedges of cut in the shape of various animals – elephants, camels, giraffes and more. You may even see a massive and impressive clock of flowers. The gardens are constructed so that they can look at Kolaba and the inner part of Mumbai. Only an hour away by ferry from Mumbai is included in the list of World Heritage by UNESCO Elephanta Island. Here at the top of the hill lies the unique cave complex (Elephanta Caves) rock carved with scenes and images of the divine Shiva. Within Mumbai is located himself and Borivari National Park, one of the few in the world that come within the village.

#mumbai tour #visa processing services #visa agency

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astrogeoguy · 6 years ago

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The Old Moon occults Pre-dawn Planets, and Missing Moonlight Enhances the Ice Giants and Orion’s Spectacular Sword!

(Above: Rick Foster of Markham, Ontario captured this single frame image of Orion’s sword on through a Celetron C11 Edge telescope equipped with a Hyperstar Lens and DSLR camera on January 7, 2019. The Great Orion Nebula with its central Trapezium Cluster of stars is in the middle. The blueish Running Man Nebula is at top left and the bright stars at the bottom are dominated by Nair al Saif. This photo spans about 1.5 finger widths - top to bottom.)

Hello, Stargazers!

Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of January 27th, 2019 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics. I repost these emails with photos at http://astrogeoguy.tumblr.com/ where all the old editions are archived. You can also follow me on Twitter as @astrogeoguy! Unless otherwise noted, all times are Eastern Time. Please click this MailChimp link to subscribe to these emails. If you are a teacher or group leader interested joining me on a guided field trip to York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory or the David Dunlap Observatory, visit www.astrogeo.ca.

I can bring my Digital Starlab inflatable planetarium to your school or other daytime or evening event, visit DiscoveryPlanitarium.com and request me. We’ll tour the Universe together!

Public Astro-Events

Every Monday evening, York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory runs an online star party - broadcasting views from four telescopes/cameras, answering viewer questions, and taking requests! Details are here. On Wednesday nights they offer free public viewing through their rooftop telescopes. If it’s cloudy, the astronomers give tours and presentations. Details are here.

At 7:30 pm on Wednesday, January 30, the RASC Toronto Centre will hold their free monthly Recreational Astronomy Night Meeting at the Ontario Science Centre, and the public are welcome. Talks include The Sky This Month, an update on the David Dunlap Observatory, and news about a possible new planetarium for Toronto. Check here for details. Parking is free.

On Friday, February 1, starting at 7 pm, U of T’s AstroTour will present their free planetarium show entitled Grand Tour of the Cosmos. Details are here.

If it’s sunny on Saturday morning, February 2 from 10 am to noon, astronomers from the RASC Toronto Centre will be setting up outside the main doors of the Ontario Science Centre for Solar Observing. Come and see the Sun in detail through special equipment designed to view it safely. This is a free event (details here), but parking and admission fees inside the Science Centre will still apply. Check the RASC Toronto Centre website or their Facebook page for the Go or No-Go notification.

(Above: Here’s a smartphone picture of the January 20-21, 2019 total lunar eclipse. I took this from my driveway in Thornhill at 12:44 am EST by holding my Galaxy S8 smartphone’s camera over a 40 mm eyepiece mounted in my 12.5″ Obsession Dobsonian telescope. The exposure is 1/10 second.)

The Moon and Planets

On Sunday afternoon (today), the moon reaches its Last Quarter phase, when it rises at midnight and appears half-illuminated – on its western side. For the rest of this week, the moon will be in the pre-dawn sky, leaving the night sky nice and dark for stargazing. The late rising moon will also linger to remain visible in the morning daytime sky, especially on the coming weekend.

For the second time during January, the old moon will visit Jupiter and Venus. Between about 5 am and dawn in the southeastern sky on Thursday morning, the old crescent moon will land 2.5 finger widths to the upper right of bright Venus and 5.5 finger widths to the lower left of somewhat dimmer Jupiter – making a lovely sight in binoculars and a photo opportunity. To top it off, just after 6 am local time, Saturn will rise to sit two fist diameters to the lower left of the trio.

That pretty chain of objects strung along the ecliptic should remain visible in the growing twilight until about 7 am local time. Later on Thursday, the moon’s eastward orbital motion will carry it even closer to Venus, allowing observers to find Venus in broad daylight. Folks in eastern Micronesia, Polynesia (except Hawaii), the Galapagos Islands, southern Central America, and northwestern South America will see the moon cross in front of (or occult) Venus in daylight.

Finally, on Saturday before dawn, the waning crescent moon will pass less than 3 finger widths to the lower left of Saturn. Hours earlier, centered on 19:50 GMT, skywatchers in northern and northeastern Africa, southern and central Europe, Middle East, western Asia, and parts of Southern Russia can see the moon’s orbital motion carry it in front of that planet, too!

(Above: On Thursday, January 31, 2019, the waning crescent moon will pass between Venus and Jupiter. Two days later, it will pass near Saturn. Parts of the world will see the moon occult both Venus and Saturn this week! The sky is shown at 6:35 am local time.)

Moon or not, those three bright planets will be in the same part of the sky all week. Jupiter will be rising after 4 am local time, Venus about 30 minutes later, and dimmer, yellowish Saturn last – at about 6:15 am local time, in a brightening sky. Saturn and Jupiter will be lowly moving farther from the sun every morning, but Venus will be descending toward the sun. Mercury is passing by the sun this week, and will join the evening sky next week.

Mars remains an ideal target for stargazers (or planet-gazers) this week. After dusk, the Red Planet will appear as a medium-bright, reddish pinpoint of light halfway up the southwestern sky. It will set at about 11:30 pm local time. Mars is slowly shrinking in size and brightness as we increase our distance from it.

Mars has been setting at about the same time all winter because it is travelling east in its orbit at about the same rate that the distant stars are migrating west due to Earth’s motion around the sun. As a result, the planet has been steadily traversing the dim water constellations. In December, Mars passed very close to distant Neptune in Aquarius (the Water-Bearer). In mid-February, Mars will pass quite close to Uranus in Pisces (the Fishes).

(Above: This week, Mars continues to sit in the southwestern evening sky, between the distant, dim planets Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius. The sky is shown at 7:40 pm local time.)

Speaking of those ice giants, the missing moonlight is a good reason to try and see those two dim and distant planets. Blue-green Uranus is about 1.25 finger widths above, and slightly to the left of the modestly bright star Torcular (or Omega Piscium). This week, Uranus will already be at its highest point, over the southern horizon (the best position for seeing it clearly) after dusk, then set after midnight. Dim, blue Neptune will set shortly after 8:30 pm local time, so look for it as soon as the sky is dark, while it’s higher. Neptune is sitting about three finger widths to the upper left of the modestly-bright star Hydor (Lambda Aquarii). Hydor, and a pair of stars to its east (upper left), form a sideways narrow triangle with Neptune inside of it.

Orion’s Spectacular Sword

This is a perfect week to grab the binoculars and check out Orion (the Hunter). The distinctive constellation will stand up over the southern horizon at 9 pm local time during late January evenings, and we can enjoy it until late March.

(Above: The eastern evening sky in late January, early February features many bright winter constellations. The Milky Way’s path through Canis Major and up through Auriga has populated this area of the sky with many deep sky star clusters and nebulas (labelled symbols). The sky is shown for 8 pm local time.)

Orion’s spectacular sword is one of winter’s true astronomical treats. The sword is a few finger widths below Orion’s distinctive three-starred belt. Unaided eyes can generally detect three patches of light in Orion’s sword, but binoculars or a telescope quickly reveal that the middle object is not a star at all, but a bright knot of glowing gas and stars known as The Orion Nebula (or the Great Nebula in Orion or Messier 42, aka M42).

The Orion Nebula is one of the brightest nebulae in the entire night sky and, at 1,400 light-years from Earth, it is one of the closest star-forming nurseries to us. It’s enormous. Under a very dark sky, the nebula can be traced over an area equivalent to four full moons!

Buried in the core of the nebula is a tight clump of stars collectively designated Theta Orionis (Orionis is Latin for “of Orion”), but better known as The Trapezium, because the brightest four stars occupy the corners of a trapezoid shape. Even a small telescope should be able to pick out this four-star asterism, but good seeing conditions and a larger aperture telescope will show another two faint stars. The trapezium stars are hot young O- and B-type stars that are emitting intense amounts of ultraviolet radiation. The radiation causes the gas they are embedded in to shine brightly, by both reflecting off gas and dust as blue light and also by energizing Hydrogen gas, which is re-emitted as red light. That is why there is so much purple and pink in colour images of the nebula.

Within the nebula, astronomers have detected many young (about 100,000 years old) concentrations of collapsing gas called proplyds that should one day form future solar systems. These objects give us a glimpse into how our sun and planets formed.

Stargazers have long known about the stars in the nebula’s core, but detection of the nebulosity around them required the invention of telescopes in the early 1600’s. In the 1700’s, Charles Messier and Edmund Halley (both famous comet observers) noted the object in their growing catalogues of “fuzzy” objects. In 1880, amateur Henry Draper imaged it through an 11-inch refractor telescope, making it the first deep sky object to be photographed.

(Above: Orion’s spectacular sword hangs vertically below his famous 3-starred belt.)

In your own small telescope, you should see the bright clump of Trapezium stars surrounded by a ghostly grey shroud, complete with bright veils and dark gaps. More photons would need to be delivered to your eye before colour would be observed, so try photographing it through your telescope or with a camera/telephoto lens on a tripod. Visually, start with low magnification and enjoy the extent of the cloud before zooming in on the tight asterism. Can you see four stars, or more? Just to the upper left of M42, you’ll find M43, a separate lobe of the nebula. It surrounds the unaided-eye star nu Orionis (ν Ori).

While you’re touring the sword, look just below the nebula for a loose group of stars, 1300 light-years away from Earth, called Nair al Saif “the Bright One of the Sword”. This main star is a hot, bright star expected to explode in a supernova one day. It is surrounded by faint nebulosity, too. Astronomers believe that this star was gravitationally kicked out of the Trapezium cluster about 2.5 million years ago.

Sweeping down the sword and to the left (east) brings us to the star named Mizan Batil ath Thaalith (aka d Orionis) at the tip of the sword. This magnitude 4.7 star is near the limit for visibility in moonless suburban skies. About two finger widths to its right is another star of similar brightness, named Thabit, "the endurer".

Moving upwards towards Orion’s belt, half a finger’s width (30 arc-minutes, or the moon’s diameter) above the Orion Nebula, you’ll find another clump of stars dominated by c Orionis and 45 Orionis. A larger telescope, or a long-exposure photograph, reveals a bluish patch of nebulosity around them that contains darker lanes forming the shape of a figure, called the Running Man Nebula. This is another case of gas reflecting light from the two stars mentioned.

Just above the Running Man sits a loose cluster of a few dozen stars best seen in binoculars. Then we jump higher – most of the way towards Alnitak (the eastern-most belt star), to check out a beautiful little grouping of stars collectively called Sigma (σ) Orionis. What makes this a special treat is that, in a small telescope, we find four or five stars crammed together. Check it out with your telescope – trust me, it’s pretty! It’s a bit more than a finger width to the lower right of Alnitak. Let me know what you see!

Keep looking up, and enjoy the sky when you do. I love questions and requests - so, send me some!

#stars #constellations #Orion #Orion Nebula #Trapezium #Venus #Mars #jupiter in sagittarius #Running Man Nebula #Orion's Sword #astronomy

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schoolcalidity · 7 years ago

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“The Jews in Orientalism”

THE GHOSTS OF EDWARD SAÏD

A provocative Paris show of Orientalist art charts the European encounter with Sephardic Jewry

By Vladislav DavidzonJuly 2, 2012 • 7:00 AM

Walking through the astounding new show “Les Juifs dans l’orientalisme”—“The Jews in Orientalism”—in Paris, it is impossible to avoid the ghostly accompanying presence of the late Edward Saïd, who turned the term “Orientalism” into a curse against the West and a political weapon in the service of his people. Hung in the elegant halls of the three-and-a-half-century-old Hôtel de Saint-Aignan, home of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme (which by common acclaim has the most interesting programming of any Jewish museum in Europe), the show charts the European encounter with the Sephardic Jewish communities of Northern Africa and the Mediterranean rim at the beginning of the 19th century. Would Saïd, the great scourge of Western cultural condensation and appropriation, have taken the art that resulted from that encounter to be prime evidence in his case against the Occident? Or would he have dismissed it as a high-class form of Zionist-colonialist propaganda?

The lush and often fantastical “Orientalization” of the Jews of Northern Africa was an intrinsic part of the way the West came to understand and appreciate the East. The European fascination with the Orient began soon after first contact had been established by buccaneering 18th-century adventurers and continued as the French and British empires expanded into North Africa and the Middle East with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. One need not go any further than Chateaubriand or Flaubert’s travelogues to get a feel for the brooding romanticism of the adventurers who made Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt into standard stops on the grand tour route taken by ne’er-do-well aristocrats slumming their way toward Constantinople and Jerusalem.

The exhibition proffers a large number of Delacroix’s sketch notebooks and watercolors from Morocco. (The exhibit’s one glaring lacuna is the absence of Delacroix’s Jewish Wedding in Morocco, on loan in Spain from the Louvre.) Delacroix’s preparatory sketches, seldom seen separately from their Arab counterparts in his famous 1837-41 trip folios, are striking and ennobling, while Theodore Chasseriau’s diminutive and delicate ink portraits of the Jews of Algeria are empathetic and well wrought. Many of the other paintings and drawings are merely anthropological: Neoclassical depictions of gluttonous feasts; hermetic, almost Dutch synagogue interiors; and fresco group studies of old Jewish men lounging lazily on the Sabbath in front of Moorish scenes or in cozy souk alleyways.

Yet touchy questions of physiological categorization and the complexity of racial relations arise inexorably in others. Intimate portraits of Jewish matrons posing in their salons include African servant girls hovering in the background. Many of the paintings depict the Sephardic Jews as white-skinned, possessing European features, fostering a sense of the painter’s identification with them as fellow colonials—while other pictures depict Jews as very swarthy. In a few cases they are dark enough to give rise to suspicions of brown-face caricature. Dehodencq’s L’execution de la Juive, a thoroughly Orientalist historico-dramatic panorama of a stoic Jewish girl being led to slaughter for her apostasy in refusing to convert to Islam, is exactly the sort of thing that would have made Saïd throw a fit.

The Sephardic communities’ trade, religious and familial links with their European brethren, as well as their knowledge of languages and cultural practices, conferred on them a privileged status as gatekeepers and interpreters between Europeans and local Arab populations; without them there may not have been an encounter. There is also an undeniable division between the sensibilities of the Christian and Jewish European traveler-painters. The latter, especially the French neo-classicists Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, Charles Landelle, and Henri-Léopold Lévy, were able to distinguish between “universal” Jewish traits and flamboyant local phenomena—and far less apt to portray North African Jewry through the warping lens of “barbaric splendor.”

What begins ostensibly as the story of the representation of the Jews of the Orient in 19th-century European art morphs into a survey of the cultural place of the Jewish patrimony and of the Jew as an amalgamating, border-crossing force, the middleman between cultures, epochs, and artistic movements. The show is also compelling in its portrayal of the multiplicity and variety of Jewish modernisms, as the latter half of the 19th century saw a boom in the production of Holy Land painting and lithography for the consumption of tourists and pilgrims. The lush topography of Thomas Seddon’s and Gustav Bauernfeind’s landscapes and the spare tranquility of David Robert’s Old City lithographs will be familiar to anyone who has ever visited antique shops in Jerusalem. The inclusion of the more obscure paintings of Louis de Fobin and the Russian World of Art star Vasily Vereshchagin—his oil of the Western Wall painted in the 1880s is particularly lovely—is a testament to the depth and intelligence of the curatorial framing of the show.

A related trend during the period was the thunderous popularity of mass-produced and lavishly illustrated high-end Bibles among the English middle classes. A number of artists made several multiyear trips to the Holy Land to gather material for those illustrations, among them well-known figures such as James Tissot. These illustrations are a bridge between the classicizing and figurative representation of actual Jewish life in the Middle East and thematic appropriation by weavers of mythological tapestries for mass European consumption. Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s magnificent Joseph in the guise of an Egyptian Pharaoh, Moreau’s symbolist Salomé, and Horace Vernet’s painting of a Bedouin Jesus stand out here among recurring examples of the Orientalist fascination with kinky Jewish femme fatales.

The third section of the exhibit shows how the influence of the Orientalists looped back around to Polish artists living in the Pale of Settlement, Europe’s own Far East. It ends with the expansion of Orientalist motifs into the fledgling modernist experiments of the so-called New Hebrews—the Krakow- and Prague-trained artists such as Boris Schatz, Abel Pann, Ze’ev Raban, and Ephraim Moses Lilien, who opened the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem in 1906, bringing European sensibilities in experimentation and a modern teaching craft to Israel. This is a rarely told story, and the selection of paintings runs from the inspired to the bizarrely inspirational. But after the majesty of the preceding parts of this show, the finale feels shallow and undercooked. This is the only part of the exhibition that felt like the curators were grasping for an antecedent historical dialectic, which feels tacked-on.

Another consequence of the Franco-centric nature of the curatorial narrative here is the show’s underplaying of the English contingent of Orientalist artists. Though the smattering of English paintings is well chosen, the show offers a mere work or two each by such eminent orientalists as William Wyld, John Evan Hodgson, and Wil Boyl. There is, however, a wonderful William Hollman Hunt painting of a blue-eyed and red-haired pre-Raphaelite 12-year-old Jesus arguing in the Temple with aged and Semitic-looking priests. In its claiming of Jesus as a Christian European child engaged in oppositional dialogue with his aged ancestors, the painter quite clearly establishes what Saïd could never admit: that the specific 19th-century European fascination with the Orient was in some large part the manifestation of a much older cultural anxiety about the debt that Christian Europe owed to the pre-Islamic East.

***

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listerious · 4 years ago

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27 Famous Landmarks In Brussels

Brussels is the capital and largest city in Belgium, a small country in the heart of Europe. This central location has resulted in Brussels being the de facto capital of the European Union, which means a lot of European institutions are located in the city. The history of Brussels dates back to at least the 6th century when a small chapel was built on an island of the River Senne in a relatively swampy area. That's also the origin of the city's name, "Broekzele," which translates from Old Dutch to "home in the marsh." The founding of the city happened somewhere in the 10th century and the city's first fortified structure was built on that same island as well. The city gradually grew during the Middle Ages to become one of the most powerful cities in Europe in the 17th century, especially as the center of the lace industry. The city was heavily damaged in 1695 during the so-called "Bombardment of Brussels" by King Louis IVX of France, a tragic episode during the Nine Years' War (1688-1697). Many of the most famous landmarks in Brussels were rebuilt during this devastating event. Today, this bilingual city (Dutch and French) has grown to a metropolis of over 1.2 million inhabitants within its boundaries (2.5 million in the metropolitan area), and in this article, you can discover the most important attractions in Brussels!

1. Grand Place

Grand Place is the most important square in the city. It's located right in the historical heart of the city and is surrounded by highly decorative guildhalls dating back to the Baroque period. Most of the buildings on the square were destroyed during the "Bombardment of Brussels" in the year 1695 and rebuilt shortly after, except for the Town Hall. The yearly flower carpet definitely turns it into one of the most beautiful squares in Europe as well.

Grand Place in Brussels with flower carpet / Pixabay

2. Atomium

The Atomium isn't just one of the most famous landmarks in Brussels, it can easily be considered one of the most fascinating landmarks in the world. It was originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair and has dominated the city's skyline ever since. It's located on the Heysel Plateau where the World Fair took place. This is in the borough of Laeken in the northern part of the city. The structure stands 102 meters (335 feet) tall and features 9 steel-clad spheres which each have a diameter of 18 meters (59 feet).

Atomium / Pixabay

3. Manneken Pis

Manneken Pis is the most iconic monument in the city, located right in the center of Brussels at just a 5-minute walk from Grand Place. This bronze sculpture stands 61 centimeters (24 inches) and depicts a naked little boy urinating. The statue here is a replica put in place in 1965 which replaces the original version which put in place around 1618-1619. The original version of this iconic sculpture can now be admired in the Brussels City Museum.

Manneken Pis / Trougnouf / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

4. Town Hall

The Brussels Town Hall is the most fascinating building on Grand Place, and it's not only because of its incredible spire which reaches a height of 96 meters (315 feet) and which was completed in the year 1451. It's the only building that survived the 1695 Bombardement of Brussels by the French and is considered to be one of the most amazing examples of medieval Gothic architecture. Most of the building was completed in the 15th century.

The city's magnificent Town Hall at night / Pixabay

5. Brussels City Museum

The Brussels City Museum is the place where you can admire the original Manneken Pis sculpture and the entire history of the city of Brussels. It's located within the other prominent building on Grand Place, the so-called "King's House" or "Bread House." The original 15th-century building, on the other hand, was rebuilt following its destruction in the late 17th century. It was completely restored again in the 19th century in the neo-Gothic architectural style and the museum opened its doors in 1887.

Brussels City Museum / Donaldythong / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

6. Royal Palace of Brussels

The Royal Palace of Brussels is the official palace of the King and Queen of Belgium and is located right in the heart of the city just walking distance to the southeast of Grand Place. It's situated in a green area right in front of "Brussels Park" or "Warandepark." This palace isn't used as the residence of the royal family, though, because they live in the Royal Palace of Laeken in the northern suburbs of the city. The current building was constructed in 1783 and only fully completed in 1934.

Royal Palace of brussels / Pixabay

7. Parc du Cinquantenaire

The Parc du Cinquantenaire is also known as the "Jubelpark" and is a large urban park that covers a total area of 30 hectares (74 acres). It's situated in the easternmost part of the European Quarter in the center of the city. The centerpiece of the park is a U-shaped arcade that features a monumental arch called the Cinquantenaire Arch. The majority of the buildings were built in honor of the 1880 National Exhibition in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Belgian independence.

Parc du Cinquantenaire / Wiki Commons

8. National Basilica of the Sacred Heart

The National Basilica of the Sacred Heart is one of the most remarkable churches in Brussels and was dedicated to the Sacred Heart. This was inspired by the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur in Paris. It was built right on top of "Koekelberg Hill" in the western part of the city. The first stone of the church was laid in the year 1905 but its construction wasn't completed until the year 1969 following a delay caused by World War II. It features a magnificent dome that stands 89 meters (292 feet) tall and which is visible from multiple parts of the city.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart / Niels Mickers / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nl/deed.en

9. Le Botanique

Le Botanique is one of the most fascinating concert venues in Europe, mainly because it's located within a botanical glasshouse that was repurposed to a cultural center. This building was originally the Orangerie of the National Botanical Garden of Belgium but moved outside of Brussels to Meise in 1958. The current concert venue opened its doors in 1984 with most of the concerts taking place in the 650-capacity Orangerie.

Le Botanique / Ben2 / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

10. Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula

The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula is another fantastic historic building in the city of Brussels. It's dedicated to the patron saints of the city and was constructed between 1047 and 1519. This fascinating Gothic Cathedral is considered to be the epitome of the Brabantine Gothic architectural style, even though it has been modified quite a bit in the following centuries. It received cathedral status only in the year 1962.

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula / Donaldytong / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

11. Mont des Arts

The Mont des Arts or Kunstberg literally translates to "the hill of the arts" and is a cultural site in the center of the city. The area provides great views of the city because it's situated on a little hill. The cultural center features a public garden and various buildings including the Royal Library of Belgium, the National Archives of Belgium, and a convention center named the Square – Brussels Meeting Centre.

Mont des Arts / Kunstberg / Pixabay

12. Horta Museum

The Horta Museum is a museum dedicated to the man who is considered to be the founder of the Art Nouveau movement, Victor Horta. Here you can see where he worked as it's located in the former workshop of the artist. He was one of the first Art Nouveau artists and even though he moved away from this architectural style in his later years, he put his mark on the city of Brussels with the design of various buildings.

Inside the Horta Museum / J. Miers / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/deed.en

13. Place Royale

The Place Royale or Koningsplein is another monumental square in the center of Brussels. It dates back to the Neoclassical period and was built between 1775 and 1785, something that reflects in the architecture of the building flanking it. The square has the ideal classical proportions and has the shape of a rectangle. It was part of a larger urban plan which also included the nearby Brussel's Park near the Royal Palace, which is how the square got its name. The buildings some of the most famous museums in the city.

Place Royal / Koningsplein / Michiel Verbeek / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

14. Berlaymont Building

The Berlaymont building is one of the most important buildings in Europe because it houses the headquarters of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union. The building was constructed between 1963 and 1969 and is the centerpiece of the European Quarter in Brussels. Its unique design and shape are also reflected in the logo of the European Commission.

Berlaymont Building / Trougnouf / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

15. Mini-Europe

Mini-Europe is a miniature park that takes visitors all around Europe. It features the most important buildings in 27 member states of the European Union plus Great Britain at a scale of 1:25. The tour around the park allows you to discover over 350 buildings and landmarks and takes about 2 hours to complete. There can hardly be a better place to discover Europe and all its wonders than right in the heart of the continent, don't you think?

Mini-Europe next to the Atomium / Pixabay

16. Halle Gate

The Halle Gate or Porte de Halle / Hallepoort is a medieval fortified city gate that was built as a part of the second walls of Brussels. The first fortified walls surrounding the city were completed in the early 13th century while the second walls were finished in the late 14th century. The gate was completed in the year 1381 and was originally named the "Obbrussel Gate" or "Upper Brussels Gate" in reference to its location. It was renamed Halle gate in reference to the city it faces, Halle, just outside of Brussels. It now houses a museum which is part of the Royal Museums of Art and History.

Halle Gate / Jim / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

17. Law Courts of Brussels

The Law Court of Brussels is one of the most monumental landmarks in the city. It was constructed in the late 19th century between 1866 and 1883 in the eclectic architectural style, which means a combination of styles mixed together. It's one of the most famous landmarks in Brussels because it's considered to be the largest building constructed in the 19th century, a pretty astonishing record. It has a diameter of 160 × 150 meters (520 × 490 feet) and a height of 104 meters (341 feet).

Palais de Justice / Martin Mycielski / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

18. Hôtel Solvay

The Hôtel Solvay is a large house located in one of the main thoroughfares in Brussels called the Avenue Louise/Louizalaan. It was designed by Art Nouveau artist Victor Horta for Armand Solvay, the son of wealthy industrialist Ernest Solvay. This means that the house and its contents not only feature a remarkable architectural design, but also the most expensive use of materials. This late 19th-century UNESCO World Heritage site is still private property and has remained in the exact state as when it was completed.

Hôtel Solvay / Fred Romero / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

19. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium was originally established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801 and the first branch opened its doors in the year 1803. Following the Independence of Belgium, ownership was transferred to the city of Brussels and the Belgian State in 1845. The collection of museums are located in the Royal District of the city of Brussels on the Coudenberg, and consists of 6 different museums (2 located in the man building) containing fine art of Belgian artists. These museums are the "Oldmasters Museum," the "Magritte Museum," the "Fin-de-Siècle Museum," the "Wiertz Museum," and the "Meunier Museum."

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium / Michel Wal / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

20. La Monnaie

La Monnaie is officially known as the "Royal Theatre of La Monnaie" and is the most famous opera house in Belgium. The federal institution of the "National Opera of Belgium" uses the building and receives funding from the Belgian Government as well. The current building on the site is the third theater that was built here. The façade of the structure is the oldest part and was completed in 1818. The magnificent auditorium dates back to the year 1856. This famous landmark in Brussels underwent a thorough renovation in the 1980s.

La Monnaie / Mirej / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

21. Parlamentarium

The Parlamentarium is located in the "Espace Léopold" or "Leopoldruimte," a complex part of the European Parliament in the European Quarter of Brussels. It's the official visitor center of the European Parliament in the city. In this building, you can learn the entire history of the European Union and its institutions and this is done through an exhibition in a multimedia format. The center opened in 2011 and the entrance is located on the "Esplanade of the European Parliament," a large public space.

Parlamentarium / Asurnial / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/legalcode

22. Tour du Midi

The Tour du Midi or the "Zuidtoren" is the most impressive skyscraper in Brussels, and also the tallest one in the city and all of Belgium. Its name literally means "South Tower" and that's because it's located right across from the Brussels South Railway Station. The skyscraper features 38 stories and stands 148 meters (486 feet) tall. What's remarkable is that it was built between 1962 and 1967 and back then, it was the tallest structure in the European Economic Community (the EU today) until it was surpassed by the Tour Read the full article

#Belgium #Brussels #FamousLandmarks #FamousLandmarksinBrussels #Landmarks #LandmarksinBrussels

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thesenseofplace · 4 years ago

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Comparing and Contrasting the Seine and Chicago Rivers

Introduction

Waterways have historically been a founding point for cities—their constraints and opportunities were once essential for people seeking to create a life and community in the area. Valuable resources included drinking water, irrigation, trade, and fording, and use and value of rivers has changed drastically since. Today, the main benefit of urban rivers is recreation—a river is often the most environmentally active region of a city, providing a habitat for wildlife, absorbing carbon, and depositing and eroding its banks.

The Seine River and Chicago River have been developed with the purpose of being used for recreation by the residents of these cities. The usable areas of these rivers are called the Seine quays and the Chicago Riverwalk, respectively.

Dimension

In the dimension of time, the facilities along the Seine are older. The quays of the Seine were first built in the 1500’s, to help boats that would have otherwise docked on the muddy riverbank (Schofield). The Chicago Riverwalk was built in 2001, and had massive success (Allen).

In the dimension of space, the Chicago Riverwalk boasts 2.7 miles of walkable length, which are continuous with a lakefront trail and allow for additional foot and bike traffic. The Seine quays, having existed for much longer, cover more than 10 miles, although only a portion of those have been recently redeveloped into modern “riverwalk” infrastructure.

Program

The Chicago River is not, strictly speaking, a river. It is a canal, straight and hard-banked, designed to keep the city sanitary and perpetually visited by ships.By the 1830s, Chicago had become a village with a mix of French Canadians, Yankees and Native Americans. The social center of that village was Wolf Point. It took only a few decades for Chicago to completely transform from a small settlement to a bustling, industrial boomtown.

In the late 1880s, local leaders decided to re-engineer the river. As Chicago grew, this allowed sewage and other pollution into the clean-water source for the city, contributing to several public health problems. They reversed the flow and built a 28-mile-long canal to connect the Chicago River with Illinois and Mississippi rivers.

The construction of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal opened a vital transportation link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The rebuilding of Chicago started after the Chicago fire. Daniel Burnham’s Plan for Chicago intended to link the City to its hinterlands with a network of parks and natural waterways. The plan also called for an esplanade lining the river’s Main Stem.

In recent years, the relationship between Chicago’s river and people has entered an entirely new chapter. Chicagoans are rediscovering their river, finding new ways to appreciate and improve upon waters and shores.

On Chicago’s north side, it flows through Neighborhoods and avenues. The north side comprises of 77 community areas.

The source of the main stem of the Chicago River is Lake Michigan. Water enters the river through sluice gates. Here the land use is mainly mixed with business district. Major Chicago landmarks can be found here.

Zoning and Land Use Map: Main Stem. Source: City of Chicago Department of planning and development

Heading south, the channelized river flows past skyscrapers and an open Chinatown park, and The industrial corridor which is surrounded by densely-populated neighborhoods.

Riverwalk Project:

Looking at the current framework the new Chicago river corridor development plan considers the Specific recommendations for improvements to public and private land that support the goals of the plan. Public demand for access and recreational amenities continues to grow, ensuring that future development will include a diverse mix of industrial, commercial, residential, and recreational uses.

Five key components frame the Chicago River Corridor Development Plan and Design Guidelines:

PATHS AND GREENWAYS

PUBLIC ACCESS

HABITAT AND LANDSCAPING

RECREATION

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Seine has played an important role in the history of France and, in a way, the world. Since it provides a route from the English Channel into the heart of the country, and was navigable by sea vessels, then barges, for a long period of time.

The Seine’s importance as a shipping route made many great French cities grow up around it.

In the mid-18th century, the embankments of the Seine were constructed to facilitate river traffic and navigation. By the late 18th century, the banks were being utilized for recreation and health. River access provided an escape from the dense urban fabric of Paris.

In the early 19th century, Napoleon began to transform the banks from pedestrian to industrial, building quays to facilitate mercantile exchange. By the mid-20th century, the banks of the Seine were given to the automobile, and memory of a pedestrianized embankment mostly lost in collective memory.

Below the bridge on the left and right quays you will see hundreds of sunbathers, cyclists, strollers, joggers anything else you could hope for, making use of the elegant stone quays. The quays run along the entire length of the river as if bisects the city, parts merge into riverside highways and others into pedestrian walkways and bicycle paths. A section of the pedestrian bank has been designated the "Paris Beach" by the new Mayor, and has become THE summer attraction in the city. Thousands of tons of sand are imported along with full size palm trees, beach chairs and chaise-lounges to create what may be the only artificial "beach" in Europe.

Component

The Chicago Riverwalk and the Seine in Paris are vibrant pedestrian spaces, but they deliver life to their respective cities in different ways. The Chicago Riverwalk is a new development featuring a clear delineation of space between programs. The Riverwalk is comprised of 6 ‘coves’ on the western half and a greenspace running the length of the eastern half. Separated by bridges, the 6 coves feature plazas, marinas, restaurants, and a theater.

The Seine is comprised of a more informal use of space. The main pedestrian area of the Seine stretches from the Eiffel tower in the west to Notre Dame in the east. The banks of the Seine in these areas are left largely unprogrammed. Areas of greenery, picnic tables, and even small beaches are spread across the banks. Pedestrians make their way along the river, stopping when they to please. Another influential component to the Seine is the historic bridges that cross over it. These have become pedestrian magnets linked by their views of the river.

The Chicago Riverwalk and the Seine are both popular pedestrian spaces, but they are very different in the way they provide vibrant pedestrian experiences.

Sources

Barrett, M. (n.d.). The River Seine. https://www.aparisguide.com/seine/

Schofield, H. (2013, October 14). Reclaiming Paris’s River Seine quayside. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24520146

Allen, K. (2013, November 7). Reclaiming Rivers: The Latest Trend in Urban Design. https://www.archdaily.com/445637/reclaiming-rivers-the-latest-trend-in-urban-design

Paris Photo:

https://archive.curbed.com/2016/9/27/13080078/paris-bans-cars-seine-right-bank-air-pollution-mayor-anne-hidalgo

Chicago Photos:

https://www.asla.org/2018awards/453251-Chicago_Riverwalk.html

https://beltmag.com/chicago-river-future/

https://www.architecture.org/news/chicagos-riverwalk/the-chicago-river-from-industry-to-recreation/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_River#:~:text=Today%2C%20the%20main%20stem%20of,Chicago%20Sanitary%20and%20Ship%20Canal.

https://gisapps.chicago.gov/ZoningMapWeb/?liab=1&config=zoning

https://interactive.wttw.com/chicago-river-tour/history-chicago-river

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thebrewstorian · 4 years ago

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FIELDS OF GREEN: Hops in history

I gave a talk this afternoon for Oregon Archives Month about one of my favorite topics: hops.

You can watch the talk online.

You can watch the films online.

Spring hop field operations and fall harvest, 1931

Hops harvesting and processing, 1945

You can listen to the soundtrack we played during the films (they are silent).

You can learn more about the Zoller Hop Company Collection (the home of the films).

You can see my slides and read my words below!

Hello everyone! Thanks for spending an hour with me!

My name is Tiah Edmunson-Morton and I run the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives. This afternoon I’m going to talk about hops in the world, the US, and Oregon. We’ll conclude with a couple of films from 1931 and 1945 housed in the Zoller Hop Company Collection.

Tomorrow night there is another event you should know about: an author talk with Kenneth Helphand, the author of a new OSU Press book on hops in Oregon. On this slide are the link addresses for the guide to OHBA collections, my blog, and where I am on Twitter.

Many of you know this, but for those who are new here’s a bit about me.

I started at OSU in 2006 as the reference archivist and student supervisor. I’ve done lots of things in my 14 years, but my work had always centered on teaching and outreach. Because of a department merger, by 2013, the structure of my department had changed, and new staff additions meant I had an opportunity to think about my job. But I was casting about, not really sure what my role was anymore. But I really wanted to do collection development, processing, and arrangement and description work again.

2 important things happened in 2013: I went to a wedding at the Rogue Hop Farm and learned a lot about regional hops history on a tour – everyone was fascinated and that made me think this could be an engaging sort of history for students and the general public. I went to the Archives Leadership Institute, where I thought I’d think deep thoughts about documenting student groups. Instead, I met 2 archivists working on wine and bourbon and hatched an idea for a new collecting initiative.

An archive was born. I started the Oregon Hops and Brewing Archives to document these industries in our state. It was the first of its kind in the country, and I have been extremely lucky over the past 7 years to acquire terrific collections and conduct a lot of oral history interviews. And I’ve learned a lot about hops.

I’m interested in lots of things related to history, including hops, but am presently really excited about researching the biographies of 19th century wives of Oregon brewers. And I love love love the census.

I promise to talk about hops, but first here’s a bit about the history of brewing. I work with a lot of students, and most are quite surprised to learn that the earliest brewers were women. Women throughout history and the world were brewing. Sometimes they are key characters in stories, including the often referenced Ninkasi, who was the goddess of beer and alcohol in ancient Sumerian mythology, but others like Louhi from the Finnish legends, a woman who made beer by mixing bear's saliva with honey. Beyond legends, women brewed in real life too. For example, for centuries, women in Nepal have brewed raksi, a distilled alcoholic beverage made from rice. The Wari women in the central highlands of Peru were elite women who brewed a drink called chicha, a fermented beverage made from corn. In North America, Indigenous women brewed Saguaro cactus beer or wine and others made an intoxicant from yucca and the red beans of the mountain laurel. In the medieval era, women in smaller city communities and on farms made ales and beers at home in small batches that were immediately consumed. Some also brewed commercially; in England, they were called “brewsters” or “ale wives.”

There was a shift towards something akin to "production facilities" when monasteries produced beer for their own consumption and as a form of payment. Brewers Guilds also formed in England and many see this period of industrialization as the point when men became associated with the identity “brewer.” In the late 18th and early 19th centuries commercial breweries developed, mainly in larger urban markets with a clientele to buy the product before it spoiled.

Students are also surprised that you don’t have to have hops to make beer. Technically, some of the drinks I described the women making aren’t beer because they don’t use grains, which is one way to distinguish beer from wine. But brewers have always been creative and used what was present in their environment. For example, gruit ales were made using an herb mixture to flavor or bitter the drink. Gruit is a combination of herbs, commonly including sweet gale, mugwort, yarrow, ground ivy, horehound, and heather. Other adjunct herbs include juniper berries, ginger, caraway seed, aniseed, nutmeg, cinnamon, and mint. The earliest reference to gruit dates from the late 10th century, but it was largely replaced by hops by the 14th and 15th century.

There is a lot of information about women, monks, ingredients, and brewing, as well as information about hops on the Beer Research Guide, which was initially created to support beer history classes at OSU, but is now an epic one-stop shop for anyone interested in the topic.

There are a lot of people throughout history who thought and talked about hops. And there are also a lot of “probably” and “might have beens” in this history.

The first written record of the crop was created by Pliny the Elder when he wrote about common hops in his 77AD Naturalis Historia. The first reference to hops growing in continental Europe was in Hallertau, Germany in the 8th century, but hop cultivation probably began in Eastern Europe around Bohemia, Slovenia, and Bavaria before then. In the middle 8th century monks began planting and cultivating hops. Later, in 1574, Reginald Scot wrote the first practical treatise on hop culture in England, called “A Perfect Platform of a Hop-garden.” As a side note, Scot also wrote a book about witchcraft in 1584.

There’s some dispute about the first documented use of hops in beer, but it was probably in the 8th century in Bavaria, although I’ve also read 11th century in Hallertau. Hildegard of Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess and scientific writer, wrote a set of books called Physica in the 12th century, which contained what is thought to be the first recorded reference of the usage of hops in beer as a preservative.

Though we most often link hops with beer, hops did serve other functions. They were used in cooking (breads, salads) and home decor (stuffed in pillows and used in basket weaving) but were also known for their medicinal uses and could help with afflictions such as flatulence, tumors, skin irritations, and mental illness.

Early settlers to North America could pick native wild hops in the woods around their settlements. But by the turn of the 19th century, specific areas specializing in hops had formed in America. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and New York all became early hop growing areas. By the early 1800s hop growing had declined in the northern New England states, and because New York had better soil and was closer to the large population centers, that became the main hop-growing region by the 1880 until the first decade of the 20th century.

However, after a short stint in the upper Midwest (Michigan and Wisconsin) in the mid-1860s, the hop growing center shifted again to the west coast. Though settlers brought root stock to plant in kitchen gardens, west coast commercial hop growing began in earnest in the 1850s. By 1900, both Oregon and California produced more hops than New York. In addition to good soil and weather, early western farmers were helped by the construction of the transcontinental railroad, which allowed them to transport their hops to breweries in the mid-west and east.

Here are all the blog posts I’ve written on hops!

Before I launch into the narrative history, I have to point out one of my favorite statistics: 8 pounds recorded in 1850. Also, one of my favorite photos: Hop Field Day 1941, a nod to OSU’s role in research and development, but also to women wearing a black dress and heels in a field.

The earliest record of the hop crop in the Pacific Northwest is one about a transport from Fort Vancouver, a 19th century fur trading post used as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, to Sitka, Alaska. There is also a reference to hops growing in the Fort Vancouver Farm in 1836.

But there is conflicting information about who the “first commercial hop grower” was in Oregon. Reports says that Frederick Walcott Geer planted hops near Silverton in 1846; when he died in 1866, some called him the first successful hop farmer in Oregon. There’s also a reference to Adam Weisner coming to Polk County from Wisconsin in 1867. But the commonly recognized “first” grower was William Wells of Buena Vista. He planted the first commercial hop yard in Oregon in 1867; though hardly a major contributor to the global marketplace, he inspired others to invest. George Leisure followed Wells as another early grower, setting up in Lane County in 1869; he supposedly bought root stock from Weisner.

In the early 20th century hops were plentiful in Oregon, and from 1905 to 1915 Oregon was the nation’s largest hop producer. Despite Prohibition and the Great Depression, Oregon hop production grew after World War I due to the disastrous effects of the war on European agriculture. From 1922 to 1943, Oregon regained the honor as the nation's largest producer, and by the 1930s (following the repeal of Prohibition), the area around Independence in Polk County was known as the “Hop Center of the World.” The entire Willamette Valley felt an increased demand for a seasonal labor force to harvest hops, which offers a great opportunity to talk about pickers and parties.

Growers advertised in newspapers to recruit urban families and provided cabins or tents, water, and other necessities for the hop-pickers, but because the work was “unskilled” pickers were recruited from all over the region for the short harvest season. Women and children were hired for their perceived picking dexterity (and lower wage demands), and a diversity of workers were found in the fields (racial, economic, geographic).

Many operations included entertainment, such as music and campfires, and there were more organized hop festivals like the Hop Fiesta in Independence. Pickers had fond memories of these evening celebrations, but less fond ones of the hard picking during the day.

By the early 1950s the hop crop began to the decline and mechanical picking machines replaced the need for seasonal laborers. This change meant a demise of a hop festivals, but also a shift in growing practices. Many growers abandoned hops, while others increased acreage to pay for their investment in mechanical pickers.

Concurrent with this boom/bust in production, hop farmers in Oregon faced a problem plaguing many other hop-growing states: mildew and pests.

Hops are tough plants, but are also really susceptible to insects and fungal infections. Research scientists at Oregon Agricultural College had helped farmers with testing and talked about pests or drying since the 1890s; here’s an example of the public sharing of research in an extension station bulletin focused on the hop louse. In 1930 the USDA and OAC formalized a hop research program that would look directly at breeding new varieties and increasing production.

A big issue for farmers at the time was that the hops they were growing (Early and Late Clusters) were meant to grow in England or Europe. They tried growing more mildew tolerant hops like Fuggle, Bullion, or Brewer’s Gold, but still struggled. In 1972, Dr. Alfred Haunold released the Cascade hop, which had been crossed in 1956 and essentially ignored. Other popular modern American hop varieties followed, including Willamette, Nugget, and Sterling.

There is a lot of information about hops and OHBA collections on the OHBA Research Guide.

Narrowing focus even more, we’re going to look at the Zoller Hop Company, which was located in Independence, Oregon, during the first half of the 20th century. The company was later owned by Donal MacCarthy and the name was changed to “D.P. MacCarthy & Son.”

The Zoller family brewery supply business was headquartered in New York City. Charles (the father) was President and Director, while Christian (the son) was Vice-President and Vice-Director. The “Charles Zoller Company” distributed brewing supplies and machinery, including a washing equipment, a hop-separating machine, brushes and brooms, cleaning liquids, valves and rings, bottles and caps, as well as yeast, hops, rice, and malt.

In addition to owning a supply business, the Zollers were also involved directly in the hop farming business. In 1906, they purchased a farm and equipment from Henry Ottenheimer in Independence, Oregon, naming it the Zoller Hop Company. With this farm and their existing supply business, they became successful brokers for the sale of Willamette Valley hops to breweries throughout the United States (Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, Indiana, Ohio). Charles Zoller was President, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Charles L. McNary was Vice-President, and Donal (D.P.) MacCarthy was Manager and Secretary. Christian worked in New York with his father but was actively involved in gathering information and providing operational assistance to MacCarthy.

DP MacCarthy’s family actually collected this material, so I’m going to tell you a bit about him. He was born 1873 in South Africa, educated in England, and worked in Canada as a crewman on a cattle boat. He arrived in the Willamette Valley on Thanksgiving Day in 1894 and settled in Woodburn. He worked in the woods in the Silverton area and then partnered with Jack Carmichael to start a hop-buying company. In 1907, MacCarthy purchased a 180-acre farm near Independence (the Fir Grove Hopyard) and over the next several years added three more farms, including the Zoller property in 1918. In 1936, partnered with his son, Eugene D. MacCarthy, and at the time of MacCarthy’s death in 1954, they owned approximately 600 acres.

The Zoller Hop Company Records is an interesting collection of correspondence and management files, photographs of fields and community events, and the two films we’ll watch. MacCarthy’s frequent letters to the Zollers, preserved in carbon-typed format, provide a first-hand look at concerns of a Willamette Valley hop farm through monthly and annual balance sheets, harvest expenses, statements of the capital, and partial inventories of equipment. Shipping documents for bales of hops to breweries shows the breadth of the Zoller Hop Company’s market.

The majority of the collection consists of correspondence between Charles and Christian Zoller and MacCarthy between 1909 and 1918. They wrote about farm operations, transportation and shipping issues, market conditions, disease and pest problems, economic uncertainties for breweries and related businesses as a result of Prohibition, concerns about the Oregon Hop Growers Association and its impact on the market, labor unrest and the rise of unions (Industrial Workers of the World), and the shortage of workers during the war. Because the bulk of the collection was created during World War I, the correspondence also addresses market conditions as they related to war-time activity, the shortage of railroads cars to ship hops due to the transportation of ammunition and war supplies, speculation about market prices if hops were no longer imported from Germany, and Austria’s shortage of field workers in 1917 as the U.S. entered the war. The collection also contains correspondence from 1918 regarding the dissolution of the Zoller Hop Company and MacCarthy’s transition to business owner.

The photographs and films show the MacCarthy hop operations from the 1920s-1940s, including stringing, spraying, equipment, and processing in dryers/kilns. Hops were picked by hand on MacCarthy’s farms until 1949, and the photos and other ephemeral items in this collection document this. Picked hops were collected into baskets in the fields; these were then poured into a weighing basket and the number of pounds were punched out on the tickets. These tickets would be cashed at the hop office, used as cash at the campground store, the stores in Independence, or could be taken in cash.

#hops history #hops #oregon hops #oregon archives month

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astrogeoguy · 7 years ago

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A Moonless Week for Orion’s Treats, and Stellar Diamonds for V-Day!

(Above: For your Valentine - the gorgeoous Heart Nebula in Cassiopeia as imaged by Ron Brecher of Guelph, Ontario. Link: astrodoc.ca/ic1805/)

Astronomy Skylights for this week (from February 4th, 2018) by Chris Vaughan. (Feel free to pass this along to friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics.) I post these with photos at http://astrogeoguy.tumblr.com/ where the old editions are archived. You can also follow me on Twitter as @astrogeoguy! Unless otherwise noted, all times are Eastern Time. Please click this MailChimp link to subscribe to these emails. If you are a teacher or group leader interested joining me on a guided field trip to York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory, or another in your area, visit www.astrogeo.ca.

My latest column for Space.com elaborates on last week’s information about watching the obvious brightness variation in Algol, the Demon Star. You can find it here.

Public Events

Taking advantage of dark moonless evening skies this week, the members of the RASC Toronto Centre will gather for dark sky stargazing at Glen Major Forest, northeast of Claremont on (only) the first clear evening from Monday to Thursday this week. You don’t need to be an RASC member, or own any equipment, to join them. Check here for details and watch the banner on their homepage or their Facebook page for the GO or NO-GO decision around 5 pm each day.

On Monday evenings, York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory runs an online star party - broadcasting views from four telescopes/cameras, answering viewer questions, and taking requests! Details are here. On Wednesday evenings after dark, they offer free public viewing through their telescopes. If it’s cloudy, the astronomers give tours and presentations. Details are here.

On Tuesday, February 13, starting at 7 pm, the U of T AstroTour presents a planetarium show entitled Our Musical Universe. Tickets and details are here.

On Friday, February 16 starting at 7 pm, the U of T AstroTour presents a planetarium show entitled The Life and Death of Stars. Tickets and details are here.

The Women in Planetary Science and Exploration Conference, WPSE2018, will be held on Saturday and Sunday, February 17-18, at the Bahen Centre, U of T. Lots of amazing woman planetary scientists are presenting. Registration and details are here.

Zodiacal light

For about half an hour after dusk during the two week period between now and the new moon on February 15, look west-southwest for a broad wedge of faint light rising from the horizon and centered on the ecliptic. This is the zodiacal light - reflected sunlight from interplanetary particles of matter concentrated in the plane of the solar system. Try to observe from a location without light pollution, and don't confuse the zodiacal light with the brighter Milky Way to the northwest.

(Above: The February evening zodiacal light rises from the western horizon (at left). The Milky Way is off to the right. This image was taken last week by Fred Espenak.)

Orion’s Treats

This is a perfect week to grab the binoculars and check out Orion’s (the Hunter) majestic sword, one of winter’s true astronomical treats. The sword hangs well below Orion’s distinctive three-starred belt. Unaided eyes can generally detect three patches of light in Orion’s sword, but binoculars or a telescope quickly reveal that the middle object is not a star at all, but a bright knot of glowing gas and stars known as The Orion Nebula (or the Great Nebula in Orion or Messier 42, aka M42).

(Above: To the naked eye, Orion’s sword looks like three stars, but there’s much more to it! The Orion Nebula (M42) and Messier 43 form the centre of the sword, along with the Running Man Nebula at the top of the frame, and stars below. All are revealed in this widefield long exposure image by Manuel Guerrero of Toronto, Canada)

Buried in the core of the nebula is a tight clump of stars collectively designated Theta Orionis (Orionis is Latin for “of Orion”), but better known as The Trapezium, because the brightest four stars occupy the corners of a trapezoid shape. Even a small telescope should be able to pick out this four-star asterism, but good seeing conditions and a larger aperture scope will show another two faint stars. The trapezium stars are hot young O- and B-type stars that are emitting intense amounts of ultraviolet radiation. The radiation causes the gas they are embedded in to shine brightly, by both reflecting off gas and dust as blue light and also by energizing Hydrogen gas, which is re-emitted as red light. That is why there is so much purple in colour images of the nebula.

Within the nebula, astronomers have also detected many young (about 100,000 years old) concentrations of collapsing gas called proplyds that should one day form future solar systems. These objects give us a glimpse into how our sun and planets formed.

Stargazers have long known about the stars in the nebula’s core, but detection of the nebulosity around them required the invention of telescopes in the early 1600’s. In the 1700’s, Charles Messier and Edmund Halley (both famous comet observers) noted the object in their growing catalogues of “fuzzy” objects. In 1880, Henry Draper imaged it through an 11-inch refractor telescope, making it the first deep sky object to be photographed.

While you’re touring the sword, look just below the nebula for a loose group of stars, 1300 light-years away, called Nair al Saif “the Bright One of the Sword”. This main star is a hot, bright star expected to explode in a supernova one day. It is surrounded by faint nebulosity, too. Astronomers believe that this star was gravitationally kicked out of the Trapezium cluster about 2.5 million years ago.

(Above: The sword below Orion’s famous belt (at top) contains the wonderful Orion Nebula and many other binocular and telescopic treats.)

Sweeping down the sword and to the left (east) brings us to the star named Mizan Batil ath Thaalith (and d Orionis) at the tip of the sword . This magnitude 4.7 star is near the limit for visibility in moonless suburban skies. About two finger widths to its right is another star of similar brightness, named Thabit, "the endurer".

Moving upwards towards Orion’s belt, half a finger width (30 arc-minutes, or the moon’s diameter) above the Orion Nebula, you’ll find another clump of stars dominated by c Orionis and 45 Orionis. A larger telescope, or a long-exposure photograph, reveals a bluish patch of nebulosity around them that contains darker lanes forming the shape of a figure, called the Running Man Nebula. This is another case of gas reflecting light from the two stars mentioned.

(Above: The Running Man Nebula in Orion’s Sword, taken by Dave Eisfeldt of Waco, Texas on Oct 26, 2011. http://eldoradostarparty.org/ngc-1977-running-man-nebula-taken-by-dave-eisfeldt-of-waco-texas/)

Valentine’s Day Diamonds

A beautiful diamond sparkles in the southern sky during winter evenings. It’s Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major (the Big Dog). The constellation is located to the lower left (southeast) of Orion (the Hunter). In fact, his three-starred belt points directly towards Sirius! Another dog, Canis Minor (the Little Dog) sits three fist diameters to the left of Orion. It, too, has a bright star, named Procyon. The two dogs are assisting Orion in his hunt. (There is actually a dim constellation called Monoceros (the Unicorn) sitting between the two dogs, but its faint stars are barely visible from the city.)

(Above: Orion’s two canine companions, Canis Major (lower centre) and Canis Minor (beyond the Unicorn at left), pursue Lepus the rabbit across the winter evening sky. The bright stars Sirius and Procyon are fairly close to Earth, and dominate their respective constellations. Sky is shown for 8 pm local time in mid-February.)

The big dog sits lower in the sky and is oriented so that he looks like he’s standing up on his hind legs, begging Orion for a treat. Sirius marks the location of his throat – perhaps it’s a diamond dogtag! Sirius is the brightest star in the heavens (other than our sun) and its name means “scorching” in Greek. Some people call Sirius the “Dog Star”, and J. K. Rowling used its name for Harry Potter’s uncle, the animagus. Its brilliance is mostly due to its proximity to us. At only 8.7 light-years away, it is among the closest stars to Earth.

Sirius is famous for dramatic flashes of sparkling colour. Visible with unaided eyes, the colours are enhanced in binoculars or a telescope. They come from an excessive amount of twinkling due to the star’s low elevation in the sky combined with its brightness. The light from stars lower in the sky is passing through more of our atmosphere to reach us. Sirius itself is fairly ordinary. It is a few times the mass of our Sun and has a surface temperature of about 9,900° giving it a bluish colour. It is also moving towards us at about 27,000 km per hour. Fast, but don’t stand around waiting for it to arrive!

A very good telescope and a steady atmosphere can reveal Sirius’ tiny white dwarf companion star, officially named Sirius B. Astronomers have nick-named it “The Pup”, but I prefer “The Flea”. The Flea may be small but it’s mighty! Its temperature is about 25,000°!

(Above: A Hubble Space Telescope image of Sirius. Its tiny companion star Sirius B, aka The Pup, is the tiny dot at lower left.)

Procyon is another neighbour – only 11.5 light-years away from Earth - making it the eighth brightest star in the heavens. Its name comes from the Greek προκύον (prokyon), meaning "before the dog", because it rises before Sirius. It’s comparable in size to Sirius, but is slightly warmer in colour.

Take your Valentine outside on the next clear evening and show them these celestial diamonds!

The Moon and Planets

The moon spends this week largely absent from the evening sky. On Monday and Tuesday, you might glimpse its slim old crescent low in the western sky just before sunrise. Mid-week, the moon disappears beside the sun – reaching its new moon phase on Thursday afternoon. This new moon will also generate a partial solar eclipse that is only visible from the daylit portions of Antarctica (about 2/3 of the continent) and southern South America.

On Friday, the slim young crescent moon will return to the evening sky, visible low over the western horizon for a short time after sunset. On the weekend the moon’s “Cheshire Cat’s smile” will hang prettily in the western early evening sky.

(Above: Venus starts a long climb away form the sun in the western evening sky this week. On Friday, the young crescent moon will sit 2 degrees to Venus’ upper left. The sky is shown at 6:15 pm local time.)

Towards the end of this week, you can start looking for bright Venus very low over the western horizon for half an hour after sunset. The best chance to see it falls between about 6 and 6:30 pm local time. On Friday, the very young crescent moon will sit only two finger widths to the upper left of our sister planet. Venus is just beginning a long stay in the evening sky that will kick into high gear this spring.

The rest of the bright planets are still hanging out in the eastern pre-dawn sky. Extremely bright Jupiter rises first, shortly after 1 am local time, so it reaches an elevation of about three fist diameters above the southern horizon by sunrise. You can’t miss it. Dimmer, reddish Mars is sitting about two fist diameters to the lower left of Jupiter this week, but it’s slowly moving downwards towards Saturn. Those two planets rise about 2:45 am and 4:30 am local time respectively.

(Above: The southeastern pre-dawn sky features very bright Jupiter, then dimmer reddish Mars, and finally medium-bright yellowish Saturn. Mars is above its stellar twin the bright star Antares in Scorpius.The sky is shown for 5:30 am local time, but Jupiter will be visible until sunrise.)

Asteroid/minor planet fans can hunt down Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres this week. Vesta is located only 5.5° (a palm’s width) to the upper left of Mars. Brighter Ceres is in Cancer (the Crab) in the eastern evening sky. Since the stars of Cancer are so dim, look for Ceres roughly midway between the bright stars Algenubi, which is the nose of Leo (the Lion) and Pollux, the lower of the twin stars in Gemini. Ceres remains visible all night long. You’ll need binoculars or small telescopes to see these two objects.

(Above: The dwarf planet (formerly asteroid) Ceres is conveniently located in the evening sky in Cancer this month, between the head of Leo (at bottom) and the twins of Gemini. Sky shown is for 8 pm local time.)

Keep looking up to enjoy the sky! I love getting questions so, if you have any, send me a note.

#Zodiacal Light #Sirius #Canis Major #Procyon #Orion's sword #Orion Nebula #Running Man #Ceres #Vesta #Jupiter #planets #space #astronomy

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kathydsalters31 · 4 years ago

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Check Out Pet Friendly Ghost Towns With Your Furry Travel Buddy

Visiting animal pleasant ghost communities isn’t

a journey to embark on alone! Simply the thought of these abandoned mining neighborhoods raises scary visions and chilling scenarios. With your faithful(and also furry)travel friend along for the trip, you’re in for an interesting experience. Right here are the most popular animal pleasant ghost towns throughout the country if you’ve constantly been interested about spooky areas. Pet Friendly Ghost Towns in America Animas Forks– Colorado Situated high in the San Juan Mountains at 11,200 feet, Animas Forks was a breaking mining area by 1876.

Every fall the residents relocated south to

the warmer town community Silverton for the winterWinter months By 1910, a lot of the mining had actually ended, as well as by the 1920s, Animas Forks was abandoned to the ghosts. You’ll find expository pamphlets and maps of the ghost community in the parking lot. And entrance to the structures is unlimited, however make sure since some are vulnerable. Bannack– Montana The Montana gold thrill began in Bannack in 1862 when John White located gold in Grasshopper Creek. For almost a years, the community’s populace fluctuated yet by the 1950s the gold as well as a lot of individuals were gone. Currently the site is a state park where you and your family pet can stroll amongst the 60 staying frameworks. There are likewise extracting artifacts as well as a cemetery. Batsto Village– New Jersey Found between

Philadelphia as well as Atlantic City in

New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, Batsto Village is a wonderfully maintained town with roots dating back to 1766. This former iron and glassmaking community has lots of intact structures and a number of nature tracks, consisting of a scenic walk along Batsto Lake. Bring a barbecue lunch and spend the day at this pet friendly ghost town! Bodie– California Bodie When silver and also gold were discovered in the Sierra Nevadas in 1875, ended up being a boomtown. Throughout its prime time, 10,000 people stayed below

, with the last couple of leaving in the 1940s. Today, the ghost town is a state park where more than 150 buildings are being protected in a state of”jailed degeneration.”The interiors remain as they were left, equipped and also stocked with items, with just ghosts roaming the halls. Cahawba– Alabama Carved out of the wild in 1819, Cahawba was Alabama’s initial capital. The state transformed the place of the funding in 1826, Cahawba continued to grow into a affluent and also flourishing river town. By 1870, nonetheless, the populace decreased to 300. By the millenium, the majority of Cahawba’s structures

were shed to fire, degeneration,

or dismantlement. Today at this pet dog friendly ghost community, you can take a self-guide tour of the landscape of damages, relics, columns, and gravestones, hike the nature route through Cahawba’s Town Commons, and also appreciate a picnic neglecting the Alabama River. Calico Ghost Town– California Calico sprung up in 1881 during the largest silver strike in California. With 500 mines, the community created over$20 million in silver ore during the following 12 years. However when silver shed its worth in the mid-1890s, Calico passed away. In the 1950s, Walter Knott acquired Calico and also restored all but 5 of the initial structures to look as they carried out in the 1880s. Today you and your family pet

are welcome to discover Calico Ghost Town’s history

as well as tourist attractions, as well as the stores and dining establishments. They additionally use a camping area, if you and also your animals do not mind oversleeping a ghost community! LEARNT MORE ⇒ Route 66– Pet Friendly Sights from Chicago to Santa Monica Garnet– Montana Hidden high in Montana’s Garnet Mountains, the community of Garnet was called for the semi-precious stone mined below. In 1912, a fire ruined several structures, as well as by the 1940s the town was a bust. Today you can see the 30 staying structures and discover more background of the area by taking a family pet pleasant walk on the Warren Park Trail, the Sierra Mine Loop Trail, and the Placer Trail. Goldfield Ghost Town– Arizona Goldfield, an hour eastern of Phoenix, is a family pet friendly ghost community that’s been resuscitated as a living background museum. You and your family pet can tour the gold mine, pan for gold, take a narrated flight on the slim gauge railway, and also see an Old West gunfight in the road. Keep in mind that family pets need to use their leashes and also can not go in the stores on major road or the basic store. Kennicott– Alaska With it’s red structures set in the rugged Alaskan hills, Kennicott is among the most picturesque pet dog friendly ghost communities you’ll discover. Established in 1903, this was a dynamic

mining camp filled with

miners and their households. But by 1938, the copper had actually run out and only

ghosts roamed the town. Today, it’s a prominent vacationer destination, and also the National Park Service is working to preserve most of the mill and town buildings. The only method to reach Kennicott is by foot or the animal friendly shuttle. McCarthy Road finishes at a footbridge that crosses the Kennicott River, approximately 5 miles from the community of Kennicott. Remember, services are restricted as soon as you begin your trip. Lodging, restaurants, as well as a bar are available at McCarthy and Kennicott, and appointments are suggested. Rhyolite– Nevada Rhyolite grown in 1904, when gold was uncovered near California’s Death Valley. Virtually over night the town grew to consist of hotels, shops, an institution for 250 children, an ice cream parlor, ice plant, two electrical plants, shops and factory, and a healthcare facility. Sadly, it was throughout by 1916. Today you can watch the residues of Rhyolite’s magnificence days. Some of the walls of the 3-story bank building are still standing, as is part of the old prison. The train depot and the Bottle House are two of the few total buildings left in the community. Saint Elmo– Colorado Saint Elmo was a gold and silver mining camp, as well as is one of the most effective maintained ghost towns in Colorado. There are dozens of

buildings still standing

, consisting of the court house, barroom, and also a couple of personal residences. It’s taken into consideration a ghost community, individuals still live in St. Elmo, and also tourism brings lots of people to community every year.

There are ATV trails, fishing, and the basic store is open all summer season long. READ MORE ⇒ Ride the Pet Friendly Gondola in Telluride, Colorado South Pass City– Wyoming Positioned in the Wind River Mountains, South Pass City got its start in the summer season of 1867 when gold was found by a team of Mormon miners. By 1868, the community hummed with enjoyment, and its half-mile long main street boasted various resorts, restaurants, general shops, 2 papers, doctors

, a bowling alley, and lots of hangouts

. Sadly, mining in the location struck a slump, and also by 1872, the community was occupied by just a couple of hundred people. Today, South Pass City is a state historic website with 23 original structures as well as 30,000 artefacts. The park is open from mid-May to late-September, and you as well as your pet can check out the town and enjoy nearly five miles of animal pleasant hiking tracks. Tahawus– New York Embeded the Adirondacks, Tahawus lies in between Lake George as well as Lake Placid. The town was established in 1826 to mine iron ore down payments, and also at its top the neighborhood included 2 ranches, mining and also smelting facilities, a saw mill, 16 residences, a school, as well as a bank. However troubles delivering the product to market caused the community’s ultimate desertion. Today, you’ll find several residences, barns, and the renovated blast furnace from the mining operation. Terlingua– Texas Terlingua is a previous mercury-mining community, located in the remote Big Bend location of western Texas. The ghost community began its new life as an off-beat traveler destination when mining finished in the 1940s. Deserted and also worn out buildings, mine shafts, and the old cemetery now stand along with the trading post, Starlight Diner, and old jail(now bathrooms). For a real reward, strategy to visit during the world-famous globally chili cook-off, which takes place each November. LEARNT MORE ⇒ Exploring Big Bend, Texas With Dogs Thurmond– West Virginia Thurmond was the heart of West Virginia’s New River Gorge, with the railway lugging coal and hardwood from the surrounding area. At its top, the community had 2 hotels, 2 banks, dining establishments, clothes shops, a fashion jewelry shop, movie theater, several dry-good shops, and also several office. With the onset of the Great Depression, the economy failed, and also two large fires cleaned out several major organizations. Today the National Park Service is functioning to stabilize the buildings in pet pleasant Thurmond ghost community till they can be fixed up or recovered. You as well as your pet can roam amid vacant buildings, and also delight in the nearby hiking tracks. FOUND OUT MORE ⇒ Visit West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest With Pets

location. However the community’s blossom discolored swiftly. By the early 1870s Virginia City’s population had actually been lowered to just a few hundred. Today, the pet dog friendly ghost town of

Virginia City has more than 200 historical

structures as well as supplies a number occasions for site visitors. You’ll likewise find museums, stores, dining establishments, and holiday accommodations. Throughout your browse through, do not miss the reconstructed ghost town of Nevada City, simply a mile away as well as connected by railroad. We hope these suggestions inspire you to embrace the spirit of the period! Appreciate checking out several pet friendly ghost towns with your hairy travel pal.

source http://www.luckydogsolutions.com/explore-pet-friendly-ghost-towns-with-your-furry-travel-buddy/

from Lucky Dog Solutions https://luckydogsolutions.blogspot.com/2020/09/check-out-pet-friendly-ghost-towns-with.html

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barryswamsleyaz · 4 years ago

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Check Out Pet Friendly Ghost Towns With Your Furry Travel Buddy

Visiting animal pleasant ghost communities isn’t

Every fall the residents relocated south to

Philadelphia as well as Atlantic City in

were shed to fire, degeneration, or dismantlement. Today at this pet dog friendly ghost community, you can take a self-guide tour of the landscape of damages, relics, columns, and gravestones, hike the nature route through Cahawba’s Town Commons, and also appreciate a picnic neglecting the Alabama River. Calico Ghost Town– California Calico sprung up in 1881 during the largest silver strike in California. With 500 mines, the community created over$20 million in silver ore during the following 12 years. However when silver shed its worth in the mid-1890s, Calico passed away. In the 1950s, Walter Knott acquired Calico and also restored all but 5 of the initial structures to look as they carried out in the 1880s. Today you and your family pet

are welcome to discover Calico Ghost Town’s history

mining camp filled with

miners and their households. But by 1938, the copper had actually run out and only ghosts roamed the town. Today, it’s a prominent vacationer destination, and also the National Park Service is working to preserve most of the mill and town buildings. The only method to reach Kennicott is by foot or the animal friendly shuttle. McCarthy Road finishes at a footbridge that crosses the Kennicott River, approximately 5 miles from the community of Kennicott. Remember, services are restricted as soon as you begin your trip. Lodging, restaurants, as well as a bar are available at McCarthy and Kennicott, and appointments are suggested. Rhyolite– Nevada Rhyolite grown in 1904, when gold was uncovered near California’s Death Valley. Virtually over night the town grew to consist of hotels, shops, an institution for 250 children, an ice cream parlor, ice plant, two electrical plants, shops and factory, and a healthcare facility. Sadly, it was throughout by 1916. Today you can watch the residues of Rhyolite’s magnificence days. Some of the walls of the 3-story bank building are still standing, as is part of the old prison. The train depot and the Bottle House are two of the few total buildings left in the community. Saint Elmo– Colorado Saint Elmo was a gold and silver mining camp, as well as is one of the most effective maintained ghost towns in Colorado. There are dozens of

buildings still standing

, a bowling alley, and lots of hangouts

Virginia City– Montana Perched high in Montana’s Rocky Mountains, Virginia City got started when gold was uncovered in Alder Gulch in 1863. Within a year, 10,000 people were residing in a number of mining camps in the location. However the community’s blossom discolored swiftly. By the early 1870s Virginia City’s

population had actually been lowered to just a few hundred. Today, the pet dog friendly ghost town of

Virginia City has more than 200 historical

from Lucky Dog Solutions http://www.luckydogsolutions.com/explore-pet-friendly-ghost-towns-with-your-furry-travel-buddy/ from Lucky Dog Solutions https://luckydogsolutions.tumblr.com/post/628949790904942592

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impressivepress · 5 years ago

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When Charlie Chaplin met Pablo Picasso: How a war of egos took place in Paris

Cultural titans, left-wing darlings - but how did Pablo and Charlie get on when they finally met?

Today, Pablo Picasso is rarely out of the news. Tickets must be booked long in advance for the brilliantly refurbished Picasso Museum in Paris, and his works command surreal prices at auction. (Last year, a version of his Women of Algiers set a new world record when it sold at Christie's in New York for $179m.) We hear rather less of Charles Chaplin: the last time his hat and cane were sold at auction, they raised a mere $40,000. But if, in 1952, we had been invited to nominate two world-famous artistic geniuses, still active and thriving, whom we would have liked to find together in the same room, Chaplin and Picasso might well have fitted the bill. But while Chaplin's early, silent films were still shown and adored across the world, Picasso's fame at that time was more problematic.

Already he was sought-after by museums and collectors, but the public regarded him with suspicion or hostility – too modern, too ugly, too in-your-face, as the master of Cubism somersaulted from one baffling style to the next. And while both he and Chaplin had lauded Stalin's Russia, Picasso had recently been condemned by Moscow's academicians and museum curators as "formalistic", "decadent", "bourgeois" and "anti-human". His blood boiled silently, while his celebrated Dove of Peace extended its wings from Moscow to Peking.

Many might assume that Picasso and Chaplin, both born in the 1880s, the "maître" and the "maestro", had little else in common beyond brilliant careers, fame and wealth. Indeed, they could not exchange even an insult in the same language. So what could bring them together? More than might be supposed, and culminating in a celebratory meeting between two inflated egos in Picasso's vast studio in the rue des Grands Augustins, Paris – a collision we shall presently attend, uninvited.

Their two careers had pursued contrasting trajectories. Whereas the supremely self-confident Picasso had remained entire master of his own change of styles during an output spanning five decades, Chaplin by contrast had been confronted by a potentially terminal crisis when silent films such as his The Gold Rush gave way to "talkies". He had to remodel himself as an actor-director in the 1930s – and he did, coming up with such works of genius as Modern Times and The Great Dictator. He had discovered a way of remaining true to himself, always the ridiculous yet captivating clown, while injecting social and political commitment into modern cinema. But what most obviously linked Picasso to Chaplin was an aggressively left-wing outlook, sympathetic to Soviet Russia and scornful of Western "warmongers".

And as such, both were outsiders, heretics.

Having publicly supported the Soviet Union during the war, calling for a second front to take the Hitlerite pressure off the Red Army, Chaplin then backed the abortive US presidential campaign of Henry A Wallace, leader of the Progressive Party. In 1949 he put in a prominent appearance at the fellow-travelling Waldorf Conference in New York, a scene of bitter, Cold-War recriminations. As a result, Chaplin (who had never forfeited his British citizenship) was cordially detested by large swaths of the American public.

Picasso, too, had declined citizenship in his adopted country. When the Nazis occupied Paris in 1940, he stayed put. His native Spain was closed to him by Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War, and by Picasso's famous pictorial lament Guernica, a huge, expressionist canvas of massacre and misery commemorating the fascist air attack on a Republican town. (That the work now hung in New York's Museum of Modern Art was also considered a scandal in the age of Senator Joseph McCarthy.)

Another thing Chaplin and Picasso had in common was short stature combined with Napoleonic energy. Capitalising on his small, slender frame on screen, his stick held by elastic, Chaplin was sensitive about it in public: the women in his life were not allowed to wear high heels. He was also a snob of sorts. His autobiography chokes on the names of all the famous people he had known or met for a handshake. George Bernard Shaw? HG Wells? Of course. Mahatma Gandhi? Einstein and Eisenstein? No problem. Churchill headed the list, followed by Roosevelt.

Chaplin was proud that Hitler himself had banned The Great Dictator (although he seems to have been unaware that Stalin had suppressed the same film just in case the scenes of Nazi mass adulation reminded Soviet audiences that the first man to stop applauding a speech by the Great Helmsman Stalin was a dead man). Chaplin did know, however, that Modern Times had been rejected by Russia, ostensibly because it was weak on socialism (true), but in reality because the film inadvertently confirmed that even demon capitalists provided washrooms and served three-course lunches on trays to their oppressed workers.

Indeed, one illustrious hand was missing from the list of those shaken by Chaplin – Stalin's. Chaplin had never visited the USSR and Stalin had rarely stepped out of it. So there we have a cruel paradox: both Chaplin and Picasso admired the Soviet Union and "Uncle Joe", but their work could not be shown there.

Both the maître and the maestro were notorious womanisers. When they finally met, their mutual passion for young women might well have driven them apart after Picasso took a fancy to Chaplin's fourth American wife Oona O'Neill and threatened to cuckold him – a pledge luckily lost to the language barrier. In puritan America, where the collective voice of women was louder and more litigious, Chaplin's lively sex life had landed him in bitter divorce cases and public opprobrium, culminating in his indictment under the Mann Act, a US federal law that aimed to curb prostitution and "immorality". French public opinion, always more permissive – a man, after all, is a man – had given Picasso an easier ride.

Estranged from his first wife, the Ukrainian-born ballerina Olga Khokhlova, the great artist remained technically married to her from 1918 until her death in 1965, which brought him relief from a lady increasingly inclined to follow him about and harass his mistresses along the seafronts of the South of France. Picasso was a man of many mistresses and muses, including the often-painted Marie Thérèse Walter and the talented photographer-artist Dora Maar, subject of the "weeping woman" portraits. He deserted both when another woman took his fancy. Her name was Françoise Gilot and what he later told her about his rendezvous with Chaplin gives us his version of their meeting. (Chaplin's has yet to be found.)

According to Picasso, Chaplin, who was heading for London with his family in September 1952, was totally focused on the launch and promotion of his new film Limelight, successor to Monsieur Verdoux, a dark comedy more popular with French audiences than American. Set in London in 1914, Limelight almost chokes on pathos and nostalgia. It portrays the decline of Calvero (Chaplin), once a famous stage clown but now a washed-up drunk. Rescuing a despairing young dancer (Claire Bloom) from suicide, he devotes his dwindling energies to reviving her dancing career. Deeply grateful, she is willing to marry the haggard old man, but Calvero altruistically delivers her into the arms of the young composer (Sydney Earl Chaplin, the director's son) whom she loves. The swelling and sobbing theme music is as much a tear-jerker as the story itself.

But Chaplin's popularity was at a low ebb in the US. Persecuted by the FBI, the Catholic War Veterans and the Hearst newspapers, he was now faced with a virtual boycott of the film by the most powerful cinema chains. And his situation, as he headed by sea for London, was worsened by news that US Attorney General James P McGranery, a strong Catholic, had issued a statement threatening to ban Chaplin from returning to America, accusing him of "making statements that would indicate a leering, sneering attitude toward a country whose hospitality has enriched him". Chaplin might never get back to his home in California, his accumulated wealth and his film studio.

At Cherbourg, reporters swarmed aboard the liner; they swarmed again when Chaplin, absent from London for 21 years, moved into his Savoy penthouse suite. The hard voices of the Hearst Press challenged his politics and his sex life. Why had he never applied for American citizenship, they asked? Was he guilty of tax avoidance? What did he have to say about Charles Skouras's decision to ban Limelight from his movie theatres? Had he been invited to visit Russia by Stalin? Naturally, Chaplin hit back, sometimes wittily. Asked whether he had ever committed adultery, he quipped: "An FBI agent visited our home and asked that question. I said no – did he recommend it?"

The next morning he smilingly toured Covent Garden vegetable market in the company of Claire Bloom, currently Juliet at the Old Vic (and tactfully wearing flat shoes), while Cockney porters saluted him. Come the premiere of Limelight in Leicester Square, he stood in the receiving line to greet Princess Margaret, then headed to a dinner at the Mansion House, hosted by the Lord Mayor, where Charlie raised a cheer from the white ties and silk gowns by describing England as "my country". (The next day, The Times pointed out that Mr Chaplin was not inclined to settle for the draconian taxes endured by the rich who chose to reside in "his" country.) And now the Chaplins headed for Paris and Pablo Picasso.

Regarded tolerantly by the French public as, at worst, an exhibitionistic maverick, Picasso's situation was more secure than Chaplin's. Having joined the Communist Party in 1944 after the Liberation of Paris, eight years later he remained the jewel in the Party's cultural crown. In the cause of the Peace Movement, he had even allowed himself to be dragged to a conference in Sheffield. (He later reported that he almost died of cold and didn't find anything he could eat for two days – "It's a mystery how the English take their clothes off long enough to procreate," he told comrades.) For the newspaper l'Humanité he produced a touching sketch of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, imprisoned then executed for atomic espionage. He also came up with a strangely displaced canvas, Massacre in Korea, depicting semi-medieval robots mowing down women and children.

Picasso's misgivings about Soviet Russia were jealously kept under the carpet by the French Party. But he could not forget the relentless denigration of his work – "dismembering humanity" – in the Soviet press. The Russians had locked away in cellars their rich collection of Picasso's early works purchased before the revolution by the wealthy collectors Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov. (Jean-Paul Sartre ironically described "the nausea of the Soviet boa constrictor, unable to keep down or vomit up the enormous Picasso".) That was why, according to the histories and biographies, Picasso rejected all invitations to visit Moscow in the cause of "peace". Even in 1956, when the Pushkin Museum finally staged a retrospective of his early work – hugely attended by a curiosity-driven Soviet pubic enjoying the post-Stalin "thaw" – he failed to turn up.

But back to Chaplin: here he is arriving in Paris for the French premiere of Limelight, celebrated by dinner with President Auriol, the award of the Legion d'Honneur and a grand visit to the Opera. The Left rallies: Chaplin is not to be abducted by the reactionary state. The leading Communist writer Louis Aragon, fluent in English, arranges a first meeting between Chaplin and Picasso at a dinner attended by Sartre. Chaplin tells Picasso, "I am a great fan of yours", an excusable exaggeration.

From this emerges the invitation to Picasso's studio, so Chaplin brings Oona by limousine to the rue des Grands Augustins. Knowing no more of the French language than Chaplin, she is beautiful, radiant, affable. Le tout Paris, invited or not, presses into the capacious studio with its stacks of canvases. Aragon explains to Chaplin how much Picasso admires his films, notably the rapid, deft way that the villainous Monsieur Verdoux flips through the pages of a telephone directory in search of new female victims – and the way he counts their money after disposing of them. Meanwhile, Aragon's Russian-born wife, the writer Elsa Triolet, explains to Oona how Pablo had tried to count his own money as rapidly as Monsieur Verdoux: "He made more and more mistakes and there were more recounts."

Oona is puzzled: doesn't Picasso know about banks? Triolet replies: "Pablo has always carried around with him an old red-leather trunk from Hermès in which he keeps five or six million francs. He calls it 'cigarette money'." Oona wonders whether he should smoke so much, while Chaplin beams genially: "As Henry Ford once remarked to me, a man who knows how much he's worth isn't worth much."

Carefully kept from the Chaplins by Aragon and Triolet is the fact that Picasso, taken to view Limelight, had come away distempered. "I don't care for the maudlin, sentimentalising side of Charlot [Charlie]," he had complained on leaving the cinema. "That's for shop girls. It's hand-me-down threadbare romanticism and it's just bad literature."

In fact, Picasso was incensed to witness Chaplin's ageing Calvero sacrificing himself sexually by handing over the heroine to a younger man. Picasso says he would rather let a beautiful young woman die than see her happy with someone else. (His own struggle with virility is relentless.) The Chaplins, meanwhile, merely peck at the culinary delicacies on offer – are these snails or something?

Chaplin satirising Hitler in ‘The Great Dictator’ The packed room falls silent as Picasso instructs Aragon to convey to Charlot the profound thought that both he and Chaplin are masters of the silent gesture, "no description, no analysis, no words". Chaplin nods, bemused – Limelight is fully scripted (inevitably by Chaplin) and Picasso may be indicating an adverse opinion about Chaplin's work since the silent cinema. Chaplin responds, to general delight, by lifting the hat he is not wearing, wriggling his eyebrows and twiddling an invisible moustache. He then launches into the dance with the rolls from the New Year's Eve sequence in The Gold Rush. Huge applause. Picasso beams with delight.

Later, he and Charlot will closet themselves alone in the bathroom to practice the clown's inimitable shaving routine. And when they emerge, Oona – not so cautious about the flowing wine as about the snails – now stands herself back-to-back with Charlie, bends her knees, and giggles: "See? Charlie's taller."

"Moi aussi! I try!" roars Picasso, aflame. Oona obliges him, by no means coyly, again bending at the knee and maybe (accounts differ) playfully butting his bottom.

Much aroused, Picasso turns to Aragon. "Tell Charlot I wouldn't want to insult him by not desiring his wife. Tell him only a very wealthy friend is worth cuckolding." But this does not reach Chaplin. Aragon has abruptly forgotten his English.

The Chaplins departed for Rome and London with the McGranery cloud darkening their lives: Charlie's acceptance of permanent exile from America meant sending Oona home to California on a desperate mission to recover and transfer what may be called the crown jewels, not forgetting to close the family mansion and dismiss the faithful servants. This she bravely did.

The histories and biographies inform us that the Chaplins then headed for Switzerland to find a mansion suitable for a long exile. But a historian I know well believes they first spent two weeks in Moscow, along with Picasso, Aragon and Triolet as part of the Stalin birthday celebrations. According to my newly discovered evidence, the expedition turned into a highly dramatic, multiple disaster; but into this story I do not venture here. Some may unwisely call it "counter-factual" or even mere fiction.

#charlie chaplin #pablo picasso #the independent

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