Category Archives: History

The battleship celebrates its 80th birthday on Friday --the US Navy commissioned it on April 9th, 1941.

>> IT HAS BEEN >>> THERE IS A VERY BIG BIRTHDAY TOMORROW BUT THE HUGE BATTLESHIP NORTH CAROLINA TURNS 80 YEARS OLD. THE NAVY COMMISSIONED IT ON APRIL 9, 1941. >> TONIGHT WE FIND OUR TAR HEEL TRAVELER IN WILMINGTON. >> COMMISSIONED IN 1941 IN WILMINGTON SINCE 1961, THE BATTLESHIP NORTH CAROLINA ATTRACTS ABOUT A QUARTER MILLION VISITORS A YEAR. >> IT IS A SYMBOL AND IT IS A HUGE SYMBOL. 729 FEET LONG, 45,000 TONS AND IT IS A LIVING RELIC. IT IS A LIVING PIECE OF HISTORY THAT WAS THERE. IT WAS IN ALL THE MAJOR BATTLES OF WORLD WAR II IN THE PACIFIC. >> 15 MAJOR BATTLES. >> OKINAWA, IWO JIMA, SHE WAS THERE. SHE SUFFERED CASUALTIES, SHE WAS HIT BY ENEMY FIRE. >> AND IT STRUCK BY A JAPANESE TORPEDO. >> FOR MEN WERE KILLED DOWN BELOW. >> ONE WAS SEEN FLYING THROUGH THE AIR AND WAS LOST AT SEA. >> BELOW DECK. >> IT IS ALL BUSINESS. >> THE SLEEPING COMPARTMENTS. >> NOT A LOT OF PRIVACY. >> IT WAS PROBABLY 90 DEGREES BELOW SHIP WHILE IT SAILED THE SOUTH PACIFIC. >> VERY SWEATY, HARD WORK. >> THESE 10 MEN DIED IN BATTLE ABOARD THE BATTLESHIP AND THEIR NAMES ARE LISTED. >> THE OVER 10,000 N. CAROLINIANS WHO PERISHED IN WORLD WAR II. >> THE SHIPS HALL OF HONOR. >> SHE IS DESIGNED TO FIGHT AND WIN. SHE IS DESIGNED TO TAKE HITS AND KEEP FIGHTING. >> 16 INCH GUNS. >> THEY COULD HURL A SHELL THE WEIGHT OF A SMALL CAR BEING SENT 20 MILES DOWNRANGE WITH PRETTY GOOD ACCURACY. >> THE SHIP WAS HIGH-TECH FOR IT'S TIME. >> THIS SHIP SHOT DOWN 24 JAPANESE AIRPLANES THAT ARE CONFIRMED THAT SHE ACTUALLY SHOT DOWN MANY MORE THAN THAT. >> THE BATTLESHIP'S ARRIVAL IN WILMINGTON OCTOBER 1961. THE SHIP WOULD HAVE BEEN SCRAPPED IF NOT FOR THE STATES VIGOROUS EFFORTS TO SAVE IT. >> THERE WAS THE FAMOUS CAMPAIGN FOR THE SCHOOLCHILDREN TO CONTRIBUTE THEIR NICKELS, DIMES AND QUARTERS AND THOSE KIDS RAISED TO SOMETHING LIKE $375,000 WHICH IN 1960 WAS REAL MONEY. AS THEY SWUNG HER AROUND, HER STERNNESS SMACKED INTO A FLOATING RESTAURANT CALLED THE ARK. >> ANOTHER CASUALTY THOUGH THE ARK SURVIVED. >> I THINK IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT THAT THINGS LIKE THIS STILL EXIST. HISTORY SADLY MOST PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN. >> THE BATTLESHIP NORTH CAROLINA IS A SIGNIFICANT REMINDER. >> THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT THIS BATTLESHIP IS IT IS THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA'S WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL.

Continue reading here:

Highlighting the history of the Battleship North Carolina on its 80th birthday :: WRAL.com - WRAL.com

The very existence of this film is a miracle, Raoul Peck says in Exterminate All the Brutes, a documentary he wrote, directed and narrated. Hes referring to the existence of a film that retells the history of colonialism and slavery from a nonwhite, non-Western viewpoint, though in 2021 that may seem less like a miracle than an expectation.

Whats more miraculous is that Peck found a home on mainstream American television yes, its HBO, but still for a supremely personal, impressionistic yet intellectualized, four-hour cascade of images, ruminations and historical aperus. (The busy editor was Alexandra Strauss.) That would be an impressive achievement on any subject, let alone genocide.

The title Exterminate All the Brutes, with its combination of blunt force and literary flourish (and its suggestion that history has misidentified the real brutes), is appropriate to a project that elaborates on and aestheticizes feelings of outrage, disbelief and despair. (It was taken from Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness and from a 1996 book by the historian Sven Lindqvist that is one of several scholarly sources Peck drew on.)

The film, whose four chapters premiere Wednesday and Thursday nights, is unrelenting in its critique, but its also more muted in tone than that title might suggest. Pecks slightly droning narration contributes to that effect, as does an approach thats more free-associative than truly essayistic. Theres also, unfortunately, the documentarys tendency to cycle through and circle around a relatively small set of ideas that would have had more force in a shorter film.

If Exterminate All the Brutes is never boring, its less because Peck whose James Baldwin documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, was an Oscar nominee in 2017 always gives you something new to think about than because he always gives you something new to look at.

In addition to the expected archival images from centuries of colonial depredation, the film incorporates animated historical recreations; snazzy graphics; copious clips from Hollywood depictions of non-Western populations; photos and home movies from Pecks childhood in Haiti, Africa and New York City; and fictional scenes featuring Josh Hartnett as the stolid face of white supremacy, in various times and places. (All colonialists look alike.)

Pecks story focuses on the entwined threads of the genocide of North Americas Indigenous people and the enslavement of Africans, and on the links he finds between those horrors and other genocides and oppressions, particularly the Holocaust. There are things in his account that will probably be new for many viewers, like the discussion of the Spanish priest Bartolom de las Casas and his role in the fates of both Indigenous people in the Americas and African slaves, or the way Peck restores the Haitian revolution to its rightful stature alongside the American and French revolutions.

But much of the material in Exterminate All the Brutes is familiar; it has been known all along, a circumstance that Peck acknowledges and that fuels his anger.

The educated general public has always largely known what atrocities have been committed and are being committed in the name of progress, civilization, socialism, democracy and the market, he says. The question is why they have been ignored, obfuscated and whitewashed in popular culture.

Pecks broad assertions and arguments arent likely to generate a lot of controversy, though his repeated linking of the histories of the American West and African colonialism to the Holocaust (allowing for a lot of Hitler footage) might strike some as facile or insensitive.

In his attempt to replace the traditional narratives about Indigenous and other oppressed peoples with his own storytelling, though, some strategies are less successful than others. The fictional sequences may be Pecks most direct attempt to redress history Hartnett enacts shooting a Seminole woman in the head in one scene, and in another is bathed by an African woman near a grouping of lynched corpses but their art-house staginess and solemnity serve only to distance us from what were seeing. (Its also noticeable that women are not often seen or heard from in the film, except as silent victims.)

A work that Exterminate All the Brutes calls to mind, and which seems almost certain to have been an inspiration for it in both theme and technique is Chris Markers great film essay Sans Soleil, from 1983. But Pecks documentary is more polemical and less poetic than Markers; it constantly makes connections, but it feels more didactic than complex, more academic than allusive.

(The rush of often violent or disturbing imagery sometimes calls to mind a very different film, the 1962 Italian shock-doc Mondo Cane.)

Peck sprinkles the four hours with images of and references to recent American presidents, and in the final chapter he lands full force in the present day, comparing Donald Trump and other heads of state with the white, Western overlords of the colonial era.

But throughout Exterminate All the Brutes, the specific drifts into the general and the historical into the personal without, perhaps, the effect that Peck is hoping for. He closes with a reproving phrase that echoes through the film: Its not knowledge we lack. But he declines to say what it is we lack compassion? Willpower? If there is something we possess that could have made history different, either he doesnt know or hes not telling.

See more here:

Review: Exterminate All the Brutes Rewrites a Brutal History - The New York Times

Below is a press release from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History:

On April 07, 2021, Maddie Codling presented The Horn Island Logs of Walter Anderson. as part of the History Is Lunch series.

The celebrated Ocean Springs artist Walter Anderson (1903-1965) is famous for the array of prints, pottery, drawings, and paintings he produced over the course of his life. During his last decades Anderson spent more and more time exploring, observing, and making art about a small barrier islandHorn Islandoff the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Anderson recorded his experiences in a vast collection of journals over the last fifteen years of his life. In the 1980s Redding Sugg Jr. drew from the most complete of those diaries to create the book The Horn Island Logs of Walter Inglis Anderson, which has just been republished by the University Press of Mississippi.

Walter Anderson had a complex relationship with Horn Island, said Mattie Codling, director of collections and exhibitions at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. Ultimately the spiritual connections he found there were what kept him coming back.

Mattie Codling graduated from the University of Mississippi with a BA in art history and a BA in anthropology. She holds an MA in art history from Florida State University. Codling has worked in the museum field for a decade, and has been at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art since 2016.

The rest is here:

History Is Lunch: Mattie Codling, "The Horn Island Logs of Walter Anderson" - Delta Democrat Times

World War I, which lasted from 1914 until 1918, introduced the world to the horrors of trench warfare and lethal new technologies such as poison gas and tanks. The result was some of the most horrific carnage the world had ever seen, with more than 16 million military personnel and civilians losing their lives.

It also radically altered the map, leading to the collapse of the sprawling Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian empires that had existed for centuries, and the formation of new nations to take their place. Long after the last shot had been fired, the political turmoil and social upheaval continued, and ultimately led to another, even bigger and bloodier global conflict two decades later.

The event that sparked the conflagration was the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in 1914. But historians say that World War I actually was the culmination of a long series of events, stretching back to the late 1800s. The path to war included plenty of miscalculations and actions that turned out to have unforeseen consequences.

No one can say precisely why it happened, explains the narration to a film at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. Which may be, in the end, the best explanation for why it did.

Here are eight of the events that led to the war.

Both Russia and France, which had been humiliated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, feared the rising power of Germany, which had already formed alliances with Austria-Hungary and Italy. So the two nations decided to join forces for mutual protection as well. It was the start of what would become the Allied side, the Triple Entente, in World War I.

To my mind, it is the coming together of the Triple Entente in stagesthe Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894, the British-French Entente Cordiale of 1904, and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907that really solidified the system of diplomatic agreements that formed the main antagonistic blocs that went to war in 1914, Richard S. Fogarty, an associate professor of history at University at Albany, explains. The alliance system was critical to shaping the war, and even in helping bring it on: it created a set of expectations about international rivalry and competition, determining what kind of war Europeans imagined and prepared for.

This legislation, advocated by Germanys newly-appointed Secretary of the Imperial Navy, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, dramatically expanded the size of Germanys battle fleet. It was the first of five laws dictating a buildup in which the Germans envisioned building a force that was superior to Britains Royal Navy.

Tirpitz aimed at forcing Britain into an alliance with Germany on German terms, explains Eugene Beiriger, an associate professor of history, peace, justice and conflict studies at DePaul University, and author of the 2018 book World War I: A Historical Exploration of Literature. Instead, the British responded by building even more ships, and by ending their late 1880s policy of splendid isolation to form alliances with Japan, France and Russia.

The German Naval Laws created unintended consequences, Beiriger says in an email. They ended up alienating both the government and public of Britain prior to the war.

Russias Czar Nicholas II wanted to obtain a port that gave his navy and commercial ships access to the Pacific, and he set his sites on Korea. The Japanese saw Russias rising aggressiveness as a menace, and launched a surprise attack on Nicholas fleet at Port Arthur in China. The resulting war, fought both at sea and on land in China, was won by the Japanese, and as Beiriger notes, it helped shift power the power balance in Europe.

Russias allies France and Britain, which were allied with Japan, signed their own agreement in 1904 to avoid being pulled into the war. France later convinced the Russians to enter into an alliance with the British as well, laying the groundwork for their alliance in World War I. In addition, Russia's expansion in the East had been stopped by Japan, Beiriger says. This turned Russian ambitions westward, especially in the Balkans, and influenced hardliners within the government to not back down in future crises. That Russian combativeness helped trigger World War I less than a decade later.

A train packed with soldiers leaves a railway stationduring the Bosnian annexation crisis in 1908.

ullstein bild/Getty Images

Under an 1878 treaty, Austria-Hungary was governing Bosnia and Herzegovina, even though technically they were still part of the Ottoman Empire. But after Austro-Hungarian government annexed their territory, the move backfired. The two provinces mostly Slavic population wanted to have their own country, while Slavs in nearby Serbia had the ambition of appropriating the provinces themselves.

In multi-ethnic empires, nationalistic fervor fueled resistance to distant rulers, Doran Cart, senior curator of the National World War I Museum and Memorial, says. Tension was powder-keg high in the Balkans, where Slavic people, aided by the Slavs of Russia, resisted the rule of Austria-Hungary. Additionally, the move drew Russia, which saw itself as Serbias protector, toward a gradual showdown with the Austro-Hungarian regime.

The German small cruiser SMS Berlin is shown arriving two days after gunboat Panther in order to strengthen the German position off shore Agadir, Morocco, July 1911.

ullstein bild/Getty Images

The French and Germans butted heads for several years over Morocco, where Germanys Kaiser Wilhelm II meddled in an attempt to pressure the French-British alliance. In the First Moroccan Crisis in 1905, he actually sailed to Tangiers to express his support for the sultan of Morocco against French interests. But instead of backing away from the conflict, the British rose in support of France.

In the Second Moroccan Crisis in 1911, the German foreign secretary, Alfred von Kiderlen- Wchter, sent a naval cruiser to anchor in a harbor on the Moroccan coast, in reaction to a tribal revolt that the Germans thought was being backed by France as a pretext for seizing the country. Again, the British backed the French, and eventually, Germany was forced to agree to recognize a French protectorate in Morocco. The two crises pushed the British and French closer together, and only hastened an eventual confrontation with the Germans.

The Italian government declared war on Turkey in 1911 because it had refused to permit the military occupation of Tripoli by Italy. Italian troops are seen here landing after the bombardment of Benghazi.

Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The modern Italian state, which didnt begin until 1861, had been largely left out of the scramble that built Britain, France, and other powers into worldwide empires, Fogarty explains. The Italian government set its sights on Libya, a North African country that hadnt been claimed by another western European power, and decided to take it from the Ottoman Empire. The Italo-Turkish War ended with a peace treaty, but the Ottoman military left Libya and let the Italians colonize it. It was the first military conflict that featured aerial bombing, but as Fogarty notes, the real significance was that it exposed the shakiness of the Ottoman Empire and its slipping control over peripheral territories. That, in turn, was one of the factors that ultimately led to World War I, which Fogarty describes as a war of empires, some expanding or seeking to expand, some keen to hold on to what they had, others trying desperately not to lose what they had left,

Soldiers resting with their weapons off a battlefield during the Balkan Wars.

Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece, which had broken away from the Ottoman Empire during the 1800s, formed an alliance called the Balkan League. The Russian-backed alliance aimed to take away even more of the Turks remaining territory in the Balkans.

In the First Balkan War in 1912, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro defeated Ottoman forces, and forced them to agree to an armistice. But the Balkan League soon disintegrated, and in the Second Balkan War, the Bulgarians fought the Greeks and Serbs over Macedonia, and the Ottoman Empire and Romania jumped into the fray against the Bulgarians as well.

Bulgaria ultimately was defeated. The Balkan Wars made the region even more unstable. In the power void left by the Ottomans, tensions grew between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. That, in turn, led Austria-Hungary and its ally, Germany, to decide that a war with the Serbs would be needed at some point to strengthen Austria-Hungarys position. Many historians consider the Balkan Wars as the true beginning of the First World War, Fogarty says.

The archduke, who was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, went to Sarajevo to inspect the imperial troops stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He and his wife Sophie were shot to death in their car by a 19-year-old Serbian revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip.

The assassination highlighted the nationalism that was pulling the Austro-Hungarian Empire apart at the seams, Fogarty explains, noting that Serbian extremists actually wanted Franz Ferdinand dead because they feared he was too moderate and would promote a power-sharing arrangement that would keep Slavic peoples in the empire.

His assassination killed the idea, whether or not it was ever realistic to begin with, and radicalized Serbian defiance and Austrian determination to solve the nationalism problem for good, at least with respect to Serbia, Fogarty says.

Instead, the tension between European powers increased, as they took different sides in the crisis. As the U.K.s Imperial War Museum notes, the killing put both Austria-Hungary and Russia, which saw itself as the Serbians protector, in a bind. Neither one of them wanted to back down and appear weak. Fearing a fight that would draw in Russia, Austria-Hungary turned for help to Germany, which promised backing if the Austro-Hungarians used force against the Serbians. German support emboldened Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia on July 28.

Two days later, Russias military mobilized, and the Germans saw that they too were in a bind. They didnt want to fight both Russia and its ally France on two fronts simultaneously, so it became imperative to knock the French military out of the war before Russia was ready to fight. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, and two days later declared war against France. German forces gathered on the border of neutral Belgium, which they planned to cross in order to invade France. Belgium called for help, and on August 4, Great Britain declared war on Germany.

World War I had begun.

Read the original post:

8 Events that Led to World War I - History

Glass alabastrons (perfume bottles) from classical Greece, during the late 6th5th century BCE. These are. core-formed glass vessels. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public domain)

The history of scent is largely ephemeral. After all, the aromas of pressed lilies from the Nile banks or the precious ambergris, once worth more than gold, are hard to imagine if you've never smelled these rarities.

While the scent of these delicate perfume ingredients vanishes with time, countless examples of exquisite perfume bottles and containers remain to remind us of the history of the most-neglected sense. From ancient Egypt to modern Paris, the history of perfume bottles is entwined with the history of glassmaking, as well as broader artistic movements and each culture's specific uses of perfumes.

Read on to learn more about the artistic history of perfume bottles.

Ancient Egyptian perfume bottles. Left: A faience vessel in the shape of a monkey. This dates to the New Kingdom, circa 15501295 BCE | Right: A travertine perfume vessel with the figure of a princess inlaid. The vessel dates to the New Kingdom, Amarna Period, circa 13531336 BCE (Photos: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public domain)

While the deliberate use of scents has existed for many thousands of years, some of the earliest distilled and mixed perfumes appeared in ancient Mesopotamia, India, and China. Of the surviving purpose-made vessels for perfume, ancient Egyptian examples date back to at least the Middle Kingdom.

The Egyptians had both religious and cosmetic uses for perfumes. These perfumes were famous around the ancient Mediterranean and exported as part of regional trade. Common ingredients included lilies, cardamom, cinnamon, and myrrh.

Ancient Egyptian perfume bottles were delicate and beautifully crafted as symbolic vessels for the wealthy to keep with their personal cosmetics. These vessels could be carved from stones such as travertine marble or molded from faience (a type of ceramic used in luxury items). Colorful glass was another material frequently used for cosmetic and perfume vessels in ancient Egypt. They were crafted via a process called core-forming, in which a soft form is dipped in molten glass at the end of a rod. Once the glass hardens in the shape of the form, the soft interior form is scraped out to create a hollow vessel.

This ancient glassmaking process developed in Mesopotamia and spread westward to Egypt. The artisans of 18th Dynasty Egypt (the period from 1549 to 1292 BCE) were renowned for their exquisite core-form works, often featuring striped patterns in rich colors. This style of glassmaking spread to Classical Greece. Known as alabastrons, these perfume bottles could be shaped like vials or like amphorae. Faience and terra-cotta were also used in ancient Greece. Exquisite shapes from shells to birds display the variety of vessels available for those who could afford luxurious scents and fine craftsmanship.

Two Roman blown glass perfume bottles, both from the 1st century CE. The left features a white trail of wound glass, the right is a single color example. (Photos: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public domain)

The core-formed vessel was eventually phased out by the invention of blowing glass. Syrian artists developed the process around the 1st century BCE. From there, like core-forming, the technology spread to the rapidly expanding Roman Empire. By most accounts, upper-class Romans were perfume-enthusiasts, anointing from their hair to their feet. This fashion for scents was viewed by some as a moral failing. Pliny the Elder wrote, Perfumes serve the purpose of the most superfluous of all forms of luxury; for pearls and jewels do nevertheless pass to the wearers heir, and clothes last for some time, but ingredients lose their scent at once, and die in the very hour when they are used All that money is paid for a pleasure enjoyed by someone else, for a person carrying scent about himself does not smell it himself.

Whether a moral failing of the Romans or not, a fashion for perfumes required large-scale production of perfume bottles. Blown glass opened a new art form. More translucent and faster to produce than core-formed or cast glass, glassblowing encouraged a rapidly growing, ever-creative industry within the Empire. The Romans used glass for tableware, jewelry, and of course cosmetic containers. Besides the beauty of these blown glass perfume bottles, they were non-porous and relatively affordable.

A miniature perfume sprinkler to be worn on the person. This example from late 13th or early 14th century Egypt carries the Fesse Emblem, a mark of the Mamluk sultan. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public domain)

After the fall of Rome, Europe entered the period often called the Dark Ages. While somewhat of a misnomer, a lot of scientific knowledge was neglected and would only be reinvigorated in the later Renaissance. However, the famous Persian philosopher, astronomer, and physician Ibn Sina (also known as Avicenna, lived 980-1037 CE) developed and publicized a process for distilling floral essential oils. This process was an improvement on older perfumes, in which ingredients were crushed and mixed with oil. A variation of the distillation process articulated by Ibn Sina had also been in use in ancient India likely since around 3000 BCE.

While the Indian and Persian perfume traditions continued to flourish, it would not be until the crusades that European interest in crafting perfume was reignited. Both military and trade voyages to the Holy Land introduced Europeans to the attars (botanical essential oils), particularly a signature distillation of roses. They were also re-exposed to animal-based scents such as musk (secretion coming from the musk deer), civet (from the civet), and ambergris (discharge from sperm whales).

The production of perfumes in Europe took hold in the late Middle Ages. Guilds of perfumers were established to grow (and protect) the budding industry, which was closely nourished by royals and their courts. In the late 14th century, Hungarian court perfumers crafted Hungary Water, a perfume that mixed the traditional aromatic oils with alcohol. The alcohol-based perfume was perfected by the Italians in the 14th century, the liquid aqua mirabilis (marvelous water) was a powerful scented concoction. The need to bottle these luxurious perfumes coincided with the growing Venetian glass industry.

Left: Late 16th-century perfume sprinkler from Venice. | Right: A small scent bottle meant to be worn as a pendant, of agate, gold, and gemstones. This 17th-century bottle was added to in later years. (Photos: The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

During the late medieval and Renaissance period, solid perfumes were housed in pomanders and worn on the body, while liquid perfumes were housed in exquisite vials. Venice became known for producing delicate, thin glass vessels in a style known as cristallo (meaning clear glass). This faon de Venise spread around Europe throughout the Renaissance, as both perfumery and glassmaking gained in popularity. In the 16th century, the Italian noblewoman Catherine de Medici became Queen of France, bringing her personal perfumer Ren the Florentine with her. She set a court fashion of perfumes laden with civet and musk, stimulating French production.

The perfume bottles of the late medieval and Renaissance period demonstrate a reinvigorated luxury and the ever-evolving techniques of artisans. The perfume sprinkler (above) would have been used to scent a room, and it demonstrates a classic Venetian cane-working technique. Perfume bottles could also be much smallerand like the pomanderworn on the person. The scents of the nobility were often lavishly housed, such as the example in carved agate and gold set with rubies. These personal perfumes were handy in a world where bathing and personal hygiene were not up to modern standards.

Left: Earthenware English scent bottle, created between 17701800. | Right: Porcelain and gold Viennese scent bottle, circa 1730. (Photos: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public domain)

European perfume bottles of the 18th century were heavily influenced by the fashions and artistic movements of the day. Crafted in glass, porcelain, or even white glass masquerading as porcelain, scent bottles were no longer the sole provision of the fabulously wealthy. Global trade and the rise of a European middle class interested in luxury goods meant that commercially-produced perfumes were more widely available to those with disposable income. Borrowing from Neoclassical styles, the scrolls and gilding of Rococo design, and the Romantic pastoral scenes, perfume bottles followed the artists trends of both painters and the decorative arts. Production of perfume vessels was also no longer exclusive to Italy; fine examples could be found in London, Vienna, and other cities.

Glasswork came to the American colonies quite early; the first workshop was established at Jamestown in 1608. Domestic production would not match imports until the late 18th century. In the 19th century, mass production was increasingly possible due to the advancement of the Industrial Revolution.

For perfume bottles, Neoclassical designs were popular in Europe, but American consumers were also developing their own unique tastes. These trended towards ornate decoration and cut or molded glass. Jewelers such as Louis Comfort Tiffany created luxury works of art for the most affluent consumers, such as this perfume bottle cut of agate and decorated with gold and sapphires in an Art Nouveau style.

Glass and gilt perfume bottle by Louis Comfort Tiffany, circa 1900. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

In the 20th century, some of the most famous names in glass and perfume established reputations that hold to this day. French jeweler Ren Lalique became known for his frosted glass perfume bottles. Many 20th-century perfume bottles featured an atomizer, a late 19th-century invention that produces a fine spray from a liquid. While perfume brands had name recognition in the 19th century, the bottles and brands became identifiable as part of a larger fashion milieu. The perfect example is Chanel No. 5, a fragrance introduced in 1921 by designer Coco Chanel.

Based on a 1924 design, the Chanel No. 5 was purposefully simple in reaction to the cut-glass works of the likes of Lalique. It was, and still is, clear; the amber-colored liquid is on full display. By the 1930s, smaller sizes were available for the ease of the modern woman on the go. The perfume and its signature bottle remain iconic, from being name-dropped by Marilyn Monroe to cameos in music lyrics today.

Perfume bottles today are heavily branded, unlike the largely anonymous pieces of ancient times. However, with careful product design, the perfume bottle remains a work of art.

This Armless Sculpture Is One of the Louvres Most Treasured Masterpieces

What Is Ancient Assyrian Art? Discover the Visual Culture of This Powerful Empire

What Is the Rosetta Stone? Learn the History Behind This Legendary Ancient Artifact

10 Facts About the Parthenon, the Icon of Ancient Greece

Original post:

Perfume Bottles Then and Now: The History of a Sensory Art Form - My Modern Met

PHILADELPHIA - After over a decade of dominance as Boston's dynamic top-line duo, it should hardly come as a surprise when Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand pace the Bruins to victory.

But during Tuesday night's crucial 4-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center, the pair came through with a performance worthy of the record books - literally.

Bergeron potted his sixth career hat trick and also picked up the 900th point of his NHL career on his first goal of the night. Boston's captain became just the fourth player in club history to reach that mark, joining Ray Bourque, Johnny Bucyk, and Phil Esposito.

On Monday night in Boston, the 35-year-old surpassed Rick Middleton for sole possession of fourth place on the B's all-time scoring list with his 899th career point.

Video: BOS@PHI: Bergeron opens the scoring with 900th point

Marchand, meanwhile, continued his shorthanded supremacy with the winning shorty at 8:21 of the third. It was his 29th career shorthanded goal, extending his club record. The winger also set a new record as the tally was his 48th career shorthanded point, propelling him past Eddie Westfall and Bobby Orr for the top spot in Bruins history.

"It certainly was tonight, and it is most every night," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said of the duo's leadership pulling the Bruins along. "One's the captain, one's the assistant. They're elite players in the league, they're always talked about when it comes to leadership in Boston and throughout the league and awards in the league.

"Tonight, they were clearly our two best forwards. [Craig] Smith has done a good job alongside them, trying to read off them, feed off them. I can't say enough about them, they were obviously difference makers tonight, and we needed it."

Video: BOS@PHI: Marchand tucks it home through the five hole

One of Boston's other longest-tenured players also factored in huge during the victory. After missing 20 games as he recovered from discomfort in his surgically repaired knee, Kevan Miller returned to the lineup and helped lead the way for Boston's battered back end.

The veteran blue liner played 22:25 in the win, second only to Jeremy Lauzon's 24:09, and landed two hits with two blocked shots. Miller also picked up four minutes in penalties, one of which came during a heated exchange with Travis Konecny in the third period.

"Very well for us, you can see it," Cassidy said of how Miller fared. "He had good composure with the puck, which is something we've been preaching and something we've asked some of our less-experienced players to try to play at the right pace but recognize when you have time to play the right play and make the right read.

"Obviously late in the game, third period with a lead, he's a type of guy that's going to do the right thing, be in the right spot. Thought he was physical when he needed to be, as advertised, so it was really nice to have him back in the lineup."

Miller's experience was an even more important on Tuesday night due to the absence of Charlie McAvoy, who sat out with an upper-body injury. Cassidy did not have an update on Boston's top blue liner following the game, other than to say that he is considered "day-to-day."

Video: Cassidy Addresses Media After 4-2 Win Over Flyers

Chris Wagner also made his return to the lineup after sitting out five straight games as a healthy scratch. He was back in his familiar fourth-line, right-wing spot alongside Sean Kuraly and Trent Frederic and even took a shift with Bergeron and Marchand in the closing minutes, earning an assist on Bergeron's empty-netter.

"Well, I've used other people in the past, and Chris deserved it," Cassidy said of playing Wagner with the top line in a critical end-of-game setting. "He deserved to play in that situation. He'd been doing a good job for us throughout the game. And obviously he has killed penaltiesand 6-on-5 is a bit of that mentality, so willing to block a shot, do what it takes to keep a puck out of the net.

"I was happy for him too, and I'm sure he felt better contributing a little bit more in those circumstances. Protecting a lead is where he can help us. He did a good job with Bergy and March."

Video: BOS@PHI: Bergeron caps off hat trick on empty netter

See the original post:

Bergeron, Marchand Make History in B's Win Over Flyers - BlueJackets.com

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) Dayton native and real estate investor Larry Connor is planning to forge yet another adventure. Earlier this year, Connor announced he would be piloting a trip to the International Space Station. Now hes embarking on a journey to the depths of the ocean.

Weregoing to whats called the Mariana Trench, explained Connor. Its about 200 miles off the coast of Guam, and specifically, were going to do two deep dives to the bottom of the ocean.

The first is called Challenger Deep, and is known to be the deepest location in the world, at nearly 36,000 feet below sea level. Two days later, Conner, along with the help of partners EYOS Expeditions and Caladan Oceanic, will travel to Sirena Deep. The trip will make Connor only the third person to travel to both inner and outer space, with both journeys an effort to conduct groundbreaking research in collaboration with experts.

Theyll tell you on these deep explorations to the bottom of the ocean, almost every time they find something new, said Connor. It could be sea life. It could be vegetation or could literally be new formations.

The ride into each of the trenches is expected to take about four hours. While Connors journey to the last frontier of exploration on earth is one to be admired, he said one of the primary goals of the mission is to provide inspiration to his community.

Hopefullyother people, especially kids and youth, might be inspired to say, Hey, heres just a regular fellow from Dayton, Ohio, kind of barely got out of school, barely got into college, didnt really start with any means, [who] is able to do some pretty interesting and unusual things.And so the theme would be: Aim high. Never set limitations. An impossible is only impossible if you think it is.

Connor is scheduled to depart for his underwater trip this Monday.

Continue reading here:

Dayton investor to become third person in history to reach inner, outer space - WDTN.com

Title: Deposits from giant floods in Gale crater and their implications for the climate of early Mars (Nature, open access)Authors: E. Heydari, J. F. Schroeder, F. J. Calef, J. Van Beek, S. K. Rowland, T. J. Parker & A. G. FairnFirst author affiliation: Department of Physics, Atmospheric Sciences, and Geoscience, Jackson State University

Thanks to the 8-year trek of NASAs intrepid Curiosity Rover (Fig. 1), Gale Crater is arguably the best-studied place on Mars. The crater has had a tumultuous history its been filled to the brim with rock, then hollowed out again by wind to form a hill at its center, known as Mt. Sharp. It has housed small lakes and had parts of its rim destroyed by rivers. However, to fully understand Gales place in Mars potentially habitable past, these snapshots arent enough. Rover images show tantalizing hints of ancient water inside Gale crater perhaps a billion years before the most recent lakes, and where there was liquid water, there might have been promise for life. But life doesnt just appear on a planet overnight! For an environment to go from habitable to inhabited takes time. So, how long did wet conditions last in Gale? So far theres been an air of cautious optimism, but the re-examination of the rocks in Gale crater in todays paper stands to turn everything we thought we knew about Gales history on its head.

In the conventional version of Gales sedimentological story, rivers washed sand and pebbles and from the crater rim down into a lake over hundreds or thousands of years. Only the fast-moving water in rivers can carry sand and pebbles downstream, so when a lake stops a river in its tracks, all the rocks, sand and mud fall to the bottom, forming deltas. The Earth is covered in deltas like the Bengal Fan off the coast of India, and the Mississippi delta in the Gulf of Mexico, so we have a good idea of what the rocks left behind by deltas look like. As lake levels change, repeating patterns of lake mud, sand, and pebbles build up. These are brought back to the surface (where rovers can see them) when the material above them is removed by wind (think slow-motion sandblasting!). If Gales rocks formed in a delta, it would suggest a long-lived warm, wet climate, which would be very promising for scientists searching for traces of life on Mars. Unfortunately, rocks in unexpected orders, mud and sand in the wrong places, and mysterious ridges (Fig. 1) fly in the face of this delta story, and there hasnt yet been a satisfying explanation as to why.

Instead of comparing Gales rocks to calm lake and river environments, where sand and gravel accumulate slowly in rivers and lakes, the authors of todays paper noticed similarities between the appearance of rock within Gale and rocks left behind by the most dramatic flooding events the Earth has ever seen megafloods! These catastrophic events were generated by the sudden melting of enormous ice caps that used to cover the northern hemisphere (Fig. 3)!

Todays authors propose a single, catastrophic flood with roiling waters 24 meters (72 feet) deep which left behind enormous ripples, hundreds of meters wide (Figs. 2 & 4), like those observed in Washingtons Channeled Scablands (Fig. 3). Gales perplexing pattern of pebbly ridges (Fig 2.) is one of the features the delta hypothesis struggles most to explain, and formation in deep, fast-flowing floodwaters (Fig. 4) is an elegant (if terrifying) alternative.

But where could all this water have come from, and so suddenly? To explain how a lake could exist for thousands of years on Mars, planetary scientists often suggest a thicker past atmosphere with a mixture of greenhouse gasses like water vapor and methane released by volcanoes. The authors of todays paper propose a more dramatic explanation. While volcanic eruptions take a long time to change the atmosphere, giant asteroid impacts can radically change a planets climate by providing an instant injection of heat into the atmosphere. This heat could have been enough to melt and even evaporate glaciers all over Mars, forming rivers, kickstarting rainfall, and releasing methane trapped in Martian permafrost for an extra warming kick. However, climates caused by asteroid impacts cant last. So, while they might be able to generate lots of liquid water through melting ice caps and rainfall, the water might only stick around for a few months not nearly long enough for life to get established!

The jury is still out on whether deltas or megafloods fit Gales geology best, but how scientists choose to interpret these rocks could rewrite Mars history, and completely change our search for life on the red planet. The difference between the two theories could be the difference between a Mars that spent hundreds of millions of years warm, wet, and with promise for life, and a cold, dry Mars where brief snippets of habitable conditions occurred only at the whim of giant asteroid impacts.

Edited by: Laila Linke

Featured image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

About Sasha WarrenI'm a 3rd-year Planetary Science Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago! My background is in geology, but now I use my rock knowledge to study how the atmospheres of Mars and Venus have evolved over time through a combination of numerical modeling and analyzing spacecraft imagery. Outside of my research, I am the proud parent of 2 cats and 20 plants, an amateur singer-songwriter, and a keen home cook!

Read the original:

Rewriting the geologic history of Mars one megaflood at a time - Astrobites

Black and Asian American communities are uniting against racism. However, during this time, theres also a call to confront divisions between the communities.

SEATTLE Anti-Asian hate crimes rose nearly 150% in major U.S. cities in 2020, according to a new report released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

Amid the surge in attacks, Black and Asian American communities are uniting against racism. However, during this time, theres also a call to confront divisions between the two communities.

KING 5's race and equity unit Facing Race looks at the complex history that includes times of tension and solidarity.

The attacks against Asian Americans have been happening unprovoked and in plain sight across the country and in Seattle.

On the evening of Feb. 25, Noriko Nasu was the victim of an attack in Seattles Chinatown-International District.

"He came to Chinatown to look for a victim with a weapon in his pocket. He avoided my partner. He went out of his way to strike me, said Nasu. "I could feel my mask was filling up with blood."

Nasu, a high school teacher, was left with four broken teeth, three facial fractures and a concussion.

"If I smile, my face is lopsided, said Nasu, who is still recovering from her injuries.

Nasu calls it a hate crime, but the King County Prosecuting Attorneys Office says, at this point, it does not have the evidence needed to file the case as a hate crime.

As horrible as this attack was, we do not believe we can prove a hate crime before a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Investigators, which are separate from our office, are looking for evidence that would allow us to prove a hate crime beyond a reasonable doubt. However, if convicted for the two felony assault crimes we charged, that defendant would face a longer punishment than if the case were charged as a hate crime, the King County Prosecuting Attorneys Office said in a statement.

In the neighborhood where Nasu's attack happened, a Night Watch was formed about nine months ago. Volunteers meet a few nights each week and walk through the neighborhood to offer help to those in need.

The neighborhood is home for Tanya Woo, who is also a Night Watch volunteer.

This is just a small community," said Woo. "We know the business owners. We know people who live here. We know people who work here. And it was like, these small businesses are already suffering from COVID. Having our windows broken, its a lot, having to pay a thousand dollars for a new window when you are already suffering from a lack of business."

"We realized the need, said another volunteer. Some people need protection while walking through this neighborhood. They don't feel safe. So we are trying to see how we can meet that need."

Matt Toles organized the Chinatown-International District Night Watch as a community-based effort to combat the rise in vandalism and violence happening in the neighborhood.

It's terrible, but the only way we can handle it, the only way to move forward, is to get organized and not put up with it, said Toles. Now is the easiest time, at least in my lifetime, to get organized and get together and start a movement like we have been doing.

STOP AAPI HATE, an advocacy group tracking the escalation of xenophobia and bigotry, says it received nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents targeting Asian Americans across the county since the pandemic began.

Vince Schleitwiler teaches Asian American and African American studies at the University of Washington.

"Anti-Asian violence has been a problem as long as I've been alive. But very rarely does it break through, said Schleitwiler.

Attention is being paid now to cases like the Atlanta mass shooting that claimed eight lives. Six of the victims were women of Asian descent. The shooter, a white man, claims the attack was not motivated by hate.

The violence in Atlanta was an act of hate. We grieve with Atlanta and for the victims and their families, said Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Chief of Police Adrian Diaz in a joint statement.

We also stand together with our Asian American community against the rise of hate crimes towards Asian Americans, which especially target Chinese Americans. In Seattle and across our nation, our Asian American neighbors, places of worship, and businesses have been deliberately targeted by racism, xenophobia, and acts of violence related to misconceptions of COVID-19, the statement continued.

There have also been widely circulated videos that show Black men attacking Asian Americans, and that has brought up historical tensions between Black and Asian American communities. The conflicts are well known inside both of those communities, but often not talked about openly.

"We should take this moment to challenge the narratives that would pit one group against another, said Schleitwiler. "Why is it so much easier to get attention for conflicts between Black and Asian people? Why do Asian Americans make the news, make discussions of race, when they can be used against Black, Indigenous and other people of color?"

"Honestly, like part of buying into the model minority myth is buying into anti-Black racism, said Shomya Tripathy, director of policy and civic engagement at Asian Counseling and Referral Service.

The model minority myth claims Asian Americans are successful and downplays racism.

"For a long time, I think many Asian people, including South Asian people, have been sold the narrative that your proximity to whiteness will liberate you," said Tripathy. "The more closer you are to white people, the more money that you make, the more you put your head down, study hard, you will be free from racism, is a narrative that we have been sold and has created this model minority myth. I think seeing this rise in anti-Asian violence is like just the most visceral example that that is not true. I think that white supremacy is 100% where we should be focusing our attention on right now and not how our communities have tension."

It is not only a history of tension between Black and Asian American communities; over the years there has been solidarity too.

"Is there a problem with anti-Blackness in Asian communities? Absolutely. And this history of organizing is a history to try to counter that, said Schleitwiler.

That history of organizing is one that includes Black and Asian American communities coming together to work hand in hand over the years.

A good example of that kind of unity is Seattles Gang of Four, also known as the Four Amigos.Bernie Whitebear, Roberto Maestas, Bob Santos and Larry Gossett were four leaders from four different communities. They came together in the 1960s, 70s and 80s to bring about change.

"They did that because they were friends. They did that because they got along. They did that because their communities had always lived together in Seattle, in segregated Seattle," Schleitwiler explained.

"Seattle's Gang of Four was a very magnificent group of non-white activists who forged unity and brotherhood and very effective multiracial organizing efforts that ended up being successful, said Gossett, the only surviving member of the group.

Gossett says as communities of color were being pitted against one another, Seattles Gang of Four found tremendous power in their united front as they fought for equality and social justice when it came to issues like education, housing and health care.

"Through organized struggle and pressure, it is possible to get change in America. We did it, said Gossett.

Gossett says he is committed to carrying on the legacy.

Recently, in Seattles Hing Hay Park, people came together to take a stand against the hatred toward Asian Americans.

Gossett spoke at the rally.

He told the crowd, "It won't be done unless we are willing to organize across racial lines, Black, Asian, Native, Latino, progressive Whites all together."

The rally in Seattle is one example of how the rise in anti-Asian violence has led to calls for all communities to work together against racism.

"I don't want to suggest that these communities don't have conflicts, right?" said Schleitwiler. "These two things can be true at the same time. You can have a long history of solidarity. And you can also have, at the same time, a history of antagonism and prejudice. Those pressures have always been felt in our communities."

"I just hope that we can build a more united front that involves people from all communities," said Gossett. "That's beneficial to everybody."

More here:

Rise in attacks on Asian Americans highlights history of tension and solidarity - KING5.com

March is Womens History Month an annual celebration of the achievements of women and their role in U.S. history. In its early years as the San Diego Normal School, women formed the majority of the student population. Since then, many of them have played a crucial role in San Diego States history and evolution. To celebrate Womens History Month, here are two women who have helped shape SDSU into what it is today.

Vesta C. Muehleisen

Vesta C. Muehleisen was born on August 7, 1889, in Tabor, Iowa to parents Henry E. Gates and Nettie Fox. She moved to San Diego in 1891 and trained to be an elementary school teacher at San Diego State which at the time was known as San Diego Normal School.

In 1907, Muehleisen earned her undergraduate degree at San Diego Normal School. Muehleisen was a part of the schools eighth graduating class and remained active within her alma mater in ways that resonate with students and alumni today

In 1927, San Diego State Teachers Colleges second president, Edward L. Hardy, appointed Muehleisen to the citizens advisory council formed to assist in finding a suitable site to move the institution. Two previous site selections had fallen through and the issue was becoming urgent. Muehleisen suggested moving the campus to a remote, undeveloped site east of San Diego. In May 1931, she attended the dedication ceremony for the new campus location.

That same year, she founded the SDSU Alumni Association and became its first president.

Decades later, the SDSU Alumni Association is still alive and running. The mission of the alumni association is to create meaningful and beneficial relations between all Aztecs and the university.

Muehleisen passed away on October 19, 1973 in San Diego.

Nancy Marlin

In 1998, the seventh president of San Diego State University, Stephen L. Weber recruited Nancy Marlin to serve as the campuss first woman provost.

Together the two collaborated to turn SDSU into a global campus by increasing partnerships with universities outside the U.S. and encouraging students to study abroad.

Marlin had a target goal of 30% of students studying abroad. At the time this goal seemed unattainable but today SDSU remains one of the top schools for international experiences.

According to the SDSU International Affairs team, 2,940 students studied abroad in the 2019-2020 academic year, ranking SDSU at seventh nationwide for study abroad programs.

Marlin stepped down from her role as SDSUs provost to return to the faculty in 2013 after serving 15 years but her hard work did not go unnoticed.

In 2013, Mary Ruth Carleton, vice president for university relations and development, nominated Marlin for San Diego Business Journals Women Who Mean Business Awards. Out of 160 candidates, 30 women were chosen to receive the award, including Marlin.

This is a recognition that goes to the university as a whole. Everything I do is because of the fabulous people here at SDSU, Marlin said at the time of her nomination. I dont do this job by myself. It takes faculty, administrators and staff. Our success is really the work of everybody.

Marlins tireless commitment to SDSUs students left a huge impact on the campus. Although she was the first female provost of SDSU, she hopes she wont be the last.

Its nice to know that the next woman provost here at SDSU wont have to be the first, she said. This is what were fighting for to no longer be the first woman in the room.

Read the original here:

Feature: How two women helped shape the history of San Diego State - Daily Aztec