View allAll Photos Tagged Entitlement
Mural entitled "First Foods" by Nani Chacon aka @nanibah for Color the Creek 2018, seen in Battle Creek, Michigan.
The artist states, “This mural pays homage to the indigenous first foods of the region that have sustained people for centuries : depicted is the celebration of breastfeeding; wild rice, yellow perch fish, arikara squash, acorns, cranberry pole bean, and indigenous corn.”
Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
Mural entitled "Robin Williams" by @cobreart located at Market Street and Golden Gate in San Francisco, California.
Photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
In this allegory entitled "Divine Grace and Human Works", at centre is a gloriously depicted Angel directing a farmer's attention to the Sun.
The story being told here is that without the Sun, the farmer's labour achieves little. Just as the Sun is needed to grow the farmer's crops, God's Grace is needed to bring forth and sanctify the spiritual works of men.
This fresco also commemorates Saints Clare of Montefalco, Benedict Joseph Labre, Lawrence of Brindisi and Giovanni Battista De Rossi. All of them were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1881. They are the four persons in the background depicted with haloes here.
[ There are notes with more information on each embedded in the image; they are viewable only on a PC. ]
The inscription "Gratia Dei et Contentione Voluntatis Excellentiam Virtutis Adipiscimur" very roughly translates as God's Grace Brings Excellence.
Pio Clementino Museum, Vatican Museums; July 2019
From my set entitled “Wegelia”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157607213767268/
In my collection entitled “The Garden”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760718...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Weigela is a small genus of about 12 species of deciduous shrubs in the family Caprifoliaceae, growing to 1-5 m tall. All are natives of eastern Asia.
The leaves are 5-15 cm long, ovate-oblong with an acuminate tip, and with a serrated margin. The flowers are 2-4 cm long, with a five-lobed white, pink, or red (rarely yellow) corolla, produced in small corymbs of several together in early summer. The fruit is a dry capsule containing numerous small winged seeds.
Weigela species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Brown-tail.
The genus is named after the German scientist Christian Ehrenfried Weigel.
The British Weigela national collection is held at Sheffield Botanical Gardens; along with the national collection of the closely related Diervilla genus.[1] The german Weigela national collection is held at Sichtungsgarten Weigela in Buckow, Maerkische Schweiz [2]
Several of the species are very popular ornamental shrubs in gardens, although species have been mostly superseded by hybrids (crosses between W. florida and other Asiatic species).
This creation is entitled “Charleston Mansion.” This mansion is an example of antebellum architecture which typifies the homes along the battery of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. The mansion has three floors flanked by galleries, a large attic with a dormer window and is crowned with a belvedere from where one can view Fort Sumter across Charleston Harbor. It has a private balcony on the third floor as well as a two-story solarium at the back of the house. The mansion is 22 inches wide, 21 inches in length and 27 inches tall and is landscaped with lush shrubbery, flowers and palmetto trees.
Mural entitled "Red, White, Black and Blue" by Ruben Ubiera aka @urbanruben and The Bushwick Collective seen in the Wynwood area of Miami, Florida.
Photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
Mural entitled "Creciente" (Increasing) by Juan Camilo Loaiza, seen at 654 NW 32nd Street in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Florida.
Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee
Mural entitled "Juggling Cat" by Jorge Betancourt Polanco aka @bypolanco for the Cat Cafe & Rescue, seen at 80 East California Avenue in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Drone photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
Mural entitled "Calm as a BOMB" by the @rorshachbrand crew seen in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Florida.
Photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
I entitled this one "Third Time's the Charm" because the background letter is from the Depression era and the author is explaining how she has run into financial difficulty but is following new job leads, so to please not close her account. The numbers are from an old cash register wheel and her crown is hand-cut from a vintage tin. Her wings are from a rice wing butterfly (Idea stolli). 8x10
From my set entitled "Our Home, Streetsville"
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157600265395738/
From the Collection entitled "My Home"
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760074...
Our home was built by Samuel Brookbank in 1859. Brookbank was a house framer, so this house is fairly over-built. The Brookbanks raised ten kids in this place. Don't know where the hell they all slept.
We always put the Christmas tree in the bay window.
The house is designated under the Ontario Heritage Act (1975)
From Wikipedia
www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=...
The Ontario Heritage Act, first enacted on March 5, 1975, allows municipalities and the provincial government to designate individual properties and districts in the Province of Ontario, Canada, as being of cultural heritage value or interest.
Once a property has been designated under Part IV of the Act, a property owner must apply to the local municipality for a permit to undertake alterations to any of the identified heritage elements of the property or to demolish any buildings or structures on the property.
Part V of the Act allows for the designation of "heritage conservation districts."
Until 2005, a designation of a property under the Act allowed a municipality to delay, but not ultimately prevent, the demolition of a heritage property. Heritage advocates were highly critical of the 180-day "cooling off" period provided for under the legislation, which was intended to allow time for municipalities and landowners to negotiate an appropriate level of heritage preservation, but often simply resulted in the landowner "waiting out the clock" and demolishing the heritage building once the protection of the Ontario Heritage Act had expired.
In 2005, the provincial government enacted changes to strengthen the Act. Under the amended legislation, a landowner who is refused a demolition permit under the Act no longer has an automatic right to demolish a designated building once the cooling off period has expired. Instead, the landowner has the option to appeal the permit refusal to the Ontario Municipal Board and the OMB will make the final decision on whether or not a demolition permit should issue. Where the OMB refuses to issue a permit, the landowner would have no choice but to preserve the heritage building.
The amended legislation also contains provisions which enable municipalities to enact by-laws to require owners of designated buildings to maintain the structures and their heritage elements. Such by-laws are intended to prevent "demolition by neglect", although the collapse of Walnut Hall in Toronto demonstrates that such buildings are still at risk.
Many land development groups are very critical of the new legislation, as they feel that some landowners may be unfairly burdened with the cost of maintaining heritage buildings in the public interest, without any financial compensation from the public purse. Some religious denominations and school boards have also expressed concerns with the new legislation, as both groups have numerous heritage buildings as part of their land holdings and they fear that the Act will prevent them from realising any value from such properties.
Heritage advocates, however, have applauded the new legislation, as it provides a legal mechanism to protect heritage properties in Ontario with some degree of finality.
Post Processing:
PhotoShop Elements 5: lasso tool (crop), posterization,ink outlines
Mural entitled "On the Road" by Cara To aka @caratoes located at 2125 1st Avenue South in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
From my set entitled “Barbers in the Military”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157600289206206/
In my collection entitled “The Barbers”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/
In my photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/
My Uncle John Barber enlisted in 1916, and gave his date of birth as June 25, 1897. He was with the Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario Regiment), 75th Bn. There is some indication that he lied about his age in order to enlist. My understanding is that he was killed when a stove exploded in a Belgian army camp.
In a few weeks, I will be travelling to Archives Canada in Ottawa to check his war records along with those of my Uncle Art Barber who also served in World War I. Art died about twenty-five years ago. I also hope to check my father’s records. He was much younger than Art and John, and served in World War II. Dad died in 1954, and would have been one hundred years old this year (2008)
In his attestation papers, John identified his trade as butcher.
He is one of the people I will be remembering tomorrow
Burial Information:
Cemetery:
CANTIMPRE CANADIAN CEMETERY
Nord, France
Location:The route to the Cantimpre Canadian Cemetery is signposted from the D939 at Raillencourt and is located 1 kilometre north of Sailly on the D140 on the left hand side of the road towards Sancourt. Sailly is a village in the Department of the Nord approximately 3 kilometres north-west of Cambrai just to the north of the main road from Arras to Cambrai (D939).
The "Marcoing Line," one of the German defence systems before Cambrai, ran from Marcoing Northward through Sailly to the West of Cantimpre and the East of the village of Haynecourt. The Cemetery at Cantimpre was originally called the Marcoing Line British Cemetery.
Reproduced from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Expeditionary_ForceThe
The Canadian Expeditionary Force was the group of Canadian military units formed for service overseas in the First World War. As the units arrived in France they were formed into the divisions of the Canadian Corps within the British Army. Four divisions ultimately served on the front line.
The force consisted of 260 numbered infantry battalions, 2 named infantry battalions (The Royal Canadian Regiment and Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry), 13 mounted rifle regiments, 13 railway troop battalions, 5 pioneer battalions, as well as field and heavy artillery batteries, ambulance, medical, dental, forestry, labour, tunnelling, cyclist, and service units.
A distinct entity within the Canadian Expeditionary Force was the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. It consisted of several motor machine gun battalions, the Eatons, Yukon, and Borden Motor Machine Gun Batteries, and nineteen machine gun companies. During the summer of 1918, these units were consolidated into four machine gun battalions, one being attached to each of the four divisions in the Canadian Corps.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force was comprised mostly of men who had volunteered, as conscription was not enforced until the end of the war when call-ups began in January 1918 (see Conscription Crisis of 1917). Ultimately, only 24,132 conscripts arrived in France before the end of the war.
Canada was the senior Dominion in the British Empire and automatically at war with Germany upon the British declaration. According to Canadian historian Dr. Serge Durflinger at the Canadian War Museum, popular support for the war was found mainly in English Canada. Of the First Division formed at Valcartier, Quebec, 'fully two-thirds were men born in the United Kingdom'. By the end of the war in 1918, at least 'fifty per cent of the CEF consisted of British-born men'. Recruiting was difficult among the French-Canadian population, although one battalion, the 22nd, who came to be known as the 'Van Doos', was French-speaking.
To a lesser extent, other cultural groups were represented with Ukrainians, Russians, Scandinavians, Italians, Belgians, Dutch, French, Americans, Swiss, Chinese, and Japanese men who enlisted. Despite systemic racism directed towards non-whites, a significant contribution was made by individuals of certain ethnic groups, notably the First Nations[1], Afro-Canadians and Japanese-Canadians.
The Canadian Corps with its four infantry divisions comprised the main fighting force of the CEF. The Canadian Cavalry Brigade also served in France. Support units of the CEF included the Canadian Railway Troops, which served on the Western Front and provided a bridging unit for the Middle East; the Canadian Forestry Corps, which felled timber in Britain and France, and special units which operated around the Caspian Sea, in northern Russia and eastern Siberia.[2]
After distinguishing themselves in battle from the Second Battle of Ypres, through the Somme and particularly in the Battle of Arras at Vimy Ridge in April 1917, the Canadian Corps came to be regarded as an exceptional force by both Allied and German military commanders. Since they were mostly unmolested by the German army's offensive manoeuvres in the spring of 1918, the Canadians were ordered to spearhead the last campaigns of the War from the Battle of Amiens on August 8, 1918, which ended in a tacit victory for the Allies when the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force lost 60,661 dead during the war, representing 9.28% of the 619,636 who enlisted.
The CEF disbanded after the war and was replaced by the Canadian Militia.
Post Processing: slight healing brush, crop
Mural entitled "Philadelphia Muses" by Meg Saligman aka @megsaligmanstudio for Mural Arts Philadelphia, seen at 13th and Locust in the Center City area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
Entitled Playboy Marfa and created by artist Richard Phillips, the controversial art piece was formerly located in Marfa, TX but was moved to Dallas in the Spring of 2014 when the Texas Department of Transportation deemed it illegal.
Mural entitled "Salty Saucette" by SKELA aka @sanguineskills, seen at 2595 Larimer Street in Denver, Colorado.
Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee
Mural entitled "Theater of Life" by Careth Arnold aka @carethca, seen in the 1400 Block of 5th Way in the Rosemary District of Sarasota, Florida.
Mural entitled "Born Modern" by SPAGNOLA aka @dustinspagnola, seen at 6430 North Cahuenga Boulevard in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California.
Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
The individuals entitled to display the service flag are clearly defined in 36 USC § 901 which reads:
"A service flag approved by the Secretary of Defense may be displayed in a window of the place of residence of individuals who are members of the immediate family of an individual serving in the Armed Forces of the United States during any period of war or hostilities in which the Armed Forces of the United States are engaged."
Entitled: Jade Belt Bridge & boat, Summer Palace, taken on the grounds of the Summer Palace in Peking, China [c1924] SD Gamble [RESTORED] A few spots and other minor defects removed, contrast and tonal adjustments, with a final Sepia addition.
The Sidney D. Gamble collection at Duke University continues to be a wealth of images that are both artistically compelling as well as providing a window into the past. It remains one of my personal favorites. Link here:
library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/gamble/
The Jade Belt Bridge 玉帶橋 (alternatively also known as the Camel Back Bridge) is probably the most famous of several bridges on the grounds of the old Qing Summer Palace. Thousands of contemporary tourist photos of it flood the net as its beauty remains timeless despite nearly two and a half centuries. Note, it should not be confused with the much older and longer Precious Belt Bridge, another span that was built during the Tang and restored in the Ming, that is located near Suzhou.
According to Wiki:
"The Jade Belt Bridge (simplified Chinese: 玉带桥; traditional Chinese: 玉帶橋; pinyin: Yù Dài Qiáo), also known as the Camel's Back Bridge, is an 18th century pedestrian Moon bridge located on the grounds of the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. It is famous for its distinctive tall thin single arch.
The Jade Belt Bridge is the most well-known of the six bridges on the western shore of Kunming Lake. It was erected in the years 1751 to 1764, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, and was built in the style of the delicate bridges in the country-side of southern China. It is made from marble and other white stone. The ornate bridge railings are decorated with carvings of cranes and other animals. The clearance of the arch was chosen to accommodate the dragon boat of the Qianlong Emperor. As the Kunming Lake inlet to the neighboring Yu River, and when during special occasions, the emperors and empress and their dragon boat would specifically pass under this bridge."
Mural entitled "Forward Momentum" by Jen Wrubles aka @wrubles seen on the wall of the MadLab Theater at 227 North 3rd Street in Columbus, Ohio.
Drone photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
Mural entitled "Livvy in the Sky" by @ryantovakatz seen in the Weisman Park Playlot at 911 West Oakdale in the Lakeview area of Chicago, Illinois.
Entitled: Produce & Wares From Shops Along The Sides Of A Typical Backstreet, Western District, Hong Kong Island [c1946] H Morrison [RESTORED] Minor spotting, contrast and tonal adjustments, with a final sepia.
Hedda Morrison was a tremendous resource for images from the latter part of the Republican China years, photographing extensively with a 2 1/4 Rolleiflex Twin Lens (my personal roll film favorite) during her 13 year stay in China (from 1933 - 1946). Coincidentally, she then married into the family of and bears the name of another very famous China photographer; she married George Ernest Morrison's son, Alastair in 1946. Besides photography in China, she was also known for a large body of image work in Malaysia and Australia (where she died in 1991). Her husband, generously donated her life's work, divided between Harvard University and Australia's Power House Museum of Science & Design.
This image was found on Harvard University's VIA (Visual Information Access) Search Engine under Record Identifier olvwork351358. A notation with the image states:
"Signs advertise printers, rubber stamp makers and business stationery suppliers."
This photograph featured in an online article in PRIMA magazine entitled: ''18 mesmerising photos of Scotland that provide instant calm - Feeling anxious? Transport yourself to Scotland via these serene views '' by Roshina Jowaheer on 4th June 2020.
PRIMA is a UK based online and magazine owned by House of Hearst in London.
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©All photographs on this site are copyright: DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2020 & GETTY IMAGES ®
No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) ©
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Photograph taken at 15:36pm on Tuesday 10th September 2013, past Alexandria on the A82, at a beautiful little village called Aldochlay on the shoreline of Loch Lomond in the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, Scotland. This view looks across the Loch towards the islabd of Inchtavannach.
Loch Lomond (Loch Laomainn), a freshwater loch situated on the Highland Boundary fault, is the largest inland stretch of water by surface area in Great Britain, at 39km in length and up to 8km in width with a maximum depth of 190metres. Primary inflows and outflows include Endrick water, Fruin water and the River Leven.
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Nikon D800 Focal length: 22mm Shutter speed: 1/250s
Aperture: f/14.0 iso200 RAW (14Bit) Handheld
Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries. Sandisc 32GB Ultra Class 10 30MB/s SDHC. Nikon DK-17a magnifying eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft eyepiece cup. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.
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LATITUDE: N 56d 5m 12.59s
LONGITUDE: W 4d 38m 12.23s
ALTITUDE: 24.0m
RAW (FINE) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 27.86MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.9 18/09/2017). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
Entitled: Kidnapped Girls, Foochow, China [1904] Attribution Unk [RESTORED] I did simple spot corrections, contrast and tonal adjustments and added a cool tone, similar to the old selenium effect on bromide paper.
The picture was found in the Edward Bangs Drew Collection held in the Harvard-Yenching Library of Harvard University. The accompanying information stated:
"Kidnapped girls, Foochow, Found hidden in a junk by customs inspector. These girls would have been sold for slaves. Chinese characters on mount, left of image." The info also stated that the scene was in Fuzhou, Fujian Sheng, China.
However, those Chinese characters printed on the mount tell a slightly different story:
"Kidnapped male and female children, totaling forty one, being held in foster homes, Lam Hing Lan Company, Recovered from ship in open seas. Customs detention of 23 kidnappers ."
If one examines the photograph closely, it become rather evident that several of the children are indeed, boys (by their clothing and hair styles). Only 27 of the supposed 41 child victims appear in the picture.
The selling of children into a life of servitude was not uncommon in China, as slaves were owned by many wealthy families. Poor families often looked upon it with a benign fatalism as a child sold into slavery was still better than a child starving to death. However, quite a few unscrupulous people kidnapped their neighbor's children to fuel this sad economy. The kidnapping and selling of children (and even adults) continues to be a lucrative business in China, to this day.
From my set entitled ‘Sumac”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157607186471302/
In my collection entitled “The Garden”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760718...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sumac (also spelled sumach) is any one of approximately 250 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. The dried berries of some species are ground to produce a tangy purple spice often used in juice.
Sumacs grow in subtropical and warm temperate regions throughout the world, especially in North America.
Sumacs are shrubs and small trees that can reach a height of 1-10 meters. The leaves are spirally arranged; they are usually pinnately compound, though some species have trifoliate or simple leaves. The flowers are in dense panicles or spikes 5-30 cm long, each flower very small, greenish, creamy white or red, with five petals. The fruits form dense clusters of reddish drupes called sumac bobs.
Sumacs propagate both by seed (spread by birds and other animals through their droppings), and by new sprouts from rhizomes, forming large clonal colonies.
The drupes of the genus Rhus are ground into a deep-red or purple powder used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a lemony taste to salads or meat; in the Turkish cuisine e.g. added to salad-servings of kebabs and lahmacun. In North America, the smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), and the staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina), are sometimes used to make a beverage, termed "sumac-ade" or "Indian lemonade" or "rhus juice". This drink is made by soaking the drupes in cool water, rubbing them to extract the essence, straining the liquid through a cotton cloth and sweetening it. Native Americans also used the leaves and berries of the smooth and staghorn sumacs combined with tobacco in traditional smoking mixtures.
Species including the fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica), the littleleaf sumac (R. microphylla), the skunkbush sumac (R. trilobata), the smooth sumac and the staghorn sumac are grown for ornament, either as the wild types or as cultivars.
The leaves of certain sumacs yield tannin (mostly pyrogallol), a substance used in vegetable tanning. Leather tanned with sumac is flexible, light in weight, and light in color, even bordering on being white.
Dried sumac wood is fluorescent under long-wave UV light. Mowing of sumac is not a good control measure as the wood is springy resulting in jagged, sharp pointed stumps when mowed. The plant will quickly recover with new growth after mowing.
Post Processing:
PhotoShop Elements: sharpen, posterization, ink outlines.
Entitled: Men Laden With Tea Sichuan Sheng China JUL [1908] EH Wilson [RESTORED] Very little retouching except for a few scratches and spots. Minor contrast and sepia tone added. The original resides in Harvard University Library's permanent collection, and can be found using their Visual Information Access (VIA) Search System by using the title.
Ernest Henry "Chinese" Wilson was an explorer botanist who traveled extensively to the far east between 1899 and 1918, collecting seed specimens and recording with both journals and camera. About sixty Asian plant species bear his name. One of his most famous photographs (above) has repeatedly been mistakenly attributed to another legendary botanist (Joseph Rock) who was also working in Asia.
From Wilson's personal notations (with misspellings as is):
"Men laden with 'Brick Tea' for Thibet. One man's load weighs 317 lbs. Avoird. The other's 298 lbs. Avoird.!! Men carry this tea as far as Tachien lu accomplishing about 6 miles per day over vile roads, 5000 ft."
I suspect that Wilson made a mistake; either miscalculating a conversion from Chinese Imperial to European weight measure, or that he believed an inflated figure offered him by a less than honest native. However, others purportedly shared the same beliefs that some porters did in fact, carry upwards of 300 pound loads. In a rare 2003 interview with several retired former porters, still alive and in their 80's. They stated that while the average was really more between 60-110 Kg; they acknowledged that some (only the very strongest) could shoulder a superhuman 150 Kg load; someone like Giant Chang Woo Gow, or one of his kin, perhaps? An excerpt about that interview:
"The Burden of Human Portage
As recently as the first decades of the 20th century, much of the tea transported by the ancient Tea-Horse Road was carried not by mule caravan, but by human porters, giving real substance to the once widely-employed designation ‘coolie’, a term thought to have been derived from the Chinese kuli or ‘bitter labour’. This was particularly true of smaller tracks and trails leading from remote tea-picking areas to the arterial Tea-Horse routes, both in Yunnan and in Sichuan. Perhaps because this human portage played a less economically significant role than the large – sometimes huge – yak, pony and mule caravans, and perhaps because there is little or no romance attached to the piteous sight of over-burdened, inadequately-clad and under-nourished porters hauling themselves and their massive loads across muddy valleys and freezing mountain passes, less information is available to us concerning tea porters than about tea caravans.
Fortunately some black-and-white images of these incredibly wiry, tough, hard-bitten men have come down to us from Sichuan, as well as at least one 150-year-old French-made lithograph from Yunnan, in addition to some rare oral accounts describing the immense difficulties these hardy wretches had to face. In the latter category, as recently as 2003 China Daily carried an interview with four former tea porters in Ganxipo Village, near Tianquan County to the southwest of Ya’an. Now in their 80s, these veterans recall hard times before the completion of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway in 1954 when they would carry almost impossibly heavy loads of Sichuan Pu’er tea over a narrow mountain trail across the freezing heights of Erlang Shan (‘Two Wolves Mountain’) to Luding and onwards, across the Dadu River, to the tea distribution centre at Kangding.
According to 81-year-old former tea porter Li Zhongquan, tea was carried by human portage all the way from Tianquan County to Kangding, a distance of 180km (112 miles) each way on narrow mountain tracks, much of the way at dangerously high altitudes in freezing temperatures. According to Li, an able-bodied porter would carry 10 to 12 packs of tea, each weighing between 6 and 9 kg. To this had to be added 7 to 8 kg of grain for sustenance en route, as well as ‘five or six pairs of homemade straw sandals to change on the way’. The strongest porters could carry 15 packs of tea, making a total load of around 150 kg (330 imperial pounds). ‘The grain lasted no longer than half the journey’, Li remembered, ‘and you had to replenish your food supply at your own expense’. As for the multiple pairs of straw sandals: ‘these would be worn out quickly, as the mountain path was extremely rough’.
To make the portage of such heavy loads possible, and to help guard against the ever-present danger of overbalancing and falling into one of the many deep ravines skirted by the narrow mountain trail, tea porters carried iron-tipped T-shaped walking sticks both to assist in struggling over the steep, rocky path, and to rest the load on, without taking it off their backs, when they paused for breath. A surviving section of the old stone path near Ganxipo Village bears testament to the almost unimaginable difficulties faced by the tea porters in the past; small holes dot the stone slabs of the path at regular intervals of a pace or so, indicating where, over centuries and perhaps even millennia, the porters struck the rock with their iron-tipped sticks as they made their laborious way to and from Kangding.
It is possible to identify the T-shaped walking-and-support sticks used by the tea porters in black and white photographs from a century or more ago, including one taken by the American explorer and botanist E.H. Wilson, who helpfully appends the information: ‘Western Szechuan; men laden with “brick tea” for Thibet. One man's load weighs 317 lbs [144 kilos], the other's 298 lbs [135 kilos]. Men carry this tea as far as Tachien-lu [Kangding] accomplishing about six miles per day over vile roads. Altitude 5,000 ft [1,500m] July 30, 1908’.
For the tea porters of Ganxipo Village, the hardest part of their journey was the climb over Erlang Shan. The precipitous mountain trail was so narrow that it was only wide enough for one person to pass at a time. According to Li Zhongquan: ‘one misstep, and you were gone – we had our sandals soled with iron to get over the mountain’. Li also remembers when: ‘one of us was sick and fell dead on the mountain top in winter. We had to leave him there until the snow thawed in spring, when we carried the body down home’. The porters carried tea from Tianquan to Kangding, and returned with loads of medicinal herbs (especially Cordyceps sinensis of Chinese caterpillar fungus), musk, wool, horn and other Tibetan products. The four porters interviewed in China Daily did not know for sure when the tea portage trade had started in Ganxipo, but Li was certain that ‘my grandpa’s grandpa was a porter as well,’ and that the whole village had offered porter services for generations."
Source: www.cpamedia.com/trade-routes...l-perspective/
Just walking for a few kilometers on a flat surface with 40 Kg worth of material on your back, I can attest is already exhausting. To imagine tripling that weight, walk for over 180 kilometers over mountain trails, and breathe rarefied air? I wouldn't say it's downright impossible, but highly improbable. I too, would agree that it was likely only exceptions rather than the rule.
One down, one more to go! An exquisite necklace of flickering diamonds waiting to be nimbly slipped away from the throat of its unsuspecting wearer. Now just to make sure the husband of the silken gowned brunette displaying the jewels in question was still safely out of the picture...
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The above depiction appeared on the cover of True Detective June 1953 Vol. 59 No. 2
The portrayal below did not.
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The Silken whisper of Flickering Desires
A Chronicle
Adapted from the Final Entry Entitled:
Their Regal Gambit
Subtitled:
While Sherlock Holmes vacationed
The first score had been made, now for the Coup de Grace! So far their little operation had gone as smooth as silk, or in this case, satin. Now just to make sure the husband of the silken gowned brunette displaying the jewels in question was still safely out of the picture! Then Mollie would let her husband know that with the coast clear, freeing him to stage his approach of the lady in the long swishing satin gown he had been keeping an eye on all evening. The one who was wearing the exquisite necklace of fiery flickering diamonds, just daring someone to expertly slip it away the throat of its unsuspecting owner.
And therein lay the rub, She happily thought….
As Mollie made her way down the quiet corridor to the gentlemen’s smoking lounge, she lovingly played through her mind the series of unfortunate ( or fortunate?) events that had led her and her husband to this place. It had all began with an innocent one named Tabitha…….
Mollies’ Flash back
They had first come across Tabitha at a resort casino deep in the Catskills. Mollie and her husband had been there about three days, scoping out the grounds, and its wealthy clientele. At the casino they both spotted Tabitha at the same time. She was seated at a baccarat table, really standing out in an elegant dress of gold and black striped silk and velvet Her well-toned body displayed numerous pieces of expensive jewelry. A fat little purse dangled, unheeded by her side. Tabitha had held Mollie’s attention mainly due to the strong resemblance she had to herself. Tabitha’s jewelry, a flashy diamond journey style necklace, matching earrings, wide diamond tennis bracelet, and multiple gem encrusted rings, had held Mollies pickpocket husbands’.
Mollie went on to the bar and watched as her husband waited for the seat next to Tabitha to become vacant. Then he sat, asking for chips, while unobtrusively eyeing Tabitha’s bracelet. He began striking up a conversation with Tabitha, finding her to be an easy mark. He soon learned from the chatty girl that she was a divorced, upper executive for a well-known digital arts company servicing the movie industry. It was during this conversation that Tabitha babbled about the upscale, invitation only(you know), black tie formal ball she would be attending in England the next month. Now, as her husband was keeping Tabitha occupied Mollie had walked by the pair, ‘tripping’ into her husband, who palmed off to her , the diamond bracelet which had been ever so subtly slipped from around the unwary Tabatha’s’ wrist. Walking away with the bracelet secured in her purse, Mollie made her way to their small bungalow. Her husband did not break in his conversation with Tabitha; a mark would seldom suspect a friendly person of stealing from her.
Later that evening, Mollie wore the pricy bracelet while mutually admiring it over a bottle of merlot with her husband. They discussed the high-class affair Tabitha had been bragging about. Wistfully, Mollie admitted it was a shame they had not received an invite. Her husband smiled, and pulled a thickly embossed and crested envelope from his pocket. Easily adopting a British accent, he said “The silly little twit was carrying this in her purse!” The envelope revealed a pair of invitations to the Princess’s Jubilee Royal Ball. As the pair continued to empty the bottle of fine merlot, what had started as speculation, turned towards reality, and soon plans had been laid.
As they lay in bed later that night, Mollie turned to her husband, just think about the jewels that will be worn at the English Ball, she shivered with the delightful thoughts. Do you remember the last time we were in England? Mollie looked at her husband slyly, you remember, the Wriggling Whelp Whispering Wisk! She stated teasingly. Mollie knew the quickest way to get her husband’s goat was coming up with silly phrases to describe his more outlandish endeavors. Such phrases like The Tingling Touch Ice Melt, The Slippery Slick Taffeta Pull, The Glossy Gowned Dangling Peel, or her personal favorite, The Ticklish Wedge Clam Dip, never failed to get a response. In this case the response was a brief pillow fight ending up with them reminiscing about the last time they had “visited” England a few years back.
There had been a rambunctious doe eyed Fourteen year old in a shiny dress who had been oblivious to the valuably delicious gold pendent studded with small rubies and emeralds that sparkled ever so invitingly as it swung from her throat. A pair of matching dangling earrings dripped from her ears as she has run around un minded by her elders. Mollie had indignantly stated that the antique trinkets were simply just too expensive for a child so squirm inly young to be trusted with. Mollie had been right.
After talking a bit about the English Girls pendent, which had been an unexpected windfall, Mollie came back to the present and asked if the lady in the maroon silk that her husband pointed out the previous evening would be wearing the same jewels to the dance tomorrow night? Or better her husband replied sleepily, good Mollie pronounced, I did like her emeralds.
In Merry Ole England
They had arrived in England several weeks before the Royal Ball and began the preparations.
In an irony of fate, the profit they had realized from poor Tabitha’s bracelet had paid for a large chunk of their little excursion. Keeping his accent, and adding a trim beard, Mollies husband looked radically different from the man Tabitha had encountered. During the weeks following their arrival, the pair had practiced like they always did before undertaking a new venture. But this time it was with a more daring edge, they quite simply could not afford being caught red handed in a foreign country. Mollie assumed her practice the role. That of the richly dressed, Well jeweled quarry. Her husband would stalk and attempt to relieve her of a piece of her jewelry as she went about her business, shopping! The idea being that, If he was able to do so without being caught by an obviously aware Mollie, than he should have no problem at the Royal Ball. As it usually happened when they practiced in this manner, her husband did incredibly well. Mollie had had several pieces of jewelry vanish from her person during the week, without her noticing how or when.
The final night of practice Mollie decided to dress to kill. Looking quite devastating in a glossy gold halter and a long brown velvet skirt with gold stiletto heels clicking as she moved. A diamond heart pendant hung down from her neck, swaying provocatively out from between her breasts. A bracelet, similar to Tabitha’s purloined diamonds, was wrapped around her wrist.
She left their penthouse and made her way to the street outside. Some type of festival was going on as she waded through the crowded streets to the nightclub. Her rings sparkled as they kept rhythm with her swaying diamond waterfall earrings. Just daring her husband to make a move for any of them.
Mollie drank and danced the night away with no hide or hair of her husband until she returned late that evening to their apartment. She found him in the hot tub, smirking. She undressed and joined him. Okay, how did u do it she demanded? I felt nothing, no one bumped or brushed against me all evening that I was not aware of. He opened his fist, allowing her heart diamond pendant to dangle freely in front of her. A magician never reveals his tricks my little cat, he purred, as the pendant swayed in a sparkling arch.
Cat was short for “Cat Lady”, a moniker he had placed upon her when she had broken into a sleeping woman’s room and removed the jewels from her gold case, and even managed to slip off a ring she was wearing. The fact that she was passed out in a drunken stupor, still dressed in her long party gown, didn’t count , or so her husband teased.
You should have been a surgeon! , my dear, Mollie exclaimed with pride. Then she leaned towards him, her green eyes gleaming in earnest, time for a real practice run Mon Cherie, she said in dead seriousness. Then Her eyes opened wide, I got it she exclaimed, I’ll call it The Slinking Sneaky Shearing Snag she pronounced joyfully, getting a face ful of water in reply to her effort. Okay Cat, let’s get down to business he retorted, I know just the affair. Mollie listened intensively as her Husband described their next plans, derived while eavesdropping on a couple of ladies shopping in a jewelers.
The next weekend (two weeks to the evening before the Royal Ball) Mollie found herself at a quaint upscale wedding reception held in the large gardens of a country church. She was attired in the same bewitching ensemble that she had been wearing on the final night of practice. Her only jewels were a recently acquired pair of sparkly cascading earrings set with emeralds and diamonds. The affair of the plump piqued peacock plucking she had mused while getting dressed. The only other exception was that the long fiery red hair she had inherited from her Irish namesake grandmother had been cut and dyed blond. Blue contacts had also been added to the disguise to hide her vivid green eyes.
They soon targeted an older jewel laden snob at the reception. While Mollie engaged the mark in a mostly one sided conversation(the older ladies) the lady had become so deeply engrossed about talking about herself and her ties with royalty, that she never detected being relieved of a heirloom antique gold chain and jeweled pendent by Mollies husband who had approached her unnoticed from behind.
It was all Mollie could do no to bring attention to it by looking at the wickedly expensive piece as it was slipped up and away from the Dowager’s ruffled heavy satin blouse.
This time it was mollies turn to keep chatting as her husband headed to the door. He had almost made it when two youths ran into him as they scurried away from a rather sullen looking tween girl they had been teasing, and now were in possession of her purse. Mollie stole a look as she saw her husband topple onto the chasing girl. He managed to extracted himself from the girls long slinky gown that she had probably been forced into by an overly conceited mother. He apologized, and left the girl to go after her antagonizes. Later, when Mollie had caught up to him she teased him about his clumsiness. He just smiled, and pulled out from his vest pocket the most exquisitely matched pearls that the youth had been openly displaying from around her throat and wrist at the reception!
They were, most definitely, ready. The fated evening could not come soon enough. But it finally did.
They had had no problem with using the fancy invitations to gain entrance. Security was heavy, as expected, but with a very lax atmosphere. Mollie was wearing the salmon coloured gown she had had especially made for such occasions, her new blond hair style and the blue contacts. In a coup foray of sorts, Mollie wore the pearls that had been taken by her husband during his run in with the sullen girl at the wedding reception. Her husband was wearing his usual tux with a hand tied bowtie. His ruffled sleeves easily moved up and down along his wrists.
Mollie and her husband split up, each spending the first few hours mingling solo, and taking it all in as they thoroughly enjoyed the Ball and all its many stimulating attractions. It had gone smooth as silk. Spending the first few hours prowling while the guests liquored up Mollie scoping out exactly the right candidates. Dangling jewels with easy clasps were everywhere!, it was surprising how the best of jewel makers skimped on the clasps required to keep the expensive pieces in place. Clothing also made a difference. Silks and satins were quiet and slipped easily. Taffeta could be whispery, more of a challenge. Velvet could easily snag as a piece was being lifted. But these were the costliest of materials, and the wearers would logically be wearing the costlier of jewelry.
Mollie and her husband regrouped several hours later, unobtrusively under the pretense of dancing. Gently discussing their plans. They settled on three likely prospects amongst the almost three hundred present. The first was an older spinster type wearing a luxurious dress of embroidered navy silk and displaying jewelry studded with diamonds and sapphires. The second was a middle aged snotty blonde wearing a shamelessly low cut green silk taffeta gown (which Mollie secretly liked)wearing a thick gold bracelet studded with vulgarly large rubies surrounded by a sea of small sparkly diamonds. She was alone, and a heavy drinker. The third was a longshot. A lanky , flighty brunette wearing immensely valuable jewels of blindingly sparkling Diamonds. Her necklace alone was in the upper hundred thousand range, with a clasp that was one of the easiest to coax open. The only problem was that she came with an obviously newlywed husband who doted on her every move. Both were heavy drinkers, and if he would only leave his wife’s side for, say about fifteen minutes, the necklace would be theirs!
They had decided that any one of the three would produce results worth a king’s ransom, appropriately enough, all things considered. The plan was for her husband to take his time selecting the easiest jewel to acquire from amongst the ones the three marks were displaying , make his move, and pass it off to Mollie who would leave forthwith, while her husband stayed a little while longer to make sure everything remained calm before making his exit stage right via the hallway.
As Mollie went to her station, she saw the Blue silken lady, along with her sapphires and diamonds, leaving with a rather unsavory looking male, eyeing her with a look Mollie knew all too well. Mollie decided to follow them, thinking to herself that some women are just prone to being victimized. Good luck with that one Mollie thought unkindly, as she stole one last look at the ladies glistening sapphires, hope he leaves her with something she sarcastically wished wickedly to the couple’s backside as they went out the exit at the end of the hall. One down and out she thought. Then she spied the husband of the newlywed pair heading down the hall towards her with an older, grey bearded man. Getting close she heard them talking about the Gentlemen’s smoking lounge. Mollie decided to give her husband a signal, but when she found him he was already in the arms of the blond. Molly immediately noticed the absence of the jeweled bracelet from his partners’ wrist. She went back to her table. Immediately she was set upon by some drunken snob asking her to dance. She allowed herself to be taken up into his arms. Spending a few unenchanting minutes with Mr. two left feet, before her husband tapped him on the shoulder cutting in. They danced, Mollie placing a hand into his pocket and feeling something cold and metal wrapped her hand around it. Looking him in the eyes she told him about the now unguarded bride, as she palmed the willowy blonde’s bracelet. They decided to go for it, and as the music ended, Mollie made her way to the hall, where she secreted the blondes bracelet safely away
One down, one more to go! An exquisite necklace of flickering diamonds waiting to be nimbly slipped away from the throat of its unsuspecting wearer. Now just to make sure the husband of the silken gowned brunette displaying the jewels in question was still safely out of the picture! Then to let her husband know that with the coast clear, he was free to stage his approach of the lady in the long swishing satin gown he had been keeping a drooling eye on all evening. The one wearing the exquisite necklace of flickering diamonds waiting to be so expertly slipped away from the throat of its unsuspecting wearer.
She was able to see the groom in windowed room, the husband and his friend were smoking a pair of long cigars and drinking brandy in large glass snifters. Mollie passed unnoticed as she mad e her way to the ladies powder room. He was still there, only halfway through a long stogie as she passed again on her way back. Neither time was she observed. Mollie mad her way back to the Ballroom. She sat down at one side of the room, once again allowing the sights of so many bejeweled women to soak in. Her husband was dancing with a lady in a flowing red ball gown, jewels sparkling in abundance, not aware of the danger so close at hand, nor that even with her husband and his particular skill set so close to them, that at that moment nothing could be safer from his fingertips. Finally she caught her husband’s eye. Mollie innocently rubbed a finger along the side of her nose, a subtle signal that it was safe for him to precede.
Mollie was now uncharacteristically having butterflies in her stomach; it was a huge gamble, trying to get away with a pair of thefts in this inhospitable atmosphere. She kept second guessing herself, Bird in hand she kept thinking. But the lure was too great, and it was with a heavy sigh of relief when Mollie saw her husband finally kiss the hand of the young bride after their dance. Mollie could see that she was no longer sporting the thin silver necklace and its row of at least two caret diamonds that had been encircling her throat with their rippling flashy brilliance all evening. Molly stayed put, not daring to leave until her husband had brushed by her in passing and made his way out the hallway to the exit. She waited for a long fifteen minutes, then curling her hand around the necklace that had been dropped into her lap as he had passed; she gained the safety of the hallway. Just in time. For coming down the hallway was none other than the lady in the long luxurious gown and now bare throats groom and his distinguished looking friend. She passed by them, feeling the men eyeing her with roving wolfish gazes. Then she passed them, and proceeded unhindered to once again enter the ladies’ powder room where the necklace soon joined with the Blondes bracelet in its hiding spot.. Than calmly Mollie left, walking past two security Bobbies, virtually unnoticed. The Groom had been absolutely ignorant to the fact that his young Bride’s ridiculously valuable necklace had walked right past him out the door.
Mollie did not let herself really breathe until she had gained the safety of the street. She allowed herself to imagine the commotion as the news of the missing jewels were circulated around the cavernous Ballroom. There would be a flurry of activity, flashes and sparkles as the women checked themselves reassuringly that they were still in possession of their trinkets. Mollie would have loved to have stayed and watched, but obviously could not do so. She rejoined her husband at their meeting place and they drove off. They made their way to Ireland where they spent a cautious week touring before leaving for the states.
Once the profit was realized from their haul that eventful evening, including obnoxious Dowagers the jeweled antique pendent, and was added in to the modest amount they had already accumulated from previous adventures, Mollie and her husband were able to retire to Ireland and live quite an unpretentious life together in a small stone manor in the woods.
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Mural entitled "The Lion and the Mouse" by Emily Ding aka @_emilyding for "Bright Walls 2019," seen at 135 West Cortland Street in Jackson, Michigan.
The artist drew inspiration from Aesop's Fables. She states: "There is no being so small that it cannot help a greater; an act of kindness, no matter how small, is never wasted."
.
"With patient labor she applied
Her teeth, the network to divide;
And so at last forth issued he,
A lion, by a mouse set free."
--Aesop in Rhyme by Jefferys Taylor (1792-1853)
Drone photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee
The seventh photograph in the series is entitled “Creation of Luke” and is based upon Michelangelo's most famous section of his fresco in the Sistine Chapel, The Creation of Adam. It is believed by many art historians that Michelangelo's work rivals only Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa in popularity and fame.
The Creation of Adam was completed in circa 1512 and depicts God's creation of Adam. In the Christian faith, Adam is believed to be the first man (Eve was believed to be the first woman). The image of the near-touching hands of God and Adam has become one of the most iconic images of humanity and has been reproduced countless times, including of course my newly created work. In my recreation, God had been replaced with Darth Vader and Adam with Luke. It is my belief that Luke's transition into a Jedi; although guided by Obi-Wan and Yoda, was strongly influenced by his various encounters with his Father and "Creator", Anakin; more commonly know by his Sith name, Darth Vader.
The scene I have used to help with my recreation is the infamous lightsaber duel on Bespin; specifically Vader and Luke's encounter in the ventilation vents of Cloud City. It is at this point in the Empire Strikes Back that Vader reveals himself to Luke with one of the most well known lines in movie history; "... I am your Father..." Although I have had to play with a few details; like the direction of the scene, I thought this particular point in the film fit perfectly with the theme of Michelangelo's work. I hope you agree.
Enjoy!
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Visit our Cast of Star Wars Characters at www.365DaysofClones.com.
The artwork for this beautiful WWI commercial postcard entitled "Freunde" (German for "Friends") was taken from an origiinal painting by Heinrich Schubert. Although so far I have not been able to find out anything about this artist, it is clearly evident that he knew exactly how to paint a picture that would sell.
Coming in on the tail end of the Victorian Era, WWI was still a time when sentimentality appealed to public taste as is evidenced by this picture. The wounded hussar's faithful horse has sought him out and peers longingly at his wounded master through an open window. The handsome young man, resting in a chair and propped up by a pillow, reaches out to stroke the horse's soft muzzle. The soldier, oddly enough, is wearing his dress uniform instead of a nightshirt, and is covered up to the waist with a blanket. A book that he was reading dangles from his left hand. His shako with the Austro-Hungarian Empire eagle rests on a chest behind him, and his sword stands beside him.
Although he has sustained a head wound, and his head has been bandaged, I somehow don't think the artist would have let it be anything that would disfigure the dashing young soldier's good looks.
Instead of painting the grim reality of a WWI hospital ward or the primitive conditions of a field hospital, the artist has chosen what must be a comfortable, private dwelling for the setting. Perhaps when the soldier was wounded, he was allowed to go home to recover. The walls are papered in an attractive pattern, and lace curtains hang at the window. A cheery pot of geraniums sits on the sill, and a vase of pink and white roses has been placed on the table next to him. A wine bottle stands on the table, and a glass of white wine has been poured. An open tobacco box with a freshly rolled cigarette is also on the table, and on the window sill in an ashtray which also is a match holder, there is another cigarette.
By the time WWI rolled around, the tobacco habit held the world firmly in its sway. In many photographs from the era, cigarettes dangle jauntily from the lips of young soldiers or are held in a sophisticated manner between their fingers.
Printed on the back of the postcard: W.R.B. & Co. Wein Nr. 156. [NOTE: Wein is Vienna, Austria.] It is postmarked 3-3-15 Munchen [Munich, Germany].
Entitled: A Family In Lanchow, China [1944] Fr M Tennien [RESTORED]. I did the usual spot and defect removal, adjusted contrast, and added a sepia tone. Overall there was very little needed to do for this very well maintained image.
Another photograph from the extensive holdings of The University of Southern California's Internet Mission Archive taken by a Father Mark Tennien, a cleric from one of the religious missions in Lanzhou (then known as Lanchow). Again, the mission statement of the archive is as follows:
"The Internet Mission Photography Archive offers historical images from Protestant and Catholic missionary collections in Britain, Norway, Germany, and the United States. The photographs, which range in time from the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century, offer a visual record of missionary activities and experiences in Africa, China, Madagascar, India, Papua-New Guinea, and the Caribbean. The photographs reveal the physical influence of missions, visible in mission compounds, churches, and school buildings, as well as the cultural impact of mission teaching, religious practices, and Western technology and fashions. Indigenous peoples' responses to missions and the emergence of indigenous churches are represented, as are views of landscapes, cities, and towns before and in the early stages of modern development."
Lanchow, or as now known, Lanzhou 蘭州, has lived under a variety of names in the northwest Gansu province, and is probably one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in China. It was also one of the key cities on the northern leg of the the famed silk road. At the crossroad of many cultures, it was the home to the Qiang people when it fell under Qin rule in the 6th Century BC. Thereafter a steady stream of invasions and dynastic shifts allowed it to be ruled by a variety of foreign cultures and nations (including Tibet, which should give those who claim that Tibet was always a part of China some more history to try to rewrite). During the volatile warlord period of the 1920-1930s, Lanzhou was an important transfer point for Soviet communist influence and support into China.
Father Tennien, on 28 SEP 1944 wrote:
"This is a photograph of a family in Lanchow. The women wear square amulets hanging from their necks. The ornaments on their dresses are of solid silver. The family is wearing hats and heavy coats."
The clothing on the family in the picture is unique but shows similarity to both that of tradition Qiang and Tibetan cultures, however there seems to be a bit of Mongolian thrown in as well. I personally am not well versed with any of the Chinese ethnic minorities (officially 56 are recognized at last count) to know the subtle nuances such as cultural difference in dress. If there is anyone out there that knows who or what ethnic group these people belong too, please speak up and educate the rest of us.
Mural entitled "Heartland" by Rafael Caro, Lauren Neely, and Erica Parker, seen on the side of the Egyptian Café hookah bar
at 6265 Carrollton Avenue in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee
Painting entitled "The death of Major Peirson at St Helier, Jersey 6th January 1781" by John S Copley RA.
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in England, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, having opened in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the art of the United Kingdom since Tudor times, and in particular has large holdings of the works of J. M. W. Turner, who bequeathed all his own collection to the nation. It is one of the largest museums in the country.
Info sourced from Wikipedia
An exhibition entitled "China's First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors" is at the World Museum in Liverpool from 9 February 2018 to 28 October 2018.
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my permission.© Degzi. All rights reserved.
Mural entitled "Time is Too Short" by Mez Data aka @mezdata for the Big Walls Big Dreams mural festival sponsored by Up Art Studio, seen at 1502 Sawyer Street in Houston, Texas.
Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
The eye-catching metal sculpture entitled Arria which sits next to the A80 near Cumbernauld.
The sculpture was created by Andy Scott who did the Kelpies at Falkirk and she is named after Arria Fadilla, mother of Roman Emperor Antoninus who ordered the construction of the Antonine Wall in this area.
Strangely enough when I looked up the name 'Arria' it shot back another woman from ancient rome with this name who's actions were seen as characteristic of the 'examples of virtue'. But supposedly she wasn't the basis for the name but the emperors mother was.
When i first heard the name I though about an aria in an opera and thought she looked a bit like an opera singer doing her bit but what do I know.
I think she is meant to be modeled around a mermaid and the two large swooping arcs are inspired by the original name for Cumbernauld, "comar nan allt", which means "coming together of waters" in Gaelic. (source:www.bbc.co.uk)
One thing is for sure, she certainly has a well proportioned figure. Easily seen it was a guy who designed it.
Entitled "The Little Flower Girl" (Aisha Mc Donald) ~ Originally captured in color on Fuji XT-1 using 50-140mm Fujinon Lens - ISO 800 : Converted to B&W : Photographer = Athol Phillips - South Africa : www.photographedbyathol.com
From my set entitled “Virginia Beach”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157605213848560/
In my collection entitled “Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760622...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Beach,_Virginia
Click link to check footnotes
Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the South Hampton Roads area in the Commonwealth of Virginia, on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the most populous city in Virginia and the 41st largest city in the United States, with an estimated population of 435,619 in 2006.[3]
Virginia Beach is the easternmost of the Seven Cities of Hampton Roads that make up the core of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA. This area, known as "America's First Region", also includes the independent cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Suffolk, as well as other smaller cities, counties and towns of Hampton Roads.
Virginia Beach is best known as a resort, with miles of beaches and hundreds of hotels, motels, and restaurants along its oceanfront. Every year it is host to the East Coast Surfing Championship as well as the North American Sand Soccer Championship that attracts teams from around the world. It is also home to several state parks, several long protected beach areas, three military bases, a number of large corporations, two universities, and historic sites. Near the point where the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet, Cape Henry was the site of the first landing of the English colonists bound for Jamestown on April 26, 1607.
The city is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest pleasure beach in the world. It is located at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the longest bridge-tunnel complex in the world.[4]
Chesepians were the first inhabitants of the area now known as South Hampton Roads in Virginia of which anything is known.[5] The Algonquian word "Chesepioc" means "Great Shellfish Bay", a reference to the Chesapeake Bay. They occupied an area which is now the independent cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.[6]
In 1607, after a voyage of 144 days, three ships headed by Captain Christopher Newport carrying 105 men and boys made their first landfall in the New World where the Atlantic Ocean meets the southern mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in the northeastern part of the city. They named it Cape Henry, after Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James I of England. However, these English colonists of the Virginia Company of London left the area, as they were under orders to seek a site further inland which would be more sheltered from ships of competing European countries. They created their first permanent settlement at Jamestown.[7]
Adam Thoroughgood (1604-1640) of King's Lynn, Norfolk, England is one of the earliest Englishmen to settle in the area which became Virginia Beach. At the age of 18, he became an indentured servant to pay for passage to the Virginia Colony. He earned his freedom and became a leading citizen of the area. In 1629, he was elected to the House of Burgesses for Elizabeth Cittie [sic], one of four "citties" (or incorporations) which were subdivided areas established in 1619. [8]
In 1634, the Colony was divided into the original eight shires of Virginia, soon renamed as counties. Thoroughgood is credited with using the name of his home in England when helping name New Norfolk County in 1637. The following year, New Norfolk County was split into Upper Norfolk County (soon renamed Nansemond County) and Lower Norfolk County. Thoroughgood's choice of residence after 1634 was along the Lynnhaven River, also named for his home in England. Lower Norfolk County was quite large, and stretched all the way from the Atlantic Ocean west past the Elizabeth River, encompassing the entire area now within the modern cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach.[8]
In 1691, Lower Norfolk County was divided to form Norfolk County and Princess Anne County. Princess Anne, the easternmost county in South Hampton Roads, extended northward from the North Carolina border to Cape Henry at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and included all of the area fronting the Atlantic Ocean. Princess Anne County was to last from 1691 to 1963, over 250 years.[9]
The small resort area of Virginia Beach grew in Princess Anne County beginning in the late 19th century, particularly after the 1888 arrival of rail service and electricity and the opening of the original Princess Anne Hotel at the oceanfront near the tiny community of Seatack. In 1891, guests at the new hotel watched the wreck and rescue efforts of the United States Life-Saving Service for the Norwegian bark Dictator. The ship's figurehead, which washed up on the beach several days later, was erected as a modest monument to the victims and rescuers along the oceanfront for more than 50 years, and later became the inspiration for the current matching Norwegian Lady Monuments in Virginia Beach, and Moss, Norway.[10]
Although the resort was initially dependent upon railroad and electric trolley service, the completion of Virginia Beach Boulevard in 1922, which extended from Norfolk to the oceanfront, opened the way for automobiles, buses, trucks, and passenger rail service, the latter of which was eventually discontinued. The growing resort of Virginia Beach became an incorporated town in 1906. In 1927 The Cavalier Hotel opened and became an extremely popular vacation spot for both the wealthy and celebrities of the time. Over the next 45 years, Virginia Beach continued to grow in popularity as a seasonal vacation spot, and casinos gave way to amusement parks and family-oriented attractions. Virginia Beach became politically independent of Princess Anne County as an independent city in 1952, although the numerous ties between Virginia Beach and Princess Anne remained. In 1963, after approval by referendum of the voters of the City of Virginia Beach and Princess Anne County, and with the approval of the Virginia General Assembly, the two political subdivisions were consolidated as a new, much larger independent city, retaining the better-known name of the Virginia Beach resort.[11]
Real estate, defense, and tourism are major sectors of the Virginia Beach economy, but the city has begun to run out of clear land available for new construction above the Green Line, an urban growth boundary dividing the urban northern and rural southern sections of the city.[12]
As such, while Virginia Beach does not have a redevelopment authority, local public and private groups have maintained a vested interest in real-estate redevelopment, resulting in a number of joint public-private projects such as commercial parks. Examples of this are the Virginia Beach Convention Center, the Oceanfront Hilton Hotel, and the Virginia Beach Town Center. Using tax increment financing through creation of special tax districts and street and infrastructure construction, the City was able to assist in financing the projects making them a reality. The Town Center opened in 2003 and still has construction taking place, while the Convention Center opened in 2005.[13] [14]
In addition, some unique structures like the Alan B. Sheppard Dome ("The Dome"), a geodesic dome and convention center designed by Buckminster Fuller and dedicated to the career of astronaut Alan Shepard that was built in the 1960s were destroyed by the city.[15]
Infill and development of residential neighborhoods has placed a number of operating constraints on Naval Air Station Oceana, a major fighter jet base for the U.S. Navy. While the airbase currently enjoys wide support from Virginia Beach at large, the Pentagon Base Realignment and Closure commission has proposed closure of Oceana within the next decade.[16]
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Mural entitled "Origami Dream Boat" by samE.hues aka @sam3hues seen in St Petersburg, Florida.
Photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
Mural entitled "Quest" by CERA aka @cera_streetart for Wabash Walls seen on an underpass of the Sagamore Parkway at 9th Street in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee
Mural entitled "Surf's Up" by ABYS aka @abys_osmoz for the SHINE St Petersburg Mural Festival, seen at 1732 3rd Avenue South in St Petersburg, Florida.
Drone photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.
Mural entitled "Kool Cats" by Bimmer Torres, Ratha Sok, and Thien Tao for Rise Above Colorado seen at Quebec & Colfax in Denver, Colorado.
Photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee
Mural entitled "Electric Toucan Genie" by @klonism seen at 3015 Blake in the RiNo area of Denver, Colorado.
Photo by James aka Urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee.