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First up was Boughton Malherbe, which no one can seem to agree on how to spell, which I go to following the sat nav down narrow, twisting lanes, that finally dived over the edgeof the down, and there on a small level space was the church.
And a welcoming committee.
They watched me park, get my cameras out and begin to walk towards the church.
You'd better not park thar, large tractor comes by regular. One of the group is an old farmer, I guess, he smiles and shows just two teeth remaining. He is leaning on a shepherds crook, like you see in films but never see in real life.
I move the car to the area of grass they indicate, then ask me 50 questions on why I wanted to photograph the church, in a light hearted manner, of course.
Satisfied, they let me in, though are keen I see the fallen yew tree to the east of the church, that English Heritage would let them cut fully down.
I go in and they group are keen to stay out of my way lest I get them in a shot, I pretend to snap them, and they scuttle for cover.
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It is worth persevering to get into this church which is regularly open on set days in the summer. The setting is delightful - in a small farming hamlet with trimmed verges and distant views. The church was heavily handled by the late 1840s restorer (Apsley of Ashford) - but this date alone is very early for this type of work, and shows that the person responsible had a good knowledge of the work of the Camden Society and its principals. The chancel screen is particularly elaborate - it was this part of the building that received most attention. The chancel was extended to provide space for more elaborate ceremonial. The difference in texture of the wall is easily seen. The church also contains the remains of monuments to the Wootton family. Regrettably most of the monuments have been pulled apart or reset but enough survives to show that they were once a very grand collection. I especially like the lovely carved lions form the Countess of Chesterfield's monument. She was a Royalist rewarded by the King after the Restoration. The vestry is now floored with marble from her monument. In the nave is a memorial to Lionel Sharp, Chaplain to Elizabeth I.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Boughton+Malherbe
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BOUGHTON-MALHERB (St. Nicholas), a parish, in the union of Hollingbourn, hundred of Eyhorne, lathe of Aylesford, W. division of Kent, 1½ mile (S. W. by S.) from Lenham. [1]
Boughton Malherbe is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, see Boughton Malherbe Wikipedia
Boughton Malherbe St Nicholas is an Ancient parish in the Diocese of Canterbury and includes the village of Grafty Green within the parish boundary. A Map of the parish boundary may be viewed at A church near you
The Church of St Nicholas, Boughton Road, Boughton Malherbe was restored in 1848-1850 and again in 1909 and has been designated as a grade II* listed building British listed building
See also Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5 (1798), pp. 397-415. Malherbe+ at British History Online and Kent Churches website.
familysearch.org/wiki/en/Boughton_Malherbe,_Kent_Genealogy
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Boughton Malherbe (/ˈbɔːtən ˈmælərbi/b baw-ton mal-erby) is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, England equidistant between Maidstone and Ashford. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 428, including Sandway and increasing to 476 at the 2011 Census.[1]
Boughton Place, a 16th-century manor house, was home to Sir Henry Wotton and other members of the Wotton family and was later owned by the Earls of Chesterfield and the Earls Cornwallis. Many of the Wottons are buried in the Church of St Nicholas.
Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston (1851–1926) who was a Home Secretary, lived at Chilston Park, and has a memorial stone dedicated to him in the village church.[2]
In August 2011 a hoard of more than 350 bronze weapons, tools, ornaments and other objects dating to the late Bronze Age was found in a field at Boughton Malherbe by two metal detectorists. The objects are of types that are unusual in southern Britain, but are common in northern and north-west France and therefore it is thought that the objects were made in France and later brought to southern Britain where they were subsequently buried in about 875–800 BC.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boughton_Malherbe
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THE next parish eastward from Ulcomb, is situated almost in the middle of this county, and is so called from a family antiently possessors of it, and to distinguish it from the several other parishes of the name of Boughton within this county.
It is written in antient deeds both Boughton and Bocton, and in some, Bocton, alias Boughton, and seems, as well as the other parishes of this name, to have been so called from Boc, signifying in Saxon a charter, and ton, a town or parish; that is, the place held by charter. So much of this parish as is eastward of a line drawn from the church of it across, through the middle of Chilston-house to Lenham church, is in the lath of Shipway, and in the division of East Kent.
The summit of the hill, which crosses this parish from west to east, is the northern boundary of the Weald of Kent; so much of it, therefore, as is southward of that line, is within that district.
But a very small-part of this parish lies above, or northward of the quarry hills, in which part the soil is a deep unfertile sand, at the northern boundary of it, at a place called Sandway, the high road runs from Ashford towards Maidstone, the pales of Chilston park join it, the mansion of which stands about a quarter of a mile within it, on lower ground, rather in a damp and wet situation, but well cloathed round it with trees, behind it the ground rises to the hills, near the summit of which is the church, and not far distant eastward the parsonage, a good habitation; close to the church-yard westward are the small remains of Boughton-place, by no means an unpleasant situation, the greatest part of which has been pulled down many years ago, andwhat is left of it, though only sufficient for a farm-house, gives a strong idea of what it once was. Here the quarry rock abounds pretty near the surface, and from the church here southward the Weald begins, the lands above and below the hill being distinguished by the names of Boughton upland, and Boughton Weald, in like manner as the other parishes in the same situation. From the church southward the hill declines, and not far from the bottom of it is the village, or to say more properly, the hamlet of Grassley-green, and not far from it Eastwood common, with another smaller hamlet of houses on the lower side of it. Hence the parish extends over an unpleasant country, very flat and deep; the soil a miry stiff clay, the same in every particular as those parts of the adjoining parishes last described, which lie below these hills, continuing over it for more than three miles, till it joins Hedcorne and Smarden, the whole being watered by several small streamlets, which run into the larger one at Hedcorne; about a mile only from this boundary of the parish is the scite of Colbridge-castle, the mote and foundations of which are all that remain of it.
Dr. Plot mentions in his MSS. collections for a natural history of this county, some petrified oyster shells, being found at Chilston, which were larger than even those of Cyzicum, mentioned in Pliny to be the largest of any then known. (fn. 1)
AT THE TIME of taking the general survey of Domesday, about the year 1080, this manor was held of the archbishop of Canterbury, by knights service, and seems to have been included in the donation which Æthelstan Etheling gave by his will in 1015, to Christ-church, in Canterbury, of lands in Hollingborne, as will more plainly appear by the following entry of it in that record.
In Haithorne hundred, Ralph Fitzturald holds Boltone of the archbishop. It was taxed at balf a suling, and lies in the six sulings of Holingeborne. The arable land is one carucate and an half. In demesne there is one carucate, and three villeins, with two borderers having one carucate. There is a church, and two acres of meadow, and wood for the pannage of sixteen hogs. In the whole it is, and was, worth separately forty shillings.
The above description plainly relates to that small part of this parish above or northward of the hill, the otherpart below it in the Weald, at that time, being for the most part, an uncultivated forest, and part of the royal demesnes of the crown of England, though many grants had been made of different parts of it, even at that time.
The manor came afterwards into the possession of the family of Malherb, who implanted their name on this parish. Robert de Malherb held it in the reign of king John, of the archbishop of Canterbury, as appears by the roll of knights fees returned to the king's treasurer, in the twelfth and thirtenth years of that reign.
Alicia Malherb possessed Boughton Malherb manor in the beginning of the next reign of king Henry III.
Robert de Gatton, son of Robert de Gatton, who was one of the Recognitores Magne Assisæ, or judges of the great assise, in the second year of king John, and bore for his arms, Chequy, or and azure, died possessed of this manor in the thirty-eighth year of king Henry III. and was succeeded in it by Hamo his son, who died possessed of it in the twentieth year of king Edward I. holding it of the king in capite, as of the honor of Peverel, and by the service of ward to the castle of Dover, and by suit to the court of Osprenge from three weeks to three weeks, Hamo his son, being his heir, who left his two daughters his coheirs; of whom Elizabeth married to William de Dene, entitled her husband to the possession of this manor. He died in the fifteenth year of king Edward III. possessed of it, with the advowson of the church, as of the inheritance of Elizabeth his wife, having, in the tenth year of king Edward II. obtained a charter of free-warren to his lands here.
His eldest son, Thomas de Dene, died possessed of it in the twenty-third year of king Edward III. bearing for his arms, Argent, a fess dancette, gules. He left by Martha his wife, daughter of Benedict Shelving, four daughters his coheirs, of whom Martha, afterwards was married to Sir John Gousall, who bore for his arms, A plain shield azure.
Soon after his death this manor, by what means I have not discovered, came into the possession of Robert Corbie, who appears to have built a stately mansion here, having in the 36th year of Edward III. obtained the king's licence so to do, and to fortify this his manor-house at Boughton with embattlements and towers, according to the defence of those times. His son Robert Corbye, esq. of this place, kept his shrievalty here in the 8th year of Richard II. He left by Alice, daughter and coheir of Sir John Gousall before-mentioned, an only daughter and heir, Joane, who carried this manor in marriage to Nicholas Wotton, esq. whose descendants flourished in this parish for many generations afterwards, and for their learning, fortune, and honors, at times when honors were really such, may truly be said to have been ornaments to their country in general, and to this county in particular. Mr. Wotton was of the Draper's company, and was twice lord-mayor of London, at which time he bore for his arms, Argent, a cross patee, sitched at the foot, sable, quartered with Corbye, Argent, a saltire ingrailed sable, which arms of Corbye, his mother's, his son bore, in preference to his own, as the elder branch of this family, which, his descendants continued to do for some time afterwards. Stow says, it was reckoned a privilege for any one, who had been lord-mayor and alderman of London, not to serve the king, without his own consent, in any other part of the kingdom. Such a matter once happened in the reign of Henry VI. for Nicholas Wotton, some time mayor and alderman, living in Kent, stood upon this privilege, and refused to serve when he was impanelled with others before the judges of assize, in this county, upon articles touching the king's peace, and on pretence of the liberty of the city of London, refused to be sworn. But this was held as a contempt, and he afterwards had his pardon anno 17 Henry VI. (fn. 2) He retired to Boughton place, where he died in 1448, and was buried in the church here. His grandson, Sir Robert Wotton, was lieutenant of Guisnes, and comptroller of Calais, where he died, and was buried in the church there. He had been sheriff anno 14 Henry VII. and married Anne, one of the sisters and coheirs of Sir Edward Belknap, by whom he left two sons, Edward, his heir, and Henry, LL. D. afterwards dean of York and Canterbury, of whom more may be seen under the account of the deans of the latter cathedral, in which he lies buried.
Sir Edward Wotton, the eldest son, succeeded him here, who was treasurer of Calais, and of the privy council to Henry VIII. and Hollingshed says, the king offered to make him lord chancellor, which, through his great modesty, he refused. In the 27th year of king Henry VIII. he kept his shrievalty at Boughton-place, and procured his lands to be disgavelled by both the acts of the 31st Henry VIII. and 2d and 3d Edward VI. He died in 1550, being then possessed of the manor and rectory of Boughton Malherb, held in capite, as of the king's manor of Ospringe, the manor of Colbridge, and the manor of Byndwardsmarsh, together with other lands purchased of Henry VIII. and held in capite by knights service, with many other manors and lands, as mentioned in the inquisition then taken.
Thomas Wotton, esq. his eldest son, succeeded him in Boughton-place, where he resided. He was closely imprisoned in the Fleet, in 1553, by queen Mary, under pretence of his religion, but really at the request of his uncle, Dr. Nicholas Wotton, on account of a dream he had had in France, where he was then ambassador, and this in all likelihood saved Mr. Wotton's life: for whilst he was in prison, Wyat's rebellion broke out, in which he had most probably been concerned, had he not been confined there. He was twice sheriff, and in July 1573, being the 16th year of queen Elizabeth's reign had the honor of entertaining the queen, with her whole court, at his seat here, in her progress through this county. Walton says, that the queen, when at Boughton, offered to knight Mr. Wotton, as an earnest of some more honorable and profitable employment under her, which he declined, being unwilling to change his country retirement and recreations for a courtier's life; however, it appears by his epitaph, that he afterwards accepted of that honor. He resided here till his death, in 1587, having been remarkable for his hospitality; a great lover and much beloved of his country, a cherisher of learning, and besides his own abilities, possessed of a plentiful estate, and the antient interest of his family.
He was twice married; by his first wife he had Edward his heir, and other children; by his second he had only one son Henry, afterwards knighted, and provost of Eton college. (fn. 3)
He was succeeded here by his eldest surviving son, Sir Edward Wotton, who was employed by queen Elizabeth, as her ambassador, on several occasions; after which he was made comptroller of her houshold; represented this county in parliament, and served the office of sheriff in the 36th year of that reign. In the 1st year of king James I.'s reign he was created lord Wotton, baron of Merley, in this county; (fn. 4) and next year he was appointed lord lieutenant of it, a privy counsellor, and afterwards comptroller and treasurer of the houshold. He inclosed the grounds round his house here as a park, but they have been long since again disparked, and died in 1628, being succeeded by Thomas, lord Wotton, his only son, who died two years afterwards. It has been observed that Nicholas Wotton, esq. son of Sir Nicholas Wotton, by Joane, daughter and heir of Corbye, bore his mother's arms in preference to his own, as his descendants of the eldest branch seem to have done, till Thomas, lord Wotton, as appears by his arms on his grave-stone, reassumed the arms of Wotton in his first quartering again, which was followed by his four daughters and coheirs, and Guillim says, that argent, a saltire (engraited) sable, was borne by the name of Wotton, and was in effect confirmed to Edward Wotton, esq. being allowed, and with his quarterings, being seventeen in number, marshalled, by Robert Cooke, in 1580. He left four daughters his coheirs, Catherine, married to Henry, lord Stanhope, son and heir of Philip, earl of Chesterfield; Hester, to Baptist Noel, viscount Camden; Margaret, to Sir John Tuston, of the Mote, knight and baronet, and Anne, to Sir Edward Hales, of Tunstal.
On the partition of his estates among his daughters, the manor of Boughton, with the mansion of Boughton-place, and the advowson of the rectory, were, among other estates, allotted to the eldest daughter, the lady Catherine, in whose right her husband, Henry, lord Stanhope, became possessed of them. He was descended from ancestors seated in early times in the county of Nottingham, where they flourished with much eminence and renown, bearing for their arms, quarterly, Ermine and gules. After a succession of many generations of them, Michael Stanhope became the heir male of this family in the reign of Henry VIII. whose grandson, Sir John Stanhope, was first of Shelford, and afterwards of Elvaston, in Derbyshire, where he died in 1611, leaving by his first wife, one son Philip; by his second wife he had several sons and daughters; of whom, Sir John, the eldest, was seated at Elvaston, from whom the present earl of Harrington is descended. Sir Philip Stanhope, eldest son of Sir John, was, anno 14 James I. 1616, created lord Stanhope of Shelford, and afterwards in 1628 Earl of Chesterfield. Continuing stedfast in his loyalty to the king, his house was by storm burnt to the ground, and the earl being taken prisoner at Litchfield, endured a long confinement, and died in 1656. By his first wife he had eleven sons and four daughters, of the former, Henry, the second, but eldest surviving son, married Katherine, daughter and coheir of Thomas, lord Wotton, and possessed Boughton Malherb as before-mentioned.
He died in the life-time of his father in 1635, leaving his wife surviving, and one son, Philip, then a year old. The lady Catherine Stanhope, on her husband's death, became again possessed in her own right of this estate, among the rest of her inheritance, and was after wards created countess of Chesterfield, to hold during her life. She had before the death of king Charles I. remarried John Vanden Kerkhoven, lord of Henulflet in Holland, by whom she had a son Charles Henry Kerkhoven, who was, by reason of his mother's descent, created lord Wotton, baron Wotton of Boughton Malherb, and was naturalized. He was likewise created earl of Bellamont in Ireland, and bore for his arms, Argent, three hearts gules. He died s. p. having resided at Boughton-place, and was buried in Canterbury cathedral in 1683, having by his will given this, among the rest of his estates, to his nephew Charles Stanhope, younger son of his half-brother Philip, then earl of Chesterfield; remainder to Philip, lord Stanhope, eldest son and heir apparent of his brother; remainder to his brother Philip, earl of Chesterfield, with divers remainders over, in tail male.
Charles Stanhope, esq. upon this changed his surname to Wotton, being the last of this family who resided at Boughton-place, where he died in 1704, s. p. Upon which this estate came by the above entail to Philip, lord Stanhope, his elder brother, who on his father's death in 1713, succeeded as earl of Chesterfield, and died in 1726. His eldest son Philip Dormer Stanhope, earl of Chesterfield, became remarkable for the brilliancy of his wit, and the politeness of his manners. He was an eminent statesman, and much in favor with king George I. and II. who conferred on him from time to time several offices and trusts of honor and advantage, in all which he shewed his eminent abilities and public spirit, whenever the interest and honor of his country was concerned, but at length his health declining, he retired from all public business. However, before this period he passed away this manor, with the scite of Boughton-place, and the advowson of the rectory appendant to the manor, and all the rest of the Wotton estates in this part of the county, by the description of the heriotable manor of Bocton, alias Boughton Malherbe, the manors of Burscombe, Wardens, alias Egerton, Southerdon, Colbridge, Marley, alias Marleigh, Sturry, East Farborne, Holmill, alias Harrietsham, and Fill, in 1750, to Galfridus Mann, esq. of London. This family is descended from ancestors seated at Ipswich, in Suffolk, of whom Edward Mann, esq. was comptroller of the customs at that place, who bore for his arms, Sable on a fess counter embattled, between three goats passant argent, as many ogresses; which was confirmed to him by Byshe, clarencieux, in 1692. His descendant, Robert Mann, was of London, and afterwards of Linton, in this county, esq. who died in 1752, leaving five sons and three daughters, Edward Louisa, the eldest son, was of Linton, esq. where he died unmarried in 1775, and was succeeded in his estates in this county by his brother, Sir Horatio Mann, bart. and K. B. who was the second son, and was many years resident at Florence, as envoy extraordinary. On March 3, 1755, he was created a baronet, to him and his heirs male, and in default of such issue, to his brother Galfridus, and his heirs male, he died unmarried in 1786, and was succeeded in title and estate by his nephew Sir Horace Mann, whose father was Galfridus, the third son, who was purchaser of Boughton manor, as before-mentioned. Of the daughters of Robert Mann, Eleanor married Sir John Torriano, of London, merchant, by whom she had issue; Mary-married Benjamin Hatley Foote, esq. (fn. 5) and Catherine married the Rev. Francis Hender Foote. Galfridus Mann, esq. died possessed of this estate in 1756, leaving by Sarah his wife, daughter of John Gregory, of London, one son, Horatio, and three daughters, viz. Alice, married to Mr. Apthorpe; Sarah, who died unmarried; Catherine, married to the hon. and Rev. Dr. Cornwallis now bishop of Litchfield, next brother to marquis Cornwallis, and Eleanor, married to Thomas Powis, lord Lilford.
Horatio Mann, esq. succeeded his father in the possession of this estate, of which he is the present owner. He was afterwards knighted, being then stiled Sir Horace Mann, to distinguish him from his uncle Sir Horatio, on whose death he succeeded him in the title of baronet. He has been twice M. P. for Maidstone, as he is now for the town and port of Sandwich. He married in 1765 lady Lucy Noel, sister of Thomas, earl of Gainsborough, who died at Nice in 1778, by whom he has three daughters, Lucy, Emely, and Harriot, the eldest of whom is married to James Mann, esq. of Linton-place; the second to Robert Heron, esq. of Lincolnshire.
Wormsell has always been counted as an appendage to the manor of Boughton.
COLBRIDGE antiently called Colewebregges, is an eminent manor in this parish, the mansion of which, called Colbridge-castle, stood below the hill towards Egerton, considerable remains of its former strength being visible in the ruins of it, even at this time; and the report of the country is, that the stones and other materials of this ruined mansion were made use of, ages ago, to build Boughton-place.
In the reign of king Henry III. this place was in the possession of the family of Peyforer; one of whom, Fulk de Peyforer, obtained a charter of free-warren for his lands at Colewebrugge in the 32d year of king Edward I. (fn. 6) and he had licence in the 7th year of the next reign of king Edward II. to embattle, that is, to build and fortify in a castle like manner, his mansion here. Soon after which it seems to have passed into the family of Leyborne, who had long before this possessions in this parish, and William de Clinton, earl of Huntingdon, husband to Juliana, daughter of Thomas de Leyborne, died possessed of it in the 28th year of king Edward III. She survived him, and afterwards became again possessed of it in her own right, and continued so at her death, anno 41 Edward III. when there being found no one who could claim consanguinity to her, this manor, among the rest of her estates, escheated to the crown, where it remained till the beginning of king Richard II's. reign, when it became vested in John, Duke of Lancaster, and other feoffees in trust, for the performance of certain religious bequests in the will of Edward III. then lately deceased. In consequence of which, the king afterwards, in his 21st year, granted it, among other premises, to the dean and canons of St. Stephen's college in Westminster, for ever, for the performance of the religious purposes therein mentioned, and in part of the exoneration of the sum of 500l. to be taken at his treasury till he should in such manner provide for them.
In which situation this manor continued till the 1st year of king Edward VI. when an act passing for the surrendry of all free chapels, chantries, &c. this, among others, was soon afterwards dissolved, and the lands and possessions of it were surrendered into the king's hands, at which time it appears to have been in the tenure of William Hudson, at the yearly rent of 8l. 13s. 4d. The year afterwhich, the king granted it to Sir Edward Wotton, to hold in capite, who died possessed of it in the 5th year of that reign, holding it in manner as above mentioned. After which, it passed through the like succession of ownership as Boughton manor before described, down to Philip Dormer Stanhope, earl of Chesterfield, who in 1750 sold it, with the rest of the Wotton estates in this part of the county, to Galfridus Mann, esq. whose only son Sir Horace Mann, bart. is the present possessor of it.
CHILSON, or Chilston, is a manor, situated in the borough of Sandway, at the north-west boundary of this parish, which crosses the middle of this house, the eastern part of which is in the parish of Lenham, lath of Shipway, and eastern division of this county. It was antiently called Childeston, and was in the reign of king Henry I. part of the possessions of William Fitz-Hamon, as appears by the register of the neighbouring priory of Ledes. After which it became the property of the family of Hoese, afterwards called. Hussey. Henry Hoese or Husley had a charter of free-warren for his manor of Childerston in the 55th year of king Henry III. before which he had taken an active part with the rebellious barons against that king. He died in the 18th year of king Edward I. leaving by Joane his wife, daughter and coheir of Alard Fleming, and niece of that noted pluralist John Maunsell, provost of Beverly, &c. Henry Hussee his son and heir, who, in the 23d year of that reign, had summons to Parliament, as he had likewise in all the succeeding ones of it, and of the next of king Edward II. in whose descendants it continued down to Henry Husley, who in the 31st year of Henry VIIIths. reign, procured his lands to be disgavelled by the general act passed that year, and afterwards transmitted it by sale to John Parkhurst, whose descendant Sir William Parkhurst alienated it to Mr. Richard Northwood, of Dane-court, in Thanet, whose eldest son Alexander Northwood, or Norwood, as he was usually called, was of St. Stephen's, near Canterbury, and succeeded his father in this manor, which he sold soon after the death of king Charles I. to Cleggat, and he again sold it to Mr. Manley, of London, who quickly afterwards alienated it to Edward Hales, esq. who was the son of Samuel Hales, a younger son of Sir Edward Hales, created a baronet in 1611. He afterwards resided at Chilston, and died in 1696, leaving his three daughters his coheirs, viz. Thomasine, wife of Gerard Gore, gent. Elizabeth Hales, and Frances, wife of William Glanville, esq. of London, who in 1698 joined in the conveyance of this manor, with other estates in this parish and neighbourhood, to the hon. Elizabeth Hamilton, the eldest daughter of John lord Colepeper, and widow of James Hamilton, esq. the eldest son of Sir George Hamilton, of Tyrone, in Ireland.
She resided at Chilston, and dying here in 1709, was buried in Hollingborne church, leaving two sons surviving; James, earl of Abercorn, and William Hamilton, esq. to the latter of whom she gave by her will this manor, with her other estates in this county. He resided at Chilston, and died possessed of it in 1737, leaving by Margaret his wife, daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper, of Hollingborne, four sons and one daughter; of whom, John Hamilton, esq. the eldest, succeeded him at Chilston, where he resided and inclosed the ground round it for a park, bestowing much cost on the improvement both of the house and grounds adjoining to it. He kept his shrievalty here in 1719, and afterwards with the concurrence of his eldest son William, joined in the sale of this estate to Thomas Best, esq. the eldest son of Mawdistley Best, esq. of Boxley, who resided at Chilston, the mansion of which he rebuilt, and made other very considerable improvements to the park, and grounds. He died in 1795, s. p. having married Caroline, daughter of George Scott, esq. of Scott's hall, who died in 1782, and by his will gave this among his other estates to his nephew George, the youngest son of his brother James Best, esq. of Boxley and Chatham, who now resides here, He was M. P. for Rochester in the last parliament. and in 1784 married Caroline, daughter of Edward Scott, esq. of Scott's-hall, by whom he has several children.
THE TYTHES of the manor of Chilston, or Childeston, were given to the priory of Leeds soon after the foundation of it, by William Fitz-Hamon, the owner of it; viz. in corn, fruit, hay fowls, calves, flax, pannage, cheeses, pigs, and in all other things which belonged to the demesne, to Edwin de Bletchindenne, with his tenancy, to hold as freely as he ever held it. (fn. 7)
This portion of tithes remained part of the possessions of the priory till the dissolution of it in the reign of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered into the king's hands, among other estates belonging to it. After which the king, by his dotation charter in his 33d year settled this portion of tithes on his new-founded dean and chapter of Rochester, who now possess the inheritance of it. George Best, esq. of Chilston, is the present lessee of it.
On the intended dissolution of deans and chapters, after the death of king Charles I. these tithes were surveyed in 1649, by order of the state; when it was returned, that this portion consisted of all the tithes of corn, grain, hay, wool, lambs, calves, and other spiritual obventions and duties, arising out of the manor of Chilston, in Boughton Malherbe and Lenham, of the yearly improved value of fourteen pounds, which premises were let by the dean and chapter, anno 15 Charles I. to Richard Norwood, esq. for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of ten shillings, so that there remained the clear yearly rent of 13l. 10s.
BEWLEY is a manor in this parish, of considerable repute, extending itself into the parish of Harrietsham. It was antiently called Boughley, and was part of those possessions which William the Conqueror gave to his half-brother Odo, bishop of Baieux; under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in Domesday:
Adam Fitzbubert holds of the bishop of Baieux, Bogelei. It was taxed at two sulings. The arable land is two carucates and an half. In demesne there is one carucate, and two villeins, with two borderers having half a carucate. There is a church, and four servant:, and one mill of five shillings, and six acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of twenty hogs.
After which there follows another entry, importing, that of this same manor one tenant named Adam held one suling, called Merlea, of which a further account will be given, under the description of Marley, in the adjoining parish of Harrietsham.
On the bishop of Baieux's disgrace in 1084, all his possessions were confiscated to the crown; after which this manor appears to have become the property of Eudo Dapiser, and afterwards of Philip de Leleburne, or Leyburne, whose descendant Robert de Leiburne held it in the reign of king Edward I. in which name it continued till it was alienated to Tregoze, (fn. 8) one of whom, Thomas Tregoze, held it in the beginning of king Edward III.'s reign, in the 5th year of which he obtained a charter of free warren for his lands at Boggeleye. John Tregoze died possessed of this manor in the 5th year of Henry IV. but it did not remain long in that name; for in the reign of Henry VI. it was become the property of Goldwell, from whence it was alienated to Atwater, of Lenham, from whence by Joane, daughter and coheir of Robert Atwater, of Royton, in that parish, it went in marriage to Humphry Hales, esq. of the Dungeon, in Canterbury, who had a numerous issue by her. He was succeeded in it by his eldest son Sir James Hales, of the Dungeon, whose son Cheney Hales, esq. of the Dungeon, passed it away to his kinsman John Hales, esq. eldest son of Sir Edward Hales, created a baronet in 1611. He parted with it to his brother Mr. Samuel Hales, whose son Edward Hales, esq. of Chilston, succeeded him in it. Since which it has passed in like manner as Chilston, before described, down to George Best, esq. of Chilston, the present possessor of it.
THE TITHES of this manor were given by Eudo Dapifer to Anschetill, archdeacon of Canterbury, who afterwards, with the consent of Eudo, granted them to the priory of St. Andrew, in Rochester. These tithes were afterwards confirmed to the priory on the payment annually of five shillings to the monks of Colchester. Henry de Leiburne, possessor of this manor, having inspected the charters of his ancestors, confirmed these tithes in pure alms to the church of St. Andrew, and the monks of Rochester.
This portion of tithes remained with the priory till the dissolution of it, in the 32d year of Henry VIII. when it was, among the rest of the possessions of that monastery, surrendered into the king's hands, who in his 33d year settled them, by his dotation charter, on his new-erected dean and chapter of Rochester, part of whose inheritance they remain at this time. George Best, esq. of Chilston, is the present lessee of them.
On the intended dissolution of deans and chapters, soon after the death of king Charles I. this portion was surveyed, by order of the state, in 1649; when it was returned, that these tithes arose out of the manor of Bugley, together with the tithe of the mill, called Bugley-mill, of the improved yearly value of nine pounds, which premises were let by the dean and chapter in the 10th year of Charles I. to Samuel Hales, esq. for twentyone years, at the yearly rent of two quarters of malt heaped, and one capon, or two shillings in money; so there remained clear the rent of 5l. 14s. per annum.
There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly relieved are about forty, casually twenty-five.
BOUGHTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Charing.
The church is a handsome building, with a square tower steeple at the west end. The inside of it is much ornamented by the several monuments of the Wotton family, most of whom lie buried in it; but there was one of them, a large pyramid of black marble, supported by three lions couchant, on a deep base, erected to the memory of Henry, lord Stanhope, his widow lady Catherine, countess of Chesterfield, her third husband Daniel O'Neal, and several of her children, which was injudiciously placed just within the altar rails eastward, and filled up almost the whole space of it, but has lately been taken down to make room for an altar and railing. In the south chancel there is a very antient figure in Bethersden marble of a man in armour lying cross-legged with his shield and sword. It lies on the pavement, and seems to have been removed from some other part of the church. On the opposite side of the chancel is the figure of a woman, full as antient as the, former, and of the like marble, but fixed in the pavement, these most probably were in memory of one of the family of Peyforer and his wife.
The families of Hales and Hamilton, both of Chilston, and all their children, were christened and married in Boughton church, but were all buried from time to time in Lenham church.
The most difficult thing in this picture were books. For this selfie I brough all available books from my home. It's almost half of the picture. The other difficult thing was make books stand. It was not easy. But nevertheless I'm glad that this picture done)
Photograph for project malstra.ru
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on authentic facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The forerunners of the Philippine Air Force was the Philippine Militia, otherwise known as Philippine National Guard (PNG). On March 17, 1917 Senate President Manuel L. Quezon enacted a bill (Militia Act 2715) for the creation of the Philippine Militia, in anticipation that there would be an outbreak of hostilities between United States and Germany.
The early aviation unit was lacking enough knowledge and equipment to be considered as an air force and was then limited only to air transport duties. In 1935, Philippine Military Aviation was activated when the 10th Congress passed Commonwealth Act 1494 that provided for the organization of the Philippine Constabulary Air Corps (PCAC). PCAC was renamed as the Philippine Army Air Corps (PAAC) in 1936 and started with only three planes on its inventory. In 1941, PAAC had a total of 54 aircraft including fighters and light bombers, reconnaissance aircraft, light transport and trainers. They later engaged the Japanese when they invaded the Philippines in 1941–42, and were reformed in 1945 after the country's liberation.
The PAF became a separate military service on July 1, 1947, and the main aircraft type became the P-51 Mustang, flown from 1947 to 1959. Ground attack missions were flown against various insurgent groups, with aircraft hit by ground fire but none shot down. The Mustangs would be replaced by the jet-powered North American F-86 Sabres in the late 1950s, assisted by Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star and Beechcraft T-34 Mentor trainers.
During the 70s, the PAF was actively providing air support for the AFP campaign against the MNLF forces in Central Mindanao, aside from doing the airlifting duties for troop movements from Manila and Cebu to the warzone. In late 1977, the Philippine government purchased 35 secondhand U.S. Navy F-8Hs that had been stored at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona. Twenty-five of them were refurbished by Vought and the remaining 10 were used for spare parts. As part of the deal, the U.S. would train Philippine pilots in using the (only) TF-8A, and they were mostly used for intercepting Soviet bombers. The F-8s were grounded in 1988 and were finally withdrawn from service in 1991 after they were badly damaged by the Mount Pinatubo eruption, and have since been offered for sale as scrap.
This left the PAF with the F-5 Freedom Fighter as the only jet-powered combat aircraft. The Philippine Air Force acquired 37 F-5A and F-5B from 1965 to 1998 (from Taiwan and South Korea). The F-5A/Bs were used by the 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron (Cobras) of the 5th Fighter Wing and the Blue Diamonds aerobatic team. The F-5s also underwent an upgrade which equipped it with surplus AN/APQ-153 radars with significant overhaul at the end of the 1970s to stretch their service lives another 15 years.
Since the retirement of the Northrop F-5s in September 2005, the Philippine Air Force was left without any fighter jets and thus also without any serious air cover, considerably weakening the countries position in the region. Financial constraints prevented the procurement of refurbished F-16A/Bs from US surplus stocks, so that the PAF initially resorted to Aermacchi S-211 trainer jets to fill the void left by the F-5's. These S-211's were later upgraded to light attack capability and used for air and sea patrol and also performed counter-insurgency operations from time to time. Apart from these trainers, the only active fixed wing aircraft to fill the roles were SF-260 trainers with light attack capability, and a handful of obsolete OV-10 Bronco light attack and reconnaissance aircraft.
With rising tensions and frequent incidents with Chinese forces, however, the PAF settled upon the “Flight Plan 2028”, a long-term modernization and procurement plan. One of the first investments in order to re-build the PAF’s jet fighter force was eventually settled in 2010, when the Philippines started negotiations with Israel to purchase refurbished IAI Kfir fighter-bombers. In August 2012 Israel Aerospace Industries officially announced that it would deliver twenty-one pre-owned Kfir fighter jets to the Philippines, with a 40-year guarantee and a supply of Python 4 IR-homing AAMs, at a rumored unit price of USD $20 million - a price that represents 1/3 the cost of a brand new fighter with similar capability, but without the weaponry.
These machines were Kfir C.10s, a variant developed especially for export, basically an updated C.7. The aircraft for the Philippines received the designation C.10P in order to reflect the new operator’s specifications. The most important changes of the C.10 update were the adaptation of an Elta EL/M-2032 multi-role radar and the integration of two 127×177mm MFDs in the cockpit.
The EL/M-2032 is an advanced Multimode Airborne Fire Control Radar designed for multi-mission fighters, oriented for both air-to-air and strike missions. Modular hardware design, software control and flexible avionic interfaces ensure that the radar can be installed in a wide range of existing fighter aircraft (such as F-16, F-5, Mirage, Harrier variants, F-4, MiG-21, etc.), and it can be customized to meet specific user requirements.
The EL/M-2032 greatly enhances the Air-to-Air, Air-to-Ground and Air-to-Sea capabilities of the aircraft, even though the PAF’s machines did not feature the optional Helmet Mounted Display System (as installed on board of the upgraded Ecuadorean Kfir C.10s). In the Air-to-Air modes, the radar enables long-range target detection and tracking for weapon delivery or automatic target acquisition in close combat engagements. The EL/M-2032 has a maximum range of 150 km and can detect and track an aerial target with a 1m² radar reflection surface equivalent at 100 km. Up to 64 aerial targets can be tracked at the same time, and this information can be shared with other aircraft, including the status which aircraft actually tracks which target.
In Air-to-Ground missions, the radar provided very high-resolution mapping (SAR), surface target detection and tracking over RBM, DBS and SAR maps in addition to A/G ranging. In Air-to-Sea missions, the radar provided long-range target detection and tracking, including target classification capabilities (RS, ISAR).
The first Kfir C.10Ps were quickly delivered, and in September 2014 the PAF’s 6th Tactical Fighter Squadron “Cobras” at Basa AB was reformed, the unit which had formerly operated the country’s last F-5s until 2005. Despite the type’s multirole capability, the Filipino Kfirs primarily fulfill interceptor and air patrol tasks against intrusions into Philippine airspace. Their prime task is to act as a general repellant against Chinese aggressions in the South China Sea, esp. in defense of the Scarborough Shoal fishing ground that Manila claims as part of its territorial waters.
Since 2015, the PAF’s jet fighter force has also been augmented by supersonic FA-50 trainers, procured from South Korea, and the PAF’s updated “Flight Plan 2028” lists another 16 Kfirs C.10Ps (including four TC.10P two-seaters), as well as more FA-50s, planned for the future.
Since their introduction the FAP’s Kfirs frequently intercepted Chinese and Russian reconnaissance aircraft (typically Y-8 maritime patrol aircraft, but also H-6 missile strike bombers and reconnaissance aircraft) over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, even though with no serious confrontations so far.
Beyond these standard duties, the PAF’s new type also took part in several other deployments: On 26 January 2017, two Philippine Air Force Kfir C.10s demonstrated their strike capabilities for the first time and conducted a nighttime attack on terrorist hideouts in Butig, Lanao del Sur province in Mindanao, the first “hot” combat sortie flown by these aircraft. In June 2017, Kfirs and FA-50s were sent out to conduct airstrikes against Maute terrorists entrenched in the city of Marawi, starting in May 2017.
General characteristics:
Crew: One
Length: 15.65 m (51 ft 4¼ in)
Wingspan: 8.22 m (26 ft 11½ in)
Height: 4.55 m (14 ft 11¼ in)
Wing area: 34.8 m² (374.6 sq ft)
Empty weight: 7,285 kg (16,060 lb)
Loaded weight: 11,603 kg (25,580 lb) two 500 L drop tanks, two AAMs
Max. takeoff weight: 16,200 kg (35,715 lb)
Powerplant:
1× IAl Bedek-built General Electric J-79-J1E turbojet with a dry thrust of 52.9 kN (11,890 lb st)
and 79.62 kN (17,900 lb st) thrust with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: 2,440 km/h (2 Mach, 1,317 knots, 1,516 mph) above 11,000 m (36,000 ft)
Combat radius: 768 km (415 nmi, 477 mi) in ground attack role, with, hi-lo-hi profile, seven 500 lb
bombs, two AAMs, two 1,300 L drop tanks
Maximum range: 3,232 km (2,008 miles, 1744 nm), high profile, with two 1,300 L drop tank
Service ceiling: 22,860 m (75,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 233 m/s (45,950 ft/min)
Armament:
2× Rafael-built 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA 553 cannons, 140 RPG
9× hardpoints for a total payload of 5,775 kg (12,730 lb), including an assortment of unguided
air-to-ground rockets, guided missiles (AIM-9 Sidewinders, Shafrir or Python-series AAMs; Shrike
ARMs and AGM-65 Maverick ASMs) or bombs such as the Mark 80 series, Paveway and Griffin
LGBs, SMKBs,TAL-1 OR TAL-2 CBUs, BLU-107 Matra Durandal, reconnaissance pods or Drop tanks
The kit and its assembly:
Like many of my what-if models, this one is rooted in real life. AFAIK, the PAF actually considered the procurement of refurbished, ex-Israeli Kfirs after the purchase of 2nd hand F-16s had turned out to be too costly – but even the Kfir deal did not materialize due to budgetary restrictions. However, whifworld can change this… And eventually, the PAF procured the South Korean FA-50 Golden Eagle multi-role advanced trainer.
The kit is the Italeri Kfir C.2/7, a sound and priceworthy offering, but it comes with some inherent flaws - the alternative Hasegawa kit is IMHO much easier to build, even though it is not much more detailed. Problem zones of the Italeri kit include the complex intersection between the air intakes, wings and the fuselage (nothing fits well, gaps galore!), ejector pin markings on the landing gear and on the wheels, sinkholes on the wings’ upper side towards the leading edges and the cockpit tub as a whole, which seems to stem from a different kit - including the dashboard, which is too wide, too.
In order to keep things simple and plausible, the kit was mostly built OOB, which is in itself enough work, with only a few cosmetic changes:
- a new nose section with a bigger radome from the scrap box and transplanted chines and pitot
- replacement of the early OOB Shafrir AAMs with Python AAMs, left over from a Trumpeter J-8
- additional/modified antennae and air sensors, including a RHAWS sensor at the top of the fin
- a refueling probe above the right air intake, from a Harrier GR.3, modified
- a Martin Baker ejection seat and some cockpit interior details
Painting and markings:
Since the fictional PAF Kfirs were to be primarily operated in the interceptor role, I gave the aircraft an air superiority scheme. Inspiration was taken from the type’s predecessor, the PAF’s F-8 Crusaders and their late Eighties livery, a wraparound scheme in two grey tones, coupled with low-viz (black) markings.
I actually used the F-8 camouflage pattern as benchmark and tried to adapt it to the delta-wing Kfir, but this eventually ended in almost complete improvisation. The colors are – based on visual impressions of some PAF Crusaders rather than on hard facts (since these turned out to be quite contradictive and/or implausible) – FS 36440 and 36270, Humbrol 129 and 126, respectively. The result appears a bit pale and reminds a lot of the French air superiority scheme (which is more bluish, though), but it does not look bad at all.
The radome and other dielectric fairings were slightly set apart from the camouflage tones (with Revell 47). The landing gear as well as the air intake interior were painted in gloss white (Humbrol 22), while the cockpit was painted in Sea Grey (Humbrol 27).
The model only received a light weathering treatment through a black ink washing and some post-shading with slightly lighter tones, since the aircraft would be relatively new in service – even though I have the impression that any PAF aircraft’s exterior quickly suffered under the local climate?
The national markings belong to a Philippine F-5 (a late camouflaged aircraft, hence the insignias’ small size), taken from an Aztec Decal sheet. The modex was created from code markings for a Bréguet Alizé and the cobra emblems on the fin belong to a Malaysian MiG-29 (Begemot sheet). The contemporary USAF-style BuNo for PAF aircraft was created with single decal letters – a fiddly affair.
Only a few stencils were actually taken from the OOB sheet and many of the original red markings were replaced. Most stencils became black and the walkway markings on the wings were replaced by segmented lines from a Mirage 2000.
After some final, very light weathering with graphite the kit was finally sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and completed.
Nothing spectacular, but rather an exotic and still plausible what-if build, rooted in real life. While the paint scheme as such is not outstanding, I must say that the two-tone grey scheme suits the Kfir well, esp. together with the subdued markings.
This image is from Page 560of "The Book of Knowledge", "The Children’s Encyclopedia", Edited by Arthur Mee and Holland Thompson, Ph. D., Vol II, Copyright 1912, The Grolier Society of New York.
This page includes the stories "The Fowl and the Jewel", "The Wolf and the Crane", "The Dog and the Shadow", and "The Fox and the Grapes"
PTG 25th Anniversary Rail Tour 28 January 2025. Alsa Alco 2148 is actually the former Renfe 2159 (321 059) but for some reason it carries the same number as the former 321 048 which is also operated by Alsa. It is seen here on the rear of the tour train - the train had been planned to traverse the Tortosa branch, hence the top and tail formation, but this was not possible as the Alsa driver with route knowledge had suffered a bereavement the previous day.
The text reads:
"To live is to choose"
"sin" vs. "knowledge"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Has it ever occurred to you, Euthydemus, ... that though pleasure is the one and only goal to which incontinence is thought to lead men, she herself cannot bring them to it, whereas nothing produces pleasure so surely as self-control?”
“How so?”
"Incontinence will not let them endure hunger or thirst or desire or lack of sleep, which are the sole causes of pleasure in eating and drinking and sexual indulgence, and in resting and sleeping, after a time of waiting and resistance until the moment comes when these will give the greatest possible satisfaction; and thus she prevents them from experiencing any pleasure worthy to be mentioned in the most elementary and recurrent forms of enjoyment. But self-control alone causes them to endure the sufferings I have named, and therefore she alone causes them to experience any pleasure worth mentioning in such enjoyments."
– Xenophon, Socrates and Euthydemus in "Memorabilia", 4.5
me as Patchouli Knowledge from Touhouvania (Koumajou Densetsu II)
photo by Butterfly Dreams (facebook.com/ButterflyDreamsCosplay)
THIS PHOTO IS UNDER COPYRIGHT!
DO NOT USE WITHOUT PERMISSION!
Sharing just with FULL credit of cosplayer's and photographer's name and website link !!!!
In Honor of Black History Month.
When (our) stories continue to be told, then (our) history will not be erased. Representation Matters. Sharing the stories of the Tuskegee Airmen.
The Tuskegee Airmen were dedicated, determined young men who enlisted to become America’s first black military airmen. This was at a time when there were many people who thought that black men lacked intelligence, skill, courage, and patriotism.
Here are the facts: Altogether, 992 pilots graduated from the Tuskegee Air Field courses, and they flew 1,578 missions and 15,533 sorties, destroyed 261 enemy aircraft, and won more than 850 medals.
{Sharing The Knowledge 2.5.25}
me as Patchouli Knowledge from Touhouvania (Koumajou Densetsu II)
photo by Butterfly Dreams (facebook.com/ButterflyDreamsCosplay)
THIS PHOTO IS UNDER COPYRIGHT!
DO NOT USE WITHOUT PERMISSION!
Sharing just with FULL credit of cosplayer's and photographer's name and website link !!!!
Universalis Cosmographia Secundum Ptholomaei Traditionem et Americi Vespucii Alioru[m]que Lustrationes, St. Dié, 1507
Recognizing and Naming America
Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map grew out of an ambitious project in St. Dié, near Strasbourg, France, during the first decade of the sixteenth century, to document and update new geographic knowledge derived from the discoveries of the late fifteenth and the first years of the sixteenth centuries. Waldseemüller’s large world map was the most exciting product of that research effort, and included data gathered during Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages of 1501-1502 to the New World. Waldseemüller christened the new lands “America” in recognition of Vespucci ’s understanding that a new continent had been uncovered as a result of the voyages of Columbus and other explorers in the late fifteenth century. This is the only known surviving copy of the first printed edition of the map, which, it is believed, consisted of 1,000 copies.
Waldseemüller’s map supported Vespucci’s revolutionary concept by portraying the New World as a separate continent, which until then was unknown to the Europeans. It was the first map, printed or manuscript, to depict clearly a separate Western Hemisphere, with the Pacific as a separate ocean. The map represented a huge leap forward in knowledge, recognizing the newly found American landmass and forever changing the European understanding of a world divided into only three parts—Europe, Asia, and Africa.
•Martin Waldseemüller (1470-1521)
•Universalis Cosmographia Secundum Ptholomaei Traditionem et Americi Vespucii Alioru[m]que Lustrationes, [St. Dié], 1507
•One map on 12 sheets, made from original woodcut
•Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress
Exploring the Early Americas
Waldseemüller Maps
For more than three hundred years the only surviving copies of what are arguably two of the most important maps in the history of cartography, the 1507 and 1516 World Maps by Martin Waldseemüller (ca. 1470-ca. 1522), sat unknown on the shelves of a library in the castle of a prince. The owner was Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg, of Württenberg, Germany. The maps were rediscovered there in 1901 by the Jesuit historian Josef Fischer (1858-1944), who found them bound into a single portfolio, now known as the “Schöner Sammelband,” by the Nuremburg globe-maker and mathematician Johannes Schöner (1477–1547).
1507 World Map: Recognizing and Naming a New Continent
Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map grew out of an ambitious project in St. Dié, France, during the first decade of the sixteenth century. The objective was to document and update new geographic knowledge derived from the discoveries of the late fifteenth and the first years of the sixteenth centuries. Waldseemüller’s large world map was the most exciting product of that research effort and included data gathered during Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages of 1501-1502 to the New World. Waldseemüller christened the new lands “America” in recognition of Vespucci’s understanding that a new continent had been uncovered as a result of the voyages of Columbus and other explorers in the late fifteenth century. This is the only known surviving copy of the 1,000 maps that are believed to have been printed.
Waldseemüller’s map represented a revolutionary new geography: it was the first map, printed or manuscript, to depict clearly a separate Western Hemisphere, separated from Asia, with the Pacific as a separate ocean. The map represented a huge leap forward in knowledge, recognizing the newly found American landmass and forever changing the European understanding of a world that was previously divided into only three parts—Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The existence of the Pacific Ocean and a western coastline for South America on the 1507 Waldseemüller map remains an unsolved mystery for scholars. In 1507 neither Balboa nor Magellan had reached the Pacific Ocean. How then did Waldseemüller know of the ocean’s existence and depict a continent whose coastline on the west borders the ocean?
The Impact
After the printing of the map it appears to have received little attention in cartographic circles even though it presented a radically new understanding of world geography based on the discoveries of Columbus and Vespucci. Waldseemüller himself recognized that the map was an important departure from previous cartographic views of the world and asked for the reader’s patience when looking at the map. In the large text block found in the lower right-hand corner of the map we find him saying: “This one request we have to make, that those who are inexperienced and unacquainted with cosmography shall not condemn all this before they have learned what will surely be clearer to them later on, when they have come to understand it.” Sadly, his radical new view of the world was noted by few references in contemporary geographic literature and, having been copied by only a few minor cartographers, it slipped into obscurity and disappeared.
Based on their reading of the Cosmographiae Introductio in the early and mid-nineteenth century, later scholars, such as Alexander von Humboldt and Marie d’Avezac-Macaya, speculated on the map’s existence, on its importance to the early history of the New World, and on its crucial role in the naming of America, all without ever having laid eyes on a copy of the map itself.
The map, which displays the name America for the first time on any map, also represents the continents of North and South America with a shape that is geometrically similar in form to the outlines of the continents as we recognize them today. The two aspects of the shape and the location of the New World on the map, separated as it is from Asia, are chronologically and chronometrically problematic in that in 1507, the map’s supposed creation date, neither Vasco Núñez de Balboa nor Ferdinand Magellan had reached the Pacific Ocean.
Waldseemüller Map
The Waldseemüller map or Universalis Cosmographia (“Universal Cosmography”) is a printed wall map of the world by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, originally published in April 1507. It is known as the first map to use the name “America”. The name America is placed on what is now called South America on the main map. As explained in Cosmographiae Introductio, the name was bestowed in honor of the Italian Amerigo Vespucci.
The map is drafted on a modification of Ptolemy’s second projection, expanded to accommodate the Americas and the high latitudes. A single copy of the map survives, presently housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Waldseemüller also created globe gores, printed maps designed to be cut out and pasted onto spheres to form globes of the Earth. The wall map, and his globe gores of the same date, depict the American continents in two pieces. These depictions differ from the small inset map in the top border of the wall map, which shows the two American continents joined by an isthmus.
Wall Map
Description
The wall map consists of twelve sections printed from woodcuts measuring 18 by 24.5 inches (46 cm × 62 cm). Each section is one of four horizontally and three vertically, when assembled. The map uses a modified Ptolemaic map projection with curved meridians to depict the entire surface of the Earth. In the upper-mid part of the main map there is inset another, miniature world map representing to some extent an alternative view of the world.
Longitudes, which were difficult to determine at the time, are given in terms of degrees east from the Fortunate Islands (considered by Claudius Ptolemy as the westernmost known land) which Waldseemüller locates at the Canary Islands. The longitudes of eastern Asian places are too great. Latitudes, which were easy to determine, are also quite far off. For example, “Serraleona” (Sierra Leone, true latitude about 9°N) is placed south of the equator, and the Cape of Good Hope (true latitude 35°S) is placed at 50°S.
The full title of the map is Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque lustrationes (The Universal Cosmography according to the Tradition of Ptolemy and the Discoveries of Amerigo Vespucci and others). One of the “others” was Christopher Columbus. The title signaled his intention to combine or harmonize in a unified cosmographic depiction the traditional Ptolemaic geography of Europe, Asia and Africa with the new geographical information provided by Amerigo Vespucci and his fellow discoverers of lands in the western hemisphere. He explained: “In designing the sheets of our world-map we have not followed Ptolemy in every respect, particularly as regards the new lands … We have therefore followed, on the flat map, Ptolemy, except for the new lands and some other things, but on the solid globe, which accompanies the flat map, the description of Amerigo that is appended hereto.”
Several earlier maps are believed to be sources, chiefly those based on the Geography (Ptolemy) and the Caveri planisphere and others similar to those of Henricus Martellus or Martin Behaim. The Caribbean and what appear to be Florida were depicted on two earlier charts, the Cantino map, smuggled from Portugal to Italy in 1502 showing details known in 1500, and the Caverio map, drawn circa 1503-1504 and showing the Gulf of Mexico.
While some maps after 1500 show, with ambiguity, an eastern coastline for Asia distinct from the Americas, the Waldseemüller map apparently indicates the existence of a new ocean between the trans-Atlantic regions of the Spanish discoveries and the Asia of Ptolemy and Marco Polo as exhibited on the 1492 Behaim globe. The first historical records of Europeans to set eyes on this ocean, the Pacific, are recorded as Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513. That is five to six years after Waldseemüller made his map. In addition, the map apparently predicts the width of South America at certain latitudes to within 70 miles. However, as pointed out by E.G. Ravenstein, this is an illusory effect of the cordiform projection used by Waldseemüller, for when the map is laid out on a more familiar equirectangular projection and compared with others of the period also set out on that same projection there is little difference between them: this is particularly evident when the comparison is made with Johannes Schöner’s 1515 globe.
Apparently among most map-makers until that time, it was still erroneously believed that the lands discovered by Christopher Columbus, Vespucci, and others formed part of the Indies of Asia. Thus, some believe that it is impossible that Waldseemüller could have known about the Pacific, which is depicted on his map. The historian Peter Whitfield has theorized that Waldseemüller incorporated the ocean into his map because Vespucci’s accounts of the Americas, with their so-called “savage” peoples, could not be reconciled with contemporary knowledge of India, China, and the islands of Indies. Thus, in the view of Whitfield, Waldseemüller reasoned that the newly discovered lands could not be part of Asia, but must be separate from it, a leap of intuition that was later proved uncannily precise. An alternative explanation is that of George E. Nunn (see below).
Mundus Novus, a book attributed to Vespucci (who had himself explored the extensive eastern coast of South America), was widely published throughout Europe after 1504, including by Waldseemüller’s group in 1507. It had first introduced to Europeans the idea that this was a new continent and not Asia. It is theorized that this led to Waldseemüller’s separating the Americas from Asia, depicting the Pacific Ocean, and the use of the first name of Vespucci on his map.
An explanatory text, the Cosmographiae Introductio, widely believed to have been written by Waldseemüller’s colleague Matthias Ringmann, accompanied the map. It was said in Chapter IX of that text that the earth was now known to be divided into four parts, of which Europe, Asia and Africa, being contiguous with each other, were continents, while the fourth part, America, was “an island, inasmuch as it is found to be surrounded on all sides by the seas”.
The inscription on the top left corner of the map proclaims that the discovery of America by Columbus and Vespucci fulfilled a prophecy of the Roman poet, Virgil, made in the Aeneid (VI. 795-797), of a land to be found in the southern hemisphere, to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn:
Many have thought to be an invention what the famous Poet said, that “a land lies beyond the stars, beyond the paths of the year and the sun, where Atlas the heaven-bearer turns on his shoulder the axis of the world set with blazing stars”; but now, at last, it proves clearly to have been true. It is, in fact, the land discovered by the King of Castile’s captain, Columbus, and by Americus Vesputius, men of great and excellent talent, of which the greater part lies under the path of the year and sun, and between the tropics but extending nonetheless to about nineteen degrees beyond Capricorn toward the Antarctic pole beyond the paths of the year and the sun. Wherein, indeed, a greater amount of gold is to be found than of any other metal.
The “path” referred to is the ecliptic, which marks the sun’s yearly movement along the constellations of the zodiac, so that to go beyond it meant crossing the southernmost extent of the ecliptic, the Tropic of Capricorn. 19° beyond Capricorn is latitude 42° South, the southernmost extent of America shown on Waldseemüller’s map. The map legend shows how Waldseemüller strove to reconcile the new geographic information with the knowledge inherited from antiquity.
The most southerly feature named on the coast of America on the Waldseemüller map is Rio decananorum, the “River of the Cananoreans”. This was taken from Vespucci, who in 1501 during his voyage along this coast reached the port which he called Cananor (now Cananéia). Cananor was the port of Kannur in southern India, the farthest port reached in India during the 1500-1501 voyage of the Portuguese Pedro Álvares Cabral, the discoverer of Brazil, two of whose ships were encountered returning from India by Vespucci. This may be an indication Waldseemüller thought that the “River of the Cananoreans” could have actually been in the territory of Cananor in India and that America was, therefore, part of India.
The name for the northern land mass, Parias, is derived from a passage in the Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci, in which, after several stops, the expedition arrives at a region that was “situated in the torrid zone directly under the parallel which describes the Tropic of Cancer. And this province is called by them [the inhabitants] Parias.” Parias was described by Waldseemüller’s follower, Johannes Schöner as: “The island of Parias, which is not a part or portion of the foregoing [America] but a large, special part of the fourth part of the world”, indicating uncertainty as to its situation.
PARIAS and AMERICA, corresponding to North and South America, are separated by a strait in the region of the present Panama on the main map but on the miniature map inset into the upper-mid part of the main map the isthmus joining the two is unbroken, apparently demonstrating Waldseemüller’s willingness to represent alternative solutions to a question yet unanswered.
The map shows the cities of Catigara (near longitude 180° and latitude 10°S) and Mallaqua (Malacca, near longitude 170° and latitude 20°S) on the western coast of the great peninsula that projects from the southeastern part of Asia, or INDIA MERIDIONALIS (Southern India) as Waldseemüller called it. This peninsula forms the eastern side of the SINUS MAGNUS (“Great Gulf”), the Gulf of Thailand. Amerigo Vespucci, writing of his 1499 voyage, said he had hoped to sail westward from Spain across the Western Ocean (the Atlantic) around the Cape of Cattigara mentioned by Ptolemy into the Sinus Magnus. Ptolemy understood Cattigara, or Kattigara, to be the most eastern port reached by shipping trading from the Graeco-Roman world to the lands of the Far East. Vespucci failed to find the Cape of Cattigara on his 1499 voyage: he sailed along the coast of Venezuela but not far enough to resolve the question of whether there was a sea passage beyond leading to Ptolemy’s Sinus Magnus. The object of his voyage of 1503-1504 was to reach the fabulous spice emporium of “Melaccha in India” (that is, Malacca, or Melaka, on the Malay Peninsula). He had learned of Malacca from one Guaspare (or Gaspard), a pilot with Pedro Álvares Cabral’s fleet on its voyage to India in 1500-1501, whom Vespucci had encountered in the Atlantic on his return from India in May 1501. Christopher Columbus, in his fourth and last voyage of 1502-1503, planned to follow the coast of Champa southward around the Cape of Cattigara and sail through the strait separating Cattigara from the New World, into the Sinus Magnus to Malacca. This was the route he understood Marco Polo to have gone from China to India in 1292 (although Malacca had not yet been founded in Polo’s time). Columbus anticipated that he would meet up with the expedition sent at the same time from Portugal to Malacca around the Cape of Good Hope under Vasco da Gama, and carried letters of credence from the Spanish monarchs to present to da Gama. The map therefore shows the two cities that were the initial destinations of Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Columbus in their voyages that led to the unexpected discovery of a New World.
Just to the south of Mallaqua (Malacca) is the inscription: hic occisus est S. thomas (Here St. Thomas was killed), referring to the legend that Saint Thomas the Apostle went to India in 52 AD and was killed there in 72 AD. Waldseemüller had confused Malacca (Melaka) with Mylapore in India. The contemporary understanding of the nature of Columbus’ discoveries is demonstrated in the letter written to him by the Aragonese cosmographer and Royal counsellor, Jaume Ferrer, dated August 5, 1495, saying: “Divine and infallible Providence sent the great Thomas from the Occident into the Orient in order to declare in India our Holy and Catholic Law; and you, Sir, it has sent to this opposite part of the Orient by way of the Ponient [West] so that by the Divine Will you might arrive in the Orient, and in the farthest parts of India Superior in order that the descendants might hear that which their ancestors neglected concerning the teaching of Thomas … and very soon you will be by the Divine Grace in the Sinus Magnus, near which the glorious Thomas left his sacred body”.
History
At the time this wall map was drawn, Waldseemüller was working as part of the group of scholars of the Vosgean Gymnasium at Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in Lorraine, which in that time belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. The maps were accompanied by the book Cosmographiae Introductio produced by the Vosgean Gymnasium.
Of the one thousand copies that were printed, only one complete original copy is known to exist today. It was originally owned by Johannes Schöner (1477-1547), a Nuremberg astronomer, geographer, and cartographer. Its existence was unknown for a long time until its rediscovery in 1901 in the library of Prince Johannes zu Waldburg-Wolfegg in Schloss Wolfegg in Württemberg, Germany by the Jesuit historian and cartographer Joseph Fischer. It remained there until 2001 when the United States Library of Congress purchased it from Waldburg-Wolfegg-Waldsee for ten million dollars.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Federal Republic of Germany symbolically turned over the Waldseemüller map on April 30, 2007, within the context of a formal ceremony at the Library of Congress, in Washington, DC. In her remarks, the chancellor stressed that the US contributions to the development of Germany in the postwar period tipped the scales in the decision to turn over the Waldseemüller map to the Library of Congress as a sign of transatlantic affinity and as an indication of the numerous German roots to the United States. Today another facsimile of the map is exhibited for the public by the House of Waldburg in their museum on Waldburg Castle in Upper Swabia.
Since 2007, to the celebration of the 500-year jubilee of the first edition, the original map has been permanently displayed in the Library of Congress, within a specially-designed microclimate case. An argon atmosphere fills the case to give an anoxic environment. Prior to display, the entire map was the subject of a scientific analysis project using hyperspectral imaging with an advanced LED camera and illumination system to address preservation storage and display issues.
In 2005 the Waldseemüller map was nominated by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington for inscription on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register and was inscribed on the register that same year.
Nunn’s Analysis
The geographers of Italy and Germany, like Martin Waldseemüller and his colleagues, were exponents of a theoretical geography, or cosmography. This means they appealed to theory where their knowledge of the American and Asiatic geography was lacking. That practice differed from the official Portuguese and Spanish cartographers, who omitted from their maps all unexplored coastlines.
The second century Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy had believed that the known world extended over 180 degrees of longitude from the prime meridian of the Fortunate Isles (possibly the Canary Islands) to the city of Cattigara in southeastern Asia. (In fact, the difference in longitude between the Canaries, at 16°W, and Cattigara, at 105°E, is just 121°.) He had also thought that the Indian Ocean was completely surrounded by land. Marco Polo demonstrated that an ocean lay east of Asia and was connected with the Indian Ocean. Hence, on the globe made by Martin Behaim in 1492, which combined the geography of Ptolemy with that of Marco Polo, the Indian Ocean was shown as merging with the Western Ocean to the east. Ptolemy’s lands to the east of the Indian Ocean, however, were retained in the form of a great promontory projecting far south from the southeastern corner of Asia—the peninsula of Upper India (India Superior) upon which the city of Cattigara was situated.
Another result of Marco Polo’s travels was also shown on Behaim’s globe—the addition of 60 degrees to the longitude of Asia. Columbus had not actually seen Behaim’s globe in 1492 (which apparently owed much to the ideas of Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli); but the globe, except for one important point, reflects the geographical theory on which he apparently based his plan for his first voyage. The exception is that Columbus shortened the length of the degree, thus reducing the distance from the Canaries to Zipangu (Japan), to about 62 degrees or only 775 leagues. Consequently, it seemed to Columbus a relatively simple matter to reach Asia by sailing west.
In the early 16th century, two theories prevailed with regard to America (the present South America). According to one theory, that continent was identified with the southeastern promontory of Asia that figures on Behaim’s globe, India Superior or the Cape of Cattigara. The other view was that America (South America) was a huge island wholly unconnected with Asia.
Balboa called the Pacific the Mar del Sur and referred to it as “la otra mar”, the other sea, by contrast with the Atlantic, evidently with Behaim’s concept of only two oceans in mind. The Mar del Sur, the South Sea, was the part of the Indian Ocean to the south of Asia: the Indian Ocean was the Oceanus Orientalis, the Eastern Ocean, as opposed to the Atlantic or Western Ocean, the Oceanus Occidentalis in Behaim’s two ocean world.
According to George E. Nunn, the key to Waldseemüller’s apparent new ocean is found on the three sketch maps made by Bartolomé Colon (that is, Bartholomew Columbus, Christopher’s brother) and Alessandro Zorzi in 1504 to demonstrate the geographical concepts of Christopher Columbus. One of the Columbus/Zorzi sketch maps bears an inscription saying that: “According to Marinus of Tyre and Columbus, from Cape St. Vincent to Cattigara is 225 degrees, which is 15 hours; according to Ptolemy as far as Cattigara 180 degrees, which is 12 hours”. This shows that Christopher Columbus overestimated the distance eastward between Portugal and Cattigara as being 225 degrees instead of Ptolemy’s estimate of 180 degrees, permitting him to believe the distance westward was only 135 degrees and therefore that the land he found was the East Indies. As noted by Nunn, in accordance with this calculation, the Colon/Zorzi maps employ the longitude estimate of Claudius Ptolemy from Cape St. Vincent eastward to Cattigara, but the longitude calculation of Marinus and Columbus is employed for the space between Cape St. Vincent westward to Cattigara.
Nunn pointed out that Martin Waldseemüller devised a scheme that showed both the Columbus and the Ptolemy-Behaim concept on the same map. On the right-hand side of the Waldseemüller 1507 map is shown the Ptolemy-Behaim concept with the Ptolemy longitudes: this shows the huge peninsula of India Superior extending to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn. On the left side of the Waldseemüller map the discoveries of Columbus, Vespucci and others are represented as a long strip of land extending from about latitude 50 degrees North to latitude 40 degrees South. The western coasts of these trans-Atlantic lands discovered under the Spanish crown are simply described by Waldseemüller as Terra Incognita (Unknown Land) or Terra Ulterior Incognita (Unknown Land Beyond), with a conjectural sea to the west, making these lands apparently a distinct continent. America’s (that is, South America’s) status as a separate island or a part of Asia, specifically, the peninsula of India Superior upon which Cattigara was situated, is left unresolved. As the question of which of the two alternative concepts was correct had not been resolved at the time, both were represented on the same map. Both extremities of the map represent the eastern extremity of Asia, according to the two alternative theories. As Nunn said, “This was a very plausible way of presenting a problem at the time insoluble.”
As noted by Nunn, the distance between the meridians on the map is different going eastward and westward from the prime meridian which passes through the Fortunate Isles (Canary Islands). This has the effect of representing the eastern coast of Asia twice: once in accordance with Ptolemy’s longitudes to show it as Martin Behaim had done on his 1492 globe; and again in accordance with Columbus’ calculation of longitudes to show his and the other Spanish navigators’ discoveries across the Western Ocean, which Columbus and his followers considered to be part of India Superior.
On his 1516 world map, the Carta Marina, Waldseemüller identified the land he had called Parias on his 1507 map as Terra de Cuba and said it was part of Asia (Asie partis), that is, he explicitly identified the land discovered by Columbus as the eastern part of Asia.
Globe Gores
Besides Universalis Cosmographia, Waldseemüller published a set of gores for constructing globes. The gores, also containing the inscription America, are believed to have been printed in the same year as the wall map, since Waldseemüller mentions them in the introduction to his Cosmographiæ Introductio. On the globe gores, the sea to the west of the notional American west coast is named the Occeanus Occidentalis, that is, the Western or Atlantic Ocean, and where it merges with the Oceanus Orientalis (the Eastern, or Indian Ocean) is hidden by the latitude staff. This appears to indicate uncertainty as to America’s location, whether it was an island continent in the Atlantic (Western Ocean) or in fact the great peninsula of India Superior shown on earlier maps, such as the 1489 map of the world by Martellus or the 1492 globe of Behaim.
Only few copies of the globe gores are extant. The first to be rediscovered was found in 1871 and is now in the James Ford Bell Library of the University of Minnesota. Another copy was found inside a Ptolemy atlas and had been in the Bavarian State Library in Munich since 1990. The Library recognized in February 2018, after reviewing its authenticity, that this map is not an original copy—it was printed in the 20th century. A third copy was discovered in 1992 bound into an edition of Aristotle in the Stadtbücherei Offenburg, a public library in Germany. A fourth copy came to light in 2003 when its European owner read a newspaper article about the Waldseemüller map. It was sold at auction to Charles Frodsham & Co. for $1,002,267, a world record price for a single sheet map. In July 2012, a statement was released from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich that a fifth copy of the gore had been found in the LMU Library’s collection which is somewhat different from the other copies, perhaps because of a later date of printing. LMU Library has made an electronic version of their copy of the map available online.
Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii alioru[m]que lustrationes.
Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorū que lustrationes
•Title: Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii alioru[m]que lustrationes.
•Other Title: Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorū que lustrationes
•Contributor Names: Waldseemüller, Martin, 1470-1519.
•Created/Published: [Strasbourg, France? : s.n., 1507]
•Subject Headings: Earth
•Genre: World maps; Early maps
•Notes:
oRelief shown pictorially.
oFirst document known to name America.
oRed ink grid on 2 sheets. Text applied over blank areas on 2 sheets. Manuscript annotations in the margin of 1 sheet.
oAll sheets bear a watermark of a triple pointed crown.
oTwo stamps on verso of upper left hand sheet: Fürstl. Waldburg Wolfegg’sches Kupferstichkabinett – Furstl. Waldbg. Wolf. Bibliothek.
oExhibited: Rivers, edens, empires: Lewis & Clark and the revealing of America, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., July 24-Nov. 29, 2003.
oAvailable also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image.
oIncludes text and ill.
oPrinted surrogate in vault available for reference.
oLC digital image is a composite map from the twelve separate sheets.
oOriginally bound with Waldseemüller’s 1516 Carta marina in the Schöner Sammelband.
•Medium: 1 map on 12 sheets; 128 × 233 cm., sheets 46 × 63 cm. or smaller.
•Call Number/Physical Location: G3200 1507 .W3
•Repository: Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. 20540-4650 USA dcu
•Digital Id: hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3200.ct000725C; hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3200.ct000725
•Library of Congress Control Number: 2003626426
•Online Format: image
•LCCN Permalink: lccn.loc.gov/2003626426
•Additional Metadata Formats: MARCXML Record; MODS Record; Dublin Core Record
•Part of…
oDiscovery and Exploration (174)
oGeography and Map Division (15,333)
oAmerican Memory (504,438)
oLibrary of Congress Online Catalog (623,348)
•Format: Maps
•Contributors: Waldseemüller, Martin
•Dates: 1507
•Location: Earth
•Language: Latin
•Subjects: Early Maps; Earth; World Maps
•Articles and Essays with this item:
oEvaluation—Waldseemüller’s Map: World 1507—Lesson Plan
oOverview—Waldseemüller’s Map: World 1507—Lesson Plan
oPreparation—Waldseemüller’s Map: World 1507—Lesson Plan
oProcedure—Waldseemüller’s Map: World 1507—Lesson Plan
oMr. Dürer Comes to Washington
oExploring the Early Americas—2010—Past Events—News and Events
oSpanish Exploration in America—Primary Source Set
oIntroducing Primary Source Analysis to Students: Lessons from the Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institute
oLearning Activity—Secondary Level—Technology Integration, Spring 2009- Teaching with Primary Sources
oDocumenting New Knowledge—Exploring the Early Americas
oExhibitions and Presentations—Geography and Maps—Themed Resources
oPrologue - Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America
oExploration and Discovery—Zoom Into Maps—Classroom Presentation
•Credit Line: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
Cite This Item
Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.
Chicago citation style:
Waldseemüller, Martin. [Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque lustrationes]. [Strasbourg, France?: s.n, 1507] Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2003626426/. (Accessed February 26, 2017.)
APA citation style:
Waldseemüller, M. (1507) [Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque lustrationes]. [Strasbourg, France?: s.n] [Map] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2003626426/.
MLA citation style:
Waldseemüller, Martin. [Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque lustrationes]. [Strasbourg, France?: s.n, 1507] Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2003626426/.
The Map That Named America
Library Acquires 1507 Waldseemüller Map of the World
By JOHN R. HÉBERT
In late May 2003 the Library of Congress completed the purchase of the only surviving copy of the first image of the outline of the continents of the world as we know them today— Martin Waldseemüller’s monumental 1507 world map.
The map has been referred to in various circles as America’s birth certificate and for good reason; it is the first document on which the name “America” appears. It is also the first map to depict a separate and full Western Hemisphere and the first map to represent the Pacific Ocean as a separate body of water. The purchase of the map concluded a nearly century-long effort to secure for the Library of Congress that very special cartographic document which revealed new European thinking about the world nearly 500 years ago.
The Waldseemüller world map is currently on display in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building in the exhibition honoring the Lewis and Clark expedition, “Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America.” It will remain on display, either in the original or with an exact facsimile, until Nov. 29. A permanent site for the display of this historical treasure will be prepared in the Thomas Jefferson Building within the next year.
Martin Waldseemüller, the primary author of the 1507 world map, was a 16th-century scholar, humanist, cleric and cartographer who was part of the small intellectual circle, the Gymnasium Vosagense, in Saint-Dié, France. He was born near Freiburg, Germany, sometime in the 1470s and died in the canon house at Saint-Dié in 1522. During his lifetime he devoted much of his time to cartographic ventures, including, in the spring 1507, the famous world map, a set of globe gores (for a globe with a three-inch diameter), and the “Cosmographiae Introductio” (a book to accompany the map). He also prepared the 1513 edition of the Ptolemy “Geographiae”; the “Carta Marina,” a large world map, in 1516; and a smaller world map in the 1515 edition of “Margarita Philosophica Nova.”
Thus, in a remote part of northeast France, was born the famous 1507 world map, whose full title is “Universalis cosmographia secunda Ptholemei traditionem et Americi Vespucci aliorum que lustrationes” (“A drawing of the whole earth following the tradition of Ptolemy and the travels of Amerigo Vespucci and others”). That map, printed on 12 separate sheets, each 18-by-24-inches, from wood block plates, measured more than 4 feet by 8 feet in dimension when assembled.
The large map is an early 16th-century masterpiece, containing a full map of the world, two inset maps showing separately the Western and Eastern Hemispheres, illustrations of Ptolemy and Vespucci, images of the various winds, and extensive explanatory notes about selected regions of the world. Waldseemüller’s map represented a bold statement that rationalized the modern world in light of the exciting news arriving in Europe as a result of explorations across the Atlantic Ocean or down the African coast, which were sponsored by Spain, Portugal and others.
The map must have created quite a stir in Europe, since its findings departed considerably from the accepted knowledge of the world at that time, which was based on the second century A.D. work of the Greek geographer, Claudius Ptolemy. To today’s eye, the 1507 map appears remarkably accurate; but to the world of the early 16th century it must have represented a considerable departure from accepted views of the composition of the world. Its appearance undoubtedly ignited considerable debate in Europe regarding its conclusions that an unknown continent (unknown, at least, to Europeans and others in the Eastern Hemisphere) existed between two huge bodies of water, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and was separated from the classical world of Ptolemy, which had been confined to the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia.
While it has been suggested that Waldseemüller incorrectly dismissed Christopher Columbus’ great achievement in history by the selection of the name “America” for the Western Hemisphere, it is evident that the information that Waldseemüller and his colleagues had at their disposal recognized Columbus’ previous voyages of exploration and discovery. However, the group also had acquired a recent French translation of the important work “Mundus Novus,” Amerigo Vespucci’s letter detailing his purported four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean to America between 1497 and 1504. In that work, Vespucci concluded that the lands reached by Columbus in 1492 and explored by Columbus and others over the ensuing two decades were indeed a segment of the world, a new continent, unknown to Europe. Because of Vespucci’s recognition of that startling revelation, he was honored with the use of his name for the newly discovered continent.
It is remarkable that the entire Western Hemisphere was named for a living person; Vespucci did not die until 1512. With regard to Columbus’ exploits after 1492, i.e., his various explorations between 1492 and 1504, the 1507 map clearly denotes Columbus’ explorations in the West Indies as well as the Spanish monarchs’ sponsorship of those and subsequent voyages of exploration.
By 1513, when Waldseemüller and the Saint-Dié scholars published the new edition of Ptolemy’s “Geographiae,” and by 1516, when Waldseemüller’s famous “Carta Marina” was printed, he had removed the name “America” from his maps, perhaps suggesting that even he had second thoughts about honoring Vespucci exclusively for his understanding of the New World. Instead, in the 1513 atlas, the area named “America” on the 1507 map is now referred to as Terra Incognita (Unknown Land). In the1516 “Carta Marina,” South America is called Terra Nova (New World) and North America is named Cuba and is shown to be part of Asia. No reference in either work is made to the name “America.”
The only surviving copy of the 1507 world map by Martin Waldseemüller, purchased by the Library of Congress and now on display in its Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C. The term “America” can be seen in continent on the lower leftmost panel. Vespuci is pictured on the top panel of the third column.
The only surviving copy of the 1507 world map by Martin Waldseemüller, purchased by the Library of Congress and now on display in its Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C. The term “America” can be seen in continent on the lower leftmost panel. Vespuci is pictured on the top panel of the third column.
Cartographic contributions by Johannes Schöner in 1515 and by Peter Apian in 1520, however, adopted the name “America” for the Western Hemisphere, and that name then became part of accepted usage.
A reported 1,000 copies of the 1507 map were printed, which was a sizeable print run in those days. This single surviving copy of the map exists because it was kept in a portfolio by Schöner (1477-1547), a German globe maker, who probably had acquired a copy of the map for his own cartographic work . That portfolio contained not only the unique copy of the 1507 world map but also a unique copy of Waldseemüller’s 1516 large wall map (the “Carta Marina”) and copies of Schöner’s terrestrial (1515) and celestial (1517) globe gores.
At some later time, the family of Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg acquired and retained Schöner’s portfolio of maps in their castle in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, where it remained unknown to scholars until the beginning of the 20th century when its extraordinary contents were revealed. The uncovering of the 1507 map in the Wolfegg Castle early last century is thought by many to have been one of the most extraordinary episodes in the history of cartographic scholarship.
The map sheets have been maintained separated—not joined, with each of the large maps composed of 12 separate sheets—and that is probably why they survived. The portfolio with its great treasure was uncovered and revealed to the world in 1901 by the Jesuit priest Josef Fischer, who was conducting research in the Waldburg collection.
The Library of Congress’ Geography and Map Division acquired the facsimiles of the 1507 and 1516 maps in 1903. Throughout the 20th century the Library continued to express interest in and a desire to acquire the 1507 map, if it were ever made available for sale. That time came in 1992 when Prince Johannes Waldberg-Wolfegg, the owner of the map, revealed to Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, the Associate Librarian for Library Services Winston Tabb, and the chief of the Geography and Map Division Ralph Ehrenberg in a conversation in Washington that he was willing to negotiate the sale of the map. Ehrenberg and Margrit Krewson, the Library’s German and Dutch area specialist, were encouraged to investigate the opportunity.
In 1999 Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg notified the Library that the German national government and the Baden-Württemberg state government had granted permission for a limited export license, which Krewson was instrumental in negotiating. Having obtained the license, which allowed this German national treasure to come to the Library of Congress, the Prince pursued an agreement to sell the 1507 map to the Library. In late June 2001 Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg and the Library of Congress reached a final agreement on the sale of the map for the price of $10 million. In late May 2003 the Library completed a successful campaign to raise the necessary funds to purchase Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map, after receiving substantial congressional and private support to achieve the terms of the contract. The Congress of the United States appropriated $5 million for the purchase of the map; Discovery Communications, Jerry Lenfest and David Koch provided substantial contributions; and other individuals (George Tobolowsky and Virginia Gray) gave matching funds for the purchase and additional support for its preservation, exhibition and study.
Through the combined efforts of Billington, Tabb and members of the Library’s staff over the past 11 years, the map was able to leave Germany and come to the Library of Congress.
The 1507 world map is now the centerpiece of the outstanding cartographic collections of the Geography and Map Division in the Library of Congress. The map serves as a departure point for the development of the division’s American cartographic collection in addition to its revered position in early modern cartographic history. The map provides a meaningful link between the Library’s treasured late medieval-early Renaissance cartographic collection (which includes one of the richest holdings of Ptolemy atlases in the world) and the modern cartographic age that unfolded as a result of the explorations of Columbus and other discoverers in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It represents the point of departure from the geographical understanding of the world based on Ptolemy’s “Cosmographiae” and “Geographiae” (editions from 1475-) to that emerging in the minds of scholars and practical navigators as reports of the “new worlds” of America, southern Africa and other regions of Asia and Oceania reached Europe’s shores. Waldseemüller recognized the transition taking place, as the title of his map notes and as his prominent placement of images of Ptolemy and Vespucci next to their worlds at the top portion of the 1507 world map denotes.
The Waldseemüller map joins the rich cartographic holdings of the Library’s Geography and Map Division, which include some 4.8 million maps, 65,000 atlases, more than 500 globes and globe gores, and thousands of maps in digital form. And from that fragile first glimpse of the world, so adequately described by Waldseemüller in 1507, the Library of Congress’ cartographic resources provide the historical breadth and cartographic depth to fill in the geographic blanks left by those early cosmographers.
The Library’s acquisition of the Waldseemüller map represents an important moment to renew serious research into this exceptional map, to determine the sources which made possible its creation, and to investigate its contemporary impact and acceptance. The map’s well-announced acquisition provides scholars with an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate the earliest of early depictions of our modern world. Major portions of this 1507 world map have not received the same concentrated scrutiny as the American segments. The very detailed depiction of sub-Saharan Africa, the south coast of Asia, and even the areas surrounding the Black and Caspian seas merit further study and discussion in response to obvious questions regarding the cartographic and geographic sources that were available and used by the Saint-Dié scholars to reach the conclusions that they embodied in the 1507 world map.
Through agreement with Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg and the government of Germany, the 1507 Waldseemüller world map is to be placed on permanent display in the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building. A second floor gallery, the Pavilion of the Discoverers, has been chosen as an appropriate location to house the map, where it will be exhibited with supporting materials from the Library’s collections that will assist in describing the rich history surrounding the map and its relation to its creators and the sources used to prepare it in the 16th century.
The Library of Congress is extremely proud to have obtained this unique treasure and is hopeful that this great cartographic document will receive the public acclaim and the critical scholarly inspection that it so rightly merits.
John R. Hébert is the chief of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress.
This View
Sheet 3.
In the middle section of this sheet, the name America is placed on the lower part of what is now South America. Waldseemüller describes this region in the text on the left that reads:
A general delineation of the various lands and islands, including some of which the ancients make no mention, discovered lately between 1497 and 1504 in four voyages over the seas, two commanded by Fernando of Castile, and two by Manuel of Portugal, most serene monarchs, with Amerigo Vespucci as one of the navigators and officers of the fleet; and especially a delineation of many places hitherto unknown. All this we have carefully drawn on the map, to furnish true and precise geographical knowledge.
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin [nb 1] (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule Vostok 1 completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour.
Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight but he served as the backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash, killing his friend and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Gagarin later served as the deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which was subsequently named after him. He was elected as a deputy to the Soviet of the Union in 1962 and then to the Soviet of Nationalities, respectively the lower and upper chambers of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting with his flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin crashed near the town of Kirzhach.
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Soviet Air Force service
3 Soviet space program
3.1 Selection and training
3.2 Vostok 1
4 After the Vostok 1 flight
5 Personal life
6 Death
7 Awards and honours
7.1 Medals and orders of merit
7.2 Tributes
7.3 Statues and monuments
7.4 50th anniversary
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
10.1 Sources
11 Further reading
12 External links
Early life and education
Yuri Gagarin was born 9 March 1934 in the village of Klushino,[1] near Gzhatsk (renamed Gagarin in 1968 after his death).[2] His parents worked on a collective farm:[3] Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin as a carpenter and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina as a dairy farmer.[nb 2][4] Yuri was the third of four children: his siblings were brothers Valentin (1924) and Boris (1936), and sister Zoya (1927).[5][6]
Like millions of Soviet Union citizens, the Gagarin family suffered during the Nazi occupation of Russia during World War II. Klushino was occupied in November 1941 during the German advance on Moscow and a German officer took over the Gagarin residence. The family were allowed to build a mud hut approximately 3 by 3 metres (10 by 10 ft) inside on the land behind their house, where they spent twenty-one months until the end of the occupation.[7] His two older siblings were deported by the Germans to Poland for slave labour in 1943 and did not return until after the war in 1945.[5][8] In 1946, the family moved to Gzhatsk, where Gagarin continued his secondary education.[7]
In 1950, aged 16, Gagarin began an apprenticeship as a foundryman at the Lyubertsy steel plant near Moscow,[5][8] and enrolled at a local "young workers" school for seventh-grade evening classes.[9] After graduating in 1951 from both the seventh grade and the vocational school with honours in mouldmaking and foundry work,[9] he was selected for further training at the Saratov Industrial Technical School, where he studied tractors.[5][8][10] While in Saratov, Gagarin volunteered at a local flying club for weekend training as a Soviet air cadet, where he trained to fly a biplane, and later a Yak-18.[8][10] He earned extra money as a part-time dock labourer on the Volga River.[7]
Soviet Air Force service
In 1955, Gagarin was accepted to the 1st Chkalovsky Higher Air Force Pilots School, a flight school in Orenburg.[11][12] He initially began training on the Yak-18 already familiar to him and later graduated to training on the MiG-15 in February 1956.[11] Gagarin twice struggled to land the two-seater trainer aircraft, and risked dismissal from pilot training. However, the commander of the regiment decided to give him another chance at landing. Gagarin's flight instructor gave him a cushion to sit on, which improved his view from the cockpit, and he landed successfully. Having completed his evaluation in a trainer aircraft,[13] Gagarin began flying solo in 1957.[5]
On 5 November 1957, Gagarin was commissioned a lieutenant in the Soviet Air Forces having accumulated 166 hours and 47 minutes of flight time. He graduated from flight school the next day and was posted to the Luostari airbase close to the Norwegian border in Murmansk Oblast for a two-year assignment with the Northern Fleet.[14] On 7 July 1959, he was rated Military Pilot 3rd Class.[15] After expressing interest in space exploration following the launch of Luna 3 on 6 October 1959, his recommendation to the Soviet space program was endorsed and forward by Lieutenant Colonel Babushkin.[14][16] By this point, he had accumulated 265 hours of flight time.[14] Gagarin was promoted to the rank of senior lieutenant on 6 November 1959,[15] three weeks after he was interviewed by a medical commission for qualification to the space program.[14]
Soviet space program
Selection and training
See also: Vostok programme
Vostok I capsule on display at the RKK Energiya museum
Gagarin's selection for the Vostok programme was overseen by the Central Flight Medical Commission led by Major General Konstantin Fyodorovich Borodin of the Soviet Army Medical Service. He underwent physical and psychological testing conducted at Central Aviation Scientific-Research Hospital, in Moscow, commanded by Colonel A.S. Usanov, a member of the commission. The commission also included Colonel Yevgeniy Anatoliyevich Karpov, who later commanded the training centre, Colonel Vladimir Ivanovich Yazdovskiy, the head physician for Gagarin's flight, and Major-General Aleksandr Nikolayevich Babiychuk, a physician flag officer on the Soviet Air Force General Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Air Force.[17]
From a pool of 154 qualified pilots short-listed by their Air Force units, the military physicians chose 29 cosmonaut candidates, of which 20 were approved by the Credential Committee of the Soviet Government. The first twelve including Gagarin were approved on 7 March 1960 and eight more were added in a series of subsequent orders issued until June.[18] Gagarin began training at the Khodynka Airfield in downtown Moscow on 15 March 1960. The training regiment involved vigorous and repetitive physical exercises which Alexei Leonov, a member of the initial group of twelve, described as akin to training for the Olympics Games.[19] In April 1960, they began parachute training in Saratov Oblast and each completed about 40 to 50 jumps from both low and high altitude, and over land and water.[20]
Gagarin was a candidate favoured by his peers. When they were asked to vote anonymously for a candidate besides themselves they would like to be the first to fly, all but three chose Gagarin.[21] One of these candidates, Yevgeny Khrunov, believed that Gagarin was very focused and was demanding of himself and others when necessary.[22] On 30 May 1960, Gagarin was further selected for an accelerated training group, known as the Vanguard Six or Sochi Six,[23][nb 3] from which the first cosmonauts of the Vostok programme would be chosen. The other members of the group were Anatoliy Kartashov, Andriyan Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, German Titov, and Valentin Varlamov. However, Kartashov and Varlamov were injured and replaced by Khrunov and Grigoriy Nelyubov.[25]
As several of the candidates selected for the program including Gagarin did not have higher education degrees, they were enrolled into a correspondence course program at Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. Gagarin enrolled in the program in September 1960 and did not earn his specialist diploma until early 1968.[26][27] Gagarin was also subjected to experiments that were designed to test physical and psychological endurance including oxygen starvation tests in which the cosmonauts were locked in an isolation chamber and the air slowly pumped out. He also trained for the upcoming flight by experiencing g-forces in a centrifuge.[28][25] Psychological tests included placing the candidates in an anechoic chamber in complete isolation; Gagarin was in the chamber on July 26 – August 5.[29][20] In August 1960, a Soviet Air Force doctor evaluated his personality as follows:
Modest; embarrasses when his humor gets a little too racy; high degree of intellectual development evident in Yuriy; fantastic memory; distinguishes himself from his colleagues by his sharp and far-ranging sense of attention to his surroundings; a well-developed imagination; quick reactions; persevering, prepares himself painstakingly for his activities and training exercises, handles celestial mechanics and mathematical formulae with ease as well as excels in higher mathematics; does not feel constrained when he has to defend his point of view if he considers himself right; appears that he understands life better than a lot of his friends.[21]
The Vanguard Six were given the title of pilot-cosmonaut in January 1961[25] and entered a two-day examination conducted by a special interdepartmental commission led Lieutenant-General Nikolai Kamanin, tasked with ranking of the candidates based on their mission readiness for the first human Vostok mission. On 17 January 1961, they were tested in a simulator at the M. M. Gromov Flight-Research Institute on a full-size mockup of the Vostok capsule. Gagarin, Nikolayev, Popovich, and Titov all received excellent marks on the first day of testing in which they were required to describe the various phases of the mission followed by questions from commission.[22] On the second day, they were given a written examination following which the special commission ranked Gagarin as the best candidate the first mission. He and the next two highest-ranked cosmonauts, Titov and Nelyubov, were sent to Tyuratam for final preparations.[22] Gagarin and Titov were selected to train in the flight-ready spacecraft on 7 April 1961. Historian Asif Siddiqi writes of the final selection:[30]
In the end, at the State Commission meeting on April 8, Kamanin stood up and formally nominated Gagarin as the primary pilot and Titov as his backup. Without much discussion, the commission approved the proposal and moved on to other last-minute logistical issues. It was assumed that in the event Gagarin developed health problems prior to liftoff, Titov would take his place, with Nelyubov acting as his backup.
Vostok 1
Main article: Vostok 1
Poyekhali!
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Gagarin's voice
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On 12 April 1961, 6:07 am UTC, the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1) spacecraft was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Aboard was Gagarin, the first human to travel into space, using the call sign Kedr (Russian: Кедр, Siberian pine or Cedar).[31] The radio communication between the launch control room and Gagarin included the following dialogue at the moment of rocket launch:
Korolev: Preliminary stage ... intermediate... main... LIFT-OFF! We wish you a good flight. Everything's all right.
Gagarin: Off we go! Goodbye, until [we meet] soon, dear friends.[32][33]
Gagarin's farewell to Korolev using the informal phrase Poyekhali! (Russian: Поехали!)[nb 4] later became a popular expression in the Eastern Bloc that was used to refer to the beginning of the Space Age.[35][36] The five first-stage engines fired until the first separation event, when the four side-boosters fell away, leaving the core engine. The core stage then separated while the rocket was in a suborbital trajectory, and the upper stage carried it to orbit. Once the upper stage finished firing, it separated from the spacecraft, which orbited for 108 minutes before returning to Earth in Kazakhstan.[37] Gagarin became the first to orbit the Earth.[31]
File:1961-04-19 First Pictures-Yuri Gagarin-selection.ogvPlay media
An April 1961 newsreel of Gagarin arriving in Moscow to be greeted by First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev.
"The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended", Gagarin wrote in his post-flight report.[38] He also wrote in his autobiography released the same year that he sang the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает") during re-entry.[39] Gagarin was qualified a Military Pilot 1st Class and promoted to the rank of major in a special order given during his flight.[15][39]
At about 23,000 feet (7,000 m), Gagarin ejected from the descending capsule as planned and landed using a parachute. There were concerns Gagarin's spaceflight record would not be certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the world governing body for setting standards and keeping records in the field, which at the time required that the pilot land with the craft.[40] Gagarin and Soviet officials initially refused to admit that he had not landed with his spacecraft,[41] an omission which became apparent after Titov's subsequent flight on Vostok 2 four months later. Gagarin's spaceflight records were nonetheless certified and again reaffirmed by the FAI, which revised it rules, and acknowledge that the crucial steps of the safe launch, orbit, and return of the pilot had been accomplished. Gagarin continues to be internationally recognised as the first human in space and first to orbit the Earth.[42]
After the Vostok 1 flight
Gagarin in Warsaw, 1961
Gagarin's flight was a triumph for the Soviet space program and he became a national hero of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, as well as a worldwide celebrity. Newspapers around the globe published his biography and details of his flight. He was escorted in a long motorcade of high-ranking officials through the streets of Moscow to the Kremlin where, in a lavish ceremony, Nikita Khrushchev awarded him the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Other cities in the Soviet Union also held mass demonstrations, the scale of which were second only to World War II Victory Parades.[43]
Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova (seated to his right) sign autographs in 1964
Gagarin gained a reputation as an adept public figure and was noted for his charismatic smile.[44][45][46] On 15 April 1961, accompanied by official from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, he answered questions at a press conference in Moscow reportedly attended by 1,000 reporters.[47] Gagarin visited the United Kingdom three months after the Vostok 1 mission, going to London and Manchester.[48][44] While in Manchester, despite heavy rain, he refused an umbrella, insisted that the roof of the convertible car he was riding in remain open, and stood so the cheering crowds could see him.[44][49] Gagarin toured widely abroad, accepting the invitation of about 30 countries.[50] In just the first four months, he also went to Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, and Iceland.[51]
In 1962, Gagarin began serving as a deputy to the Soviet of the Union,[52] and was elected to the Central Committee of the Young Communist League. He later returned to Star City, the cosmonaut facility, where he spent several years working on designs for a reusable spacecraft. He became a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Forces on 12 June 1962, and received the rank of colonel on 6 November 1963.[15] On 20 December 1963, Gagarin became Deputy Training Director of the Star City cosmonaut training base.[53] Soviet officials, including cosmonaut overseerer Nikolai Kamanin, tried to keep Gagarin away from any flights, being worried about losing their hero in an accident noting that he was "too dear to mankind to risk his life for the sake of an ordinary space flight".[54] Kamanin was also concerned by Gagarin's drinking and believed the sudden rise to fame had taken its toll on the cosmonaut. While acquaintances say Gagarin had been a "sensible drinker", his touring schedule placed him in social situations in which he was increasingly expected to drink alcohol.[5][10]
Gagarin with U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, French Prime Minister Georges Pompidou and the Gemini 4 astronauts at the 1965 Paris Air Show
Two years later, he was re-elected as a deputy of the Soviet Union but this time to the Soviet of Nationalities, the upper chamber of legislature.[52] The following year, he began to re-qualify as a fighter pilot[55] and was backup pilot for his friend Vladimir Komarov on the Soyuz 1 flight after five years without piloting duty. Kamanin had opposed Gagarin's reassignment to cosmonaut training; he had gained weight and his flying skills had deteriorated. Despite this, he remained a strong contender for Soyuz 1 until he was replaced by Komarov in April 1966 and reassigned to Soyuz 3.[56]
The Soyuz 1 launch was rushed due to implicit political pressures[57] and despite Gagarin's protests that additional safety precautions were necessary.[58] Gagarin accompanied Komarov to the rocket before launch and relayed instructions to Komarov from ground control following multiple system failures aboard the spacecraft.[59] Despite their best efforts, Soyuz 1 crash landed after its parachutes failed to open, killing Komarov instantly.[60] After the Soyuz 1 crash, Gagarin was permanently banned from training for and participating in further spaceflights.[61] He was also grounded from flying aircraft solo, a demotion he worked hard to lift. He was temporarily relieved of duties to focus on academics with the promise that he would be able to resume flight training.[62] On 17 February 1968, Gagarin successfully defended his aerospace engineering thesis on the subject of spaceplane aerodynamic configuration and graduated cum laude from Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.[27][63][62]
Personal life
Gagarin and his wife Valentina clapping at a concert in Moscow in 1964.
Gagarin and his wife Valentina at a concert in Moscow in 1964.
Gagarin was a keen sportsman and fond of ice hockey as a goal keeper.[64] He was also a basketball fan and coached the Saratov Industrial Technical School team, as well as being a referee.[65]
In 1957, while a cadet in flight school, Gagarin met Valentina Goryacheva at the May Day celebrations at the Red Square in Moscow.[66] She was a medical technician who graduated from Orenburg Medical School.[8][10] They were married on 7 November 1957,[8] the same day Gagarin graduated from Orenburg, and they had two daughters.[67][68] Yelena Yurievna Gagarina, born 1959,[68] is an art historian who has worked as the director-general of the Moscow Kremlin Museums since 2001;[69][70] and Galina Yurievna Gagarina, born 1961,[68] is a professor of economics and the department chair at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow.[69][71] Following his rise to fame, at a Black Sea resort in September 1961, he was reportedly caught by his wife during a liaison with a nurse who had aided him after a boating incident. He attempted to escape through a window and jumped off a second floor balcony. The resulting injury left a permanent scar above his left eyebrow.[5][10]
Death
Plaque on a brick wall with inscription: Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин, 1934-03-09–1968-03-27
Plaque indicating Gagarin's interment in the Kremlin Wall
On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died when their MiG-15UTI crashed near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and their ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin.[72] Wrapped in secrecy, the cause of the crash that killed Gagarin is uncertain and became the subject of several theories.[73][74] At least three investigations into the crash were conducted separately by the Air Force, official government commissions, and the KGB.[75][76] According to a biography of Gagarin by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, the KGB worked "not just alongside the Air Force and the official commission members but against them."[75]
The KGB's report declassified in March 2003 dismissed various conspiracy theories and instead indicated the actions of airbase personnel contributed to the crash. The report states that an air-traffic controller provided Gagarin with outdated weather information and that by the time of his flight, conditions had deteriorated significantly. Ground crew also left external fuel tanks attached to the aircraft. Gagarin's planned flight activities needed clear weather and no outboard tanks. The investigation concluded Gagarin's aircraft entered a spin, either due to a bird strike or because of a sudden move to avoid another aircraft. Because of the out-of-date weather report, the crew believed their altitude was higher than it was and could not react properly to bring the MiG-15 out of its spin.[76] Another theory, advanced in 2005 by the original crash investigator, hypothesizes that a cabin air vent was accidentally left open by the crew or the previous pilot, leading to oxygen deprivation and leaving the crew incapable of controlling the aircraft.[73] A similar theory, published in Air & Space magazine, is that the crew detected the open vent and followed procedure by executing a rapid dive to a lower altitude. This dive caused them to lose consciousness and crash.[74]
On 12 April 2007, the Kremlin vetoed a new investigation into the death of Gagarin. Government officials said they saw no reason to begin a new investigation.[77] In April 2011, documents from a 1968 commission set up by the Central Committee of the Communist Party to investigate the accident were declassified. The documents revealed that the commission's original conclusion was that Gagarin or Seryogin had manoeuvered sharply, either to avoid a weather balloon or to avoid "entry into the upper limit of the first layer of cloud cover", leading the jet into a "super-critical flight regime and to its stalling in complex meteorological conditions".[78]
A Russian MiG-15UTI, the same type as Gagarin was flying
Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, a member of a state commission established to investigate Gagarin's death, was conducting parachute training sessions that day and heard "two loud booms in the distance". He believes that a Sukhoi Su-15 was flying below its minimum altitude and, "without realizing it because of the terrible weather conditions, he passed within 10 or 20 meters of Yuri and Seregin's plane while breaking the sound barrier". The resulting turbulence would have sent the MiG-15UTI into an uncontrolled spin. Leonov said the first boom he heard was that of the jet breaking the sound barrier and the second was Gagarin's plane crashing.[79] In a June 2013 interview with Russian television network RT, Leonov said a report on the incident confirmed the presence of a second, "unauthorized" Su-15 flying in the area. However, as a condition of being allowed to discuss the declassified report, Leonov was barred from disclosing the name of the Su-15 pilot who was 80 years old and in poor health as of 2013.[80]
Awards and honours
Medals and orders of merit
Jânio Quadros, President of Brazil, decorated Gagarin in 1961.
On 14 April 1961, Gagarin was honoured with a 12-mile (19 km) parade attended by millions of people that concluded at the Red Square. After a short speech, he was bestowed the Hero of the Soviet Union,[81][82] Order of Lenin,[81] Merited Master of Sports of the Soviet Union[83] and the first Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR.[82] On 15 April, the Soviet Academy of Sciences awarded him with the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal, named after the Russian pioneer of space aeronautics.[84] Gagarin had also been awarded four Soviet commemorative medals over the course of his career.[15]
He was honoured as a Hero of Socialist Labor (Czechoslovakia) on 29 April 1961,[85][86] and Hero of Socialist Labor (Bulgaria, including the Order of Georgi Dimitrov) on 24 May.[15][chronology citation needed] On the eighth anniversary of the beginning of Cuban Revolution (26 July), President Osvaldo Dorticos of Cuba presented him with the first Commander of the Order of Playa Girón, a newly created medal.[87]
Gagarin was also awarded the 1960 Gold Air Medal and the 1961 De la Vaulx Medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in Switzerland.[88] He received numerous awards from other nations that year, including the Star of the Republic of Indonesia (2nd Class), the Order of the Cross of Grunwald (1st Degree) in Poland, the Order of the Flag of the Republic of Hungary, the Hero of Labor award from Democratic Republic of Vietnam,[15] the Italian Columbus Day Medal,[89] and a Gold Medal from the British Interplanetary Society.[90][91] President Jânio Quadros of Brazil decorated Gagarin on 2 August 1961 with the Order of Aeronautical Merit, Commander grade.[92] During a tour of Egypt in late January 1962, Gagarin received the Order of the Nile[93] and the golden keys to the gates of Cairo.[50] On 22 October 1963, Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova were honoured with the Order of Karl Marx from the German Democratic Republic.[94]
Tributes
The date of Gagarin's space flight, 12 April, has been commemorated. Since 1962, it has been celebrated in the USSR and most of its former territories as Cosmonautics Day.[95] Since 2000, Yuri's Night, an international celebration, is held annually to commemorate milestones in space exploration.[96] In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations.[97]
Yuri Gagarin statue at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London
A number of buildings and locations have been named for Gagarin. The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, was named on 30 April 1968.[98] The launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome from which Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 were launched is now known as Gagarin's Start. Gagarin Raion in Sevastopol, Ukraine, was named after him during the period of the Soviet Union. The Russian Air Force Academy was renamed Gagarin Air Force Academy in 1968.[99] A street in Warsaw, Poland, is called Yuri Gagarin Street.[100] The town of Gagarin, Armenia was renamed in his honour in 1961.[101]
Gagarin has been honoured on the Moon by astronauts and astronomers. During the American space program's Apollo 11 mission in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a memorial satchel containing medals commemorating Gagarin and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on the Moon's surface.[102][103] In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left the small Fallen Astronaut sculpture at their landing site as a memorial to the American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who died in the Space Race; the names on its plaque included Yuri Gagarin and 14 others.[104][105] In 1970, a 262 km (163 mi)-wide crater on the far side after him.[106] Gagarin was inducted as a member of the 1976 inaugural class of the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico.[107]
Gagarin is memorialised in music; a cycle of Soviet patriotic songs titled The Constellation Gagarin (Russian: Созвездье Гагарина, tr. Sozvezdie Gagarina) was written by Aleksandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov in 1970–1971.[108] The most famous of these songs refers to Gagarin's poyekhali!: in the lyrics, "He said 'let's go!' He waved his hand".[35][108] He was the inspiration for the pieces "Hey Gagarin" by Jean-Michel Jarre on Métamorphoses, "Gagarin" by Public Service Broadcasting, and "Gagarin, I loved you" by Undervud.[109]
Russian ten-ruble commemorating Gagarin in 2001
Vessels have been named for Gagarin; Soviet tracking ship Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin was built in 1971[110] and the Armenian airline Armavia named their first Sukhoi Superjet 100 in his honour in 2011.[111]
Two commemorative coins were issued in the Soviet Union to honour the 20th and 30th anniversaries of his flight: a one-ruble coin in copper-nickel (1981) and a three-ruble coin in silver (1991). In 2001, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, a series of four coins bearing his likeness was issued in Russia; it consisted of a two-ruble coin in copper-nickel, a three-ruble coin in silver, a ten-ruble coin in brass-copper and nickel, and a 100-ruble coin in silver.[112] In 2011, Russia issued a 1,000-ruble coin in gold and a three-ruble coin in silver to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight.[113]
In 2008, the Kontinental Hockey League named their championship trophy the Gagarin Cup.[114] In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Gagarin was ranked as the sixth-most-popular space hero, tied with Star Trek's fictional James T. Kirk.[115] A Russian docudrama titled Gagarin: First in Space was released in 2013. Previous attempts at portraying Gagarin were disallowed; his family took legal action over his portrayal in a fictional drama and vetoed a musical.[116]
Statues and monuments
There are statues of Gagarin and monuments to him located in Gagarin (Smolensk Oblast), Orenburg, Cheboksary, Irkutsk, Izhevsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and Yoshkar-Ola in Russia, as well as in Nicosia, Cyprus, Druzhkivka, Ukraine, Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and Tiraspol, Moldova. On 4 June 1980, Monument to Yuri Gagarin in Gagarin Square, Leninsky Avenue, Moscow, was opened.[117] The monument is mounted to a 38 m (125 ft) tall pedestal and is constructed of titanium. Beside the column is a replica of the descent module used during his spaceflight.[118]
Bust of Gagarin at Birla Planetarium in Kolkata, India
In 2011, a statue of Gagarin was unveiled at Admiralty Arch in The Mall in London, opposite the permanent sculpture of James Cook. It is a copy of the statue outside Gagarin's former school in Lyubertsy.[119] In 2013, the statue was moved to a permanent location outside the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.[120]
In 2012, a statue was unveiled at the site of NASA's original spaceflight headquarters on South Wayside Drive in Houston. The sculpture was completed in 2011 by artist and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and was a gift to Houston by various Russian organisations. Houston Mayor Annise Parker, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were present for the dedication.[121][122] The Russian Federation presented a bust of Gagarin to several cities in India including one that was unveiled at the Birla Planetarium in Kolkata in February 2012.[123]
In April 2018, a bust of Gagarin erected on the street in Belgrade, Serbia, that bears his name was removed, after less than week. A new work was commissioned following the outcry over the disproportionately small size of its head which locals said was an "insult" to Gagarin.[124][125] Belgrade City Manager Goran Vesic stated that neither the city, the Serbian Ministry of Culture, nor the foundation that financed it had prior knowledge of the design.[126]
50th anniversary
50th anniversary stamp of Ukraine
The 50th anniversary of Gagarin's journey into space was marked in 2011 by tributes around the world. A film titled First Orbit was shot from the International Space Station, combining sound recordings from the original flight with footage of the route taken by Gagarin.[127] The Russian, American, and Italian crew of Expedition 27 aboard the ISS sent a special video message to wish the people of the world a "Happy Yuri's Night", wearing shirts with an image of Gagarin.[128]
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation released gold and silver coins to commemorate the anniversary.[129] The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft was named Gagarin with the launch in April 2011 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first manned space mission.
New cadets attempt to absorb as much information as they can from their New Cadet Handbooks so they canpass questioning from the cadet cadre. Photo by Mike Strasser, West Point Public Affairs
i`M studying in Moscow Aviation Institute "Faculty of robotic and intelligent systems"
I will say a secret - we, Russians have a new SUPERWEAPON and for shooting from it, people do not need!
The Garuda is a large bird-like creature, or humanoid bird that appears in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Garuda is the mount (vahana) of the Lord Vishnu. Garuda is the Hindu name for the constellation Aquila. The brahminy kite and phoenix are considered to be the contemporary representations of Garuda. Indonesia adopts a more stylistic approach to the Garuda's depiction as its national symbol, where it depicts a Javanese eagle (being much larger than a kite).
ABOUT GARUDA
In Hinduism, Garuda is a Hindu divinity, usually the mount (vahana) of the Lord Vishnu. Garuda is depicted as having the golden body of a strong man with a white face, red wings, and an eagle's beak and with a crown on his head. This ancient deity was said to be massive, large enough to block out the sun.
Garuda is known as the eternal sworn enemy of the Nāga serpent race and known for feeding exclusively on snakes, such behavior may have referred to the actual short-toed eagle of India. The image of Garuda is often used as the charm or amulet to protect the bearer from snake attack and its poison, since the king of birds is an implacable enemy and "devourer of serpent". Garudi Vidya is the mantra against snake poison to remove all kinds of evil.
His stature in Hindu religion can be gauged by the fact that a dependent Upanishad, the Garudopanishad, and a Purana, the Garuda Purana, is devoted to him. Various names have been attributed to Garuda - Chirada, Gaganeshvara, Kamayusha, Kashyapi, Khageshvara, Nagantaka, Sitanana, Sudhahara, Suparna, Tarkshya, Vainateya, Vishnuratha and others. The Vedas provide the earliest reference of Garuda, though by the name of Śyena, where this mighty bird is said to have brought nectar to earth from heaven. The Puranas, which came into existence much later, mention Garuda as doing the same thing, which indicates that Śyena (Sanskrit for eagle) and Garuda are the same. One of the faces of Śrī Pañcamukha Hanuman is Mahavira Garuda. This face points towards the west. Worship of Garuda is believed to remove the effects of poisons from one's body. In Tamil Vaishnavism Garuda and Hanuman are known as "Periya Thiruvadi" and "Siriya Thiruvadi" respectively.
In the Bhagavad-Gita (Ch.10, Verse 30), in the middle of the battlefield "Kurukshetra", Krishna explaining his omnipresence, says - " as son of Vinata, I am in the form of Garuda, the king of the bird community (Garuda)" indicating the importance of Garuda.
Garuda wears the serpent Adisesha on his left small toenail and the serpent Gulika on his right cerebral cortex. The serpent Vasuki forms his sacred thread. The cobra Takshaka forms his belt on his hip. The snake Karkotaka is worn as his necklace. The snakes Padma and Mahapadma are his ear rings. The snake Shankachuda adorns his divine hair. He is flanked by his two wives ‘Rudra’ and ‘Sukeerthi’ or (Sukirthi). These are all invoked in Vedanta Desika's Garuda Panchashath and Garuda Dandaka compositions. Garuda flanked with his consorts 'Rudra' and 'Sukirthi' can be seen worshipped in an ancient Soumya Keshava temple in Bindiganavile (or Mayura puri in Sanskrit ) in Karnataka state of India.
Garuda Vyuha is worshiped in Tantra for Abhichara and to protect against Abhichara. However, the interesting thing is that Garuda is the Sankarshna form of the lord who during creation primarily possesses the knowledge aspect of the lord (among Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha forms). The important point is that Garuda represents the five vayus within us : prana, apana, vyana, udana, samana through his five forms Satya, Suparna, Garuda, Tarkshya, Vihageshwara. These five vayus through yoga can be controlled through Pranayama which can lead to Kundalini awakening leading to higher levels of consciousness.
Garuda plays an important role in Krishna Avatar in which Krishna and Satyabhama ride on Garuda to kill Narakasura. On another occasion, Lord Hari rides on Garuda to save the devotee elephant Gajendra. It is also said that Garuda's wings when flying will chant the Vedas.
With the position of Garuda's hands and palms, he is also called 'Kai Yendhi Perumal', in Tamil.
IN THE MAHABHARATA
BIRTH AND DEEDS
The story of Garuda's birth and deeds is told in the first book of the great epic Mahabharata.[4] According to the epic, when Garuda first burst forth from his egg, he appeared as a raging inferno equal to the cosmic conflagration that consumes the world at the end of every age. Frightened, the gods begged him for mercy. Garuda, hearing their plea, reduced himself in size and energy.
Garuda's father was the creator-rishi Kasyapa. He had two wives, Vinata and Kadru, who were daughters of Prajapathi Daksha. Kasyapa, on the pleadings of his wives, granted them their wishes; Vinata wished for two sons and Kadru wished for thousand snakes as her sons. Both laid eggs, while the thousand eggs of Kadru hatched early (after steaming the eggs to hatch) into snakes, the hatching of two eggs of Vinata did not take place for a long time. Impatient, Vinata broke open one egg, which was half formed with the upper half only as a human and was thus deformed. Her half formed son cursed her that she would be slave for her sister (she was her rival) for a long time by which time her second son would be born who would save her from his curse; her first son who flew away and came to prominence as Aruna, the red spectacle seen as the Sun rises in the morning, and as also charioteer of the Sun. The second egg hatched after a long time during which period Vinata was the servant of her sister as she had lost a bet with her. When the second egg hatched, a fully grown, shining and of mighty sized bird form emerged as Garuda, the king of birds. Garuda was thus born.
One day, Vinata entered into and lost a foolish bet, as a result of which she became enslaved to her sister. Resolving to release his mother from this state of bondage, Garuda approached the serpents and asked them what it would take to purchase her freedom. Their reply was that Garuda would have to bring them the elixir of immortality, also called amrita. It was a tall order. The amrita at that time found itself in the possession of the gods, who guarded it zealously, since it was the source of their immortality. They had ringed the elixir with a massive fire that covered the sky. They had blocked the way to the elixir with a fierce mechanical contraption of sharp rotating blades. And finally, they had stationed two gigantic poisonous snakes next to the elixir as deadly guardians.
Undaunted, Garuda hastened toward the abode of the gods intent on robbing them of their treasure. Knowing of his design, the gods met him in full battle-array. Garuda, however, defeated the entire host and scattered them in all directions. Taking the water of many rivers into his mouth, he extinguished the protective fire the gods had thrown up. Reducing his size, he crept past the rotating blades of their murderous machine. And finally, he mangled the two gigantic serpents they had posted as guards. Taking the elixir into his mouth without swallowing it, he launched again into the air and headed toward the eagerly waiting serpents. En route, he encountered Vishnu. Rather than fight, the two exchanged promises. Vishnu promised Garuda the gift of immortality even without drinking from the elixir, and Garuda promised to become Vishnu's mount. Flying onward, he met Indra the god of the sky. Another exchange of promises occurred. Garuda promised that once he had delivered the elixir, thus fulfilling the request of the serpents, he would make it possible for Indra to regain possession of the elixir and to take it back to the gods. Indra in turn promised Garuda the serpents as food.At long last, Garuda alighted in front of the waiting serpents. Placing the elixir on the grass, and thereby liberating his mother Vinata from her servitude, he urged the serpents to perform their religious ablutions before consuming it. As they hurried off to do so, Indra swooped in to make off with the elixir. The serpents came back from their ablutions and saw the elixir gone but with small droplets of it on the grass. They tried to lick the droplets and thereby split their tongues in two. From then onwards, serpents have split tongues and shed their skin as a kind of immortality. From that day onward, Garuda was the ally of the gods and the trusty mount of Vishnu, as well as the implacable enemy of snakes, upon whom he preyed at every opportunity.
DESCENDANTS
According to the Mahabharata, Garuda had six sons (Sumukha, Suvarna, Subala, Sunaama, Sunethra and Suvarchas) from whom were descended the race of birds. The members of this race were of great might and without compassion, subsisting as they did on their relatives the snakes. Vishnu was their protector.
AS A SYMBOL
Throughout the Mahabharata, Garuda is invoked as a symbol of impetuous violent force, of speed, and of martial prowess. Powerful warriors advancing rapidly on doomed foes are likened to Garuda swooping down on a serpent. Defeated warriors are like snakes beaten down by Garuda. The field marshal Drona uses a military formation named after Garuda. Krishna even carries the image of Garuda on his banner.
IN BUDDHISM
In Buddhist mythology, the Garuda (Pāli: garuḷā) are enormous predatory birds with intelligence and social organization. Another name for the Garuda is suparṇa (Pāli: supaṇṇa), meaning "well-winged, having good wings". Like the Naga, they combine the characteristics of animals and divine beings, and may be considered to be among the lowest devas.
The exact size of the Garuda is uncertain, but its wings are said to have a span of many miles. This may be a poetic exaggeration, but it is also said that when a Garuda's wings flap, they create hurricane-like winds that darken the sky and blow down houses. A human being is so small compared to a Garuda that a man can hide in the plumage of one without being noticed (Kākātī Jātaka, J.327). They are also capable of tearing up entire banyan trees from their roots and carrying them off.
Garudas are the great golden-winged Peng birds. They also have the ability to grow large or small, and to appear and disappear at will. Their wingspan is 330 yojanas (one yojana being 8 miles long). With one flap of its wings, a Peng bird dries up the waters of the sea so that it can gobble up all the exposed dragons. With another flap of its wings, it can level the mountains by moving them into the ocean.
There were also the four garuda-kings: Great-Power-Virtue Garuda-King, Great-Body Garuda-King, Great-Fulfillment Garuda-King, and Free-At-Will Garuda-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.
The Garudas have kings and cities, and at least some of them have the magical power of changing into human form when they wish to have dealings with people. On some occasions Garuda kings have had romances with human women in this form. Their dwellings are in groves of the simbalī, or silk-cotton tree.
The Garuda are enemies to the nāga, a race of intelligent serpent- or dragon-like beings, whom they hunt. The Garudas at one time caught the nāgas by seizing them by their heads; but the nāgas learned that by swallowing large stones, they could make themselves too heavy to be carried by the Garudas, wearing them out and killing them from exhaustion. This secret was divulged to one of the Garudas by the ascetic Karambiya, who taught him how to seize a nāga by the tail and force him to vomit up his stone (Pandara Jātaka, J.518).
The Garudas were among the beings appointed by Śakra to guard Mount Sumeru and the Trāyastriṃśa heaven from the attacks of the asuras.
In the Maha-samaya Sutta (Digha Nikaya 20), the Buddha is shown making temporary peace between the Nagas and the Garudas.
The Thai rendering of Garuda (ครุฑ Krut) as Vishnu vehicle and Garuda's quest for elixir was based on Indian legend of Garuda. It was told that Garuda overcame many heavenly beings in order to gain the ambrosia (amrita) elixir. No one was able to get the better of him, not even Narai (Vishnu). At last, a truce was called and an agreement was made to settle the rancor and smooth all the ruffled feathers. It was agreed that when Narai is in his heavenly palace, Garuda will be positioned in a superior status, atop the pillar above Narai's residence. However, whenever Narai wants to travel anywhere, Garuda must serve as his transport.
The Sanskrit word Garuda has been borrowed and modified in the languages of several countries. In Burmese, Garudas are called galone (ဂဠုန်). In Burmese astrology, the vehicle of the Sunday planet is the galone. In the Kapampangan language of the Philippines, the native word for eagle is galura. In Japanese a Garuda is called karura (however, the form Garuda ガルーダ is used in recent Japanese fiction - see below).
For the Mongols, the Garuda is called Khan Garuda or Khangarid (Mongolian: Хангарьд). Before and after each round of Mongolian wrestling, wrestlers perform the Garuda ritual, a stylised imitation of the Khangarid and a hawk.
In the Qing Dynasty fiction The Story of Yue Fei (1684), Garuda sits at the head of the Buddha's throne. But when a celestial bat (an embodiment of the Aquarius constellation) flatulates during the Buddha’s expounding of the Lotus Sutra, Garuda kills her and is exiled from paradise. He is later reborn as Song Dynasty General Yue Fei. The bat is reborn as Lady Wang, wife of the traitor Prime Minister Qin Hui, and is instrumental in formulating the "Eastern Window" plot that leads to Yue's eventual political execution. It is interesting to note The Story of Yue Fei plays on the legendary animosity between Garuda and the Nagas when the celestial bird-born Yue Fei defeats a magic serpent who transforms into the unearthly spear he uses throughout his military career. Literary critic C. T. Hsia explains the reason why Qian Cai, the book's author, linked Yue with Garuda is because of the homology in their Chinese names. Yue Fei's courtesy name is Pengju (鵬舉). A Peng (鵬) is a giant mythological bird likened to the Middle Eastern Roc. Garuda's Chinese name is Great Peng, the Golden-Winged Illumination King (大鵬金翅明王).
As a cultural and national symbol
In India, Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia the eagle symbolism is represented by Garuda, a large mythical bird with eagle-like features that appears in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology as the vahana (vehicle) of the god Vishnu. Garuda became the national emblem of Thailand and Indonesia; Thailand's Garuda is rendered in a more traditional anthropomorphic mythical style, while that of Indonesia is rendered in heraldic style with traits similar to the real Javan hawk-eagle.
INDIA
India primarily uses Garuda as a martial motif:
Garud Commando Force is a Special Forces unit of the Indian Air Force, specializing in operations deep behind enemy lines
Brigade of the Guards of the Indian Army uses Garuda as their symbol
Elite bodyguards of the medieval Hoysala kings were called Garudas
Kerala and Andhra pradesh state road transport corporations use Garuda as the name for a/c moffusil buses
Garuda rock, a rocky cliff in Tirumala in Andhra pradesh
13th century Aragalur chief, Magadesan's, insignia was Rishabha the sacred bull and the Garuda
INDONESIA
Indonesia uses the Garuda, called the Garuda Pancasila, as its national symbol, it is somewhat intertwined with the concept of the phoenix.
Garuda Pancasila is coloured or gilt gold, symbolizes the greatness of the nation and is a representation of the elang Jawa or Javan hawk-eagle Nisaetus bartelsi. The black color represents nature. There are 17 feathers on each wing, 8 on the lower tail, 19 on the upper tail and 45 on the neck, which represent the date Indonesia proclaimed its independence: 17 August 1945. The shield it carries with the Indonesian Panca Sila heraldry symbolizes self-defense and protection in struggle.
Indonesian national airline is Garuda Indonesia.
Indonesian Armed Forces United Nations peacekeeping missions is known as Pasukan Garuda or Garuda Contingent
Airlangga University, one of the oldest and leading university in Indonesia uses Garuda on its emblem. The emblem, containing a Garuda in a blue and yellow circle, is called "Garudamukha", and depicts Garuda as the bearer of knowledge, carrying a jug of Amrita, the water of eternity, symbolizing eternal knowledge.
In Bali and Java Garuda has become a cultural symbol, the wooden statue and mask of Garuda is a popular artworks and souvenirs.
In Bali, we can find the tallest Garuda statue of 18 metres tall made from tons of copper and brass. The statue is located in Garuda Wisnu Kencana complex.
Garuda has identified as Indonesian national football team in international games, namely "The Garuda Team".
The stylized brush stroke that resemble Garuda is appear in the logo of 2011 Southeast Asian Games, held in Palembang and Jakarta, Indonesia.
The stylized curves that took form of Garuda Pancasila is appear in the logo of Wonderful Indonesia tourism campaign.
THAILAND
Thailand uses the Garuda (Thai: ครุฑ, khrut) as its national symbol.
One form of the Garuda used in Thailand as a sign of the royal family is called Khrut Pha, meaning "Garuda, the vehicle (of Vishnu)."
The statue and images of Garuda adorned many Buddhist temples in Thailand, it also has become the cultural symbol of Thailand.
MONGOLIA
The Garuda, known as Khangarid, is the symbol of the capital city of Mongolia, Ulan Bator. According to popular Mongolian belief, Khangarid is the mountain spirit of the Bogd Khan Uul range who became a follower of Buddhist faith. Today he is considered the guardian of that mountain range and a symbol of courage and honesty.
The bird also gives its name to Hangard Aviation
Khangarid (Хангарьд), a football (soccer) team in the Mongolia Premier League also named after Garuda.
Garuda Ord (Гаруда Орд), a private construction and trading company based in Ulaanbaatar, also named after Garuda.
State Garuda (Улсын Гарьд) is a title given to the debut runner up in wrestling tournament during Mongolian National Festival Naadam.
SURINAME
In Suriname, there is a TV channel called Garuda. Suriname has a lot of people from Indonesia and Java, as it is a multicultural country.
WIKIPEDIA