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(more details later, as time permits)
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About a year ago, I created Flickr album for photos that I had started taking with my iPhone5s; and now I’m creating a new Flickr album for photos that I’ve begun taking with myiPhone6, which just arrived from T-Mobile this morning.
In last year’s album, I wrote, "Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, it’s hard to walk around with a modern smartphone in your pocket, and not be tempted to use the built-in camera from time-to-time. Veteran photographers typically sneer at such behavior, and most will tell you that they can instantly recognize an iPhone photo, which they mentally reject as being unworthy of any serious attention.
"After using many earlier models of smartphones over the past several years, I was inclined to agree; after all, I always (well, almost always) had a “real” camera in my pocket (or backpack or camera-bag), and it was always capable of taking a much better photographic image than the mediocre, grainy images shot with a camera-phone.
"But still … there were a few occasions when I desperately wanted to capture some photo-worthy event taking place right in front of me, and inevitably it turned out to be the times when I did not have the “real” camera with me. Or I did have it, but it was buried somewhere in a bag, and I knew that the “event” would have disappeared by the time I found the “real" camera and turned it on. By contrast, the smart-phone was always in my pocket (along with my keys and my wallet, it’s one of the three things I consciously grab every time I walk out the door). And I often found that I could turn it on, point it at the photographic scene, and take the picture much faster than I could do the same thing with a “traditional” camera.
"Meanwhile, smartphone cameras have gotten substantially better in the past few years, from a mechanical/hardware perspective; and the software “intelligence” controlling the camera has become amazingly sophisticated. It’s still not on the same level as a “professional” DSLR camera, but for a large majority of the “average” photographic situations we’re likely to encounter in the unplanned moments of our lives, it’s more and more likely to be “good enough.” The old adage of “the best camera is the one you have with you” is more and more relevant these days. For me, 90% of the success in taking a good photo is simply being in the right place at the right time, being aware that the “photo opportunity” is there, and having a camera — any camera — to take advantage of that opportunity. Only 10% of the time does it matter which camera I’m using, or what technical features I’ve managed to use.
"And now, with the recent advent of the iPhone5s, there is one more improvement — which, as far as I can tell, simply does not exist in any of the “professional” cameras. You can take an unlimited number of “burst-mode” shots with the new iPhone, simply by keeping your finger on the shutter button; instead of being limited to just six (as a few of the DSLR cameras currently offer), you can take 10, 20, or even a hundred shots. And then — almost magically — the iPhone will show you which one or two of the large burst of photos was optimally sharp and clear. With a couple of clicks, you can then delete everything else, and retain only the very best one or two from the entire burst.
"With that in mind, I’ve begun using my iPhone5s for more and more “everyday” photo situations out on the street. Since I’m typically photographing ordinary, mundane events, even the one or two “optimal” shots that the camera-phone retains might not be worth showing anyone else … so there is still a lot of pruning and editing to be done, and I’m lucky if 10% of those “optimal” shots are good enough to justify uploading to Flickr and sharing with the rest of the world. Still, it’s an enormous benefit to know that my editing work can begin with photos that are more-or-less “technically” adequate, and that I don’t have to waste even a second reviewing dozens of technically-mediocre shots that are fuzzy, or blurred.
"Oh, yeah, one other minor benefit of the iPhone5s (and presumably most other current brands of smartphone): it automatically geotags every photo and video, without any special effort on the photographer’s part. Only one of my other big, fat cameras (the Sony Alpha SLT A65) has that feature, and I’ve noticed that almost none of the “new” mirrorless cameras have got a built-in GPS thingy that will perform the geotagging...
"I’ve had my iPhone5s for a couple of months now, but I’ve only been using the “burst-mode” photography feature aggressively for the past couple of weeks. As a result, the initial batch of photos that I’m uploading are all taken in the greater-NYC area. But as time goes on, and as my normal travel routine takes me to other parts of the world, I hope to add more and more “everyday” scenes in cities that I might not have the opportunity to photograph in a “serious” way.
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Okay, so now it’s September of 2014, and I’ve got the iPhone 6. They say that the camera is better, and that the internal camera-related hardware/firmware/software is better, too. Obviously, I’ve got the newer iOS, too, and even on the “old” phones, it now supports time-lapse videos along with everything else.
I’ve still got my pocket camera (an amazing little Sony ERX-100 Mark III), and two larger cameras (Sony RX-10, and Sony A7), but I have a feeling that I won’t even be taking them out of the camera bag when I’m out on the street for ordinary day-to-day walking around.
That will depend, obviously, on what kind of photos and videos the iPhone6 is actually capable of taking … so I’m going to try to use it every day, and see what the results look like …
Like I said last year, “stay tuned…"
Original Caption: Smoke From Forest Fire Drifts Across Drainage Canal Cut through Everglades in Collier County. According to Reports Canals Like This, Permitted for Further Land Development, Increase Fire Hazards by Causing Foliage to Become Dry.
U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-6107
Photographer: Schulke, Flip, 1930-2008
Subjects:
Marco Island (Collier county, Florida, United States) island
Environmental Protection Agency
Project DOCUMERICA
Persistent URL: arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=548594
Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.
For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html
Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html
Access Restrictions: Unrestricted
Use Restrictions: Unrestricted
[Parque Sucre]
El cantón Chone, ubicado en la provincia de Manabí, es un hermoso lugar del Ecuador que posee las condiciones ideales para el desarrollo del agroturismo. Tiene una superficie de 3.570 kilómetros cuadrados, ocupando un vasto territorio en el centro norte de la provincia manabita.
Es uno de los principales motores económicos de la provincia a través de actividades como la agricultura, el comercio y la ganadería, este último rubro convierte al cantón en el primer centro ganadero provincial, con cerca de 300 mil cabezas de ganado vacuno, adaptadas a las duras condiciones de la montaña tropical.
En el cantón también se cultiva cacao fino de aroma, cuya producción es exportada, en su mayoría hacia países de Europa, como Alemania y Francia, donde su grano es muy apetecido.
Sus grandes montañas permiten la realización de excursiones y paseos de aventura, donde los turistas descubren exuberantes bosques y caídas de agua; son sitios ideales para la observación de flora y fauna, y de especial interés para ornitólogos y naturalistas.
El río Chone es el principal de la región, junto a sus afluentes Garrapata, San Lorenzo y Tosagua, que nacen en las partes altas de los cantones Bolívar y Junín, que a su paso, permiten el desarrollo agrícola y ganadero del cantón. A su desembocadura en la Bahía de Caráquez, da lugar a la formación de un estuario de espectacular belleza y diversidad.
La ciudad de Chone, que es la capital del cantón, conocida también como La Ciudad de los Naranjos en Flor, es una ciudad dinámica y hospitalaria. Fue fundada el 7 de agosto de 1735 por el religioso portovejense Fray José Antonio Cedeño, y bautizada como Villa de San Cayetano de Chone, habiendo ganado un gran prestigio a nivel nacional por ser cuna de bellas mujeres y hombres bravíos.
En los alrededores de Chone se puede encontrar interesantes sitios para descubrir y disfrutar de la naturaleza.
Hacia el norte de la ciudad, en la vía a El Carmen, se encuentra el sitio La Dibujada, Consta de unas grandes cuevas con inscripciones sobre piedra o petroglifos representando hombres y animales, cuya antigüedad y procedencia están por determinarse a pesar de que los vestigios arqueológicos encontrados en el sito, indican que pudieron haber sido realizados por las tribus Ñauzas y Chunos.
Festividades:
Festividad de la Tonga Familiar, segunda semana de marzo.
Semana Santa: Festival Gastronómico
Fiestas por la cantonización de Chone: 24 de julio
Verbena Chonera primera semana de julio
Fiestas por la fundación de la Villa de San Cayetano de Chone: 7 de agosto
Santa Rosa de Canuto: 30 de agosto
Feria del Chame y Festival de la Mandarina: Segundo domingo de septiembre
Fiesta de la Virgen de la O 30 de octubre
Feria del Cacao: segunda semana de octubre
Feria de la producción ganadera y agrícola: última semana de octubre
Feria de cabalo de paso fino: octubre
Feria del camarón: 18 de octubre
Festival de la Natilla en la Cabaña de Toto: segunda semana de noviembre
Atractivos del cantón:
Los principales atractivos naturales que posee el cantón Chone, son:
Humedal La Segua
Cantiles El Jobo
Piedra y Cueva La dibujada
Bosque de transición
San Ignacio
Cabañas El Toto
Centro Recreacinal Café Color Tierra
Balnearios de agua dulce: El Tecal en Río Santo, Puerto El Bejuco, Dos bocas
Cabañas ecológicas
La Comuna de Convento
Cascada la Guabina
Cascada El Caracol
Balneario La Poza
Cascada de Palalache
Los atractivos culturales que llaman la atención de los turistas, son:
Pelea de gallos
Artesanías
El Chuno escultural en raíces
Mirador Cerro Guayas
Monumento a los Raidistas
Casa Antigua La Providencia
Artesanías y talabarterías en Boyacá
Gastronomía y dulces
Ganadería
Iglesia Santa Rosa de Canuto
Geografía:
La ciudad está rodeada de cerros y lomas que forman pequeños sistemas de elevaciones litorales con alturas que sobrepasan los 100 metros sobre el nivel del mar. En una de las llanuras costeras más bajas de la zona Norte de Manabí es donde se encuentra ubicada la Ciudad de Chone siendo fundada geográficamente entre los territorios pantanosos, semisecos, subtropicales y húmedos que derivan de la Cordillera Occidental de los Andes adyacente directamente al Océano Pacífico y a los pueblos relacionados directamente con la geografía costeña. El relieve más alto está concentrado en la parte sur-este, siendo su mayor altitud en el Cerro Blanco con 560 metros.
La cadena montañosa se asemeja a una pequeña corriente o micro ascendencia de la Cordillera Occidental de los Andes. Por el lado Oeste y Noroeste de la ciudad se encuentra rodeada por tres elevaciones terráqueas que se definen como tres cerros, y el mayor de estos se ubica en el medio conformando el conocido mirador turístico Cerro Guayas, donde se encuentra edificada la estatua del Cristo Redentor de Chone.
Límites
Chone limita:
Al norte con la provincia de Esmeraldas y el cantón Pedernales;
Al sur con los cantones de Pichincha, Bolívar y Tosagua;
Al este con El Carmen, Flavio Alfaro y la provincia de Los Ríos y,
Al oeste con los cantones Sucre, Junín, Jama y Pedernales.
Clima
Chone es por excelencia una urbe subtropical de abundante y rica flora y fauna por lo que la ciudad se edificó en un territorio muy parecido a la selva ecuatoriana. El clima predominante es el cálido seco en verano, que va desde junio hasta noviembre, en épocas normales; y el cálido lluvioso en época de invierno, que va de diciembre a mayo. En verano los vientos modifican el clima y su temperatura oscila entre los 23 y 28 grados centígrados, mientras que en invierno alcanza los 34 grados centígrados, considerándose uno de los climas más inestables y desequilibrados de las regiones costeras del Pacífico sudamericano.
A lo largo de su historia la ciudad ha sido afectada por una serie de inundaciones masivas y continuas que en su espacio geográfico (Provocadas por el Fenómeno de El Niño 1998-1999 en la estación inverna ecuatoriana) perjudican su rica y productiva economía basada en la agricultura y ganadería. Las incontrolables inundaciones han acarreado un sinnúmero de pestes y epidemias tropicales que han afectado a la población considerándolas incluso como normales y comunes por hoy. Entre las citadas están el dengue, paludismo, etc.
Hidrografía
En Chone está la cuenca hídrica más grande de la provincia, que la forma el Río Chone y sus afluentes. En el norte del cantón nacen las microcuencas del Peripa y del Daule. La red hidrográfica está constituida por ríos, terrenos sujetos a inundación, lagos y charcos intermitentes, y esteros, entre los principales se encuentran: Chone, con sus afluentes Garrapata, Mosquito, Grande, Santo, Sánchez, La Pulga, Cañitas, Zapallo, Monito, Cucuy, Palalache, Convento, Manta Blanca, Plátano, La Iguana, Yahuila y Quiebra Cabeza.
Alojamiento
Hotel Atahualpa de Oro
Teléfono: 2696-627.
Dirección: Atahualpa y Páez.
Hotel Colón
Teléfono: 2360-984
Dirección: Vargas Torres y Alajuela.
Hotel Manabí
Teléfono: 0993923207
Dirección: Vargas Torres y Washington
Hotel Los Chonanas
Teléfono: 2695-253 / 2695-230 / 0980410642
Dirección: Washington, entre Atahualpa y Pichincha.
Hotel Amash
Teléfono: 2696-283.
Dirección: Av. Sixto Durán Ballén.
Hotel Los Naranjos
Teléfono: 2695-541 / 09681237
Dirección: Pichincha y Washington esquina.
Hotel Chuno
Teléfono: 2690-383
Dirección: Av. Sixto Durán Ballén.
DATOS DE INTERÉS TURÍSTICO
Monumento a los Raidistas.
En la ciudad de Chone existe un monumento denominado ?Los Raidistas?, obra que llama mucho la atención de quienes no conocen las historia que motivó su construcción.
Este monumento fue erigido en recordación a una gesta heroica desarrollada por cinco intrépidos jóvenes de Chone, quienes, en el mes de enero de 1940, a bordo de un automotor, culminaron una travesía por tierra que unió a la ciudad de Chone con Quito, cuando aún no existía una carretera, demostrando con ello la factibilidad y la necesidad de esta obra.
Ellos iniciaron su odisea el 6 de diciembre de 1939 y, ?haciendo camino al andar?, como se interpreta en la poesía de Antonio Machado, fueron trazando una ruta que los llevó a través de montañas, ríos y terrenos llenos de dificultades, hasta que al fin, el 28 de enero de 1940, llegaron a Quito, demostrando con su osadía que sí era posible la construcción de un camino que uniera a la capital del Ecuador con este sector de la provincia de Manabí.
La gesta se realizó durante la presidencia del Dr. Andrés F. Córdova, quien ante la resonancia que se dio en los medios de comunicación de la época y comprendiendo la importancia de la construcción de la vía, dispuso que se iniciaran os trabajos para hacerla realidad, ordenando para ello una asignación de 1'200.000 sucres.
Los integrantes de aquel osado grupo de jóvenes, denominados los raidistas, que permanecerán para siempre en el recuerdo de los habitantes de Chone, fueron: Carlos Alberto Aray, Artemio Aray, Juan de Dios Zambrano, Emilio Hidalgo y Plutarco Moreira.
Quito y Manabí y de inmediato el presidente de la República, Andrés F. Córdova, anunció que asignaría para empezar los trabajos de la carretera.
Heladería Mora.
Esta heladería es una tradición en Chone, iniciada por Armando Mora hace 66 años y continuada por su hijo Dennis, quien aprendió el arte de elaborar los deliciosos helados tradicionales de diferentes sabores, de la mano de su progenitor.
En sus inicios, don Armando empezó a elaborar el producto con leche y piña y poco a poco debido a la demanda y a pedido de su clientela que cada día iba en aumento, fue incrementando más sabores como frutilla, mora, naranjilla, chicle, chocolate, etc.
El promedio de venta de los helados es de 40 a 50 litros diarios y el que más salida tiene es el tradicional de piña con leche.
Prácticamente no hay un ciudadano de Chone que no haya degustado estos deliciosos helados a lo largo de su vida. Es tanta la acogida de helados Mora, que sus propietarios están analizando la posibilidad de ampliar el negocio fuera de Chone y de Manabí, aspirando, incluso, llegar a Guayaquil, un mercado en el cual, de acuerdo a pruebas que ya han realizado, el producto ha tenido una buena demanda.
TURISMO CANTONAL
En los alrededores de la ciudad de Chone se encuentran varios atractivos turísticos que llenan de adrenalina a los aventureros y turistas que los visitan. Las actividades que se desarrollan en esos lugares dan grandes satisfacciones a quienes disfrutan de la gastronomía típica, de un baño en pequeñas cascadas, de caminatas por el campo o son observadores de aves, esta última resulta muy interesante en el humedal La Segua, debido a la gran cantidad de pájaros que se encuentran en el lugar.
Rancho La Misión.
Uno de estos atractivos los constituye el rancho La Misión, ubicado en la parroquia San Antonio, aproximadamente a diez minutos de la ciudad, en el cual propietarios tienen varias casas de madera que alquilan a los turistas, sean individuales, parejas o grupos familiares que deseen pasar un tiempo ameno lejos de la ciudad. Las cabañas cuentan con todos los servicios básicos para dar una buena atención a los visitantes.
En el rancho, además de ganado vacuno y caballar, existen sembríos de cacao, plátano y frutales. Como parte del entretenimiento en el lugar, los visitantes pueden pasear a caballo.
Durante la estadía de un grupo prensa, los comunicadores sociales tuvieron la oportunidad de conocer al alcalde de Chone, Dr. Deyton Alcívar Alcívar, quien acudió al lugar con su esposa Genny Macías de Alcívar y explicó a los visitantes su visión de querer establecer a Chone como un cantón de destino turístico.
Los visitantes del rancho pudieron disfrutar de los platos típicos del lugar, a más de sostener diálogos para conocer de boca del funcionario público sobre el trabajo que está realizando el GAD de Chone para incentivar la visita de turistas nacionales y extranjeros.
PARROQUIA CANUTO
Canuto es otra parroquia que pertenece al cantón Chone, en ella hay varios sitios de gran interés turístico que poco a poco se han ido desarrollando y ganando un espació entre los atractivos que ofrecen a los turistas espacios para el conocimiento, descanso y la aventura. El 13 de agosto de 1862 es la fecha histórica de su parroquialización.
Iglesia San Francisco y Santa Rosa de Canuto.
Según el guía Gutemberg Mendoza, que atendió a los periodistas durante el recorrido por Canuto, aunque no hay una fecha exacta, se estima que la iglesia fue erigida en 1880. Originalmente fue elaborada con tres tipos de madera propios de la zona: Guayacán, Moral y Guayabo.
También explicó que una tradición que existía hace ya muchos años pero que ahora está en desuso era que las parejas de enamorados, para oficializar su unión, caminaban alrededor de la iglesia y así consideraban que ya se habían convertido en marido y mujer, sin mayor trámite.
Su costo fue de 500 pesos. Tuvo una primera restauración en 1942, luego del terremoto del 13 de mayo del mismo año. Su última renovación fue en el 2013. En la actualidad, aún se conservan en buen estado las columnas que llegan hasta el campanario.
Tiempo atrás existían personas dedicadas a hacer sonar las campanas en diferentes tonalidades, difiriendo cada una del evento realizado en la iglesia (bautizos, misas, matrimonios, entre otros). Es considerado un arte que ya no existe en estos días. La iglesia es considerada Patrimonio Cultural del Ecuador.
Mausoleo.
Otro atractivo de gran interés para los visitantes, es un mausoleo que se encuentra a la derecha de la entrada de la iglesia San Francisco y Santa Rosa de Canuto. Está hecho de mármol.
El mausoleo fue elaborado en honor a Don Mariano Dueñas Loor, primer jefe político de Chone, por disposición de su esposa Ana Mendoza de Dueñas, quien de esta manera quiso erigir un monumento que recordara la memoria de su amado esposo.
Fue afectado durante el terremoto de 1942 pero se decidió no restaurarlo como rememoración de la tragedia. La mayor afectación se observa en la falta de la cabeza de la imagen, la cual está siendo restaurada para volverla a colocar.
Parque Los Pericos.
Frente a la iglesia se encuentra el denominado "Parque de los Pericos", y su nombre se debe a la presencia de los pericos Escobedo, aves de plumaje de color verde que en gran número viven en las copas de los árboles de dicho sector.
El parque cuenta con una sección infantil, vegetación (como las palmas que fueron introducidas con la creencia de que las aves se posarían más allí, sin embargo ellas prefieren los otros árboles), y una glorieta de la cual se dice era considerada como sitio de reunión de gente de linaje.
De 18:00 a 19:00 sucede un fenómeno conocido como la Sinfonía de los Pericos, la cual es el sonido que estas aves realizan durante esa hora en la que regresan para pasar la noche luego de sus correrías diarias en busca de alimento. Se estima una presencia de entre 3.000 y 5.000 pericos en el parque en todo el día.
La Cabaña El Toto.
Su dueño es Raúl Rodríguez Marcillo, quien, en honor a su hijo menor, llamado Totto, decidió darle su nombre al lugar.
Rodríguez está especializado en la preparación de dulces con ingredientes del lugar, siendo el principal el maíz. El prepara la muy conocida Natilla de Canuto, aparte de alfajores (su relleno es la natilla) y chocolatines (preparados con canela, panela, leche y chocolate).
Según Rodríguez, para realizar la elaboración de la natilla, se deben seguir los siguientes pasos:
Dejar secar el maíz.
Se lo sancocha, es decir que se le cocina con ceniza.
Se muele y lava luego con agua.
Se le da consistencia y para ello se lo mezcla con leche, raspadura (panela), clavo dulce, anís estrellado, etc.
Se cocina por media hora, moviéndolo entre ratos.
Se deja enfriar en el molde.
Se hornea.
Se envuelve en hoja de plátano y la natilla ya está lista para ser consumida.
Conforme a lo indicado por Rodríguez, en la Cabaña del Totto venden entre 250 y 300 unidades a la semana, a un costo de un dólar. Generalmente se expenden envueltas en hojas de plátano, pero si el cliente lo pide se le puede entregar en tarrinas plásticas.
Sin refrigeración, la natilla dura un día, mientras que en la nevera puede durar hasta 3 meses.
Cabe anotar que en la Cabaña del Toto está programada la realización del Festival de la Natilla, evento que se desarrollará en segunda semana de noviembre.
Rusty spends two hours [weather permitting] on-leash with Emory every morning. This seems to satisfy him pretty well. Here he is on a boulder in our front yard [ I cloned out the leash]. Rusty doesn't like his harness so we have to attach to his collar and make sure the collar is fastened tightly so he can't back out of it.
This morning Rusty was being ornery....trying to climb trees and go under bushes to escape being on the leash. He was in a bad mood.......crying and seemed tired of having to wear the splint and plastic bag. :(
(more details later as time permits)
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I'm spending the winter months of 2014-2015 in a warm spot on the beach in Indialantic, FL (if I have Internet access, it doesn't matter too much where I'm physically located).
I'm trying to get up about an hour before sunrise every morning, and be out on the beach for a morning walk just as the sun peeks up above the horizon.
Down at the end of the Fifth Avenue boardwalk (where I usually stop to get a cappuccino at Starbucks), there is a large area of brick plaques, with numerous bricks inscribed by patrons who presumably donated money to help erect the stairway and boardwalk that leads down to the beach.
Many of the plaques are rather trite or boring ... but I thought a few of them were pleasantly sentimental, or downright clever. Here are the ones I've noticed so far ...
View large if time permits, Nikon D3+Nikkor 14-24mm.
Taken on the bridge to the Isle of Dogs, that's a lock gate in the foreground. I had tried this a few times before but this time I nearly have the mirror image I have been yearning for.
(more details later, as time permits)
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Once upon a time, I had serious intentions of running the New York marathon. It was back in 1979, and the whole thing was much less formal than it is now. Indeed, it was sufficiently informal that Rosie Ruiz was accidentally given a “finished time” of 2:56:29 for the New York event that year, which qualified her for the 1980 Boston marathon. It was later discovered that she had not run the entire NYC course (nor did she do so up in Boston on April 21, 1980), and her time was ultimately rescinded in both races. Had her times stayed in the record books, her Boston time of 2:31:56 would have been the fastest female time ever in the Boston marathon and the third-fastest female time ever recorded in any marathon...
Informal as the New York marathon was in those ancient days, you still couldn’t just show up at the starting line and expect to be welcomed. On the other hand, all that was necessary to get an official invitation was going down to the main branch of the U.S. Post Office on 34th Street at midnight on some long-forgotten summer night,and waiting in line with a bunch of equally crazy people. I got my entry ticket (or letter, or certificate, or whatever it was) a few days later, and began following a fairly serious training regimen, working my way up to a modest 10-mile race … until a business trip took me to Sydney, Australia for most of the month of August, 1979. Between business and social events, and the cold, wet weather of Sydney’s winter season, I didn’t do any running at all for that whole month … and with my training regimen broken, I wisely decided not to run the marathon at all.
But since then, I’ve always had a fondness for the NYC marathon — especially considering how much it has grown, and what a city-wide celebration it has become. I missed the event in 2013 and 2012, so it has been three years since I watched on the sidelines in 2011. With the promise of cold-but-sunny weather this year, I decided to return once again — and, as in 2011, I positioned myself at roughly the 24.5-mile point, at the beginning of a downhill run at roughly 78th Street, at the side of the Central Park “inner roadway.”
The runners pass by all afternoon, and well into the evening; but it’s a little more difficult to anticipate when the lead runners will reach any particular point. There are now so many participants in the marathon (about 50,000) that the runners are released in “waves,” beginning with those on hand-operated wheelchair/bicycles, and the “elite” women, the elite men, and three or four waves of mere mortals. There was an additional delay this year, because the headwinds were so strong that the initial wave had great difficulty propelling their wheeled vehicles up over the “hump” of the Tappan Zee bridge. So if you’re standing somewhere along the route, at the 10-mile mark, or the 20-mile mark, or (as I was) the 24.5 mile mark, you can only guess at the moment when the lead runners — or a friend or family member whom you want to cheer onward to the finish line — might be coming near you.
On the other hand, there are some clues. Helicopters hover above the lead runners, low enough that you can hear the roar of their blades; and there are two or three waves of police cars and motorcycles zooming ahead of the runners, pushing people back to the sidelines, and ensuring that there are no disruptions or obstacles to slow them down. Then — and it’s always an adrenaline rush! — you see the official race car, driving just a few feet ahead of the lead runners, with a huge race clock mounted on its roof, showing those fast-moving runners the exact number of hours, minutes, and seconds since they started their journey back at the edge of Staten Island.
The lead runners, of whom there are often two or three or four even up to the last mile, are often several minutes ahead of the next ones; but those who are in positions three, four, five or ten, and who will get no recognition at all from the press, the media, or the crowd when they finish … well, they still run as if their lives depend on it. And the crowd cheers them on, clapping and calling out their names and urging them onward.
One of the differences I noticed this year was the widespread use of bicycle horns and cow-bells that the onlookers used to create a cacophony of merry noise; I don’t know if the runners took it as a sign of encouragement, but it sure sounded that way to me …
I stayed longer than I had intended, and took several hundred more photos that I had planned … but they’re all just bits on the camera’s digital memory card, so it doesn’t really matter. One might argue that I should have stayed for eight or ten hours, until the last runner had straggled by. And perhaps I should have photographed each of the 50,000 runners, for I’m sure they each had their own story to tell. But after a while, it gets overwhelming — and the faces and bodies and brightly colored shirts and tights and shoes begin to blur…
I think I got a representative collection of photos; and the video clips will give you a sense of the noise and the motion of what seemed like an endless stream of humanity racing past … but to really understand it, you need to be there in person. Barring a crippling storm (like Hurricane Sandy, which forced the cancellation of the 2012 marathon), you’ll find another crowd of 50,000 runners racing through Central Park at the end of next year’s marathon, on the first Sunday in November. And with any luck, I’ll be there with my camera …
Who knows: maybe even Rosie Ruiz will be there, too. It turns out that she was arrested in 1982 for embezzling $60,000 from a real estate company where she worked; after a week in jail and a sentence of five years’ probation, she moved back to south Florida, where she was arrested in 1983 for her involvement in a cocaine deal. But as of the year 2000, she still insisted that she had run the entire 1980 Boston marathon. C’est la vie...
Our son received his learner’s permit a few weeks ago and he is set to take the driver’s license exam in a couple of months. Getting his permit was an auspicious day for him. For teens, driving is a rite of passage, it marks a transition from adolescence to adulthood and independence.
The first time that my son drove our van with the whole family, I let my wife ride shotgun and I sat in the backseat. I thought it was prudent to sit in the back because if I didn’t, I knew I’d be a nervous wreck and I’d yell at him if he made a mistake. I did not want to ruin the experience for us.
But my fears did not materialize. The whole trip was rather uneventful and I mean that as a compliment to him. Seeing him at the wheel, confident and self-assured, I felt a mixture of sadness, excitement and pride. I was sad because in an instant, he matured so much before my eyes. It seems like it was only yesterday that he was playing with Legos and toy trucks at my feet. He will soon go to college, God-willing, which means he’ll be leaving us. He is very close to his two younger sisters and I’m sure they will miss him a lot. At the same time, I’m excited for the brave new world that awaits him and I am proud that soon, he will be a man.
You never think that the day will come that your kids are all grown up and no longer need you. Now I know how my parents felt when we were growing up. As a parent, it’s difficult to let go but I realized that it’s time that we give our son more independence and trust his abilities a little more.
(more details later, as time permits)
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Virtually everyone in America, as well as millions of other people around the world, know that Thanksgiving is one of the main occasions for organizing a huge parade.
It’s especially true in New York City, where I live — hundreds of parade workers converge on a one-block stretch between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West on 77th Street on the night before Thanksgiving to assemble the floats, and pump the huge balloons full of helium, so they’ll be ready to go the next morning. The parade itself lasts for hours, and stretches all the way down Central Park West and Broadway, and ultimately through Herald Square and past the main entrance to Macy’s on 34th Street. The whole thing is televised for the benefit of viewers all around the world, with TV commentators and an endless procession of marching bands, baton-twirlers, singers, dancers, jugglers, magicians, Broadway actors, and other forms of entertainment…
While New York City may be the only example of a Thanksgiving-Day parade that people around the world actually see on their TV screen, it’s definitely not the only such parade that takes place in this country. I’m sure that every big city has its own version of the turkey-day parade, as do most of the medium-size cities, and quite a few smaller towns and villages, too. They may not be visible on television, but a lot of local citizens and visitors turn out to watch such parades, if only because their sons and daughters are typically marching in the high-school bands that form a big part of the event.
On this particular occasion — in November of 2013 — I happened to be in one such medium-size city, where the parade took place on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It was in Portland, Oregon where we were spending the holiday period with one of our sons and his family; the parade took place in the “Pearl District” of downtown Portland … and, to our amazement, we were able to park our car about a block from the parade route, and walk right up to the corner (at Davis St and NW Park, if you want to track it down on Google Maps) where all of the bands and floats and costumed marchers walked by. In fact, I was able to take the “parade experience” even one step further: the people were friendly enough, and the security was light enough, that I was able to walk right out into the middle of the street with my camera, to photograph the floats and bands and marchers as they approached me … scampering out of the way only at the last moment.
Admittedly, Portland is a much bigger city than a tiny village of a thousand people somewhere in the midwest … but it still felt like “small town America” to me, and it was a great spectacle to watch. I got the impression that many of the visitors and observers standing along the street actually knew the people marching past them … and in any case, the marchers laughed and smiled and walked right up to us, handing out little pieces of candy to all of the children. Maybe next year I’ll go looking for a really small Thanksgiving parade in one of those tiny midwest-America villages, before retreating back to the Big Apple to watch the spectacle of thousands of marchers parading past millions of observers, and a TV audience of tens of millions …
I wish that I had taken some video clips of the parade, because the sounds and the music and the motion were a big part of what we experienced. But for better or worse, all I took was a bunch of traditional still photos. Actually, I took a LOT of still photos — nearly a thousand, altogether — but I’ve winnowed the collection down to 50 “keepers” that I hope will give you a sense of what Thanksgiving is all about…
Actually, if you live anywhere besides New York City here in the U S of A, you already know what Thanksgiving is all about, at least to the extent that it’s symbolized by the parade. But for those of us who spend most our time in New York City, it was a very pleasant experience indeed. After an hour, it was all over; we walked back to our car a block away, and drove back to our son’s house … and a day later, we were back in New York City. And thus ended another Thanksgiving holiday, at least until 2014.
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If time permits, I love to revisit places I've been before and look for different "themes" in various visits. I have another walk in Kitsilano Beach this afternoon... absolutely a dim and colorless waterfront we've got here! So I told myself, let's draw some curves to the scene with rocks and clouds... :-)
Much better details when you View On Black
~溫哥華, 英屬哥倫比亞省~
Kitsilano Beach, Vancouver, Canada
- ISO 100, F16, 30 sec, 18mm
- Canon 5D Mark II with EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens
- Sunset @4.30pm / Shot @ 4.46pm
- High Tide 4.3m @1.30pm
- Water Level 3.6m @4.00pm/3.2m @5.00pm
(More details later, as time permits)
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As I've noted in other sets of photos here on Flickr, I've been lucky enough to visit Rome dozens of times since I first celebrated a solitary birthday there back in 1972. Since then, I've often come alone (usually on business trips to lecture about various aspects of software development), and I've sometimes managed to bring various children and/or my wife. This time, like many other trips, I was alone.
On most of my trips, I make a point of visiting Piazza del Popolo at least once -- because there are always interesting scenes to photograph, with a combination of tourists, students, lovers, and amateur musicians. This time, there was a Michael Jackson impersonator -- who, at least from a distance, seemed to mimic MJ's fluid moves pretty well. And there was an electric guitarist, but it turned out that he could only play instrumentals -- and he tended to play the same songs, over and over again.
I photographed people in Piazza del Popolo on the first and last days of my visit; but I also spent a couple hours in Piazza Santa Margarita in Trastevere, where there was a wedding underway. And I strolled a block or two from my hotel to Piazza Cavour, where the entire piazza had been off-limits for years because of reconstruction work. But the reconstruction is over, the piazza is open, and I was lucky enough to be there during the "golden hour" before sunset, where I got some interesting photos of the local people enjoying a balmy early-summer evening.
On Sunday morning, I decided to visit the enormous "flea market" at Porta Portensa, where I did my best to get a few interesting shots of the shoppers, tourists, and long rows of merchant stalls filled with various forms of cheap, tacky merchandise. It was quite an experience...
As I have on past occasions, I took thousands of photos during my week-long visit, from which I select a few dozen to upload to Flickr. Hopefully they'll give you a sense of what it's like here in the Eternal City ...
(more details later, as time permits)
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I had a lunchtime dentist appointment in midtown Manhattan the other day, and when it was over, I decided to walk a couple blocks over to Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library. It was a sunny day, and I thought I might see some gorgeous babes sunbathing on the park lawn in their bikinis (even being an amateur photographer is a tough job, but someone's gotta do it). If not, I thought perhaps I'd find some photogenic tourists or oddball New Yorkers that I could photograph.
As it turns out, almost all of the central lawn was being covered over with some kind of wooden platform -- presumably for an upcoming concert performance of some kind -- so nobody was sunbathing out on the grass. But since that area was unavailable, and since it was still the lunchtime period, the periphery around the central lawn was chock-a-block with people. There's now a cafe immediately behind (i.e., to the west) of the library itself, and it was doing a land-office business. And all along the north and south sides of the park, as well as the broader western side, there were tables and chairs and benches where people could enjoy their lunch with whatever food or entertainment they had brought along.
I was already aware of the pentanque court on the western side of the park, and knew that I'd find one or two good pictures there. But I didn't realize that the Parks Department had set up two ping-pong tables, as well as several tables for chess-players. In addition, there were a few card games underway, and there was also a section set aside for people who wanted to borrow local newspapers to read.
As for the people: I had to remind myself that because Bryant Park is smack in the middle of mid-town Manhattan (a block away from Times Square, filling the square block between 41st/42nd street, and 5th/6th Avenue), most of the people enjoying their lunch were office workers. So the men typically wore slacks and dress shirts, and a surprising number of them were also wearing suits and ties. The women wore dresses and skirts, and generally looked quite fashionable and presentable. Of course, there were also tourists and students and miscellaneous others; but overall, it was a much more "upscale" bunch of people than I'm accustomed to seeing in my own residential area on the Upper West Side.
I was surprised by how many people were sitting alone -- eating alone, reading alone, listening to music alone, dozing alone, or just staring into space alone. You'll see some of them in this album, though I didn't want to over-emphasize their presence; equally important, many of the loners just weren't all that interesting from a photogenic perspective. So you'll also see lots of couples, some children, a couple of families, and occasionally larger groups of people who were eating and chatting and enjoying the warm summer day.
Three activities dominated the scene, all of which were fairly predictable, under the circumstances: eating, reading, and talking on cellphones. You would expect people to be eating at lunch-time, of course; and you wouldn't be surprised at the notion of people reading a book as they sat behind the New York Public Library on a warm, sunny day. But the pervasiveness of the cellphones was quite astonishing ... oh, yeah, there were a few laptops, too, but fewer than I might have imagined.
I've photographed Bryant Park several times over the past 40 years, going back to some photos of 1969 Vietnam War protest marches that you can see in this album. I was here in the summer of 2008 to take these photos; I came back in January 2009 to take these photos of the winter scene; and I returned again for these pictures in March 2009 and these these pictures in the late spring of 2009; all of these have been collected into a Flickr "collection" of albums that you can find here. But if you want to see what New York City's midtown office workers are doing at lunch, take a look at what's in this album.
(more details later, as time permits)
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I’m writing these notes about halfway through the 2014 World Cup, and I can’t help wondering if anyone will have the slightest interest in seeing photos about a bunch of guys running around the streets of New York as they hit a small pink rubber ball with what looks like a broomstick. Indeed, the Wikipedia article on stickball (which you can find at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stickball ) tells us that
"Stickball is a street game related to baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game played in large cities in the Northeastern United States, especially New York City and Philadelphia. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ball, typically a spaldeen, pensy pinky, high bouncer or tennis ball. The rules come from baseball and are modified to fit the situation, for example, a manhole cover may be used as a base, or buildings for foul lines. The game is a variation of stick and ball games dating back to at least the 1750s. This game was widely popular among youths growing up from the 20th century until the 1980s."
So, what I was photographing here was definitely not soccer; nor was it the more “traditional” American sport of baseball … and definitely not (American-style) football either. It’s a game of its own, though the particular game that I happened to watch and photograph was a variation typically referred to as “fungo” — where the batter tosses the ball into the air and hits it on the way down, or after one or more bounces.
Like many of the other really, really good days on my 1+ years of photo-walking in NYC, today’s experience was completely unexpected. I was trudging along 109th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side — and shortly after walking through a tunnel that supports the overhead train tracks carrying MetroNorth trains (and Amtrak/Acela, too, I guess) up and down Park Avenue to the final stopping point in Grand Central — I found myself at a corner that has come to be known as the “Stickball Hall of Fame Place,” at 109th Street and Third Avenue. Two different stickball games were underway, but I was reasonably safe as long as I stayed on the sidewalks. (If you’re interested in the Stickball Hall of Fame, check out this web site: northattan.com/2013/10/07/keeping-a-tradition-alive-in-ea... )
As I’ve learned, you can never tell when unexpected occasions like this will happen — and they may indeed happen only once a year. Most days out on the street with my camera are relatively blah; and many (like most of Manhattan's west side, especially the area from 57th Street down to 14th Street) are frustratingly unproductive. There are a few good days, and a few good shots — but a concentrated burst like today happens only on rare occasions …
Thus, when such occasions do occur, it's important to exploit them for every bit they’re worth. Thankfully I realized that today — and decided that I’d be happy to stay on that one street (109th, between 2nd and 3rd Avenue) for the entire afternoon. In particular, I made no effort whatsoever to leave quickly in order to walk 108th Street, too; after all, it will be there tomorrow (and the next day, and the day after that), whereas the photo opportunity may never come back again.
Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to meet some of the stickball players, chat with them, learn about their friends and relatives (several told me of starting to play the game with their own fathers, many years earlier) and offer to send them some photos (which, thus far, nobody has done). Maybe one of the reasons that I have not gotten involved with many NYC people on the street before is that I really wasn’t particularly interested in what they were doing, and there was no obvious way they could continue doing what they were doing without my being an obvious intrusion. Not so today …
In addition to the still photos, I took about a dozen video clips, though I didn’t actually think of doing so until roughly halfway through the photo episode. But in retrospect, it should have been obvious: it’s a sports-game, so it depend on motion; and the yelling, shouting, and overall noise is a very important part of the experience, too. So I finally started shooting short 10-20 second clips when each of the batters was about to wallop the ball, and then run on to first base …
I was tempted to go back to watch the game again next weekend, weather permitting; but I already had other commitments for those days, so it didn’t happen. Maybe 2 weeks from now, or 2 months … or whenever.
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This set of photos is based on a very simple concept: walk every block of Manhattan with a camera, and see what happens. To avoid missing anything, walk both sides of the street.
That's all there is to it …
Of course, if you wanted to be more ambitious, you could also walk the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. But that's more than I'm willing to commit to at this point, and I'll leave the remaining boroughs of New York City to other, more adventurous photographers.
Oh, actually, there's one more small detail: leave the photos alone for a month -- unedited, untouched, and unviewed. By the time I actually focus on the first of these "every-block" photos, I will have taken more than 8,000 images on the nearby streets of the Upper West Side -- plus another several thousand in Rome, Coney Island, and the various spots in NYC where I traditionally take photos. So I don't expect to be emotionally attached to any of the "every-block" photos, and hope that I'll be able to make an objective selection of the ones worth looking at.
As for the criteria that I've used to select the small subset of every-block photos that get uploaded to Flickr: there are three. First, I'll upload any photo that I think is "great," and where I hope the reaction of my Flickr-friends will be, "I have no idea when or where that photo was taken, but it's really a terrific picture!"
A second criterion has to do with place, and the third involves time. I'm hoping that I'll take some photos that clearly say, "This is New York!" to anyone who looks at it. Obviously, certain landscape icons like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty would satisfy that criterion; but I'm hoping that I'll find other, more unexpected examples. I hope that I'll be able to take some shots that will make a "local" viewer say, "Well, even if that's not recognizable to someone from another part of the country, or another part of the world, I know that that's New York!" And there might be some photos where a "non-local" viewer might say, "I had no idea that there was anyplace in New York City that was so interesting/beautiful/ugly/spectacular."
As for the sense of time: I remember wandering around my neighborhood in 2005, photographing various shops, stores, restaurants, and business establishments -- and then casually looking at the photos about five years later, and being stunned by how much had changed. Little by little, store by store, day by day, things change … and when you've been around as long as I have, it's even more amazing to go back and look at the photos you took thirty or forty years ago, and ask yourself, "Was it really like that back then? Seriously, did people really wear bell-bottom jeans?"
So, with the expectation that I'll be looking at these every-block photos five or ten years from now (and maybe you will be, too), I'm going to be doing my best to capture scenes that convey the sense that they were taken in the year 2013 … or at least sometime in the decade of the 2010's (I have no idea what we're calling this decade yet). Or maybe they'll just say to us, "This is what it was like a dozen years after 9-11".
Movie posters are a trivial example of such a time-specific image; I've already taken a bunch, and I don't know if I'll ultimately decide that they're worth uploading. Women's fashion/styles are another obvious example of a time-specific phenomenon; and even though I'm definitely not a fashion expert, I suspected that I'll be able to look at some images ten years from now and mutter to myself, "Did we really wear shirts like that? Did women really wear those weird skirts that are short in the front, and long in the back? Did everyone in New York have a tattoo?"
Another example: I'm fascinated by the interactions that people have with their cellphones out on the street. It seems that everyone has one, which certainly wasn't true a decade ago; and it seems that everyone walks down the street with their eyes and their entire conscious attention riveted on this little box-like gadget, utterly oblivious about anything else that might be going on (among other things, that makes it very easy for me to photograph them without their even noticing, particularly if they've also got earphones so they can listen to music or carry on a phone conversation). But I can't help wondering whether this kind of social behavior will seem bizarre a decade from now … especially if our cellphones have become so miniaturized that they're incorporated into the glasses we wear, or implanted directly into our eyeballs.
Oh, one last thing: I've created a customized Google Map to show the precise details of each day's photo-walk. I'll be updating it each day, and the most recent part of my every-block journey will be marked in red, to differentiate it from all of the older segments of the journey, which will be shown in blue. You can see the map, and peek at it each day to see where I've been, by clicking on this link
URL link to Ed's every-block progress through Manhattan
If you have any suggestions about places that I should definitely visit to get some good photos, or if you'd like me to photograph you in your little corner of New York City, please let me know. You can send me a Flickr-mail message, or you can email me directly at ed-at-yourdon-dot-com
Stay tuned as the photo-walk continues, block by block ...
Dec. 16, 2015. East Boston, MA.
City Life/ Vida Urbana held a holiday procession and rally at which over 100 people gathered at 29 Paris St. (the church that has provided refuge to Maverick St. tenants who were forced out of their homes when a wall collapsed and have not been able to move back in.) The candlelight procession walked to Maverick Sq. for an alternative tree lighting ceremony. Many tenant associations placed decorations on what they are calling a "Justice Tree." Each decoration will give the name of the tenant association and what they want for the holidays - "Just Cause" protections from eviction." Just Cause Eviction is a proposed City of Boston home rule petition supported by a coalition of 35 groups. This would make it illegal to use current no-fault eviction laws to evict homeowners after foreclosure or to clear out buildings without cause. It would permit use of the no-fault process to enforce a large rent increase only after one mediation is held. Without such a law, City Life leaders and tenant organizers are afraid that working class people, in particular tenants of color, will be forcibly driven out of their Boston homes because rents are rising so rapidly.
© 2015 Marilyn Humphries
(more details later, as time permits)
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This is the continuation of a photo-project that I began in the summer of 2008 (which you can see in this Flickr set), and continued throughout 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 (as shown in this Flickr set, this Flickr set, this Flickr set, this Flickr set, and this Flickr set)
): a random collection of "interesting" people in a broad stretch of the Upper West Side of Manhattan -- between 72nd Street and 104th Street, especially along Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. These are the people in my neighborhood, aka "peeps in the 'hood."
As I indicated when I first started this project six years ago, I don't like to intrude on people's privacy, so I normally use a zoom telephoto lens in order to photograph them while they're still 50-100 feet away from me; but that means I have to continue focusing my attention on the people and activities half a block away, rather than on what's right in front of me. Sometimes I find an empty bench on a busy street corner, and just sit quietly for an hour, watching people hustling past on the other side of the street; they're almost always so busy listening to their iPod, or talking on their cellphone, or daydreaming about something, that they never look up and see me aiming my camera in their direction.
I've also learned that, in many cases, the opportunities for an interesting picture are very fleeting -- literally a matter of a couple of seconds, before the person(s) in question move on, turn away, or stop doing whatever was interesting. So I've learned to keep my camera switched on, and not worry so much about zooming in for a perfectly-framed picture ... after all, once the digital image is uploaded to my computer, it's pretty trivial to crop out the parts unrelated to the main subject. Indeed, some of my most interesting photos have been so-called "hip shots," where I don't even bother to raise the camera up to my eye; I just keep the zoom lens set to the maximum wide-angle aperture, point in the general direction of the subject, and take several shots. As long as I can keep the shutter speed fairly high (which sometimes requires a fairly high ISO setting), I can usually get some fairly crisp shots -- even if the subject is walking in one direction, and I'm walking in the other direction, while I'm snapping the photos.
With only a few exceptions, I've generally avoided photographing bums, drunks, crazies, and homeless people. There are plenty of them around, and they would certainly create some dramatic pictures; but they generally don't want to be photographed, and I don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of them. There have been a few opportunities to take some "sympathetic" pictures of such people, which might inspire others to reach out and help them. This is one example, and here is another example.
The other thing I've noticed, while carrying on this project for the past six years, is that while there are lots of interesting people to photograph, there are far, far, far more people who are not so interesting. They're probably fine people, and they might even be more interesting than the ones I've photographed ... unfortunately, there was just nothing memorable about them. They're all part of this big, crowded city; but for better or worse, there are an awful lot that you won't see in these Flickr sets of mine...
A Imprensa Portuguesa em Goa - Índia
Resumo
O artigo analisa a história da imprensa portuguesa em Goa, na Índia, no contexto da
expansão da língua portuguesa. Identificado o início da imprensa periódica em Goa em 22 de dezembro de 1821, com a publicação do primeiro jornal oficial, a Gazeta de Goa,
o autor realiza a divisão da história da cultura literária de Goa Lusófona em quatro
períodos, relacionando ainda as publicações em língua portuguesa - jornais e periódicos
- que foram publicadas naquele País no período.
Imprensa Portuguesa em Goa, lusofonia, comunidades lusófonas.
Eduardo Judas Barros
Diretor do Núcleo de Estudos Afro-Asiáticos da Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL),
Introdução
O mundo lusófono hoje não é uma utopia mas sim uma realidade onde estão
integradas as comunidades que tem um elo forte de ligação baseado na língua
portuguesa e numa cultura proveniente da mesma fala.
Com efeito a lusofonia tem uma dupla dinâmica cultural: projeta cada uma das
culturas nacionais e comunitárias no espaço alargado da lusofonia e fortalece a cultura
portuguesa no mundo através das múltiplas pertenças dos países e comunidades
lusofónas nas áreas geoculturais em que se situam.
A fundação e a expansão de Portugal foram a precondição da existência das
comunidades lusófonas.
Neste contexto as viagens dos descobrimentos portugueses permitiram contatos
e relacionamentos duradouros com o Extremo Oriente de que ainda hoje se encontram
frutuosos vestígios.
A política de miscegenação, de casamentos e cruzamentos com os povos
encontrados foi uma constante da presença portuguesa que hoje constitui o Mundo da
Lusofonia que em estrito senso não é aplicável às presenças portuguesas na região da
Ásia-Pacífico, parecendo difícil, com exceção de Timor, a sua articulação com os
objetivos da Comunidade dos Países da Língua Portuguesa (CPLP).
Mas convêm alargar o entendimento da lusofonia e considerar que o legado
histórico-cultural de Portugal na região com marcas bem visíveis de Goa a Nagasaqui,
de Malaca a Macau, de Ceilão à Tailândia, partilham e incluem-se nessa comunidade de
entendimentos que tem sobrevivido às vicissitudes do tempo e encontra a sua forma de
linguagem em modos tão expressivos como a música, a literatura, a culinária, a
arquitetura e, sobretudo, formas de ser e estar em português, conseqüências do processo
de aculturação que marcou a colonização portuguesa.
Por toda a Ásia, o português tornou-se até ao século XVIII, a língua franca do
comércio à distância. Não apenas as povoações locais, mas, mais tarde, holandeses e
ingleses igualmente, tinham de aprender os rudimentos de português para serem
compreendidos dos intérpretes.
É neste contexto da expansão da língua portuguesa que se deve analisar a
história da imprensa portuguesa em Goa, na Índia.
Situada no sul, no litoral do Concão, na costa Ocidental da Índia, Goa, o atual
Estado indiano, foi a principal colônia portuguesa desde 1510 até 1961, ano em que foi
integrada na União Indiana.
Descoberto o caminho marítimo das Índias Orientais em 1498, por Vasco da
Gama, toda a base da expansão comercial portuguesa, que motivara os descobrimentos
mudou. Na primeira metade do século XV as expedições à África Ocidental buscavam,
primordialmente, adquirir o ouro da costa da Mina e da Guiné. As caravelas deixavam
as metrópoles carregadas de utensílios de latão e cobre, pano de linho e bugigangas,
mais tarde na Costa Oriental da África, rosários e miçangas, negociando esses artigos
contra ouro e escravos.
Uma vez descoberto o caminho marítimo para a Índia, o objetivo comercial
mudou e passou a ser o comércio das especiarias, pimenta, cravo, canela, noz moscada e não o ouro.
O acesso direto à Índia permitiu aos portugueses eliminar radicalmente os
intermediários árabes que haviam controlado o mercado de exportação europeu, até
aquela data, com base no Cairo e Alexandria. As especiarias eram compradas com ouro
de Guiné e com a prata alemã recebida em pagamento das mercadorias vendidas na
Europa. Veneza, o anterior empório do comércio das especiarias, na Europa, sofreu uma
severa crise e aliou-se aos traficantes árabes do Mar Vermelho numa tentativa de
desalojar, pela força, os portugueses das posições vantajosas que haviam conquistado na
Índia. Mas, em 1509, sob o comando de D. Francisco Almeida, que foi o primeiro vicerei
português na Índia, o controle português de navegação no Oriente Médio estava
assegurado. Os portugueses tinham conseguido monopolizar o comércio na Índia e em
grande parte do Oriente.
Em 1510, Afonso de Albuquerque conseguiu conquistar Goa e dominar toda a costa indiana.
E foi aqui em Goa, capital desde o início do império Português no Oriente que se
desenvolveu o processo de colonização portuguesa na Índia.
A língua portuguesa durante o período colonial foi a língua oficial do Estado,
tendo sido o veículo de instrução nas escolas primárias e secundárias até o Liceu, pois,
até a sua integração na Índia a colônia não tinha ensino superior universitário.
O domínio e a expansão da língua portuguesa em Goa criou uma base cultural
portuguesa, formada pelos portugueses bem como pelos Goeses que tinham assimilado
bem a língua portuguesa.
É neste sentido que se deve entender a presença da imprensa portuguesa em Goa.
Imprensa Portuguesa em Goa
O início da imprensa periódica em Goa, se deu em 22 de dezembro de 1821,
com a publicação do primeiro jornal oficial, a Gazeta de Goa.
Este jornal, órgão oficial do governo, era semanal e continha as deliberações do
governo, o cadastro mensal da receita e despesas do tesouro público, do senado da
câmara, da Santa Casa de Misericórdia, inserindo também algumas informações sobre a
metrópole e do estrangeiro.
A Gazeta de Goa teve como seu primeiro redator o físico-mor Dr. Antônio José
de Lima Leitão e em seguida foi editada pelo oficial-maior da secretaria, Luís Prates de
Almeida Albuquerque, a quem sucedeu José Aniceto da Silva.
O jornal perdeu o seu valor primitivo de publicação após a morte do seu redator
Luís Prates, convertendo-se em veículo de discussões e animosidades, como observa
Antônio Maria da Cunha, na sua obra A evolução do jornalismo. Em 1826, a Junta que
sucedeu ao Vice-rei D. Manuel de Câmara, lavrou em 29 de agosto de 1826 uma
portaria mandando cessar a publicação da Gazeta de Goa afirmando que “sempre o
governo passou sem imprensa e sem Gazeta até a infeliz época da Revolução, e nestes
tempos desastrosos só produziu males, e que achando-se atualmente os tipos
imprestáveis, não havia inconveniente em se suspender a Gazeta”.
Em conseqüência das lutas públicas no Estado, o governo que estava no poder,
criou em 13 de junho de 1835, um novo jornal periódico Chronica Constitucional de
Goa, que foi, portanto, o segundo jornal, igualmente oficial e semanal como o primeiro
e redigido pelo mesmo José Aniceto da Silva, que na sua parte não-oficial se consagrava
à política em combate violento com os jornais portugueses de Bombaim como o
Investigador Português, de José Valério Capela.
A Chrónica suspendeu a sua publicação em 30 de novembro de 1837. Sucedeu a
este jornal, o periódico oficial, Boletim do Governo do Estado da Índia, que teve
iniciada a sua publicação em 7 de dezembro de 1837. Conforme o decreto de 7 de
dezembro de 1936 que nas províncias ultramarinas fosse publicado em Boletim, tendo
por seu Editor Chefe o Secretário Antônio Mariano de Azevedo, auxiliado pelo cônego
Caetano João Peres e por Cláudio Lagrange Monteiro Barbuda. O Boletim foi publicado
semanalmente, à exceção dos primeiros cinco meses de 1843, em que se publicaram
dois números por semana, como se veio fazendo depois desde o começo de 1856 até
agosto de 1879. Tanto a Chronica Constitucional como a Gazeta de Goa segundo
observa Antônio Maria da Cunha no seu livreto A Evolução do Jornal tinham o cunho
de jornais oficiais. O primeiro jornal político da Índia Portuguesa foi o Echo da
Lusitânia, também impresso nos prelos do Governo por uma única razão de que não
havia outra tipografia no país. Tendo por editor o desembargador Manoel Felicíssimo
Lousada de Araújo, o jornal teve a periodicidade semanal com início em 7 de Janeiro de
1836 e terminado em 5 de março de 1837.
Na mesma Tipografia do Governo, foram ainda publicados O Vigilante, do
Major do Exército de Moçambique, João de Souza Machado, que se publicou de 13 de
julho de 1838 a 22 de outubro do mesmo ano; O Observador, de José Aniceto da Silva,
publicado de 15 de fevereiro de 1839 a 31 de outubro de 1840, tendo sido quinzenal nos
seus primeiros 24 exemplares e depois mensal; o Correio de Nova-Goa, semanal, de
Bento Zeferino Gonçalves de Macedo, de 4 de janeiro de 1844 a 8 de março de mesmo
ano; A Voz dos Povos da Índia, semanal também, da redação coletiva de José Aniceto
da Silva e outros que durou de 3 de julho de 1845 a 3 de março de 1846; o Defensor da
Ordem e da Verdade, da redação de José Antônio de Oliveira e outros, com a duração
de 24 de agosto de 1852 a 31 de agosto de 1853 e o Defensor do Real Padroado, com
os mesmos redatores do anterior que iniciaram a sua publicação, em 1º de setembro de
1853 e terminando em março de 1854.
Saiu à luz também nessa mesma época, outro órgão oficial que foi publicado de
22 de maio de 1844 até o fim do ano de 1845, com o nome de Apenso aos Boletins do
Governo e que tomou o nome depois de Jornal da Santa Igreja Lusitana publicado sob
a orientação do Arcebispo D. José Maria da Silva Torres, defensor vigoroso do
Padroado do Oriente contra a Propaganda, tendo sido publicado de janeiro de 1846 até
março de 1849.
Essa é a fase do primeiro período da Imprensa Periódica de Goa Colonial que saiu do prelo oficial do governo.
A Segunda Fase do Desenvolvimento
A segunda fase da imprensa portuguesa em Goa se inicia com a introdução da
primeira gráfica particular por Bernardo Francisco da Costa, em 1859, e é considerado o
mais fecundo período da imprensa e do progresso literário de Goa.
E foi ele que fundou o primeiro jornal com tipografia própria, O Ultramar. O
primeiro número de O Ultramar foi publicado na cidade de Margão, no Conselho de
Salcete em 6 de Abril de 1859, tendo o próprio Bernardo Francisco Costa como seu
Editor principal e seu irmão Antônio Anastácio Bruto da Costa como redator
responsável. Tendo Bernardo Francisco Costa sido eleito deputado às Cortes em Lisboa,
ficou desde 15 de agosto de 1867 como editor o seu irmão Antônio Anastácio Bruto da
Costa e continuou até a sua morte, 24 de abril de 1911. Conforme atesta Antônio Maria
da Cunha foi “o único jornalista da Índia Portuguesa cujo cinqüentenário se celebrou.
Após a sua morte o jornal foi dirigido pelo seu filho, o advogado Condorcê Bruto da
Costa, assumido o mesmo desde 1º de maio de 1911.
Inicialmente semanal, passou a ser bi-semanal desde 2 de novembro de 1905. Ao
Ultramar seguiu-se outro importante jornal A Índia Portuguesa, tendo como editor
Manuel Lourenço de Miranda. Foi publicado na Tipografia estabelecida em Margão e
depois transferida para Orlim no mesmo Conselho de Salcete, onde continuou a ser
publicado desde 29 de dezembro de 1864. Após a morte de Manoel de Miranda Franco,
passou em 13 demMaio de 1866 a ser editado por Dr. José Inácio de Loyola, que esteve
já trabalhando no jornal e permaneceu como editor até 17 de maio de 1902, seguindose-
lhe o seu irmão Avertano de Loiola que o editou de 4 de julho de 1892 até 21 de
Agosto de 1911, em que, por últimos acontecimentos políticos suspendeu a sua
publicação empreendendo a do outro jornal semanal, O Popular, em Varcá no mesmo
conselho de Salcete, que se publicou de 4 de outubro de 1911 a 20 de maio de 1912.
Renasce a Índia Portuguesa em 10 de agosto de 1912 sob a direção do Dr.
Miguel Loyola Furtado que a dirige até a sua morte em 14 de setembro de 1918, ficando
suspensa mais uma vez a sua publicação.
Porém, a Índia Portuguesa volta a ser publicada mais uma vez, mas desta vez
em São Tomé, uma aldeia do mesmo conselho de Salcete, sob a direção de Vicente de
Bragança Cunha e é publicada até 26 de novembro de 1921, interrompendo mais uma vez a sua publicação.
Com esses jornais encerra-se o segundo período da imprensa portuguesa em
Goa.
A Terceira Fase da Imprensa
O terceiro período da imprensa portuguesa em Goa pode ser marcado com a publicação do jornal diário O Heraldo.
As bases para o lançamento do jornal diário em Goa já se iniciam em 1899 e, em
22 de janeiro de 1900, é publicado o seu primeiro número, tendo como diretor e
proprietário Messias Gomes. Em 1901, com a partida de Messias Gomes a Lisboa,
assume a direção do jornal o jornalista Antônio Maria da Cunha, até 8 de maio de 1908,
que em seguida finda o seu próprio jornal Heraldo.
O jornal O Heraldo amplia as suas dimensões e, no mesmo dia, A Era Nova,
semanário da capital, torna-se diário mas termina a sua publicação em 1905.
Ainda em 1905 se inicia em Margão outro periódico, Echo da Índia, cujo
primeiro número sai, portanto, em 9 de setembro de 1905. Passa a ser semanal até que é
interrompida a sua publicação em 1907.
Mas no mesmo ano de 1905 publicou-se na capital do Estado de Goa, o Diário de Goa, que termina em 1906.
Também desde 14 de setembro de 1911 até 31 de novembro de 1912 é publicado
como diário o Correio da Índia, que passa depois a ser semanal.
Em 1 de dezembro de 1919 é publicado o Diário da Noite, de formato pequeno,
pelos irmãos Luís Menezes e Antônio Meneses. Temos ainda o diário publicado em
Margão no Conselho de Salcete, A Vida, fundado pelo médico Sales da Veiga Coutinho,
que continuou a ser publicado até depois da integração de Goa na Índia em 1964, tendo
como editor o seu filho, Pe. Lúcio da Veiga Coutinho, tendo sido transformado mais
tarde em diário de língua Concani, pelo nome de Divtti, do qual tive a oportunidade de
ser o seu primeiro editor.
Os quatro diários em língua Portuguesa – O Heraldo, Heraldo, Diário da Noite e
A vida –, continuaram a ser publicados em Goa até depois de 1964, ano em que Goa
começou a fazer parte da União Indiana. Hoje não existe nenhum jornal nem periódico
em língua portuguesa em Goa.
O Jornal diário O Heraldo se transformou em diário em inglês com o nome de
Herald.
Embora a colonização portuguesa se deva à exploração comercial, como se
qualificou todo o processo de colonização européia na Índia, esse processo se diferiu
tanto do processo de colonização francesa bem como inglesa, na própria Índia.
Esta diferenciação se baseia especificamente na política colonial portuguesa em
Goa, começada por Afonso de Albuquerque imediatamente após a sua tomada.
Esta política se firmava em construir uma comunidade luso-tropical cristã, sendo
que a colonização portuguesa e a cristianização se tornaram inseparáveis, o que não
aconteceu nem com a francesa nem com a inglesa nas outras regiões da Índia.
Por isso mesmo, como nota K. M. Pannikar (1956: 55). “de todos os povos que
colonizaram a Índia, os portugueses deixaram um rastro indelével da sua passagem
colonial”. Isso enquanto criaram em Goa uma comunidade cristã, adaptando-se o
conceito de luso-tropicalismo, qual foi proposto por Gilberto Freyre, às considerações
de situação histórico-social de Goa.
O processo colonial português chegou a criar uma comunidade cristã que se
ocidentalizou nos seus modos, hábitos de vida e valores culturais. Esse processo se
desenvolveu precisamente numa situação de transmissão cultural direto, considerada a
própria missiologia da época, segundo a qual cristianizar era ao mesmo tempo ocidentalizar.
Conforme o escritor goês Mariano Saldanha (1948;8), em Goa, a cultura
portuguesa teve rápida assimilação, tornando-se imediatamente reprodutiva, dado que o
secular sistema educativo dos hindus havia preparado o terreno intelectual propício.
Dentro de meio século, ou menos ainda, da dominação portuguesa, estava esta pequena
capital do império luso-oriental por tal forma lusitanizada no seu elemento intelectual
cristão, que se achava em condições de auxiliar o próprio governo português, tanto na
administração como na propagação do cristianismo no Oriente, fornecendo burocratas e
missionários nativos habilitados nos seus seminários e colégios”.
Conclusão
É neste contexto de colonização Portuguesa na Índia que a língua portuguesa,
remotamente aparentada com a língua local de Goa, o Concani, e com outras línguas de
procedência sanscrítica, espalha-se em todos os territórios de Goa, Damão e Diu que
constituem a Índia Portuguesa. Mais particularmente em Goa, devido às escolas
governamentais que se multiplicam e sobe a tal altura a assimilação do novo idioma por
parte duma elite sempre crescente de Goeses que não tarda a desabrochar em
apreciáveis produções de pensamento e de arte.
Com efeito, a história da cultura literária de Goa Lusófona poderá ser dividida
em quatro períodos. O primeiro abrange o tempo que vai desde a criação de escolas
paroquiais em 1545 até o início da imprensa periódica com a publicação de Gazeta de
Goa, em 22 de Dezembro de 1821. A segunda fase seria o tempo que vai até a criação
do Instituto Vasco da Gama em 1871, hoje chamado Instituto Menezes de Bragança,
nome de um dos lideres nacionalistas de Goa. O terceiro período poder-se-ia situar
desde 1871 até 19 de dezembro de 1961, data em que Goa foi integrada na União
Indiana. O período inicial da produção literária em língua portuguesa em Goa, tem
início em 1545, quando o Vice-Rei D. João de Castro, manda abrir escolas com o
objetivo de doutrinar nelas os meninos nos rudimentos da fé cristã e de ensiná-los, ao
mesmo tempo, a ler, escrever e cantar em português. Foram estas escolas os primeiros
estabelecimentos públicos da Instituição Primária em Goa em língua portuguesa.
É neste contexto que a imprensa portuguesa em Goa Colonial marca o
desenvolvimento da língua portuguesa em Goa e terá de ser estudada mais
profundamente para analisar a formação das elites intelectuais goesas, considerando que
todos os quatro diários se sustentaram e sobreviveram até pouco tempo depois da
integração de Goa na Índia, quando começa a desmoronar-se o mundo lusófono de Goa
na Índia
Numa análise das publicações em língua portuguesa encontramos uns cento e
oitenta e nove jornais e periódicos que foram publicados em Goa, a saber:
Jornais publicados em Goa
Número Títulos
1 Gazeta de Goa - semanal, 22/12/1821 a agosto de 1826
2 Chronica Constitucional de Goa - semanal, 13/06/1835 a 30/11/1837
3 Echo de Lusotânia - semanal, 07/01/1836 a 05/03/1837
4 Boletim do Governo do Estado da Índia - 07/12/1837
5 O Vigilante - semanal, 13/07/1838 a 22/10/1838
6 A Biblioteca de Goa - janeiro de 1839 (único número publicado)
7 O Observador - quinzenal, 15/02/1839 a 31/10/1840
8 O Encyclopedico - julho de 1841 a junho de 1842
9 O Compilador - mensal, 07/10/1843 a 31/12/1847
10 O Correio de Nova Goa - semanal, 04/01/1844 a 24/09/1844
11 Appenso ao Boletim do Governo - semanal, 22/05/1844 a dezembro de 1844
12 A Voz dos Povos da Índia - semanal, 03/07/1845 a 03/03/1846
13 Jornal da Santa Igreja Lusitana do Oriente - semanal, janeiro de 1846 a março de 1849
14 Gabinete Literário das fontainhas - mensal, 15/01/1846 a dezembro de 1848
15 O Mosaico - mensal, janeiro de 1848 a junho de 1848
16 O Defensor da Ordem e da Verdade - quinzenal, 24/08/1852 a 31/08/1853
17 O Defensor do Real Padroado - mensal, setembro de 1953 a março de 1854
18 Revista Ilustrativa - mensal, 06/11/1854 a 16/07/1855
19 O Ultramar - bissemanal, 06/04/1859 a novembro de 1941
20 A Índia Portuguesa - semanal, 04/01/1861 a 26/11/1921
21 A Phoenix de Goa - semanal, 06/04/1861 a 30/12/1862
22 A Harmonia - semanal, 12/04/1862 a 27/10/1864
23 A Aurora de Goa - semanal, 06/01/1863 a 01/071865
24 A Sentinella da Liberdade - semanal, 07/10/1864 a 31/12/1869
25 Jornal de Notícias - semanal, 01/10/1868 a 30/04/1869
26 A Imprensa - semanal, 18/10/1870 a abril de 1876
27 A Gazeta de Goa - semanal, 16/07/1872 a 30/12/1873
28 O Mensageiro - semanal, 16/08/1872 a 12/11/1873
29 O Paiz - semanal, 04/02/1873 a 27/10/1874
30 O Progresso - semanal, 07/04/1873 a 21/06/1873
31 Opinião Pública - semanal, 02/07/1873 a 22/12/1875
32 O Oriente - semanal, 07/03/1874 a 27/11/1874
33 Gazeta de Bardêz - semanal, 17/10/1874 a 22/01/1884
34 Nova Goa - semanal, 04/05/1876 a 12/03/1878
35 A Cruz - semanal, 15/07/1876 a 26/07/1882
36 A Patria - semanal, 10/01/1877 a 14/12/1894
37 A Civilização – semanal – 6.2.1877 a 28.11.1878
38 O Imparcial – 1.7.1878 a Agosto de 1899
39 A União – semanal – 5.9.1878 a 18.10.1880
40 A Semana – semanal – 4.3.1880 a 10.9.1880
41 A Verdade – semanal – 16.7.1882 a 31.12.1885
42 O Echo Popular – semanal – 7.1.1883 a 7.8.1884
43 O Correio da Índia – semanal – 7.8.1883 a 28.12.1892
44 O Correio de Goa – semanal – 7.8.1883 a 14.4.1888
45 O Crente – semanal – 9.8.1883 a 1928
46 Periódico do Povo – semanal – 25.10.1883 a 11.12.1886
47 O Progresso de Goa – semanal – 1883
48 The Times of Goa – semanal – 21.9.1885 a 1889
49 A Discussão – semanal – 12.08.1886 a 1889
50 A Convicção – semanal – 15.1.1887 a 1895
51 Farpas – semanal – Setembro 1887 a
52 O Repórter da Índia – semanal – 3.10.1888 a 22.3.1889
53 Archivo Portuguez Oriental – 1857 – 1866
54 O Patriota – 1858-1874
55 O Recreio – 1859-860 – 1865-1866
56 Tirocínio Literário – 1862-1863
57 Jornal de pharmacia e sciencias médicas da Índia Portugueza – 1862-1863
58 Revista médico-militar da Índia portuguesa – 1862-1864
59 Recreio das damas – 1863
60 O Periódico militar do ultramar portuguez – 1863
61 Ilustração goana – 1864-1866
62 Archivo de pharmacia e sciencias accessorias da Índia portugueza – 1864-1871
63 Harpa do Mandovy – 1865
64 O Chronista de Tissuary – 1866-1869
65 Goa sociavel – 1866
66 O Ramalhetinho – 1866-1870
67 O Oriente Catholico – 1867-1870
68 Instituto Vasco da Gama – 1872-1875
69 Jornal de pharmacia, chimica e historia natural medida – 1872-1873
70 Album litterario – 1875-1880
71 Dexâssudhârânetxo – (em port. E marata)- 1876-1880
72 Estreia Litteraria – 1877
73 Goamitra – 1882-1883
74 Jornal das Novas Conquistas – 1882-1886
75 O Arya-Bondir – 1885-1886
76 O Goa Pancha – 1885-1889 e 1890-1892
77 Cavaco Instructivo – 1887
78 Sudarxana – 1888
79 A Democracia – semanal – 11.10.1888 a 3.10.1889
80 Ortigas – semanal – 1.1.1889 (Único exemplar)
81 O Niaya Chacxu – 1889-1890
82 Mandovy – semanal – 7.1890 a 27.10.1890
83 Gomantac – 1890-1892
84 O Vinte e um de Setembro – semanal – 28.10.1890 a 29.12.1892
85 A Voz do Povo – semanal – 7.11.1890 a 1907
86 Correspondência de Goa – semanal – 1891
87 Gazeta de Perném – 1893-1894
88 Gazeta da Índia – semanal – 1.2.1893 a 18.8.1894
89 O Investigador – quinzenal – 29.1.1894 a 21.7.1894
90 O Indispensável – 1.4.1894 a 12.1895 – 28.12.1909 a 7.1915. Ed. Ingl. 1.1913 a 1.1914
91 Divan Litterario – 1894
92 Archivo Medico da Índia – 8.1894 a 4.1896
93 Notícias – 1.9.1894 a 1937
94 O Brado Indiano – semanal – 15.12.1894 a 12.1895
95 O Liberal – mansal – 1.1895 a 10.1895
96 O Paiz – quinzenal – 1.1.1895 a 10.1895
97 A Evolução – semanal – 2.1.1895 a 13.11.1895
98 Bibliotheca de Notícias – mensal – 3.8.1895 a 11.1895
99 A Era Nova – semanal – 3.11.1897 a 30.4.1903
100 O Portuguez – semanal – 16.12.1897 a 16.11.1901
101 O Atheta – semanal – 1899 a 22.12.1906
102 O Heraldo – diário – 22.1.1900 até hoje
103 O Bardezano – semanal – 4.2.1904 a 22.12.1906
104 O Índio – semanal – 9.2.1904 a 6.4.1908
105 O Nacionalista – semanal – 11.10.1904 a 12.12.1910
106 O Oriente – semanal – 9.3.1905 a 22.12.1905
107 Echo da Índia –9.9.1905 a 28.6.1907
108 A Reforma – semanal – 16.10.1905 a 1.1.1906
109 Diário de Goa – 16.10.1905 a 22.2.1906
110 O Imparcial – semanal – 5.3.1906 a 18.8.1906
111 O Pygmeu – diário – 4.2.1908 a 31.12.1909
112 Heraldo- diário – 21.5.1908 até hoje
113 O Ariano – semanal – 16.7.1908 a 27.12.1911
114 O Futuro – semanal – 11.4.1909 a 12.1.1917
115 O Commercio – diário – 1.10.1909 a 30.12.1912
116 O Debate – semanal – 3.4.1911 a 16.2.1921
117 O Popular – semanal - 4.10.1911 a 20.5.1912
118 O Povo – bisemanal – 26.7.1912 a 12.2.1913
119 Students’ Progress – 12.9.1912 a 8.1914
120 Jornal da Índia – semanal –14.3.1913 a 26.8.1913
121 Boletim do Commercio – semanal – 29.3.1913 a 29.3.1915.
122 A Pátria – semanal – 6.8.1913 a 29.10.1914.
123 Rebate – semanal – 1.10.1913 a 12.6.1914.
124 Vida Nova - semanal, 17/11/1913 a 22/09/1917
125 Jornal do Povo - semanal, 14/07/1914 a 10/10/1918
126 A Lanterna - semanal, 01/10/1914 a 02/12/1916
127 A Terra - bissemanal, 01/01/1916 a 1932
128 O Liberal - semanal, 05/10/1916 a 12/03/1919
129 O Progresso - semanal, 10/03/1917 a 15/11/1919
130 Opinião - semanal, 12/11/1917 a 29/03/1919
131 O Português - semanal, 08/06/1919 a 26/09/1919
132 Nacional - semanal, 03/11/1919 a 09/03/1920
133 Diário da Noite - diário, 01/12/1919 até hoje
134 A Tribuna - semanal, 02/01/1920 a 1925
135 Provincia - semanal, 07/06/1920 a 27/03/1922
136 O Bharat - 1920 a 1949
137 Boletim Geral de Medicina e Farmácia - 03/1921
138 Gazeta da Relação de Nova-Goa - semanal, 1921-1932
139 A Época - 1924-1930
140 Boletim do Instituto Vasco da Gama - 1926
141 Sandalcalo
142 Lubadhe - semanal
143 Arquivos da Escolas Médico-cirurgica de Nova-Goa - 06/1927 até hoje
144 Pracasha - 1928-1937
145 Correio de Bardez - semanal, 1928-1948
146 Filha, Mãe e Esposa - 1928-1938
147 Esplendores da Religião - 1928-1930
148 Vem. Padre José Vaz - mensal, Ed. Port. 05/1928; Ed. conc. 07/10/1929; Ed. ing. 01/1931.
149 Ariavidnyana - semanal, 1929
150 Estado da Índia
151 Pradipa - 1929-1930
152 Amchó Gão - semanal, 1929-1933
153 Niz Bhavarti - semanal, 01/1930
154 Voluntário - semanal, 1930
155 Porjecho Adar - 1930 até hoje
156 Diário da Tarde - 1931-1933
157 A Voz de S. Francisco Xavier - semanal, 1931-1942
158 Índia - mensal (ing.), 10/1931
159 Correio de Bicholim - semanal, 1931-1932
160 Vaisha - 1931
161 Patita pavana - trimensal, 1931
162 O Tempo - semanal, 1931-1951
163 Índia - Suplemneto (ing.), 08/1932
164 Mascote - semanal, 1933-1936
165 A Luta - 1933-1937
166 Bharat-Mitra - mensal, 1933 até hoje
167 Jornal da Índia - 1933-1945
168 O Médico - mensal, 01/1934 até hoje
169 O Independente - semanal, 25/12/1933 a 09/09/1946
170 Vauraddeanchó Ixtt (Amigo do Operário) - 12/1933 até hoje
171 Jornal das Comunidades - semanal, 1934-1937
172 Boletim da Comissão de Arqueologia - 10/1935
173 O Clínico - mensal, 11/12/1938 até hoje
174 A Vida - diário, 15/09/1938 até 1963
175 O Esculápio - 11/1940 a 05/1941
176 Boletim Eclesiástico da Arquidiocese de Goa - mensal, 07/1942 até hoje
177 Ala - anual, Revista do Liceu Nacional de Albuquerque, 1944
178 Oratório Salesiano de D. Bosco – 03/1946 até hoje
179 A Voz da Índia – 1946-1950
180 Avante - 10/1946
181 Aitarachem Vachop - quinzenal, 1947 até hoje
182 India - mensal, 01/1950 a 1964
183 Notícias do Estado da Índia - 08/1950 a 1961
184 Luz da Infância - mensal, 13/10/1951 a 1959
185 Portuguese India - quinzenal, 01/1952
186 Diário de Goa – 01/02/1953 a 1961
187 Revista Farmacêutica - trimestral, 01/1954 a 1959
188 Vanguarda - 10/1954 a 1961
189 Heraldo - ed. ingl., semanal, 31/04/1956 a 1962
190 O Heraldo - ed. conc. 02/02/1956 até hoje
Bibliografia
ALEIXO, Manoel da Costa - Dicionário de Literatura Goesa, 3 vol., Fundação Oriente,
Macau, 1998.
CABRAL E SÁ, Mario - Konkan - nama, A Jorney Across Time, Konkan Railway
Corporation Ltda., Mumbai, 1998.
CABRAL E SÁ, Mário e PASRICHA Amit - Goa, Pearl of the East, Lustre Press Roli
Books, New Delhi, 1996.
CUNHA, Antonio Maria da - A evolução do jornalismo na Índia Portuguesa, Imprensa
nacional, Nova Goa, 1923.
D’AYALLA, Federico Diniz - Goa: antiga e moderna, Livraria Coelho, Nova Goa, 1927.
DE SOUZA, Teotonio - Goa to me, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1994.
DE SOUZA, Teotonio (Editor) - Goa Through the ages, vol. II, Concept Publishing
Co., New Delhi, 1989.
DIAS, Pe. Filinto Cristo - Esboço da história da literatura indo-portuguesa, Bastorá - Goa, 1963.
FURTADO, Álvaro de Loyola - Os primórdios da imprensa e do jornalismo em Goa e
no resto da Índia, Separata do Boletim do Instituto Menezes Bragança, Tipografia
Rangel, Bastorá – Goa, 1983.
ISSAR, T.P. - Goa Dourada - The Indo-Portuguese Bouquet, T.P. Issar, Bangalore, 1997.
MENEZES BRAGANÇA, Luis - A Educação e o Ensino na Índia Portuguesa, A Índia
Portuguesa, Nova Goa, 1923.
MENON, K.N. - Portuguese Pockets in India, Caxton Press, New Delhi, 1953.
PANNIKAR, K.M. - A survey of Indian History, Asia Publishing Honoe, Bombay, 1954.
RANGEL, Jaime - A imprensa em Goa, Tipografia Rangel, Bastará - Goa, 1956.
SEABRA, Manuel de e DEVI Vivala - Literatura Indo-Portuguesa, Junta de
Investigação do Ultramar, Lisboa, 1971.
SHIRODKAR, P.P. (org) - Goa Cultural Trends (Seminar Papers), directorate of
Archives, Archeology and Museum, panaji - Goa - 1988.
SILVA REGO, Antonio de - O Padroado Portugues do Oriente, Esboço Histórico,
Agencia Geral das colônias, Lisboa, 1940.
WHITEWAY, R.S. - Rise of Portuguese Power in India 1947-1950, Archibald
Constable & Co., London, 1899.
In: revcom2.portcom.intercom.org.br/index.php/anuariolusofono...
(more details later, as time permits)
**********************
In 1996 and 1997, I spent two full summers in the tiny little town of Polson, on the southern shore of Flathead Lake (the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River), and grew quite attached to the town and its surrounding mountains, rivers, and lake -- photos of which you can see here and here. You might also be interested in some of my observations about life in Polson and Montana, which I wrote about in blogs titled The Polson Parade, and Leaving Montana. But then life changed, other things intervened, and I drifted away from Montana altogether.
In the summer of 2010, I had a chance to re-visit Polson, and spend three short days driving around to re-acquaint myself with the area. It had been over a dozen years since I was last there (not counting a brief drive-through with my younger son in 2006), so I was expecting some changes ... but in general, the town of about 5,000 people was pretty much the same. My favorite restaurant had closed down, a Mailboxes Etc outlet had been replaced by a video-rental outlet, and the local McDonald's outlet was no longer posting all of the bounced checks from desperate customers on its wall. It looked like some of the local ranchers and farmers had sold off some of their acreage, for there were a few new "vacation communities" filling up what had been open meadows and pasture just outside of town.
But the lake had not changed at all, and the Mission Mountains along the eastern shore of the lake were as pretty as ever. Just for the heck of it, I got up at 5 AM one morning, and photographed the pre-dawn stillness on the lake, and then the changing colors of clouds above the lake as the sun slowly rose up to peek over the top of the mountains. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to drive down to the Kerr Dam, and I didn't drive all the way around the north end of the lake: I only made it up to Big Fork on the eastern side, and LakeSide on the western side of the lake. I was going to take the half-day white-water rafting trip down the Flathead River, south of the dam, but there wasn't time for that, either ... Nor was there any time for fishing, or even to rent a jet-ski and zoom around on the broad expanse of water in Polson Bay, at the south end of the lake.
I took a bunch of photos throughout the visit, and you can view them here) on Flickr. And after my return from that 2010 trip, I happened to chat with a business colleague about Polson and heard some great things from him about a “dude ranch” located just outside Big Fork, right on the shore of the lake. It was the Flathead Lake Lodge, and after a few more years of distractions and delays, I managed to get most (but not all) of my family together for a weeklong vacation at the lodge. The weather was great, the food was delicious, the horses were cooperative, the lake was beautiful … and that’s pretty much what you’ll see in the photos that I’ve put into this album.
Enjoy … and, if you get the chance, gather your own family together and take them out to the Flathead Lake Lodge for a week. You won’t regret it!
(more details later, as time permits)
**********************
In 1996 and 1997, I spent two full summers in the tiny little town of Polson, on the southern shore of Flathead Lake (the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River), and grew quite attached to the town and its surrounding mountains, rivers, and lake -- photos of which you can see here and here. You might also be interested in some of my observations about life in Polson and Montana, which I wrote about in blogs titled The Polson Parade, and Leaving Montana. But then life changed, other things intervened, and I drifted away from Montana altogether.
In the summer of 2010, I had a chance to re-visit Polson, and spend three short days driving around to re-acquaint myself with the area. It had been over a dozen years since I was last there (not counting a brief drive-through with my younger son in 2006), so I was expecting some changes ... but in general, the town of about 5,000 people was pretty much the same. My favorite restaurant had closed down, a Mailboxes Etc outlet had been replaced by a video-rental outlet, and the local McDonald's outlet was no longer posting all of the bounced checks from desperate customers on its wall. It looked like some of the local ranchers and farmers had sold off some of their acreage, for there were a few new "vacation communities" filling up what had been open meadows and pasture just outside of town.
But the lake had not changed at all, and the Mission Mountains along the eastern shore of the lake were as pretty as ever. Just for the heck of it, I got up at 5 AM one morning, and photographed the pre-dawn stillness on the lake, and then the changing colors of clouds above the lake as the sun slowly rose up to peek over the top of the mountains. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to drive down to the Kerr Dam, and I didn't drive all the way around the north end of the lake: I only made it up to Big Fork on the eastern side, and LakeSide on the western side of the lake. I was going to take the half-day white-water rafting trip down the Flathead River, south of the dam, but there wasn't time for that, either ... Nor was there any time for fishing, or even to rent a jet-ski and zoom around on the broad expanse of water in Polson Bay, at the south end of the lake.
I took a bunch of photos throughout the visit, and you can view them here) on Flickr. And after my return from that 2010 trip, I happened to chat with a business colleague about Polson and heard some great things from him about a “dude ranch” located just outside Big Fork, right on the shore of the lake. It was the Flathead Lake Lodge, and after a few more years of distractions and delays, I managed to get most (but not all) of my family together for a weeklong vacation at the lodge. The weather was great, the food was delicious, the horses were cooperative, the lake was beautiful … and that’s pretty much what you’ll see in the photos that I’ve put into this album.
Enjoy … and, if you get the chance, gather your own family together and take them out to the Flathead Lake Lodge for a week. You won’t regret it!
(more details later, as time permits)
*******************************
Once upon a time, I had serious intentions of running the New York marathon. It was back in 1979, and the whole thing was much less formal than it is now. Indeed, it was sufficiently informal that Rosie Ruiz was accidentally given a “finished time” of 2:56:29 for the New York event that year, which qualified her for the 1980 Boston marathon. It was later discovered that she had not run the entire NYC course (nor did she do so up in Boston on April 21, 1980), and her time was ultimately rescinded in both races. Had her times stayed in the record books, her Boston time of 2:31:56 would have been the fastest female time ever in the Boston marathon and the third-fastest female time ever recorded in any marathon...
Informal as the New York marathon was in those ancient days, you still couldn’t just show up at the starting line and expect to be welcomed. On the other hand, all that was necessary to get an official invitation was going down to the main branch of the U.S. Post Office on 34th Street at midnight on some long-forgotten summer night,and waiting in line with a bunch of equally crazy people. I got my entry ticket (or letter, or certificate, or whatever it was) a few days later, and began following a fairly serious training regimen, working my way up to a modest 10-mile race … until a business trip took me to Sydney, Australia for most of the month of August, 1979. Between business and social events, and the cold, wet weather of Sydney’s winter season, I didn’t do any running at all for that whole month … and with my training regimen broken, I wisely decided not to run the marathon at all.
But since then, I’ve always had a fondness for the NYC marathon — especially considering how much it has grown, and what a city-wide celebration it has become. I missed the event in 2013 and 2012, so it has been three years since I watched on the sidelines in 2011. With the promise of cold-but-sunny weather this year, I decided to return once again — and, as in 2011, I positioned myself at roughly the 24.5-mile point, at the beginning of a downhill run at roughly 78th Street, at the side of the Central Park “inner roadway.”
The runners pass by all afternoon, and well into the evening; but it’s a little more difficult to anticipate when the lead runners will reach any particular point. There are now so many participants in the marathon (about 50,000) that the runners are released in “waves,” beginning with those on hand-operated wheelchair/bicycles, and the “elite” women, the elite men, and three or four waves of mere mortals. There was an additional delay this year, because the headwinds were so strong that the initial wave had great difficulty propelling their wheeled vehicles up over the “hump” of the Tappan Zee bridge. So if you’re standing somewhere along the route, at the 10-mile mark, or the 20-mile mark, or (as I was) the 24.5 mile mark, you can only guess at the moment when the lead runners — or a friend or family member whom you want to cheer onward to the finish line — might be coming near you.
On the other hand, there are some clues. Helicopters hover above the lead runners, low enough that you can hear the roar of their blades; and there are two or three waves of police cars and motorcycles zooming ahead of the runners, pushing people back to the sidelines, and ensuring that there are no disruptions or obstacles to slow them down. Then — and it’s always an adrenaline rush! — you see the official race car, driving just a few feet ahead of the lead runners, with a huge race clock mounted on its roof, showing those fast-moving runners the exact number of hours, minutes, and seconds since they started their journey back at the edge of Staten Island.
The lead runners, of whom there are often two or three or four even up to the last mile, are often several minutes ahead of the next ones; but those who are in positions three, four, five or ten, and who will get no recognition at all from the press, the media, or the crowd when they finish … well, they still run as if their lives depend on it. And the crowd cheers them on, clapping and calling out their names and urging them onward.
One of the differences I noticed this year was the widespread use of bicycle horns and cow-bells that the onlookers used to create a cacophony of merry noise; I don’t know if the runners took it as a sign of encouragement, but it sure sounded that way to me …
I stayed longer than I had intended, and took several hundred more photos that I had planned … but they’re all just bits on the camera’s digital memory card, so it doesn’t really matter. One might argue that I should have stayed for eight or ten hours, until the last runner had straggled by. And perhaps I should have photographed each of the 50,000 runners, for I’m sure they each had their own story to tell. But after a while, it gets overwhelming — and the faces and bodies and brightly colored shirts and tights and shoes begin to blur…
I think I got a representative collection of photos; and the video clips will give you a sense of the noise and the motion of what seemed like an endless stream of humanity racing past … but to really understand it, you need to be there in person. Barring a crippling storm (like Hurricane Sandy, which forced the cancellation of the 2012 marathon), you’ll find another crowd of 50,000 runners racing through Central Park at the end of next year’s marathon, on the first Sunday in November. And with any luck, I’ll be there with my camera …
Who knows: maybe even Rosie Ruiz will be there, too. It turns out that she was arrested in 1982 for embezzling $60,000 from a real estate company where she worked; after a week in jail and a sentence of five years’ probation, she moved back to south Florida, where she was arrested in 1983 for her involvement in a cocaine deal. But as of the year 2000, she still insisted that she had run the entire 1980 Boston marathon. C’est la vie...
Photos were not permited inside the Basilica di San MArco, Venice, Italy, but this photo of the light shining through the small windows at the top of one of the domes was taken from outside on the Loggia dei Cavalli. It shows some of the incredibly ornate mosaics that cover most of the walls and ceilings
Our Daily Challenge ... weather permitting.
Another lovely relaxing evening walking along "The Spit" with Zeppy and another gorgeous sunset. Weather permitting we will do it again tomorrow!
ALA-48 (803 y 402 ESCUADRÓN DE FUERZAS AÉREAS)
El NH90 es el helicóptero más moderno del Ejército del Aire y del Espacio, denominada Lobo por la Fuerza Aérea, opera en el 803 Escuadrón del Ala 48 situado en la base de Cuatro Vientos.
Las principales misiones de este helicóptero son la búsqueda y salvamento, aeroevacuaciones médicas, operaciones aéreas especiales y misiones de recuperación de personal. Dispone de una cabina digital representa los datos de performance, mantenimiento, misión y equipos, célula de fibra de vidrio o carbono o fly by wire.
También cuenta con una cuarta vía de piloto automático que permite al piloto la descarga de trabajo en situaciones críticas del vuelo y es un helicóptero todo tiempo gracias a los radares de navegación y meteorológico y a un sistema antihielo que permite la operación en cualquier situación.
Cuenta con capacidades adicionales como tanques de combustible externos, gancho baricentro para el transporte de cargas, rampa y hatch trasero, dispensador de chaff y bengalas y plegado de cola y palas del rotor principal para la operación en buques de la Armada.
Los seis NH90 en servicio ya pertenecen al conocido como Estándar 2 del helicóptero, que cuenta con Flir táctico, comunicaciones cifradas por satélite, sistema de radioayudas Tacan y grúa de rescate de doble gancho. El Ejército del Aire recibirá dentro del segundo lote contratado por el Ministerio de Defensa otra media docena más ya del Estándar 3 entre 2024 y 2026, y contempla actualizar toda la flota a esta última configuración que incluirá además nuevos sistemas IFF (identificador amigo-enemigo), suite de guerra electrónica y sistema contramedidas, entre otras mejoras.
El NH90, desarrollado por NH Industries, consorcio que engloba a Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters y Fokker Aerostructures, fue diseñado para cumplir con los requisitos de la OTAN de un helicóptero militar polivalente, moderno y de tamaño mediano, tanto en operaciones terrestres como marítimas.
El vehículo principal para las versiones TTH (transporte táctico) y NFH (helicóptero de fragata de la OTAN) es un aparato bimotor que incorpora características innovadoras como ayudas de vuelo de misión avanzadas y un sistema de control fly-by-wire con piloto automático de 4 ejes, junto con sistemas de diagnóstico y monitoreo a bordo.
Beneficiándose de un enfoque moderno de los materiales, el fuselaje compuesto del NH90 tiene menos piezas y un peso estructural más bajo, lo que resulta en un 30 % más de resistencia en comparación con un fuselaje metálico, además de una mayor resistencia al daño de batalla, entre otros beneficios. Las palas compuestas del rotor tienen una mayor resistencia a la fatiga, tolerancia al daño y vida útil de los componentes, así como un rendimiento aerodinámico mejorado.
Versátil y compacto, es lo suficientemente pequeño como para caber en el hangar de una fragata de la OTAN, pero con un volumen de cabina para albergar a 20 soldados totalmente equipados o un sistema de misión marítima. Su amplia cabina modular, grandes puertas corredizas a cada lado y rampa trasera lo convierten en el helicóptero militar más accesible disponible.
Capacidad de supervivencia de la operación
Evitación de la detección: el NH90 presenta la firma de radar más baja de su clase gracias a la estructura del avión completamente compuesta en forma de diamante del helicóptero. Además, los dispositivos supresores de infrarrojos y las tomas de aire verticales del motor contribuyen aún más a reducir las firmas acústicas e infrarrojas del NH90.
Autoprotección: el conjunto avanzado de autoprotección del helicóptero está compuesto por receptores de advertencia de radar y láser, un sistema de detección de lanzamiento de misiles y dispensadores de bengalas/chaff.
Capacidad de supervivencia: la redundancia inherente de los controles fly-by-wire (cuatro canales analógicos/digitales segregados) aumenta considerablemente la capacidad de supervivencia si el NH90 es atacado por armas pequeñas. Todos los sistemas y subsistemas son redundantes y segregados; mientras que se proporciona blindaje tanto para la tripulación como para las tropas.
La estructura compuesta a prueba de choques (que evita que los componentes pesados rompan la cabina), combinada con un equipo de flotación altamente efectivo, brinda el mejor nivel de supervivencia de la tripulación en su clase.
Integración y mantenimiento
El conjunto de aviónica integrado y la cabina de cristal del NH90 facilitan la interacción intuitiva con los sistemas del helicóptero y el conjunto de comunicaciones, junto con las ayudas para el vuelo, la navegación y la misión. Esto permite una gestión eficaz del entorno de la cabina para el éxito de la misión y la seguridad en todas las condiciones de funcionamiento.
Las estaciones de trabajo altamente integradas y el uso de la fusión de datos aumentan la velocidad, la precisión y la cantidad de datos que se pueden procesar y mostrar en pantallas configurables. Esto es vital para operaciones autónomas y conjuntas efectivas en entornos terrestres y marítimos.
La carga de trabajo del piloto se reduce drásticamente mediante el uso de una interfaz hombre-máquina optimizada, lo que permite que el NH90 NFH vuele en misiones de guerra naval día y noche con una tripulación de un piloto, un coordinador táctico en la cabina y un operador de sensores en la estación de trabajo de la cabina. . También es posible una configuración con dos pilotos y dos operadores tácticos en la cabina.
Como plataforma común para todas las misiones, las versiones de transporte táctico (TTH) y helicóptero fragata de la OTAN (NFH) del NH90 utilizan sistemas comunes, lo que facilita el diseño paralelo y simplifica su huella de apoyo logístico.
Tener un sistema de capacitación central para pilotos y técnicos de mantenimiento, junto con un sistema central de mantenimiento y repuestos, reduce significativamente los costos del ciclo de vida.
Características
Velocidad máxima de crucero (a 10.000 kg): 300 km/h
Alcance máximo (interno): 982 kilometros
Gama Ferry (tanques de combustible auxiliares internos): 1.600 kilómetros
Dimensiones externas (torneado del rotor): Longitud 19,56 m; ancho 16,30m; altura 5,31m
(more details later, as time permits)
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I have a confession to make: I’ve lived in New York City for 45 years — but until last night, I had never attended, observed, photographed, or participated in the annual Halloween Parade that takes place in Greenwich Village. I can’t be blamed for the first few years: I moved to NYC in the late 60’s (on Bleecker Street, right in the middle of the West Village), and the parade did not begin until 1974. But that means last night’s parade was the 40th such event … and for some reason, I missed them all.
But I was there last night … a little unsure of myself, for the parade did not actually begin until 7 PM, an hour after sunset. Even at 5 PM, the sun has usually dropped so low (in the fall and winter months) that the light is pretty mediocre for photography — and it was a cold, gray, overcast day as well. So I brought my flash along, even though I’ve rarely used it, and wandered through the crowd to see what I could find.
And it was a crowd: as early as 1985, it was estimated that some 250,000 people were participating in the event; I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a million people there last night. But at first, I couldn’t find any of them: the newspaper had announced that people could arrive at a pre-parade “staging” area on Canal Street and Sixth Avenue … but when I got there (early, as usual), there was not a soul to be seen. But I eventually noticed some costumed people who seemed to know where they were going … and I could hear music in the distance … so so I began heading north, and found the beginning of the crowd scene about three blocks further north, on Broome Street.
After that, it was sheer bedlam for the next couple of hours — until the parade officially began moving north on Sixth Avenue, right at 7 PM. The costumes were overwhelming — everything from witches and goblins, monsters, the GhostBusters, kings and queens and pirates and aliens. There were a few topless women with thick psychedelic body-paint to provide a small amount of modesty, and there were several groups of dancers who had obviously practiced dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which blared loudly from several sound systems. Meanwhile, there were drummers and samba bands, steel bands, and informal groups doing their best to provide the crowd with Italian, Chinese, Irish, Dixieland, and African music…
After I left the parade, I took the subway from Canal Street up to 14th Street to meet my wife for a quiet dinner at a small Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. But everywhere I went — streets, sidewalks, subway stations — it seemed that all of Greenwich Village had been caught up in the revelry.
Beyond that, it’s impossible for me to describe the noise, the music, the costumes, and the overall revelry. For an overall summary, you might want to look at this Wikipedia article
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York's_Village_Halloween_Parade
But I think the only way to really understand what the NYC Halloween Parade is all about is to be there. Words don’t really suffice ...
(more details later, as time permits)
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About a year ago, I created Flickr album for photos that I had started taking with my iPhone5s; and now I’m creating a new Flickr album for photos that I’ve begun taking with myiPhone6, which just arrived from T-Mobile this morning.
In last year’s album, I wrote, "Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, it’s hard to walk around with a modern smartphone in your pocket, and not be tempted to use the built-in camera from time-to-time. Veteran photographers typically sneer at such behavior, and most will tell you that they can instantly recognize an iPhone photo, which they mentally reject as being unworthy of any serious attention.
"After using many earlier models of smartphones over the past several years, I was inclined to agree; after all, I always (well, almost always) had a “real” camera in my pocket (or backpack or camera-bag), and it was always capable of taking a much better photographic image than the mediocre, grainy images shot with a camera-phone.
"But still … there were a few occasions when I desperately wanted to capture some photo-worthy event taking place right in front of me, and inevitably it turned out to be the times when I did not have the “real” camera with me. Or I did have it, but it was buried somewhere in a bag, and I knew that the “event” would have disappeared by the time I found the “real" camera and turned it on. By contrast, the smart-phone was always in my pocket (along with my keys and my wallet, it’s one of the three things I consciously grab every time I walk out the door). And I often found that I could turn it on, point it at the photographic scene, and take the picture much faster than I could do the same thing with a “traditional” camera.
"Meanwhile, smartphone cameras have gotten substantially better in the past few years, from a mechanical/hardware perspective; and the software “intelligence” controlling the camera has become amazingly sophisticated. It’s still not on the same level as a “professional” DSLR camera, but for a large majority of the “average” photographic situations we’re likely to encounter in the unplanned moments of our lives, it’s more and more likely to be “good enough.” The old adage of “the best camera is the one you have with you” is more and more relevant these days. For me, 90% of the success in taking a good photo is simply being in the right place at the right time, being aware that the “photo opportunity” is there, and having a camera — any camera — to take advantage of that opportunity. Only 10% of the time does it matter which camera I’m using, or what technical features I’ve managed to use.
"And now, with the recent advent of the iPhone5s, there is one more improvement — which, as far as I can tell, simply does not exist in any of the “professional” cameras. You can take an unlimited number of “burst-mode” shots with the new iPhone, simply by keeping your finger on the shutter button; instead of being limited to just six (as a few of the DSLR cameras currently offer), you can take 10, 20, or even a hundred shots. And then — almost magically — the iPhone will show you which one or two of the large burst of photos was optimally sharp and clear. With a couple of clicks, you can then delete everything else, and retain only the very best one or two from the entire burst.
"With that in mind, I’ve begun using my iPhone5s for more and more “everyday” photo situations out on the street. Since I’m typically photographing ordinary, mundane events, even the one or two “optimal” shots that the camera-phone retains might not be worth showing anyone else … so there is still a lot of pruning and editing to be done, and I’m lucky if 10% of those “optimal” shots are good enough to justify uploading to Flickr and sharing with the rest of the world. Still, it’s an enormous benefit to know that my editing work can begin with photos that are more-or-less “technically” adequate, and that I don’t have to waste even a second reviewing dozens of technically-mediocre shots that are fuzzy, or blurred.
"Oh, yeah, one other minor benefit of the iPhone5s (and presumably most other current brands of smartphone): it automatically geotags every photo and video, without any special effort on the photographer’s part. Only one of my other big, fat cameras (the Sony Alpha SLT A65) has that feature, and I’ve noticed that almost none of the “new” mirrorless cameras have got a built-in GPS thingy that will perform the geotagging...
"I’ve had my iPhone5s for a couple of months now, but I’ve only been using the “burst-mode” photography feature aggressively for the past couple of weeks. As a result, the initial batch of photos that I’m uploading are all taken in the greater-NYC area. But as time goes on, and as my normal travel routine takes me to other parts of the world, I hope to add more and more “everyday” scenes in cities that I might not have the opportunity to photograph in a “serious” way.
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Okay, so now it’s September of 2014, and I’ve got the iPhone 6. They say that the camera is better, and that the internal camera-related hardware/firmware/software is better, too. Obviously, I’ve got the newer iOS, too, and even on the “old” phones, it now supports time-lapse videos along with everything else.
I’ve still got my pocket camera (an amazing little Sony RX-100 Mark III), and two larger cameras (Sony RX-10, and Sony A7), but I have a feeling that I won’t even be taking them out of the camera bag when I’m out on the street for ordinary day-to-day walking around.
That will depend, obviously, on what kind of photos and videos the iPhone6 is actually capable of taking … so I’m going to try to use it every day, and see what the results look like …
Like I said last year, “stay tuned…"
A visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, it is located on Trumpington Street and it is free to visit. Large bags had to be put into coin operated lockers at the Courtyard Entrance.
Photography is permitted but it its for non-commercial personal use.
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. Founded in 1816, the Fitzwilliam Museum includes one of the best collections of antiquities and modern art in western Europe. With over half a million objects and artworks in its collections, the displays in the Museum explore world history and art from antiquity to the present. The treasures of the museum include artworks by Monet, Picasso, Rubens, Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Van Dyck, and Canaletto, as well as a winged bas-relief from Nimrud. Admission to the public is always free.
The museum is a partner in the University of Cambridge Museums consortium, one of 16 Major Partner Museum services funded by Arts Council England to lead the development of the museums sector.
Grade I Listed Building
Fitzwilliam Museum and boundary wall, plinths and gates to the north-east
Summary
Museum, now known as the Founder’s Building, built in 1837-1843 to the designs of George Basevi and completed by Charles Robert Cockerell, with further internal work carried out in 1875 by Edward Middleton Barry. Extensions to the south-east added in 1921-1936 by Smith and Brewer, and Atkinson and Partners in 1955.
Description
Museum, now known as the Founder’s Building, built in 1837-1843 to the designs of George Basevi and completed by Charles Robert Cockerell, with further internal work carried out in 1875 by Edward Middleton Barry. Extensions to the south-east added in 1921-1936 by Smith and Brewer, and Atkinson and Partners in 1955.
MATERIALS: brown brick faced in finely jointed Portland stone with stone dressings.
PLAN: the Museum occupies a large site facing north-east onto Trumpington Street. The Founder’s Building, at the north-west end of the site, has a rectangular plan with the principal entrance on the north-east side. On its south-east side the long linear Marlay Galleries, added by Smith and Brewer in 1921-1924, link up to the courtyard which has an evolved plan. The north-west, north-east and part of the south-west sides, known as the Courtauld Galleries, were added by Smith and Brewer in 1926-1931. The single-storey extension alongside the north-east side, known as the Henderson Gallery, was built in 1936. The small rectangular Coin Room (also known as the McLean Room) was added in 1921-24 in the corner between the Marlay Galleries and the north-west side of the courtyard; and the Manuscript Room was added above in 1925-26. Adjoining this, along the north-west side, is the long extension built by Atkinson and Partners in 1955.
The southern end of the south-west side of the courtyard is occupied by the square extension built in 1963-1965 by David Roberts who also designed the south-east side, built 1973-1975, which created an internal courtyard space and an additional entrance on the north-east side. An external passage, rebuilt in 1975, links this extension to Grove Lodge. The courtyard has a glazed infill extension by John Miller and Partners 2002-2004. The David Roberts extensions, external linking passage to Grove Lodge, and the early C21 infill are all excluded from the listing.
EXTERIOR: the two-storey Founder’s Building is in an enriched neo-Roman style in the Corinthian order. The principal north-east elevation has a colonnade of thirteen bays flanked by narrow pavilions and with the centre columns brought forward to form an octostyle portico under a pediment. The portico is approached by a flight of steps bounded by pedestals projecting from the moulded podium supporting the colonnade and pavilions. The entablature has enriched modillions and carved lions' heads and is continued round the whole building. The tympanum of the pediment is carved in high relief with the nine Muses, Pegasus and the Hippocrene fountain with an attendant nymph, after Eastlake's designs; on the acroteria on the lower extremities of the pediment are carved seated chimaerae. The walls of the staircase-hall continue up behind the portico to form an attic, with bracketed cornice and blocking-course; elsewhere the building has a panelled parapet wall divided into bays by pedestal-like projections.
The pavilions have fluted Corinthian pilasters at the angles, spaced as the bays of the colonnade, framing a half-domed niche which rises from a string enriched with guilloche-ornament; below the string is a panelled dado and above the niche a square panel containing a wreath; between the capitals of the pilasters are carved chimaerae facing a candelabrum. The return-fronts of the pavilions are wider than their street-fronts, with angle pilasters and two square attached fluted Corinthian columns in the centre framing an opening the full height of the order; steps flanked by carved lions on pedestals lead up to these secondary porticos and give lateral access to the colonnade. The back wall of the colonnade is divided into five bays by plain round attached columns and fluted pilasters, and is recessed in the three bays behind the main portico. In the centre bay is the main entrance doorway with side-pilasters with capitals carved with acanthus foliage, an entablature with enriched cornice and frieze inscribed 'Munificentia Ricardi Vicecomitis Fitzwilliam A.D. MDCCCXVI' in Roman capitals, and a semicircular tympanum above carved in low relief with Phoebus in his chariot. The main doors are of bronze in two hinged and panelled leaves with framing enriched with Greek frets. Flanking the main entrance door are two original pedestals. The side bays contain plain round-headed niches above a string decorated with guilloche-ornament and the end bays have continuous panels of carved acanthus foliage between the capitals of the order. In rectangular openings below the niches flanking the door are bronze grilles decorated with pierced net-pattern and acanthus foliage, designed by E M Barry in 1872–1875.
The elaborate plasterwork of the portico and colonnade was carried out by Nicholl, probably in 1842. The portico has a plaster frieze of scrolled foliage with putti, and the ceiling is divided into twenty-one deeply sunk coffers by beams enriched with plaster leaves, fruit, flowers and guilloche-ornament. The coffers are similarly enriched with egg-and-dart and Greek fret-ornament and with a large open flower in the centre of each. The ceilings of the colonnade are more simply coffered. The treatment of the interior of the pavilions is generally similar to that of the portico and colonnade.
The south-west front is divided into a wide centre and two narrower flanking bays by coupled fluted Corinthian pilasters on moulded plinths; the main entablature breaks forward over the pilasters. The windows on the ground floor are uniform in detail; the middle window is of three lights divided and flanked by pilasters with acanthus caps and an entablature pedimented over the centre light; to each side is a single-light pedimented window, and the window in each flanking bay is again tripartite but with some blocking. On the upper floor are five shallow round-headed niches above a string enriched with guilloche-ornament.
The north-west and south-east fronts are similar, but the latter is now partly covered by later buildings; each has at one end the return of the front pavilion and at the other coupled fluted Corinthian pilasters. The three three-light windows on the ground floor and niches on the floor above are similar to those of the south-west front.
To the left of the Founder’s Building is the seven-bay Marlay Wing (1921-24) in a stripped neo-Classical style. It gives the appearance of being one-storey but the upper level gallery is lit by a glazed roof hidden behind the parapet. The tall multi-paned windows have metal glazing bars and are set in slightly projecting architraves with wide sills and narrow dentilled lintels. The cast-iron downpipes have hoppers bearing the ornate initial ‘M’ for Marlay and the date of 1922. The rear (south-west) elevation is similar except the fenestration consists of five small windows in simple moulded surrounds with wide stone sills. The last two bays are covered by the two-storey Coin and Manuscript Rooms (1921-1926) which have a plain string running at first-floor sill level and plain stone cornice. The recessed windows have metal glazing bars in plain surrounds and retain external metal blinds.
To the left of the Marlay Gallery is the north-east side of the courtyard, housing the two-storey Courtauld Galleries (1926-1931), which are also in a stripped neo-Classical style. They are dominated by a double-height pavilion lit by a tall, recessed, round-arched window with metal glazing bars which radiate at the top. This is set in a round-arched surround of two plain orders with voussoirs and an elongated keystone that extends upwards to the architrave. The window is flanked by square, panelled pilasters and square corner pilasters, followed by another pair of recessed corner pilasters, all on plain bases which are supported by a continuous plinth. The entablature has a plain frieze and a dentilled cornice, surmounted by a shallow unadorned pediment. The entablature continues around the return-walls. On the right return-wall is the side of the pavilion which has a round-headed niche flanked by square, panelled corner pilasters. This is followed by two ground-floor windows in the same style as those on the Marlay Wing. The cast-iron hoppers bear the initial ‘C’ for Courtauld. The left return-wall is obscured by the single-storey, four-bay Henderson Gallery (1936) which has a shallow plinth and a parapet enriched with a rectangular form of egg-and-dart. The windows are similar to those already described, and retain their external metal roller blinds. Rising behind the Henderson Gallery is the entablature of the Courtauld Wing. The rear (south-west) elevations have a plain string running at first-floor sill level and plain stone cornice. The fenestration consists of recessed windows with metal glazing bars in plain surrounds, mostly vertical but with some horizontal windows on the upper floor. Some have external metal blinds and others have security bars.
INTERIOR: in the Founder’s Building, the mezzanine-level staircase hall extends up to roof height and has two flights of ascending and descending stairs, around which a set of five galleries are arranged on each floor. Below the portico and staircase hall are a series of rooms, some barrel-vaulted, originally designed as stores and service rooms but enlarged and remodelled in the 1990s to provide offices, workrooms and WCs.
The design for the staircase-hall was modified by both the architects employed on the building after Basevi and the extent of the work of each is only broadly definable. It now consists of a central stairwell with two flanking flights of stairs rising to a balustraded landing which returns round the two sides of the hall to form balconies. These are separated from the stair-well by open screens of composite columns and square attached columns, each of three bays; the columns and their responds on the walls behind the screens support lintels from which rise semicircular barrel-vaults with their outer ends pierced to form lunettes providing clerestorey lighting from the sides. Over the stairwell is a large circular lantern with Hermes figures against the drum and a balustraded walk. The marble doorcase of the entrance to the main gallery at the head of the stairs has flanking caryatides modelled upon those of the Erechtheion supporting an enriched architrave and cornice. The doors to the side galleries are plainer but have elaborate cartouches above containing the arms of the University against a pedimented backing. On the upper level around the entire hall there are twelve niches with small flanking Ionic columns and curved pedimented entablatures. Below the balconies secondary flights of stairs lead down to the lower galleries. The floors are laid with elaborate tesselated pavements based upon Roman models. A wide variety of marble and polished stone was used in the internal decoration by Cockerell, but important changes in the colour scheme, notably the predominance of red, were made by Barry.
On the ground floor Basevi specified the style of the lower rooms to be Grecian Doric. The gallery in the north-east corner, known as the Gayer-Anderson Room, has a plaster cornice and panelled ceiling. The gallery in the north-west corner, is divided into three bays by square panelled Roman Doric columns on pedestals supporting a trabeated plaster ceiling with the arms of the University in a wreath in the centre and guilloche-enriched panels in the end bays. The middle, long south-west gallery is divided in length and width into three bays by fluted Roman Doric columns and panelled pilasters on low pedestals supporting an enriched trabeated ceiling; in the ceiling-panels down the centre of the room and contained within wreaths of bay leaves are the arms of the University and Fitzwilliam. The smaller south-west gallery is generally similar to the north-west gallery but with modern openings into the new extension. The windows have panelled soffits and jambs.
The fittings of the Library, which occupies the south-east side, were designed by Cockerell in 1846. The three internal walls are lined from floor to ceiling with oak bookcases, and there are projecting bookcases along the north-west wall with panelled ends and enriched cornices returned across the same wall; above cornice-level the wall-cases are recessed and divided into bays by panelled pilasters spaced to coincide with the projecting bookcases below. The external wall is lined with oak panelling, with fluted columns flanking the windows and panelled pilasters between the window-lights. The white marble fireplace has scrolled side-brackets supporting a moulded shelf and the steel grate has applied brass enrichments. Above is a mirror in a gilt frame surmounted by a carved cartouche with the Fitzwilliam arms, scroll-work and a coronet under a segmental head; the whole is flanked by panelled pilasters supporting an enriched pedimented entablature.
On the first floor, Gallery I has a dado of scagliola marble and the walls are each divided into three bays by panelled composite pilasters supporting plastered ceiling-beams with enriched soffits. It is lit by three glazed domes with shallow moulded plaster drums enriched with foliage and female masks. In the north-east wall is a panelled apsidal recess with plaster enrichment of banded garlands of leaves, fruit and flowers over the archivolt of the semi-dome.
Gallery II has scagliola doorways and dado and panelled scagliola pilasters with caps carved with honeysuckle and acanthus supporting arches with scroll-work on the soffits. The dome has panelled pendentives and a plaster Medusa-head in the centre of the lantern above. The north-east doorway has a lugged architrave and flanking pilaster-strips and consoles supporting an entablature with laurel-leaf frieze. The south-east doorway has panelled side-pilasters with enriched caps supporting a semicircular over-door with plain plaster tympanum.
Gallery III, known as the Founder’s Gallery, was altered in 1932 by the insertion of bulkheads to form display-bays and a narrow wall-gallery above; around the cornice is a plaster-cast of the Parthenon frieze, bought on Basevi's recommendation from the Trustees of the British Museum in 1837. The plaster ceiling is original and of much elaboration, consisting of a deep cove rising to a long rectangular lantern; the cove has a network of diagonal panelling divided into bays by vertical bands enriched with spirals of acanthus foliage, the corner bays containing amphorae and foliage. The lights in the vertical side-walls of the lantern are divided by enriched pilasters with winged figures on pedestals in front and, in the corners of the lantern, standing plaster candelabra. The roof of the lantern is panelled and coffered and has three small domed lights with enriched pendentives.
Galleries IV and V are generally similar to Galleries I and II respectively. Gallery IV has a modern opening to the Marlay Gallery.
In the Marlay Wing, the Lower Gallery has an unadorned coffered ceiling and woodblock floor laid in herringbone with a limestone margin around the edge. The oak panelled doors are set in doorcases of polished, buff-coloured marble. A semi-circular niche is positioned in between the two doors at the south-east end. The bras-framed display cases along the north-east and south-west walls are original, as are the lattice heater grilles below the windows. In the Upper Gallery, the coffered ceiling has a clerestorey of sloping windows which allows light to enter at an angle most suitable for illuminating paintings. The gallery is divided into three by projecting bays with brass-framed display cases on timber brackets. The walls are covered in the original Japanese gold hessian wallpaper. The skirting boards, narrow floor boards and lattice heater grilles are all of oak. At the south-east end of the Marlay Galleries, the Coin Room and Manuscript Room are lined with fitted oak bookcases which have cupboards below dado height.
In the Courtauld Galleries the ground-floor galleries are similarly detailed with woodblock floors laid in herringbone; polished, buff-coloured marble doorcases; brass-framed display cabinets; and hessian wall coverings. The coffered ceilings have varying levels of enrichment: some are plain whilst others have delicate classical detailing, including egg-and-dart and bead-and-reel. The Henderson Gallery, along the north-east side, is clad in ‘Black Bean’ plywood. The Art Deco Imperial staircase in the north corner, lit by the large semicircular window in the pavilion, has travertine-lined walls and Portland stone steps with brass handrails. The apsidal ends create an oval ceiling with a dentilled cornice. At the top of the staircase are metal balustrades formed of uprights and diagonal crosses, and a screen consisting of four pairs of polished, buff-coloured marble columns with Egyptian-style capitals.
The first-floor galleries also have a hessian wall covering and oak skirting boards but the floors are laid in narrow oak boards and the doorcases are of polished travertine. Some of the galleries have coffered ceilings with subtle classical detailing, and all are top-lit by angled windows. The long north-west gallery is divided into three by projecting tapered bays with brass-framed display cabinets on the end sections. The Charrington Print Room on the north-east side has a coved ceiling lit by three rooflights and plywood-lined walls which retain built-in cupboards with mesh and brass lattice strips. The adjoining private office is lined with built-in bookcases and cupboards. The Graham Robertson Room, on the north-west side, also retains the original built-in bookcases and reception desk, both with a zebrawood veneer.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the boundary wall of the site to Trumpington Street has stone balustrading on a moulded plinth divided into bays by pedestals and protected on the outer face by chevaux-de-frise on scrolled cast-iron brackets. The pedestals flanking the gates are larger than the others and the two centre pairs have wreaths carved on the dies; the whole is of 1841–1842.
History
The history of the Fitzwilliam Museum is well documented in Lucilla Burn, The Fitzwilliam Museum: A History (2016), An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge (RCHME, 1959), the Conservation Management Plan (Cambridge Architectural Practice, second draft, 2007), and other sources, notably Fitzwilliam Museum and Grove Lodge, University of Cambridge: A Chronology of Building Campaigns 1795-2004 (Julian Harrap Architects). A summary of the building’s history only is given here.
In 1815 Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion, a graduate of the University of Cambridge and one of the leading collectors of his generation, bequeathed to the University his collection of pictures, books, prints etc together with £100,000 for a suitable building in which to house them. After his death the following year, the collections were exhibited first in the Perse Grammar School and from 1842 in the University Library until the permanent museum was built. The present site on Trumpington Street was purchased from Peterhouse in 1821 for the sum of £8,500 but it was not until 1834, when the site was due to be out of lease, that an architectural competition for the new museum could be held. Thirty-six designs by twenty-seven architects were submitted in both Gothic and Classical styles, and the winner was a neo-Roman design by George Basevi (1794-1845), a former pupil of Sir John Soane. During a three-year tour of Italy and Greece, Basevi studied the architecture of every age from Ancient Greece to the High Renaissance, and although he could turn his hand to Gothic and Tudor buildings when required, it was as a Classical architect that he made his mark. He was responsible for work at numerous country houses, churches in Stockport and Greenwich, and for the development at Belgrave Square and other estates in Kensington and Chelsea. By the time he won the competition to design the Fitzwilliam Museum, Basevi was established as one of the leading architects in England. He is associated with over forty buildings on the List, some of which are highly graded.
The first stone of the Fitzwilliam Museum, now known as the Founder’s Building, was laid in 1837. The contractor was George Baker of London, and William Grinsell Nicholl was employed for the sculptural work, including the column and pilaster capitals, and later the pairs of guardian lions and the composition in the pediment which was designed by Charles Eastlake. The exterior was finished by 1843 and the following year Basevi was authorised to proceed with the decoration of the interior but he was killed in an accident at Ely Cathedral in 1845. Charles Robert Cockerell (1788-1863), who had recently completed the construction of the new University Library, was appointed to succeed him. Cockerell was a distinguished classical archaeologist and one of the most respected architects of his day. Amongst his most important surviving works are the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford and the branch Bank of England in Liverpool, both listed at Grade I. Cockerell made few alterations to his predecessor’s designs at the Fitzwilliam, the most notable being the substitution of the central lantern over the staircase-hall for the three domes Basevi had planned. As the staircase arrangement had not been settled before Basevi’s death, Cockerell decided upon one central ascending staircase flanked by two descending staircases. He designed the interior of the Founder’s Library and the railings on Trumpington Street. The galleries were completed and most of the decoration of the hall ceiling was finished by 1848 when work was suspended due to lack of funds, leaving the walls of the staircase-hall in bare brick. The collections were moved in and the Museum opened in Spring 1848. It was not until 1870 that a proposal was made to complete the staircase-hall, and the following year Edward Middleton Barry was appointed architect. His designs for the rearrangement of the staircase, the enlargement of the central lantern, the enrichment of the decoration, and the general predominance of red in the colouring were approved, and the work was completed in 1875. The total cost of the Founder’s Building was £114,942.
The first extension to the Fitzwilliam took place under Sydney Cockerell, the Museum’s dynamic Director from 1908 to 1937. He oversaw the bequest of Charles Brinsley Marlay, a noted art collector and connoisseur, who also left £90,000 for a new building to house his vast collection. In 1914 the adjacent site of Grove Lodge (Grade II) was purchased from Peterhouse for £12,000 and the London-based architect Arnold Dunbar Smith (1866-1933) and his partner Cecil Brewer (1871-1918) were commissioned for the extension. Their design for the Arts and Crafts Mary Ward Settlement building in Bloomsbury (1895, Grade II) had been an early success, followed by mostly domestic work until they won the competition for the National Museum of Wales in1910 which directly helped them to get the Fitzwilliam commission. The practice has numerous listed buildings, some at high grade, such as the extension to the Grade II* listed Heal’s shop in Tottenham Court Road (1912-1916). Their initial plan at the Fitzwilliam was for a narrow connecting gallery that would run southwards from the Founder’s Building to join a large open quadrangle, more than doubling the floor space of the Museum and involving the demolition of Grove Lodge. Construction was delayed by the First World War and by the time the project could be taken up again in 1920, the costs had tripled and there was only enough money to build the connecting wing, known as the Marlay Galleries, and a single-storey Coin Room called the McLean Room. Building work was carried out by William Sindall between 1921 and 1924, and the Manuscript Room was subsequently built above the Coin Room in 1925-1926. The connecting wing required Smith and Brewer to make new openings on the ground and first floors of the Founder’s Building, and they also inserted a display balcony around the perimeter of the Founder’s Gallery supported by projecting tapered bulkheads. Additional funds from the Courtauld family enabled the construction of the north-west and north-east sides of the courtyard and the first few bays of the south-west side. Construction started in 1926 and the extension opened in 1931. In 1933 further funds allowed for an extension of the north-east side to be built which opened as the Henderson Gallery in 1936.
In 1952 it was still anticipated that Smith and Brewer’s 1914 courtyard scheme would eventually be completed but a different plan was subsequently proposed and adopted. In 1955 Robert Atkinson and Partners built the Graham Robertson Room alongside the Coin Room and over the 1920s boiler house. Then David Wyn Roberts (1911-1982), who designed the linking passage between the Henderson Wing and Grove Lodge in 1958, was asked to design the new extension. In 1962 his scheme for three interlocking cubic buildings adjoining the unfinished west wing of the courtyard was approved, and the first cube was built in 1963-1965, becoming known as the White Cube. Another extension was planned in 1970 but instead of completing the series of cubic buildings, Roberts and his partner Geoffrey Clarke designed a brick wing that would fully enclose the Smith and Brewer courtyard on the south-east side. Building work started in 1973 and the wing was opened in 1975.
In 2002-2004 the internal courtyard was infilled by John Miller and Partners who created a new café and shop within a glazed atrium, and offices and workshops projecting into the courtyard at mezzanine level, along with a new gallery at first-floor level. At the same time, the1970s extension was extensively refurbished, its north-west wall removed, and a new glazed porch added to the public entrance.
Reasons for Listing
The Fitzwilliam Museum, built in 1837-1843 to the designs of George Basevi and completed by Charles Robert Cockerell, with extensions to the south-east added in 1921-1936 by Smith and Brewer, is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* Basevi and Cockerell were both leading architects of their time, and the Fitzwilliam is one of the major works of the Early Victorian period, exemplifying the move away from the sobriety of neo-Greek architecture to a more dynamic composition and opulent display of neo-Roman detailing;
* the grand elevations, clad in exquisitely laid Portland stone, are embellished with applied sculptural art of the highest order;
* the superior quality of materials is continued in the monumental public space of the staircase hall and galleries which are meticulously detailed and richly appointed;
* the stripped classicism of the Marlay Wing and Courtauld Galleries harmonise well with the Founder’s Building, the restrained internal treatment of the galleries and elegant stair achieving a quiet distinction whilst the top side-lit galleries are a significant and successful element in their design.
Historic interest:
* its founding was part of the movement to establish public art galleries in England, and it continues to play an important role in the rich cultural life of the country.
Group value:
* it has strong group value with many surrounding listed buildings, notably the Grade II listed Grove Lodge to the south-east and the Grade I listed Peterhouse College to the north-west.
main entrance door
(more details later, as time permits)
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It's been a little over a year since the afternoon in March 2013 when I last photographed the tango dancers in New York City -- even though I know they come together every Sunday afternoon, down at the end of Pier 45 (where Christopher Street runs into the Hudson River in the West Village) through spring, summer, and fall seasons. But I’ve been busy with other projects, and also photographing other events and gatherings … so I eventually forgot all about the dancers and the pier, and drifted an entire summer, fall and winter before there was a combination of free time and clear skies in mid-April that reminded me that I should see what Pier 45 looked like, once again.
It occurred to me that tango (and any other form of dance) is all about movement and sound; you can’t very well stand silently, in one place, and tell people that you’ve been dancing the tango. So I spent much of my time, on this excursion, taking video-recordings of the dancers. These aren’t Hollywood movies, but they’ll give you much more a visual and audio sense of what goes on than you might have gotten from a collection of “still” photos.
As for the still photos included in this album: they’re mostly of the people who were sitting and talking, or walking and strolling, on the periphery of the dance area. So they don’t really have anything to do with tango dancing per se; but in my own head, I always associate them with the dance “scene.”
I’ve created Flickr albums of roughly a dozen different tango dances, which you can see here on Flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/collections/72157624855980784/
And if you don’t know what any of this is about, it might be useful to see the notes that I attached to my first tango album, taken in Washington, DC in the summer of 2009:
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Let me begin with a disclaimer: I do not dance the tango, and I know little or nothing about its history, its folklore, or even its steps and rhythms. I'm vaguely aware that it originated in Argentina (and Uruguay) in the 1890s, that a new style known as "tango nuevo" began to emerge in the late 1990s, and that various actors and actresses -- including Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Antonio Banderas, Madonna, Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger(!), among others -- have performed the tango in various movies. But beyond that, it never really occurred to me that it played any significant role here in the U.S.
That is, not until the summer of 2009, when I happened to return to my hotel, on a business trip to Washington, DC, just as a local gathering of tango aficionados was dancing to their music in a nearby square known as Freedom Plaza. I photographed the event (see my Flickr set Last tango in Washington) and learned from one of the participants that there were similar informal events in New York City, at the South Street seaport, during the summer and fall weekends. When I got back to New York, I searched on the Internet, and found a schedule of upcoming tango events just as my Washington acquaintance had indicated; but travel schedules, inclement weather, and other distractions prevented me from actually attending any of them; by the end of the autumn season, I had forgotten all about it.
For some reason, something reminded me of the tango again this spring -- perhaps some music that I overheard, perhaps a scene on some otherwise forgettable television show. In any case, I searched again on the Internet, and discovered that a tango "event" would be taking place on a Sunday afternoon -- but not at the South Street Seaport (on the east side of Manhattan, near the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges), but rather at Pier 45, where Christopher Street runs into the Hudson River in Greenwich Village. The event was scheduled to take place between 3:30 and 7:30 PM, and another quick search on the Internet informed me that sunset would occur at 7:30 PM. So I arrived a little before 6 PM, as the sun was beginning to drop down in the western sky, and photographed for a little more than an hour.
I captured some 522 images, of which 75 have survived in this Flickr set. For the majority of the photos, I stood at the end of the pier, with my back to the Hudson River and the sinking sun; the sun broken in and out of clouds on the horizon -- and because I was wearing sunglasses, I didn't fully appreciate the extent of sun-glare that was often striking the faces of the dancers, as well as the shadows where the sun wasn't hitting at all. But I think I recovered most of the inadvertent over-exposure and under-exposure with some post-processing on the computer... I was also able to get some shots facing westward and southward, so that you could see the New Jersey skyline behind the dancers; indeed, there are a couple of shots with the Statue of Liberty and the Verrazano Bridge in the background. (Note to self: come back here at twilight, on a Sunday evening in mid-summer; it could well be even more spectacular.)
Since I have no personal expertise (or even competence) at the dance, there's not much that I can say about what's going on; I have to let the pictures speak for themselves. Though it wasn't universally true, I noticed several occasions where the women were taller than their partners; I gather that that's an advantage when the dancers are twirling and twisting around. Also, I had the distinct impression -- just as was the case in Washington last summer -- that few (if any) of the dancers were "couples" in the traditional sense. Indeed, many of them seemed to be strangers who had met for the first time at this tango event, but who seemed to enjoy the experience of the dance together. And others, from what little I could tell, might have encountered one another at previous tango events -- but had no other interactions or relationship with one another.
In any case, I had photographed everything I could imagine photographing by a little after 7 PM. I put away my camera equipment, walked a few blocks east to Hudson Street to enjoy a delicious dinner at a local restaurant with my wife, and made a note to check the Internet again for future tango events in Central Park and the South Street Seaport. If you'd like to pursue this on your own, check out Richard Lipkin's Guide to Argentine Tango in New York City.
Enjoy...
(more details later, as time permits)
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In case you had't noticed, summer is over. Fall has arrived. The air is cooler, especially in the early morning -- but also in the evening, when only a few weeks ago people would wander all over the city in shorts and tank tops. Sunset is well before 7 PM, and the sun has moved noticeably north along the New Jersey skyline.
But the tango dancers are still here - in Riverside Park, in Central Park, at the South Street Seaport, and out at the end of Pier 45, where Christopher Street runs into the Hudson River in the West Village. I was here only two weeks ago, but when I got a particular kind of photography assignment in an ICP "street photography" class ("take a series of photos in which each photo is somehow "derived" from the previous one"), I decided that the tango dancers on Pier 45 might well provide the images I needed ...
As I've pointed out in Flickr albums (here, for example), I do not dance the tango (or any other civilized form of dance), and I know little or nothing about the history, the folklore, or even the steps and rhythms of the tango. But after accidentally stumbling upon a local gathering of tango aficionados on a business trip to Washington in the summer of 2009 (see my Flickr set Last tango in Washington), I subsequently learned that there were similar informal events throughout New York City. When I got home, I searched on the Internet and found a schedule of upcoming tango events at several different NYC locations -- including Pier 45, where I made my first visit in mid-April, which led to this set of photos.
I returned in mid-July of 2010, even though I knew it would be much hotter ... and indeed, it was so hot that the music did not even begin until 6 PM. But then the dancers began to appear, one after another, until there were a couple dozen pairs of dancers filling a large space under a sheltering canopy, as the sun went down. And since it was the end of a hot summer evening, tango wasn't the only thing going on: there were people sunbathing, watching the boats on the river, playing frisbee, or simply enjoying themselves. I photographed a little of everything; you can see it in this Flickr set.
So now I've come back once again ... but with my upcoming travel schedule, including trips to places as diverse as Rochester, Camden (where these notes are being written), Rome, and Miami, I doubt that I'll have a chance return this fall. It may well be next spring before I see the dancers once again twirling and gliding across the wooden deck of Pier 45.
If you'd like to watch NYC tango dancing on your own, check out Richard Lipkin's Guide to Argentine Tango in New York City.
(more details later, as time permits)
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About a year ago, I created Flickr album for photos that I had started taking with my iPhone5s; and now I’m creating a new Flickr album for photos that I’ve begun taking with myiPhone6, which just arrived from T-Mobile this morning.
In last year’s album, I wrote, "Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, it’s hard to walk around with a modern smartphone in your pocket, and not be tempted to use the built-in camera from time-to-time. Veteran photographers typically sneer at such behavior, and most will tell you that they can instantly recognize an iPhone photo, which they mentally reject as being unworthy of any serious attention.
"After using many earlier models of smartphones over the past several years, I was inclined to agree; after all, I always (well, almost always) had a “real” camera in my pocket (or backpack or camera-bag), and it was always capable of taking a much better photographic image than the mediocre, grainy images shot with a camera-phone.
"But still … there were a few occasions when I desperately wanted to capture some photo-worthy event taking place right in front of me, and inevitably it turned out to be the times when I did not have the “real” camera with me. Or I did have it, but it was buried somewhere in a bag, and I knew that the “event” would have disappeared by the time I found the “real" camera and turned it on. By contrast, the smart-phone was always in my pocket (along with my keys and my wallet, it’s one of the three things I consciously grab every time I walk out the door). And I often found that I could turn it on, point it at the photographic scene, and take the picture much faster than I could do the same thing with a “traditional” camera.
"Meanwhile, smartphone cameras have gotten substantially better in the past few years, from a mechanical/hardware perspective; and the software “intelligence” controlling the camera has become amazingly sophisticated. It’s still not on the same level as a “professional” DSLR camera, but for a large majority of the “average” photographic situations we’re likely to encounter in the unplanned moments of our lives, it’s more and more likely to be “good enough.” The old adage of “the best camera is the one you have with you” is more and more relevant these days. For me, 90% of the success in taking a good photo is simply being in the right place at the right time, being aware that the “photo opportunity” is there, and having a camera — any camera — to take advantage of that opportunity. Only 10% of the time does it matter which camera I’m using, or what technical features I’ve managed to use.
"And now, with the recent advent of the iPhone5s, there is one more improvement — which, as far as I can tell, simply does not exist in any of the “professional” cameras. You can take an unlimited number of “burst-mode” shots with the new iPhone, simply by keeping your finger on the shutter button; instead of being limited to just six (as a few of the DSLR cameras currently offer), you can take 10, 20, or even a hundred shots. And then — almost magically — the iPhone will show you which one or two of the large burst of photos was optimally sharp and clear. With a couple of clicks, you can then delete everything else, and retain only the very best one or two from the entire burst.
"With that in mind, I’ve begun using my iPhone5s for more and more “everyday” photo situations out on the street. Since I’m typically photographing ordinary, mundane events, even the one or two “optimal” shots that the camera-phone retains might not be worth showing anyone else … so there is still a lot of pruning and editing to be done, and I’m lucky if 10% of those “optimal” shots are good enough to justify uploading to Flickr and sharing with the rest of the world. Still, it’s an enormous benefit to know that my editing work can begin with photos that are more-or-less “technically” adequate, and that I don’t have to waste even a second reviewing dozens of technically-mediocre shots that are fuzzy, or blurred.
"Oh, yeah, one other minor benefit of the iPhone5s (and presumably most other current brands of smartphone): it automatically geotags every photo and video, without any special effort on the photographer’s part. Only one of my other big, fat cameras (the Sony Alpha SLT A65) has that feature, and I’ve noticed that almost none of the “new” mirrorless cameras have got a built-in GPS thingy that will perform the geotagging...
"I’ve had my iPhone5s for a couple of months now, but I’ve only been using the “burst-mode” photography feature aggressively for the past couple of weeks. As a result, the initial batch of photos that I’m uploading are all taken in the greater-NYC area. But as time goes on, and as my normal travel routine takes me to other parts of the world, I hope to add more and more “everyday” scenes in cities that I might not have the opportunity to photograph in a “serious” way.
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Okay, so now it’s September of 2014, and I’ve got the iPhone 6. They say that the camera is better, and that the internal camera-related hardware/firmware/software is better, too. Obviously, I’ve got the newer iOS, too, and even on the “old” phones, it now supports time-lapse videos along with everything else.
I’ve still got my pocket camera (an amazing little Sony ERX-100 Mark III), and two larger cameras (Sony RX-10, and Sony A7), but I have a feeling that I won’t even be taking them out of the camera bag when I’m out on the street for ordinary day-to-day walking around.
That will depend, obviously, on what kind of photos and videos the iPhone6 is actually capable of taking … so I’m going to try to use it every day, and see what the results look like …
Like I said last year, “stay tuned…"
Como outubro era o ~meu mês~ me permiti extrapolar a boca do balão e comprar mil esmaltinhos. huauhahua
Ok, dos 43 esmaltes da foto: 13 são presentes/brindes, então por minha conta são 30. XD (ainda tem mais esmaltinho esperando chegar)
A Cinthia louca me deu o Alfaparf e praticamente toda a coleção Fantastic Glitter's, da L'Apogée! *___* um mais lindo que o outro.
Também ganhei da minha irmã um MAC, o Anti-Fashion (que é um dos dupes do Paradoxal) e o glitter BK que já postei aqui.
O Dote foi um brinde de uma lojinha. o/
Comprei na Sephora com cupom de desconto o YSL Jade Imperial, maior lindo \o/
Também aproveitei uma promoção da Illamasqua em setembro e peguei esses quatro esmaltinhos, entre eles o Milf, que queria tanto.
Começou a vender em uma perfumaria aqui os Revlon Colorstay, a um preço bem salgado (por volta de 30~35 reais) x_x. Mesmo assim não resisti huahuahua e peguei o Rain Forest, que já tava namorando há tempos. Na mesma perfumaria apareceram também uns Milani, e peguei o Beach Front e o Gray Tux. Este último achei super parecido com o Metallic 4 Life, então tinha decidido que não ia mais comprar o OPI, mesmo porque já tava meio ~raro. Só que daí achei ele vendendo numa loja online e comprei HUAHAU. Como diz a Bianca: coerência, não trabalhamos.
Ainda aí tem: novos Bourjois da linha 1 Seconde (que tem uma pegada neon), China Glaze raros como Mummy May I, It's Alive, I Herd That, o Essence Movie Star que queria mas não achava, o Skull & Glossbones depois de todo mundo falar que ele é lindo, Boticários e por aí vai!
All aboard the Virgin River Express! This is the Subway feature of the Left Fork of the Virgin River in Zion National Park. It is required to get a back-country permit to hike here, and I'm glad that's the case! Most national parks are so crowded that it is sometimes hard to really feel a sense of being in nature (which is probably why so many tourists end up injuring themselves). On this hike I only encountered about 10-12 other people, but only in passing. This was a great day for fall photos and solitude... exactly what I was looking for!
To get to the subway, you need to hike up river about 3.5 miles (Or you can take the long way down river, which requires getting very wet). I've seen numerous photos of the subway, so I wanted to do something a little different. Which is to say I decied to shoot it as a panorama. This image is a combination of three vertical HDR frames. The yellow swirls in the water are caused by leaves being carried by the current, which I was lucky to capture, as a strong wind released some leaves from the trees high over head just when I started my capturing process.
To read more, and find out how I make my images, visit my blog.
For prints, visit my printshop.
This image was processed using Photomatix Pro and Photoshop CS4.
This image is licensed cc-by-nc-sa. Media (including blogs) are permitted to use my images provided they provide attribution in the form of "Photo by Andrew Bossi" or something along those lines.
It would be very much appreciated (though not required) if you provide a link back to my photo. Send me a message on Flickr or at thisisbossi@gmail.com if you use my image & I'll add a link on the photo's page back to your article.
If you want the highest-resolution image: simply right-click on the photo and select "Original".
Also, if I've mis-titled or mis-tagged anything: just let me know. If you recognise someone I should tag: again, just let me know.
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In response to the Congressional budget debacle which proved that DC is but a colony -- prone to being singled out unlike any other city in the country -- a number of activists, elected officials, and general citizens came out in force upon the grounds of Capitol Hill.
The crowd first formed on the sidewalk, but after some opening remarks by elected officials and activists: they quickly spilled into the street. The Capitol Police had been on hand & I'd thought it amusing that a couple were taking photos & videos... it wasn't until I saw the wristbands come out when I realised these weren't officers enjoying the moment; they were recording evidence.
With many minutes of warning, large portions of the group shifted over the sidewalk; whilst a core of dedicated supporters -- including our Mayor, a number of councilmembers, and members of DC Vote -- remained behind to block the roadway. The officers began to surround the group & repeated their warnings to get back on the sidewalk or face arrest.
Now in all fairness to the Capitol Police: they were doing their job. They were quite courteous about it & the protest was similarly jubilant right back. One woman was first to be bound, soon followed by several other activists. Then came Muriel Bowser: first councilmember to be arrested.
In general, I tend to dislike political grandstanding... but this was different. If our council was being arrested by our own police, I'd think it a cheesy photo op... but now our locally-elected officials were being arrested by the very forces we were out to protest: the Feds. This wasn't a mere photo op arrest; this was actually a legitimate arrest... the kind of thing that goes on your record; the kind of thing you spent a night in jail for.
Now granted, I don't expect anyone will be in jail longer than tomorrow; I'd be surprised if any were still locked up by midnight tonight. But it was Councilmember Bowser's arrest which really hit a moment... you could see the look on her face was of some worried concern: someone who had never been arrested before & didn't show up here today expecting to be arrested. As she was placed into the police van: her look of concern changed to a bit more worry. I mean this as no knock against Councilmember Bowser's committment; rather I felt it really help to humanise the entire event. It made me respect her all the more.
Yvette Alexander stood right beside us for quite some time, complicated in that she didn't have her ID on her. While it was entertaining to see our top officials being frisked, it was also quite entertaining that our easily-recognisable councilmember needed her ID... prompting a standerby to call one of her staffers with the best introduction I've ever heard over a phone: "Hi, your councilmember has been arrested." Also, kudos to Councilmember Alexander for going to jail in high heels!
There is a lot I can complain about with the council in general; and certainly with individual councilmembers & even the mayor. Heck, that's what politicians are for: you're not supposed to always like them. But this was an opportunity to set aside some of those issues (frankly, I'd say DC was glad to have a unifying moment after the past couple weeks) and cheer on our own brothers & sisters as they stood up in support of our rights.
It was certainly a proud moment to be a DC resident and a fine boost to our collective esteem after several weeks of turmoil within our local & federal levels of government. It's aggravating that my support for small & local government is inhibited by those in Congress whom advocate small & local government. If I wanted to live in a colony, I'd have moved to Williamsburg.
(More details later, as time permits)
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As I've noted in other sets of photos here on Flickr, I've been lucky enough to visit Rome dozens of times since I first celebrated a solitary birthday there back in 1972. Since then, I've often come alone (usually on business trips to lecture about various aspects of software development), and I've sometimes managed to bring various children and/or my wife. This time, like many other trips, I was alone.
On most of my trips, I make a point of visiting Piazza del Popolo at least once -- because there are always interesting scenes to photograph, with a combination of tourists, students, lovers, and amateur musicians. This time, there was a Michael Jackson impersonator -- who, at least from a distance, seemed to mimic MJ's fluid moves pretty well. And there was an electric guitarist, but it turned out that he could only play instrumentals -- and he tended to play the same songs, over and over again.
I photographed people in Piazza del Popolo on the first and last days of my visit; but I also spent a couple hours in Piazza Santa Margarita in Trastevere, where there was a wedding underway. And I strolled a block or two from my hotel to Piazza Cavour, where the entire piazza had been off-limits for years because of reconstruction work. But the reconstruction is over, the piazza is open, and I was lucky enough to be there during the "golden hour" before sunset, where I got some interesting photos of the local people enjoying a balmy early-summer evening.
On Sunday morning, I decided to visit the enormous "flea market" at Porta Portensa, where I did my best to get a few interesting shots of the shoppers, tourists, and long rows of merchant stalls filled with various forms of cheap, tacky merchandise. It was quite an experience...
As I have on past occasions, I took thousands of photos during my week-long visit, from which I select a few dozen to upload to Flickr. Hopefully they'll give you a sense of what it's like here in the Eternal City ...
flickriver.com/photos/javier1949/popular-interesting/
Naves del Español (Antiguas naves 10, 11 y 12)
Arquitectos Emilio Esteras 2007-10 y Justo Benito 2009-10
El conjunto escénico de 5.900 m2, denominado las Naves del Español, ha sido fruto del trabajo de colaboración del director de teatro Mario Gas, el escenógrafo Jean Guy Lecat, el técnico escenógrafo Francisco Fontanals y el arquitecto municipal Emilio Esteras. La intervención, guiada por los principios de reversibilidad, flexibilidad y versatilidad ha permitido dotar el espacio de múltiples configuraciones escénicas, introduciéndose nuevos elementos y materiales (policarbonato y estructura de andamio) que se yuxtaponen a los existentes y permiten una clara lectura de las intervenciones. Las naves forman un conjunto dotado de gran flexibilidad, que permite el funcionamiento autónomo de tres espacios interconectados.
La nave 12 funciona como foyer o vestíbulo del conjunto escénico, con zona de acogida, cafetería y espacio para realizar espectáculos de pequeño formato. En la nave 11 se sitúa el espacio escénico propiamente dicho, con una disposición muy flexible y versátil. Graderío, escena y maquinaria teatral se han concebido de tal forma que el espacio admite múltiples configuraciones, desde espectáculos teatrales convencionales a propuestas escénicas más arriesgadas. La nave 10, obra del arquitecto Justo Benito en 2009-10, acoge la Sala 2, un espacio escénico docente y de ensayo.
MATADERO MADRID - CENTRO DE CREACIÓN CONTEMPORÁNEA Antiguos Matadero y Mercado Municipal de Ganados
Pº de la Chopera, 2 a 14 C/V a Pza. de Legazpi 8, Vado de Santa Catalina y Av. del Manzanares. Madrid.
Actuación inicial: Luis Bellido González, arquitecto y José Eugenio Ribera Autaste, ingeniero. 1910 (Proyecto) 1910-1925 (Obras).
Matadero de aves y gallinas: Luis Bellido González y Francisco Javier Ferrero Llusiá: 1926 (Proyecto) 1932-1933 (Obras).
Acondicionamiento de la Casa del Reloj, Nave de Terneras y pabellones de acceso para Junta Municipal del Distrito de Arganzuela y salas culturales y deportivas: Rafael Fernández-Rañada Gándara: 1983 (Proyecto) 1983-1984 (Obras).
Rehabilitación de la “nave de patatas” para Invernadero-Palacio de Cristal, antiguo parque del matadero y consolidación estructural de naves del recinto sur: Guillermo Costa Pérez-Herrero: 1990 (Proyecto) 1990-1992 (Obras).
Adaptación de naves para sedes del Ballet Nacional y Compañía Nacional de Danza: Antonio Fernández-Alba y José Luis Castillo-Puche Figueira 1990 (Proyecto) 1993-1999 (Obras)
Vestíbulo y Espacio Intermediae. (nave 17c) Arquitectos Arturo Franco y Fabrice Van Teslaar en colaboración con el arquitecto de interiores Diego Castellanos 2006-07
Naves del Español (naves 10, 11 y 12) Arquitectos Emilio Esteras 2007-10 y Justo Benito 2009-10
Central de Diseño (nave 17) Arquitecto José Antonio García Roldán 2007
Taller y Oficina de Coordinación (parte de la nave 8) Arquitecto Arturo Franco 2010
Calle y Plaza Matadero Arquitectos Ginés Garrido, Carlos Rubio y Fernando Porras 2011
ESCARAVOX Andrés Jaque Arquitectos 2012
Depósito de especies y nuevo acceso por Legazpi. BCP Ingenieros -Luis Benito Olmeda y Francisco Calderón- con María Langarita y Víctor Navarro arquitectos. 2011
Nave 16 Arquitectos: Alejandro Vírseda, José Ignacio Carnicero e Ignacio Vila Almazán, 2011
Nave de Música (Nave 15) Arquitectos: María Langarita y Víctor Navarro, en colaboración con el diseñador mexicano Jerónimo Hagerman, 2011
Cineteca y Cantina Archivo Documenta (nave 17 c, d, e y f) Arquitectos: José María Churtichaga y Cayetana de la Quadra Salcedo 2011
Casa del Lector. Centro Internacional para la Investigación, el Desarrollo y la Difusión de la Lectura de la Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipérez. (naves 13 y 14, 17b y tres crujías de la nave 17. Arquitecto Antón García Abril. Diseño gráfico y señalización: Alberto Corazón. Interiorismo Jesús Moreno y Asociados 2012
El arquitecto Joaquín Saldaña resulta ganador del concurso convocado por el Ayuntamiento de Madrid el año 1899 para la realización de los nuevos matadero y mercado municipal de ganados en la Dehesa de La Arganzuela, junto al Manzanares, si bien, finalmente las obras se realizan de acuerdo con el proyecto redactado en 1910 por Luis Bellido, arquitecto de propiedades del Ayuntamiento, con la colaboración de J. Eugenio Ribera, ingeniero de reconocido prestigio. El conjunto arquitectónico se compone de 48 edificios agrupados en cinco sectores de producción: dirección y administración, matadero, mercado de abastos, mercado de trabajo y sección sanitaria, cuenta además con viviendas para el personal y capilla; también de sistema de circulaciones y ferrocarril propios... una autentica ciudad laboral.
Sigue el sistema alemán de pabellones aislados, relacionados por medio de viales y presididos por un edificio administrativo, la "Casa del Reloj" situado sobre el eje principal de la composición. Por sus características arquitectónicas y por su escala es uno de los conjuntos edificados más significativos de Madrid. Se advierte en él una unidad estilística y constructiva derivada del uso racional en sus fábricas de tres materiales esenciales ladrillo, mampostería y cerámica, y una cuidadosa introducción de elementos metálicos en la estructura; además de otros aspectos significativos como el empleo de un lenguaje de inspiración neomudéjar muy atenuado, habitual en la arquitectura industrial de la época. El matadero de Madrid sirve de modelo para la construcción en España de este tipo de edificios.
Para el crítico González Amezqueta "Es un ejemplo de gran calidad de arquitectura industrial perfectamente insertado en los procedimientos del ladrillo, con derivaciones hacia el neomudéjar. La mecánica funcional de los procesos laborales no impide discretas acentuaciones ornamentales, ya que todo el proceso constructivo es estrictamente artesanal, con predominio de las técnicas fabricadas del ladrillo en las partes más acertadas".
En 1926, en zona próxima al Vado de Santa Catalina, proyecta Bellido el matadero de gallinas y aves, siendo realizadas las obras, entre 1932 y 1933, bajo la dirección de Francisco Javier Ferrero con la introducción de una clara y cuidada estructura de hormigón pionera en la ciudad y en la que reside uno de sus valores principales.
A partir de 1940 se llevan a cabo diferentes remodelaciones y ampliaciones, entre ellas la de la nave de patatas, el pabellón de autopsias y los abrevaderos.
En la década de 1980, perdida su función original, el Departamento de Conservación de Edificios del Ayuntamiento comienza la rehabilitación sistemática de los edificios del conjunto para su uso como contenedores de actividades culturales, sociales, deportivas y administrativas propias del Ayuntamiento; primero bajo la dirección de Rafael Fernández-Rañada, que acondiciona la Casa del Reloj para Junta Municipal del Distrito de Arganzuela y la nave de terneras para sala cultural y deportiva, y después, de Guillermo Costa que realiza el Palacio de Cristal (rehabilitación de la nave de patatas para invernadero) y el parque del matadero, con la colaboración del ingeniero, también municipal, M. Ángel Martínez Lucio.
Desde 1996 Costa continúa la consolidación estructural de fachadas y cubiertas de 7 naves del recinto sur, sin un uso predeterminado y en distintas fases, a la espera de la realización del proyecto para su adecuación a nuevas actividades de carácter cultural, comercial o de ocio. Finalmente, el conjunto edificado se incluye en el catálogo de bienes a conservar dentro del Plan General de Ordenación Urbana de 1997.
En el extremo norte parte de las antiguas naves de estabulación son cedidas al Instituto Nacional de Artes Escénicas y de la Música (INAEM) para establecer en ellas las sedes del Ballet Nacional de España y de la Compañía Nacional de Danza, según proyecto de Fernández Alba y Castillo-Puche, concluyéndose las obras de adaptación en 1999.
En 2005 se aprueba la modificación del Plan Especial de Intervención, Adecuación Arquitectónica y Control Urbanístico-Ambiental de Usos del recinto del antiguo matadero municipal, que incrementa el uso cultural hasta el 75% del total.
A partir de 2006 el Ayuntamiento se plantea rehabilitar en distintas fases, mediante proyectos derivados de concursos de arquitectura, este inmenso contenedor de casi 150.000 m2, para albergar multitud de eventos y encuentros, fomentando la creatividad de artistas de múltiples especialidades. El conjunto se convierte en un núcleo de actividad cultural que alberga las más importantes citas de la ciudad. Así, se inician actuaciones para convertir el recinto en centro de apoyo a la creación, en campo de experimentación de la nueva arquitectura, pero siguiendo los criterios de intervención del Plan Especial, que establece la preservación de la envolvente de las naves. La línea maestra que ha guiado las intervenciones es la reversibilidad, de modo que los edificios pueden ser fácilmente devueltos a su estado original. Las actuaciones mantienen expresamente las huellas del pasado para reforzar el carácter experimental de las nuevas instituciones que alojan. Se ha buscado el equilibrio entre el respeto máximo al espacio, y una dotación específica, que lo distinga, a través del uso limitado de materiales industriales directos y que, al mismo tiempo, dé servicio a los diferentes usos que pueda albergar.
En 2012, tras la visita del jurado de los premios FAD a Matadero Madrid, decidió reconocer la labor en conjunto de todos los arquitectos que han participado en el proceso de reforma. El fallo valora “tanto la actitud global de la propuesta, que apuesta de una forma valiente por la experimentación y el respeto a los espacios de libertad gestionados desde la sociedad civil, como la conceptualización del proyecto, desde su inicio en el 2007 con la rehabilitación del vestíbulo y el espacio Intermediae, hasta las recientes intervenciones de la Nave 16 y la Nave de Música finalistas en la presente edición de los Premios FAD”. Así mismo, el jurado destacó de Matadero Madrid “la inteligencia colectiva, la unidad que le viene inferida por la arquitectura industrial preexistente, y que con un mínimo de protagonismo exterior de las nuevas intervenciones, en el interior resuelve con rigor y autenticidad las diversas necesidades del extenso programa del centro, buscando no sólo mantener los espacios arquitectónicos y formas estructurales, sino también el carácter, la atmósfera y sobre todo el irrepetible paso del tiempo”.
Ese mismo año el Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid otorgó uno de sus premios a las intervenciones en la Cineteca y Archivo Documenta, y en la Nave 16. Por último, destaca la interconexión de Matadero Madrid y Madrid Río mediante la urbanización de los espacios públicos -Calle y Plaza Matadero- por el mismo equipo de arquitectos -Ginés Garrido, Carlos Rubio y Fernando Porras- que proyectó Madrid Río. Está previsto además que dicha conexión, gracias a dos nuevos accesos, se amplíe entre diciembre de 2012 y julio de 2013. Madrid Río ha recibido, entre otros premios, el International Architecture Award 2012 del Chicago Athenaeum of Architecture and Design y el European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, el Premio de Diseño Urbano y Paisajismo Internacional otorgado por el Comité de Críticos de Arquitectura CICA, en el marco de la XIII Bienal de Buenos Aires; o el Premio FAD de Ciudad y Paisaje 2012, entre otros galardones.
(more details later, as time permits)
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In the spring of 2014, we came to Paris for a week of relaxed vacationing, mostly to wander around and see some old familiar places. It was a “return” trip for both of us, though in my case I think it’s probably been more than 15 years since I was even here on a business trip.
Business trips to any city don’t really count as a “visit” -- since they basically involve flying into a busy airport at night, taking a taxi to a generic business-traveler’s hotel (a Hilton in Paris looks just like a Hilton in Cairo), and then spending several days working in the hotel (if the purpose of the trip was a seminar or computer conference), or at a client’s office (also “generic” in most cases — you can’t even tell what floor you’re on when you get off the elevator, because every floor of “open office” layouts is the same). The trip usually ends in the late afternoon or evening of the final day, with a mad dash back to the airport to catch the last plane home to NYC. Thus, a business trip to Paris is almost indistinguishable from a business trip to Omaha. Or Albany. Or Tokyo.
But I did make a few “personal” visits to Paris in the 1970s and 1980s, so I looked forward to having the chance to walk through some familiar places along the Left Bank. I’m not so interested in museums, monuments, cathedrals, or other “official” tourist spots (but yes, I have been to the Eiffel Tower, just as I’ve been to the Empire State Building in NYC), so you won’t see any photos of those places in this Flickr set.
As a photographer, I now concentrate mostly on people and street scenes. The details of the location don’t matter much to me, though I do try to geotag my photos whenever I can. But for the most part, what you’ll see here are scenes of people and local things in Paris that made me smile as I walked around …
(more details later, as time permits)
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Virtually everyone in America, as well as millions of other people around the world, know that Thanksgiving is one of the main occasions for organizing a huge parade.
It’s especially true in New York City, where I live — hundreds of parade workers converge on a one-block stretch between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West on 77th Street on the night before Thanksgiving to assemble the floats, and pump the huge balloons full of helium, so they’ll be ready to go the next morning. The parade itself lasts for hours, and stretches all the way down Central Park West and Broadway, and ultimately through Herald Square and past the main entrance to Macy’s on 34th Street. The whole thing is televised for the benefit of viewers all around the world, with TV commentators and an endless procession of marching bands, baton-twirlers, singers, dancers, jugglers, magicians, Broadway actors, and other forms of entertainment…
While New York City may be the only example of a Thanksgiving-Day parade that people around the world actually see on their TV screen, it’s definitely not the only such parade that takes place in this country. I’m sure that every big city has its own version of the turkey-day parade, as do most of the medium-size cities, and quite a few smaller towns and villages, too. They may not be visible on television, but a lot of local citizens and visitors turn out to watch such parades, if only because their sons and daughters are typically marching in the high-school bands that form a big part of the event.
On this particular occasion — in November of 2013 — I happened to be in one such medium-size city, where the parade took place on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It was in Portland, Oregon where we were spending the holiday period with one of our sons and his family; the parade took place in the “Pearl District” of downtown Portland … and, to our amazement, we were able to park our car about a block from the parade route, and walk right up to the corner (at Davis St and NW Park, if you want to track it down on Google Maps) where all of the bands and floats and costumed marchers walked by. In fact, I was able to take the “parade experience” even one step further: the people were friendly enough, and the security was light enough, that I was able to walk right out into the middle of the street with my camera, to photograph the floats and bands and marchers as they approached me … scampering out of the way only at the last moment.
Admittedly, Portland is a much bigger city than a tiny village of a thousand people somewhere in the midwest … but it still felt like “small town America” to me, and it was a great spectacle to watch. I got the impression that many of the visitors and observers standing along the street actually knew the people marching past them … and in any case, the marchers laughed and smiled and walked right up to us, handing out little pieces of candy to all of the children. Maybe next year I’ll go looking for a really small Thanksgiving parade in one of those tiny midwest-America villages, before retreating back to the Big Apple to watch the spectacle of thousands of marchers parading past millions of observers, and a TV audience of tens of millions …
I wish that I had taken some video clips of the parade, because the sounds and the music and the motion were a big part of what we experienced. But for better or worse, all I took was a bunch of traditional still photos. Actually, I took a LOT of still photos — nearly a thousand, altogether — but I’ve winnowed the collection down to 50 “keepers” that I hope will give you a sense of what Thanksgiving is all about…
Actually, if you live anywhere besides New York City here in the U S of A, you already know what Thanksgiving is all about, at least to the extent that it’s symbolized by the parade. But for those of us who spend most our time in New York City, it was a very pleasant experience indeed. After an hour, it was all over; we walked back to our car a block away, and drove back to our son’s house … and a day later, we were back in New York City. And thus ended another Thanksgiving holiday, at least until 2014.
The Western Wall known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall is a portion of ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem that forms part of the larger retaining wall of the hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount. Just over half the wall's total height, including its 17 courses located below street level, dates from the end of the Second Temple period, and is believed to have been begun by Herod the Great. The very large stone blocks of the lower courses are Herodian, the courses of medium-sized stones above them were added during the Umayyad period, while the small stones of the uppermost courses are of more recent date, especially from the Ottoman period.
The Western Wall plays an important role in Judaism due to its proximity to the Temple Mount. Because of the Temple Mount entry restrictions, the Wall is the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray outside the previous Temple Mount platform, as the presumed site of the Holy of Holies, the most sacred site in the Jewish faith, lies just behind it. The original, natural, and irregular-shaped Temple Mount was gradually extended to allow for an ever-larger Temple compound to be built at its top. The earliest source mentioning this specific site as a place of Jewish worship is from the 17th century. The term Western Wall and its variations are mostly used in a narrow sense for the section of the wall used for Jewish prayer and called the "Wailing Wall", referring to the practice of Jews weeping at the site. During the period of Christian Roman rule over Jerusalem (ca. 324–638), Jews were completely barred from Jerusalem except on Tisha B'Av, the day of national mourning for the Temples. The term "Wailing Wall" has historically been used mainly by Christians, with use by Jews becoming marginal. In a broader sense, "Western Wall" can refer to the entire 488-metre-long (1,601 ft) retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount. The classic portion now faces a large plaza in the Jewish Quarter, near the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount, while the rest of the wall is concealed behind structures in the Muslim Quarter, with the small exception of an 8-metre (26 ft) section, the so-called "Little Western Wall" or "Small Wailing Wall". This segment of the western retaining wall derives particular importance from having never been fully obscured by medieval buildings, and displaying much of the original Herodian stonework. In religious terms, the "Little Western Wall" is presumed to be even closer to the Holy of Holies and thus to the "presence of God" (Shechina), and the underground Warren's Gate, which has been out of reach for Jews from the 12th century till its partial excavation in the 20th century.
The Western Wall constitutes the western border of al-Haram al-Sharif ("the Noble Sanctuary"), or the Al-Aqsa compound. It is believed to be the site where the Islamic Prophet Muhammad tied his winged steed, the Burāq, on his Night Journey to Jerusalem before ascending to paradise. While the wall was considered an integral part of the Haram esh-Sharif and waqf property of the Moroccan Quarter under Muslim rule, a right of Jewish prayer and pilgrimage has long existed as part of the Status Quo.This position was confirmed in a 1930 international commission during the British Mandate period.
With the rise of the Zionist movement in the early 20th century, the wall became a source of friction between the Jewish and Muslim communities, the latter being worried that the wall could be used to further Jewish claims to the Temple Mount and thus Jerusalem. During this period outbreaks of violence at the foot of the wall became commonplace, with a particularly deadly riot in 1929 in which 133 Jews and 116 Arabs were killed, with many more people injured. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the eastern portion of Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan. Under Jordanian control Jews were completely expelled from the Old City including the Jewish Quarter, and Jews were barred from entering the Old City for 19 years, effectively banning Jewish prayer at the site of the Western Wall. This period ended on June 10, 1967, when Israel gained control of the site following the Six-Day War. Three days after establishing control over the Western Wall site, the Moroccan Quarter was bulldozed by Israeli authorities to create space for what is now the Western Wall plaza.
Early Jewish texts referred to a "western wall of the Temple", but there is doubt whether the texts were referring to the outer, retaining wall called today "the Western Wall", or to the western wall of the actual Temple. The earliest Jewish use of the Hebrew term "ha-kotel ha-ma'aravi", "the Western Wall", as referring to the wall visible today, was by the 11th-century poet Ahimaaz ben Paltiel.
The name "Wailing Wall", and descriptions such as "wailing place", appeared regularly in English literature during the 19th century. The name Mur des Lamentations was used in French and Klagemauer in German. This term itself was a translation of the Arabic el-Mabka, or "Place of Weeping", the traditional Arabic term for the wall. This description stemmed from the Jewish practice of coming to the site to mourn and bemoan the destruction of the Temple and the loss of national freedom it symbolized.
Muslims have associated the name Al-Buraq with the wall at least since the 1860s.
Hillel Halkin claims that the "traditional Arabic term" El-Mabka, "the Place of Weeping", which he says gave rise to the English name "Wailing Wall", was cast aside by the Palestinians in the 1920s, as a result of rising tensions with the Jews over rights at the site, and was replaced by "El-Burak".
The term Western Wall commonly refers to a 187-foot (57 m) exposed section of a much longer retaining wall, built by Herod on the western flank of the Temple Mount. Only when used in this sense is it synonymous with the term Wailing Wall. This section faces a large plaza and is set aside for prayer.
In its entirety, the western retaining wall of the Herodian Temple Mount complex stretches for 1,600 feet (488 m), most of which is hidden behind medieval residential structures built along its length.
There are only two other revealed sections: the southern part of the Wall (see Robinson's Arch area), which measures approximately 80 metres (262 ft), and is separated from the prayer area by just a narrow stretch of archaeological remains; and another, much shorter section, known as the Little Western Wall, which is located close to the Iron Gate.
The entire western wall functions as a retaining wall, supporting and enclosing the ample substructures built by Herod the Great around 19 BCE. Herod's project was to create an artificial extension to the small quasi-natural plateau on which the First Temple stood, already widened in Hasmonean times during the Second Temple period, by finally transforming it into the almost rectangular, wide expanse of the Temple Mount platform visible today.
At the Western Wall Plaza, the total height of the Wall from its foundation is estimated at 105 feet (32 m), with the above-ground section standing approximately 62 feet (19 m) high. The Wall consists of 45 stone courses, 28 of them above ground and 17 underground. The first seven above-ground layers are from the Herodian period. This section of wall is built from enormous meleke limestone blocks, possibly quarried at either Zedekiah's Cave situated under the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, or at Ramat Shlomo 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) northwest of the Old City. Most of them weigh between 2 and 8 short tons (1.8 and 7.3 tonnes) each, but others weigh even more, with one extraordinary stone located slightly north of Wilson's Arch measuring 13.55 metres (44.5 ft) long, 3.3 metres (11 ft) high, approximately 1.8 to 2.5 metres (5.9 to 8.2 ft) deep, and weighing between 250 and 300 tonnes (280 and 330 short tons). Each of these ashlars is framed by fine-chiseled borders. The margins themselves measure between 5 and 20 centimetres (2 and 8 in) wide, with their depth measuring 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in). In the Herodian period, the upper 10 metres (33 ft) of wall were 1 metre (39 in) thick and served as the outer wall of the double colonnade of the Temple platform. This upper section was decorated with pilasters, the remainder of which were destroyed when the Byzantines reconquered Jerusalem from the Persians in 628.
The next four courses, consisting of smaller plainly dressed stones, are Umayyad work (8th century, Early Muslim period) Above that are 16 to 17 courses of small stones from the Mamluk period (13th–16th centuries) and later.
According to the Hebrew Bible, Solomon's Temple was built atop what is known as the Temple Mount in the 10th century BCE and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the Second Temple completed and dedicated in 516 BCE. Around 19 BCE Herod the Great began a massive expansion project on the Temple Mount. In addition to fully rebuilding and enlarging the Temple, he artificially expanded the platform on which it stood, doubling it in size. Today's Western Wall formed part of the retaining perimeter wall of this platform. In 2011, Israeli archaeologists announced the surprising discovery of Roman coins minted well after Herod's death, found under the foundation stones of the wall. The excavators came upon the coins inside a ritual bath that predates Herod's building project, which was filled in to create an even base for the wall and was located under its southern section. This seems to indicate that Herod did not finish building the entire wall by the time of his death in 4 BCE. The find confirms the description by historian Josephus Flavius, which states that construction was finished only during the reign of King Agrippa II, Herod's great-grandson. Given Josephus' information, the surprise mainly regarded the fact that an unfinished retaining wall in this area could also mean that at least parts of the splendid Royal Stoa and the monumental staircase leading up to it could not have been completed during Herod's lifetime. Also surprising was the fact that the usually very thorough Herodian builders had cut corners by filling in the ritual bath, rather than placing the foundation course directly onto the much firmer bedrock. Some scholars are doubtful of the interpretation and have offered alternative explanations, such as, for example, later repair work.
Herod's Temple was destroyed by the Romans, along with the rest of Jerusalem, in 70 CE, during the First Jewish–Roman War.
During much of the 2nd–5th centuries of the Common Era, after the Roman defeat of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, Jews were banned from Jerusalem. There is some evidence that Roman emperors in the 2nd and 3rd centuries did permit them to visit the city to worship on the Mount of Olives and sometimes on the Temple Mount itself.[30] When the empire started becoming Christian under Constantine I, they were given permission to enter the city once a year, on the Tisha B'Av, to lament the loss of the Temple at the wall. The Bordeaux Pilgrim, who wrote in 333 CE, suggests that it was probably to the perforated stone or the Rock of Moriah, "to which the Jews come every year and anoint it, bewail themselves with groans, rend their garments, and so depart".This was because an imperial decree from Rome barred Jews from living in Jerusalem. Just once per year they were permitted to return and bitterly grieve about the fate of their people. Comparable accounts survive, including those by the Church Father, Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–390) and by Jerome in his commentary to Zephaniah written in 392 CE. In the 4th century, Christian sources reveal that the Jews encountered great difficulty in buying the right to pray near the Western Wall, at least on the 9th of Av.[30] In 425 CE, the Jews of the Galilee wrote to Byzantine empress Aelia Eudocia seeking permission to pray by the ruins of the Temple. Permission was granted and they were officially permitted to resettle in Jerusalem.
Discovery of underground rooms that could have been used as food storage carved out of the bedrock under the 1,400-year-old mosaic floor of Byzantine structure was announced by Israel Antiquities Authority in May in 2020.
"At first we were very disappointed because we found we hit the bedrock, meaning that the material culture, the human activity here in Jerusalem ended. What we found here was a rock-cut system—three rooms, all hewn in the bedrock of ancient Jerusalem" said co-director of the excavation Barak Monnickendam-Givon.
Several Jewish authors of the 10th and 11th centuries write about the Jews resorting to the Western Wall for devotional purposes. Ahimaaz relates that Rabbi Samuel ben Paltiel (980–1010) gave money for oil at "the sanctuary at the Western Wall." Benjamin of Tudela (1170) wrote "In front of this place is the Western Wall, which is one of the walls of the Holy of Holies. This is called the Gate of Mercy, and hither come all the Jews to pray before the Wall in the open court." The account gave rise to confusion about the actual location of Jewish worship, and some suggest that Benjamin in fact referred to the Eastern Wall along with its Gate of Mercy. While Nahmanides (d. 1270) did not mention a synagogue near the Western Wall in his detailed account of the temple site, shortly before the Crusader period a synagogue existed at the site. Obadiah of Bertinoro (1488) states "the Western Wall, part of which is still standing, is made of great, thick stones, larger than any I have seen in buildings of antiquity in Rome or in other lands."
Shortly after Saladin's 1187 siege of the city, in 1193, the sultan's son and successor al-Afdal established the land adjacent to the wall as a charitable trust (waqf). The largest part of it was named after an important mystic, Abu Madyan Shu'aib. The Abu Madyan waqf was dedicated to Maghrebian pilgrims and scholars who had taken up residence there, and houses were built only metres away from the wall, from which they were thus separated by just a narrow passageway, some 4 metres (13 ft) wide.
The first mention of the Islamic tradition that Buraq was tethered at the site is from the 14th century. A manuscript by Ibrahim b. Ishaq al-Ansari (known as Ibn Furkah, d. 1328)[dubious – discuss] refers to Bab al-Nabi (lit. "Gate of the Prophet"), an old name for Barclay's Gate below the Maghrebi Gate. Charles D. Matthews however, who did his doctorate on al-Firkah's little religious guide-book alluded to here, "Arousing Souls to Pilgrimage to Jerusalem's Holy Walls", presents a different opinion, showing that the ambiguous prose of the Damascene author ("a gate through which the sun and the moon incline"), taken together with other statements he made, can be seen to point towards either Barclay's Gate on the western wall, or indeed the Double Gate on the southern wall.
In 1517, the Turkish Ottomans under Selim I conquered Jerusalem from the Mamluks who had held it since 1250. Selim's son, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, ordered the construction of an imposing wall to be built around the entire city, which still stands today. Various folktales relate Suleiman's quest to locate the Temple site and his order to have the area "swept and sprinkled, and the Western Wall washed with rosewater" upon its discovery. At the time, Jews received official permission to worship at the site and Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan built an oratory for them there. In 1625 organised prayers at the Wall are mentioned for the first time.
Over the centuries, land close to the Wall became built up. Public access to the Wall was through the Moroccan Quarter, a labyrinth of narrow alleyways. In May 1840 a firman issued by Ibrahim Pasha forbade the Jews to pave the passageway in front of the Wall. It also cautioned them against "raising their voices and displaying their books there." They were, however, allowed "to pay visits to it as of old."
Rabbi Joseph Schwarz writing in the mid-19th century records:
This wall is visited by all our brothers on every feast and festival; and the large space at its foot is often so densely filled up, that all cannot perform their devotions here at the same time. It is also visited, though by less numbers, on every Friday afternoon, and by some nearly every day. No one is molested in these visits by the Mahomedans, as we have a very old firman from the Sultan of Constantinople that the approach shall not be denied to us, though the Porte obtains for this privilege a special tax, which is, however, quite insignificant.
Over time the increased numbers of people gathering at the site resulted in tensions between the Jewish visitors who wanted easier access and more space, and the residents, who complained of the noise. This gave rise to Jewish attempts at gaining ownership of the land adjacent to the Wall.
In the late 1830s a wealthy Jew named Shemarya Luria attempted to purchase houses near the Wall, but was unsuccessful, as was Jewish sage Abdullah of Bombay who tried to purchase the Western Wall in the 1850s. In 1869 Rabbi Hillel Moshe Gelbstein settled in Jerusalem. He arranged that benches and tables be brought to the Wall on a daily basis for the study groups he organised and the minyan which he led there for years. He also formulated a plan whereby some of the courtyards facing the Wall would be acquired, with the intention of establishing three synagogues—one each for the Sephardim, the Hasidim and the Perushim. He also endeavoured to re-establish an ancient practice of "guards of honour", which according to the mishnah in Middot, were positioned around the Temple Mount. He rented a house near the Wall and paid men to stand guard there and at various other gateways around the mount. However, this set-up lasted only for a short time due to lack of funds or because of Arab resentment. In 1874, Mordechai Rosanes paid for the repaving of the alleyway adjacent to the wall.
In 1887 Baron Rothschild conceived a plan to purchase and demolish the Moroccan Quarter as "a merit and honor to the Jewish People." The proposed purchase was considered and approved by the Ottoman Governor of Jerusalem, Rauf Pasha, and by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Tahir Husseini. Even after permission was obtained from the highest secular and Muslim religious authority to proceed, the transaction was shelved after the authorities insisted that after demolishing the quarter no construction of any type could take place there, only trees could be planted to beautify the area. Additionally the Jews would not have full control over the area. This meant that they would have no power to stop people from using the plaza for various activities, including the driving of mules, which would cause a disturbance to worshippers. Other reports place the scheme's failure on Jewish infighting as to whether the plan would foster a detrimental Arab reaction.
In 1895 Hebrew linguist and publisher Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn became entangled in a failed effort to purchase the Western Wall and lost all his assets. The attempts of the Palestine Land Development Company to purchase the environs of the Western Wall for the Jews just before the outbreak of World War I also never came to fruition. In the first two months following the Ottoman Empire's entry into the First World War, the Turkish governor of Jerusalem, Zakey Bey, offered to sell the Moroccan Quarter, which consisted of about 25 houses, to the Jews in order to enlarge the area available to them for prayer. He requested a sum of £20,000 which would be used to both rehouse the Muslim families and to create a public garden in front of the Wall. However, the Jews of the city lacked the necessary funds. A few months later, under Muslim Arab pressure on the Turkish authorities in Jerusalem, Jews became forbidden by official decree to place benches and light candles at the Wall. This sour turn in relations was taken up by the Chacham Bashi who managed to get the ban overturned. In 1915 it was reported that Djemal Pasha, closed off the wall to visitation as a sanitary measure. Probably meant was the "Great", rather than the "Small" Djemal Pasha.
In December 1917, Allied forces under Edmund Allenby captured Jerusalem from the Turks. Allenby pledged "that every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional site, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayer of whatsoever form of the three religions will be maintained and protected according to the existing customs and beliefs of those to whose faith they are sacred".
In 1919 Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann approached the British Military Governor of Jerusalem, Colonel Sir Ronald Storrs, and offered between £75,000 and £100,000 (approx. £5m in modern terms) to purchase the area at the foot of the Wall and rehouse the occupants. Storrs was enthusiastic about the idea because he hoped some of the money would be used to improve Muslim education. Although they appeared promising at first, negotiations broke down after strong Muslim opposition. Storrs wrote two decades later:
The acceptance of the proposals, had it been practicable, would have obviated years of wretched humiliations, including the befouling of the Wall and pavement and the unmannerly braying of the tragi-comic Arab band during Jewish prayer, and culminating in the horrible outrages of 1929.
In early 1920, the first Jewish-Arab dispute over the Wall occurred when the Muslim authorities were carrying out minor repair works to the Wall's upper courses. The Jews, while agreeing that the works were necessary, appealed to the British that they be made under supervision of the newly formed Department of Antiquities, because the Wall was an ancient relic.
According to Hillel Halkin, in the 1920s, among rising tensions with the Jews regarding the wall, the Arabs ceased using the more traditional name El-Mabka, "the Place of Weeping", which related to Jewish practices, and replaced it with El-Burak, a name with Muslim connotations.
In 1926 an effort was made to lease the Maghrebi waqf, which included the wall, with the plan of eventually buying it. Negotiations were begun in secret by the Jewish judge Gad Frumkin, with financial backing from American millionaire Nathan Straus. The chairman of the Palestine Zionist Executive, Colonel F. H. Kisch, explained that the aim was "quietly to evacuate the Moroccan occupants of those houses which it would later be necessary to demolish" to create an open space with seats for aged worshippers to sit on.[68] However, Straus withdrew when the price became excessive and the plan came to nothing. The Va'ad Leumi, against the advice of the Palestine Zionist Executive, demanded that the British expropriate the wall and give it to the Jews, but the British refused.
In 1928 the World Zionist Organization reported that John Chancellor, High Commissioner of Palestine, believed that the Western Wall should come under Jewish control and wondered "why no great Jewish philanthropist had not bought it yet".
In 1922, a Status Quo agreement issued by the mandatory authority forbade the placing of benches or chairs near the Wall. The last occurrence of such a ban was in 1915, but the Ottoman decree was soon retracted after intervention of the Chacham Bashi. In 1928 the District Commissioner of Jerusalem, Edward Keith-Roach, acceded to an Arab request to implement the ban. This led to a British officer being stationed at the Wall making sure that Jews were prevented from sitting. Nor were Jews permitted to separate the sexes with a screen. In practice, a flexible modus vivendi had emerged and such screens had been put up from time to time when large numbers of people gathered to pray.
On September 24, 1928, the Day of Atonement, British police resorted to removing by force a screen used to separate men and women at prayer. Women who tried to prevent the screen being dismantled were beaten by the police, who used pieces of the broken wooden frame as clubs. Chairs were then pulled out from under elderly worshipers. The episode made international news and Jews the world over objected to the British action. Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, the Chief Rabbi of the ultraorthodox Jews in Jerusalem, issued a protest letter on behalf of his community, the Edah HaChareidis, and Agudas Yisroel strongly condemning the desecration of the holy site. Various communal leaders called for a general strike. A large rally was held in the Etz Chaim Yeshiva, following which an angry crowd attacked the local police station in which they believed Douglas Valder Duff, the British officer involved, was sheltering.
Commissioner Edward Keith-Roach described the screen as violating the Ottoman status quo that forbade Jews from making any construction in the Western Wall area. He informed the Jewish community that the removal had been carried out under his orders after receiving a complaint from the Supreme Muslim Council. The Arabs were concerned that the Jews were trying to extend their rights at the wall and with this move, ultimately intended to take possession of the Masjid Al-Aqsa. The British government issued an announcement explaining the incident and blaming the Jewish beadle at the Wall. It stressed that the removal of the screen was necessary, but expressed regret over the ensuing events.
A widespread Arab campaign to protest against presumed Jewish intentions and designs to take possession of the Al Aqsa Mosque swept the country and a "Society for the Protection of the Muslim Holy Places" was established. The Jewish National Council (Vaad Leumi) responding to these Arab fears declared in a statement that "We herewith declare emphatically and sincerely that no Jew has ever thought of encroaching upon the rights of Moslems over their own Holy places, but our Arab brethren should also recognise the rights of Jews in regard to the places in Palestine which are holy to them." The committee also demanded that the British administration expropriate the wall for the Jews.
From October 1928 onward, Mufti Amin al-Husayni organised a series of measures to demonstrate the Arabs' exclusive claims to the Temple Mount and its environs. He ordered new construction next to and above the Western Wall. The British granted the Arabs permission to convert a building adjoining the Wall into a mosque and to add a minaret. A muezzin was appointed to perform the Islamic call to prayer and Sufi rites directly next to the Wall. These were seen as a provocation by the Jews who prayed at the Wall. The Jews protested and tensions increased.
A British inquiry into the disturbances and investigation regarding the principal issue in the Western Wall dispute, namely the rights of the Jewish worshipers to bring appurtenances to the wall, was convened. The Supreme Muslim Council provided documents dating from the Turkish regime supporting their claims. However, repeated reminders to the Chief Rabbinate to verify which apparatus had been permitted failed to elicit any response. They refused to do so, arguing that Jews had the right to pray at the Wall without restrictions. Subsequently, in November 1928, the Government issued a White Paper entitled "The Western or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem: Memorandum by the Secretary of State for the Colonies", which emphasised the maintenance of the status quo and instructed that Jews could only bring "those accessories which had been permitted in Turkish times."
A few months later, Haj Amin complained to Chancellor that "Jews were bringing benches and tables in increased numbers to the wall and driving nails into the wall and hanging lamps on them."
In the summer of 1929, the Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseinni ordered an opening be made at the southern end of the alleyway which straddled the Wall. The former cul-de-sac became a thoroughfare which led from the Temple Mount into the prayer area at the Wall. Mules were herded through the narrow alley, often dropping excrement. This, together with other construction projects in the vicinity, and restricted access to the Wall, resulted in Jewish protests to the British, who remained indifferent.
On August 14, 1929, after attacks on individual Jews praying at the Wall, 6,000 Jews demonstrated in Tel Aviv, shouting "The Wall is ours." The next day, the Jewish fast of Tisha B'Av, 300 youths raised the Zionist flag and sang Hatikva at the Wall. The day after, on August 16, an organized mob of 2,000 Muslim Arabs descended on the Western Wall, injuring the beadle and burning prayer books, liturgical fixtures and notes of supplication. The rioting spread to the Jewish commercial area of town, and was followed a few days later by the Hebron massacre. One hundred and thirty-three Jews were killed and 339 injured in the Arab riots, and in the subsequent process of quelling the riots 110 Arabs were killed by British police. This was by far the deadliest attack on Jews during the period of British Rule over Palestine.
In 1930, in response to the 1929 riots, the British Government appointed a commission "to determine the rights and claims of Muslims and Jews in connection with the Western or Wailing Wall", and to determine the causes of the violence and prevent it in the future. The League of Nations approved the commission on condition that the members were not British.
The Commission noted that "the Jews do not claim any proprietorship to the Wall or to the Pavement in front of it (concluding speech of Jewish Counsel, Minutes, page 908)."
The Commission concluded that the wall, and the adjacent pavement and Moroccan Quarter, were solely owned by the Muslim waqf. However, Jews had the right to "free access to the Western Wall for the purpose of devotions at all times", subject to some stipulations that limited which objects could be brought to the Wall and forbade the blowing of the shofar, which was made illegal. Muslims were forbidden to disrupt Jewish devotions by driving animals or other means.
The recommendations of the Commission were brought into law by the Palestine (Western or Wailing Wall) Order in Council, 1931, which came into effect on June 8, 1931. Persons violating the law were liable to a fine of 50 pounds or imprisonment up to 6 months, or both.
During the 1930s, at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, young Jews persistently flouted the shofar ban each year and blew the shofar resulting in their arrest and prosecution. They were usually fined or sentenced to imprisonment for three to six months. The Shaw commission determined that the violence occurred due to "racial animosity on the part of the Arabs, consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future."
During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the Old City together with the Wall was controlled by Jordan. Article VIII of the 1949 Armistice Agreement called for a Special Committee to make arrangements for (amongst other things) "free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives". The committee sat multiple times during 1949, but both sides made additional demands and at the same time the Palestine Conciliation Commission was pressing for the internationalization of Jerusalem against the wishes of both parties. No agreement was ever reached, leading to recriminations in both directions. Neither Israeli Arabs nor Israeli Jews could visit their holy places in the Jordanian territories. An exception was made for Christians to participate in Christmas ceremonies in Bethlehem. Some sources claim Jews could only visit the wall if they traveled through Jordan (which was not an option for Israelis) and did not have an Israeli visa stamped in their passports. Only Jordanian soldiers and tourists were to be found there. A vantage point on Mount Zion, from which the Wall could be viewed, became the place where Jews gathered to pray. For thousands of pilgrims, the mount, being the closest location to the Wall under Israeli control, became a substitute site for the traditional priestly blessing ceremony which takes place on the Three Pilgrimage Festivals.
During the Jordanian rule of the Old City, a ceramic street sign in Arabic and English was affixed to the stones of the ancient wall. Attached 2.1 metres (6.9 ft) up, it was made up of eight separate ceramic tiles and said Al Buraq Road in Arabic at the top with the English "Al-Buraq (Wailing Wall) Rd" below. When Israeli soldiers arrived at the wall in June 1967, one attempted to scrawl Hebrew lettering on it. The Jerusalem Post reported that on June 8, Ben-Gurion went to the wall and "looked with distaste" at the road sign; "this is not right, it should come down" and he proceeded to dismantle it. This act signaled the climax of the capture of the Old City and the ability of Jews to once again access their holiest sites. Emotional recollections of this event are related by David Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres.
Following Israel's victory during the 1967 Six-Day War, the Western Wall came under Israeli control. Brigadier Rabbi Shlomo Goren proclaimed after its capture that "Israel would never again relinquish the Wall", a stance supported by Israeli Minister for Defence Moshe Dayan and Chief of Staff General Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin described the moment Israeli soldiers reached the Wall:
"There was one moment in the Six-Day War which symbolized the great victory: that was the moment in which the first paratroopers—under Gur's command—reached the stones of the Western Wall, feeling the emotion of the place; there never was, and never will be, another moment like it. Nobody staged that moment. Nobody planned it in advance. Nobody prepared it and nobody was prepared for it; it was as if Providence had directed the whole thing: the paratroopers weeping—loudly and in pain—over their comrades who had fallen along the way, the words of the Kaddish prayer heard by Western Wall's stones after 19 years of silence, tears of mourning, shouts of joy, and the singing of "Hatikvah"".
Forty-eight hours after capturing the wall, the military, without explicit government order, hastily proceeded to demolish the entire Moroccan Quarter, which stood 4 metres (13 ft) from the Wall. The Sheikh Eid Mosque, which was built over one of Jerusalem's oldest Islamic schools, the Afdiliyeh, named after one of Saladin's sons, was pulled down to make way for the plaza. It was one of three or four that survived from Saladin's time. 106 Arab families consisting of 650 people were ordered to leave their homes at night. When they refused, bulldozers began to demolish the buildings with people still inside, killing one person and injuring a number of others.
According to Eyal Weizman, Chaim Herzog, who later became Israel's sixth president, took much of the credit for the destruction of the neighbourhood:
When we visited the Wailing Wall we found a toilet attached to it ... we decided to remove it and from this we came to the conclusion that we could evacuate the entire area in front of the Wailing Wall ... a historical opportunity that will never return ... We knew that the following Saturday [sic Wednesday], June 14, would be the Jewish festival of Shavuot and that many will want to come to pray ... it all had to be completed by then.
Historian Matthew Teller, who investigated the story of the toilet, judged it as improbable.
The narrow pavement, which could accommodate a maximum of 12,000 per day, was transformed into an enormous plaza that could hold in excess of 400,000. Several months later, the pavement close to the wall was excavated to a depth of two and half metres, exposing an additional two courses of large stones.
A complex of buildings against the wall at the southern end of the plaza, that included Madrasa Fakhriya and the house that the Abu al-Sa'ud family had occupied since the 16th century, were spared in the 1967 destruction, but demolished in 1969. The section of the wall dedicated to prayers was thus extended southwards to double its original length, from 28 to 60 metres (92 to 197 ft), while the 4 metres (13 ft) space facing the wall grew to 40 metres (130 ft).
The narrow, approximately 120 square metres (1,300 sq ft) pre-1948 alley along the wall, used for Jewish prayer, was enlarged to 2,400 square metres (26,000 sq ft), with the entire Western Wall Plaza covering 20,000 square metres (4.9 acres), stretching from the wall to the Jewish Quarter.
The new plaza created in 1967 is used for worship and public gatherings, including Bar mitzvah celebrations and the swearing-in ceremonies of newly full-fledged soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces. Tens of thousands of Jews flock to the wall on the Jewish holidays, and particularly on the fast of Tisha B'Av, which marks the destruction of the Temple and on Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 and the delivery of the Wall into Jewish hands.
In November 2010, the government approved a NIS 85m ($23m) scheme to improve access from the Jewish Quarter and upgrade infrastructure at the Wall.
Conflicts over prayer at the national monument began a little more than a year after Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, which again made the site accessible to Jews. In July 1968 the World Union for Progressive Judaism, which had planned the group's international convention in Jerusalem, appealed to the Knesset after the Ministry of Religious Affairs prohibited the organization from hosting mixed-gender services at the Wall. The Knesset committee on internal affairs backed the Ministry of Religious Affairs in disallowing the Jewish convention attendees, who had come from over 24 countries, from worshiping in their fashion. The Orthodox held that services at the Wall should follow traditional Jewish law for segregated seating followed in synagogues, while the non-Orthodox perspective was that "the Wall is a shrine of all Jews, not one particular branch of Judaism."
In September 1983, U.S. Sixth Fleet Chaplain, Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff was allowed to hold an unusual interfaith service—the first interfaith service ever conducted at the Wall during the time it was under Israeli control—that included men and women sitting together. The ten-minute service included the Priestly Blessing, recited by Resnicoff, who is a Kohen. A Ministry of Religions representative was present, responding to press queries that the service was authorized as part of a special welcome for the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
In 2005, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation initiated a major renovation effort under Rabbi-of-the-Wall Shmuel Rabinovitch. Its goal was to renovate and restructure the area within Wilson's Arch, the covered area to the left of worshipers facing the Wall in the open prayer plaza, in order to increase access for visitors and for prayer.
The restoration of the men's section included a Torah ark that can house over 100 Torah scrolls, in addition to new bookshelves, a library, heating for the winter, and air conditioning for the summer. A new room was also built for the scribes who maintain and preserve the Torah scrolls used at the Wall. New construction also included a women's section, overlooking the men's prayer area, so that women could use this separate area to "take part in the services held inside under the Arch" for the first time.
On July 25, 2010, a ner tamid, an oil-burning "eternal light," was installed within the prayer hall within Wilson's Arch, the first eternal light installed in the area of the Western Wall. According to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, requests had been made for many years that "an olive oil lamp be placed in the prayer hall of the Western Wall Plaza, as is the custom in Jewish synagogues, to represent the menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem as well as the continuously burning fire on the altar of burnt offerings in front of the Temple," especially in the closest place to those ancient flames.
At the southern end of the Western Wall, Robinson's Arch along with a row of vaults once supported stairs ascending from the street to the Temple Mount.
The so-called Isaiah Stone, located under Robinson's Arch, has a carved inscription in Hebrew with a partial and slightly faulty quote from (or paraphrase of) Isaiah 66:14: "And you will see and your heart will rejoice and their bones like an herb [will flourish]" (the correct line from Isaiah would read "...your bones".) This gave room to various interpretations, some speculating about it being written during a period of hope for Jews. Alternatively, it might be connected to nearby graves. The inscription has tentatively been dated to the 4th-8th century, some extending the possible timespan all the way to the 11th century
Because it does not come under the direct control of the Rabbi of the Wall or the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the site has been opened to religious groups that hold worship services that would not be approved by the Rabbi of the Western Wall or the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the major men's and women's prayer areas against the Wall. The worship site was inaugurated in 2004 and has since hosted services by Reform and Conservative groups, as well as services by the Women of the Wall. A platform has been added in 2013 in order to expand the prayer area.
The Scroll of Ahimaaz, a historical document written in 1050 CE, distinctly describes the Western Wall as a place of prayer for the Jews. In around 1167 CE during the late Crusader Period, Benjamin of Tudela wrote that "In front of this place is the western wall, which is one of the walls of the Holy of Holies. This is called the Gate of Mercy, and hither come all the Jews to pray before the Wall in the open court".
In 1625 "arranged prayers" at the Wall are mentioned for the first time by a scholar whose name has not been preserved.
In 1994, Shlomo Goren wrote that the tradition of the wall as a Jewish prayer site was only 300 years old, the Jews being compelled to pray there after being forbidden to assemble on the mount itself.
Scrolls of the Law were brought to the Wall on occasions of public distress and calamity, as testified to in a narrative written by Rabbi Gedaliah of Semitizi who went to Jerusalem in 1699.
"On Friday afternoon, March 13, 1863, the writer visited this sacred spot. Here he found between one and two hundred Jews of both sexes and of all ages, standing or sitting, and bowing as they read, chanted and recited, moving themselves backward and forward, the tears rolling down many a face; they kissed the walls and wrote sentences in Hebrew upon them... The lamentation which is most commonly used is from Psalm 79:1 "O God, the heathen are come into Thy inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled."
(Rev. James W. Lee, 1863)
The writings of various travellers in the Holy Land, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, tell of how the Wall and its environs continued to be a place of devotion for the Jews. Isaac Yahuda, a prominent member of the Sephardic community in Jerusalem recalled how men and women used to gather in a circle at the Wall to hear sermons delivered in Ladino. His great-grandmother, who arrived in Palestine in 1841, "used to go to the Western Wall every Friday afternoon, winter and summer, and stay there until candle-lighting time, reading the entire Book of Psalms and the Song of Songs...she would sit there by herself for hours."
In the past women could be found sitting at the entrance to the Wall every Sabbath holding fragrant herbs and spices in order to enable worshipers to make additional blessings. In the hot weather they would provide cool water. The women also used to cast lots for the privilege of sweeping and washing the alleyway at the foot of the Wall.
Throughout several centuries, the Wall is where Jews have gathered to express gratitude to God or to pray for divine mercy. On news of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 thousands of Jews went to the Wall to offer prayers for the "success of His Majesty's and Allied Forces in the liberation of all enemy-occupied territory." On October 13, 1994, 50,000 gathered to pray for the safe return of kidnapped soldier Nachshon Wachsman. August 10, 2005 saw a massive prayer rally at the Wall. Estimates of people protesting Israel's unilateral disengagement plan ranged from 50,000 to 250,000 people. Every year on Tisha B'Av large crowds congregate at the Wall to commemorate the destruction of the Temple. In 2007 over 100,000 gathered. During the month of Tishrei 2009, a record 1.5 million people visited the site.
In Judaism, the Western Wall is venerated as the sole remnant of the Holy Temple. It has become a place of pilgrimage for Jews, as it is the closest permitted accessible site to the holiest spot in Judaism, namely the Even ha-shetiya or Foundation Stone, which lies on the Temple Mount. According to one rabbinic opinion, Jews may not set foot upon the Temple Mount and doing so is a sin punishable by Kareth. While almost all historians and archaeologists and some rabbinical authorities believe that the rocky outcrop in the Dome of the Rock is the Foundation Stone, some rabbis say it is located directly opposite the exposed section of the Western Wall, near the El-kas fountain. This spot was the site of the Holy of Holies when the Temple stood.
Rabbinic tradition teaches that the western wall was built upon foundations laid by the biblical King Solomon from the time of the First Temple.
Some medieval rabbis claimed that today's Western Wall is a surviving wall of the Temple itself and cautioned Jews from approaching it, lest they enter the Temple precincts in a state of impurity. Many contemporary rabbis believe that the rabbinic traditions were made in reference to the Temple Mount's Western Wall, which accordingly endows the Wall with inherent holiness.
A 7th-century Midrash refers to a western wall of the Temple which "would never be destroyed", and a 6th-century Midrash mentions how Rome was unable to topple the western wall due to the Divine oath promising its eternal survival.
An 11th-century Midrash quotes a 4th-century scholar: "Rav Acha said that the Divine Presence has never departed from the Western Wall", and the Zohar (13th century) similarly writes that "the Divine Presence rests upon the Western Wall".
Eighteenth-century scholar Jonathan Eybeschutz writes that "after the destruction of the Temple, God removed His Presence from His sanctuary and placed it upon the Western Wall where it remains in its holiness and honour". It is told that great Jewish sages, including Isaac Luria and the Radvaz, experienced a revelation of the Divine Presence at the wall.
Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kaindenover discusses the mystical aspect of the Hebrew word kotel when discussing the significance of praying against a wall. He cites the Zohar which writes that the word kotel, meaning wall, is made up of two parts: "Ko", which has the numerical value of God's name, and "Tel", meaning mount, which refers to the Temple and its Western Wall.
Many contemporary Orthodox scholars rule that the area in front of the Wall has the status of a synagogue and must be treated with due respect. This is the view upheld by the authority in charge of the wall. As such, men and married women are expected to cover their heads upon approaching the Wall, and to dress appropriately. When departing, the custom is to walk backwards away from the Wall to show its sanctity. On Saturdays, it is forbidden to enter the area with electronic devices, including cameras, which infringe on the sanctity of the Sabbath.
Some Orthodox Jewish codifiers warn against inserting fingers into the cracks of the Wall as they believe that the breadth of the Wall constitutes part of the Temple Mount itself and retains holiness, while others who permit doing so claim that the Wall is located outside the Temple area.
In the past, some visitors would write their names on the Wall, or based upon various scriptural verses, would drive nails into the crevices. These practices stopped after rabbis determined that such actions compromised the sanctity of the Wall. Another practice also existed whereby pilgrims or those intending to travel abroad would hack off a chip from the Wall or take some of the sand from between its cracks as a good luck charm or memento. In the late 19th century the question was raised as to whether this was permitted and a long responsa appeared in the Jerusalem newspaper Havatzelet in 1898. It concluded that even if according to Jewish Law it was permitted, the practices should be stopped as it constituted a desecration. More recently the Yalkut Yosef rules that it is forbidden to remove small chips of stone or dust from the Wall, although it is permissible to take twigs from the vegetation which grows in the Wall for an amulet, as they contain no holiness. Cleaning the stones is also problematic from a halachic point of view. Blasphemous graffiti once sprayed by a tourist was left visible for months until it began to peel away.
There was once an old custom of removing one's shoes upon approaching the Wall. A 17th-century collection of special prayers to be said at holy places mentions that "upon coming to the Western Wall one should remove his shoes, bow and recite...". Rabbi Moses Reicher wrote that "it is a good and praiseworthy custom to approach the Western Wall in white garments after ablution, kneel and prostrate oneself in submission and recite "This is nothing other than the House of God and here is the gate of Heaven." When within four cubits of the Wall, one should remove their footwear." Over the years the custom of standing barefoot at the Wall has ceased, as there is no need to remove one's shoes when standing by the Wall, because the plaza area is outside the sanctified precinct of the Temple Mount.
According to Jewish Law, one is obliged to grieve and rend one's garment upon visiting the Western Wall and seeing the desolate site of the Temple. Bach (17th century) instructs that "when one sees the Gates of Mercy which are situated in the Western Wall, which is the wall King David built, he should recite: Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the nations: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord". Some scholars write that rending one's garments is not applicable nowadays as Jerusalem is under Jewish control. Others disagree, pointing to the fact that the Temple Mount is controlled by the Muslim waqf and that the mosques which sit upon the Temple site should increase feelings of distress. If one hasn't seen the Wall for over 30 days, the prevailing custom is to rend one's garments, but this can be avoided if one visits on the Sabbath or on festivals. According to Donneal Epstein, a person who has not seen the Wall within the last 30 days should recite: "Our Holy Temple, which was our glory, in which our forefathers praised You, was burned and all of our delights were destroyed".
The Sages of the Talmud stated that anyone who prays at the Temple in Jerusalem, "it is as if he has prayed before the throne of glory because the gate of heaven is situated there and it is open to hear prayer." Jewish Law stipulates that the Silent Prayer should be recited facing towards Jerusalem, the Temple and ultimately the Holy of Holies, as God's bounty and blessing emanates from that spot. It is generally believed that prayer by the Western Wall is particularly beneficial since it was that wall which was situated closest to the Holy of Holies. Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger (1798–1871) writes, making reference to a medieval rabbi, "since the Theology and ritual Israel's prayers ascend on high there... as one of the great ancient kabbalists Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla said, when the Jews send their prayers from the Diaspora in the direction of Jerusalem, from there they ascend by way of the Western Wall." A well-known segula (efficacious remedy) for finding one's soulmate is to pray for 40 consecutive days at the Western Wall, a practice apparently conceived by Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Fisher (1928–2003).
While during the late 19th century, no formal segregation of men and women was to be found at the Wall, conflict erupted in July 1968 when members of the World Union for Progressive Judaism were denied the right to host a mixed-gender service at the site after the Ministry of Religious Affairs insisted on maintaining the gender segregation customary at Orthodox places of worship. The progressives responded by claiming that "the Wall is a shrine of all Jews, not one particular branch of Judaism."
In 1988, the small but vocal group called Women of the Wall launched a campaign for recognition of non-Orthodox prayer at the Wall. Their form and manner of prayer elicited a violent response from some Orthodox worshippers and they were subsequently banned from holding services at the site. After repeated attacks by haredim, in 1989 the Women of the Wall petitioned to secure the right of women to pray at the wall without restrictions.
A decade on, some commentators called for the closure of the Wall unless an acceptable solution to the controversy was found.
In 2003 Israel's Supreme Court upheld the ban on non-Orthodox worship at the Wall, disallowing any women from reading publicly from the Torah or wearing traditional prayer shawls at the plaza itself, but instructed the Israeli government to prepare the site of Robinson's Arch to host such events, given that this area does not come under the direct control of the Rabbi of the Wall or the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The government responded by allocating Robinson's Arch for such purposes.
The Robinson's Arch worship site was inaugurated in August 2004 and has since hosted services by Reform and Conservative groups, as well as services by the Women of the Wall.
In 2012, critics still complained about the restrictions at the Western Wall, saying Israel had "turned a national monument into an ultra-Orthodox synagogue,"
In April 2013 things came to a head. In response to the repeated arrest of women, including Anat Hoffman, found flouting the law, the Jewish Agency observed 'the urgent need to reach a permanent solution and make the Western Wall once again a symbol of unity among the Jewish people, and not one of discord and strife." Jewish Agency leader Natan Sharansky spearheaded a concept that would expand and renovate the Robinson's Arch area into an area where people may "perform worship rituals not based on the Orthodox interpretation of Jewish tradition." The Jerusalem District Court ruled that as long as there was no other appropriate area for pluralistic prayer, prayer according to non-Orthodox custom should be allowed at the Wall, and a judge ruled that the 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling prohibiting women from carrying a Torah or wearing prayer shawls had been misinterpreted and that Women of the Wall prayer gatherings at the Wall should not be deemed as disturbing the public order.[
On August 25, 2013, a new 4,480 square foot prayer platform named "Azarat Yisrael Plaza" was completed as part of this plan of facilitating non-Orthodox worship, with access to the platform at all hours, even when the rest of the area's archaeological park is closed to visitors. After some controversy regarding the question of authority over this prayer area, the announcement was made that it would come under the authority of a future government-appointed "pluralist council" that would include non-Orthodox representatives.
In January 2016, the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan to designate a new space at the Kotel that would be available for egalitarian prayer and that would not be controlled by the Rabbinate. Women of the Wall welcomed the decision, although Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar of Jerusalem said creating a mixed-gender prayer section was paramount to destroying the Wall. The Chief Rabbinate said it would create an alternate plan. In June 2017, it was announced that the plan approved in January 2016 had been suspended.
There is a much publicised practice of placing slips of paper containing written prayers into the crevices of the Wall. The earliest account of this practice is attributed to Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, (d. 1743). More than a million notes are placed each year and the opportunity to e-mail notes is offered by a number of organisations. It has become customary for visiting dignitaries to place notes too.
Shortly after the Western Wall came under Israeli control in 1967, a stand of the Chabad movement offering phylacteries (tefillin) was erected with permission from Rabbi Yehuda Meir Getz, the first rabbi of the Kotel. The stand offers male visitors the chance to put on tefillin, a daily Jewish prayer ritual. In the months following the Six-Day War an estimated 400,000 Jews observed this ritual at the stand. The stand is staffed by multilingual Chabad volunteers and an estimated 100,000 male visitors put on tefillin there annually.
Muslim reverence for the site is derived from the belief that the Islamic prophet Muhammad tied his winged mount Buraq nearby during his night journey to Jerusalem. Various places have been suggested for the exact spot where Buraq was tethered, but for several centuries the preferred location has been the al-Buraq Mosque, which is just inside the wall at the south end of the present Western Wall plaza. The mosque is located above an ancient passageway, which once came out through the long-sealed Barclay's Gate whose huge lintel is still visible directly below the Maghrebi Gate.
There are four different locations, along the southern, eastern, and western wall, with gates known successively or simultaneously as the Gate of the Prophet and al-Buraq and associated by the Moslem authorities with Muhammad's night journey, which shows how extremely insecure they felt about the attribution of the al-Buraq tradition and name to a specific site.
US scholar Charles D. Matthews wrote in 1932 that, based on the work of Muslim authors of the 10th to 11th centuries (the later part of the Early Muslim period), the place where Prophet Muhammad had tethered Buraq and entered the haram was considered at the time to be the Double Gate of the Temple Mount's southern wall. To reach this conclusion, which he shares with Charles Wilson and Guy Le Strange, he analysed the relevant texts by Ibn al-Faqih (903), Ibn Abd Rabbih (913), and mainly by Muqaddasi (985) and Nasir-i-Khusrau (1047). One of the earliest authors who are more ambiguous, opening the possibility of identifying the Gate of the Prophet and al-Buraq with either the Double or Barclay's Gate, is Burhan ad-Din ibn al-Firkah of Damascus (d. 1329). Another Mamluk-period writer, Mujir ad-Din (1496), is the first one to unambiguously identify Barclay's Gate as the Gate of al-Buraq or of the Prophet. However, Mujir ad-Din's work is effectively a rework of earlier texts, with as-Suyuti (1471) being the main source—and he fails to mention that as—Suyuti stated that the Gate of the Inspector, located close to the northern end of the western wall, was also known as the Gate of al-Buraq or of the Prophet.
To the previously mentioned variations in identification adds yet another gate, the now walled-up Funeral Gate (bab al-jana'iz), just south of the Golden Gate, also known as 'Gate of al-Buraq' and marked as such on a 1864 Temple Mount map by Melchior de Vogüé, based on the 1833 survey by Frederick Catherwood.
When a British Jew asked the Egyptian authorities in 1840 for permission to re-pave the ground in front of the Western Wall, the governor of Syria wrote:
It is evident from the copy of the record of the deliberations of the Consultative Council in Jerusalem that the place the Jews asked for permission to pave adjoins the wall of the Haram al-Sharif and also the spot where al-Buraq was tethered, and is included in the endowment charter of Abu Madyan, may God bless his memory; that the Jews never carried out any repairs in that place in the past. ... Therefore the Jews must not be enabled to pave the place.
Carl Sandreczki, who was charged with compiling a list of place names for Charles Wilson's Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem in 1865, reported that the street leading to the Western Wall, including the part alongside the wall, belonged to the Hosh (court/enclosure) of al Burâk, "not Obrâk, nor Obrat". In 1866, the Prussian Consul and Orientalist Georg Rosen wrote that "The Arabs call Obrâk the entire length of the wall at the wailing place of the Jews, southwards down to the house of Abu Su'ud and northwards up to the substructure of the Mechkemeh [Shariah court]. Obrâk is not, as was formerly claimed, a corruption of the word Ibri (Hebrews), but simply the neo-Arabic pronunciation of Bōrâk, ... which, whilst (Muhammad) was at prayer at the holy rock, is said to have been tethered by him inside the wall location mentioned above."
The name Hosh al Buraq appeared on the maps of Wilson's 1865 survey, its revised editions of 1876 and 1900, and other maps in the early 20th century.
In 1922, Hosh al Buraq was the street name specified by the official Pro-Jerusalem Council.
Some scholars believe that when Jerusalem came under Christian rule in the 4th century, there was a purposeful "transference" of respect for the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in terms of sanctity to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, while the sites around the Temple Mount became a refuse dump for Christians. However, the actions of many modern Christian leaders, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the Wall and left prayer messages in its crevices, have symbolized for many Christians a restoration of respect and even veneration for this ancient religious site.
Most Jews, religious and secular, consider the wall to be important to the Jewish people since it was originally built to hold the Second Temple. They consider the capture of the wall by Israel in 1967 as a historic event since it restored Jewish access to the site after a 19-year gap.
Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz referred to the attitude towards the Western Wall as "idolatry" and publicly decried the Israelis' triumphalism following the 1967 victory.
A poll carried out in 2007 by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies indicated that 96% of Israeli Jews were against Israel relinquishing the Western Wall.
Yitzhak Reiter writes that "the Islamization and de-Judaization of the Western Wall are a recurrent motif in publications and public statements by the heads of the Islamic Movement in Israel."
In December 1973, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia stated that "Only Muslims and Christians have holy places and rights in Jerusalem". The Jews, he maintained, had no rights there at all. As for the Western Wall, he said, "Another wall can be built for them. They can pray against that".
The Palestinian National Authority's State Information Service (SIS) stated as fact that the Jews did not consider the Wall as a place for worship until after the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917.
In 2006, Dr. Hassan Khader, founder of the Al Quds Encyclopedia, told PA television
El día del rescate por fin llegó y los 33 mineros que llevan 68 días bajo 700 metros en la mina San josé hoy podrán salir desde donde estuvieron por tanto tiempo encerrados.
Según algunas informaciones entregadas po el alcalde de Copiapó a un canal nacional, el rescate comenzaría a las 20.00 horas con algunas pruebas con la Fénix 1 de bajada y de izaje para posteriormente introducir a los rescatistas para que lleguen hasta donde están los 33 mineros y los intruyan sobre cómo será el rescate.
Se espera que la operación de rescate dure cerca de una hora por cada minero y una vez en la superficie serán esperados por un familiar para luego ser trasladado al hosptital de Copiapó, en helicóptero si las condiciones climáticas lo permiten o por tierra,trayecto que curiosamente durará 33 minutos.
Las cápsulas utilizadas serán la Fénix 1 y 2 las que se irán alternando para hacer mantención a cada una en caso de que lo necesitaran.
El rescate durará 48 horas y cada uno de los mineros permanecerá alrededor de dos días hospitalizados para hacer análisis y observación sobre su estado de salud.
(more details later, as time permits)
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I have a confession to make: I’ve lived in New York City for 45 years — but until last night, I had never attended, observed, photographed, or participated in the annual Halloween Parade that takes place in Greenwich Village. I can’t be blamed for the first few years: I moved to NYC in the late 60’s (on Bleecker Street, right in the middle of the West Village), and the parade did not begin until 1974. But that means last night’s parade was the 40th such event … and for some reason, I missed them all.
But I was there last night … a little unsure of myself, for the parade did not actually begin until 7 PM, an hour after sunset. Even at 5 PM, the sun has usually dropped so low (in the fall and winter months) that the light is pretty mediocre for photography — and it was a cold, gray, overcast day as well. So I brought my flash along, even though I’ve rarely used it, and wandered through the crowd to see what I could find.
And it was a crowd: as early as 1985, it was estimated that some 250,000 people were participating in the event; I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a million people there last night. But at first, I couldn’t find any of them: the newspaper had announced that people could arrive at a pre-parade “staging” area on Canal Street and Sixth Avenue … but when I got there (early, as usual), there was not a soul to be seen. But I eventually noticed some costumed people who seemed to know where they were going … and I could hear music in the distance … so so I began heading north, and found the beginning of the crowd scene about three blocks further north, on Broome Street.
After that, it was sheer bedlam for the next couple of hours — until the parade officially began moving north on Sixth Avenue, right at 7 PM. The costumes were overwhelming — everything from witches and goblins, monsters, the GhostBusters, kings and queens and pirates and aliens. There were a few topless women with thick psychedelic body-paint to provide a small amount of modesty, and there were several groups of dancers who had obviously practiced dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which blared loudly from several sound systems. Meanwhile, there were drummers and samba bands, steel bands, and informal groups doing their best to provide the crowd with Italian, Chinese, Irish, Dixieland, and African music…
After I left the parade, I took the subway from Canal Street up to 14th Street to meet my wife for a quiet dinner at a small Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. But everywhere I went — streets, sidewalks, subway stations — it seemed that all of Greenwich Village had been caught up in the revelry.
Beyond that, it’s impossible for me to describe the noise, the music, the costumes, and the overall revelry. For an overall summary, you might want to look at this Wikipedia article
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York's_Village_Halloween_Parade
But I think the only way to really understand what the NYC Halloween Parade is all about is to be there. Words don’t really suffice ...
Weather permitting I were these old Crocs when pottering around in the garden - they are so comfortable!
7 Days of Shooting Week #40 Footwear Texture Tuesday ....
Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... thanks to you all.
Permite el enlace tanto con sus escalones subordinados, superiores y colaterales, como con aquellos otros elementos ajenos a su sección que participen en una intervención y con los que por cualquier motivo requiera establecer un canal de comunicación. Dispone de enlace en movimiento (BGAN). Puede integrar cualquier tipo de comunicación radio y/o satelital, y transferirla por cualquiera de los sistemas disponibles.
(more details later, as time permits)
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Virtually everyone in America, as well as millions of other people around the world, know that Thanksgiving is one of the main occasions for organizing a huge parade.
It’s especially true in New York City, where I live — hundreds of parade workers converge on a one-block stretch between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West on 77th Street on the night before Thanksgiving to assemble the floats, and pump the huge balloons full of helium, so they’ll be ready to go the next morning. The parade itself lasts for hours, and stretches all the way down Central Park West and Broadway, and ultimately through Herald Square and past the main entrance to Macy’s on 34th Street. The whole thing is televised for the benefit of viewers all around the world, with TV commentators and an endless procession of marching bands, baton-twirlers, singers, dancers, jugglers, magicians, Broadway actors, and other forms of entertainment…
While New York City may be the only example of a Thanksgiving-Day parade that people around the world actually see on their TV screen, it’s definitely not the only such parade that takes place in this country. I’m sure that every big city has its own version of the turkey-day parade, as do most of the medium-size cities, and quite a few smaller towns and villages, too. They may not be visible on television, but a lot of local citizens and visitors turn out to watch such parades, if only because their sons and daughters are typically marching in the high-school bands that form a big part of the event.
On this particular occasion — in November of 2013 — I happened to be in one such medium-size city, where the parade took place on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It was in Portland, Oregon where we were spending the holiday period with one of our sons and his family; the parade took place in the “Pearl District” of downtown Portland … and, to our amazement, we were able to park our car about a block from the parade route, and walk right up to the corner (at Davis St and NW Park, if you want to track it down on Google Maps) where all of the bands and floats and costumed marchers walked by. In fact, I was able to take the “parade experience” even one step further: the people were friendly enough, and the security was light enough, that I was able to walk right out into the middle of the street with my camera, to photograph the floats and bands and marchers as they approached me … scampering out of the way only at the last moment.
Admittedly, Portland is a much bigger city than a tiny village of a thousand people somewhere in the midwest … but it still felt like “small town America” to me, and it was a great spectacle to watch. I got the impression that many of the visitors and observers standing along the street actually knew the people marching past them … and in any case, the marchers laughed and smiled and walked right up to us, handing out little pieces of candy to all of the children. Maybe next year I’ll go looking for a really small Thanksgiving parade in one of those tiny midwest-America villages, before retreating back to the Big Apple to watch the spectacle of thousands of marchers parading past millions of observers, and a TV audience of tens of millions …
I wish that I had taken some video clips of the parade, because the sounds and the music and the motion were a big part of what we experienced. But for better or worse, all I took was a bunch of traditional still photos. Actually, I took a LOT of still photos — nearly a thousand, altogether — but I’ve winnowed the collection down to 50 “keepers” that I hope will give you a sense of what Thanksgiving is all about…
Actually, if you live anywhere besides New York City here in the U S of A, you already know what Thanksgiving is all about, at least to the extent that it’s symbolized by the parade. But for those of us who spend most our time in New York City, it was a very pleasant experience indeed. After an hour, it was all over; we walked back to our car a block away, and drove back to our son’s house … and a day later, we were back in New York City. And thus ended another Thanksgiving holiday, at least until 2014.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_Light_Infantry
The Durham Light Infantry (DLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1968. It was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and the 106th Regiment of Foot (Bombay Light Infantry) along with the Militia and Volunteers of County Durham.
The regiment served notably in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II, the Korean War and the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation. During times of peace it had duty in India, China, West Germany and Cyprus.
In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry, the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the King's Shropshire Light Infantry to form The Light Infantry, which again amalgamated in 2007 with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment and the Royal Green Jackets to form a new large regiment, The Rifles, which continues the lineage of the regiment.
Formation
See also: List of battalions of the Durham Light Infantry
As part of the Cardwell and Childers Reforms of the British Army's regiments, in 1881 the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and the 106th Regiment of Foot (Bombay Light Infantry) became the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Durham Light Infantry. Both already had their depots at Sunderland Barracks in Sunderland, as was the Brigade Depot (No. 3). The militia battalions – the 1st Durham Fusiliers and 2nd North Durham Militia – became the 3rd and 4th battalions of the new regiment, with their depots in Barnard Castle and Durham City. The five Volunteer Force battalions of Durham Rifle Volunteers – the 1st to 4th Administrative battalions of the Durham Rifle Volunteers and the 3rd Durham Rifle Volunteer Corps – became the 1st to 5th Volunteer battalions.
A new regimental badge was to be worn, a Tudor rose, this was never worn on any article of clothing, but did appear on the colours until 1934. Instead the light infantry bugle horn was modified with a crown and the regiment's abbreviation.
The system was designed to permit one regular battalion of a regiment to be stationed at home, providing trained recruits for the other on overseas service.
History
1881–99
On formation of the regiment the 1st Battalion was in India at Meerut and the 2nd Battalion was in Ireland at Dublin. The elements of the new regiment still maintained a separate and independent existence, as they had since being grouped together in 1873, however the introduction of shorter service (six years, then another six in the reserves) and the increase in cross posting of officers in the linked regular and Militia battalions, increased the assimilation into a single regiment.
In August 1882 the 2nd Battalion was sent to the garrison the Mediterranean, being split between Gibraltar and Malta, it was reunited in March 1883 at Gibraltar.
In 1884, the Depot moved from Sunderland to Fenham Barracks in Newcastle upon Tyne which it shared with the Northumberland Fusiliers as there was no suitable site near Durham City "which could not be relied upon as not being undermined". The move was not popular as it took the Depot out of the County, it was not to return until 1939, when it was transferred to Brancepeth Castle.
In 1885 the 2nd Battalion was transferred to Egypt to take part in the Mahdist War and was employed with the force under General Stephenson to repel attacks on the railway between Wadi Halfa and Akasha, fighting at the Battle of Ginnis. After the battle, while securing one of the Arab's nuggers (supply boats), an Arab child of about two years was found by the battalion's mounted infantry. Brought back and baptised as James Francis Durham (Jimmy Durham) he would enlist with the regiment and become a corporal of buglers before dying in August 1910. In January 1887, the 2nd Battalion sailed from Suez to India, while in March, the 1st Battalion returned from there to Britain.
While in India, the 2nd Battalion came to dominate the Indian polo scene, winning 17 tournaments against "rich men's regiments" and cavalry regiments. In 1897 and 1898, it assisted in combating outbreaks of the plague in Poona and Bombay.
Second Boer War
The 1st battalion was dispatched from Britain to South Africa to take part in the Second Anglo-Boer War, arriving in November 1899, after local forces had been besieged in Mafeking, and the British forces stationed there had been surrounded in the town of Ladysmith The battalion was involved in General Redvers Buller's unsuccessful attempts to approach Ladysmith across the Teluga river, in reserve for the Battle of Colenso, launching diversionary attacks to the east of Spion Kop, and in early February attacked Vaal Krantz with the battalion taking two hills of the ridge, before the position was abandoned. The battalion was in a supporting role for the Relief of Ladysmith and took little part in the offensive that ended with the annexation of the Transvaal in September 1900.
The war now became one of guerilla raids by the Boers against the British forces and their lines of communication. The battalion was deployed guarding a section of railway line in the Transvaal, while sending two platoon sized units to the mounted infantry. During this time the battalion was joined or reinforced by other units from the regiment. One company from the 2nd battalion came from India in January 1900 and formed part of the Burmah Mounted Infantry, seeing action at Sanna's Post.
The 3rd and 4th battalions were embodied and also served in South Africa. The 3rd arriving in February 1900, where it guarded lines of communications in the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State, escorted convoys and garrisoned Dewetsdorp for 6 months. The 4th arrived in February 1902 and was split into detachments serving in many places, and a mounted infantry company, which escorted convoys. Almost 800 officers and men of the 4th battalion returned to the United Kingdom on the SS Roslin Castle in September 1902, following the end of the war, and returned to Newcastle for disembodiment.
The volunteer battalions supplied contingents to form three special service companies, reinforcing the 1st battalion, which served individually from March 1900 to April 1902.
Pre First World War
The 1st battalion and the company from the 2nd left South Africa for India on the SS Assaye at the end of October 1902, and on 15 November both battalions met at Calicut, before the 2nd battalion, which had been guarding Boer prisoners, left for Britain. The 1st battalion was stationed at Wellington in Madras Presidency.
In 1908, as part of the Territorial Forces Act, the 3rd and 4th battalions exchanged numbers and were recast as the 3rd (Reserve) and 4th (Extra Reserve) battalions in a draft finding role. The 1st to 5th Volunteer battalions were renumbered as the 5th to 9th battalions Durham Light Infantry of the Territorial Force. The 5th formed part of the York and Durham Brigade and the 6th–9th battalions formed the Durham Light Infantry Brigade of the Northumbrian Division (eventually the 150th (York and Durham) Brigade and 151st (Durham Light Infantry) Brigade respectively of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division when the territorial formations were given numbers in May 1915). The 5th Battalion was based at Paradise Row in Stockton-on-Tees, while the 6th Battalion was based at Union Street in Bishop Auckland, the 7th Battalion was based at Livingstone Road in Sunderland, the 8th Battalion was based at Gilesgate in Durham and the 9th Battalion was based Burt Terrance in Gateshead (all since demolished). In 1911, the 1st battalion took part in the Delhi Durbar, receiving new colours from the King.
First World War
During the First World War, the D.L.I. expanded to 42 battalions, comprising two Regular, two Militia, 17 Territorial (1st, 2nd and 3rd line, some never completed) and 21 service and other types (some short lived), with 22 seeing active service overseas – on the Western Front (at Ypres, Loos, Arras, Messines, Cambrai, the Somme and Passchendaele), in Italy, Egypt, Salonika and India. Some battalions were part of the Army of occupation in Germany after the War. In addition, ten battalions of County Volunteers were raised under the terms of the 1859 Volunteer act.
Deaths of NCOs and other ranks in the DLI in World War One
The regiment earned 59 battle honours and won six Victoria Crosses, but at the cost of 12,006 dead NCOs and other ranks. When officers are included this rises to approximately 12,530 – the 10th highest of any of the infantry regiments of the British Army.
When War was declared, the 1st battalion was in India part of the Nowshera Brigade, 1st (Peshawar) Division, and was one of only eight of 52 British Army regular infantry battalions to remain in India. When volunteers for drafts to fight in France were called for, 880 out of 900 responded. The 2nd battalion was in Whittington Barracks, assigned to the 18th Brigade of the 6th Division. The Territorial battalions had been withdrawn early from their summer training camp to their home mobilisation stations.
1914
The 6th Division reached France on 10–11 September as part of the British Expeditionary Force. By this time the German Army's advance had been halted on the Marne and pushed back to beyond the Aisne. The 6th Division was dispersed among the units of the BEF holding the line on the ridge of the Chemin des Dames, with 2nd battalion the penultimate battalion on the right of the line. On 20 September the Germans attacked the junction of the British and French forces but were held; in this introduction to the war the 2nd battalion lost in one day almost as many men as the 1st battalion lost in the whole of the Boer War. The Allies and the Germans now began a series of moves to try and outflank each other resulting in a northwards movement called the Race to the Sea. Rejoining the rest of the division in early October during this northward movement the 2nd battalion fought at the Battle of Armentières, dispersed in companies to reinforce other units to the south-east of Armentiers. By the end of October when it was withdrawn from the front, the 2nd battalion had lost over 80% of its original complement killed or wounded.
On 16 December, the 18th battalion (a Pals battalion) became the first New Army battalion to come under enemy fire when two companies on coastal defence duty at Hartlepool suffered five dead and 11 wounded when the town came under fire from the battlecruisers SMS Derfflinger, SMS Von der Tann and SMS Blucher.
1915
After the failure of British attacks at Neuve Chapelle and the French in Champagne, the Germans attacked at the Second Battle of Ypres on 22 April. By this time the territorial battalions of the regiment had just landed in France with the 50th (Northumbrian) Division on 17–18 April. Without any 'nursery' period the brigades of the Division were deployed as needed in the northern part of the salient around St Julian and the Gravenstafl Ridge. Repeated German attacks throughout late April and May forced a withdrawal toward Ypres. Between 25 and 27 April, the 8th battalion was reduced to the effective strength of one company after being enfiladed at Boetleer's Farm with the 8th Canadian battalion and is credited with saving the flank of the 85th Brigade. In late May, the 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th battalions were part of the forces that slowed the German assault on the Bellewaarde Ridge the last battle of Second Ypres. Due to its losses, in June, the 8th battalion was merged with the 6th battalion to form the 6th/8th Composite battalion, which separated back into its components in August after reinforcement.
The first of the service battalions of the New Army, the 10th battalion of the 43rd Brigade, 14th (Light) Division and the 11th battalion which were pioneers of the 20th (Light) Division, arrived in France in May and July respectively. The 7th battalion was converted to the (50th) Division pioneer battalion on 16 May 1915.
In July, the 41st Division was in the line in the Ypres salient at the chateau of Hooge, where the Germans held the house and the allies the stable block, just north of the Menin road. On 30 July, the Germans used Flamethrowers, which threw back the 41st Brigade and pushed the front line south back to Zouave and Sanctuary Woods. The 6th Division was tasked to retake the old line of late July. The now reinforced 2nd battalion had to face a 500-yard advance paralleling the German line before reaching its objective. In the early hours of 9 August, together with the 1st K.S.L.I. on its left, the battalion overran the German trenches at bayonet point and re-established the British line on the north of the Menin road at a cost of nearly 200 dead and 270 wounded. Praise was received from the brigade, Division, corps and Army commanders and Sir John French commander of the BEF said of the assault it was "...one of the best conducted of the smaller operations of the campaign".
Four more service battalions arrived in France, the 12th and 13th of the 68th Brigade of the 23rd Division in late August and the 14th and 15th of the 64th Brigade of the 21st Division in early September.
The 21st and 24th Divisions were chosen as part of the reserve for the Battle of Loos despite being newly arrived in France and having had comparatively little training. After a long night march, dawn found the battalions between Loos and Hulluch with a German redoubt on Hill 70 to their right. Over the course of the day, both essentially untrained battalions attacked a total of five times unsupported by artillery but were beaten back. The 14th battalion lost 294 killed and wounded, the 15th 642. In late November, the 14th battalion joined the 2nd in the 18th Brigade of 6th Division.
On 4 November, the regiment won its first VC of the war when Pte Thomas Kenny of the 13th battalion rescued a wounded officer.
1916
The arrival of service battalions of the regiment continued: the 19th battalion (Bantams) in the 106th Brigade of the 35th Division on 29 February, the 20th battalion (Wearsiders) in the 123rd Brigade of the 41st Division and the 22nd battalion which landed on 16 June attached to the 19th (Western) Division, but quickly transferred to the 8th Division as Division pioneers. The 18th battalion (Pals) had arrived in March from Egypt where it had garrisoned the Suez Canal at Qantara as part of 93rd Brigade of the 31st Division.
The Somme
The Somme offensive was originally planned, earlier in the year, as a joint British-French offensive but due to the increasing pressure on the French at Verdun was fought in part to relieve that pressure without much of the expected French support. General Haig felt that he lacked sufficient artillery and that many of the New Army Divisions were not yet fully trained but was pressured into starting the offensive at the start of July.
The regiment had two battalions in action on the first day of the Somme, 1 July, the 18th (31st Division) opposite Serre and the 15th (21st Division) north of Fricourt. The 15th battalion, aided by its Division artillery's used of a rolling barrage, captured the German front line trenches and pressed on, until by the afternoon the battalion advanced an additional 600 yards to the edge of Shelter Wood, beating off a counterattack until relieved that night. Casualties amounted to 440 officers and other ranks.
The planned advance of D company of the 18th battalion that morning was overlooked by German forces in the ruins of Serre and together with the other assaulting troops of the first wave suffered grievous losses and gained no ground. The retaliatory German shelling virtually destroyed the front line and communication trenches and the remaining companies of the 18th and other battalions were ordered to prepare a defence in case of counterattack. They remained in these shattered trenches, attempting to repair them and rescuing the wounded from no-mans land, under at times intense bombardment, until relieved during the night of 4 July. When reassembled the battalion had 14 officers and 357 men, having lost 58% of its strength killed and wounded.
British tactics now changed; instead of attacks aiming for deep penetrations, smaller objectives were set, the first at Bezantin Ridge on 14 July. The 12th and 13th battalions fought between Poziers and Martinpuich up to the end of July, the 19th although only in a supporting role, had still lost more than 250 officers and men near Guillemont at the end of July, the 10th fought in Delville Wood in August, and the 11th, a pioneer battalion, was fighting in the trenches near Ginchy in early September.
The next objective was on a 10-mile front between the villages of Flers and Courcelette in mid September. The 2nd and 14th battalions were part of the attack that took the Quadrilateral strong point near Ginchy. The territorials and the 10th, 15th and 20th battalions were also involved in this phase, with the 5th battalion having only 92 officers and men fit by 19 September. Le Transloy ridge was the next target in the increasingly wet autumn, this involved the 2nd battalion, the 6th, 8th (temporarily joined with the 1/5th Borderers) and 9th territorials and the 12th and 13th service battalions. These last two captured the village of Le Sars in what the Official History called "...the striking success of the day." The territorials were again involved in the last assault of the Somme offensive, on the Butte de Warlencourt, the 1/6th, 1/8th and 1/9th losing between them nearly 940 officers and men killed, wounded or missing for no gain.
In early November the 2/5th and the 2/9th battalions consisting of category B fitness men separately embarked for Salonika and the front against Bulgaria.
1917
Arras
The attack along the line at Arras, starting on 9 April was intended as a diversion for the French attack at Nivelle. In the first phase of the attack, the 10th battalion had advanced ~4000 yards through the Hindenburg trench system until relieved on the night of 10 April. The 15th battalion also fought on the first day taking the front line trench (at ~1,000 yards) but being held up afterwards. The territorial battalions were in action in mid and late April south of the village of Guemappe.
In the coalfields of Lens the 2nd and 14th battalions fought the Germans over a feature called 'Hill 70' between April and July, adding it as a battle honour to the regiment.
Messines
The set piece battle of Messines was intended to take high ground to the south of Ypres prior to the northern offensive. After an intense bombardment, the explosion of underground mines and following a creeping barrage the 12th and 13th battalions near Hill 60 advanced ~1,000 yards and the 20th battalion starting from St Eloi advanced nearly 4000 yards with fewer losses than previous operations.
Third Ypres
The next battle around the Ypres salient was to clear the Germans from the remaining high ground to the East of the city. The 20th battalion was involved in the first day's attacks on 31 July, advancing alongside the Ypres-Comines canal for the loss of 8 officers and 431 other ranks. The next advance was held up until near the end of August by heavy rains and was directed along the Menin Road, here the 10th battalion attempted to take and hold Inverness Copse losing over half its original strength by 25 August. General Plumer's methodical advance began on 20 September on the Menin Road ridge. The 20th battalion's advance on 21 September was checked after 200 yards, the 13th battalion reached their objective with both battalions losing around 300 men. The third of General Plumer's steps, the Battle of Broodseinde on 4 October involved the 15th battalion on the extreme right of 21st Division, despite being reduced to two composite companies by German heavy bombardment, they advanced south of Polygon Wood achieving the objective of the village of Reutel. When the battalion was relieved on 6 October it was commanded by a Lieutenant and had lost 430 officers and men.
For the remainder of the Third Ypres the regiment's battalions were in reserve positions, the Territorials during Second Battle of Passchendaele, or holding the line, and the 19th battalion (which had ceased to be a 'Bantam' unit in January) at Weidendreft in early November and the 10th battalion at Passchendaele in December. The Pioneer battalions, 11th and 22nd, also served with their respective Divisions (20th and 8th) during the Battle.
Italy
When the Central Powers forced a retreat on the Italian Front at the Battle of Caporetto, 5 British and 2 French Divisions were sent to Italy. The British Divisions contained the 12th and 13th battalions (23rd Division) and the 20th battalion (41st Division) leaving the Ypres Salient between the end of October and mid November and arriving in at the Italian front between the end of November and early December.[
Cambrai
The Battle of Cambrai was the first successful use of maturing combined arms tactics by the British. On 20 November, the 2nd and 14th battalions of the 6th Division were to pass through the assaulting forces and take the Hindenburg Line support trench; both battalions reached their objective with a total loss of 30 killed or wounded. On the next day, 3 companies from 14th battalion assisted tanks and squadron of cavalry in taking the village of Cantaing (north-west of Marcoing). The advance came to a halt as the Germans brought their reserves into the battle. The 11th battalion had been consolidating the ground behind the 4 mile advance of 20th Division but on 29 November its scattered companies were involved in fighting the German counter-attack on the ridges north of Gouzeacourt. The 14th battalion (together with the 1st battalion Shropshire Light Infantry) was ordered across the Canal du Nord on the night of 2 December to trenches facing Masniere, one of which was only 2–3 feet deep. After beating off one attack they were forced to withdraw back over the canal and over the next few days withdrew to the "Flesquires Line" and, for the British the disappointing end of the Battle.
1918–19
With the Russians out of the war, Germany was able to transfer forces and at last outnumber the Allies on the Western Front before the arrival of the Americans in force. Large numbers of stormtroopers were to be used, together with new artillery tactics. The Allies knew what was in store and began to prepare a defence in depth with varying degrees of effectiveness. As a result of manpower shortages (some politically induced), in February the British Army was reorganised from a four battalion to a three battalion infantry brigade structure, with many infantry battalions being disbanded to strengthen remaining battalions. In this way the 10th and 14th battalions were disbanded, reinforcing the other battalions of the regiment while the 9th was converted to a pioneer battalion and joined the 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division. The 20th battalion returned from Italy to the Western Front with its Division in early March.
German spring offensive
On the first day of the German "Operation Michael" the 2nd battalion was in the front line north of the Bapume-Cambrai road. After losing the two forward companies, the infantry withdrew in the evening mist with the remains of the 1st battalion West Yorkshire Regiment. At dusk on the 22nd, out of an original strength of 30 officers and 639 other ranks, the battalion had two officers and 58 men unwounded with six officers and 286 other ranks wounded. The 11th pioneer battalion was building a supply railway in the 20th Division's rear, in the Saint-Quentin area around Ham. It was scattered during the week long battle, and only a few men regrouped in Amiens at its conclusion. All the regiment's battalions on the Western Front suffered heavy losses as a result of the weight of numbers and new tactics of the Germans. The 18th, 19th and 20th battalions also fought on the Somme. The 9th battalion fought before Bucquoy at the end of March where Pte Young won the V.C. for rescuing 9 men under fire. When relieved on 1 April, the battalion had lost 492 officers and men, and the 15th battalion reduced to one company.
The territorials of the 50th Division, the 5th, 6th and 8th battalions and 7th (Pioneer) battalion were particularly unfortunate, forced into the long retreat on the Somme, they were reinforced by drafts from the graduated battalions and sent to the Ypres salient in April where, after the initial assault they were only saved by the German looting:
I think the only thing that saved us that night was the amount of liquor the Boche found in Estairs and Neuf-Berquin, as I have never heard such a noise in my life as they made singing.
— 5th Battalion officer,
Reduced to a total of a battalion in strength, The 151st Brigade was then sent to the Aisne to recuperate where a third German attack found them on 26 May, 21 days after arriving. The scattered parties were forced back to south of the Marne where eventually the Durham battalions of the 151st Brigade could only muster 103 men of all ranks. Also on the Lys, the 18th battalion fought in retreat south and west around Bailleul and, when taken out of the line on 14 April was formed into a composite battalion with the 15th West Yorkshire Regiment which totalled around 450 men.
The 22nd (Pioneer) battalion fought as infantry on the Aisne on 27 May; after losing 513 officers and men in continual withdrawal, it was absorbed into the 8th Division Composite Battalion. In June, the remains of the 5th, 6th and 8th battalions were reduced to cadre strength and were sent to the Dieppe area while the 7th (Pioneer) Battalion joined 8th Division and absorbed 22nd (Pioneer) Battalion.
The 62nd Division arrived on the eastern flank of the new salient 2 days after the start of the German attack on 17 July. The 9th battalion was used as infantry for the counter-offensive along the Ardre river, and on 20 July fought through thick woods and captured the village of Cuitron on 22 July at a cost of 294 officers and men killed wounded and missing.
Hundred Days Offensive
The German offensive had petered out without the decisive breakthrough that was desired and the German high command knew that the allies would respond, knowing of the German losses, and bolstered by the arrival of the Americans and the reinforcement of the British and French making up for some of the losses from the spring offensive. The first blow fell on 8 August at Amiens in which the regiment had no part. This signalled the beginning of a general advance of the five British Armies through Picardy on 21 August and Flanders on 28 September, four of which contained battalions from the regiment.
The remaining battalions of the regiment participated in this advance being joined in France by the 2/6th battalion in May as part of the 177th brigade of the 59th Division, the 29th battalion reinforcing the 41st Brigade of the 14th Division and the 13th battalion returning from Italy in September to join the 74th brigade in the 25th Division.
On the Somme with the Third Army the 15th battalion made a night advance of over 3,000 yards on 23/24 August and fought again on the Hindengurg Line in mid September. In the Fourth Army the 2nd battalion attacked the Hindenburg Line near St Quentin over terrain that was "...a bare, glacis-like slope devoid of cover..." and lost over 300 men for only 200 yards gained. The 13th battalion attacked the reserve line of the Hindenburg system on 6 October near Villers-Outreaux, with the 15th battalion attacking the same day a few miles to the North. In Flanders, the clearing of the German's spring salient and subsequent advance over the battlefields of the last four years at Ypres was shared by the 18th, 19th, 20th, 2/6th and 29th battalions. The 29th battalion's only battle was the crossing of the Lys near Comines on 15 October. The 2/6th fought on the Premesques ridge and went on with the Division to cross the Scheldt. The 2nd, 13th and 15th battalions took part in the final advance across the Selle and Sambre rivers, the 15th having to drive out the Germans at Limont-Fontaine at bayonet point losing 127 men on 7 November.
Italy
The British Divisions were deployed between Lake Garda and the Piave River, however in February, the 41st Division with the 20th battalion was returned to the Western Front. In June the Austrians launched the Battle of the Piave River with the 12th and 13th battalions facing the northern pincer which made no progress against the British, the two battalions losing six dead and 61 wounded during the day. The 13th battalion returned to the Western Front in September. At the end of October, the 12th battalion took part in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto assaulting across the Piave River before being relieved on 30 October.
Macedonia
Initially both 2/5th and 2/9th battalions were employed on guard duties in and around Salonika where the 2/9th battalion remained until the end of the War. In March 1917 the 2/5th battalion was brigaded into the independent 228th Brigade and sent into the line west of Lake Butkovo. There it stayed until the Bulgarian armistice on 1 October 1918 when it began to advance with the brigade under Greek command. When the Turkish armistice was signed on 31 October the battalion was sent with the 2/5th battalion Seaforth Highlanders to occupy the ports of Varna and Burgas. While overseas the battalion lost two men from wounds but 21 from disease.
Russia
The 2/7th battalion joined the Allied Intervention in Russia in Archangel, Northern Russia as a garrison battalion, arriving on 7 October 1918. It did not see action and was withdrawn in January 1920.
Army of Occupation
In November and December, the 2nd and 9th battalions were among the British forces that marched to the Rhine as part of the Army of Occupation. In early 1919 the 51st and 52nd (Graduated) battalions together with the 20th battalion formed the 3rd Northern Brigade of the Northern Division with the 53rd battalion, reduced to cadre, supplying reinforcements; all were based in Cologne.
India
The 1st battalion remained in India throughout the First World War, suffering a continual drain of drafts for the Western Front. In August 1914 it was part of the Nowshera Brigade of the Peshawar Division, and served on the North West Frontier in 1915, and 1916–17 in campaigns against the Mohmands. The battalion was in Rawalpindi in 1919 at the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in which it played a mostly supporting role. Demobilising its time expired men, a cadre of the battalion returned to Britain in February 1920.
Inter-war
By 1920, the service battalions had been disbanded with their King's colours laid up in Durham Cathedral except for the 20th battalion's at the parish church of Bishopwearmouth.
The 1st battalion was reformed with drafts from the 3rd (the last act of the Militia) and left for Germany, still understrength, in March 1921 for duty in Upper Silesia, returning to Britain in July 1922. The battalion spent 3 years in Egypt again returning to Britain in April 1930. Joining the 6th Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division it took part in experiments in infantry mechanisation. It was then sent to Shanghai arriving in November 1937, reinforced by personnel from the 2nd battalion at Port Sudan. In October 1938 the battalion moved to Tientsin and was there when Britain declared war against Germany.
The 2nd battalion returned to Britain from Germany in April 1919 as a cadre; the battalion reformed and was sent to Batoum in South Russia in October 1919 to police territorial terms of the Armistice. In July 1920 it was sent to the Izmit in Turkey to police the terms of the Turkish armistice until November. From here they went to India and in February 1927 were deployed to Shanghai to protect the International Settlement. Returning to India in August, it fought against the Mahsuds, relieving the post of Datta Khel in May 1930. The battalion arrived back in Britain in November 1937 after a few months in Egypt, replacing the 1st battalion in the 6th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
In February 1920 the Territorial Force was re-raised and later in the year renamed the Territorial Army. In the 1930s as part of the growing realisation of the threat of air power, numbers of territorial battalions were converted to an air defence role, either as Anti-Aircraft gunners or search light regiments, in this way the D.L.I. lost the 5th and 7th battalions. These units were no longer a part of the Regiment.
Second World War
During the Second World War the D.L.I. raised 15 battalions, two Regular, six 1st and 2nd line Territorial (one renamed and transferred to another regiment), and the remainder war formed (mostly so called 'Dunkirk' battalions), with 10 seeing active service overseas in France, Burma, North Africa, Italy, and France and Germany. The low number of battalions raised compared to the First World War was due to the increasing specialisation of a more mechanised army and its associated support requirements. Additionally, twenty six battalions of the Home Guard wore the D.L.I. cap badge.
After the war Field Marshal Montgomery was to write,
Of all the infantry regiments in the British Army, the DLI was one most closely associated with myself during the war. The DLI Brigade [151st Brigade] fought under my command from Alameim to Germany ...It is a magnificent regiment. Steady as a rock in battle and absolutely reliable on all occasions. The fighting men of Durham are splendid soldiers; they excel in the hard-fought battle and they always stick it out to the end; they have gained their objectives and held their positions even when all their officers have been killed and condition were almost unendurable.
The remaining first line territorial battalions once again formed the 151st Infantry Brigade of the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, initially a two brigade motorised Division. The territorials again raised second line battalions now numbering them sequentially, 10th, 11th and 12th battalions, these were now part of 70th Infantry Brigade of the 23rd (Northumbrian) Division the 2nd line copy of the 50th Division. The 12th battalion was named as a Tyneside Scottish unit and on 31 January 1940 the battalion left the regiment to become 1st battalion, Tyneside Scottish of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment).
When the War broke out the 1st battalion was in China at Tientsin, the 2nd battalion at Woking in the 2nd Infantry Division and the territorial battalions had already begun to form their 2nd line.
France 1940
The 2nd battalion arrived in France with the 2nd Infantry Division as part of the BEF in late September 1939 and was quickly deployed on the border with Belgium. The 151st brigade arrived in late January 1940 with 50th Division, with training still to be completed for some men, and moved up to the border at the end of March. The second line battalions (and the Tyneside Scottish) arrived in the part trained 23rd Division in early April, with no artillery or mortars and a reduced rear echelon with orders to complete their training and construct airfields. In the 70th brigade, 1400 men had not fired a Bren gun and 400 had not completed the war course with the rifle.
When the Germans attacked on 10 May the 2nd battalion had moved into Belgium to the River Dyle by late on the 11th, 151st brigade was to be held in reserve. On the Dyle, the 2nd battalion held the Germans for two days until ordered to withdraw on 16 May, with Lt Annand winning the Army's first V.C. of the War. The 151st brigade was ordered to move forward to the River Dendre on 16 May, only to begin to fall back on the 18th.
In an attempt to delay the German armoured thrust, the rear echelon, including 70th brigade, was ordered into its path. After a series of marches and counter marches that began on 13 May the brigade, on 20 May, was spread along the roads south of Arras travelling west. Here they were ambushed by German armour, without heavy weapons their defence became a series of isolated and confused company actions. At St Pol the next day the brigade headquarters, the survivors of the three battalions and some engineers amounted to 14 officers and 219 other ranks, joined by other stragglers in the next few days they total ~800 men. On the claim that the action south of Arras delayed the German advance by five hours, the official history states:
It is a modest estimate of what these two Territorial Divisions did to damage and delay the enemy's forces. But it may perhaps be accepted, with this important rider – at this time every single hour's delay was of incalculable service to the rest of the British forces in France.
The remains were formed into "Marleyforce" and as such it reached Dunkirk to be evacuated on 31 May.
On 20 May, 151st brigade, after a series of marches west and south, was chosen as part of the Arras counter-attack. The 6th and 8th battalions were to support the 4th and 7th Royal Tank Regiments respectively, with the 9th battalion in reserve. After initial successes to the west of Arras the Germans counter-attacked, and the British forces were withdrawn to Vimy Ridge. The brigade was then ordered north on 25 May to plug the gap of the impending Belgian surrender. To do this it had to extract itself from fighting on the Le Bassee Canal, the 8th battalion having to recapture the village of Carvin north of the canal, and only on the 27th could the brigade move north following the rest of 50th Division to Ypres.
The 2nd Division had been sent to man 21 miles of the western side of the Dunkirk corridor with the 2nd battalion positioned near St. Venant. From 24 to 27 May the Division held off attacks by four Panzer Divisions (3rd, 4th, 7th and S.S. Totenkopf), ending with over 70% of the Division becoming casualties and the massacre of 97 men of the 2nd battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment at La Paradis. When the 2nd battalion reformed in Britain after evacuation from Dunkirk on the night of 29 May it consisted of the remains of D company and the battalion's B echelon, stragglers and convalescents, some 180 men.
Arriving at Ypres 151st brigade was almost immediately forced back, and the retreat to the Dunkirk perimeter began. By 30 May the brigade was entrenched between the Bergues and Ringsloot canals and reinforced by some remnants from 70th Brigade, after repulsing German attacks on the 31st, the brigade embarked for Britain from the Dunkirk mole late on 1 June.
Iceland
British forces had invaded Iceland in May 1940, and in October, the 10th Battalion arrived followed by the rest of 70th Brigade a month later replacing 148th Brigade in 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division. While there the division used the empty terrain of the island to train using live ammunition, the 70th brigade left in December 1941.
North Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean 1940–43
The 1st battalion left China and arrived in North Africa in January 1940 The battalion played a supporting role in Lieutenant-General O'Connor's offensive in December except for a composite company which advanced as far as Sidi Barani. It joined the 22nd Guards Brigade in January 1941 and trained for amphibious operations at Qassassin, only to be returned to the desert in March when Erwin Rommel counter-attacked. Counter attacking at Halfaya Pass the battalion used primitive motorised tactics and communications (flag signals), the attack failed and the battalion lost more than half its strength including the whole of D company. In June the reinforced battalion was deployed as part of the take-over of Vichy controlled Syria, but in October 1941 it moved back to North Africa as part of the rotation of forces in the besieged Tobruk garrison. Here they patrolled and raided the German and Italian lines, and in early December extended the perimeter near El-Adem as part of the lifting of the siege.
Meanwhile, 50th Division with 151st Brigade had been sent to the Middle-east arriving early July 1941 and at the end of the month deployed to Cyprus to improve the islands defences. From there the 50th Division was sent to Palestine in November and then on to Irbil in Iraq to be part of the forces to meet an anticipated German advance from southern Russia.
In January 1942 the 1st Battalion was moved to garrison Malta, returning to North Africa in June 1943 after losing only a few men to air attack.
In February 1942 the 50th Division was recalled to the Western Desert and the British Eighth Army and found itself on the Gazala line. For some months the Durham battalions patrolled no mans land disrupting and stealing German and Italian supply lines in front of them, 'commerce raiding' and then attacking the supply columns for Rommel's armoured thrust which began the Gazala on 27 May. The Division's 150th brigade was forced to surrender on 1 June and Axis forces were now west, south and east of the remaining brigades. Forming columns most of the 6th and 8th battalions broke out west through Italian then German lines on the night of 14/15 June, then travelled south past the German armoured thrust and east to the Egyptian border. The 9th battalion and a party from the 6th were forced to take the coastal route after the Italians and Germans had been alerted to the western breakout and fought through German positions west of Tobruk, they were reunited with the rest of the division on 16 June. After the fall of Tobruk the division was now placed on an escarpment south of the town of Mersa Matruh and on 27 June held attacks by the German 90th Light Division during which Pte A H Wakenshaw won a posthumous V.C. but after which the 9th battalion positions were isolated and overrun with only the headquarters company escaping. The division was ordered to withdraw on 28 June again in column formation but this time over ground broken by wadis. In one of these the 8th battalion lost its D company to a German ambush and the rendezvous point, Fuka, was in German hands leading to the capture of some un-diverted columns. When reassembled the 50th Division was withdrawn behind the Alamein line to rest and reorganise after suffering over 8000 casualties since the start of the Gazala battle.
While behind the lines the 6th, 8th and 9th battalions each contributed a company to a composite battalion for an attack on the southern part of Ruin Ridge on 27/28 July, while the Australians attacked the northern part. Although the position was taken, almost the entire composite battalion was killed or captured by the German counterattack.
The 50th Division returned to the front line on 4 September, and during the first days of the Second Battle of El Alamein stayed in reserve in the southern part of the line. On 28 October, the 151st Brigade was moved north and with the 152nd Brigade came under command of the 2nd New Zealand Division for Operation Supercharge. Early on 2 November the three battalions advanced through the smoke and dust of the bombardment which reduced visibility to 50 yards[184] and facing scattered German resistance reached their objective by the dawn. Here they witnessed the destruction of 9th Armoured Brigade and were subject to German shelling before being relieved on the evening of 3 November, having lost nearly 400 men.
The 50th Division returned to the front line when the Eighth Army reached the Mareth Line in February 1943. On the night of 20/21 March, the 8th and 9th battalions attacked, crossing the wadi and fighting the dug in Italians of the Young Fascist Division, with the 6th battalion the tanks of 50th R.T.R. following The tanks were unable to cross the wadi that night, however the next night after the 6th battalion and the 5th battalion East Yorkshire Regiment reinforced the penetration, some 40 tanks were able to cross. On 22 March the Germans counterattacked with the 15th Panzer Division and the infantry battalions were forced to withdraw, crossing back over the wadi at first light on 23 March. The 6th battalion, which started the battle with a strength of only ~300 of all ranks, was reduced to 65 unwounded men by the end of the battle, the 8th and 9th were in a similar condition. Shortly after the division was withdrawn from the front and sent to Alexandria.
On 3 January 1943 the 16th Battalion landed at Algiers with the 139th Brigade of the 46th Infantry Division, part of the British First Army. It moved into Tunisia it fought at the first battle of Sedjenane, where they were forced to withdraw by 4 March after losing nearly half their number. First Army's offensive was resumed in April and on 22 April, the 16th Battalion attacked the hill of Sidi Barka held by men of the Hermann Goering Division, after gaining a false crest instead of the summit, the battalion held on through mortar bombardment until the Germans pulled out the next night.
With the defeat of the Germans in North Africa the 6th 8th and 9th battalions were withdrawn to Alexandria, reinforced and trained in amphibious techniques for the invasion of Sicily. The 16th Battalion, after taking part in the victory parade in Tunis, was sent to Algiers for training.
In March 1943 a second incarnation of the 18th Battalion was raised at Genefia in Egypt from convalescents of the other D.L.I. battalions as the infantry component of 36th Beach Brick.
Arriving back in Africa in June 1943 the 1st battalion was moved to Syria where it was attached to the 10th Indian Infantry Division. The battalion was chosen to be sent to invade the island of Kos, the first company arriving on 16 September but not until the end of the month was the whole battalion on the island, during which time German bombing was increasing. After 10 days of fighting paratroopers and other German forces the remaining men of the battalion were taken off the island by the SBS on 13 October. The battalion was gradually rebuilt from the 129 officers and men who assembled at Genefia at the end of October, and retrained and reinforced until at full strength by the end of March 1944. In April the battalion was deployed to Alexandria to contain a mutiny by the Greek Brigade, but by the end of the month had set sail for Italy.
Burma 1941–45
The 2nd battalion was sent to India in April 1942 with the 2nd Division, arriving in June. For some months it was trained in Jungle fighting and in amphibious assault methods. Later in that year the 6th brigade was made an independent formation. The brigade fought in the Arakan early 1943 at Donbiak on the Mayu peninsular with the brigade making little progress against strong Japanese positions. It was forced to withdraw when the Japanese cut off the peninsular at Indin bridge, the brigade fought its way out, arriving back in India in May. After more amphibious training in the rest of 1943 and early 1944 the 2nd Division was sent relieve Kohima in April 1944. Here the 2nd battalion fought on Garrison Hill and F.S.D. Ridge in late April and early May while overlooked by the guns of the Japanese on Kuki Piquet. Withdrawn to Diampaur in early May the battalion could only muster three companies of two platoons each. By June the battalion was taking its turn as the lead of the advance, with supporting armour, along the Imphal road, when its 'A' company made contact with the lead elements of the 5th Indian Infantry Division on 22 June and the siege of Imphal was lifted:
Then the tanks spotted more movements away forward where the elephant grass gave way to trees and began to brass it up properly. Soon they stopped. A plaintive message relayed through many sets had reached them: we were brassing up the advanced elements of 5th Indian Division of the beleaguered IVth Corps! Imphal was relieved. We sat alone in the sunshine and smoked and ate. Soon the staff cars came purring both ways. The road was open again. It was a lovely day.
— Sean Kelly O.C. A Company 2nd D.L.I.,
The Division was rested until December when it continued its advance into central Burma encountering light but continual resistance. The 6th brigade was in reserve when Mandaly was taken, after which the battalion was returned to India and reacquainted with its previous amphibious training for the attack on Rangoon, in the event they entered the undefended city on 13 May. The battalion was withdrawn back to India in September 1945 to prepare for occupation duties in Japan.
Sicily, Italy and Greece 1943–45
The 151st brigade was chosen as an assault brigade for the Allied invasion of Sicily on 10 July 1943 with the 6th and 9th battalions leading. Due to poor weather both landed late and in the wrong place but against light resistance. After advancing inland and breaking up attacks from the 54th (Napoli) Division on 12 July, the Durham battalions were ordered to Primosole bridge after its capture by British Paratroopers of the 1st Parachute Brigade arriving on 15 July after a forced march of 25 miles and the paratroopers had been forced from the bridge. After 2 days of ferocious battle against men of the 1st Fallschirmjager Division the bridge was retaken at a cost of 500 casualties to the brigade. After entering Catania on 5 August after the Germans withdrew the advance northward was contested in a landscape of terraced hillsides and stone walls. With the end of resistance in Sicily the brigade rested and was informed it was to return to Britain in October.
The 16th battalion landed in Italy at Salerno as part of British X Corps, attached to US Fifth Army, on 9 September in the second wave, and defended the perimeter of the beach-head until 15 September. The 18th battalion was also part of the landings at Salerno (with two companies) in its role as a beach group. The 16th battalion fought toward, and entered Naples on 6 October, then on 12 October made a silent crossing of the River Volturno reaching its first objective before the Germans noticed. It held the bridgehead it established for 8 days until relieved. The battalion took part in the forcing of the Winter Line, at the end of October at the Bernhardt line, (after which it was reinforced by drafts from the regiment's 70th battalion) and in January 1944 forcing the main Gustav line. In February, the 46th Division was withdrawn for rest and retraining to Egypt and Palestine, where the battalion aided the civil authorities during a riot in Tel-Aviv. Returning to Italy in July, it fought hard on the Gothic Line advancing along the road to Gemmano in early September and crossed the Cosina Canal in November. In December the battalion was sent to Greece as part of the efforts to keep the peace and then to forestall a communist take over. Initially deployed to Athens, a platoon accidentally occupied the Acropolis after turning left instead of right. It became involved in fighting ELAS at Phaleron and in January 1945, Patras. The battalion returned to Italy in April 1945, but did not see action.
Meanwhile, the 1st battalion had returned to Italy in May 1944 where it joined the 10th Indian Infantry Brigade in the 10th Indian Infantry Division and by 19 May was back in the line north of Ortona. Transferred to the Tiber valley in June, it fought toward the Gustav Line until September, then was transferred once more to the Adriatic coast fighting though the Gothic Line when it was relieved in February 1945. Returning to the Adriatic coast in April it crossed the Sillaro on 15 April, the battalion heard news of the Armistice while in billets in Ferrara.
France and Germany 1944–45
The 50th Division with its 151st brigade was withdrawn to Britain in October 1943 to be trained for the Normandy landings, General Montgomery had wanted veteran divisions to be part of the invasion. The news that it was to be an assault division was not universally well received by the other ranks. The brigade landed in the second wave on Gold Beach King sector on which the 18th battalion was also present in its capacity as the infantry of a reserve beach group. Advancing inland they faced the grenadiers of the Panzer Lehr Division in the bocage around St Pierre, Verrieres and Tilley-sur-Seulles throughout mid June.
The 10th and 11th battalions were landed with the 49th Infantry Division on 10 June and were committed to the attempt to outflank Caen. The 70th brigade with support of the tanks of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry captured Rauray (11th battalion) and the high ground beyond (10th battalion) on 27–28 June. The German counter-attack by troops of II SS Panzer Corps was held by the 11th and Tyneside Scottish battalions after such hard fighting that Lord Haw Haw called the division the Polar Bear Butchers (referencing their formation sign). After some days rest and reinforcement the five D.L.I. battalions in Normandy were briefly together when the 70th brigade relieved the 151st brigade around Tilley-Sur-Seulles on 7 July. Later in the month the brigade was transferred to the east of Caen and covered the right flank of Operation Spring. Advancing to Mezidon on the River Dives after the German defeat at Falaise, the brigade fought its last action on 18 August, after which the brigade (as a second line formation) received news it was to be disbanded to reinforce other units of the Second Army.
The 151st brigade advanced in line with the other advances made by the allies in July and by early August was attacking hills south of St.Pierre la Vielle on what was to become the northern edge of the Falaise pocket. After the break out from Normandy the division crossed the Seine on 29 August and reached the Belgian border on 6 September. After a brief rest in Brussels the brigade was tasked to cross the Albert canal in the wake of the 69th brigade, and take the village of Gheel. After holding a series of counter-attacks the 15th Division entered the village on 12 September without a shot being fired, as the Germans had retreated. In October the division was moved to the 'Island', the low-lying ground between the Wall and the Lower Rhine north of Eindhoven. After a short operation to expand the bridgehead the brigade garrisoned the area in the early winter. In December, due to its heavy losses, the 50th Division was broken up to reinforce other formations, the 6th and 8th battalions were reduced to a training cadres of time expired men and returned to Britain.
The 9th battalion was reinforced and transferred to 7th Armoured Division, 131st Infantry Brigade, as a motorised battalion fighting at the Roer Triangle in January 1945 and the town of Ibbenbüren in March. The battalion ended the war near Hamburg.
The 18th battalion had been serving as lines of communications troops of 21st Army Group, however one company fought the Germans during an attack from besieged Calais in February 1945, the battalion was disbanded at Calais in August 1945.
Home Front 1939–45
Some battalions raised by the regiment were destined not to leave Britain. A Home Defence battalion, the 13th, was formed from the Durham Group (No. 41) National Defence Company in December 1939. It divided in September 1940, producing the 2/13th (Home Defence) battalion which was renamed as the 18th battalion in March 1941. The 1/13th battalion then re-joined the 18th battalion to form the 30th battalion in November 1941 applying the numbering used nationally for 'B' category fitness battalions. In 1942 it was briefly organised as a field force unit (a standard army battalion with 'A' category fitness men), until it was disbanded in November 1942.
After the Army's evacuation from Dunkirk, 60 so called 'Dunkirk' infantry battalions were raised in the country that summer, three of which were D.L.I., the 14th, 16th and 17th battalions. All three were brigaded in the 206th Independent Infantry Brigade initially in Scotland, and then on the South coast of England. The 14th and 17th were used as a source of trained reinforcements to the front line. In June 1943 the 14th battalion was sent to Durham as a rehabilitation unit for convalescing troops and ex-PoWs where it stayed until the end of the war. The 17th, which from September 1942 formed part of 164 Infantry Brigade, 55 Infantry Division,[251] was disbanded in September 1943.
The 15th battalion was raised from the 50th (or 15th [245]) Holding battalion in October 1940 and took up the role of coastal defence. In November 1941 it was converted to an armoured unit as 155th Regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC), retaining the D.L.I. cap badge on the black beret of the RAC.
The 70th (Young Soldiers) battalion was formed in December 1940 at School Aycliffe near Darlington, for men too young for conscription (20 years at the time). Instead of disbanding when the conscription age was lowered to 18 years in 1942 it was chosen to be a demonstration battalion for the G.H.Q. Battle School at Barnard Castle. The battalion was disbanded in August 1943, over 400 of its men being sent overseas.
On their return from the front line in December 1944 the territorial battalion cadres of the 6th and 8th battalions were sent to Yorkshire and were given the task of training service corps soldiers as infantry until the battalions were placed into suspended animation in January 1946.
Post War
Post war, the 1st battalion was active in the Greek Civil War between January 1946 and June 1948, returning to Britain on 23 July 1948. The 2nd battalion was sent to Singapore from November 1945 to January 1947 when it returned to Burma. By March it was conducting operations against dacoits around Maymyo. Demobilisation had reduced the battalion to 30 men when it returned to Singapore in November and it returned to Britain on 18 February 1948 as a cadre.
The 6th, 8th and 9th territorial battalions were reformed as part of the Territorial Army in March 1947, with the 9th battalion being renamed in July 1948 as the 17th battalion, Parachute Regiment.
On 25 September 1948 the remaining cadre of the 2nd battalion was absorbed into the 1st battalion. The battalion served as part of the Allied occupation forces in Germany, stationed in Dortmund in 1949 and Berlin in 1951. The 2nd battalion was reformed in 1952 and was sent to Germany, substituting for the 1st battalion which had been sent to Korea, the battalions re-amalgamated in 1955.
Korea
While in Germany the battalion learned that it was due for a tour of service in Korea, after leave and training in Britain it arrived in September 1952, and was made part of 28th Commonwealth Brigade of the 1st Commonwealth Division part of the United Nations forces in Korea. During its year there up to 50% of its strength was composed of National Servicemen and resulted in a high turnover of men. After initial training in theatre the battalion was first stationed at Neachon (Point 159) in late September, to be greeted by the Chinese by name on arrival (on this and subsequent movement into the front line, as were other battalions). Here it began the never-ending process of attempting to make its trenches clean and habitable, and began patrolling to dominate no-mans-land. In November two trench raids were mounted to try and capture Chinese soldiers, but these were unsuccessful in spite of reaching the Chinese lines due to defensive fire and the extensive use of dugouts by the Chinese in their trench system.
At the end of December in the cold of a Korean winter, the battalion took over and began repairing the trenches at Point 210, and continued patrolling, they were relieved by the Americans at the end of January.
In early April 1953, after being joined by a draft of 94 Korean soldiers who wore British uniform and the D.L.I. cap badge, the battalion relieved the Americans on Point 355, also known as "little Gibraltar" for its steep sides. The battalion continued to patrol vigorously, encountering Chinese patrols on occasion. On the night of 2 July, to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, a patrol from A Company staked out the Royal cypher "EIIR" in red and yellow fluorescent aircraft recognition panels about ten metres below the Chinese forward trenches.
So the first thing we saw at daybreak were these panels that stood out brilliantly. About half way through the morning every 25-pounder gun in the Commonwealth Division began firing red, white and blue smoke on the Chinese lines in front of us. While this was going on, the men in the forward positions jumped on the trench parapets and gave three cheers for Her Majesty. There was some concern that the Chinese might take advantage of the cover provided by the smoke and attack us, but they behaved themselves and probably thought that we were all mad.
— Capt Burini, D.L.I.,
At 22:00 hours 27 July, after continued patrolling and ambushes defending the position in the closing stages of the conflict, the battalion buglers sounded "ceasefire". The battalion had lost 24 dead (including 2 attached Koreans) and three missing and 124 wounded. The battalion left Korea in September.
After the war, Patrick O'Donovan of The Observer, wrote of the soldiers of the D.L.I. he met in the trenches:
...small, cheerful, slightly disrespectful men who were at their best when things were most beastly and who would go home to vote as far left as they could. There was a singular lack of military nonsense about them and yet they were so professional that they made their neighbours, the United States Marines, look [like] amateurs.
— Patrick O'Donovan The Observer,
Post Korea
From Korea the 1st battalion was stationed in Egypt, where buglers from the battalion took part in the unveiling of the El-Alamein Memorial on 24 October 1954. The battalion returned to Britain in June 1955.
In 1955 the 3rd and 4th battalions were finally disbanded; they had been in suspended animation since 1919.
During the Suez Crisis the battalion was flown to Aden on 4 November 1956 for possible deployment to Kuwait. Most of the battalion returned in February 1957, except for one company which assisted in repelling a Yemeni incursion in the Wadi Harib area.
On 17 May 1958 a bicentenary parade was held at Brancepeth Castle in the presence of Princess Alexandria of Kent to commemorate the raising of the regiment. Present were the 1st battalion and one company each from the 6th and 8th battalions as well as their massed bands and bugles, and detachments from the 437th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment R.A. (D.L.I.) T.A. and 463th (7 D.L.I.) Light Anti-Aircraft/Searchlight Regiment R.A. T.A. and the 17th battalion The Parachute Regiment (9 D.L.I.) T.A.. The associated Artillery and Parachute Regiments also provided troops who lined the