Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley, and most of Saline Valley. The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons, and mountains. Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, and the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. The second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Badwater Basin, which is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. Approximately 91% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment. Some examples include creosote bush, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984.

 

A series of Native American groups inhabited the area from as early as 7000 BC, most recently the Timbisha around 1000 AD who migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of European Americans, trapped in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, gave the valley its name, even though only one of their group died there. Several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley with twenty-mule teams. The valley later became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, and movies. Tourism expanded in the 1920s when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933 and the park was substantially expanded and became a national park in 1994.

 

The natural environment of the area has been shaped largely by its geology. The valley is actually a graben with the oldest rocks being extensively metamorphosed and at least 1.7 billion years old. Ancient, warm, shallow seas deposited marine sediments until rifting opened the Pacific Ocean. Additional sedimentation occurred until a subduction zone formed off the coast. The subduction uplifted the region out of the sea and created a line of volcanoes. Later the crust started to pull apart, creating the current Basin and Range landform. Valleys filled with sediment and, during the wet times of glacial periods, with lakes, such as Lake Manly.

 

Source: Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley_National_Park

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c1910 postcard view of pedestrians and businesses in downtown Rushville, Indiana. The photographer was standing at the northwest corner of the courthouse square and looking northwest. This was the intersection of North Main and West Second Streets. According to the 1908 Sanborn™ fire insurance map set for Rushville, a drugstore (201 North Main Street and a bank (205 North Main Street) occupied the brick building on the corner.

 

The large sign on the south side of that building advertised FRANK WOLCOTT, THE COURT HOUSE DRUGGIST. That sign also advertised PAINTS, KODAK SUPPLIES, TOILET ARTICLES and CIGARS. Other signs near the drug store entrance advertised COCA COLA, PATENT MEDICINES, KODAKS and CIGARS. The sign standing on the sidewalk advertised ICE CREAM SODA and FURNAS ICE CREAM. Frank E. Wolcott was listed as a Rushville druggist in 1905 and 1908 directories of druggists.¹

 

Smaller signs on the second floor of that building advertised E. M. OSBORN MERCHANT TAILOR and the SEXTON & SPARKS LAW OFFICE. The stairway to these offices (203 North Main Street) was located between the drugstore and the bank. A 1901 online reference lists Will Morris Sparks as a graduate of Depauw University and a practicing attorney at Sexton & Sparks in Rushville. His partner was Gates Sexton. A 1902 business directory² listed both of these attorneys at the 203 North Main Street address. E. M. Osborn was listed in the 1902 directory, but his business address was 212 North Main Street at the time.

 

A BANK sign was leaning against the front of the building in this scene. The awning appears to have had BANK printed on the fringe. The 1913 Sanborn™ map set shows that plans had been developed to replace this brick building with a new fireproof structure that a bank would occupy.

 

The awning on the second building north of the intersection (207 and 209 North Main Street) advertised BILLIARDS & POOL. Both of the Rushville map sets from this era show a pool and cigars business at that location. Both map sets also show a clothing store in the next building north (211 North Main Street) where the awning advertised CLOTHING and the sign above advertised CLOTHIER. The 1902 directory listed L. F. Wilson in the “CLOTHING” category at 201 North Main Street. A 1915 book³ listed him as a clothier and hatter.

 

The awning on the next building north (213 North Main Street) advertised DRUGS. The sign at the top of the building advertised the JOHNSON DRUGS and WALL PAPER business. A utility pole partially blocked the sign above the entrance, but the sign appears to advertise the JOHNSON DRUG STORE. (Fred B. Johnson was a Rushville druggist in the early part of the 20th century.) The north half of that same building (217 North Main Street) housed a hardware store according to both of the Sanborn™ map sets. The 1902 directory listed C. F. Edgerton as the proprietor of a hardware business at that location. The building had two bay windows on the second floor and an IORM (Improved Order of Red Men) sign was hanging from the balcony on the third floor. The sign and the awning on the next building to the north (219 and 221 North Main Street) both advertised a 99c STORE. Both Sanborn™ map sets show a books and stationery store at this location. The awning on the next building north (223 and 225 North Main Street) is unreadable, but both map sets show a dry goods business at that location next to the alley.

 

1. The Era Druggists Directory Eleventh Edition (New York, NY: D. O. Haynes & Co., 1905). Available online at books.google.com/books?id=bantAAAAMAAJ&printsec=front... and Indiana Board of Pharmacy. Ninth Annual Report (Indianapolis, IN: William B. Burford, 1908). Available online at books.google.com/books?id=afjqAAAAMAAJ&printsec=front....

 

2. Business and Professional Directory of Central Indiana (Indianapolis, IN: Union Directory Co., 1902). Available online at openlibrary.org/books/OL22862780M/Business_and_profession....

 

3. Alexander, Mary M. and Capitola Guffin Dill, ed., Sketches of Rush County, Indiana (Rushville, IN: The Jacksonville Publishing Co., 1915). Available online at openlibrary.org/books/OL6581574M/Sketches_of_Rush_County_....

 

From a private collection.

 

The full postcard image can be seen here.

 

www.flickr.com/photos/hoosier_recollections/5106767653/

 

Copyright 2009-2014 by Hoosier Recollections. All rights reserved. This image is part of a creative package that includes the associated text, geodata and/or other information. Neither this package in its entirety nor any of the individual components may be downloaded, transmitted or reproduced without the prior written permission of Hoosier Recollections.

The Great Patriotic War (Russian: Вели́кая Оте́чественная война́, romanized: Velikaja Otečestvennaja vojna) is a term used in Russia and some other former republics of the Soviet Union to describe the conflict fought during the period from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945 along the many fronts of the Eastern Front of World War II, primarily between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. For some legal purposes, this period may be extended to 11 May 1945 to include the end of the Prague offensive.

 

History

The term Patriotic War refers to the Russian resistance to the French invasion of Russia under Napoleon I, which became known as the Patriotic War of 1812. In Russian, the term отечественная война originally referred to a war on one's own territory (otechestvo means "the fatherland"), as opposed to a campaign abroad (заграничная война), and later was reinterpreted as a war for the fatherland, i.e. a defensive war for one's homeland. Sometimes the Patriotic War of 1812 was also referred to as the Great Patriotic War (Великая отечественная война); the phrase first appeared in 1844 and became popular on the eve of the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812.

 

After 1914, the phrase was applied to World War I. It was the name of a special war-time appendix to the magazine Theater and Life (Театр и жизнь) in Saint Petersburg, and referred to the Eastern Front of World War I, where Russia fought against the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The phrases Second Patriotic War (Вторая отечественная война) and Great World Patriotic War (Великая всемирная отечественная война) were also used during World War I in Russia.

 

The term Great Patriotic War re-appeared in the official newspaper of the CPSU, Pravda, on 23 June 1941, just a day after Germany invaded the Soviet Union. It was found in the title of "The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People" (Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna Sovetskogo Naroda), a long article by Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, a member of Pravda editors' collegium. The phrase was intended to motivate the population to defend the Soviet fatherland and to expel the invader, and a reference to the Patriotic War of 1812 was seen as a great morale booster. During the Soviet period, historians engaged in huge distortions to make history fit with Communist ideology, with Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov and Prince Pyotr Bagration transformed into peasant generals, Alexander I alternatively ignored or vilified, and the war becoming a massive "People's War" fought by the ordinary people of Russia with almost no involvement on the part of the government. The invasion by Germany was called the Great Patriotic War by the Soviet government to evoke comparisons with the victory by Tsar Alexander I over Napoleon's invading army.

 

The term Отечественная война (Patriotic War or Fatherland War) was officially recognized by establishment of the Order of the Patriotic War on 20 May 1942, awarded for heroic deeds.

 

The term is not generally used outside the former Soviet Union, and the closest term is the Eastern Front of World War II (1941–1945). Neither term covers the initial phase of World War II in Eastern Europe, during which the USSR, then still in a non-aggression pact with Germany, invaded eastern Poland (1939), the Baltic states (1940), Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina (1940) and Finland (1939–1940). The term also does not cover the Soviet–Japanese War (1945) nor the Battles of Khalkhin Gol (1939).

 

In Russia and some other post-Soviet countries, the term is given great significance; it is accepted as a representation of the most important part of World War II. Until 2014, Uzbekistan was the only nation in the Commonwealth of Independent States that had not recognized the term, referring to it as World War II on the state holiday - the Day of Remembrance and Honour.

 

On 9 April 2015, the Ukrainian parliament replaced the term Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) (Velyka vitchyzniana viina) in the country's law with the "Second World War (1939–1945)" (Druha svitova viina), as part of a set of decommunization laws. Also in 2015, Ukraine's "Victory Day over Nazism in World War II" was established as a national holiday in accordance with the law of "On Perpetuation of Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939–1945". The new holiday was celebrated on May 9 and replaced the Soviet-Russian Victory Day, which is celebrated on May 9. These laws were adopted by the Ukrainian parliament within the package of laws on decommunization. In 2023 Ukraine abolished the 2015 9 May "Victory Day over Nazism" holiday and replaced it with the new public holiday "Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939 – 1945" which is celebrated on 8 May annually.

 

Voronezh is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects western Russia with the Urals and Siberia, the Caucasus and Ukraine, and the M4 highway (Moscow–Voronezh–Rostov-on-Don–Novorossiysk). In recent years the city has experienced rapid population growth, rising in 2021 to 1,057,681, up from 889,680 recorded in the 2010 Census, making it the 14th-most populous city in the country.

 

History

The first chronicle references to the word "Voronezh" are dated 1177, when the Ryazan prince Yaropolk, having lost the battle, fled "to Voronozh" and there was moving "from town to town". Modern data of archeology and history interpret Voronezh as a geographical region, which included the Voronezh river (tributary of the Don) and a number of settlements. In the lower reaches of the river, a unique Slavic town-planning complex of the 8th – early 11th century was discovered, which covered the territory of the present city of Voronezh and its environs (about 42 km long, about 13 forts and many unfortified villages). By the 12th – 13th centuries, most of the old towns were desolate, but new settlements appeared upstream, closer to Ryazan.

 

For many years, the hypothesis of the Soviet historian Vladimir Zagorovsky dominated: he produced the toponym "Voronezh" from the hypothetical Slavic personal name Voroneg. This man allegedly gave the name of a small town in the Chernigov Principality (now the village of Voronezh in Ukraine). Later, in the 11th or 12th century, the settlers were able to "transfer" this name to the Don region, where they named the second city Voronezh, and the river got its name from the city. However, now many researchers criticize the hypothesis, since in reality neither the name of Voroneg nor the second city was revealed, and usually the names of Russian cities repeated the names of the rivers, but not vice versa.

 

The linguistic comparative analysis of the name "Voronezh" was carried out by the Khovansky Foundation in 2009. There is an indication of the place names of many countries in Eurasia, which may partly be not only similar in sound, but also united by common Indo-European languages: Varanasi, Varna, Verona, Brno, etc.

 

A comprehensive scientific analysis was conducted in 2015–2016 by the historian Pavel Popov. His conclusion: "Voronezh" is a probable Slavic macrotoponym associated with outstanding signs of nature, has a root voron- (from the proto-Slavic vorn) in the meaning of "black, dark" and the suffix -ezh (-azh, -ozh). It was not “transferred” and in the 8th - 9th centuries it marked a vast territory covered with black forests (oak forests) - from the mouth of the Voronezh river to the Voronozhsky annalistic forests in the middle and upper reaches of the river, and in the west to the Don (many forests were cut down). The historian believes that the main "city" of the early town-planning complex could repeat the name of the region – Voronezh. Now the hillfort is located in the administrative part of the modern city, in the Voronezh upland oak forest. This is one of Europe's largest ancient Slavic hillforts, the area of which – more than 9 hectares – 13 times the area of the main settlement in Kyiv before the baptism of Rus.

 

In it is assumed that the word "Voronezh" means bluing - a technique to increase the corrosion resistance of iron products. This explanation fits well with the proximity to the ancient city of Voronezh of a large iron deposit and the city of Stary Oskol.

 

Folk etymology claims the name comes from combining the Russian words for raven (ворон) and hedgehog (еж) into Воронеж. According to this explanation two Slavic tribes named after the animals used this combination to name the river which later in turn provided the name for a settlement. There is not believed to be any scientific support for this explanation.

 

In the 16th century, the Middle Don basin, including the Voronezh river, was gradually conquered by Muscovy from the Nogai Horde (a successor state of the Golden Horde), and the current city of Voronezh was established in 1585 by Feodor I as a fort protecting the Muravsky Trail trade route against the slave raids of the Nogai and Crimean Tatars. The city was named after the river.

 

17th to 19th centuries

In the 17th century, Voronezh gradually evolved into a sizable town. Weronecz is shown on the Worona river in Resania in Joan Blaeu's map of 1645. Peter the Great built a dockyard in Voronezh where the Azov Flotilla was constructed for the Azov campaigns in 1695 and 1696. This fleet, the first ever built in Russia, included the first Russian ship of the line, Goto Predestinatsia. The Orthodox diocese of Voronezh was instituted in 1682 and its first bishop, Mitrofan of Voronezh, was later proclaimed the town's patron saint.

 

Owing to the Voronezh Admiralty Wharf, for a short time, Voronezh became the largest city of South Russia and the economic center of a large and fertile region. In 1711, it was made the seat of the Azov Governorate, which eventually morphed into the Voronezh Governorate.

 

In the 19th century, Voronezh was a center of the Central Black Earth Region. Manufacturing industry (mills, tallow-melting, butter-making, soap, leather, and other works) as well as bread, cattle, suet, and the hair trade developed in the town. A railway connected Voronezh with Moscow in 1868 and Rostov-on-Don in 1871.

 

20th century

World War II

During World War II, Voronezh was the scene of fierce fighting between Soviet and combined Axis troops. The Germans used it as a staging area for their attack on Stalingrad, and made it a key crossing point on the Don River. In June 1941, two BM-13 (Fighting machine #13 Katyusha) artillery installations were built at the Voronezh excavator factory. In July, the construction of Katyushas was rationalized so that their manufacture became easier and the time of volley repetition was shortened from five minutes to fifteen seconds. More than 300 BM-13 units manufactured in Voronezh were used in a counterattack near Moscow in December 1941. In October 22, 1941, the advance of the German troops prompted the establishment of a defense committee in the city. On November 7, 1941, there was a troop parade, devoted to the anniversary of the October Revolution. Only three such parades were organized that year: in Moscow, Kuybyshev, and Voronezh. In late June 1942, the city was attacked by German and Hungarian forces. In response, Soviet forces formed the Voronezh Front. By July 6, the German army occupied the western river-bank suburbs before being subjected to a fierce Soviet counter-attack. By July 24 the frontline had stabilised along the Voronezh River as the German forces continued southeast into the Great Bend of the Don. The attack on Voronezh represented the first phase of the German Army's 1942 campaign in the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue.

 

Until January 25, 1943, parts of the Second German Army and the Second Hungarian Army occupied the western part of Voronezh. During Operation Little Saturn, the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive, and the Voronezhsko-Kastornenskoy Offensive, the Voronezh Front exacted heavy casualties on Axis forces. On January 25, 1943, Voronezh was liberated after ten days of combat. During the war the city was almost completely ruined, with 92% of all buildings destroyed.

 

Post-war

By 1950, Voronezh had been rebuilt. Most buildings and historical monuments were repaired. It was also the location of a prestigious Suvorov Military School, a boarding school for young boys who were considered to be prospective military officers, many of whom had been orphaned by war.

 

In 1950–1960, new factories were established: a tire factory, a machine-tool factory, a factory of heavy mechanical pressing, and others. In 1968, Serial production of the Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic plane was established at the Voronezh Aviation factory. In October 1977, the first Soviet domestic wide-body plane, Ilyushin Il-86, was built there.

 

In 1989, TASS published details of an alleged UFO landing in the city's park and purported encounters with extraterrestrial beings reported by a number of children. A Russian scientist that was cited in initial TASS reports later told the Associated Press that he was misquoted, cautioning, "Don't believe all you hear from TASS," and "We never gave them part of what they published", and a TASS correspondent admitted the possibility that some "make-believe" had been added to the TASS story, saying, "I think there is a certain portion of truth, but it is not excluded that there is also fantasizing".

 

21st century

From 10 to 17 September 2011, Voronezh celebrated its 425th anniversary. The anniversary of the city was given the status of a federal scale celebration that helped attract large investments from the federal and regional budgets for development.

 

On December 17, 2012, Voronezh became the fifteenth city in Russia with a population of over one million people.

 

Today Voronezh is the economic, industrial, cultural, and scientific center of the Central Black Earth Region. As part of the annual tradition in the Russian city of Voronezh, every winter the main city square is thematically drawn around a classic literature. In 2020, the city was decorated using the motifs from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. In the year of 2021, the architects drew inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen as well as the animation classic The Snow Queen from the Soviet Union. The fairy tale replica city will feature the houses of Kai and Gerda, the palace of the snow queen, an ice rink, and illumination.

 

In June 2023, during the Wagner Group rebellion, forces of the Wagner Group claimed to have taken control of military facilities in the city. Later they were confirmed to have taken the city itself.

 

Administrative and municipal status

Voronezh is the administrative center of the oblast.[1] Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as Voronezh Urban Okrug—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.[1] As a municipal division, this administrative unit also has urban okrug status.

 

City divisions

The city is divided into six administrative districts:

 

Zheleznodorozhny (183,17 km²)

Tsentralny (63,96 km²)

Kominternovsky (47,41 km²)

Leninsky (18,53 km²)

Sovetsky (156,6 km²)

Levoberezhny (123,89 km²)

 

Economy

The leading sectors of the urban economy in the 20th century were mechanical engineering, metalworking, the electronics industry and the food industry.

 

In the city are such companies as:

Tupolev Tu-144

Voronezhselmash (agricultural engineering)

Sozvezdie[36] (headquarter, JSC Concern “Sozvezdie”, in 1958 the world's first created mobile telephony and wireless telephone Altai

Verofarm (pharmaceutics, owner Abbott Laboratories),

Voronezh Mechanical Plant[37] (production of missile and aircraft engines, oil and gas equipment)

Mining Machinery Holding - RUDGORMASH[38] (production of drilling, mineral processing and mining equipment)

VNiiPM Research Institute of Semiconductor Engineering (equipment for plasma-chemical processes, technical-chemical equipment for liquid operations, water treatment equipment)

KBKhA Chemical Automatics Design Bureau with notable products:.

Pirelli Voronezh.

On the territory of the city district government Maslovka Voronezh region with the support of the Investment Fund of Russia, is implementing a project to create an industrial park, "Maslowski", to accommodate more than 100 new businesses, including the transformer factory of Siemens. On September 7, 2011 in Voronezh there opened a Global network operation center of Nokia Siemens Networks, which was the fifth in the world and the first in Russia.

 

Construction

In 2014, 926,000 square meters of housing was delivered.

 

Clusters of Voronezh

In clusters of tax incentives and different preferences, the full support of the authorities. A cluster of Oil and Gas Equipment, Radio-electronic cluster, Furniture cluster, IT cluster, Cluster aircraft, Cluster Electromechanics, Transport and logistics cluster, Cluster building materials and technologies.

 

Geography

Urban layout

Information about the original urban layout of Voronezh is contained in the "Patrol Book" of 1615. At that time, the city fortress was logged and located on the banks of the Voronezh River. In plan, it was an irregular quadrangle with a perimeter of about 238 meter. inside it, due to lack of space, there was no housing or siege yards, and even the cathedral church was supposed to be taken out. However, at this small fortress there was a large garrison - 666 households of service people. These courtyards were reliably protected by the second line of fortifications by a standing prison on taras with 25 towers covered with earth; behind the prison was a moat, and beyond the moat there were stakes. Voronezh was a typical military settlement (ostrog). In the city prison there were only settlements of military men: Streletskaya, Kazachya, Belomestnaya atamanskaya, Zatinnaya and Pushkarskaya. The posad population received the territory between the ostrog and the river, where the Monastyrskaya settlements (at the Assumption Monastery) was formed. Subsequently, the Yamnaya Sloboda was added to them, and on the other side of the fort, on the Chizhovka Mountain, the Chizhovskaya Sloboda of archers and Cossacks appeared. As a result, the Voronezh settlements surrounded the fortress in a ring. The location of the parish churches emphasized this ring-like and even distribution of settlements: the Ilyinsky Church of the Streletskaya Sloboda, the Pyatnitskaya Cossack and Pokrovskaya Belomestnaya were brought out to the passage towers of the prison. The Nikolskaya Church of the Streletskaya Sloboda was located near the marketplace (and, accordingly, the front facade of the fortress), and the paired ensemble of the Rozhdestvenskaya and Georgievskaya churches of the Cossack Sloboda marked the main street of the city, going from the Cossack Gate to the fortress tower.

 

Climate

Voronezh experiences a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb) with long, cold winters and short, warm summers.

 

Transportation

Air

The city is served by the Voronezh International Airport, which is located north of the city and is home to Polet Airlines. Voronezh is also home to the Pridacha Airport, a part of a major aircraft manufacturing facility VASO (Voronezhskoye Aktsionernoye Samoletostroitelnoye Obshchestvo, Voronezh aircraft production association) where the Tupolev Tu-144 (known in the West as the "Concordski"), was built and the only operational unit is still stored. Voronezh also hosts the Voronezh Malshevo air force base in the southwest of the city, which, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council report, houses nuclear bombers.[citation needed]

 

Rail

Since 1868, there is a railway connection between Voronezh and Moscow. Rail services form a part of the South Eastern Railway of the Russian Railways. Destinations served direct from Voronezh include Moscow, Kyiv, Kursk, Novorossiysk, Sochi, and Tambov. The main train station is called Voronezh-1 railway station and is located in the center of the city.

 

Bus

There are three bus stations in Voronezh that connect the city with destinations including Moscow, Belgorod, Lipetsk, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, and Astrakhan.

 

Education and culture

Aviastroiteley Park

The city has seven theaters, twelve museums, a number of movie theaters, a philharmonic hall, and a circus. It is also a major center of higher education in central Russia. The main educational facilities include:

 

Voronezh State University

Voronezh State Technical University

Voronezh State University of Architecture and Construction

Voronezh State Pedagogical University

Voronezh State Agricultural University

Voronezh State University of Engineering Technologies

Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko

Voronezh State Academy of Arts

Voronezh State University of Forestry and Technologies named after G.F. Morozov

Voronezh State Institute of Physical Training

Voronezh Institute of Russia's Home Affairs Ministry

Voronezh Institute of High Technologies

Military Educational and Scientific Center of the Air Force «N.E. Zhukovsky and Y.A. Gagarin Air Force Academy» (Voronezh)

Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (Voronezh branch)

Russian State University of Justice

Admiral Makarov State University of Sea and River Fleet (Voronezh branch)

International Institute of Computer Technologies

Voronezh Institute of Economics and Law

and a number of other affiliate and private-funded institutes and universities. There are 2000 schools within the city.

 

Theaters

Voronezh Chamber Theatre

Koltsov Academic Drama Theater

Voronezh State Opera and Ballet Theatre

Shut Puppet Theater

 

Festivals

Platonov International Arts Festival

 

Sports

ClubSportFoundedCurrent LeagueLeague

RankStadium

Fakel VoronezhFootball1947Russian Premier League1stTsentralnyi Profsoyuz Stadion

Energy VoronezhFootball1989Women's Premier League1stRudgormash Stadium

Buran VoronezhIce Hockey1977Higher Hockey League2ndYubileyny Sports Palace

VC VoronezhVolleyball2006Women's Higher Volleyball League A2ndKristall Sports Complex

 

Religion

Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral in Voronezh

Orthodox Christianity is the predominant religion in Voronezh.[citation needed] There is an Orthodox Jewish community in Voronezh, with a synagogue located on Stankevicha Street.

 

In 1682, the Voronezh diocese was formed to fight the schismatics. Its first head was Bishop Mitrofan (1623-1703) at the age of 58. Under him, the construction began on the new Annunciation Cathedral to replace the old one. In 1832, Mitrofan was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

 

In the 1990s, many Orthodox churches were returned to the diocese. Their restoration was continued. In 2009, instead of the lost one, a new Annunciation Cathedral was built with a monument to St. Mitrofan erected next to it.

 

Cemeteries

There are ten cemeteries in Voronezh:

Levoberezhnoye Cemetery

Lesnoye Cemetery

Jewish Cemetery

Nikolskoye Cemetery

Pravoberezhnoye Cemetery

Budyonnovskoe Cemetery

Yugo-Zapadnoye Cemetery

Podgorenskоye Cemetery

Kominternovskoe Cemetery

Ternovoye Cemetery is а historical site closed to the public.

 

Born in Voronezh

18th century

Yevgeny Bolkhovitinov (1767–1837), Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia

Mikhail Pavlov (1792–1840), Russian academic and professor at Moscow University

19th century

1801–1850

Aleksey Koltsov (1809–1842), Russian poet

Ivan Nikitin (1824–1861), Russian poet

Nikolai Ge (1831–1894), Russian realist painter famous for his works on historical and religious motifs

Vasily Sleptsov (1836–1878), Russian writer and social reformer

Nikolay Kashkin (1839–1920), Russian music critic

1851–1900

Valentin Zhukovski (1858–1918), Russian orientalist

Vasily Goncharov (1861–1915), Russian film director and screenwriter, one of the pioneers of the film industry in the Russian Empire

Anastasiya Verbitskaya (1861–1928), Russian novelist, playwright, screenplay writer, publisher and feminist

Mikhail Olminsky (1863–1933), Russian Communist

Serge Voronoff (1866–1951), French surgeon of Russian extraction

Andrei Shingarev (1869–1918), Russian doctor, publicist and politician

Ivan Bunin (1870–1953), the first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature

Alexander Ostuzhev (1874–1953), Russian and Soviet drama actor

Valerian Albanov (1881–1919), Russian navigator and polar explorer

Jan Hambourg (1882–1947), Russian violinist, a member of a famous musical family

Volin (1882–1945), anarchist

Boris Hambourg (1885–1954), Russian cellist who made his career in the USA, Canada, England and Europe

Boris Eikhenbaum (1886–1959), Russian and Soviet literary scholar, and historian of Russian literature

Anatoly Durov (1887–1928), Russian animal trainer

Samuil Marshak (1887–1964), Russian and Soviet writer, translator and children's poet

Eduard Shpolsky (1892–1975), Russian and Soviet physicist and educator

George of Syracuse (1893–1981), Eastern Orthodox archbishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Yevgeny Gabrilovich (1899–1993), Soviet screenwriter

Semyon Krivoshein (1899–1978), Soviet tank commander; Lieutenant General

Andrei Platonov (1899–1951), Soviet Russian writer, playwright and poet

Ivan Pravov (1899–1971), Russian and Soviet film director and screenwriter

William Dameshek (1900–1969), American hematologist

20th century

1901–1930

Ivan Nikolaev (1901–1979), Soviet architect and educator

Galina Shubina (1902–1980), Russian poster and graphics artist

Pavel Cherenkov (1904–1990), Soviet physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1958 with Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, made in 1934

Yakov Kreizer (1905–1969), Soviet field commander, General of the army and Hero of the Soviet Union

Iosif Rudakovsky (1914–1947), Soviet chess master

Pawel Kassatkin (1915–1987), Russian writer

Alexander Shelepin (1918–1994), Soviet state security officer and party statesman

Grigory Baklanov (1923–2009), Russian writer

Gleb Strizhenov (1923–1985), Soviet actor

Vladimir Zagorovsky (1925–1994), Russian chess grandmaster of correspondence chess and the fourth ICCF World Champion between 1962 and 1965

Konstantin Feoktistov (1926–2009), cosmonaut and engineer

Vitaly Vorotnikov (1926–2012), Soviet statesman

Arkady Davidowitz (1930), writer and aphorist

1931–1950

Grigory Sanakoev (1935), Russian International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster, most famous for being the twelfth ICCF World Champion (1984–1991)

Yuri Zhuravlyov (1935), Russian mathematician

Mykola Koltsov (1936–2011), Soviet footballer and Ukrainian football children and youth trainer

Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov (1936), Russian composer

Iya Savvina (1936–2011), Soviet film actress

Tamara Zamotaylova (1939), Soviet gymnast, who won four Olympic medals at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics

Yury Smolyakov (1941), Soviet Olympic fencer

Yevgeny Lapinsky (1942–1999), Soviet Olympic volleyball player

Galina Bukharina (1945), Soviet athlete

Vladimir Patkin (1945), Soviet Olympic volleyball player

Vladimir Proskurin (1945), Soviet Russian football player and coach

Aleksandr Maleyev (1947), Soviet artistic gymnast

Valeri Nenenko (1950), Russian professional football coach and player

1951–1970

Vladimir Rokhlin, Jr. (1952), Russian-American mathematician and professor of computer science and mathematics at the Yale University

Lyubov Burda (1953), Russian artistic gymnast

Mikhail Khryukin (1955), Russian swimmer

Aleksandr Tkachyov (1957), Russian gymnast and two times Olympic Champion

Nikolai Vasilyev (1957), Russian professional football coach and player

Aleksandr Babanov (1958), Russian professional football coach and player

Sergey Koliukh (1960), Russian political figure; 4th Mayor of Voronezh

Yelena Davydova (1961), Soviet gymnast

Aleksandr Borodyuk (1962), Russian football manager and former international player for USSR and Russia

Aleksandr Chayev (1962), Russian swimmer

Elena Fanailova (1962), Russian poet

Alexander Litvinenko (1962–2006), officer of the Russian FSB and political dissident

Yuri Shishkin (1963), Russian professional football coach and player

Yuri Klinskikh (1964–2000), Russian musician, singer, songwriter, arranger, founder rock band Sektor Gaza

Yelena Ruzina (1964), athlete

Igor Bragin (1965), footballer

Gennadi Remezov (1965), Russian professional footballer

Valeri Shmarov (1965), Russian football player and coach

Konstantin Chernyshov (1967), Russian chess grandmaster

Igor Pyvin (1967), Russian professional football coach and player

Vladimir Bobrezhov (1968), Soviet sprint canoer

1971–1980

Oleg Gorobiy (1971), Russian sprint canoer

Anatoli Kanishchev (1971), Russian professional association footballer

Ruslan Mashchenko (1971), Russian hurdler

Aleksandr Ovsyannikov (1974), Russian professional footballer

Dmitri Sautin (1974), Russian diver who has won more medals than any other Olympic diver

Sergey Verlin (1974), Russian sprint canoer

Maxim Narozhnyy (1975–2011), Paralympian athlete

Aleksandr Cherkes (1976), Russian football coach and player

Andrei Durov (1977), Russian professional footballer

Nikolai Kryukov (1978), Russian artistic gymnast

Kirill Gerstein (1979), Jewish American and Russian pianist

Evgeny Ignatov (1979), Russian sprint canoeist

Aleksey Nikolaev (1979), Russian-Uzbekistan footballer

Aleksandr Palchikov (1979), former Russian professional football player

Konstantin Skrylnikov (1979), Russian professional footballer

Aleksandr Varlamov (1979), Russian diver

Angelina Yushkova (1979), Russian gymnast

Maksim Potapov (1980), professional ice hockey player

1981–1990

Alexander Krysanov (1981), Russian professional ice hockey forward

Yulia Nachalova (1981–2019), Soviet and Russian singer, actress and television presenter

Andrei Ryabykh (1982), Russian football player

Maxim Shchyogolev (1982), Russian theatre and film actor

Eduard Vorganov (1982), Russian professional road bicycle racer

Anton Buslov (1983–2014), Russian astrophysicist, blogger, columnist at The New Times magazine and expert on transportation systems

Dmitri Grachyov (1983), Russian footballer

Aleksandr Kokorev (1984), Russian professional football player

Dmitry Kozonchuk (1984), Russian professional road bicycle racer for Team Katusha

Alexander Khatuntsev (1985), Russian professional road bicycle racer

Egor Vyaltsev (1985), Russian professional basketball player

Samvel Aslanyan (1986), Russian handball player

Maksim Chistyakov (1986), Russian football player

Yevgeniy Dorokhin (1986), Russian sprint canoer

Daniil Gridnev (1986), Russian professional footballer

Vladimir Moskalyov (1986), Russian football referee

Elena Danilova (1987), Russian football forward

Sektor Gaza (1987–2000), punk band

Regina Moroz (1987), Russian female volleyball player

Roman Shishkin (1987), Russian footballer

Viktor Stroyev (1987), Russian footballer

Elena Terekhova (1987), Russian international footballer

Natalia Goncharova (1988), Russian diver

Yelena Yudina (1988), Russian skeleton racer

Dmitry Abakumov (1989), Russian professional association football player

Igor Boev (1989), Russian professional racing cyclist

Ivan Dobronravov (1989), Russian actor

Anna Bogomazova (1990), Russian kickboxer, martial artist, professional wrestler and valet

Yuriy Kunakov (1990), Russian diver

Vitaly Melnikov (1990), Russian backstroke swimmer

Kristina Pravdina (1990), Russian female artistic gymnast

Vladislav Ryzhkov (1990), Russian footballer

1991–2000

Danila Poperechny (1994), Russian stand-up comedian, actor, youtuber, podcaster

Darya Stukalova (1994), Russian Paralympic swimmer

Viktoria Komova (1995), Russian Olympic gymnast

Vitali Lystsov (1995), Russian professional footballer

Marina Nekrasova (1995), Russian-born Azerbaijani artistic gymnast

Vladislav Parshikov (1996), Russian football player

Dmitri Skopintsev (1997), Russian footballer

Alexander Eickholtz (1998) American sportsman

Angelina Melnikova (2000), Russian Olympic gymnast

Lived in Voronezh

Aleksey Khovansky (1814–1899), editor

Ivan Kramskoi (1837–1887), Russian painter and art critic

Mitrofan Pyatnitsky (1864–1927), Russian musician

Mikhail Tsvet (1872–1919), Russian botanist

Alexander Kuprin (1880–1960), Russian painter, a member of the Jack of Diamonds group

Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937), Russian writer, went to school in Voronezh

Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938), Russian poet

Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980), Russian writer

Gavriil Troyepolsky (1905–1995), Soviet writer

Nikolay Basov (1922–2001), Soviet physicist and educator

Vasily Peskov (1930–2013), Russian writer, journalist, photographer, traveller and ecologist

Valentina Popova (1972), Russian weightlifter

Igor Samsonov, painter

Tatyana Zrazhevskaya, Russian boxer

Niederlande - Haarlem

 

Stedelijk Gymnasium

 

Haarlem (Dutch: [ˈɦaːrlɛm] predecessor of Harlem in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Europe; it is also part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Haarlem had a population of 162,543 in 2021.

 

Haarlem was granted city status or stadsrechten in 1245, although the first city walls were not built until 1270. The modern city encompasses the former municipality of Schoten as well as parts that previously belonged to Bloemendaal and Heemstede. Apart from the city, the municipality of Haarlem also includes the western part of the village of Spaarndam. Newer sections of Spaarndam lie within the neighbouring municipality of Haarlemmermeer.

 

Geography

 

Haarlem is located on the river Spaarne, giving it its nickname Spaarnestad (Spaarne city). It is situated about 20 km (12 mi) west of Amsterdam and near the coastal dunes. Haarlem has been the historical centre of the tulip bulb-growing district for centuries and bears its other nickname Bloemenstad (flower city) for this reason.

 

History

 

Haarlem has a rich history dating back to pre-medieval times, as it lies on a thin strip of land above sea level known as the strandwal (beach ridge), which connects Leiden to Alkmaar. The people on this narrow strip of land struggled against the waters of the North Sea from the west, and the waters of the IJ and the Haarlem Lake from the east. Haarlem became wealthy with toll revenues that it collected from ships and travellers moving on this busy north–south route.

 

As shipping became increasingly important economically, the city of Amsterdam became the main Dutch city of North Holland during the Dutch Golden Age. The town of Halfweg became a suburb, and Haarlem became a quiet bedroom community, and for this reason Haarlem still has many of its central medieval buildings intact. Many of them are now on the Dutch Heritage register known as Rijksmonuments. The list of Rijksmonuments in Haarlem gives an overview of these per neighbourhood, with the majority in the old city centre.

 

Middle Ages

 

The oldest mention of Haarlem dates from the 10th century. The name probably comes from "Haarlo-heim". This name is composed of three elements: haar, lo and heim. In Old Dutch toponyms lo always refers to 'forest' and heim (heem, em or um) to 'home' or 'house'. Haar, however, has several meanings, one of them corresponding with the location of Haarlem on a sand dune: 'elevated place'. The name Haarlem or Haarloheim would therefore mean 'home on a forested dune'.

 

There was a stream called "De Beek", dug from the peat grounds west of the river Spaarne as a drainage canal. Over the centuries the Beek was turned into an underground canal, as the city grew larger and the space was needed for construction. Over time it began to silt up and in the 19th century it was filled in. The village had a good location: by the river Spaarne, and by a major road going south to north. By the 12th century it was a fortified town, and Haarlem became the residence of the Counts of Holland.

 

In 1219 the knights of Haarlem were laurelled by Count Willem I, because they had conquered the Egyptian port of Damietta (or Damiate in Dutch, present-day Dimyat) in the fifth crusade. Haarlem received the right to bear the Count's sword and cross in its coat of arms. On 23 November 1245 Count Willem II granted Haarlem city rights. This implied a number of privileges, among which the right for the sheriff and magistrates to administer justice, instead of the Count. This allowed for a quicker and more efficient judiciary system, more suited to the needs of the growing city.

 

After a siege from the surrounding area of Kennemerland in 1270 a defensive wall was built around the city. Most likely this was an earthen wall with wooden gates. Originally the city started out between Spaarne, Oudegracht, Ridderstraat, Bakenessergracht and Nassaustraat. In the 14th century the city expanded, and the Burgwalbuurt, Bakenes and the area around the Oudegracht became part of the city. The old defenses proved not to be sufficiently strong for the expanded city, and at the end of the 14th century a 16½-metre high wall was built, complete with a 15-metre wide canal circling the city. In 1304 the Flemish threatened the city, but they were defeated by Witte van Haemstede at Manpad.

 

The City Hall on the Grote Markt, built in the 14th century, replacing the Count's castle after it partially burnt down. The remains were given to the city.

All the city's buildings were made of wood, and fire was a great risk. In 1328 nearly the whole city burnt down. The Sint-Bavokerk was severely damaged, and rebuilding it would take more than 150 years. Again on 12 June 1347 there was a fire in the city. A third large fire, in 1351, destroyed many buildings including the Count's castle and the city hall. The Count did not need a castle in Haarlem because his castle in The Hague (Den Haag) had taken over all functions.

 

The count donated the ground to the city and later a new city hall was built there. The shape of the old city was square—this was inspired by the shape of ancient Jerusalem. After every fire the city was rebuilt quickly, an indication of the wealth of the city in those years. The Black Death came to the city in 1381. According to an estimate by a priest from Leiden the disease killed 5,000 people, about half the population at that time.

 

In the 14th century, Haarlem was a major city. It was the second largest city in historical Holland after Dordrecht and before Delft, Leiden, Amsterdam, Gouda and Rotterdam. In 1429 the city gained the right to collect tolls, including ships passing the city on the Spaarne river. At the end of the Middle Ages, Haarlem was a flourishing city with a large textile industry, shipyards and beer breweries. Around 1428, the city was put under siege by the army of Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut. Haarlem had taken side with the Cods in the Hook and Cod wars and thus against Jacoba of Bavaria. The entire Haarlemmerhout wood was burnt down by the enemy.

 

Spanish siege

 

When the city of Brielle was conquered by the Geuzen revolutionary army, the municipality of Haarlem started supporting the Geuzen. King Philip II of Spain was not pleased, and sent an army north under the command of Don Fadrique (Don Frederick in Dutch), son of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba. On 17 November 1572 all citizens of the city of Zutphen were killed by the Spanish army, and on 1 December the city of Naarden suffered the same fate.

 

On 11 December 1572 the Spanish army besieged Haarlem; the city's defenses were commanded by city-governor Wigbolt Ripperda. Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer, a powerful widow, helped defend the city together with some three hundred other women.

 

During the first two months of the siege, the situation was in balance. The Spanish army was digging tunnels to reach the city walls and blow them up; the defenders dug in turn and undermined the Spaniards' tunnels. The situation worsened on 29 March 1573: the Amsterdam army, faithful to the Spanish king, controlled Haarlemmermeer lake, effectively blocking Haarlem from the outside world. An attempt by the Prince of Orange to destroy the Spanish navy on the Haarlemmermeer had failed. Hunger in the city grew, and the situation became so tense that on 27 May many (Spanish-loyal) prisoners were taken from the prison and murdered; the Spaniards had previously gibbeted their own prisoners of war.

 

In the beginning of July the Prince of Orange assembled an army of 5,000 soldiers near Leiden to free Haarlem. However, he was prevented from accompanying them in person and the Spanish forces trapped them at the Manpad where they were decisively defeated. On 13 July 1573, after seven months of siege, the city surrendered. Many defenders were slaughtered; some were drowned in the Spaarne river. Governor Ripperda and his lieutenant were beheaded. The citizens were allowed to buy freedom for themselves and the city for 240,000 guilders and the city was required to host a Spanish garrison. Don Fadrique thanked God for his victory in the Sint-Bavo Church. However, the terms of the treaty were not kept, with the Spanish soldiery plundering the townspeople's property.

 

Despite Haarlem's ultimate fall, the fact that the Haarlemers had been able to stand for seven months against the whole Spanish array inspired the rest of Holland to resist the invaders, and their prolonged resistance allowed the Prince of Orange to prepare and arm the rest of the country for war. Some 12,000 of the Spanish army had fallen during the siege.

 

Great fire

 

The city suffered a large fire in the night from 22 to 23 October 1576. The fire started in brewery het Ankertje, near the weighhouse at the Spaarne, which was used by mercenaries as a guarding place. When they were warming themselves at a fire it got out of control. The fire was spotted by farmers, who sailed their ships on the river. However, the soldiers turned down all help, saying that they would put out the fire themselves.

 

This failed, and the fire destroyed almost 500 buildings, among them St-Gangolf's church and St-Elisabeth's hospital. Most of the mercenaries were later arrested, and one of them was hanged on the Grote Markt in front of a large audience. Maps from that era clearly show the damage done by the fire: a wide strip through the city was destroyed. The combined result of the siege and the fire was that about a third of the city was destroyed.

 

Golden age

 

The fire and the long siege had taken their toll on the city. The Spanish left in 1577 and under the Agreement of Veere, Protestants and Catholics were given equal rights, though in government the Protestants clearly had the upper hand and Catholic possessions once seized were never returned. To restore the economy and attract workers for the brewing and bleaching businesses (Haarlem was known for these, thanks to the clean water from the dunes), the Haarlem council decided to promote the pursuit of arts and history, showing tolerance for diversity among religious beliefs.

 

This attracted a large influx of Flemish and French immigrants (Catholics and Huguenots alike) who were fleeing the Spanish occupation of their own cities. Expansion plans soon replaced plans of rebuilding the destroyed city walls. Just like the rest of the country, the Golden Age in the United Provinces had started.

 

Linen and silk

 

The new citizens had a lot of expertise in linen and silk manufacture and trading, and the city's population grew from 18,000 in 1573 to around 40,000 in 1622. At one point, in 1621, over 50% of the population was Flemish-born. Haarlem's linen became notable and the city flourished. Today an impression of some of those original textile tradesmen can be had from the Book of Trades document created by Jan Luyken and his son.

 

Infrastructure

 

In 1632 a tow canal between Haarlem and Amsterdam, the Haarlemmertrekvaart was opened, the first tow canal in the country. The empty areas in the city that were a result of the fire of 1576 were filled with new houses and buildings. Even outside the city wall buildings were constructed—in 1643 about 400 houses were counted outside the wall.

 

Having buildings outside the city walls was not a desirable situation to the city administration. Not only because these buildings would be vulnerable in case of an attack on the city, but there was also less control over taxes and city regulations outside the walls. Therefore, a major project was initiated in 1671: expanding the city northwards.

 

Two new canals were dug, and a new defensive wall was constructed (the current Staten en Prinsenbolwerk). Two old city gates, the Janspoort and Kruispoort, were demolished. The idea that a city had to be square-shaped was abandoned.

 

Cultural life

 

After the fall of Antwerp, many artists and craftsmen migrated to Haarlem and received commissions from the Haarlem council to decorate the city hall. The paintings commissioned were meant to show Haarlem's glorious history as well as Haarlem's glorious products. Haarlem's cultural life prospered, with painters like Frans Hals and Jacob van Ruisdael, the architect Lieven de Key and Jan Steen who made many paintings in Haarlem.

 

The Haarlem councilmen became quite creative in their propaganda promoting their city. On the Grote Markt, the central market square, there's a statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster who is allegedly the inventor of the printing press. This is the second and larger statue to him on the square. The original stands behind the city hall in the little garden known as the Hortus (where today the Stedelijk Gymnasium school is located).

 

Most scholars agree that the scarce evidence seems to point to Johann Gutenberg as the first European inventor of the printing press, but Haarlem children were taught about "Lau", as he is known, well into the 20th century. This legend served the printers of Haarlem well, however, and it is probably for that reason the most notable Dutch history books from the Dutch Golden Age period were published in Haarlem; by Hadrianus Junius (Batavia), Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert (Works), Karel van Mander (Schilderboeck), Samuel Ampzing (Description and Ode to Haarlem), Petrus Scriverius (Batavia Illustrata), and Pieter Christiaenszoon Bor (Origin of the Dutch wars).

 

Beer brewing

 

Beer brewing was a very important industry in Haarlem. Until the 16th century, the water for the beer was taken from the canals in the city. These canals were connected to seawater, via the Spaarne and the IJ. However, the canal water was getting more and more polluted and less suitable for brewing beer. A place 1.5 km (0.9 mi) south-west of the city was then used to take fresh water in.

 

However, the quality of that water was not good enough either. From the 17th century, a canal (Santvaert) was used to transport water from the dunes to the city. The water was transported in barrels on ships. The location where the water was taken is called the Brouwerskolkje, and the canal to there still exists, and is now called the Brewers' Canal (Brouwersvaart).

 

Haarlem was a major beer producer in the Netherlands. The majority of the beer it produced was consumed in North Holland. During the Spanish siege, there were about 50 breweries in the city. In 1620, the city had about one hundred breweries.

 

There was another epidemic of the Black Death in 1657, which took a heavy toll in the six months it ravaged the city. From the end of the 17th century, the economy in the city worsened for a long time. In 1752, only seven breweries remained, and by 1820 no breweries were registered in the city. In the 1990s, the Stichting Haarlems Biergenootschap revived some old recipes under the Jopen beer brand that is marketed as a "Haarlem bier." In 2010, Jopen opened a brewery in a former church in central Haarlem called the Jopenkerk. In 2012, Haarlem gained another local brewery with Uiltje Brewing in the Zijlstraat, which specializes in craft beer.

 

Tulip centre

 

Since the 1630s, Haarlem has been a major trading centre for tulips, and it was at the epicentre during tulip mania, when outrageous prices were paid for tulip bulbs. From the opening of the Leiden-Haarlem canal Leidsevaart in 1656, it became popular to travel from Rotterdam to Amsterdam by passenger boat rather than by coach. The canals were dug for passenger service only, and were comfortable though slow. The towpath led these passengers through the bulb fields south of Haarlem.

 

Haarlem was an important stopover for passengers from the last half of the 17th century and through the 18th century until the building of the first rail tracks along the routes of former passenger canal systems. As Haarlem slowly expanded southwards, so did the bulb fields. Today, rail passengers between Rotterdam and Amsterdam in spring can see blooming bulb fields on the route between Leiden and Haarlem.

 

18th century

 

As the centre of trade gravitated towards Amsterdam, Haarlem declined in the 18th century. The Golden Age had created a large upper middle class of merchants and well-to-do small business owners. Taking advantage of the reliability of the trekschuit connection between Amsterdam and Haarlem, many people had a business address in Amsterdam and a weekend or summer home in Haarlem.

 

Haarlem became more and more a bedroom community as the increasingly dense population of Amsterdam caused the canals to smell in the summer. Many well-to-do gentlemen moved their families to summer homes in the Spring and commuted between addresses. Popular places for summer homes were along the Spaarne in southern Haarlem. Pieter Teyler van der Hulst and Henry Hope built summer homes there, as well as many Amsterdam merchants and councilmen. Today, boat travel along the Spaarne is still possible and has become a popular form of tourism in the summer. In the 18th century, Haarlem became the seat of a suffragan diocese of the Old Catholic Church of Utrecht.

 

French rule

 

At the end of the 18th century, a number of anti-Orange commissions were founded. On 18 January 1795 the "Staatse" army was defeated near Woerden. During the night preceding 19 January, the same night that stadtholder William V of Orange fled the country, the various commissions gathered and implemented a revolution. The commissions changed the city's administrators in a bloodless revolution, and the next morning the city was "liberated" of the tyranny of the House of Orange. The revolution was peaceful, and the Orange-loyal people were not harmed. The Batavian Republic was then proclaimed.

 

The French army entered the liberated city two days later, on 20 January. An army of 1,500 soldiers was provided with food and clothing by the citizens. The new national government was strongly centralised, and the role and influence of the cities was reduced. The Batavian Republic signed a mutual defense pact with France and was thus automatically at war with England. The strong English presence at sea severely reduced trading opportunities, and the Dutch economy suffered accordingly.

 

19th century

 

The textile industry, which had always been an important pillar of Haarlem's economy, was suffering at the beginning of the 19th century. Strong international competition and revolutionary new production methods based on steam engines already in use in England dealt a striking blow to Haarlem's industry. In 1815, the city's population was about 17,000 people, many of whom were poor. The foundation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in that year gave hope to many who believed that under a new government, the economy would improve and that export-oriented economic activities, such as the textile industry, would recover.

 

In the beginning of the 19th century, the defense walls had lost their function, and architect Zocher Jr. planned a park on the location of the former defense line. The city walls and gates were demolished, and the bricks were reused for construction of factories and workers' homes . Haarlem became the provincial capital of North Holland province in the early 19th century.

 

In the mid-19th century, the city's economy slowly started to improve. New factories opened, and a number of large industrial companies were founded in Haarlem by Thomas Wilson, Guillaume Jean Poelman, J.B.T. Prévinaire, J.J. Beijnes, Hendrik Figee, Gerardus Johannes Droste, and G.P.J. Beccari.

 

Cotton mills

 

The Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (NHM or Dutch Trade Company) was founded by King Willem I to create employment opportunities. As one of the cities in the western part of the Netherlands with the worst economic situation, three cotton mills were created in Haarlem under the NHM-program in the 1830s. These were run by experts from the Southern Netherlands, whom the NHM considered better at mechanical weaving through the local expertise of Lieven Bauwens.

 

The contract winners were Thomas Wilson, whose factory was situated north of what is today the Wilsonplein, Guillaume Jean Poelman, who was in business with his nephew Charles Vervaecke from Ghent and had a factory on what today is the Phoenixstraat, and Jean Baptiste Theodore Prévinaire, who had a factory on the Garenkokerskade and whose son Marie Prosper Theodore Prévinaire created the Haarlemsche Katoenmaatschappij in 1875.

 

These cotton factories produced goods for export, and because the Dutch government levied heavy taxes on foreign cotton producers this was a profitable business for the NHM-factories, especially for export to the Dutch East Indies. The programme started in the 1830s, and was initially successful. However, after 1839 when Belgium split away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the protectionist measures for the Dutch East Indian market were removed, and the business began to flounder. When the American Civil War reduced the import of raw cotton significantly after 1863, the business went sour. Only Prévinaire was able to survive through specialisation with his "Turkish Red" dye. The Prévinaire "toile Adrinople" was popular.[ Prévinaire's son went on to create the Haarlemsche Katoenmaatschappij, which made a kind of imitation batik cloth called "La Javanaise" that became popular in Belgian Congo.

 

Train and tram

 

In England in 1804, Richard Trevithick designed the first locomotive. The government of the Netherlands was relatively slow to catch up, even though the king feared competition from newly established Belgium if it would construct a railway between Antwerp and other cities. The Dutch parliament balked at the high level of investment needed, but a group of private investors started the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij on 1 June 1836.

 

It took three years to build the first track on the railway, between Haarlem and Amsterdam along the old tow canal called the Haarlemmertrekvaart. The ground there was wet and muddy. On 20 September 1839, the first train service in the Netherlands started. The train had a speed of about 40 km/h (25 mph). The train service gave the Beijnes company, and indirectly the whole economy of Haarlem, a strong boost, and the effects of this can be seen in the Haarlem railway station, now a rijksmonument. Instead of more than two hours, Amsterdam was now only 30 minutes away.

 

The old passenger service by trekschuit along the Haarlemmertrekvaart was quickly taken out of service in favour of the train service, which was quicker and more reliable. In 1878, a Beijnes-made horse tram started servicing passengers from the railway station to the Haarlemmerhout woodland park, and in 1894, the Eerste Nederlandsche Electrische Tram Maatschappij (ENET) was founded with cars built by Beijnes and became the first Dutch electric tram, which ran in Haarlem from 1899 onwards.

 

Water management

 

Though the old trekvaart was closed for water traffic after railway development, it is still possible to travel by boat from Amsterdam to Haarlem, via the ringvaart or the North Sea Canal. Pleasure boating in the summer has become an important Haarlem tourist attraction, though it is not possible to travel all of the original canals as in Amsterdam. The creation of new land in the Haarlemmermeer polder from 1852 onwards meant that the city could no longer refresh the water in its canals from the Spaarne river. The increase in industry worsened water quality. In 1859, the Oude Gracht canal stank so badly in the summer that it not only forced visitors away, but posed a public health threat due to cholera outbreaks. It was filled in to create a new street called the Gedempte Oude Gracht.[11] The periodic cholera outbreaks had not been new, but they had been increasing. In 1591, the city fathers had ordered excavation to build the Verwulft, a wide bridge over the Oude Gracht connecting the north and south portions of the Grote Houtstraat. Such "overclosures" can still be seen in other Dutch cities, such as the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam.

 

Expanding borders

 

From 1879, the population of the city almost doubled in thirty years, from 36,976 to 69,410 in 1909. Not only did the population grow, but the city was expanding rapidly, too. The Leidsebuurt district was incorporated into Haarlem in the 1880s. A small part of the (now defunct) municipality of Schoten was incorporated in 1884 because the council of Haarlem wanted to have the hospital (Het Dolhuys) inside the municipal borders. This hospital was situated at "het bolwerk" on Schoten's territory.

 

Early 20th century

 

In the beginning of the 20th century, the city expanded north. As early as 1905, an official plan was presented by the Haarlem municipality for expansion. However, the surrounding municipalities did not agree, and it would take 25 years to come to an agreement. On 1 May 1927, the municipality of Schoten became part of Haarlem, as well as part of Spaarndam, Bloemendaal and Heemstede. The population increased at once with 31,184 citizens.

 

In 1908, a renewed railway station was opened. The tracks were elevated, so traffic in the city was no longer hampered by railway crossings. In 1911, Anthony Fokker showed his plane de Spin to the audience in Haarlem by flying around the Sint-Bavokerk on Queen's Day.

 

Later the expansion of the city went southwards (Schalkwijk) and eastwards (Waarderpolder). In 1932, Vroom & Dreesmann, a Dutch retailer built a department store at Verwulft. Many buildings were demolished, except one small chemist's shop on the corner, "Van der Pigge", who refused to be bought out and which is now encapsulated by the V&D building. They are therefore also called "David and Goliath" by locals.

 

Haarlem in World War II

 

From 17 to 21 September 1944, parts of Haarlem-Noord (north of the Jan Gijzenvaart) were evacuated by the Germans to make way for a defensive line. The stadium of HFC Haarlem, the football club, was demolished. Hundreds of people had to leave their homes and were forced to stay with other citizens.

 

From 22 September 1944 to the end of the war, there was gas available only two hours per day. Electricity stopped on 9 October. The German occupiers built a thick, black wall through the Haarlemmerhout (in the south of the city), as well as at the Jan Gijzenvaart in the evacuated area. The wall was called Mauer-muur and was meant to help defend the city.

 

In February 1944, the family of Corrie ten Boom was arrested by the Nazis; they had been hiding Jews and Dutch resistance workers from the German occupier throughout the war.

 

During World War II, the Dutch heroine Hannie Schaft, who worked for a Dutch resistance group, was captured and executed by the German occupation just before the end of the war in 1945. Despite her efforts and those of her colleagues and private families such as the Ten Booms, most Haarlem Jews were deported, the Haarlem Synagogue was demolished, and the Jewish hospital was annexed by the St. Elisabeth Gasthuis. Several Haarlem families, whether they were politically active in the NSB or not, suffered from random attacks, as the Haarlem writer Harry Mulisch described in his book De Aanslag. Haarlemmers survived during the Hunger Winter by eating tulip bulbs stored in sheds in the sandy fields around the city.

 

Post-World War II

 

After the war, much of the large industry left the city, such as the banknote printing firm of Joh. Enschedé. The centre of industry and shipping shifted towards Amsterdam. Though the population had been decimated by starvation, a new wave of immigrants came to the city from the Dutch former colonies in Indonesia. This brought some government funding for building projects. In 1963, a large number of houses was built in Schalkwijk.

 

Miscellaneous

 

Local beer

 

Beer brewing has been a very important industry for Haarlem going back to the 15th century, when there were no fewer than 100 breweries in the city. When the town's 750th anniversary was celebrated in 1995 a group of enthusiasts re-created an original Haarlem beer and brewed it again. The beer is called Jopenbier, or Jopen for short, named after an old type of beer barrel.[

 

Harlem, Manhattan

 

In 1658, Peter Stuyvesant, the Director-General of the Dutch colony of Nieuw Nederland (New Netherland), founded the settlement of Nieuw Haarlem in the northern part of Manhattan Island as an outpost of Nieuw Amsterdam (New Amsterdam) at the southern tip of the island. After the English capture of New Netherland in 1664, the new English colonial administration renamed both the colony and its principal city "New York," but left the name of Haarlem more or less unchanged. The spelling changed to Harlem in keeping with contemporary English usage, and the district grew (as part of the borough of Manhattan) into the vibrant centre of African American culture in New York City and the United States generally by the 20th century.

 

Lautje, statue on the Grote Markt

 

On the main square, the Grote Markt, stands a statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster, nicknamed 'Lautje' by locals. Laurens Janszoon Coster is credited with being the inventor of a printing press using movable type, since he's said to have invented it simultaneously with Johannes Gutenberg, but only some people believe this. In the past, the statue was moved a couple of times. It once stood at the other side of the square and even perched at the Riviervismarkt, near the Philharmonie.

 

Universities

 

The group of universities SRH opened a campus in Haarlem in 2022 on the site of the former Cupola prison.

 

Meat advertisement ban

 

In September 2022, the Haarlem municipal council adopted an ordinance prohibiting advertisements for meat and fossil fuels in public spaces because of their climate impact. The ordinance took effect in 2024, making Haarlem the first city in the world to ban such advertisements.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

The Stedelijk Gymnasium Haarlem or the Latin School of Haarlem is a secondary school in Haarlem, Netherlands. The school was founded in 1389 and is therefore one of the oldest schools in the world. The school offers voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs (preparatory scientific education) exclusively and is an independent gymnasium enrolling 822 students and 95 teachers, for a teacher/student ratio of 8.6.

 

History

 

In 1389 a Latin school was begun north of the St. Bavochurch in the Schoolsteeg. After the Siege of Haarlem when the city council seized all Catholic possessions, the school moved in 1592 to the quarters of the old Dominican Order monastery located behind the City Hall. The current school is still located there on the Prinsenhof, that can be reached via the Jacobijnestraat. It still offers a classical curriculum, including studies in Latin and Greek.

 

The first rector recorded is Meester Gheraerde de scoelmeester in 1301. In 1389 the city was given the privilege of appointing the rector together with the pastor of the Bavo. The rector was paid by the fees paid by students. He also took in students from outside the city and received extra fees for room and board. From his income, he paid the teachers (ondermeesters) himself. The basis for education was the artes liberales, whereby parts of the Trivium were given in Latin and the Quadrivium included music, since the choir boys needed to sing in church. For boys studying theology, Hebrew lessons were given in addition to Latin (Greek only became available from 1522). Students wanting to continue their studies, needed to leave the country before the Leiden University was founded in 1579. According to the archives of the Heilige Geest, a religious institution formerly located at what is now the Hofje van Oorschot, they had a fund from 1502 to 1577 (the Satisfactie) for sending good students to Cologne to further their studies there. In 1553, when the school had been run by Junius, they even petitioned Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor for the right to found a university in Haarlem, but this was never answered. After the Satisfactie van Haarlem in 1577, the books of all the monasteries and cloisters in Haarlem were given to the Latin school and the rector Cornelis Schonaeus (1540–1611) took two weeks to draw up the inventory list. This same Schonaeus was the one who was in charge of moving the school from the schoolsteeg to the current location in 1583. He almost lost his job when the council decided to start a collegie or university there, but perhaps because Leiden had already been founded, this never happened. He did complete a major reorganization of the school that was then placed in the hands of his successor, Theodorus Schrevelius.

 

During the years 1864–1875 and again from 1925–1933, the school merged with the Hogere Burger School, due to a decrease in enrollment.

 

Notable alumni

 

Amir Sjarifoeddin – second Prime Minister of the Indonesian Republic

 

Thierry Baudet – politician, academic and journalist

 

Hadrianus Junius (1550–1552)

 

Theodorus Schrevelius – humanist, writer and poet

 

Job Cohen – former Mayor of Amsterdam and in 2010 leader of the Labour Party (Netherlands)

 

Jessica Durlacher – writer

 

Hamengkubuwono IX – ninth Sultan of Yogyakarta

 

Ed Spanjaard – conductor

 

L.H. Wiener – writer

 

Jan Kops – Baptist preacher and professor of agronomy at the University of Utrecht

 

Edward Brongersma – Dutch politician, lawyer, jurist and criminologist

 

Christianus Cornelis Uhlenbeck – Dutch linguist, anthropologist and writer

 

Jan Kruseman – Dutch jurist and president of the Court of Amsterdam

 

Guido van Rossum – Dutch computer programmer

 

Martijn Bolkestein – Dutch politician

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Haarlem ist eine Stadt in der Region Kennemerland-Süd und die Hauptstadt der Provinz Nordholland, Niederlande. Die Stadt liegt am Fluss Spaarne, was ihr den Beinamen Spaarnestad eingebracht hat. Die Gemeinde Haarlem zählt 168.655 Einwohner (1. Januar 2025, CBS) und ist Sitz von zwei katholischen Bischöfen, einem des altkatholischen Bistums Haarlem und einem des römisch-katholischen Bistums Haarlem-Amsterdam.

 

Geografie

 

Haarlem liegt am nordwestlichen Rand der „Randstad“. Die Gemeinde grenzt im Uhrzeigersinn an die Gemeinden Velsen, Haarlemmermeer, Heemstede und Bloemendaal. Östlich liegen Amsterdam (19 km) und der Flughafen Schiphol (13 km). Die Häfen von IJmuiden liegen im Norden und die Nordseeküste ist ca. 7 km westlich von Haarlem.

 

Die Stadt hat eine wichtige regionale Funktion. Ihr primäres Versorgungsgebiet ist der nördliche Teil von Südholland, Bollenstreek, Zuid-Kennermerland, IJmond und ein Teil vom Haarlemmermeer.

 

Die Gemeinde Haarlem ist aufgeteilt in fünf Stadtteile, neun Viertel und vierzig sogenannte „buurten“, was so viel bedeutet wie Nachbarschaften.

 

Geschichte

 

Haarlem entstand als Geestsiedlung an der Spaarne und entwickelte sich auf dem Verbindungsweg von Süd nach Nord. Die Stadt wurde Residenz der Grafen von Holland. Graf Wilhelm II. von Holland verlieh Haarlem 1245 Stadtrechte. Ein Kontingent der Bürger von Haarlem hatte früher in diesem Jahrhundert, 1217–1219, unter Graf Wilhelm I. mit mehreren Schiffen am Fünften Kreuzzug teilgenommen. Daher findet sich bis heute ein Schwert und ein Kreuz im Stadtwappen, die an die legendenhaft verklärten Leistungen dieser Haarlemer Kreuzfahrer während der Belagerung von Damiette in Ägypten (1218) erinnern sollen.

 

m Jahr 1429 bekam die Stadt das Zollrecht. Das spätmittelalterliche Haarlem kannte Textilherstellung, Schiffbau und viele Bierbrauereien. Der Reichtum ging zu Ende durch einen etwa dem deutschen Bundschuh-Aufstand ähnelnden Bürgerkrieg namens „Hoeker und Kabeljau-Streit“ (Hoekse en Kabeljauwse Twisten) und den Aufstand der Käser und Bäcker (Kaas- en Broodvolk). Im Jahr 1573 fiel die Festung nach einer monatelangen spanischen Belagerung durch Don Fadrique (Sohn des bekannten Herzogs von Alba). Nach dem Vertrag von Veere zogen sich die Spanier 1577 zurück, nachdem Protestanten und Katholiken gleiche Rechte erhielten. Flämische und französische Immigranten brachten der Stadt eine neue Blütezeit (Leinenweberei, wie auch in Leiden).

 

1658 gründete der Holländer Petrus Stuyvesant Nieuw Haarlem an der Ostküste Nordamerikas. Später wurde Nieuw-Haarlem als Bezirk Harlem Teil der Stadt New York.

 

Im 19. Jahrhundert wurden die Stadtbefestigungen geschleift und als Park gestaltet. 1839 fuhr der erste niederländische Zug zwischen Haarlem und Amsterdam.

 

1927 wurde die Gemeinde Schoten eingemeindet. Teile der Gemeinden Bloemendaal, Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude und Heemstede wurden ebenfalls eingemeindet. So wurde Haarlem zur fünftgrößten Stadt der Niederlande nach Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag und Utrecht.

 

Nach der Erfindung der Buchdruckerei, in deren Frühzeit der Haarlemer Laurens Janszoon Coster eine wichtige Rolle spielte, bekam Haarlem eine bleibende Reputation als Druckerstadt. Die älteste Tageszeitung wird noch immer in Haarlem gedruckt. Im Jahr 1656 erschien zum ersten Mal de Oprechte Haerlemse Courant, die heute unter dem Namen Haarlems Dagblad firmiert. Die Firma Johan Enschedé ist eine bekannte Spezialdruckerei, die auch für das Ausland u. a. Geldscheine und Ausweisdokumente herstellt. Hinzu kommt die Tradition als Stadt der Schriftsteller.

 

Religion

 

Das größte Gotteshaus der Stadt ist die Grote Kerk genannte St.-Bavo-Kirche. 1578 wurde an dieser Kirche die Reformation eingeführt, heute ist sie evangelisch-unierte Pfarrkirche.

 

Wenige Jahre nachdem das Utrechter Domkapitel aus eigenem Recht einen ersten Erzbischof der Alt-Katholischen Kirche gewählt hatte, wurde Hieronymus de Bock 1742 erster alt-katholischer Bischof von Haarlem. Seither ist das Bistum Haarlem eines der drei Bistümer der Alt-Katholischen Kirche der Niederlande. Kathedrale ist die Kirche St. Anna und Maria.

 

Das Bistum Haarlem der römisch-katholischen Kirche wurde am 5. März 1853 errichtet. Am 1. Januar 2009 erhielt es den neuen Namen Bistum Haarlem-Amsterdam. Bischofskirche ist die St.-Bavo-Kathedrale.

 

Sehenswürdigkeiten

 

Bakenesser Kirche

Große oder St.-Bavo-Kirche

St.-Bavo-Kathedrale

Großer Markt

Janskirche, ehemalige Klosterkirche des Johanniterordens, heute Archiv der Provinz Nordholland

Vleeshal (Fleischhalle, eine Markthalle aus der Renaissance)

Amsterdamse Poort, östliches, letztes erhaltenes Stadttor (Richtung Amsterdam), Teil der mittelalterlichen Befestigung, im 14. Jahrhundert erbaut

Philharmonie mit Cavaillé-Coll-Orgel (bis 2002 Concertgebouw Haarlem)

Haarlem ist bekannt für seine vielen malerischen Hofjes (von reichen Bürgern zur Versorgung älterer alleinstehender Frauen gestiftete Wohnhöfe) aus dem 17. und 18. Jahrhundert

Hauptwache Haarlem

 

Museen

 

Frans Hals Museum

Teylers Museum am Spaarne-Ufer (gegründet 1778) ist das älteste Museum der Niederlande. Es ist aus einer Privatsammlung entstanden und folgt dem Konzept einer Wunderkammer

Corrie-ten-Boom-Museum

 

(Wikipedia)

Include everything seen here

Inscriptions include: This embattled shore, portal of freedom, is forever hallowed by the ideals, the valor and the sacrifices of our fellow countrymen

 

In proud remembrance of the achievements of her sons and in humble tribute to their sacrifices this memorial has been erected by the united states of america

 

En souvenir des réalisations de ses fils et en humble hommage à leurs sacrifices, ce mémorial a été érigé par les États-Unis d'Amérique.

Part of the cleanup efforts include removing dangerous icicles.

From the 73rd Members' Meeting, Goodwood

East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York

 

Dating from 1894-95, the (former) Scheffel Hall is a significant reminder of the German-American community known as Kleindeutschland which flourished on the Lower East Side in the last half of the nineteenth century. One of the few examples of the German Renaissance Revival style in New York, Scheffel Hall's unusual and flamboyant facade, designed by the architectural firm of Weber & Drosser, is modeled after the famous Friedrichsbau at Heidelberg Castle. Originally a renowned German rathskeller and restaurant, and more recently the home of the jazz club, Fat Tuesday's, the building has long been a gathering place for New Yorkers. Its patrons have included a number of leading politicians and writers, notably O. Henry who used Scheffel Hall as the setting for a short story in 1909. The building incorporated the latest in building technologies, including an unglazed terra-cotta facade which is among the earliest surviving examples of terra-cotta cladding in New York. Other notable features include the cast-iron storefront ornamented with intricate strapwork and cartouches, the elaborate window surrounds, and the curved front roof gable.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

  

Kleindeutschland and the German Beer Halls

 

From its founding in 1626 by Peter Minuit, a native of the German town of Wesel am Rhein, New York City has had a significant German population. During the 1820s, the first German neighborhood and commercial center developed in the area southeast of City Hall Park and by 1840 there more than 24,000 Germans lived in the city. During the next twenty years, their numbers increased dramatically as "mass transatlantic migration brought another hundred thousand Germans fleeing land shortages, unemployment, famine, and political and religious oppression." To accommodate this growth, a new German neighborhood developed east of the Bowery and north of Division Street which became known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle. In the 1870s and 1880s, dislocations caused by the growth of the German Empire brought 70,000 new immigrants to the area while thousands of American-born children of German immigrants established their own homes in the neighborhood. By 1880, the German-speaking population of Kleindeutschland exceeded 250,000, making up approximately one-quarter of the city's population, and the neighborhood's boundaries had expanded north to 18th Street and east to the East River: "The first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language, Kleindeutschland remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century."

 

Most of Kleindeutschland's residents worked in neighborhood factories and shops in what came to be regarded as German trades -- as tailors, bakers, grocers, shoemakers, brewers, cigar makers, piano and furniture makers, and dressmakers. They worshipped in German-speaking churches and synagogues, took part in benevolent and fraternal organizations likethe Harugari, Vereinigte Deutscher Bruder, and B'nai B'rith, and created such institutions as the German-American Bank at 14th Street and Fourth Avenue, and the Germania Life-Insurance Company (later Guardian Life Insurance Company) which was originally located on Nassau Street but later moved to East 17th Street and Park Avenue South (Fourth Avenue).

 

Kleindeutschland's thousands of beer halls, saloons, wine gardens, concert halls, and club rooms offered convivial gathering places and Continental culture to the neighborhood's residents who for the most part lived in crowded tenements. Some of the beer halls and saloons, called Lokals, "had stages where German theater was performed, and many had meeting rooms that were used by singing societies, lodges, clubs, unions, and political organizations." A number were also equipped with billiard rooms, bowling alleys, or ballrooms. The large and elaborately decorated beer halls were "the pride of Kleindeutschland" and their proprietors were among the elite of the German community. Beer halls were places "where whole families went on Sundays to meet with friends, drink beer, listen to music, and dance." Among the most famous were the Atlantic Garden, at 50 Bowery, between Bayard and Canal Streets, and Lüchow's on East 14th Street, opposite Steinway Hall (all demolished).

 

Scheffel Hall

 

Carl Goerwitz (1847-1907), the founder of Scheffel Hall, emigrated from Germany to this country in 1873. His first home was on First Avenue near 58th Street in the German community that had begun developing in the 1860s around the Steinway piano factory at Park Avenue and East 52nd Street and several small breweries on East 54th Street. Goerwitz initially found work as a waiter. Around 1878 he established his own restaurant at 193 Pearl Street. In 1879, he opened a beer hall at 144 East 58th Street, adjacent to the Star Brewery. Two years later he moved his business across the street to 145 East 58th Street. Directory listings indicate that this establishment was both a restaurant and beer hall. In 1885, Goerwitz leased a three-story building with a commercial ground story at 194 Third Avenue and a one-story stable at 141 East 17th Street. Goerwitz commissioned Schwarzmann & Buchman to replace the stable with a one-story peaked-roof building which was joined to the rear of 194 Third Avenue; both spaces were used as a beer hall.

 

In April 1894, Goerwitz entered into an agreement to take a long-term lease on a building at 190 Third Avenue. The architectural firm of Weber & Drosser was hired to alter the building and join it to 141 East 17th Street. On Third Avenue, the brick facade above the first-story cast-iron store front was removed and a new terra-cotta front erected. The existing iron girders and columns at the first story were given new facings and two non-supportive cast-iron piers were added. The low attic was raised and converted to a peaked roof with a shaped gable front. On the interior of the main building, the structure was reinforced with steel girders, the partitions and stairs were taken down and entirely rebuilt. The one-story rear extension of 190 Third Avenue was rebuilt using iron girders and steel I-beams to support the skylit roof of a large dining room. The rear of this extension opened on to the 17th Street building which received a new terra-cotta and cast-iron front to match the Third Avenue facade and a new exterior staircase leading to a basement beer cellar. (The 17th Street building is no longer joined to 190 Third Avenue and is not subject to this designation.)

 

Goerwitz named his new establishment Scheffel Hall after the Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1826-86), a German poet, novelist, and lawyer, best known for his collection of student songs, Gaudeamus. A commemorative pamphlet, published in 1904, describes the building as "modeled after the old German style, with a pointed house-top and artistically decorated entrances." The interior was decorated to give the visitor the impression of being in an "old-time Rathskeller." The rooms consisted of a barroom in the front portion of Third Avenue wing, the small skylit room in the one-story extension of the Third Avenue wing, a large room used for family gatherings on East 17th Street, and a basement beer cellar and bowling alley. The walls were decorated with elaborate paneling and paintings depicting scenes and mottoes from the poems of Scheffel as well as the trademarks of the Anheuser-Busch and Hupfel Brewing companies. The rooms were brilliantly illuminated with electric lights from distinctive wrought-iron lamps and torcheres. The upper stories of the building were fitted up as living quarters for Goerwitz and his family and their two servants. (None of these interior spaces are the subject of this designation).

 

Goerwitz ran Scheffel Hall until 1904, when he sub-leased the business to Fred H. F. Ahrens, who had been Goerwitz's cashier for the previous three years. Recognizing that Scheffel Hall was at a disadvantage because it had no kitchen for the preparation of full-fledged meals, while the adjacent Allaire's restaurant and saloon at 192-194 Third Avenue had a fully equipped kitchen, Ahrens attempted to buy out William Allaire. When Ahrens failed, he sold out to Allaire who joined all four buildings into a large premises offering a cafe and restaurant, accommodations for weddings, social parties, and meetings, bowling alleys, and "high class music every evening."

 

Allaire, and later his heirs, operated the restaurant until 1928. In addition to attracting a German clientele, the restaurant was popular with the politicians, artists, and writers living in the Gramercy Park-Stuyvesant Square area. Charles F. Murphy (1858-1924), head of Tammany Hall and political patron to numerous mayors and governors including Alfred E. Smith, "used to hold court at the tables." Among the noted writers that the WPA Guide to New York records "quaffed its foaming pilsner," were critic James Huneker, poet-short-story writer H. C. Bunner, and author Brander Mathews. In 1909, O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] set his story "The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss," at Scheffel Hall which he called "Old Munich," describing "the big hall with its smoky rafters, rows of imported steins, portrait of Goethe, and verses painted on the walls."

 

The German Renaissance Revival and the Design of Scheffel Hall

 

During the last decades of the nineteenth century, a growing sense of German identity and well-publicized restorations of such important Renaissance buildings as Heidelberg Castle and the royal palace in Dresden led to an appreciation of Germany's sixteenth-and seventeenth-century architectural heritage. Beginning in the 1870s and especially in the 1890s and early 1900s, German architects began to incorporate German and Flemish Renaissance motifs into their designs for a variety of building types. Analogous to the French Renaissance Revival which was reflected in this country in the Second Empire and Chateaux styles and the English Renaissance Revival which was reflected in the Queen Anne and English Baronial styles, the German Renaissance Revival style appeared in American cities with large German populations such as St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati that had a number of German-trained architects.

 

In New York, the style appears to have been relatively rare (perhaps because of a natural tendency to hark back to the city's Dutch heritage when a Northern Renaissance style was desired). Nevertheless, William Schickel employed a variant of the German Renaissance Revival style for the exterior of the house of brewer Jacob Ruppert which also had a German Renaissance dining room designed by Schickel and Herter Brothers. A number of other buildings were either designed in the German Renaissance Revival style or enriched with German Renaissance ornament for German social and cultural organizations including the Aschenbroedel Verein Building (now La Mama Experimental Theater) at 72 East 4th Street (opened 1873), the German Odd Fellows Hall at 69 St. Mark's Place (1888), the Central Turn Verein Building at 211 East 67th Street (c. 1890), the New-York Maennerchor Building at 203 East 56th Street (1890), and the Deutsche-Amerikanische Schueten Gesellschaft Building at 12 St. Marks Place (c. 1885; now altered). Some American-born architects, notably Henry Hardenbergh in his designs for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (1893-97), may have been influenced by contemporary German Renaissance Revival design. Hardenbergh in the Dakota Apartments (1880-84) and McKim, Mead & White in the Charles L. Tiffany House at Madison Avenue and East 72nd Street (1882-85, demolished) used German Renaissance models as a starting point for their designs, and many stonecarvers incorporated German Renaissance motifs in their decorative designs for rowhouses in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

 

The design of the (former) Scheffel Hall seems to be unprecedented in New York in that it is directly modeled on a famous German Renaissance building, the Friedrichsbau at Heidelberg Castle, erected between 1601 and 1607 to the designs of Johannes Schoch. Restored in 1890 to great fanfare, Heidelberg Castle would have been instantly recognizable to a large number of Germans and would have conjured up associations with town of Heidelberg, the seat of Germany's greatest university during the nineteenth century, renowned for its taverns and the Heidelberg tun, a gigantic wine cask with a capacity of about 49,000 gallons in the castle cellar. Additionally, Scheffel Hall's ornate three-andone-half-story facade would have been highly visible from the Third Avenue elevated which ran in front of the building.

 

Among the (former) Scheffel Hall's notable features are the elaborate pilastered window enframements, intricate friezes, molded cornices,and bracketed window sills. The crisply detailed ornament includes such typical Mannerist motifs as strap-and-jewel-work, cartouches, and shields. At the base of the building, the tall cast-iron piers are decorated with an unusual motif -- four diamond-point rusticated blocks surmounted by a cartouche -which is taken directly from the the pier articulation at the ground story of the Friedrichsbau. The curved front roof gable with its pedimented double-window, strap-and-jewel-work moldings, and cartouches, is also copied directly from the cross-gables of the Heidelberg building. Scheffel Hall originally had special leaded glass lights at the first story and in the upper sash of the second and third story windows.

 

The attic windows had diamond-pane sash (the building's original windows have been replaced). Suspended from the center piers of the ground story storefront were an unusual pair of electric globe lights. (While the globes are no longer extant, the original curving wrought-iron Renaissance bracket fixtures remain in place.)

 

This highly ornate facade was affordable for a modest business because of a technological innovation -- terra-cotta cladding. Terra cotta was first used extensively as an interior and exterior building material in this country after the Chicago and Boston fires of 1871-72. Lightweight, durable, and easily molded into elaborate details which retained their crisp profiles, exterior terra cotta was initially used for details such as string courses, capitals, friezes, window moldings, and roof tiles. Improvements in technology allowed the terra cotta to be cast in increasingly large pieces; in 1888, terra cotta was fully integrated into the exterior brick bearing walls of the Potter Building. With the advent of metal skeleton framing which transferred the weight of a building to a few points, it became possible to construct lightweight curtain walls entirely of terra cotta. The Rand McNally Building in Chicago of 1891 was the first building completely clad in unglazed terra cotta. Scheffel Hall is completely faced with light brown unglazed terra cotta which may have been coated with a thin coat of white slip. According to Susan Tunick, an expert on the history of terra cotta, "this wonderful facade is perhaps the earliest surviving example of terra-cotta cladding (rather than terra-cotta ornament incorporated in a brick or stone facade)." While the terra cotta manufacturer has not identified yet, Tunick has also observed "a similar sculptural feeling and surface texture" in the terra cotta at Barnard College's Milbank Hall (1895-97) produced by B. Kreischer and Sons, a Staten Island firm whose owners were related to Scheffel Hall's architect Henry Adam Weber.

 

Weber & Drosser

 

Henry Adam Weber and Hubert Drosser practiced architecture together from 1886 through 1896, after which they established independent practices. Little is known about the life and career of Hubert Drosser, a New Jersey resident who closed his New York office in 1902.

 

Henry Adam Weber, a native of Germany, immigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-five in 1881, presumably in the company of his kinsman, Louis Weber, with whom he established a home on the Upper East Side. In New York, Louis Weber became a partner in the firms of two relatives, the builder, John Weber, and the wine merchant, Hermann Weber. Henry Adam Weber began working as an architect, supplementing his income by working for Weber & Company Wines. He began using the name Adam Weber professionally, presumably as a way of emphasizing his relationship to John Weber's brother, the well-known builder-architect brick-manufacturer Adam Weber (18251906). In 1884, Henry Adam Weber established his own practice in Manhattan. One of his first commissions was to design a group of four neo-Grec style row houses at 1380 to 1386 Lexington Avenue (built 1885-86) for John and Louis Weber who were then involved in developing a number of properties in the Carnegie Hill-Yorkville area. When Weber & Drosser formed their partnership in 1886, they continued to receive commissions from John Weber, including the design of five Queen Anne style rowhouses at 124 to 132 East 92nd Street which are within the Carnegie Hill Historic District. (Nos. 124 and 130-132 have new facades.) Other commissions included a Renaissance Revival tenement on East 11th Street in Kleindeutschland built in 1886, and several additions and alterations to the Yuengling Brewery on West 128th Street in 1890-91. The work at the Yuengling Brewery may have been secured through John Weber who had been the masonry contractor for the brewery since the 1870s. Louis Weber may have been responsible for the commission for Scheffel Hall since he and Carl Goerwitz were both members of the German-speaking Trinity Lodge of the Masons. In addition, Henry Adam Weber's experience working in the family Weinstube may have brought him into contact with Goerwitz; it undoubtedly aided the partners in providing an appropriate design.

 

After Weber & Drosser dissolved their partnership, Weber may have become the "in-house" architect for a brewery since commercial directories give his office address as "foot of East 63rd Street" where an unnamed brewhouse is shown on contemporary maps. Drosser is listed in turn-of-thecentury architectural directories as doing general work. By 1910, Weber also had a general practice according to census records. He remained in practice until 1921.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1928, the heirs of William Allaire sold the portion of Scheffel Hall at 190 Third Avenue to the German-AmericanAthletic Club; the East 17th Street wing was subsequently acquired by the Greek Church of St. John the Baptist. The club installed a kitchen in the basement of the building and converted the upper-story living quarters into a dining room and meeting rooms. A few years later, R. Neuburger took over management of the restaurant for the club and brought in Joe King as an assistant. In 1936 King and a partner, Jack Lichtenberg, took over management of the restaurant. In addition to maintaining restaurant's tradition of serving "moderately priced German dishes and imported beers," King decorated the restaurantwith theatrical programs and photographs and introduced community singing. The restaurant was soon filled with college students who came "to drink out of gallon-sized beer glasses and sing songs to the music of a piano and violin." In 1947, following his discharge from the Air Corps, King, operating as the Fraternity House Inc., took over the lease on the building.

 

In 1954 the Stuyvesant heirs sold 190 Third Avenue to New York Investors Mutual; a year later the property was acquired by Robinson Callen and in 1963 it was conveyed to the Robinson Callen Trust. Joe King continued to lease the building until 1969, when a new restaurant, named Tuesday's, took over the lease and made some interior alterations to bring the building up to code. In April 1979, the restaurant opened an 80-seat jazz-club named Fat Tuesday's in the basement of the building. Debuting with the Ron Carter Quartet, which included Kenny Barron on piano and Buster Williams on bass, the club became a leading venue for bop, blues, and mainstream jazz. Among the many important musicians who played there were Gerry Mulligan, Hilton Ruiz, Helen Merrill, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Zoot Sims, Joe Turner, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Buddy DeFranco, Ahmad Jamal, Clark Terry, Betty Carter, Jon Faddis, and the Jazztet. In 1984, legendary guitarist Les Paul began a regular Monday night engagement which lasted until the club closed in 1995. It became a tradition for rock and jazz performers visiting New York to perform with Paul; his Monday night guests included George Benson, Larry Coryell, Keith Richards, Eddie Van Halen, Bob Dylan, Steve Miller, Jimmy Page, and Billy Idol. After Tuesday's closed, the upstairs restaurant was leased to the Highlander Brewery Pub which closed prior to designation.

 

Description

  

The (former) Scheffel Hall occupies the entire twenty-three-feet-wide, 100-feet-deep lot. The front part of the building is forty-five-feet deep, three-andone-half-stories tall, and has a peaked roof with a decorative front gable. It is joined to a one-story rear extension which originally had a sloping roof with a large central skylight. Above a cast-iron storefront, the facade is clad with unglazed light brown terra cotta which has been painted.

 

Base

 

The ground story is articulated into three bays -the northern bay, which contains the restaurant entrance,and the center window bay are considerably wider than the southern bay, which contains the basement entrance. The cast-iron piers framing the bays are articulated as pilasters and decorated with strap-and-jewel-work, diamond-pointrustication,and cartouches. The piers carry an iron entablature with decorative frieze enriched with strap-and-jewelwork. The original ground story signage consisted of mesh friezes beneath the lintels in each bay with raised lettering that read "No. 190" in the south bay, "Scheffel Hall" in the center bay, and "Carl Goerwitz" in the north bay. (At present the signage in the south bay is concealed, the center sign has lost the letter S, and "Allaire's" has replaced "Carl Goerwitz" in the north bay. Suspended from the center piers are original stylized foliate curving wrought-iron brackets for globe lights --- the globes have been replaced by simple bulbs -- which remain in place.)

 

The north entrance bay retains its original wood door surround with bracketed and fluted jambs and molded transom bar. The paired historic wood and glass doors have distinctive cross-shaped upper lights. (A small piece of wood has been lost from the molding around the top light of the south door.) The metal door plate and hinges appear to be contemporary with the doors; the kick plates and door handles are replacements. The muntins have been removed from the transom above the doors and the opening currently contains metal infill and the sleeve for an air conditioner. (There are internal scissor-type security gates behind the doors.) A non-historic vinyl canopy shelters the entrance.

 

The center bay retains its original paneled iron bulkhead and wood sill beneath the window. The wood mullions that originally divided the opening into three sections and the original leaded stained-glass windows have been removed and a clear single-pane aluminum show window has been installed.

 

(There are internal scissor-type security gates behind the window.) The transom retains its original molded transom bar, reeded mullions, and wood sash, but the leaded stained-glass windows have been replaced with single panes of clear glass.

 

The south basement entrance bay has been modified by the installation of a contemporary steel door. The large wood housing above the door probably encloses mechanical equipment and was covered with signage when Fat Tuesdays occupied the basement. A light fixture on the underside of the housing and a projecting fixture at the top of the housing light the entrance.

 

Upper Stories

 

The terra-cotta-clad upper stories are richly articulated with pilaster orders, heavy entablatures, and moldings. At the second and third stories three evenly spaced windows bays contain aluminum oneover-one sash. The second story windows have brackets beneath their molded sills and are framed with Tuscan pilasters resting on high bases. The bases are ornamented with shields and swags and the lower part of the pilasters are decorated with strapwork. Console brackets are set above pilasters in the stylized Doric entablature which is also enriched with shields and strapwork metopes. The third story features a stylized Ionic order with fluted pilasters resting on high bases ornamented with jewel-work and swags. The entablature above the third story windows is enriched with a strapwork frieze.

 

At the attic story, the shaped gable features heavy C-scrolls at its base, a S-curved pediment, and a full entablature topped by a lunette. The attic is lit by a double-window with historic wood sash. The window is set off by a pedimented surround. The gable is also enriched with heavy strapwork moldings, a pair of cartouches, and a blind oculus which has been articulated to look like a leaded glass window.

 

An inverted L-shaped painted sign with illuminated lettering extends from the second to the third stories between the north and center bays and is attached to the facade with metal rods. This historic sign was installed in the 1930s for Joe King's Rathskeller; it was re-lettered in the 1970s for Tuesday's Restaurant.

 

The upper portion of the building's north wall and the north side of the gable are visible from Third Avenue. There are traces of tar and paint on the windowless wall which terminates at the center in a low parapet that joins two old chimneys that have been reduced in height. (Two metal pipe flues are Gale Harris vented from the west chimney.)

 

- From the 1997 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

The Postcard

 

A postcard published by Sunny South Photographers, D.&W.,B. They state on the back of the card: 'British Manufacture Throughout'.

 

The card was posted in Curry Rivel on Thursday the 6th. July 1933 to:

 

Mrs. Goozee,

152, Leighton Road,

Kentish Town,

London NW.

 

The message on the back of the card was as follows:

 

"Curry Rivel.

My Dear Blanche & All,

Thought you would like a

card from us.

We are having grand weather,

but it's soon getting to

Saturday now.

We have had two days at

Weymouth, and yesterday we

went to Burnham for the day.

Hope you are all well.

Love from us both,

Midge".

 

Dachau Concentration Camp

 

So what else happened on the day that Midge posted the card?

 

Well, on the 6th. July 1933, the German National People's Party was dissolved.

 

The coalition government of the German National People's Party and the the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party) established the first concentration camp to be built by Nazi Germany - Dachau.

 

Dachau opened on the 22nd. March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents who consisted of communists, social democrats, and other dissidents.

 

The camp was located in the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany.

 

After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and, eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, German and Austrian criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded.

 

The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria.

 

The main camp was liberated by U.S. forces on the 29th. April 1945.

 

Prisoners lived in constant fear of brutal treatment and terror detention, including standing cells, floggings, the so-called tree or pole hanging, and standing at attention for extremely long periods in very cold weather.

 

There were 32,000 documented deaths at the camp, and thousands that were never documented. Approximately 10,000 of the 30,000 remaining prisoners were sick at the time of liberation.

 

General Overview

 

Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other German concentration camps that followed. Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to these camps. Newspapers continually reported:

 

"The removal of the enemies of

the Reich to concentration camps."

 

As early as 1935, a jingle went around:

 

"Lieber Herr Gott,

Mach mich stumm,

Das ich nicht nach Dachau komm".

 

This translates as:

 

"Dear God,

Make me dumb,

That I may not to Dachau come".

 

('Dumb' means 'Silent' in this context.)

 

The camp's layout and building plans were developed by Commandant Theodor Eicke, and were applied to all later camps. He devised a separate, secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration and army camps.

 

Eicke became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for organizing others according to his model.

 

The Dachau complex included the prisoners' camp which occupied approximately 5 acres, and the much larger area of SS training school including barracks, factories plus other facilities of around 20 acres.

 

The entrance gate used by prisoners carries the phrase "Arbeit macht frei" which translates as "Work shall set you free". This phrase was also used in several other concentration camps such as Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.

 

Dachau was the concentration camp that was in operation the longest, from March 1933 to April 1945, nearly all twelve years of the Nazi regime. Dachau's close proximity to Munich, where Hitler came to power and where the Nazi Party had its official headquarters, made Dachau a convenient location.

 

From 1933 to 1938, the prisoners were mainly German nationals detained for political reasons. After Kristallnacht, 30,000 male Jewish citizens were deported to concentration camps. More than 10,000 of them were interned in Dachau.

 

As the German military occupied other European states, citizens from across Europe were sent to concentration camps. Subsequently, the camp was used for prisoners of all sorts, from every nation occupied by the forces of the Third Reich. 

 

In the postwar years, the camp continued in use. From 1945 through 1948, the camp was used by the Allies as a prison for SS officers awaiting trial.

 

After 1948, when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans were expelled from eastern Europe, it held Germans from Czechoslovakia until they could be resettled.

 

It also served as a military base for the United States, which maintained forces in the country. The camp finally closed in 1960. At the insistence of survivors, various memorials have been constructed and installed there. 

 

Statistics vary but they are in the same general range. It will never be known exactly how many people were interned or murdered there, due to periods of disruption.

 

One source gives a general estimate of over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries during Nazi rule, of whom two-thirds were political prisoners, including many Catholic priests, and nearly one-third were Jews.

 

25,613 prisoners are believed to have been murdered in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide.

 

In late 1944, a typhus epidemic occurred in the camp caused by poor sanitation and overcrowding, and this caused more than 15,000 deaths. It was followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the prisoners died.

 

Toward the end of the war, death marches to and from the camp caused the deaths of numerous unrecorded prisoners.

 

After liberation, prisoners weakened beyond recovery by starvation continued to die. Two thousand cases of "the dread black typhus" had already been identified by the 3rd. May, and the U.S. Seventh Army was:

 

"Working day and night to alleviate

the appalling conditions at the camp".

 

Prisoners with typhus, a louse-borne disease with an incubation period from 12 to 18 days, were treated by the 116th. Evacuation Hospital, while the 127th. was the general hospital for the other illnesses.

 

Over the 12 years of use as a concentration camp, the Dachau administration recorded the intake of 206,206 prisoners and deaths of 31,951.

 

Crematoria were constructed to dispose of the deceased. Visitors may now walk through the buildings and view the ovens used to cremate bodies, which hid the evidence of many deaths.

 

It is claimed that in 1942, more than 3,166 prisoners in weakened condition were transported to Hartheim Castle near Linz, and were executed by poison gas because they were deemed unfit.

 

The gas chamber at Dachau bore a "Brausebad" sign, meaning "Shower Bath".

 

Between January and April 1945 11,560 detainees died at Dachau according to a U.S. Army report of 1945, though the Dachau administration registered 12,596 deaths from typhus at the camp over the same period.

 

Dachau was the third concentration camp to be liberated by British or American Allied forces.

 

History of the Camp

 

After the takeover of Bavaria on the 9th. March 1933, Heinrich Himmler, then Chief of Police in Munich, began to speak with the managers of an unused gunpowder and munitions factory.

 

Himmler toured the site to see if it could be used for quartering protective-custody prisoners. The concentration camp at Dachau was opened on the 22nd. March 1933, with the arrival of about 200 prisoners from Stadelheim Prison in Munich and the Landsberg fortress (where Hitler had written Mein Kampf during his own imprisonment).

 

Himmler announced that the camp could hold up to 5,000 people, and described it as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners" to be used to restore calm to Germany.

 

The press statement given at the opening stated:

 

"On Wednesday the first concentration camp is to be

opened in Dachau with an accommodation for 5000

people. All Communists and—where necessary—

Reichsbanner and Social Democratic functionaries who

endanger state security are to be concentrated here,

as in the long run it is not possible to keep individual

functionaries in the state prisons without overburdening

these prisons, and on the other hand these people

cannot be released because attempts have shown that

they persist in their efforts to agitate and organize as

soon as they are released."

 

Whatever the publicly stated purpose of the camp, the SS men who arrived there on the 11th. May 1933 were left in no illusion as to its real purpose by the speech that was given on that day by Johann-Erasmus Freiherr von Malsen-Ponickau:

 

"Comrades of the SS!

You all know what the Fuehrer has called us to do.

We have not come here for human encounters with

those pigs in there. We do not consider them human

beings, as we are, but as second-class people.

For years they have been able to continue their criminal

existence. But now we are in power. If those pigs had

come to power, they would have cut off all our heads.

Therefore we have no room for sentimentalism.

If anyone here cannot bear to see the blood of

comrades, he does not belong and had better leave.

The more of these pig dogs we strike down, the fewer

we need to feed."

 

Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and emigrants were also sent to Dachau after the 1935 passage of the Nuremberg Laws which institutionalized racial discrimination.

 

In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, initiated the construction of a large complex capable of holding 6,000 prisoners. The construction was completed in August 1938.

 

More political opponents, and over 11,000 German and Austrian Jews were sent to the camp after the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938.

 

Sinti and Roma in the hundreds were sent to the camp in 1939, and over 13,000 prisoners were sent to the camp from Poland in 1940.

 

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross inspected the camp in 1935 and in 1938, and documented the harsh conditions.

 

Investigation of the First Deaths in 1933

 

Shortly after the SS was commissioned to supplement the Bavarian police overseeing the Dachau camp, the first reports of prisoner deaths at Dachau began to emerge.

 

In April 1933, Josef Hartinger, an official from the Bavarian Justice Ministry, and physician Moritz Flamm, a part-time medical examiner, arrived at the camp to investigate the deaths in accordance with the Bavarian penal code.

 

The two men noted many inconsistencies between the injuries on the corpses and the camp guards' accounts of the deaths.

 

Over a number of months, Hartinger and Flamm uncovered clear evidence of murder, and compiled a dossier of charges against Hilmar Wäckerle, the SS commandant of Dachau, Werner Nürnbergk the camp doctor, and Josef Mutzbauer, the camp's chief administrator (Kanzleiobersekretär).

 

In June 1933, Hartinger presented the case to his superior, Bavarian State Prosecutor, Karl Wintersberger. Initially supportive of the investigation, Wintersberger became reluctant to submit the resulting indictment to the Justice Ministry, increasingly under the influence of the SS.

 

Hartinger accordingly reduced the scope of the dossier to the four clearest cases, and Wintersberger signed it, after first notifying Himmler as a courtesy.

 

The killings at Dachau suddenly stopped (temporarily); Wäckerle was transferred to Stuttgart and replaced by Theodor Eicke.

 

The indictment and related evidence reached the office of Hans Frank, the Bavarian Justice Minister, but was intercepted by Gauleiter Adolf Wagner and locked away in a desk, only to be discovered by the US Army.

 

In 1934, both Hartinger and Wintersberger were transferred to provincial positions. Dr. Flamm was no longer employed as a medical examiner, and was to survive two attempts on his life before his suspicious death in the same year.

 

Flamm's thoroughly gathered and documented evidence within Hartinger's indictment ensured that it achieved convictions of senior Nazis at the Nuremberg trials in 1947. Wintersberger's complicit behaviour is documented in his own evidence to the Pohl Trial.

 

Forced Labor

 

The prisoners of Dachau concentration camp originally were to serve as forced labor for a munition factory, and to expand the camp. It was used as a training center for the SS-Totenkopfverbände guards, and was a model for other concentration camps.

 

The camp was about 300 m × 600 m (1,000 ft × 2,000 ft) in rectangular shape. The prisoners' entrance was secured by an iron gate with the motto "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work will make you free"). This reflected Nazi propaganda, which described concentration camps as labor and re-education camps.

 

This was their original purpose, but the focus was soon shifted to using forced labor as a method of torture and murder. The original slogan was left on the gates.

 

As of 1938, the procedure for new arrivals occurred at the Schubraum, where prisoners had to hand over their clothing and possessions.  One former Luxembourgian prisoner, Albert Theis, reflected about the room:

 

"There we were stripped of all our clothes.

Everything had to be handed over: money,

rings, watches. One was now stark naked".

 

The camp included an administration building that contained offices for the Gestapo trial commissioner, SS authorities, the camp leader and his deputies. These administration offices consisted of large storage rooms for the personal belongings of prisoners, the bunker, roll-call square where guards would also inflict punishment on prisoners (especially those who tried to escape).

 

There was also a canteen where prisoners served SS men with cigarettes and food, a museum containing plaster images of prisoners who suffered from bodily defects, the camp office, the library, the barracks, and the infirmary, which was staffed by prisoners who had previously held occupations such as physicians or army surgeons.

 

Operation Barbarossa

 

Over 4,000 Soviet prisoners of war were murdered by the Dachau commandant's guard at the SS shooting range located at Hebertshausen, two kilometers from the main camp, in the years 1941/1943. These murders were in clear violation of the provisions laid down in the Geneva Convention for prisoners of war.

 

The SS used the euphemism Sonderbehandlung ("Special Treatment") for these criminal executions. The first of these executions took place on the 25th. November 1941.

 

After 1942, the number of prisoners being held at the camp continued to exceed 12,000. Dachau originally held communists, leading socialists and other "enemies of the state", but over time, the Nazis began to send German Jews to the camp.

 

In the early years of imprisonment, Jews were offered permission to emigrate overseas if they "voluntarily" gave their property to enhance Hitler's public treasury.

 

Once Austria was annexed and Czechoslovakia was dissolved, the citizens of both countries became the next prisoners at Dachau.

 

In 1940, Dachau became filled with Polish prisoners, who continued to be the majority of the prisoner population until Dachau was officially liberated.

 

The prisoner enclosure at the camp was heavily guarded to ensure that no prisoners escaped. A 3-metre-wide (10 ft) no-man's land was the first marker of confinement for prisoners; an area which, upon entry, would elicit lethal gunfire from guard towers.

 

Guards tossed inmates' caps into this area, resulting in the death of the prisoners when they attempted to retrieve the caps. Despondent prisoners committed suicide by entering the zone.

 

A four-foot-deep and eight-foot-broad (1.2 × 2.4 m) creek, connected with the river Amper, lay on the west side between the "neutral-zone" and the electrically charged, and barbed wire fence which surrounded the entire prisoner enclosure.

 

In August 1944 a women's camp opened inside Dachau. The first shipment of women came from Auschwitz-Birkenau.

 

In the last months of the war, the conditions at Dachau deteriorated. As Allied forces advanced toward Germany, the Germans began to move prisoners from concentration camps near the front to more centrally located camps. They hoped to prevent the liberation of large numbers of prisoners.

 

Transports from the evacuated camps arrived continually at Dachau. After days of travel with little or no food or water, the prisoners arrived weak and exhausted, often near death. Typhus epidemics became a serious problem as a result of overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, insufficient provisions, and the weakened state of the prisoners.

 

Owing to repeated transports from the front, the camp was constantly overcrowded, and the hygiene conditions were beneath human dignity. Starting from the end of 1944 up to the day of liberation, 15,000 people died, about half of all the prisoners held at Dachau.

 

Final Days of the Camp

 

As late as the 19th. April 1945, prisoners were sent to Dachau; on that date a freight train from Buchenwald with nearly 4,500 prisoners was diverted to Nammering.

 

SS troops and police confiscated food and water that local townspeople tried to give to the prisoners. Nearly three hundred dead bodies were ordered removed from the train, and carried to a ravine over 400 metres (1⁄4 mile) away.

 

The 524 prisoners who had been forced to carry the dead to this site were then shot by the guards, and buried along with those who had died on the train. Nearly 800 bodies went into this mass grave.

 

The train continued on to Dachau.

 

During April 1945, as U.S. troops drove deeper into Bavaria, the commander of Dachau suggested to Himmler that the camp be turned over to the Allies.

 

Himmler, in signed correspondence, prohibited such a move, adding that:

 

"No prisoners shall be allowed to

fall into the hands of the enemy

alive."

 

On the 24th. April 1945, just days before the U.S. troops arrived at the camp, the commandant and a strong guard forced between 6,000 and 7,000 surviving inmates on a death march from Dachau south to Eurasburg, then eastwards towards the Tegernsee. Any prisoners who could not keep up on the six-day march were shot. Many others died of exhaustion, hunger and exposure. Months later a mass grave containing 1,071 prisoners was found along the route.

 

Though at the time of liberation the death rate had peaked at 200 per day, after the liberation by U.S. forces the rate eventually fell to between 50 and 80 deaths per day.

 

In addition to the direct abuse of the SS and the harsh conditions, people died from typhus epidemics and starvation.

 

Between the years 1933 and 1945, more than 3.5 million Germans were imprisoned in such concentration camps or prison for political reasons.

 

Approximately 77,000 Germans were killed for one or another form of resistance by Special Courts, courts-martial, and the civil justice system. Many of these Germans had served in government, the military, or in civil positions, and these roles were thought to allow them to engage in subversion and conspiracy against the Nazis.

 

Organization of the Camp

 

Dachau was divided into two sections: the camp area and the crematorium. The crematorium was next to, but not directly accessible from within the camp, and was erected in 1942.

 

The camp area consisted of 32 barracks, including one for clergy imprisoned for opposing the Nazi regime, and one reserved for medical experiments.

 

The Dachau complex included other SS facilities beside the concentration camp—a leader school of the economic and civil service, the medical school of the SS, etc. The camp was originally called a "Protective Custody Camp," and occupied less than half of the area of the entire complex.

 

The courtyard between the prison and the central kitchen was used for the summary execution of prisoners. The camp was surrounded by an electrified barbed-wire fence, a ditch, and a wall with seven guard towers.

 

In early 1937, the SS, using prisoner labor, initiated construction of a large complex of buildings in the grounds of the original camp. The construction was completed in mid-August 1938, and the camp remained essentially unchanged and in operation until 1945. Dachau was therefore the longest running concentration camp of the Third Reich.

 

Medical Experimentation

 

Hundreds of prisoners suffered and died, or were executed in medical experiments conducted at Dachau, of which Sigmund Rascher was in charge.

 

Hypothermia experiments involved being immersed in vats of icy water, in some cases wearing Luftwaffe flying gear, or being strapped down naked outdoors in freezing temperatures.

 

Attempts at reviving the subjects included scalding baths, and forcing naked women to have sex with the unconscious victim.

 

There was extensive communication between the investigators and Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, regarding the experiments, although the original records of the experiments were destroyed in an attempt to conceal the atrocities.

 

During 1942, "high altitude" experiments were conducted. Victims were subjected to rapid decompression to pressures found at 4,300 metres (14,100 ft), and experienced spasmodic convulsions, agonal breathing, and eventual death.

 

Agonal breathing is when someone who is not getting enough oxygen is gasping for air. It is not true breathing - it is a natural reflex that happens when your brain is not getting the oxygen it needs to survive. Agonal breathing is a sign that a person is near death.

 

A Camp of Many Colours

 

The camp was originally designed for holding German and Austrian political prisoners and Jews, but in 1935 it began to be used also for ordinary criminals. Inside the camp there was a sharp division between the two groups of prisoners; those who were there for political reasons, and the "professional" criminals, who has been sent there by the criminal courts.

 

The political prisoners who had been arrested by the Gestapo and were there because they disagreed with Nazi Party policies, or with Hitler, naturally did not consider themselves criminals.

 

Dachau was used as the chief camp for Christian (mainly Catholic) clergy who were imprisoned for not conforming with the Nazi Party line.

 

Poles constituted the largest ethnic group in the camp during the war, followed by Russians, French, Yugoslavs, Jews, and Czechs.

 

Many Poles met their deaths with the "invalid trains" sent out from the camp; others were liquidated in the camp and given bogus death certificates. Some died of cruel punishment for misdemeanors—beaten to death or run to exhaustion. 

 

The average number of Germans in the camp during the war was 3,000. Just before the liberation many German prisoners were evacuated, but 2,000 of these Germans died during the evacuation transport.

 

Prisoners were divided into categories. At first, they were classified by the nature of the crime for which they were accused, but eventually were classified by the specific authority-type under whose command a person was sent to camp. 

 

-- Those who were there for political reasons wore a red tag.

 

-- "Professional" criminals wore a green tag.

 

-- Cri-Po prisoners arrested by the criminal police wore a brown badge.

 

-- "Work-shy and asocial" people sent by the welfare authorities or the Gestapo wore a black badge.

 

-- Jehovah's Witnesses arrested by the Gestapo wore a violet badge.

 

-- Homosexuals sent by the criminal courts wore a pink badge.

 

-- Emigrants arrested by the Gestapo wore a blue badge.

 

-- "Race polluters" arrested by the criminal court or Gestapo wore badges with a black outline.

 

-- Second-termers arrested by the Gestapo wore a bar matching the color of their badge.

 

-- "Idiots" wore a white armband with the label Blöd (Stupid).

 

-- Romani wore a black triangle.

 

-- Jews, whose incarceration in the Dachau concentration camp dramatically increased after Kristallnacht, wore a yellow badge, combined with another color. 

 

The Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp

 

In an effort to counter the strength and influence of spiritual resistance, Nazi security services monitored clergy very closely.

 

Priests were frequently denounced, arrested and sent to concentration camps, often simply on the basis of being "Suspected of activities hostile to the State" or that there was "Reason to suppose that his dealings might harm society". 

 

Despite SS hostility to religious observance, the Vatican and German bishops successfully lobbied the regime to concentrate clergy in one camp, and obtained permission to build a chapel for the priests to live communally and for time to be allotted to them for their religious and intellectual activity.

 

Priest Barracks at Dachau were established in Blocks 26, 28 and 30, though only temporarily. 26 became the international block, and 28 was reserved for Poles – the most numerous group. 

 

Of a total of 2,720 clergy recorded as imprisoned at Dachau, the overwhelming majority, some 2,579 (or 95%) were Catholic. Among the other denominations, there were 109 Protestants, 22 Greek Orthodox, 8 Old Catholics and Mariavites and 2 Muslims.

 

R. Schnabel's 1966 investigation, 'Die Frommen in der Hölle' ("The Pious Ones in Hell") found an alternative total of 2,771, and included the fate all the clergy listed, with 692 noted as deceased and 336 sent out on "invalid trainloads" and therefore presumed dead. 

 

Over 400 German priests were sent to Dachau. Total numbers incarcerated are difficult to ascertain, for some clergy were not recognised as such by the camp authorities, and some—particularly Poles—did not wish to be identified as such, fearing they would be mistreated.

 

Priest Friedrich Hoffman testified at the trial of former camp personnel. He stated that hundreds of priests died at the camp after being exposed to malaria during Nazi medical experiments.

 

The Nazis introduced a racial hierarchy—keeping Poles in harsh conditions, while favoring German priests. Poles arrived in December 1941, and a further 500 of mainly elderly clergy arrived in October the following year. Inadequately clothed for the bitter cold, of this group, only 82 survived.

 

A large number of Polish priests were chosen for Nazi medical experiments. In November 1942, 20 were given phlegmons. A phlegmon is an inflammation of soft tissue that spreads under the skin or inside the body. It is usually caused by an infection, and generally produces pus.

 

120 priests were used by Dr. Schilling for malaria experiments between July 1942 and May 1944.

 

Dachau Staff

 

The camp staff consisted mostly of male SS, although 19 female guards served at Dachau as well, most of them until liberation. Female guards were also assigned to the Augsburg Michelwerke, Bureau, Kaufering, Mühldorf, and Munich Agfa Camera Werke subcamps.

 

Several Norwegians worked as guards at the Dachau camp.

 

In the major Dachau war crimes case (United States of America v. Martin Gottfried Weiss et. al.), forty-two officials of Dachau were tried from November to December 1945.

 

All 42 were found guilty – thirty-six of the defendants were sentenced to death on the 13th. December 1945, of whom 23 were hanged on the 28th.–29th. May 1946, including the commandant, SS-Obersturmbannführer Martin Gottfried Weiss, SS-Obersturmführer Freidrich Wilhelm Ruppert and camp doctors Karl Schilling and Fritz Hintermeyer.

 

Camp commandant Weiss admitted in affidavit testimony that:

 

"Most of the deaths at Dachau during my administration

were due to typhus, TB, dysentery, pneumonia, pleurisy,

and body weakness brought about by lack of food."

 

His testimony also admitted to deaths by shootings, hangings and medical experiments.

 

Ruppert ordered and supervised the deaths of innumerable prisoners at Dachau main and subcamps, according to the War Crimes Commission official trial transcript. He testified about hangings, shootings and lethal injections, but did not admit to direct responsibility for any individual deaths.

 

An anonymous Dutch prisoner contended that British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent Noor Inayat Khan was cruelly beaten by SS officer Wilhelm Ruppert before being shot from behind; the beating may have been the actual cause of her death.

 

Satellite Camps and Sub-Camps of Dachau

 

Satellite camps under the authority of Dachau were established in the summer and autumn of 1944 near armaments factories throughout southern Germany to increase war production.

 

Dachau alone had more than 30 large subcamps, and hundreds of smaller ones, in which over 30,000 prisoners worked almost exclusively on armaments.

 

Overall, the Dachau concentration camp system included 123 sub-camps and Kommandos which were set up in 1943 when factories were built near the main camp to make use of forced labor of the Dachau prisoners.

 

Of the 123 sub-camps, eleven of them were called Kaufering. All Kaufering sub-camps were set up to specifically build three underground factories (Allied bombing raids made it necessary for them to be underground) for a project called Ringeltaube (wood pigeon). This was planned to be the location in which the German jet fighter plane, Messerschmitt Me 262, was to be built.

 

In the last days of war, in April 1945, the Kaufering camps were evacuated and around 15,000 prisoners were sent up to the main Dachau camp. Typhus alone was estimated to have caused 15,000 deaths between December 1944 and April 1945:

 

"Within the first month after the arrival of the American

troops, 10,000 prisoners were treated for malnutrition

and kindred diseases. In spite of this, one hundred

prisoners died each day during the first month from

typhus, dysentery or general weakness".

 

As U.S. Army troops neared the Dachau sub-camp at Landsberg on the 27th. April 1945, the SS officer in charge ordered that 4,000 prisoners be murdered. The windows and doors of their huts were nailed shut. The buildings were then doused with gasoline and set afire. Prisoners who were naked or nearly so were burned to death, while some managed to crawl out of the buildings before dying.

 

Earlier that day, as Wehrmacht troops withdrew from Landsberg am Lech, townspeople hung white sheets from their windows. Infuriated SS troops dragged German civilians from their homes and hanged them from trees.

 

The Winding-Down of the Camps

 

As the Allies began to advance on Nazi Germany, the SS began to evacuate the first concentration camps in the summer of 1944. Thousands of prisoners were killed before the evacuation due to illness or being unable to walk. At the end of 1944, the overcrowding, the unhygienic conditions and the lack of food rations became disastrous. In November a typhus fever epidemic broke out that took thousands of lives.

 

In the second phase of the evacuation, in April 1945, Himmler gave direct evacuation routes for the remaining camps. Prisoners who were from the northern part of Germany were to be directed to the Baltic and North Sea coasts to be drowned.

 

The prisoners from the southern part were to be gathered in the Alps, which was the location in which the SS wanted to resist the Allies. On the 28th. April 1945, an armed revolt took place in the town of Dachau. Both former and escaped concentration camp prisoners, and a renegade Volkssturm (civilian militia) company took part. At about 8:30 am the rebels occupied the Town Hall. The SS gruesomely suppressed the revolt within a few hours.

 

Being fully aware that Germany was about to be defeated in World War II, the SS invested its time in removing evidence of the crimes it had committed in the concentration camps. They began destroying incriminating evidence in April 1945, and planned on murdering the prisoners using codenames "Wolke A-I" (Cloud A-1) and "Wolkenbrand" (Cloud fire).

 

However, these plans were not carried out. In mid-April, plans to evacuate the camp started by sending prisoners toward Tyrol. On the 26th. April, over 10,000 prisoners were forced to leave the Dachau concentration camp on foot, in trains, or in trucks. The largest group of some 7,000 prisoners was driven southward on a foot-march lasting several days. More than 1,000 prisoners did not survive this march. The evacuation transports cost many thousands of prisoners their lives.

 

The Liberation of Dachau

 

On the 26th. April 1945, prisoner Karl Riemer fled the Dachau concentration camp to get help from American troops, and on the 28th. April Victor Maurer, a representative of the International Red Cross, negotiated an agreement to surrender the camp to U.S. troops.

 

That night a secretly formed International Prisoners Committee took over the control of the camp. American units commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Felix L. Sparks were ordered to secure the camp. On the 29th. April Sparks led part of his battalion as they entered the camp over a side wall.

 

At about the same time, Brigadier General Henning Linden led the 222nd. Infantry Regiment including his aide, Lieutenant William Cowling, to accept the formal surrender of the camp from German Lieutenant Heinrich Wicker at an entrance between the camp and the compound for the SS garrison.

 

Linden was traveling with Marguerite Higgins and other reporters; as a result, Linden's detachment generated international headlines by accepting the surrender of the camp.

 

More than 30,000 Jews and political prisoners were freed, and ever since 1945, adherents of the 42nd. and 45th. Division have argued over which unit was the first to liberate Dachau.

 

Satellite Camps Liberation

 

The first Dachau sub-camp to be discovered by advancing Allied forces was Kaufering IV, by the 12th. Armored Division on the 27th. April 1945. Sub-camps subsequently liberated by the 12th. Armored Division included: Erpting, Schrobenhausen, Schwabing, Langerringen, Türkheim, Lauingen, Schwabach, and Germering.

 

During the liberation of the sub-camps surrounding Dachau, advance scouts of the U.S. Army's 522nd. Field Artillery Battalion liberated the 3,000 prisoners of the "Kaufering IV Hurlach" slave labor camp:

 

"They found the camp afire and a stack of some four

hundred bodies burning ... American soldiers then

went into Landsberg and rounded up all the male

civilians they could find and marched them out to

the camp.

The former commandant was forced to lie amidst a

pile of corpses. The male population of Landsberg

was then ordered to walk by, and ordered to spit on

the commandant as they passed.

The commandant was then turned over to a group

of liberated camp survivors".

 

The 522nd's personnel later discovered the survivors of a death march headed generally southwards from the Dachau main camp to Eurasburg, then eastwards towards the Austrian border on the 2nd. May, just west of the town of Waakirchen.

 

Weather at the time of liberation was unseasonably cool; on the 2nd. May, the area received a snowstorm with 10 centimetres (4 in) of snow at nearby Munich. Proper clothing was still scarce, and film footage from the time (as seen in The World at War) shows naked, gaunt people either wandering on snow or dead under it.

 

Due to the number of sub-camps over a large area that comprised the Dachau concentration camp complex, many Allied units have been officially recognized by the United States Army Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as liberating units of Dachau.

 

The Killing of Camp Guards at Dachau

 

A photograph taken by the U.S. Army on the 29th. April 1945 exists which appears to show an unauthorized execution of SS troops in a coal yard in the area of the Dachau concentration camp during its liberation—part of the Dachau liberation reprisals.

 

American troops killed some of the camp guards after they had surrendered. The number is disputed, as some were killed in combat, some while attempting to surrender, and others after their surrender was accepted. In 1989, Brigadier General Felix L. Sparks, the Colonel in command of a battalion that was present, stated:

 

"The total number of German guards killed at Dachau

during that day most certainly does not exceed fifty,

with thirty probably being a more accurate figure.

The regimental records of the 157th. Field Artillery

Regiment for that date indicate that over a thousand

German prisoners were brought to the regimental

collecting point.

Since my task force was leading the regimental attack,

almost all the prisoners were taken by the task force,

including several hundred from Dachau."

 

An Inspector General report resulting from a US Army investigation conducted between the 3rd. and 8th. May 1945 found that 21 plus "a number" of presumed SS men were killed, with others being wounded after their surrender had been accepted.

 

In addition, 25 to 50 SS guards were estimated to have been killed by the liberated prisoners. Lee Miller visited the camp just after liberation, and photographed several guards who were killed by soldiers or prisoners.

 

According to Sparks, court-martial charges were drawn up against him and several other men under his command, but General George S. Patton, who had recently been appointed military governor of Bavaria, chose to dismiss the charges.

 

Colonel Charles L. Decker, an acting deputy judge advocate, concluded in late 1945 that:

 

"While war crimes had been committed at Dachau

by Germany, certainly, there was no such systematic criminality among United States forces as pervaded

the Nazi groups in Germany."

 

American troops also forced local citizens to the camp to see for themselves the conditions there and to help bury the dead. Many local residents were shocked about the experience, and claimed no knowledge of the activities at the camp.

 

The Post-Liberation Easter

 

The 6th. May 1945 was the day of Pascha, Orthodox Easter. In a cell block used by Catholic priests to say daily Mass, several Greek, Serbian and Russian priests and one Serbian deacon, wearing makeshift vestments made from towels of the SS guard, gathered with several hundred Greek, Serbian and Russian prisoners to celebrate the Paschal Vigil. A prisoner described the scene:

 

"In the entire history of the Orthodox Church there

has probably never been an Easter service like the

one at Dachau in 1945.

Greek and Serbian priests together with a Serbian

deacon adorned the makeshift 'vestments' over their

blue and gray-striped prisoners' uniforms.

Then they began to chant, changing from Greek to

Slavic, and then back again to Greek.

The Easter Canon, the Easter Sticheras—everything

was recited from memory.

The Gospel—In the beginning was the Word—also

from memory. And finally, the Homily of Saint John—

also from memory.

A young Greek monk from the Holy Mountain stood

up in front of us and recited it with such infectious

enthusiasm that we shall never forget him as long as

we live. Saint John Chrysostomos himself seemed to

speak through him to us and to the rest of the world

as well!"

 

There is a Russian Orthodox chapel at the camp today, and it is well known for its icon of Christ leading the prisoners out of the camp gates.

 

After Liberation

 

Authorities worked night and day to alleviate conditions at the camp immediately following the liberation as an epidemic of black typhus swept through the prisoner population. Two thousand cases had already been reported by the 3rd. May.

 

By October of the same year the camp was being used by the U.S. Army as a place of confinement for war criminals, the SS and important witnesses. It was also the site of the Dachau Trials for German war criminals, a site chosen for its symbolism.

 

In 1948, the Bavarian government established housing for refugees on the site, and this remained for many years.

 

The Kaserne quarters and other buildings used by the guards were converted and served as the Eastman Barracks, an American military post. Since the closure of the Eastman Barracks in 1974, these areas are now occupied by the Bavarian Bereitschaftspolizei (rapid response police unit).

 

Deportation of Soviet Nationals

 

By January 1946, 18,000 members of the SS were being confined at the camp along with an additional 12,000 persons, including deserters from the Russian army and a number who had been captured in German Army uniform.

 

The occupants of two barracks rioted as 271 of the Russian deserters were to be loaded onto trains that would return them to Russian-controlled lands, as agreed at the Yalta Conference.

 

Inmates barricaded themselves inside two barracks. While the first was able to be cleared without too much trouble, those in the second building, set fire to it, tore off their clothing in an effort to frustrate the guards, and linked arms to resist being removed from the building.

 

Tear gas was used by the American soldiers before rushing the barrack, only for them to find that many had committed suicide. The American services newspaper Stars and Stripes reported:

 

“The GIs quickly cut down most of those who had

hanged themselves from the rafters. Those still

conscious were screaming in Russian, pointing first

at the guns of the guards, then at themselves,

begging to us to shoot.”

 

Ten of the soldiers were successful in their bid to commit suicide during the riot, while another 21 attempted suicide, apparently with razor blades. Many had "cracked heads" inflicted by 500 American guards, in the attempt to bring the situation under control.

 

Dachau in the Media

 

-- In his 2013 autobiography, 'Moose: Chapters from My Life', in the chapter entitled, "Dachau", author Robert B. Sherman chronicles his experiences as an American Army serviceman during the initial hours of Dachau's liberation.

 

-- In Lewis Black's first book, 'Nothing's Sacred', he mentions visiting the camp as part of his tour of Europe, and how it looked all cleaned up and spiffy, "like some delightful holiday camp", and only the crematorium building showed any sign of the horror that went on there.

 

-- In Maus, Vladek describes his time interned at Dachau, as well as other concentration camps. He describes the journey to Dachau in over-crowded trains, trading rations for other goods and favors to stay alive, and contracting typhus.

 

-- Frontline: "Memory of the Camps" (7 May 1985) is a 56-minute television documentary that addresses Dachau and other Nazi concentration camps.

This is the legendary Mr. Mark Salerno,

famed poet (his books include "Hate,"

"Method" and others), former editor of the esteemed

journal Arshile, and one of the funniest and smartest

guys I know. He's also one of my oldest pals. He joined

me for a night of revelry and celebration at the

El Cid a few nights back to see the

Hollywood Pin-Ups Burlesque Troupe. They were

wonderful as always: dynamic, sexy, electric,

funny and kind of sweet. Wasn't sure if

Salerno, who appreciates great music and

good art, would like this show. But he did.

But how could a man not?

 

Afterwards, Ashley - who is pictured in

many photos posted here - she's the woman

on Salerno's right - came to beckon me from the

audience for a private audience with the

girls - this is the life of a photographer in

Hollywood - to shoot a group shot. I wanted to do it

outside in the spectral back alley, where there

would be only black night behind them. But

they were waiting onstage, with the wine-dark curtain

closed, waiting to pose. This didn't give me much

room, but I made the most of it. I will post my

favorite group shots soon.

 

I asked Salerno to come with me - he was

reluctant at first - but gave in, and accompanied

backstage into the dark heart of this arcane

vaudeville world. There were the girls,

glistening with sweat from a very enervated

performance, ready for their shots. I took

a bunch - getting as far on the small stage

as I could - and then I asked Salerno to

take one with them. I'm glad he did - reminds

me of that famous scene in "Citizen Kane"

of Kane posing with the dancing girls. Or

more recently, John Belushi backstage at the

Ivar Theater, not far from here, a former

strip joint, where John was known to

hang out backstage with the girls,

spraying champagne on everyone, among

other activities.

 

I still don't know the girl all the way to

the left of the picture's names, but the

others are (L-R) Anne, Ashley, Nicky

and Elizabeth.

   

Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, monuments, artifacts, fortifications, roads, bridges, and entire cities were built of stone. Famous works of stonemasonry include the Egyptian pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Cusco's Incan Wall, Easter Island's statues, Angkor Wat, Borobudur, Tihuanaco, Tenochtitlan, Persepolis, the Parthenon, Stonehenge, the Great Wall of China, Chartres Cathedral.

 

DEFINITION

Masonry is the craft of shaping rough pieces of rock into accurate geometrical shapes, at times simple, but some of considerable complexity, and then arranging the resulting stones, often together with mortar, to form structures.

 

Quarrymen split sheets of rock, and extract the resulting blocks of stone from the ground.

Sawyers cut these rough blocks into cuboids, to required size with diamond-tipped saws. The resulting block if ordered for a specific component is known as sawn six sides (SSS).

Banker masons are workshop-based, and specialize in working the stones into the shapes required by a building's design, this set out on templets and a bed mould. They can produce anything from stones with simple chamfers to tracery windows, detailed mouldings and the more classical architectural building masonry. When working a stone from a sawn block, the mason ensures that the stone is bedded in the right way, so the finished work sits in the building in the same orientation as it was formed on the ground. Occasionally though some stones need to be oriented correctly for the application; this includes voussoirs, jambs, copings, and cornices.

 

The basic tools, methods and skills of the banker mason have existed as a trade for thousands of years.

 

Carvers cross the line from craft to art, and use their artistic ability to carve stone into foliage, figures, animals or abstract designs.

Fixer masons specialize in the fixing of stones onto buildings, using lifting tackle, and traditional lime mortars and grouts. Sometimes modern cements, mastics, and epoxy resins are used, usually on specialist applications such as stone cladding. Metal fixings, from simple dowels and cramps to specialised single application fixings, are also used. The precise tolerances necessary make this a highly skilled job.

Memorial masons or monumental masons carve gravestones and inscriptions.

 

The modern stonemason undergoes comprehensive training, both in the classroom and in the working environment. Hands-on skill is complemented by an intimate knowledge of each stone type, its application, and best uses, and how to work and fix each stone in place. The mason may be skilled and competent to carry out one or all of the various branches of stonemasonry. In some areas, the trend is towards specialization, in other areas towards adaptability.

 

TYPES OF STONE

Stonemasons use all types of natural stone: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary; while some also use artificial stone as well.

 

IGNEOUS STONES

Granite is one of the hardest stones, and requires such different techniques to sedimentary stones that it is virtually a separate trade. With great persistence, simple mouldings can and have been carved from granite, for example in many Cornish churches and in the city of Aberdeen. Generally, however, it is used for purposes that require its strength and durability, such as kerbstones, countertops, flooring, and breakwaters.

Igneous stone ranges from very soft rocks such as pumice and scoria to somewhat harder rocks such as tuff to the hardest rocks such as granite and basalt.

 

METAMORPHIC

Marble is a fine, easily worked stone, that comes in various colours, but mainly white. It has traditionally been used for carving statues, and for facings of many Byzantine and Italian Renaissance buildings. Prominent Greek sculptors, such as Antenor (6th century BC), Phidias and Critias (5th century BC), Praxiteles (4th century BC) and others used mainly the marble of Paros and Thassos islands, and the whitest and brightest of all (although not the finest), the Pentelikon marble. Their work was preceded by older sculptors from Mesopotamia and Egypt, but the Greeks were unmatched in plasticity and realistic (re)presentation, either of Gods (Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, Zeus, etc.), or humans (Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Phryne, etc.). The famous Acropolis of Athens is said to be constructed using the Pentelicon marble. The traditional home of the marble industry is the area around Carrara in Italy, from where a bright and fine, whitish marble is extracted in vast quantities.

Slate is a popular choice of stone for memorials and inscriptions, as its fine grain and hardness means it leaves details very sharp. Its tendency to split into thin plates has also made it a popular roofing material.

 

SEDIMENTARY

TYPES

TYPES OF STONEMASONRY ARE:

 

FIXER MASONS

This type of masons have specialized into fixing the stones onto the buildings. They might do this with grouts, mortars, and lifting tackle. They might also use things like single application specialized fixings, simple cramps, and dowels as well as stone cladding with things like epoxy resins, mastics, and modern cements.

 

MEMORIAL MASONS

These are the masons that make headstones and carve the inscriptions on them.

 

Today's stonemasons undergo training that is quite comprehensive and is done both in the work environment and in the classroom. It isn't enough to have hands-on skill anymore. One must also have knowledge of the types of stones as well as its best uses and how to work it as well as how to fix it in place.

 

RUBBLE MASONRY

When roughly dressed stones are laid in a mortar the result is a stone rubble masonry.

 

ASHLAR MASONRY

Stone masonry using dressed (cut) stones is known as ashlar masonry.

 

STONE VANEER

Stone veneer is used as a protective and decorative covering for interior or exterior walls and surfaces. The veneer is typically 2.54 cm thick and must weigh less than 73 kg m2, so that no additional structural supports are required. The structural wall is put up first, and thin, flat stones are mortared onto the face of the wall. Metal tabs in the structural wall are mortared between the stones to tie everything together, to prevent the stonework from separating from the wall.

Slipform stonemasonry

SLIPFORM STONEMASONRY

Slipform stonemasonry is a method for making stone walls with the aid of formwork to contain the rocks and mortar while keeping the walls straight. Short forms, up to two feet tall, are placed on both sides of the wall to serve as a guide for the stonework. Stones are placed inside the forms with the good faces against the formwork. Concrete is poured behind the rocks. Rebar is added for strength, to make a wall that is approximately half reinforced concrete and half stonework. The wall can be faced with stone on one side or both sides.

 

TRAINING

Traditionally medieval stonemasons served a seven-year apprenticeship. A similar system still operates today.

 

A modern apprenticeship lasts three years. This combines on-site learning through personal experience, the experience of the tradesmen, and college work where apprentices are given an overall experience of the building, hewing and theory work involved in masonry. In some areas, colleges offer courses which teach not only the manual skills but also related fields such as drafting and blueprint reading or construction conservation. Electronic Stonemasonry training resources enhance traditional delivery techniques. Hands-on workshops are a good way to learn about stonemasonry also. Those wishing to become stonemasons should have little problem working at heights, possess reasonable hand-eye coordination, be moderately physically fit, and have basic mathematical ability. Most of these things can be developed while learning.

Tools

TOOLS

Stonemasons use a wide variety of tools to handle and shape stone blocks (ashlar) and slabs into finished articles. The basic tools for shaping the stone are a mallet, chisels, and a metal straight edge. With these one can make a flat surface – the basis of all stonemasonry.

 

Chisels come in a variety of sizes and shapes, dependent upon the function for which they are being used and have many different names depending on locality. There are different chisels for different materials and sizes of material being worked, for removing large amounts of material and for putting a fine finish on the stone.

 

Mixing mortar is normally done today with mortar mixers which usually use a rotating drum or rotating paddles to mix the mortar.

 

The masonry trowel is used for the application of the mortar between and around the stones as they are set into place. Filling in the gaps (joints) with mortar is referred to as pointing. Pointing in smaller joints can be accomplished using tuck pointers, pointing trowels, and margin trowels, among other tools.

 

A mason's hammer has a long thin head and is called a Punch Hammer. It would be used with a chisel or splitter for a variety of purposes

 

A walling hammer (catchy hammer) can be used in place of a hammer and chisel or pincher to produce rubble or pinnings or snecks.

 

Stonemasons use a lewis together with a crane or block and tackle to hoist building stones into place.

 

Today power tools such as compressed-air chisels, abrasive spinners, and angle grinders are much used: these save time and money, but are hazardous and require just as much skill as the hand tools that they augment. But many of the basic tools of stonemasonry have remained virtually the same throughout vast amounts of time, even thousands of years, for instance when comparing chisels that can be bought today with chisels found at the pyramids of Giza the common sizes and shapes are virtually unchanged.

 

Stonemasonry is one of the earliest trades in civilization's history. During the time of the Neolithic Revolution and domestication of animals, people learned how to use fire to create quicklime, plasters, and mortars. They used these to fashion homes for themselves with mud, straw, or stone, and masonry was born.

 

The Ancients heavily relied on the stonemason to build the most impressive and long-lasting monuments to their civilizations. The Egyptians built their pyramids, the civilizations of Central America had their step pyramids, the Persians their palaces, the Greeks their temples, and the Romans their public works and wonders (See Roman Architecture). People of the Indus Valley Civilization, such as at Dholavira made entire cities characterized by stone architecture. Among the famous ancient stonemasons is Sophroniscus, the father of Socrates, who was a stone-cutter.

Castle building was an entire industry for the medieval stonemasons. When the Western Roman Empire fell, building in dressed stone decreased in much of Western Europe, and there was a resulting increase in timber-based construction. Stonework experienced a resurgence in the 9th and 10th centuries in Europe, and by the 12th-century religious fervour resulted in the construction of thousands of impressive churches and cathedrals in stone across Western Europe. Medieval stonemasons' skills were in high demand, and members of the guild, gave rise to three classes of stonemasons: apprentices, journeymen, and master masons. Apprentices were indentured to their masters as the price for their training, journeymen were qualified craftsmen who were paid by the day, and master masons were considered freemen who could travel as they wished to work on the projects of the patrons and could operate as self-employed craftsmen and train apprentices. During the Renaissance, the stonemason's guild admitted members who were not stonemasons, and eventually evolved into the Society of Freemasonry; fraternal groups which observe the traditional culture of stonemasons but are not typically involved in modern construction projects.

 

A medieval stonemason would often carve a personal symbol onto their block to differentiate their work from that of other stonemasons. This also provided a simple ‘quality assurance’ system.

 

The Renaissance saw stonemasonry return to the prominence and sophistication of the Classical age. The rise of the humanist philosophy gave people the ambition to create marvelous works of art. The centre stage for the Renaissance would prove to be Italy, where Italian city-states such as Florence erected great structures, including the Florence Cathedral, the Fountain of Neptune, and the Laurentian Library, which was planned and built by Michelangelo Buonarroti, a famous sculptor of the Renaissance.

 

When Europeans settled the Americas, they brought the stonemasonry techniques of their respective homelands with them. Settlers used what materials were available, and in some areas, stone was the material of choice. In the first waves, building mimicked that of Europe, to eventually be replaced by unique architecture later on.

 

In the 20th century, stonemasonry saw its most radical changes in the way the work is accomplished. Prior to the first half of the century, most heavy work was executed by draft animals or human muscle power. With the arrival of the internal combustion engine, many of these hard aspects of the trade have been made simpler and easier. Cranes and forklifts have made moving and laying heavy stones relatively easy for the stonemasons. Motor powered mortar mixers have saved much in time and energy as well. Compressed-air powered tools have made working of stone less time-intensive. Petrol and electric-powered abrasive saws can cut through stone much faster and with more precision than chiseling alone. Carbide-tipped chisels can stand up to much more abuse than the steel and iron chisels made by blacksmiths of old.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Bolton Abbey, Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England, takes its name from the ruins of the 12th-century Augustinian monastery now known as Bolton Priory. The priory, closed in the 1539 Dissolution of the Monasteries ordered by King Henry VIII, is in the Yorkshire Dales, next to the village of Bolton Abbey. The estate is open to visitors, and includes many miles of all-weather walking routes. The Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway terminates at Bolton Abbey station one and a half miles/2.5 km from Bolton Priory.

 

The monastery was founded at Embsay in 1120. Led by a prior, Bolton Abbey was technically a priory, despite its name. It was founded in 1154 by the Augustinian order, on the banks of the River Wharfe. The land at Bolton, as well as other resources, were given to the order by Lady Alice de Romille of Skipton Castle in 1154. In the early 14th century Scottish raiders caused the temporary abandonment of the site and serious structural damage to the priory. The seal of the priory featured the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Child and the phrase sigillum sancte Marie de Bolton.The nave of the abbey church was in use as a parish church from about 1170 onwards, and survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Building work was still going on at the abbey when the Dissolution of the Monasteries resulted in the termination of the priory in January 1540. The east end remains in ruins. A tower, begun in 1520, was left half-standing, and its base was later given a bell-turret and converted into an entrance porch. Most of the remaining church is in the Gothic style of architecture, but more work was done in the Victorian era, including windows by August Pugin. It is still a working priory today, holding services on Sundays and religious holidays. Bolton Abbey churchyard contains the war grave of a Royal Flying Corps officer of the First World War.

 

The Craven Heifer

 

The Domesday Book lists Bolton Abbey as the caput manor of a multiple estate including 77 carucates of ploughland (around 9240 acres/3850 ha) belonging to Edwin, Earl of Mercia. The estate then comprised Bolton Abbey, Halton East, Embsay, Draughton; Skibeden, Skipton, Low Snaygill, Thorlby; Addingham, Beamsley, Holme, Gargrave; Stainton, Otterburn, Scosthrop, Malham, Anley; Coniston Cold, Hellifield and Hanlith. They were all laid waste in the Harrying of the North after the defeat of the rebellion of Edwin, Earl of Mercia and classified as the Clamores (disputed land) of Yorkshire until around 1090, when they were transferred to Robert de Romille, who moved its administrative centre to Skipton Castle. The Romille line died out around 1310, and Edward II granted the estates to Robert Clifford. In 1748 Baroness Clifford married William Cavendish and Bolton Abbey Estate thereafter belonged to the Dukes of Devonshire, until a trust was set up by the 11th Duke of Devonshire turning it over to the Chatsworth Settlement Trustees to steward.

Today, the 33,000 acre (134 km2) estate contains six areas designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, including Strid Wood, an ancient woodland (mainly oak), which contains the length of the River Wharfe known as The Strid, and a marine fossil quarry. The estate encompasses 8 miles (13 km) of river, 84 farms, 84 buildings of architectural interest, and four Grade I listed buildings; and is currently home to 27 businesses from tearooms to bookshops. The iconic stepping stones cross the River Wharfe near the Abbey ruins. The estate includes extensive grouse moors, including Barden Moor on the west side of Wharfedale and Barden Fell on the east side of the dale. There is also a pheasant shoot. Apart from people employed within these businesses, the estate employs about 120 staff to work on the upkeep of the estate. Much of the estate is open to the public. A charge is made for car parking. The Dales Way passes through the estate on a permissive path. Barden Moor and Barden Fell, which includes the prominent crag of Simon's Seat, are on access land, and permissive paths lead up to the moors. Access to the moors may be closed to the public during the shooting season.

 

Bolton Abbey Hall, originally the gatehouse of the priory, was converted into a house by the Cavendish family. The hall is a Grade II* listed building.As well as Bolton Abbey, the Cavendish family also own the Chatsworth (Derbyshire, England) and Lismore Castle (Waterford, in the Republic of Ireland) estates. In the early nineteenth century, a cow known as the Craven Heifer was bred on the Bolton Abbey estate. Weighing 312 stone (1.98 tonnes), and measuring 11 ft 4ins in length and over 7 ft in height, she to this day remains Britain's largest ever cow.

My roommate Mike P.

How convenient that my all-time favorite rap song includes my roommates name.

 

93 'til Infinity-Souls of Mischief

Yo whassup, this is Tajai of the mighty Souls of Mischief crew

I'm chillin with my man Phesto, my man A-Plus

and my man Op', you know he's dope (yo)

But right now y'know we just maxin in the studio

We hailin from East Oakland, California and, um

sometimes it gets a little hectic out there

But right now, yo, we gonna up you on how we just chill

 

[1]

Dial the seven digits, call up Bridgette

Her man's a midget; plus she got friends, yo, I can dig it

Here's a forty, swig it, y'know it's frigid

I got 'em chillin in the cooler, break out the ruler

Damn! That's the fattest stog' I ever seen

The weather's heat in Cali; gettin weeded makes it feel like Maui

Now we feel the good vibrations

So many females, so much inspiration

 

[2]

I get inspired by the blunts too (too)

I'll front you (you) if you hang with a bunk crew (chump)

I roam the strip for bones to pick

When I find one, I'm done; take her home and quickly do this

I need not explain this (nahh)

A-Plus is famous - so get the anus!

 

[3]

Hey miss! Who's there? I'm through there

No time to do hair; the flick's at eight, so get straight

You look great - let's grub now

A rub down sounds flavor; later there's the theatre

We in the gut, the cinema, was mediocre

Take her to the crib so I can stroke her

 

[4]

Kids get broke for their skins when I'm in

close range, I throws game at your dip like handball

cause the man's all that

All fat - I be the chill from 93 'til

 

[Chorus: S.O.M.]

Yeah, this is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill from 93 'til

Uh-huh, this is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill, from 93 'til

This is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill.. from 93 'til

 

[5]

Huh, my black Timbs do me well (yeah)

When I see a fool and he says he heard me tell (what?)

another person's business, I cause dizzyness

Until you - stop acting like a silly bitch

 

[6]

Yo, crews are jealous cause we get props

The cops, wanna stop - our fun, but the top

is where we're dwellin, swell and fat, no sleep

I work fit and jerks get their hoes sweeped

under their noses, this bro's quick

yo hit blunts and flip once I'm chillin cause my crew's close, kid

 

[7]

I'm posted, most kids accept this as cool

I exit, cause I'm an exception to the rule

I'm steppin - to the cool spots where crews flock to snare a dip

or see where the shit that's flam B

Blam leakin out his pocket

So I got tons of indo and go to the hoe in's

basement, my ace spent

Fattenin up tracks, Time to get prolific with the whiz kid

 

[8]

Greenbacks in stacks, don't even ask

who got the fat sacks we can max pumpin fat tracks

Exchangin facts about impacts, cause in facts

My freestyle talent overpowers brothers can't hack.. it

They lack wit; we got the mack shit

93 'Til Infinity - kill all that wack shit

 

[Chorus]

Hah, this is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill.. from 93 'til

Yeahhh this is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill, from 93 'til

This is how we chill from 93 until

This is how we chill from 93 'til

 

[9]

I be coolin; school's in session but I'm fresh in

rappin so I take time off to never rhyme soft

I'm off on my own shit with my own click

Roll many back roads with a fat stog' and blunt, folding runts

Holding stunts captive with my persona

Plus a bomber, zestin

Niggaz is testin my patience; but I stay fresh and

 

[10]

Restin at the mall, attendance on 'noid

But I am shoppin for my wish to exploit

some cute fits, some new kicks

I often do this cause it's the pits not bein dipped

 

[11]

Flip - the flyer attire females desire

Baby you can step to this if you admire

The ex..traordinary dapper rapper

Keep tabs on your main squeeze before I tap her

 

[12]

I'll mack her; attack her with the smoothness

I do this, peepin what my crew gets (huh)

loot, props, respect and blunts to pass

Crews talk shit, but in my face they kiss my ass (smak!)

They bite flows but we make up new ones

If you're really dope, why ain't ya signed yet?

But I get - my loot from Jive/Zomba, I'ma bomb ya

You will see - from now 'til infinity

 

[Chorus]

Ah, this is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill, from 93 'til

Huh, this is how we chill from 93 'til

Yo, this is how we chill, from 93 'til

Aww yeah this is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how we chill from 93 'til

Yeah this is how we chill from 93 'til

This is how.. we chill, from 93 'til

 

[Outro]

Hah-hah, just coolin out, y'know what I'm sayin

But, but who's chillin around the land y'know?

Yo, who's chillin? I think I know who's chillin

Yeah tell me who's chillin then then Plus

 

Casual - you know he's chillin

Yo, Pep Love - he gotta be chillin

Jay Biz - ya know he's chillin

Aiyyo man, my my man Snupe is chillin man

Yo Mike G - you know he's here chillin

Ya my man Mike P - ya know he gotta chill

Del the Funky Homosapien is CHILLIN

Aiy ay my man Domino - yo he's chillin

Yeah.. it's like that, yeah..

From the August 2016 return trip to Siem Reap and the Angkor complex:

 

I love the Angkor complex, Siem Reap, and the Cambodian people so much that I returned again for about a week to photograph as much of the “non-major” sites as I could. Some of them are slightly far from Angkor Wat (by that, I mean to say more than 10 kilometers away), and usually require a little more money to get to. Also, some of the sites (Beng Mealea, Phnom Kulen) are not included in the Angkor ticket price and have an additional admission fee.

 

I don’t know if there’s a set number of how many sites belong in the Angkor complex, though I’m sure it would vary. (Do you only count the major sites like Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm? Do you add the sites that aren’t included in the standard “Angkor Pass,” but are clearly of the same era? Do you include sites that aren’t even named (as are one of the sites in this series)? All in all, I’ll put a very rough number at…50 sites in the Siem Reap area, and that includes the sites that are about 100 km away. Of those, I would say I’ve been to all but 5-10 now. All are included here with the exception, obviously, of the sites that I didn’t visit. (Off the top of my head, I can say they include Koh Ker & that respective group, which is about 120 km ENE of Siem Reap; Phnom Krom, one of the three “mountains” with temples; Ta Prohm Kel; and Mangalartha.)

 

In practical terms, I’m afraid that with the volume of shooting (about 1,500 frames in the past 7 days), photos will start to look redundant to those who don’t have the same interest in ancient/historical architecture or Angkor as I do. That being said, there are a few things besides temples here. The Old Market area (now Night Market/Pub Street) is represented – a little – and Phnom Kulen has a pretty nice waterfall which is also in this series. Also, I tried to catch a few people in here, though didn’t get as many as I would’ve liked.

 

I had my friend Mao (tuktuk driver) take me around for 5 of these 7 days this time around. As I mentioned last time, he may cost a little more than what you can arrange through a hotel/guesthouse, but he’s well worth the money (and, in the grand scheme of things, not too expensive; I paid less than $200 for the five days, two of which were “long” trips). He loves his country and heritage, he knows what he’s showing you, he’s flexible, he gives you enough ice water to keep you hydrated, and he’s just a good guy. (He even bought me a birthday cake for cryin’ out loud…) Anyway, I highly recommend Mao. You can find him here: www.facebook.com/mao.khvan (or on Trip Advisor: www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297390-d10726821-R... )

 

Now that shameless plugs and other assorted rhetoric are out of the way, it’s time to get on to the temples, ruins, and other miscellany.

 

Today is really the excuse that I used to come back to Siem Reap for a week. Mao was nice enough not to schedule any other customers for today since it’s my 43rd birthday, and also for Saturday. (Another reason, I think, is that I wanted to see all of the non-major sites and most everyone else is only interested in the major ones. So…thanks to Mao for giving up a few bucks from others just to make sure I got to see all that I wanted these two days.)

 

Mao came to pick me up around 10:00 in the morning with his wife and adorable daughter. Today, we pretty much followed the small loop tour that we did yesterday (and that most tourists do). However, we skipped every spot from yesterday (Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm’s main temple, Ta Keo, Thommanon, Chao Say Tevoda, Bayon) and opted for the others along the same route.

 

The first stop of the morning was Prasat Kravan. This is a particularly interesting – and small – temple that consists mainly of one building with a central tower, but five chambers lined up in a row. Prasat Kravan was built in the early 10th century (consecrated in 921) and is built of brick. It was built during the short reign of Harshavarman I. The name is the modern name (though I don’t know the original name) and means “cardamom sanctuary,” for a tree that once stood here. From an architectural standpoint, what is most interesting – and what caught my attention – is the brick bas-reliefs here. They are the only known representation of these in Khmer art and are reason alone to visit here. The central tower has a statue of Vishnu and the northernmost has a statue of his consort, Lakshmi.

 

After 15-20 minutes at Prasat Kravan, Mao took me to Bat Chum, which was quite near. (It wasn’t on my list, so kudos to Mao for adding a few stops that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen; as I said, the man knows the territory, and I highly recommend him to anyone who comes here.) Bat Chum is a very, very small site (under restoration, though it looks like even the restoration has been forgotten) a few hundred meters due south of Sra Srang, and a few hundred meters east of the road from Angkor Wat to Banteay Kdei. When Bat Chum was built in 960, there were houses and a Buddhist monastery nearby, which have long since vanished. This temple was built by the lone Khmer architect whose name we know: Kavindrarimathana. He also built the palace of the East Mebon and Sra Srang. This is a temple with three brick towers. There are stone lions and interesting inscriptions here as well.

 

From Bat Chum, we returned to the main road, skirted along the eastern and northern sides of Banteay Kdei’s outer wall, then along the southern and western sides of Ta Prohm’s outer wall. Most people enter Ta Prohm from the western gate (as evidenced by the massive throng of tuktuks here) or the eastern gate (where you will find a slew of souvenir vendors). As far as I can tell, there is no southern gate – as I imagine you’d see it flying by on the road. (Banteay Kdei does have a northern gate, though people don’t seem to stop here.) Ta Prohm does have a rather charming and rarely visited northern gate that I was unaware of. Again…thanks, Mao. Just stop on the road at the northwest corner of Ta Prohm’s outer wall and walk east along the north wall for about five minutes to find the northern gate, surrounded by jungle.

 

Next up on today’s tour is a very small site that, from what I know, doesn’t even have a name. (Mao didn’t even know the name of the place, so it’s just titled ‘Unnamed Site’ here.) It’s very small, almost an afterthought, but still worth a look. It’s on the road heading due north from Ta Prohm’s west gate about 100-200 meters south of where it heads to the west to Ta Keo. It’s barely 50 meters off the road, so is very easy to visit in 10 minutes or so.

 

Right at the point where the road takes a 90 degree turn to head west to Ta Keo, you have the option of going straight (down a fairly bumpy dirt road) to Ta Nei. This is actually a larger temple, but unlike the others nearby, it hasn’t gone under extensive restoration yet, so it isn’t visited very often. It’s 800 meters north of Ta Keo, set back in the woods, and is 200 meters west of the Eastern Baray’s western border. It was built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. The highlights of coming here are simply the setting, the pediments, and the overall lack of visitors.

 

After half an hour or so at Ta Nei, Mao and I hopped back in the tuktuk and returned to the main road, heading west past Ta Keo before veering north and making a very quick stop at the Hospital Chapel that is 150 meters due west of Ta Keo (slightly north). This is a very quick – 5 minute – stop that interested me simply because it was/is part of a hospital that’s close to a thousand years old now. It was built by Jayavarman VII (like so many of the Angkor sites) in the late 12th century. This sandstone monument is one of four that were on site here (and, from what I’m reading, one of 102 that were found throughout the empire). Honestly, seeing this just makes me wonder about 12th century medicine. What would a Khmer hospital at the turn of the 13th century have been like?

 

Moving north from the Hospital Chapel, the road takes another 90 degree turn to the west. Before entering the Victory Gate of Angkor Thom, you pass Thommanon and Chao Say Tevoda (bypassed, as already mentioned), and then Spean Thma, near a bridge that crosses the Siem Reap River. (The Siem Reap River, today, is more like a gentle stream, though it was used to transport the quarried rock from Phnom Kulen to Angkor to build these massive temples a thousand years ago.) That aside, I decided to bypass Spean Thma for now.

 

Once inside the Victory Gate, which I mistakenly called the East Gate in May (it is on the eastern wall), we turned south on a dirt path about 100-200 meters inside Angkor Thom and traveled south, parallel to the wall. After less than 5 minutes, you arrive at the road that runs directly east from Bayon to the East Gate, otherwise known as the Slaves’ Gate or Gate of the Dead. (From the names, obviously, if anyone who didn’t belong to the royal family saw this gate…bad news for them.) According to Mao, the slaves were marched out this gate on the way to their execution. Grim history aside, it’s a rather nice gate, well-restored, with some good angles for shooting. It’s certainly worth a visit, especially since it’s so easily accessible – and there are rarely many people around.

 

After this quick stop, we took the road due west to the heart of Angkor Thom – Bayon – then headed up the road towards the North Gate, where the majority of Angkor Thom sites are located (just north of Bayon). Passing by Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the Elephant Terrace, Terrace of the Leper Kings (all on the west side of the main road), and the Kleangs and Suor Prat Towers (east side of the main road, with the towers being bisected by the road heading east through the Victory Gate), we turned off just north of the Terrace of the Leper Kings to the west to see Tep Pranam – very briefly – and Preah Pilalay.

 

Tep Pranam is simply a statue of a giant seated sandstone Buddha, still in use for worship today, that was built around the 16th century. If this were in an out-of-the-way place, it may not be worth the time. However, it’s in the heart of Angkor Thom and it’s impossible to go to Preah Pilalay without seeing it if you come by tuktuk. (This isn’t a complaint by any means; it’s rather nice.) Preah Pilalay is in the northwest section of Angkor Thom and is fairly remote (given the amount of tourists that the other nearby sites see). Its main features are a tall chimney-like structure, a few nagas, and its setting in the forest. It was built in either the 13th or 14th century, possibly by Jayavarman VIII or, perhaps, by Jayavarman VII. It’s about 200 meters north of the royal enclosure (Phimeanakas). Some of the larger trees that used to tower over the temple have been hewn resulting in a very different feel. However, it was a pleasant side trip.

 

Hopping back in the tuktuk and going directly across the road, the last stop for the day inside Angkor Thom was the Preah Pithu group. This is a collection of five temples/ruins in the northeastern section of Angkor Thom that is in a delightful wooded setting. If you can see them in early morning or late afternoon, you should get some wonderful lighting. You can spend as little as 15 minutes here or as much as an hour or two. They probably weren’t designed to be one cohesive group, though it’s not possible to say with certainty. They were built in the 13th century. (Though I mention this as the last stop, I’ve also included the North Kleang and Northern Suor Prat Towers here. Though I didn’t explore those in depth, I am giving them their own set here – Kleangs and Suor Prat Towers.)

 

On the way out of Angkor Thom, via the South Gate, we stopped outside the moat for a few pictures. Directly south of Angkor Thom are a few temples that I wanted to see: Thma Bay Kaek, Prasat Bei, and Baksei Chamkrong.

 

We visited them in that order. Thma Bay Kaek is nearest the road about 50 meters southwest of the bridge over the southern moat. All that remains here are the ruins of a square brick tower. It’s probably the remains of one of many temples that were here in the Bakheng area. It was built in the 10th century by Yasovarman I.

 

About a five minute walk - -if that – due west of Thma Bay Kaek is Prasat Bei (“Three Towers”). Unlike Thma Bay Kaek, these towers are still standing, so obviously, slightly more photogenic. They would probably be best photographed in early morning. The trees block it from the west in late afternoon. It, too, was built by Yasovarman I in the 10th century.

 

The last of the three temples in this area, Baksei Chamkrong, is the most impressive of the three. It’s from the early and middle 10th century (rededicated in 948) and was built by Harshavarman. This is a pyramid temple at the foot of Phnom Bakheng. The name means “the bird with sheltering wings,” though – like most temples here – this is a modern appellation that the builders wouldn’t have recognized. This tower is a single brick tower on a pyramidal base.

 

Finally, to finish up the day, Mao dropped me at Phnom Bakheng. It’s about a 20 minute walk up the hill around a winding path. This is considered to be one of the best places to watch sunset over Angkor Wat because of its panoramic view from the peak of the hill. However, everyone knows this, and this is the only place all day that was too crowded for my liking. In addition to its being under restoration to the point of making it a bit of an eyesore (for the time being), it was easily my least favorite place of the entire day. After waiting in line for 20 minutes and barely moving an inch, I decided to call it a day, taking 1-2 pictures (that you see here), and heading back down the hill.

 

Mao had disappeared into the throngs of people eating at restaurants. Fortunately for me, he spotted me. On the way back to the guesthouse, he stopped and picked up a birthday cake which we shared with the folks who happened to be at the guesthouse. All in all, it was a wonderful birthday. Tomorrow, too, would be just me and would include the lesser-visited sites on the Grand Tour Loop, in addition to 1-2 others.

 

As always, I hope you enjoy this set. I appreciate you taking time to look. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message or leave it via comment.

Set includes 3 snow cones in a box.

Humpback whales are rorquals (Balaenopteridae, a family that includes the blue, fin, Bryde's, sei, and minke whales). The rorquals are believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Miocene. The sole member of its genus, the humpback was first identified as baleine de la Nouvelle Angleterre off the coast of New England by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his Regnum Animale of 1756. The common name is derived from the curving of their backs when diving. The generic name Megaptera comes from the Greek mega-/μεγα- ("giant") and ptera/πτερα ("wing") and refers to their large front flippers.

 

Genetic research in mid-2014 by the British Antarctic Survey confirmed that the separate populations in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Oceans are more distinct than previously thought. Some biologists believe that these should be regarded as separate, independently evolving subspecies.

 

Humpbacks have a stocky body, obvious hump, and black dorsal colouring. The head and lower jaw are covered in tubercles, knobby hair follicles characteristic of the species. Humpbacks have 270-400 dark baleen plates on each side of their mouths. The plates measure from 46 centimetres in the front to almost a metre in the back. About 14-22 wide ventral grooves run from the lower jaw to the umbilicus. The female has a hemispherical lobe about 15 centimetres in diameter in her genital region. Fully grown males average 13-14 metres and females are slightly larger at 15-16 metres; one large recorded specimen was 19 metres long and had pectoral fins measuring 6 metres each. Body mass is typically around 25-30 metric tons, with large specimens weighing over 40 metric tons.

 

The long black and white tail fin can be up to a third of body length. The varying patterns on the tail flukes distinguish individual animals. During a study using data from 1973 to 1998 on whales in the North Atlantic, a photographic catalogue of all known North Atlantic whales was developed; it's maintained by the College of the Atlantic. Several hypotheses attempt to explain the humpback's pectoral fins, proportionally the longest fins of any cetacean, such as higher maneuverability and increased surface area for temperature control when migrating between warm and cold climates.

 

Whales produce a three-metre-long, heart-shaped blow through the blowholes. They don't generally sleep at the surface but must continue to breathe: it's possible that only half of their brain sleeps at one time, allowing the other half to manage the surface/blow/dive process.

 

The lifespan of rorquals ranges from 45 to 100 years. Females reach sexual maturity at age five, achieving full adult size a little later. Males reach sexual maturity around seven years of age. Courtship rituals take place during the winter months, following migration toward the equator from summer feeding grounds closer to the poles. Competition is usually fierce. Unrelated males, or "escorts," frequently trail single cows and cow-calf pairs. Males gather into "competition groups" around a female and fight for the right to mate with her. Groups shrink and grow as unsuccessful males retreat and others arrive. Behaviors include breaching, spy-hopping, lob-tailing, tail-slapping, pectoral fin-slapping, peduncle throws, charging, and parrying.

 

Both male and female humpback whales vocalize, but only males produce the long, loud, complex song for which the species is famous. Each song consists of several sounds in a low register, varying in amplitude and frequency and typically lasting from 10 to 20 minutes. Individuals may sing continuously for more than 24 hours. Cetaceans have no vocal cords, instead forcing air through their massive nasal cavities (blowholes).

 

Whales within a large area sing a single song: all North Atlantic humpbacks sing the same song, while those of the North Pacific sing a different song. Each population's song changes slowly over a period of years without repeating. Many of the whales observed to approach a singer are other males, often resulting in conflict: singing may, therefore, be a challenge to other males as well as a way to impress females. Some scientists have hypothesized the song may serve an echolocative function. During the feeding season, humpbacks make unrelated vocalizations to herd fish into their bubble nets and they use other sounds to communicate, such as grunts, groans, "thwops," snorts, and barks.

 

Females typically breed every two or three years. The gestation period is 11.5 months. The peak months for birth are January, February (northern hemisphere), July, and August (southern hemisphere). Females wait for one to two years before breeding again. Recent research on mitochondrial DNA reveals that groups living in proximity to each other may represent distinct breeding pools.

 

A newborn calf is roughly the length of its mother's head. At birth, calves measure six metres and two tons. They nurse for about six months, then mix nursing and independent feeding for around six months more. Humpback milk is pink and 50% fat.

 

Humpbacks have a loosely knit social structure: individuals usually live alone or in small, transient groups that disband after a few hours. Groups may stay together longer in summer to forage and feed cooperatively. Longer-term relationships of months or even years between pairs or small groups have occasionally been observed, and some females might create lifelong bonds through cooperative feeding.

 

Humpbacks inhabit all major oceans, in a wide band running from the Antarctic ice edge to 77° N latitude. The four distinct tribes are the North Pacific, Atlantic, Southern Ocean, and Indian Ocean populations. Whales were once uncommon in the eastern Mediterranean or the Baltic Sea but have increased their presence in both waters as global populations have recovered. They have also returned to Scotland, Skagerrak, and Kattegat, as well as Scandinavian fjords such as Kvænangen, where they had not been observed for decades. Since November 2015, Hachijo-jima has been recognized as the northernmost breeding ground in the world.

 

Humpbacks typically migrate up to 25,000 kilometres each year. A 2007 study identified seven individuals wintering off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica as having traveled from the Antarctic—around 8,300 kilometres. Identified by their unique tail patterns, these animals made the longest mammalian migration ever documented.

 

The humpback's range overlaps with other whale and dolphin species. Humpbacks are friendly and interact with other cetaceans such as bottlenose dolphins and right whales. These behaviors have been recorded in all oceans, and humpback whales regularly appear in mixed groups with other species, such as the blue, fin, minke, gray, and sperm whales. Humpback and southern right whales demonstrating what were interpreted to be mating behaviors have been observed off the Mozambique and Brazilian coasts. A male humpback whale was seen singing to a fin whale at Rarotonga in 2014, and another individual was observed playing with a bottlenose dolphin in Hawaiian waters. Incidents of humpback whales protecting other species of animals such as seals and other whales from killer whales have also been documented.

 

Humpbacks feed primarily in summer and live off fat reserves during winter, when they feed only rarely and opportunistically. The humpback is an energetic hunter, taking krill and small schooling fish such as herring, salmon, capelin, and American sand lance, as well as Atlantic mackerel, pollock, and haddock in the North Atlantic. Pleated grooves in the whale's mouth allow water to easily drain out, filtering out the prey. The humpback has the most diverse hunting repertoire of all baleen whales, sometimes stunning prey by hitting the water with pectoral fins or flukes. Its most inventive technique is known as bubble net feeding, in which a group of up to a dozen whales swims in a shrinking circle below a school of prey and traps it in a cylinder of bubbles. The ring can start out about 30 metres in diameter. Some whales blow the bubbles, some dive deeper to drive fish toward the surface, and others herd prey into the trap by vocalizing. The whales then all suddenly swim up, swallowing thousands of fish.

 

The technique of lobtail feeding, observed in the North Atlantic, involves slapping the surface of the ocean with the tail up to four times before creating the bubble net. Based on network-based diffusion analysis, researchers believe that these whales learned the behavior from other whales in the group over a period of 27 years in response to a change in the primary form of prey.

 

Visible scars indicate that killer whales can prey upon juvenile humpbacks. Mothers and (possibly related) adults escort neonates to deter such predation. It's believed that orcas turned to other prey when humpbacks suffered near-extinction during the whaling era but are now resuming their former practice.

 

Humpback whales were hunted by humans on a commercial level as early as the 18th century. By the 19th century, many nations (the United States in particular) were hunting the animal heavily in the Atlantic and to a lesser extent in the Indian and Pacific oceans. The explosive harpoon introduced in the late 19th century, along with the extension of hunting into the Antarctic ocean from 1904, drastically reduced whale populations. During the 20th century, over 200,000 humpbacks were taken, reducing the global population by over 90%. North Atlantic populations dropped to as low as 700 individuals.

 

In 1946, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was founded: they imposed hunting regulations and seasons. To prevent extinction, IWC banned commercial humpback whaling in 1966, by which time the global population had been reduced to around 5,000 animals (around 90% having been exterminated). The Soviet Union deliberately under-recorded its catches; the Soviets reported catching 2,820 whales between 1947 and 1972, but the true number was over 48,000.

 

As of 2004, hunting was restricted to a few animals each year off the Caribbean island of Bequia in the nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The take is not believed to threaten the local population. Japan's announcement that it planned to kill 50 humpbacks in the 2007/08 season under its JARPA II "research" program sparked global protests and a visit to Tokyo by the IWC chair, and the Japanese whaling fleet agreed to take no humpback whales during the two years it would take to reach a formal agreement. In 2010, the IWC authorized Greenland's native population to hunt a few humpback whales for the following three years.

 

In Japan, humpback, minkes, sperm, and many other smaller Odontoceti, including critically endangered species such as North Pacific right, western gray, and northern fin whales, have been targets of illegal captures. Humpback meat can be found on the markets. Harpoons are used to hunt dolphins or intentionally drive whales into nets, reporting them as cases of entanglement. Unknown numbers of humpbacks have been illegally hunted in the Exclusive Economic Zones of anti-whaling nations such as off Mexico and South Africa.

 

Because they're easily approachable, curious, identifiable as individuals, and display many interesting behaviors, they have become the mainstay of whale tourism around the world. Analyses of whale songs in the 1960s led to worldwide media interest and convinced the public that whales were highly intelligent, aiding the anti-whaling advocates. Humpbacks are popular with whale-watchers because of their distinctive surface behaviors: they frequently breach, throwing two-thirds or more of their bodies out of the water and splashing down on their backs. Some humpbacks, referred to as "friendlies," often stay under or near whale-watching boats for many minutes.

 

While whaling no longer threatens the species, individuals are vulnerable to collisions with ships, entanglement in fishing gear, and noise pollution. Like other cetaceans, humpbacks can be injured by excessive noise. In the 19th century, two humpback whales were found dead near sites of repeated oceanic sub-bottom blasting, with traumatic injuries and fractures in the ears.

 

The species was listed as vulnerable in 1996 and endangered as recently as 1988. In August 2008, the IUCN changed humpback's status from "vulnerable" to "least concern," although two subpopulations remain endangered. Most monitored stocks have rebounded since the end of commercial whaling and now reach around 80,000 worldwide. Though the North Atlantic stocks are believed to be approaching pre-hunting level, the species is still considered endangered in some countries, including the United States.

 

Members: Ron Whiteside sent the Reunion notice of the Doolittle Raiders which took place. It’s too long to include in the Nov Newsletter, but I thought I’d send it as a separate mailing in case you were interested in reading it. I did put part of it in the Newsletter.

 

The Final Toast

 

It's the cup of brandy that no one wants to drink.

On April 17, 2013 in Fort Walton Beach , Florida , the surviving

Doolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last time.

 

They once were among the most universally admired and revered men

in the United States . There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942,

when they carried out one of the most courageous and

heart-stirring military operations in this nation's history. The

mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would bring

tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.

 

Now only four survive.

After Japan 's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor , with the United

States reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn

the war effort around.

Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan

for the United States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was

devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off

from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been

tried -- sending such big, heavy bombers from a carrier.

 

The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James

Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet,

knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They

would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a

safe landing.

 

But on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind of

the plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off

from much farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had counted

on. They were told that because of this they would not have

enough fuel to make it to safety.

And those men went anyway.

 

They bombed Tokyo , and then flew as far as they could. Four

planes crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the

Raiders died. Eight more were captured; three were executed.

Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew

made it to Russia .

 

The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its

enemies, and to the rest of the world: We will fight. And, no

matter what it takes, we will win.

Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as

national heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced

a motion picture based on the raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,"

starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and

emotional box-office hit, and the phrase became part of the

national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for the film, MGM

proclaimed that it was presenting the story "with supreme pride."

 

Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion each

April, to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different

city each year. In 1959, the city of Tucson , Arizona , as a

gesture of respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders

with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved with

the name of a Raider.

 

Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is

transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away,

his goblet is turned upside down in the case at the next reunion,

as his old friends bear solemn witness.

 

Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special

cognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy

Doolittle was born.

There has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving

Raiders, they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and

toast their comrades who preceded them in death.

As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February,

Tom Griffin passed away at age 96.

 

What a man he was. After bailing out of his plane over a

mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill

with malaria, and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to

Europe to fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured,

and spent 22 months in a German prisoner of war camp.

The selflessness of these men, the sheer guts ... there was a

passage in the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that,

on the surface, had nothing to do with the war, but that

emblematizes the depth of his sense of duty and devotion:

"When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home,

he visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing

home, fed his wife and at the end of the day brought home her

clothes. At night, he washed and ironed her clothes. Then he

walked them up to her room the next morning. He did that for

three years until her death in 2005."

So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick

Cole (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite,

Edward Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have

decided that there are too few of them for the public reunions to

continue.

The events in Fort Walton Beach marked the end. It

has come full circle; Florida 's nearby Eglin Field was where the

Raiders trained in secrecy for the Tokyo mission. The town

planned to do all it can to honor the men: a six-day celebration

of their valor, including luncheons, a dinner and a parade.

Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save

the country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their

sacrifice? They don't talk about that, at least not around other

people. But if you find yourself near Fort Walton Beach this

week, and if you should encounter any of the Raiders, you might

want to offer them a word of thanks. I can tell you from

firsthand observation that they appreciate hearing that they are

remembered.

The men have decided that after this final public reunion they

will wait until a later date -- some time this year -- to get

together once more, informally and in absolute privacy. That is

when they will open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowing

by too swiftly now; they are not going to wait until there are

only two of them.

They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets.

And raise them in a toast to those who are gone.

 

Their 70th Anniversary Photo

PLEASE SEND THIS ON TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK, ESPECIALLY

TO THOSE WHO WERE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW ABOUT THESE GUYS. THIS SHOULD

BE READ BY EVERY KID IN GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOL SO THEY KNOW WHAT

HAPPENED.

(Sept. 4, 2019) CAPE MAY — Come to the City of Cape May, one of “America’s Best Food Cities,” according to Condé Nast Traveler magazine, and experience the flavors of America’s First Seaside Resort during the 23rd Annual Cape May Food & Wine Celebration, Sept. 13 through Sept. 22, presented by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC). This annual 10-day extravaganza celebrates Cape May’s gourmet restaurants, local wines and beers, and talented chefs with wonderful flavors to enjoy.

 

Spend the afternoon visiting Cape May County’s wineries and sampling the unique flavors of each during the Cape May Wine Trail on Fridays, Sept. 13 and Sept. 20 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Savor distinctive wines at three Cape May area vineyards with trolley travel to each and a delicious lunch included at the Carriage House Café & Tearoom at the Physick Estate, 1048 Washington St. After lunch, a trolley transports you to Willow Creek Winery, Natali Vineyards and Hawk Haven Vineyard & Winery. Learn about viniculture and ask questions as you sip and swirl at each tasting room. Admission of $85 includes lunch, wine tastings at each vineyard and a wine tasting glass. This is a limited event, so reserve early.

 

The Dinner & Full Moon Climb is the height of culinary and stargazing delight! A trolley transports you on Friday, Sept. 13 at 6:15 p.m. from the Physick Estate, 1048 Washington St., to The Red Store in Cape May Point, where you will savor selections from the tasting menu of award-winning Chef Lucas Manteca. Then it’s onwards via trolley to climb 199 steps to the Cape May Lighthouse watch gallery, weather permitting, to view the full moon in all its glory. Admission is $85. Reserve early; this is a limited event.

 

Enjoy craft beers at the Physick Estate, 1048 Washington St., and celebrate South Jersey during Harvest Brew Fest, an all-day festival on Saturday, Sept. 14 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This all-day outdoor festival spotlights all things local! Enjoy local food vendors, local artisans and crafters, local craft beers and local musical talent, including Capers, Animal House, and Paul Garguilo. Taps flow beginning at 10 a.m. Free admission and parking is available. The Harvest Brew Fest is possible thanks to generous support from Paramount Air Service.

 

Spend a luxurious afternoon al fresco with winemaker Todd Wuerker at his family’s vineyard, and Kara catering during Grilling at the Vineyard on Sunday, Sept. 15 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Relax as they grill on the crushpad at Hawk Haven Vineyard & Winery, 600 South Railroad Ave., Rio Grande. Savor some of Todd’s favorite wines. Enjoy culinary demonstration, stationary hors d’ouevres and a salad course. Graze on salmon, chicken, pork and beef as they come off the grill. Cash raw bar and cash wine bar. Admission is $65.

 

Ready for the crème de la crème? Chefs’ Dine-Arounds are unforgettable five-course gourmet feasts and a chance to taste culinary delights from some of the best chefs in Cape May. Five premier Cape May restaurants each serve a course paired with a different wine from the evening’s sponsoring winery. A winery representative accompanies the group and explores the subtleties of the pairing with each dish. A trolley shuttle transports you between courses. Reserve early for these very special evenings; limited to 34 people per night. Chefs Dine-Arounds are offered on Sunday, Sept. 15, Monday, Sept. 16 and Thursday, Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. Admission is $125 (gratuity included).

 

Work up an appetite during the Gourmet Brunch Walk Monday, Sept. 16 at 10 a.m. Stroll through a portion of Cape May’s Historic District on this guided walking tour ending at the famous Mad Batter restaurant. Enjoy a gourmet brunch in New Jersey Monthly’s choice for “best brunch and lunch” spot. Reserve early; limited to 40. Admission is $25 adults; $15 children (ages 3-12).

 

New in 2019! Enjoy lunch at one of the eastern seaboard’s most iconic seafood restaurants, The Lobster House, 905 Schellengers Landing Road, with a fascinating tour of Fisherman’s Wharf included, during Fisherman’s Wharf Tour & Lunch, offered Tuesday, Sept. 17 and Thursday, Sept. 19 at 11 a.m. Cape May is the largest commercial fishing port in New Jersey and one of the largest in the nation. You’ll learn how seafood gets from the Atlantic Ocean to your dining table. After your guided tour, enjoy a Lobster House lunch of clam chowder, with a lobster salad or chicken sandwich, French fries and coleslaw. Admission is $30.

 

New in 2019! Experience West Cape May's veggie-centric healthy dining spot, during the Good Earth Organic Eatery: Italian Vegan event, offered Tuesday, Sept. 17, with 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. seatings. Good Earth Organic Eatery, 600 Park Blvd., offers a 4-course Italian vegan dinner, including soup, salad, entrée and dessert, accompanied by a lecture on "Healthy Eating in the Modern Era." Touching on curative foods, methods of preparation and ways to avoid the toxins of our times, the owners will share their passion for "food as medicine." Noted in 2018 as a "Hidden Gem of the Jersey Shore" by food critic Craig LaBan. Beverages available at additional cost. Admission is $50 (gratuity included).

 

New in 2019! Cape May Airport on Breakwater Road, Erma, is no longer just for aviators. It’s a foodie destination as well! Board a MAC trolley at the Emlen Physick Estate for the Cape May Airport & Culinary Tour Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 10 a.m. and visit this vibrant area for a self-guided tour of Naval Air Station Wildwood museum and its amazing collection of painstakingly restored aircraft, along with a visit to the Cape May Peanut Butter and Cape May Olive Oil Company for delicious samplings. Learn how to choose the perfect olive oil for your particular taste. Discover more local culinary favorites with a $10 gift certificate to the Taco Shop and a $10 gift certificate to Cape May Brewing Co. Admission is $45.

 

New in 2019! Mudhen Brewing Co. is named after the first passenger train in 1883 that chugged precariously across the marshlands into Wildwood, carrying passengers from Cape May Court House to Anglesea. Recently opened in 2018, this brewery is one of the region’s newest destinations. Discover its flavors during the Small Bites & Flights Pairing Dinner with Mudhen Brewery, on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. Guests will receive a tour of the brewery as well as their Flagship Flight (four 5-oz. tasters) paired with two small bites of the chef’s choice, and a Brewers Choice Flight (four 5-oz. tasters) paired with two small bites of the chef’s choice. Admission is $50.

 

Have you ever tried blending wines? Vintners create and bring to market new blends all the time. During Wine Blending & Pairing at Cape May Winery, on Friday, Sept. 20 at 6 p.m., you will learn the refined art of choosing the best wines to blend during this two-hour tasting and blending experience, with light plates and dessert included, at Cape May Winery, 711 Townbank Road. Admission is $75.

 

Take a guided tour of Fisherman’s Wharf Saturday, Sept. 21 at 11 a.m. at the renowned Lobster House, one of the area’s most recognized landmarks, and learn how seafood gets from the Atlantic Ocean to your dining table. During the Fisherman’s Wharf Tour, you will see some of the largest vessels fishing on the East Coast that are home-ported in Cape May. Admission is $10 adults; $7 children (ages 3-12).

 

Chocolate lovers unite! Savor an amazing buffet of fabulous chocolate desserts during the Chocolate Lovers Feast at the Washington Inn on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 1 p.m. Your server will also suggest wonderful pairings of wine with your chocolate. It’s all at one of Cape May’s most renowned restaurants, The Washington Inn, 801 Washington St. Admission is $40.

 

New in 2019! Join owner Stephen White at Seaside Cheese, 110 Park Blvd., West Cape May during Flights of Cheese: Cheeses from Around the World, and sample cheeses originating in a variety of cultures and traditions. Learn about the special characteristics of each. Includes soup, salad and dessert! Offered Saturday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. Admission is $25.

 

Experience one of America’s great traditions, the jazz brunch, in Cape May during Champagne Jazz Brunch at Aleathea’s! Linger over a delicious Sunday morning champagne brunch buffet at Aleathea’s Restaurant at the Inn of Cape May, 7 Ocean St., and enjoy jazz standards from The Great American Songbook, featuring Mary Lou Newnam, saxophone, clarinet and flute, and Sonny Troy, guitar. Admission is $35. Call 609-884-5555 to purchase tickets.

 

The 23rd Annual Cape May Food & Wine Celebration is presented by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC), in conjunction with Cape May’s restaurant community. Participating restaurants include Aleathea's Restaurant, The Blue Pig Tavern, The Carriage House Café & Tearoom, The Ebbitt Room, FiNS Bar & Grille, Hemingway’s Restaurant, Lucky Bones Restaurant, The Mad Batter Restaurant & Bar, The Merion Inn, Peter Shields Inn & Restaurant, SeaSalt Restaurant, Seaside Cheese Company, Union Park Dining Room, The Washington Inn. Participating restaurants are subject to change.

 

Purchase tickets in advance for these events online, at www.capemaymac.org, in person at the Washington Street Mall Information Booth or the Hill House office or the Carriage House Visitor’s Center at the Physick Estate, 1048 Washington St., during hours of operation. Some events are purchased directly from the venue. For more information or to purchase tickets by phone call 609-884-5404.

 

MAC is a multifaceted not-for-profit organization committed to promoting the preservation, interpretation, and cultural enrichment of the Cape May region for its residents and visitors. MAC membership is open to all. For information about MAC’s year-round schedule of tours, festivals, and special events, call 609-884-5404 or 800-275-4278, or visit MAC’s website at www.capemaymac.org. For information about restaurants, accommodations and shopping, call the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May at 609-884-5508 and www.capemaychamber.com. For information about historic accommodations, contact Cape May Historic Accommodations at www.capemaylodging.com.

 

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♕I Includes♕

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★ HUD BENTO AO ★

 

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15 standing,2walking,4sitting,4sitting on ground, pre jumping,3jumping,landing, crouching,typing3, hovering

hovering up,hovering down, flying ,falling standing up, turring left/right.

LINK:

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Moonlight%20Pleasure/220/2...

 

M.P.

marketplace.secondlife.com/p/RICH-STORY-FRIDA-FEMALE-BENT...

This shot toward the East includes only a fraction of the Snow Geese that formed this huge flock. I estimated the flock to comprise more than a thousand birds. This viewing was a real treat because large numbers of this species have not been that visible in the Bosque del Apache NWR and other regions along the Rio Grande flyway this early for the past several years. You should hear the "ear candy" from this group! This shot was from the road that enters the Refuge from the south.. we later visited this lake from roads within the refuge. The Geese stayed put, and a ranger told us that this was the only location on the refuge that was now collecting these Geese in numbers.

 

IMG_5203; Snow Geese

The Qalawun complex is a massive complex in Cairo, Egypt that includes a madrasa, a hospital and a mausoleum. It was built by the Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad Ibn Qalawun in the 1280s; some thirty surviving mosques were built during his time.

 

The Qalawun Complex was built over the ruins of the Fatimid Palace of Cairo, with several halls in the Palace. It was sold to several people until it was finally bought by the Sultan Qalawun in 1283 AD. The structure resides in the heart of Cairo, in the Bayn al-Qasrayn, and has been a center for important religious ceremonies and rituals of the Islamic faith for years, stretching from the Mamluk dynasty through the Ottoman Empire.

 

The Mausoleum of Sultan Qalawun in Cairo is considered by many to be the second most beautiful mausoleum, succeeded only by the Taj Mahal in India. Al-Nuwayri (an Arab Historian), has said in his book Nihayet al Irab (The Utmost Desire), that the Mausoleum was not intended to become a buriel site, but a Mosque and a school, and that it was first used as a tomb when he died, and hosted his body. His body was kept in the Cairo Citadel for two months until the tomb was ready to replace the Citadel's Burial location, later when Qalawun's son died, he too was buried in the Mausoleum. The mihrab of the mausoleum is often considered as the most lavish of its kind. This is in contrast to the mihrab of the madrasa, which is less grand in size and general esthetics. With a horse-shoe profile the mihrab is flanked by three columns made of marble. The Mausoleum later on, and under the mamluks included a Museum for Royal Cloths of those buried in it.

 

The Mausoleum of Qalawun is significant in that it’s dome served as a ceremonial center for the investing of new emirs. Indeed the dome was a symbol of new power, a changing of the guard, signifying a new center of Mamluk power, which enjoyed great prosperity at the time. The Mausoleum's Dome was demolished by the Ottoman Governor over Egypt Abdul-Rahman Katkhuda and was then rebuilt in Ottoman architecture, However the Comite for reservation of Arab monuments built another dome to replace that in 1908 [Wikipedia.org]

The Lidl Run Kildare Events 2013 were held at the Curragh Racecourse, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland on Sunday 12th May 2013. There were three events: a 10KM, a half marathon, and a full marathon. This is a selection of photographs which includes all events. The photographs are taken from the start and finish of the marathon, the finish of the 10KM, and the finish of the half marathon. Due to the large numbers participating we did not manage to photograph everyone - which was not helped by the weather. Congratulations to Jo Cawley and her RunKildare crew for another great event. The weather didn't dampen the spirits of the many happy participants.

 

Electronic timing was provided by Red Tag Timing [www.redtagtiming.com/]

 

Overall Race Summary

Participants: There were approximately 3,000 participants over the 3 race events - there were runners, joggers, and walkers participating.

Weather: A cold breezy morning with heavy rain at the start. The weather dried up for the 10KM and the Half Marathon races

Course: This is an undulating course with some good flat stretches on the Curragh.

  

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If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".

 

Some Useful Links

GPS Garmin Trace of the Kildare Marathon Route: connect.garmin.com/activity/175709313

Homepage of the Lidl Run Kildare Event: www.kildaremarathon.ie/index.html

Facebook Group page of the Lidl Run Kildare Event: www.facebook.com/RunKildare

Boards.ie Athletics Discussion Board pages about the race series: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056815306

Our photographs from Run Kildare 2012: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157629707887620/

Our photographs from Run Kildare 2011: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157626725200956/

A small selection of photographs from Run Kildare 2010: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157623899845567/ (first event)

 

Can I use the photograph with the watermark?

Yes! Absolutely - you can post this photograph to your social networks, blogs, micro-blogging, etc.

 

How can I get a full resolution, no watermark, copy of these photographs?

 

All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available, free, at no cost, at full resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not know of any other photographers who operate such a policy. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

 

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

 

In summary please remember - all we ask is for you to link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. Taking the photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.

 

If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?

Some people offer payment for our photographs. We do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would pay for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

 

I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?

 

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

 

     ►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

     ►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

     ►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

     ►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

  

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.

 

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets

  

Includes: Black bustier top w/ gold pin strip, back adjustable lacing and side zipper, attached garters, and removable clear straps. It also includes a matching pull-on skirt, white satin cuffs w/ rhinestone "Playboy" logo cufflinks, collar w/ tie, thigh-high stockings, and a fedora-style hat w/ a rhinestone hatband (NOTE: Also included w/ costumes is a Playboy Garment bag).

 

Entries for June 6th 1909. Guests include:

 

Sir Frederick Treves.

Dr. R.C. Brown.

William Margerison (Mayor of Preston)

 

The purpose of Sir Frederic Treves visit to Preston was to open the new isolation hospital at Deepdale and as guest of Dr. Brown pay a visit to the new operating theatre at Preston Royal Infirmary.

 

Frederick Treves is remembered for his involvement in the treatment of Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man)

Dr. Brown (Sir Charles Brown) was a prominent Preston surgeon whose book "Sixty Four Years a Doctor" can be read Here

soup-like dish made with sundae: pig's intestines stuffed with cellophane noodles - dangmyeon, barley, and pork blood. It includes pieces of intestine (gopchang), liver, lungs, bits of cartilage, and meat, onions, sesame leaves, and many other vegetables. It’s served in a milky broth in a black ceramics bowl (ddukbaegi) with a separate bowl of steam white rice (bop) which can be added into the broth for an even heartier meal.

 

When I ordered that stew, I saw concerned looks and some heated talk between the cooks. I don't speak Korean , and couldn't understand why they suddenly are commenting on my order. They even pointed on the menu and asked if that's what I want.

I said "yes" - I love their cooking, and so far loved all their dishes.

Later on I found out that they were concerned that I would not like it, because of the ingredients.

Boy, were they wrong!! The steam smelled of heaven. The little nasty treasures made this soup special:

there was, of course, the sundae, and this was the best way I have ever had this dark savory gelatinous sausage. Its little friends included strips of pork belly, some liver, crunchy yet tasty bits of cartilage, and the forbidden but irresistible gobchang, intestines. Yum!!!

 

Seoul Cafe, San Antonio, TX

 

Includes Skootamatta Lake and Mazinaw Lake.

 

The Pioneer Museum in Cloyne has a good collection of vintage Land O' Lakes Tourism Vacation Guides. These guides portray many of the area businesses from the 1960s to present day. Visit the Pioneer Museum during the summer months or by appointment.

 

Note: Commercial use of this image is prohibited without CDHS permission. All CDHS Flickr content is available for personal use providing our Rights Statement is followed:

pioneer.mazinaw.on.ca/flickr_statement.php

SEE OTHER PICTURES IN ALBUM.AIRCRAFT ON GROUND INCLUDE U.S. AIR FORCE B-1B 85-0073,C-17A 93-0604,C-130J 03-8154,F-15C 86-0154,F-15E 01-2004,A-10A 81-0954,F-16 89-2127,U.S. NAVY E2C 163694,S-3B 160143,SH-60 164454,UAE A/F F-16E 3050,3056,C-130 311,EGYPT A/F CH-47D 3002,RUSSIA A/F MIG 29 777,918,PC12 ZS-YEA,A319 F-OHJY,P180 I-RAIL,ITALY A/F P180 MM62213,C208 N8HZ,LET 410 OK-WDC,RAF MERLIN HC3 ZJ124,M346 CMX616,FRENCH A/F RAFALE B 302,T-50 ROKAF 05-001,06-003,SAAB GRIPPEN 39816,39227,AERO L-159 6073,PAKISTAN A/F K8 03-02-812,03-02-810,AN74TK UR-YVA,UR-74038,747-400 A6-HRM,7377BBJ A6-AIN,HB-HZC PC21,N6066Z 777 BOEING,F-WWDD A380 AIB/EK,PP-XJG E175,5R-MJF ATR72 AIR MADAGASCAR,C-FGRE CRJ700 UA EXPRESS,ZS-POT BE400,ZS-ULT LJ45,F-GUDC F2000,F-GSNA F900,A6-RJM BD300,A6-RJA G300,HB-JEX BD700,JY-AW1 C560XL,HB-VOB H800XP,N517LR BAE 125-1000,N238CX C750X,N6128Y BEECH 390,N232LJ LJ60,N606GA G200,N142HC G450,N571GA G550,N604CD CL604,N300BZ BD300,N900UD C650,N132SV C680,N140AE G5000,074 AH-64 UAE A/F

 

Indian spices include a variety of spices grown across the Indian subcontinent (a sub-region of South Asia). With different climates in different parts of the country, India produces a variety of spices, many of which are native to the Subcontinent, while others were imported from similar climates and have since been cultivated locally for centuries.

 

Spices are used in different forms - whole, chopped, ground, roasted, sauteed, fried and as topping. They blend food to extract the nutrients and bind them in a palatable form. Some spices are added at the end as a flavouring and are typically heated in a pan with ghee or cooking oil before being added to a dish. Lighter spices are added last, and spices with strong flavour should be added first. Curry is not a spice, but a term used by western people and refers to any dish in Indian cuisine that contains several spices blended together and could be with a gravy base or a dry item.

____________________

 

Kochi is a city in the Indian state of Kerala. Kochi is located in the district of Ernakulam. Old Kochi loosely refers to a group of islands including Willingdon Island, Fort Kochi and Mattancherry. Today Kochi includes Ernakulam, old parts of Kochi, Kumbalangi, and outlying islands.

 

For many centuries up to and during the British Raj, the city of Kochi was the seat of the eponymous princely state. Kochi traces its history back many centuries, when it was the centre of Indian spice trade for hundreds of years, and was known to the Yavanas (Greeks and Romans), Jews, Arabs and Chinese since ancient times. Kochi earned a significant position on the world trading map after the port at Kodungallur (Cranganore) was destroyed by massive flooding of the river Periyar in 1341.

 

The earliest documented references to Kochi occur in the books written by Chinese voyager Ma Huan, during his visit to Kochi in the 15th century as part of the treasure fleet of Admiral Zheng He. There are also references to Kochi in accounts written by Italian traveller Niccolò Da Conti, who visited Cochin in 1440 . Today, Kochi is the commercial hub of Kerala, and one of the fastest growing second-tier metros in India.

 

PREHISTORY

Not much is known about the prehistory of Kochi. There has been no clear evidence of Stone Age inhabitation. Quite ironically, Kochi forms the central part of the Megalithic belt of Kerala. The only trace of prehistoric life in the region is the menhir found in Tripunithura.

Princely rule

 

PRINCELY RULE

The history of Kochi prior to the Portuguese is not well documented. Though places north and south of Kochi are mentioned in quite detail in many accounts by ancient travellers, even a mention of Kochi is absent prior to the arrival of the Portuguese. Kochi's prominence as a trading port grew after the collapse of the port at Kodungallur in 1341 AD.

 

The Cochin State came into existence in 1102 AD after the breaking up of the Kulasekhara empire.

 

FOREIGN RULE

Kochi was under the rule of many foreign empires, during which the Raja of Kochi still remained the titular head.

 

PORTUGUESE PERIOD (1503-1663)

Kochi was the scene of the first European settlement in India. In the year 1500, Portuguese Admiral Pedro Álvares Cabral, landed at Cochin after being repelled from Calicut. The King of rival Kochi welcomed his guests and a treaty of friendship was signed. Promising his support in the conquest of Calicut, the admiral coaxed the king into allowing them to build a factory at Cochin. Assured by the support, the king called war with the Zamorins of Calicut. However, the admiral retreated in panic on seeing the powers of the Zamorin. The Zamorins, on the other hand, eager to win the favor of the Portuguese, left without a war. Another captain, João da Nova was sent in place of Cabral. However, he too faltered at the sight of the Zamorin. The consecutive retreats made the King of Portugal indignant. The king sent Vasco Da Gama, who bombed Calicut and destroyed the Arab trading posts. This invited the anger of the Zamorin, who declared a war against the Kochi Raja.

 

The war between Calicut and Cochin began on 1 March 1503. However, the oncoming monsoons and the arrival of a small Portuguese fleet under Francisco and Afonso de Albuquerque alarmed the Zamorin, and he called back his army. The Zamorin resorted to a retreat also because the revered festival of Onam was near, and the Zamorin intended to keep the auspicious day holy. This led to a triumph for the king of Kochi, who was later re-established in the possession of his kingdom. However, much of the kingdom was burnt and destroyed by the Zamorins.

 

After securing the king in his throne, the Portuguese got permission to build a fort – Fort Kochi (Fort Emmanuel) (after the reigning king of Portugal) - surrounding the Portuguese factory, in order to protect it from any further attacks. The entire work was commissioned by the Cochin Raja, who supplied workers and material. The Raja continued to rule with the help of the Portuguese. Meanwhile, the Portuguese secretly tried to enter into an alliance with the Zamorins. A few later attempts by the Zamorin at conquering the Kochi port was thwarted by the Cochin Raja with the help of the Portuguese. Slowly, the Portuguese armory at Kochi was increased, with the presumed notion of helping the raja protect Kochi. However, the measured led to decrease in the power of the Cochin Raja, and an increase in the Portuguese influence. From 1503 to 1663, Kochi was ruled by Portugal through the namesake Cochin Raja. Kochi remained the capital of Portuguese India till 1510. In 1530, Saint Francis Xavier arrived and founded a Christian mission. This Portuguese period was difficult for the Jews installed in the region, since the Inquisition was active in Portuguese India. Kochi hosted the grave of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese viceroy, who was buried at St. Francis Church until his remains were returned to Portugal in 1539. Soon after the time of Albuquerque, the Portuguese rule in Kerala declined. The failure is attributed to several factors like intermarriages, forcible conversions, religious persecution etc.

 

DUTCH PERIOD (1663-1773)

The Portuguese rule was followed by that of the Dutch, who had by then conquered Quilon, after various encounters with the Portuguese and their allies. Discontented members of the Cochin Royal family called on the assistance of the Dutch for help in overthrowing the Cochin Raja. The Dutch successfully landed at Njarakal and headed on to capture the fort at Pallippuram, which they handed over to the Zamorin.

 

MYSORE INVASION

The 1773 conquest of the Mysore King Hyder Ali in the Malabar region descended to Kochi. The Kochi Raja had to pay a subsidy of one hundred thousand of Ikkeri Pagodas (equalling 400,000 modern rupees). Later on, in 1776, Haider captured Trichur, which was under the Kingdom of Kochi. Thus, the Raja was forced to become a tributary of Mysore and to pay a nuzzar of 100,000 of pagodas and 4 elephants and annual tribute of 30,000 pagodas. The hereditary Prime Ministership of Cochin came to an end during this period.

 

BRITISH PERIOD (1814–1947)

In 1814 according to the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, the islands of Kochi, including Fort Kochi and its territory were ceded to the United Kingdom in exchange for the island of Banca. Even prior to the signing of the treaty, there are evidence of English residents in Kochi. Towards the early 20th century, trade at the port had increased substantially, and the need to develop the port was greatly felt. Harbour Engineer Robert Bristow, was thus brought to Cochin in 1920 under the direction of Lord Willingdon, then the Governor of Madras. In a span of 21 years, he had transformed Cochin as the safest harbour in the peninsula, where ships berthed alongside the newly reclaimed inner harbour equipped with a long array of steam cranes. Meanwhile, in 1866, Fort Cochin was made a municipality, and its first Municipal Council election to a board of 18 members was conducted in 1883. The Maharajah of Cochin, in 1896 initiated local administration, by forming town councils in Mattancherry and Ernakulam. In 1925, Kochi legislative assembly was constituted due to public pressure on the state. The assembly consisted of 45 members, 10 of who were officially nominated. Thottakkattu Madhaviamma became the first woman to be a member of any legislature in India.

 

POST INDEPENDENCE ERA

In 1947, India gained independence from the British colonial rule. Cochin was the first princely state to join the Indian Union willingly. Post independence, E. Ikkanda Warrier became the first Prime Minister of Kochi. K. P. Madhavan Nair, P.T Jacob, C. Achutha Menon, Panampilly Govinda Menon were few of the other stalwarts who were in the forefront of the democratic movements. Then in 1949, Travancore-Cochin state came into being by the merger of Cochin and Travancore, with Parur T. K. Narayana Pillai as the first chief minister. Travancore-Cochin, was in turn merged with the Malabar district of the Madras State. Finally, the Government of India's 1 November 1956 States Reorganisation Act inaugurated a new state – Kerala – incorporating Travancore-Cochin, Malabar District, and the taluk of Kasargod, South Kanara. On 9 July 1960, the Mattancherry council passed a resolution that was forwarded to the government, requesting the formation of a Municipal Corporation by combining the existing municipalities of Fort Kochi, Mattancherry and Ernakulam. The proposal was condemned by the Fort Kochi municipality. However, the Ernakulam municipality welcomed the proposal, suggesting the inclusion of more suburban areas in the amalgamated Corporation. Major Balagangadhara Menon, the then Director of Local Bodies was appointed by the government to study the feasibility of the suggested merger. And based on the report submitted by him, the Kerala Legislative Assembly approved the formation of the Corporation. Thus, on 1 November 1967, exactly 11 years since the conception of the state of Kerala, the corporation of Cochin came into existence, by the merger of the municipalities of Ernakulam, Mattancherry and Fort Kochi, along with that of the Willingdon Island and four panchayats viz. Palluruthy, Vennala, Vyttila and Edappally and the small islands of Gundu and Ramanthuruth.

 

WIKIPEDIA

A fungus (pl.: fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one of the traditional eukaryotic kingdoms, along with Animalia, Plantae and either Protista or Protozoa and Chromista.

 

A characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria, and some protists is chitin in their cell walls. Fungi, like animals, are heterotrophs; they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, typically by secreting digestive enzymes into their environment. Fungi do not photosynthesize. Growth is their means of mobility, except for spores (a few of which are flagellated), which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems. These and other differences place fungi in a single group of related organisms, named the Eumycota (true fungi or Eumycetes), that share a common ancestor (i.e. they form a monophyletic group), an interpretation that is also strongly supported by molecular phylogenetics. This fungal group is distinct from the structurally similar myxomycetes (slime molds) and oomycetes (water molds). The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology (from the Greek μύκης mykes, mushroom). In the past mycology was regarded as a branch of botany, although it is now known that fungi are genetically more closely related to animals than to plants.

 

Abundant worldwide, most fungi are inconspicuous because of the small size of their structures, and their cryptic lifestyles in soil or on dead matter. Fungi include symbionts of plants, animals, or other fungi and also parasites. They may become noticeable when fruiting, either as mushrooms or as molds. Fungi perform an essential role in the decomposition of organic matter and have fundamental roles in nutrient cycling and exchange in the environment. They have long been used as a direct source of human food, in the form of mushrooms and truffles; as a leavening agent for bread; and in the fermentation of various food products, such as wine, beer, and soy sauce. Since the 1940s, fungi have been used for the production of antibiotics, and, more recently, various enzymes produced by fungi are used industrially and in detergents. Fungi are also used as biological pesticides to control weeds, plant diseases, and insect pests. Many species produce bioactive compounds called mycotoxins, such as alkaloids and polyketides, that are toxic to animals, including humans. The fruiting structures of a few species contain psychotropic compounds and are consumed recreationally or in traditional spiritual ceremonies. Fungi can break down manufactured materials and buildings, and become significant pathogens of humans and other animals. Losses of crops due to fungal diseases (e.g., rice blast disease) or food spoilage can have a large impact on human food supplies and local economies.

 

The fungus kingdom encompasses an enormous diversity of taxa with varied ecologies, life cycle strategies, and morphologies ranging from unicellular aquatic chytrids to large mushrooms. However, little is known of the true biodiversity of the fungus kingdom, which has been estimated at 2.2 million to 3.8 million species. Of these, only about 148,000 have been described, with over 8,000 species known to be detrimental to plants and at least 300 that can be pathogenic to humans. Ever since the pioneering 18th and 19th century taxonomical works of Carl Linnaeus, Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, and Elias Magnus Fries, fungi have been classified according to their morphology (e.g., characteristics such as spore color or microscopic features) or physiology. Advances in molecular genetics have opened the way for DNA analysis to be incorporated into taxonomy, which has sometimes challenged the historical groupings based on morphology and other traits. Phylogenetic studies published in the first decade of the 21st century have helped reshape the classification within the fungi kingdom, which is divided into one subkingdom, seven phyla, and ten subphyla.

 

Etymology

The English word fungus is directly adopted from the Latin fungus (mushroom), used in the writings of Horace and Pliny. This in turn is derived from the Greek word sphongos (σφόγγος 'sponge'), which refers to the macroscopic structures and morphology of mushrooms and molds; the root is also used in other languages, such as the German Schwamm ('sponge') and Schimmel ('mold').

 

The word mycology is derived from the Greek mykes (μύκης 'mushroom') and logos (λόγος 'discourse'). It denotes the scientific study of fungi. The Latin adjectival form of "mycology" (mycologicæ) appeared as early as 1796 in a book on the subject by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon. The word appeared in English as early as 1824 in a book by Robert Kaye Greville. In 1836 the English naturalist Miles Joseph Berkeley's publication The English Flora of Sir James Edward Smith, Vol. 5. also refers to mycology as the study of fungi.

 

A group of all the fungi present in a particular region is known as mycobiota (plural noun, no singular). The term mycota is often used for this purpose, but many authors use it as a synonym of Fungi. The word funga has been proposed as a less ambiguous term morphologically similar to fauna and flora. The Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in August 2021 asked that the phrase fauna and flora be replaced by fauna, flora, and funga.

 

Characteristics

 

Fungal hyphae cells

Hyphal wall

Septum

Mitochondrion

Vacuole

Ergosterol crystal

Ribosome

Nucleus

Endoplasmic reticulum

Lipid body

Plasma membrane

Spitzenkörper

Golgi apparatus

 

Fungal cell cycle showing Dikaryons typical of Higher Fungi

Before the introduction of molecular methods for phylogenetic analysis, taxonomists considered fungi to be members of the plant kingdom because of similarities in lifestyle: both fungi and plants are mainly immobile, and have similarities in general morphology and growth habitat. Although inaccurate, the common misconception that fungi are plants persists among the general public due to their historical classification, as well as several similarities. Like plants, fungi often grow in soil and, in the case of mushrooms, form conspicuous fruit bodies, which sometimes resemble plants such as mosses. The fungi are now considered a separate kingdom, distinct from both plants and animals, from which they appear to have diverged around one billion years ago (around the start of the Neoproterozoic Era). Some morphological, biochemical, and genetic features are shared with other organisms, while others are unique to the fungi, clearly separating them from the other kingdoms:

 

With other eukaryotes: Fungal cells contain membrane-bound nuclei with chromosomes that contain DNA with noncoding regions called introns and coding regions called exons. Fungi have membrane-bound cytoplasmic organelles such as mitochondria, sterol-containing membranes, and ribosomes of the 80S type. They have a characteristic range of soluble carbohydrates and storage compounds, including sugar alcohols (e.g., mannitol), disaccharides, (e.g., trehalose), and polysaccharides (e.g., glycogen, which is also found in animals).

With animals: Fungi lack chloroplasts and are heterotrophic organisms and so require preformed organic compounds as energy sources.

With plants: Fungi have a cell wall and vacuoles. They reproduce by both sexual and asexual means, and like basal plant groups (such as ferns and mosses) produce spores. Similar to mosses and algae, fungi typically have haploid nuclei.

With euglenoids and bacteria: Higher fungi, euglenoids, and some bacteria produce the amino acid L-lysine in specific biosynthesis steps, called the α-aminoadipate pathway.

The cells of most fungi grow as tubular, elongated, and thread-like (filamentous) structures called hyphae, which may contain multiple nuclei and extend by growing at their tips. Each tip contains a set of aggregated vesicles—cellular structures consisting of proteins, lipids, and other organic molecules—called the Spitzenkörper. Both fungi and oomycetes grow as filamentous hyphal cells. In contrast, similar-looking organisms, such as filamentous green algae, grow by repeated cell division within a chain of cells. There are also single-celled fungi (yeasts) that do not form hyphae, and some fungi have both hyphal and yeast forms.

In common with some plant and animal species, more than one hundred fungal species display bioluminescence.

Unique features:

 

Some species grow as unicellular yeasts that reproduce by budding or fission. Dimorphic fungi can switch between a yeast phase and a hyphal phase in response to environmental conditions.

The fungal cell wall is made of a chitin-glucan complex; while glucans are also found in plants and chitin in the exoskeleton of arthropods, fungi are the only organisms that combine these two structural molecules in their cell wall. Unlike those of plants and oomycetes, fungal cell walls do not contain cellulose.

A whitish fan or funnel-shaped mushroom growing at the base of a tree.

Omphalotus nidiformis, a bioluminescent mushroom

Most fungi lack an efficient system for the long-distance transport of water and nutrients, such as the xylem and phloem in many plants. To overcome this limitation, some fungi, such as Armillaria, form rhizomorphs, which resemble and perform functions similar to the roots of plants. As eukaryotes, fungi possess a biosynthetic pathway for producing terpenes that uses mevalonic acid and pyrophosphate as chemical building blocks. Plants and some other organisms have an additional terpene biosynthesis pathway in their chloroplasts, a structure that fungi and animals do not have. Fungi produce several secondary metabolites that are similar or identical in structure to those made by plants. Many of the plant and fungal enzymes that make these compounds differ from each other in sequence and other characteristics, which indicates separate origins and convergent evolution of these enzymes in the fungi and plants.

 

Diversity

Fungi have a worldwide distribution, and grow in a wide range of habitats, including extreme environments such as deserts or areas with high salt concentrations or ionizing radiation, as well as in deep sea sediments. Some can survive the intense UV and cosmic radiation encountered during space travel. Most grow in terrestrial environments, though several species live partly or solely in aquatic habitats, such as the chytrid fungi Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and B. salamandrivorans, parasites that have been responsible for a worldwide decline in amphibian populations. These organisms spend part of their life cycle as a motile zoospore, enabling them to propel itself through water and enter their amphibian host. Other examples of aquatic fungi include those living in hydrothermal areas of the ocean.

 

As of 2020, around 148,000 species of fungi have been described by taxonomists, but the global biodiversity of the fungus kingdom is not fully understood. A 2017 estimate suggests there may be between 2.2 and 3.8 million species The number of new fungi species discovered yearly has increased from 1,000 to 1,500 per year about 10 years ago, to about 2000 with a peak of more than 2,500 species in 2016. In the year 2019, 1882 new species of fungi were described, and it was estimated that more than 90% of fungi remain unknown The following year, 2905 new species were described—the highest annual record of new fungus names. In mycology, species have historically been distinguished by a variety of methods and concepts. Classification based on morphological characteristics, such as the size and shape of spores or fruiting structures, has traditionally dominated fungal taxonomy. Species may also be distinguished by their biochemical and physiological characteristics, such as their ability to metabolize certain biochemicals, or their reaction to chemical tests. The biological species concept discriminates species based on their ability to mate. The application of molecular tools, such as DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis, to study diversity has greatly enhanced the resolution and added robustness to estimates of genetic diversity within various taxonomic groups.

 

Mycology

Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the systematic study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy, and their use to humans as a source of medicine, food, and psychotropic substances consumed for religious purposes, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning or infection. The field of phytopathology, the study of plant diseases, is closely related because many plant pathogens are fungi.

 

The use of fungi by humans dates back to prehistory; Ötzi the Iceman, a well-preserved mummy of a 5,300-year-old Neolithic man found frozen in the Austrian Alps, carried two species of polypore mushrooms that may have been used as tinder (Fomes fomentarius), or for medicinal purposes (Piptoporus betulinus). Ancient peoples have used fungi as food sources—often unknowingly—for millennia, in the preparation of leavened bread and fermented juices. Some of the oldest written records contain references to the destruction of crops that were probably caused by pathogenic fungi.

 

History

Mycology became a systematic science after the development of the microscope in the 17th century. Although fungal spores were first observed by Giambattista della Porta in 1588, the seminal work in the development of mycology is considered to be the publication of Pier Antonio Micheli's 1729 work Nova plantarum genera. Micheli not only observed spores but also showed that, under the proper conditions, they could be induced into growing into the same species of fungi from which they originated. Extending the use of the binomial system of nomenclature introduced by Carl Linnaeus in his Species plantarum (1753), the Dutch Christiaan Hendrik Persoon (1761–1836) established the first classification of mushrooms with such skill as to be considered a founder of modern mycology. Later, Elias Magnus Fries (1794–1878) further elaborated the classification of fungi, using spore color and microscopic characteristics, methods still used by taxonomists today. Other notable early contributors to mycology in the 17th–19th and early 20th centuries include Miles Joseph Berkeley, August Carl Joseph Corda, Anton de Bary, the brothers Louis René and Charles Tulasne, Arthur H. R. Buller, Curtis G. Lloyd, and Pier Andrea Saccardo. In the 20th and 21st centuries, advances in biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, biotechnology, DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis has provided new insights into fungal relationships and biodiversity, and has challenged traditional morphology-based groupings in fungal taxonomy.

 

Morphology

Microscopic structures

Monochrome micrograph showing Penicillium hyphae as long, transparent, tube-like structures a few micrometres across. Conidiophores branch out laterally from the hyphae, terminating in bundles of phialides on which spherical condidiophores are arranged like beads on a string. Septa are faintly visible as dark lines crossing the hyphae.

An environmental isolate of Penicillium

Hypha

Conidiophore

Phialide

Conidia

Septa

Most fungi grow as hyphae, which are cylindrical, thread-like structures 2–10 µm in diameter and up to several centimeters in length. Hyphae grow at their tips (apices); new hyphae are typically formed by emergence of new tips along existing hyphae by a process called branching, or occasionally growing hyphal tips fork, giving rise to two parallel-growing hyphae. Hyphae also sometimes fuse when they come into contact, a process called hyphal fusion (or anastomosis). These growth processes lead to the development of a mycelium, an interconnected network of hyphae. Hyphae can be either septate or coenocytic. Septate hyphae are divided into compartments separated by cross walls (internal cell walls, called septa, that are formed at right angles to the cell wall giving the hypha its shape), with each compartment containing one or more nuclei; coenocytic hyphae are not compartmentalized. Septa have pores that allow cytoplasm, organelles, and sometimes nuclei to pass through; an example is the dolipore septum in fungi of the phylum Basidiomycota. Coenocytic hyphae are in essence multinucleate supercells.

 

Many species have developed specialized hyphal structures for nutrient uptake from living hosts; examples include haustoria in plant-parasitic species of most fungal phyla,[63] and arbuscules of several mycorrhizal fungi, which penetrate into the host cells to consume nutrients.

 

Although fungi are opisthokonts—a grouping of evolutionarily related organisms broadly characterized by a single posterior flagellum—all phyla except for the chytrids have lost their posterior flagella. Fungi are unusual among the eukaryotes in having a cell wall that, in addition to glucans (e.g., β-1,3-glucan) and other typical components, also contains the biopolymer chitin.

 

Macroscopic structures

Fungal mycelia can become visible to the naked eye, for example, on various surfaces and substrates, such as damp walls and spoiled food, where they are commonly called molds. Mycelia grown on solid agar media in laboratory petri dishes are usually referred to as colonies. These colonies can exhibit growth shapes and colors (due to spores or pigmentation) that can be used as diagnostic features in the identification of species or groups. Some individual fungal colonies can reach extraordinary dimensions and ages as in the case of a clonal colony of Armillaria solidipes, which extends over an area of more than 900 ha (3.5 square miles), with an estimated age of nearly 9,000 years.

 

The apothecium—a specialized structure important in sexual reproduction in the ascomycetes—is a cup-shaped fruit body that is often macroscopic and holds the hymenium, a layer of tissue containing the spore-bearing cells. The fruit bodies of the basidiomycetes (basidiocarps) and some ascomycetes can sometimes grow very large, and many are well known as mushrooms.

 

Growth and physiology

Time-lapse photography sequence of a peach becoming progressively discolored and disfigured

Mold growth covering a decaying peach. The frames were taken approximately 12 hours apart over a period of six days.

The growth of fungi as hyphae on or in solid substrates or as single cells in aquatic environments is adapted for the efficient extraction of nutrients, because these growth forms have high surface area to volume ratios. Hyphae are specifically adapted for growth on solid surfaces, and to invade substrates and tissues. They can exert large penetrative mechanical forces; for example, many plant pathogens, including Magnaporthe grisea, form a structure called an appressorium that evolved to puncture plant tissues.[71] The pressure generated by the appressorium, directed against the plant epidermis, can exceed 8 megapascals (1,200 psi).[71] The filamentous fungus Paecilomyces lilacinus uses a similar structure to penetrate the eggs of nematodes.

 

The mechanical pressure exerted by the appressorium is generated from physiological processes that increase intracellular turgor by producing osmolytes such as glycerol. Adaptations such as these are complemented by hydrolytic enzymes secreted into the environment to digest large organic molecules—such as polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids—into smaller molecules that may then be absorbed as nutrients. The vast majority of filamentous fungi grow in a polar fashion (extending in one direction) by elongation at the tip (apex) of the hypha. Other forms of fungal growth include intercalary extension (longitudinal expansion of hyphal compartments that are below the apex) as in the case of some endophytic fungi, or growth by volume expansion during the development of mushroom stipes and other large organs. Growth of fungi as multicellular structures consisting of somatic and reproductive cells—a feature independently evolved in animals and plants—has several functions, including the development of fruit bodies for dissemination of sexual spores (see above) and biofilms for substrate colonization and intercellular communication.

 

Fungi are traditionally considered heterotrophs, organisms that rely solely on carbon fixed by other organisms for metabolism. Fungi have evolved a high degree of metabolic versatility that allows them to use a diverse range of organic substrates for growth, including simple compounds such as nitrate, ammonia, acetate, or ethanol. In some species the pigment melanin may play a role in extracting energy from ionizing radiation, such as gamma radiation. This form of "radiotrophic" growth has been described for only a few species, the effects on growth rates are small, and the underlying biophysical and biochemical processes are not well known. This process might bear similarity to CO2 fixation via visible light, but instead uses ionizing radiation as a source of energy.

 

Reproduction

Two thickly stemmed brownish mushrooms with scales on the upper surface, growing out of a tree trunk

Polyporus squamosus

Fungal reproduction is complex, reflecting the differences in lifestyles and genetic makeup within this diverse kingdom of organisms. It is estimated that a third of all fungi reproduce using more than one method of propagation; for example, reproduction may occur in two well-differentiated stages within the life cycle of a species, the teleomorph (sexual reproduction) and the anamorph (asexual reproduction). Environmental conditions trigger genetically determined developmental states that lead to the creation of specialized structures for sexual or asexual reproduction. These structures aid reproduction by efficiently dispersing spores or spore-containing propagules.

 

Asexual reproduction

Asexual reproduction occurs via vegetative spores (conidia) or through mycelial fragmentation. Mycelial fragmentation occurs when a fungal mycelium separates into pieces, and each component grows into a separate mycelium. Mycelial fragmentation and vegetative spores maintain clonal populations adapted to a specific niche, and allow more rapid dispersal than sexual reproduction. The "Fungi imperfecti" (fungi lacking the perfect or sexual stage) or Deuteromycota comprise all the species that lack an observable sexual cycle. Deuteromycota (alternatively known as Deuteromycetes, conidial fungi, or mitosporic fungi) is not an accepted taxonomic clade and is now taken to mean simply fungi that lack a known sexual stage.

 

Sexual reproduction

See also: Mating in fungi and Sexual selection in fungi

Sexual reproduction with meiosis has been directly observed in all fungal phyla except Glomeromycota (genetic analysis suggests meiosis in Glomeromycota as well). It differs in many aspects from sexual reproduction in animals or plants. Differences also exist between fungal groups and can be used to discriminate species by morphological differences in sexual structures and reproductive strategies. Mating experiments between fungal isolates may identify species on the basis of biological species concepts. The major fungal groupings have initially been delineated based on the morphology of their sexual structures and spores; for example, the spore-containing structures, asci and basidia, can be used in the identification of ascomycetes and basidiomycetes, respectively. Fungi employ two mating systems: heterothallic species allow mating only between individuals of the opposite mating type, whereas homothallic species can mate, and sexually reproduce, with any other individual or itself.

 

Most fungi have both a haploid and a diploid stage in their life cycles. In sexually reproducing fungi, compatible individuals may combine by fusing their hyphae together into an interconnected network; this process, anastomosis, is required for the initiation of the sexual cycle. Many ascomycetes and basidiomycetes go through a dikaryotic stage, in which the nuclei inherited from the two parents do not combine immediately after cell fusion, but remain separate in the hyphal cells (see heterokaryosis).

 

In ascomycetes, dikaryotic hyphae of the hymenium (the spore-bearing tissue layer) form a characteristic hook (crozier) at the hyphal septum. During cell division, the formation of the hook ensures proper distribution of the newly divided nuclei into the apical and basal hyphal compartments. An ascus (plural asci) is then formed, in which karyogamy (nuclear fusion) occurs. Asci are embedded in an ascocarp, or fruiting body. Karyogamy in the asci is followed immediately by meiosis and the production of ascospores. After dispersal, the ascospores may germinate and form a new haploid mycelium.

 

Sexual reproduction in basidiomycetes is similar to that of the ascomycetes. Compatible haploid hyphae fuse to produce a dikaryotic mycelium. However, the dikaryotic phase is more extensive in the basidiomycetes, often also present in the vegetatively growing mycelium. A specialized anatomical structure, called a clamp connection, is formed at each hyphal septum. As with the structurally similar hook in the ascomycetes, the clamp connection in the basidiomycetes is required for controlled transfer of nuclei during cell division, to maintain the dikaryotic stage with two genetically different nuclei in each hyphal compartment. A basidiocarp is formed in which club-like structures known as basidia generate haploid basidiospores after karyogamy and meiosis. The most commonly known basidiocarps are mushrooms, but they may also take other forms (see Morphology section).

 

In fungi formerly classified as Zygomycota, haploid hyphae of two individuals fuse, forming a gametangium, a specialized cell structure that becomes a fertile gamete-producing cell. The gametangium develops into a zygospore, a thick-walled spore formed by the union of gametes. When the zygospore germinates, it undergoes meiosis, generating new haploid hyphae, which may then form asexual sporangiospores. These sporangiospores allow the fungus to rapidly disperse and germinate into new genetically identical haploid fungal mycelia.

 

Spore dispersal

The spores of most of the researched species of fungi are transported by wind. Such species often produce dry or hydrophobic spores that do not absorb water and are readily scattered by raindrops, for example. In other species, both asexual and sexual spores or sporangiospores are often actively dispersed by forcible ejection from their reproductive structures. This ejection ensures exit of the spores from the reproductive structures as well as traveling through the air over long distances.

 

Specialized mechanical and physiological mechanisms, as well as spore surface structures (such as hydrophobins), enable efficient spore ejection. For example, the structure of the spore-bearing cells in some ascomycete species is such that the buildup of substances affecting cell volume and fluid balance enables the explosive discharge of spores into the air. The forcible discharge of single spores termed ballistospores involves formation of a small drop of water (Buller's drop), which upon contact with the spore leads to its projectile release with an initial acceleration of more than 10,000 g; the net result is that the spore is ejected 0.01–0.02 cm, sufficient distance for it to fall through the gills or pores into the air below. Other fungi, like the puffballs, rely on alternative mechanisms for spore release, such as external mechanical forces. The hydnoid fungi (tooth fungi) produce spores on pendant, tooth-like or spine-like projections. The bird's nest fungi use the force of falling water drops to liberate the spores from cup-shaped fruiting bodies. Another strategy is seen in the stinkhorns, a group of fungi with lively colors and putrid odor that attract insects to disperse their spores.

 

Homothallism

In homothallic sexual reproduction, two haploid nuclei derived from the same individual fuse to form a zygote that can then undergo meiosis. Homothallic fungi include species with an Aspergillus-like asexual stage (anamorphs) occurring in numerous different genera, several species of the ascomycete genus Cochliobolus, and the ascomycete Pneumocystis jirovecii. The earliest mode of sexual reproduction among eukaryotes was likely homothallism, that is, self-fertile unisexual reproduction.

 

Other sexual processes

Besides regular sexual reproduction with meiosis, certain fungi, such as those in the genera Penicillium and Aspergillus, may exchange genetic material via parasexual processes, initiated by anastomosis between hyphae and plasmogamy of fungal cells. The frequency and relative importance of parasexual events is unclear and may be lower than other sexual processes. It is known to play a role in intraspecific hybridization and is likely required for hybridization between species, which has been associated with major events in fungal evolution.

 

Evolution

In contrast to plants and animals, the early fossil record of the fungi is meager. Factors that likely contribute to the under-representation of fungal species among fossils include the nature of fungal fruiting bodies, which are soft, fleshy, and easily degradable tissues and the microscopic dimensions of most fungal structures, which therefore are not readily evident. Fungal fossils are difficult to distinguish from those of other microbes, and are most easily identified when they resemble extant fungi. Often recovered from a permineralized plant or animal host, these samples are typically studied by making thin-section preparations that can be examined with light microscopy or transmission electron microscopy. Researchers study compression fossils by dissolving the surrounding matrix with acid and then using light or scanning electron microscopy to examine surface details.

 

The earliest fossils possessing features typical of fungi date to the Paleoproterozoic era, some 2,400 million years ago (Ma); these multicellular benthic organisms had filamentous structures capable of anastomosis. Other studies (2009) estimate the arrival of fungal organisms at about 760–1060 Ma on the basis of comparisons of the rate of evolution in closely related groups. The oldest fossilizied mycelium to be identified from its molecular composition is between 715 and 810 million years old. For much of the Paleozoic Era (542–251 Ma), the fungi appear to have been aquatic and consisted of organisms similar to the extant chytrids in having flagellum-bearing spores. The evolutionary adaptation from an aquatic to a terrestrial lifestyle necessitated a diversification of ecological strategies for obtaining nutrients, including parasitism, saprobism, and the development of mutualistic relationships such as mycorrhiza and lichenization. Studies suggest that the ancestral ecological state of the Ascomycota was saprobism, and that independent lichenization events have occurred multiple times.

 

In May 2019, scientists reported the discovery of a fossilized fungus, named Ourasphaira giraldae, in the Canadian Arctic, that may have grown on land a billion years ago, well before plants were living on land. Pyritized fungus-like microfossils preserved in the basal Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation (~635 Ma) have been reported in South China. Earlier, it had been presumed that the fungi colonized the land during the Cambrian (542–488.3 Ma), also long before land plants. Fossilized hyphae and spores recovered from the Ordovician of Wisconsin (460 Ma) resemble modern-day Glomerales, and existed at a time when the land flora likely consisted of only non-vascular bryophyte-like plants. Prototaxites, which was probably a fungus or lichen, would have been the tallest organism of the late Silurian and early Devonian. Fungal fossils do not become common and uncontroversial until the early Devonian (416–359.2 Ma), when they occur abundantly in the Rhynie chert, mostly as Zygomycota and Chytridiomycota. At about this same time, approximately 400 Ma, the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota diverged, and all modern classes of fungi were present by the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian, 318.1–299 Ma).

 

Lichens formed a component of the early terrestrial ecosystems, and the estimated age of the oldest terrestrial lichen fossil is 415 Ma; this date roughly corresponds to the age of the oldest known sporocarp fossil, a Paleopyrenomycites species found in the Rhynie Chert. The oldest fossil with microscopic features resembling modern-day basidiomycetes is Palaeoancistrus, found permineralized with a fern from the Pennsylvanian. Rare in the fossil record are the Homobasidiomycetes (a taxon roughly equivalent to the mushroom-producing species of the Agaricomycetes). Two amber-preserved specimens provide evidence that the earliest known mushroom-forming fungi (the extinct species Archaeomarasmius leggetti) appeared during the late Cretaceous, 90 Ma.

 

Some time after the Permian–Triassic extinction event (251.4 Ma), a fungal spike (originally thought to be an extraordinary abundance of fungal spores in sediments) formed, suggesting that fungi were the dominant life form at this time, representing nearly 100% of the available fossil record for this period. However, the relative proportion of fungal spores relative to spores formed by algal species is difficult to assess, the spike did not appear worldwide, and in many places it did not fall on the Permian–Triassic boundary.

 

Sixty-five million years ago, immediately after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that famously killed off most dinosaurs, there was a dramatic increase in evidence of fungi; apparently the death of most plant and animal species led to a huge fungal bloom like "a massive compost heap".

 

Taxonomy

Although commonly included in botany curricula and textbooks, fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants and are placed with the animals in the monophyletic group of opisthokonts. Analyses using molecular phylogenetics support a monophyletic origin of fungi. The taxonomy of fungi is in a state of constant flux, especially due to research based on DNA comparisons. These current phylogenetic analyses often overturn classifications based on older and sometimes less discriminative methods based on morphological features and biological species concepts obtained from experimental matings.

 

There is no unique generally accepted system at the higher taxonomic levels and there are frequent name changes at every level, from species upwards. Efforts among researchers are now underway to establish and encourage usage of a unified and more consistent nomenclature. Until relatively recent (2012) changes to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants, fungal species could also have multiple scientific names depending on their life cycle and mode (sexual or asexual) of reproduction. Web sites such as Index Fungorum and MycoBank are officially recognized nomenclatural repositories and list current names of fungal species (with cross-references to older synonyms).

 

The 2007 classification of Kingdom Fungi is the result of a large-scale collaborative research effort involving dozens of mycologists and other scientists working on fungal taxonomy. It recognizes seven phyla, two of which—the Ascomycota and the Basidiomycota—are contained within a branch representing subkingdom Dikarya, the most species rich and familiar group, including all the mushrooms, most food-spoilage molds, most plant pathogenic fungi, and the beer, wine, and bread yeasts. The accompanying cladogram depicts the major fungal taxa and their relationship to opisthokont and unikont organisms, based on the work of Philippe Silar, "The Mycota: A Comprehensive Treatise on Fungi as Experimental Systems for Basic and Applied Research" and Tedersoo et al. 2018. The lengths of the branches are not proportional to evolutionary distances.

 

The major phyla (sometimes called divisions) of fungi have been classified mainly on the basis of characteristics of their sexual reproductive structures. As of 2019, nine major lineages have been identified: Opisthosporidia, Chytridiomycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Zoopagomycotina, Mucoromycota, Glomeromycota, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota.

 

Phylogenetic analysis has demonstrated that the Microsporidia, unicellular parasites of animals and protists, are fairly recent and highly derived endobiotic fungi (living within the tissue of another species). Previously considered to be "primitive" protozoa, they are now thought to be either a basal branch of the Fungi, or a sister group–each other's closest evolutionary relative.

 

The Chytridiomycota are commonly known as chytrids. These fungi are distributed worldwide. Chytrids and their close relatives Neocallimastigomycota and Blastocladiomycota (below) are the only fungi with active motility, producing zoospores that are capable of active movement through aqueous phases with a single flagellum, leading early taxonomists to classify them as protists. Molecular phylogenies, inferred from rRNA sequences in ribosomes, suggest that the Chytrids are a basal group divergent from the other fungal phyla, consisting of four major clades with suggestive evidence for paraphyly or possibly polyphyly.

 

The Blastocladiomycota were previously considered a taxonomic clade within the Chytridiomycota. Molecular data and ultrastructural characteristics, however, place the Blastocladiomycota as a sister clade to the Zygomycota, Glomeromycota, and Dikarya (Ascomycota and Basidiomycota). The blastocladiomycetes are saprotrophs, feeding on decomposing organic matter, and they are parasites of all eukaryotic groups. Unlike their close relatives, the chytrids, most of which exhibit zygotic meiosis, the blastocladiomycetes undergo sporic meiosis.

 

The Neocallimastigomycota were earlier placed in the phylum Chytridiomycota. Members of this small phylum are anaerobic organisms, living in the digestive system of larger herbivorous mammals and in other terrestrial and aquatic environments enriched in cellulose (e.g., domestic waste landfill sites). They lack mitochondria but contain hydrogenosomes of mitochondrial origin. As in the related chrytrids, neocallimastigomycetes form zoospores that are posteriorly uniflagellate or polyflagellate.

 

Microscopic view of a layer of translucent grayish cells, some containing small dark-color spheres

Arbuscular mycorrhiza seen under microscope. Flax root cortical cells containing paired arbuscules.

Cross-section of a cup-shaped structure showing locations of developing meiotic asci (upper edge of cup, left side, arrows pointing to two gray cells containing four and two small circles), sterile hyphae (upper edge of cup, right side, arrows pointing to white cells with a single small circle in them), and mature asci (upper edge of cup, pointing to two gray cells with eight small circles in them)

Diagram of an apothecium (the typical cup-like reproductive structure of Ascomycetes) showing sterile tissues as well as developing and mature asci.

Members of the Glomeromycota form arbuscular mycorrhizae, a form of mutualist symbiosis wherein fungal hyphae invade plant root cells and both species benefit from the resulting increased supply of nutrients. All known Glomeromycota species reproduce asexually. The symbiotic association between the Glomeromycota and plants is ancient, with evidence dating to 400 million years ago. Formerly part of the Zygomycota (commonly known as 'sugar' and 'pin' molds), the Glomeromycota were elevated to phylum status in 2001 and now replace the older phylum Zygomycota. Fungi that were placed in the Zygomycota are now being reassigned to the Glomeromycota, or the subphyla incertae sedis Mucoromycotina, Kickxellomycotina, the Zoopagomycotina and the Entomophthoromycotina. Some well-known examples of fungi formerly in the Zygomycota include black bread mold (Rhizopus stolonifer), and Pilobolus species, capable of ejecting spores several meters through the air. Medically relevant genera include Mucor, Rhizomucor, and Rhizopus.

 

The Ascomycota, commonly known as sac fungi or ascomycetes, constitute the largest taxonomic group within the Eumycota. These fungi form meiotic spores called ascospores, which are enclosed in a special sac-like structure called an ascus. This phylum includes morels, a few mushrooms and truffles, unicellular yeasts (e.g., of the genera Saccharomyces, Kluyveromyces, Pichia, and Candida), and many filamentous fungi living as saprotrophs, parasites, and mutualistic symbionts (e.g. lichens). Prominent and important genera of filamentous ascomycetes include Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, and Claviceps. Many ascomycete species have only been observed undergoing asexual reproduction (called anamorphic species), but analysis of molecular data has often been able to identify their closest teleomorphs in the Ascomycota. Because the products of meiosis are retained within the sac-like ascus, ascomycetes have been used for elucidating principles of genetics and heredity (e.g., Neurospora crassa).

 

Members of the Basidiomycota, commonly known as the club fungi or basidiomycetes, produce meiospores called basidiospores on club-like stalks called basidia. Most common mushrooms belong to this group, as well as rust and smut fungi, which are major pathogens of grains. Other important basidiomycetes include the maize pathogen Ustilago maydis, human commensal species of the genus Malassezia, and the opportunistic human pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans.

 

Fungus-like organisms

Because of similarities in morphology and lifestyle, the slime molds (mycetozoans, plasmodiophorids, acrasids, Fonticula and labyrinthulids, now in Amoebozoa, Rhizaria, Excavata, Opisthokonta and Stramenopiles, respectively), water molds (oomycetes) and hyphochytrids (both Stramenopiles) were formerly classified in the kingdom Fungi, in groups like Mastigomycotina, Gymnomycota and Phycomycetes. The slime molds were studied also as protozoans, leading to an ambiregnal, duplicated taxonomy.

 

Unlike true fungi, the cell walls of oomycetes contain cellulose and lack chitin. Hyphochytrids have both chitin and cellulose. Slime molds lack a cell wall during the assimilative phase (except labyrinthulids, which have a wall of scales), and take in nutrients by ingestion (phagocytosis, except labyrinthulids) rather than absorption (osmotrophy, as fungi, labyrinthulids, oomycetes and hyphochytrids). Neither water molds nor slime molds are closely related to the true fungi, and, therefore, taxonomists no longer group them in the kingdom Fungi. Nonetheless, studies of the oomycetes and myxomycetes are still often included in mycology textbooks and primary research literature.

 

The Eccrinales and Amoebidiales are opisthokont protists, previously thought to be zygomycete fungi. Other groups now in Opisthokonta (e.g., Corallochytrium, Ichthyosporea) were also at given time classified as fungi. The genus Blastocystis, now in Stramenopiles, was originally classified as a yeast. Ellobiopsis, now in Alveolata, was considered a chytrid. The bacteria were also included in fungi in some classifications, as the group Schizomycetes.

 

The Rozellida clade, including the "ex-chytrid" Rozella, is a genetically disparate group known mostly from environmental DNA sequences that is a sister group to fungi. Members of the group that have been isolated lack the chitinous cell wall that is characteristic of fungi. Alternatively, Rozella can be classified as a basal fungal group.

 

The nucleariids may be the next sister group to the eumycete clade, and as such could be included in an expanded fungal kingdom. Many Actinomycetales (Actinomycetota), a group with many filamentous bacteria, were also long believed to be fungi.

 

Ecology

Although often inconspicuous, fungi occur in every environment on Earth and play very important roles in most ecosystems. Along with bacteria, fungi are the major decomposers in most terrestrial (and some aquatic) ecosystems, and therefore play a critical role in biogeochemical cycles and in many food webs. As decomposers, they play an essential role in nutrient cycling, especially as saprotrophs and symbionts, degrading organic matter to inorganic molecules, which can then re-enter anabolic metabolic pathways in plants or other organisms.

 

Symbiosis

Many fungi have important symbiotic relationships with organisms from most if not all kingdoms. These interactions can be mutualistic or antagonistic in nature, or in the case of commensal fungi are of no apparent benefit or detriment to the host.

 

With plants

Mycorrhizal symbiosis between plants and fungi is one of the most well-known plant–fungus associations and is of significant importance for plant growth and persistence in many ecosystems; over 90% of all plant species engage in mycorrhizal relationships with fungi and are dependent upon this relationship for survival.

 

A microscopic view of blue-stained cells, some with dark wavy lines in them

The dark filaments are hyphae of the endophytic fungus Epichloë coenophiala in the intercellular spaces of tall fescue leaf sheath tissue

The mycorrhizal symbiosis is ancient, dating back to at least 400 million years. It often increases the plant's uptake of inorganic compounds, such as nitrate and phosphate from soils having low concentrations of these key plant nutrients. The fungal partners may also mediate plant-to-plant transfer of carbohydrates and other nutrients. Such mycorrhizal communities are called "common mycorrhizal networks". A special case of mycorrhiza is myco-heterotrophy, whereby the plant parasitizes the fungus, obtaining all of its nutrients from its fungal symbiont. Some fungal species inhabit the tissues inside roots, stems, and leaves, in which case they are called endophytes. Similar to mycorrhiza, endophytic colonization by fungi may benefit both symbionts; for example, endophytes of grasses impart to their host increased resistance to herbivores and other environmental stresses and receive food and shelter from the plant in return.

 

With algae and cyanobacteria

A green, leaf-like structure attached to a tree, with a pattern of ridges and depression on the bottom surface

The lichen Lobaria pulmonaria, a symbiosis of fungal, algal, and cyanobacterial species

Lichens are a symbiotic relationship between fungi and photosynthetic algae or cyanobacteria. The photosynthetic partner in the relationship is referred to in lichen terminology as a "photobiont". The fungal part of the relationship is composed mostly of various species of ascomycetes and a few basidiomycetes. Lichens occur in every ecosystem on all continents, play a key role in soil formation and the initiation of biological succession, and are prominent in some extreme environments, including polar, alpine, and semiarid desert regions. They are able to grow on inhospitable surfaces, including bare soil, rocks, tree bark, wood, shells, barnacles and leaves. As in mycorrhizas, the photobiont provides sugars and other carbohydrates via photosynthesis to the fungus, while the fungus provides minerals and water to the photobiont. The functions of both symbiotic organisms are so closely intertwined that they function almost as a single organism; in most cases the resulting organism differs greatly from the individual components. Lichenization is a common mode of nutrition for fungi; around 27% of known fungi—more than 19,400 species—are lichenized. Characteristics common to most lichens include obtaining organic carbon by photosynthesis, slow growth, small size, long life, long-lasting (seasonal) vegetative reproductive structures, mineral nutrition obtained largely from airborne sources, and greater tolerance of desiccation than most other photosynthetic organisms in the same habitat.

 

With insects

Many insects also engage in mutualistic relationships with fungi. Several groups of ants cultivate fungi in the order Chaetothyriales for several purposes: as a food source, as a structural component of their nests, and as a part of an ant/plant symbiosis in the domatia (tiny chambers in plants that house arthropods). Ambrosia beetles cultivate various species of fungi in the bark of trees that they infest. Likewise, females of several wood wasp species (genus Sirex) inject their eggs together with spores of the wood-rotting fungus Amylostereum areolatum into the sapwood of pine trees; the growth of the fungus provides ideal nutritional conditions for the development of the wasp larvae. At least one species of stingless bee has a relationship with a fungus in the genus Monascus, where the larvae consume and depend on fungus transferred from old to new nests. Termites on the African savannah are also known to cultivate fungi, and yeasts of the genera Candida and Lachancea inhabit the gut of a wide range of insects, including neuropterans, beetles, and cockroaches; it is not known whether these fungi benefit their hosts. Fungi growing in dead wood are essential for xylophagous insects (e.g. woodboring beetles). They deliver nutrients needed by xylophages to nutritionally scarce dead wood. Thanks to this nutritional enrichment the larvae of the woodboring insect is able to grow and develop to adulthood. The larvae of many families of fungicolous flies, particularly those within the superfamily Sciaroidea such as the Mycetophilidae and some Keroplatidae feed on fungal fruiting bodies and sterile mycorrhizae.

 

A thin brown stick positioned horizontally with roughly two dozen clustered orange-red leaves originating from a single point in the middle of the stick. These orange leaves are three to four times larger than the few other green leaves growing out of the stick, and are covered on the lower leaf surface with hundreds of tiny bumps. The background shows the green leaves and branches of neighboring shrubs.

The plant pathogen Puccinia magellanicum (calafate rust) causes the defect known as witch's broom, seen here on a barberry shrub in Chile.

 

Gram stain of Candida albicans from a vaginal swab from a woman with candidiasis, showing hyphae, and chlamydospores, which are 2–4 µm in diameter.

Many fungi are parasites on plants, animals (including humans), and other fungi. Serious pathogens of many cultivated plants causing extensive damage and losses to agriculture and forestry include the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, tree pathogens such as Ophiostoma ulmi and Ophiostoma novo-ulmi causing Dutch elm disease, Cryphonectria parasitica responsible for chestnut blight, and Phymatotrichopsis omnivora causing Texas Root Rot, and plant pathogens in the genera Fusarium, Ustilago, Alternaria, and Cochliobolus. Some carnivorous fungi, like Paecilomyces lilacinus, are predators of nematodes, which they capture using an array of specialized structures such as constricting rings or adhesive nets. Many fungi that are plant pathogens, such as Magnaporthe oryzae, can switch from being biotrophic (parasitic on living plants) to being necrotrophic (feeding on the dead tissues of plants they have killed). This same principle is applied to fungi-feeding parasites, including Asterotremella albida, which feeds on the fruit bodies of other fungi both while they are living and after they are dead.

 

Some fungi can cause serious diseases in humans, several of which may be fatal if untreated. These include aspergillosis, candidiasis, coccidioidomycosis, cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, mycetomas, and paracoccidioidomycosis. Furthermore, persons with immuno-deficiencies are particularly susceptible to disease by genera such as Aspergillus, Candida, Cryptoccocus, Histoplasma, and Pneumocystis. Other fungi can attack eyes, nails, hair, and especially skin, the so-called dermatophytic and keratinophilic fungi, and cause local infections such as ringworm and athlete's foot. Fungal spores are also a cause of allergies, and fungi from different taxonomic groups can evoke allergic reactions.

 

As targets of mycoparasites

Organisms that parasitize fungi are known as mycoparasitic organisms. About 300 species of fungi and fungus-like organisms, belonging to 13 classes and 113 genera, are used as biocontrol agents against plant fungal diseases. Fungi can also act as mycoparasites or antagonists of other fungi, such as Hypomyces chrysospermus, which grows on bolete mushrooms. Fungi can also become the target of infection by mycoviruses.

 

Communication

Main article: Mycorrhizal networks

There appears to be electrical communication between fungi in word-like components according to spiking characteristics.

 

Possible impact on climate

According to a study published in the academic journal Current Biology, fungi can soak from the atmosphere around 36% of global fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Mycotoxins

(6aR,9R)-N-((2R,5S,10aS,10bS)-5-benzyl-10b-hydroxy-2-methyl-3,6-dioxooctahydro-2H-oxazolo[3,2-a] pyrrolo[2,1-c]pyrazin-2-yl)-7-methyl-4,6,6a,7,8,9-hexahydroindolo[4,3-fg] quinoline-9-carboxamide

Ergotamine, a major mycotoxin produced by Claviceps species, which if ingested can cause gangrene, convulsions, and hallucinations

Many fungi produce biologically active compounds, several of which are toxic to animals or plants and are therefore called mycotoxins. Of particular relevance to humans are mycotoxins produced by molds causing food spoilage, and poisonous mushrooms (see above). Particularly infamous are the lethal amatoxins in some Amanita mushrooms, and ergot alkaloids, which have a long history of causing serious epidemics of ergotism (St Anthony's Fire) in people consuming rye or related cereals contaminated with sclerotia of the ergot fungus, Claviceps purpurea. Other notable mycotoxins include the aflatoxins, which are insidious liver toxins and highly carcinogenic metabolites produced by certain Aspergillus species often growing in or on grains and nuts consumed by humans, ochratoxins, patulin, and trichothecenes (e.g., T-2 mycotoxin) and fumonisins, which have significant impact on human food supplies or animal livestock.

 

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites (or natural products), and research has established the existence of biochemical pathways solely for the purpose of producing mycotoxins and other natural products in fungi. Mycotoxins may provide fitness benefits in terms of physiological adaptation, competition with other microbes and fungi, and protection from consumption (fungivory). Many fungal secondary metabolites (or derivatives) are used medically, as described under Human use below.

 

Pathogenic mechanisms

Ustilago maydis is a pathogenic plant fungus that causes smut disease in maize and teosinte. Plants have evolved efficient defense systems against pathogenic microbes such as U. maydis. A rapid defense reaction after pathogen attack is the oxidative burst where the plant produces reactive oxygen species at the site of the attempted invasion. U. maydis can respond to the oxidative burst with an oxidative stress response, regulated by the gene YAP1. The response protects U. maydis from the host defense, and is necessary for the pathogen's virulence. Furthermore, U. maydis has a well-established recombinational DNA repair system which acts during mitosis and meiosis. The system may assist the pathogen in surviving DNA damage arising from the host plant's oxidative defensive response to infection.

 

Cryptococcus neoformans is an encapsulated yeast that can live in both plants and animals. C. neoformans usually infects the lungs, where it is phagocytosed by alveolar macrophages. Some C. neoformans can survive inside macrophages, which appears to be the basis for latency, disseminated disease, and resistance to antifungal agents. One mechanism by which C. neoformans survives the hostile macrophage environment is by up-regulating the expression of genes involved in the oxidative stress response. Another mechanism involves meiosis. The majority of C. neoformans are mating "type a". Filaments of mating "type a" ordinarily have haploid nuclei, but they can become diploid (perhaps by endoduplication or by stimulated nuclear fusion) to form blastospores. The diploid nuclei of blastospores can undergo meiosis, including recombination, to form haploid basidiospores that can be dispersed. This process is referred to as monokaryotic fruiting. This process requires a gene called DMC1, which is a conserved homologue of genes recA in bacteria and RAD51 in eukaryotes, that mediates homologous chromosome pairing during meiosis and repair of DNA double-strand breaks. Thus, C. neoformans can undergo a meiosis, monokaryotic fruiting, that promotes recombinational repair in the oxidative, DNA damaging environment of the host macrophage, and the repair capability may contribute to its virulence.

 

Human use

See also: Human interactions with fungi

Microscopic view of five spherical structures; one of the spheres is considerably smaller than the rest and attached to one of the larger spheres

Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells shown with DIC microscopy

The human use of fungi for food preparation or preservation and other purposes is extensive and has a long history. Mushroom farming and mushroom gathering are large industries in many countries. The study of the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi is known as ethnomycology. Because of the capacity of this group to produce an enormous range of natural products with antimicrobial or other biological activities, many species have long been used or are being developed for industrial production of antibiotics, vitamins, and anti-cancer and cholesterol-lowering drugs. Methods have been developed for genetic engineering of fungi, enabling metabolic engineering of fungal species. For example, genetic modification of yeast species—which are easy to grow at fast rates in large fermentation vessels—has opened up ways of pharmaceutical production that are potentially more efficient than production by the original source organisms. Fungi-based industries are sometimes considered to be a major part of a growing bioeconomy, with applications under research and development including use for textiles, meat substitution and general fungal biotechnology.

 

Therapeutic uses

Modern chemotherapeutics

Many species produce metabolites that are major sources of pharmacologically active drugs.

 

Antibiotics

Particularly important are the antibiotics, including the penicillins, a structurally related group of β-lactam antibiotics that are synthesized from small peptides. Although naturally occurring penicillins such as penicillin G (produced by Penicillium chrysogenum) have a relatively narrow spectrum of biological activity, a wide range of other penicillins can be produced by chemical modification of the natural penicillins. Modern penicillins are semisynthetic compounds, obtained initially from fermentation cultures, but then structurally altered for specific desirable properties. Other antibiotics produced by fungi include: ciclosporin, commonly used as an immunosuppressant during transplant surgery; and fusidic acid, used to help control infection from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Widespread use of antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial diseases, such as tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy, and others began in the early 20th century and continues to date. In nature, antibiotics of fungal or bacterial origin appear to play a dual role: at high concentrations they act as chemical defense against competition with other microorganisms in species-rich environments, such as the rhizosphere, and at low concentrations as quorum-sensing molecules for intra- or interspecies signaling.

 

Other

Other drugs produced by fungi include griseofulvin isolated from Penicillium griseofulvum, used to treat fungal infections, and statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors), used to inhibit cholesterol synthesis. Examples of statins found in fungi include mevastatin from Penicillium citrinum and lovastatin from Aspergillus terreus and the oyster mushroom. Psilocybin from fungi is investigated for therapeutic use and appears to cause global increases in brain network integration. Fungi produce compounds that inhibit viruses and cancer cells. Specific metabolites, such as polysaccharide-K, ergotamine, and β-lactam antibiotics, are routinely used in clinical medicine. The shiitake mushroom is a source of lentinan, a clinical drug approved for use in cancer treatments in several countries, including Japan. In Europe and Japan, polysaccharide-K (brand name Krestin), a chemical derived from Trametes versicolor, is an approved adjuvant for cancer therapy.

 

Traditional medicine

Upper surface view of a kidney-shaped fungus, brownish-red with a lighter yellow-brown margin, and a somewhat varnished or shiny appearance

Two dried yellow-orange caterpillars, one with a curly grayish fungus growing out of one of its ends. The grayish fungus is roughly equal to or slightly greater in length than the caterpillar, and tapers in thickness to a narrow end.

The fungi Ganoderma lucidum (left) and Ophiocordyceps sinensis (right) are used in traditional medicine practices

Certain mushrooms are used as supposed therapeutics in folk medicine practices, such as traditional Chinese medicine. Mushrooms with a history of such use include Agaricus subrufescens, Ganoderma lucidum, and Ophiocordyceps sinensis.

 

Cultured foods

Baker's yeast or Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a unicellular fungus, is used to make bread and other wheat-based products, such as pizza dough and dumplings. Yeast species of the genus Saccharomyces are also used to produce alcoholic beverages through fermentation. Shoyu koji mold (Aspergillus oryzae) is an essential ingredient in brewing Shoyu (soy sauce) and sake, and the preparation of miso while Rhizopus species are used for making tempeh. Several of these fungi are domesticated species that were bred or selected according to their capacity to ferment food without producing harmful mycotoxins (see below), which are produced by very closely related Aspergilli. Quorn, a meat substitute, is made from Fusarium venenatum.

Burj Khalifa has been designed to be the centrepiece of a large-scale, mixed-use development that will include 30,000 homes, nine hotels such as The Address Downtown Dubai, 3 hectares (7.4 acres) of parkland, at least 19 residential towers, the Dubai Mall, and the 12-hectare (30-acre) man-made Burj Khalifa Lake.

 

The design of Burj Khalifa is derived from patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture. According to the structural engineer, Bill Baker of SOM, the building's design incorporates cultural and historical elements particular to the region. The Y-shaped plan is ideal for residential and hotel usage, with the wings allowing maximum outward views and inward natural light.The design architect, Adrian Smith, has said the triple-lobed footprint of the building was inspired by the flower Hymenocallis.The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiralling pattern, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky. There are 27 terraces in Burj Khalifa. At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Persian Gulf. Viewed from above or from the base, the form also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture. During the design process, engineers rotated the building 120 degrees from its original layout to reduce stress from prevailing winds. At its tallest point, the tower sways a total of 1.5 m (4.9 ft).

 

More than 1,000 pieces of art will adorn the interiors of Burj Khalifa, while the residential lobby of Burj Khalifa will display the work of Jaume Plensa, featuring 196 bronze and brass alloy cymbals representing the 196 countries of the world. The visitors in this lobby will be able to hear a distinct timbre as the cymbals, plated with 18-carat gold, are struck by dripping water, intended to mimic the sound of water falling on leaves.

 

The exterior cladding of Burj Khalifa consists of 142,000 m2 (1,528,000 sq ft) of reflective glazing, and aluminium and textured stainless steel spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins. The cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's extreme summer temperatures. Additionally, the exterior temperature at the top of the building is thought to be 6°C (11°F) cooler than at its base. Over 26,000 glass panels were used in the exterior cladding of Burj Khalifa. Over 300 cladding specialists from China were brought in for the cladding work on the tower.

 

A 304 room Armani Hotel, the first of four by Armani, occupies 15 of the lower 39 floors. The hotel was supposed to open on 18 March 2010 but after several delays the hotel finally opened the public on 27 April 2010. The corporate suites and offices were also supposed to open from March onwards but the hotel and observation deck remain the only parts of the building which are open.

 

The sky lobbies on the 43rd and 76th floors will house swimming pools. Floors through to 108 will have 900 private residential apartments (which, according to the developer, sold out within eight hours of being on the market). An outdoor zero-entry swimming pool will be located on the 76th floor of the tower. Corporate offices and suites fill most of the remaining floors, except for a 122nd, 123rd and 124th floor where the Atmosphere restaurant, sky lobby and an indoor and outdoor observation deck is located respectively. Burj Khalifa will receive its first residents from February 2010. They will be among the first of 25,000 people who will live there.

 

Burj Khalifa is expected to hold up to 35,000 people at any one time. A total of 57 elevators and 8 escalators are installed. The elevators have a capacity of 12 to 14 people per cabin, the fastest rising and descending at up to 18 m/s (59 ft/s). Engineers had considered installing the world's first triple-deck elevators, but the final design calls for double-deck elevators. The double-deck elevators are equipped with entertainment features such as LCD displays to serve visitors during their travel to the observation deck. The building has 2,909 stairs from the ground floor to the 160th floor.

 

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An image produced by one of the Force's photographers to illustrate forced marriage.

 

Forced marriage is a criminal offence and is:

 

"A marriage conducted without the valid consent of one or both parties, where duress is a factor".

 

Duress can include physical, sexual, emotional, and financial and psychological pressure. This will include coercion and deception to force someone into marrying.

 

Forced marriages are a form of domestic abuse and are dealt with as such by the police.

 

Forced marriages are where one or both persons involved get forced into a marriage that they do not want to enter and do not consent to the marriage.

 

Sometimes it is parents forcing their child to get married or sometimes it can be the extended family or community

It can happen between people in this country or between someone from this country with someone abroad.

 

How do arranged marriages differ from forced marriages?

 

Where the families of both parties take a leading role in arranging the marriage, but the choice as to whether or not to accept the arrangement remains with the prospective spouses.

 

Which communities do forced marriages happen in?

 

We are aware it happens in many communities and we want to encourage communities to understand that this is force and to be confident enough to report to the police.

 

Victims

 

Forced marriage is primarily, but not exclusively, an issue of violence against women. Most cases involve young women and girls aged between 13 and 30 years, although there is evidence to suggest that as many as 15 per cent of victims are male.

 

It is felt that men may still be a reluctant to report to the police that they have been forced into a marriage.

 

We are aware that there are a number of cases going unreported and we hope to encourage more reporting by raising awareness of the issues.

 

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How can police help?

 

We want to encourage potential victims and those already in a forced marriage to seek support and help from the police. We have specialist officers who can deal with the issues and they will help and support you throughout the process.

 

Obviously we understand that many victims do not want to criminalise family members and may be reluctant to call the police; however we would encourage you to do so if this is the only way to get you out of the situation and so that we can offer you some support and protection.

 

Foreign and Commonwealth assistance

 

The Forced Marriage Unit at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are also available to help and advice you and they can be contacted on 0207 008 0151 or email: fmu@fco.gov.uk

 

In particular the FCO can help to repatriate you back to this country if you have been forced into a marriage abroad. It is important that you don’t feel like there is no one there to help you.

 

Reporting a Forced Marriage

 

We will respect the victim's wishes, respect confidentiality, establish lines of communication and provide appropriate support and guidance via a number of support agencies.

 

You can report a forced marriage via the normal means of communicating with GMP listed on the Contact Us page. Always call 999 in an emergency where there is a threat to life of a crime in progress. In a non-emergency, call 101.

 

In addition we have Specialist Domestic Abuse Investigators on each division or by calling 0161 872 5050.

 

Police Response

 

Forced marriages are a legitimate issue to report to the police. We will support and protect the victim and investigate criminal offences.

 

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Situations whereby a forced marriage may come to the attention of the police include:

 

An individual who fears they may be forced to marry.

A report by a third party of an individual having been taken abroad for the purpose of a forced marriage.

 

An individual who has already been forced to marry either in this country or abroad or to someone from abroad.

The Legal Position

 

Forced Marriage is a criminal offence

 

This legislation came into effect on 16 June 2014. For further information on the legislation click: www.cps.gov.uk/legal/h_to_k/forced_marriage_and_honour_ba...

  

Forced Marriage Protection Orders (Civil Protection Act 2007)

 

A Forced Marriage Protection order can be made by a Family Court in order to protect victims, both adults and children of a potential forced marriage or people who are already in a forced marriage. This is a legal document issued by a judge designed to protect individuals according to their particular circumstances. It contains legally binding conditions and directions that require a change in the behavior of a person or persons trying to force another person into marriage.

 

Forced Marriage Protection Orders may be made to prevent a forced marriage from occurring, to stop intimidation and violence, to reveal the whereabouts of a person, to stop somebody from being taken abroad, to hand over passports etc.

 

A breach of any of the conditions is a criminal offence. www.cps.gov.uk/legal/h_to_k/forced_marriage_and_honour_ba...

 

You can find out more about forced marriage protection orders here.

 

Safety Advice

 

If you really don’t want to talk to the police or other agencies then please think about the following safety advice if you think you may be forced into a marriage in this country or abroad:

 

Keep a copy of your passport including dual nationality passports.

 

Tell a trusted friend if you are travelling abroad and give them addresses of where you will be staying and also details of your return flight so they can alert the police if you fail to return on that date.

 

Have a spare mobile to hand that you can be contacted on and leave the number with trusted people so you are contactable

Memorise police phone numbers, and/or email addresses of the Forced Marriage unit and trusted friends in case you have to call them in an emergency.

 

Have addresses of British Embassies available

Support Agencies.

 

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Bangladeshi Women’s Centre - 0161 257 3867

Advice, information and support for Bangladeshi women including the issues of domestic abuse, forced marriage and ‘honour’ based violence. Other areas covered include welfare rights, housing, health, education and training, employment and immigration and nationality.

 

Henna Foundation - 02920 498600/496920

Henna Foundation is a registered charity that whose work involves supporting and seeking assistance to protect victims of ‘honour’ related crime, abuses & violence including cases of Forced marriages.

 

Honour Network (Karma Nirvana) - 0800 5999 247

The Honour Network helpline is a confidential helpline providing emotional and practical support and advice for victims and survivors (male & female) of forced marriage and/or ‘honour’ based violence and abuse.

 

Independent Choices - 0161 636 7534

This is a voluntary organisation promoting the rights and meeting the needs of women who have experienced domestic abuse. Supports victims and provides a help line facility and refuge accommodation.

 

Iranian and Kurdish Women’ Rights Organisation (IKWRO) - 020 7490 0303

Provides support and advice in Arabic, Kurdish, Turkish and Farsi to women, girls and men living in Britain, in areas including domestic abuse and ‘honour’ based issues.

 

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Saheli - 0161 945 4187

Saheli is an organisation for Asian women run by Asian women. Saheli provides emergency, temporary refuge accommodation to South Asian women and their children who are fleeing domestic abuse situations. The refuge offers a children's service to ensure that children's needs are met, for example through play session and one to one work.

 

Southall Black Sisters - 020 8571 9595 (10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-4pm)

This is a resource centre offering information, advice, advocacy, practical help, counselling, and support to black and minority women experiencing domestic abuse. Southall Black Sisters specialise in forced marriage particularly in relation to South Asian women. The office is open weekdays (except Wednesday)

 

Lesbian and Gay Foundation - 0845 3 30 30 30

Confidential helpline and centre offering information, advice, advocacy, practical help, counseling, and support to men and women experiencing domestic abuse, honour based violence or are victims of forced marriage.

 

Men’s Advice Line - 0808 801 0327 (Mon-Fri 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm)

Confidential helpline for men who experience violence from their partners and ex partners. They provide emotional support, practical advice and inform men of specialist services that can give them advice on legal, housing, child contact, mental health and other issues.

 

NSPCC

This free, confidential service for anyone concerned about children at risk of harm offers counselling, information and advice. The service also connects vulnerable young people, particularly runaways, to services that can help. It is open Monday to Friday between 11am and 7pm.

 

Asian Child Protection Helpline

 

Bengali speaking advisor - 0800 096 7714

Gujarati - 0800 096 7715

Hindi - 0800 096 7716

Punjabi - 0800 096 7717

Urdu - 0800 096 7718

English - 0800 096 7719

This free, 24-hour helpline provides information, advice and counselling to anyone concerned about a child at risk of abuse.

 

0808 800 5000 (helpline)

0800 056 0566 (text phone)

Broken Rainbow - 08452 255 6234

Support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people experiencing domestic violence.

 

Careline - 0208 8514 1177

This is a national confidential counselling line for children, young people and adults on any issue including family, marital and relationship problems, child abuse, rape and sexual assault, depression and anxiety.

 

Child Line - 0800 1111

This service is for any child or young person with a problem.

 

The Citizens Advice Bureau

The Citizens Advice Bureau offers free, confidential and impartial information and advice on a wide range of subjects including consumer rights, debt, benefits, housing, employment, immigration, family and personal matters.

 

Manchester Airport Immigration 0161 489 3576

Immigration may be able to assist you with enquiries in relation to passports and dual nationality

 

Mondays and Tuesdays: 10am – 1pm

 

Wednesdays: 1pm – 4pm

An email service is also offered by the Helpline for non-urgent concerns with an aim to respond within 3 working days: helpline@independentchoices.org.uk

 

To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website.

www.gmp.police.uk

 

You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.

 

Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.

 

You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.

  

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Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, New York City, United States

 

Summary

 

The Romanesque Revival style office building at 31 Belvidere Street is the focal point of the William Ulmer Brewery complex, a reminder of one of Bushwick's, and Brooklyn's, most prominent 19th- and 20th -century industries. The entire complex remains a largely intact example of a late-19 -century brewery designed in the American round arch style, and includes, in addition to the office building, the main brew house (1872) and addition (c.1881), engine and machine houses (Theobald Engelhardt 1885), and stable and storage building (Frederick Wunder 1890).

 

A German emigrant, William Ulmer (1833-1907) began working in a New York City brewery owned by his uncles in the 1850s and later became a partner in the Vigelius & Ulmer Continental Lagerbier brewery, founded in 1871.

 

Within seven years, Ulmer became the sole proprietor of the brewery and under its new name - the William Ulmer Brewery - the business was expanded in the 1880s and 1890s with the construction of ice house, engine-, machine- and wash-room additions, a large storage and stable building, and a handsome Romanesque Revival style office building. Designed by prominent Brooklyn architect Theobald Engelhardt and constructed in 1885, the two-story red brick office building was the architectural highlight of the complex, featuring arched and dormered windows, a squat mansard roof clad in slate, as well as terra-cotta ornament.

 

Divided into three bays, the building's projecting center bay incorporates remarkably crisp red terra-cotta panels that identify the initial of the last name of the owner, the brewery's trademark, and the function of the building, as well as corbelled brickwork and a blind arcade. The office building was separated from the larger brewery by a passage with an elaborate iron gate. Though rusted, the richly embellished gate is historic and possibly original to the structure. The other buildings of the Ulmer brewery complex feature details commonly found on other 19th-century breweries, including round arch-headed and segmentally arch-headed window and door openings, projecting brick pilasters, pedimented parapets and corbelled, denticulated, zigzag-patterned, and channeled decorative brickwork, all characteristic of the American round arch style.

 

Prior to Prohibition, there were at least 24 breweries in Brooklyn, many of which were located in Williamsburgh and Bushwick. Ulmer's was one of the more successful and in 1896 the Brooklyn Eagle described him as a millionaire. Under Ulmer, beer production more than quadrupled, reaching over three million gallons annually. Upon his retirement in 1900, the brewery was run by Ulmer's sons-in-law, John W. Weber and John F. Becker. Like many other breweries, the enactment of Prohibition closed the Ulmer brewery.

 

The factory buildings were sold and converted for light manufacturing use, but the family retained ownership of the office building until 1952, using it as an office for their real estate business. The buildings remain largely intact and retain the detailing that defines their history and use.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

The History of Brewing in Brooklyn and New York

 

"To speak of the origins of brewing in America is to speak of the origins of the nation itself," stated historian Stanley Baron in his book, Brewed in America. While the first European settlers were dependent on beer shipments brought from England, there are also late-16th- and early-17th-century references to brewers operating in the Massachusetts Bay and Virginia colonies.

 

In many early colonial accounts, beer was considered safer to drink than water, and was consumed by all ages at all times of the day. Sickness, death and failure of some settlements were often attributed to a lack of supplies, including beer. In New Amsterdam, the Dutch, who were "even more partial to beer that the English," discovered that the ingredients for beer could be grown in the new world in 1626, the year Peter Minuit "purchased" Manhattan from Native Americans.

 

Brewing was an active industry in New York City during the 17th century, with small-scale commercial, home, and municipal breweries, including one operated by The Dutch East India Company. By the 1770s, New York City and Philadelphia were established as the colonies' brewing centers.

 

At least two documented commercial brewers operated in Brooklyn during the 18th century, and despite the advantage of abundant fresh water, that number grew very slowly after the turn of the 19th century. Most brews were produced for home consumption or by common brewers for sale in nearby "ordinaries" or taverns.

 

The few commercial brewers produced English style brews, such as ale, porter, stout, and common beer, using top-fermenting yeast. In 1840, a former brewer from Bavaria, John Wagner, who had brought lager beer yeast to this country, opened a small brewery in back of his house in Philadelphia to supply his nearby tavern. From these humble beginnings, the opening of small-scale breweries eventually led to a major switch in the American brewing industry, from English to German brewing techniques and brewery proprietors. While the industry did not change overnight, the introduction of lager beer to the American market coincided with a massive influx of German immigrants in the 1840s that revolutionized the brewing industry in New York City, Brooklyn and other cities where they settled in large numbers. The Germans provided an increased market for beer, and they favored lager:

 

"Lager beer - An effervescent malt beverage, brewed by using the bottom-fermentation process, in which a special yeast settles as residue at the bottom of the brewing vats. The distinctly German beer was popular in German countries in the early nineteenth century, and was introduced in the U.S. probably in the 1840s by John Wagner. Because the process for making this light, sparkling brew involved storage while fermentation occurred [which required cool temperatures], it was termed 'lager,' which is derived from the German verb lagern, meaning to stock or store."

 

While two New York City breweries (George Gillig and F & M Schaefer) began to brew lager in the 1840s, S. Liebmann and Sons Brewery (later renamed Rheingold), founded in 1854, was one of the first to use the bottom fermenting process in Brooklyn. As lager gained popularity beginning in the mid-1850s, the cities where most German immigrants settled became the largest brewing centers in the country, including Cincinnati, Milwaukee and St. Louis, as well as Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City and Brooklyn. Several articles in the Brooklyn Eagle from the 1860s and 1870s focused on the growing popularity of lager beer, calling it our "National Beverage," appealing to people of all classes.

 

Using Long Island lake water supplied by a new gravity-fed water system, "by the 1870s Brooklyn had become a major force in American beer brewing, as numerous establishments, largely run by Germans, flourished in the borough's Eastern District (Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick)." Between the 1850s and the 1880s, 11 separate breweries operated there in a 14-square block area known as "Brewer's Row." "By the 1880s, 35 breweries had been established in Brooklyn," generating an estimated $8 million in revenue annually. The majority of these firms exclusively brewed lager beer, while the remainder brewed ale or weiss (wheat) beer.

 

Technology and increased demand, as well as taste, influenced the course of the brewing industry in the second half of the 19th century. Like many other industries, the use of steam power and mechanization were common by the second half of the 19th century, altering the earlier "hand-done" brewing process and allowing for greater and more consistent production with the use of less labor.

 

While both processes required boiling and cooling, the German brewing technique differed from the English in requiring cooler temperatures to store the beer. Like the ale breweries, lager breweries operated seasonally (from October to April) but also employed extensive cellars for storage, taking advantage of cooler underground temperatures, and used large blocks of ice to regulate temperature.

 

Changes in refrigeration technology, which was first employed in Brooklyn at S. Liebmann and Sons in 1870, hit most of the breweries in the 1880s, shortening the cooling stages of the brewing process and permitting a longer brewing season. Just as steam power had revolutionized the hand brewing process, in the last years of the 19th century electric power and machinery began to replace the large steam engines.

 

Finally, pasteurization, bottling and later canning, in combination with expanded shipping methods, allowed brewers to branch out beyond local markets. These factors all made it possible for brewers to run larger breweries with greater production and profits, and tended to eliminate the smaller competitors.

 

While the number of breweries increased slowly in the 1880s and 1890s, production continued to steadily increase, driven both by an increased demand and technological advances.

 

Prior to consolidation in 1898, Brooklyn was the fourth most populous city in the country and supported 45 breweries. The prosperity continued in the 20th century, and although the number of breweries declined, the quantity of beer produced continued to grow, reaching its peak, pre-Prohibition, output of 2.5 million barrels in 1907.

 

Bushwick, which was considered a major brewing center from about 1890 until the late 1940s, was supplying almost 10% of all beer consumed in the United States during the height of its production.

 

Eventually, the technological advances that allowed Brooklyn brewers to greatly increase their production ultimately worked against them, as "cheap rail transportation and mechanical refrigeration allowed entrepreneurs in Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati to make inroads into the local markets. Successful breweries made larger investments in production and distribution facilities, and small firm disappeared."

 

Still, at the close of the 1910s, there were at least 24 breweries in Brooklyn, and 70 breweries in all the boroughs combined.

 

In 1920, the 18 th Amendment, the National Prohibition or Volstead Act closed many of the Brooklyn breweries,11 while others continued to manufacture near beer (less than .05% alcohol,) soft drinks or other food products. With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, only 23 of the New York City's (including Brooklyn's) breweries resumed business, with most targeting the local market.

 

Over the next half of a century, brewing in the city declined. Brooklyn's last two breweries closed in 1976 (Rheingold and F & M Schaefer), marking the end of an era. However, about a decade later, during the micro-brewing revolution of 1980s, two Brooklyn entrepreneurs opened the Brooklyn Brewery in 1987. Although their first beers were contract brewed in Utica, New York, the opening of their new brewery in Williamsburg in 1996 revived an industry that once flourished in the borough. The Ulmer complex is a significant reminder of this once important and now reviving Brooklyn industry.

 

The History of the Neighborhood

 

The William Ulmer Brewery is located within the historic boundaries of the town of Bushwick, near the present boundary line between Brooklyn and Queens. Bushwick is one of the earliest colonial settlements in New York, first occupied in the 1630s. One of the original six towns in Brooklyn, it remained a rural farming area until the mid-19th century.

 

The site of the center of the township, the village of Bushwick, is the present intersection of Bushwick Avenue, Old Woodpoint Road, Metropolitan Avenue, Maspeth Avenue, and Humboldt Street. In 1852, Williamsburgh, the western and most populous section of the township, became an independent city, however, its municipal status ended three years later in 1855 when it and all of Bushwick were incorporated within the City of Brooklyn. Thereafter, until Brooklyn's consolidation into Greater New York in 1898, both areas and Greenpoint were known collectively as Brooklyn's Eastern District.

 

Located south of the center of Bushwick village, in the early 19th century, the land around the Ulmer Brewery site was owned by members of the Debevoise family.

 

Charles Debevoise purchased over 45 acres of property near the Bushwick-Newtown border from his brother Francis in 1823, and operated a farm.

 

Like many of his relatives and neighbors, Charles Debevoise was a slave owner. After his death in the 1850s, the Debevoise farm, which had been mapped and lotted in anticipation of sub-divison, was transferred to Charles' children, Jane Stockholm, Elizabeth Debevoise and Abraham Debevoise.

 

During the 1850s Bushwick began to lose its rural, agricultural landscape. Large numbers of Germans immigrated to New York following the political upheavals in central Europe in 1848. Many settled in Williamsburgh and Bushwick and began the development of the area's most famous local industry, brewing. The area boasted a number of features attractive to the brewing industry: an abundant water supply, soil suitable for the construction of underground storage chambers, and convenient water and rail transportation, as well as sufficient local demand. Henry R. Stiles, the notable Brooklyn historian, wrote in 1870:

 

"That quarter of Brooklyn, the Eastern District irreverently designated as Dutchtown, has been for some time the centre of the lager bier manufacturing interest in the Metropolitan District. Here are located some of the largest breweries in existence in the country. Surrounded by a population almost exclusively German, they all enjoy a local patronage to a considerable extent..."

 

A second wave of development in Bushwick began after the construction of the elevated railroad along Myrtle Avenue in 1888, making the area an attractive alternative to congested downtown Brooklyn and lower Manhattan.18 Development, consisting primarily of three-and four-story multiple dwellings, spread eastward toward the Brooklyn-Queens border during the following decade.

 

The population remained largely German until the 1930s and 40s, when Italian-Americans began moving in. Beginning with the brewery workers strike of 1949, the industry began a steady decline. The closing of factories, including the breweries, created an economic depression of the area. In the late 1950s and 1960s, African-Americans and Puerto Ricans immigrated to Bushwick, comprising more than half of its population by 1970.

 

Under the encouragement of real estate agents, many houses changed hands, purchased by low-income families with Federal Housing Authority insured mortgages, who were not necessarily able to maintain their buildings or payments during the economic downturn of the 1970s. New York City's fiscal crisis tightened the budget during this period, cutting essential services to certain communities.

 

Among them were cuts to fire department service in the area, at a time when buildings abandoned by foreclosure were subject to frequent fires, further devastating the neighborhood. Redevelopment efforts began in the 1980s and are still continuing today. According to a 2007 exhibit at the Brooklyn Historical Society, "today, Bushwick is one of Brooklyn's 'hottest' neighborhoods, abuzz with construction, renovation, and aspiration. With a burgeoning arts scene and convergence of Latin American people, Bushwick is truly one of Brooklyn's most dynamic communities."

 

German Immigration, Brooklyn's Eastern District and Lager Beer

 

From its founding in 1626 by Peter Minuit, a native of the German town of Wesel am Rhein, New York City has had a significant German population. During the 1820s, the first German neighborhood and commercial center developed in the area southeast of City Hall Park and by 1840 there were more than 24,000 Germans living in the city. During the next twenty years, their numbers increased dramatically as "mass transatlantic migration brought another hundred thousand Germans fleeing land shortages, unemployment, famine, and political and religious oppression," with over 1,350,000 immigrating to the United States.

 

To accommodate this growth, new German neighborhoods, developed on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the Eastern District of Brooklyn. In the 1870s and 1880s, dislocations caused by the growth of the German Empire brought more new immigrants to the United States while thousands of American-born children of German immigrants established their own homes in these neighborhoods. By settling in areas with such a high concentration of fellow countrymen, it was easy for Germans to maintain their culture and customs, which included German-speaking churches and synagogues, German newspapers, singing societies, Turnvereine, and beer gardens.

 

In Williamsburgh and Bushwick, it was not uncommon for "Eastern District German-Americans to enrich their day with a brew or two. Lager tended to be the normal mealtime beverage, and it most certainly was served all around at picnics, Sunday outings, sporting events and all the other social gatherings that characterized German-American life everywhere these fun-loving people settled in the United States."

 

More than just a component of the German diet, lager beer was an integral part of the customs that new immigrants maintained in the United States. Lager was for socializing, recreating with family, and enjoyed at club meetings. While some of the clubs constructed their own buildings, such as the Eastern District Turnverein and the Arion Singing Society's Arion Hall, beer gardens were also popular meeting spots, providing entertainment and a family retreat, especially in the hot days of summer, unlike saloons, which were notorious for keeping workers away from their families after a day's labor.

 

The William Ulmer Brewery

 

Born in Wurttemberg in 1833, William Ulmer immigrated to New York in the 1850s to work with his two uncles, Henry Clausen Sr. and John F. Betz, in the brewing industry,25 eventually becoming the brewmaster for Clausen's very successful New York firm. In 1871, Ulmer partnered with Anton Vigelius to form the Vigelius & Ulmer Continental Lagerbier Brewery on Belvidere and Beaver Streets in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

 

Born in Bavaria, Anton Vigelius immigrated to Brooklyn in 1840 at the age of 18 and was involved in the produce business prior to opening the brewery. He purchased land at the corner of Beaver and Belvidere Streets from Abraham and Anna Debevoise in 1869, selling a half-interest in the parcel to Ulmer shortly before the construction of the brewery.

 

As evidenced by the marble date stone in the center of its facade, the first building of the Vigelius and Ulmer Brewery was constructed at the site in 1872. Typical of this period, all of the early brewing operations would have taken place in this building, from the storage of grains, to malting, brewing and lagering (or storage) of the beer. Vigelius also constructed a large residence behind the brewery facing Belvidere Street in 1872, following the common practice of 19th-century brewers who lived in or very near their breweries. The early success of the firm was noted in an 1875 article in the Brooklyn Eagle, which cited the Vigelius & Ulmer Brewery

 

among the largest and most noted of the Williamsburgh breweries, and of the 30 to 40 breweries that were then operating in Brooklyn.

 

In December of 1877, Anton Vigelius sold his share of the brewery to Ulmer and retired from brewing, leaving Ulmer the sole proprietor of what had "grown to be one of the largest breweries in Brooklyn."28 Vigelius remained a well-known and active member of the German community as Vice President of the German Savings Bank, a Director of the Broadway (Williamsburg) Bank, and a member of the Arion Singing Society until his death in 1891.

 

Like many other breweries in Brooklyn, New York and throughout the country, the Ulmer brewery complex expanded over time to increase capacity and accommodate technological advances in the industry.

 

Around 1880, shortly after Ulmer purchased the lot at the corner of Beaver and Locust Streets, a large, storage-house addition to the main building was constructed on Beaver Street. A testament to the brewery's success, in 1885 a major building campaign was begun that included the brick office building and boiler and machine houses (designed by architect Theobald Engelhardt) facing Belvidere Street, as well as a large addition at the rear of the main brewery that served as a wash house and racking (keg-filling) room. Several years later, brewery architect Frederick Wunder designed a large wagon room, stable, and storage building to replace an existing frame stable building.

 

This three-story brick building and its additions, constructed c.1890, was the last major building constructed at the brewery. By the late 1880s, the William Ulmer Brewery and John Becker (Ulmer's son-in-law who lived in Vigelius's former home adjacent to the brewery, demolished) owned more than half of the block bounded by Beaver Street, Belvidere Street, Broadway and Locust Street.

 

Through the 1890s and first decade of the 20th century, the brewery continued to construct minor additions and interior alterations as needed, including the installation of steel framing for a new 236-barrel cooking tank in the main brew house in 1906, a year before Brooklyn reached its peak beer production. Although specific production statistics have not been found, the regular alterations to the buildings indicates that the Ulmer Brewery continued to be successful and expand production.

 

Upon his retirement in 1900, the William Ulmer Brewery was incorporated with Catharine Ulmer (his wife), John F. Becker and John W. Weber (Ulmer's sons-in-law) as directors and stockholders and his daughters, Catharine Becker and Caroline Weber as additional stockholders. Weber, an attorney by trade, became president and Becker, who had been working for Ulmer for over 20 years as a brewer, was named treasurer.

 

The brewery's success continued, allowing Weber to construct a large home at 101 Eighth Avenue in 1909 (within the Park Slope Historic District), while Becker continued to occupy Vigelius's former home behind the brewery. An active philanthropist who belonged to many charitable organizations, Ulmer died in 1907 at his home at 680 Bushwick Avenue. His wife died the following March, leaving a "large estate."

 

Unlike other 19th- and early 20th -century lager breweries in Brooklyn, no evidence has been found that Ulmer operated an adjacent beer garden or that the brewery sold any bottled or canned beer. Instead, both for personal profit and beer distribution opportunities, Ulmer invested extensively in real estate. By purchasing or building taverns and installing a proprietor, brewers could guarantee that their beer was the only one sold.

 

Advertisements and articles in the Brooklyn Eagle and other publications indicate that Ulmer owned several taverns.

 

In 1893, in consultation with Weber, he opened Ulmer Park along the waterfront in Gravesend. This large resort and hotel featured music, dancing, boating, bathing, a shooting gallery, bowling alley and other attractions, and mostly importantly served as a place for the sale of Ulmer's lager.

 

In 1901 Ulmer purchased Dexter Park, a popular baseball and football stadium located in Woodhaven, Queens, where Sunday "blue laws" were less strictly enforced than in Brooklyn, a clear advantage for lager sales. Additionally, in 1914 the William Ulmer Brewery constructed a pavilion with a restaurant and bar at the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and Union Turnpike in Forest Hills, Queens, at the edge of Forest Park.

 

The William Ulmer Brewery closed with the passing of the Volstead Act, and its buildings were sold. The brewery retained ownership of the office and attached wagon house and storage additions, and maintained the buildings for use as a real estate office. Weber became president of the Ulmer Park Realty Company, owned by his wife and sister-in-law, while Becker, already in his 70s, likely retired. A few years prior to the repeal of Prohibition, in 1930, the company officially changed its name to William Ulmer Incorporated, signifying the company's permanent departure from brewing.

 

The Design of the Ulmer Brewery Buildings

 

The Ulmer Brewery complex consists of the main brew house and addition, office, engine and machine house, and stable and storage building. These buildings and other mid- to late-19th-century Brooklyn breweries show a similarity in form and design and feature details of American round arch design. This American industrial interpretation of the German Renaissance Revival or Rundbogenstil ("round-arch style"), which evolved in Germany in the 1820s, "synthesized classical and medieval architecture—particularly the round-arched elements of those style," according to Bradley.

 

These simply designed factory buildings use corbelled and other decorative brickwork, projecting brick piers, round arch window openings, and had parapets that sometimes varied in height and featured pediments, rather than applied ornament for interest and decoration. (Despite its name, buildings constructed in the American version of the style often used economical segmentally arch-headed window openings.) The

 

style was particularly well-suited to industrial and commercial buildings because of its reliance on brick and locally available stones, simplicity of detail, and structural expressiveness, as well as rapidity of construction, economy of materials and workmanship, durability, ample fenestration, and ease of adding extensions without grossly violating the original building fabric. Brick was the material of choice for most industrial buildings. It was inexpensive, durable, and easily supplied. More important, machine-pressed brick remained "the most fire-resistant building material available prior to the widespread use of concrete."

 

The American round-arch style was widely employed in the United States for factories, breweries, warehouses, and school buildings. Transmitted to this country through the immigration of German and Central European architects in the 1840s, as well as through architectural publications, the influence of the Rundbogenstil is clearly visible is the Ulmer Brewery buildings and other extant former brewery buildings in Brooklyn, many of which were located in the heavily German-populated Eastern District, owned by German immigrants and designed by German-immigrant architects or first generation German-Americans.

 

The first building at the brewery, the main brew house constructed in 1872, features many details characteristic of the American round arch style, including round arch-headed window and segmentally-arch-headed door openings with corbelled brick archivolts, projecting pilasters, and corbelled brickwork. Historic photos and illustrations of the complex indicate that the main brew house also featured pedimented parapets at the Beaver Street facade and a two-and-a-half-story, mansard-roofed tower, which are typical of 19th-century brewery architecture.

 

Between 1880 and 1885, shortly after Ulmer purchased the lot at the corner of Beaver and Locust Streets, a large, storage-house addition to the main building was constructed on Beaver Street. Similar in style to the original building, it featured a pedimented parapet, corbelled brickwork and round arch-headed window openings with corbelled brick archivolts. Like other 19th-century breweries, all of the operations likely took place in different sections of this four-story main building, which was divided into two buildings on the interior. As production expanded, the c.1881 addition along Beaver Street provided additional space for operations.

 

By 1887, maps indicate that the mashing of the malt and boiling took place on different floors of the building at the corner of Beaver and Belvidere streets, while in the remainder of the main brew house and its addition, ice was used to maintain cooler temperatures for fermenting, a much longer process. For the final step of the brewing process, the Ulmer Brewery took advantage of underground storage; Department of Buildings permits indicate that both sections of the main brew house have deep cellars, 20- and 34-feet deep.

 

The Ulmer brewery began a major building campaign in 1885; construction was begun on the two-story, brick office building and two- and three-story boiler and machine houses facing Belvidere Street, as well as a large addition at the rear of the main brewery. Dictated by expanding brewing capacity and changing brewery technology, the additions were designed by Eastern District architect Theobald Engelhardt.

 

Although not described specifically as brewery architect, Engelhardt worked on a number of brewery commissions and was also a prominent member of the German community. The new boiler and machine house building on Belvidere Street, which was connected to the southwest facade of the main brew house, was designed in the American round arch style, and features many details similar to its adjacent neighbor, including round arch-headed window openings with corbelled brick archivolts, projecting brick pilasters, and a decorative brick cornice.

 

Although it is only three stories in height, the machine house section of the building extends to the height of the four-story brew house, and the brick cornice, which features corbelled, denticulated and zigzag-patterned brickwork, extends across both buildings. This decorative brick cornice, characteristic of the inexpensive ornament applied to American round arch style factories, also extends across the lower, two-story, boiler-house section of the building and its side and rear facades. Designed with practical mechanical needs in mind, to house boilers and machinery, the tall first and second stories of the new building do not align with the adjacent brewery.

 

By 1887, maps indicate that an ice machine was located on the second story of the machine house, showing Ulmer's efforts to keep up to date with the latest brewing industry advances. Although it was not specifically cited in the permit, it is possible that this building was partially designed and constructed to accommodate this new technology. Also included in this building campaign was the construction of one-story addition at the rear of the main brew house that served as a wash house and racking room.

 

Constructed of brick, this addition was demolished in 1923 to allow for the construction of a parking lot in the former brewery courtyard.

 

Brewery architect Frederick Wunder designed the large wagon house, stable and storage building that faces Locust Street for the brewery in 1890. This three-story brick building and its additions, constructed in a similar round arch design as the other brewery buildings, was the last major building constructed at the brewery.

 

The one- and two-story wagon room and stable additions of the same building campaign were constructed as a rear addition to the office building, linking the Belvidere Street building with the new building fronting Locust Street. Both the northwest, Locust Street facade and the northeast, courtyard-facing facade, which was originally visible from Locust and Beaver streets, of the building are fully developed with features characteristic of the American round arch style, including segmentally arch-headed windows and doors with projecting brick lintels at the first floor; round arch-headed window openings with corbelled brick archivolts at the upper stories; bluestone window sills and string coursing; brick pilasters; and denticulated, channeled and corbelled decorative brickwork. Also characteristic of the style, a tall, pedimented parapet extends above the facade on the Locust Street side of the building and features the remnants of what appears to have been a round, terra-cotta ornament.

 

Original drawings (see illustrations) show that the courtyard-facing facade featured a two-story, central tower or monitor and a shorter tower at the building's northeast corner. (This shorter tower remains with an altered roof and attached fire escape.) The ground floor openings are raised at this facade, likely to accommodate horses, and the northeasternmost door opening (adjacent to the office) is large enough to permit the storage of wagons. By 1910, the Ulmer Brewery was using trucks for delivery, thereby diminishing the need for horses. The upper stories continued to be used for storage and later the third floor of the building was a cooperage.

 

While Ulmer's and other Brooklyn breweries display many Rundbogenstil characteristics, including Philadelphia brick facades with plain pilasters, decorative, patterned brickwork, and of course, round-arched openings accented with archivolts, the more elaborate office building complete with a terracotta company trademark, is the show piece of the brewing complex.

 

By the mid-1880s brewers and their architects were already attempting to show the wealth and success of their businesses through their brewery complexes, by creating a highly-visible corporate symbols, which could be used in company advertising. An article in the Brooklyn Eagle from 1886 described the counting houses of the S. Leibmann and Sons, Obermeyer and Liebmann, and Ulmer breweries as "not surpassed by anything of the kind in Broadway or Wall Street."

 

Designed in 1885 by Theobald Engelhardt, the office building features round arch-headed window openings, facade symmetry and a central projecting bay that are all characteristic of the Romanesque Revival style, which was also inspired by French medieval sources and the German Rundbogenstil.

 

Additional Romanesque Revival details include corbelled blind arches that decorate the pedimented parapet and corbelled archivolts. The terra cotta panels on the office building are of particular note. "OFFICE." above the front entry and the trademark "U" identify the original use and owner of the building, while a band of Queen Anne-inspired decorative panels separates the first and second floors. These floral- and foliate-motif panels were likely manufactured by the Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Company, as very similar tiles appear in an 1895 catalog issued by the company. Other decorative details include, at the second floor, a slate-clad, faux mansard roof and projecting dormers, which were historically more decorative, round arch-headed, copper dormers.

 

The finely detailed iron gate, located to the north of the office building, which historically obscured the entry to the brewery courtyard, also features Queen-Anne inspired motifs and is likely original to the building. As previously described, the office was later expanded as part of the construction of the stable building on Locust, with one- and two-story wagon room, storage and stable additions, which were later partially raised one story to allow for additional storage.

  

Later Building History and Alterations

 

The bulk of the brewery complex was sold in the early 1920s. The large stable and storage building on Locust Street was sold in 1921, and resold within two years to the Artcraft Metal Stamping Corp. A manufacturer of light fixtures, the company later changed its name to Artcraft Metal and Electrical Products and occupied the building as a factory until c.1940, at times sharing the space with other metal fabricators and lighting manufacturers. The full height addition to the building at its northeast corner is an elevator shaft that was probably constructed c. 1932.63 Alterations to the Locust Street fenestration, including the enlargement of several openings and the installation of square-headed windows, were completed by c.1940. Artcraft retained ownership of the building until 1944, after which it changed hands several times (likely between tenants) before it was sold to a realty company in 1949. Metal fabricators and clothing manufacturers are listed as occupants there until at least the 1980s.

 

In 2002, a permit was issued by the Department of Buildings approving a change from factory to residential use. The building is currently divided into a several apartments per floor.

 

The main brewery building, including its additions and engine and machine houses along Belvidere Street, was sold in 1922. Brooklyn Department of Buildings records indicate that the Otis Elevator Company filed to install an elevator in the main brewery building a year earlier, perhaps in anticipation of its sale and reuse for another function. Marcus Leavitt, owner of M. Leavitt Flooring Co. purchased the property in 1923 and made alterations to convert the buildings from a brewery to light manufacturing.

 

Among the changes were interior alterations, the replacement of the interior wooden stairs with fire proof equivalents, the installation of metal fire escapes on the Beaver Street and Locust Street-facing side facades, window replacement with steel sash and other fenestration changes. New fireproof stair cases were installed just behind the Beaver and Belvidere Street facades, as evidenced on the exterior by the offset window openings and stair bulkheads at the roof. The enlargement of several of the round arch-headed windows on the Beaver Street facade may have taken place at this time, as well as the bricking up of windows at the first floor of both facades and at the rear facade, and the lengthening of window openings along Belvidere Street for the installation of doors.

 

The additions to the main brew house and storage addition, located to the rear of the Beaver Street facade, were demolished during this period to allow for the construction of the one-story parking garage that occupies most of the former brewery courtyard and has frontage on Locust and Beaver Streets. (This garage remained part of the same tax lot as the brewery buildings until c.1965, but is not included in this designation.)

 

The brewery building's parapet was reconstructed in 1936, replacing the pedimented and decorative brickwork with four-feet of plain brick. A sprinkler system was added in 1952, and the fire escapes and doors to reach them were replaced in 1958. Subsequent alterations have mainly focused on interior and plumbing, heating or other mechanical work.

 

Leavitt sold the property in 1924 to a realty company in which he was a partner and continued to occupy a warehouse there into the 1940s. Other building tenants included mainly clothing, shoe and handbag manufacturers, which occupied the building into the 1980s. Belvedere Improvement Company Inc. sold the property in 1931, and it changed hands again under foreclosure in 1937. It was purchased by Beaver Management Corp. in 1945. Since the 1960s, several deeds have been recorded against the lot, mostly between realty companies. An application, filed to convert part of the building from light manufacturing into residential units in 2001, was disapproved by the Department of Buildings; however, the Department of Finance currently classifies the building as an elevator apartment building with artists-in-residence. Its recent uses include a warehouse for an electronics importing company and studio space for an artist.

 

William Ulmer Incorporated, with Ulmer's grandson William Ulmer Becker as president, sold the office building to William H. Ludwig Inc. in 1952. The Ludwig company, an electrical appliance manufacturer located at 656 Bushwick Avenue, made several alterations to the building, including interior alterations and the construction of a small concrete block addition at the northwest corner of the lot, as well as changing the use of the building from office and brewery to office, factory and storage. William H. Ludwig Inc. retained ownership of the building for ten years before selling it to Twenty Starr Street Corporation, based next door at 21 Belvidere Street. Twenty Starr Street Corp. held the building for over twenty years, part of which time it is said to have been used for lamp manufacturing and storage. The office building was sold to its current owner in 1985.

 

Description

 

All of the main buildings of the Ulmer Brewery complex are extant, and occupy the northern portion of the block bound by Locust, Beaver, and Belvidere streets and Broadway in Bushwick. The complex consists of the main brew house and addition (71-83 Beaver Street), office (31 Belvidere Street), engine and machine house (35-43 Belvidere Street), and stable and storage building (28 Locust Street), occupying three separate tax lots. The buildings were historically situated around a central courtyard, which is now occupied by a one-story parking garage that is not included in this designation.

 

- From the 2010 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York, New York City, United States

 

Summary

 

The Romanesque Revival style office building at 31 Belvidere Street is the focal point of the William Ulmer Brewery complex, a reminder of one of Bushwick's, and Brooklyn's, most prominent 19th- and 20th -century industries. The entire complex remains a largely intact example of a late-19 -century brewery designed in the American round arch style, and includes, in addition to the office building, the main brew house (1872) and addition (c.1881), engine and machine houses (Theobald Engelhardt 1885), and stable and storage building (Frederick Wunder 1890).

 

A German emigrant, William Ulmer (1833-1907) began working in a New York City brewery owned by his uncles in the 1850s and later became a partner in the Vigelius & Ulmer Continental Lagerbier brewery, founded in 1871.

 

Within seven years, Ulmer became the sole proprietor of the brewery and under its new name - the William Ulmer Brewery - the business was expanded in the 1880s and 1890s with the construction of ice house, engine-, machine- and wash-room additions, a large storage and stable building, and a handsome Romanesque Revival style office building. Designed by prominent Brooklyn architect Theobald Engelhardt and constructed in 1885, the two-story red brick office building was the architectural highlight of the complex, featuring arched and dormered windows, a squat mansard roof clad in slate, as well as terra-cotta ornament.

 

Divided into three bays, the building's projecting center bay incorporates remarkably crisp red terra-cotta panels that identify the initial of the last name of the owner, the brewery's trademark, and the function of the building, as well as corbelled brickwork and a blind arcade. The office building was separated from the larger brewery by a passage with an elaborate iron gate. Though rusted, the richly embellished gate is historic and possibly original to the structure. The other buildings of the Ulmer brewery complex feature details commonly found on other 19th-century breweries, including round arch-headed and segmentally arch-headed window and door openings, projecting brick pilasters, pedimented parapets and corbelled, denticulated, zigzag-patterned, and channeled decorative brickwork, all characteristic of the American round arch style.

 

Prior to Prohibition, there were at least 24 breweries in Brooklyn, many of which were located in Williamsburgh and Bushwick. Ulmer's was one of the more successful and in 1896 the Brooklyn Eagle described him as a millionaire. Under Ulmer, beer production more than quadrupled, reaching over three million gallons annually. Upon his retirement in 1900, the brewery was run by Ulmer's sons-in-law, John W. Weber and John F. Becker. Like many other breweries, the enactment of Prohibition closed the Ulmer brewery.

 

The factory buildings were sold and converted for light manufacturing use, but the family retained ownership of the office building until 1952, using it as an office for their real estate business. The buildings remain largely intact and retain the detailing that defines their history and use.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

The History of Brewing in Brooklyn and New York

 

"To speak of the origins of brewing in America is to speak of the origins of the nation itself," stated historian Stanley Baron in his book, Brewed in America. While the first European settlers were dependent on beer shipments brought from England, there are also late-16th- and early-17th-century references to brewers operating in the Massachusetts Bay and Virginia colonies.

 

In many early colonial accounts, beer was considered safer to drink than water, and was consumed by all ages at all times of the day. Sickness, death and failure of some settlements were often attributed to a lack of supplies, including beer. In New Amsterdam, the Dutch, who were "even more partial to beer that the English," discovered that the ingredients for beer could be grown in the new world in 1626, the year Peter Minuit "purchased" Manhattan from Native Americans.

 

Brewing was an active industry in New York City during the 17th century, with small-scale commercial, home, and municipal breweries, including one operated by The Dutch East India Company. By the 1770s, New York City and Philadelphia were established as the colonies' brewing centers.

 

At least two documented commercial brewers operated in Brooklyn during the 18th century, and despite the advantage of abundant fresh water, that number grew very slowly after the turn of the 19th century. Most brews were produced for home consumption or by common brewers for sale in nearby "ordinaries" or taverns.

 

The few commercial brewers produced English style brews, such as ale, porter, stout, and common beer, using top-fermenting yeast. In 1840, a former brewer from Bavaria, John Wagner, who had brought lager beer yeast to this country, opened a small brewery in back of his house in Philadelphia to supply his nearby tavern. From these humble beginnings, the opening of small-scale breweries eventually led to a major switch in the American brewing industry, from English to German brewing techniques and brewery proprietors. While the industry did not change overnight, the introduction of lager beer to the American market coincided with a massive influx of German immigrants in the 1840s that revolutionized the brewing industry in New York City, Brooklyn and other cities where they settled in large numbers. The Germans provided an increased market for beer, and they favored lager:

 

"Lager beer - An effervescent malt beverage, brewed by using the bottom-fermentation process, in which a special yeast settles as residue at the bottom of the brewing vats. The distinctly German beer was popular in German countries in the early nineteenth century, and was introduced in the U.S. probably in the 1840s by John Wagner. Because the process for making this light, sparkling brew involved storage while fermentation occurred [which required cool temperatures], it was termed 'lager,' which is derived from the German verb lagern, meaning to stock or store."

 

While two New York City breweries (George Gillig and F & M Schaefer) began to brew lager in the 1840s, S. Liebmann and Sons Brewery (later renamed Rheingold), founded in 1854, was one of the first to use the bottom fermenting process in Brooklyn. As lager gained popularity beginning in the mid-1850s, the cities where most German immigrants settled became the largest brewing centers in the country, including Cincinnati, Milwaukee and St. Louis, as well as Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City and Brooklyn. Several articles in the Brooklyn Eagle from the 1860s and 1870s focused on the growing popularity of lager beer, calling it our "National Beverage," appealing to people of all classes.

 

Using Long Island lake water supplied by a new gravity-fed water system, "by the 1870s Brooklyn had become a major force in American beer brewing, as numerous establishments, largely run by Germans, flourished in the borough's Eastern District (Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick)." Between the 1850s and the 1880s, 11 separate breweries operated there in a 14-square block area known as "Brewer's Row." "By the 1880s, 35 breweries had been established in Brooklyn," generating an estimated $8 million in revenue annually. The majority of these firms exclusively brewed lager beer, while the remainder brewed ale or weiss (wheat) beer.

 

Technology and increased demand, as well as taste, influenced the course of the brewing industry in the second half of the 19th century. Like many other industries, the use of steam power and mechanization were common by the second half of the 19th century, altering the earlier "hand-done" brewing process and allowing for greater and more consistent production with the use of less labor.

 

While both processes required boiling and cooling, the German brewing technique differed from the English in requiring cooler temperatures to store the beer. Like the ale breweries, lager breweries operated seasonally (from October to April) but also employed extensive cellars for storage, taking advantage of cooler underground temperatures, and used large blocks of ice to regulate temperature.

 

Changes in refrigeration technology, which was first employed in Brooklyn at S. Liebmann and Sons in 1870, hit most of the breweries in the 1880s, shortening the cooling stages of the brewing process and permitting a longer brewing season. Just as steam power had revolutionized the hand brewing process, in the last years of the 19th century electric power and machinery began to replace the large steam engines.

 

Finally, pasteurization, bottling and later canning, in combination with expanded shipping methods, allowed brewers to branch out beyond local markets. These factors all made it possible for brewers to run larger breweries with greater production and profits, and tended to eliminate the smaller competitors.

 

While the number of breweries increased slowly in the 1880s and 1890s, production continued to steadily increase, driven both by an increased demand and technological advances.

 

Prior to consolidation in 1898, Brooklyn was the fourth most populous city in the country and supported 45 breweries. The prosperity continued in the 20th century, and although the number of breweries declined, the quantity of beer produced continued to grow, reaching its peak, pre-Prohibition, output of 2.5 million barrels in 1907.

 

Bushwick, which was considered a major brewing center from about 1890 until the late 1940s, was supplying almost 10% of all beer consumed in the United States during the height of its production.

 

Eventually, the technological advances that allowed Brooklyn brewers to greatly increase their production ultimately worked against them, as "cheap rail transportation and mechanical refrigeration allowed entrepreneurs in Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincinnati to make inroads into the local markets. Successful breweries made larger investments in production and distribution facilities, and small firm disappeared."

 

Still, at the close of the 1910s, there were at least 24 breweries in Brooklyn, and 70 breweries in all the boroughs combined.

 

In 1920, the 18 th Amendment, the National Prohibition or Volstead Act closed many of the Brooklyn breweries,11 while others continued to manufacture near beer (less than .05% alcohol,) soft drinks or other food products. With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, only 23 of the New York City's (including Brooklyn's) breweries resumed business, with most targeting the local market.

 

Over the next half of a century, brewing in the city declined. Brooklyn's last two breweries closed in 1976 (Rheingold and F & M Schaefer), marking the end of an era. However, about a decade later, during the micro-brewing revolution of 1980s, two Brooklyn entrepreneurs opened the Brooklyn Brewery in 1987. Although their first beers were contract brewed in Utica, New York, the opening of their new brewery in Williamsburg in 1996 revived an industry that once flourished in the borough. The Ulmer complex is a significant reminder of this once important and now reviving Brooklyn industry.

 

The History of the Neighborhood

 

The William Ulmer Brewery is located within the historic boundaries of the town of Bushwick, near the present boundary line between Brooklyn and Queens. Bushwick is one of the earliest colonial settlements in New York, first occupied in the 1630s. One of the original six towns in Brooklyn, it remained a rural farming area until the mid-19th century.

 

The site of the center of the township, the village of Bushwick, is the present intersection of Bushwick Avenue, Old Woodpoint Road, Metropolitan Avenue, Maspeth Avenue, and Humboldt Street. In 1852, Williamsburgh, the western and most populous section of the township, became an independent city, however, its municipal status ended three years later in 1855 when it and all of Bushwick were incorporated within the City of Brooklyn. Thereafter, until Brooklyn's consolidation into Greater New York in 1898, both areas and Greenpoint were known collectively as Brooklyn's Eastern District.

 

Located south of the center of Bushwick village, in the early 19th century, the land around the Ulmer Brewery site was owned by members of the Debevoise family.

 

Charles Debevoise purchased over 45 acres of property near the Bushwick-Newtown border from his brother Francis in 1823, and operated a farm.

 

Like many of his relatives and neighbors, Charles Debevoise was a slave owner. After his death in the 1850s, the Debevoise farm, which had been mapped and lotted in anticipation of sub-divison, was transferred to Charles' children, Jane Stockholm, Elizabeth Debevoise and Abraham Debevoise.

 

During the 1850s Bushwick began to lose its rural, agricultural landscape. Large numbers of Germans immigrated to New York following the political upheavals in central Europe in 1848. Many settled in Williamsburgh and Bushwick and began the development of the area's most famous local industry, brewing. The area boasted a number of features attractive to the brewing industry: an abundant water supply, soil suitable for the construction of underground storage chambers, and convenient water and rail transportation, as well as sufficient local demand. Henry R. Stiles, the notable Brooklyn historian, wrote in 1870:

 

"That quarter of Brooklyn, the Eastern District irreverently designated as Dutchtown, has been for some time the centre of the lager bier manufacturing interest in the Metropolitan District. Here are located some of the largest breweries in existence in the country. Surrounded by a population almost exclusively German, they all enjoy a local patronage to a considerable extent..."

 

A second wave of development in Bushwick began after the construction of the elevated railroad along Myrtle Avenue in 1888, making the area an attractive alternative to congested downtown Brooklyn and lower Manhattan.18 Development, consisting primarily of three-and four-story multiple dwellings, spread eastward toward the Brooklyn-Queens border during the following decade.

 

The population remained largely German until the 1930s and 40s, when Italian-Americans began moving in. Beginning with the brewery workers strike of 1949, the industry began a steady decline. The closing of factories, including the breweries, created an economic depression of the area. In the late 1950s and 1960s, African-Americans and Puerto Ricans immigrated to Bushwick, comprising more than half of its population by 1970.

 

Under the encouragement of real estate agents, many houses changed hands, purchased by low-income families with Federal Housing Authority insured mortgages, who were not necessarily able to maintain their buildings or payments during the economic downturn of the 1970s. New York City's fiscal crisis tightened the budget during this period, cutting essential services to certain communities.

 

Among them were cuts to fire department service in the area, at a time when buildings abandoned by foreclosure were subject to frequent fires, further devastating the neighborhood. Redevelopment efforts began in the 1980s and are still continuing today. According to a 2007 exhibit at the Brooklyn Historical Society, "today, Bushwick is one of Brooklyn's 'hottest' neighborhoods, abuzz with construction, renovation, and aspiration. With a burgeoning arts scene and convergence of Latin American people, Bushwick is truly one of Brooklyn's most dynamic communities."

 

German Immigration, Brooklyn's Eastern District and Lager Beer

 

From its founding in 1626 by Peter Minuit, a native of the German town of Wesel am Rhein, New York City has had a significant German population. During the 1820s, the first German neighborhood and commercial center developed in the area southeast of City Hall Park and by 1840 there were more than 24,000 Germans living in the city. During the next twenty years, their numbers increased dramatically as "mass transatlantic migration brought another hundred thousand Germans fleeing land shortages, unemployment, famine, and political and religious oppression," with over 1,350,000 immigrating to the United States.

 

To accommodate this growth, new German neighborhoods, developed on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the Eastern District of Brooklyn. In the 1870s and 1880s, dislocations caused by the growth of the German Empire brought more new immigrants to the United States while thousands of American-born children of German immigrants established their own homes in these neighborhoods. By settling in areas with such a high concentration of fellow countrymen, it was easy for Germans to maintain their culture and customs, which included German-speaking churches and synagogues, German newspapers, singing societies, Turnvereine, and beer gardens.

 

In Williamsburgh and Bushwick, it was not uncommon for "Eastern District German-Americans to enrich their day with a brew or two. Lager tended to be the normal mealtime beverage, and it most certainly was served all around at picnics, Sunday outings, sporting events and all the other social gatherings that characterized German-American life everywhere these fun-loving people settled in the United States."

 

More than just a component of the German diet, lager beer was an integral part of the customs that new immigrants maintained in the United States. Lager was for socializing, recreating with family, and enjoyed at club meetings. While some of the clubs constructed their own buildings, such as the Eastern District Turnverein and the Arion Singing Society's Arion Hall, beer gardens were also popular meeting spots, providing entertainment and a family retreat, especially in the hot days of summer, unlike saloons, which were notorious for keeping workers away from their families after a day's labor.

 

The William Ulmer Brewery

 

Born in Wurttemberg in 1833, William Ulmer immigrated to New York in the 1850s to work with his two uncles, Henry Clausen Sr. and John F. Betz, in the brewing industry,25 eventually becoming the brewmaster for Clausen's very successful New York firm. In 1871, Ulmer partnered with Anton Vigelius to form the Vigelius & Ulmer Continental Lagerbier Brewery on Belvidere and Beaver Streets in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

 

Born in Bavaria, Anton Vigelius immigrated to Brooklyn in 1840 at the age of 18 and was involved in the produce business prior to opening the brewery. He purchased land at the corner of Beaver and Belvidere Streets from Abraham and Anna Debevoise in 1869, selling a half-interest in the parcel to Ulmer shortly before the construction of the brewery.

 

As evidenced by the marble date stone in the center of its facade, the first building of the Vigelius and Ulmer Brewery was constructed at the site in 1872. Typical of this period, all of the early brewing operations would have taken place in this building, from the storage of grains, to malting, brewing and lagering (or storage) of the beer. Vigelius also constructed a large residence behind the brewery facing Belvidere Street in 1872, following the common practice of 19th-century brewers who lived in or very near their breweries. The early success of the firm was noted in an 1875 article in the Brooklyn Eagle, which cited the Vigelius & Ulmer Brewery

 

among the largest and most noted of the Williamsburgh breweries, and of the 30 to 40 breweries that were then operating in Brooklyn.

 

In December of 1877, Anton Vigelius sold his share of the brewery to Ulmer and retired from brewing, leaving Ulmer the sole proprietor of what had "grown to be one of the largest breweries in Brooklyn."28 Vigelius remained a well-known and active member of the German community as Vice President of the German Savings Bank, a Director of the Broadway (Williamsburg) Bank, and a member of the Arion Singing Society until his death in 1891.

 

Like many other breweries in Brooklyn, New York and throughout the country, the Ulmer brewery complex expanded over time to increase capacity and accommodate technological advances in the industry.

 

Around 1880, shortly after Ulmer purchased the lot at the corner of Beaver and Locust Streets, a large, storage-house addition to the main building was constructed on Beaver Street. A testament to the brewery's success, in 1885 a major building campaign was begun that included the brick office building and boiler and machine houses (designed by architect Theobald Engelhardt) facing Belvidere Street, as well as a large addition at the rear of the main brewery that served as a wash house and racking (keg-filling) room. Several years later, brewery architect Frederick Wunder designed a large wagon room, stable, and storage building to replace an existing frame stable building.

 

This three-story brick building and its additions, constructed c.1890, was the last major building constructed at the brewery. By the late 1880s, the William Ulmer Brewery and John Becker (Ulmer's son-in-law who lived in Vigelius's former home adjacent to the brewery, demolished) owned more than half of the block bounded by Beaver Street, Belvidere Street, Broadway and Locust Street.

 

Through the 1890s and first decade of the 20th century, the brewery continued to construct minor additions and interior alterations as needed, including the installation of steel framing for a new 236-barrel cooking tank in the main brew house in 1906, a year before Brooklyn reached its peak beer production. Although specific production statistics have not been found, the regular alterations to the buildings indicates that the Ulmer Brewery continued to be successful and expand production.

 

Upon his retirement in 1900, the William Ulmer Brewery was incorporated with Catharine Ulmer (his wife), John F. Becker and John W. Weber (Ulmer's sons-in-law) as directors and stockholders and his daughters, Catharine Becker and Caroline Weber as additional stockholders. Weber, an attorney by trade, became president and Becker, who had been working for Ulmer for over 20 years as a brewer, was named treasurer.

 

The brewery's success continued, allowing Weber to construct a large home at 101 Eighth Avenue in 1909 (within the Park Slope Historic District), while Becker continued to occupy Vigelius's former home behind the brewery. An active philanthropist who belonged to many charitable organizations, Ulmer died in 1907 at his home at 680 Bushwick Avenue. His wife died the following March, leaving a "large estate."

 

Unlike other 19th- and early 20th -century lager breweries in Brooklyn, no evidence has been found that Ulmer operated an adjacent beer garden or that the brewery sold any bottled or canned beer. Instead, both for personal profit and beer distribution opportunities, Ulmer invested extensively in real estate. By purchasing or building taverns and installing a proprietor, brewers could guarantee that their beer was the only one sold.

 

Advertisements and articles in the Brooklyn Eagle and other publications indicate that Ulmer owned several taverns.

 

In 1893, in consultation with Weber, he opened Ulmer Park along the waterfront in Gravesend. This large resort and hotel featured music, dancing, boating, bathing, a shooting gallery, bowling alley and other attractions, and mostly importantly served as a place for the sale of Ulmer's lager.

 

In 1901 Ulmer purchased Dexter Park, a popular baseball and football stadium located in Woodhaven, Queens, where Sunday "blue laws" were less strictly enforced than in Brooklyn, a clear advantage for lager sales. Additionally, in 1914 the William Ulmer Brewery constructed a pavilion with a restaurant and bar at the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and Union Turnpike in Forest Hills, Queens, at the edge of Forest Park.

 

The William Ulmer Brewery closed with the passing of the Volstead Act, and its buildings were sold. The brewery retained ownership of the office and attached wagon house and storage additions, and maintained the buildings for use as a real estate office. Weber became president of the Ulmer Park Realty Company, owned by his wife and sister-in-law, while Becker, already in his 70s, likely retired. A few years prior to the repeal of Prohibition, in 1930, the company officially changed its name to William Ulmer Incorporated, signifying the company's permanent departure from brewing.

 

The Design of the Ulmer Brewery Buildings

 

The Ulmer Brewery complex consists of the main brew house and addition, office, engine and machine house, and stable and storage building. These buildings and other mid- to late-19th-century Brooklyn breweries show a similarity in form and design and feature details of American round arch design. This American industrial interpretation of the German Renaissance Revival or Rundbogenstil ("round-arch style"), which evolved in Germany in the 1820s, "synthesized classical and medieval architecture—particularly the round-arched elements of those style," according to Bradley.

 

These simply designed factory buildings use corbelled and other decorative brickwork, projecting brick piers, round arch window openings, and had parapets that sometimes varied in height and featured pediments, rather than applied ornament for interest and decoration. (Despite its name, buildings constructed in the American version of the style often used economical segmentally arch-headed window openings.) The

 

style was particularly well-suited to industrial and commercial buildings because of its reliance on brick and locally available stones, simplicity of detail, and structural expressiveness, as well as rapidity of construction, economy of materials and workmanship, durability, ample fenestration, and ease of adding extensions without grossly violating the original building fabric. Brick was the material of choice for most industrial buildings. It was inexpensive, durable, and easily supplied. More important, machine-pressed brick remained "the most fire-resistant building material available prior to the widespread use of concrete."

 

The American round-arch style was widely employed in the United States for factories, breweries, warehouses, and school buildings. Transmitted to this country through the immigration of German and Central European architects in the 1840s, as well as through architectural publications, the influence of the Rundbogenstil is clearly visible is the Ulmer Brewery buildings and other extant former brewery buildings in Brooklyn, many of which were located in the heavily German-populated Eastern District, owned by German immigrants and designed by German-immigrant architects or first generation German-Americans.

 

The first building at the brewery, the main brew house constructed in 1872, features many details characteristic of the American round arch style, including round arch-headed window and segmentally-arch-headed door openings with corbelled brick archivolts, projecting pilasters, and corbelled brickwork. Historic photos and illustrations of the complex indicate that the main brew house also featured pedimented parapets at the Beaver Street facade and a two-and-a-half-story, mansard-roofed tower, which are typical of 19th-century brewery architecture.

 

Between 1880 and 1885, shortly after Ulmer purchased the lot at the corner of Beaver and Locust Streets, a large, storage-house addition to the main building was constructed on Beaver Street. Similar in style to the original building, it featured a pedimented parapet, corbelled brickwork and round arch-headed window openings with corbelled brick archivolts. Like other 19th-century breweries, all of the operations likely took place in different sections of this four-story main building, which was divided into two buildings on the interior. As production expanded, the c.1881 addition along Beaver Street provided additional space for operations.

 

By 1887, maps indicate that the mashing of the malt and boiling took place on different floors of the building at the corner of Beaver and Belvidere streets, while in the remainder of the main brew house and its addition, ice was used to maintain cooler temperatures for fermenting, a much longer process. For the final step of the brewing process, the Ulmer Brewery took advantage of underground storage; Department of Buildings permits indicate that both sections of the main brew house have deep cellars, 20- and 34-feet deep.

 

The Ulmer brewery began a major building campaign in 1885; construction was begun on the two-story, brick office building and two- and three-story boiler and machine houses facing Belvidere Street, as well as a large addition at the rear of the main brewery. Dictated by expanding brewing capacity and changing brewery technology, the additions were designed by Eastern District architect Theobald Engelhardt.

 

Although not described specifically as brewery architect, Engelhardt worked on a number of brewery commissions and was also a prominent member of the German community. The new boiler and machine house building on Belvidere Street, which was connected to the southwest facade of the main brew house, was designed in the American round arch style, and features many details similar to its adjacent neighbor, including round arch-headed window openings with corbelled brick archivolts, projecting brick pilasters, and a decorative brick cornice.

 

Although it is only three stories in height, the machine house section of the building extends to the height of the four-story brew house, and the brick cornice, which features corbelled, denticulated and zigzag-patterned brickwork, extends across both buildings. This decorative brick cornice, characteristic of the inexpensive ornament applied to American round arch style factories, also extends across the lower, two-story, boiler-house section of the building and its side and rear facades. Designed with practical mechanical needs in mind, to house boilers and machinery, the tall first and second stories of the new building do not align with the adjacent brewery.

 

By 1887, maps indicate that an ice machine was located on the second story of the machine house, showing Ulmer's efforts to keep up to date with the latest brewing industry advances. Although it was not specifically cited in the permit, it is possible that this building was partially designed and constructed to accommodate this new technology. Also included in this building campaign was the construction of one-story addition at the rear of the main brew house that served as a wash house and racking room.

 

Constructed of brick, this addition was demolished in 1923 to allow for the construction of a parking lot in the former brewery courtyard.

 

Brewery architect Frederick Wunder designed the large wagon house, stable and storage building that faces Locust Street for the brewery in 1890. This three-story brick building and its additions, constructed in a similar round arch design as the other brewery buildings, was the last major building constructed at the brewery.

 

The one- and two-story wagon room and stable additions of the same building campaign were constructed as a rear addition to the office building, linking the Belvidere Street building with the new building fronting Locust Street. Both the northwest, Locust Street facade and the northeast, courtyard-facing facade, which was originally visible from Locust and Beaver streets, of the building are fully developed with features characteristic of the American round arch style, including segmentally arch-headed windows and doors with projecting brick lintels at the first floor; round arch-headed window openings with corbelled brick archivolts at the upper stories; bluestone window sills and string coursing; brick pilasters; and denticulated, channeled and corbelled decorative brickwork. Also characteristic of the style, a tall, pedimented parapet extends above the facade on the Locust Street side of the building and features the remnants of what appears to have been a round, terra-cotta ornament.

 

Original drawings (see illustrations) show that the courtyard-facing facade featured a two-story, central tower or monitor and a shorter tower at the building's northeast corner. (This shorter tower remains with an altered roof and attached fire escape.) The ground floor openings are raised at this facade, likely to accommodate horses, and the northeasternmost door opening (adjacent to the office) is large enough to permit the storage of wagons. By 1910, the Ulmer Brewery was using trucks for delivery, thereby diminishing the need for horses. The upper stories continued to be used for storage and later the third floor of the building was a cooperage.

 

While Ulmer's and other Brooklyn breweries display many Rundbogenstil characteristics, including Philadelphia brick facades with plain pilasters, decorative, patterned brickwork, and of course, round-arched openings accented with archivolts, the more elaborate office building complete with a terracotta company trademark, is the show piece of the brewing complex.

 

By the mid-1880s brewers and their architects were already attempting to show the wealth and success of their businesses through their brewery complexes, by creating a highly-visible corporate symbols, which could be used in company advertising. An article in the Brooklyn Eagle from 1886 described the counting houses of the S. Leibmann and Sons, Obermeyer and Liebmann, and Ulmer breweries as "not surpassed by anything of the kind in Broadway or Wall Street."

 

Designed in 1885 by Theobald Engelhardt, the office building features round arch-headed window openings, facade symmetry and a central projecting bay that are all characteristic of the Romanesque Revival style, which was also inspired by French medieval sources and the German Rundbogenstil.

 

Additional Romanesque Revival details include corbelled blind arches that decorate the pedimented parapet and corbelled archivolts. The terra cotta panels on the office building are of particular note. "OFFICE." above the front entry and the trademark "U" identify the original use and owner of the building, while a band of Queen Anne-inspired decorative panels separates the first and second floors. These floral- and foliate-motif panels were likely manufactured by the Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Company, as very similar tiles appear in an 1895 catalog issued by the company. Other decorative details include, at the second floor, a slate-clad, faux mansard roof and projecting dormers, which were historically more decorative, round arch-headed, copper dormers.

 

The finely detailed iron gate, located to the north of the office building, which historically obscured the entry to the brewery courtyard, also features Queen-Anne inspired motifs and is likely original to the building. As previously described, the office was later expanded as part of the construction of the stable building on Locust, with one- and two-story wagon room, storage and stable additions, which were later partially raised one story to allow for additional storage.

  

Later Building History and Alterations

 

The bulk of the brewery complex was sold in the early 1920s. The large stable and storage building on Locust Street was sold in 1921, and resold within two years to the Artcraft Metal Stamping Corp. A manufacturer of light fixtures, the company later changed its name to Artcraft Metal and Electrical Products and occupied the building as a factory until c.1940, at times sharing the space with other metal fabricators and lighting manufacturers. The full height addition to the building at its northeast corner is an elevator shaft that was probably constructed c. 1932.63 Alterations to the Locust Street fenestration, including the enlargement of several openings and the installation of square-headed windows, were completed by c.1940. Artcraft retained ownership of the building until 1944, after which it changed hands several times (likely between tenants) before it was sold to a realty company in 1949. Metal fabricators and clothing manufacturers are listed as occupants there until at least the 1980s.

 

In 2002, a permit was issued by the Department of Buildings approving a change from factory to residential use. The building is currently divided into a several apartments per floor.

 

The main brewery building, including its additions and engine and machine houses along Belvidere Street, was sold in 1922. Brooklyn Department of Buildings records indicate that the Otis Elevator Company filed to install an elevator in the main brewery building a year earlier, perhaps in anticipation of its sale and reuse for another function. Marcus Leavitt, owner of M. Leavitt Flooring Co. purchased the property in 1923 and made alterations to convert the buildings from a brewery to light manufacturing.

 

Among the changes were interior alterations, the replacement of the interior wooden stairs with fire proof equivalents, the installation of metal fire escapes on the Beaver Street and Locust Street-facing side facades, window replacement with steel sash and other fenestration changes. New fireproof stair cases were installed just behind the Beaver and Belvidere Street facades, as evidenced on the exterior by the offset window openings and stair bulkheads at the roof. The enlargement of several of the round arch-headed windows on the Beaver Street facade may have taken place at this time, as well as the bricking up of windows at the first floor of both facades and at the rear facade, and the lengthening of window openings along Belvidere Street for the installation of doors.

 

The additions to the main brew house and storage addition, located to the rear of the Beaver Street facade, were demolished during this period to allow for the construction of the one-story parking garage that occupies most of the former brewery courtyard and has frontage on Locust and Beaver Streets. (This garage remained part of the same tax lot as the brewery buildings until c.1965, but is not included in this designation.)

 

The brewery building's parapet was reconstructed in 1936, replacing the pedimented and decorative brickwork with four-feet of plain brick. A sprinkler system was added in 1952, and the fire escapes and doors to reach them were replaced in 1958. Subsequent alterations have mainly focused on interior and plumbing, heating or other mechanical work.

 

Leavitt sold the property in 1924 to a realty company in which he was a partner and continued to occupy a warehouse there into the 1940s. Other building tenants included mainly clothing, shoe and handbag manufacturers, which occupied the building into the 1980s. Belvedere Improvement Company Inc. sold the property in 1931, and it changed hands again under foreclosure in 1937. It was purchased by Beaver Management Corp. in 1945. Since the 1960s, several deeds have been recorded against the lot, mostly between realty companies. An application, filed to convert part of the building from light manufacturing into residential units in 2001, was disapproved by the Department of Buildings; however, the Department of Finance currently classifies the building as an elevator apartment building with artists-in-residence. Its recent uses include a warehouse for an electronics importing company and studio space for an artist.

 

William Ulmer Incorporated, with Ulmer's grandson William Ulmer Becker as president, sold the office building to William H. Ludwig Inc. in 1952. The Ludwig company, an electrical appliance manufacturer located at 656 Bushwick Avenue, made several alterations to the building, including interior alterations and the construction of a small concrete block addition at the northwest corner of the lot, as well as changing the use of the building from office and brewery to office, factory and storage. William H. Ludwig Inc. retained ownership of the building for ten years before selling it to Twenty Starr Street Corporation, based next door at 21 Belvidere Street. Twenty Starr Street Corp. held the building for over twenty years, part of which time it is said to have been used for lamp manufacturing and storage. The office building was sold to its current owner in 1985.

 

Description

 

All of the main buildings of the Ulmer Brewery complex are extant, and occupy the northern portion of the block bound by Locust, Beaver, and Belvidere streets and Broadway in Bushwick. The complex consists of the main brew house and addition (71-83 Beaver Street), office (31 Belvidere Street), engine and machine house (35-43 Belvidere Street), and stable and storage building (28 Locust Street), occupying three separate tax lots. The buildings were historically situated around a central courtyard, which is now occupied by a one-story parking garage that is not included in this designation.

 

- From the 2010 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Sunday Experiment Highlights NASA's MMS Mission: Join us from 1-3 PM on Sunday, March 16 at Goddard's Visitors Center : NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission via brief presentations from MMS scientists, hands-on activities that include spacecraft modeling (LEGO, paper), NASA Apps and iPad Teacher Tools, magnetism, mission career videos and more!

 

Credit: NASA/Goddard/Bill Hrybyk

 

NASA image use policy.

 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

 

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This amazing set includes 10 monochrome minifigures, made with original LEGO pieces* and complete of accessories.

 

HARRY - BLACK with his Firebolt

DEATH EATER - DARK BLUISH GREY with a knife

PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE - LIGHT BLUISH GREY with his classic beard

VOLDEMORT - WHITE with a cape and the Elder's Wand

DRACO MALFOY - TAN with a Golden Snitch

RON WEASLEY - YELLOW with his Deluminator

GINNY WEASLEY - RED with the quidditch cape and a Quaffle

HERMIONE GRANGER - REDDISH BROWN with the book "Tales of Beedle the Bard"

PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL - GREEN with a feather

PROFESSOR TRELAWNEY - BLUE with a tea cup to predict the future

 

Write me a message to order -> m.me/potterbrick

 

Price: 60€

Payment is possible with Paypal or Bank transfer

Shipping worldwide is 10€ tracked (preferred), 6€ untracked (at your risk).

 

*I always used new LEGO pieces when possible, however some of them are used in very good condition because unavailable as new.

The capes are top-quality custom capes.

This photo includes Gold Strike Casino Resort, Horseshoe Casino & Hotel and Tunica Roadhouse Casino & Hotel.

 

Photography of the May 2011 Mississippi River Flood in Tunica, MS. All images taken by photographer, Trey Clark.

This photo has notes.

 

These photos are from a round Manhattan Circle Line Cruise in 1978. They include a photo, now historic, of the Waterside Generating Station on 1st Avenue and 40th Street, which was demolished in 2006. It was located just south of the UN Headquarters on the East Side of Manhattan.

 

The photos are shown in clockwise order round Manhattan Island, beginning with this photo at of the Riverside Church on the Hudson River, West Manhattan, at Riverside Drive and 122nd Street.

Wikipedia--The Riverside Church

 

To the left is the mausoleum that is the General Grant National Memorial, or Grant's Tomb, the last resting place of Ulysses S. Grant.

 

Right of the church is the Riverside Theatre.

 

Canon FTb with Agfa 35mm slide film

Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley, and most of Saline Valley. The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment of salt-flats, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons, and mountains. Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States, and the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. The second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Badwater Basin, which is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. Approximately 91% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment. Some examples include creosote bush, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984.

 

A series of Native American groups inhabited the area from as early as 7000 BC, most recently the Timbisha around 1000 AD who migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of European Americans, trapped in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, gave the valley its name, even though only one of their group died there. Several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley with twenty-mule teams. The valley later became the subject of books, radio programs, television series, and movies. Tourism expanded in the 1920s when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933 and the park was substantially expanded and became a national park in 1994.

 

The natural environment of the area has been shaped largely by its geology. The valley is actually a graben with the oldest rocks being extensively metamorphosed and at least 1.7 billion years old. Ancient, warm, shallow seas deposited marine sediments until rifting opened the Pacific Ocean. Additional sedimentation occurred until a subduction zone formed off the coast. The subduction uplifted the region out of the sea and created a line of volcanoes. Later the crust started to pull apart, creating the current Basin and Range landform. Valleys filled with sediment and, during the wet times of glacial periods, with lakes, such as Lake Manly.

 

Source: Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley_National_Park

Peruvian Apple Cactus - Cereus (peruvianus) repanda f. monstrosa, Education Drive, San Luis Obispo, CA (Jack)

 

Common Names include:

Hedge cactus, Queen of the night, Peruvian apple cactus, Hildmann's Cereus

 

Cereus hildmannianus is well known to cactus fanciers throughout the world. It is very easy to cultivate, easy to propagate, tolerates moderate frost, and produces numerous showy white flowers 15 cm across. It is one of the most widely cultivated cactus species. The fruits are edible, and it is used for living fences. Even more intriguing, the apple cactus is widely touted as having the power to correct physical ailments caused by electromagnetic radiation. How and why this particular virtue was discovered are unclear, but the plant is widely sold potted with the recommendation that it be located near a computer screen or television in order to re-establish an electromagnetic equilibrium upset by the device.

 

www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACTI/Family/Cactaceae/6498/C...

 

Origin and Habitat:

Distribution is very uncertain, probably Brazil (Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo), Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, but is so popular for its large, spineless fruits that it has spread over most of tropical and neotropical South America, belying its wild origin. It is also widely cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant. Cereus hildmannianus has also been introduced outside its native ranges and become invasive.

 

Type locality: State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Altitude range: From sea level to 1,000 metres above sea level.

Habitat and Ecology: Cereus hildmannianus grows in southern humid/subhumid forest, in rocky places and on dry shadows soils in mata de planalto, in cerrado and pampas where is found on rocky outcrops. The major threat is habitat loss due to urbanization, agriculture, cattle ranching and forestry. Pollinators include hummingbird, carpenter bees, honeybees, houseflies, wasps, and a host of lesser arthropods in the daytime, but moths and nectar-eating bats are the principal pollinators at night.

 

Description:

The Peruvian apple cactus or Hedge cactus (Cereus hildmannianus) is a perennial treelike cactus that grows like a candelabrum with numerous columnar branches, 5-10(-15) m high with distinct trunks. It produces numerous showy white flowers 10-15 cm across that are followed by goose-egg-size succulent fruits containing a delicately sweet white pulp with delightfully crunchy black seeds. It possess the added virtue that its stems are free of spines and can be handled it without worrying about impalement. Two subspecies are recognized, the nominate and subsp. uruguayanus (R.Kiesling). The latter usually much more spiny.

 

Flower: Very large, nocturnal, elongated, funnelform, 20 to 30 cm long; inner perianth-segments white, broad and obtuse ovary naked, 2.5 to 3 cm long.

 

Blooming season: It blooms at night in spring through summer. The buds grow quickly, shooting out from the branches like so many small snakes. Within two weeks, dozens of flowers open, always at night and all or nearly all flowers open simultaneously at the same time. By midmorning the following day, all had closed and drooped. This is apparently a water-saving strategy by cacti. The plant usually buds and flowers about two weeks following any warm-season rain. The fruits usually ripen within a month. Buds may erupt well into fall, even early winter, if sufficient temperatures and rains fall. During dry times, the buds often fall off prior to opening.

Fruits globose: Pear-shaped, red with white pulp. The Peruvian apple cactus may produce fruit 3-4 years after propagation from seed.

 

Note by Gene Schroeder:

"There are many forms resulting from years of commercial production. C. repandus is one of in common usage among plant sellers. The one in the images is a monstrose form ... sometimes added to the botanic name as fma. monstrose. I believe that Nick either installed those plants, or knows who did so the actual source could be determined. Bear in mind that plants such as these are far different than the botanic origin due to years of selection by growers. The flowers and fruit do remain the same although some monstrose forms never flower."

 

Summary of story ... call it what you wish. There will never be universal agreement. I think the most common term in use is "monster apple cactus"

  

Members: Ron Whiteside sent the Reunion notice of the Doolittle Raiders which took place. It’s too long to include in the Nov Newsletter, but I thought I’d send it as a separate mailing in case you were interested in reading it. I did put part of it in the Newsletter.

 

The Final Toast

 

It's the cup of brandy that no one wants to drink.

On April 17, 2013 in Fort Walton Beach , Florida , the surviving

Doolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last time.

 

They once were among the most universally admired and revered men

in the United States . There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942,

when they carried out one of the most courageous and

heart-stirring military operations in this nation's history. The

mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would bring

tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.

 

Now only four survive.

After Japan 's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor , with the United

States reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn

the war effort around.

Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan

for the United States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was

devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off

from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been

tried -- sending such big, heavy bombers from a carrier.

 

The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James

Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet,

knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They

would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a

safe landing.

 

But on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind of

the plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off

from much farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had counted

on. They were told that because of this they would not have

enough fuel to make it to safety.

And those men went anyway.

 

They bombed Tokyo , and then flew as far as they could. Four

planes crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the

Raiders died. Eight more were captured; three were executed.

Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew

made it to Russia .

 

The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its

enemies, and to the rest of the world: We will fight. And, no

matter what it takes, we will win.

Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as

national heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced

a motion picture based on the raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,"

starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and

emotional box-office hit, and the phrase became part of the

national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for the film, MGM

proclaimed that it was presenting the story "with supreme pride."

 

Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion each

April, to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different

city each year. In 1959, the city of Tucson , Arizona , as a

gesture of respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders

with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved with

the name of a Raider.

 

Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is

transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away,

his goblet is turned upside down in the case at the next reunion,

as his old friends bear solemn witness.

 

Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special

cognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy

Doolittle was born.

There has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving

Raiders, they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and

toast their comrades who preceded them in death.

As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February,

Tom Griffin passed away at age 96.

 

What a man he was. After bailing out of his plane over a

mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill

with malaria, and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to

Europe to fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured,

and spent 22 months in a German prisoner of war camp.

The selflessness of these men, the sheer guts ... there was a

passage in the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that,

on the surface, had nothing to do with the war, but that

emblematizes the depth of his sense of duty and devotion:

"When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home,

he visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing

home, fed his wife and at the end of the day brought home her

clothes. At night, he washed and ironed her clothes. Then he

walked them up to her room the next morning. He did that for

three years until her death in 2005."

So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick

Cole (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite,

Edward Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have

decided that there are too few of them for the public reunions to

continue.

The events in Fort Walton Beach marked the end. It

has come full circle; Florida 's nearby Eglin Field was where the

Raiders trained in secrecy for the Tokyo mission. The town

planned to do all it can to honor the men: a six-day celebration

of their valor, including luncheons, a dinner and a parade.

Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save

the country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their

sacrifice? They don't talk about that, at least not around other

people. But if you find yourself near Fort Walton Beach this

week, and if you should encounter any of the Raiders, you might

want to offer them a word of thanks. I can tell you from

firsthand observation that they appreciate hearing that they are

remembered.

The men have decided that after this final public reunion they

will wait until a later date -- some time this year -- to get

together once more, informally and in absolute privacy. That is

when they will open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowing

by too swiftly now; they are not going to wait until there are

only two of them.

They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets.

And raise them in a toast to those who are gone.

 

Their 70th Anniversary Photo

PLEASE SEND THIS ON TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK, ESPECIALLY

TO THOSE WHO WERE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW ABOUT THESE GUYS. THIS SHOULD

BE READ BY EVERY KID IN GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOL SO THEY KNOW WHAT

HAPPENED.

I include this side photo of the Jupiter 9 because -- as I am still new to manual lenses -- I couldn't initially figure out why this lens had three rings. After research and helpful Flickr advice I learned that the top ring is an aperature limiter. You 'set' the aperature with that ring which limits the movement (no clicks. Just smooth constant movement) of the actual aperature ring which is the middle one. The lowest ring is focus.

In spring of 2007, the Albertina also received the previously based in Salzburg "Batliner Collection" as unrestricted permanent loan. The collection of Rita and Herbert Batliner includes important works by modern masters, from French impressionism to German expressionism of the "Blue Rider" and the "bridge" to works of the Fauvist or the Russian avant-garde from Chagall to Malevich.

de.wikipedia.org / wiki / Albertina_ (Vienna)

 

 

The Albertina

The architectural history of the Palais

(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Image: The oldest photographic view of the newly designed Palais Archduke Albrecht, 1869

"It is my will that ​​the expansion of the inner city of Vienna with regard to a suitable connection of the same with the suburbs as soon as possible is tackled and at this on Regulirung (regulation) and beautifying of my Residence and Imperial Capital is taken into account. To this end I grant the withdrawal of the ramparts and fortifications of the inner city and the trenches around the same".

This decree of Emperor Franz Joseph I, published on 25 December 1857 in the Wiener Zeitung, formed the basis for the largest the surface concerning and architecturally most significant transformation of the Viennese cityscape. Involving several renowned domestic and foreign architects a "master plan" took form, which included the construction of a boulevard instead of the ramparts between the inner city and its radially upstream suburbs. In the 50-years during implementation phase, an impressive architectural ensemble developed, consisting of imperial and private representational buildings, public administration and cultural buildings, churches and barracks, marking the era under the term "ring-street style". Already in the first year tithe decided a senior member of the Austrian imperial family to decorate the facades of his palace according to the new design principles, and thus certified the aristocratic claim that this also "historicism" said style on the part of the imperial house was attributed.

Image: The Old Albertina after 1920

It was the palace of Archduke Albrecht (1817-1895), the Senior of the Habsburg Family Council, who as Field Marshal held the overall command over the Austro-Hungarian army. The building was incorporated into the imperial residence of the Hofburg complex, forming the south-west corner and extending eleven meters above street level on the so-called Augustinerbastei.

The close proximity of the palace to the imperial residence corresponded not only with Emperor Franz Joseph I and Archduke Albert with a close familial relationship between the owner of the palace and the monarch. Even the former inhabitants were always in close relationship to the imperial family, whether by birth or marriage. An exception here again proves the rule: Don Emanuel Teles da Silva Conde Tarouca (1696-1771), for which Maria Theresa in 1744 the palace had built, was just a close friend and advisor of the monarch. Silva Tarouca underpins the rule with a second exception, because he belonged to the administrative services as Generalhofbaudirektor (general court architect) and President of the Austrian-Dutch administration, while all other him subsequent owners were highest ranking military.

In the annals of Austrian history, especially those of military history, they either went into as commander of the Imperial Army, or the Austrian, later kk Army. In chronological order, this applies to Duke Carl Alexander of Lorraine, the brother-of-law of Maria Theresa, as Imperial Marshal, her son-in-law Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, also field marshal, whos adopted son, Archduke Charles of Austria, the last imperial field marshal and only Generalissimo of Austria, his son Archduke Albrecht of Austria as Feldmarschalil and army Supreme commander, and most recently his nephew Archduke Friedrich of Austria, who held as field marshal from 1914 to 1916 the command of the Austro-Hungarian troops. Despite their military profession, all five generals conceived themselves as patrons of the arts and promoted large sums of money to build large collections, the construction of magnificent buildings and cultural life. Charles Alexander of Lorraine promoted as governor of the Austrian Netherlands from 1741 to 1780 the Academy of Fine Arts, the Théâtre de Ja Monnaie and the companies Bourgeois Concert and Concert Noble, he founded the Academie royale et imperial des Sciences et des Lettres, opened the Bibliotheque Royal for the population and supported artistic talents with high scholarships. World fame got his porcelain collection, which however had to be sold by Emperor Joseph II to pay off his debts. Duke Albert began in 1776 according to the concept of conte Durazzo to set up an encyclopedic collection of prints, which forms the core of the world-famous "Albertina" today.

Image : Duke Albert and Archduchess Marie Christine show in family cercle the from Italy brought along art, 1776. Frederick Henry Füger.

1816 declared to Fideikommiss and thus in future indivisible, inalienable and inseparable, the collection 1822 passed into the possession of Archduke Carl, who, like his descendants, it broadened. Under him, the collection was introduced together with the sumptuously equipped palace on the Augustinerbastei in the so-called "Carl Ludwig'schen fideicommissum in 1826, by which the building and the in it kept collection fused into an indissoluble unity. At this time had from the Palais Tarouca by structural expansion or acquisition a veritable Residenz palace evolved. Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen was first in 1800 the third floor of the adjacent Augustinian convent wing adapted to house his collection and he had after 1802 by his Belgian architect Louis de Montoyer at the suburban side built a magnificent extension, called the wing of staterooms, it was equipped in the style of Louis XVI. Only two decades later, Archduke Carl the entire palace newly set up. According to scetches of the architect Joseph Kornhäusel the 1822-1825 retreaded premises presented themselves in the Empire style. The interior of the palace testified from now in an impressive way the high rank and the prominent position of its owner. Under Archduke Albrecht the outer appearance also should meet the requirements. He had the facade of the palace in the style of historicism orchestrated and added to the Palais front against the suburbs an offshore covered access. Inside, he limited himself, apart from the redesign of the Rococo room in the manner of the second Blondel style, to the retention of the paternal stock. Archduke Friedrich's plans for an expansion of the palace were omitted, however, because of the outbreak of the First World War so that his contribution to the state rooms, especially, consists in the layout of the Spanish apartment, which he in 1895 for his sister, the Queen of Spain Maria Christina, had set up as a permanent residence.

Picture: The "audience room" after the restoration: Picture: The "balcony room" around 1990

The era of stately representation with handing down their cultural values ​​found its most obvious visualization inside the palace through the design and features of the staterooms. On one hand, by the use of the finest materials and the purchase of masterfully manufactured pieces of equipment, such as on the other hand by the permanent reuse of older equipment parts. This period lasted until 1919, when Archduke Friedrich was expropriated by the newly founded Republic of Austria. With the republicanization of the collection and the building first of all finished the tradition that the owner's name was synonymous with the building name:

After Palais Tarouca or tarokkisches house it was called Lorraine House, afterwards Duke Albert Palais and Palais Archduke Carl. Due to the new construction of an adjacently located administration building it received in 1865 the prefix "Upper" and was referred to as Upper Palais Archduke Albrecht and Upper Palais Archduke Frederick. For the state a special reference to the Habsburg past was certainly politically no longer opportune, which is why was decided to name the building according to the in it kept collection "Albertina".

Picture: The "Wedgwood Cabinet" after the restoration: Picture: the "Wedgwood Cabinet" in the Palais Archduke Friedrich, 1905

This name derives from the term "La Collection Albertina" which had been used by the gallery Inspector Maurice von Thausing in 1870 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts for the former graphics collection of Duke Albert. For this reason, it was the first time since the foundation of the palace that the name of the collection had become synonymous with the room shell. Room shell, hence, because the Republic of Austria Archduke Friedrich had allowed to take along all the movable goods from the palace in his Hungarian exile: crystal chandeliers, curtains and carpets as well as sculptures, vases and clocks. Particularly stressed should be the exquisite furniture, which stems of three facilities phases: the Louis XVI furnitures of Duke Albert, which had been manufactured on the basis of fraternal relations between his wife Archduchess Marie Christine and the French Queen Marie Antoinette after 1780 in the French Hofmanufakturen, also the on behalf of Archduke Charles 1822-1825 in the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory by Joseph Danhauser produced Empire furnitures and thirdly additions of the same style of Archduke Friedrich, which this about 1900 at Portois & Ffix as well as at Friedrich Otto Schmidt had commissioned.

The "swept clean" building got due to the strained financial situation after the First World War initially only a makeshift facility. However, since until 1999 no revision of the emergency equipment took place, but differently designed, primarily the utilitarianism committed office furnitures complementarily had been added, the equipment of the former state rooms presented itself at the end of the 20th century as an inhomogeneous administrative mingle-mangle of insignificant parts, where, however, dwelt a certain quaint charm. From the magnificent state rooms had evolved depots, storage rooms, a library, a study hall and several officed.

Image: The Albertina Graphic Arts Collection and the Philipphof after the American bombing of 12 März 1945.

Image: The palace after the demolition of the entrance facade, 1948-52

Worse it hit the outer appearance of the palace, because in times of continued anti-Habsburg sentiment after the Second World War and inspired by an intolerant destruction will, it came by pickaxe to a ministerial erasure of history. In contrast to the graphic collection possessed the richly decorated facades with the conspicuous insignia of the former owner an object-immanent reference to the Habsburg past and thus exhibited the monarchial traditions and values ​​of the era of Francis Joseph significantly. As part of the remedial measures after a bomb damage, in 1948 the aristocratic, by Archduke Albert initiated, historicist facade structuring along with all decorations was cut off, many facade figures demolished and the Hapsburg crest emblems plunged to the ground. Since in addition the old ramp also had been cancelled and the main entrance of the bastion level had been moved down to the second basement storey at street level, ended the presence of the old Archduke's palace after more than 200 years. At the reopening of the "Albertina Graphic Collection" in 1952, the former Hapsburg Palais of splendour presented itself as one of his identity robbed, formally trivial, soulless room shell, whose successful republicanization an oversized and also unproportional eagle above the new main entrance to the Augustinian road symbolized. The emocratic throw of monuments had wiped out the Hapsburg palace from the urban appeareance, whereby in the perception only existed a nondescript, nameless and ahistorical building that henceforth served the lodging and presentation of world-famous graphic collection of the Albertina. The condition was not changed by the decision to the refurbishment because there were only planned collection specific extensions, but no restoration of the palace.

Image: The palace after the Second World War with simplified facades, the rudiment of the Danubiusbrunnens (well) and the new staircase up to the Augustinerbastei

This paradigm shift corresponded to a blatant reversal of the historical circumstances, as the travel guides and travel books for kk Residence and imperial capital of Vienna dedicated itself primarily with the magnificent, aristocratic palace on the Augustinerbastei with the sumptuously fitted out reception rooms and mentioned the collection kept there - if at all - only in passing. Only with the repositioning of the Albertina in 2000 under the direction of Klaus Albrecht Schröder, the palace was within the meaning and in fulfillment of the Fideikommiss of Archduke Charles in 1826 again met with the high regard, from which could result a further inseparable bond between the magnificent mansions and the world-famous collection. In view of the knowing about politically motivated errors and omissions of the past, the facades should get back their noble, historicist designing, the staterooms regain their glamorous, prestigious appearance and culturally unique equippment be repurchased. From this presumption, eventually grew the full commitment to revise the history of redemption and the return of the stately palace in the public consciousness.

Image: The restored suburb facade of the Palais Albertina suburb

The smoothed palace facades were returned to their original condition and present themselves today - with the exception of the not anymore reconstructed Attica figures - again with the historicist decoration and layout elements that Archduke Albrecht had given after the razing of the Augustinerbastei in 1865 in order. The neoclassical interiors, today called after the former inhabitants "Habsburg Staterooms", receiving a meticulous and detailed restoration taking place at the premises of originality and authenticity, got back their venerable and sumptuous appearance. From the world wide scattered historical pieces of equipment have been bought back 70 properties or could be returned through permanent loan to its original location, by which to the visitors is made experiencable again that atmosphere in 1919 the state rooms of the last Habsburg owner Archduke Frederick had owned. The for the first time in 80 years public accessible "Habsburg State Rooms" at the Palais Albertina enable now again as eloquent testimony to our Habsburg past and as a unique cultural heritage fundamental and essential insights into the Austrian cultural history. With the relocation of the main entrance to the level of the Augustinerbastei the recollection to this so valuable Austrian Cultural Heritage formally and functionally came to completion. The vision of the restoration and recovery of the grand palace was a pillar on which the new Albertina should arise again, the other embody the four large newly built exhibition halls, which allow for the first time in the history of the Albertina, to exhibit the collection throughout its encyclopedic breadh under optimal conservation conditions.

Image: The new entrance area of the Albertina

64 meter long shed roof. Hans Hollein.

The palace presents itself now in its appearance in the historicist style of the Ringstrassenära, almost as if nothing had happened in the meantime. But will the wheel of time should not, cannot and must not be turned back, so that the double standards of the "Albertina Palace" said museum - on the one hand Habsburg grandeur palaces and other modern museum for the arts of graphics - should be symbolized by a modern character: The in 2003 by Hans Hollein designed far into the Albertina square cantilevering, elegant floating flying roof. 64 meters long, it symbolizes in the form of a dynamic wedge the accelerated urban spatial connectivity and public access to the palace. It advertises the major changes in the interior as well as the huge underground extensions of the repositioned "Albertina".

 

Christian Benedictine

Art historian with research interests History of Architecture, building industry of the Hapsburgs, Hofburg and Zeremonialwissenschaft (ceremonial sciences). Since 1990 he works in the architecture collection of the Albertina. Since 2000 he supervises as director of the newly founded department "Staterooms" the restoration and furnishing of the state rooms and the restoration of the facades and explores the history of the palace and its inhabitants.

 

www.wien-vienna.at/albertinabaugeschichte.php

Sunday Experiment Highlights NASA's MMS Mission: Join us from 1-3 PM on Sunday, March 16 at Goddard's Visitors Center : NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission via brief presentations from MMS scientists, hands-on activities that include spacecraft modeling (LEGO, paper), NASA Apps and iPad Teacher Tools, magnetism, mission career videos and more!

 

Credit: NASA/Goddard/Bill Hrybyk

 

NASA image use policy.

 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

 

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News Release

 

For Immediate Release

Contact: Walter Gallas, 504-400-3017 or Sandra Stokes, 225-445-3800

41 ORGANIZATIONS CALL ON GOVERNOR AND CITY LEADERS FOR OPEN PROCESS IN DECISION-MAKING FOR MAJOR HOSPITALS

They ask Gov. Jindal for cost-benefit analysis of two competing LSU plans, and ask City Council and Planning Commission to include hospitals in the New Orleans master plan.

 

New Orleans, La. (Wednesday, March 25, 2009)—With the debate over locating new LSU and VA hospitals in Mid-City continuing, 41 local and national organizations—including a diverse range of community groups, professional organizations and planning associations—are asking state and city leaders to engage the public more directly in the search for a solution.

 

At a press conference held today, the organizations asked Gov. Jindal to commission an independent, third-party comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the two LSU hospital plans--proposed new construction in Lower Mid-City and an alternative proposal to gut and rebuild a new 21st century hospital inside the shell of Charity Hospital. The organizations argue that a rigorous, side-by-side financial analysis will both clear up contradictory claims about construction costs of the two plans and will also measure the impact of different timelines on job creation, related economic development and health care delivery to the community.

 

In addition, the groups called on the City Council and the City Planning Commission to hold public hearings to receive information about the hospital designs and plans for a biomedical research district, and to give members of the public their first City-Hall-sponsored opportunity to respond to the plans. The groups want the hearings to be part of a process in which the council and planning commission take responsibility for making sure that the locations and designs for the huge hospital complex are best for the citizens, neighborhoods and the medical industry.

 

A third recommendation by the groups is to include the hospitals and the new biosciences economic development district in the city’s new master planning process. Goody Clancy, the city’s planning contractor, has stated that the Planning Commission excluded the hospitals and medical district from the scope of the master plan, which was released Friday in draft form.

 

“Despite the profound and lasting impact these projects will have on the city of New Orleans, the City Council and the City Planning Commission have been sitting on the sidelines of the debate, doing nothing, and the people of New Orleans have been kept largely in the dark,” said William Borah, New Orleans land use attorney. “This decision is far too important to be made in a backroom deal, without citizen input. This coalition is calling for a more transparent, open decision making process—one that has citizens at the table to help decide which hospital plan is in the best long-term interests of the people of New Orleans.”

  

Louisiana State University’s proposed $1.2 billion teaching hospital and medical center and a new $600-plus million hospital for the Department of Veterans Affairs constitute the largest single economic-development project in the city’s history. LSU and VA propose to locate the hospitals in a 70-acre section of the Mid-City neighborhood, after removing residents and small businesses from hundreds of buildings, many of them historic structures. The LSU plan for moving the hospitals to Mid-City would also affect the Central Business District, since the university proposes to abandon the landmark Charity Hospital building. A plan by RMJM Hillier proposes reusing the shell of the Charity building to house the state-of-the-art hospital that would serve as the core of LSU’s academic medical center, an approach the nationally-recognized architects say will produce a world-class hospital with savings of hundreds of millions of dollars over new construction and will be completed at least two years sooner.

 

Last week at the Senate District 9 Health Care Reform Forum, Louisiana Secretary of Health and Hospitals Alan Levine—the state’s point person on the hospital issue—said that no final decisions have been made and that both the LSU and the RMJM Hillier approaches are still on the table.

 

"Every neighborhood in New Orleans should be concerned that the plans for the replacement of Charity and the VA hospitals are not a part of the city's master planning process which is going on right now," said Charles E. Allen, III, president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association. "What is happening in Lower Mid-City could happen in any neighborhood of the city. We need to make sure that City Planning and the City Council insist that the process applies to our entire city. We can't leave anything out."

 

“Health care is in critical condition here in New Orleans,” said Dr. Sissy Sartor. “I am appealing to Governor Jindal to come forward and show the citizens of New Orleans and of the state that he is serious about returning health care to our city and that he will do it in a fiscally responsible way. The governor has it in his power to order a cost-benefit analysis that would answer the questions about alternative plans for rebuilding the LSU medical center.”

 

“At this point, what we need is a clear factual basis from which a decision can be reached,” said Sandra Stokes, Executive Vice Chair of the Foundation for Historical Louisiana “We need to move forward, and the best way to do that is for the state to conduct an independent, side-by-side analysis of the two plans. That process would provide answers to fundamental questions of time, efficiency and cost. Which plan would provide 21st century medical care faster? Which would cost less? We need an independent voice to provide answers to these basic questions.”

  

ORGANIZATIONS IN THE COALITION ARE CALLING FOR:

1.Governor Jindal to order an independent, comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the two hospital plans.

2.The City Planning Commission and the City Council to hold public hearings on these critical planning issues.

3.The City Planning Commission and the City Council to include the hospitals in the current master-planning process.

 

●American Planning Association

●Broadmoor Improvement Association

●Charity Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association

●Foundation for Historical Louisiana

●New Orleans Committee to Reopen Charity Hospital

●Coliseum Square Association

●Doctors for Charity Hospital

●National Trust for Historic Preservation

●Squandered Heritage

●Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association

●Smart Growth for Louisiana

●Preservation Resource Center

●Louisiana ACORN

●Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association

●Louisiana Landmarks Society

●GNO Affordable Housing Action Center

●Holy Cross Neighborhood Association

●New Creation Christian Church

●Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation

●Lower Mid-City Residents and Business Owners Affected by the LSU/VA Hospitals

●The Renaissance Project

●Vieux Carré Property Owners, Residents and Associates

●Southern Christian Leadership Conference Louisiana Women’s Division

●French Quarter Citizens, Inc.

●Lantern Light Inc.

●Irish Channel Neighborhood Association

●Louisiana Justice Institute

●Lafayette Square Association

●Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development

●Mid-City Neighborhood Organization

●New Orleans Pax Christi

●Partners for Livable Communities

●C3/Hands Off Iberville

●Phoenix of New Orleans

●Restaurant Opportunity Center of New Orleans

●Social Justice Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Church

●The Townscape Institute

●The Urban Conservancy

●United Teachers of New Orleans

●Advocates for Environmental Human Rights

●Historic Faubourg Treme Association

For Sale Yamaha XJ900 1985 model

Excellent bike, smooth runner, very fast and ultra reliable. Of the more than100 bikes I have personally owned, which include a new zephyr 750, a new Vulcan 1500 classic, several kawasaki GT750, Z750, Z650, Z250, Zr750, XJ650, Suzuki GR650, GS850 Yamaha XS250, XS360, XS400, Honda CB250, CB900, CB400 CR125 Elsinore, Atomic Link 250, TDR200, Grand Prix Victa, and too many more to remember ……… THIS XJ900 is the best of them all. Last year when I was Blueing with my EX BITCH, I blew a gasket in my BRAIN and just took off to Brisbane for a couple of weeks. The Bike was Fantastic. Never missed a beat. I Made it to a friends in Gosford in a day, then I fell in a heap. Funny thing was, the speedo cable broke at Gundagai, so I assumed that 6000 RPM was oh,… about 110-120 kmh and so I did 6000 RPM all the way to Brisbane. DON’T LAUGH! I was being a bit optimistic. I got a new speedo cable in Brizzy and discovered to my amusement and AWE that I had been riding at 160kmh ALL THE BLOODY WAY! Hahahhaa! God was on my side,….. never copped a copper with a radar! I once rode at 160kmh from Adelaide to the border of Vic at 160kmh on a Kawasaki GT750. smoked like a prick after that. The XJ900 did Gundagai to Brizzy at 160 and is still running as beautifully today as the day I got it. Another reccomendation,… This bike has outlasted three motorcycle couriers, me and two mates and none of us Kamikaze Pilots could kill it. It is BULLETPROOF! The clutch slips a little if you wring its neck really hard, but it is fine under responsible law abiding riding conditions. The only other flaws are that it is cosmetically challenged. The tank has a less than perfect paint job done by another courier mate who owned the spares bike that accompanies this one. NOTE Both tanks do NOT LEAK. If I had the time I would have given the bike a full respray, but it looks reasonably presentable.

Registered until the end of November with 90% tyres and a complete XJ900 spares bike (not running)

Selling due to overseas travel. Must sell by 16th February!

Last year I put MYSELF on the market and I sold myself as a "mail order husband" on the internet to a GORGEOUS Eurasian woman. (No Sheet! Internet dating works! I never intended to hook up with anyone overseas, but I have found the perfect woman! Awesome!) At the end of February, I fly to Asia to get married and I won’t be back. Unfortunately, they don’t allow the importation of bikes over 5 years old over there, so the XJ900 has to go. SO… I am asking $1500 For it. I am insanely busy organising my departure, so I won’t have time to get a roadworthy. Get it yourself ya lazy bum! You want a great bike at a bargain price with 100% spares bike AND a Roadworthy! Anyway. Call me BEFORE BIDDING. This bike is offered for sale elsewhere and this auction may be cancelled at ANY TIME, with all bids being cancelled, so please call first to see if it is still available. My name is Peter and the number is 0432 695 269. Call me, Call me NOW! (between 10am and 10 PM)

This Bikes and parts must sell by the 16th of february and is located in North Dandenong Melbourne Victoria.

 

Jon Magnuson, Executive Director of the nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette, Michigan

906-2285494

magnusonx2@charter.net

www.earthkeepersup.org

www.cedartreeinstitute.org

 

EarthKeepers II (EK II) Project Coordinator Kyra Fillmore Ziomkowski explains creating 30 interfaith community gardens (2013-2014) across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that include vegetables and native species plants that encourage and help pollinators like bees and butterflies.

 

The video was shot on April 5, 2013 at the Big Bay Point Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast in Big Bay, MI during a meeting of EK II representatives.

 

An Interfaith Energy Conservation and Community Garden Initiative Across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Restore Native Plants and Protect the Great Lakes from Toxins like Airborne Mercury in cooperation with the EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, U.S. Forest Service, 10 faith traditions and Native American tribes such as Keweenaw Bay Indian Community

 

10 faiths: Roman Catholic" "Episcopal" "Jewish" "Lutheran" "Presbyterian" "United Methodist" "Bahá'í" "Unitarian Universalist" "American Friends" "Quaker" "Zen Buddhist" "

 

EK II website

EarthKeepersUP.org

 

Nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute

Marquette, MI

www.CedarTreeInstitute.org

 

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

www.greatlakesrestoration.us

www.epa.gov

 

Deborah Lamberty

Program Analyst

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Great Lakes National Program Office

Chicago, IL

 

Lamberty.Deborah@epa.gov

312-886-6681

 

Pastor Albert Valentine II

Manistique, MI

Manistique Presbyterian Church of the Redeemer

Gould City Community Presbyterian Church

Presbytery of Mackinac

www.presbymac.org

 

Rev. Christine Bergquist

Bark River United Methodist Church

First UMC of Hermansville

United Methodist Church Marquette District

www.mqtdistrict.com

 

Rev. Elisabeth Zant

Eden Evangelical Lutheran Church

Munising, MI

www.edenevangelical.org

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Northern Great Lakes Synod

www.nglsynod.org

 

Heidi Gould

Marquette, MI

Marquette Unitarian Universalist Congregation

www.mqtuu.org

twitter.com/Heidi_Gould

 

Rev. Pete Andersen

Marquette, MI

ELCA

 

Helen Grossman

Temple Beth Sholom

Jewish Synagogue

 

Rev. Stephen Gauger

Calvary Lutheran Church

Rapid River, MI

ELCA

 

Jan Schultz, Botanist

U.S. Forest Service (USFS)

Eastern Region 9

EK II Technical Advisor for Community Gardens

Milwaukee, WI

 

USFS

www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/nativegardening

www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers

www.wildlifeforever.org

 

Pollinator photos by Nancy Parker Hill

www.nancyhillphoto.com

 

Rev. David Van Kley, Senior Pastor

Rev. Amanda Kossow, Associate Pastor

www.marquettelutherans.org

 

Messiah Lutheran Church

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Marquette, Michigan

 

Rev. David Van Kley, Senior Pastor

Rev. Amanda Kossow, Associate Pastor

www.marquettelutherans.org

  

NMU EK II Student Team

Katelin Bingner

Tom Merkel

Adam Magnuson

 

EK II social sites

www.youtube.com/EarthKeepersII

vimeo.com/EarthKeepersII

EarthKeepersII.blogspot.com

EarthKeepersII.wordpress.com

www.facebook.com/EarthKeepersII

www.twitter.com/EarthKeeperTeam

pinterest.com/EarthKeepersII

pinterest.com/EarthKeepersII/Great-Lakes-Restoration-Init...

pinterest.com/EarthKeepersII/EarthKeepers-II-and-the-EPA-...

Lake Superior Zendo

Zen Buddhist Temple

Marquette, Michigan

 

Rev. Tesshin Paul Lehmberg

906 226-6407

plehmber@nmu.edu

 

Dr. Michael Grossman, representing Jewish Temple Beth Sholom in Ishpeming, MI

Helen Grossman, representing Jewish Temple Beth Sholom in Ishpeming, MI

906-475-4009 (hm)

906-475-4127 (wk)

www.templebethsholom-ishpeming.org

www.templebethsholom-ishpeming.org/tikkun

www.templebethsholom-ishpeming.org/aboutus

 

Wild Rice: 8 videos

www.learningfromtheearth.org/video-interviews/wild-rice-m...

 

Birch – 2 videos

www.learningfromtheearth.org/video-interviews/paper-birch...

 

Photos (click on each name or topic to see the respective photo galleries):

www.learningfromtheearth.org/photo-gallery

 

www.picasaweb.google.com/Yoopernewsman/JonReport?authuser...

www.picasaweb.google.com/100329402090002004302/JonReport?...

 

“Albert Einstein speculated once that if bees disappeared off the surface of the earth, then humans would have only four years of life left.”

the late Todd Warner, KBIC Natural Resource Director

 

Links:

 

Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project website:

www.wingsandseeds.org

 

Cedar Tree Institute: Zaagkii Project

www.cedartreeinstitute.org/2010/07/wings-seeds-zaagkii-pr...

www.cedartreeinstitute.org/2009/01/wings-seeds-the-zaagki...

 

Zaagkii Project Videos on youtube (also uploaded to dozens of internet sites):

www.youtube.com/ZaagkiiTV

 

KBIC Pollinator Preservation

www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ictarchives/2008/0...

Zaagkii Project Indigenous Plants Help Give New Face to Sand Point on Keweenaw Bay www.indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ictarchives/2008/0...

 

Zaagkii Project 2010: U.S. Forest Service & Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Native Plants Greenhouse

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hoq5xXHDF4E

United States Forest Service sponsored Zaagkii Project featured on Pollinator Live

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P3DPfxx7Jw

 

2009 Zaagkii Project Vid #9: Teens Painting Mason Bee Houses in Northern Michigan

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIIV6jrlT20

 

2009 Zaagkii Project Vid #8: Marquette, Michigan Teens Build Mason Bee Houses

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3MBfV7ION8

 

Zaagkii Project Butterfly Houses: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, U.S. Forest Service

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQScEI9x7Q

 

2009 Zaagkii Project Vid #6: "The Butterfly Lady" Susan Payant teaches teens about Monarchs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlIgsuTFSuM

 

2009 Zaagkii Project Vid #5: Terracotta half-life, Marquette, MI band supports environment projects

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqlFCHwW30o

 

2009 Zaagkii Video #4: Michigan teens meet 150,000 swarming honeybees with beekeeper Jim Hayward

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2B4MEzM7w4

 

2009 Zaagkii Video #3: Michigan teens give away mason bee houses, honor supporters

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqfWeEgDxTY

 

2009 Zaagkii Project #2: Historic KBIC native plants greenhouse, USFS protects pollinators

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg8H5nhvzzc

 

2009 Zaagkii Project #1: Students make bee houses, plant native species plants

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8jqJAQyXwE

 

Zaagkii Project Butterfly Houses: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, U.S. Forest Service:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQScEI9x7Q

 

Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project: Northern Michigan teens, KBIC tribal youth protect pollinators

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoPJOXHt7pI

 

Zaagkii Project – Northern Michigan University:

www.webb.nmu.edu/Centers/NativeAmericanStudies/SiteSectio...

 

Native Village stories: Beautiful Layout by Owner Gina Boltz:

Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project: A Project by Ojibwe Students from the Keweenah Bay Indian Community

www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/KBIC...

 

NMU Students Join Pollinator Protection Initiative

www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/KBIC...

 

KBIC Tribal youth protect pollinators

www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/KBIC...

 

Teens Help with Sweet Nature Project

www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/KBIC...

 

USFS Success Stories:

Restoring Native Plants on the Enchanted Island

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=6274

 

Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Native Plant Greenhouse & Workshop

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=5499

  

Intertribal Nursery Council Annual Meeting a Success

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=6276

 

New Greenhouse for KBIC Restoration

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=5336

  

Zaagkii Wings & Seeds - An Update

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=5076

 

Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=4025

 

News Stories:

U.P. teens build butterfly houses, grow 26,000 indigenous plants

www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/519835.html?...

 

Effort to protect pollinators launched

www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/512810.html

 

Marquette Monthly (Sept. 2009):

www.mmnow.com/mm_archive_folder/09/0909/feature.html

 

As bees die, Keweena Bay Indian Community adults, teens actively protect pollinators

www.nativetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view...

 

Michigan Teens Build Butterfly Houses and Plant 26,000 Native Plants through the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project

www.treehugger.com/culture/michigan-teens-build-butterfly...

 

Examples of numerous Gather.com articles with lots of photos/videos:

 

Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project: Northern Michigan teens and KBIC tribal youth are protecting pollinators by building butterfly houses and planting native plants

www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977550233

 

Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project: Protecting Pollinators

www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977428640

 

2009 Zaagkii Project #2: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in 2010 to build first Native American native species plants greenhouse on tribal property in U.S.

www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978040745

 

2009 Zaagkii Project #1: Northern Michigan Teens Protect Pollinators with U.S. Forest Service, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, NMU Center for Native American Studies: Build mason bee houses, butterfly houses, distribute thousands of native species plants

www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978040729

 

Zaagkii Project Internet sites – blogs, photos, videos etc.:

 

ZaagkiiProject on flickr

www.flickr.com/photos/zaagkiiproject

www.flickr.com/people/zaagkiiproject

 

Zaagkii on youtube:

www.youtube.com/ZaagkiiTV

 

Zaagkii on bliptv:

www.zaagkiitv.blip.tv

 

Zaagkii on word press:

www.zaagkiiproject.wordpress.com

 

Zaagkii on Blogger:

www.zaagkiiproject.blogspot.com

 

Zaagkii on Photobucket:

www.photobucket.com/ZaagkiiProjectWingsSeeds

www.photobucket.com/ZaagkiiProjectWingsSeeds/?start=all

 

Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project website:

wingsandseeds.org

 

Cedar Tree Institute: Zaagkii Project

cedartreeinstitute.org/2010/07/wings-seeds-zaagkii-project

cedartreeinstitute.org/2009/01/wings-seeds-the-zaagkii-pr...

 

Zaagkii Project Videos on youtube (also uploaded to dozens of internet sites):

www.youtube.com/ZaagkiiTV

 

KBIC Pollinator Preservation

indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ictarchives/2008/08/15...

Zaagkii Project Indigenous Plants Help Give New Face to Sand Point on Keweenaw Bay indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ictarchives/2008/09/03...

 

Zaagkii Project 2010: U.S. Forest Service & Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Native Plants Greenhouse

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hoq5xXHDF4E

United States Forest Service sponsored Zaagkii Project featured on Pollinator Live

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P3DPfxx7Jw

 

2009 Zaagkii Project Vid #9: Teens Painting Mason Bee Houses in Northern Michigan

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIIV6jrlT20

 

2009 Zaagkii Project Vid #8: Marquette, Michigan Teens Build Mason Bee Houses

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3MBfV7ION8

 

Zaagkii Project Butterfly Houses: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, U.S. Forest Service

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQScEI9x7Q

 

2009 Zaagkii Project Vid #6: "The Butterfly Lady" Susan Payant teaches teens about Monarchs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlIgsuTFSuM

 

2009 Zaagkii Project Vid #5: Terracotta half-life, Marquette, MI band supports environment projects

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqlFCHwW30o

 

2009 Zaagkii Video #4: Michigan teens meet 150,000 swarming honeybees with beekeeper Jim Hayward

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2B4MEzM7w4

 

2009 Zaagkii Video #3: Michigan teens give away mason bee houses, honor supporters

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqfWeEgDxTY

 

2009 Zaagkii Project #2: Historic KBIC native plants greenhouse, USFS protects pollinators

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg8H5nhvzzc

 

2009 Zaagkii Project #1: Students make bee houses, plant native species plants

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8jqJAQyXwE

 

Zaagkii Project Butterfly Houses: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, U.S. Forest Service:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQScEI9x7Q

 

Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project: Northern Michigan teens, KBIC tribal youth protect pollinators

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoPJOXHt7pI

 

Zaagkii Project – Northern Michigan University:

webb.nmu.edu/Centers/NativeAmericanStudies/SiteSections/A...

 

Native Village stories: Beautiful Layout by Owner Gina Boltz:

Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project: A Project by Ojibwe Students from the Keweenah Bay Indian Community

www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/KBIC...

 

NMU Students Join Pollinator Protection Initiative

www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/KBIC...

 

KBIC Tribal youth protect pollinators

www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/KBIC...

 

Teens Help with Sweet Nature Project

www.nativevillage.org/Messages%20from%20the%20People/KBIC...

 

USFS Success Stories:

Restoring Native Plants on the Enchanted Island

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=6274

 

Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Native Plant Greenhouse & Workshop

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=5499

 

Intertribal Nursery Council Annual Meeting a Success

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=6276

 

New Greenhouse for KBIC Restoration

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=5336

 

Zaagkii Wings & Seeds - An Update

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=5076

 

Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project

www.fs.fed.us/r9/ssrs/story?id=4025

 

News Stories:

U.P. teens build butterfly houses, grow 26,000 indigenous plants

www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/519835.html?...

 

Effort to protect pollinators launched

www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/512810.html

 

Marquette Monthly (Sept. 2009):

mmnow.com/mm_archive_folder/09/0909/feature.html

 

As bees die, Keweena Bay Indian Community adults, teens actively protect pollinators

nativetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...

 

Michigan Teens Build Butterfly Houses and Plant 26,000 Native Plants through the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project

www.treehugger.com/culture/michigan-teens-build-butterfly...

 

Examples of numerous Gather.com articles with lots of photos/videos:

 

Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project: Northern Michigan teens and KBIC tribal youth are protecting pollinators by building butterfly houses and planting native plants

www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977550233

 

Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project: Protecting Pollinators

www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977428640

 

2009 Zaagkii Project #2: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in 2010 to build first Native American native species plants greenhouse on tribal property in U.S.

www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978040745

 

2009 Zaagkii Project #1: Northern Michigan Teens Protect Pollinators with U.S. Forest Service, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, NMU Center for Native American Studies: Build mason bee houses, butterfly houses, distribute thousands of native species plants

www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978040729

 

Zaagkii Project Internet sites – blogs, photos, videos etc.:

 

ZaagkiiProject on flickr

www.flickr.com/photos/zaagkiiproject

www.flickr.com/people/zaagkiiproject

 

Zaagkii on youtube:

www.youtube.com/ZaagkiiTV

 

Zaagkii on bliptv:

www.zaagkiitv.blip.tv

 

Zaagkii on word press:

zaagkiiproject.wordpress.com

 

Zaagkii on Blogger:

zaagkiiproject.blogspot.com

 

Zaagkii on Photobucket:

photobucket.com/ZaagkiiProjectWingsSeeds

photobucket.com/ZaagkiiProjectWingsSeeds/?start=all

Magnis is the location of the Magnis is the location of the Roman Army Museum run by the Vindolanda Trust. Like the museum at Vindolanda, the Roman Army Museum was modernised and reopened in 2011. The museum illustrates frontier life on the northern edge of the Roman Empire. The museum displays genuine Roman artifacts including weapons and tools; life-size replicas; a 3D film showing Hadrian's Wall past and present, and a large timeline of Hadrian's Wall. There is a gallery devoted to the emperor Hadrian himself. A large gallery describes daily life in the Roman army as seen through the eyes of a team of eight auxiliary soldiers, complete with a film showing their activities. Notable exhibits include a rare surviving helmet crest. run by the Vindolanda Trust. Like the museum at Vindolanda, the Roman Army Museum was modernised and reopened in 2011. The museum illustrates frontier life on the northern edge of the Roman Empire. The museum displays genuine Roman artifacts including weapons and tools; life-size replicas; a 3D film showing Hadrian's Wall past and present, and a large timeline of Hadrian's Wall. There is a gallery devoted to the emperor Hadrian himself. A large gallery describes daily life in the Roman army as seen through the eyes of a team of eight auxiliary soldiers, complete with a film showing their activities. Notable exhibits include a rare surviving helmet crest.

 

Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.

 

Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.

 

The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.

 

Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.

 

Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.

 

History

Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.

 

The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.

 

The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.

 

Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.

 

Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.

 

Roman invasion

The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.

 

The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.

 

The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.

 

Establishment of Roman rule

After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.

 

On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.

 

While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.

 

There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.

 

In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.

 

For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.

 

Roman military organisation in the north

In 84 AD

In 84 AD

 

In 155 AD

In 155 AD

 

Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall

There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.

 

Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.

 

A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.

 

In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.

 

The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.

 

During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.

 

In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.

 

The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.

 

3rd century

The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.

 

Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.

 

The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.

 

Northern campaigns, 208–211

An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.

 

As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.

 

During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.

 

Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.

 

The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.

 

Diocletian's reforms

As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).

 

The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.

 

Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.

 

The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.

 

The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.

 

Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.

 

In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.

 

A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.

 

4th century

Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.

 

In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.

 

As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.

 

Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.

 

End of Roman rule

The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.

 

The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.

 

Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.

 

Sub-Roman Britain

Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.

 

In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.

 

Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.

 

Trade

During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.

 

Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.

 

These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.

 

It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.

 

From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.

 

Economy

Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.

 

The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.

 

By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.

 

Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.

 

Government

Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain

Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.

 

To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.

 

Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.

 

Demographics

Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.

 

Town and country

During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.

 

Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.

 

Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C

 

Alcester (Alauna)

Alchester

Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C

Bath (Aquae Sulis) C

Brough (Petuaria) C

Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)

Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C

Caernarfon (Segontium) C

Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C

Caister-on-Sea C

Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C

Carlisle (Luguvalium) C

Carmarthen (Moridunum) C

Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)

Chester (Deva Victrix) C

Chester-le-Street (Concangis)

Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C

Cirencester (Corinium) C

Colchester (Camulodunum) C

Corbridge (Coria) C

Dorchester (Durnovaria) C

Dover (Portus Dubris)

Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C

Gloucester (Glevum) C

Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)

Ilchester (Lindinis) C

Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C

Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C

London (Londinium) C

Manchester (Mamucium) C

Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)

Northwich (Condate)

St Albans (Verulamium) C

Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C

Towcester (Lactodurum)

Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C

Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C

Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C

York (Eboracum) C

 

Religion

The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.

 

The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.

 

Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.

 

Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).

 

Christianity

It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.

 

The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul in 314: represented at the council were bishops from thirty-five sees from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, possibly a bishop of Lincoln. No other early sees are documented, and the material remains of early church structures are far to seek. The existence of a church in the forum courtyard of Lincoln and the martyrium of Saint Alban on the outskirts of Roman Verulamium are exceptional. Alban, the first British Christian martyr and by far the most prominent, is believed to have died in the early 4th century (some date him in the middle 3rd century), followed by Saints Julius and Aaron of Isca Augusta. Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313. Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the 5th century it was well established. One belief labelled a heresy by the church authorities — Pelagianism — was originated by a British monk teaching in Rome: Pelagius lived c. 354 to c. 420/440.

 

A letter found on a lead tablet in Bath, Somerset, datable to c. 363, had been widely publicised as documentary evidence regarding the state of Christianity in Britain during Roman times. According to its first translator, it was written in Wroxeter by a Christian man called Vinisius to a Christian woman called Nigra, and was claimed as the first epigraphic record of Christianity in Britain. This translation of the letter was apparently based on grave paleographical errors, and the text has nothing to do with Christianity, and in fact relates to pagan rituals.

 

Environmental changes

The Romans introduced a number of species to Britain, including possibly the now-rare Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera), said to have been used by soldiers to warm their arms and legs, and the edible snail Helix pomatia. There is also some evidence they may have introduced rabbits, but of the smaller southern mediterranean type. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) prevalent in modern Britain is assumed to have been introduced from the continent after the Norman invasion of 1066. Box (Buxus sempervirens) is rarely recorded before the Roman period, but becomes a common find in towns and villas

 

Legacy

During their occupation of Britain the Romans built an extensive network of roads which continued to be used in later centuries and many are still followed today. The Romans also built water supply, sanitation and wastewater systems. Many of Britain's major cities, such as London (Londinium), Manchester (Mamucium) and York (Eboracum), were founded by the Romans, but the original Roman settlements were abandoned not long after the Romans left.

 

Unlike many other areas of the Western Roman Empire, the current majority language is not a Romance language, or a language descended from the pre-Roman inhabitants. The British language at the time of the invasion was Common Brittonic, and remained so after the Romans withdrew. It later split into regional languages, notably Cumbric, Cornish, Breton and Welsh. Examination of these languages suggests some 800 Latin words were incorporated into Common Brittonic (see Brittonic languages). The current majority language, English, is based on the languages of the Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe

The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi: अजिंठा लेणी) in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajinṭhā 20°31′56″N 75°44′44″E), about 59 kilometres from Jalgaon railway station on the Delhi – Mumbai line and Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of the Central Railway zone, and 104 kilometres from the city of Aurangabad. They are 100 kilometres from the Ellora Caves, which contain Hindu and Jain temples as well as Buddhist caves, the last dating from a period similar to Ajanta. The Ajanta caves are cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghur, and although they are now along and above a modern pathway running across the cliff they were originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 35 to 110 feet below.

 

The area was previously heavily forested, and after the site ceased to be used the caves were covered by jungle until accidentally rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer on a hunting party. They are Buddhist monastic buildings, apparently representing a number of distinct "monasteries" or colleges. The caves are numbered 1 to 28 according to their place along the path, beginning at the entrance. Several are unfinished and some barely begun and others are small shrines, included in the traditional numbering as e.g. "9A"; "Cave 15A" was still hidden under rubble when the numbering was done. Further round the gorge are a number of waterfalls, which when the river is high are audible from outside the caves.

 

The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting; other survivals from the area of modern India are very few, though they are related to 5th-century paintings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. The elaborate architectural carving in many caves is also very rare, and the style of the many figure sculptures is highly local, found only at a few nearby contemporary sites, although the Ajanta tradition can be related to the later Hindu Ellora Caves and other sites.

 

HISTORY

Like the other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta had a large emphasis on teaching, and was divided into several different caves for living, education and worship, under a central direction. Monks were probably assigned to specific caves for living. The layout reflects this organizational structure, with most of the caves only connected through the exterior. The 7th-century travelling Chinese scholar Xuanzang informs us that Dignaga, a celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived at Ajanta in the 5th century. In its prime the settlement would have accommodated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monks who had finished their first training may have returned to Ajanta during the monsoon season from an itinerant lifestyle.

 

The caves are generally agreed to have been made in two distinct periods, separated by several centuries.

 

CAVES OF THE FIRST (SATAVAHANA) PERIOD

The earliest group of caves consists of caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. According to Walter Spink, they were made during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) who ruled the region. Other datings prefer the period 300 BCE to 100 BCE, though the grouping of the earlier caves is generally agreed. More early caves may have vanished through later excavations. Of these, caves 9 and 10 are stupa halls of chaitya-griha form, and caves 12, 13, and 15A are vihāras (see the architecture section below for descriptions of these types). The first phase is still often called the Hinayāna phase, as it originated when, using traditional terminology, the Hinayāna or Lesser Vehicle tradition of Buddhism was dominant, when the Buddha was revered symbolically. However the use of the term Hinayana for this period of Buddhism is now deprecated by historians; equally the caves of the second period are now mostly dated too early to be properly called Mahayana, and do not yet show the full expanded cast of supernatural beings characteristic of that phase of Buddhist art. The first Satavahana period caves lacked figurative sculpture, emphasizing the stupa instead, and in the caves of the second period the overwhelming majority of images represent the Buddha alone, or narrative scenes of his lives.

 

Spink believes that some time after the Satavahana period caves were made the site was abandoned for a considerable period until the mid-5th century, probably because the region had turned mainly Hindu

 

CAVES OF THE LATER OR VAKATAKA PERIOD

The second phase began in the 5th century. For a long time it was thought that the later caves were made over a long period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, but in recent decades a series of studies by the leading expert on the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most of the work took place over the very brief period from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty. This view has been criticized by some scholars, but is now broadly accepted by most authors of general books on Indian art, for example Huntington and Harle.

 

The second phase is still often called the Mahāyāna or Greater Vehicle phase, but scholars now tend to avoid this nomenclature because of the problems that have surfaced regarding our understanding of Mahāyāna.

 

Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, for the most part viharas with a sanctuary at the back. The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some "modernization" of earlier caves. Spink claims that it is possible to establish dating for this period with a very high level of precision; a fuller account of his chronology is given below. Although debate continues, Spink's ideas are increasingly widely accepted, at least in their broad conclusions. The Archaeological Survey of India website still presents the traditional dating: "The second phase of paintings started around 5th – 6th centuries A.D. and continued for the next two centuries". Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are chaitya-grihas, the rest viharas.

 

According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned by wealthy patrons shortly after the fall of Harishena, in about 480 CE. They were then gradually abandoned and forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed, although the local population were aware of at least some of them.

 

REDISCOVERY

On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 deep within the tangled undergrowth. There were local people already using the caves for prayers with a small fire, when he arrived. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other larger animals, Captain Smith vandalized the wall by scratching his name and the date, April 1819. Since he stood on a five-foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today. A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to the Bombay Literary Society in 1822. Within a few decades, the caves became famous for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, and above all their exceptional, all but unique paintings. A number of large projects to copy the paintings were made in the century after rediscovery, covered below. In 1848 the Royal Asiatic Society established the "Bombay Cave Temple Commission" to clear, tidy and record the most important rock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency, with John Wilson, as president. In 1861 this became the nucleus of the new Archaeological Survey of India. Until the Nizam of Hyderabad built the modern path between the caves, among other efforts to make the site easy to visit, a trip to Ajanta was a considerable adventure, and contemporary accounts dwell with relish on the dangers from falls off narrow ledges, animals and the Bhil people, who were armed with bows and arrows and had a fearsome reputation.

 

Today, fairly easily combined with Ellora in a single trip, the caves are the most popular tourist destination in Mahrashtra, and are often crowded at holiday times, increasing the threat to the caves, especially the paintings. In 2012, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation announced plans to add to the ASI visitor centre at the entrance complete replicas of caves 1, 2, 16 & 17 to reduce crowding in the originals, and enable visitors to receive a better visual idea of the paintings, which are dimly-lit and hard to read in the caves. Figures for the year to March 2010 showed a total of 390,000 visitors to the site, divided into 362,000 domestic and 27,000 foreign. The trends over the previous few years show a considerable growth in domestic visitors, but a decline in foreign ones; the year to 2010 was the first in which foreign visitors to Ellora exceeded those to Ajanta.

 

PAINTINGS

Mural paintings survive from both the earlier and later groups of caves. Several fragments of murals preserved from the earlier caves (Caves 9 and 11) are effectively unique survivals of court-led painting in India from this period, and "show that by Sātavāhana times, if not earlier, the Indian painter had mastered an easy and fluent naturalistic style, dealing with large groups of people in a manner comparable to the reliefs of the Sāñcī toraņa crossbars".

 

Four of the later caves have large and relatively well-preserved mural paintings which "have come to represent Indian mural painting to the non-specialist", and fall into two stylistic groups, with the most famous in Caves 16 and 17, and apparently later paintings in Caves 1 and 2. The latter group were thought to be a century or more later than the others, but the revised chronology proposed by Spink would place them much closer to the earlier group, perhaps contemporary with it in a more progressive style, or one reflecting a team from a different region. The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster.

 

All the paintings appear to be the work of painters at least as used to decorating palaces as temples, and show a familiarity with and interest in details of the life of a wealthy court. We know from literary sources that painting was widely practised and appreciated in the courts of the Gupta period. Unlike much Indian painting, compositions are not laid out in horizontal compartments like a frieze, but show large scenes spreading in all directions from a single figure or group at the centre. The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from sculpture. The paintings in cave 1, which according to Spink was commissioned by Harisena himself, concentrate on those Jataka tales which show previous lives of the Buddha as a king, rather than as an animal or human commoner, and so show settings from contemporary palace life.

 

In general the later caves seem to have been painted on finished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere in the cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular. According to Spink's account of the chronology of the caves, the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy period accounts for the absence of painting in caves such as 4 and 17, the later being plastered in preparation for paintings that were never done.

 

COPIES

The paintings have deteriorated significantly since they were rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copies and drawings are important for a complete understanding of the works. However, the earliest projects to copy the paintings were plagued by bad fortune. In 1846, Major Robert Gill, an Army officer from Madras presidency and a painter, was appointed by the Royal Asiatic Society to replicate the frescoes on the cave walls to exhibit these paintings in England. Gill worked on his painting at the site from 1844 to 1863 (though he continued to be based there until his death in 1875, writing books and photographing) and made 27 copies of large sections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in a fire at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866, where they were on display.

 

Another attempt was made in 1872 when the Bombay Presidency commissioned John Griffiths, then principal of the Bombay School of Art, to work with his students to make new copies, again for shipping to England. They worked on this for thirteen years and some 300 canvases were produced, many of which were displayed at the Imperial Institute on Exhibition Road in London, one of the forerunners of the Victoria and Albert Museum. But in 1885 another fire destroyed over a hundred paintings that were in storage. The V&A still has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, though none have been on permanent display since 1955. The largest are some 3 × 6 metres. A conservation project was undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also involving the University of Northumbria. Griffith and his students had unfortunately painted many of the paintings with "cheap varnish" in order to make them easier to see, which has added to the deterioration of the originals, as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning by the ASI.

 

A further set of copies were made between 1909 and 1911 by Christiana Herringham (Lady Herringham) and a group of students from the Calcutta School of Art that included the future Indian Modernist painter Nandalal Bose. The copies were published in full colour as the first publication of London's fledgling India Society. More than the earlier copies, these aimed to fill in holes and damage to recreate the original condition rather than record the state of the paintings as she was seeing them. According to one writer, unlike the paintings created by her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copies were influenced by British Victorian styles of painting, those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'Indian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered by Abanindranath Tagore.

 

Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill, who learnt to use a camera from about 1856, and whose photos, including some using stereoscopy, were used in books by him and Fergusson (many are available online from the British Library), then Victor Goloubew in 1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the four volume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published 1930–1955).

 

ARCHITECTURE

The monasteries mostly consist of vihara halls for prayer and living, which are typically rectangular with small square dormitory cells cut into the walls, and by the second period a shrine or sanctuary at the rear centred on a large statue of the Buddha, also carved from the living rock. This change reflects the movement from Hinayana to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The other type of main hall is the narrower and higher chaitya hall with a stupa as the focus at the far end, and a narrow aisle around the walls, behind a range of pillars placed close together. Other plainer rooms were for sleeping and other activities. Some of the caves have elaborate carved entrances, some with large windows over the door to admit light. There is often a colonnaded porch or verandah, with another space inside the doors running the width of the cave.

 

The central square space of the interior of the viharas is defined by square columns forming a more or less square open area. Outside this are long rectangular aisles on each side, forming a kind of cloister. Along the side and rear walls are a number of small cells entered by a narrow doorway; these are roughly square, and have small niches on their back walls. Originally they had wooden doors. The centre of the rear wall has a larger shrine-room behind, containing a large Buddha statue. The viharas of the earlier period are much simpler, and lack shrines. Spink in fact places the change to a design with a shrine to the middle of the second period, with many caves being adapted to add a shrine in mid-excavation, or after the original phase.

 

The plan of Cave 1 shows one of the largest viharas, but is fairly typical of the later group. Many others, such as Cave 16, lack the vestibule to the shrine, which leads straight off the main hall. Cave 6 is two viharas, one above the other, connected by internal stairs, with sanctuaries on both levels.

 

The four completed chaitya halls are caves 9 and 10 from the early period, and caves 19 and 26 from the later period of construction. All follow the typical form found elsewhere, with high ceilings and a central "nave" leading to the stupa, which is near the back, but allows walking behind it, as walking around stupas was (and remains) a common element of Buddhist worship (pradakshina). The later two have high ribbed roofs, which reflect timber forms, and the earlier two are thought to have used actual timber ribs, which have now perished. The two later halls have a rather unusual arrangement (also found in Cave 10 at Ellora) where the stupa is fronted by a large relief sculpture of the Buddha, standing in Cave 19 and seated in Cave 26. Cave 29 is a late and very incomplete chaitya hall.

 

The form of columns in the work of the first period is very plain and un-embellished, with both chaitya halls using simple octagonal columns, which were painted with figures. In the second period columns were far more varied and inventive, often changing profile over their height, and with elaborate carved capitals, often spreading wide. Many columns are carved over all their surface, some fluted and others carved with decoration all over, as in cave 1.

 

The flood basalt rock of the cliff, part of the Deccan Traps formed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of the Cretaceous, is layered horizontally, and somewhat variable in quality, so the excavators had to amend their plans in places, and in places there have been collapses in the intervening centuries, as with the lost portico to cave 1. Excavation began by cutting a narrow tunnel at roof level, which was expanded downwards and outwards; the half-built vihara cave 24 shows the method. Spink believes that for the first caves of the second period the excavators had to relearn skills and techniques that had been lost in the centuries since the first period, which were then transmitted to be used at later rock-cut sites in the region, such as Ellora, and the Elephanta, Bagh, Badami and Aurangabad Caves.

 

The caves from the first period seem to have been paid for by a number of different patrons, with several inscriptions recording the donation of particular portions of a single cave, but according to Spink the later caves were each commissioned as a complete unit by a single patron from the local rulers or their court elites. After the death of Harisena smaller donors got their chance to add small "shrinelets" between the caves or add statues to existing caves, and some two hundred of these "intrusive" additions were made in sculpture, with a further number of intrusive paintings, up to three hundred in cave 10 alone.

 

A grand gateway to the site, at the apex of the gorge's horsehoe between caves 15 and 16, was approached from the river, and is decorated with elephants on either side and a nāga, or protective snake deity.

 

ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CAVES

In the pre-Christian era, the Buddha was represented symbolically, in the form of the stupa. Thus, halls were made with stupas to venerate the Buddha. In later periods the images of the Buddha started to be made in coins, relic caskets, relief or loose sculptural forms, etc. However, it took a while for the human representation of the Buddha to appear in Buddhist art. One of the earliest evidences of the Buddha's human representations are found at Buddhist archaeological sites, such as Goli, Nagarjunakonda, and Amaravati. The monasteries of those sites were built in less durable media, such as wood, brick, and stone. As far as the genre of rock-cut architecture is concerned it took many centuries for the Buddha image to be depicted. Nobody knows for sure at which rock-cut cave site the first image of the Buddha was depicted. Current research indicates that Buddha images in a portable form, made of wood or stone, were introduced, for the first time, at Kanheri, to be followed soon at Ajanta Cave 8 (Dhavalikar, Jadhav, Spink, Singh). While the Kanheri example dates to 4th or 5th century CE, the Ajanta example has been dated to c. 462–478 CE (Spink). None of the rock-cut monasteries prior to these dates, and other than these examples, show any Buddha image although hundreds of rock-cut caves were made throughout India during the first few centuries CE. And, in those caves, it is the stupa that is the object of veneration, not the image. Images of the Buddha are not found in Buddhist sailagrhas (rock-cut complexes) until the times of the Kanheri (4th–5th century CE) and Ajanta examples (c. 462–478 CE).

 

The caves of the second period, now all dated to the 5th century, were typically described as "Mahayana", but do not show the features associated with later Mahayana Buddhism. Although the beginnings of Mahāyāna teachings go back to the 1st century there is little art and archaeological evidence to suggest that it became a mainstream cult for several centuries. In Mahayana it is not Gautama Buddha but the Bodhisattva who is important, including "deity" Bodhisattva like Manjushri and Tara, as well as aspects of the Buddha such as Aksobhya, and Amitabha. Except for a few Bodhisattva, these are not depicted at Ajanta, where the Buddha remains the dominant figure. Even the Bodhisattva images of Ajanta are never central objects of worship, but are always shown as attendants of the Buddha in the shrine. If a Bodhisattva is shown in isolation, as in the Astabhaya scenes, these were done in the very last years of activities at Ajanta, and are mostly 'intrusive' in nature, meaning that they were not planned by the original patrons, and were added by new donors after the original patrons had suddenly abandoned the region in the wake of Emperor Harisena's death.

 

The contrast between iconic and aniconic representations, that is, the stupa on one hand and the image of the Buddha on the other, is now being seen as a construct of the modern scholar rather than a reality of the past. The second phase of Ajanta shows that the stupa and image coincided together. If the entire corpus of the art of Ajanta including sculpture, iconography, architecture, epigraphy, and painting are analysed afresh it will become clear that there was no duality between the symbolic and human forms of the Buddha, as far as the 5th-century phase of Ajanta is concerned. That is why most current scholars tend to avoid the terms 'Hinayana' and 'Mahayana' in the context of Ajanta. They now prefer to call the second phase by the ruling dynasty, as the Vākāţaka phase.

 

CAVES

CAVE 1

Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp, and is now the first cave the visitor encounters. This would when first made have been a less prominent position, right at the end of the row. According to Spink, it is one of the latest caves to have been excavated, when the best sites had been taken, and was never fully inaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Buddha image in the central shrine. This is shown by the absence of sooty deposits from butter lamps on the base of the shrine image, and the lack of damage to the paintings that would have been happened if the garland-hooks around the shrine had been in use for any period of time. Although there is no epigraphic evidence, Spink believes that the Vākāţaka Emperor Harishena was the benefactor of the work, and this is reflected in the emphasis on imagery of royalty in the cave, with those Jakata tales being selected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha in which he was royal.

 

The cliff has a more steep slope here than at other caves, so to achieve a tall grand facade it was necessary to cut far back into the slope, giving a large courtyard in front of the facade. There was originally a columned portico in front of the present facade, which can be seen "half-intact in the 1880s" in pictures of the site, but this fell down completely and the remains, despite containing fine carving, were carelessly thrown down the slope into the river, from where they have been lost, presumably carried away in monsoon torrents.

 

This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades, with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and most surfaces embellished with decorative carving. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillared vestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggest that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessity and norm. Most areas of the porch were once covered with murals, of which many fragments remain, especially on the ceiling. There are three doorways: a central doorway and two side doorways. Two square windows were carved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.

 

Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 12 m long and 6.1 m high. Twelve pillars make a square colonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spacious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved on the rear wall to house an impressive seated image of the Buddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartana mudra. There are four cells on each of the left, rear, and the right walls, though due to rock fault there are none at the ends of the rear aisle. The walls are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation, though the full scheme was never completed. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenes from the Jataka stories of the Buddha's former existences as a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration. The two most famous individual painted images at Ajanta are the two over-life size figures of the protective bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the entrance to the Buddha shrine on the wall of the rear aisle (see illustrations above). According to Spink, the original dating of the paintings to about 625 arose largely or entirely because James Fegusson, a 19th-century architectural historian, had decided that a scene showing an ambassador being received, with figures in Persian dress, represented a recorded embassy to Persia (from a Hindu monarch at that) around that date.

 

CAVE 2

Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation.

 

Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Even the façade carvings seem to be different. The cave is supported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs. The front porch consists of cells supported by pillared vestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously "wasted areas" were needed to meet the greater housing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became a trend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple single cells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or were planned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.

 

The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch have been widely published. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences as Bodhisattva. Just as the stories illustrated in cave 1 emphasize kingship, those in cave 2 show many "noble and powerful" women in prominent roles, leading to suggestions that the patron was an unknown woman. The porch's rear wall has a doorway in the center, which allows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is a square-shaped window to brighten the interior.

 

The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the respective walls of the hall, making an aisle in between. The colonnades have rock-beams above and below them. The capitals are carved and painted with various decorative themes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegetative, and semi-divine forms.

 

Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places the art work has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha's teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives depicted in various episodes. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research since the site's rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff's identifications have updated our knowledge on the subject.

 

CAVE 4

The Archeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4: "This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished. An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha's image mentions that it was a gift from a person named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6th century A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostylar hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of Avalokiteśvara".

 

The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above.

 

CAVES 9-10

Caves 9 and 10 are the two chaitya halls from the first period of construction, though both were also undergoing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the second period. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st century BCE, and cave 9 about a hundred years later. The small "shrinelets" called caves 9A to 9D and 10A also date from the second period, and were commissioned by individuals.

 

The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving from the early period, many from an incomplete programme of modernization in the second period, and a very large number of smaller late intrusive images, nearly all Buddhas and many with donor inscriptions from individuals. These mostly avoided over-painting the "official" programme and after the best positions were used up are tucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted; the total of these (including those now lost) was probably over 300, and the hands of many different artists are visible.

 

OTHER CAVES

Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according to Spink it was begun right at the end of the final period of work and soon abandoned. Caves 5 and 6 are viharas, the latter on two floors, that were late works of which only the lower floor of cave 6 was ever finished. The upper floor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and a shrine Buddha, but is otherwise unfinished. Cave 7 has a grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because of faults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves, was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists only of the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber, with no central hall. Some cells were fitted in.

 

Cave 8 was long thought to date to the first period of construction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cave from the second period, its shrine an "afterthought". The statue may have been loose rather than carved from the living rock, as it has now vanished. The cave was painted, but only traces remain.

 

SPINK´S DETAILED CHRONOLOGY

Walter M. Spink has over recent decades developed a very precise and circumstantial chronology for the second period of work on the site, which unlike earlier scholars, he places entirely in the 5th century. This is based on evidence such as the inscriptions and artistic style, combined with the many uncompleted elements of the caves. He believes the earlier group of caves, which like other scholars he dates only approximately, to the period "between 100 BCE – 100 CE", were at some later point completely abandoned and remained so "for over three centuries", as the local population had turned mainly Hindu. This changed with the accession of the Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka Dynasty, who reigned from 460 to his death in 477. Harisena extended the Central Indian Vakataka Empire to include a stretch of the east coast of India; the Gupta Empire ruled northern India at the same period, and the Pallava dynasty much of the south.

 

According to Spink, Harisena encouraged a group of associates, including his prime minister Varahadeva and Upendragupta, the sub-king in whose territory Ajanta was, to dig out new caves, which were individually commissioned, some containing inscriptions recording the donation. This activity began in 462 but was mostly suspended in 468 because of threats from the neighbouring Asmaka kings. Work continued on only caves 1, Harisena's own commission, and 17–20, commissioned by Upendragupta. In 472 the situation was such that work was suspended completely, in a period that Spink calls "the Hiatus", which lasted until about 475, by which time the Asmakas had replaced Upendragupta as the local rulers.

 

Work was then resumed, but again disrupted by Harisena's death in 477, soon after which major excavation ceased, except at cave 26, which the Asmakas were sponsoring themselves. The Asmakas launched a revolt against Harisena's son, which brought about the end of the Vakataka Dynasty. In the years 478–480 major excavation by important patrons was replaced by a rash of "intrusions" – statues added to existing caves, and small shrines dotted about where there was space between them. These were commissioned by less powerful individuals, some monks, who had not previously been able to make additions to the large excavations of the rulers and courtiers. They were added to the facades, the return sides of the entrances, and to walls inside the caves. According to Spink, "After 480, not a single image was ever made again at the site", and as Hinduism again dominated the region, the site was again abandoned, this time for over a millennium.

 

Spink does not use "circa" in his dates, but says that "one should allow a margin of error of one year or perhaps even two in all cases".

 

IMPACT ON MODERN INDIAN PAINTINGS

The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general style they come from, influenced painting in Tibet and Sri Lanka.

 

The rediscovery of ancient Indian paintings at Ajanta provided Indian artists examples from ancient India to follow. Nandlal Bose experimented with techniques to follow the ancient style which allowed him to develop his unique style. Abanindranath Tagore also used the Ajanta paintings for inspiration.

 

WIKIPEDIA