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I am having a wood burner installed tomorrow and chimney swept beforehand. So the kitchen/sitting room is cleared out and I am about to start decorating the bathroom, so I am in a bit of a shambles. Not good planning I hear you say ! Not to mention half finished jobs in the garden !
Aujourd'hui, deux collègues sortiront de la station pour aller, pendant 6 heures, installer de nouvelles infrastructures au-dehors, et notamment un terminal d'émission/réception sur le laboratoire européen Columbus ! L'équivalent d'aller sur le toit installer une nouvelle antenne de télé... mais pour la science, et dans l'espace. Mon camarade de promotion Andreas Mogensen dirigera les évolutions depuis le centre de contrôle de Houston, après avoir aidé au développement des procédures. Nous avons nous aussi répété ces sorties en piscine avec Aki, afin de les évaluer. Une journée sous le signe du made in Europe !
More spacewalk training with Aki! Getting into the suit takes a while so a session in the pool lasts all day. In space we have to do get into our suit and out of the airlock with less support, but you don't feel the spascesuit's weight, as opposed to 300 pounds on earth. Today two of our colleagues are heading out to upgrade ESA's Columbus laboratory, with Andreas Mogensen in Houston advising and directing NASA's Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover who will be doing the work. Have a great day in space my friends, watch live here: www.nasa.gov/nasalive
Credits: NASA/Robert Markowitz
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SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts Aki Hoshide (JAXA) and Thomas Pesquet (ESA) during preparations for NBL training run SpaceX ISS EVA Maint 8 (IROSA INSTALL) #10. Photo Date: December 10, 2020. Location: NBL - Pool Topside.
I haven't been at the workbench much lately but I did manage to get the handrails installed on one of the slugs. And once I get some drill bits to replace the ones I broke I can start on the other one and hopefully the S-13s that will be mated to them.
The History of the Blue Chairs in Nice
The iconic blue chairs of Nice have become a symbol of the city’s culture and history. These chairs are scattered along its famous seafront boulevard, the Promenade des Anglais.
The “blue” chairs were originally installed in the 1930s by the city’s council to provide visitors and locals with a comfortable and relaxing place to sit and enjoy the view. However, at that time they were white (not yet the famous blue) and made of wicker, and you had to pay to use them.
iss065e121035 (June 16, 2021) --- NASA spacewalker Shane Kimbrough is pictured in the crew lock portion of the U.S. Quest airlock during repressurization activities following the completion of a spacewalk to install new roll out solar arrays on the International Space Station's P-6 truss structure.
5 minutes après notre installation cette chouette s'est mise à hululer au dessus de notre tête. Un bel accueil.
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it is off to work the microbes go.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano slides the smallest miners in the universe into the Kubik experiment container on the International Space Station.
For the next three weeks, three different species of bacteria will unleash themselves on basalt slides in the Kubik centrifuge that simulates Earth and martian gravity as well as in microgravity.
Run by a research team from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, the BioRock experiment is testing how altered states of gravity affect biofilm formation – or the growth of microbes on rocks.
Microbes are able to weather down a rock from which they can extract ions. This natural process enables biomining, where useful metals are extracted from rock ores.
Already a common practice on Earth, biomining will eventually take place on the Moon, Mars and asteroids as we expand our understanding and exploration of the Solar System.
The bacteria arrived at the Space Station on the latest Dragon resupply mission in a dehydrated, dormant state.
The organisms are given ‘food’ to restore cell growth and left to grow on basalt at 20°C.
After three weeks, the samples will be preserved and stored at 4°C while they await their return to Earth.
Researchers will map out how altered states of gravity affect the rock and microbes as a whole, as well as which microbe is the best candidate for mining in space. It is hoped these results will shine light on extraterrestial biomining technologies and life-support systems involving microbes for longer duration spaceflight.
Biomining in space can also increase the efficiency of the process on Earth and could even reduce our reliance on precious Earth resources.
In addition to installing the little creatures, Luca is busy with a host of other experiments during his six-month mission, called Beyond.
Listen to the latest episode of the ESA Explores podcast for more science on the Space Station.
Follow Luca and his #MissionBeyond on social media and the blog.
Credits: ESA
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst : "Fascinating: Canadarm & Dextre installed the RapidScat Experiment on Columbus!"
Credit: ESA/NASA
Sea Installer loads up on 3 MHI Vestas V164 8.0MW turbines bound for Burbo Bank extension offshore windfarm.
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Here's a few more photos from the November 2018 Wolfchase Sears liquidation, and what looks to me like a rather nice pool table (not that I'm an expert on the subject, by any means - could be very substandard, especially given the $499 price)! Heck, it probably costs a good bit more than $499 to get a pool table installed and professionally leveled these days...
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Sears, 1996-built (closed early 2019), Germantown Pkwy. at Hwy 64, Memphis
When the Peacock Fountain was first installed in 1911 it attracted a lot of unfavourable comment. These
comments were strongly reiterated when the fountain was reinstalled and re positioned in 1996 after being in storage for many years due to maintenance problems.
Whether the responses were favourable or not the Peacock Fountain is now a key feature at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.
Fascinating: Canadarm & Dextre installed the RapidScat Experiment on Columbus!
Faszinierend: heute mit Canardarm und Dextre das RapidScat-Experiment am Columbus-Labor installiert.
Credits: ESA/NASA
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Installation composée de toiles d’araignées présentée dans le cadre de l'exposition "On Air". Carte blanche à Tomas Saraceno au Palais de Tokyo à Paris
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Cette exposition de Tomas Saraceno, qui associe brillamment art, science (thermodynamique, aérodynamique, astrophysique....), technologies informatiques et poésie, est une des plus intéressantes cartes blanches organisées au Palais de Tokyo ces dernières années.
L'artiste a investi avec intelligence l'ensemble du Palais de Tokyo. Si on connait en général ses installations à base de toiles d'araignées, son travail va bien au-delà notamment avec la communauté Aérocène, l'exposition permet de comprendre ses idées sur l'écologie et de se familiariser avec ses expérimentations de vols de ballons aéro-solaires. S'inspirant des modes de perception des araignées qui passent par les toiles qu'elles tissent, Saraceno tente de nous faire sentir les vibrations du monde, de l'air et du cosmos. Il nous offre un parcours poétique et sensitif qui s'adresse également, non sans humour, aux araignées qui vivent en permanence dans les sous-sols du palais de Tokyo. Le site web de l'exposition très original et créatif mérite d'être exploré pour faire connaissance avec elles.
Commissaire : Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel
L’exposition ON AIR se présente comme un écosystème en mouvement, accueillant une chorégraphie à plusieurs voix entre humains et non-humains, où les oeuvres révèlent les rythmes et trajectoires communs, fragiles, et éphémères qui unissent ces mondes. ON AIR se construit grâce à la multitude de ces présences, animées et inanimées, qui y cohabitent. Extrait du site officiel
These etched glass pictograms of fruits and vegetables were inspired by A&P's Futurestore decor, and created for The Food Emporium. A&P Futurestores were famous for their black and white decor which had no department wording on the walls; instead, they used only food icons to show the various departments. They called these icons "pictograms" and installed these etched glass versions into The Food Emporium. There is a light source above which makes them pop--very 1988. These decor pieces are original to the store opening and every new Food Emporium had these installed in the late 1980's.
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Continuing our look at a few of the over 60 stores which still lie vacant one year after A&P's bankruptcy, we come to a rather swanky neighborhood--The Upper West Side of Manhattan.
On the corner of Broadway and 90th, two blocks from Central Park, we arrive at the carcass of a once premium New York name--The Food Emporium. It was so premium that calling it simply "Food Emporium" wasn't good enough; it had to be branded "THE Food Emporium". After A&P acquired the company in 1986, it became the company's upscale banner and A&P expanded it throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
In the early 2000's, as A&P repositioned its A&P, Waldbaum's and Superfresh stores into its upscale Fresh Market format, the plan for The Food Emporium was to push it even more upscale to a gourmet audience. Many Food Emporiums outside of New York City were converted to A&P Fresh Markets, but inside Manhattan, a core group of 20 or so Food Emporium stores remained. Those stores slowly were refreshed with a newer logo, better merchandising, and a new interior package featuring bright orange, lime green and (for some reason) yellow and white daisies. The results were huge increases of $85 per sq. ft. in sales. (from $758-$843/sq. ft.)
Even though the chain was a cash-cow for the company, A&P was desperate to raise money, and in 2013, the company put the entire chain up for sale. Unfortunately, no one wanted to take the whole thing, so A&P sold off its most valuable stores one-by-one. By A&P's final days, The Food Emporium chain was down to 14 stores, 12 of which were sold during the bankruptcy auction.
There are only 2 The Food Emporium stores which were not picked up by other operators during the auction--this Upper West Side store and the stunning Bridgemarket store, which was built underneath the 59th Street Bridge. The two stores remain empty today.
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The complete "A&P Abandoned Banner" Photoset:
•A&P
La struttura, che con i suoi 324 m è la più alta di Parigi, venne costruita in meno di due anni, dal 1887 al 1889; sarebbe dovuta servire da entrata all'Esposizione Universale del 1889, una Fiera Mondiale organizzata per celebrare il centenario della Rivoluzione francese. Inaugurata il 31 marzo del 1889, fu aperta ufficialmente il 6 maggio dello stesso anno dopo appena 2 anni, 2 mesi e 5 giorni di lavori.
Trecento metalmeccanici assemblarono i 18 038 pezzi di ferro forgiato, utilizzando 2 milioni e mezzo di bulloni (che furono sostituiti, durante la costruzione stessa, con rivetti incandescenti). Considerate le condizioni di sicurezza esistenti a quell'epoca, è sorprendente osservare che solo un operaio abbia perso la vita durante i lavori del cantiere (durante l'installazione degli ascensori).
La torre è alta con la sua antenna 324 m (le antenne della televisione sulla sommità sono alte 20 m), pesa circa 8 000 tonnellate, ma le sue fondamenta discendono di appena 15 m al di sotto del livello del terreno. Per 40 anni è stata la struttura più alta del mondo. Per il suo mantenimento servono anche 50 tonnellate di vernice ogni 7 anni. A seconda della temperatura ambientale l'altezza della Torre Eiffel può variare di diversi centimetri a causa della dilatazione del metallo (sino a 15 cm più alta durante le calure estive). Nelle giornate ventose sulla cima della torre si possono verificare oscillazioni sino a 12 cm.
Per salire fino in cima vi sono due possibilità: i 1 665 scalini oppure due ascensori trasparenti. La struttura è divisa in tre livelli aperti al pubblico, raggiungibili sia con l'ascensore sia con le scale.
Fonte - Wikipedia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia (from the Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom"; Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia; Turkish: Ayasofya) is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople of the Western Crusader established Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931, when it was secularized. It was opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.
The Church was dedicated to the Logos, the second person of the Holy Trinity, its dedication feast taking place on 25 December, the anniversary of the Birth of the incarnation of the Logos in Christ. Although it is sometimes referred to as Sancta Sophia (as though it were named after Saint Sophia), sophia is the phonetic spelling in Latin of the Greek word for wisdom – the full name in Greek being Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, "Church of the Holy Wisdom of God".
Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture." It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by rioters. It was designed by the Greek scientists Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician.
The church contained a large collection of holy relics and featured, among other things, a 49-foot (15 m) silver iconostasis. It was the seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the religious focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand years. It is the church in which Cardinal Humbert in 1054 excommunicated Michael I Cerularius – which is commonly considered the start of the Great Schism.
In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II, who subsequently ordered the building converted into a mosque. The bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were removed and many of the mosaics were plastered over. Islamic features – such as the mihrab, minbar, and four minarets – were added while in the possession of the Ottomans. It remained a mosque until 1931 when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey.
For almost 500 years the principal mosque of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia served as a model for many other Ottoman mosques, such as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque of Istanbul), the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Rüstem Pasha Mosque and the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque.
History
First church
The first church was known as the Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία (Megálē Ekklēsíā, "Great Church"), or in Latin "Magna Ecclesia", because of its larger dimensions in comparison to the contemporary churches in the City. Inaugurated on 15 February 360 (during the reign of Constantius II) by the Arian bishop Eudoxius of Antioch, it was built next to the area where the imperial palace was being developed. The nearby Hagia Eirene ("Holy Peace") church was completed earlier and served as cathedral until the Hagia Sophia was completed. Both churches acted together as the principal churches of the Byzantine Empire.
Writing in 440, Socrates of Constantinople claimed that the church was built by Constantius II, who was working on it in 346. A tradition which is not older than the 7th – 8th century, reports that the edifice was built by Constantine the Great. Zonaras reconciles the two opinions, writing that Constantius had repaired the edifice consecrated by Eusebius of Nicomedia, after it had collapsed. Since Eusebius was bishop of Constantinople from 339 to 341, and Constantine died in 337, it seems possible that the first church was erected by the latter. The edifice was built as a traditional Latin colonnaded basilica with galleries and a wooden roof. It was preceded by an atrium. It was claimed to be one of the world's most outstanding monuments at the time.
The Patriarch of Constantinople John Chrysostom came into a conflict with Empress Aelia Eudoxia, wife of the emperor Arcadius, and was sent into exile on 20 June 404. During the subsequent riots, this first church was largely burned down. Nothing remains of the first church today.
Second church
Stone remains of the basilica ordered by Theodosius II, showing the Lamb of God
Marble blocks from the second church
A second church was ordered by Theodosius II, who inaugurated it on 10 October 415. The basilica with a wooden roof was built by architect Rufinus. A fire started during the tumult of the Nika Revolt and burned the second Hagia Sophia to the ground on 13–14 January 532
Several marble blocks from the second church survive to the present; among them are reliefs depicting 12 lambs representing the 12 apostles. Originally part of a monumental front entrance, they now reside in an excavation pit adjacent to the museum's entrance. Discovered in 1935 beneath the western courtyard by A. M. Schneider, further digging was forsaken for fear of impinging on the integrity of the Hagia Sophia.
Third church (current structure)
On 23 February 532, only a few days after the destruction of the second basilica, Emperor Justinian I elected to build a third and entirely different basilica, larger and more majestic than its predecessors.
Construction of church depicted in codex Manasses Chronicle
Justinian chose physicist Isidore of Miletus and mathematician Anthemius of Tralles as architects; Anthemius, however, died within the first year of the endeavor. The construction is described in the Byzantine historian Procopius' On Buildings (Peri ktismatōn, Latin: De aedificiis). The emperor had material brought from all over the empire – such as Hellenistic columns from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, large stones from quarries in porphyry from Egypt, green marble from Thessaly, black stone from the Bosporus region, and yellow stone from Syria. More than ten thousand people were employed. This new church was contemporaneously recognized as a major work of architecture. The theories of Heron of Alexandria may have been utilized to address the challenges presented by building such an expansive dome over so large a space. The emperor, together with the patriarch Eutychius, inaugurated the new basilica on 27 December 537 with much pomp. The mosaics inside the church were, however, only completed under the reign of Emperor Justin II (565–578).
Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople and a principal setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies, such as coronations. The basilica also offered asylum to wrongdoers.
Earthquakes in August 553 and on 14 December 557 caused cracks in the main dome and eastern half-dome. The main dome collapsed completely during a subsequent earthquake on 7 May 558, destroying the ambon, altar, and ciborium. The crash was due mainly to the too high bearing load and to the enormous shearing load of the dome, which was too flat. These caused the deformation of the piers which sustained the dome. The emperor ordered an immediate restoration. He entrusted it to Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus, who used lighter materials and elevated the dome by "30 feet" (about 6.25 metres (20.5 ft)) – giving the building its current interior height of 55.6 metres (182 ft). Moreover, Isidorus changed the dome type, erecting a ribbed dome with pendentives, whose diameter lay between 32.7 and 33.5 m. This reconstruction, giving the church its present 6th-century form, was completed in 562. The Byzantine poet Paul the Silentiary composed a long epic poem (still extant), known as Ekphrasis, for the rededication of the basilica presided over by Patriarch Eutychius on 23 December 562.
In 726, the emperor Leo the Isaurian issued a series of edicts against the veneration of images, ordering the army to destroy all icons – ushering in the period of Byzantine iconoclasm. At that time, all religious pictures and statues were removed from the Hagia Sophia. After a brief reprieve under Empress Irene (797–802), the iconoclasts made a comeback. Emperor Theophilus (829–842) was strongly influenced by Islamic art, which forbids graven images. He had a two-winged bronze door with his monograms installed at the southern entrance of the church.
The basilica suffered damage, first in a great fire in 859, and again in an earthquake on 8 January 869, that made a half-dome collapse. Emperor Basil I ordered the church repaired.
After the great earthquake of 25 October 989, which collapsed the Western dome arch, the Byzantine emperor Basil II asked for the Armenian architect Trdat (Armenian: Տրդատ ճարտարապետ; Latin: Tiridates), creator of the great churches of Ani and Argina, to direct the repairs. He erected again and reinforced the fallen dome arch, and rebuilt the west side of the dome with 15 dome ribs. The extent of the damage required six years of repair and reconstruction; the church was re-opened on 13 May 994. At the end of the reconstruction, the church's decorations were renovated, including the additions of paintings of four immense cherubs, a new depiction of Christ on the dome, and on the apse a new depiction of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus between the apostles Peter and Paul. On the great side arches were painted the prophets and the teachers of the church.
In his book De caerimoniis aulae Byzantinae ("Book of Ceremonies"), Emperor Constantine VII (913–919) wrote a detailed account of the ceremonies held in the Hagia Sophia by the emperor and the patriarch.
19th Century marker of the tomb of Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice who commanded the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, inside the Hagia Sophia
Upon the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, the church was ransacked and desecrated by the Latin Christians. The Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates described the capture of Constantinople; many reputed relics from the church – such as a stone from the tomb of Jesus, the Virgin Mary's milk, the shroud of Jesus, and bones of several saints – were sent to churches in the West and can be seen there now in various museums. During the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–1261) the church became a Roman Catholic cathedral. Baldwin I of Constantinople was crowned emperor on 16 May 1204 in Hagia Sophia, at a ceremony which closely followed Byzantine practices. Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice who commanded the sack and invasion of the city by the Latin Crusaders in 1204, is buried inside the church. The tomb inscription carrying his name, which has become a part of the floor decoration, was spat upon by many of the angry Byzantines who recaptured Constantinople in 1261. However, restoration led by the brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati during the period 1847–1849 cast doubt upon the authenticity of the doge's grave; it is more likely a symbolic memorial rather than burial site.
After the recapture in 1261 by the Byzantines, the church was in a dilapidated state. In 1317, emperor Andronicus II ordered four new buttresses (Πυραμὶδας, Greek:"Piramídas") to be built in the eastern and northern parts of the church, financing them with the inheritance of his deceased wife, Irene. New cracks developed in the dome after the earthquake of October 1344, and several parts of the building collapsed on 19 May 1346; consequently, the church was closed until 1354, when repairs were undertaken by architects Astras and Peralta.
Mosque (1453–1935)
In 1453 Sultan Mehmed laid siege to Constantinople, driven in part by a desire to convert the city to Islam. The Sultan promised his troops three days of unbridled pillage if the city fell, after which he would claim its contents himself. Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage, becoming its focal point as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures of the city. Shortly after the city’s defenses collapsed, pillagers made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors. Throughout the siege worshipers participated in the Holy Liturgy and Prayer of the Hours at the Hagia Sophia, and the church formed a refuge for many of those who were unable to contribute to the city’s defense. Trapped in the church, congregants and refugees became booty to be divided amongst the invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, and occupants enslaved or slaughtered; a few of the elderly and infirm were killed, and the remainder chained. Priests continued to perform Christian rites until stopped by the invaders. When the Sultan and his cohort entered the church he insisted it should be at once transformed into a mosque. One of the Ulama then climbed the pulpit and recited the Shahada.
Fountain (Şadırvan) for ritual ablutions
The mihrab located in the apse where the altar used to stand, pointing towards Mecca
As written above, immediately after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II converted Hagia Sophia into the Aya Sofya Mosque. As described by several Western visitors (such as the Córdoban nobleman Pero Tafur and the Florentine Cristoforo Buondelmonti), the church was in a dilapidated state, with several of its doors off; sultan Mehmed II ordered the cleanup of the church and its conversion. He attended the first Friday prayer in the mosque on 1 June 1453. Aya Sofya became the first imperial mosque of Istanbul. To the corresponding Waqf were endowed most of the existing houses in the city and the area of the future Topkapı Palace. Through the imperial charters of 1520 / 926H and 1547 / 954 H shops and parts of the Grand Bazaar and other markets were added to the foundation.Before 1481 a small minaret was erected on the SW corner of the building, above the stair tower. Later, the subsequent sultan, Bayezid II (1481–1512), built another minaret at the NE corner. One of these crashed because of the earthquake of 1509, and around the middle of the 16th century they were both replaced by two diagonally opposite minarets built at the E and W corners of the edifice.
In the 16th century the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566) brought back two colossal candlesticks from his conquest of Hungary. They were placed on either side of the mihrab. During the reign of Selim II (1566–1577), the building started showing signs of fatigue and was extensively strengthened with the addition of structural supports to its exterior by the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, who is also considered one of the world's first earthquake engineers. In addition to strengthening the historic Byzantine structure, Sinan built the two additional large minarets at the western end of the building, the original sultan's loge, and the Türbe (mausoleum) of Selim II to the southeast of the building in 1576-7 / 984 H. In order to do that, one year before parts of the Patriarchate at the S corner of the building were pulled down. Moreover, the golden crescent was mounted on the top of the dome, while a respect zone 35 arşin (about 24 m) wide was imposed around the building, pulling down all the houses which in the meantime had nested around it. Later his türbe hosted also 43 tombs of Ottoman princes. In 1594 / 1004 H Mimar (court architect) Davud Ağa built the türbe of Murad III (1574–1595), where the Sultan and his Valide, Safiye Sultan were later buried. The octagonal mausoleum of their son Mehmed III (1595–1603) and his Valide was built next to it in 1608 / 1017 H by royal architect Dalgiç Mehmet Aĝa. His Son Mustafa I (1617–1618; 1622–1623) let convert the Baptistery into his Türbe.
Later additions were the sultan's gallery, a minbar decorated with marble, a dais for a sermon and a loggia for a muezzin.
Murad III had also two large alabaster Hellenistic urns transported from Pergamon and placed on two sides of the nave.
In 1717, under Sultan Ahmed III (1703–1730), the crumbling plaster of the interior was renovated, contributing indirectly to the preservation of many mosaics, which otherwise would have been destroyed by mosque workers. In fact, it was usual for them to sell mosaics stones – believed to be talismans – to the visitors. Sultan Mahmud I ordered the restoration of the building in 1739 and added a medrese (a Koranic school, now the library of the museum), an Imaret (soup kitchen for distribution to the poor) and a library, and in 1740 a Şadirvan (fountain for ritual ablutions), thus transforming it into a külliye, i.e. a social complex. At the same time a new sultan's gallery and a new mihrab were built inside.
The most famous restoration of the Aya Sofya was ordered by Sultan Abdülmecid and completed by eight hundred workers between 1847 and 1849, under the supervision of the Swiss-Italian architect brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati. The brothers consolidated the dome and vaults, straightened the columns, and revised the decoration of the exterior and the interior of the building. The mosaics in the upper gallery were cleaned. The old chandeliers were replaced by new pendant ones. New gigantic circular-framed disks or medallions were hung on columns. They were inscribed with the names of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, the first four caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, and the two grandchildren of Mohammed: Hassan and Hussain, by the calligrapher Kazasker Mustafa İzzed Effendi (1801–1877). In 1850 the architect Fossati built a new sultan's gallery in a Neo-Byzantine style connected to the royal pavilion behind the mosque. Outside the Aya Sofya, a timekeeper's building and a new madrasah were built. The minarets were altered so that they were of equal height. When the restoration was finished, the mosque was re-opened with ceremonial pomp on 13 July 1849.
Source: Wikipedia
Camera Nikon D7000
Exposure 1
Aperture f/6.3
Focal Length 10.5 mm
ISO Speed 100
Great to see more investments in my local area, all contactless too location goo.gl/maps/JqZmcKqG1V2juiJ57
When I started my career with IBM, one of my co-workers was a very interesting engineer, Marvin K. He was extremely intelligent and curious about many things, including astronomy, science, electronics and photography.
About a year after his death in 2004, his wife called me and said that she had a ham radio that he had built as a teenager and she thought I might like to have it. After I brought it home, I noticed that curled inside of the large copper coil, were several sheets of hand-written notes that described a lot about the construction and early use of this very basic radio transmitter. Typical of Marvin, the note was very detailed and contained a great deal of information about the radio. Here is his narrative....
"This is the short-wave amateur radio transmitter I built when I was age 13 in 1931-1932 in Sac City, Iowa. I operated under the call letters of W9AZA issued for the 80 meter CW band of 3.5 to 3.9 kilocycles per second (now called Kilo Hertz, or KHz, continuous wave, where the transmitter is keyed on and off with a telegraph-type key, using International Morse Code, NO voice operation)
This transmitter is a self-excited, push-pull oscillator, using two type ’45 tubes, where a heavy radio frequency current is generated, which oscillated back and forth at the resonant frequency of a tuned circuit consisting to two things: the large copper coil and the main tuning capacitor (or ‘condenser’). Energy is electromagnetically coupled to the two smaller copper coils which are connected to another tuning capacitor and the antenna system. This provides another resonant circuit which is tuned to the same radio frequency as the oscillator. Energy is then radiated from the antenna system…which was a zeppelin-type antenna with a 132 foot flat top, end fed with two parallel wires spaced 8 inches apart, one connected to one end of the 132’ antenna, the other one dead ended there..(not connected).
A separate power supply provided power to this transmitter. It consisted of a 115-volt AC power transformer, one type ’80 rectifier tube, two 8mfd, 450 volt filter capacitors, a filter choke and bleeder resistor. The transformer also supplied 5 volts AC for the ’80 tube filaments, 2 ½ volts AC for the ’45 tube filaments and 500 to 600 volts AC, center-tapped, for the nominally 250 to 300 volts DC for the transmitter tube plates. Plate power input to the transmitter oscillator circuit was maybe 20 or 30 watts, maximum. (I couldn’t afford voltmeters or ammeters which would have told me more...!) My radius of operation was Iowa and the adjacent states – seldom further.
My short-wave receiver was initially a 1 tube regenerative receiver I built and later a Super Wasp receiver, that my neighbor across the street had built and had replaced with a more up-to-date factory-built SW receiver. The Pilot Super-Wasp required a 6-volt car-battery for the tube filaments and a B- battery eliminator (connected to the 115 volts DC house current) for the 45, 90 and 180 volts DC the receiver used. It had plug-in coils to cover the 20, 40 80 and 160 meter amateur bands, as well as the broadcast band. It was regenerative also.
I operated mainly from 1932 thru 1940. The license had to be renewed, with proof of use, every 3 years or so. I finally let it run out….should have kept it active. My license was W9AZA, was a re-issue and came out when the W9K ---‘s (a very early call)...were coming out. My neighbor got W9KDL as the same time I got mine. He helped me, and we practiced code together via a telegraph line he installed between his house, mine and another 1 block away and one more a mile away..!
The plastic cover over the transmitter is not part of the original, but is just to keep the dust off. The cover, from an IBM type 650 scientific computer magnetic drum (circa 1955-1960) just happened to be the right size…!"
Photo info...shot with a Nikon D750 and Nikon 70-180mm Macro lens. Lit with a single Alien Bee and a gold reflector. This was a focus stack of a dozen exposures, all blended with CombineZP.
Installed on the southern nave of the former Saint George's Presbyterian Church, the Great War memorial window was commissioned by the Saint George's Presbyterian Parish in 1921 and dedicated to the fallen. There were twenty fallen men from the congregation who died in the conflict between 1914 and 1918. The names are listed on a polished brass plaque beneath the window. The window was done by successful British born, German trained, Melbourne stained glass artist William Montgomery. The window features an Australian soldier in army uniform with his gun and slouch hat at his side in the left-hand main panel. In the right the heavenly vision of a beautiful woman in classical robes and long flowing blonde hair. The line from the bible quoted in Chronicles 29:1 "Thine o Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty" is quoted at the top of the dedication panels. This window obviously eludes to the sacrifices made by the men of the parish during the Great War. Not only does it depict a Great War Australian soldier, but the maiden in splendid robes holds a laurel wreath aloft in her right hand and a martyr palm frond in her left hand. The Laurel wreath symbolises martial victory, crowning a successful commander during his triumph. The martyr palm frond represents the victory of spirit over flesh, and its depiction in this window indicates that it is dedicated for the fallen martyrs on the brass plaque beneath the window. The lady also walks amid a bed of lilies of the valley, also known as the May lily. This means "return to happiness" and most often symbolizes chastity, purity, happiness, luck and humility, eluding again to the sacrfifice the fallen men made for their country and the people of the congregation. The quatrefoil of the stained glass window features two martyr palm fronds and a crown, symbolising the place in heaven these twenty martyrs received.
Rising proudly on the rise of a hill, the former Saint George’s Presbyterian Church, which stands on the corner of Latrobe Terrace and Ryrie Street on the outskirts of the Geelong central business district, began its construction in 1860. Designed by architect Nathaniel Billing in Victorian English Gothic style, the original large nave of the church, with vestry and apse were constructed of irregularly coursed basalt with Hawksbury River freestone dressings. The initial build was erected and completed in 1861 by contractors Brown and Gibson. The foundation stone was laid on 12 June 1861. The large and finely constructed church reflects the wealth of many of the church's foundation patrons, which included Francis Ormond and other Western District Squatters. The former Saint George’s Presbyterian Church is a significant and intact work of Nathaniel Billing, who was well known for ecclesiastical architecture. The original church was expanded with the addition of transepts in 1908, and finally a spire and tower in 1936. The tower and spire were donated as a seventy-fifth anniversary gift by wealthy parishioners James McPhillimy and his sister Louise. The McPhillimy family were not only wealthy parisioners, but were also long time worshipers at Saint George’s Persbyterian Church. They began worshiping there in 1886.
The inside of the former Saint George’s Presbyterian Church is quite plain, with white painted walls and three rows of blackwood pews separated by two aisles. The church features examples of its original latticed quarry glass lancet windows with one band of coloured glass, as well as several figurative stained glass windows installed later. This includes two pairs of lancet windows manufactured by Ballantyne and Company of Edinburgh, which are perhaps the church’s most beautiful windows for their wonderful colours and beautiful hand-painted details. There is also two windows by Melbourne stained glass manufacturers Brooks Robinson and Company installed in the 1930s, and a fine heritage listed stained glass window by one of Melbourne’s leading stained glass artists, William Montgomery, which commemorates the fallen of the Great War. The church’s rose window and great western window created by Melbourne stained glass manufacturer Ferguson and Urie are the oldest windows, and like the quarry glass windows, are original.
Saint George's Presbyterian Church was forced to close its doors in 2015 owing to dwindling congregation numbers, and whilst the Presbyterian Church still owns the church and manse, the manse is now rented out and has been used for both commercial and residential purposes. The church itself sits idly, its slowly weathering exterior requiring significant restoration, its garden sinking into neglect and its interior lying beneath a sheet of thick dust.
I am very grateful to the retired Presbyterian Reverend Andrew Bray, caretaker of the church at the time of photographing, for giving me an hour of his time and for letting me photograph the interior and stained glass windows so extensively.
Nathaniel Billing was born in Brightwell, Oxfordshire in 1821. Articled to the prestigious office of Sir Gilbert Scott in London, he later commenced his own architectural practice in Slough under his own name. Nathaniel married his first wife, Henrietta in 1850. Three years later the pair and their family immigrated to Australia. he was appointed to the Colonial Architect's Office in Belfast (now known as Port Fairy), but commenced his own practice there in 1855. In Port Fairy he designed Saint John's Church of England in 1856 and the Bank of Australasia in 1857. That same year, Nathaniel left Port Fairy and moved to Melbourne, where he soon had a thriving practice. In Melbourne, most of his commissions were ecclesiastical. He designed All Saints Church of England on Chapel Street in 1861 which with a seating capacity of 1,500 is the largest Church of England in the southern hemisphere, Saint Margaret's Church of England in Eltham in 1861, alterations to Melville House in Collins Street in 1881, "Steamshall" a Victorian Italianate villa in Kew in 1882, Saint Paul's Cathedral in Sale in 1884, Saint Matthias' Church of England in Richmond in 1885, the Fitzroy Cricket Ground grandstand in 1888, and extensions to Saint George's Church of England in 1889 in conjunction with the architects firm Dalton and Gibbons. Nathaniel's first wife Henrietta died in 1867 after nineteen years of marriage, four sons and five daughters. Nathaniel remarried in 1869, taking Mary Anne Hooke as his wife. They had no children together. Nathaniel's fourth child, William Urban Billing, joined his firm in 1880 and practiced as Billing and Son. They worked together until 1895 when Nathaniel retired. Nathaniel died at his home in Westbury Street East St Kilda in 1910 at the age of 88.
William Montgomery (1850 - 1927) was an artist who specialised in stained glass painting and design. He was born in England in 1850, and studied at the School of Art in Newcastle-on-Tyne. In his final year William was awarded one of only three National Art Scholarships that year to study at South Kensington School of Art (now the Royal College of Art). He was employed by the leading London stained glass firm, Clayton and Bell, before joining Franz Mayer and Company in Munich, Germany. Over the next seven years he not only designed windows he also trained others in the English style of glass painting. William arrived in Melbourne, Australia, in 1886 during the Boom Period provided by the Gold Rush. Melbourne was at the time one of the wealthiest cities in the world, and was in the throes of a building boom. He quickly set up his studio at 164 Flinders Street in the heart of Melbourne, bringing with him the latest in European style and design and achieving instant success amongst wealthy patrons. He worked equally for Catholic and Protestant denominations, his windows being found in many churches as well as in mansions, houses and other commercial buildings around the city. This extended to the country beyond as his reputation grew. A painter as well as stained glass window designer William was a founding member of the Victorian Art Society in Albert Street, Eastern Hill. William became President of its Council in 1912, a position he held until 1916. He was a trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria. His commissions included; stained glass windows at Christ Church, Hawthorn: St. John's, Heidelberg, St. Ignatius', Richmond: Christ Church, St Kilda: Geelong Grammar School: the Bathurst Cathedral and private houses "Tay Creggan", Hawthorn (now Strathcona Baptist Girls Grammar), and "Earlsbrae Hall", Essendon (now Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School). The success of William Montgomery made Melbourne the leading centre of stained glass in the Southern Hemisphere. William Montgomery died in 1927.
John ressortissant anglais est venu s'installer en Haute Saône, il réalise des moulages de statues pour jardin. Un sacré gaillard, toujours entouré d'animaux.
more artworks from the series 'Islands and Other Experiments' by Darlene Charneco
mixed media, 25 pieces. installed at artsites art+ architecture. mouse over to see titles and whether each is sold/available.
view set here
August 2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the construction of the CN Tower’s “working platform”.
For those who saw and experienced the construction of the tower, this working platform was one of the iconic fixtures of the tower from August 1974 through to August 1975 when it was finally dismantled and lowered to the ground. However, with it being covered over with safety nets and without any “public media relations” to explain what was going on with the tower’s construction, most Torontonians were perplexed or knowingly confused about what this “working platform” was used for. For myself, I always felt that it hid a portion of the tower which was actively under construction and would one day emerge from its cocoon to form a key aspect of the SkyPod. All of this, of course, was incorrect, and hence why this collage and explanation was created.
The “working platform” (as we will generally call it) had multiple purposes to the engineers of the CN Tower:
1) First and foremost, it would be used as a cradle to hold the 12 steel brackets which were to be hoisted from the ground level up to the 1120ft level of the tower.
2) Second, it contained the concrete wooden forms which encased the 12 steel brackets. The forms were mainly built on the ground and hoisted up to the 1120ft level along with the 12 steel brackets.
3) Third, once the temporary wooden floor of the working platform was completed in September 1974, it would be used as a base to pour the concrete floor of the outdoor observation level.
4) And fourth, after the concrete for the floor and brackets were poured, the working platform would be lowered 50ft to aid as a true “working platform” for construction people to access and work on the underside of the outdoor observation level (the “communication” levels 1 and 2, where the inflated, circular white radome can presently be seem).
As shown in a prior construction collage, the 12 brackets were raised from the ground level up to the 1120ft level between August 6 and 11 1974. The brackets were then connected to the tower, and leveled, using “dvidags” between August 17 and 30.
Thereafter, during August, the sections were connected together by the steelworkers via trusses (as seen in the upper left image of this collage). Long wood joists, then plywood, was laid down across the trusses to form the floor of the working platform.
Concrete was then poured into the wooden forms, and around the 12 huge steel beams, within and under the working platform (hidden behind the safety nets) to form the 12 triangle brackets seen today from below the SkyPod. Additional wooden forms were also installed to allow the creation of the walls of the poured-concrete “service tunnel” of level 1, ending on September 27. As a small historical note, the one & only person to die on the job was John Austin who was killed by a flying piece of plywood on the ground on October 2 during an unusually windy night.
The concrete floor of the outdoor observation level was poured in pie-shaped wedges throughout October 1974, using the working platform as the horizontal forms for the concrete pours. This can be seen in the lower-left image of the collage.
As an aspect of the tower’s construction that may have been overlooked by most or all Torontonians, the working platform was dislodged from its poured concrete (after a week of hitting the forms with sledge hammers!) and lowered 50ft where it remained until August 1975 (as shown in the lower right image of the collage). This important phase of the tower’s construction was not well documented in the media nor newspapers of the day so it was easily overlooked in the history books. The lowering occurred between Nov 2 and 8 1974. The platform was first lowered 20ft where it was used to pour the floor of level 1 then lowered another 30ft to clear the brackets (which were 45ft vertical).
The lower right image of the collage is an excellent photo of all of the work explained above. In the lower portion of the image, the “working platform” was all temporary and would be dismantled in 1975. The upper portion of the image remains as part of the SkyPod today. The floor is where the outdoor observation level is today. Under the floor are levels 1 and 2 where the communication dishes are presently shrouded in a white circular radome. The 12 concrete brackets were created by the wooden forms which remained within the working platform.
Once this critical and important phase of the tower was completed in November 1974, the “real work” could begin on erecting the steel framework of the SkyPod by CANRON.
Dans l'espace de la rotonde de la Bourse de commerce, sont exposées des œuvres des 13 artistes emblématiques de l'Arte Povera
Chacun de ces artistes bénéficie d'une salle spécifique dans les différents étages du bâtiment.
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L'exposition "Arte Povera" à la Pinault Collection, Bourse de Commerce, Paris
Entre héritage et influence, l’exposition "Arte Povera" traverse plus de 250 œuvres historiques, contemporaines, et issues de ce courant artistique italien majeur des années 1960. Cette exposition s’attache à éclairer aussi bien la naissance italienne que le rayonnement international de ce courant, à travers les œuvres des treize principaux protagonistes de l’Arte Povera : Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini et Gilberto Zorio... Extrait du site de l'exposition.
www.pinaultcollection.com/fr/boursedecommerce/arte-povera
Cette exposition historique retraçant l'histoire de "l'Arte Povera" (terme inventé à la fin des années 1960 par le critique d'art italien Germano Celant) est d'un abord difficile car la compréhension de ce type d'installations artistiques conceptuelles n'est pas immédiate par un public peu averti. Les œuvres reflètent, à cette époque, les luttes sociales, les protestations contre la politique américaine (guerre du Vietnam, impérialisme culturel notamment du pop art..), le rejet des valeurs bourgeoises et de la société de consommation, en particulier en Italie et plus largement en Europe. À cette période agitée, les performances artistiques avaient une grande importance, ce que des objets muséifiés ne peuvent pas facilement retranscrire, d'autant plus que l'exposition ne présente que peu de vidéos historiques.
Une autre ambiguïté de cette exposition, très riche et complexe, réside dans le voisinage d'œuvres des treize artistes de l'Arte Povera, sélectionnés par la commissaire, datant de la période 1965-1972 et d'autres beaucoup plus récentes de ces mêmes artistes. C'est le cas, par exemple, pour M. Pistoletto ou J. Penone, qui ont brillamment poursuivi leur carrière artistique jusqu'à aujourd'hui mais qui ne se réclament plus de l'Arte Povera depuis longtemps. Les nombreux médiateurs à disposition du public aident à surmonter ces difficultés de compréhension de la logique de l'exposition. C'est l'un des points forts de l'organisation de la Bourse de Commerce / Collection Pinault qui réussit une manifestation d'un très haut niveau, comparable à celui des plus grands établissements culturels publics. Cette évolution de l'offre culturelle parisienne est significative de la bascule qui s'opère depuis quelques années du secteur public vers le privé et qui risque malheureusement de s'accentuer avec la fermeture durant cinq ans du bâtiment du Centre Pompidou.
The Karel Havlíček Monument is an outdoor monument and sculpture by Joseph Strachovsky commemorating Karel Havlíček Borovský, installed in the median of East Solidarity Drive, in Chicago's Northerly Island, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The statue was created in 1911 and installed in 1983.
Karel Havlíček Borovský was a Czech writer, poet, critic, politician, journalist, and publisher.
He lived and studied at the gymnasium in Německý Brod (today Havlíčkův Brod, named after Borovský), and his house on the main square is today the Havlíček Museum. In 1838 he moved to Prague to study philosophy at Charles University and, influenced by the revolutionary atmosphere before the Revolutions of 1848, decided on the objective of becoming a patriotic writer. He devoted himself to studying Czech and literature. After graduating he began studying theology because he thought the best way to serve the nation would be as a priest. He was expelled after one year for "showing too little indication for spiritual ministry".
After failing to find a teacher's job in Bohemia, he left for Moscow to work as a tutor in a Russian teacher's family: with a recommendation by Pavel Josef Šafařík. He became a Russophile and a Pan-Slav, but after recognizing the true reality of the Russian society he took the pessimistic view that "Pan-Slavism is a great, attractive but feckless idea". His memories of the Russian stay were published first in magazines and then as a book Obrazy z Rus (Pictures from Russia).
He returned to Bohemia in 1844, aged 24 and used his writing skills to criticize the fashion of embracing anything written in the recently reborn Czech language. He specifically aimed at a novel by Josef Kajetán Tyl. In 1846 Havlíček attained a position as editor of the Pražské noviny newspaper with the help of František Palacký.
In April 1848 he changed the name of the newspaper to Národní noviny (National News) and it became one of the first newspapers of the Revolutionary-era Czech liberals, and one of the most influential publications of 1848–1849. Národní noviny became popular especially for his sharp-tongued epigrams and its wit. Havlíček was concerned with the preparations of the Slavic Congress in Prague. In July 1848 he was elected as a member of the Austrian Empire Constituent Assembly in Vienna and later in Kroměříž. He eventually relinquished his seat to focus on journalism.
Havlíček was a "liberal nationalist" politically, but refused to allow a "party line" to inform his opinions. Often, he would criticize those that agreed with him as much as those that disagreed. He excoriated revolutionaries for their radicalism, but also advocated ideas like universal suffrage—a concept altogether too radical for most of his fellow liberals. He was a pragmatist, and had little patience for those that spent their time romanticizing the Czech nationality without helping it achieve political or cultural independence. He used much of the space in his newspapers to educate the people on important issues—stressing areas like economics, which were sorely neglected by other nationalist writers.
The Bohemian revolution was defeated in March 1849 with the dissolution of the Kroměříž assembly, but Havlíček continued to criticize the new regime. He was brought to court for his criticism (there was no freedom of the press in the Habsburg's territory) but was found not guilty by a sympathetic jury. Národní noviny had to cease publication in January 1850, but Havlíček did not end his activities. In May 1850 he began publishing the magazine Slovan in Kutná Hora. The magazine was a target of censorship from the start. It had to stop publication in August 1851, and Havlíček stood again at the court to answer on charges of dissent. Again, he was found not guilty by a sympathetic jury of Czech commoners.
Havlíček translated and introduced some satirical and critical authors into the Czech language culture including Nikolai Gogol (1842) and Voltaire (1851).
In the night of 16 December 1851, he was arrested by the police and forced into exile in Brixen, Austria (present-day Italy).[2] He was depressed from the exile, but continued writing and wrote some of his best work: Tyrolské elegie (Tyrolean Elegies), Křest svatého Vladimíra (The Baptism of St. Vladimir) and Král Lávra (King Lavra, based on the legend of Labraid Loingsech).
When he returned from Brixen in 1855, he learned that his wife had died a few days earlier. Most of his former friends, afraid of the Bach system, stood aloof from him. Only a few publicly declared support for him.
In 1856, Havlíček died of tuberculosis, aged 35. Božena Němcová put a crown of thorns on his head in the coffin. His funeral was attended by about 5,000 Czechs.
In 1911, a monument was raised to Havlíček in Chicago by Czech residents of the city in Douglass Park. The bronze statue by Joseph Strachovsky was cast by V. Mašek in Prague and shows Havlicek in a revolutionary pose, dressed in a full military uniform and a draped cape with his outstretched arm motioning the viewer to join him. The statue was moved to Solidarity Drive on today's Museum Campus in the vicinity of the Adler Planetarium in 1981.
In 1918, the new Rifle Regiment of the 3rd division of Czechoslovak legions in Russia was named the "Karel Havlíček Borovský regiment"
In 1925, a biographical film was released.
In 1945, the 20 Czechoslovak koruna banknote bore Havlíček's portrait.
Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. As the seat of Cook County, the second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, which is often colloquially called "Chicagoland".
Located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, but Chicago's population continued to grow. Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and architecture, such as the Chicago School, the development of the City Beautiful Movement, and the steel-framed skyscraper.
Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It has the largest and most diverse derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone. O'Hare International Airport is routinely ranked among the world's top six busiest airports by passenger traffic, and the region is also the nation's railroad hub. The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) of any urban region in the world, generating $689 billion in 2018. Chicago's economy is diverse, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce.
Chicago is a major tourist destination. Chicago's culture has contributed much to the visual arts, literature, film, theater, comedy (especially improvisational comedy), food, dance, and music (particularly jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, gospel, and electronic dance music, including house music). Chicago is home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, while the Art Institute of Chicago provides an influential visual arts museum and art school. The Chicago area also hosts the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Chicago, among other institutions of learning. Chicago has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams.
In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by the Potawatomi, an indigenous tribe who had succeeded the Miami and Sauk and Fox peoples in this region.
The first known permanent settler in Chicago was trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African descent, perhaps born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and established the settlement in the 1780s. He is commonly known as the "Founder of Chicago."
In 1795, following the victory of the new United States in the Northwest Indian War, an area that was to be part of Chicago was turned over to the U.S. for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville. In 1803, the U.S. Army constructed Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn by the Potawatomi before being later rebuilt.
After the War of 1812, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the 1833 Treaty of Chicago and sent west of the Mississippi River as part of the federal policy of Indian removal.
On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 6,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as Receiver of Public Monies. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837, and for several decades was the world's fastest-growing city.
As the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicago's first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848. The canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River.
A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad. Manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first-ever standardized "exchange-traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts.
In the 1850s, Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator Stephen Douglas, the champion of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the "popular sovereignty" approach to the issue of the spread of slavery. These issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage. Lincoln was nominated in Chicago for U.S. president at the 1860 Republican National Convention, which was held in a purpose-built auditorium called the Wigwam. He defeated Douglas in the general election, and this set the stage for the American Civil War.
To accommodate rapid population growth and demand for better sanitation, the city improved its infrastructure. In February 1856, Chicago's Common Council approved Chesbrough's plan to build the United States' first comprehensive sewerage system. The project raised much of central Chicago to a new grade with the use of jackscrews for raising buildings. While elevating Chicago, and at first improving the city's health, the untreated sewage and industrial waste now flowed into the Chicago River, and subsequently into Lake Michigan, polluting the city's primary freshwater source.
The city responded by tunneling two miles (3.2 km) out into Lake Michigan to newly built water cribs. In 1900, the problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. It reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the water flowed away from Lake Michigan rather than into it. This project began with the construction and improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and was completed with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that connects to the Illinois River, which flows into the Mississippi River.
In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 1-mile (1.6 km) wide, a large section of the city at the time. Much of the city, including railroads and stockyards, survived intact, and from the ruins of the previous wooden structures arose more modern constructions of steel and stone. These set a precedent for worldwide construction. During its rebuilding period, Chicago constructed the world's first skyscraper in 1885, using steel-skeleton construction.
The city grew significantly in size and population by incorporating many neighboring townships between 1851 and 1920, with the largest annexation happening in 1889, with five townships joining the city, including the Hyde Park Township, which now comprises most of the South Side of Chicago and the far southeast of Chicago, and the Jefferson Township, which now makes up most of Chicago's Northwest Side. The desire to join the city was driven by municipal services that the city could provide its residents.
Chicago's flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Eastern United States. Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in the United States of foreign parentage. Germans, Irish, Poles, Swedes, and Czechs made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the city's population).
Labor conflicts followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, and in 1894 the Pullman Strike. Anarchist and socialist groups played prominent roles in creating very large and highly organized labor actions. Concern for social problems among Chicago's immigrant poor led Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr to found Hull House in 1889. Programs that were developed there became a model for the new field of social work.
During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City laws and later, state laws that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states.
The city established many large, well-landscaped municipal parks, which also included public sanitation facilities. The chief advocate for improving public health in Chicago was John H. Rauch, M.D. Rauch established a plan for Chicago's park system in 1866. He created Lincoln Park by closing a cemetery filled with shallow graves, and in 1867, in response to an outbreak of cholera he helped establish a new Chicago Board of Health. Ten years later, he became the secretary and then the president of the first Illinois State Board of Health, which carried out most of its activities in Chicago.
In the 1800s, Chicago became the nation's railroad hub, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals. In 1883, Chicago's railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones. This system for telling time spread throughout the continent.
In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition on former marshland at the present location of Jackson Park. The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered the most influential world's fair in history. The University of Chicago, formerly at another location, moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance, a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects the Washington and Jackson Parks.
During World War I and the 1920s there was a major expansion in industry. The availability of jobs attracted African Americans from the Southern United States. Between 1910 and 1930, the African American population of Chicago increased dramatically, from 44,103 to 233,903. This Great Migration had an immense cultural impact, called the Chicago Black Renaissance, part of the New Negro Movement, in art, literature, and music. Continuing racial tensions and violence, such as the Chicago race riot of 1919, also occurred.
The ratification of the 18th amendment to the Constitution in 1919 made the production and sale (including exportation) of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. This ushered in the beginning of what is known as the gangster era, a time that roughly spans from 1919 until 1933 when Prohibition was repealed. The 1920s saw gangsters, including Al Capone, Dion O'Banion, Bugs Moran and Tony Accardo battle law enforcement and each other on the streets of Chicago during the Prohibition era. Chicago was the location of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, when Al Capone sent men to gun down members of a rival gang, North Side, led by Bugs Moran.
Chicago was the first American city to have a homosexual-rights organization. The organization, formed in 1924, was called the Society for Human Rights. It produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. Police and political pressure caused the organization to disband.
The Great Depression brought unprecedented suffering to Chicago, in no small part due to the city's heavy reliance on heavy industry. Notably, industrial areas on the south side and neighborhoods lining both branches of the Chicago River were devastated; by 1933 over 50% of industrial jobs in the city had been lost, and unemployment rates amongst blacks and Mexicans in the city were over 40%. The Republican political machine in Chicago was utterly destroyed by the economic crisis, and every mayor since 1931 has been a Democrat.
From 1928 to 1933, the city witnessed a tax revolt, and the city was unable to meet payroll or provide relief efforts. The fiscal crisis was resolved by 1933, and at the same time, federal relief funding began to flow into Chicago. Chicago was also a hotbed of labor activism, with Unemployed Councils contributing heavily in the early depression to create solidarity for the poor and demand relief; these organizations were created by socialist and communist groups. By 1935 the Workers Alliance of America begun organizing the poor, workers, the unemployed. In the spring of 1937 Republic Steel Works witnessed the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 in the neighborhood of East Side.
In 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in Miami, Florida, during a failed assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1933 and 1934, the city celebrated its centennial by hosting the Century of Progress International Exposition World's Fair. The theme of the fair was technological innovation over the century since Chicago's founding.
During World War II, the city of Chicago alone produced more steel than the United Kingdom every year from 1939 – 1945, and more than Nazi Germany from 1943 – 1945.
The Great Migration, which had been on pause due to the Depression, resumed at an even faster pace in the second wave, as hundreds of thousands of blacks from the South arrived in the city to work in the steel mills, railroads, and shipping yards.
On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the world's first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. This led to the creation of the atomic bomb by the United States, which it used in World War II in 1945.
Mayor Richard J. Daley, a Democrat, was elected in 1955, in the era of machine politics. In 1956, the city conducted its last major expansion when it annexed the land under O'Hare airport, including a small portion of DuPage County.
By the 1960s, white residents in several neighborhoods left the city for the suburban areas – in many American cities, a process known as white flight – as Blacks continued to move beyond the Black Belt. While home loan discriminatory redlining against blacks continued, the real estate industry practiced what became known as blockbusting, completely changing the racial composition of whole neighborhoods. Structural changes in industry, such as globalization and job outsourcing, caused heavy job losses for lower-skilled workers. At its peak during the 1960s, some 250,000 workers were employed in the steel industry in Chicago, but the steel crisis of the 1970s and 1980s reduced this number to just 28,000 in 2015. In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby led the Chicago Freedom Movement, which culminated in agreements between Mayor Richard J. Daley and the movement leaders.
Two years later, the city hosted the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, which featured physical confrontations both inside and outside the convention hall, with anti-war protesters, journalists and bystanders being beaten by police. Major construction projects, including the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower, which in 1974 became the world's tallest building), University of Illinois at Chicago, McCormick Place, and O'Hare International Airport, were undertaken during Richard J. Daley's tenure. In 1979, Jane Byrne, the city's first female mayor, was elected. She was notable for temporarily moving into the crime-ridden Cabrini-Green housing project and for leading Chicago's school system out of a financial crisis.
In 1983, Harold Washington became the first black mayor of Chicago. Washington's first term in office directed attention to poor and previously neglected minority neighborhoods. He was re‑elected in 1987 but died of a heart attack soon after. Washington was succeeded by 6th ward alderperson Eugene Sawyer, who was elected by the Chicago City Council and served until a special election.
Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, was elected in 1989. His accomplishments included improvements to parks and creating incentives for sustainable development, as well as closing Meigs Field in the middle of the night and destroying the runways. After successfully running for re-election five times, and becoming Chicago's longest-serving mayor, Richard M. Daley declined to run for a seventh term.
In 1992, a construction accident near the Kinzie Street Bridge produced a breach connecting the Chicago River to a tunnel below, which was part of an abandoned freight tunnel system extending throughout the downtown Loop district. The tunnels filled with 250 million US gallons (1,000,000 m3) of water, affecting buildings throughout the district and forcing a shutdown of electrical power. The area was shut down for three days and some buildings did not reopen for weeks; losses were estimated at $1.95 billion.
On February 23, 2011, Rahm Emanuel, a former White House Chief of Staff and member of the House of Representatives, won the mayoral election. Emanuel was sworn in as mayor on May 16, 2011, and won re-election in 2015. Lori Lightfoot, the city's first African American woman mayor and its first openly LGBTQ mayor, was elected to succeed Emanuel as mayor in 2019. All three city-wide elective offices were held by women (and women of color) for the first time in Chicago history: in addition to Lightfoot, the city clerk was Anna Valencia and the city treasurer was Melissa Conyears-Ervin.
On May 15, 2023, Brandon Johnson assumed office as the 57th mayor of Chicago.
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Great Lakes to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash and Ohio rivers to its south. Its largest metropolitan areas are Chicago and the Metro East region of Greater St. Louis. Other metropolitan areas include Peoria and Rockford, as well as Springfield, its capital, and Champaign-Urbana, home to the main campus of the state's flagship university. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth-largest population, and the 25th-largest land area.
Illinois has a highly diverse economy, with the global city of Chicago in the northeast, major industrial and agricultural hubs in the north and center, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south. Owing to its central location and favorable geography, the state is a major transportation hub: the Port of Chicago has access to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway and to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River via the Illinois Waterway. Chicago has been the nation's railroad hub since the 1860s, and its O'Hare International Airport has been among the world's busiest airports for decades. Illinois has long been considered a microcosm of the United States and a bellwether in American culture, exemplified by the phrase Will it play in Peoria?.
Present-day Illinois was inhabited by various indigenous cultures for thousands of years, including the advanced civilization centered in the Cahokia region. The French were the first Europeans to arrive, settling near the Mississippi and Illinois River in the 17th century in the region they called Illinois Country, as part of the sprawling colony of New France. Following U.S. independence in 1783, American settlers began arriving from Kentucky via the Ohio River, and the population grew from south to north. Illinois was part of the United States' oldest territory, the Northwest Territory, and in 1818 it achieved statehood. The Erie Canal brought increased commercial activity in the Great Lakes, and the small settlement of Chicago became one of the fastest growing cities in the world, benefiting from its location as one of the few natural harbors in southwestern Lake Michigan. The invention of the self-scouring steel plow by Illinoisan John Deere turned the state's rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmland, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. In the mid-19th century, the Illinois and Michigan Canal and a sprawling railroad network greatly facilitated trade, commerce, and settlement, making the state a transportation hub for the nation.
By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois became one of America's most industrialized states and remains a major manufacturing center. The Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans, particularly in Chicago, who founded the city's famous jazz and blues cultures. Chicago became a leading cultural, economic, and population center and is today one of the world's major commercial centers; its metropolitan area, informally referred to as Chicagoland, holds about 65% of the state's 12.8 million residents.
Two World Heritage Sites are in Illinois, the ancient Cahokia Mounds, and part of the Wright architecture site. Major centers of learning include the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, and Northwestern University. A wide variety of protected areas seek to conserve Illinois' natural and cultural resources. Historically, three U.S. presidents have been elected while residents of Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Barack Obama; additionally, Ronald Reagan was born and raised in the state. Illinois honors Lincoln with its official state slogan Land of Lincoln. The state is the site of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield and the future home of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
Installation composée de 327 photographies couleur contrecollées sur P.V.C. et insérées dans la partie supérieure lambris du 19e siècle montrant les écoliers d'Oiron en buste sur fond noir. Ces tirages photographiques sont juxtaposés à la manière d'une galerie de portraits sans idée de chronologie, ni de hiérarchie.