View allAll Photos Tagged positioning
This is a very useful diagram for lighting positions.
You can navigate with your mouse over each light to see the effect and if you want to see it with a fill light it has.
Visit Lighting Mods for the all story and test it.
Long exposure of some poles to tie small boats to.
ND110 filter
62mm
f/22
139sec.
Watch it in light box = "L"
.
.
.
My internet connection is killing me.... ... .. .:o(
We stalk our target for hours after hours
Hidden with our camouflage were almost invisible you only have one shot
╱ “If you want to be happy for life, love what you do.” ~ Mary Higgins Clark ╲
“Always be a poet, even in prose.” ~ Charles Baudelaire
Since my railroad is based upon the Norfolk & Western, I wanted to have some Color Position Light signals similar to the ones the N&W used - thus, I fiddled these things together in MLCad. Should be easy to get another set of signals above it with a 4L Bar and switching out the connector as well.
They're a bit anachronistic for my theoretical time frame, but who cares. I'll probably try and get some of these together for the next time RichLUG has a train/town display - I'm hoping to start moving in the direction of a layout by amassing trackside paraphernalia such as this.
Day 161 [6-9-2016]
Slow. Work was work as usual. Nothing too exiting there. When I got home I worked on some personal projects before picking up Teddy for some photo fun. I feel like this is the first day in a while where I have actually gone out of my way to take photos. It is a good feeling to be proud of my photos and these today I an definitely proud of.
Can't wait to see what the next day brings!
Engineer's station on the lower deck of the 1912-built wooden Sydney Harbour ferry Lady Denman. It was from this position that the engineer operated Lady Denman's 1950s-vintage four-cylinder Crossley diesel engine - directed by commands given from the wheelhouse via the polished brass engine room telegraph visible at top left of this photo.
For those who were there back in the day, the sound of compressed air starting this vintage engine as the engineer turned the two big wheels was distinctive and memorable, as was the sound of the engine itself and the smell of diesel. The large cylinder heads atop the engine were visible to kids both little and big who took the time and interest to lean over the wooden balustrade and look down into the engine room.
Constructed before the First World War as a coal-burning steam ferry, his veteran vessel was finally retired from service in 1979 after a career spanning 67 years of operation on Sydney Harbour. She will be well-remember by commuters and residents from Mosman, Cremorne Point, Neutral Bay, Greenwich, Hunters Hill, Balmain and Birchgrove where she operated regularly and reliably for many many years until the end of the 1970s.
She is shown in this image laid up at Balmain Maintenance Depot in June 1979 immediately following her withdrawal from service. She had been replaced by the newly-constructed steel vessel Lady Street - which had just been delivered by her builders (the old NSW State Dockyard in Newcastle) and which was also tied up @ Balmain Yard at the time of this photo.
Remarkably and wonderfully, Lady Denman survives to this day and can be seen at the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum at Huskisson on the NSW South Coast. She is the last of the many dozens traditional large wooden-hulled Sydney ferries that is still in existence in 2020.
Stuart McPherson photo. June 1979.
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Christian Genao (Bottom) of Orlando, Fla., assigned to 5th Signal Command, participates in a combatives tournament during U.S. Army Europe's Best Warrior Competition in Grafenwoehr, Germany Aug. 23, 2013. The Best Junior Officer Competition, unique to U.S. Army Europe, is a weeklong training event highlighting the best lieutenants and captains in Army units across Europe . These officers represent the best in their units and exemplify the USAREUR imperatives of teamwork, comprehensive fitness, leader development, training, discipline and standards. Competitors for the title of Best Junior Officer prove themselves in events testing physical stamina, leadership and technical knowledge. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Franklin Moore)
Letter on reverse (below) generously translated by josefnovak33: authored in September 1916 and sent to Fräulein Lina Lenz of Algringen in Lothringen Arsweilerweg. Admin stamp from 1. Comp. Inf. Regt. 135 (3. Lothringisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 135) and postage cancelled on 15.9.1916.
Soldiers inspect a perfectly intact Caudron G.4 purported by the author to have made a forced landing near his position. This is a commercial postcard, which turns up routinely with different accounts on how the aircraft came to be in German hands at varying locations.
The Caudron G.4 was a twin-engined French biplane widely used during World War I as a bomber aircraft. It was designed by René and Gaston Caudron as an improvement over their Caudron G.3. The aircraft was no delight for the eye with its massive, open construction. The aircraft employed wing warping for banking. The first G.4 was manufactured in 1915, both in France, England and in Italy.
The Caudron G.4 was used as a reconnaissance bomber into the heart of Germany. Later, when Germany developed a fighter force, the aircraft had to be used for night bombings.
...at my expense.
I'm working diligently on figuring out the new camera. For whatever reason, Nikon and Canon have chosen to put just about all controls, dials, buttons and menu options in different places. I'm battling 13 years of doing it the Nikon way, so am slow on the trigger with the 7D Mk II.
This hawk very accommodatingly flew out from beside me, and straight ahead. If I had been using the D4s I would have gotten a long series of well-positioned exposures.
But, I work using Back Button focus...it is far and away the better choice for separating AF from shutter release. I have the Canon set up now to do it, but the 'back button' is in a different location, and a different button is exactly where the back button is on the Nikons.
When this hawk flew out of the trees, I instinctively hit the wrong button, which then needed to be hit again to disable the feature it activated. I then had to look at the camera to position my hand for the right (which is the left of three) button, and then find the slightly differently-placed shutter release button.
By the time I was ready to shot, the Hawk was well by and on its way.
All of this is my way of saying that I haven't gotten it down yet. I will, and I'm loving the camera AND the prime lens. Just need to be able to move past operator error.
So I offer this shot as an example of one that got away during my learning phase. Drat! But, hey...the eye is cool.
Different Position – Sir you are now a women 12
transgenre.silicone-breast.com/2016/11/11/different-posit...
imgur.com/F82LwI0.jpg?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
Notice : Releasing this comic on every Monday to Thursday
My friend Practical Owl started the group The Red Army for people wearing distinctive red clothing of all sorts. He was kind enough to add me as a Red Captain.
To honor this position I decided (well it's almost mandatory) to wear something red. Turns out I don't have that much red clothes at all. Luckily a big part of our attic is bright red, so here's me being red.
What you can’t see is that Rusty has a ball tucked under there.
“Curled up in a tight ball, dogs in the donut pose have their limbs tucked close to their bodies, their nose near the tail.”
6 Dog Sleeping Positions and What They Mean: www.petmd.com/dog/general-health/dog-sleeping-positions-a...
Ludlow Castle
Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number: 1004778
More information can be found on the link below:-
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1004778
——————————————————————————————————-
Ludlow Castle, Castle Square, Ludlow, Shropshire
Ludlow Castle the standing structural remains
Heritage Category: Listed Building
Grade: I Listed
List Entry Number: 1291698
Summary
The standing structural remains of Ludlow Castle, an enclosure castle, begun in the late C11, and converted into a tower keep castle in the early C12.
Reasons for Designation
The standing structural remains of Ludlow Castle are listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
Historical: as one of England's finest castle sites, clearly showing its development from an enclosure castle into a tower keep castle in the C12; the castle played an important historical role particularly as seat of the President of the Council of the Marches; Architectural: the castle remains illustrate significant phases of development between the C11 and the C16; Survival: the buildings are in a ruinous condition, but nonetheless represent a remarkably complete multi-phase complex.
History
An enclosure castle is a defended residence or stronghold, built mainly of stone, in which the principal or sole defence comprises the walls and mural towers bounding the site. Enclosure castles, found in urban and in rural areas, were the strongly defended residence of the king or lord, sited for offensive or defensive operations, and often forming an administrative centre. Although such sites first appeared following the Norman Conquest, they really developed in the C12, incorporating defensive experience of the period, including that gained during the Crusades. Many enclosure castles were built in the C13, with a few dating from the C14, and Ludlow Castle is not alone in having begun as an enclosure castle and developed into a tower keep castle. At Ludlow, the large existing gate tower was converted into a tower keep in the early C12, providing more domestic accommodation, as well as defence.
Ludlow Castle occupies a commanding position at the steep-sided western end of a flat-topped ridge overlooking the valleys of the River Teme and the River Corve. The adjacent town of Ludlow, which was established by the mid-C12, lies to the south and east of the castle. The defences surrounding the medieval town are designated separately. The castle was probably founded by Walter de Lacy in about 1075 and served as the ‘caput' (the principal residence, military base and administrative centre) of the de Lacy estates in south Shropshire until the mid-C13. During the Anarchy of King Stephen's reign the castle was for Matilda until 1139, when it was besieged and captured by Stephen. The de Lacy family recovered the castle in the C12 and retained it, apart from occasional confiscations, until the death of Walter de Lacy in 1241. Ludlow Castle features in an ‘ancestral romance’ called ‘The Romance of Fulk FitzWarren', written in the late C13 about the adventures of a C13 knight. Other documentary sources indicate that when the castle was in royal control it was used for important meetings, such as that held in 1224 when Henry III made a treaty with the Welsh prince, Llewellyn. Following the death of Walter de Lacy in 1241 the castle came into the possession of the de Genevilles, and in the early C14, the castle passed through marriage to Roger Mortimer. Between 1327 and 1330 Roger Mortimer ruled England as Regent, with Edward II's widowed queen, Isabella. Mortimer had himself made Earl of March in 1328. In 1425 the Mortimer inheritance passed to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who made Ludlow a favoured residence. His eldest son, who assumed the title of Earl of March, claimed the crown as Edward IV in 1461. Edward IV's son Edward was created Prince of Wales in 1471, and in 1473 was sent to Ludlow, where the administration of the principality known as the Council in the Marches was established. Both Edward and the Council remained at Ludlow until Edward IV's death in 1483. Ludlow Castle continued as an important royal residence and in 1493 the Council was re-established at Ludlow with Henry VII's son and heir, Prince Arthur as Prince of Wales. In 1501 Arthur was installed at Ludlow with his bride, Katherine of Aragon, and it was at Ludlow that Arthur died in 1502. In 1534 the Council in the Marches received statutory powers both to hear suits and to supervise and intervene in judicial proceedings in Wales and the Marches, and from that time until 1641, and again from 1660 to 1689, Ludlow's principal role was as the headquarters for the Council and, as such, the administrative capital of Wales and the border region. Milton’s mask, ‘Comus’, was first performed here in 1634 before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, in celebration of the earl’s new appointment as Lord President of Wales. On the dissolution of the Council the castle was abandoned and left to decay. Lead, window glass and panelling were soon removed for reuse in the town. In 1771, when the castle was leased to the Earl of Powis, many of the buildings were in ruins.
Since the late C18, the buildings have undergone repair and restoration at various times, as well as some further deterioration, with some rebuilding and replacement of stonework. Extensive archaeological excavations were undertaken by William St John Hope between 1903 and 1907. The castle is now open to the public.
Details
The standing structural remains of Ludlow Castle, an enclosure castle, begun in the late C11, and converted into a tower keep castle in the early C12.
MATERIALS: the castle is constructed of a variety of local stones; it appears that the greenish-grey flaggy calcerous siltstones that underlies the castle was used in its initial phase, with local sandstones being used thereafter.
PLAN: the castle consists of an elliptical INNER BAILEY, in the north-west corner of the site, representing the earliest area of development, with the OUTER BAILEY, created in the second half of the C12, to the south and east.
BUILDINGS:
The curtain wall of the inner bailey incorporates four mural towers and the former gatehouse, all thought to have been constructed by 1115. Three of the four towers are open at the back and would originally have contained wooden scaffolding supporting look-out and fighting platforms. The fourth tower, known as the POSTERN TOWER, on the western side of the enclosure, has small ground-floor postern doorways on its north and east sides. The former gatehouse, situated at the south-eastern part of the enclosure, is rectangular in plan and was originally three storeys in height. Remaining in the ground-floor of the building is part of a wall arcade, thought to be late-C11, with ornamented capitals. In the early C12 a fourth storey was added to provide more domestic accommodation, thus converting the gatehouse into a tower keep, known as the GREAT TOWER. In the later C12 the original gatehouse entrance passage was blocked (the location of the former arch remains visible on the south elevation) and an archway was cut through the adjacent part of the curtain wall to the north-east, reached by a stone bridge. This archway was partially infilled and a smaller arch constructed in the C14. Access to the upper floors of the tower is by a spiral stair to the east, reached by an ornamented doorcase, the Tudor arch having a trefoiled lintel flanked by cusped panelling and trefoiled lintel, which also gives access to rooms in the Judges’ Lodgings (see below). On the first floor is the hall, with a chamber and garderobe to the west. In the second half of the C15 the north wall of the Great Tower was rebuilt and internal floors added to create new rooms lit by enlarged windows. Adjoining the Great Tower, in the south-west section of the inner bailey, is the INMOST BAILEY, a walled enclosure constructed in the C12 and C13 to provide greater security and privacy to those living in the Great Tower. There is a well within this enclosure surrounded by a low stone wall.
Located in the north-eastern sector of the elliptical enclosure of the inner bailey are the remains of the CHAPEL OF ST MARY MAGDALENE. This was built in the first half of the C12, probably by Gilbert de Lacy, and was remodelled in the C16, probably in two phases. In the first phase, thought to have been undertaken circa 1502 for the installation of Arthur, Prince of Wales, a first floor was inserted in the circular nave, together with additional openings, including a first-floor doorway which gave access to a passage linking the chapel with the Great Chamber Block to the north. In the second phase, during the presidency of the Council in the Marches of Sir Henry Sidney (1560-86), the original presbytery and chancel were taken down and a new chancel, or chapel, built, stretching as far as the curtain wall. The crenellated circular nave, which measures 8.3m in diameter internally, survives to its full height as a roofless shell, and contains much original carving to the round-headed order arches of the door openings, with chevron and billet mouldings, and to the internal blind arcade with a variety of capitals and moulded arches.
Since the late C12, the castle site has been entered through the two-storeyed GATEHOUSE within the eastern part of the curtain wall of the outer bailey. The wall originally had two adjoining rectangular mural towers of which the one to the north of the gatehouse survives as a standing structure; this, together with the adjacent section of the curtain wall form part of the CASTLE HOUSE built in the C18 (listed separately at Grade I). Protruding from the curtain wall defining the western side of the outer bailey are the remains of a semi-circular tower known as MORTIMER'S TOWER, possibly built in the early C13; this originally consisted of a ground-floor entrance passage, with two floors above, and was used as the postern entrance to the outer bailey until the C15. In the south-west corner of the outer bailey are the remains of ST PETER’S CHAPEL, originally a free-standing rectangular structure, founded by Roger Mortimer to celebrate his escape from the Tower of London in 1324, following his rebellion against Edward II. The chapel served as the Court House and offices of the Council in the Marches, for which an adjacent building to the west was constructed. The south-east corner of the chapel is now attached to a wall which completes the enclosure of the outer bailey’s south-west corner. In the north wall of the chapel is a blocked two-light window, enlarged at the bottom when a floor was inserted for the court house; a second original window towards the eastern end now contains a first-floor blocked doorway.
At the end of the C13 or in the early C14 an extensive building programme was initiated, replacing existing structures within the inner bailey with a grand new range of domestic buildings, built along the inside of the north section of the Norman curtain wall. The construction of these new buildings indicates the changing role of Ludlow Castle from military stronghold to a more comfortable residence and a seat of political power, reflecting the more peaceful conditions in the region following the conquest of Wales by Edward I. The first buildings to be completed were the GREAT HALL and the adjoining SOLAR BLOCK (private apartments). The Great Hall, which was used for ceremonial and public occasions, consisted of a first floor over a large undercroft, reached through a moulded pointed arch in the south elevation. The Hall was lit on both south and north sides by three pointed-arched windows with sunk chamfers and ‘Y’ tracery formed of paired cusped trefoil-headed lights, under hoodmoulds; these originally had seats, now partially surviving. The central south window was converted to a fireplace, replacing the louver which formerly covered the open fire towards the east of the Hall, its position indicated by elaborate corbels. At the west end, a series of openings lead into the Solar Block, only one of these (that to the north) being of the primary phase. Within the Hall, at the western end, is a timber viewing platform, which is not of special interest.* The Solar Block is thought to have been begun as a two-storey building, and raised to three storeys shortly afterwards, at which time the adjacent NORTH-WEST TOWER was raised, with the new CLOSET TOWER being built in the angle between the two. Each of the three floors of the Solar Block extended into the North-West Tower, with each being linked to a room in the Closet Tower. All three floors of the Solar were heated, the ground floor having a fireplace which originally had a stone hood; the first-floor room has hooded fireplace, on nearly triangular-sectioned jambs; the room above has a plainer hooded fireplace. The windows include original openings with ‘Y’ tracery and trefoil-headed lights, similar to those in the Hall, and a ground-floor mullioned window probably dating from the late C16.
In the early C14 two additional buildings containing more private apartments were constructed by Richard Mortimer. The three-storeyed GREAT CHAMBER BLOCK was built in about 1320 next to the Great Hall to balance the Solar Block to the west of the Hall. The connecting four-storeyed GARDEROBE TOWER, which projects from the curtain wall of the inner bailey, was also probably built about the same time. As in the Hall and Solar blocks, the floors are now lost but features in the walls remain to indicate layout and function. The main entrance to this block is through a recessed doorway in the south-west corner, with a pointed two-light window above. The undercroft was heated, and is lit by two two-light windows with stone side seats in the south wall. The tracery of the eastern of these windows has been lost. The first-floor main room, or ‘Great Chamber’, contains a grand hooded fireplace carried on a fourfold series of corbels; to either side of the fireplace are large head corbels with leafwork. The Tudor transomed and mullioned window probably replaced an earlier window. The upper room also has a large hooded fireplace, and was lit principally by a large trefoil-headed window with head-stopped hoodmould in the southern wall.
Following the establishment of the headquarters for the Council in the Marches at Ludlow, new buildings were constructed and many existing buildings changed their use. Within the inner bailey the main room in the Great Chamber Block became the council chamber, with additional chambers above. A new adjoining residential block, now called the TUDOR LODGINGS, was built to the east, replacing earlier structures. The block consisted of two sets of lodgings both being of three storeys with attic rooms above. The south wall of this block cuts across openings in the east wall of the Great Chamber Block. Between the lodgings, projecting from the south wall, is a circular stair tower, entered through an ogee-headed arch. The windows in the south elevation are mullioned; several have been blocked. In the north wall of the western lodging, at ground-floor level, is an opening with double trefoil head, having a divided light above. Otherwise, the features of this range are plain, with pointed door openings, and straight lintels to fireplaces.
As the power of the Council grew, further domestic accommodation was needed. To the east of the entrance within the inner bailey, a three-storeyed range, known as the JUDGES LODGINGS, was completed in 1581. On the south side, this building extends the curtain wall upwards, with two gables, and piercing for fenestration, the earlier arched entrance to the inner bailey becoming visually part of the newer building, with rooms above; stone arms set immediately over the archway dated 1581 commemorate the Presidency of the Council of Sir Henry Sidney. Rooms set above the arch leave a gate-passage leading through a second archway to the inner bailey, and giving access to both the Great Keep and the Judges’ Lodgings. The rooms above the gate-passage appear to have been accessed by the embellished Tudor-arched doorway in the Keep at the north end of the passage. The north side of the Judges’ Lodgings, within the inner bailey, has a polygonal stair turret (which originally had a pyramidal roof), with mullioned and transomed eight-light windows set regularly to either side. Within, some indication is given of the arrangement and appearance of the rooms by the survival of numerous fireplaces of red sandstone backed by brick set in herringbone pattern. The adjoining building to the east, originally two-storeyed, is thought to date from the C17.
Other developments during the C16 included changes to the south-west corner tower, enclosed within the inmost bailey, with the installation of a large oven at ground-floor level, with residential rooms above; the tower became known as the OVEN TOWER. In 1522 the PORTER'S LODGE was built in the outer bailey to the south of the gatehouse. The shell of this building now contains the castle shop; the modern structure and fittings of the shop are not of special interest.* Also dating from 1522 is the PRISON, adjoining to the south, which retains square-headed windows with moulded frames and hoodmoulds, and the stable block, completed in 1597, with mullioned windows. Like the porter's lodge, these buildings remain as incomplete shells.
*Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act'), it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.
Sources
Books and journals
Cathcart-King, D J, Castellarium Anglicanum, (1983)
Goodall, J, The English Castle, 1066-1650, (2011)
H M Colvin, D R Ransome, The History of the KIng's Works, vol 3, (1975)
Kenyon, J, Castles in Wales and the Marches Essays in honour of DJ Cathcart King, (1987), 55-74
Pevsner, N, Newman, J, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (2006)
R Allen Brown, H M Colvin, The History of the King's Works, vol 2, (1963)
Shoesmith, R, Johnson, A (eds), Ludlow Castle. Its History and Buildings, (2000)
'' in Archaeological Investigations Ltd, Hereford archaeology series, (1991)
W. H. St John Hope, , 'Archaeologia' in The Castle of Ludlow, (1908)
Other
Pastscape Monument No. 111057,
Shropshire HER 01176,
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1291698
—————————————————————————————————
Ludlow Castle, Castle Square, Ludlow, Shropshire
Construction of Ludlow Castle began in the late 11th century by the de Lacy's and held by them until the 13th century. In the 14th century it was enlarged by the Mortimers. In the 15th century ownership transferred between the House of York and Lancashire during the War of the Roses. In Elizabethan times the castle was further extended by Sir Henry Sidney. After the civil war the castle declined. It is now owned by the Earl of Powys for the crown.
Grade I listed.
——————————————————————————————————
Welcome to Ludlow Castle, one of the finest medieval ruins in England. Set in the glorious Shropshire countryside at the heart of the superb, bustling black & white market town of Ludlow. Walk through the Castle grounds and see the ancient houses of kings, queens, princes, judges and the nobility – a glimpse into the lifestyle of medieval society
The Castle, firstly a Norman Fortress and extended over the centuries to become a fortified Royal Palace, has ensured Ludlow’s place in English history – originally built to hold back unconquered Welsh, passing through generations of the de Lacy and Mortimer families to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. It became Crown property in 1461 and remained a royal castle for the next 350 years, during which time the Council of the Marches was formed with responsibility for the Government of Wales and the border counties. Abandoned in 1689 the castle quickly fell into ruin, described as ‘the very perfection of decay’ by Daniel Defoe
Since 1811 the castle has been owned by the Earls of Powis, who have arrested further decline, and allowed this magnificent historical monument to be open to the public. Today the Castle is the home to Ludlow’s major festivals throughout the year and open for all to enjoy.
www.ludlowcastle.com/the-castle/
———————————————————————————————————
See also:-
www.britainirelandcastles.com/England/Shropshire/Ludlow-C...
The sitting position you can see above is called the ‘W’ sitting position.
If any of you grew up sitting like this, or have kids sitting like this when they are watching TV, or playing with other children, this is something to be concerned about.
This common sitting position can lead to some se...
viralworld.news/2015/12/if-you-ever-notice-your-kids-sitt...
Vitebsk area, February 1944. A Batterie of „Grille“ is taking position. In the foreground, a MG-34 mounted on anti-aircraft tripod.
This is Part 21 of 50 in a sporadic series.
This is the longest one of these yet. Which makes sense, considering I live here. I ought to know a little about this one.
If I wanted to break the rules, I could divide this one up into two posts, one for the "Origin of Chicago" and one for the "Origin of Downstate." Chicago and the rest of Illinois have a long history of hating each other that goes back to its early American settlement, owing mostly to the way settlement happened. The people who settled Chicago came from northern places by way of the Great Lakes, and they gave the city and surrounding communities a northern feel with an industrial tilt. Downstate settlers were more agricultural by nature, and they came into the Illinois country from more southerly, rural places by way of the Ohio River. It's kind of a geographical accident that these disparate populations wound up living in the same state, and each side would probably have been perfectly happy without the other. The funny thing here is that Downstate folks have nobody to blame for this but themselves.
But I get ahead of myself. First I have to talk about the Indians. And then, of course, the French.
From Cahokia to the Illini
Like anyplace in North America, people have been living in Illinois since about five minutes after the last glacier melted, but Illinois occupies an interesting position in that prehistory. If there was ever a place in the modern United States that could have been the center of an indigenous North American empire, it's here. From about the year 800 AD to sometime around 1350, a group of mound builders occupied a city on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near the present-day site of St. Louis. Early French explorers called the city's remains Cahokia, after an Illiniwek tribe that lived nearby 400 years later. With a population that probably numbered about 40,000 at its 13th century height, it would be the largest city ever to exist north of Mexico until Philadelphia got going. And then, for unknown reasons (though I suspect extended conflict triggered by a shifting climate), the Cahokia Mississippians vanished about 150 years before Columbus hit Hispaniola.
Algonquian-speaking people soon moved into the region from points east. By the time the French came along in the 17th century, Illinois was filled with dozens of separate Algonquian groups. One of the more prominent was a collection of allied tribes often called the Illiniwek Confederation, or sometimes just the Illini. The French explorers would later apply the name of this group to the country as a whole.
Again, With the French
And yes, you've heard this story before. There are always more French. That's not going away any time soon.
Even better, the first Frenchmen to pass through Illinois were none other than our good friends Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette. I talk about these guys all the time because half the things near my house are named for one or the other of them, so you should know their deal by now. Short version: In 1673, these guys led an expedition from Michigan through Wisconsin and down the Mississippi River all the way south to the confluence with the Arkansas. The next year on the way back, the expedition took a right and followed the Illinois River right into primordial Chicagoland. On a whim Marquette decided to spend the winter with the natives camped at the swampy portage between the Des Plaines and Chicago Rivers, just inside what would eventually become the Chicago city limits. (Editor's Note: This was about 5 miles from where I'm typing this.) Marquette would go on to die of dysentery in Michigan the next summer, but the portage the natives had shown him would stick in the minds of the French long enough to convince more wanderers, priests, traders, and trappers to follow.
The French were always looking for a good portage, after all. A quirk of the geography left by the glaciers meant the divide between the Great Lakes and Mississippi basins was low and swampy. To French traders looking for faster ways to ship furs to Europe, the ease of this passage meant easy access to money, and they started poking all over the place looking for quick portages. Jolliet and Marquette had made their epic circle in the first place hoping to find a link between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. In 1680, recurrent character René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle came into Illinois by way of a portage between the St. Joseph and Kankakee Rivers. This eventually put him on the Illinois River, where he built Fort Crèvecoeur at the eventual site of Peoria. He then declared the whole region part of New France and lumped the modern states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and eastern Minnesota together under the label "Illinois Country" before going off on a fort-building spree.
Other French settlements followed, usually built alongside established native villages to make it easier for religious men to save a few souls while trading men made a few bucks. Settlements popped up along the Mississippi at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, and a priest built a short-lived mission at the Chicago portage. Kaskaskia grew the most quickly, and by the middle of the 18th century it had become a center of French commerce and government boasting a population of about 7,000 people.
But we know how that story ends: The French got kicked out in 1763. Some of the French settlers stuck around, but most of them jumped the Mississippi to what had suddenly become Spanish territory, where they sat in Ste. Genevieve and waited for me to get to the Missouri story.
For King and Country ... And Then Another Country
The thing about the British occupation of the Illinois Country was that they didn't do much with it. This was 300 miles past King George's Proclamation line, and His Majesty didn't intend for any of his subjects to ever come wandering out this way. He mostly wanted to leave it to the natives, so he staffed a garrison at Kaskaskia and a fort just across the Wabash in Indiana and left the rest of the Illinois countryside alone. And for the most part, the King's colonists left it alone with him, as the Illinois Country wasn't just hopping a ridge from Virginia into Kentucky. This place was remote. By 1776, fewer than a thousand British colonials called Illinois home.
But then 1776 happened, and the colonial rebels started getting nervous about the remote British garrisons in Illinois. Somebody reasoned that even if the colonies won, it would be a bad idea to leave the British with a foothold in the West. So in the spring of 1778, a Kentucky man named George Rogers Clark led a raid into southern Illinois all the way up to the St. Louis area, grabbing Kaskaskia and a couple of small outposts along the way. That winter, Clark dove back across the Illinois Country and took the British fort at Vincennes, and just like that, the British had lost control over Illinois and Indiana.
Yes, Virginia, There Really Is an Illinois
Here's a funny thing that makes no sense if you look at a map.
After the Revolutionary War, Kentucky was still a part of Virginia called Kentucky County. Even though George Rogers Clark lived in what would eventually become the Commonwealth of Kentucky, he was still a Virginian leading a Virginia expedition of conquest into Illinois. So for a while, Virginia considered Illinois to be Virginia territory and incorporated it into the state as yet another county. If that had stuck, the farthest corner of Illinois would have been served by a capital 800 miles away. Put another way, you could have lined up 17 Rhode Islands in the space covered by one Virginia.
There was no way the other states were going to let Virginia get away with that, and Virginia kind of had enough on its plate trying to decide what to do about Kentucky, anyway, so they surrendered whatever weird claim they thought they had on Illinois in 1784. Illinois County got wrapped up with Indiana and Ohio and a few other places in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and the flood of settlers started pouring down the Ohio and carving downstate farms from the wilderness.
My Kind of Town
Meanwhile, there was that portage up on the Chicago River that had gotten the French so excited. I've mentioned this portage on this site probably a thousand times, as it's the primary reason the place where I've lived the last 13 years exists. At the dawn of the 19th century, the Chicago River was a small, stagnant stream that flowed a mere 10 miles from a swamp into Lake Michigan. But a low hill only a few hundred feet wide separated that swamp from the Des Plaines River, which flows southwest to the Illinois, then the Mississippi. This was probably the easiest spot for a guy in a canoe to get between the basins, and thousands of people passed over the portage through the years.
Sometime around 1780, a man named Jean Baptiste Point du Sable--who was probably of African descent and had likely come into the colonies by way of Haiti, though the details are a little foggy--established a small farm at the portage, and is widely recognized as Chicago's first permanent settler. A decade later, Antoine Ouilmette built a farm of his own near the Chicago River's mouth, probably about where the Wrigley Building is today. Several taverns soon popped up where the river splits into two branches about a thousand feet from the lake, and the forerunner of the city of Chicago was off and running.
Meanwhile, the federal government was looking at that portage with a nervous feeling. Even though the British had ceded the Great Lakes region to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, they'd dragged their feet about actually leaving. Many Americans thought another war was inevitable, so in 1803 they built Fort Dearborn about where Michigan Avenue crosses the river today.
Not that it did them any good. When the British captured Fort Mackinac at the onset of the War of 1812, the Army ordered soldiers and civilians to evacuate Fort Dearborn. On the way out, area natives--who, according to legends I eye with suspicion, had been angered that the evacuating Americans had burned all the liquor on their way out the door--attacked the Americans and killed 52 of them.
But history has shown time and again that a little massacre now and then isn't enough to keep a Chicagoan down. The feds survived the war and rebuilt their fort in 1816, and what would soon become the city of Chicago started growing at a phenomenal speed around it.
The Illinois Compromise
The agricultural land downstate wasn't growing nearly as fast, but it grew fast enough for the settlers to build themselves into an organized government and start working toward statehood. In 1809, Illinois split from the Indiana Territory and became a territory all its own with a capital initially established at Kaskaskia.
In what would prove a growing trend, the actual act of admission to the Union depended more on what was happening in national politics than anything going on inside Illinois. The territory faced two hurdles. One, while the eastern, western, and southern borders of Illinois were set by circumstances, the northern border was amorphous. The Northwest Ordinance had intended for the northern borders of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to all follow the same line of latitude, but the surveyors had messed that up on the other two states (there's a story), leaving Illinois in the lurch.
The other problem was that the minimum population required for a territory to become a state was 60,000 people, and using the lines drawn by the Northwest Ordinance--establishing a northern border that started at Lake Michigan's southernmost point and extended due west--even a generous count could only muster about 36,000 Illinois folk.
The leadership of Illinois didn't want to wait, though, as they saw an issue brewing on the national level related to the probable state-to-come next door. Missouri soon would likely ask to be admitted to the Union as a slave state. Mississippi had just been admitted as a slave state, and Alabama was getting ready to do the same thing. This would have tipped the balance in the number of free states versus slave states--which at the moment stood at a 10-10 tie--two states in the slave direction. Power in Congress would be tipped the same direction. Illinois folk knew the free states would fight this, gumming up the works for any territory trying for admission for no telling how long. Illinois needed to beat the rush.
In 1817, Nathaniel Pope, the Illinois Territory's delegate to Congress, came up with an idea. He suggested that Illinois could move things along by shifting the border 30 miles north of Lake Michigan's southernmost point, incorporating the fast growing community of Chicago into the territory. Chicago was destined to be a commercial powerhouse, Pope knew, and a proposed canal cut between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers would bring that along even faster. This would give Illinois a vital connection with the Northeast--with the side benefit of increasing the state's abolitionist tendencies over time--and quickly push the territory past the population requirement.
But it didn't put Illinois over the population line yet. Fortunately, we're talking about Chicago, which even then wasn't all that committed to hard numbers. Congress was eager enough to avoid the brewing slave-vs-free state issue that they ignored the fuzzy math, and in 1818, Illinois--including Chicago--was admitted to the Union as the 21st state.
And at the time, Downstate folk were thrilled with that outcome. But it wouldn't take long for them to regret absorbing Chicago into their state. Over time, the flood of northerners into Chicago would drown out the rural settlers in the south, and Downstaters would spend all their time grumbling about how they'd like to give Chicago back to Wisconsin.
One bare SB-24 on a light stand at 1/16 (zoomed at 85mm). Fired with a eBay trigger. From a frontal almost "on camera" shot at center, exploring the changes in the face produced by turning around the light. A simple go up from camera gives some volume to the face for a more flattering image as you can se in the middle top one.
getting ready for race #6 of the regatta, saturday afternoon -- the wind had picked up, and all the boats are doing the usual jockeying for ideal position on the start line...
This photograph shows prefabricated units being placed in position at a building berth in the East Yard of William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Pallion, c1950s.
Reference: DS.DOX/6/11/7/6
Sunderland has a remarkable history of innovation in shipbuilding and marine engineering. From the development of turret ships in the 1890s and the production of Doxford opposed piston engines after the First World War through to the designs for Liberty ships in the 1940s and SD14s in the 1960s. Sunderland has much to be proud of.
Tyne & Wear Archives cares for tens of thousands of photographs in its shipbuilding collections. Most of these focus on the ships – in particular their construction, launch and sea trials. This set looks to redress the balance and to celebrate the work of the men and women who have played such a vital part in the region’s history. The images show the human side of this great story, with many relating to the world famous shipbuilding and engineering firm William Doxford & Sons Ltd.
The Archives has produced a short blog to accompany these images.
(Copyright) We're happy for you to share these digital images within the spirit of The Commons. Please cite 'Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums' when reusing. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions and commercial use of the original physical version apply though; if you're unsure please email archives@twmuseums.org.uk
I scrapped my SHIP, but I'm going forward with improved versions of my favorite features. The armature was out of balance on the previous version, putting a lot of pressure on the hinge that connects the armature to the fuselage, and limiting the amount of weight I could build into the engine pods. I used 16 Exo-Force click hinges in a row like a piano hinge, and towards the end, it still wasn't enough, and the engines were comically undersized for the hull. I've moved the fulcrum more towards the center of gravity, and the hinge now holds additional weight no problem, and I'll build a SHIP hull in proportion to the engines. Live and learn, but if I can't make it work this go around, then I throw in the towel!