Black History month continues with the biographical sketch of Joseph Bologne, aka Chevalier de Saint-Georges. If you have the sound on, you can listen to a bit of this man’s violin concerto (No 2 in A Major, no. 5 op III). It is one of his many, many classical compositions, for the Chevalier de Saint-Georges […]
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This post starts off Black History Month with the incredible Josephine Baker, whose life deserves so much more attention than it’s usually given in the educational curriculum in the United States. Born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1906, Josephine (originally first named Freda) was raised in poverty, so she struck out for France in 1925
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This is Chief Oshkosh (ca. 1795-1858) of the Menominee Indigenous Americans, who occupied 10 million acres of land around Wisconsin until the US government forced a takeover. The Menominee had sided against the US in the War of 1812, but later helped the American government in a confrontation with the American Indigenous leader Black Hawk
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“Coyotes, like humans, are unusually adaptable to their environments, which is why they have been making homes in urban places, like you see here. Unlike most other wild predators in the U.S., their populations have continued to thrive: where they had once been limited to the southwest and prairies of North America, they are now
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This 1910 cartoon from the British _Punch_ magazine is a satirical portrayal of Edith Garrud, one of the most important martial artists in the history of the Western world. Captioned “The Suffragette that knew Jiu-Jitsu. The Arrest,” the drawing shows an unarmed diminutive woman fiercely turned towards policemen who cower in fear. Some of their
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Remedio Varo is much better known in Mexico than in the US, but she produced hundreds of paintings that evoke the subconsciousness. Her contributions to the Surrealist movement added not only lovely, dreamlike art, but also a perspective that imagined women as central figures with their own designs — definitely a break from the images
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It might look like ordinary garden decor, but this “Blue Bottle Tree” exemplifies a magical practice called Hoodoo – an African-American spiritual tradition from the U.S. Southeast. Hoodoo – not to be confused with Voodoo – originally grew popular among people of West African descent whom the dominant white culture had enslaved.Hoodoo, also called “rootwork”
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Right now (fall 2024) at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, there is a fabulous exhibit on Tibetian Mandalas, and here is one that is perfect for the current Halloween season.Mandalas in Tibetian Buddhism are artistic representations of the spiritual universe, often comprised of geometric shapes and featuring specific deities that reflect different aspects
Historical hoaxes can be so much fun, and certainly the Kensington Runestone ought to count as one of the most whimsical and widely discussed frauds of all time. Google scholar lists 1,010 articles on the subject, and there are numerous books and dissertations about it. The city of Alexandria, Minnesota even has an enormous 28
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“To the one who knows how to look and feel, every moment of this free wandering life is an enchantment.”So go the words of Alexandra David-Néel, who led one of the most best possible lives (IMHO) in human history. She lived to be 100, and her life was so full that this one post cannot
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Here is Pearl Curran, one of the most famous mediums from the great age of American Spiritualism. From 1913 to 1937, Pearl channeled not just a spirit — one Patience Worth, who declared herself to be an American immigrant from 17th-century England — but also an author. In the decades of Patience’s communication with Pearl,
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The Austrian Room is a particularly lovely example of one of the many National Rooms found on the first and third floors of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. Each of these thematic classrooms was funded by interested representatives of whatever ethnic or national group planning the room, and Austria’s was formally dedicated in 1996. The walls
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The Cathedral of Learning, aka “Cathy”, is one of Pittsburgh’s most iconic structures. Located in the Oakland neighborhood, the Cathedral forms the central building of the University of Pittsburgh’s campus.The towering skyscraper (535 feet/163 meters) is rendered in Indiana limestone, done in Late Gothic Revival style. You can see it from many parts of the
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_Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror_ is one of the world’s most famous films. Released as a silent movie with a musical soundtrack background, its portrayal of Count Orlok as the rat-faced, hulking vampire who brings death to the fictional village of Wisborg, Germany, is still easily recognized over 100 years later. (In fact, a remake
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Statue of Shiva from West Bengal, 1100. The vertical third eye and matted hair are typical features of the Hindu deity – his face on the right represents benevolence, on the left fierce protectiveness, and in the center his serenity – when this universal aspect of Shiva is emphasized his title is “Sadashiva.” From the
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The scholar-elite class of dynastic China were not always engrossed in studying or affairs of state. This gourd with ivory-carved lid held live crickets, who were set to fight in staged cricket matches for the amusement of the Chinese intelligentsia. From 19th-century Qing China, the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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In the environs of modern Iraq the Yazidi peoples have continuously practiced Sharfadin, an ancient and swiftly diminishing (because of horrific religious persecution) religion, for thousands of years. Although elements of the Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism appear in Sharfadin, it it a religion into its own self. It teaches monotheism, but also that seven angels
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In the midst of the Gila National Forest in New Mexico stands this cross-topped mound. It marks the crypt and burial site of Sergeant James Cooney, and the marker besides the grave tells readers that Cooney was killed by Indians in 1880 as he tried to warn settlers about an upcoming Indian raid. What the
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Squint a bit, and you will be able to see things that look like white circles along a horizontal axis in the center of this photo. They are not raindrops, but six of the twenty-seven enormous radio telescopes that make up the Very Large Array. Located on a remote plain off Highway 60 in central
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In the very late 19th- and early 20th- centuries, the Spiritualist movement had a strong influence in Western Europe and the United States. Many adherents believed that spiritual mediums could guide listeners in conversations among the living and dead during seances. One of the oddest components of these otherworldly gatherings was a substance called ectoplasm,
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