|
Clementine Hunter (1887 to 1988)
Clementine Hunter (pronounced Clementeen) was born to Creole parents, Antoinette Adams and Janvier Reuben, in late December of 1886 or early January of 1887 at Hidden Hill Plantation near Cloutierville, Louisiana. Hunter would never learn to read or write, later saying she only had about ten days of schooling, and was put to work in the fields when she was very young. At 15, she left Hidden Hill, which [...] Click here to continue reading.
Timothy H. O’Sullivan (circa 1840 to 1882)
Timothy O’Sullivan immigrated to New York City from Ireland with his parents when he was a small child and it was there that he later found work in Mathew Brady’s photography studio. (Brady, who was afflicted with vision problems that struck when he was still a young man, depended heavily on the talent he found in recruits like O’Sullivan and Alexander Gardner.) While O’Sullivan appears to have [...] Click here to continue reading.
Pablo-Allard Buffalo Herd
In the early 1800s, great herds of bison containing upwards of 50 million animals wandered over North America’s prairies. By the 1880s, most had been slaughtered, and the species was in danger of extinction. In 1873, a Pend d’Oreille Indian by the name of Walking Coyote returned to the Flathead Valley from a hunting trip with a small group of young, orphaned bison calves. When he had approximately 13 buffalo, Walking [...] Click here to continue reading.
Mathew Brady (1823 to 1896)
Mathew Brady, the child of Irish immigrants, was born in upstate New York in Warren County, but details of his early life are few. Even the year of his birth is an estimate that Brady later offered. Around the age of sixteen, he moved to New York City, making his living as a department store clerk and filling out his income with a small business manufacturing jewelry cases. Photography [...] Click here to continue reading.
The Battleship Maine
Construction of the U.S.S. Maine was authorized in August of 1886, and she was launched in 1889 and commissioned in 1895. After several years spent patrolling the East Coast and Caribbean, orders sent the Maine and her crew to Cuba in response to continued civil unrest on the island.
The photograph above is a 1896 image of the ship framed in a sheet iron frame made from remnants of [...] Click here to continue reading.
Panoramic Views
Accurately rendering a panoramic view has long challenged, obsessed and inspired artists. The trend seems to have sprung up in the 17th century, with works that served both as slightly more helpful, more detailed maps with various public or important buildings marked, but also as advertisements for towns and cities. Matthaeus Merian, a Swiss engraver who spent most of his career in Frankfurt, where he also ran a publishing house passed to [...] Click here to continue reading.
Bakelite
Scandal & the Story of Bakelite Bakelite hit the market in 1907, heralding the arrival of the modern plastics industry. Bakelite was the first completely man made plastic, as until then, plastics such as celluloid, casein, and Gutta-Percha all had as a base a natural material. It was developed by Belgian-born chemist Dr. Leo Hendrick Baekeland who started his firm General Bakelite Company to produce the phenolic resin type plastic. Bakelite was inexpensive [...] Click here to continue reading.
James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok
Unlike the Hollywood nice guy from 1950′s television, the real Wild Bill Hickok was a born killer and compulsive gambler.
Between his birth as James Butler Hickok in 1837 and his 1876 death, Hickok defined the fiercely independent Wild West peacekeeper that never stayed long in one place. Raised to anti-slavery parents in Illinois, Hickok developed a strong sense of loyalty and duty that lasted his entire life. [...] Click here to continue reading.
William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody
The year 1883 neatly divides William Cody’s former life as a hunter, scout and guide from his later career as a showman. He was 37 in this year of transition.
The early life of William Frederick Cody (1846 to 1917) was colorful, adventurous and, thanks to Dime novels, exaggerated. He fought for the Union Army in the Civil War at 18. By 21, he earned his lifelong nickname [...] Click here to continue reading.
Hoosier and Hoosier Cupboards
The word “Hoosier” is one of those words whose origins are lost to time. Even The Oxford English Dictionary offers no real guidance about where the word came from. What we do know is that “Hoosier” was first documented in the mid-1820s, and within a decade, it had entered general usage. John Finley, a Hoosier himself from Richmond, write a poem titled, “The Hoosier’s Nest” that was published in 1833, [...] Click here to continue reading.
|
Recent Articles
- Charles Alfred Meurer – American Artist & Tromp L’Oeil Artist
- Sendak, Maurice – American Artist & Writer
- Godie, Lee – American Artist
- Davis, Vestie – American Artist
- Bartlett, Morton – American Artist
- Mackintosh, Dwight – American Artist
- Evans, Minnie Jones – African-American Artist
- Mumma, Ed (Mr. Eddy) – American Artist
- Nice, Don – American Artist
- Savitsky, John (Jack) – American Artist
- Gordon, Harold Theodore (Ted) – American Artist
- Dial, Thornton – African-American Artist
- Doyle Sam – American Artist
- Johnson, Lester Frederick – American Artist
- Finster, Howard – American Artist
|
|