Back in 2001, Daniel Snowman looked at two museums located in the composer's German and English residences. Here we reprint the article in full to mark the 250th anniversary of the death of London's adopted Hanoverian composer.
One of the first things people tell you in Halle, a small Saxon town in eastern Germany two hours south of Berlin, is that, in the decade since German reunification, many of its brighter young citizens have left to seek fame (or at least fortune) elsewhere. It is a story prefigured by Halle’s most famous son, the composer Handel, who was born there in 1685 but died in London at his home in Brook Street, just off Hanover Square, in 1759. The Halle birthplace has long contained an exhibition of Handel’s life and work; this month, London follows suit as the Handel House in Brook Street opens to the public.
Halle was in the heart of the German Democratic Republic and is only now emerging from forty-odd years of Communism and, before that, the iron grip of the Nazis. Today, as part of reunited Germany, Halle is in the Land of Saxony-Anhalt and is ruled from nearby Magdeburg – just as it was when the archbishops of Magdeburg wielded power in medieval times and when Luther emerged in the 1520s.
Dr Handel, the composer’s father, was sixty-two when his illustrious son was born. As a young man, he had trained as a barber-surgeon, a vocation given much scope by the ravages of the Thirty Years’ War. The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which marked the end of the war, declared that the archbishopric of Magdeburg was to become a secular duchy administered by the incumbent Duke Augustus of Saxony and that, on his death, it would pass to the electorate of Brandenburg. Dr Handel got on well with Duke Augustus, mending his arm in a successful operation and becoming his private surgeon. Wealth and kudos followed, and the doctor bought a substantial new residence for himself and his family in Halle.
The Duke finally died in 1680 – at which Halle (like Magdeburg itself) became part of the rapidly rising state of Brandenburg, to be ruled henceforth from Berlin. Poor Dr Handel lost much of the prestige and income to which he was accustomed. Two years later, his wife died. But he must have been resilient, for he picked up the threads of his career as a surgeon and remarried a woman nearly thirty years his junior. Their son, Georg Friedrich Handel, was born on February 23rd, 1685, a citizen of Brandenburg-Prussia and subject of its ruler, Frederick William ‘The Great Elector’.
Handel was baptised the next day in the Liebfrauenkirche, the late Gothic church that dominates the Halle marketplace. The baptismal font is still there, as is the Reichel organ on which the adolescent Handel would play a few years later. The great ‘Red Tower’ across the marketplace from the church can also still be seen today; so can the austere Calvinist cathedral a short walk away, where, aged seventeen, Handel became organist, and the Moritzburg and Giebichenstein castles. And Halle still contains the house where Handel was born and in which he lived until he left town for Hamburg in 1703.
The house remained in the possession of the family until the 1770s. On the centenary of the composer’s death, in 1859, a statue was erected in the centre of the marketplace and there was talk of the house being acquired by the city. This finally happened in 1937. Two years later, war broke out and it was not until 1948 that the house, properly renovated, was opened to the public as a museum. In 1985, the tercentenary of Handel’s birth, the adjacent property was added. Today, the extensive upper rooms contain an excellent portrayal of Handel’s life and work, a soundtrack (in English if required) sensitively integrated with excerpts from his music, as well as a display of early musical instruments. Downstairs, musical performances can be given to audiences of a hundred or more. The first Handel Festival was held in Halle in 1952; this year’s (in June), in venues all over Halle and beyond, was the fiftieth.
Halle couldn’t hold Handel. His prodigious talent demanded a larger stage. In Hamburg, he played in the opera orchestra and composed several works which were performed there. He travelled to nearby Lübeck (like Bach a couple of years later) to meet the organist and composer Buxtehude. Buxtehude seems to have offered Handel a post as church organist which he turned down – supposedly because a condition of taking the job was marriage to Buxtehude’s unenticing daughter. In any case, Handel’s interests were rapidly turning from the liturgical to the dramatic. It was opera that interested him, and that meant going to Italy. For four years, Handel absorbed the musical culture of Florence, Venice, Rome and Naples, befriending not only influential composers such as Corelli and the Scarlattis, but also the aristocratic and ecclesiastical magnates who supported them. He returned to Germany in 1710, armed with recommendations to several of the most brilliant courts, notably that of Hanover. By the end of the year we find Handel – still only twenty-five – in the largest, liveliest city in the world, London, where his reputation was confirmed by the success of his new ‘Italian’ opera, Rinaldo.
Handel returned to Hanover where he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector. It was a quiet, civilised life, but Handel seems to have been aching to revisit London. The Elector agreed he could go, on condition that he return ‘within a reasonable time’. Once back in London, however, Handel’s obligations to Hanover seem to have slipped his mind as he built up a successful career, secured in 1714 by a pension for life granted by Queen Anne. Later that year, Anne died and the House of Stuart was succeeded by the House of Hanover. Handel’s former employer was now his king.
Did the new monarch, George I, resent his former employee’s truancy? Did Handel’s Water Music, accompanying the king’s barge ride up the Thames, reconcile monarch and musician? The story probably contains more legend than fact, though the two men renewed their friendship soon enough. Handel, almost as great a celebrity as the king, lived in a succession of grand homes, among them Burlington House and the Chandos estate at Cannons. In 1723, he took a lease on a newly-built house in Brook Street. This was to be his home until his death in 1759 and it was here that he wrote the great oratorios of his later years, including Messiah.
This month, the house opens as the Handel House Museum. The Director, Jacqueline Riding, has planned her display by theme. Thus, the first room introduces visitors to the vigorous social and cultural life of London in the 1720s, while another suggests something of Handel’s character and private life (including a full-tester bed dressed in crimson). The front room on the first floor, the largest in the house, is where Handel is believed to have held rehearsals and entertained. Here, images and artefacts evoke the musicians and others with whom Handel worked, while the centrepiece is a working harpsichord for use by professionals and students as well as for concerts and other public events. A fourth room is devoted to composition.
‘The idea,’ says Jacqueline Riding, ‘is that the visitor will wander through interiors closely resembling those Handel would have known, looking at images associated with Handel’s life and career, whilst hearing music as visitors during Handel’s lifetime would have heard it.’
The museum also comprises rooms in the adjacent property (built at the same time by the same developer, and restored with equal care) which will provide space for temporary exhibitions, education activities, an audio-visual room and a small shop.
The thematic approach of the Handel House Museum nicely complements the essentially chronological display of its sister museum in Halle. Handel, I like to think, would have approved of both. Was he German or English, people still ask? The answer is that he was both. Handel (like Holbein, Prince Albert or Nikolaus Pevsner) was one in a long line of distinguished immigrants to Britain who, by their artistry and entrepreneurship, enriched the cultural life of their adopted country and thereby the wider world.
Handel-Haus
Grosse Nikolaistrasse 5
D-06108 Halle, Germany
Tel: +49 345 500900
Fax: +49 345 50090411
Handel House Museum
25 Brook Street,
London W1K 4HB
Tel: 020 7495 1685
Fax: 020 7495 1759
Email: mail@handelhouse.org
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Life of Meresamun interactive web-page
In February, I also wrote a piece about the exhibition 'The Life of Meresamun' at the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago. As a complement to the exhibtion, the University has set up an excellent interactive web-page, which details various parts of the mummy, layer by layer, from the decoration on the casket to the skeleton inside. Fascinating!
More Information on the Achaemenid Empire
by Kathryn Hadley
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a short piece about the South Korean diplomat in Iran, who had attempted to smuggle an inscribed stone from Perspeolis from the Achaemenid era out of the country. Officials in Shiraz airport caught the thief and sent the stolen piece back to the ruins of Persepolis, but he was eventually released due to diplomatic immunity!
Persepolis was just one of the capitals of the Achaemenid Empire, which flourished from approximately 550 to 330 BC and was, at its height, the largest empire of the ancient world. Susa was another of its capitals and was rebuilt by Darius the Great (in the picture on my previous post). Alexander the Great also married in Susa, which therefater became part of the Seleucid Empire.
I have just come across a very useful blog post, which describes in greater detail the history of Susa and also has fascinating pictures of some of the reliefs which decorated the palaces of Achaemenid kings, many of which are now in the Louvre in Paris. Another post on the same blog also describes a statue of Darius the Great, which was found during excavations of the Great Gate in Susa in 1972. It provides detailed pictures and also explains the various inscriptions on the statue...
Well worth a visit if you are interested in finding out more about the Achaemenid Empire!
Monday, 30 March 2009
Death of John Hope Franklin
by Kathryn Hadley
The historian and civil rights activist John Hope Franklin died last week (March 25th), aged 94. He was particularly well-known for his efforts to fight for racial equality in the United States, for his work on the 1954 Supreme Court decision which overturned America’s legalised ‘separate but equal’ apartheid, and for his book From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, which sold over 3.5 million copies.
John Hope Franklin was born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, one of the entirely black areas of the oil boom-town Tulsa. His father, Buck Franklin, was a lawyer and had moved to Rentiesville after being forbidden to practice in Louisiana; his mother, Molly Parker Franklin, was a teacher. He was named after the black activist and leader of the Niagara Movement (the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People), John Hope, and was brought up in the midst of racial hatred and violent for black rights. His father’s office in Tulsa was notably burnt down during Tulsa’s race riots in 1921.
John Hope Franklin attended a segregated high school in Tulsa and thereafter the all-black Fisk University, in Nashville, Tennessee. Following his graduation, in 1935, the white history lecturer, Ted Currier, borrowed some money in order to finance Franklin’s studies for an MA and PhD in history at Harvard. After completing his PhD, in 1941, Franklin returned to teach at Fisk and, in 1943, he published his first book The Free Negro in North Carolina. Franklin’s From Slavery to Freedom, published four years later, was groundbreaking, not only because it was written by a black historian, but also because Franklin, for the first time, refused to treat the history of African-Americans as different to that of other Americans. Franklin published numerous other books, including The Militant South, in 1956, and A Southern Odyssey, in 1976, which focused primarily on the study of the attitudes of America’s white population, suggesting that the institution of slavery grew from and encouraged an ethos of violence among white people.
Franklin also held many groundbreaking posts at various universities, both in the United States and abroad. He taught at Howard University, in Washington DC, until 1956, and thereafter was nominated chair of the department of history of Brooklyn College, as the first African-American head at a predominantly white university. In 1962, he was Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University. In 1964, however, he moved to the University of Chicago to become professor of history and later chair of the department. In 1970, he was appointed John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor, a post which he held for twelve years. He was the first black man to deliver a paper to the Southern Historical Association and later became president, in 1970. Franklin was also the first black president of the American Historical Association. In 1982, he was appointed James B Duke Professor of History at Duke University.
John Hope Franklin was born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, one of the entirely black areas of the oil boom-town Tulsa. His father, Buck Franklin, was a lawyer and had moved to Rentiesville after being forbidden to practice in Louisiana; his mother, Molly Parker Franklin, was a teacher. He was named after the black activist and leader of the Niagara Movement (the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People), John Hope, and was brought up in the midst of racial hatred and violent for black rights. His father’s office in Tulsa was notably burnt down during Tulsa’s race riots in 1921.
John Hope Franklin attended a segregated high school in Tulsa and thereafter the all-black Fisk University, in Nashville, Tennessee. Following his graduation, in 1935, the white history lecturer, Ted Currier, borrowed some money in order to finance Franklin’s studies for an MA and PhD in history at Harvard. After completing his PhD, in 1941, Franklin returned to teach at Fisk and, in 1943, he published his first book The Free Negro in North Carolina. Franklin’s From Slavery to Freedom, published four years later, was groundbreaking, not only because it was written by a black historian, but also because Franklin, for the first time, refused to treat the history of African-Americans as different to that of other Americans. Franklin published numerous other books, including The Militant South, in 1956, and A Southern Odyssey, in 1976, which focused primarily on the study of the attitudes of America’s white population, suggesting that the institution of slavery grew from and encouraged an ethos of violence among white people.
Franklin also held many groundbreaking posts at various universities, both in the United States and abroad. He taught at Howard University, in Washington DC, until 1956, and thereafter was nominated chair of the department of history of Brooklyn College, as the first African-American head at a predominantly white university. In 1962, he was Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University. In 1964, however, he moved to the University of Chicago to become professor of history and later chair of the department. In 1970, he was appointed John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor, a post which he held for twelve years. He was the first black man to deliver a paper to the Southern Historical Association and later became president, in 1970. Franklin was also the first black president of the American Historical Association. In 1982, he was appointed James B Duke Professor of History at Duke University.
In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian prize, by Bill Clinton. Two years later, the president nominated him as the head of his Initiative on Race. A celebration of his life will be organised on June 11th in the chapel of Duke University in honour of his 69th wedding anniversary to Aurelia Franklin, who died in 1999.
Duke University had also set up a John Hope Franklin memorial website:
http://www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin/
Despite the momentous changes in legislation and attitudes towards racial segregation, which John Hope Franklin witnessed during his lifetime, he believed that the fight was not yet over. For the latest views on the situation of African-Americans in the United States today, read our article on the progress of the civil rights movement through its most prominent body, the NAACP, which celebrates its centenary this year The Long Road to Equality for African-Americans
Duke University had also set up a John Hope Franklin memorial website:
http://www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin/
Despite the momentous changes in legislation and attitudes towards racial segregation, which John Hope Franklin witnessed during his lifetime, he believed that the fight was not yet over. For the latest views on the situation of African-Americans in the United States today, read our article on the progress of the civil rights movement through its most prominent body, the NAACP, which celebrates its centenary this year The Long Road to Equality for African-Americans
Comments on this week's selection of books?
by Kathryn Hadley
In the light of the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book On The Origin of Species, an abundance of new books about both the life of the father of the theory of evolution and his work have been released this year. One of the most recent is Keith Thomson's, The Young Charles Darwin...
We have also selected three other books on the history of the relationship between Islam and Europe, another 'hot' topic. Our three books explore various aspects of the history of Western attitudes towards Islam, including how the European crusaders were perceived in the Muslim world and the relationshipo between Islam and Europe in medieval times.
If you have read any of them or can suggest any other relevant books on similar topics, please feel free to comment either on our books blog or here...
Friday, 27 March 2009
Bicentenary of Reconquest of Vigo
By Charlotte Crow,
A great deal of exploding gunpowder and a hectic pageant involving actors and ordinary citizens jostling the narrow streets in period costume, will today sound the climax to a series of celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the Reconquest of Vigo, a little-known but significant local episode in the Peninsular War. This unlikely popular uprising of March 28th, 1809, in the coastal town in northwest Spain was the first successful attempt to see off French rule in the region of Galicia, following Napoleon’s occupation of the country in 1807. That year 100,000 French troops had marched onto Spanish territory ostensibly to tackle the British threat in Portugal. But by April 1808 the Franco-Spanish alliance was severed as Napoleon forced the Spanish monarchy to abdicate, transferring the crown from Fernando VII to his own elder brother Joseph Bonaparte.
Today Vigo is better known as the biggest fishing port in Europe with a population of around 300,000. In 1808, it was a walled town of just 10,000. The French did not reach the place until January 1809, the same month they humiliated the retreating British at the battle of Corunna to the north. However, their occupation, under the leadership of General Antonio Chalot, lasted only 58 days. Within that time, though many of Vigo’s men were away fighting the French elsewhere, local citizens initiated a campaign of resistance to undermine the occupiers, culminating in the insurrection of March 28th. Two months later the story reached Britain, with The Times reporting on its front page intelligence ‘of an insurrection having broken out in the northwest of Spain. According to these accounts, the peasants had collected in the neighbourhood of Vigo, Pontevedra and Villagrave, and engaged with success the French troops’.
During the revolt, which was assisted by Portuguese soldiers, more than 1,400 Napoleonic troops were taken prisoner and the French withdrew from a conquered Spanish settlement for the first time. The action boosted similar offensives across Galicia – and according to at least one local historian can be seen as a thread linking directly to Wellington’s ultimate victory and Napoleon’s demise. The town was subsequently awarded the special civic status by the Regency in recognition of the action.
The Reconquest has been commemorated in Vigo ever since, but the bicentenary events, organised by the offices of the deputy mayor Santiago Dominquez, are the most elaborate to date. A major exhibition, on show until March 31st, at the Pazo De Castrelos Quinones de Leon, a stately-home-turned-museum, has brought together more than 200 paintings, documents and artefacts from museums across Europe. The First Congress on the Reconquest of Vigo, meanwhile, has gathered academics from across Europe to explore the uprising in the wider landscape of 19th-century Europe and the Napoleonic Wars. Among those attending the conference was Prince Charles Napoleon Bonaparte, the great, great grand nephew of Napoleon and President of the European
Federation of Napoleonic Cities.
Two websites are particularly useful in order to find out more about the history of the Reconquest and this year’s bicentenary celebrations:
http://www.reconquistadevigo.com/
http://peninsularwar200.org/events.html
For further information on the role of the Spanish guerrillas in Spain’s war against Napoleon, read our article The Spanish Guerrillas in the Peninsular War
For further information on grass roots opposition to Napoleonic rule, read our article Popular Resistance in Napoleonic Europe
For more information on Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars, visit our ‘Ten Great Figures of French History’ page.
Today Vigo is better known as the biggest fishing port in Europe with a population of around 300,000. In 1808, it was a walled town of just 10,000. The French did not reach the place until January 1809, the same month they humiliated the retreating British at the battle of Corunna to the north. However, their occupation, under the leadership of General Antonio Chalot, lasted only 58 days. Within that time, though many of Vigo’s men were away fighting the French elsewhere, local citizens initiated a campaign of resistance to undermine the occupiers, culminating in the insurrection of March 28th. Two months later the story reached Britain, with The Times reporting on its front page intelligence ‘of an insurrection having broken out in the northwest of Spain. According to these accounts, the peasants had collected in the neighbourhood of Vigo, Pontevedra and Villagrave, and engaged with success the French troops’.
During the revolt, which was assisted by Portuguese soldiers, more than 1,400 Napoleonic troops were taken prisoner and the French withdrew from a conquered Spanish settlement for the first time. The action boosted similar offensives across Galicia – and according to at least one local historian can be seen as a thread linking directly to Wellington’s ultimate victory and Napoleon’s demise. The town was subsequently awarded the special civic status by the Regency in recognition of the action.
The Reconquest has been commemorated in Vigo ever since, but the bicentenary events, organised by the offices of the deputy mayor Santiago Dominquez, are the most elaborate to date. A major exhibition, on show until March 31st, at the Pazo De Castrelos Quinones de Leon, a stately-home-turned-museum, has brought together more than 200 paintings, documents and artefacts from museums across Europe. The First Congress on the Reconquest of Vigo, meanwhile, has gathered academics from across Europe to explore the uprising in the wider landscape of 19th-century Europe and the Napoleonic Wars. Among those attending the conference was Prince Charles Napoleon Bonaparte, the great, great grand nephew of Napoleon and President of the European
Federation of Napoleonic Cities.Two websites are particularly useful in order to find out more about the history of the Reconquest and this year’s bicentenary celebrations:
http://www.reconquistadevigo.com/
http://peninsularwar200.org/events.html
For further information on the role of the Spanish guerrillas in Spain’s war against Napoleon, read our article The Spanish Guerrillas in the Peninsular War
For further information on grass roots opposition to Napoleonic rule, read our article Popular Resistance in Napoleonic Europe
For more information on Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars, visit our ‘Ten Great Figures of French History’ page.
Historians at the Oxford Literary Festival
by Kathryn Hadley
The 2009 Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival begins this Sunday. Lasting eight days, the festival will feature over 430 speakers with events organised in Christ Church College, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Bodleian Library. Prominent historians will notably discuss their latest books, many of which we have reviewed or featured on our books blog . Here is selection of some of the talks taking place over the coming week…
Sunday March 29th
Henry: Virtuous prince
4pm / Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street
David Starkey will discuss the first volume of his two-part life of Henry VIII, taking the view that the king’s descent into tyranny began with Wolsey’s rise to fame.
Tuesday March 31st
- Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914
10am / Blue Boar Marquee, Christ Church
Robert Gildea will discuss his reassessment of France’s post-revolutionary history.
- Millennium
12pm / Blue Boar Marquee, Christ Church
Tom Holland will discuss his account of the two centuries on either side of the year 1000.
- Admirals
2pm / Festival Room 1, Christ Church
Andrew Lambert will discuss his account of the lives of eleven men who shaped the Royal Navy, which dominated the oceans for over three centuries.
- Women in War’s Aftermath
8 pm / McKenna Room, Christ Church
Virginia Nicholson and Julie Summers will explore the similarities and differences of the post-war worlds inherited by women in 1918 and 1945.
Wednesday April 1st
- Eyes Wide Open: the Narrative Dance of History as Fiction
2pm / Garden Marquee, Christ Church
Louis de Bernieres and Zulfu Livaneli
A discussion between the two novelists about their respective re-investigations of the past in relation to the paradoxical diversity of contemporary Turkish identity.
- Wrath of God: The Story of the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755
2pm / Festival Room 2, Christ Church
Edward Paice will discuss his account of the political, economic and cultural consequences of the Lisbon earthquake.
- World War Two: Behind Closed Doors
8pm / Hall, Christ Church
Laurence Rees will re-examine the key decisions made by Stalin and Churchill during the Second World War and explore their effects for those on the ground.
Thursday April 2nd
The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior
8pm / Blue Boar Marquee, Christ Church
Ross King and Paul Strathern will offer an appraisal of the legacies of Leonardo da Vinci, Cesare Borgia and Machiavelli.
Friday April 3rd
- Florence Nightingale
10am / Festival Room 1, Christ Church
Mark Bostridge will throw new light on the life and character of Florence Nightingale.
- The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
12pm / Hall, Christ Church
Niall Ferguson will discuss his account of the history of money, in which he makes a case for liberalised finance, pointing out that the history of finance is a process of creative destruction.
- Eyewitness to History
2pm / Garden Marquee, Christ Church
Kate Adie, Robin Laurence, Harry Sidebottom and Stephen Venables will consider the issues involved in the use of eyewitness accounts of history.
Saturday April 4th
Poland: A History
12pm / McKenna, Christ Church
Adam Zamoyski will discuss his revised version of his book The Polish Way, first published in 1987, in which he brings the story up to date, addressing the downfall of communism and Poland’s integration into the European Union.
Sunday April 5th
- Attila the Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire
12pm / Festival Room 1, Christ Church
Christopher Kelly will discuss his quest for the real Attila the Hun, revealing the history of an astute politician and first-rate military commander who exploited the strengths and weaknesses of the Roman Empire.
- Truth in Historical Fiction – Does it Matter?
4pm / McKenna Room, Christ Church
Harry Sidebottom and Robyn Young question the extent to which an imaginative fictional story with a compelling narrative is more important than accurate historical facts.
For more information, visit - www.sundaytimes-oxfordliteraryfestival.co.uk
The 2009 Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival begins this Sunday. Lasting eight days, the festival will feature over 430 speakers with events organised in Christ Church College, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Bodleian Library. Prominent historians will notably discuss their latest books, many of which we have reviewed or featured on our books blog . Here is selection of some of the talks taking place over the coming week…
Sunday March 29th
Henry: Virtuous prince
4pm / Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street
David Starkey will discuss the first volume of his two-part life of Henry VIII, taking the view that the king’s descent into tyranny began with Wolsey’s rise to fame.
Tuesday March 31st
- Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914
10am / Blue Boar Marquee, Christ Church
Robert Gildea will discuss his reassessment of France’s post-revolutionary history.
- Millennium
12pm / Blue Boar Marquee, Christ Church
Tom Holland will discuss his account of the two centuries on either side of the year 1000.
- Admirals
2pm / Festival Room 1, Christ Church
Andrew Lambert will discuss his account of the lives of eleven men who shaped the Royal Navy, which dominated the oceans for over three centuries.
- Women in War’s Aftermath
8 pm / McKenna Room, Christ Church
Virginia Nicholson and Julie Summers will explore the similarities and differences of the post-war worlds inherited by women in 1918 and 1945.
Wednesday April 1st
- Eyes Wide Open: the Narrative Dance of History as Fiction
2pm / Garden Marquee, Christ Church
Louis de Bernieres and Zulfu Livaneli
A discussion between the two novelists about their respective re-investigations of the past in relation to the paradoxical diversity of contemporary Turkish identity.
- Wrath of God: The Story of the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755
2pm / Festival Room 2, Christ Church
Edward Paice will discuss his account of the political, economic and cultural consequences of the Lisbon earthquake.
- World War Two: Behind Closed Doors
8pm / Hall, Christ Church
Laurence Rees will re-examine the key decisions made by Stalin and Churchill during the Second World War and explore their effects for those on the ground.
Thursday April 2nd
The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior
8pm / Blue Boar Marquee, Christ Church
Ross King and Paul Strathern will offer an appraisal of the legacies of Leonardo da Vinci, Cesare Borgia and Machiavelli.
Friday April 3rd
- Florence Nightingale
10am / Festival Room 1, Christ Church
Mark Bostridge will throw new light on the life and character of Florence Nightingale.
- The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
12pm / Hall, Christ Church
Niall Ferguson will discuss his account of the history of money, in which he makes a case for liberalised finance, pointing out that the history of finance is a process of creative destruction.
- Eyewitness to History
2pm / Garden Marquee, Christ Church
Kate Adie, Robin Laurence, Harry Sidebottom and Stephen Venables will consider the issues involved in the use of eyewitness accounts of history.
Saturday April 4th
Poland: A History
12pm / McKenna, Christ Church
Adam Zamoyski will discuss his revised version of his book The Polish Way, first published in 1987, in which he brings the story up to date, addressing the downfall of communism and Poland’s integration into the European Union.
Sunday April 5th
- Attila the Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire
12pm / Festival Room 1, Christ Church
Christopher Kelly will discuss his quest for the real Attila the Hun, revealing the history of an astute politician and first-rate military commander who exploited the strengths and weaknesses of the Roman Empire.
- Truth in Historical Fiction – Does it Matter?
4pm / McKenna Room, Christ Church
Harry Sidebottom and Robyn Young question the extent to which an imaginative fictional story with a compelling narrative is more important than accurate historical facts.
For more information, visit - www.sundaytimes-oxfordliteraryfestival.co.uk
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Il Divo: the ultimate Machiavellian?
Il Divo, released in the UK this week, won the 2008 Jury prize at Cannes. Its subject matter is Giulio Andreotti, a central figure in the Italian Christian Democrat party between the 1960s and the early 1990s. During that time he influenced Italian politics heavily, being elected prime minister on multiple occasions as well as holding the Interior, Defence and Foreign ministries. The tale of Andreotti is also that of the different groups that held power and influence in Italy in the late 20th century.Not least of these is the Mafia, to which Andreotti held connections, and which carried, and continues to carry, heavy sway in Italian public life. Another shadowy group which stalks the film’s subplot is a secret Masonic lodge named P2, of which current prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was a member. P2 was formed in the aftermath of the Second World War with the intention of installing an authoritarian government. We also encounter the Red Brigades - hard-left revolutionary communist terrorists with direct links to the Soviet Union – and the Vatican bank, the financial muscle behind the church.
The film suggests that these groups are the main movers behind the various political assassinations, kidnappings and suicides which dot the film’s storyline (and Italy’s recent history). The most famous of these is the kidnapping and killing of prime minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978 and the grisly 1982 death of banker Roberto Calvi, left swaying under London's Blackfriars bridge, his pockets filled with bricks.
Although the film leaves statement of fact tantalisingly ambiguous, Andreotti is seen to have benefitted politically from many of these tumultuous events. Moro was his direct, personal rival within the Christian Democrats, a party which maintained an electoral hold in the Mafioso heartlands of Sicily and Calabria. Conversely, during the film Andreotti expresses genuine regret for his part in Moro’s death and, in reality, apparently fell out with the ‘Cosa Nostra’ in the late 1980s during state attempts to tackle its power.
Il Divo, as Andreotti was known (one of the subject's more complementary nicknames), comes across then as the ultimate power broker, a cold manipulator of contending and often violent forces in a massively corrupt political game. I found the keystone of Toni Servillo’s incredible performance in the lead role to be a soliloquy to camera near the film’s end. In it, Andreotti ruminates powerfully on his stricken position, and his thankless task, as he sees it, of leading Italy away from anarchy – ‘doing evil so that good can come to pass’. The ultimate Machiavellian…
After leaving office for the last time in 1992, Andreotti was eventually tried and convicted of responsibility for murder. His trials went on throughout the 1990s and although Andreotti was sentenced in 2003 to 24 years in prison, the conviction of the ‘senator for life’ was controversially quashed on appeal. Now aged 90, he is still prominent in Italian public life. Thanks to this extraordinary film and a life led with ambivalence, Andreotti reputation, meanwhile, will continue to be questioned far into the future.
Want to read more? In A Tale of Two Police Forces, Richard O. Collin tells the story of Italy’s parallel police forces, and how they have contended with Mussolini, the Red Brigades – and the Mafia.
In Coming to Terms with Fascism in Italy, R J.B. Bosworth describes how Italians of both the left and the right have used memories of Mussolini’s long dictatorship to underpin their own versions of history and politics.
Delve deeper for the forces shaping Italian politics of today by reading Machiavelli, Leonardo & Borgia: A Fateful Collusion, in which Paul Strathern delves into a confluence of renaissance politics and papal corruption.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
New Medieval Gallery at the British Museum
by Kathryn Hadley
A new gallery showcasing the museum’s collection of medieval material opened today, March 25th, at the British Museum. By placing the collection in its historical context, the gallery aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the period from 1050 to 1500, from the West to the Byzantine Empire.
Various sections in the gallery explore different themes, including the world of the nobility during the medieval age through a display of artefacts revealing noble pursuits at the time and some of the rituals and protocols surrounding aristocratic amusement. Artefacts on display notably include the celebrated Royal Gold Cup, crafted in Paris between approximately 1370-1380 under the patronage of Jean duc de Berry, and the Lewis chessmen, which date from the 12th century and may constitute one of the few complete surviving medieval chess sets.
A further section devoted to sacred art also illustrates the major devotional developments of the age, from the flourishing of monasteries in the mid-eleventh century to their dissolution in the sixteenth century. A display of icon paintings, ivories, wooden figure carvings and jewellery, combining objects from the Byzantine world with contemporaneous pieces from western Europe, notably explores the concept of iconoclasm and provides and insight into how the divine were represented in two different, but related Christian cultures.
Lastly, another section focuses on the Byzantine Empire and considers the empire's role as a pivotal point on the medieval map and a trading capital and centre of intellectual and artistic ferment. Related displays develop the theme of internationalism and illustrate the vast movement of people and commodities around the medieval world through commerce, pilgrimage and crusade.
The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG
Telephone: 0207 323 8299
http://www.thebritishmuseum.org/
A new gallery showcasing the museum’s collection of medieval material opened today, March 25th, at the British Museum. By placing the collection in its historical context, the gallery aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the period from 1050 to 1500, from the West to the Byzantine Empire.
Various sections in the gallery explore different themes, including the world of the nobility during the medieval age through a display of artefacts revealing noble pursuits at the time and some of the rituals and protocols surrounding aristocratic amusement. Artefacts on display notably include the celebrated Royal Gold Cup, crafted in Paris between approximately 1370-1380 under the patronage of Jean duc de Berry, and the Lewis chessmen, which date from the 12th century and may constitute one of the few complete surviving medieval chess sets.
A further section devoted to sacred art also illustrates the major devotional developments of the age, from the flourishing of monasteries in the mid-eleventh century to their dissolution in the sixteenth century. A display of icon paintings, ivories, wooden figure carvings and jewellery, combining objects from the Byzantine world with contemporaneous pieces from western Europe, notably explores the concept of iconoclasm and provides and insight into how the divine were represented in two different, but related Christian cultures.
Lastly, another section focuses on the Byzantine Empire and considers the empire's role as a pivotal point on the medieval map and a trading capital and centre of intellectual and artistic ferment. Related displays develop the theme of internationalism and illustrate the vast movement of people and commodities around the medieval world through commerce, pilgrimage and crusade.
The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG
Telephone: 0207 323 8299
http://www.thebritishmuseum.org/
Pictures: Shield of Parade, late 15th century, from Flanders or Burgundy; and The Lewis Chessmen, c. 1150-1200, probably made in Norway and found on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland (The Trustees of the British Museum)
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Darwin’s University Days
by Kathryn Hadley
Six record books of the bills paid by Charles Darwin during his time as a student at Christ’s College, Cambridge, were published online, yesterday, at The Complete Work Of Charles Darwin Online. The bills were recently discovered by the Honorary Keeper of the Archives and Fellow Commoner, Professor Geoffrey Thorndike Martin, and provide a unique insight into Darwin’s expenditure as a student, from 1828 to 1831, filling in previous gaps in knowledge about this period of his life.
The record books state, for example, the exact date of Darwin’s arrival at the university on January 26th, 1828, as well as the date of his enrollment at Christ’s College on October 15th, 1827. At the time, students did not pay for many things in cash. Instead, they paid local tradesmen by account and the individual bills were then reported to the college, which charged the students on a quarterly basis. Over the course of the three years, Darwin’s bills amounted to £636.0.9½ (six hundred and thirty-six pounds, zero shillings and 91/2 pence). In addition, he spent £14 on his BA degree in 1831 and a further £12, in 1836, to collect his MA following his return from his Beagle voyage. Darwin allegedly spent very little of his time at Cambridge studying, instead preferring to shoot, ride, collect insects and socialise and his bills reveal very scarce expenditure on books.
He paid extra, however, in order to be served vegetables with his meals and also employed a bed-maker, shoe-polisher and someone to bring in the coal for his fire! The books also include Darwin’s accounts for the barber, grocer, tailor, chimney-sweep, apothecary, porter, and laundress, for example. Darwin allegedly later recalled his student years as ‘the most joyful of my happy life’.
In the words of Dr John van Wyhe, Director of The Complete Work Of Charles Darwin Online:
The record books are available on the website of The Complete Works Of Charles Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/
For further information on the conflict between supporters of Darwin’s theory of evolution and Creationists, read Thomas Dixon’s article published in our February issue America's Difficulty with Darwin
Published in 1982, Roy Porter’s article also provides a fascinating insight into his view of Darwin’s genius at the time The Descent of Genius: Charles Darwin's Brilliant Career
The record books state, for example, the exact date of Darwin’s arrival at the university on January 26th, 1828, as well as the date of his enrollment at Christ’s College on October 15th, 1827. At the time, students did not pay for many things in cash. Instead, they paid local tradesmen by account and the individual bills were then reported to the college, which charged the students on a quarterly basis. Over the course of the three years, Darwin’s bills amounted to £636.0.9½ (six hundred and thirty-six pounds, zero shillings and 91/2 pence). In addition, he spent £14 on his BA degree in 1831 and a further £12, in 1836, to collect his MA following his return from his Beagle voyage. Darwin allegedly spent very little of his time at Cambridge studying, instead preferring to shoot, ride, collect insects and socialise and his bills reveal very scarce expenditure on books.
He paid extra, however, in order to be served vegetables with his meals and also employed a bed-maker, shoe-polisher and someone to bring in the coal for his fire! The books also include Darwin’s accounts for the barber, grocer, tailor, chimney-sweep, apothecary, porter, and laundress, for example. Darwin allegedly later recalled his student years as ‘the most joyful of my happy life’.
In the words of Dr John van Wyhe, Director of The Complete Work Of Charles Darwin Online:
‘Before this we didn't really know very much about Darwin's daily life at
Cambridge at all. It had been assumed that there were no significant traces of
his time here left to discover, which meant that we were ironically short of
information about one of the most formative parts of his life. Now, in his 200th
anniversary year, we have found a real treasure-trove right in the middle of
Cambridge.’
The record books are available on the website of The Complete Works Of Charles Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/
For further information on the conflict between supporters of Darwin’s theory of evolution and Creationists, read Thomas Dixon’s article published in our February issue America's Difficulty with Darwin
Published in 1982, Roy Porter’s article also provides a fascinating insight into his view of Darwin’s genius at the time The Descent of Genius: Charles Darwin's Brilliant Career
Monday, 23 March 2009
Kuniyoshi: a window into the Edo period and Japanese art
by Kathryn Hadley
‘Kuniyoshi’ opened at the Royal Academy of Arts on Saturday. The exhibition features over 150 woodblock prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), who was one of the leaders of the school of ‘the floating world’, alongside Hokusai (1760-1849), Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Kunisada (1786-1864). The colour woodblock painting industry flourished in Edo (modern Tokyo) towards the middle of the 19th century, when colour prints were the most significant medium of communication in Japanese popular culture. Kuniyoshi specialised in depicting samurai warriors from the Japanese past, but also portrayed women, landscapes and actors. It is believed that he may have designed as many as 10,000 sheet prints; his most popular sheet print sold up to 8,000 impressions. The exhibition is divided into six sections, highlighting the range of his repertoire and revealing how his subjects changed in accordance with the political climate, censorship regulations and the social and cultural context of the time. The colours, detail and surprisingly modern appearance of his works as well as his depictions of fantastic creatures and of superhuman battles between giant creatures and warriors are beautiful and intriguing; most fascinating, however, is the insight which they provide into 19th-century Japanese history.
The samurai emerged as a ruling class of warriors during the feudal era and until the sixteenth century Japan was largely ruled by various competing factions and clans. During the sixteenth century, however, Jesuit missionaries from Portugal arrived in Japan, initiating trade and cultural exchange between Japan and the West for the first time. Partly as a result of these first contacts with the West, the nation became increasingly unified under Odo Nabunaga, who conquered various territories using European technology and firearms. Nabunaga was, however, assassinated 1582. He was succeeded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who united the nation in 1590.
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) was regent for Hideyoshi’s son and following Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s death, he used his position to increase his political and military support. Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed shogun in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo. In 1639, he instituted the sakoku (‘closed country’) policy and such isolationist policies dominated Japan until the end of the 19th century, during what is known as the Edo period. Limited contact with the West persisted, nevertheless, during this period through contacts with the Dutch enclave at Dejima in Nagasaki.
Kuniyoshi’s works reveal both the survival of this Dutch influence, as well as the political restrictions and censorship of the time implemented under the Tokugawa shogunate. The artist’s designs for his landscapes, in particular, with low horizons, ragged clouds, unusual viewpoints and shadows reflect an Europeanised style and it has recently been discovered that one of his scenes, entitled The Night Attack, was based on an illustration by a Dutch artist in an imported book.
Kuniyoshi was, moreover, forced to change the subjects of his prints and to increasingly resort to symbolism in order to counter the censorship of the time. Since the early 17th century, all popular printed works had notably been censored, rendering it on the whole illegal to depict any current event possessing political ramifications or to comment on ruling families and their antecedents. Censorship was tightened, in 1804, to include a ban on the depiction of warriors who lived later than 1573 and, in 1842, prints of courtesans and geisha entertainers were also banned. The Tokugawa family had eliminated many of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s descendants in order to consolidate their own power and was consequently particularly sensitive about any references to Hideyoshi. There remained, however, considerable popular interest in Hideyoshi and Kuniyoshi led the revival of Hideyoshi-related imagery. He was nevertheless careful to change the name of his warrior subjects and to locate them in a more distant past.
‘Kuniyoshi’ is a colourful and lively eye-opener to a form of art and a period of Japanese history which both remain relatively unexplored and unknown in Britain.
For more information on the arrival and reception of European influence in Japan in the 16th century, read our articles The Dutch in Japan and Southern Barbarians and Red-Hairs in Feudal Japan
‘Kuniyoshi’ opened at the Royal Academy of Arts on Saturday. The exhibition features over 150 woodblock prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), who was one of the leaders of the school of ‘the floating world’, alongside Hokusai (1760-1849), Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Kunisada (1786-1864). The colour woodblock painting industry flourished in Edo (modern Tokyo) towards the middle of the 19th century, when colour prints were the most significant medium of communication in Japanese popular culture. Kuniyoshi specialised in depicting samurai warriors from the Japanese past, but also portrayed women, landscapes and actors. It is believed that he may have designed as many as 10,000 sheet prints; his most popular sheet print sold up to 8,000 impressions. The exhibition is divided into six sections, highlighting the range of his repertoire and revealing how his subjects changed in accordance with the political climate, censorship regulations and the social and cultural context of the time. The colours, detail and surprisingly modern appearance of his works as well as his depictions of fantastic creatures and of superhuman battles between giant creatures and warriors are beautiful and intriguing; most fascinating, however, is the insight which they provide into 19th-century Japanese history.
The samurai emerged as a ruling class of warriors during the feudal era and until the sixteenth century Japan was largely ruled by various competing factions and clans. During the sixteenth century, however, Jesuit missionaries from Portugal arrived in Japan, initiating trade and cultural exchange between Japan and the West for the first time. Partly as a result of these first contacts with the West, the nation became increasingly unified under Odo Nabunaga, who conquered various territories using European technology and firearms. Nabunaga was, however, assassinated 1582. He was succeeded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who united the nation in 1590.
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) was regent for Hideyoshi’s son and following Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s death, he used his position to increase his political and military support. Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed shogun in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo. In 1639, he instituted the sakoku (‘closed country’) policy and such isolationist policies dominated Japan until the end of the 19th century, during what is known as the Edo period. Limited contact with the West persisted, nevertheless, during this period through contacts with the Dutch enclave at Dejima in Nagasaki.
Kuniyoshi’s works reveal both the survival of this Dutch influence, as well as the political restrictions and censorship of the time implemented under the Tokugawa shogunate. The artist’s designs for his landscapes, in particular, with low horizons, ragged clouds, unusual viewpoints and shadows reflect an Europeanised style and it has recently been discovered that one of his scenes, entitled The Night Attack, was based on an illustration by a Dutch artist in an imported book.
Kuniyoshi was, moreover, forced to change the subjects of his prints and to increasingly resort to symbolism in order to counter the censorship of the time. Since the early 17th century, all popular printed works had notably been censored, rendering it on the whole illegal to depict any current event possessing political ramifications or to comment on ruling families and their antecedents. Censorship was tightened, in 1804, to include a ban on the depiction of warriors who lived later than 1573 and, in 1842, prints of courtesans and geisha entertainers were also banned. The Tokugawa family had eliminated many of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s descendants in order to consolidate their own power and was consequently particularly sensitive about any references to Hideyoshi. There remained, however, considerable popular interest in Hideyoshi and Kuniyoshi led the revival of Hideyoshi-related imagery. He was nevertheless careful to change the name of his warrior subjects and to locate them in a more distant past.
‘Kuniyoshi’ is a colourful and lively eye-opener to a form of art and a period of Japanese history which both remain relatively unexplored and unknown in Britain.
For more information on the arrival and reception of European influence in Japan in the 16th century, read our articles The Dutch in Japan and Southern Barbarians and Red-Hairs in Feudal Japan
Pictures: Utagawa Kuniyoshi, The Chinese warrior Zhang Heng, 1847-48;
Fishermen at Teppōzu, early 1830s; Hatsuhana prays under a waterfall, c. 1842 - American Friends of the British Museum (The Arthur R. Miller Collection)
Kuniyoshi
Until June 7th
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House, Piccadilly
London W1J 0BD
Telephone: 020 7300 8000
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/
Friday, 20 March 2009
‘Old brigand’ and ‘fat boy’ Goering: Letters from Nuremberg Trials Rediscovered
by Kathryn HadleySixty-three years ago today, Maxwell Fyfe (1900-1967) began his interrogation of the leading Nazi defendant and the man remembered as one of history’s greatest monsters, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering. In a letter to his wife Sylvia the following day, he described his performance compared to that of the US Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson, who had previously interrogated the commander of the Luftwaffe:
‘Friday morning, I think that my cross examination of Goering went off all
right. Everyone here was very pleased. Jackson had not only made no impression
but actually built up the fat boy further. I think I knocked him reasonably off
his perch.’
In another later, dated June 26th, 1946, he wrote:
‘Goering let out a rather good crack to the psychiatrist, I’m told by the press.
He said “Of course I know Sir David’s technique now, I can see the way he works
up to his point. It was very bad luck on me coming first and being
cross-examined before I had chance to observe”. I must take off my hat to the
old brigand. He keeps his interest up.’
Tom Blackmore, David Maxwell Fyfe’s grandson, has recently donated this previously unseen correspondence between his grandparents to the Churchill Archives Centre at Cambridge University. The 205 letters, written between October 1945 and August 1946, provide a unique insight into both the daily life and experiences of the British Deputy Chief Prosecutor during one of the most momentous periods in legal history and his views of the highest-profile Nazi to go on trial at Nuremberg, one of Hitler’s closest allies during the war and one of the most hated men in history.
Blackmore discovered the letters in the vaults of the London solicitors Allen and Overy, in 1999, which he thereafter transcribed and date-ordered. He has also donated over 20 photographs, memorabilia, as well as a file of articles and speeches from the trials, to the Churchill Archives Centre. Researchers and historians visiting the Churchill Archives Centre will now have free access to the letters and accompanying documents. Blackmore is also planning to create a film adaptation of the letters to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the European Convention of Human Rights in November 2010.
He described his grandfather’s achievements at the Nuremberg:
Blackmore discovered the letters in the vaults of the London solicitors Allen and Overy, in 1999, which he thereafter transcribed and date-ordered. He has also donated over 20 photographs, memorabilia, as well as a file of articles and speeches from the trials, to the Churchill Archives Centre. Researchers and historians visiting the Churchill Archives Centre will now have free access to the letters and accompanying documents. Blackmore is also planning to create a film adaptation of the letters to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the European Convention of Human Rights in November 2010.He described his grandfather’s achievements at the Nuremberg:
‘In March 1946 Maxwell Fyfe’s cross-examination of Goering at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials began to pour light on the guilt of the leaders of the Third
Reich. It set the tone for the practical presentation of evidence to prove the
guilt of those in the dock. And Maxwell Fyfe followed it up with the forensic
destruction of von Ribbentrop, Doenitz and von Papen. Maxwell Fyfe’s performance
at Nuremberg was the springboard to a considerable political career. More
surprisingly, in the light of his conservatism, is that Nuremberg led him to
Strasbourg where he drafted the European Convention on Human Rights and chaired the committee that made the treaty law, commenting “Our lunatic century is
looking for a way of guaranteeing ordinary people a quiet life”.’
David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, was a British Conservative Party politician as well as a lawyer and judge. He held the positions of Solicitor General, Attorney General and Lord Chancellor and was also Home Secretary in Churchill’s government between 1951 and 1954.
Further information and a temporary list of the papers are available on the website of the Churchill Archives Centre http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/.
For more information on how the Allies dealt with the unprecedented prosecution of genocide of the Nazi leadership, read our article Victors' Justice? The Nuremberg Tribunal
Further information and a temporary list of the papers are available on the website of the Churchill Archives Centre http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/.
For more information on how the Allies dealt with the unprecedented prosecution of genocide of the Nazi leadership, read our article Victors' Justice? The Nuremberg Tribunal
Images: One of the letters, David and Sylvia Fyfe and the Nuremberg courtroom (The Kilmuir Papers, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge University)
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Iceman Photo Scan: A glimpse of Oetzi, if you dare!
by Kathryn Hadley
To coincide with the opening of the ‘Mummies’ exhibition, the EURAC research institute in South Tyrol has recently launched the Iceman Photo Scan project, a revolutionary website which records the complete photographic documentation of the Iceman mummy. The website enables the user to view the entire mummified body and to zoom in to examine specific parts in incredible detail. The preservation conditions of the mummy prevent the public from having close access to the body and the project is thus aimed at providing an opportunity to discover the 5,300-year-old mummy without compromising its preservation.
Shots were taken from 12 different angles and almost 800 scans were necessary in order to map the whole body. Particular attention was paid to recording the tattoos on the mummy’s body, which it is possible to view in a special section of the website via high definition photos. A third section provides 3D photos of the mummy, which can be viewed using anaglyph glasses.
Visit the website http://iceman.eurac.edu. The Iceman Photo Scan website is also accessible via the homepage of the website of the EURAC institute - http://www.eurac.edu/
To coincide with the opening of the ‘Mummies’ exhibition, the EURAC research institute in South Tyrol has recently launched the Iceman Photo Scan project, a revolutionary website which records the complete photographic documentation of the Iceman mummy. The website enables the user to view the entire mummified body and to zoom in to examine specific parts in incredible detail. The preservation conditions of the mummy prevent the public from having close access to the body and the project is thus aimed at providing an opportunity to discover the 5,300-year-old mummy without compromising its preservation.
Shots were taken from 12 different angles and almost 800 scans were necessary in order to map the whole body. Particular attention was paid to recording the tattoos on the mummy’s body, which it is possible to view in a special section of the website via high definition photos. A third section provides 3D photos of the mummy, which can be viewed using anaglyph glasses.
Visit the website http://iceman.eurac.edu. The Iceman Photo Scan website is also accessible via the homepage of the website of the EURAC institute - http://www.eurac.edu/
Above: Mummy of Imhotep, Vezir of Thebes, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, 1504 – 1492 BC, also on display in the exhibition 'Mummies: The dream of everlasting life' (Museo delle Antichità Egizie, Torino)
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Mummies: The dream of everlasting life
by Kathryn Hadley
‘Mummies: The dream of everlasting life’ opened last week at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. The exhibition includes a display of over 60 mummies, both human and animal, from all over the world, providing an insight into mummification from prehistory to the present day. Mummification is a phenomenon which occurred, and still occurs today, in different periods in time and in places all over the world. The mummies on display range from bog bodies discovered in northern Europe, to an Egyptian mummy complete with its sarcophagus, to mummies from Asia, Oceania and South America and include naturally mummified bodies, as well as mummies which are the result of human intervention. The main feature of the exhibition is the body of the 5,300 year-old Iceman Oetzi, discovered in the Alps in 1991. The mummies are displayed along with artefacts used in rituals and thus showcased in their cultural context. Interactive features also complete the exhibits with information on the origins, living conditions, nutrition and illnesses of the mummies, which extensive research and examination of the cadavers has revealed.
Mummies tend to be traditionally associated with Ancient Egypt and, for a long time, the term only referred to these embalmed corpses from Egypt. Mummification, however, describes the general process whereby the natural decomposition process of a body is inhibited and the corpse is preserved as a result of certain specific chemical, physical and climatic circumstances. Mummification can be applied to human bodies as well as animals and to bodies from any age in which the soft tissue has been preserved.
A distinction should be made between natural and artificial or intentional mummification, which involves an embalming process or laying the body in a natural area favorable to mummification. Natural mummification can occur in various environments, such as caves, deserts, ice and bogs. In caves, for example, the constant temperature, humidity and darkness prevents the growth of bacteria and mummies have notably been discovered in caves in desert areas, Siberia and in Central Europe. In desert areas, both hot and cold, bodies are naturally stripped of their fluids by aridity and wind and preserved as a result. Mummified corpses have also been discovered in salt deserts, salt lakes and seas, where the salt has dried out the body, preventing bacterial growth and eventually mummifying the corpse, as well as in bogs, where bodies are depleted from oxygen due to an excess of water and preserved by certain acidic and antibacterial substances.
Mummies have been discovered across the world, from Ancient Egypt, to Asia, South America and Europe. In Asia, both naturally and artificially mummified bodies have been found, primarily in desert areas. In South America, mummies have similarly been discovered mostly in desert areas on the Pacific coast and in the Andean mountain range. In some areas mummies were also intentionally mummified in accordance with the beliefs and cults of local Andean culture groups. In Europe, prehistoric groups did not practice mummification and mummified bodies were the result of natural preservation. In the late Middle Ages, however, mummies were brought to Europe from Egypt along with medical knowledge from the Orient and at the end of the 19th century, Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition gave rise to a second wave of imported mummies. Whilst in the Middle Ages in Europe only the bodies of emperors, kings and popes were embalmed, the process subsequently spread to members of the nobility as the practice of organising large and lavish funerals also developed. The practice continued during the 20th century. Lenin’s body has been preserved, for example, in a mausoleum in the Red Square since 1925; Eva Péron, who died in 1953, was also embalmed.
For further information about the process of mummification, read our article The Making of a Modern Mummy
Mummies: The dream of everlasting life
Until October 25th
Mummies tend to be traditionally associated with Ancient Egypt and, for a long time, the term only referred to these embalmed corpses from Egypt. Mummification, however, describes the general process whereby the natural decomposition process of a body is inhibited and the corpse is preserved as a result of certain specific chemical, physical and climatic circumstances. Mummification can be applied to human bodies as well as animals and to bodies from any age in which the soft tissue has been preserved.
A distinction should be made between natural and artificial or intentional mummification, which involves an embalming process or laying the body in a natural area favorable to mummification. Natural mummification can occur in various environments, such as caves, deserts, ice and bogs. In caves, for example, the constant temperature, humidity and darkness prevents the growth of bacteria and mummies have notably been discovered in caves in desert areas, Siberia and in Central Europe. In desert areas, both hot and cold, bodies are naturally stripped of their fluids by aridity and wind and preserved as a result. Mummified corpses have also been discovered in salt deserts, salt lakes and seas, where the salt has dried out the body, preventing bacterial growth and eventually mummifying the corpse, as well as in bogs, where bodies are depleted from oxygen due to an excess of water and preserved by certain acidic and antibacterial substances.
Mummies have been discovered across the world, from Ancient Egypt, to Asia, South America and Europe. In Asia, both naturally and artificially mummified bodies have been found, primarily in desert areas. In South America, mummies have similarly been discovered mostly in desert areas on the Pacific coast and in the Andean mountain range. In some areas mummies were also intentionally mummified in accordance with the beliefs and cults of local Andean culture groups. In Europe, prehistoric groups did not practice mummification and mummified bodies were the result of natural preservation. In the late Middle Ages, however, mummies were brought to Europe from Egypt along with medical knowledge from the Orient and at the end of the 19th century, Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition gave rise to a second wave of imported mummies. Whilst in the Middle Ages in Europe only the bodies of emperors, kings and popes were embalmed, the process subsequently spread to members of the nobility as the practice of organising large and lavish funerals also developed. The practice continued during the 20th century. Lenin’s body has been preserved, for example, in a mausoleum in the Red Square since 1925; Eva Péron, who died in 1953, was also embalmed.
For further information about the process of mummification, read our article The Making of a Modern Mummy
Mummies: The dream of everlasting life
Until October 25th
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
Via Museo 43
I-39100 Bolzano
Italy
Telephone: 00 39 0471 320 100
http://www.archaeologiemuseum.it/
Via Museo 43
I-39100 Bolzano
Italy
Telephone: 00 39 0471 320 100
http://www.archaeologiemuseum.it/
Photos: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. From top to bottom: Ancient Peruvian Mummy from the Inca period (Native American Dept. of Bonn University); Howler Monkey, Gran Chaco, Argentina (Schleswig Holstein Museum Found.); woman with two children, pre-Columbian period, South America (Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums, Mannheim); Michael Orlovits (1765-1806), Dominican Church of Vác, Hungary (Hungarian Natural History Museum).
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
The Story of Susan Hibbert: Death of the Last British Witness to the Signature of the German WW2 Surrender
by Kathryn Hadley
Susan Hibbert is believed to have been the last British witness to the signing of the German surrender in Reims, in May 1945. She died at the beginning of last month, on February 2nd, aged 84. An obituary was notably published on the website of The Telegraph. The surrender was signed in the temporary headquarters of General Dwight Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces, in a room in what was Reims’ technical college. At the time, Hibbert was a British staff sergeant in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and working at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), which had been moved to Reims in February 1945. Hibbert was responsible for typing the English version of the Act of Military Surrender. The document itself was allegedly quite short although it included numerous attachments. She was thereafter also given the task to type the signal informing the War Office in London that the war had come to an end - “The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945”.
Hibbert described how:
Hibbert described how:
‘For five days we were typing documents. We started early in the morning and
finished late at night. I typed the English documents, three other secretaries
typed the French, Russian and German versions’.
Drafts were sent to Washington, London and Moscow. On May 6th, General Alfred Jodl, chief of staff at the Wehrmacht, arrived in Reims as the representative of Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, who had taken over the German leadership following Hitler’s suicide at the end of April. Hibbert began typing the Act of Military Surrender that morning and finished some 20 hours later in the early hours of May 7th. Once the typing of the documents was complete they were taken to the 'War Room' to be signed. When Jodl was called into the room at 2.30am, ten allied officers were already seated at the table. Eisenhower remained in another room, but Hibbert and her colleagues were invited into the room to witness the signature of the documents. The document was signed at 2.41am.
On a trip to Reims last September, I was able to visit Eisenhower’s supreme headquarters and was granted access to the 'War Room' itself or Salle de la Signature, which has remained intact and is now listed as a Historic Monument. The room remains exactly how the allied officers, Jodl, Commander Wilhelm Oxenius, Admiral von Friedeburg and the translators left it following the signature of the Act of Surrender. The chair of the Soviet translator, Chenaiev, has been left in the same position, slightly behind those of the two Soviet officers, and the walls still show the strategic military maps which helped to win the final battles of the war, as well as the weather forecasts for May 6th, 1945! An incredible and breathtaking step back to this historic moment!
On a trip to Reims last September, I was able to visit Eisenhower’s supreme headquarters and was granted access to the 'War Room' itself or Salle de la Signature, which has remained intact and is now listed as a Historic Monument. The room remains exactly how the allied officers, Jodl, Commander Wilhelm Oxenius, Admiral von Friedeburg and the translators left it following the signature of the Act of Surrender. The chair of the Soviet translator, Chenaiev, has been left in the same position, slightly behind those of the two Soviet officers, and the walls still show the strategic military maps which helped to win the final battles of the war, as well as the weather forecasts for May 6th, 1945! An incredible and breathtaking step back to this historic moment!
Hibbet described the signature itself:
‘The actual signing was carried out quietly and solemnly. There was no
celebrating.’
She also recalled how, after the interpreter had read the surrender terms, Jodl addressed Eisenhower’s chief of staff Lt Gen Walter Bedell Smith in German:
‘With this signature the German people and the German armed forces are for
better or worse delivered into the victor’s hands. In this war, which has lasted
more than five years, they have both achieved and suffered more than perhaps any
other people in the world. In this hour I can only express the hope that the
victor will treat them with generosity.’
According to Hibbert, the allied officers did not answer and there were no salutes. The Germans simply rose and left the room.
The surrender took effect on May 8th, 1945, at 11.01pm, Central European Time. Hibbert was notably mentioned in dispatches for her work on Eisenhower’s staff and, 60 years later, she was awarded the medal of honour of the city of Reims at a reception hosted by the French prime minister of the time, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. There remains, today, only one other surviving witness to the surrender, Albert Meserlin, who is now 88 and was Eisenhower’s American staff photographer.
Susan Hibbert was born in London on May 21st, 1924. Following her completion of a course at a secretarial college, Hibbert was sent for a job interview at the Foreign Office because she spoke good French, where she was interviewed by French major. She was, however, turned down on the grounds that she was too young. She later discovered that she was being interviewed about becoming a possible Resistance worker. Hibbert instead joined the ATS and was employed in various posts in England, notably at Eisenhower’s headquarters in London and Portsmouth, before moving to France. Following various positions in Normandy, Paris and Versailles, she eventually moved to Reims. In the aftermath of the war she was employed at the Control Commission for Germany in Frankfurt. She met her husband Basil Hibbert, a former RAF pilot, in Berlin, where she moved in 1947. The couple lived in Bonn for some time before returning to London. When her father entered parliament as a Conservative MP for Chertsey in 1950, she was employed as his secretary. Her father was later attorney general in the Churchill administration between 1951 and 1954, as Sir Lionel Heald.
The surrender took effect on May 8th, 1945, at 11.01pm, Central European Time. Hibbert was notably mentioned in dispatches for her work on Eisenhower’s staff and, 60 years later, she was awarded the medal of honour of the city of Reims at a reception hosted by the French prime minister of the time, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. There remains, today, only one other surviving witness to the surrender, Albert Meserlin, who is now 88 and was Eisenhower’s American staff photographer.
Susan Hibbert was born in London on May 21st, 1924. Following her completion of a course at a secretarial college, Hibbert was sent for a job interview at the Foreign Office because she spoke good French, where she was interviewed by French major. She was, however, turned down on the grounds that she was too young. She later discovered that she was being interviewed about becoming a possible Resistance worker. Hibbert instead joined the ATS and was employed in various posts in England, notably at Eisenhower’s headquarters in London and Portsmouth, before moving to France. Following various positions in Normandy, Paris and Versailles, she eventually moved to Reims. In the aftermath of the war she was employed at the Control Commission for Germany in Frankfurt. She met her husband Basil Hibbert, a former RAF pilot, in Berlin, where she moved in 1947. The couple lived in Bonn for some time before returning to London. When her father entered parliament as a Conservative MP for Chertsey in 1950, she was employed as his secretary. Her father was later attorney general in the Churchill administration between 1951 and 1954, as Sir Lionel Heald.
What were the terms of the German surrender? What were the consequences of the Allied policy of unconditional surrender? For more information, read our articles The Most Ruinous Allied Policy of the Second World War and Germany's Unconditional Surrender
It is possible to visit the site of Eisenhower’s Supreme Headquarters in Reims and the Signing Room, which have been preserved as a museum.
Musée de la Reddition (German Surrender 1945)
12, rue Franklin Roosevelt
51100 Reims
Telephone: 00 33 3 26 47 84 19
Pictures: The 'War Room' and Jodl's chair. Note the chair of the Soviet translator, slightly behind those of the officers who sat around the table!
Monday, 16 March 2009
The Management of the Viennese Court
by Kathryn Hadley
The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) announced, today, its latest project to research and make public information about the management of the Imperial Court in Vienna. The project, entitled ‘At Your Majesty’s Service!’, is based on the study of the ‘instruction manuals’ of the Viennese court by Institute for Austrian Historical Research at the University of Vienna. The manuals notably provided the court staff with details about the manner in which specific tasks were to be carried out and by whom. They were used for over 200 years and were kept up to date by the staff of the Obersthofmeister, who held the highest administrative office at the court. The manuals constitute four volumes, with a total of 1,400 handwritten pages.
An edition of the manuscripts is currently being prepared and the study of the volumes has provided both a fascinating insight into the organisational structures of the court and a detailed picture of the way in which it operated. In the 17th century, the court employed approximately 1,000 staff; by the 19th century, its numbers had risen to over 3,000 employees, who were each responsible for various aspects of daily life at the court, such as food, washing and the care of its horses. References to the ‘greatness’ of the Viennese court at the time thus related primarily to its size, rather than to its significance as one of the major political centres in Europe. Its organisation, on such a large scale, bore considerable similarities with that of a modern company. The manuscripts also bear witness to a form of corporate identity within the court, with repeated calls for order, efficiency and frugality, an emphasis on the importance of rank and title and, in terms of religion, a clear fear of Protestantism.
Professor Martin Scheutz, the project leader, described the content of the manauls:
It is hoped that the publication of the edited volumes will further the study of the court and also enable comparisons with other courts.
In the words of Scheutz, the aim of the project is to:
An edition of the manuscripts is currently being prepared and the study of the volumes has provided both a fascinating insight into the organisational structures of the court and a detailed picture of the way in which it operated. In the 17th century, the court employed approximately 1,000 staff; by the 19th century, its numbers had risen to over 3,000 employees, who were each responsible for various aspects of daily life at the court, such as food, washing and the care of its horses. References to the ‘greatness’ of the Viennese court at the time thus related primarily to its size, rather than to its significance as one of the major political centres in Europe. Its organisation, on such a large scale, bore considerable similarities with that of a modern company. The manuscripts also bear witness to a form of corporate identity within the court, with repeated calls for order, efficiency and frugality, an emphasis on the importance of rank and title and, in terms of religion, a clear fear of Protestantism.
Professor Martin Scheutz, the project leader, described the content of the manauls:
‘These manuals record instructions for 80 different offices held by staff at the
Viennese Court. They instructed staff in how to carry out their duties properly
and in accordance with the customs and conventions of the Court. They also
detailed how the servants were to be supervised, the hierarchy of command and
the overall organisational structure in place at the Court.’
It is hoped that the publication of the edited volumes will further the study of the court and also enable comparisons with other courts.
In the words of Scheutz, the aim of the project is to:
‘do more than produce just a static description of the organisational structures
- we want to create a living, breathing representation of practical operations
within the Viennese Court. We plan to take a detailed look at the organisational
hierarchies, procedures, interactions and interdependencies and describe them in
depth in order to represent organisation at the Viennese Court as a dynamic
process.’
For an insight into the contemporary relevance of court history, read our article Why Court History Matters.
To understand the recent revival in the history of courts, read our article Court History
Above picture: one of the pages from the manuals (Austrian State Archives)
Friday, 13 March 2009
Shakespeare in the news: London’s First Playhouse and Lifetime Portrait of Shakespeare Discovered
by Kathryn Hadley
450 years after his time, Shakespeare has made the news twice this week…
Last summer, archaeologists discovered, on the site of a disused warehouse in Shoreditch, what were believed to be the remains of London’s first purpose-built playhouse, where Shakespeare wrote and performed and where Romeo and Juliet was premiered. At the beginning this week, following extensive investigation of the site, Museum of London Archaeology confirmed that the remains were indeed those of the playhouse known as The Theatre, built in 1576 by James Burbage. Shakespeare performed at The Theatre for four years, between 1594 and 1597, until the wooden structure of the theatre was dismantled and transported south of the river to become part of The Globe theatre, in 1597, following a disagreement between the Burbages and their landlord.
The excavated remains are believed to have formed the inner wall of the polygonal theatre. There was probably no outer wall and instead simply a series of brick piers supporting the upper floors. Archaeologists also discovered a sloping gravel surface, which may have been the yard in which the audience would have stood. It is believed that the stage stood at the bottom of the slope, just south of the current site, under what is now a housing development. A fragment of 16th-century pottery featuring the image of a man with a beard and ruff was also unearthed in the yard.
Following the confirmation of the discovery, the Tower Theatre Company, one of London’s leading non-professional theatre organisations, announced their plans to build a new 21st-century equivalent of the original theatre on the site of the excavations. An architect has already designed the building and it is hoped that the planning process will begin next month.
In the words of Jack Lohman, Director of the Museum of London:
As well as the discovery of the theatre where Shakespeare first performed his plays, experts may also have found the only authentic portrait of the playwright painted during his lifetime…
On Monday, Professor Stanley Wells, Chairman of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust announced the discovery of a new portrait of William Shakespeare believed to have been painted in 1610, six years before his death, aged 46. The portrait has descended from the Cobbe family. It was inherited by the art restorer Alec Cobbe in the 1980s and was thereafter transferred to a trust.
There has been considerable controversy surrounding the authenticity of various representations of the playwright. Until now only two other portraits have been considered authentic representations of what Shakespeare may have looked like. The first is a brass engraving by Martin Droeshout published in the First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, in 1623. The other is a portrait bust in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, which is mentioned in the First Folio and must therefore have been in place in 1623. Both representations are, however, posthumous. Professor Wells believes that the newly discovered Cobbe portrait was the one that Droeshout, who was still a teenager at the time of Shakespeare’s death, used to work from approximately seven years later. The two representations bear a number of similarities: they are both cut at the waist and the playwright is dressed in a similar way, with sleeves and shoulder pads.
According to Professor Wells:
The portrait is due to go on display on April 23rd, the date of Shakespeare’s birthday, in an exhibition at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon.
For a more detailed article on the discovery of the portrait, visit the of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/
For an insight into some of the mysteries surrounding Shakespeare’s identity, read our articles Who Was Shakespeare? and Mystery Identities
Last summer, archaeologists discovered, on the site of a disused warehouse in Shoreditch, what were believed to be the remains of London’s first purpose-built playhouse, where Shakespeare wrote and performed and where Romeo and Juliet was premiered. At the beginning this week, following extensive investigation of the site, Museum of London Archaeology confirmed that the remains were indeed those of the playhouse known as The Theatre, built in 1576 by James Burbage. Shakespeare performed at The Theatre for four years, between 1594 and 1597, until the wooden structure of the theatre was dismantled and transported south of the river to become part of The Globe theatre, in 1597, following a disagreement between the Burbages and their landlord.
The excavated remains are believed to have formed the inner wall of the polygonal theatre. There was probably no outer wall and instead simply a series of brick piers supporting the upper floors. Archaeologists also discovered a sloping gravel surface, which may have been the yard in which the audience would have stood. It is believed that the stage stood at the bottom of the slope, just south of the current site, under what is now a housing development. A fragment of 16th-century pottery featuring the image of a man with a beard and ruff was also unearthed in the yard.
Following the confirmation of the discovery, the Tower Theatre Company, one of London’s leading non-professional theatre organisations, announced their plans to build a new 21st-century equivalent of the original theatre on the site of the excavations. An architect has already designed the building and it is hoped that the planning process will begin next month.
In the words of Jack Lohman, Director of the Museum of London:
‘This extraordinary find offers a tantalising glimpse into Shakespeare’s city,
and the proposed theatre development on this special site seems a fitting way to
harness the energy and spirit of a place that is so central to the story of
London and Londoners.’
As well as the discovery of the theatre where Shakespeare first performed his plays, experts may also have found the only authentic portrait of the playwright painted during his lifetime…
On Monday, Professor Stanley Wells, Chairman of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust announced the discovery of a new portrait of William Shakespeare believed to have been painted in 1610, six years before his death, aged 46. The portrait has descended from the Cobbe family. It was inherited by the art restorer Alec Cobbe in the 1980s and was thereafter transferred to a trust.
There has been considerable controversy surrounding the authenticity of various representations of the playwright. Until now only two other portraits have been considered authentic representations of what Shakespeare may have looked like. The first is a brass engraving by Martin Droeshout published in the First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, in 1623. The other is a portrait bust in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, which is mentioned in the First Folio and must therefore have been in place in 1623. Both representations are, however, posthumous. Professor Wells believes that the newly discovered Cobbe portrait was the one that Droeshout, who was still a teenager at the time of Shakespeare’s death, used to work from approximately seven years later. The two representations bear a number of similarities: they are both cut at the waist and the playwright is dressed in a similar way, with sleeves and shoulder pads.
According to Professor Wells:
‘The identification of this portrait marks a major development in the history of
Shakespearian portraiture. Up to now, only two images have been widely accepted
as genuine likenesses of Shakespeare. Both are dull. This new portrait is a very
fine painting. The evidence that it represents Shakespeare and that is was done
from life, though it is circumstantial, is in my view overwhelming, I feel in
little doubt that this is a portrait of Shakespeare, done from life and
commissioned by the Earl of Southampton and believe it could certainly be the
basis for the engraving seen in the First Folio.’
The portrait is due to go on display on April 23rd, the date of Shakespeare’s birthday, in an exhibition at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon.
For a more detailed article on the discovery of the portrait, visit the of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/
For an insight into some of the mysteries surrounding Shakespeare’s identity, read our articles Who Was Shakespeare? and Mystery Identities
(pictures - Museum of London)
Thursday, 12 March 2009
The Secret Message in Lincoln’s Watch
by Kathryn Hadley
A secret inscription inside Abraham Lincoln’s gold watch, marking the beginning of the American Civil War, was uncovered on Tuesday at the National Museum of American History. The museum agreed to open the watch after the watchmaker’s great-great-grandson, Doug Stiles, contacted the museum curator Harry Rubenstein to inform him of the allegedly engraved message. The watch was carefully disassembled by George Thomas, a museum volunteer and master watchmaker. The engraving by watchmaker Jonathan Dillon is dated April 13th, 1861, and reads: ‘Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861 Fort Sumpter [sic] was attacked by the rebels on the above date J Dillon April 13, 1861 Washington’ and ‘thank God we have a government Jonth Dillon.’
Lincoln allegedly never knew about the inscription and Jonathan Dillon only mentioned it 45 years later, aged 84, in an interview with The New York Times published on April 30th, 1906. The watchmaker told the newspaper that he had been repairing the watch when he found out about the breakout of the war, when Confederate forces attacked the military base at Fort Sumter on April 12th, 1861. He described how he had unscrewed the dial of the watch and used a sharp instrument to engrave his name and the historic date on the president’s watch as well as the message: ‘The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try’ (slightly different to the actual inscription). He also claimed that to his knowledge ‘no one but himself ever saw the inscription.’
Brent Glass, director of the National Museum of American History, described the significance of the discovery:
Lincoln allegedly never knew about the inscription and Jonathan Dillon only mentioned it 45 years later, aged 84, in an interview with The New York Times published on April 30th, 1906. The watchmaker told the newspaper that he had been repairing the watch when he found out about the breakout of the war, when Confederate forces attacked the military base at Fort Sumter on April 12th, 1861. He described how he had unscrewed the dial of the watch and used a sharp instrument to engrave his name and the historic date on the president’s watch as well as the message: ‘The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try’ (slightly different to the actual inscription). He also claimed that to his knowledge ‘no one but himself ever saw the inscription.’
Brent Glass, director of the National Museum of American History, described the significance of the discovery:
‘Lincoln never knew of the message he carried in his pocket. It's a personal
side of history about an ordinary watchman being inspired to record something
for posterity.’
Doug Stiles’ reacted to the discovery saying:
‘My ancestor put graffiti on Lincoln’s watch!’
The engraving notably raises various questions about the recording of historical events, their perception by people at the time and posterior significance. Did Jonathan Dillon realize at the time that he was witnessing a historical event and the outbreak of a war that would last for four years? Was his engraving a conscious decision to record this historic moment for posterity? It is not instead primarily due to hindsight that we are able to look back, have a general view of a series of events, and judge events as ‘historic’ and historically significant?
A transcript of the 1906 interview and a full length article about the discovery are available on the website of the museum
http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/
A transcript of the 1906 interview and a full length article about the discovery are available on the website of the museum
http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/
For more information on the American Civil War visit our focus page: http://www.historytoday.com/NewBlank.aspx?m=32750&amid=30231914
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Harry Patch Awarded French Légion d’Honneur
by Kathryn Hadley
On Monday, Harry Patch, one of only two surviving British veterans of the First World War, was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, the highest decoration in France. He was awarded the medal by the French Ambassador, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, at his nursing home in Wells, Somerset.
Harry Patch, who is now 110 years old, was called up for service in the British Army in 1916, when he was working as an apprentice plumber. He began his army training in 1917 and was later recruited in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry as a Lewis gunner assistant. He fought as a machine-gunner in the 1917 Battle of Passhchendaele, which saw the death of 70,000 British troops. Patch himself was badly wounded and three of his best friends were killed. During the Second World War, he served as a maintenance manager at a US Army camp in Somerset and thereafter joined the Auxiliary Fire Service in Bath. Patch only began to talk about his wartime experiences in the 21st century. He has previously received various honours, including British War and Victory medals, and, in 1998, was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour along with over 300 other veterans from the First World War.
Harry Patch reportedly stated his gratitude upon receiving the award:
In the words of Veterans Minister, Kevan Jones:
112-year-old Henry Allingham, who served as an airman, is the only other surviving British First World War veteran. He is also due to be honoured with the French Légion d’Honneur, next week.
An article reporting on the ceremony is available on the website of the Ministry of Defence http://www.mod.uk/.
For an insight into the social, cultural and historical significance of the Victoria Cross, a British medal, read our article The Victoria Cross
Harry Patch, who is now 110 years old, was called up for service in the British Army in 1916, when he was working as an apprentice plumber. He began his army training in 1917 and was later recruited in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry as a Lewis gunner assistant. He fought as a machine-gunner in the 1917 Battle of Passhchendaele, which saw the death of 70,000 British troops. Patch himself was badly wounded and three of his best friends were killed. During the Second World War, he served as a maintenance manager at a US Army camp in Somerset and thereafter joined the Auxiliary Fire Service in Bath. Patch only began to talk about his wartime experiences in the 21st century. He has previously received various honours, including British War and Victory medals, and, in 1998, was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour along with over 300 other veterans from the First World War.
Harry Patch reportedly stated his gratitude upon receiving the award:
‘Now, but two of us remain at our post and the people of France, through their
president, have honoured us once more by appointing us as Officers of the Legion
of Honour. Ambassador, I greatly appreciate the way your people respect the
memory of those who fell, irrespective of the uniform they wore. I will wear
this medal with great pride and when I eventually rejoin my mates it will be
displayed in my regimental museum as a permanent reminder of the kindness of the
people of France.’
In the words of Veterans Minister, Kevan Jones:
‘[Harry Patch] served with such distinction during wars to protect our liberty.
I welcome this award which pays tribute to him for the huge contribution he has
made. We are justly proud of his service and thank the French government for
this honour.’
112-year-old Henry Allingham, who served as an airman, is the only other surviving British First World War veteran. He is also due to be honoured with the French Légion d’Honneur, next week.
An article reporting on the ceremony is available on the website of the Ministry of Defence http://www.mod.uk/.
For an insight into the social, cultural and historical significance of the Victoria Cross, a British medal, read our article The Victoria Cross
Over There or the impossible reconciliation between East and West Germany: our reviews
by Kathryn HadleyAs soon as we took our seats Pinar commented on the staging and decor of the play. ‘Over There first strikes you with its decor. The stage was used to create a big white cube which I thought was successful to emphasize the claustrophobic atmosphere of the time.’ The overwhelming feeling was indeed one of claustrophobia and inescapability: the two characters are trapped in the respective ideologies of the Germany in which they grew up; Germany too remains a product of its history, in which it is still trapped. Derry explains how the two characters, Karl and Franz, are symbols for the history of the two Germanys after reunification, revealing the extent to which Germany is still scarred by its past. I my view Ravenhill’s play was shocking. Although his shock tactics were at times overdone and unnecessary, Ravenhill’s use of symbolism was particularly powerful and effective in conveying both the tragedy of the brothers’ story and of German history. Here are our reviews...
Kathryn: 'from bad to worse'
When the lights were dimmed over the final scene set in California years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was left shell-shocked. Shell-shocked in a similar way that Germany was left shell-shocked and perpetually scarred, both immediately after the Second World War and following the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was shocked by both the explicitness and graphicness of Mark Ravenhill’s latest play and by the issue of an impossible reconciliation between the two Germanys after 1989 which it raised through an extensive use of symbolism.
The play features the twins Luke and Harry Treadway as two twin brothers who are separated following the construction of the Berlin Wall, when their mother flees with Franz to the West leaving Karl with his father in the East. The story is framed by a graphic prologue and epilogue set in the United States in the present, in which Franz is seduced by the waitress in a Californian diner, played by his twin brother. The play ends with the two brothers in bed together.
The play features the twins Luke and Harry Treadway as two twin brothers who are separated following the construction of the Berlin Wall, when their mother flees with Franz to the West leaving Karl with his father in the East. The story is framed by a graphic prologue and epilogue set in the United States in the present, in which Franz is seduced by the waitress in a Californian diner, played by his twin brother. The play ends with the two brothers in bed together.
The audience is also left shell-shocked by the plot as a whole, as it progresses from bad to worse. Things are difficult from the two very first scenes of the play, set at the time of the Berlin Wall. The two brothers are separated by the wall. Franz’s visit to the East Berlin in 1986 is cut short by pressure to reach the checkpoint before it closes and Karl’s sole visit to the West Berlin, in 1988, is only possible because he manages to get a day pass to visit his dying mother, who has sought to cut herself off from all aspects of life in the East and does not even wish to see her son.
The initial euphoria following the fall of the wall is also short-lived as the twins become increasingly aware of their irreconcilable differences, which become a symbol for the wider impossible coexistence of the two Germanys. Initial hopes of freedom and rebirth are merely an illusion: Karl remains trapped in the Soviet communist system of East Germany and soon realises that he does not know who he is and what he wants. Karl’s first solution to his dilemma is to literally become a mirror image of his brother and to live his twin’s life: he wears his suit, learns English, picks his son up from school and spends a day in his office incognito.
However, this solution rapidly proves unworkable. Franz reacts against his brother’s attempts to ‘indoctrinate’ his son with a communist ideology and asserts his desire to be an individual. He claims back his suit and the education of his child and Karl returns to the East where he slumps into depression. Franz’s unsuccessful attempts to ‘clean up’ his brother and to convince him that the communist society of East Germany was ‘a mistake’ provide just a hint at some of the obstacles along the path of reunification. At this point, communication between the twins breaks down as Karl replies to his brother in Russian. When Franz tries to help Karl practise a job interview for a company owned primarily by American share holders, his brother condemns the company as Western, rejecting Franz’s assertions that ‘we’re one’ and that it is neither an east German nor a west German company, but ‘a German company’.
The plot reaches its climax when the brothers take a trip to the countryside to East Germany. Karl pursues his attempts to indoctrinate his twin’s son and the brothers’ subsequent fight to nurture the baby becomes a symbol for the wider struggle to decide which ideological path the new Germany will follow. Coexistence between the brothers is, however, impossible. There cannot be two of them because Karl does not fit in and has nothing of his own to offer. All he can do is take and the only solution is for Franz to kill his brother and to eat him. When Franz asserts ‘two of us? I don’t want two of us. You’re an echo. You’re a shadow’, Karl is forced to admit that the only solution is for his brother to kill him. ‘This is your world. Made in your image. Everything here you understand. I don’t. Everything here you own. I don’t […]. I will take from you. I’ve got nothing and all I can do is take […].’
This disturbing final scene is, however, merely a metaphor for the wider historical issues at stake following German ‘reunification’. In a similar way, the reconciliation of the two Germanys and coexistence will also be impossible. Eastern Germany will inevitably be ‘eaten’ and engulfed by the western consumerist society. Just as the twins only become ‘one’ when Franz eats his brother, Germany will only be one when western Germany has consumed the remains of communist eastern Germany.
The initial euphoria following the fall of the wall is also short-lived as the twins become increasingly aware of their irreconcilable differences, which become a symbol for the wider impossible coexistence of the two Germanys. Initial hopes of freedom and rebirth are merely an illusion: Karl remains trapped in the Soviet communist system of East Germany and soon realises that he does not know who he is and what he wants. Karl’s first solution to his dilemma is to literally become a mirror image of his brother and to live his twin’s life: he wears his suit, learns English, picks his son up from school and spends a day in his office incognito.
However, this solution rapidly proves unworkable. Franz reacts against his brother’s attempts to ‘indoctrinate’ his son with a communist ideology and asserts his desire to be an individual. He claims back his suit and the education of his child and Karl returns to the East where he slumps into depression. Franz’s unsuccessful attempts to ‘clean up’ his brother and to convince him that the communist society of East Germany was ‘a mistake’ provide just a hint at some of the obstacles along the path of reunification. At this point, communication between the twins breaks down as Karl replies to his brother in Russian. When Franz tries to help Karl practise a job interview for a company owned primarily by American share holders, his brother condemns the company as Western, rejecting Franz’s assertions that ‘we’re one’ and that it is neither an east German nor a west German company, but ‘a German company’.
The plot reaches its climax when the brothers take a trip to the countryside to East Germany. Karl pursues his attempts to indoctrinate his twin’s son and the brothers’ subsequent fight to nurture the baby becomes a symbol for the wider struggle to decide which ideological path the new Germany will follow. Coexistence between the brothers is, however, impossible. There cannot be two of them because Karl does not fit in and has nothing of his own to offer. All he can do is take and the only solution is for Franz to kill his brother and to eat him. When Franz asserts ‘two of us? I don’t want two of us. You’re an echo. You’re a shadow’, Karl is forced to admit that the only solution is for his brother to kill him. ‘This is your world. Made in your image. Everything here you understand. I don’t. Everything here you own. I don’t […]. I will take from you. I’ve got nothing and all I can do is take […].’
This disturbing final scene is, however, merely a metaphor for the wider historical issues at stake following German ‘reunification’. In a similar way, the reconciliation of the two Germanys and coexistence will also be impossible. Eastern Germany will inevitably be ‘eaten’ and engulfed by the western consumerist society. Just as the twins only become ‘one’ when Franz eats his brother, Germany will only be one when western Germany has consumed the remains of communist eastern Germany.
Derry: 'a troublesome meal yet to be fully digested'
The cast list for Mark Ravenhill’s Over There could not be more simple. It reads something like this: Harry Treadaway as Franz; Luke Treadaway, Harry’s twin brother, plays Karl (also Franz’s twin brother). The way I see it, however, both Franz and Karl are only lightly disguised symbols for the fortunes of their respective countries after reunification.
Harry plays West Germany. He is flashy, rich and outwardly self-confident, yet his materialism masks an inner dilemma. He yearns for his father figure, who is inaccessible, first because of the Wall, then by death. His embrace of western values and language is tempered by his boredom with his career and his expensive purchases. He scoffs at his brother’s lack of refinement, yet is still curious about life on the opposite side of the wall. At various points in the play, not least while he embarks on a one-night stand with a Californian waitress, the script alludes to his unsettled subconscious and the looming insecurity that haunts his life.
All of these characteristics, I imagine, could arguably be assigned to the ‘victorious’ West Germany at the end of the Cold War. Before this event, West Germany was booming. A modern infrastructure, a sturdy economy and powerful industries beckoned guest workers from around the world and led to its role as the engine of the European economy. But is materialism alone enough to sustain a nation? Was there was still something intangible missing from a nation shorn in two? These are the questions Franz’s character asks of himself and the audience.
The problems of Karl, the twin from the east, are less nuanced but arguably more serious. His entire way of life and hence, his identity, has been challenged by the fall of the Wall. The ideals that both society and his father taught him have proved a categorical and total failure. Furthermore, a commitment to communal living and thinking has rendered his personality incapable of coping with life in the West. He finds the possibilities offered by the capitalist way of life exciting but simultaneously inhibiting. “I can be anything”, he exclaims while standing in the shadows of the toppling wall. But just as soon his face falls and he asks himself, worriedly, “But who am I?”
His initial and short-lived solution to his situation is to gorge himself on the shallow prizes of West German life: pornography and chocolate. His next, equally doomed course of action is to mimic his brother’s ostensibly comfortable existence. His final and pathetic recourse is to revert to chanting the obsolete socialist slogans he has learned by rote as a child. I imagine that all of these personal dilemmas reflect well those felt by liberated but rather lost citizenry of the defunct GDR circa 1989. From their perspective, the task of adjusting economically, culturally and psychologically to the rhythms of Western life must have appeared mammoth.
It’s a task that is yet incomplete. On a recent visit to Bremen, deep in what had been the West, I was shocked by a local’s denouncement of re-unification, and the economic costs dunkel-Deutschland had wrought on its rich twin. Furthermore, any visitor to today’s Berlin can observe at first hand the split personalities of this most schizophrenic of cities: the West boasts international corporate headquarters housed in shining towers of marble and glass while the East can offer only empty power stations now inhabited by communes, techno nightclubs and artists’ collectives. And yet, perversely, it is the latter rather than the former that felt to me more real, more at ease with itself.
It is not for the neon of the Sony Centre that many people my age visit united Germany’s capital, but for the bohemian, free-living and communally-minded ethics on display in the art galleries and summer music parades of the east. It is this contradiction in German history and national character Franz and Harry portray particularly well. Rather like the shockingly cannibalistic finale of Over There, a communist country was swallowed whole by its capitalistic neighbour in 1989. Ravenhill’s play suggests that this troublesome meal is yet to be fully digested.
Over There
March 2nd – March 21st
Royal Court Theatre
Sloane Square
London SW1W 8AS
Telephone: 020 7565 5000
http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/
March 2nd – March 21st
Royal Court Theatre
Sloane Square
London SW1W 8AS
Telephone: 020 7565 5000
http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/
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