Apocalyptic Hero (Metropolitan Museum Favorites, 5)
I've been an atheist for decades, so it took some poking and prodding and peeling of my psyche to figure out why I like this piece so much: it's clearly…
0 Comments
March 3, 2016
Not Gilty Pleasures (Metropolitan Museum Favorites, 4)
Through May 1, 2016, the Metropolitan Museum has on display Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age, a selection of luxury furniture from the late 19th century. There isn't much gilding: silver was the…
March 1, 2016
The Marquis de Lafayette (Hamilton 5)
Lord Acton wrote that Lafayette taught his compatriots the American "theory of revolution, not their theory of government - their cutting, not their sewing." Gouverneur Morris told George Washington that…
February 27, 2016
OMG it’s the friggin’ BATMOBILE
From Oct. 9, 2015 through February 21, 2016, the New-York Historical Society ran an exhibition on superheroes of Gotham. I didn't even realize it was there, which is a nasty thing that happens…
February 26, 2016
R&D Lab ca. 1885 (Metropolitan Museum Favorites, 3)
When I think of 19th-century industry, I think of Vanderbilt's railroads ... And Holley's steel mills ... And Thomas Price's lab. According to the MMA's site, the subject of this…
February 25, 2016
Perfect Map for Harris’s Dictator
I'm immersed in Robert Harris's Dictator, the third in his trilogy on Cicero. Spoiler: people die, by the thousands. The Roman Republic did not go gentle into that good night. But Harris,…
February 23, 2016
John Laurens (Hamilton 4)
John Laurens didn't live to see the end of the American Revolution. He died at age 27, killed by the British ten months after Yorktown - which was only recognized in…
February 20, 2016
Central Park 95 Years Ago
Airplanes came into wide use during World War I, and so did aerial photography for reconnaissance. After the war, Sherman Fairchild (1896-1971) founded the Fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation. One of its earliest…
February 18, 2016
The Art of Advertising (Great Quotes on Advertising, 1)
Advertising is the life of trade. —Calvin Coolidge Advertising is “the lubricant for the free-enterprise system.” —Leo-Arthur Kelmenson (1976) Advertising is the poetry of Capitalism. —Michael Maynard, Chair of the Department of…
February 16, 2016
“I wish there was a War,” and Aaron Burr (Hamilton 3)
The earliest surviving letter by Hamilton is dated November 11, 1769. It was written by 12-year-old Alexander, who had lost his mother a year earlier, to his friend (half-brother?) Edward Stevens, who…
February 13, 2016