Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Our baseball heroes - captains of the twelve clubs in the National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, the National League (NL), is the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876,

Title: Our baseball heroes - captains of the twelve clubs in the National League, Creator(s): Fox, R. K. (Richard Kyle), b. 1846, copyright claimant, Date Created/Published: New York : Richard K. Fox, c1895 Apr. 20. Medium: 1 print : chromolithograph.

Summary: Print showing bust portraits of the captains of the twelve baseball teams in the National League, arranged around a scene showing a base-runner attempting to steal second base during a baseball game. Clockwise, from the top are: George Davis of New York, Michael J. Griffin of Brooklyn, William "Buck" Ewing of Cincinnati, John A. Boyle of Philadelphia, Oliver W. "Patsy" Tebeau of Cleveland, John Wesley Glasscock of Louisville, Edward C. Cartwright of Washington, Connie Mack of Pittsburg, George F. "Doggie" Miller of St. Louis, Billy Nash of Boston, Wilbert Robinson of Baltimore, and Adrian "Cap" Anson of Chicago.

Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-18403 (digital file from original print) LC-USZ62-922 (b&w film copy neg.)

Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.

This Image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 in this case c1895, are now in the public domain.

Our baseball heroes - captains of the twelve clubs in the National League

Call Number: PGA - Fox, Richard--Our baseball heroes ... (B size) [P&P] Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Notes: 23877 U.S. Copyright Office. Title from item. Copyrighted 1895 by Richard K. Fox, Police Gazette, New York. Published in: Supplement to the Police Gazette, vol. LXVI, no. 926 (1895 June 1st), Richard K. Fox Propr.

Subjects: Baseball players--United States--1890-1900. Format: Chromolithographs--Color--1890-1900. Portrait prints--1890-1900. Collections: Popular Graphic Arts.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

W.C. Fields (William Claude Dukenfield)

William Claude Dukenfield (W.C. Fields) (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946)

Title: W.C. Fields -- Philip Goodman. Creator(s): Bain News Service, publisher. Date Created / Published: [no date recorded on caption card] Medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ggbain-36682 (digital file from original negative)

Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.There are no known restrictions on the photographs in the George Grantham Bain Collection. Publication and other forms of distribution: No known restrictions.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-B2-1234]

Call Number: LC-B2- 6125-15. Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Notes: Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).

Format: Glass negatives. Collections: Bain Collection.

The George Grantham Bain Collection represents the photographic files of one of America's earliest news picture agencies. The collection richly documents sports events, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters, political activities including the woman suffrage campaign, conventions and public celebrations. The photographs Bain produced and gathered for distribution through his news service were worldwide in their coverage, but there was a special emphasis on life in New York City.

W.C. Fields (William Claude Dukenfield)

The bulk of the collection dates from the 1900s to the mid-1920s, but scattered images can be found as early as the 1860s and as late as the 1930s. Available online are 39,744 glass negatives and a selection of about 1,600 photographic prints for which copy negatives exist. This represents all of the glass plate negatives the Library holds and a small proportion of the 50,000 photographic prints in the collection. The Library purchased the collection in 1948 from D.J. Culver.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem

The first particulars of a description of the Temple are given in the First Book of Kings: a few more are added in the Second Book of Kings and in Jeremiah. The parts wanting in these three books are given in Ezekiel, and nowhere else in the world.

It is as if the writer of the Kings, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, had examined each what the other had written, and then each supplied what the others had omitted. Thus, in Kings, many inside measures of the house are given, but no outside ones; while in Ezekiel the outside measures are supplied, together with some inside measures which were omitted in Kings: and, when all the measures are put together, they perfectly agree, and make one house.

In general, it is a truth which will be established by a hundred examples, that parts which are fully described in Kings are only mentioned in Ezekiel, and those which are only mentioned in Kings are fully described in Ezekiel. Thus

it is barely mentioned in Kings that the Temple had courts, gates, altars, and little chambers; but no measures or descriptions are given of them: while in Ezekiel the courts, gates, and altars are minutely described, and the little chambers are shown to be watch-towers, three each side of each gate, PI. XIII. and XV.; and are fully described and measured, with the distances between the groups and between each other, Ezek. xl. 7-10. So, on the other hand, two pillars — Jachin and Boaz — are minutely described in 1 and 2 Kings and Jeremiah, together with the porch in which they stood.

The same porch is described in Ezekiel, with the bare mention of two pillars, one each side of it. But the length of this porch is given as twenty cubits in both places, bb', PI. VII.; while the width in Kings is ten cubits, but in Ezekiel it is eleven cubits, 1 Kings vi. 3; Ezek. xl. 49. But in Kings the measures are taken from the inside of the house, outwards: while in Ezekiel the measuring begins at the east gate of the outer court, at o, PI. XIII., and proceeds inwards, on the dotted line, to the house in the centre; thus from without inwards, and then into the house. Hence the width of ten cubits is an inside measure, gd', PI. VII.; and eleven cubits is an outside measure, gb'. Hence the porch had a wall one cubit thick, b'd'. That it had a wall is further evident in that it had a gate (Ezek. xl. 48), which was six cubits wide, cc' (same); and, if there were no wall, there would be no need of a gate.

Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem

Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem, c. 1896-1902, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French, 1836-1902) or followers, gouache on board, 10 5/16 x 7 1/2 in. (26.2 x 19.2 cm), at the Jewish Museum, New York.

Date: c. 1896-1902

This Image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 in this case c. 1896-1902, are now in the public domain.

This file is also in the public domain in countries that figure copyright from the date of death of the artist (post mortem auctoris in this case James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) and that most commonly runs for a period of 50 to 70 years from December 31 of that year. +sookie tex

James Joseph Jacques Tissot [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

TEXT CREDIT: Solomon's temple: or, the tabernacle ... Volume 61 of Solomon's Temple: Or, the Tabernacle, Timothy Otis Paine. Author: Timothy Otis Paine. Publisher: Phinney, 1861. Original from: Harvard University. Digitized: Jan 24, 2008. Length: 99 pages. Subjects: History › General, History / General, Solomon's temple.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot Conspirators

January 27, 1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.

The name of Guy Faukes has, by reason of the all-important part assigned to him in the conspiracy, become so closely identified with its formation and its direction, that we are apt nowadays to look upon him as the principal plotter, whereas he was really subordinate to another, whose name is not quite so familiar to the man in the street. This, the principal plotter, was Robert Catesby. It was, ab initio, Catesby's Conspiracy. It was from his restless brain that the idea of blowing up the House of Peers with gunpowder first emanated.

Having laid his plans, Catesby looked round for confederates, upon whom he could implicitly rely, to help him; and, on his solicitation, they one after another promised to assist and obey him. He was from beginning to end the captain of the band. He hesitated at nothing to gain his own ends.

Promises that he could not fulfil, statements about others that could not be true, I cannot agree with the theory that it was Thomas Winter who put the idea into Catesby's head. All the original evidence tends to prove th it Catesby was the founder of the plot he made from time to time with the utmost assurance. A lie was not a lie, if told in the interests of the plot. 'Master Catesby,' complained Garnet, 'did me much wrong, and hath confessed that he told them he asked me a question in Queen Elizabeth's time of the powder action, and that I said it was lawful.

All which is most untrue. He did it to draw in others.' A man of great courage and resolution, he possessed a wonderful power of making his friends both like and serve him. Utterly unscrupulous, he never repented. He never lost heart, and was always sanguine of success. Even when all was up, and his atrocious plans had utterly failed, he died game, falling in a desperate fight with the officers of the Crown, being determined that he should never be taken alive. He expired from his severe wounds, with his arms clasped round the feet of an image of the Virgin, to whose protection he had commended his sinful soul.

Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot Conspirators

The Gunpowder Plot Conspirators, 1605. by Crispijn de Passe the Elder, engraving, circa 1605.

This Image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 in this case circa 1605, are now in the public domain.

This file is also in the public domain in countries that figure copyright from the date of death of the artist (post mortem auctoris in this case Crispijn de Passe the Elder (1637) and that most commonly runs for a period of 50 to 70 years from December 31 of that year. +sookie tex

TEXT and IMAGE CREDIT: A history of the Gunpowder Plot: the conspiracy and its agents. Author: Philip Sidney. Edition 2. Publisher: Religious Tract Society., 1905. Original from: Harvard University. Digitized: Aug 14, 2007. Length: 313 pages. Subjects: Great Britain, Gunpowder Plot, 1605.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

3,106 carat Cullinan Diamond

January 25, 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered. Weighing 1.33 pound it was the largest diamond ever found and was the largest polished diamond in the world until the 1985 discovery of the Golden Jubilee Diamond, 545.67 carats, also from the Premier Mine.

Cullinan I is now mounted in the head of the Sceptre with the Cross. The second largest gem from the Cullinan stone, Cullinan II or the Lesser Star of Africa, at 317.4 carats, is the fourth largest polished diamond in the world. Both gems are in the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

The Premier Diamond Mine in South Africa where the Cullinan was found was comparatively new, having only been worked since 1902. It had, however, already produced over $25,000,000 worth 'of the precious stones, and its size is so enormous that it was feared by other diamond mine owners that the output of the Premier in the future will seriously affect the diamond market. This great mine as yet has only been worked on the surface, and when it is considered that it can be worked for thousands of feet deep its estimated value is beyond man's comprehension.

In its rough state the Cullinan was irregular in shape, and it was without doubt only part of a much larger stone, for there were indisputable evidences that on three sides large pieces had been broken off. In fact, by many of the experts who handled it it is believed that it was only a small piece of a very much larger stone, but there was less possibility of reconstructing it than to reconstruct the statue of Venus de Milo. Perhaps, however, the mystery may some day be solved by the other pieces of the stone being found.

In recent years when large stones were discovered it has been a problem as to what disposition should be made of them. This was notably so in the case of the Jubilee and the Excelsior, but when the Cullinan was discovered the problem was further complicated for it was out of the question that any individual buyer could be found for it, as its value in the rough was three-quarters of a million dollars— in other words the stone was priceless.

Of course it could have been broken up into marketable size pieces but such a course would have greatly diminished its value; and so pending a decision of the best adjustment to te made of it the diamond as large as a tumbler was sent to London to repose in the vaults of the Rough Syndicate for safe keeping. Then the Transvaal government conceived a happy thought of presenting the gem to King Edward, and so the historic pebble becomes the property of the Crown of England.

After the decision was reached to present the King with the diamond the serious question arose as to the manner in which it should be cut and polished, for an unpolished stone to the unpracticed eye has about the same luster as a piece of camphor. With this end in view the great diamond firm of J. Asscher, of Amsterdam and Paris, was brought into requisition.

This firm was originally started by the father of the present manager, who descended from a long line of diamond workers. This diamond factory is the largest of its kind in the world, and surely the best adapted to have undertaken such a complicated and intricate work as the cleaving and polishing of a diamond such as the Cullman. The stone was consequently turned over to the Asschers to do with it as their good judgment might dictate. After the diaimond was received at the factory it.was photographed in all possible positions.

Cullinan Diamond

Two Views of the uncut stone

Cullinan Diamond

The stone cut into several parts

Cullinan Diamond

The Stone after Completion

This Image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 in this case 1904, are now in the public domain.

TEXT and IMAGE CREDIT: Technical world magazine, Volume 11 Author: Armour Institute of Technology. Publisher: American school of correspondence at Armour Institute of Technology, 1909. Original from: the University of Michigan. Digitized: Dec 12, 2008. Subjects: Technology & Engineering › General Industrial arts, Technology, Technology & Engineering / General Technology & Engineering / Social Aspects.

TEXT RESOURCE: Cullinan Diamond From Wikipedia