Pres Paul von HindenburgWikiThe usual image of the Weimar Republic was one of political instability, economic crisis and cultural decadence. That always seemed ridiculous to me since this republic was Germany’s new system of democratic government after the Second Reich collapsed. The name was chosen because Berlin was still in the midst of revolution when…

Lue lisää

Bonegilla is a rural area on the western shore of Lake Hume in N.E Victoria. The nearest large township is Wodonga Vic, 9 km to the west and c12 km from Albury NSW, on the southern bank of Murray River, the border between the two states. Bonegilla primary school opened in 1876, a railway connection (1889)…

Lue lisää

Fez Carpet marketBob CromwellLet me examine some of the connections between Morocco and Europe I was familiar with. Visitors to the Paros Gallery in Greece should see the Sèvres Imperial Hunting tea service 1812, commissioned by Napoleon as a gift his second wife Empress Marie-Louise. The porcelain and silver gilt cups, saucers and pots each…

Lue lisää

Patrick Joseph Ken­nedy (1858–1929) was the son of poor Irish im­migrants who married in Boston in 1849. Originally a saloon-owner in Boston who ex­pand­ed to own a whiskey importation business, Patrick Kennedy made a good living in al­co­hol, and became the first family member to enter local politics. When Prohib­ition became law in 1920, importers…

Lue lisää

St Andrew Square Edinburgh was built by 1781, an integral part of James Craig's scheme for New Town. For a long time, the squ­are's gardens were acc­es­s­ible only by very desirable inhabitants of the  sur­round­ing homes.The Melville Monumentin the centre of  St Andrew Square EdinburghThe Melville Monument is a large column and statue, built by 1827…

Lue lisää

Phar Lap was born in Timaru New Zealand in 1926, a chestnut gelding standing 17 hands high. The yearling was one of those sent by Sea-down Stud owner Alec Roberts to the Trentham sales. Sydney trainer Harry Telford received a copy of the N.Z Thoroughbred Yearling Sale Catalogue in Jan 1928 and was impressed by…

Lue lisää

Veli Pekka Toropainen Olin joulukuussa 2024 tutkimusmatkalla Tukholmassa Riksarkivet Mariebergissä. Tarkoituksenani oli etsiä materiaalia Helsingin yliopiston teologisessa tiedekunnassa suoritettavaan projektiin, jossa tutkitaan äärimmäistä hätää. Keräsin samalla materiaalia Turun yliopiston oikeustieteellisessä tiedekunnassa tehtävään hankkeeseen VirTuAr, jossa rekonstruoidaan Turun hovioikeuden palanut arkisto muista lähteistä, joissa hovioikeus ja sen toimijat mainitaan. Kolmanneksi keräsin materiaalia oikeustieteelliseen tekemääni väitöskirjaan. Silmiini…

Lue lisää

The text of Auld Lang Syne is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns (1759-96) in 1788 but based on an older Scottish folk song. In 1799, it was set to a traditional pentatonic/Scots folk melody, probably a sprightly dance in a much quicker tempo. I hope this was correct because the slow version is…

Lue lisää

The most important Japanese tour for my grandchildren in 2024 was Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial. My children and I heard my father’s WW2 history many times, but my grand children knew nothing from the family. So they read the following from Atomic Archive before they left Australia.Product Exhibition Hall and dome by Czech architect Jan Letzel built 1915taken…

Lue lisää

Bruno Bettelheim Tantor mediaBruno Bettelheim (1903–90) was born in Vienna, son of a middle-class Jewish lumber merchant. He entered Vienna Uni, but was forced to leave to take over his fam­ily business when his father sickened. In 1930, he married school-teacher Gina Al­stadt, a dis­ciple of Anna Freud.During the 1930s Bruno and Gina took care of…

Lue lisää

Truganini in shell necklace, 1866 - jpgin The AustralianTruganini (1812-76) was born on Bruny Island Tasmania near the mouth of the Derwent River, in her tribal territory. Truganini was a daughter of the leader of the Bruny Island peoples, Mangerner. She grew in her people’s traditional culture, even though Aboriginal life had been disrupted by…

Lue lisää

Austrian artist Max Oppenheimer (1885-1954) painted in 1927, capturing the rough energy of a music that was taking Berlin’s nightlife by storm in the interwar era.Max Oppenheimer, Weintraub's Syncopators, 1927. Jewish Museum BerlinUsed to illustrate brochures advertising Stefan Weintraub's (1897–1981) concerts in late 1920s, it showed the group as a quartet, though they often performed with 5+ musicians. Stefan Weintraub…

Lue lisää

Map of Lowestoft in Suffolk,facing Amsterdam across the North Sea.A few years ago I asked my students to select an article on Lowestoft porcelain and they thought Antiques Trade Gazette to be particularly helpful. Clay was found on the Gunton Hall Estate near Lowestoft in Suffolk in 1756, leading to a partnership of local men that established…

Lue lisää

A large blaze engulfed the very religious Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea in Melbourne’s south-east on Friday morning, and is being treated as a deliberately lit fire.The Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea.There were no guards at the front entrancesAdass men at prayer on a normal dayThe Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, visited the scene on Friday afternoon,…

Lue lisää

Established through the Will of Cecil John Rhodes of the diamond company De Beers in 1902, the Rhodes Scholarship was a very progressive project in the new century. 120+ years later, the Rhodes Scholarships are the oldest and most respected international scholarship programme anywhere, enabling talented young people around the world to undertake full-time postgraduate study…

Lue lisää

Ripponlea Mansion was built for Frederick Sargood (1834-1903), a man who became rich selling soft-goods on the Vict­orian goldfields, wife Marian and 9 children. The proper­ty design­ed by Joseph Reed, Melb­ourne's most important architect then. Rippon Lea was built when there was much weal­th in Victoria from the gold boom. This led to the building…

Lue lisää

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959)’s father had been a Universal­ist preacher. With their emphasis on a loving God, Universalists were early advocates of endling slavery and the first church to ordain women. In 1886 Univ­ers­alist Aug­usta Chapin bec­ame minister of the Oak Park Unity Church Chicago, attr­acting new members to the assembly including Lloyd Wright’s mother Anna.…

Lue lisää

The Apollo Awards have been celebrated since 1992 with fine ceremonies. It’s still as important as ever to celebrate outstand­ing ach­ieve­ments in the museum world. Yet senior museum com­m­entators warn­ed that mus­eum culture may not endure with its cur­rent sense of purp­ose; funding for both national and regional instit­utions being squeez­ed still further. Thus the…

Lue lisää

This is the strangest Faked Art story I've ever seen. Tom Keating (1917–84) was born into a poor London family. His father worked as a house painter, and barely made enough to feed the household. At 14, Keating was turned away from the college of his choice, so the teenager started working for the family business…

Lue lisää

Andy Willimott wrote an excellent journal article on a generation of young Russians who embraced new ideals of socialist living. I have added my own family’s experience in this amazing era. Communist Youth League/Komsomol,  The youth were healthy, ideological and proud 1924 poster The October Revolution, which started when the Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace on 25th Oct…

Lue lisää