History

Brazil is noted for its high murder rate. In the Wikipedia map posted here, Brazil falls in the highest homicide category, with more than 20 slayings a year per 100,000 people. This figure significantly exceeds that of the United States (4.8) and vastly exceeds those of such countries as Japan (0.4) and Iceland (0.3).  Yet Brazil is hardly the most ...This post is from GeoCurrents

"Music Man" star Shirley Jones in 1961 with her kids, the future pop stars David and Shaun Cassidy. Photo by Earl Theisen for the Look magazine article "The Good Life of a Hollywood Bad Girl." View full size.

One of the aspects of being a history teacher that I love is that history is literally all around you. No matter where you are, the place where you are standing has a history waiting to be discovered. The only drawback is that it often takes a considerable amount of time and effort to uncover that history. That is where the Field Trip app saves the day.I have had the Field Trip app loaded on my phone for a while but hadn't really taken the time to take it for a spin. (The Field Trip app is available for both Android and iPhone). This past week I was in Washington DC working on a project with Cable in the Classroom and thought it would be a perfect time to fire it up and see if I could discover some interesting things while I explored DC. I found it to be very helpful and provided one of the highlights of my trip.The Field Trip essentially determines your location and then provides you with interesting tidbits relating to that area. You can turn on a variety of layers - most of the layers that I have selected fit my interests of history and architecture. Some of the other topics that appear are offers and deals, food and drink, cool and unique, etc. Notifications appears showing information, links and photos. You can customize the settings to fit your needs.I enjoyed using the app throughout my stay in DC including reading up about the history of Reagan National Airport while waiting for the Metro (I didn't know that the the airport is on the former Abingdon plantation owned by the Custis family with ties to George Washington) and it helped me find a great place to eat near DuPont Circle (the short ribs at Circa were awesome). The most unexpected and surprising moment came as I walked back to my hotel at the end of the day.I was staying in the Washington Hilton - a really nice hotel but it doesn't scream historic location because it is rather modern. As I walked up the hill toward my hotel I saw that Field Trip had an entry for the hotel under the layer provided by Open Buildings. As I read through the information I saw something which grabbed my attention - the hotel was the location of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan. I remember the assassination attempt well. I was 10 years old and can still remember watching that clip over and over again on the news of the secret service throwing themselves on Reagan to protect him and then shoving him in the car to get away.On my phone I pulled up the Wikipedia page on the assassination attempt and found the images taken as Regan waved to the crowd and then the aftermath after the shots were fired. I had walked by that location earlier in the day when I checked in and had no idea that the event had taken place on that spot. There were understandably no signs and markers on the spot, it would be odd to commemorate a failed assassination attempt on your property, but it is an important part of American history. I asked the bellman at the front desk about the assassination attempt and he provided me with a little additional information about how a flower bed had been added on part of the sidewalk since 1981. The next morning after breakfast I went out to the location of the failed assassination attempt and took a few pictures.As a history teacher, this little historical tidbit made my day. I would have never known about it without the Field Trip app and I would have walked on by while missing a chance to discover the importance of that location. Theses examples are just a few of many times during the day that I felt lucky to have Field Trip on my phone. My head is also spinning about the potential of not just using Field Trip but also creating content for Field Trip with my students. I will be investigating if my students could create a layer for Field Trip with historical photographs from around our community of Liberty, Missouri. Students would enjoy helping build content which could then be enjoyed by a larger community.

The story of Florence Maybrick in the late 19th century fascinated Victorian audiences. Was she a vile poisoner or a Victorian victim? Because she was an American by birth, the case ended up involving the US press as well as the US government, as her lawyers worked frantically to get her sentence either commuted or overturned. The suspect: Name: Florence Elizabeth Chandler Born: September 3, 1862, Mobile, Alabama. Parents: William George Chandler, a banker and one-time mayor of Mobile, and the Baroness von Roques. Background: Florence’s father died when she was a baby. Her mother married twice more, the final time to a German baron. Florence grew up in Europe, educated privately by governesses, spoke French and German fluently. She was pretty, vivacious and sophisticated. The Victim: Name: James Maybrick Born: October 25, 1838, Liverpool England Parents: William and Susanna Maybrick. Profession: Cotton Broker. His business required him to travel regularly to the United States. In 1871, he settled for a time in Norfolk, VA, to establish a branch office of his company. Background: In March of 1880, Florence Chandler met James Maybrick on a ship from New York to Liverpool, England. When the boat docked 8 days later, they were engaged. Florence was 18 and James was 42. The two were an odd couple. While Florence was petite with dark, wavy hair and big blue eyes, James was portly with florid cheeks, typical middle-aged Englishman. Despite their age difference, the couple was wed over a year later on July 27, 1881 at St. James Church, Piccadilly in London. For three years, the couple divided their time between Norfolk and Liverpool before settling permanently in Liverpool. The couple had two children, a son named James Chandler known as “Bobo” and a daughter Gladys Evelyn. They moved into Battlecrease House in a suburb of Liverpool, a huge house that had over twenty rooms. By necessity (Florence wasn’t going to clean those rooms herself!), they employed a gaggle of servants including two maids, a nanny, a nursemaid, a footman etc. Florence had no close friends in Liverpool, although she led an active social life with parties, teas, benefits, and charity dances. Her husband’s family was suspicious of her and her mother, considering them to be adventuresses. Her husband’s ex-fiancée and her two sisters came and went freely from the Maybrick home. Florence had no idea how to deal with servants or how to run a household. She and her mother had led a peripatetic existence in Europe and the United States, never settling anywhere for long, because of their finances. She had no idea how to budget. When her husband was having financial difficulties, he put her on allowance of £7 a week, out of which she had to pay the bills as well as the servants. Florence borrowed money from money lenders in order to pay creditors which left her increasingly in debt. She lived in fear of her husband finding out exactly how much money she owed. After 5 years of marriage, Florence discovered that James not only had a long-term mistress, but they also had several children. As soon as Florence found out about Maybrick’s mistress, she stopped sleeping with him. Lonely and wanting a little romance, Florence began an affair with a businessman named Alfred Brierly but the affair was short-lived. When Maybrick discovered her affair, there was a violent row during which Maybrick assaulted her. Divorce was impossible. While Maybrick would have been able to divorce Florence for her adultery, Florence would have had to prove not only adultery but cruelty, desertion or incest for her to obtain a divorce. Maybrick might have been able to take her children from her, and if he divorced her for adultery, he was not obliged to support her. Death: James Maybrick’s health deteriorated suddenly in April of 1889, and he

Fragment of fallen ceiling in the open air storageof the lovely Temple of Tod complex, south of LuxorFieldwork Penn curator Joe Wegner continues excavations at mortuary complex of Pharaoh Senwosret III, Abydos.Penn Artifactlab http://bit.ly/11a1cnf ResearchHand in Hand with Politics: The Challenges of Egyptian Studies in Serbia by B. An?elkovi?. Friends of ASOR Newsletter. http://asorblog.org/?p=4490 Heritage Management and LootingEgypt’s poor management of ancient monuments draws threat from UNESCO. Daily News Egypt http://bit.ly/19WhtLS Minister for Antiquities says that UNESCO is not threatening to remove 6 sites from World Heritage List. Ahram Online http://bit.ly/11Vvw6J Archaeologists denounce “disgraceful” plundering of the city of Antinopolis, built by Emperor Hadrian. The Art Newspaper http://bit.ly/164Sxpk and Past Horizons http://bit.ly/18g5wBSBooks Ancient Egyptian Literature Theory and Practice. Edited by Roland Enmarch and Verena M. Lepper. OUP http://bit.ly/184k21N Extended edition of Anubis, Bibliography on Mummies, Mummification and; Related Subjects. C.de Vartavan and I.Waanders http://bit.ly/10S3K4F From Old Cairo to the New World: Coptic Studies Presented to Gawdat Gabra. Colloquia Antiqua 9. Peeters http://bit.ly/184krkP ConferencesThe British Museum continued its support of Sudanese archaeology with an international conference. Sudan Vision Daily http://bit.ly/ZdItHt Czech Inst. of Egyptology announces international conference: Profane landscapes, sacred spaces. miroslav.barta [at] ff.cuni.cz Museums and exhibitionsAlexandria plans for a new maritime museum at site of Qaitbay citadel. Archaeology News Network http://bit.ly/13NhuSj Call for general public volunteers (14-65 yrs old) for the new Petrie Museum website to appraise work done so far: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology http://bit.ly/16b4PfU Free online/ open accessAncient Egyptian Architecture Online provides vetted, standardized architectural drawings of a selection of buildings http://dai.aegaron.ucla.edu MUDIRA: Joint project to digitize and provide access to the collections of images held at two Munich institutions. http://bit.ly/168xGBq Short article: "Archaeology after the Arab Spring" by Jesse Casana. Friends of ASOR Newsletter http://asorblog.org/?p=4417 Short article in Spanish about the Turin papyrus that shows a Ramesside map of the Eastern Desert goldmines. Ushebtis http://bit.ly/Zabio1 Journals, Magazines and NewslettersDamqatum, the CEHAO newsletter, 2012, nº 8, in English: UCA http://bit.ly/10VjbJj Job OpportunitiesJob: British Museum: Curator, Department of Ancient Egypt & Sudan, with responsibilities for research and outreach. http://bit.ly/10iJ7hX Miscellaneous Northampton faces legal challenge over Sekhemka statue sale from Marquis of Northampton. Museums Journal http://bit.ly/10U7Vgf The Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) archives now officially registered with the Library of Congress. AERA http://bit.ly/13LfZkl Zahi Hawass, long-reigning king of AE antiquities was forced into exile but is now plotting a return. Smithsonian Mag http://bit.ly/16a12PH For fun. This really made me laugh (and a good moral in the tale too). How NOT to hand in your PhD. The Thesis Whisperer http://bit.ly/192trWM Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

In which the Young King is praised for his chivalric qualities and we receive an impression of the hurley burley of a tournament.The Marshal returned to his lord, the young King, a man of such worthiness that no man was his equal as regards valour and liberality. Never did Arthur or Alexander, whose lives were noted for their noble deeds, perform so many in such a short time. If God, by his command, had allowed him to live a long life, he would have quite surpassed these two in valour and noble deeds.He gathered so many worthy men around him that no emperor, king, or count ever had such an experienced company, nor would such have been found at any time, for there is no doubt that he had the pick of the bravest young knights in France, Flanders, and Champagne. He did not haggle with them, but he acted in such a way that all the worthiest men came and joined him. I have no wish to name them all here, for it would be a difficult task to bring them together and tell you the names of each, and by so doing I would spoil my tale. But one day I shall list them for you and name them, every single one.The King did so much in his life that all worthy men desired to have his wisdom and his prowess, his virtues and his generosity. Every man would have liked to be him, for he made the whole world tremble in the battles in which he took part. Many a time it happened that, when he spurred on, so the companies with him spurred on too, so vigorously as they advanced that those riding towards them from the other side could not withstand their charge. And it often happened that the other side had far more men than they, and yet they was soon thrown into disarray by the mighty power of the King’s companies. For, when the latter charged as one band, they found nobody prepared to await their charge, nobody who dared stretch out his hand towards them, nobody bold enough to engage with one of them, so much so that the King had no one to charge at, for those spurring forward in front of him had chased on so far ahead that the King was left without a target to strike at. Often you would see it happen that he was left with very few men, and also, often he would go and join battle with some group from outside, and found it difficult to leave the the fray. Despite his rash forays, the Marshal was there to the rescue; he stuck so close to him and was ever pulling him away from the press of battle at times when he was near to being captured. The Marshal, responsible for enhancing the King’s reputation, was constantly rescuing him and so sending his enemies on their way; he was always under the Marshal’s wings. For these exploits and similar ones the King loved him dearly, far more than any other knight he knew in any land or any he had ever had in his company. So the King travelled about for a long time, a man so wealthy and courtly, more generous than any other Christian, and who surpassed all the princes on earth in his sheer handsomeness, honourable conduct, and loyalty. Things turned out for him so exceedingly well that everywhere he went there was no talk or report of noble deeds if they were not about him. And, of course, was that not bound to be the case? After all, he had the best instructor in arms that there ever was in his time or since, according to the story that is my source: that is, of course, the Marshal, who devoted himself utterly to the King and never once failed him. And the pains he took were well employed, for through his worthiness the King came to have Generosity as his bride. He did not use her as a concubine, for their marriage was a very good one: as long as he lived he loved her as a true lover, and she him, I have no doubt, as a true and perfect lover.Forgetfulness, who is as blind as a bat, soon deflects from the path he is following a man who is sunk in his thoughts, diverting him from his course. However, memory puts me back on the right road so that I can tell you what I forgot to tell. Blessed be memor

Carla Passino wrote in Country Life (13th March 2013) about the Knight Frank’s Luxury Investment Index. Her conclusion is that passion-driven investments have significantly out-performed more traditional assets such as the FTSE 100 or the property market. With the exception of furniture, all enthusiasm-led purchases have done well, presumably because there has never been so much interest in art and culture. Stamps have more than trebled in value. Rare coins have risen significantly. The ultimate in collecting indul­gence, classic cars, has had a turbo-charged performance. The only asset to have performed better than Classic cars is gold.How assets appreciated in the decade to September 2012:Gold 434%Classic cars 395%Coins 249%Stamps 217%Fine art 199%Jewellery 140%Prime central London property 104%Chinese ceramics 85%Watches 76%Prime New York property 73%FTSE 100 54%Furniture -18%Nothing tells the story of appreciating collectibles more than a pastel version of The Scream 1895 by Edvard Munch. It fetched $120 million at Sotheby's in New York last year, setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction. Experts had expected the masterpiece to break new ground since its presale estimate of $80 million was the highest ever listed at Sotheby's. Edvard MunchThe Scream, 189579 x 59 cm Sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2012 I am assuming for the purpose of this post that Knight-Frank's asset-appreciation figures are accurate and universal. And very useful to know! But there is something uneasy about believing that “if you follow your heart, the money will come”. A passion-driven investment seems like a contradiction in terms. I am saying it because passion has to do with the love of collecting, usually based on aesthetic pleasure or historical importance. One sentence will make that clear. “Stamps are quietly building a following among wealthy investors, many of whom are not actually collectors”. If those wealthy investors are buying stamps because of the stamps’ rate of appreciation, and not because they love collecting stamps, where does the passion come in? I may as well buy pork bellies, as long as pork bellies are appreciating rapidly.My collecting passion is for 18th and 19th century French, German, Austrian, British and Czech porcelain. But if these art objects are not appreciating very well, I should probably lose my passion for old porcelain and simply invest in another area of collecting. Or I should separate passion from investment and clearly differentiate between the two. In the latter case, “following one’s heart and the money will come” is not meaningful.

An international team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology have identified the strain of Phytophthora infestans that caused the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1852. In the thick of blight, botanists classified it as a mildew-causing fungus of the Botryotinia genus. In the 20th century it was reclassified as Phytophthora but was thought to be a strain called US-1 which is still widespread today. By analyzing dried specimens collected between 1845 and 1896 that have been kept in herbaria at Kew Royal Botanical Gardens in England and the Botanische Staatssammlung Munchen in Germany, researchers were able to find trace amounts of Phytophthora infestans DNA, map its genome and identify a previously unknown strain they’ve named HERB-1. (Full pdf study here.) “Both herbaria placed a great deal of confidence in our abilities and were very generous in providing the dried plants,” said Marco Thines from the Senckenberg Museum and Goethe University in Frankfurt, one of the co-authors of this study. “The degree of DNA preservation in the herbarium samples really surprised us,” adds Johannes Krause from the University of Tübingen, another co-author. Because of the remarkable DNA quality and quantity in the herbarium samples, the research team could evaluate the entire genome of Phytophthora infestans and its host, the potato, within just a few weeks. They found that HERB-1 is related to US-1 more than it is to any other modern strain, but it is unique. Phytophthora infestans originated in Toluca Valley, Mexico, among the potatoes that grow wild there. It was already endemic when Europeans arrived in America and brought the potato back, and yet, hundreds of years would pass before any Phytophthora strain made its way across the ocean. Scientists believe the US-1 and HERB-1 strains diverged in the Americas in the early 1800s. The newly individual HERB-1 hitched a ride on a trading ship and landed in Europe in Antwerp, Belgium, in the summer of 1845 before rapidly spreading to the Low Countries and other countries in Western Europe. Then it made the sea voyage to England and, most disastrously, Ireland. Ireland was hit the hardest because more than a third of its population was dependent on potatoes as the sole source of nourishment. Irish Catholics were prohibited by law from owning land. Instead, the became tenant farmers who paid rent and worked the property of absentee English or Anglo-Irish landlords producing crops and cattle for export. This was a hand to mouth existence. Potatoes had the most bang for your caloric buck and could grow in the marginal land which was all the tenant farmers had left once the export crops and cattle pastures got the choicest bits. By the early 1800s, the potato was the sole staple of the Irish farmer. Not only was it their only food, but almost all of the potatoes grown in Ireland were one breed: the Irish Lumper. The profound dependence on the potato coupled with a lack of genetic variety geometrically expanded the impact of the late blight when it arrived. HERB-1, used to the challenges of tough wild varieties, just slaughtered the cultivated potato crop. Author and scientist E.C. Large wrote in his seminal work The Advance of the Fungi that the blight “spread faster than the cholera amongst men.” Over the seven years of the Famine, HERB-1 destroyed crops so thoroughly that the Irish Lumper breed was almost driven to extinction. (It’s back now as an heirloom potato.) The population of Ireland was more than decimated. In 1845 the population was more than eight million. By 1852, there were only five million people left in Ireland. One million of them died from starvation and the diseases that ravage the hungry. Two million emigrated to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Ireland’s population today at just 4.5 million has yet to recover from the devastation of The Great Hunger. HERB-1 may

September 1942. "New York. Drinking fountain in Central Park on Sunday." Photo by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.

As criminals go, the Lennie mutineers were neither organized nor gifted. Indeed, they likely did not fancy themselves mutineers when they perpetrated a triple-murder of the officer corps on board the vessel during high seas. Matteo Cargalis, Pascalis Caludis, George Kaida, and Giovanni Carcaris were hanged on this date for that “atrocious conspiracy” in Newgate prison’s largest mass execution behind closed doors. As they say, you get what you pay for, and Captain Stanley Hatfield apparently didn’t pay too well. His ragtag crew of multinationals — Turks, Greeks, Dutch, Belgians, and possibly others (Hatfield himself was a Canadian) — was in it for the money when the vessel left Antwerp bound for New Orleans on 24 October 1875. The circumstances of the mutiny’s start are hazy, but what is clear is that the entire ship’s complement excluding first officer, cabin boy, and steward were on deck in heavy seas about 10 days out. What seems to have been a minor labor dispute resulted in Hatfield and Second Mate Richard Macdonald being summarily dispatched by stabbing; the first mate, Joseph Wortley, was sought out below and shot in his quarters. Since the crew was all in now, the murderers and a small group of associates pressed the remainder of the deckhands into service. The two remaining persons belowdecks were now let out. The Belgian steward, Constant von Hoydonck (spelled in various ways, but Anglicized in what seems to be the most popular way), and the cabin boy, Henri Trousselot, were given the option to join the rest of the crew. To the now-leaderless and ill-educated rebellious deck crew, Von Hoydonck’s literacy made him was the best hope of finding safe harbor, and Von Hoydonck hammed it up like Mark Hamill going on about Tosche Station. Trousselot was worth little (though he was also literate), and he gamely followed Von Hoydonck’s lead and elected to join the mutineers. The rest of the tale reads like a Hardy Boys story, with an implausible plot built around incompetent characters. Apparently, one of the Greek crew members knew someone back home that he felt would be interested in the vessel, so the crew now had a “plan”. All they needed was a quick trip through the Strait of Gibraltar followed by a trip across the Mediterranean, and they were home free! Von Hoydonck volunteered to navigate the course to the Strait, but rather than head southeast, he led the ship straight back toward the French coast. The details of the voyage, embellished and colorfully littered with age-appropriate judgments about Greeks, were handled by the newspaper “The Age” in 1958: When France was sighted he brazenly told them it was Spain, and sailed along the coast. When they asked why he hugged the shore, he told them it was to avoid the chief traffic routes and the consequent danger of being hailed by another ship… By November 14 he had navigated the Lennie between the Isle of Rhe and the French mainland. In spite of rough seas he brought the ship almost within hailing distance of the short and then calmly ordered the anchor to be let go. This was carried out promptly enough by the slow-thinking mutineers, but after some ten minutes what intelligence they had started to function, and they swarmed round remanding to know why they were at anchor. [Von Hoydonck] surveyed them coldly and pointed out that that the coast of Spain (which, of course, was some 250 miles away) was rocky and dangerous, and as they could not risk standing out into the traffic lanes they must anchor here until the heavy sea subsided. The mutineers were not satisfied with this explanation and angrily threatened to send him after the ship’s officers. [Von Hoydonck], playing his part superbly, indignantly informed them that as they seemed to have so little faith in his handling of the ship they could sail her themselves. He then went below, slamming the companion do