Image courtesy of Smithsonian Postal MuseumWASHINGTON (AP) – Evidence from the 2001 anthrax attacks is going on public display at the Smithsonian Institution.
The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum opened an exhibit Friday about the work of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. “Behind the Badge” explores the history of one of the nation’s oldest law enforcement agencies.
The new exhibit includes an anthrax-laced letter sent to Sen. Tom Daschle on loan from the FBI. Examination of the letter and the decontamination process left it nearly illegible. The museum also is displaying the mail collection box from Princeton, New Jersey, where the anthrax-laced letters were deposited.
From another high-profile case, the exhibit includes the handcuffs used to arrest unabomber Ted Kaczynski.
The Postal Inspection Service dates to 1776 when Benjamin Franklin sent a surveyor to investigation early U.S. mail routes.
Visit “Behind the Badge” on the Smithsonian Postal Museum Lower Level, near the Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic exhibition.
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Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
John Vanderlyn (1775-1852) portrait of James Madison, 4th President of the United States. This portrait is in the White House Collection. White House Historical Association imageMIDDLETOWN, Va. (AP) – The owners of President James Madison’s birthplace want to restore three structures on the property.
The summer kitchen, icehouse and smoke house are Belle Grove Plantation’s oldest properties. They were built between 1720 and 1750.
Madison was born on the property on the banks of the Rappahannock River in King George County in 1751.
Owners Brett and Michell Darnell tell The Free Lance Star that initial estimates suggest the restoration work will cost between $50,000 and $75,000.
They say they want to create a living museum that would enable visitors to experience life on a plantation.
Belle Grove will launch a fundraising campaign for the project on July Fourth with a picnic and concert on the lawn.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
John Vanderlyn (1775-1852) portrait of James Madison, 4th President of the United States. This portrait is in the White House Collection. White House Historical Association imageBelle Grove, Rappahannock River, Port Royal, Caroline County, Va., birthplace of James Madison. Thomas T. Waterman photo from Library of Congress Collection
‘John of England Signs the Magna Carta,’ scan of illustration from ‘Cassell’s History of England,’ 1902
BOSTON (AP) – A rare copy of the Magna Carta, one of the pivotal documents of Western civilization, is on display at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
The museum has scheduled an official unveiling ceremony for Monday and the document will go on display to the public starting Wednesday and last until Sept. 1.
One of only four surviving copies of the original 1215 document, it is on loan from the Lincoln Cathedral in the United Kingdom.
The landmark document has served as a symbol of liberty and inspired the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The exhibition also includes portraits, marble busts, and historical documents related to several of the Founding Fathers, presidents, and abolitionists, particularly from Massachusetts, who were inspired by the liberties enshrined in Magna Carta.
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Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
‘John of England Signs the Magna Carta,’ scan of illustration from ‘Cassell’s History of England,’ 1902
In this historical photo, Officer Griff Roberts wears a style of uniform that Portland police wore in the 1890s. Portland Police Museum image
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The director of the Portland Police Museum resigned amid concerns about the storage of old Police Bureau personnel files.
James Huff served as director for five years before resigning this spring. He told The Oregonian newspaper that the Police Bureau treated him well “until my last month,” when Assistant Police Chief Mike Crebs and others seized police personnel files from about 1910 to the 1970s.
He said city archivists were concerned that records were being handled by museum workers, who aren’t city employees.
City Archivist Diana Banning said her office learned the museum was storing old Police Bureau personnel records in a way that didn’t meet city security standards.
“One of the responsibilities the city of Portland Archives and Records Management Division has is to identify and secure city records stored in conditions that do not meet records storage and security standards,” Banning said. “These standards can best be met by housing the records in our facility.”
Huff said it bothered him that the seizure was done with “no coordination” with the museum. J.D. Chandler, a volunteer who helped Huff research and write the biographies of the city marshals and some police chiefs for the museum website, said the files were seized when Huff was out of town.
“They left the 16th floor a shambles up there,” Chandler said. “It was a confused mess.”
Retired Portland police Detective Dave Simpson, chairman of the historical society’s board, said he thinks the museum gained possession of the personnel files when the Police Bureau moved its headquarters three decades ago. The records were going to be destroyed and the museum stepped in to preserve them, he said.
“They’re supposed to be maintained in city archives,” Simpson said. “Finally, they got around to pick them up.”
The museum was closed to the public for about a month and a half following the departures of Huff and assistant museum director Leslie Pool.
It reopened this past week, with an officer’s college-age daughter getting paid through the summer to be there in case visitors stop in.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
In this historical photo, Officer Griff Roberts wears a style of uniform that Portland police wore in the 1890s. Portland Police Museum imageFascinating displays include antique hats, handcuffs, nightsticks and many other law-enforcement memorabilia. Portland Police Museum image
Stone stairway leading down from Rimrock Overlook in the Allegheny National Forest. Photo copyright 2005 by drlareau.com, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.
WARREN, Pa. (AP) – An anthropology professor is inviting the public to tour a site in the Allegheny National Forest where she’s dug up evidence of a settlement dating back at least 1,000 years.
Clarion University anthropology professor Susan Prezzano says the site might be up to 3,000 years old.
She’s overseeing the dig along with officials from the forest, which bought the site in the late 1980s. The land had been a family farm in the 1800s and also gives the forest land next to the Allegheny River.
The open house is Tuesday and is in Forest County.
So far, Prezzano and her students have uncovered pieces of pottery and hammer stones, which are believed to have come from a Native American settlement.
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Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Stone stairway leading down from Rimrock Overlook in the Allegheny National Forest. Photo copyright 2005 by drlareau.com, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828), The Duchess of Alba in White, 1795. Oil on canvas. Colección Duques de Alba, Palacio de Liria, Madrid.DALLAS (AP) – An internationally renowned art collection featuring more than 100 rare works will be displayed in Dallas next spring.
The collection will be featured at the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University and will mark the 50th anniversary of the museum’s opening and also the 100th anniversary of SMU.
The exhibition — “Treasures from the House of Alba: 500 Years of Art and Collecting” — will run from April to August and include paintings by Goya and Rubens, 16th century tapestries and 19th century furniture created for Napolean III.
The Dallas Morning News reports that selections also will include manuscripts, documents relating to Christopher Columbus, antiquities and sculptures.
Some of the artwork has been in the collection of the Alba family, which has ties to the Spanish monarchy, for five centuries.
Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828), The Duchess of Alba in White, 1795. Oil on canvas. Colección Duques de Alba, Palacio de Liria, Madrid.
Saalheimer & Strauss (made in Germany for British market) Mickey Mouse with Moving Mouth, tin, circa 1930, one of few known examples. Provenance: Maurice Sendak collection. Estimate: $20,000-$35,000. Image courtesy of Hake’s
YORK, Pa. – They shared the same birth year, became lifelong friends and lived happily ever after – that was the story of celebrated Where The Wild Things Are author/illustrator Maurice Sendak and cartoon icon Mickey Mouse. Both made their “debuts” in 1928. And almost as though they shared the same DNA, Sendak and his comical kindred spirit went on to entertain multiple generations of children.
In a book that accompanied the 2005 Jewish Museum of New York art exhibition titled Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak, the author is quoted as saying that Mickey Mouse was “a source of joy and pleasure while growing up.”
In later years, Sendak would create an inspiring work and leisure environment for himself that was filled with early Disney toys. Many of his most treasured pieces were acquired over a 40-year period from Hake’s auctions and through private purchases organized by the company’s founder, Ted Hake. An intuitive buyer, Sendak followed the golden rule of collecting: buy what you like – and Sendak liked Mickey Mouse toys.
Because of the long personal friendship and bond of trust that developed between Sendak and Hake, the author’s estate entrusted Hake’s with auctioning his prized toy collection. So far, two successive Hake’s auctions have featured Disney rarities with Sendak provenance. The third will take place July 15-17, and it includes two of the most elusive and desirable Mickey Mouse toys ever made.
Lot 1737, a 9-inch wind-up of a five-fingered Mickey, was made for the British market around 1930 by the German manufacturer Saalheimer & Strauss. When its built-in key is wound, the toy waddles side to side and the character’s mouth widens to flash a toothy smile. One of very few known examples, its auction estimate is $20,000-$35,000.
A similar price is expected for Lot 1738, a Mickey Mouse Double Slate Dancers crank toy made by Wilhelm Krauss. The German-made toy depicts a pair of smiling five-fingered Mickeys with loosely riveted arms and legs that render the illusion of dancing when the toy is activated.
“Only two Double Slate Dancers are known to exist, and this marks the first time in our 47 years that Hake’s has ever been able to offer this fabulous toy in one of our auctions,” said Ted Hake.
To request a free printed catalog or for information on any item in the sale, call tollfree 866-404-9800; or 717-434-1600. Email: hakes@hakes.com.
Visit Hake’s website and view the catalog for the July 15-17 auction at www.hakes.com.
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ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Saalheimer & Strauss (made in Germany for British market) Mickey Mouse with Moving Mouth, tin, circa 1930, one of few known examples. Provenance: Maurice Sendak collection. Estimate: $20,000-$35,000. Image courtesy of Hake’sWilhelm Krauss (Germany) Mickey Mouse Double Slate Dancers, tin, one of two known. Provenance: Maurice Sendak collection. Estimate: $20,000-$35,000. Image courtesy of Hake’s
The New Aspen Art Museum will be located at the corner of South Spring Street and Hyman Avenue in downtown Aspen. Rendering courtesy of Shigeru Ban Architects and Shimahara Illustration.
ASPEN, Colo. – In 1979 the Aspen Art Museum opened its doors at the renovated Holy Cross Power Plant on the banks of the Roaring Fork River. For 33 years that facility has served the mission of the organization well, fostering a program of art, dialogue, and creativity that has grown into a major cultural institution serving Aspen, the Roaring Fork Valley, the region, and the world.
The meteoric growth of the museum in recent years has seen a 200% increase in budget, number of students served, and annual visitors. A long-standing strategic goal for the AAM—the expansion of its facility and relocation to the downtown Aspen core—has become a necessitated reality to meet the ongoing demand for services to the community.
With the unanimous support of the AAM Board of Trustees, the initial fundraising success, the identification of Shigeru Ban as design architect, and the August 2011 acquisition of property at the corner of Spring Street and Hyman Avenue in Aspen, the AAM commenced construction in fall 2012 of a building appropriate for the production, presentation, and experience of art. The New Aspen Art Museum is 100% privately funded, and under the leadership of the AAM New Building Committee, will be completed within budget and on time for the summer of 2014.
The new 30,000 sq ft museum will feature 12,500 sq ft of gallery space. The museum is an affordable tourist destination, with free admision, education workshops, films, lectures and performances; as well as breathtaking rooftop views of Aspen Mountain.
NEW YORK – Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire, The Costume Institute’s first fall exhibition in seven years, will be on view in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Anna Wintour Costume Center from October 21, 2014 through February 1, 2015. The exhibition will explore the aesthetic development and cultural implications of mourning fashions of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Approximately 30 ensembles, many of which are being exhibited for the first time, will reveal the impact of high-fashion standards on the sartorial dictates of bereavement rituals as they evolved over a century.
With the reopening of The Costume Institute space in May as the Anna Wintour Costume Center, the department returns to mounting two special exhibitions a year, to again include a fall show, in addition to the major spring exhibition. This is the first fall exhibition The Costume Institute has organized since blog.mode: addressing fashion in 2007.
“The predominantly black palette of mourning dramatizes the evolution of period silhouettes and the increasing absorption of fashion ideals into this most codified of etiquettes,” said Harold Koda, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, who is curating the exhibition with Jessica Regan, Assistant Curator. “The veiled widow could elicit sympathy as well as predatory male advances. As a woman of sexual experience without marital constraints, she was often imagined as a potential threat to the social order.”
Exhibition Overview:
The thematic exhibition will be organized chronologically and feature mourning dress from 1815 to 1915, primarily from The Costume Institute’s collection. The calendar of bereavement’s evolution and cultural implications will be illuminated through women’s clothing and accessories, showing the progression of appropriate fabrics from mourning crape to corded silks, and the later introduction of color with shades of gray and mauve.
“Elaborate standards of mourning set by royalty spread across class lines via fashion magazines,” said Ms. Regan, “and the prescribed clothing was readily available for purchase through mourning ‘warehouses’ that proliferated in European and American cities by mid-century.”
The Anna Wintour Costume Center’s Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery will orient visitors to the exhibition with fashion plates, jewelry, and accessories. The main Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery will illustrate the evolution of mourning wear through high fashion silhouettes and will include mourning gowns worn by Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra. Examples of restrained simplicity will be shown alongside those with ostentatious ornamentation. The predominantly black clothes will be set off against a stark white background and amplified with historic photographs and daguerreotypes.
The Museum’s website will feature information on the exhibition and related programs. Follow us on Facebook.com/metmuseum, Instagram.com/metmuseum, and Twitter.com/metmuseum. To join the conversation about the exhibition use #DeathBecomesHer on Instagram and Twitter.
From an archive to be auctioned on July 17 in London, 28 charters pertaining to the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitallers. Est. £40,000-60,000 LONDON – A significant archive of 28 charters and deeds granting gifts of land and property in West Yorkshire to the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitallers is being auctioned at Dreweatts and Bloomsbury Auctions’ Antiquarian Books sale on Thursday, July 17, 2014. LiveAuctioneers will provide the Internet live-bidding services for the event.
Simon Luterbacher, Director of Manuscripts & English Literature at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions said: “Documents relating to the Knights Templar are extremely rare and highly sought after; an archive of this size and quality has not been seen in auction for over 50 years, and likely won’t be again.”
The Knights Templar was a Christian military order founded after the first crusade by Hugo de Payens and Bernard of Clairvaulx to defend pilgrims travelling between Europe and the Holy Land. The order was established in England during the reign of Henry II and quickly gained a large estate throughout several counties, and Yorkshire in particular.
They enjoyed patronage under several kings, especially Richard I, King John and Henry III and were noted for their financial dealings. The order became a favored charity throughout Christendom when they were officially endorsed by the Catholic Church around 1129; they grew in membership and power.
With their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, Templar Knights were the most skilled and feared fighting units of the Crusades. Once the Holy Land was lost and rumours of the secret initiation ceremony began to circulate and created mistrust, the order was suppressed by order of Philip IV of France in 1307, and later, in England in 1308.
The Knights Hospitallers, or the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, now the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, was a parallel organization founded in 1099 by The Blessed Gerard Thom to help sick pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land.
As with the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitallers had a military function and gained large estates in the twelfth century. In the 1140s the Order was granted ten acres of land in Clerkenwell, which became their headquarters and of which the gateway still remains and is now the museum of the Order in England. After the fall of the kingdom of Jerusalem, the order moved its headquarters, briefly to Cyprus, then until 1522 to Rhodes, and finally, Malta.
Ten of the 28 are charters and deeds of gifts to the Knights Templar of Temple Newsam comprising:
Richard de Rihil [Ryhill], of c. 20 acres in South Crossland, land in Waderode (land on the river Calder), one and a half acres by the moor near Adam le Venur with rights of burning, building and fencing (3 deeds); Lady Alina, widow, of Crossland, daughter of Philip de Rihill, of half a house or toft, which Elias, son of Adam le Venur held and the right to take wood for building and burning within the boundaries of Crossland, as well as pannage for their pigs within the boundaries of the donors woods and others.
Seventeen of the 28 are charters and deeds of gifts to the Knights Hospitallers of the preceptory of Newland comprising:
Alan, son of Simon de Wately, of all Hardinge Rode and land in Colresle; Robert de Weteley [Whitley or Wheatley], of a third part of the land his uncle gave in Whitley; Matilda of Stanforham of 3s which Jordan, son of Matthew pays from the rent of Flackton [Flockton]; Elias, son of Haswi of Heton [Kirkheaton], of land in Heton; William, son of Michael of Brethwisel, of land in Brethwisel; Adam, son of Robert de Notton, of land between the stream and castle of Almanbira [Almondbury]and others.
The final deed is by Adam, son of Adam de Byrkeg de Cumberward to Peter of Colriselay, granting the land and messuage of the Hospital of Jerusalem in Crossland.
The sale will be held on Wednesday, July 17, 2014. View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
