Who Sang Ave Maria at the Taj Mahal While Stravinsky Was Drawing Escher?

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- Trophy Hunters With Their Eye on Interiors: "And Just as the Rhino Charged, I Saw This Amazing Accent Tile on the Outdoor Shower!" "Bragging rights for homeowners are fleeting, hard to hold as a fistful of fog. You think your home is special because your backsplash is covered in tile imported from Mexico? There are those who think nothing of dispatching their architects and builders to the ends of the earth to personally scope out far more exotic goods — to the Middle East for the perfect limestone, even as bombs are going off, or to Indonesia for centuries-old reclaimed teak. For the ultra-high-end contractor, it’s just part of a day’s work..." read more-

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June 17, 1631: Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal. "The Taj Mahal (also "the Taj") is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Islamic, Indian and Persian architectural styles. While the white domed marble mausoleum is its most familiar component, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. Building began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, and employed thousands of artisans and craftsmen."

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June 17, 1818: Charles Gounod, French composer, was born. "Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette. The Bach/Gounod Ave Maria is a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin text Ave Maria. Written in 1859, Ave Maria consists of a melody superimposed over the Prelude No. 1 in C major from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 846), composed by J. S. Bach some 137 years earlier. There are many different instrumental arrangements of the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria, including for violin and guitar, string quartet, piano solo, cello, and even trombones. It is often performed in Christian wedding ceremonies. Pop and opera singers, such as Luciano Pavarotti, as well as choirs have recorded it during the twentieth century."

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June 17, 1882: Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer, was born. "Composer, pianist, and conductor, Stravinsky is widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1946. In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his works."

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June 17, 1898: Maurits Cornelis Escher was born. "Usually referred to as M.C. Escher, he was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations. Escher's first print of an impossible reality was Still Life and Street, 1937. His artistic expression was created from images in his mind, rather than directly from observations and travels to other countries. Well known examples of his work also include Drawing Hands, a work in which two hands are shown, each drawing the other; Sky and Water, in which light plays on shadow to morph the water background behind fish figures into bird figures on a sky background; and Ascending and Descending, in which lines of people ascend and descend stairs in an infinite loop, on a construction which is impossible to build and possible to draw only by taking advantage of quirks of perception and perspective."

"He worked primarily in the media of lithographs and woodcuts, though the few mezzotints he made are considered to be masterpieces of the technique. In his graphic art, he portrayed mathematical relationships among shapes, figures and space. Additionally, he explored interlocking figures using black and white to enhance different dimensions. Integrated into his prints were mirror images of cones, spheres, cubes, rings and spirals. His works brought him fame: he was awarded the Knighthood of the Order of Orange Nassau in 1955. Subsequently he regularly designed art for dignitaries around the world. An asteroid, 4444 Escher, was named in his honour in 1985."

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June 17, 1907: Charles Eames, American designer and architect, was born. "Charles Eames was greatly influenced by the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (whose son Eero, also an architect, would become a partner and friend). At the elder Saarinen's invitation, Charles moved in 1938 to Michigan, to further study architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he would become a teacher and head of the industrial design department. Together with Eero Saarinen he designed prize-winning furniture for New York's Museum of Modern Art "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition. Their work displayed the new technique of wood moulding (originally developed by Alvar Aalto), that Eames would further develop in many moulded plywood products, including, beside chairs and other furniture, splints and stretchers for the U.S. Navy during World War II."

"In the late 1940s, as part of the Arts & Architecture magazine's "Case Study" program, Ray and Charles Eames designed and built the groundbreaking Eames House, Case Study House #8, as their home. Located upon a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and hand-constructed within a matter of days entirely of pre-fabricated steel parts intended for industrial construction, it remains a milestone of modern architecture. On June 17, 2008 the US Postal Service released the Eames Stamps. A pane of 16 stamps celebrating the designs of Charles and Ray Eames."

Dine-ing with Laurel (& Hardy)-

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June 16, 1860: George Frampton, British sculptor, was born. "Sir George James Frampton, RA was a notable British sculptor and leading member of the New Sculpture movement. Frampton, the London-born son of a stone mason, began his working life in an architect's office before studying under William Silver Frith at the City and Guilds of London Art School (formerly Lambeth School of Art). He went on to the Royal Academy Schools where he won the Gold Medal and Travelling Scholarship. From 1887 to 1890 Frampton undertook further study and work at the studio of Antonin Mercie in Paris. Frampton returned to England and took up a teaching position at the Slade School of Art in 1893. He was married to the artist Christabel Cockerell and had one son, the painter and etcher Meredith Frampton."

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June 16, 1890: Stan Laurel, English actor, was born. "Arthur Stanley Jefferson, better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy double-act Laurel and Hardy, whose career stretched from the silent films of the early 20th century until after World War II."

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June 16, 1935 - Jim Dine, pop artist, was born. "Jim Dine is an American pop artist. He is sometimes considered to be a part of the Neo-Dada movement. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, attended the University of Cincinnati and received a BFA from Ohio University in 1957. He first earned respect in the art world with his "Happenings". Pioneered with artists Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow, in conjunction with musician John Cage, the "Happenings" were chaotic performance art that was a stark contrast with the more somber mood of the expressionists popular in the New York art world. The first of these was the 30 second The Smiling Worker performed in 1959."

"Oh, PHIZ!!" Exclaimed Saul Steinberg, "Nick Poussin & Malvina Hoffman Are Playing Greig Again!"

NOTICED ON THE INTERWEBS-

- Brooklyn Museum’s Populism Hasn’t Lured Crowds: "When it opened a new glass entrance in 2004 meant to beckon the masses, the Brooklyn Museum said it hoped to triple attendance in 10 years by concentrating on a local audience. It had stopped worrying about competing with Manhattan museums or about its image — despite its world-class collections — as a poor man’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. But six years in, the effort to build an audience is not working. Attendance in 2009 dropped 23 percent from the year before..." read more-

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June 15, 1594: Nicolas Poussin, French painter, was born. "Nicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century. Until the 20th century he remained the major inspiration for such classically-oriented artists as Jacques-Louis David and Paul Cézanne. He spent most of his working life in Rome, except for a short period when Cardinal Richelieu ordered him back to France to serve as First Painter to the King."

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June 15, 1815: Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne], English illustrator of Dickens works, and others, is born. "Hablot Knight Browne was an English artist, famous as Phiz, the illustrator of the best-known books by Charles Dickens, Charles Lever and Harrison Ainsworth in their original editions. His talents in other directions of art were of a very ordinary kind, but as an interpreter and illustrator of Dickens's characters, "Phiz", as he always signed his drawings, was exceptional, surpassing his rivals Cruikshank and Leech."

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June 15, 1843: Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer, was born. "Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King), and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces. Grieg is renowned as a nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. Early works include a symphony (which he later suppressed) and a piano sonata. He also wrote three sonatas for violin and piano and a cello sonata. His many short pieces for piano — often based on Norwegian folk tunes and dances — led some to call him the "Chopin of the North"."

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June 15, 1887: Malvina Hoffman, American sculptor, was born. "Hoffman was well known for her life-size bronze sculptures of people. She also worked in plaster and marble. Portrait busts of significant individuals of that time and depictions of people in their everyday lives were frequent works executed by Hoffman. Dancers were the subjects of the works that brought her earliest recognition and she continued to sculpt dancers throughout her career, some individuals repeatedly, such as Anna Pavlova. She was highly skilled in foundry techniques as well, often casting her own works and she wrote a definite book on historical and technical aspects of sculpture, 'Sculpture Inside and Out'."

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June 15, 1914: Saul Steinberg, New York cartoonist/illustrator, was born. "Saul Steinberg was a Romanian-born American cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his work for The New Yorker. Although best remembered for his commercial work, Steinberg did exhibit his work throughout his career at fine art museums and galleries. He married Romanian born abstract expressionist painter Hedda Sterne in 1944. In 1946, Steinberg, along with artists such as Arshile Gorky, Isamu Noguchi, and Robert Motherwell, was exhibited in the critically acclaimed "Fourteen Americans" show at The Museum of Modern Art. He has also enjoyed a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1978) and another posthumous one at the Institute for Modern Art in Valencia (IVAM), Spain (2002)."

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“Set in Stone. The Face in Medieval Sculpture”

Edited by Charles T. Little.

Published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006

“Faces in Medieval sculpture are explorations of human identity, marked not only by evolving nuances of style but also by the ongoing drama of European history. Created from materials as diverse as marble, limestone, polychromed wood, and silver gilt, the eighty-one sculpted heads featured in this beautifully illustrated volume date from the third century A.D. through the early 1500s and represent French, German, Italian, Spanish, Byzantine, English, and other medieval sculptural traditions. Each sculpture bears eloquent witness to its own history, whether it was removed from its original context for ideological reasons or because of changing tastes.

$50.00

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Did John McCormack Sing of Margaret Bourke-White Taking Superman's picture?

CAUGHT MY EYE ON THE INTERWEBS-

- What lies beneath: the fakes, mistakes and discoveries at the National Gallery: "Scientists working at the National Gallery found that Woman at a Window, a painting of a girl with neat dark hair and a steady gaze, contained a secret. Hidden under layers of varnish and paint was the original painting of the same woman, only this time she has a suggestive sideways glance and was dressed in a more revealing bodice. " Peek under the varnish...

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June 14, 1884: John McCormack, Irish tenor, was born. "John McCormack was a world-famous Irish tenor and recording artist, celebrated for his performances of the operatic and popular song repertoires, and renowned for his diction and breath control. He was also a Papal Count. In 1906 he made his operatic début at the Teatro Chiabrera, Savona. The following year he undertook his first important operatic appearance at Covent Garden in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, becoming the theatre's youngest principal tenor. By 1912 he began to turn his attention increasingly to the concert stage, where his voice quality and charisma ensured that he became the most celebrated lyric tenor of his day. McCormack made hundreds of recordings, the first on phonograph cylinder in 1904. His most commercially successful series of records were those for the Victor Talking Machine Company in the 1910s and 1920s. McCormack was the first artist to record the World War I hit song It's a Long Way to Tipperary, in 1914."

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June 14, 1904: Margaret Bourke-White, American photojournalist, was born. "Margaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and documentary photographer. She is most famously known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take picture of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent (and related, the first female permitted to work in combat zones) and the first female photographer for Life magazine, where her photograph graced the first Life cover."

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June 14, 1938: Action Comics issue one is released, introducing Superman. "Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective Comics, Inc. (later DC Comics) in 1938, the character first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) and subsequently appeared in various radio serials, television programs, films, newspaper strips, and video games. With the success of his adventures, Superman helped to create the superhero genre and establish its primacy within the American comic book. Superman has come to be seen as both an American cultural icon and the first comic book superhero. His adventures and popularity have established the character as an inspiring force within the public eye, with the character serving as inspiration for musicians, comedians and writers alike. Kryptonite, Brainiac and Bizarro have become synonymous in popular vernacular with Achilles' heel, extreme intelligence and reversed logic respectively. Similarly, the phrase "I'm not Superman" or alternatively "you're not Superman" is an idiom used to suggest a lack of invincibility. Superman has fascinated scholars, with cultural theorists, commentators, and critics alike exploring the character's impact and role in the United States and the rest of the world. Umberto Eco discussed the mythic qualities of the character in the early 1960s, and Larry Niven has pondered the implications of a sexual relationship the character might enjoy with Lois Lane."

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“Modern Chinese Scholars’ Rocks. A Guide for Collectors”

By Kemin Hu.

Published by Floating World Editions in 2006.

DISCUSSION: “Scholars’ stones have been appreciated in China for more than a millennium, and acquiring them in the West has become increasingly popular. This book introduces nearly 50 stone types through color photographs and descriptions. The qualities for which they are valued and features for the stone connoisseur to look for are revealed, and separate chapters explain how to display stones to their best advantage and how stands are made.”

$29.95

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Egon Schiele Goes Retro- Paints Cosimo de Medici!

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- Will Last Century’s Styles Open Today’s Wallets?: "For some clothing brands, the summer of 2010 looks a lot like the summer of 1910, and 1949, and 1957 — basically, any time but now..." Jump back to the future & read more!

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June 12, 1519: Cosimo de Medici was born. "Cosimo I de' Medici was Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1574, reigning as the first Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1569. He is perhaps best known today for the creation of the Uffizi ("offices"). Originally intended as a means of consolidating his administrative control of the various committees, agencies, and guilds established in Florence's Republican past, it now houses one of the world's most important collections of art, much of it commissioned and/or owned by various Medici. He also finished the Pitti Palace as a home for the Medici and created the magnificent Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti. As his more prominent ancestors had been, he was also an important patron of the arts, supporting, among others, Vasari, Cellini, Pontormo, Bronzino, the architect Lanci, and the historians Scipione Ammirato and Benedetto Varchi."

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- June 12, 1890: Egon Schiele, Austrian painter and graphic artist, was born. "Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. Schiele's work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism, although still strongly associated with the art nouveau movement (Jugendstil). The most important collection of Schiele's work is housed in the Leopold Museum, Vienna.

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“Seduction. A Celebration of Sensual Style”

By Caroline Cox.

Published in New York by Collins Design in 2006.

“From Marie Antoinette and Madame de Pompadour in pre-revolutionary France, through the queens of 1930s Hollywood like Jean Harlow and Marlene Dietrich, to modern sex sirens like Madonna and Jennifer Lopez, this large visual history explores the sensual style of the seductress, illustrated with full-page photos, film stills, and reproductions of period art. An international authority on the history of fashion, Caroline Cox explores the art of seduction, examining the many ways in which women have used their environment, apparel, and attitude to create their allure."

$25.00

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Could Julia Margaret Cameron Take a Picture of Nosferatu?

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June 11, 1776: John Constable, English painter, was born. "John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling". His most famous paintings include Dedham Vale of 1802 and The Hay Wain of 1821. Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, he was never financially successful and did not become a member of the establishment until he was elected to the Royal Academy at the age of 52. He sold more paintings in France than in his native England."

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June 11, 1815: Julia Margaret Cameron, English photographer, was born. "Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for photographs with Arthurian and other legendary themes. Cameron's photographic career was short, spanning eleven years of her life (1864-1875). She took up photography at the relatively late age of 48, when she was given a camera as a present. Her work had a huge impact on the development of modern photography, especially her closely cropped portraits which are still mimicked today. Her house, Dimbola Lodge, on the Isle of Wight is open to the public.

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June 11, 1864: Richard Strauss, German composer and conductor, was born. "Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Together with Gustav Mahler he represents the extraordinary late flowering of German Romanticism, after Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style. Strauss's music had a profound influence on the development of music in the twentieth century. Like Mahler, Strauss was also a prominent conductor."

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June 11, 1879: Max Schreck, German actor, was born. "Friedrich Gustav Max Schreck was a German actor. He is most often remembered today for his lead role in the film Nosferatu (1922). For three years between 1919 and 1922, Schreck appeared at the Munich Kammerspiele, including a role in the expressionist production of Bertolt Brecht's debut, Trommeln in der Nacht (Drums in the Night) (in which he played the "freakshow landlord" Glubb). In 1921, he was hired by Prana Film for their first and only production, Nosferatu. The company declared itself bankrupt after the film was released to avoid paying copyright infringement costs to Florence Stoker, Dracula author Bram Stoker's widow. Schreck portrayed Count Orlok, a character analogous to Count Dracula."

"In 1923, while still in Munich, Schreck appeared in a 16-minute (one-reeler) slapstick, "surreal comedy" written by Bertolt Brecht entitled Mysterien eines Friseursalons (Mysteries of a Barbershop), directed by Erich Engel. In 1926, Schreck returned to the Kammerspiele in Munich and continued to act in films surviving the advent of sound until his death in 1936 of heart failure. He was married to actress Fanny Normann, who appeared in a few films, often credited as Fanny Schreck. Curiously, the word schreck is also the German word for fright, or terror. Because of this, many authors who were unaware of Schreck's on-stage credits (and ignorant of the rather sparse details of his personal life) speculated that there was really no such person, and that Schreck was, in fact, some well-known actor who had chosen to adopt a pseudonym for his role in Nosferatu. Schreck's contemporaries recalled he was a loner with an unusual sense of humor and skill in playing grotesque characters. One reported he lived in "a remote and strange world" and that he spent time walking through dark forests."

Put on Your Dancing Shoes and Go Over the Rainbow- That's Where the Wild Things Are!

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- This Shoe Had Prada Beat by 5,500 Years: "Think of it as a kind of prehistoric Prada: Archaeologists have discovered what they say is the world’s oldest known leather shoe. Perfectly preserved under layers of sheep dung (who needs cedar closets?), the shoe, made of cowhide and tanned with oil from a plant or vegetable, is about 5,500 years old, older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, scientists say. Leather laces crisscross through numerous leather eyelets, and it was worn on the right foot; there is no word on the left shoe..." Read the rest of the story-

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June 10, 1819: Gustave Courbet, French painter, was born. "Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement (characterized by the paintings of Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix), with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social commentary in his work. Courbet courted controversy by addressing social issues in his work, and by painting subjects that were considered vulgar: the rural bourgeoisie and peasantry, and the working conditions of the poor. For Courbet realism dealt not with the perfection of line and form, but entailed spontaneous and rough handling of paint, suggesting direct observation by the artist while portraying the irregularities in nature. He depicted the harshness in life, and in so doing, challenged contemporary academic ideas of art.

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June 10, 1880: André Derain, French painter, was born. "André Derain was a French painter and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. Fernande Olivier, Picasso's mistress at the time, described Derain as: Slim, elegant, with a lively colour and enamelled black hair. With an English chic, somewhat striking. Fancy waistcoats, ties in crude colours, red and green. Always a pipe in his mouth, phlegmatic, mocking, cold, an arguer."

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June 10, 1895: Hattie McDaniel, American actress, was born. "Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Academy Award of any kind. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939). McDaniel was also a professional singer-songwriter, comedienne, stage actress, radio performer, and television star. She was the first black woman to sing on the radio in America. Over the course of her career, McDaniel appeared in over 300 films, although she received screen credits for only about 80. McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one for her contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for motion pictures at 1719 Vine Street. In 1975, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and in 2006 became the first black Oscar winner honored with a US postage stamp.

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June 10, 1907: Fairfield Porter, American painter, was born. "Fairfield Porter was an American painter and art critic. Though educated at Harvard, he was largely self-taught, and produced representational work in the midst of the Abstract Expressionist movement. His subjects were primarily landscapes, domestic interiors and portraits of family, friends and fellow artists, many of them affiliated with the New York School of writers, including John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and James Schuyler. Many of his paintings were set in or around the family summer house on Great Spruce Head Island, Maineand the family home at 49 South Main Street, Southhampton, New York. His painterly vision which encompassed a fascination with nature and the ability to reveal extraordinariness in ordinary life was heavily indebted to the French painters Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard. He said once, When I paint, I think that what would satisfy me is to express what Bonnard said Renoir told him: make everything more beautiful."

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June 10, 1922: Judy Garland, American musical actress, was born. "Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award, won a Golden Globe Award, received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for her work in films, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award. After appearing in vaudeville with her sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, Garland was released from the studio but gained renewed success through concert appearances, including a critically acclaimed Carnegie Hall concert, a well-regarded but short-lived television series and a return to acting beginning with a critically acclaimed performance in A Star Is Born. In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the ten greatest female stars in the history of American cinema."

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June 10, 1928: Maurice Sendak, American writer & illustrator, was born. "Sendak gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are, although the book's depictions of fanged monsters concerned some parents when it was first released. Sendak's seeming attraction to the forbidden or nightmarish aspects of children's fantasy have made him a subject of controversy. The monsters in the book were actually based on relatives who would come to weekly dinners. Because of their broken English and odd mannerisms, they were the perfect basis for the monsters in Sendak's book. Before Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak was best known for illustrating Else Holmelund Minarik's Little Bear series of books. When Sendak saw a manuscript of Zlateh the Goat, the first children’s story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, on the desk of an editor at Harper & Row, he offered to illustrate the book, which was first published in 1966 and received a Newbery Award. Sendak was delighted and enthusiastic about the collaboration. He once wryly remarked that his parents were finally impressed by their youngest child when he collaborated with Singer."

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I'm Dreaming of Textile Mills in Vienna, Night and Day!

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June 9, 1768: Samuel Slater, creator of the American textile industry, was born. "Samuel Slater was an early American industrialist popularly known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" or the "Father of the American Factory System" because he brought British textile technology to America. A native of England, he was apprenticed to Jedediah Strutt in Belper as a manager in a cotton mill of the type pioneered by Richard Arkwright at Cromford. In 1789 he violated a British emigration law that prohibited the spread of British manufacturing technology to other nations. When he left for New York, he had memorized the plans for the mill and had a deep understanding of Strutt's managerial practices. He offered to sell his knowledge to American industrialists, doing so to Moses Brown, who used the plan, and made major profit. He soon found work in Massachusetts and Rhode Island replicating British factory equipment for a textile mill, and earned the owner's backing to design and build the first water-powered cotton mill in the United States. Slater established tenant farms and towns around his textile mills such as Slatersville, Rhode Island. Due to his technical knowledge from Britain, he became a full partner and eventually went into business for himself and grew wealthy. By the end of Slater's life he owned thirteen spinning mills. Samuel also known as the "Father of the American Sunday School System" establishing youth Bible classes in his mills after the pattern of Strutt and Arkwright.' "

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June 9, 1810: Otto Nicolai, German composer, conductor, and founder of the Vienna Philharmonic, was born. "Nicolai is best known for his operatic version of Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor). In addition to five operas, Nicolai composed lieder, works for orchestra, chorus, ensemble, and solo instruments."

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June 9, 1891: Cole Porter, American composer and lyricist, was born. "Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. His works include the musical comedies Kiss Me, Kate, Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady and Anything Goes, as well as songs like "Night and Day," "I Get a Kick out of You," "Well, Did You Evah!" and "I've Got You Under My Skin." He was noted for his sophisticated, bawdy lyrics, clever rhymes and complex forms. Porter was one of the greatest contributors to the Great American Songbook. Cole Porter is one of the few Tin Pan Alley composers to have written both the lyrics and the music for his songs."

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ON OUR SHELVES-

"Memoir of Samuel Slater, The Father of American Manufactures. Connected with a History of the Rise and Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in England and America. With Remarks on the Moral Influence of Manufactories in the United States"

By George S. White.

Published in Philadelphia; Printed at No.46, Carpenter Street: 1836.

The earliest and best biography of the “Founder of the American Industrial Revolution”, written by a friend.

$275.00

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Would Frank Lloyd Wright Have Used Missile Mail?

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- For New ‘Ring’ Set, Met Has to Buy Steel Supports: "Wagner’s “Ring” cycle concludes with the flaming destruction of Valhalla, the hall of the gods, a scene that will play out when the Metropolitan Opera mounts a new production of the cycle’s four operas over the next two seasons. Structural collapse is definitely not the fate you want for your actual theater. But at the Met, that was a distinct possibility. Engineers determined that the set, conceived by Robert Lepage, the Canadian director who is creating this production, would be so heavy — roughly 45 tons — that the floor under the stage might not hold..." Read the full story

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June 8, 1810: Robert Schumann, German composer, was born. "Robert Schumann was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is one of the most famous and important Romantic composers of the 19th century. Schumann had hoped to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist, having been assured by his teacher, Friedrich Wieck, that he could become the finest pianist in Europe after only a few years of study with him. However, when a hand injury prevented those hopes from being realized, he decided to focus his musical energies on composition. Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. In 1840, after a long and acrimonious legal battle with his piano instructor (Wieck), Schumann married Wieck's daughter, pianist Clara Wieck, who also composed music and had a considerable concert career, including premieres of many of her husband's works. Robert Schumann died in middle age; for the last two years of his life, after an attempted suicide, he was confined to a mental institution at his own request. Schumann exerted considerable influence in the nineteenth century and beyond, despite his adoption of more conservative modes of composition after his marriage. He left an array of acclaimed music in virtually all the forms then known. Partly through his protégé Brahms, Schumann's ideals and musical vocabulary became widely disseminated. Composer Sir Edward Elgar called Schumann "my ideal." "

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June 8, 1829: Sir John Everett Millais, English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was born. "Millais achieved popular success with A Huguenot (1852), which depicts a young couple about to be separated because of religious conflicts. He repeated this theme in many later works. All these early works were painted with great attention to detail, often concentrating on the beauty and complexity of the natural world. This style was promoted by the critic John Ruskin, who had defended the Pre-Raphaelites against their critics. Millais' friendship with Ruskin introduced him to Ruskin's wife Effie. Soon after they met she modelled for his painting The Order of Release. As Millais painted Effie they fell in love. In 1856, after her marriage to Ruskin was annulled, Effie and John Millais married. He and Effie eventually had eight children including John Guille Millais, a notable naturalist and wildlife artist.

After his marriage, Millais began to paint in a broader style, which was condemned by Ruskin as "a catastrophe". It has been argued that this change of style resulted from Millais' need to increase his output to support his growing family. Unsympathetic critics such as William Morris accused him of "selling out" to achieve popularity and wealth. His admirers, in contrast, pointed to the artist's connections with Whistler and Albert Moore, and influence on John Singer Sargent. Millais himself argued that as he grew more confident as an artist, he could paint with greater boldness. Millais was also very successful as a book illustrator, notably for the works of Anthony Trollope and the poems of Tennyson. His complex illustrations of the parables of Jesus were published in 1864. He also provided illustrations for magazines such as Good Words. In 1869 he was recruited as an artist for the newly founded weekly newspaper The Graphic."

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June 8, 1867: Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, was born. "Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works. Wright promoted organic architecture (exemplified by Fallingwater and Graycliff), was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture (exemplified by the Robie House, the Westcott House, and the Darwin D. Martin House), and developed the concept of the Usonian home (exemplified by the Rosenbaum House). His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also often designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. Wright authored 20 books and many articles, and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio. Already well-known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time".

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June 8, 1921: LeRoy Neiman, American painter, was born. "LeRoy Neiman is an American artist known for his brilliantly colored, semi-abstract paintings and screen prints of athletes and sporting events. Neiman worked as an illustrator for department store Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. in Chicago in the early 1950s alongside a copywriter named Hugh Hefner. After Hefner started Playboy magazine in 1953, Neiman's artwork was featured in several issues. To this day, Neiman continues to illustrate the "Femlin", a Playboy character that is featured every month on the jokes page. He is considered by many the premier sports artist in the world challenged only in recent years by younger artists Stephen Holland and Richard T. Slone. Neiman works in oil, enamel, watercolor, pencil drawings, pastels, serigraphy and some lithographs and etching."

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June 8, 1949: Emanuel Ax, Polish-born pianist, was born. "Emanuel Ax is a Grammy-winning American-Jewish classical pianist. He is currently a teacher on the faculty of the Juilliard School. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 21st century. Ax is a particular supporter of contemporary composers and has given three world premieres in the last few seasons; Century Rolls by John Adams, Seeing by Christopher Rouse and Red Silk Dance by Bright Sheng. He also performs works by such diverse figures as Sir Michael Tippett, Hans Werner Henze, Joseph Schwantner and Paul Hindemith, as well as more traditional composers such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin. Ax regularly performs duo recitals with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and played quartets with Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo."

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June 8, 1959: Missile Mail is debuted... "In 1959 the U.S. Navy submarine USS Barbero assisted the Post Office Department, predecessor to the United States Postal Service, in its search for faster mail transportation with the only delivery of "Missile Mail". On 8 June 1959, Barbero fired a Regulus cruise missile — its nuclear warhead having earlier been replaced by two Post Office Department mail containers — at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. Twenty-two minutes later, the missile struck its target. The USPS had officially established a branch post office on Barbero and delivered some 3000 pieces of mail to it before Barbero left Norfolk, Virginia. The mail consisted entirely of commemorative postal covers. Upon witnessing the missile's landing, Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield predicted that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail." Notwithstanding the Postmaster General's enthusiasm, in reality the Department of Defense saw the measure more as a demonstration of U.S. missile capabilities. Experts believe that the cost of using missile mail could never be justified."

Well, darn.

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ON OUR SHELVES-

“Moorcroft. A Guide to Moorcroft Pottery 1897-1993”

By Paul Atterbury.

Published in Somerset by Richard Dennis & Hugh Edwards in 2008. 2nd edition.

“Moorcroft is one of the most important names in the history of British art and studio pottery, representing as it does an unbroken line of production that reaches back over a century to 1897. Throughout this period collectors all over the world have enjoyed the characteristic style and colors of Moorcroft pottery, and today both the decorative wares of the past and the new ranges in production at the factory are highly sought after. This new enlarged and completely revised edition includes many new photographs, making it invaluable for all Moorcroft collectors' and those interested in decorative arts of the 20th century”.

$95.00

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