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Medieval travellers were quite like us
Our perception of medieval Europe is of a confined world in which people rarely travelled beyond their own locality, and when they did it was for religious reasons. But Paul Oldfield asked us to...
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Masterpieces Musée d’Orsay, Paris
In 1900 the Exposition Universelle drew thousands of art lovers to Paris, many arriving by train at the new Gare d’Orsay. Opened in 1986 and located on the Left Bank of the River Seine opposite the...
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tragic early death of Prince Albert
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819-61) came from a small German state whose ruling family married into many European royals; in 1840 he married Victoria, his first cousin. The Queen came to...
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Saving Jewish orphans Ochberg 1921
I was fascinated by Isaac Ochberg(1879–1938) who was born in Uman in Russia/now Ukraine. With thousands of other Russians, the Ochbergs went to South Africa in 1894 where Isaac became a successful Cape...
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Leonard Cohen: the mystical roots of genius.
Everyone in Australia knows I've always been a Leonard Cohen fan, and last year my best birthday present was the new book Leonard Cohen The Mystical Roots of Genius by Harry Freedman (Bloomsbury). Good...
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UK's 1st female parliamentarian: Nancy Astor
American Nancy Langhorne (1879-1964) was born in Virginia, daughter of a wealthy railroad entrepreneur. In the 1890s Nancy and her sister Irene were enrolled in a finishing school in New York where...
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young Russians & 1917 Revolution
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...
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A great Wool Museum, Geelong.
Sheep arrived in Geelong in 1832, before it was proclaimed a town in 1838. When it was developing as a Victorian port, Australia was still a series of separate colonies which levied customs duties on...
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Tom Keating: the most moral art faker?
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...
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Museum Opening of 2021: Carnavalet Paris
The Apollo Awards have been celebrated since 1992 with splendid ceremonies. It’s now as important as ever to independently fete outstanding achievements in the museum world. Yet senior museum...
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Frank Lloyd Wright Chicago church 1905-8.
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...
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Rippon Lea, Victorian estate & gardens
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,...
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Rhodes Scholarship - wish I won one.
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...
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Melbourne synagogue fire: brutal anti-semitism.
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...
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Lowestoft soft-paste porcelain: 1756-1801.
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...
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Stefan Weintraub's top German jazz band!
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, Weintraubs...
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Saving Tasmania's aboriginals: Truganini
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...
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Bruno Bettelheim: a brilliant psychologist?
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...
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Hiroshima's Peace Memorials.
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...
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Great seasonal music - Auld Lang Syne
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...
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Phar Lap, Australia's greatest ever racer!
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...
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Melville Monument Edinburgh. Pull down?
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...
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Was Joseph Kennedy racist before/in WW2?
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,...
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Visit architecture in gorgeous Fez.
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...
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Migrants welcome to Australia - Bonegilla
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...
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