Clik here to view.
Red hair - adored or despised?
Red: A Natural History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey (Allen & Unwin 2015) is a book written for me! At 20 I decided I was going to marry a red head and have babies with gorgeous hair, but...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sail across New York's East River - in the Roosevelt Island Tram
Roosevelt Island is a narrow island in New York City's East River. It lies between Manhattan Island to its west and the borough of Queens to its east, and is part of Manhattan. The entire island is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Victorian cross dressers - The Petticoat Men
In July 1854 at the unlicensed Druid’s Hall in London two men were grabbed by the police. George Campbell (35) and John Challis (60) were at a masked ball, dressed up to the nines in lovely women’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
German-speaking art historians who changed Britain's scholarship - Ernst...
A couple of months ago a student asked who were the most influential art historians during my years as an under-graduate student at Melbourne University. My answer: Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky, EH...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sea of Galilee - synagogues, churches, fortresses and caves
My middle aged husband and his equally middle aged brother decided to go on a hike with their sons and grandsons in Israel, a male bonding experience. Thanks to the Israel Nature & Parks Authority...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eric Ravilious' paintings. And his coronation mugs: 1937-1953
One of the most important legacies of the Industrial Revolution, the Wedgwood Collection, was at great risk of being broken up and sold off in 2014. The Art Fund had until the end of November 2014 to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Carlo Levi was right - Christ certainly stopped at Eboli!
The Basilicata Region forms the instep of the Italian boot (see map below). It has long been Italy’s poorest region, now Basilicata is joining the modern world – it has wonderful Greek and Roman ruins;...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Russian spy? British spy? International seductress?
Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya (1892–1974) was born in the Poltava province of Ukraine, daughter of an aristocratic Tsarist official. While still an adolescent she married the diplomat Count Ioann von...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Expensive and princely travelling tea-coffee services: Meissen 1720s
Johann Friedrich Böttger was employed by Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and later King of Poland. Bottger worked hard at Dresden and Meissen where by 1709, he had produced the first European...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub - did it survive?
Pubs were once the social centre of many British (and Australian) communities. When spouse and I lived in Britain, we were paid so poorly by the National Health that we could not afford to go to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nabokov: Russia, Europe and the American West
Where did Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) belong?Young Vladimir was no impoverished son of a peasant farmer; he born in St Petersburg to an important family of the Russian nobility. His father was a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Did Germany really make a serious peace proposal in Dec 1916?
I am very grateful to Britain At War, Illustrated History of the Third Year of the Great War: 1916, without which I would not have sought out, and found the speech offering Germany’s peace proposal in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cathar history, Cathar architecture
11th century records from the Roman Catholic Church described how Catholic theologians were debating amongst themselves whether Cathars were Christian heretics or whether they were not Christians at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
History Carnival is coming soon!! "Twilight Over Berlin" German art 1905-1945
I will be hosting the History Carnival for January 2016. Although all history blog posts may be nominated and will be welcome, my theme will The History of the Visual, Musical, Performing and Literary...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CS Lewis' secret lives and loves
I was not a CS Lewis fan myself, but The Chronicles of Narnia series, especially The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) was one of my sons’ favourite literature, bar none. So I ensured I watched...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Modern design - Charles & Ray Eames, and the Bauhaus
I was at least an average art history student at university, so I could certainly identify the work of Christopher Dresser, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Peter Behrens, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Alsace's French and German history
I have already noted that the most influential art historians during my under-graduate years at Melbourne University were Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky, EH Gombrich, Nikolaus Pevsner, Adolf...
View ArticleClik here to view.
History Carnival Jan 2016. Architecture, the visual arts and literature
We often assume that history can only be analysed via near-contemporary texts, so the theme of this month’s carnival was "the use of the visual, performing, musical and literary arts". We can analyse...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inch Kenneth (Island) in the Scottish Hebrides
The island of Inch Kenneth lies a short distance off the west coast of Mull, not far from Ulva. Note Mull, Arran, Kintyre, Jura and Islay on the map.Inch Kenneth is has typical Hebridean setting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Birobidzhan, a Russian Jewish autonomous oblast near Vladivostok
Theodor Herzl, World Zionist Council president, sought support from the world’s great powers for the creation of a Jewish homeland. At the 6th Zionist Congress at Basel in 1903, it seemed as if it...
View Article