these are the timesdirty beloved
-

26.11.05

Bear, Upper Magdalenian ±12500 BP
la base Joconde
-
Chicago Bears' backfield, 1941 (detail)
LoC
-
Ours dans l'encadrement
Bestiaire du Moyen Âge XVe siècle
Jean Froissart, Chroniques
BnF
-

After the encore (detail)
LoC

Pot with Bear Paw

Lorraine Williams
SAAM


Têtes d'Eléphants d'Asie, d'Afrique

Illustrations de Histoire naturelle des mammifères
BnF

24.11.05

S.F. Clear Of All But 6 Sick Japs
-San Francisco Chronicle May 21, 1942
Evacuation and Internment of San Francisco Japanese
Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco

Dear Miss Evanson...
Miss Evanson's Class, George Washington Junior High School, Seattle

"...so we have to mind him."

"Dear Miss Breed..." the letters begin.

Clara Estelle Breed, also known as "Miss Breed," was the children's librarian at the San Diego Public Library from 1929 to 1945. Miss Breed was fond of all children, including the many Japanese American children and teenagers who used to frequent the East San Diego branch library where she worked. Before World War II, Miss Breed was a mentor to many Nisei children who visited the library.

As the United states entered the war, these young Nisei were removed from their homes and placed in concentration camps. Shocked and outraged, Miss Breed helped her young friends by becoming a lifeline to the outside world. She handled out stamped and addressed postcards at the railroad station on the day of their departure and encouraged them to write.
Upon receiving their letters, Miss Breed responded with books, care packages, and immeasurable emotional support. Yet, her commitment to her Japanese American friends did not end with the letters and packages she regulary sent. Recognizing the injustice that the United States had committed against the Japanese American community and seeing the need for others to speak out on their behalf, Miss Breed wrote various articles about the internment both during and after the war. Her actions, like those of the many people who reached out and helped Japanese Americans during this time, were all the more remarkable because of the widespread fear and hatred that was associated with anything Japanese.
Letters From Camp
Japanese American National Museum

22.11.05

In 1845 Hans Chr. Andersen who for many years was a frequent guest in Glorup writes about his daily life there: "Up at 8 o'clock, drink coffee, potter about and write until 10 o'clock, then a walk along the long avenue, through the gate and along the lane to Holuf Farm, look at the Belt, walk back, read, tidy, sews, and at 12 lunch with a glass of port. Rest for a while, a new walk, same route, but a little longer, write and read to around 4, dress and go to dinner between 4 and 5. Now come the most boring time until 8 o'clock. … From 8 to 10 I bear the whole conversation."
Glorup Castle
Svindinge - a village in eastern Funen, well on its way into the second millennium, but with its roots deep in the Danish history
-
searching for Countess Moltke Huitfeldt (Miss Bonaparte)

Ethel Barrymore, daughter of Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew, made her Broadway debut in Captain Jinks of The Horse Marines


Elizabeth Kennedy as Mme. Trentoni

in Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines
-
Clyde Fitch
's Best Comedy, Garrick Theater, N.Y. 1902

Unemployed father with son, at a Worker's Alliance meeting in North Platte, Nebraska 1938

Salinas lettuce strike, tear gassing, 1936

The Great Hunger, Salinas Lettuce Strike, 1936

21.11.05

Soviet Circus May 1960
-
Dreamland, Coney Island, N.Y. 1904 with detail
-
images LoC unless otherwise

An elevated position at The Most Enchanting Spot in the World.
I was preparing material for what I thought were two entirely separate entries, on bears, and on a turn-of-the-19th-century amusement park at Coney Island called Dreamland - but this page links them both in a way that seems a good beginning.
So, bears, and Woodward's Gardens, a precursor of Dreamland, in San Francisco.
I don't revere bears, I actually feel afraid of them in a way that I don't experience with any other animal, including sharks and poisonous snakes - both of which scare me, but in a healthy and understandable way. Bears spook me in a way that has a supernatural dimension, the idea of bears scares me. Yet there were many photos I found that showed them caged and humiliated, photos that tap an already existing disgust toward their captors that has nothing supernatural about it - so it's a mixed response, all in all.
The Dreamland effort has a kind of polarity to the gathered images of bears, entirely human, fantastic, temporary, gone.

Bear with me, Humanity

The Missing Craters of Asteroid Itokawa

Blog Archive

Vivian

db annex larger,longer image-heavy posts