Before Facebook, we mailed idealized images of each other to those we love. My great-grandmother, who was born in the 1880s, passed away when I was about 11 years old. Looking back, it is fairly obvious now that she was a hoarder on a colossal scale, but since this predated reality television, we tended just[…]
It can be as meaningful to the voters today as the brass buttons were to supporters watching the first president inaugurated in 1789. On April 30, 1789, enthusiastic onlookers filled the streets, dangled out of windows, and perched on rooftops to catch a glimpse of George Washington as he made his way through the streets[…]
Many radical Republicans pressured Jefferson and the Republican-dominated Congress to make war on the Federalist judiciary. In Thomas Jefferson’s mind, the first order of business for him as President was the establishment of a “wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another” but which would otherwise leave them alone to regulate[…]
The Whiskey Rebellion was the first test of federal authority in the United States. It all started with a tax. What came to be known as the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, or the Western Insurrection, took place over a period of time beginning in 1791 by most accounts. While some would say the roots go[…]
Alberti’s De Pictura (On Painting, 1435) was the first theoretical text written about art in Europe. Introduction In a fresco (water-based pigment applied to fresh moist plaster) high on one wall of the Sistine Chapel, the aged Saint Peter kneels as he humbly accepts the keys of heaven from Jesus Christ standing before him. These[…]
These luxurious manuscripts were written and illuminated between the late eighth century and the first quarter of the ninth century. Abstract Comparing information from the ancient texts about the illumination of the manuscripts to the analysis of the components used to create colour in illuminations sheds interesting light. Our research team studied several manuscripts from[…]