plep

plep Archive

10th September
Metro Murals. Photoessay: murals at Tehran metro stations.
Tehran Metro official site.

Pavilion of Wings. Butterflies. 'Following a huge success last summer, the Natural History Museum will once again offer visitors the chance to explore the magical world of butterflies and moths at its unique Pavilion of Wings: A Live Butterfly Experience.'
Slideshow. 'Illustrations of exotic entomology.'

Historical Plat Book: Doniphan County, Kansas. (1882) 'My name is Roger Pyle, and many of my ancestors lived in Doniphan County, beginning around 1857. '
'I have scanned in 15 Town Maps, 6 Tables listing County, Township and Town Officers year-by-year, 14 Section Plat Maps with owners' names, and 64 illustrations of residences and businesses, as well as about 320K of historical and biographical text. '

Churchill: The Evidence. (National Library of Scotland)
A chronicle of the life and times of Winston Churchill. Lots and lots to see here...

Asago Art Village 'provides new space for art indoor museum and a vast outdoor sculpture park. The museum is in front of the huge rock-fill dam, and has functional exhibition rooms, ateliers, and reference service corner. The museum shows permanently lifeworks of the person of cultural merits Toshio Yodoi who was born in Asago, and works of "the Exhibition of The Open-Air Sculpture in TATARAGI", "The Exhibition of Flower and Green Pictures" as some special exhibitions.'
'You can enjoy wonderful objets of arts and may have a view of seasonal expressions. '

American Red Cross - Museum.
Online exhibits. Health and safety photography, Red Cross posters, stamping out TB, African-Americans in the American Red Cross... etc.

Theatre of Anatomy in the Archiginnasio. (Bologna)
'The Anatomical Theatre, built in 1637 as a place for teaching anatomy through the dissection of corpses, is situated in Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio. This building, erected in 1563 and site of the Bolognese University until 1803, is today an important conservation library. '

Orphan Trains of Nebraska. 'From 1854 to 1929, signs like this were posted and published all across the Midwest. Over 150,000 orphaned, homeless or neglected children were uprooted from the city and sent by "Orphan Trains" to farming communities, primarily in the Midwest, to be adopted out to good homes. In this way, the city of New York was not only drastically reducing their orphan problems, -- they were also aiding others who desperately wanted children. The children were taken by train and often lined up at predetermined stops to be "looked over" and adopted (or in many cases indentured). Those not selected were taken to the next stop in hopes of finding a new home. For many children, life improved because they found homes with loving adults to care for them. Others, however, were not so fortunate, and their lives became more miserable as they found themselves in homes where they were used chiefly for slave labor ... '
The Howard Hurd Story.

Art Aids Africa.

Cutting to the Essence, Shaping for the Fire. West African art.
'The Yoruba and Akan art in this exhibition has been selected from the permanent collection of the Lakeview Museum. The exhibition title, Cutting to the Essence - Shaping for the Fire, suggests a polarity of style and technique within two different media, woodcarving and metalwork, yet these title concepts should be understood as complementary ... '

Stir-Fry: A Video Curator's Dispatches from China. 'Barbara London hikes the back roads of the Middle Kingdom in her quest for the best Chinese Media Art. '
'She is accompanied by F.D.P. Henryz, who is providing audio, visual, and technical assistance on the journey. '

Tetsubin: Iron Treasures of Japan. Iron water kettles. ' ... What makes the tetsubin particularly intriguing is not only their charming aesthetic quality but the history of their development in Japan. '
Gallery.

Disused WW II Airfields in N.E. Scotland. 'Whilst travelling to North Sea Rigs from Aberdeen, I always made a point of looking for the old wartime airfields from the helicopter. Airfields such as Longside (Peterhead), Inverallochy and Crimond (Rattery) always caught my attention. When returning home from the Texaco Captain field located in the outer Moray Firth, I always think of the aircrews heading home after a mission as I see the coastline between Peterhead and Fraserburgh as they would have done all those years ago, although they would have more reason to appreciate the sight ... '

National Centre for Popular Music, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

Graceland Album Notes by Paul Simon, 1986.
' ... In fact, the album turned out to be "township jive" or "Mbaqanga" - the street music of Soweto, South Africa. With the help of Warner Bros. Records, I was put in touch with Hilton Rosenthal, a record producer working in Johannesburg and known for having produced the group Juluka, The first racially-integrated band to become a hit in South Africa. He sent me twenty or so albums that covered the spectrum of black music from traditional to funk and I began to listen to South African music steadily In February '85, my friend and engineer Roy Halee and I flew to Johannesburg to record with three groups that I had heard on these records ... '

Cryptozoo logy Jungle. 'The Cryptozoology Jungle is a resource for information and news on Bigfoot, the Chupacabra, Giant Anaconda, Lake Monsters and many other strange creatures. '

Communist Sculpture Museum, Hungary. Lots of images.

Tea Ceremony.

Time Travel Institute.
link

9th September
Howard R Dunham, 1912-1980: Papers, 1930-1935. 'During the summer of 1932, Howard Dunham toured the United States with fellow members of the Milwaukee State Teachers College singing group. The group left from Milwaukee on June 18, stopping in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Idaho, before arriving at their northernmost stop in Bellingham, Washington on June 30.'
'From there, the group traveled south through Oregon and California, then journeyed northeast through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois. They arrived home on July 21. Along their route, the group sang at various state teacher colleges.'
'Dunham recorded the events of the trip in a journal he called "Western Trip." The Archives acquired Dunham's journal and photographs of the trip in 2000. This Web exhibit provides direct access to all of the journal and some of the photographs. The entire collection is available for use in the Archives.'

The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret. 'The Museum provides a memorable experience for any visitor interested in the past. It is one of the most unusual places - a place lost in the past. '
'The Museum is found at the top of a rickety spiral staircase in the barn-like roof space of an old Church. The Operating Theatre is built in the old Herb Garret of St Thomas's Hospital. While the Garret has a charming old world atmosphere of oak beams and bundles of herbs, the Theatre itself is a shocking reminder of the harsh reality of life before modern science and technology. Many places claim to 'bring the past to life'. But this is not Disney cuteness or Heritage complacency. This is the past stripped bare. See for your self!'
Virtual tour.

The Bay View Tragedy at Rolling Mills: May 5, 1886. 'When I began to write history, I wanted to write history from the point of view of people whose point of view had been left out of history. As I myself learned history, right through school up to graduate school, it was mostly history from the top...it was mostly history of presidents, the Age of Lincoln, the Age of Jackson, the Age of Roosevelt and the story of America's industrial progress as told through the story of Carnegie and Morgan and Rockefeller and Vanderbilt and so on. I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of working people, from the standpoint of black people. '
'When I was approached and told about what happened at Bay View, I didn't know about it. I didn't know about the general strike in Oshkosh that took place 100 years ago. '
'Consider the conditions that workers endured over 100 years ago, such as the 16- hour days. That was about the age of free enterprise. You hear much about the age of free enterprise and that we mustn't interfere with workings of the free enterprise system ... '
Via the Wisconsin Labour History Society.

Illinois Labour History Sites. Interactive map. Interesting stuff.

Bread and Roses Cultural Project. 'Bread and Roses is the not-for-profit cultural arm of Local 1199, the National Health and Human Services Employees Union. Its 220,000 predominantly Latina and African American women members are employed in all job categories in health care institutions throughout the metropolitan area, New Jersey and Florida. '
'Bread and Roses was founded in 1979 as a cultural resource for union members and students in New York City who would otherwise have little access to the arts. Special emphasis is given to programs that signify and interpret their history while generating new artistic expression. '
Virtual gallery.

Afghanistan: The Harrison Forman Collection. 'The online exhibit Afghanistan: images from the Harrison Forman Collection documents the life and culture of Afghanistan in the late 1960s, several years before the Soviet Union invaded the country. The photographs were taken by Harrison Forman in 1969. The online collection consists of 186 images selected from a set of 733 slides of Afghanistan in the Harrison Forman Photographic Collection housed at the American Geographical Society Collection ...'

Kabul Museum. 'The images below were taken between 1968-71 in the Kabul Museum. They were shot with a half-frame 35mm camera. ID information is taken from Art in Afghanistan: Objects from the Kabul Museum by Frances Mortimer Rice and Benjamin Rowland (Coral Gables, University of Miami Press, 1971). Click on an image for a larger view The images below were taken between 1968-71 in the Kabul Museum. They were shot with a half-frame 35mm camera. ID information is taken from Art in Afghanistan: Objects from the Kabul Museum by Frances Mortimer Rice and Benjamin Rowland (Coral Gables, University of Miami Press, 1971). Click on an image for a larger view.'

Ahmad Zahir. 'Ahmad Zahir, undoubtebly the greatest Afghan singer ever. The feelings can not be explained in words but can be felt through his inspiring music. His music lives on in every Afghan household regardless of their ages. For people who never heard his music or to the ones that grew up with his music, we welcome you to AhmadZahir.COM!'

History of the World Trade Centre. (Museum of the City of New York)
Part of Project September 11. 'The Museum of the City of New York, like all New Yorkers, was deeply affected by the attack on the World Trade Center. A small part of our response is available here on the website, including: a brief history of the World Trade Center, with construction photographs donated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Virtual Union Square, inspired by the spontaneous memorials created at Union Square Park, we invite contributions to this ever-growing virtual exhibition; and After September 11: Images from Ground Zero, photographs by Joel Meyerowitz sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; U.S. Department of State in conjunction with the Museum of the City of New York. '

The Day Our World Changed: Children's Art of 9/11.

United Kingdom Centre for the History of Nursing. 'The UK Centre for the History of Nursing is a new venture that for the first time provides a focus for nursing history in Europe. Its task is to build awareness of the importance of nursing history through education and research.'
The on-site archives include several interesting historical documents.

Canon Wonder Museum. (In Japanese; great pictures).

Choseizan Kosanji / Kosanji Temple Museum.
Hill of Hope.

Images from the History of Medicine. 'Welcome to Images from the History of Medicine (IHM). This system provides access to the nearly 60,000 images in the prints and photograph collection of the History of Medicine Division (HMD) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). The collection includes portraits, pictures of institutions, caricatures, genre scenes, and graphic art in a variety of media, illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine. '

The Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers. A livery company of the City of London.

The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project. 'The Project was founded by Dith Pran, a Cambodian refugee whose war time story was portrayed in the movie, The Killing Fields. Dith Pran and Kim DePaul, Executive Director of the Project, aim to continue to educate American students about the Cambodian genocide which occurred from April 17th, 1975 to January 7th, 1979.'

Wat Khmer. A global directory. Via Cambodian Buddhist Telecommunication.

Behind the Label. Global justice for garment workers.

Sweatshop Watch.

Art Car Museum, Houston.
Secret Wars.
Art cars.

Dulcie September 1935-1988.

News about France and the Desert de Retz. Ronald has linked to some interesting pieces about blogs, too.
link

7th September
Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions. 'Once upon a time, before the giant mouse ate Orlando and Interstate Highways were built to cattle chute the tourists directly into International Drive, there was another Florida. It was somewhen between Henry Ford's mass production of the Model-T, which made automobile touring a commonplace, and Walt Disney's mass production of the tourist experience, which made the road trip a mere way to get there, instead of the there itself. It was the age of the roadside attraction ... '
[ ... ]
'I'm creating this site as an homage to the diversity that was Florida tourism, and, as my research fills things in, I'll be delving into the details of those forgotten places and updating this page with a record of this largely uncharted chunk of the state's history. '

Walking Page. Diaries of long-distance walks in Britain.
'These pages describe some long distance walks of my own that I have done. The first, "An English Walk" leads from one end of England - Fernhurst, West Sussex - to the other - Threlkeld, near Keswick in the Lake District. The first section I did over 19 days in summer 1998 from Fernhurst, where I grew up and first got into walking by exploring the local area, to Edale, heart of the Peak District and start of the Pennine Way. The route took me through the English countryside by way of the Hampshire Downs, White Horse Hills, Cotswolds, Malverns, Shropshire Hills and south-western Peak District to Edale.'
'The second half I did in late April and early May this year, continuing on northwards from Edale by way of the Pennine Way, Yorkshire Dales, Three Peaks and Dales Way to the Lake District ... '
Beware the giant hogweed.

Interfaith Peace Declaration.

An Eternity of Forest Paintings by Mbuti Women. '"All lives, all dances and all is loud." Energy, motion and sound: the exuberance and vitality of the forest aesthetic is defined alike by a Gabon Pygmy song, and by the paintings of the Mbuti women of the Ituri Forest of northeastern Zaire. '
'"All lives, all dances and all is loud." Energy, motion and sound: the exuberance and vitality of the forest aesthetic is defined alike by a Gabon Pygmy song, and by the paintings of the Mbuti women of the Ituri Forest of northeastern Zaire ... '

Naval Research Laboratory. So much interesting stuff here.
NRL Heritage. History of the US Naval Research Laboratory. 'The first step came in May 1915, a time when Americans were deeply worried about the great European war. Thomas Edison, when asked by a New York Times correspondent to comment on the conflict, argued that the Nation should look to science. ``The Government,'' he proposed in a published interview, ``should maintain a great research laboratory.... In this could be developed...all the technique of military and naval progression without any vast expense.'' Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels seized the opportunity created by Edison's public comments to enlist Edison's support ... '
Clementine. 'The Pentagon announced on December 3, 1996 that data acquired by the Clementine spacecraft indicates that there is ice in the bottom of a crater on the Moon. Located on the Moon's South pole it was discovered with radar data and although it is never lit by the sun, there are a few images available for viewing. To download the images for viewing, right click (or click and hold if you are using a Macintosh) and select "Save Link As...". Viewing the images through your browser is possible by clicking each image below.'
Albedo map of the Moon.
Selected images of Moon and Earth.
Clementine Lunar Image Browser.
Other featured topics.

Eyes on Japan, Eyes on the World. 'Everett Kennedy Brown is a photographer and writer whose work appears regularly in major Japanese print media. His first book, Oretachi no Nippon: Eyes on Japan (Shogakukan Publishers) has been the subject of wide critical acclaim for it's unique and in-depth perspective on contemporary Japanese culture. '
'Following in the footsteps of the great haiku poet, Matsuo Basho, his photographic journey into the northern regions of Japan was broadcast as an eleven part series for Japanese television ... '

Tiki Gardens Memorial Web Page. 'A South Sea island paradise in Florida.'s

Helmdon, a village in Northamptonshire.
The Helmdon Trail, a walk round the village. 'Helmdon has a population of around 800 and used to be a farming community, catering mostly for its own needs. From the early 18th century there was also a thriving lace industry. Today people go to work chiefly in the towns around, such as Banbury and Northampton, and even to London. It has a nine-member parish council ... '
Historical articles and picture gallery.

Will the Real Hieronymus Bosch Please Stand Up? An e-book by Damon Knight.

The Unofficial Six Flags Atlantis Memorial Page. 'Six Flags Atlantis was a water park occupying several prime acres of real estate at the intersection of I-95 and Stirling Road in Hollywood, Florida. '
'It was born "Atlantis, the Water Kingdom", designed and built by a local developer who ran out of funds before the park could open. For several years it remained in a state of partial completion ... '

School of the Americas Watch. 'The US Army School of Americas (SOA), based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American soldiers in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. Graduates of the SOA are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians ... '

Oscar Romero. A personal reminiscence. "Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty."

Kisetsuga.
Japanese street and beach photography.
Profile.

Trinity House. English and Welsh lighthouses.

Lighthouses of Australia.
Lighthouses lost. 'This page is part of a project undertaken to promote and coordinate the presentation of Australian lighthouses on the internet. It documents lighthouses that are no longer with us. Some are complete ruins, others are abandoned towers ... '
Australia's first lighthouse.

Historic Lighthouses of Newfoundland and Labrador. 'The Light Houses of Newfoundland are built on some of our wildest and most magnificent places. Constructed in the early 19th century as navigational aids to fishermen and mariners, many of these lighthouses still operate today. Visit one of these places and you may get a breath-taking glimpse of life in our province one hundred and fifty years ago ... '

An English-Korean Cartoon History of the Korean War.

Africa USA. America's first cageless African wildlife tourist attraction.

The Spiders.

Bootstrap Alliance. Visionary inventions and research; a brainchild of Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse.

The Apprentice-Master Alliance. 'Based on a project that started in San Francisco in 1977 (but which, alas, seems to have ceased operation), this online directory is produced by the ApprenticeMaster Alliance, a charitable UK project, launched in 1994. '
'Like its American counterpart, the aim is to link would-be Apprentices - anyone over the age of 18, who has for example recently left school or graduated from college or university, or someone who has retired or is looking for a new way of life - with 'Masters', women or men who have a mastery of a particular craft, skill or expertise, who run a small business and who have indicated a willingness to teach an Apprentice in a long-term, structured, but informal one-to-one relationship ... '
Gondola building.

The Archimedes Project. "Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the world." -Archimedes, 230 BC.
'Founded at Stanford University in 1990 as an independent research organization, The Archimedes Project studies barriers to accessing and using information, computers, and information appliances and identifies and designs innovative solutions, including accessors, that advance universal access to and use of information and control of one's environment.'

Closed Canadian Parks. Defunct Canadian amusement parks, beaches and pleasure gardens.

Mandala: Buddhist Tantric Diagrams.

Tashi Lhunpo Monastery.

Elsa's Housebook: A Woman's Photojournal. 'In 1973-74, while I was a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College I pulled together the pictures that I had taken of my friends in my house at 19 Flagg St and wrote a text to go with them. (There's a long tradition of photographers photographing their families and friends. What could be more obvious and instinctual, except perhaps photographing your favorite tree or flower?) ... '

Seven Wonders of Wales.

Palmyra Atoll: Rainforest of the Sea.

Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium.

Rachel Carson - biologist, writer, ecologist (1907-1964).
link

6th September
Crop Circle Quest. Crop circles in western Canada personally visited by the author of this site; the reports are excellent.

The Nursery Alice. 'Containing Twenty Coloured Elargements From Tenniel's Illustrations to "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" With Text Adapted To Nursery Readers.'

Underground Adventure.

British Rockets and Satellite Launchers. 'This site is intended to cover the British space and rocketry programme, actual and intended, over the years from 1950 to 1971. ' A fascinating and little-known history.

Centaur: America's Workhorse in Space. (NASA)
'The immediate exchange of information that we take for granted today is one of man's greatest accomplishments. One of the key elements in this achievement has been our ability to place communication satellites into orbit high above the earth to relay complex electronic messages and images. Paralleling this effort has been our quest for even more information about the very nature of our universe. The exploration of space continues to provide us with an ever expanding view that was not even dreamed possible only decades ago.'
'A high-energy rocket is greatly responsible for advancing the quest for knowledge and the revolution in global communications. It's name is: Centaur! America's Workhorse In Space. Centaur is one of NASA Lewis' most significant achievements. In all, NASA Lewis has utilized Centaur for over 100 unmanned launches ... '

Divine Chocolate. Fair trade choccies; small-scale cocoa growers in Ghana own a chocolate company in the UK.

Breaking the Silence. Antislavery.org's page on the transatlantic slave trade.

The Slave Route. 'The "Slave Route", is an Intercultural project administered, co-ordinated and monitored by the UNESCO Department of Intercultural Dialogue and Pluralism for a Culture of Peace.'
'Being the first system of globalization in history, the slave trade and consequently slavery from the 16th to the 19th century-, were according to French historian Jean-Michel Deveau "the greatest tragedy in the history of humanity in terms of scale and duration". The transatlantic slave trade, a determining factor in the world economy of the 18th century, was the biggest deportation in history. It is necessary to point it out and collect evidence. Millions of Africans, women, men and children were torn from their homes, deported to the American continent and sold ... '

The Chinese Students Memorial Society. 'The Chinese Students Memorial Society seeks to commemorate the Chinese Educational Commission of Chinese youth sent to study in America by the Qing Dynasty. This Commission resulted from the tireless efforts of Yong Wing [Rong Hong], who was graduated from Yale University in 1854, the first Chinese national to graduate from an American university. Upon returning to China, Yung spent many years seeking to convince the Qing officials to send Chinese youth to America to study. Over a four-year period, beginning in 1872, one-hundred and twenty students arrived in Connecticut to begin instruction in English language preparatory to their admission to universities. The Commission was abruptly terminated in 1881 by conservative mandarins who feared the students' loss of their own culture. Nevertheless, many of these students returned to China and greatly influenced China's progress in various fields during the twentieth century ... '
Yung Wing story.
Photo gallery.

The Daniel K.E. Ching Collection. 'The Chinese Historical Society of America recently acquired the personal collection of Daniel K.E. Ching, consisting of thousands of two- and three-dimensional representations of Chinese Americans in 19th and early 20th century American popular culture. '
'These astounding portrayals are manifest in the collection's post-cards, chalkware, advertising trade cards, sheet music, and toys. The collection is currently being catalogued by the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University ... '
Includes a slideshow.
'Rough on rats' - racism and advertising in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Via the Chinese Historical Society of America.

Litchfield Plantation, South Carolina. Once a 600 acre 17th century rice plantation, now a luxury hotel.

The History of Prospect Hotel, Oregon. 'Albion Howard Boothby and his wife Jennie moved to Prospect (then called Deskins) from Maine in the early 1870s. In the mid 1880s they moved their young family to Ashland, but after six years they returned to their home on Mill Creek and to the town now known as Prospect ... '

History of the Congress Plaza Hotel. 'The Congress Hotel was built in 1893 for the Columbian World's Exposition. It's architecture was designed to blend with that of the Auditorium Theatre, and the hotel itself at one time was connected to the theatre, prior to the construction of the Congress Parkway. Architecture students from all over the world today come to Chicago to study the architecture of the Congress Plaza Hotel ... '

The Navigation Inn in the Peak District of Derbyshire.
A walk along the Buxworth arm of the Peak Forest Canal.
Buggesworth, a history of a Peak District village. 'Buxworth is a small village sitting between the towns of New Mills, Hayfield and Chapel-en-le-Frith. The village name has had a chequered history, starting off as Buggesworth in 1222, the double 'g ' and an 'e' continued to be used on either side of 1600, but gradually a combined 'ge' was slowly being dropped, so that from 1625 onwards, Bugsworth was in common usage. Since 1874 there has been 5 attempts to change the village name, 2 half - hearted and 3 serious, the most recent being in 1999 ... '

Pictures of Beautiful Gardens. 'The following illustrations are included in the Yokei tsukuri niwa no zu (Picture of beautiful gardens) by Hishikawa (Moronubu).'
'This publication contains twenty-five woodcuts of Japanese traditional gardens of varied styles with illustrating texts. Against the background of those gardens harmoniously there are elegant figures typical of Moronubu ( - 1694), a famous ukiypoe artist in the earlier Edo Era.'
Via Japanese illustrations of the 17th and 19th century, UNESCO.

Unsicht-Bar. (German) A restaurant in darkness; branches in Cologne and Berlin.
English translation.
link