Tag: beaux arts

The Delectable Dorilton

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That looks like an ornate, luxurious birthday cake.

The plaque reads:

THE DORILTON
THIS BEAU ARTS APARTMENT HOUSE WAS DESIGNED BY THE
ARCHITECTURAL FIRM OF JANES & LEO, AND COMPLETED IN 1902.
THE DORILTON WAS HOME TO LOCAL ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS
WHO APPRECIATED THE LARGE SOUND-PROOF ROOMS. THE
BUILDING FEATURES A FIVE-STORY CENTRAL BAY WINDOW
EMBELLISHED BY TWO ELABORATE LARGER-THAN-LIFE FEMALE
SCULPTURES AT ITS BASE. THE ENTIRE STRUCTURE IS CAPPED
BY A TWO-AND-ONE-HALF-STORY CONVEX MANSARD ROOF
EMBELLISHED WITH DECORATIVE COPPER RIDGE CAPPING.
NEW YORK LANDMARKS PRESERVATION FOUNDATION
1989

 

W 71st Street & Broadway, Manhattan, New York City

June 23rd, 2018

San Francisco is… three weddings in the City Hall

The Humble Fabulist2 Comments

And that’s only the ones we witnessed during the time we spend in the City Hall – just over an hour. Looking at the vast open space of the central rotunda with the grand staircase, I’m not surprised they are on a tight schedule. Who wouldn’t want to get married under this magnificent dome! Marilyn Monroe and Joe Di Maggio did it in 1954. A number of gay couples were finally able to wed in 2004 when Gavin Newsom, then mayor of the city, made history by issuing same sex marriage licences. On the day we visited, the rotunda echoed with cheers. It was a happy day. 

Completely destroyed in the Great Earthquake of 1906, reconstruction began in 1913 and the new building was ready in 1915, in good time for the World’s Fair of the same year. Designed by architect Arthur Brown, Jr. in the Beaux-Arts style, it suffered severe damages yet again, when struck by another earthquake in 1989. Repairs and reinforcements were completed ten years later, making the building earthquake proof. I’m just glad we didn’t have to find out how resistant the structure has become.

The City Hall

July 5th, 2017

Infinity of Nations

The Humble Fabulist11 Comments

Going back to the roots and learning a bit more about Native Americans; peoples, traditions and art that were thriving here before America’s discovery by the Old World.

A sad necessity perhaps but such dedicated museums are the most effective means in rendering these cultures and their history more widely accessible to visitors.

In New York, the  museum is housed in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, one of the most splendid Beaux Arts buildings in the City with a magnificent rotunda dome.

The rotunda skylight

Inuit Woman’s Inner Parka (amauti) also known as a tuilli. It was made from caribu skin for a mother to carry her infant. It incorporates almost 140.000 beads. It was made between 1890 and 1925 when whaling flourished on the west coast of Hudson Bay and the Inuit obtained glass beads from whalers through trade.

Mississippian effigy jar. 1350-1550 AD, Clay

Mississippian long-nosed god maskettes. 1100-1500 AD, marine shell

Sisitonwan Dakota (Sisseton Sioux) gauntlet gloves. South Dakota, ca. 1880. Deer hide, cotton cloth, glass beads, ribbon. Moccasins associated with Peo Peo T’olikt (Bird Alighting, Nimi’ipuu, 1857-1935). Idaho, ca. 1880. Deer hide, glass beads, cotton thread.

”Shortly after the outbreak of the 1877 war with the United States, Chief Looking Glass declared that he wanted peace and moved his camp to Clear Creek on the 1863 reservation. Peo Peo T’olikt, who was in his twenties, was instructed by the chief to parley with militiamen and soldiers who came to the camp on July 1. The Indian camp raised a white flag, but was attacked and destroyed.

Peo Peo T’olikt was wounded in the leg, but escaped and was involved in all the subsequent battles of 1877. He lost a wife and young son in the war, but his exploits were many. Capturing the cannon at Big Hole, stealing General Howard’s mules and horses at Camas Meadows, and protecting the camp at Bear Paw are just a few.”

Allen Pinkham, Sr. (Ni Mii Puu)
Tribal historian and former National Museum of the American Indian trustee

Chilkat Tlingit canoe prow effigy, Alaska ca. 1825-1875. Cedar wood, human hair, paint, abalone shell, opercula. The Haida decorated their boats with clan designs and insignia. A Tlingit might add a canoe prow figure carved in the form of a shaman who would guide the way and warn of the approach of enemies.

Wedding dress worn by Inshata-Theumba (Susette La Flesche or Bright Eyes, Omaha, 1854-1903). Nebraska, ca. 1881. Wool

”Susette La Flesche descended from Omaha tribal leaders on both sides of her family. As a child she lived in an earth lodge, though she also attended a mission school. La Flesche witnessed the expulsion of the Ponca tribe from their homeland to Indian Territory in 1877, and the subsequent imprisonment of Standing Bear and other Poncas who had attempted to return to Nebraska. These events launched La Flesche’s career as a nationally known activist who argued against the involuntary removal of indigenous people from their homelands and for Indian citizenship rights.

La Flesche found a soulmate in Thomas Tibbles, a newspaper reporter for the Omaha Herald who followed the Ponca case. Schooled in Western and Omaha culture and bilingual, La Flesche chose an elegant cream-colored wool skirt and jacket when she married Tibbles in 1881.”

Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe)
Historian, University of Minnesota

Mebêngôkre krokrokti (feather headdress or cape). Brazil, ca. 1990. Macaw feathers, heron feathers, cotton cordage.

Mebêngôkre men and women wear feather headdresses or capes during children’s naming ceremonies and boy’s initiation ceremonies.

National Museum of the American Indian

November 7th, 2016