Lenora Rogers's Blog, page 114
January 12, 2016
Disaster-prone women
To say that Violet Jessop was disaster prone is a bit like saying that Donald Trump has issues with his hair (and a few other issues besides…). Her story takes survival and pure luck to a whole new level. Violet achieved a peculiar kind of fame when she managed to survive three disasters.
She was the first of nine children born to Irish emigrants William and Katherine Jessop, in Argentina, where William was a sheep farmer. After his death, Violet and the family moved to Bri...
January 11, 2016
Does this chalk drawing depict Grace Dalrymple Elliott?
Unidentified lady, thought to be Grace Dalrymple Elliott by John Hoppner, British Museum.
A chalk drawing dating to around 1782 by John Hoppner, whilst unproven, is reputed to depict the celebrated courtesan Grace Dalrymple Elliott. If there is a corresponding portrait it has yet to be discovered. There certainly does look to be a good similarity between the Gainsborough portraits of her and, if it is Grace, it dates from the time of her pregnancy with the reputed child...
The Marriage of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves
On the 6th of January 1540, Henry VIII married Anne of Cleves at the Queen’s Closet in Greenwich in a ceremony officiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. The date also fell on the feast of the Epiphany which marked the end of the twelve days of Christmas celebrations. In spite of Henry’s earlier protests that he would not marry the Princess of Cleves because “I like her not”; Cromwell convinced him of otherwise, reminding him of his agreement with h...
Margaret Hamilton – One Giant Leap for Womankind
Nearly fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong took his famous first small step on the surface of the moon. Though people all over the US celebrated the monumental historical moment, arguably none were more excited or relieved than Margaret Hamilton, who led the MIT team responsible for the software that made a moon landing possible. Hamilton’s innovation and accomplishments helped pave the way for women in computer science disciplines during a Mad Men like era where women were a huge minority in t...
January 10, 2016
January 9, 2016
The Abandoned Countess
History... the interesting bits!
Arms of the County of Bar
You would think that a man who was given a king’s granddaughter as a wife would relish the glamour and connections such a bride brought. However, this was not always the case and nowhere is it more obvious than in the life and marriage of Joan of Bar.
Joan was the granddaughter of the mighty Edward I and his queen, Eleanor of Castile. Her mother was the Eleanor, Edward and Eleanor’s eldest surviving child. Eleanor of England had be...
Charlotte Lennox’s ‘The Female Quixote’
On the 4th of January 1804, the English author and poet Charlotte Lennox,néeRamsay, died in London. The fact that she was buried in an unmarked grave at Broad Court Cemetery is, in some metaphoric way, meaningful. In her writing, and especially in The Female Quixote (1752) (or The Adventures of Arabella) – a novel imitating and parodying the ideas of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote(1605), she tried to speak up on behalf of suppressed female desire, and, to a certain extent, to in...
January 8, 2016
Historic Painting: “Moscow in Winter from the Sparrow Hills,” Aivazovsky, 1872.
Love this
With the New Year over we’re now in the deep winter, and today where I live it snowed for the first time in two years (climate change notwithstanding). Thus I went looking for a suitably “wintry” painting and found this beautiful scene by Russian painted Ivan Aivazovsky, one of my favorite painters, this being the third work of his I’ve featured in this series. (The others are here, here).Moscow in Winter from the Sparrow Hills was painted in 1872 and the title p...
What happened this month in history?
Some great history
If It Happened Yesterday, It's History
Briton Donald Campbell lost his life doing what he loved best on January 4th 1967. He lost control of his all-metal turbo jet engine speedboat, Bluebird K7, which bounced three times before somersaulting into the air and crashing into the water at very high-speed. Campbell was killed instantly in the accident. Campbell lived under the huge shadow of his famous father,...
