Ambeth R. Ocampo's Blog, page 63

SPOT THE SPIRITS OF GOMBURZA IN THIS SPIRIT PHOTO.. One of the earliest documented "spirit photographs" from the Phili...

SPOT THE SPIRITS OF GOMBURZA IN THIS SPIRIT PHOTO..
One of the earliest documented "spirit photographs" from the Philippines were taken in a Santa Cruz Manila photo studio at the turn of the 19th century. Ex-Agustinian friar Salvador Pons compiled a whole album (where is it now?) and contributed some to the "Album de Fotografias Espiritas" (Barcelona, 1903). A rough translation of the caption, from the original Spanish, reads:
"During the internal struggles as a result of whic...

If I was born 50 years earlier I could interview notable men and women who figure in the birth of the Filipino nation. If not ...

If I was born 50 years earlier I could interview notable men and women who figure in the birth of the Filipino nation. If not them then people who knew them. One method I have not tried is speaking to notable Filipinos from the past through a spirit medium. Guillermo Tolentino, National Artist for Sculpture, did just that in regular seances in his home on Retiro Street, Sampaloc.
My Inquirer column today is on speaking with heroes from beyond the grave and accompanies the photograph in an...

A lesson on inflation. This Magnolia Ice Cream advertisement from 70 years ago was amazing not just for the prices, six pes...

A lesson on inflation.
This Magnolia Ice Cream advertisement from 70 years ago was amazing not just for the prices, six pesos a gallon! They had a wider variety of flavors then, 20 different kinds, including unusual combinations like Ube sherbet not ice cream. Cherry-Pineapple too!
The prices then compared to today are a clear example of inflation and the decreasing buying power of the peso you save and earn in the future.



(Feed generated with FetchRSS)

Where are the ashes of Rizal's love letters? Caught the last day of Museums Month with a free day at the Yuchengco Museum l...

Where are the ashes of Rizal's love letters?
Caught the last day of Museums Month with a free day at the Yuchengco Museum last October 31. Of course, I headed to the Rizal rooms and took a selfie with the fabled box that once contained the ashes of Rizal's love letters.
I first saw and handled this box in the Leonor Rivera Kipping Museum in Camiling Tarlac over 30 years ago. I'm happy the family has loaned it to a more accessible museum in MetroManila together with other pieces that in...

When I was a boy we translated the Filipino "cementerio" into "cementery" and heard the elders refer to it as "campo santo" or "...

When I was a boy we translated the Filipino "cementerio" into "cementery" and heard the elders refer to it as "campo santo" or "pantiun." My Inquirer column today is on the Manila North Cemetery and one of my research methods: reading history off tombstones.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/167699/h...



(Feed generated with FetchRSS)

"THE THING" In 1953 Clarita Villanueva, a taxi dancer from Bacolod, was booked and thrown into Bilibid for vagrancy. While...

"THE THING"
In 1953 Clarita Villanueva, a taxi dancer from Bacolod, was booked and thrown into Bilibid for vagrancy. While in confinement Villanueva was attacked by an unseen being that the press called “The Thing.” This made national and international headlines.
Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson who witnessed an attack requested the UST Rector and the Archbishop of Manila for an exorcism. This photo shows neuropsychiatrist Lt. Col Jose Zaguierre testing Villanueva’s reflexes under the watc...

Happy Halloween! Deirdre dela Cruz, Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan has discovered what are pr...

Happy Halloween!
Deirdre dela Cruz, Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan has discovered what are probably the earliest documented spirit photographs from the Philippines in the “Album de Fotografias Espiritas.” (Casa Editorial Carbonell y Esteva. Barcelona, 1903). She has published a fascinating journal article putting the photos in context.
This photo taken in the studio of Joaquin Reyes in Santa Cruz Manila at the close of the 19th century shows a widower, Mr,...

One of the charming plots in the Manila North Cemetery erected by the Firemen's Relief Association in 1912 is bounded by fire hy...

One of the charming plots in the Manila North Cemetery erected by the Firemen's Relief Association in 1912 is bounded by fire hydrants. So much history you can read from graves in this cemetery.



(Feed generated with FetchRSS)

It is called serendipity, because it is not everyday that a historian finds his mother while doing library research abroad.Goi...

It is called serendipity, because it is not everyday that a historian finds his mother while doing library research abroad.

Going over Filipiniana periodicals in the Mauro Garcia Collection, Sophia University Library, Tokyo I found photos of Rizal's mother and sister then in a magazine article on promoting tourism in the Philippines--there was mom, beautiful in her Balintawak, it was like she came out of a landscape by Fernando Amorsolo.

If only she passed on 1% of her beauty on me, my life wo...

Historian Ambeth Ocampo on the importance of visiting museums and staying curious

It may be the end of Museums month, but really now museum visits should be part of your schedule: any month, any week, any day when you have free time.
"Cabinet of Curiosities" would not be if it were not for visits to museums accessible to me: National Museum of the Philippines, Ayala Museum, Lopez Museum and Library, Intramuros Administration, the museums of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, UP Vargas Museum, Ateneo Art Gallery.
There are places where you can handle and le...