THE GIFT OF NILE OR NELIOS (THE RIVER VALLEY)

Satellite photo of the Nile, NASA
Uploaded by en:User:Dbachmann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

About 5,000 years ago, a remarkable civilization, grew up along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. It flourished for over 3,000 years, longer than most other civilizations in the world's history. No other civilization in the time of the pharaohs could compete with Egypt's magnificent buildings, its wealth, or its long centuries of peace. To a large extent, this is because other civilizations did not have Egypt's main advantage , its great Nile River. (Copyright © 1999 - 2004 2travel2egypt.com)
The ancient Egyptians called the river Ar or Aur, meaning "black," because of the black sediment left behind after the frequent river floods. The ancient Greeks called the river Kem, which translates into "black" as well. But it is as Nile that we know this river today. Nile comes from the Greek Neilos, which means "river valley." The entire Nile River Delta is estimated to drain an area of 1,293,000 square miles. This area is so vast that is has a number of different climate areas. North, in Egypt and Sudan, rainfall is sparse. More to the south, in and around Ethiopia, rainfall is heavy, contributing to the floodwaters that rush downstream and eventually create the wonderfully fertile soil that supports so much of life in Egypt and Sudan.
(From socialstudiesforkids.com)
The Nile and its tributaries flow though nine countries. The White Nile flows though Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt. The Blue Nile starts in Ethiopia. Zaire, Kenya, Tanzanian, Rwanda, and Burundi all have tributaries, which flow into the Nile or into lake Victoria Nyanes. The major dams on the Nile are Roseires Dam, Sennar Dam, Aswan High Dam, and Owen Falls Dam. The river just flows down hill, from the high mountains in the middle of Africa to the Nile delta (point where Nile enters the Mediterranean Sea).
(From mbarron.net)
The Nile (iteru in Ancient Egyptian) was the lifeline of the ancient Egyptian civilization, with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt resting along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. The Nile has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since the Stone Age. Climate change, or perhaps overgrazing, desiccated the pastoral lands of Egypt to form the Sahara desert, possibly as long ago as 8000 BC, and the inhabitants then presumably migrated to the river, where they developed a settled agricultural economy and a more centralized society.
The river Nile froze twice in recorded history, in 829 and 1010.

The Rosetta Stone, found in the Nile Delta in 1799
British Museum
Source: self-made
Author: Matija Podhraški, December 2003

People have lived in the Nile Delta region for thousands of years, and have been intensively farming for at least five thousand years. The Nile River used to be flooded on an annual basis, but this ended with the construction of the Aswan Dam.

Aswan Dam by Benjamin Franck
Picture taken on nov 2005
Source Transfered from en.wikipedia
Date 2007-02-02 (original upload date)
Author Original uploader was PtitBen at en.wikipedia

The present Nile is at least the fifth river that has flowed north from the Ethiopian Highlands. Satellite imagery was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the Nile. An Eonile canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents an ancestral Nile called the Eonile that flowed during the later Miocene (23–5.3 million years before the present). The Eonile transported clastic sediments to the Mediterranean, where several gas fields have been discovered within these sediments.

Nile River and delta from orbit
The Nile River and delta as seen from space
By MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite
Source http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=4927
Date February 5, 2003
Author: Jacques Descloitres
MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Description:
"Against the barren desert of northeastern Africa, the fertile valley of the Nile River runs northward through Egypt. In the higher-resolution images, the city of Cairo can be seen as a gray smudge right where the river widens into its broad fan-shaped delta. Other cities are dotted across the green landscape, giving it a speckled appearance. Where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea (top) the waters are swirling with color, likely a mixture of sediment, organic matter, and possibly marine plant life. Farther west, the bright blue color of the water is likely less-organically rich sediment, perhaps sand. East of the delta lies the arid Sinai Peninsula, whose pointed tip is home to rugged mountains, some as high as 8,600 feet. The lattice work of pale lines marks the paths of ephemeral rivers. The Sinai Peninsula intrudes into the Red Sea. Farther east are Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. At top right is the disputed territory of the West Bank. In the false-color image, vegetation is bright green, water is dark blue or black, and clouds are light blue. It's interesting to notice that places that seem essentially arid, or desert-like in the true-color image in fact have a delicate layer of vegetation. For example, the central Sinai Peninsula, and most of Israel have a faint greenish tinge in the false-color images."

Landsat 7 false colour image of the Nile Delta
Source Captured and cropped from NASA World Wind.
Date 17 September 2006
Author NASA

During the late-Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea was a closed basin and evaporated empty or nearly so, the Nile cut its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred feet below world ocean level at Aswan and 8,000 feet (2,400 m) below Cairo. This huge canyon is now full of later sediment.
Lake Tanganyika drained northwards into the Nile until the Virunga Volcanoes blocked its course in Rwanda. That would have made the Nile much longer, with its longest headwaters in northern Zambia.
Egypt was the gift of the Nile, and in a sense that is correct. Without the waters of the Nile River for irrigation, Egyptian civilization would probably have been short-lived. The Nile provided the elements that make a vigorous civilization, and contributed much to its lasting three thousand years.

View from Cairo Tower
The Nile passes through Cairo, Egypt's capital city
Source Transferred from en.wikipedia
Date 2007-03-31 (first version); 2007-12-02 (last version)
Author: Original uploader: Raduasandei at en.wikipedia
Later version(s) uploaded by Arad at en.wikipedia.
(Original text : Asandei Radu March 30th 2007)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vegetation along the Nile
The river next to the big city (called: Beni Suef)
right side at the bottom of the picture.
Date 18th Juny 2003 "12:38"
Author Marcell Katona (Katonams)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Nile
Source: own work
Author Jerzy Strzelecki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Map of the Blue Nile
Adapted from Image:Niloazul.jpg on Commons
Source Image:Niloazul.jpg
Date July 2004, recaptioned 2008-05-08
Author Nicolás Pérez
originally on es: Wikipedia

The White Nile Expedition, led by South African national Hendri Coetzee, became the first to navigate the Nile's entire length. The expedition took off from the source of the Nile in Uganda on January 17, 2004 and arrived safely at the Mediterranean in Rosetta, 4 months and 2 weeks later. National Geographic released a feature film about the expedition towards in late 2005 entitled The Longest River.
On April 28, 2004, geologist Pasquale Scaturro of Colorado and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown of California became the first people to navigate the Blue Nile, from Lake Tana in Ethiopia to the beaches of Alexandria on the Mediterranean. Though their expedition included a number of others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the their epic 3,250-mile journey. This historic four-month expedition is sponsored by giant screen film production company MacGillivray Freeman Films (Everest) and Orbita Max of Spain. They chronicled their adventure with an IMAX camera and two handheld video cams, sharing their story in the IMAX film "Mystery of the Nile", and in a book of the same title. The team was forced to use outboard motors for most of their journey, and it was not until January 29, 2005 when Canadian Les Jickling and New Zealander Mark Tanner reached the Mediterranean Sea, that the river had been paddled for the first time under human power.

Two Americans First in History to Complete Full Descent of Nile River ...
(Copyright © 1996-2008 PR Newswire Association LLC.)

The Blue Nile Falls fed by Lake Tana,
near the city of Bahar Dar, Ethiopia
Also known as Tis Issat Falls after the name of the nearby village
Source Original Photograph
Date January 2002
Author Jialiang Gao www.peace-on-earth.org
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A team led by South Africans Peter Meredith and Hendri Coetzee on 30 April 2005, became the first to navigate the most remote headstream, the remote source of the Nile, the Akagera river, which starts as the Rukarara in Nyungwe forest in Rwanda.
On March 31, 2006, three explorers from Britain and New Zealand lead by Neil McGrigor claimed to have been the first to travel the river from its mouth to a new "true source" deep in Rwanda's Nyungwe rainforest.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

WikiProject Geographical coordinates


Where is the Nileand Why is it Important
Nile Components:
The Egyptian Nile
The Cataracts of the Nile
The Blue Nile
The White NileLake Victoria & the Victoria Nile
Lake Edward & the Semliki River
Lake Albert & the Albert Nile
The Sudd
The Geology of the Nile
The Hydrology of the Nile
Nile Maps and Images
(From UTD The River Nile Homepage)

Essay: The Inscrutable Nile at the Beginning of the New Millennium
by Robert O. Collins
Professor of History, Emeritus, University of California Santa Barbara
(From history.ucsb.edu)

Link to Google Maps to see the Nile
(From maps.google.com)

Cities of the Dead, Nile River Delta, Egypt
Astronaut photograph ISS018-E-6540
Acquired on October 31, 2008
Posted December 1, 2008
Nikon D2Xs digital camera (800 mm lens)
By the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment
& Image Science & Analysis Laboratory
Johnson Space Center.
Webmaster: Goran Halusa
NASA official: Lorraine Remer

The above image was taken by the Expedition 18 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet.
The ancient pharaohs (kings) and queens of Egypt established several royal cemeteries, along the Nile River valley. On the western riverbank, these necropoli (cities of the dead) were built on a gravelly desert plateau formed of limestone and clay overlooking the river. Several scarps (cliffs) are visible at image lower left. The most widely recognized features of royal Egyptian necropoli are pyramids, which frequently served as both tombs and monuments for their occupants. This detailed astronaut photograph illustrates a portion of the Nile Delta that includes two royal cemetery complexes, Abusir and Saqqara-North.
The present day village of Abusir is clearly visible as a grey-white irregular patch of urban surfaces that contrasts with green agricultural fields of the Nile Delta and tan desert sands and gravels to the west. The historic necropolis of Abusir is located to the northwest of the village at image top center. Three pyramids are readily visible in the image, all built by kings of the Fifth Dynasty (2,465–2,323 BC): Sahure, Niuserre, and Neferirkare. The site of Abusir was likely chosen due to the existence of a lake—now dry—that facilitated transport of building materials for the pyramids and other structures.
The northern portion of the large necropolis of Saqqara is also visible to the south-southwest (image right) of the village of Abusir. The largest pyramid in this complex is that of Djoser, a king of the Third Dynasty (2,650–2,575 BC). Other readily visible pyramids include that of Userkaf (Fifth Dynasty) and Teti (Sixth Dynasty: 2,323–2,150 BC), attesting to the long history of use of the Saqqara necropolis. Astronauts have also taken detailed imagery of other necropolis sites along the Nile River delta such as Giza and Dashur.
- Caption by William L. Stefanov, NASA-JSC.
(From earthobservatory.nasa.gov)

Explorers On The Nile:
1769: James Bruce. Reached the source of the Blue branch of Nile in November 1770.
1857: Richard Burton and John Speke. Reached Lake Tanganyika in February 1858. Speke travelled on and reached Victoria Nyanza in March 1858.
1860: John Speke and James Grant. Reached Victoria Nyanza in July 1862 and discovered and named the Ripon Falls. Travelled down the White Nile to Gondokoro in southern Sudan.
1861: Samuel and Florence White Baker. Travelled up the Nile and met Speke and Grant at Gondokoro in February 1865. Discovered and named Lake Albert.
1874: Henry Morton Stanley. Sailed round Victoria Nyanza in April 1875 and confirmed that the Nile's outlet was at the Ripon Falls.
(From egyptattraction.com)

THE PRODIGAL SON

artchive.com

A late self protrait by Rembrandt
Oil on canvas
This painting currently hangs in Kenwood House, London
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Portret van Haesje v. Cleyburg
Oil on canvas
A typical portrait from 1634,
when Rembrandt was enjoying great commercial success
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, his later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardship. Yet his drawings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high and for twenty years he taught nearly every important Dutch painter. Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries and self-portraits. The self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.
At the end of 1631, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, then rapidly expanding as the new business capital of the Netherlands, and began to practice as a professional portraitist for the first time, with great success. He initially stayed with an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburg, and in 1634, married Hendrick's cousin, Saskia van Uylenburg. In 1635 Rembrandt and Saskia moved into their own house, renting in fashionable Nieuwe Doelenstraat. In 1639, they moved to a prominent house (now the Rembrandt House Museum) in the Jodenbreestraat.
In contrast to his successful public career, however, Rembrandt's family life was marked by misfortune. Between 1635 and 1641 Saskia gave birth to four children, but only the last, Titus, survived; her own death came in 1642. Hendrickje Stoffels, engaged as his housekeeper about 1649, eventually became his common-law wife and was the model for many of his pictures.
In a letter to Huyghens, Rembrandt offered the only surviving explanation of what he sought to achieve through his art: the greatest and most natural movement, translated from die meeste ende di naetuereelste beweechgelickheijt. The word "beweechgelickhijt" is also argued to mean "emotion" or "motive." Whether this refers to objectives, material or otherwise is open to interpretation; either way, Rembrandt seamlessly melded the earthly and spiritual as has no other painter in Western art.
Earlier 20th century connoisseurs claimed Rembrandt had produced over 600 paintings, nearly 400 etchings and 2,000 drawings. More recent scholarship, from the 1960s to the present day (led by the Rembrandt Research Project), often controversially, have winnowed his oeuvre to nearer 300 paintings. His prints, traditionally all called etchings, although many are produced in whole or part by engraving and sometimes drypoint, have a much more stable total of slightly under 300. It is likely he made many more drawings in his lifetime than 2,000, but those extant are more rare than presumed.
At one time about ninety paintings were counted as Rembrandt self-portraits, but it is now known that he had his students copy his own self-portraits as part of their training. Modern scholarship has reduced the autograph count to over forty paintings, as well as a few drawings and thirty-one etchings, which include many of the most remarkable images of the group. Many show him posing in quasi-historical fancy dress, or pulling faces at himself. His oil paintings trace the progress from an uncertain young man, through the dapper and very successful portrait-painter of the 1630s, to the troubled but massively powerful portraits of his old age. Together they give a remarkably clear picture of the man, his appearance and his psychological make-up, as revealed by his richly-weathered face.

Self-Portraits
before 1639
1640-49
1650-59
1660-69
(From Web Museum - Rembrandt)

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp
Oil on canvas
1630/1640 1632
Mauritshuis, The Hague
Source Doorzoek het Geheugen van Nederland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The famous painting showing the anatomy lesson was created in 1632. Rembrandt was 26 at the time. He had been settled in Amsterdam for the past year. Before that time, he had already spent two years in this teeming city, as a pupil of Pieter Lastman, who passed on to him Caravaggio’s technique of chiaroscuro. When there was nothing further to be learnt from the Amsterdam master, Rembrandt had gone back to his native Leiden. He was noticed by Constantijn Huygens, a statesman in the service of the House of Orange and a great art lover, who recommended him to Uylenburgh, an art dealer in Amsterdam. Uylenburgh had a keen eye for talent, and immediately passed on to Rembrandt Professor Nicolaes Tulp’s commission for a group portrait.
Nicolaes Tulp was one of these people that took centre stage in 17th-century Amsterdam. He was 39 in the year the Anatomy Lesson was painted.
He was a man of learning, a surgeon and an anatomist. For 4 years, he had been Praelector Anatomiae at the Guild of Surgeons. His treatises on monsters were famous. He was the first to describe the ileocaecal valve, although credit for the discovery later, wrongly, went to the Swiss Bauhin. However, Tulp was, first and foremost, a political animal: he was city treasurer eight times, and four times burgomaster of Amsterdam.
Tulp had decided to be shown in his natural environment, giving an anatomy lesson. Most of the seven other figures in the painting were wealthy middle-class citizens of Amsterdam. Only two of the observers were physicians.
An opportunity for a dissection arose on 16 January, 1632.
The date can be pinpointed very accurately: the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons would allow only one public dissection a year; the body to be dissected had to be that of an executed criminal. The winter months were a useful time, since the bodies would keep better during the demonstrations that usually went on for several days. A man called Aris Kindt had been hanged for armed robbery. Immediately after the execution, his body was taken to the Anatomy Theatre of the Guild of Surgeons.
In Rembrandt’s painting, the surrounding scenery is barely visible. Behind the figures, everything recedes into shadows through which one can vaguely discern a stone archway, a set of rules posted on a wall, an open tome - probably an anatomy treatise, perhaps the one by Vesalius published in 1543. The lesson that is being given is not only for the benefit of the observers in the picture. Professor Tulp is looking beyond those crowding around the dissection table, towards an audience that the spectator can readily imagine. Rembrandt, of course, is there as well. The composition of the painting is a stroke of genius. Group portraits were produced in large numbers in the 17th century; however, they were usually stiff and formal. In the Dutch culture of egalitarianism, great care was taken to ensure that all the subjects in the picture were placed in the same way, so that no one was particularly prominent. In order not to offend anybody, all the figures were grouped in strict symmetry. To study the established style, one need only look at the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Sebastian Egbertsz, painted by Thomas de Keyzer in 1619. On either side of the mid-line (marked by the skeleton), the figures are arranged in two perfectly symmetrical triangles. The object of the anatomy lesson, the skeleton, is merely a bit of decor. This painting was at the back of Rembrandt’s mind. He was determined to break with this code of static uniformity, without, however, making any one member of the group more prominent than the others - with the obvious exception of Tulp himself, who had to be shown as the person in control of the event depicted. On the right-hand side of the picture, the anatomist’s figure is inscribed within a pyramid surmounted by a wide-brimmed black hat, the symbol of his high social standing. The observers, who counterbalance the overpowering figure of the anatomist, are arranged in two intersecting geometrical patterns - a pyramid, whose summit is the figure that towers above the others (and who is probably standing on a stool), and an oblique diamond shape, one of whose corners is marked by the observer who holds a piece of paper with the names of all the sitters. This diamond pattern draws the scene into the middle ground, while life and variety are added by the direction of the gaze of the observers, the way they hold their heads, and the frames provided by the big white ruffs. In the centre, the dead man’s body is driven like a wedge among the mass of the living, an impression that is enhanced by the attitude of the observer leaning forward and casting a shadow over the dead man’s face. Thanks to this composition, the two protagonists in the picture are the cadaver and the anatomist. Rembrandt’s handling of light and contrast is equally remarkable: while, in the de Keyzer painting, the skeleton was only a device to enable the individual portraits to be grouped, Rembrandt makes the body the centrepoint of his picture, and uses it to heighten the drama of the occasion. As in many of his other paintings, especially in those of the second half of his career (The Jewish Bride is a case in point), Rembrandt makes the figures in the picture a source of light, endowing them with intrinsic luminosity. In the Anatomy, the light emanates from the cadaver. There must, of course, be an extrinsic light source as well, to the left of the picture - witness the deep shadows cast on the ruffs by the observers’ heads. However, this serves to create a first contrast across the picture, between the dark mass of Tulp’s figure and the weakly lit pyramid of the onlookers, to emphasize yet more strongly the psychological dominance of Professor Tulp. The second contrast is layered from the bottom of the picture upwards, between the dark assembly of the living and the cold ivory light emanating from the corpse, the body that has been opened to reveal the structures Tulp is teaching about. The light around the cadaver gradually fades into the shadows above, creating an enclosed and yet vague space, a malleable space in which the bodies form a mouldable entity. The dead man’s body is stiff and still - the observers’ bodies are in motion.
This is only to be expected. Like all of Rembrandt’s paintings, the Anatomy Lesson has both movement and the depth of human understanding.
By A.C. MASQUELET
Transl KRMB
(From maitrise-orthop.com)

The Nightwatch
Oil on canvas, 1642
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rembrandt painted The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq between 1640 and 1642. This picture was called the Patrouille de Nuit by the French and the Night Watch by Sir Joshua Reynolds because, upon its discovery, the picture was so dimmed and defaced by time that it was almost indistinguishable and it looked quite like a night scene. After it was cleaned, it was discovered to represent broad day — a party of musketeers stepping from a gloomy courtyard into the blinding sunlight.
The piece was commissioned for the new hall of the Kloveniersdoelen, the musketeer branch of the civic militia. Rembrandt departed from convention, which ordered that such genre pieces should be stately and formal, rather a line-up than an action scene. Instead he showed the militia readying themselves to embark on a mission (what kind of mission, an ordinary patrol or some special event, is a matter of debate). His new approach caused a row, especially among the militia members who ended up at the back of the scene and were hardly visible. Payment was delayed. Even parts of the canvas were cut off to make the painting fit on the designated wall.
This painting now hangs in the largest hall of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It is a large painting that takes up the entire back wall despite having had bits cut off and is arguably one of the most impressive paintings displayed there.
Rembrandt was also a proficient engraver and made many drawings. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age (roughly equivalent to the 17th century), in which Dutch culture, science, commerce, world power and political influence reached their pinnacles.
Rembrandt produced around 600 paintings, 300 etchings, and 2,000 drawings. He was a prolific painter of self-portraits, producing almost a hundred of them (including some 20 etchings) throughout his long career.
Together they give us a remarkably clear picture of the man, his looks, and more importantly his emotions, as misfortune and sorrow etched wrinkles in his face.
(© Copyright Melanie Phillips, Melanies Pet Portraits, 1994)
In the 1650s, Rembrandt's style changed again. Paintings increased in size, colours became richer and brush strokes more pronounced. With these changes, Rembrandt distanced himself from earlier work and current fashion, which increasingly inclined toward fine, detailed works. His singular approach to paint application may have been suggested in part by familiarity with the work of Titian, and could be seen in the context of the then current discussion of 'finish' and surface quality of paintings. Contemporary accounts sometimes remark disapprovingly of the coarseness of Rembrandt's brushwork, and the artist himself was said to have dissuaded visitors from looking too closely at his paintings. The tactile manipulation of paint may hearken to medieval procedures, when mimetic effects of rendering informed a painting's surface. The end result is a richly varied handling of paint, deeply layered and often apparently haphazard, which suggests form and space in both an illusionistic and highly individual manner.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Self Portrait, 1658,
Oil on canvas
A masterpiece of the final style,
"the calmest and grandest of all his portraits"
Current location: Frick Collection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the mature works of the 1650s, Rembrandt was more ready to improvise on the plate and large prints typically survive in several states, up to eleven, often radically changed. He now uses hatching to create his dark areas, which often take up much of the plate. He also experimented with the effects of printing on different kinds of paper, including Japanese paper, which he used frequently, and on vellum. He began to use "surface tone," leaving a thin film of ink on parts of the plate instead of wiping it completely clean to print each impression. He made more use of drypoint, exploiting, especially in landscapes, the rich fuzzy burr that this technique gives to the first few impressions.
(From From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Man in a Golden helmet
Oil on canvas
Berlin
Year c. 1650 / 1655
Once one of the most famous "Rembrandt" portraits,
no longer attributed to the master.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oil Paint Shop - Rembrandt van Rijn
(From Web Museum - Rembrandt)

Abraham Entertaining the Angels
Etching
The University of Michigan

Rembrandt died on October 4th, 1669, having been predeceased by Titus and Hendrickje. Only a daughter, Cornelia, by Hendrickje survived him. In his studio was the unfinished work, Simeon in the Temple.
Many would say this was an ordinary life of an extraordinary man. He never left his native Holland, even for Italy, a Mecca for painters of that time.
He lived during changing times of European society. That may have done as much for his notoriety as his skill as a painter.
(Written by Darrell Baizley - © 2002 Pagewise)

The Chronology of Rembrandt's Life
(From Veritus AG © 1995-2008, All rights reserved)

THE HAIG

CLASSIC FRAMED PRINT OF WALTER HAGEN
Image brought by BiggerBids.com.

Walter Hagen Vintage Autograph
© 2008, Golf Links to the Past, Inc

BIRTHDATE: Dec. 21, 1892
BIRTHPLACE: Rochester, N.Y.
DEATH: Oct. 5, 1969
NICKNAME: The Haig
TOUR VICTORIES: 44
Ryder Cup appearances: 5 (1927, 1929, 1931, 1933, 1935)
Non playing captain: 1937

11 Major Championships:
• U.S. Open: 1914, 1919
• British Open: 1922, 1924, 1928, 1929
• PGA Championship: 1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927
(© Society of Hickory Golfers 2005-2008)

A caddie from the age of 9, Hagen was 21 when he won his first major tournament:
1914 US Open Championship[PDF file].

By the end of the 1920s, Hagen had established himself as one of the greatest and most colorful golfers of his time. During his career he won the U.S. Open twice (1914 and 1919), the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Championship five times (1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1927), and the British Open four times (1922, 1924, 1928, and 1929). He also won the French Open (1920), the Belgian Open (1924), and the Canadian Open (1931).

Walter Hagen - 1919 U.S. Open Champion
©2006 Historic Golf Photos

When the Open was resumed in June at the Brae Burn Country Club, West Newton, Mass., Walter Hagen, now playing from the Oakland Hills Country Club, near Detroit, restored the prestige of the professionals. He played the last six holes in one under fours to overhaul Mike Brady with a 75 in the last round and then won a playoff marked by several controversies over the Rules, 77 to 78. Hagen's first four rounds were 78-73-75-75 for 301, seventeen over par. Meanwhile, Willie Chisholm took 18 on the 185-yard eighth hole in the first round.
The purse was increased again, to $1,745; first professional prize remained $500, but other prizes were increased the eleventh and twelfth places were added. For the first time, play was extended to three days, with one round on each of the first two days and two rounds on the third.
(From usopen.com)
Preferring to have a major title to his name throughout the year, Hagen did not mind working his way around the U.S. circuit. He won opens in Massachusetts (1915), Michigan (1921 and 1931), New York (1922), and Texas (1923 and 1929); three Metropolitan Opens (1916, 1919, and 1920); two North and South Opens (1918 and 1923), five Western Opens (1916, 1921, 1926, 1927, and 1932); one Eastern Open (1926); and the Gasparilla Open (1935). He was also selected to play as a member of the American Ryder Cup team, which played golf against teams from other nations, in 1927, 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935. He was the nonplaying captain of the Ryder Cup team in 1937.
(Copyright © 2008 Answers Corporation)
From ©2006 Historic Golf Photos

1929 Ryder Cup
Hagen and Batley with cup
© Society of Hickory Golfers 2005-2008

Charles Whitcombe and Walter Hagen
1931 Ryder Cup

1933 American Ryder Cup Team
©2006 Historic Golf Photos

1933 Ryder Cup
© 1998-2008 AllPosters.com.

Walter Charles Hagen rose from the ranks of being a caddy to capture two U.S. and four British Open Championships, and the PGA title an impressive five times. But it was his personality that insured his place in golf’s history. He was flamboyant and colorful, with a style for living that made professionals aware of what was possible within their profession. No golfer could have a temperament better suited to the game. He could break concentration between strokes, chatting nonchalantly to spectators, without losing his focus on the match. Indeed, it was his ability to project his personality in the course of a round that played such havoc with his opponents. His swing was anything but classic -- swaying on the backswing and lunging into the ball on the downswing, often sending it wild, especially off the tee. But he had a way of saving himself from seemingly impossible positions, scrambling to reach the green, then more often than not, sinking an unmakable putt and shattering a rival's concentration and confidence.
© 2008, Golf Links to the Past, Inc
He popularised colourful clothing on the golf course. Just imagine the sight of this American turning up to play the Open in colourful plus fours and tank top and two-tone shoes, while the rest of the field were wearing sporting clothes with all the colour that brown and grey can afford!
Hagen's successes as a golfer which included four Opens, 2 US Opens and 5 US PGA Championships, were overshadowed by his character. He "never wanted to be a millionaire, just to live like one".
His greatest accomplishment was probably winning five PGA Championships, including four in a row, when it was a match-play tournament. He won in 1921, didn't play in 1922, lost to Gene Sarazen in the final in 1923, then won each year from 1924 through 1927. During those six years of competition, he lost just one match against the best professionals in the United States.
(From golflegends.org)
Bob [Jones] was a fine man to be partnered with in a tournament. Congenial and considerate, he made you feel that you were playing with a friend, and you were. At the same time, in a unique and wondrous way, Bob quietly unleashed the most furious concentration of any golfer, in those days when it was Jones versus the field. This arduous dedication to the job at hand left him spent and weary after each round. Bob never hung around the locker room long after his day's play was over. Hagen-you could never get him out. The two great champions were completely dissimilar in their attitudes toward crowds. Jones was always polite toward his idolatrous galleries, but I think he regarded them as an element that could deter his concentration if he let it invade his thoughts. Hagen loved the crowd. He hated to have to leave his gallery at the conclusion of a match, and did everything he could to postpone that painful parting. In their one man-against-man meeting in Florida in 1926, Walter administered a decisive lacing to Bob, but it is notable that Walter never was able to win an Open championship in which Jones was entered. Walter had Jonesitis as bad as the rest of us.
- Extracted from Thirty Years of Championship Golf by Gene Sarazen with Herbert Warren Wind
© Society of Hickory Golfers 2005-2008
Ask who was the best golfer in the world during the '20,s and '30,s, and most people would answer Bobby Jones, although not a few would give Walter Hagen the nod; ask who was the best match player of the era and almost no one would reply other than Walter Hagen. Walter won the PGA Championship an incredible five times including, between 1924 and 1927, an astonishing four times in a row! Walter had an awesome record in challenge matches - prior to 1925 he had only lost three.
Golf was not Walter's first love, his first love was baseball, and he was a very good baseball player, good enough to be invited to spring training with Philadelphia Nationals. In fact golf was a secondary sport for him until his US Open win. He had started at age eight as a caddie at the Country Club of Rochester, helping to put bread on the family table, and apart from golf he tried his hand at the numerous other sports played at the club - tennis, polo skating, hunting and fishing, and he excelled at all of them. As he himself put it:
"I had a sort of tireless energy, a compulsion to be doing something, to be on the move. not a nervous energy, but an inspired physical reaction which gave me so much confidence in my own ability that I was always thoroughly relaxed in any game ... I played to win ... I liked the feel of a golf club in my hand and I was forever swing a club".
He had no formal golf lessons, but he had - like all great actors and showmen - a wonderful power of mimicry. He could mimic the duffers as well as the better players. He figured out what it was about the duffers swing that made them duffers, and then set out to avoid it.
- By F.B.
© Society of Hickory Golfers 2005-2008
His personal life was more of a struggle, however. Despite two failed marriages (Margaret, his first wife, was the mother of his son, Walter Jr.) and other hardships (his grandson, Walter III, died at age 15 in a target shooting accident), Walter Hagen lived life to the fullest.

Margaret, his first wife
his son, Walter Jr.
From lawbuzz.com

Vintage Photograph of Edna Hagen
Autographed by Walter Hagen

His second wife, Edna Strauss, had a slightly different observation after she divorced him in 1927:
Unless a woman is a golf addict herself, she should never marry a confirmed golfer. It can only go on the rocks. Walter lived golf, asleep and awake. Before dinner and after he was practicing strokes in the living room.
(From lawbuzz.com)

Walter Hagen retired from active competition in 1940 and in 1956 published his autobiography, The Walter Hagen Story.

Walter Hagen Quotes - The Original Playboy:
'Make the hard ones look easy and the easy ones look hard'
'Once again Hagen has shown that concentration counts, and that a man who refuses to smoke during a round has the advantage over his rivals who cannot keep their pipe or cigarettes for other times - Arthur Lee on Walter Hagen in The Guardian, 1924'
'Which one of you is going to be runner up?'
'No-one remembers who came second'
'When I used to see him come into the clubhouse in the morning wearing a tuxedo, I knew we were in for a bad day - Leggy Ahern, Walter Hagen's caddie'
'I never wanted to be a millionaire; I just wanted to live like one'
'If you three putt the first green, they'll never remember it. But if you three putt the 18th, they'll never forget it'
'I expect to make seven mistakes a round. Therefore, when I make a bad shot, I don't worry about it. It's just one of those seven'
'Give me a man with big hands and big feet and no brains and I'll make a golfer out of him'
'Never hurry, never worry, and always remember to smell the flowers along the way'
'Walter Hagen was probably the greatest exponent of the kind of rhythm I have in mind to play golf - Ben Hogan'
'I found a lot of fun playing golf and met a lot of people. I met kings and queens. Golf has always been good to me, and I hope that I did a little to help golf'
(From © 2008 Direct Golf Tuition Online Golf Lessons)

Awards and Honors
• Member, World Golf Hall of Fame, 1974
• Captain of each of the first 6 U.S. Ryder Cup teams
(From golflegends.org)

LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE OU LA MORT!

Early depiction of the tricolour
in the hands of a sans-culotte
French Revolution
From Wikimedia Commons

The French Revolution is one of the most important events in modern history. It was more radical than either the English or American Revolutions, and had a far greater impact on 19th century Europe. The unthinkable fall of the Bourbons resonated throughout Europe, sparking a series of revolutions which rallied behind liberalism and nationalism. The major socialist revolutions of the twentieth century in Russia, China and Cuba were inspired the French example.
(From historywiz.com)
1789 is one of the most significant dates in history - famous for the Revolution in France with cries of "Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité!" that led to the removal of the French upper classes. The French Revolution didn't just take place in 1789. It actually lasted for another six years, with far more violent and momentous events taking place in the years after 1789.
(© Crown Copyright 2008)
The causes of the French Revolution are complicated, so complicated that a debate still rages among historians regarding origins, causes and results. In general, the real causes of the Revolution must be located in the rigid social structure of French society during the ancien regime. As it had been for centuries, French society was divided into three Estates or Orders. The First Estate consisted of the clergy and the Second Estate the nobility. Together, these two Estates accounted for approximately 500,000 individuals. At the bottom of this hierarchy was the vast Third Estate which basically meant everybody else, or about 25 million people. This social structure was based on custom and tradition, but more important, it was also based on inequalities which were sanctioned by the force of law.
In general, it can be said that there is no causal relationship between the philosophes of the Enlightenment and the outbreak of the French Revolution. Few philosophes, if any, advocated revolution and the reason is fairly clear. No philosophe advocated the violent overthrow of the existing order of things because violence was contrary to human reason. But because the philosophes of the Enlightenment attacked the established order together with authority of any kind, their ideas helped to produce what can only be called a revolutionary mentality.
One modern historian has correctly observed that:
18th century philosophy taught the Frenchman to find his condition wretched, unjust and illogical and made him disinclined to the patient resignation to his troubles that had long characterized his ancestors . . . . The propaganda of the philosophes perhaps more than any other factor accounted for the fulfillment of the preliminary condition of the French Revolution, namely discontent with the existing state of things. (Henri Peyre, "The Influence of Eighteenth Century Ideas on the French Revolution," Journal of the History of Ideas vol. 10, No. 1 (January 1949).
Liberty, equality, private property and representative government began to make more sense to European observers. If anything, the American Revolution gave proof to that great Enlightenment idea - the idea that a better world was possible if it was created by men using Reason.
As R. R. Palmer put it in 1959 (The Age of Democratic Revolution: The Challenge):
The effects of the American Revolution, as a revolution, were imponderable but very great. It inspired the sense of a new era. It added a new content to the conception of progress. It gave a whole new dimension to ideas of liberty and equality made familiar by the Enlightenment. It got people into the habit of thinking more concretely about political questions, and made them more readily critical of their own governments and society. It dethroned England, and set up America, as a model for those seeking a better world. It brought written constitutions, declarations of rights, and constituent conventions into the realm of the possible. The apparition on the other side of the Atlantic of certain ideas already familiar in Europe made such ideas seem more truly universal, and confirmed the habit of thinking in terms of humanity at large. Whether fantastically idealized or seen in a factual way, whether as mirage or as reality, America made Europe seem unsatisfactory to many people of the middle and lower classes, and to those of the upper classes who wished them well. It made a good many Europeans feel sorry for themselves, and induced a kind of spiritual flight from the Old Regime.
(copyright © 2000 Steven Kreis
Last Revised -- October 30, 2006)
Historians disagree in evaluating the factors that brought about the Revolution. To some extent at least, it came not because France was backward, but because the country's economic and intellectual development was not matched by social and political change. In the fixed order of the ancien régime, most bourgeois were unable to exercise commensurate political and social influence. King Louis XIV, by consolidating absolute monarchy, had destroyed the roots of feudalism; yet outward feudal forms persisted and became increasingly burdensome.

Louis XIV with Louis le Grand Dauphin,
Louis, duc de Bourgogne, and Louis, duc de Bretagne
c. 1710-1715
Artist: Formerly attributed to Nicolas de Largillière
Wallace Collection, London
Source: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei
Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In addition to the economic and social difficulties, the ancien régime was undermined intellectually by the apostles of the Enlightenment. Voltaire attacked the church and absolutism; Denis Diderot and the Encyclopédie advocated social utility and attacked tradition; the baron de Montesquieu made English constitutionalism fashionable; and the marquis de Condorcet preached his faith in progress. Most direct in his influence on Revolutionary thought was J. J. Rousseau, especially through his dogma of popular sovereignty. Economic reform, advocated by the physiocrats and attempted (1774–76) by A. R. J. Turgot, was thwarted by the unwillingness of privileged groups to sacrifice any privileges and by the king's failure to support strong measures.

Voltaire en 1718
Portrait of Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778)
Source Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Author Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A 1766 portrait of Rousseau by Allan Ramsay
National Gallery of Scotland
Source: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The direct cause of the Revolution was the chaotic state of government finance. Director general of finances Jacques Necker vainly sought to restore public confidence. French participation in the American Revolution had increased the huge debt, and Necker's successor, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, called an Assembly of Notables (1787), hoping to avert bankruptcy by inducing the privileged classes to share in the financial burden. They refused in an effort to protect economic privileges.
Parisians mobilized, and on July 14 stormed the Bastille fortress. Louis XVI meekly recalled Necker and went to the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, where he accepted the tricolor cockade of the Revolution from the newly formed municipal government, or commune. The national guard was organized under the marquis de Lafayette. This first outbreak of violence marked the entry of the popular classes into the Revolution. Mobilized by alarm over food shortages and economic depression, by hopes aroused with the calling of the States-General, and by the fear of an aristocratic conspiracy, peasants pillaged and burned châteaus, destroying records of feudal dues; this reaction is known as the grande peur [great fear].
Int. Socialist Voice (01-10-05) - 'Terror' in the French revolution
By Peter Taaffe, in Socialism Today (01/09/05)
(From socialistparty.net)

"The Storming of the Bastille"
Visible in the center is the arrest of Bernard René Jourdan
Marquis de Launay (1740-1789)
Watercolor painting
Source From the Bibliothèque Nationale Française
Author Jean-Pierre Houël (1735-1813)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tennis Court Oath 1791
Artist David, Jacques-Louis
Musée national du Château de Versailles
Versailles, France
Source histoire-image.org.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On Aug. 4, the nobles and clergy in the Assembly, driven partly by fear and partly by an outburst of idealism, relinquished their privileges, abolishing in one night the feudal structure of France. Shortly afterward, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
"The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" August 26, 1789 (From tc.umn.edu).
Rumors of counterrevolutionary court intrigues circulated, and on Oct. 5, 1789, a Parisian crowd, aroused by rising food prices, marched to Versailles and brought the king and queen, “the baker and the baker's wife,” back to the Tuileries palace in Paris. The Assembly also removed to Paris, where it drafted a constitution. Completed in 1791, the constitution created a limited monarchy with a unicameral legislature elected by voters with property qualifications.

Paris Commune
The Storming of the Tuileries Palace
August 10, 1792
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of gravest consequence were the Assembly's antireligious measures. Church lands were nationalized (1789), religious orders suppressed (1790), and the clergy required (July, 1790) to swear to adhere to the state-controlled Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Only a bare majority (52%) of all priests took the oath; disturbances broke out, especially in W France; and Louis XVI, though forced to assent, was roused to action. Numerous princes and nobles had already fled abroad (see émigré); Louis decided to join them and to obtain foreign aid to restore his authority. The flight (June 20–21, 1791) was halted at Varennes, and the king and queen were brought back in humiliation. Louis accepted the constitution.

The return of the royal family to Paris
25 June 1791
colored copperplate after a drawing of Jean-Louis Prieur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Execution of Louis XVI
Now the Place de la Concorde
facing the empty pedestal
where the statue of his grandfather, Louis XV, had stood

An abortive insurrection of June 20, 1792, was followed by a decisive one on Aug. 10, when a crowd stormed the Tuileries and an insurrectionary commune replaced the legally elected one (see Commune of Paris).

Soldiers with a gun at a barricade during the Paris Commune
Copyright © 2008 San Francisco Sentinel

Under pressure from the commune, the Assembly suspended Louis XVI and ordered elections by universal manhood suffrage for a National Convention to draw up a new constitution. Mass arrests of royalist sympathizers were followed by the September massacres (Sept. 2–7), in which frenzied mobs entered jails throughout Paris and killed approximately 2,000 prisoners, many in grisly fashion.
On Sept. 21, 1792, the Convention held its first meeting. It immediately abolished the monarchy, set up the republic, and proceeded to try the king for treason. His conviction and execution (Jan., 1793) reinforced royalist resistance, notably in the Vendée, and, abroad, contributed to the forming of a wider coalition against France. The Convention undertook the foreign wars with vigor but was itself torn by the power struggle between the Girondists and the Mountain (Jacobins and extreme left). The Girondists were purged in June, 1793. A democratic constitution was approved by 1.8 million voters in a plebiscite, but it never came into force.
The French Revolution, though it seemed a failure in 1799 and appeared nullified by 1815, had far-reaching results. In France the bourgeois and landowning classes emerged as the dominant power. Feudalism was dead; social order and contractual relations were consolidated by the Code Napoléon. The Revolution unified France and enhanced the power of the national state. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars tore down the ancient structure of Europe, hastened the advent of nationalism, and inaugurated the era of modern, total warfare.
Code Napoléon (kôd näpôlāôN') or Code Civil (sēvēl'), first modern legal code of France, promulgated by Napoleon I in 1804. The work of J. J. Cambacérès and a commission of four appointed by Napoleon I in 1800 was important in making the final draft. The Code Napoléon embodied the private law of France (i.e., law regulating relations between individuals) and, as modified by amendments, it is still in force in that country. It is a revised form of the Roman law, i.e., the civil law, which prevailed generally on the Continent. It shows, of course, many specific French modifications, some based on the Germanic law that had been in effect in N France. The code follows the Institutes of the Roman Corpus Juris Civilis in dividing civil law into personal status (e.g., marriage), property (e.g., easements), and the acquisition of property (e.g., wills), and it may be regarded as the first modern analogue to the Roman work. Not only was it applied by Napoleon to the territories under his control—N Italy, the Low Countries, and some of the German states—but it exerted a strong influence on Spain (and ultimately on the Latin American countries) and on all European countries except England. It was the forerunner, in France and elsewhere, of codifications of the other branches of law, including civil procedure, commercial law, and criminal law. Quebec prov. and the state of Louisiana owe much of their law to the Code Napoléon. In addition to the Code Civil, Napoleon was responsible for four other codes: the Code of Civil Procedure (1807), Commercial Code (1808), Code of Criminal Procedure (1811), and the Penal Code (1811).
(The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press.)

Images of the French Revolution
(From teachers.ausd.net)

Timeline of Events
Louis XIV
Louis XV
Louis XVI
French Revolution
(From angelfire.com)

Some interesting comments on Rousseau and Voltaire supported by quotes from each:
http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/rousseau/rousseau.html

The French Revolution. Interesting commentary about the actual success of the French Revolution, interspersed with William Wordsworth's poetry transforming from optimism to gloom: http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/french/french.html

Revolution and After
©1996, Richard Hooker
(From OnlineCostumeStore.com)

Jonathan Rowe stumbled upon a letter George Washington wrote to the French Minister January 1, 1796:
'Born, Sir, in a land of liberty; having early learned its value; having engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it; having, in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure its permanent establishment in my own country; my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of Freedom. But above all, the events of the French Revolution have produced the deepest solicitude, as well as the highest admiration. To call your nation brave, were to pronounce but common praise. Wonderful people! Ages to come will read with astonishment the history of your brilliant exploits! I rejoice, that the period of your toils and of your immense sacrifices, is approaching. I rejoice that the interesting revolutionary movements of so many years have issued in the formation of a constitution designed to give permanency to the great object for which you have contended. I rejoice that liberty, which you have so long embraced with enthusiasm, liberty, of which you have been the invincible defenders, now finds an asylum in the bosom of a regularly organized government; a government, which, being formed to secure the happiness of the French people, corresponds with the ardent wishes of my heart, while it gratifies the pride of every citizen of the United States, by its resemblance to their own. On these glorious events, accept, Sir, my sincere congratulations.
In delivering to you these sentiments, I express not my own feelings only, but those of my fellow citizens, in relation to the commencement, the progress, and the issue of the French revolution: and they will cordially join with me in purest wishes to the Supreme Being, that the citizens of our sister republic, our magnanimous allies, may soon enjoy in peace, that liberty which they have purchased at so great a price, and all the happiness which liberty can bestow.
I receive Sir, with lively sensibility, the symbol of the triumphs and of the enfranchisement of your nation, the colours of France, which you have now presented to the United States. The transaction will be announced to Congress; and the colours will be deposited with the archives of the United States, which are at once the evidences and the memorials of their freedom and independence. May these be perpetual! and may the friendship of the two republics be commensurate with their existence.'
(From Positive Liberty Copyright © 2008)

A MODERN AESOP

Walt Disney
Added by: Old Friend
6/16/2002
From findagrave.com

Portrait of Walt Disney
1 January 1954
Here is a picture of Walter Disney cropped from a NASA photograph

During a 43-year Hollywood career that spanned the development of the motion picture medium as a modern American art, Walter Elias Disney, a modern Aesop, established himself and his product as a genuine part of Americana. David Low, the late British political cartoonist, called Disney "the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo."
A pioneer and innovator and the possessor of one of the most fertile imaginations the world has ever known, Walt Disney, along with members of his staff, received more than 950 honors and citations from every nation in the world, including 48 Academy Awards® and seven Emmys® in his lifetime. Walt Disney's personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California, and UCLA; the Presidential Medal of Freedom; France's Legion of Honor and Officer d'Academie decorations; Thailand's Order of the Crown; Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross; Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle; and the Showman of the World Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners.

The Walt Disney Family Museum - Devoted to Walt Disney's career, featuring clips from Disney's animated and live-action films.
(Copyright © 1998-2008 Netscape)

Complete Detailed Accurate History of Mr. Walter Elias Disney
(Copyright 2001-2007 Disney Dreamer)

Sleeping Beauty Castle
Disneyland park
Author: Original uploader was AmericaSings at en.wikipedia

To all who come to this happy place - welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America... with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world. Thank you."
—Walter E. Disney, July 17, 1955

Walt Disney on his trips through Disneyland
Photographs © Disney
From justdisney.com

The dedication to all Disney Parks, begins with the phrase "To all who come to this happy place welcome..." with the exception of the Magic Kingdom park in Florida. The dedication there begins, "Walt Disney World is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney..."
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Plaque at the entrance of Disneyland
Author User:Cburnett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The creator of Mickey Mouse and founder of the Disneyland® and Walt Disney World® Theme Parks was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. His father, Elias Disney, was Irish-Canadian. His mother, Flora Call Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl.

Solomon, Charles. "The Golden Age of Mickey Mouse"
From disney.go.com

It All Started with a Mouse. Disney's popular cartoon movies led to huge and successful entertainment parks. Transcript of radio broadcast: 27 October 2007:
MP3 - Download Audio
Listen to MP3
Listen in RealAudio
(From voanews.com)

During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was only 16 years of age, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stern -- not with stock camouflage, but with drawings and cartoons.
After the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons and later perfected a new method for combining live action and animation.
Mickey Mouse was created in 1928, and his talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled "Plane Crazy." Before the cartoon could be released, however, sound burst upon the motion picture screen. Thus Mickey made his screen debut in "Steamboat Willie," the world's first fully synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York on November 18, 1928.
Walt's drive to perfect the art of animation was tireless. Technicolor was introduced to animation during the production of his "Silly Symphonies." In 1932, the film "Flowers and Trees" won Walt the first of his 32 personal Academy Awards®. In 1937, he released "The Old Mill," the first short subject to utilize the multiplane camera technique.
On December 21 of that same year, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles. Produced at the unheard-of cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Depression, the film is still considered one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
© Copyright 2005, JustDisney.com
Createad and Operated by Brad Aldridge Productions, Berkeley, CA

During the next five years, Walt completed such other full-length animated classics as "Pinocchio," "Fantasia," "Dumbo," and "Bambi."
Walt Disney's Original

Fantasia
© Copyright 2005, JustDisney.com
Createad and Operated by Brad Aldridge Productions, Berkeley, CA

In 1940, construction was completed on Disney's Burbank studio, and the staff swelled to more than 1,000 artists, animators, story men, and technicians.

A short history of the Walt Disney Studios, in Burbank, CA.
© Copyright 2005, JustDisney.com
Createad and Operated by Brad Aldridge Productions, Berkeley, CA

During World War II, 94 percent of the Disney facilities were engaged in special government work, including the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films that are still shown throughout the world by the U.S. State Department. The remainder of Disney's efforts were devoted to the production of comedy short subjects, deemed essential to civilian and military morale.
Disney's 1945 feature, the musical "The Three Caballeros," combined live action with the cartoon medium, a process he used successfully in other features such as "Song of the South" and the highly acclaimed "Mary Poppins." In all, 81 features were released by the studio during his lifetime.
Walt's inquisitive mind and keen sense for education through entertainment resulted in the award-winning "True-Life Adventure" series. Through such films as "The Living Desert," "The Vanishing Prairie," "The African Lion," and "White Wilderness," Disney gave audiences fascinating insights into the world of wild animals and taught the importance of conserving our nation's outdoor heritage.
Disneyland, launched in 1955 as a fabulous $17 million Magic Kingdom, soon increased its investment tenfold and had entertained, by its third decade, more than 250 million people, including presidents, kings and queens, and royalty from all over the globe.

An aerial view of Disneyland in 1956
Photograph from the USC Regional Historical Photo Collection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A pioneer in the field of television programming, Disney began television production in 1954 and was among the first to present full-color programming with his "Wonderful World of Color" in 1961. "The Mickey Mouse Club" and "Zorro" were popular favorites in the 1950s.
But that was only the beginning. In 1965, Walt Disney turned his attention toward the problem of improving the quality of urban life in America. He personally directed the design of an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT®, planned as a living showcase for the creativity of American industry.
Said Disney, "I don't believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that is more important to people everywhere than finding the solution to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin? Well, we're convinced we must start with the public need. And the need is not just for curing the old ills of old cities. We think the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a community that will become a prototype for the future."
Thus, Disney directed the purchase of 43 square miles of virgin land -- twice the size of Manhattan Island -- in the center of the state of Florida. Here he master-planned a whole Disney world of entertainment to include a new amusement theme park, a motel-hotel resort vacation center, and his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. After more than seven years of master planning and preparation, including 52 months of actual construction, Walt Disney World opened to the public as scheduled on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center opened on October 1, 1982.

Disneyland Park
View from NW to SE
Author: Robert J. Boser (EditorASC)
August, 1963

Prior to his death on December 15, 1966, Walt Disney took a deep interest in the establishment of California Institute of the Arts, a college-level professional school of all the creative and performing arts. Of Cal Arts Walt once said, "It's the principal thing I hope to leave when I move on to greener pastures. If I can help provide a place to develop the talent of the future, I think I will have accomplished something."
California Institute of the Arts was founded in 1961 with the amalgamation of two schools, the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Chouinard Art Institute. The campus is located in the city of Valencia, 32 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Walt Disney conceived the new school as a place where all the performing and creative arts would be taught under one roof in a "community of the arts" as a completely new approach to professional arts training.
Walt Disney is a legend, a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity is based upon the ideas his name represents: imagination, optimism, and self-made success in the American tradition. Walt Disney did more to touch the hearts, minds, and emotions of millions of Americans than any other man in the past century. Through his work he brought joy, happiness, and a universal means of communication to the people of every nation. Certainly our world shall know but one Walt Disney.
(© Disney. All rights reserved)

More of the Walt Disney World:

Aerial photos
Aerial photo of Disneyland from Google Maps
Aerial photo of Disneyland from Microsoft Terraserver
Bird's Eye photo from Windows Live Local

Disneyland Photo Gallery
Disneyland
© Copyright 2005, JustDisney.com
Createad and Operated by Brad Aldridge Productions, Berkeley, CA.

The public areas occupy approximately 85 acres (0.133 sq mi/0.344 km²). When the park initially opened, it consisted of five themed areas:

1. Main Street, U.S.A., an early 20th century Midwest town

Main Street, U.S.A. w:Disneyland 1996 at night
Taken by Ellen Levy Finch (User:Elf)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. Adventureland, featuring jungle-themed adventures

Disneyland Adventureland
Source en wikipedia
Date 13/2/2008
Author B64
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3. Frontierland, illustrating western frontier

Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, California, 2002
Source Originally from en.wikipedia
Date 2004-08-28 (original upload date)
Author Original uploader was Rabit at en.wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4. Fantasyland, bringing fantasy into a reality

Source originally posted to Flickr as It's a Small World
Date 2005-05-30
Author Thomas Hawk from San Francisco, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5. Tomorrowland, looking into the future

Tomorrowland Entrance
Photographed by "LordBleen"
March 2002
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Disneyland History:
On Sunday, July 17, 1955, invited guests arrived, and 90 million people watched via a live television broadcast. The day is still known in Disney lore as "Black Sunday," and for good reason, as a guest list of 15,000 swelled to almost 30,000 attendees.
The next day, 10,000 members of the general public got their first peek.
On the first day of its long history, Disneyland charged visitors $1.00 admission (about $6.50 in today's dollars) to get through the gate and see three free attractions in four themed lands. Individual tickets for the 18 rides cost 10 to 35 cents each. Walt and his staff addressed the problems, limiting daily attendance to 20,000 to avoid overcrowding. Within seven weeks, the one-millionth guest passed through the gates.
Landmark Dates in Disneyland History:
"Disneyland will never be completed as long as there is imagination left in the world," Walt Disney once said. Within a year of the opening, attractions were opening, closing and changing, taking Disneyland through an evolution that still continues. A few of the more notable dates in Disneyland history include:
1959: Disneyland almost causes an international incident when U. S. officials deny Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev a visit because of security concerns.
1959: "E" ticket introduced. The most expensive ticket, it granted access to the most exciting rides and attractions such as Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.
1963: The Enchanted Tiki Room opens, and the term "animatronics" (robotics combined with 3-D animation) is coined.
1964: Disneyland generates more money than Disney Films.
1966: Walt Disney dies.
1982: The Disneyland Ticket Book is retired, replaced by a "Passport" good for unlimited rides.
1985: Year-round, daily operation begins. Before this, the park closed Monday and Tuesday during off seasons.
1999: FASTPASS introduced.
2001: Downtown Disney, Disney's California Adventure and the Grand Californian Hotel open.
2004: Australian Bill Trow is the 500-millionth guest.
Materials courtesy of Disneyland Public Relations
From ©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company

Walt Disney Gravesite
From findagrave.com
Added by: A.J. Marik
7/7/2002