Monthly Archives: April 2019
On this day: a US air display in Germany
The United States’ Third Army Air Service, an organisation based in France and Germany immediately after the First World War, is shown here demonstrating Caquot Observation balloons and planes at an air show in Coblenz, Germany on the 26th of April 1919.
The area was occupied by France in the aftermath of the war, and in a sign of defiance of the occupation, the Germans living in the region began using the alternative spelling of “Koblenz” – which is the name used today.
The American organisation was disbanded in July of the same year.
On this day: a Finnish concentration camp.
24th April 1942: Soviet women eat their breakfast next to a burning pile of rubbish in a Finnish concentration camp in Petrozavodsk, Karelia. The photograph was taken during the Continuation War, during World War Two, when Finland and Nazi Germany fought together against mostly Soviet troops.
On this day: Before the Nuclear Disaster
The closed nuclear city of Pripyat (При́п’ять), Ukraine is pictured here on the 23rd of April, 1983, three years and three days before the Chernobyl (Chornobyl in Ukrainian) disaster.
At the time of the disaster Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and the fallout from the event caused great harm to areas of Ukraine and much of Belarus.
Pripyat was evacuated on the 27th of April, 1986, and today stands as a ghost town.
Happy Easter!
Edwardian Easter
On this day: waiting for news on the Titanic
This photograph is stamped as being taken at 7am on the 19th of April, 1912. People form a crowd at Cunard’s Pier 54 in New York, possibly waiting for more news on what happened to the Titanic.
RMS Carpathia had arrived the evening before carrying the survivors of Titanic’s sinking. It is said around 40 000 people were waiting to see the ship arrive.
On this day…
Love & Desire at the National Gallery
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Canberrans are so lucky to have the National Gallery of Australia. It’s one of the best galleries you’ll find anywhere, and we have some of the best special exhibitions.
At the moment, that special exhibition is Love & Desire – a collection of many of the world’s most famous Pre-Raphaelite works, visiting Canberra from all over (but mostly from the Tate Britain) for several months. We went to see it on Sunday, (and then we walked along the lake to the National Library for lunch on the terrace – it’s still really warm, considering it is mid-autumn here, as in summer-dress warm).
Something I didn’t learn until yesterday was how much William Morris stuff the gallery here actually owns.
Also, it was great to see some of the most famous Ballet Russes costumes out of storage and on display on the way in (we had the common sense to buy them all up before anybody else in the world realised their value. Now, if you want to see – say – Nijinsky’s most famous costumes, you have to come to Canberra!).
Here are a few of the famous works in the exhibition:
John William Waterhouse The Lady of Shalott 1888
John Everett Millais Ophelia 1851-52
William Holman Hunt The awakening conscience 1853
(This is supposed to be a Victorian mistress waking up to how she shouldn’t be living in sin!)
Ford Madox Brown The last of England 1864-66
(This is MUCH smaller than I always imagined it!)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Ecce ancilla domini! (The Annunciation) 1849-50
(This one is amazing and before its time, as it depicts the Virgin Mary being told she will give birth to Jesus as a terrifying moment.)
Notre Dame…
I’m sure everyone has seen the footage of Notre Dame in Paris on fire.
I have spent a lot of time in Paris – much of that time on my own. I used to walk to Notre Dame on many days, and simply sit in the cathedral for a while, occasionally attending a service, even though I’m not religious.
I thought it was terrible when far-right “activists” would go in there and shoot themselves at the altar to protest abortion or whatever. I thought that was as bad as it would get.
There was scaffolding on the part of the building that caught fire. Restoration work is so, so dangerous for historic buildings. Something very similar happened in Belfast when I was there last year.
In Times Gone By... 
