Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America. It is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east, Brazil to the southeast, Ecuador and Peru to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. Colombia comprises 32 departments and the Capital District of Bogotá, the country’s largest city. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers (440,831 sq mi), with a population of 50 million. Colombia’s rich cultural heritage reflects influences by various Amerindian civilizations, European settlement, African slaves, and immigration from Europe and the Middle East. Spanish is the nation’s official language, besides which over 70 languages are spoken.
Colombia has been inhabited by various indigenous peoples since at least 12,000 BCE, including the Muisca, Quimbaya, and the Tairona. The Spanish landed first in La Guajira in 1499 and by the mid-16th century colonized parts of the region, establishing the New Kingdom of Granada, with Santafé de Bogotá as its capital. Independence from the Spanish Empire was achieved in 1819, with what is now Colombia emerging as the United Provinces of New Granada. The new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858), and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886. Panama seceded in 1903, leading to Colombia’s present borders. Beginning in the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict and political violence, both of which escalated in the 1990s. Since 2005, there has been significant improvement in security, stability, and rule of law, as well as unprecedented economic growth and development.
Colombia is one of the world’s seventeen megadiverse countries, and has the second-highest level of biodiversity in the world. Its territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, highlands, grasslands, and deserts, and it is the only country in South America with coastlines and islands along both Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Colombia is a member of major global and regional organizations including the United Nations, the WTO, the OECD, the OAS, the Pacific Alliance, the Andean Community, and a NATO Global Partner. Its diversified economy is the third-largest in South America, with macroeconomic stability and favorable long-term growth prospects. (Wikipedia)
George Harrison and Bob MarleySalvador Dali and Francoise HardyDean Martin, Shirley MacLaine and Elvis PresleyJimi Hendrix With The WhoElla Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Benny GoodmanThe Beatles and Little RichardSusan Anton, Sylvestor Stallone, and Andy WarholVivien Leigh and Ringo StarrWoody Allen and Michael JacksonMontserrat Caballé and Freddie MercuryOrson Welles and Charlie ChaplinHarvey Milk and Jane FondaJohn Wayne and Marlene DietrichDavid Bowie and Iggy PopNeil Young and Patti SmithJulie Andrews and Audrey HepburnJimi Hendrix and Janis JoplinPaul Newman and Robert Redford playing Ping PongJane Seymour and Freddie MercuryRobert Plant, Linda Ronstadt and Ronnie WoodMarlon Brando and Bob HopeAudrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly backstage at the 28th Annual Academy AwardsAudrey Hepburn and Fred AstaireHoward Cosell and John LennonJudy Garland, Jack Warner and Lauren BacallJoan, Debbie, David, JoeySusan Sarandon and David BowieJohn Wayne and Gary CooperPaul McCartney and Mick JaggerRingo Starr and David BowieWilson Pickett and Jimi HendrixErrol Flynn and wife Nora Eddington with Rita Hayworth and Orson WellesCharlie Chaplin and Albert EinsteinChevy Chase & John BelushiAlain Delon, Brigitte Bardot and Eddie Barclay
With photos from the past you automatically think about black and white. Even in our own childhood, almost no color photograph was made. Nevertheless, the technique for making color photographs has been around for more than 100 years!
In 1907, the two French brothers August and Louis Lumière invented a technique with which real color photographs could be made, the Autochrome Lumière. It was a very ingenious process that used glass plates on which a layer of microscopically colored potato starch granules were applied.
The photographs that were taken with them were beautiful and had a dreamy painting-like atmosphere. And now it is possible for us to see the world of more than 100 years ago in the original colors.
These wonderful photographs show how the Netherlands looked in color from the early 20th century.
These late-19th and early-20th century photographs show some of the last Maori women to wear the traditional Ta moko face marking before it was outlawed by British colonialists. Ta moko is the name for the permanent body and face marking by Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
The tattoos depicted the story of the wearer’s family, their ancestral tribe, and their position within that group. Moko were associated with mana and high social status; however, some very high-status individuals were considered too tapu to acquire moko, and it was also not considered suitable for some tohunga to do so.
Receiving moko constituted an important milestone between childhood and adulthood, and was accompanied by many rites and rituals. Apart from signaling status and rank, another reason for the practice in traditional times was to make a person more attractive to the opposite sex.
Men generally received moko on their faces, buttocks (raperape) and thighs (puhoro). Women usually wore moko on their lips (kauwae) and chins. Other parts of the body known to have moko include women’s foreheads, buttocks, thighs, necks, and backs, and men’s backs, stomachs, and calves.
While its exact origins are unknown, the art of ta moko came from Eastern Polynesian culture. Before the needle was introduced, ta moko instruments consisted of uhi chisels made of bone that would carve directly into the skin, leaving grooves rather than smooth skin.
As such, the ta moko process was long and painful, taking as long as a year for a piece to be completed. The pigment used in ta moko was usually made from charcoal mixed with oil or liquid from plants. Known as wai ngarahu, it was stored in special containers.
Women continued receiving moko through the early 20th century, and the historian Michael King in the early 1970s interviewing over 70 elderly women who would have been given the moko before the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act. Women were traditionally only tattooed on their lips, around the chin, and sometimes the nostrils.
After the Brits colonized New Zealand, ta moko declined as a cultural form. This was partly due to the Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907, which outlawed Maori medical practices. As these were closely linked to Maori spiritual and cultural traditions, the Maoris lost much of their culture and became what was termed as a “lost race.” The Act was eventually repealed in 1962.
Since the 1990s, there has been a resurgence of the practice of ta moko for both men and women as a sign of their cultural Maori identity.
Two Maori girls with chin mokos in an ancient greeting, circa 1900.This photo shows Monika Ruke. She has a chin moko and is wearing feathers in her hair and earrings. A feather cloak with a taniko border is wrapped about her shoulders.An unidentified Maori woman with a chin moko, feathers in her hair, and European clothing, taken around 1895.This stunning portrait from the 1890s shows an elderly Maori woman with intricate markings across her face.An unidentified elderly Maori woman with a lip and chin moko and a scarf taken around 1895.An unknown Maori woman with a chin moko, circa 1890s.Susan Rotorua, a young Maori woman with a tiki around her neck, circa 1890s.Head-and-shoulders portrait of a Maori, facing front, in native clothing, circa 1890s.A Maori woman wearing a korowai (tag cloak), probably associated with the Pai Marire party, taken in the 1870s.An unidentified Maori woman in a top hat shows off her chin moko. The photo is believed to date from around the 1890s.These long-haired Maori women are wearing Maori kiwi cloaks, tiki (greenstone ornaments), and are holding traditional weapons. The woman on the right is seen with a chin moko.A carte de visite portrait of beautiful Maori woman Beti Karaitiana with a chin moko circa 1870s.Portrait of a Maori woman and child from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, taken between 1880 and 1900.Portrait of a Maori woman from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, circa 1870sA striking portrait of Irini Kemara, a young Maori woman with the words ‘Pera’ and ‘Kemara’ tattooed on her left arm, taken in July 1888A portrait of Susan Jury, taken by Grand & Dunlop of Christchurch, circa 1890s.Arihi Te Nahu of Te Hauke, a Maori woman, wearing a kahu huruhuru (feather cloak), taken on 16 December 1892.An unidentified Maori woman with a chin moko, circa 1890s.An unidentified Maori woman with a chin moko, circa 1890s.Pikau Teimana of Putaruru, wearing a piupiu and with the words ‘Aohau Taute’ tattooed on her right arm. She is wearing two huia feathers in her hair, and two pendants in the shape of fish around her neck.Karaitiana Takamoana, a Maori woman with a chin moko, taken on 14 November 1878.An unidentified Maori woman with a chin moko, circa 1890s.An unidentified Maori woman with a chin moko from Denedin, New Zealand, circa 1890s.Julia, a Maori woman from the Hawkes Bay district, taken on 23 November 1888.Portrait of Makire Pikihuia, wearing a korowai, taken on 17 December 1892.An unidentified Maori woman with a chin moko, circa 1890s.
Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956.
After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1949, Kelly began appearing in New York City theatrical productions and over 40 live drama productions broadcast in early 1950s Golden Age of Television. She gained stardom from her performance in John Ford’s adventure-romance Mogambo (1953), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the drama The Country Girl (1954). Other notable works include the western High Noon (1952), the romance-comedy High Society (1956), and three consecutive Alfred Hitchcock suspense thrillers: Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955). Kelly worked with some of the most prominent leading men of the era, including Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Ray Milland, James Stewart, Bing Crosby, William Holden, Cary Grant, Alec Guinness, and Frank Sinatra.
Kelly retired from acting at age 26 to marry Rainier, and began her duties as Princess of Monaco. Hitchcock hoped that she would appear in more of his films which required an “icy blonde” lead actress, but he was unable to coax her out of retirement. The Prince and Princess had three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and Princess Stéphanie. Princess Grace retained her link to America by her dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship. Her charity work focused on young children and the arts, establishing the Princess Grace Foundation to support local artisans in 1964. Her organization for children’s rights, AMADE Mondiale, gained consultive status within UNICEF and UNESCO. Her final film contribution was in 1977 to documentary The Children of Theatre Street directed by Robert Dornhelm, where she served as the narrator. The documentary was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Kelly died aged 52 at Monaco Hospital on September 14, 1982, from injuries sustained in a car crash the previous day. She is listed 13th among the American Film Institute’s 25 Greatest Female Stars of Classical Hollywood Cinema. Her son, Prince Albert, helped establish the Princess Grace Awards in 1984 to recognize emerging performers in film, theatre, and dance. (Wikipedia)
Thanksgiving Day lesson at Whittier, 1899Outdoor class in botany, Washington, DC, 1899Students of 8th Division school using rulers, yardsticks, and measuring tape in school yard, Washington, DC, 1899Two girls and a boy pumping water at well of Hampton Institute graduate, 1899-1900Women painting at easels in a class at the Art Students’ League, Washington, DC, 1889Group of public school children offering peanuts to animals in the National Zoo, Washington, DC, 1899Isadora Duncan’s dance students, 1899Machine shop class, Washington, DC, 1899Art class, sketching ducks at zoo, Normal school, 1899Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va., 1898Louis Firetail (Sioux, Crow Creek), wearing tribal clothing, giving a presentation in an American history class, Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia, 1899-19006th Division mathematics class on a street paving problem, 1899A class at the zoo – the bird cage, 1899A class in dressmaking, Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia, 1899Art class with live model, Normal School, Washington, DC, 1899Classroom scenes in Washington, D.C. public schools – outdoor exercise with rods, 1899History class at the Tuskegee InstituteSchool children on a field tripSchool children conducting simple experiments, Washington, DC, 1899School children examining wild flowers on field trip, Washington, DC, 1899School children learning a dance in a school yard, Washington, DC, 1899School children measuring and sketching at a stone building, Washington, DC, 1899Schoolgirls doing calisthenicsCooking classElementary school class on Native American CultureFemale students exercising with dumbbells, Western High School, Washington, DC, 1899Geography class at the Hampton InstituteGirls in a science laboratory at Eastern High School, Washington, DC, 1899Girls on the playground, 18992nd Division grade school pupils examining a mailbox6 girls in art class, drawing at easels, Eastern High School, Washington, DC, 1899Academie Julian, Paris, group of art students, 1885Children and teacher in classroom studying corn and cotton, Annie Davis School, near Tuskegee, Alabama, 1902Schoolgirls with teacher, learning to cook on a wood stove in classroom, 1899Students at Hampton Institute, 1899Students at Hampton Institute, 1899Art classClass of the Sixth Division at the Library of Congress, 1899
