Author: Ms. R.

A cast stone relief in the lobby of the U.S. Post Office in Morton, Illinois, originated as a Work Progress Administration art project during the Great Depression. Commissioned in 1939 at a cost of $700, the sculpture is titled “Spirit of Communication.” It was sculpted by Charles Umlauf, a young artist from Michigan who was studying in Chicago. The piece depicts a messenger on a winged horse, no doubt to symbolize the speed and efficiency of the postal service. When……

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At 140 feet long, the Whole Wall Mural in Concordia, Kansas, is the longest sculpted brick mural in the United States. The three-dimensional mural covers the entire east wall of the Cloud County Museum Annex and Concordia Travel Information Center/Cloud County Tourism office. It’s the product of a community project, with all 6,400 bricks donated, flash-fired, and transported by local brick plant Cloud Ceramics. The mural depicts the history of Cloud County. It includes a train, plane, windmill, wheat, sunflowers- the……

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The Freedom Monument is located on Brīvības bulvāris (Freedom Boulevard), near the old town of Riga. It was erected in 1935, on the site where a statue of Russian ruler Peter the Great once stood. The monument was built using funds donated by the residents of Riga. It stands as a memorial to honor soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence (1918 – 1920). Standing 43 meters (141 feet) high, the monument’s granite base is topped with a……

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Around a decade ago, George Eksts was digitizing a 19th-century photograph for the Victoria & Albert Museum, in London, when he turned it over and noticed that someone had doodled on the back. The front side showed an image of Kashmiri temple ruins, taken by the photographer Francis Frith. But on the reverse, rotated 90 degrees from the orientation of the photograph, were bizarre pencil portraits of a headless man, as well as a long-beaked creature with human legs…….

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This small Richmond beach near Point Isabel is a former dumping ground for the now-defunct, highly collectible ceramics manufacturer TEPCO (Technical Porcelain and Chinaware Company). Though TEPCO dishes have frequently been described as “ugly,” “clunky,” and “poorly made,” surviving examples have a cult following among California collectors. Founded in 1930 by Italian immigrant John Pagliero, the TEPCO factory produced dinnerware for restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. As well as consumer lines, TEPCO produced custom dinnerware for local restaurants……

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The origins of the town of Terracina are lost to time, as the area was probably inhabited for many centuries even before the Romans conquered it during the fifth century B.C. On the hill overlooking the town, the first known constructions were erected in the 3rd century B.C., and maybe consisted of just a small sanctuary. In the early first century B.C., a large monumental complex rose on the hill. The complex contained the new larger temple and a……

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On September 10, 1814, so its staff could help defend against the British Army, the Baltimore Patriot and Evening Advertiser temporarily ceased publication. Ten days later the newspaper returned with a blockbuster column on its second page. Its text would go on to become iconic—anthemic, even. Printed under their original title, “The Defence of Fort M’Henry,” the four verses allowed the newspaper to report on the events of the titular battle with some literary flourish. “In our first renewal……

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Uta von Ballenstedt was the wife of Margrave Eckard II of Meissen, member of the German dynasty known as the House of Ascania. Their marriage created no heir, and any chance of furthering their line ended with Eckard’s death in 1046, followed shortly thereafter by Uta’s. Uta’s entire estate was donated to the construction of Naumburg Cathedral. Later, in the 13th century, the anonymous Naumburg Meister created a dozen donor figures for the cathedral, including representations of Eckard II……

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