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The Tower of the Winds in Athens: Greeks, Romans, Christians, and Muslims: Two Millennia of Continual Use: Memoirs, APS (Vol. 270)
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What Ever Happened to the U.S. Congress's Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette? Retracing the Events that Led to the Conflagration of the Capitol and the Loss of the Pictures on 24-25 August 1814: Tran. of the American Philosophical Society V
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The Tower of the Winds has stood in the shadow of the Acropolis in
Athens for more than 2,100 years. This tall octagonal building, one of
the best preserved monuments from the classical period, was built by the
architect-astronomer Andronikos of Kyrrhos
as a horologion for keeping time. Almost all its features have been
attributed to the period of construction by the Greeks or renovations
made by the Romans. The building, however, was in use almost
continuously for two millennia, which includes Byzantine
and Ottoman phases. Pamela Webb, a classical archaeologist, examines
the Tower throughout its entire functional existence. A series of
appendices helps to put the Tower in broader context for the
post-classical periods. Winner of the 2016 John Frederick Lewis
Award. Illus.
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One of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American political culture is what became of the United States Congress’s state portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette during the British invasion of the Capitol, Washington, D.C., on the night of 24–25 August 1814. Conceived by Benjamin Franklin during a diplomatic mission, requested by the American delegates at the height of the War of Independence, and granted by the French king after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, these official full-length images of the French monarchs arrayed in ceremonial magnificence were recently identified as atelier copies after Antoine-François Callet’s Louis XVI and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s Marie-Antoinette (both 1783) and traced through Congress’s successive assembly rooms at New York City (1785), Philadelphia (1790), and Washington (1800). The fate of the royal portraits has been difficult to determine due to the incomplete documentary record and conflicting eyewitness accounts. Larkin initially takes a telescopic approach to the problem, moving from British and French production of state portraits to assert political claims in North America and despoliation of Western European countries of their art treasures, to show British and American interests at stake in the practice of looting and incendiary warfare waged across the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay prior to the destruction of the public buildings in Washington, D.C. He then pursues a microscopic approach, analyzing period documents, letters, images, and plans to test the viability of two theories—that the royal portraits were burned by British troops during their occupation of the capital or looted by American scavengers during the chaotic aftermath. While physical evidence of the portrait artifacts remains elusive, this study of the images as objects of desire, danger, and loss breaks new ground for scholars desirous of constituting an art and material history for the War of 1812.
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T. Lawrence Larkin is Professor of Seventeenth- to Nineteenth-Century European Art at Montana State University, Bozeman. He has published on aspects of early modern French and American art and culture, with a two-fold interest in the portrait patronage and mythical permutations of Queen Marie-Antoinette and the trans-Atlantic diplomatic gifts and political culture of French, British, and American governments during the Revolutionary and Imperial Eras. His books include a monograph, In Search of Marie-Antoinette: Stefan Zweig, Irving Thalberg, and Norma Shearer (Palgrave-Macmillan), and an edited volume, Politics & Portraits in the United States & France during the Age of Revolution (Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press), both published in 2019.
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Against Time: Letters from Nazi Germany, 1938-1939 (Transactions 105, Part 1)
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Robert Burns Woodward: Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules
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Johannes Höber left Nazi Germany for America in November 1938.
His
wife Elfriede was unable to leave for another year, after the outbreak of World
War II. Fifty years later, their son discovered the letters this brilliant
couple exchanged during the tumultuous months they were separated. Against
Time: Letters from Nazi Germany, 1938-1939 collects those letters with an
introduction, notes and an epilogue that set the letters in the context of
their time. Together, the letters portray the intense relationship of a
fascinating couple in a critical period in world history.
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Robert Burns Woodward was the star of 20th-century organic chemistry. An MIT graduate by age 19, Woodward's ingenious notions about organic synthesis and his artful methodology were astounding. He is most famed for his synthesis of vitamin B12,which he undertook with Albert Eschenmoser, and for the orbital symmetry rules he developed with Roald Hoffmann. This volume presents Woodward's most celebrated papers and lectures--including the famous Cope lecture. Insightful commentaries and rarely seen photographs are also included.
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Lunar Calendars of the Pre-Columbian Maya: Transactions, APS (Volume 109, Part 1)
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Dean and the Historian: Their Lives and Times through Letters
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Pre-Columbian Maya interest in the waxing and waning of the Moon is well documented. This rare example of interdisciplinary scholarship brings together a deeply penetrating knowledge of positional astronomy and Maya hieroglyphic writing, two highly disparate areas of study, and synthesizes them into a thorough interpretation of the relationship between astronomical concepts in the Maya codices and monumental inscriptions. Prompted by the recent discovery of the Xulum 10K-2 lunar table, this volume is a logical follow-up to work published in 2011 by the Brickers, “Astronomy in the Maya Codices.” It is a comprehensive study of the Maya lunar calendar. Illus.
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William S. Middleton, a graduate of the Univ. of PA School of Med., taught thousands of students during his 63 years at the Univ. of Wisconsin (UW) School of Med. One of his most important decisions was to establish a medical history dep’t. and appoint as its first chair, Erwin Ackerknecht, the pioneering medical historian. The correspondence between the dean and the historian began in 1947 and continued until 1974. Both men fought for causes they believed in: Middleton for improved veterans’ healthcare, better training of physicians, and the establishment of medical libraries; and Ackernecht for a social view of medicine and rejection of fascism in education. The letters show how these two outstanding men viewed the world and viewed themselves, as they discuss their daily lives and concerns, and above all, their friendship. Illus.
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