Hello. I'm writer Antoinette Beard... WOO-HOO-HOO!!! This is sensual, bizarre & macabre. Keep scrolling after the posts for much weird info and wonky photos. Also, use the "Search Box" to discover more quirky fascinations. Outwardly, Victorians were conformists, but there are always those who delight in flaunting conventions. ADULT CONTENT, --- naturally. ;)
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Madame Marie Curie & Radium...
| Marie Curie | |
|---|---|
c. 1920
| |
| Born | Maria Salomea Skłodowska 7 November 1867 Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire[1] |
| Died | 4 July 1934 (aged 66) Passy, Haute-Savoie, Third French Republic |
| Cause of death | Aplastic anemia from exposure to radiation |
| Residence | Poland, France |
| Citizenship |
|
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | |
| Spouse(s) | Pierre Curie (1859–1906; m. 1895) |
| Children |
|
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics, chemistry |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Recherches sur les substances radioactives (Research on Radioactive Substances) |
| Doctoral advisor | Gabriel Lippmann |
| Doctoral students | |
| Signature | |
 | |
| Notes | |
She is the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences.
| |
Marie Skłodowska Curie (/ˈkjʊəri/; French: [kyʁi]; Polish: [kʲiˈri]; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win twice, the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
She was born in Warsaw, in what was then the Kingdom of Poland, part of the Russian Empire. She studied at Warsaw's clandestine Flying University and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her older sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and with physicist Henri Becquerel. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Her achievements included the development of the theory of radioactivity (a term that she coined, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies into the treatment of neoplasms were conducted using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today. During World War I, she developed mobile radiography units to provide X-ray services to field hospitals.
While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie, who used both surnames, never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland. She named the first chemical element that she discovered in 1898 polonium, after her native country.
Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at a sanatorium in Sancellemoz (Haute-Savoie), France, of aplastic anemia from exposure to radiation in the course of her scientific research and in the course of her radiological work at field hospitals during World War I. The physical and societal aspects of the Curies' work contributed to shaping the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Cornell University professor L. Pearce Williams observes:
If Curie's work helped overturn established ideas in physics and chemistry, it has had an equally profound effect in the societal sphere. To attain her scientific achievements, she had to overcome barriers, in both her native and her adoptive country, that were placed in her way because she was a woman. This aspect of her life and career is highlighted in Françoise Giroud's Marie Curie: A Life, which emphasizes Curie's role as a feminist precursor.
She was known for her honesty and moderate life style. Having received a small scholarship in 1893, she returned it in 1897 as soon as she began earning her keep. She gave much of her first Nobel Prize money to friends, family, students, and research associates. In an unusual decision, Curie intentionally refrained from patenting the radium-isolation process, so that the scientific community could do research unhindered. She insisted that monetary gifts and awards be given to the scientific institutions she was affiliated with rather than to her. She and her husband often refused awards and medals. Albert Einstein reportedly remarked that she was probably the only person who could not be corrupted by fame.
Lola Montez, --- The Madcap Adventuress Who Captivated A Bavarian King...
| Lola Montez | |
|---|---|
Lola Montez c.1851
| |
| Born | Eliza Rosanna Gilbert 17 February 1821 Grange, County Sligo, Ireland |
| Died | 17 January 1861 (age 39) Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Other names | Donna Lola Montez, Maria Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld |
| Occupation | Dancer, actress, lecturer, author |
| Spouse(s) | Lieutenant Thomas James George Trafford Heald Patrick Hull |
| Partner(s) | Ludwig I of Bavaria |
Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld, (17 February 1821 – 17 January 1861), better known by the stage name Lola Montez (/moʊnˈtɛz/), was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a "Spanish dancer", courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Countess of Landsfeld. She used her influence to institute liberal reforms. At the start of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, she was forced to flee. She proceeded to the United States via Switzerland, France and London, returning to her work as an entertainer and lecturer.Lola's mother, Eliza(beth) Oliver was the child of Charles Silver Oliver, a former High Sheriff of Cork and member of Parliament for Kilmallock in County Limerick. Their residence was Castle Oliver. In December 1818, Ensign Edward Gilbert met Eliza Oliver when he arrived with the 25th Regiment. They were married on 29 April 1820, and Lola was born the following February, refuting persistent rumours that her mother was pregnant with her at the time of the wedding. The young family made their residence at King House in Boyle, County Roscommon, until early 1823, when they journeyed to Liverpool, thence departing for India on 14 March.
As with many other aspects of her life, discrepant reports of the birth of Eliza Gilbert have been published. For many years, it was accepted that she was born in the city of Limerick, as she herself claimed, possibly on 23 June 1818; this year was graven on her headstone. However, when her baptismal certificate came to light in the late 1990s, it was established that Eliza Rosanna Gilbert was actually born in Grange, County Sligo, on 17 February 1821. She was baptized at St Peter's Church in Liverpool on 16 February 1823, while her family was en route to her father's post in India.
Shortly after their arrival in India, Edward Gilbert died of cholera.
Her mother, who was now 19, married another officer, Lieutenant Patrick Craigie, the following year. Craigie quickly came to care for a young Eliza, but her spoiled and half-wild ways concerned him greatly.
Eventually, it was agreed she would be sent back to Britain to attend school, staying with Craigie's father in Montrose, Scotland, at first. But the "queer, wayward little Indian girl" rapidly became known as a mischief-maker.[6] On one occasion, she stuck flowers into the wig of an elderly man during a church service; on another, she ran through the streets naked.
At the age of ten, Eliza was moved on again – this time to Sunderland, England. When her stepfather's older sister, Catherine Rae, set up a boarding school in Monkwearmouth with her husband, Eliza joined them to continue her education.
Eliza's determination and temper were to become her trademarks. Her stay in Sunderland lasted only a year, as she was then transferred to a school in Camden Place (now Camden Crescent), Bath for a more sophisticated education.
In 1837, 16-year-old Eliza eloped with Lieutenant Thomas James, and they married. The couple separated five years later, in Calcutta, and she became a professional dancer under a stage name.
She had her London debut as "Lola Montez, the Spanish dancer" in June 1843, but she had been recognized as "Mrs. James". The resulting notoriety hampered her career in England and she departed for the continent, where she had success in Paris and Warsaw.[10] At this time, she was almost certainly accepting favours from a few wealthy men, and was regarded by many as a courtesan.
Life as a courtesan
.jpg)
In 1844, Lola made a personally disappointing Parisian stage début as a dancer in Fromental Halévy's opera, Le lazzarone. She met and had an affair with Franz Liszt, who introduced her to the circle of George Sand. After performing in various European capitals, she settled in Paris, where she was accepted in the rather Bohemian literary society of the time, being acquainted with Alexandre Dumas père, with whom she was rumoured to have had a dalliance. In Paris she would meet Alexandre Dujarier, "owner of the newspaper with the highest circulation in France, and also the newspaper's drama critic." Through their romance Montez revitalized her career as a dancer. Later on, after the two had their first quarrel over Lola's attendance to a party, Dujarier would attend the party and then in a drunken state offend Jean-Bapiste Rosemond de Beauvallon. Dujarier would be challenged to a duel by de Beauvallon and would be shot and killed.
In 1846, she arrived in Munich, where she was discovered by and became the mistress of Ludwig I of Bavaria. The rumour was, at the time they met, Ludwig had asked her in public if her bosom was real, to which her response was to tear off enough of her garments to prove that it was. She soon began to use her influence on the King and this, coupled with her arrogant manner and outbursts of temper, made her unpopular with the local population (particularly after documents were made public showing that she was hoping to become a naturalized Bavarian citizen and be elevated to nobility). Despite the opposition, Ludwig made her Countess of Landsfeld on his next birthday, 25 August 1847. Along with her title, he granted her a large annuity.
For more than a year, she exercised great political power, which she directed in favor of liberalism, against the conservatives and the Jesuits. Her influence became so great that the ultramontane administration of Karl von Abelwas dismissed because that minister objected to her being made Countess Landsfeld. The students of the university were divided in their sympathies, and conflicts arose shortly before the outbreak of the revolutions of 1848, which led the King, at Lola's instigation, to close the university. In March 1848, under pressure from a growing revolutionary movement, the university was re-opened, Ludwig abdicated, and Montez fled Bavaria, her career as a power behind the throne at an end. It seems likely that Ludwig's relationship with Montez contributed greatly to the fall from grace of the previously popular king.
After a sojourn in Switzerland, where she waited in vain for Ludwig to join her, she made one brief excursion to France and then removed to London in late 1848. There she met and quickly married George Trafford Heald, a young army cornet (cavalry officer) with a recent inheritance. Bu t the terms of her divorce from Thomas James did not permit either spouse's remarriage while the other was living, and the beleaguered newly-weds were forced to flee the country to escape a bigamy action brought by Heald's scandalized maiden aunt. The Healds resided for a time in France and Spain, but within two years, the tempestuous relationship was in tatters, and George reportedly drowned. In 1851 she set off to make a new start in the United States, where she was surprisingly successful at first in rehabilitating her image.
United States
From 1851 to 1853, she performed as a dancer and actress in the eastern United States, one of her offerings being a play called Lola Montez in Bavaria. In May 1853, she arrived at San Francisco. Her performances there created a sensation, but soon inspired a popular satire, Who's Got the Countess?. She married Patrick Hull, a local newspaperman, in July and moved to Grass Valley, California, in August. Her marriage soon failed; a doctor named as co-respondent in the divorce suit brought against her was shortly after murdered.
Montez remained in Grass Valley at her little house for nearly two years. The restored Home of Lola Montez went on to become California Historical Landmark No. 292. Montez served as an inspiration to another aspiring young entertainer, Lotta Crabtree, to whom she provided dancing lessons.[24] Lotta's parents ran a boarding house in Grass Valley, and Lotta soon attracted the attention of her neighbor Montez, who encouraged Lotta's enthusiasm for performance.
Australia
In June 1855, Montez departed for a tour of Australia to resume her career by entertaining miners at the gold diggingsduring the gold-rush of the 1850s, arriving at Sydney on 16 August 1855.
Historian Michael Cannon claims that "In September 1855 she performed her erotic Spider Dance at the Theatre Royal in Melbourne, raising her skirts so high that the audience could see she wore no underclothing at all. Next day, the Argusthundered that her performance was 'utterly subversive to all ideas of public morality'. Respectable families ceased to attend the theatre, which began to show heavy losses." At Castlemaine in April 1856, she was "rapturously encored" after her Spider Dance in front of 400 diggers (including members of the Municipal Council who had adjourned their meeting early to attend the performance), but drew the wrath of the audience by insulting them following some mild heckling.
She earned further notoriety in Ballarat when, after reading a bad review in The Ballarat Times, she allegedly attacked the editor, Henry Seekamp, with a whip. The "Lola Montes Polka" (composed by Albert Denning) is rumored to have been inspired by this event; however, the song was published in 1855 and the incident with Seekamp occurred months later in February 1856.
She departed for San Francisco on 22 May 1856. On the return voyage her manager was lost after going overboard.
Later life in the United States
Rapidly aging, Lola failed in attempts at a theatrical comeback in various American cities.
She arranged in 1857 to deliver a series of moral lectures in Britain and America written by Rev. Charles Chauncey Burr.
She spent her last days in rescue work among women. In November 1859, the Philadelphia Press reported that Lola Montez was
By then she was showing the tertiary effects of syphilis and her body began to waste away. She died at the age of 39 on 17 January 1861. She is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, where her tombstone states: "Mrs. Eliza Gilbert / Died 17 January 1861".
Monday, September 10, 2018
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Ha-ha-HA!!!... Tribute to Hank, From "Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman"...
I love his purring voice, among other things... ;)
"How The Victorian Era Changed Life For Cats, " From "Playful Kitty"...
Does your cat get the royal treatment in your home? Your cat may have the Victorian Era to thank for their lavish lifestyle. Though humans and cats have had a love affair for thousands of years (and were worshiped in Ancient Egypt), it wasn’t until the 1800’s that they began to be viewed as pets or members of the family. They were previously seen as “useful animals” that were excellent at rodent control. Queen Victoria of England, her friends, and family had a huge impact on animal rights and pet culture.
QUEEN VICTORIA CHAMPIONS DOMESTIC ANIMALS
“Spotted Tabby” by Harrison Weir, public domain
The Victorian Era changed everything for cats. Queen Victoria had been very isolated during her childhood. Animals and dolls were the only companions that she had. Perhaps this is why Queen Victoria would become an avid animal lover and advocate for animal rights. She was concerned with the treatment of domestic animals and took important steps to help the animals:
- Queen Victoria funded school prizes for essays written about kindness to animals.
- Queen Victoria spoke out publicly against the practice of vivisection (doing experiments on live animals) calling it “a disgrace to a civilized country.”
- In 1840, Queen Victoria gave her official patronage to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (thus it is “royal”). However, she did show a bit of hypocrisy with her love of hunting sports.
Though was known for loving dogs, Queen Victoria owned many pets. She purchased 2 Blue Persian cats that started a frenzy over the breed. Many people wanted cats that looked just like the Queen’s cats. Later in life, Queen Victoria had a black and white Persian named White Heather. White Heather outlived her and was adopted by her son.
The British people followed the Queen’s lead and fell in love with cats. Discovering different breeds of cat soon became of great public interest. Having pet cats that were lavished with affection caught on like wildfire. Some people began to personify cats so much that they would clothe them to keep them from being immodest.
THE ROYAL CAT LADIES
“KIttens Playing Piano” , public domain
Queen Victoria was not the only member of the royal family to fall in love with cats. Her granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Schleswig Holstein, and daughter-in-law, Princess Alexandra of Wales, were actually better known for their love of cats. These women became actively involved in the cat fancy and protecting the welfare of cats.
Princess Victoria of Schleswig Holstein became a breeder of blue Persian cats. Rumor has it that one of the kittens that she bred, Duschar, was given to Queen Victoria in her later years. However, Princess Victoria reclaimed ownership of Duschar after the Queen’s death.
THE CAT FANCY BEGINS
Three cat breeds as depicted in Harrison Weir’s book. public domain
Artist, illustrator, and animal lover, Harrison Weir, organized the first ever cat show in 1871. It was held at the exquisite Chrystal Palace which had hosted the first World’s Fair and Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. This was an affair for the upper class and aristocrats to show off their beloved cats and compete for a prize. The allowed breeds included: Black, White, Tabby, and Longhairs.
The public couldn’t wait to see all the different types of cats. The show would have 170 entrants and more than 20,000 visitors! A second show was created to include the cats of the “working class.” “Cat Fancys” as the shows were known quickly spread around the globe. The first Cat Fancy in the U.S. was at Madison Square Garden in 1895.
Harrison Weir had been considered very knowledgeable about breeding animals. In 1892 he published a book called Our Cats and All About Them. The book talks about the different breeds he has identified, caring for cats, cat shows, and some humor. He drew the illustrations of the cats in the book as well.
OTHER VICTORIAN ERA CAT LOVERS
“Three Cats Performing a Song and Dance act. Gouache” by Louis Wain , Image Credit: Wellcome Images via Wikimedia Commons
There were a number of famous cat lovers throughout the Victorian Era that helped our view of cats to become what it is today. Here are just a few of them:
- Louis Wain – An artist and cat lover that drew anthropomorphic cats (standing upright and behaving as humans).
- Louis Carroll – Author of Alice In Wonderland.
- Beatrix Potter – Author of Peter Rabbit
- Thomas Hardy – English novelist and poet
- Mark Twain – American author and humorist
- Henry James – American/British author
- Alfred Tennyson – Poet Laureate of Great Britan and Ireland during Queen Victoria’s reign
- John Keats – English romantic poet
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)