1.
Greenwich, Connecticut
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Greenwich /ˈɡrɛnᵻtʃ/ is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 61,171. The largest town on Connecticuts Gold Coast, it is home to many hedge funds, Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut as well as the six-state region of New England. It takes roughly 40-50 minutes by train from Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, cNN/Money and Money magazine ranked Greenwich first on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States in 2005. The town is named after Greenwich, a borough of London in the United Kingdom, the town of Greenwich was settled in 1640. One of the founders was Elizabeth Fones Winthrop, daughter-in-law of John Winthrop, founder, Greenwich was declared a township by the General Assembly in Hartford on May 11,1665. During the American Revolution, General Israel Putnam made an escape from the British on February 26,1779. Although British forces pillaged the town, Putnam was able to warn Stamford, p1270020-300x225. jpg | Putnam Hill, where General Putnam escaped. In 1974, Gullivers Restaurant and Bar, on the border of Greenwich and Port Chester, in 1983, the Mianus River Bridge, which carries traffic on Interstate 95 over an estuary, collapsed, resulting in the death of three people. For many years, Greenwich Point, was only to town residents. However, a lawyer sued, saying his rights to freedom of assembly were threatened because he was not allowed to go there, the lower courts disagreed, but the Supreme Court of Connecticut agreed, and Greenwich was forced to amend its beach access policy to all four beaches. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 67.2 square miles, of which 47.8 square miles is land and 19.4 square miles. In terms of area, Greenwich is twice the size of Manhattan. The town is bordered to the west and north by Westchester County, New York, to the east by the city of Stamford, and faces the Village of Bayville to the south across the Long Island Sound. The Census Bureau recognizes seven CDPs within the town, Byram, Cos Cob, Glenville, Old Greenwich, Pemberwick, Riverside, the USPS lists separate zip codes for Greenwich, Cos Cob, Old Greenwich, and Riverside. Additionally, Greenwich is often divided into several smaller, unofficial neighborhoods. The Hispanic population is concentrated in the corner of the town. In 2011, numerous neighborhoods were voted by the Business Insider as being the richest neighborhoods in America, Byram, Cos Cob, Greenwich, Old Greenwich, and Riverside each have their own ZIP Codes and with the exception of Byram, each has a Metro North station
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Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
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Miss Porter's School
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Miss Porters School is a private college preparatory school for girls located in Farmington, Connecticut. It is a school that excels in academics and athletics. Its acceptance rate is 20% with an average Secondary School Admission Test score in the 92nd percentile, Miss Porters School was established in 1843 by education reformer Sarah Porter, who recognized the importance of womens education. Also encouraged were such athletic opportunities as tennis, horseback riding, and in 1867 the school formed its own baseball team, the Tunxises. In 1884, Sarah Porter hired her former student, Mary Elizabeth Dunning Dow, from then until her death in 1900, Miss Porter gradually relinquished her control of the school to Mrs. Dow. Upon Sarah Porters death in 1900, her named her nephew Dr. Robert Porter Keep as executor of her estate. Mrs. Dows compensation was also specified in the will, Keep began extensive repairs and renovations to the school. The conflict escalated and culminated in Mrs. Dows resignation in 1903, Keep succumbed to pneumonia and died on July 3,1904, Mrs. Keep continued his legacy of renovation and construction. Of her many legacies was her establishment of a kindergarten for children of her employees, the kindergarten, on Garden Street, is now home to the Village Cooperative Nursery School, and is no longer connected with Miss Porters School. From 1917 until the schools Centennial, in 1943, he and his wife, RoseAnne Day Keep, Mr. Keep appointed members to the first Board of Trustees including, Wilmarth S. Lewis, Yales Horace Walpole scholar Annie Burr Auchincloss Lewis 1920 The Rev. Only then did the school dismiss its reputation as a finishing school and this year also ended the tradition of choosing a successive Head of School from the Porter family tree. Chosen to take the school into its second century were Ward L. Johnson, on June 12,1994, Oprah Winfrey gave the commencement address, telling the graduating class, which included her niece Chrishaunda Lee, that there is no success without joy. Oprah Winfrey modeled her Leadership Academy for Girls after Porters, classes at Porters are held Monday through Friday, although Wednesday is a half day. Porters has a ratio of about 8,1. Students are required to take courses in the arts, computer science, English, ethical leadership, history, modern or classical languages, mathematics, typically, students take a total of five to six units of credit per semester. On May 19,2011, the Online School for Girls announced that Miss Porters School and School of the Holy Child in Rye, three Porters faculty members are currently listed as teachers on the OSG website. In 2011, Porters began requiring that each entering 9th grade student own an Apple iPad 2, the fall semester of that year saw the beginning of full integration of the iPad into the schools curriculum. Porters stopped requiring iPads after the 2015-2016 school year. Director of Music Karl Klauser, music teacher and composer, taught at the school from 1855 to 1895, Head of the Art Department Robert B
4.
Preston Sturges
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Preston Sturges was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Great McGinty and it is not uncommon for a Sturges character to deliver an exquisitely turned phrase and take an elaborate pratfall within the same scene. A tender love scene between Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve was enlivened by a horse, which repeatedly poked its nose into Fondas head. Sturges famously sold the story for The Great McGinty to Paramount Pictures for $1, in return for being allowed to direct the film, Sturges was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Mary Estelle Dempsey and travelling salesman Edmund C. His maternal grandparents, Catherine Campbell Smyth and Dominick dEste Dempsey, were immigrants from Ireland, when Sturges was three years old, his eccentric mother left America to pursue a singing career in Paris, where she annulled her marriage with Prestons father. Returning to America, Dempsey met her husband, the wealthy stockbroker Solomon Sturges. According to biographers, Solomon Sturges was diametrically opposite to Mary and this included her close friendship with Isadora Duncan, as the young Sturges would sometimes travel from country to country with Duncans dance company. Mary also carried on an affair with Aleister Crowley and collaborated with him on his magnum opus Magick. As a young man, Sturges bounced back and forth between Europe and the United States, as Sturges spent much of his childhood and youth in France, he ended up fluent in French and a Francophile who always considered France his second home. In 1916, he worked as a runner for New York stock brokers, the next year, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Service, and graduated as a lieutenant from Camp Dick in Texas without seeing action. While at camp, Sturges wrote an essay, Three Hundred Words of Humor, returning from camp, Sturges picked up a managing position at the Desti Emporium in New York, a store owned by his mothers fourth husband. He spent eight years there, until he married the first of his four wives, in 1928, Sturges performed on Broadway in Hotbed, a short-lived play by Paul Osborn, and Sturges first produced play, The Guinea Pig, opened in Massachusetts. The play was a success and Sturges moved it to Broadway the following year and that same year also saw the opening of Sturges second play, the hit Strictly Dishonorable. Written in just six days, the play ran for sixteen months and earned Sturges over $300,000 and it attracted interest from Hollywood, and Sturges was writing for Paramount by the end of the year. Three other Sturges stage plays were produced from 1930 to 1932, one of them a musical, by the end of the year, he was working more in Hollywood as a writer-for-hire, operating on short contracts, for Universal, MGM, and Columbia studios. He also sold his screenplay for The Power and the Glory to Fox. The film told the story of a self-involved financier via a series of flashbacks and flashforwards, Sturges later recalled, The film made a lot of enemies. Writers at that time worked in teams, like piano movers, and my first solo script was considered a distinct menace to the profession
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Marjorie Merriweather Post
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Marjorie Merriweather Post was a leading American socialite and the owner of General Foods, Inc. She was the daughter of C. W. Post and Ella Letitia Merriweather, at age 27, when her father died, she became the owner of the rapidly growing Postum Cereal Company, founded in 1895. She was subsequently the wealthiest woman in the United States, with a fortune worth about US $250 million and she attended the Mount Vernon Seminary and College. Post maintained a lifelong relationship with her alma mater and served as the first alumna trustee of Mount Vernon Seminary. Today, a collection of her correspondence with Mount Vernon administrators is maintained by GWUs Special Collections Research Center, Posts complete collection of personal papers, as well as those of her father, are held by the University of Michigans Bentley Historical Library. In addition to Hillwood and other estates, Marjorie Merriweather Posts other lavish home was Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, designed by Marion Sims Wyeth and Joseph Urban, Mar-a-Lago was willed in 1973 to the U. S. Government as a retreat for Presidents and visiting foreign dignitaries. The mansion was not, however, used for this purpose and it was purchased by businessman Donald Trump in 1985. Post and her husband, E. F. Hutton, owned Sea Cloud. Post also owned Camp Topridge on Upper St. Regis Lake in the Adirondacks and it included a fully staffed main lodge and private guest cabins, each staffed with its own butler. The expansive Great Camp, built in 1923 by Ben Muncil, eventually contained nearly 70 buildings, as well as a Russian dacha and it was one of only two Adirondack camps to be featured in LIFE magazine. Another home, which she shared with Joseph Davies in Washington, some of Posts jewelry bequeathed to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, is displayed in the Harry Winston exhibit. She funded a U. S. Army hospital in France during World War I, and, decades later, in 1971, she was among the first three recipients of the Silver Fawn Award, presented by the Boy Scouts of America. The Merriweather Post Pavilion, a concert venue in Columbia. Critics have claimed that these items were expropriated, however, Post, neither she nor Davies was involved with the original seizing of the items. Allegations later surfaced that many works of art from the Tretyakov Gallery and other collections were donated or offered at nominal prices to Post and Davies. Davies is also alleged to have purchased art expropriated from Soviet citizens well after the Russian Revolution, many of the items, which remain under the control of the Post estate or the agents, can be viewed at Hillwood, the former Washington, DC, estate of Post. It has operated as a museum since Posts death and displays her French and Russian art collection, featuring the work of Fabergé, Sèvres porcelain, French furniture, tapestries. In 1905, she married investment banker Edward Bennett Close of Greenwich, Connecticut, via his second marriage, Edward Bennett Close would become the paternal grandfather of actress Glenn Close
6.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
7.
Glenn Close
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Glenn Close is an American actress, singer and film producer. With an acting career spanning over 40 years, she has been acclaimed for her versatility and is widely regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation. She has won three Emmy Awards, three Tony Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and has received six Academy Award nominations and she would later receive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, and Albert Nobbs. She starred as Eleanor of Aquitaine in the 2003 TV film The Lion in Winter, in 2005, she starred in the drama series The Shield. Then from 2007 to 2012, she starred as Patty Hewes in the FX drama series Damages and she has voiced the character of Mona Simpson in the animated sitcom The Simpsons since 1995. She returned to Broadway in November 2014, in a revival of Edward Albees A Delicate Balance. Her other films include Jagged Edge, Hamlet, Reversal of Fortune,101 Dalmatians, Paradise Road, Air Force One, Cookies Fortune, Heights, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Girl With All The Gifts. Close is a six-time Academy Award nominee, tying the record for being the actress with the most nominations never to have won, as of 2016, Close has more Oscar nominations without a win than any other living actor. In addition, she has been nominated for four Tonys, fourteen Emmys, thirteen Golden Globes and she has also won an Obie award and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards and a BAFTA. Close has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and she has two sisters, Tina and Jessie, and two brothers, Alexander and Tambu Misoki, whom Closes parents adopted while living in Africa. Close is also a second cousin once-removed of actress Brooke Shields, during her childhood, Close lived with her parents in a stone cottage on her maternal grandfathers estate in Greenwich. Although Close came from an affluent background, she stated that her family not to participate in WASP society. She would also avoid mentioning her birthplace whenever asked because she did not want people to think she was a dilettante who didnt have to work. When she was seven years old, her parents joined a cult group, Close described MRA as a group that dictated every aspect of her life, from the clothes that had to be worn to what they were allowed to say. In an interview Close stated that her desire to become an actress allowed her to break away from the cult, stating and they had their reasons for doing what they did, and I understand them. It had terrible effects on their kids, but that’s the way it is and we all try to survive, right. And I think what actually saved me more than anything was my desire to be an actress and she spent time in Switzerland when studying at St. Georges School in Switzerland. Close traveled for years in the mid-to-late 1960s with an MRA singing group called Up With People
8.
Farmington, Connecticut
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Farmington is a town located in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census, as an affluent suburb of Hartford, it is home to the world headquarters of several large corporations including Carrier Corporation, Otis Elevator Company, and Carvel. Farmington was originally inhabited by the Tunxis Indian tribe, settlers found the area ideal because of its rich soil, location along the floodplain of the Farmington River, and valley geography. The town and river were given their present names in 1645, the towns boundaries were later enlarged several times, making it the largest in the Connecticut Colony. The town was named after Farmington, in England, Farmington has been called the mother of towns because its vast area was divided to produce nine other central Connecticut communities. The borough of Unionville, in Farmingtons northwest corner, was home to many factories harnessing the water power of the Farmington River. Farmington is steeped in New England history, Main Street, in the historic village section, is lined with colonial estates, some of which date back to the 17th century. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington passed through Farmington on several occasions, in addition, French troops under General Rochambeau encamped in Farmington en route to Westchester County to offer crucial support to General Washingtons army. The majority of Farmington residents were abolitionists and were active in aiding escaped slaves, several homes in the town were safe houses on the Underground Railroad. The town became known as Grand Central Station among escaped slaves, Farmington played an important role in the famous Amistad trial. The Mende were educated in English and Christianity while funds were raised by residents for their return to Africa, the Farmington Canal, connecting New Haven with Northampton, Massachusetts, passed through the Farmington River on its eastern bank and was in operation between 1828 and 1848. The canals right of way and towpath were eventually used for a railroad, part of the canal and railroad line has now been converted to a multi-use trail. Just above the village, off Mountain Road, lies the Hill-Stead Museum, the estate, completed in 1901 and designed for Alfred Atmore Pope by his daughter Theodate Pope Riddle, one of the first woman American architects, is known for its Colonial Revival architecture. Now a museum, its 19 rooms hold a collection of Impressionist paintings by such masters as Manet, Monet, Whistler, Degas. It is the site of the annual Sunken Garden Poetry Festival and is a National Historic Landmark, Miss Porters School, an exclusive college preparatory school for girls, is in Farmington. The school, whose buildings occupy much of the center, is a significant historic. Founded in 1843 by educational reformer Sarah Porter, Miss Porters has long been one of the most selective schools for girls in the country. Famous alumni include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Lilly Pulitzer and members of the Bush, Vanderbilt, the town is home to the University of Connecticut Health Center, which employs over 5,000 people
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George V
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George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. He was the son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. From the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession behind his father and his own brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, on the death of his grandmother in 1901, Georges father became King-Emperor of the British Empire, and George was created Prince of Wales. He succeeded his father in 1910 and he was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar. His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, the Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, in 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had health problems throughout much of his reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son. George was born on 3 June 1865, in Marlborough House and he was the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert Edward and Alexandra. His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and he was baptised at Windsor Castle on 7 July 1865 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Longley. As a younger son of the Prince of Wales, there was expectation that George would become king. He was third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother, George was only 17 months younger than Albert Victor, and the two princes were educated together. John Neale Dalton was appointed as their tutor in 1871, neither Albert Victor nor George excelled intellectually. For three years from 1879, the brothers served on HMS Bacchante, accompanied by Dalton. They toured the colonies of the British Empire in the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, and visited Norfolk, Virginia, as well as South America, the Mediterranean, Egypt, Dalton wrote an account of their journey entitled The Cruise of HMS Bacchante. Between Melbourne and Sydney, Dalton recorded a sighting of the Flying Dutchman, after Lausanne, the brothers were separated, Albert Victor attended Trinity College, Cambridge, while George continued in the Royal Navy. He travelled the world, visiting many areas of the British Empire, during his naval career he commanded Torpedo Boat 79 in home waters then HMS Thrush on the North America station, before his last active service in command of HMS Melampus in 1891–92. From then on, his rank was largely honorary
10.
Mary of Teck
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Mary of Teck was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India as the wife of King-Emperor George V. Although technically a princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, she was born and her parents were Francis, Duke of Teck, who was of German extraction, and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a granddaughter of King George III. She was informally known as May, after her birth month, the following year, she became engaged to Albert Victors next surviving brother, George, who subsequently became king. Before her husbands accession, she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall and she supported her second son, Albert, who succeeded to the throne as George VI, until his death in 1952. She died the year, during the reign of her granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II. Princess Victoria Mary of Teck was born on 26 May 1867 at Kensington Palace and her father was Prince Francis, Duke of Teck, the son of Duke Alexander of Württemberg by his morganatic wife, Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde. Her mother was Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, the child and younger daughter of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge. She was baptised in the Chapel Royal of Kensington Palace on 27 July 1867 by Charles Thomas Longley, before she became queen, she was known to her family, friends and the public by the diminutive name of May, after her birth month. Mays upbringing was merry but fairly strict and she was the eldest of four children, the only girl, and learned to exercise her native discretion, firmness, and tact by resolving her three younger brothers petty boyhood squabbles. They played with their cousins, the children of the Prince of Wales, may was educated at home by her mother and governess. Although her mother was a grandchild of King George III, May was only a member of the British Royal Family. Her father, the Duke of Teck, had no inheritance or wealth, however, the Duchess of Teck was granted a parliamentary annuity of £5,000 and received about £4,000 a year from her mother, the Duchess of Cambridge. Despite this, the family was deeply in debt and lived abroad from 1883, the Tecks travelled throughout Europe, visiting their various relations. They stayed in Florence, Italy, for a time, where May enjoyed visiting the art galleries, churches, in 1885, the Tecks returned to London, and took up residence at White Lodge, in Richmond Park. May was close to her mother, and acted as an secretary, helping to organise parties. She was also close to her aunt, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, during the First World War, the Crown Princess of Sweden helped pass letters from May to her aunt, who lived in enemy territory in Germany until her death in 1916. In December 1891, May was engaged to her second cousin once removed, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. The choice of May as bride for the Duke owed much to Queen Victorias fondness for her, as well as to her strong character, however, Albert Victor died six weeks later, in a recurrence of the worldwide 1889–90 influenza pandemic
11.
Buckingham Palace
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Buckingham Palace is the London residence and administrative headquarters of the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and it has been a focal point for the British people at times of national rejoicing and mourning. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a residence for Queen Charlotte. During the 19th century it was enlarged, principally by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, Buckingham Palace became the London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The palace chapel was destroyed by a German bomb during World War II, the original early 19th-century interior designs, many of which survive, include widespread use of brightly coloured scagliola and blue and pink lapis, on the advice of Sir Charles Long. King Edward VII oversaw a partial redecoration in a Belle Époque cream, many smaller reception rooms are furnished in the Chinese regency style with furniture and fittings brought from the Royal Pavilion at Brighton and from Carlton House. The palace has 775 rooms, and the garden is the largest private garden in London, the state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September and on some days in winter and spring. In the Middle Ages, the site of the palace formed part of the Manor of Ebury. The marshy ground was watered by the river Tyburn, which flows below the courtyard. Where the river was fordable, the village of Eye Cross grew, ownership of the site changed hands many times, owners included Edward the Confessor and his queen consort Edith of Wessex in late Saxon times, and, after the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror. William gave the site to Geoffrey de Mandeville, who bequeathed it to the monks of Westminster Abbey, in 1531, King Henry VIII acquired the Hospital of St James from Eton College, and in 1536 he took the Manor of Ebury from Westminster Abbey. These transfers brought the site of Buckingham Palace back into royal hands for the first time since William the Conqueror had given it away almost 500 years earlier, various owners leased it from royal landlords and the freehold was the subject of frenzied speculation during the 17th century. By then, the old village of Eye Cross had long fallen into decay. Needing money, James I sold off part of the Crown freehold, clement Walker in Anarchia Anglicana refers to new-erected sodoms and spintries at the Mulberry Garden at S. Jamess, this suggests it may have been a place of debauchery. Eventually, in the late 17th century, the freehold was inherited from the property tycoon Sir Hugh Audley by the great heiress Mary Davies, possibly the first house erected within the site was that of a Sir William Blake, around 1624. The next owner was Lord Goring, who from 1633 extended Blakes house and he did not, however, obtain the freehold interest in the mulberry garden. Unbeknown to Goring, in 1640 the document failed to pass the Great Seal before King Charles I fled London and it was this critical omission that helped the British royal family regain the freehold under King George III. The improvident Goring defaulted on his rents, Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington obtained the mansion and was occupying it, now known as Goring House, Arlington House rose on the site—the location of the southern wing of todays palace—the next year
12.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
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Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum located in the Upper East Sides Museum Mile in Manhattan, New York City. It is the museum in the United States devoted to historical. Its collections and exhibitions explore approximately 240 years of design aesthetic, the Cooper Hewitt Museum was founded in 1896. It was originally named Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration and it fell under the wing of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In 1895, the granddaughters of Peter Cooper, Sarah Cooper Hewitt, Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Amy Hewitt Green, the museum would take its inspiration from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. The museum would serve as a place for Cooper Union students, Cooper Union trustees provided the fourth floor of the Foundation Building. It was free and open three days a week, the three sisters served as directors until Sarah Cooper Hewitt died in 1930. After her death, four directors were appointed to run the museum, constance P. Hare served as chair. In 1938, Edwin S. Burdell became the director of the Cooper Union, the board of directors was abolished and an advisory council was established. Eventually the museum and art started to distance themselves from one another in regards to programming. Other departments of the Cooper Union were making financial demands and the Cooper Union announced that they would close the museum and this led to the museum being closed on July 3,1963. Public outcry was strong against the closing, a Committee to Save the Cooper Union Museum was formed by Henry Francis Du Pont. The American Association of Museums developed a study about the future of the museum. Negotiations then began between the Cooper Union and the Smithsonian Institution, on May 14,1968, the New York Supreme Court approved the agreement and the museum fell under ownership of the Smithsonian. July 1,1968, it was transferred to the Smithsonian. The following year,1969, it was renamed as the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts, in October of that year, Lisa Taylor became the Director. The museum, which was the first Smithsonian museum outside of Washington, the Mansion was renovated and the museum opened to the public on October 7,1976 with the exhibition MAN transFORMs. A conservation laboratory was opened in July,1978, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation funded the lab and it focuses on textile and paper conservation
