Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College /ˈwɒdəm/ is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, according to the will of her late husband Nicholas Wadham, a member of an ancient Devon and Somerset family. The central buildings, an example of Jacobean architecture, were designed by the architect William Arnold. They include a large and ornate Hall, adjacent to the central buildings are the Wadham Gardens, notable for their collection of trees and one of the largest gardens amongst Oxford colleges. Amongst Wadhams most famous alumni is Sir Christopher Wren, Wren was one of a brilliant group of experimental scientists at Oxford in the 1650s, the Oxford Philosophical Club, which included Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. This group held meetings at Wadham College under the guidance of the warden, John Wilkins. Wadham is a liberal and progressive college which aims to maintain the diversity of its student body, in 1974 it was among the first of the former mens colleges to admit women, and the college has been a promoter of gay rights and equal rights for women.
As of 2014, it had a financial endowment of £80.8 million, and in 2014/2015 ranked 3rd in the Norrington Table. The college was founded by Dorothy Wadham in 1610, according to the set out in the will of her husband Nicholas Wadham. Although she never visited Oxford, she kept control of her new college. The wardenship of John Wilkins is a significant period in the history of the college, Wilkins was a member of a group which had met for some years in London to discuss problems in the natural sciences. Many of the moved to Oxford and held regular meetings in the Wardens lodgings at Wadham. Among them were Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, John Locke, William Petty, John Wallis, Wadham provided the largest contingent, some twelve of the fifty names mentioned. These included Christopher Brookes, John Mayow, Lawrence Rooke, Thomas Sprat, Seth Ward, Sir Christopher Wren was an undergraduate at Wadham before he became a fellow of All Souls and succeeded Rooke as astronomy professor at Gresham College, London.
He eventually returned to occupy rooms at Wadham while he was the Savilian Professor of Astronomy from 1661, Wren had notable achievements in pure and applied mathematics, astronomy and biology to his credit before, in his thirties, turning to architecture. Alone in mathematical ability Wren was ranked by competent authorities second only to Newton among the men of his time, the Wardens lodgings were stuffed with ingenious instruments, and powerful telescopes were mounted on the college tower. Wilkins was the first president of the body, and became the first secretary of the Royal Society itself. These were the beginnings of organised scientific research in Britain, Maurice Bowra was Warden of the College from 1938 until 1970, and was influential in determining the character of the College as open and meritocratic
Nikephoros II Phokas
Nikephoros II Phokas was Byzantine Emperor from 963 to 969. His brilliant military exploits contributed to the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire during the 10th century and his mother, whose name is unknown, was a member of another powerful Anatolian Greek clan, the Maleinoi. Nikephoros joined the army at an early age and he was appointed the military governor of the Anatolikon Theme in 945 under Emperor Constantine VII. When his father was wounded in battle in 953, Nikephoros was promoted to commander on the eastern frontier. In the war with the Abbasid Caliphate under Al-Muti, Nikephoros began with a defeat in 954, from which he recovered in the following years with victories in Syria. From the accession of Emperor Romanos II in 959, Nikephoros and his younger brother Leo were placed in charge of the eastern and western field armies, in 960,27,000 oarsmen and marines were assembled to man a fleet of 308 ships carrying 50,000 troops. At the recommendation of the influential minister Joseph Bringas, Nikephoros was entrusted to lead this expedition against the Saracen Emirate of Crete, after a nine-month siege, Nikephoros stormed Chandax and wrested control of the entire island from the Muslims in 961.
Upon returning to Constantinople, he was denied the honor of a triumph. He soon returned to the east with a large and well-equipped army, in the campaigns of 962–963, he employed a brilliant strategy to conquer the cities of Cilicia and to advance into Syria. There he captured Aleppo, in collusion with his nephew, John Tzimiskes and it was on these campaigns that he earned the sobriquet, The Pale Death of the Saracens. During the capture of Aleppo, the Byzantine army took possession of 390,000 silver dinars,2,000 camels, early in his life Nikephoros had married Stephano. She had died before he rose to fame, and after her death he took an oath of chastity and this would create problems on. On 15 March 963, Emperor Romanos II died unexpectedly at the age of twenty-six of uncertain cause, Theophano had already gained a reputation as an intelligent and ambitious woman. She would gain a reputation for ruthlessness in achieving her goals, Romanos had already crowned as co-emperors his two sons Basil II and Constantine VIII.
At the time that Romanos died, Basil was five years old, Theophano was not allowed to rule alone. Joseph Bringas, the eunuch palace official who had become Romanos chief councilor, according to contemporary sources he intended to keep authority in his own hands. He tried to reduce the power of Nikephoros Phokas, the victorious general had been accepted as the actual commander of the army and maintained his strong connections to the aristocracy. Joseph was afraid that Nikephoros could claim the throne with the support of both the army and the aristocracy, josephs intrigues during the following months turned both Theophano and Nikephoros against him
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in London and one of its Royal Parks. The park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water, the park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens, which are often assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline divided them. To the southeast, outside the park, is Hyde Park Corner, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, but Kensington Gardens closes at dusk, and Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 a. m. until midnight. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the park, for which the Crystal Palace, the park became a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the suffragettes, and the Stop the War Coalition have all held protests there, many protesters on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park. Hyde Park is a ward of the City of Westminster, the population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 12,462.
Hyde Park was created for hunting by Henry Vlll in 1536, Charles I created the Ring, and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public. In 1652, during the Interregnum, Parliament ordered the 620-acre park to be sold for ready money and it realised £17,000 with an additional £765 6s 2d for the resident deer. In 1689, when William III moved his residence to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, public transport entering London from the west runs parallel to the Kings private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides, the first coherent landscaping was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline, under the supervision of Charles Withers, the Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, who took some credit. It was completed in 1733 at a cost to the public purse of £20,000, the 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly after began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat.
The Serpentine is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie, one of the most important events to take place in the park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace was constructed on the side of the park. The public did not want the building to remain after the closure of the exhibition and he had it moved to Sydenham Hill in South London. At the age of twenty-five, Decimus Burton was commissioned by the Office of Woods and he laid out the paths and driveways and designed a series of lodges, the Screen/Gate at Hyde Park Corner and the Wellington Arch. The Screen and the Arch originally formed a single composition, designed to provide a transition between Hyde Park and Green Park, although the arch was moved. An early description reports, It consists of a screen of handsome fluted Ionic columns, the extent of the whole frontage is about 107 ft. The two side gateways, in their elevations, present two insulated Ionic columns, flanked by antae, all these entrances are finished by a blocking, the sides of the central one being decorated with a beautiful frieze, representing a naval and military triumphal procession
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, myth, literature, education and his writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin penned essays and treatises and lectures, travel guides and manuals, the elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature and society and he made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, birds and architectural structures and ornamentation. He was hugely influential in the half of the 19th century. After a period of decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, from the 1850s he championed the Pre-Raphaelites who were influenced by his ideas.
His work increasingly focused on social and political issues, Unto This Last marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, in 1871, he began his monthly letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain, published under the title Fors Clavigera. In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society, as a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today. Ruskin was the child of first cousins. His father, John James Ruskin, was a sherry and wine importer founding partner and de facto manager of Ruskin, Telford. John James was born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a mother from Glenluce and his wife, Margaret Cox, née Cock, was the daughter of an aunt on the English side of the family and a publican in Croydon. She had joined the Ruskin household when she became companion to John Jamess mother, John James had hoped to practice law, but was instead articled as a clerk in London.
His father, John Thomas Ruskin, described as a grocer, was an inadequate businessman, to save the family from bankruptcy, John James, whose prudence and success were in stark contrast to his father, took on all debts, settling the last of them in 1832. John James and Margaret were engaged in 1809, but opposition to the union from John Thomas, Ruskin was born at 54 Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, south of St Pancras railway station. His childhood was characterised by the influences of his father and mother. John James Ruskin helped to develop his sons Romanticism and they shared a passion for the works of Byron and especially Walter Scott
Positivism
Positivism is a philosophical theory stating that positive knowledge is based on natural phenomena and their properties and relations. Thus, information derived from experience, interpreted through reason and logic. Positivism holds that knowledge is found only in this derived knowledge. Verified data received from the senses are known as empirical evidence, Positivism holds that society, like the physical world, operates according to general laws. Introspective and intuitive knowledge is rejected, as are metaphysics and theology, Comte argued that, much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other absolute laws, so does society, and further developed positivism into a Religion of Humanity. The English noun positivism was re-imported in the 19th century from the French word positivisme, the corresponding adjective has been used in similar sense to discuss law since the time of Chaucer. Wilhelm Dilthey popularized the distinction between Geisteswissenschaft and Naturwissenschaften, the consideration that laws in physics may not be absolute but relative, and, if so, this might be more true of social sciences, was stated, in different terms, by G. B.
Vico, in contrast to the positivist movement, asserted the superiority of the science of the human mind, Positivism asserts that all authentic knowledge allows verification and that all authentic knowledge assumes that the only valid knowledge is scientific. Émile Durkheim reformulated sociological positivism as a foundation of social research, Wilhelm Dilthey, in contrast, fought strenuously against the assumption that only explanations derived from science are valid. Dilthey was in part influenced by the historicism of Leopold von Ranke, at the turn of the 20th century the first wave of German sociologists, including Max Weber and Georg Simmel, rejected the doctrine, thus founding the antipositivist tradition in sociology. Later antipositivists and critical theorists have associated positivism with scientism, science as ideology, but can any one conceive of a more pointless philosophy, seeing that what we can say clearly amounts to next to nothing. If we omitted all that is unclear we would probably be left with completely uninteresting, Logical positivists rejected metaphysical speculation and attempted to reduce statements and propositions to pure logic.
Strong critiques of this approach by philosophers such as Karl Popper, Willard Van Orman Quine and Thomas Kuhn have been highly influential, in historiography the debate on positivism has been characterized by the quarrel between positivism and historicism. Arguments against positivist approaches in historiography include that history differs from sciences like physics and ethology in subject matter and that much of what history studies is nonquantifiable, and therefore to quantify is to lose in precision. Experimental methods and mathematical models do not generally apply to history, Positivism in the social sciences is usually characterized by quantitative approaches and the proposition of quasi-absolute laws. A significant exception to this trend is represented by cultural anthropology, in psychology the positivist movement was influential in the development of operationalism. Economic thinker Friedrich Hayek rejected positivism in the sciences as hopelessly limited in comparison to evolved and divided knowledge.
For example, much legislation falls short in contrast to pre-literate or incompletely defined common or evolved law, in contemporary social science, strong accounts of positivism have long since fallen out of favour
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury PC FRS, known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 until 1900, was a banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist and polymath. He was a banker and worked with his family’s company, but significant contributions in archaeology, ethnography. He helped establish archaeology as a discipline, and was influential in nineteenth-century debates concerning evolutionary theory. He introduced the first law on the protection of the UKs archaeological and architectural heritage. John Lubbock was born in 1834, the son of Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet, a London banker, the youth was soon a frequent visitor to Down House, and became the closest of Darwin’s younger friends. Their relationship stimulated young Lubbock’s passion for science and evolutionary theory, in 1845, Lubbock began studies at Eton College, and after graduation was employed by his fathers bank, of which he became a partner at the age of twenty-two. In 1865 he succeeded to the baronetcy, in the early 1870s Lubbock became increasingly interested in politics.
In 1870, and again in 1874, he was elected as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Maidstone and he lost the seat at the election of 1880, but was at once elected member for London University, of which he had been vice-chancellor since 1872. He was successful with numerous enactments in parliament, including the Bank Holidays Act of 1871, when the Liberals split in 1886 on the issue of Irish Home Rule, Lubbock joined the breakaway Liberal Unionist Party in opposition to Irish home rule. A prominent supporter of the Statistical Society, he took a part in criticizing the encroachment of municipal trading. In 1879 Lubbock was elected the first president of the Institute of Bankers, in 1881 he was president of the British Association, and from 1881 to 1886 president of the Linnean Society of London. In March 1883 he founded the Bank Clerks Orphanage, which in 1986 became the Bankers’ Benevolent Fund – a charity for bank employees and present, in January 1884 he founded the Proportional Representation Society, to become the Electoral Reform Society.
From 1888 to 1892 he was president of the London Chamber of Commerce, from 1889 to 1890 vice-chairman, in February 1890 he was appointed a privy councillor, and was chairman of the committee of design for the new coinage in 1891. He was President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1900 to 1902, the quotation, We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth, is widely attributed to Lubbock. This variation appears in his book The Pleasures of Life, in addition to his work at his father’s bank, Lubbock took a keen interest in archaeology and evolutionary theory. A collection of Iron Age antiquities Lubbock and Sir John Evans excavated at the site of Hallstatt in Austria is now in the British Museums collection and he spoke in support of the evolutionist Thomas Henry Huxley at the famous 1860 Oxford evolution debate. During the 1860s, he published articles in which he used archaeological evidence to support Darwin’s theory. In 1864, he one of the founding members of the elite X Club
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a radical socialist and revolutionary government that ruled Paris from 18 March to 28 May 1871. Following the defeat of Emperor Napoleon III in September 1870, the French Second Empire swiftly collapsed, in its stead rose a Third Republic at war with Prussia, which laid siege to Paris for four months. A hotbed of radicalism, Frances capital was primarily defended during this time by the often politicized. In February 1871 Adolphe Thiers, the new executive of the French national government, signed an armistice with Prussia that disarmed the Army. Soldiers of the Communes National Guard killed two French army generals, and the Commune refused to accept the authority of the French government, the regular French Army suppressed the Commune during La semaine sanglante beginning on 21 May 1871. Debates over the policies and outcome of the Commune had significant influence on the ideas of Karl Marx, on 2 September 1870, after Frances unexpected defeat at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War, Emperor Napoleon III surrendered to the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
When the news reached Paris the next day and angry crowds came out into the streets, Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the Emperors regent, fled the city, and the Government of the Second Empire swiftly collapsed. Republican and radical deputies of the National Assembly went to the Hôtel de Ville, proclaimed the new French Republic, though the Emperor and the French Army had been defeated at Sedan, the war continued. The German army marched swiftly toward Paris, in Paris, the republican candidates dominated, winning 234,000 votes against 77,000 for the Bonapartists. Only about 40,000 were employed in factories and large enterprises, most were employed in industries in textiles, furniture. There were 115,000 servants and 45,000 concierges, in addition to the native French population, there were about 100,000 immigrant workers and political refugees, the largest number being from Italy and Poland. The working class and immigrants suffered the most from the lack of activity due to the war. The Commune resulted in part from growing discontent among the Paris workers and this discontent can be traced to the first worker uprisings, the Canut Revolts, in Lyon and Paris in the 1830s.
Many Parisians, especially workers and the classes, supported a democratic republic. They wanted a more just way of managing the economy, if not necessarily socialist, socialist movements, such as the First International, had been growing in influence with hundreds of societies affiliated to it across France. In early 1867, Parisian employers of bronze-workers attempted to de-unionize their workers and this was defeated by a strike organized by the International. Later in 1867, a public demonstration in Paris was answered by the legal dissolution of its executive committee. The International had considerable influence even among unaffiliated French workers, particularly in Paris, the killing of journalist Victor Noir incensed Parisians, and the arrests of journalists critical of the Emperor did nothing to quiet the city
King's College School
Kings College School, commonly referred to as KCS, Kings or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 as the department of Kings College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand. It is a member of the Eton Group of schools, Kings accepts girls into the sixth form. In the sixth form pupils can choose between The International Baccalaureate and A-Levels, a Royal Charter by King George IV founded the School in 1829 as the junior department of the newly established Kings College, London. The School occupied the basement of the College in The Strand, most of its original eighty-five pupils lived in the City within walking distance of the School. During the early Victorian Period, the School grew in numbers, members of the teaching staff included Gabriele Rossetti, who taught Italian. His son, Dante Gabriel, joined the School in 1837, the best known of the early masters was the water-colourist, John Sell Cotman. Nine of his pupils became practising artists and ten architects, by 1843 there were five hundred pupils and the need for larger premises eventually led to the move to Wimbledon in 1897.
The school was progressive in its curriculum in areas and appointed its first Science Master in 1855. The first Head Master, John Major, served the school between 1831–1866, ninety-nine of the schools pupils from this period appear in the Dictionary of National Biography. Until the 1880s, the school flourished, in 1882, only Eton College surpassed the total of thirty Oxford and Cambridge Board examination certificates obtained by pupils at KCS. But the schools teaching facilities were becoming inadequate as many competitor schools moved to new sites with modern facilities. In 1897, falling numbers of pupils prompted the move to the present site in Wimbledon. A separate junior school was opened on the campus in 1912. In World War I, many letters were written to the school, during World War II, the schools Great Hall was damaged by bomb shrapnel, and some of the damage can still be seen on the outside of the hall. The only remaining link between KCS and its parent is that one of the KCS Board of Governors is nominated by Kings College London.
In the 2015 edition of Tatler Schools Guide, it was commented on that No wonder Oxbridge loves KCS pupils, on 21 November 2014, Kings won the title of Sunday Times Independent Secondary School of the Year. All sixth-formers at Kings currently study either the IB Diploma or the A-Level course, in 201514 pupils obtained the maximum IB score of 45 points, equivalent to 7 A grades at A-Level
Alexander Bassano
Alexander Bassano was an English photographer who was a leading royal and high society portrait photographer in Victorian London. His most famous photo was the one of Earl Kitchener in the Lord Kitchener Wants You army recruitment poster during the First World War and he anglicised his first name to Alexander. Bassano received early training with artists Augustus Egg and William Beverley. He opened his first studio in 1850 in Regent Street, the studio moved to Piccadilly 1859-1863, to Pall Mall and to 25 Old Bond Street in 1877. There was a Bassano branch studio at 132 Kings Road and he had taken portraits of William Ewart Gladstone and even Queen Victoria. Bassanos head of Lord Kitchener formed the basis of the First World war recruiting poster Your Country Needs You, Bassano retired from work at the studio around 1903, when the premises were extensively refurbished and relaunched as Bassano Ltd, Royal Photographers. The studio moved once again in 1921, a move written about by the Ladys Pictorial at the time, the article described about a million negatives, all systematically numbered, which had to be moved from the cellars of the premises to the new location at 38 Dover Street.
The company became Bassano and Vandyk in 1964, the following year it incorporated Elliott & Fry, a photographic partnership that had been running in Baker Street since 1863. In 1977, the company became Industrial Photographic, based at 35 Moreton Street, many glass plates from the Bassano Studios, including some by Alexander Bassano, are held in the National Portrait Gallery, London. The Museum of London holds a number of the fashion-related plates. The National Portrait Gallery held an exhibit of his work, Alexander Bassano, Victorian Photographer in 2013 and they had a son, Clement George Alexander, and two daughters, Adelaide Fanny Louise and Camilla Teresa. His sister Louisa Bassano was a singer and teacher
International Workingmen's Association
It was founded in 1864 in a workmens meeting held in St Martins Hall, London. Its first congress was held in 1866 in Geneva, in Europe, a period of harsh reaction followed the widespread Revolutions of 1848. The next major phase of activity began almost twenty years with the founding of the IWA in 1864. At its peak, the IWA reported having 8 million members, in 1872 the organization split in two over conflicts between communist and anarchist factions. The Second International was founded in 1889, following the January Uprising in Poland in 1863, French and British workers started to discuss developing a closer working relationship. Henri Tolain and Limousin visited London in July 1863, here there was discussion of the need for an international organization, which would, amongst other things, prevent the import of foreign workers to break strikes. On September 28, an international meeting for the reception of the French delegates took place in St. Martin’s Hall in London. Included among the last-mentioned of this band was a somewhat obscure 46-year-old émigré journalist, Karl Marx.
The positivist historian Edward Spencer Beesly, a professor at London University, was in the chair, george Odger, Secretary of the London Trades Council, read a speech calling for international co-operation. The meeting unanimously decided to found an organisation of workers. The centre was to be in London, directed by a committee of 21, the French members were Denoual, Victor Le Lubez, and Bosquet. Other members were, Louis Wolff, Johann Eccarius, and at the foot of the list, Marx participated in his individual capacity, and did not speak during the meeting. This subcommittee deferred the task of writing in favor of sole authorship by Marx. On October 5, the General Council was formed with co-opted additional members representing other nationalities and it was based at the headquarters of the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes at 18 Greek Street. Wolff left for Italy, and Lubez rewrote it in a way which appalled Marx, through deft manipulation of the sub-committee Marx was left with all the papers, and set about writing the Address to the Working Classes to which was attached a simplified set of rules.
At first the IWA had mostly male membership, although in April 1865 it was agreed that women could become members, the initial leadership was exclusively male. On 25 June 1867 Law was admitted to the General Council, due to the wide variety of philosophies present in the First International, there was conflict from the start. The first objections to Marxs influence came from the Mutualists who opposed communism and statism, shortly after Mikhail Bakunin and his followers joined in 1868, the First International became polarised into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
