1.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
2.
Benjamin West
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Benjamin West PRA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence and the Seven Years War. He was the president of the Royal Academy in London. He was offered a knighthood by the British Crown, but declined it and he said that Art is the representation of human beauty, ideally perfect in design, graceful and noble in attitude. West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in a house that is now in the borough of Swarthmore on the campus of Swarthmore College, as the child of an innkeeper. The family later moved to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where his father was the proprietor of the Square Tavern, Benjamin West was an autodidact, while excelling at the arts, he had little education and, even when president of the Royal Academy, could scarcely spell. From 1746 to 1759, West worked in Pennsylvania, mostly painting portraits, while West was in Lancaster in 1756, his patron, a gunsmith named William Henry, encouraged him to paint a Death of Socrates based on an engraving in Charles Rollins Ancient History. His resulting composition, which differs from the source, has been called the most ambitious. During this time West met John Wollaston, a painter who had immigrated from London. West was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, whose portrait he painted. Franklin was the godfather of Wests second son, Benjamin, in common with many artists architects and lovers of the fine arts at that time he conducted a Grand Tour. West expanded his repertoire by copying works of Italian painters such as Titian, in Rome he met a number of international neo-classical artists including German-born Anton Rafael Mengs, Scottish Gavin Hamilton, and Austrian Angelica Kauffman. In August 1763, West arrived in England, on what he intended as a visit on his way back to America. In fact, he never returned to America and he stayed for a month at Bath with William Allen, who was also in the country, and visited his half-brother Thomas West at Reading at the urging of his father. In London he was introduced to Richard Wilson and his student Joshua Reynolds and he moved into a house in Bedford Street, Covent Garden. In 1765 he married Elizabeth Shewell, an American to whom he engaged in Philadelphia. All three prelates commissioned work from him, in 1766 West proposed a scheme to decorate St Pauls Cathedral with paintings. It was rejected by the Bishop of London, but his idea of painting an altarpiece for St Stephen Walbrook was accepted, at around this time he also received acclaim for his classical subjects, such as Orestes and Pylades and The Continence of Scipio. Benjamin West was known in England as the American Raphael and his Raphaelesque painting of Archangel Michael Binding the Devil is in the collection of Trinity College, Cambridge
3.
Painting
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Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, gesture, composition, narration, or abstraction, among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest the expressive, Paintings can be naturalistic and representational, photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic, emotive, or political in nature. A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by motifs and ideas. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action, the term painting is also used outside of art as a common trade among craftsmen and builders. What enables painting is the perception and representation of intensity, every point in space has different intensity, which can be represented in painting by black and white and all the gray shades between. In practice, painters can articulate shapes by juxtaposing surfaces of different intensity, thus, the basic means of painting are distinct from ideological means, such as geometrical figures, various points of view and organization, and symbols. In technical drawing, thickness of line is ideal, demarcating ideal outlines of an object within a perceptual frame different from the one used by painters. Color and tone are the essence of painting as pitch and rhythm are the essence of music, color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, and Newton, have written their own color theory. Moreover, the use of language is only an abstraction for a color equivalent, the word red, for example, can cover a wide range of variations from the pure red of the visible spectrum of light. There is not a register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic, painters deal practically with pigments, so blue for a painter can be any of the blues, phthalocyanine blue, Prussian blue, indigo, cobalt, ultramarine, and so on. Psychological and symbolical meanings of color are not, strictly speaking, colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this, the perception of a painting is highly subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music is analogous to light in painting, shades to dynamics and these elements do not necessarily form a melody of themselves, rather, they can add different contexts to it. Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, as one example, collage, some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet and Anselm Kiefer, there is a growing community of artists who use computers to paint color onto a digital canvas using programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required, rhythm is important in painting as it is in music
4.
Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)
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It was based on a much smaller version of the same scene, presently held by the Yale University Art Gallery. Trumbull painted many of the figures in the picture from life, the oil-on-canvas work was commissioned in 1817, purchased in 1819, and placed in the rotunda in 1826. The painting is incorrectly described as the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The painting shows 42 of the 56 signers of the Declaration and he also depicted several participants in the debate who did not sign the document, including John Dickinson, who declined to sign. Trumbull also had no portrait of Benjamin Harrison V to work with, the Declaration was debated and signed over a period of time when membership in Congress changed, so the men in the painting had actually never all been in the same room at the same time. Thomas Jefferson seems to be stepping on John Adams foot in the painting, however, upon closer examination of the painting, it can be seen that their feet are merely close together. This part of the image was depicted on the two-dollar bill version. Key to figures, Four men seated on the far left,1, Seated at the table on the left,4. Benjamin Harrison Seated together to the right of Harrison and in front of the figures,6. George Clinton Five figures standing together on the left,9, arthur Middleton Three seated figures in the back between the two sets of standing figures,14. George Walton Set of three figures standing together in the back,23, george Clymer Ten figures seated,17. Francis Hopkinson Five figures standing in front,30, Benjamin Franklin Four background figures seated together near the right corner of the room,35. Samuel Huntington Two figures standing in the corner of the room,39. Oliver Wolcott Two foreground figures at the table,42. John Hancock Three figures standing at right,43, edward Rutledge Two figures seated at far right,46. Its first use was on the side of the $100 National Bank Note issued in 1863. The depiction was engraved by Frederick Girsch of the American Bank Note Company, the same steel engraving was used on the 24¢ stamp issued as part of the 1869 pictorial series of definitive U. S. postage stamps. Trumbulls painting is depicted on the reverse of the two-dollar bill
5.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
6.
History painting
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History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than artistic style. History paintings usually depict a moment in a story, rather than a specific and static subject. The term is derived from the senses of the word historia in Latin and Italian, meaning story or narrative. Most history paintings are not of scenes from history, especially paintings from before about 1850, History paintings almost always contain a number of figures, often a large number, and normally show some type of action that is a moment in a narrative. The genre includes depictions of moments in religious narratives, above all the Life of Christ, as well as scenes from mythology. These groups were for long the most frequently painted, works such as Michelangelos Sistine Chapel ceiling are therefore history paintings, History painting may be used interchangeably with historical painting, and was especially so used before the 20th century. Where a distinction is made historical painting is the painting of scenes from secular history, in the 19th century historical painting in this sense became a distinct genre. In phrases such as historical painting materials, historical means in use before about 1900 and he placed emphasis on the ability to depict the interactions between the figures by gesture and expression. This view remained general until the 19th century, when artistic movements began to struggle against the establishment institutions of academic art, which continued to adhere to it. Scenes from ancient history had been popular in the early Renaissance, and once again became common in the Baroque and Rococo periods, and still more so with the rise of Neoclassicism. In some 19th or 20th century contexts, the term may refer specifically to paintings of scenes from history, rather than those from religious narratives. Scenes from ancient history and mythology were also popular, artists continued for centuries to strive to make their reputation by producing such works, often neglecting genres to which their talents were better suited. The large works of Raphael were long considered, with those of Michelangelo, un Peintre qui ne fait que des portraits, na pas encore cette haute perfection de lArt, & ne peut prétendre à lhonneur que reçoivent les plus sçavans. He who produces perfect landscapes is above another who only produces fruit, a painter who only does portraits still does not have the highest perfection of his art, and cannot expect the honour due to the most skilled. By the late 18th century, with religious and mytholological painting in decline, there was an increased demand for paintings of scenes from history. Classical history remained popular, but scenes from national histories were often the best-received, the unheroic nature of modern dress was regarded as a serious difficulty. When, in 1770, Benjamin West proposed to paint The Death of General Wolfe in contemporary dress and he ignored these comments and showed the scene in modern dress. Although George III refused to purchase the work, West succeeded both in overcoming his critics objections and inaugurating a more historically accurate style in such paintings. M. W, conveniently their clothes had been worn away to classical-seeming rags by the point the painting depicts
7.
United States Capitol rotunda
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The United States Capitol rotunda is the central rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D. C. Located below the Capitol dome, it is the tallest part of the Capitol and has described as its symbolic. The rotunda is surrounded by corridors connecting the House of Representatives, to the south of the rotunda is the semi-circular National Statuary Hall, which until 1857 was the House of Representatives chamber. To the northeast of the rotunda is the Old Senate Chamber, used by the Senate until 1859 and by the Supreme Court of the United States until 1935. The rotunda is 96 feet in diameter and rises 48 feet to the top of its walls and 180 feet 3 inches to the canopy of the dome, the dome is surmounted by the American Statue of Freedom. It is also used for ceremonial events authorized by concurrent resolution, the doctor and architect William Thornton was the winner of the contest to design the Capitol in 1793. Thornton had first conceived the idea of a central rotunda, however, due to lack of funds or resources, oft-interrupted construction, and the British attack on Washington during the War of 1812, work on the rotunda did not begin until 1818. The rotunda was designed in the style and was intended to evoke the design of the Pantheon. The sandstone rotunda walls rise 48 feet above the floor, everything above this—the Capitol dome–was designed in 1854 by Thomas U, Walter, the fourth Architect of the Capitol. Walter had also designed the Capitols north and south extensions, in 1862, Walter asked painter Constantino Brumidi to design a picture 65 feet in diameter, painted in fresco, on the concave canopy over the eye of the New Dome of the U. S. Capitol. At this time, Brumidi may have added a watercolor canopy design over Walters tentative 1859 sketch, the dome was being finished in the middle of the American Civil War and was constructed from fireproof cast iron. During the Civil War, the rotunda was used as a hospital for Union soldiers. The dome was completed in 1866. Originally the crypt had an open ceiling into the rotunda, visitors can still see the holes in the stone circle that marked the rim of the open space in the rotunda floor. In January 2013, the Architect of the Capitol announced a four-year, $10 million project to repair and conserve the Capitol Domes exterior, the dome and rotunda, which were last conserved in 1960, are showing significant signs of rust and disrepair. There is a danger that decorative ironwork could fall from the rotunda to the space below, without immediate repair, safety netting will be installed. Eight niches in the rotunda hold large, framed historical paintings, all are oil-on-canvas and measure 12 by 18 feet. Four of these are scenes from the American Revolution, painted by John Trumbull and these are Declaration of Independence, Surrender of General Burgoyne, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and General George Washington Resigning his Commission
8.
United States two-dollar bill
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The United States two-dollar bill is a current denomination of U. S. currency. The third U. S. President, Thomas Jefferson, is featured on the obverse of the note, the reverse features the painting The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull. Throughout the $2 bills pre-1929 life as a note, it was issued as a United States Note, National Bank Note, silver certificate. When U. S. currency was changed to its current size, production went on until 1966, when the series was discontinued. Ten years went by before the $2 bill was reissued as a Federal Reserve Note with a new reverse design, $2 bills are seldom seen in circulation as a result of banking policies with businesses which has resulted in low production numbers due to lack of demand. The denomination of two dollars was authorized under an act, and first used in March 1862. The denomination was continuously used until the 1960s, by time the United States Note was the only remaining class of U. S. currency the two dollar bill was assigned to. In 1966 it was decided to discontinue all two dollar United States Notes from production and it has remained a current denomination since then. However, due to its use, two-dollar bills are not frequently reissued in a new series like other denominations which are printed according to demand. Though some cash registers accommodate it, its slot is used for things like checks. Some bill acceptors found in vending machines, self checkout lanes, although they usually are not handed out arbitrarily, two-dollar bills are usually available at banks. Many banks stocking $2 bills will not use them except upon specific request by the customer, the seeming rarity of a $2 bill can be attributed to its low printing numbers as a Federal Reserve Note. Hoarding of the due to lack of public knowledge of the $2 bill has resulted in very few bills seen in circulation. After its initial release, supplies of the Series 1976 $2 bill were allowed to dwindle until August 1996 when a new series dated 1995 began to be printed and this series was only printed for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Today, there is a misconception by the general public that the $2 bill is no longer in production. According to the Treasury, it receives many letters asking why the $2 bill is no longer in circulation, in response, the Treasury stated, The $2 bill remains one of our circulating currency denominations. As of April 30,2007 there were $1,549,052,714 worth of $2 bills in circulation worldwide. Another popular misconception is that the average $2 bill is more than its face value
9.
Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
10.
Fortification
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Fortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs, the term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified, in ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches, permanent fortification and field fortification, there is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb, Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Trumbull, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 324.
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