Dogs in warfare
Dogs in warfare have a long history starting in ancient times. From war dogs trained in combat to their use as scouts and trackers, their uses have been varied and some continue to exist in modern military usage. War dogs were used by the Egyptians, Persians, Baganda, Slavs and the Romans; the Molossus dog of the Molossia region of Epirus was the strongest known to the Romans, was trained for battle. Among the Greeks and Romans, dogs served most as sentries or patrols, though they were sometimes taken into battle; the earliest use of war dogs in a battle recorded in classical sources was by Alyattes of Lydia against the Cimmerians around 600 BC. The Lydian dogs killed some routed others. During the Late Antiquity, Attila the Hun used molosser dogs in his campaigns. Gifts of war dog breeding stock between European royalty were seen as suitable tokens for exchange throughout the Middle Ages. Other civilizations used armored dogs to defend caravans or attack enemies. In the Far East, Emperor Lê Lợi raised a pack of 100 hounds, this pack was tended and trained by Nguyễn Xí whose skills were impressive enough to promote him to the Commander of a shock troop regiment.
On, Frederick the Great used dogs as messengers during the Seven Years' War with Russia. Napoleon used dogs during his campaigns. Dogs were used up until 1770 to guard naval installations in France; the first official use of dogs for military purposes in the United States was during the Seminole Wars. Hounds were used in the American Civil War to protect, send messages, guard prisoners. General Grant recounts how packs of southern bloodhounds were destroyed by Union troops wherever found due to their being trained to hunt men. Dogs were used as mascots in American World War I propaganda and recruiting posters. Dogs have been used in warfare by many civilizations; as warfare has progressed, their purposes have changed greatly. Mid-7th century BC: In the war waged by the Ephesians against Magnesia on the Maeander, the Magnesian horsemen were each accompanied by a war dog and a spear-bearing attendant; the dogs were released first and broke the enemy ranks, followed by an assault of spears a cavalry charge.
An epitaph records the burial of a Magnesian horseman named Hippaemon with his dog Lethargos, his horse, his spearman. 525 BC: At the Battle of Pelusium, Cambyses II uses a psychological tactic against the Egyptians, arraying dogs and other animals in the front line to take advantage of the Egyptian religious reverence for animals. 490 BC: At the Battle of Marathon, a dog follows his hoplite master into battle against the Persians and is memorialized in a mural. 480 BC: Xerxes I of Persia is accompanied by vast packs of Indian hounds when he invades Greece. They may have served in the military as well as being used for sport or hunting, but their purpose is unrecorded. 281 BC: Lysimachus is slain during the Battle of Corupedium and his body was discovered preserved on the battlefield and guarded vigilantly by his faithful dog. 231 BC: the Roman consul Marcus Pomponius Matho, leading the Roman legions through the inland of Sardinia, where the inhabitants led guerrilla warfare against the invaders, used "dogs from Italy" to hunt out the natives who tried to hide in the caves.
120 BC: Bituito, king of the Arvernii, attacked a small force of Romans led by the consul Fabius, using just the dogs he had in his army. 1500s: Mastiffs and other large breeds were used extensively by Spanish conquistadors against Native Americans. 1914–1918: Dogs were used by international forces to deliver vital messages. About a million dogs were killed in action. Sergeant Stubby, a Bull Terrier or Boston Terrier, has been called the most decorated war dog of World War I, the only dog to be nominated for rank and promoted to sergeant through combat, a claim having no official documentary evidence, but recognized in connection with an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution. Among other exploits, he is said to have captured a German spy, he was a mascot at Georgetown University. Rags was another notable World War I dog. 1941–1945: The Soviet Union deployed dogs strapped with explosives against invading German tanks, with limited success. 1943–1945: The United States Marine Corps used dogs, donated by their American owners, in the Pacific theater to help take islands back from Japanese occupying forces.
During this period the Doberman Pinscher became the official dog of the USMC. Of the 549 dogs that returned from the war, only 4 could not be returned to civilian life. Many of the dogs went home with their handlers from the war. Chips was the most decorated war dog during World War II. 1966–1973: Approximately 5,000 US war dogs served in the Vietnam War. 232 military working dogs and 295 US servicemen working as dog handlers were killed in action during the war. It is estimated that about 200 Vietnam War dogs survived the war to be assigned at other US bases outside the US; the remaining canines were left behind. 2011: United States Navy SEALs used a Belgian Malinois military working dog named Cairo in Operation Neptune Spear, in which Osama bin Laden was killed. Dogs have been used for many different purposes. Different breeds always met the demands of the handlers. Many roles for dogs in war are obsolete and no longer practiced, but the concept of the war dog still remains alive and well in modern warfare.
In ancient times, dogs large mastiff- or molosser-type breeds, would be strapped with armor or
William Bruce Ellis Ranken
William Bruce Ellis Ranken was a British artist and Edwardian aesthete. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Robert Burk Ranken, a wealthy and successful lawyer, his wife Mary, he attended Eton College and proceeded to the Slade School of Art, under the tutelage of Henry Tonks. A fellow student was the actor Ernest Thesiger. Ranken's first exhibition in 1904 at the Carfax Gallery in London was well received by artists and art critics, he befriended John Singer Sargent. At the outbreak of World War I, Ranken was living at his studio in Chelsea, a short distance from Sargent's studio, with whom he may have ventured to America during the war years. While in America, Sargent introduced him to Isabella Stewart Gardner, he received commissions to paint portraits of the wealthy, including the Whitneys and Havermeyers, his output became prodigious as he worked in watercolors and pastels. Returning to Britain in the 1920s, he painted many portraits of the British royal family and the aristocracy, as well as the interiors of their homes.
In 1917, Ernest Thesiger married Ranken's sister, Janette Mary Fernie Ranken. In her biography of Thesiger's friend, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Hilary Spurling suggests that Thesiger and Janette wed out of their mutual adoration of Ranken, who shaved his head when he learned of the engagement. On the other hand, it has been said that Janette Ranken was in love with Compton-Burnett's companion, Margaret Jourdain, a fellow Oxford student. Janette Ranken left Jourdain to marry Thesiger. Ranken purchased Warbrook House, Hampshire, in 1918 after the success of his first visit to America; the maintenance and costs associated with the property proved to be too much in the depression of the early 1930s, he was forced to give up his beloved house. Ranken died in London in 1941 and was buried near Warbrook, at St Mary. Following his unexpected death from a cerebral haemorrhage, his sister Janette gifted over 200 works to be distributed amongst UK public galleries and museums. Ranken's paintings are held in a large number of museum and public collections, including Southampton City Art Gallery, Portsmouth Museum, Bradford Museum, Reading Museum, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Northampton Museum, Derby Museum, Leeds City Museum, National Museums Northern Ireland, Glasgow Museums, City of Edinburgh Council and the Government Art Collection
White Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, more known as the White Star Line, was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it rose up as one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between the British Empire and the United States. While many other shipping lines focused on speed, White Star branded their services by focusing more on providing steady and comfortable passages, for both upper class travelers and immigrants. Today it is most famous for the innovative vessel Oceanic of 1870, for the losses of some of their best passenger liners, including the wrecking of RMS Atlantic at Halifax in 1873, the sinking of RMS Republic off Nantucket in 1909, the infamous loss of RMS Titanic in 1912 and that of HMHS Britannic while serving as a hospital ship in 1916. Despite its casualties, the company retained a prominent hold on shipping markets around the globe before falling into decline during the Great Depression, which led to a merger with its chief rival, Cunard Line, which operated as Cunard-White Star Line until 1950.
Cunard Line operated as a separate entity until 2005 and is now part of Carnival Corporation & plc. As a lasting reminder of the White Star Line, modern Cunard ships use the term White Star Service to describe the level of customer care expected of the company; the first company bearing the name White Star Line was founded in Liverpool, England, by John Pilkington and Henry Wilson in 1845. It focused on the UK -- Australia trade; the fleet consisted of the chartered sailing ships RMS Tayleur, Blue Jacket, White Star, Red Jacket, Ben Nevis, Emma and Iowa. Tayleur, the largest ship of its day, was wrecked on its maiden voyage to Australia at Lambay Island, near Ireland, a disaster that haunted the company for years. In 1863, the company acquired Royal Standard; the original White Star Line merged with two other small lines in 1864, The Black Ball Line and The Eagle Line, to form a conglomerate, the Liverpool and Oriental Steam Navigation Company Limited. This did not prosper and White Star broke away.
White Star concentrated on Liverpool to New York City services. Heavy investment in new ships was financed by borrowing, but the company's bank, the Royal Bank of Liverpool, failed in October 1867. White Star was left with an incredible debt of £527,000, was forced into bankruptcy. On 18 January 1868, Thomas Ismay, a director of the National Line, purchased the house flag, trade name and goodwill of the bankrupt company for £1,000, with the intention of operating large ships on the North Atlantic service between Liverpool and New York. Ismay established the company's headquarters at Liverpool. Ismay was approached by Gustav Christian Schwabe, a prominent Liverpool merchant, his nephew, the shipbuilder Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, during a game of billiards. Schwabe offered to finance the new line if Ismay had his ships built by Wolff's company and Wolff. Ismay agreed, a partnership with Harland and Wolff was established; the shipbuilders received their first orders on 30 July 1869. The agreement was that Harland and Wolff would build the ships at cost plus a fixed percentage and would not build any vessels for the White Star's rivals.
In 1870, William Imrie joined the managing company. As the first ship was being commissioned, Ismay formed the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company to operate the steamers under construction. White Star began its North Atlantic run between Liverpool and New York with six nearly identical ships known as the'Oceanic' class: Oceanic, Atlantic and Republic, followed by the larger Celtic and Adriatic, it had long been customary for many shipping lines to have a common theme for the names of their ships. White Star gave their ships names ending in -ic; the line adopted a buff-coloured funnel with a black top as a distinguishing feature for their ships, as well as a distinctive house flag, a red broad pennant with two tails, bearing a white five-pointed star. In the initial designs for this first fleet of liners, each ship was to measure 420 feet in length, 40 feet in width and 3,707 in gross tonnage, equipped with compound expansion engines powering a single screw, capable of speeds of up to 14 knots.
They were identical in passenger accommodations based on a two-class system, providing accommodations for 166 First Class passengers amidships, which in those days was referred to as'Saloon Class' and 1,000 Steerage passengers. It was within the circles of the massive tides of immigrants flowing from Europe to North America that the White Star Line aimed to be revered by, as throughout the company's full history they strived to provide passage for steerage passengers which exceeded that seen with other shipping lines. With the'Oceanic' class, one of the most notable developments in steerage accommodations was the division of steerage at opposite ends of the vessels, with single men being berthed forward, single women and families berthed aft, with developments allowing married couples berths aft as well. White Star's entry into the Trans-Atlantic passenger market in the spring of 1871 got off to a rocky start; when Oceanic sailed on her maiden voyage on 2 March, she departed Liverpool with only 64 passengers aboard, from whence she was expected to make port at Queenstown the following day to pick up more passengers before proceeding to New York.
However, before she had cleared the Welsh coast her bearings overheated off Holyhead and she was forced to return for repairs. She resumed her crossing on 17 March and ended up not c
RMS Titanic
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it one of modern history's deadliest commercial marine disasters during peacetime. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, she was built by the Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, chief naval architect of the shipyard at the time, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Capt. Edward Smith, who went down with the ship; the ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere throughout Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States. The first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins.
A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger "marconigrams" and for the ship's operational use. Although Titanic had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, it only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—about half the number on board, one third of her total capacity—due to outdated maritime safety regulations; the ship carried 16 lifeboat davits. However, Titanic carried only a total of 20 lifeboats, four of which were collapsible and proved hard to launch during the sinking. After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland before heading west to New York. On 14 April, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. ship's time. The collision caused the hull plates to buckle inwards along her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Meanwhile and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only loaded.
A disproportionate number of men were left aboard because of a "women and children first" protocol for loading lifeboats. At 2:20 a.m. she foundered with well over one thousand people still aboard. Just under two hours after Titanic sank, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived and brought aboard an estimated 705 survivors; the disaster was met with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which still governs maritime safety. Additionally, several new wireless regulations were passed around the world in an effort to learn from the many missteps in wireless communications—which could have saved many more passengers; the wreck of Titanic was discovered in 1985 during a US military mission, it remains on the seabed.
The ship was split in two and is disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet. Thousands of artefacts have been displayed at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history. Titanic is the second largest ocean liner wreck in the world, only beaten by her sister HMHS Britannic, the largest sunk, although she holds the record as the largest sunk while in service as a liner due to Britannic being used as a hospital ship at the time of her sinking; the final survivor of the sinking, Millvina Dean, aged two months at the time, died in 2009 at the age of 97. The name Titanic derives from the Titan of Greek mythology. Built in Belfast, Ireland, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the RMS Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners—the first was the RMS Olympic and the third was the HMHS Britannic. Britannic was to be called Gigantic and was to be over 1,000 feet long, they were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912.
The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, the American financier J. P. Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co.. The White Star Line faced an increasing challenge from its main rivals Cunard, which had launched the Lusitania and the Mauretania—the fastest passenger ships in service—and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners that would be larger than anything that had gone before as well as being the last word in comfort and luxury; the company sought an upgrade in their fleet in response to the Cunard giants but to replace their oldest pair of passenger ships still in service, being the SS Teutonic of 1889 and SS Majestic of 1890. Teutonic was replaced by Olympic. Majestic would be brought back into her old spot on White Star's New York service after Titanic's loss.
The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, who had a long-established relati
The Feast of the Gods
The Feast of the Gods is an oil painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini, with substantial additions to the landscape in stages by Dosso Dossi and Titian, who added all the landscape to the left and centre. It is one of the few mythological pictures by the Venetian artist. Completed in 1514, it was his last major work, it is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D. C. which calls it "one of the greatest Renaissance paintings in the United States". The painting is the first major depiction of the subject of the "Feast of the Gods" in Renaissance art, to remain in currency until the end of Northern Mannerism over a century later, it has several similarities to another, much less sophisticated, treatment of the 1490s by the Florentine artist Bartolomeo di Giovanni, now in the Louvre. The painting is signed by an inscription on the fictive paper attached to the wooden tub at lower right: "joannes bellinus venetus / p MDXIIII", his payment that year is recorded. Based on a narrative by Ovid, it is the earliest of a cycle of paintings, all major works, on mythological subjects produced for Alfonso, I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara, for his camerino d'alabastro in the Castello Estense, Ferrara.
The subjects had been chosen by 1511, by the Renaissance humanist Mario Equicola working for the Duke's sister Isabella d'Este, instructions including some sketches were sent to the artists. Commissions were four large Titians, ten smaller works by Dosso Dossi placed above them; the three surviving Titians painted for the room are Bacchus and Ariadne, The Bacchanal of the Andrians and The Worship of Venus. It had been suggested that Bellini made a preliminary set of alterations before or soon after 1514 to make the painting more compatible with the original Latin of Ovid, having been working from an Italian Ovidio volgarizzato version, that at this point Bellini changed most of the characters to gods rather than people from Thebes, giving them attributes and lower necklines for the women, but this view was based on a misunderstanding of the early x-rays taken in 1956. It is now thought that the figures are as painted by Bellini. Bellini died in 1516, soon after completing the painting, some years Dosso Dossi and Titian modified the landscape on the left to match it to his The Bacchanal of the Andrians in Alfonso's Camerino, adding the rocky hill behind the figures and the brighter foliage on a tree at the right.
A more thorough reworking by Titian in about 1529 added more landscape, overpainting the earlier changes. But all the work on the figures remains Bellini's. A pheasant in a tree on the right, above Priapus, may have been painted by Alfonso himself, an amateur painter; the painting shows the incident of the attempted rape of Lotis. She was a nymph mentioned by the daughter of Neptune or Nereus. During a festival in honor of Liber that she attended, Priapus tried to rape her while she was asleep, but she was awakened by a sudden cry of Silenus's ass and ran off, leaving Priapus in embarrassment as everyone else woke up too and became aware of his intentions; the story is shown at the edges of the composition, in a somewhat undramatic fashion showing a moment shortly before the key incident, with Silenus and his ass at left and Priapus and Lotis at right. The subject had been depicted in the first illustrated edition of Ovid in Italian, published in Venice in 1497. Another depiction of this rare subject in a Venetian print of 1510 has a similar pose for Lotis but places much greater emphasis on the erotic nature of the story, including Priapus's outsize penis, here only a hint under the drapery.
The figures shown are taken to be: a satyr, Silenus with his ass, his ward Bacchus as a boy, Mercury with his caduceus and helmet, a satyr, Jupiter, a nymph serving, Pan, two standing nymphs, Apollo, Lotis. Some of the figures may be portraits of people at the Ferrara court, including Alfonso and his wife Lucrezia Borgia. Another suggestion is that the couple in the center, the male with his hand between the female's thighs, are a bridal pair, as shown by their intimacy and the quince she is holding, a fruit recommended for brides to increase their sexual appetites. If he is still Neptune, this would make her Amphitrite; the work is atypical of Renaissance mythological painting in the down to earth treatment of the main deities, which may be accounted for by the figures beginning as ordinary citizens of Thebes, by Bellini's inexperience in the emerging conventions of mythological art. The work was a considerable departure from his usual subject-matter of religious scenes and portraits for Bellini, over 80 when he began it.
He had been reluctant to paint mythological stories, wriggling out of a commission from Isabella d'Este, Alfonso's sister, in 1501–04. He was then reluctant to compete with his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna, who specialized in classical subjects, but Mantegna had died in 1506. As the first work produced for the camerino, Bellini determined many elements of the style for the cycle, which Titian needed to harmonize with in his canvases; the room as a whole "constituted a large novelty in the European imagination", as the paintings "established in visual form the picture of the ideal, mythical Mediterranean idyll, made up of charming people enjoying themselves in a gorgeous landscape" and "presented figures from class
Horace Trumbauer
Horace Trumbauer was a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, known for designing residential manors for the wealthy. In his career he designed hotels, office buildings, much of the campus of Duke University. Trumbauer's massive palaces flattered the egos of his "robber baron" clients, but were dismissed by his professional peers, his work made him a wealthy man, but his buildings received positive critical recognition. Today, however, he is hailed as one of America's premier architects, with his buildings drawing critical acclaim to this day. Trumbauer was born in Philadelphia, the son of Josiah Blyler Trumbauer, a salesman, Mary Malvina Trumbauer, he completed a 6-year apprenticeship with G. W. and W. D. Hewitt, opened his own architectural office at age 21, he did some work for developers Wendell and Smith, designing homes for middle-class planned communities, including the Overbrook Farms and Wayne Estate developments. Trumbauer's first major commission was Grey Towers Castle, designed for the sugar magnate William Welsh Harrison.
Its exterior was based on Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, although its interiors were French, ranging in style from Renaissance to Louis XV. Harrison introduced him to the streetcar tycoon and real-estate developer Peter A. B. Widener, whose 110-room Georgian-revival palace, Lynnewood Hall, launched Trumbauer's successful career. For the Wideners, the Elkinses, their circle, he designed mansions in Philadelphia, New York, Newport, RI, office buildings and Harvard University's principal library, the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library. Built with a gift from Eleanor Elkins Widener, the library is a memorial to her son, Class of 1907, an enthusiastic young bibliophile who died on the RMS Titanic. On April 25, 1903, he married Sara Thomson Williams and became stepfather to her daughter, Agnes Helena Smith, from her previous marriage to iron dealer C. Comly Smith. Architectural Record published a survey of his work in 1904. In 1906, Trumbauer hired Julian Abele, the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Architecture Department, promoted him to chief designer in 1909.
Trumbauer's buildings are sometimes attributed to Abele, but this is speculation. With the exception of the chapel at Duke University, Abele never claimed credit for any of the firm's buildings designed during Trumbauer's lifetime; the commission for the Philadelphia Museum of Art was shared between Trumbauer's firm and Zantzinger and Medary. Trumbauer architect Howell Lewis Shay is credited with the building's plan and massing, although the perspective drawings appear to be in Abele's hand; when it opened in 1928, the building was criticized as being vastly overscaled and nicknamed "the great Greek garage". But, perched on Fairmount Hill and terminating the axis of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, it is now considered to be the most magnificently situated museum in the United States. In 1923, Trumbauer was hired by the Reading Company to design the Jenkintown Train Station. A fine example of Queen Anne revival architecture, it still stands today as the Jenkintown-Wyncote station and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
In 1933, Trumbauer was commissioned to build an ornate Ancien-Regime French style mansion for Herbert Nathan Straus, the youngest son of Macy's founder Isidor Straus. Built in limestone with intricate carvings on the façade, the mansion is now the largest private residence in Manhattan, it is owned by financier Jeffrey Epstein and the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation. The mansion exemplifies the opulent style requested of industry barons of that time. Despite tremendous success and his apparent ability to impress wealthy clients, Trumbauer suffered from overwhelming shyness and a sense of inferiority about his lack of formal education, he began to drink heavily. He died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1938, is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Edward B. Seymour House John H. Watt house, Pennsylvania. Part of Wendell & Smith's Wayne Estate development. Grey Towers Castle, Glenside, PA Chelten House, Elkins Park, PA Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, PA John C. Bell House, Rittenhouse Square Elstowe Manor, Elkins Park, PA Edward C.
Knight townhouse, 1629 Locust St. Philadelphia, PA Georgian Terrace, Elkins Park, PA Isle Field, Villanova, PA Ardrossan, Radnor, PA Bloomfield, Villanova, PA Whitemarsh Hall, Wyndmoor, PA Ronaele Manor, Elkins Park, PA. Mrs. Dixon was Eleanor Widener. LaSalle College Christian Brothers owned the mansion 1950 -- 74. Woodcrest, 610 King of Prussia Rd. Radnor Township, PA 141 Pelham Rd. W. Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, PA 209 Pelham Rd. W. Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, PA Katherine Craig Wright Muckl Mansion, 11 Coopertown Rd, Haverford, PA. St. James Apartment House, 13th & Walnut Sts. Philadelphia, PA Land Title Building, 100 S. Broad St. Philadelphia, PA Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Philadelphia, SE corner Broad & Walnut Sts. Philadelphia, PA (1911, altered beyond recogni
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal government's official list of districts, buildings and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property; the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one million properties on the National Register, 80,000 are listed individually; the remainder are contributing resources within historic districts. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate and protect historic sites in the United States.
While National Register listings are symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties. Protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places; the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Historic sites outside the country proper, but associated with the United States are listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, multiple property submissions; the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties: district, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties; some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service.
These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks, National Memorials, some National Monuments. On October 15, 1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices; the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Register's creation, as well as any other historic sites in the National Park system. Approval of the act, amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy; the 1966 act required those agencies to work in conjunction with the SHPO and an independent federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, to confront adverse effects of federal activities on historic preservation. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, with director George B.
Hartzog Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law. Ernest Connally was the Office's first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register; the division administered several existing programs, including the Historic Sites Survey and the Historic American Buildings Survey, as well as the new National Register and Historic Preservation Fund. The first official Keeper of the Register was an architectural historian. During the Register's earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small and underfunded. However, funds were still being supplied for the Historic Preservation Fund to provide matching grants-in-aid to listed property owners, first for house museums and institutional buildings, but for commercial structures as well. A few years in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U.
S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two "Assistant Directorates." Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation. From 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs. Jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate, he was described as a skilled administrator, sensitive to the need for the NPS to work with SHPOs, local governments. Although not described in detail in the 1966 act, SHPOs became integral to the process of listing properties on the National Register; the 1980 amendments of the 1966 law further defined the responsibilities of SHPOs concerning the National Register.
Several 1992 amendments of the NHPA added a category to the National Register, known as Traditional Cultural Properties: those properties associated with Native American or Hawaiian groups
