1.
Fort Mifflin
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During the American Revolutionary War, the British Army bombarded and captured the fort as part of their conquest of Philadelphia in autumn 1777. The United States Army began to rebuild the fort in 1794 and continued to garrison and it housed prisoners during the American Civil War. Historic preservationists have restored the fort, which is now a National Historic Landmark, upon foundation of Philadelphia in 1681, people recognized Mud Island near the confluence of the Delaware River and Schuylkill River as strategically important for the defense of the settlement. William Penn, a Quaker with religious objections to military life, however, whenever European colonists established permanent settlements, fortifications in or near those settlements commonly provided protection. Quakers founded the only significant European settlements without fortification, as the Quakers rejected the military, they sought to make peace with the Native Americans in the area to avoid the need for fortifications. While other colonies suffered from conflict and warfare, Philadelphia prospered, by the 1740s, it ranked as the richest British port in the New World. French and Spanish privateers then entered the Delaware River, threatening the city and he raised money to create earthwork defenses and to buy artillery. At the end of the war, commanders disbanded the militia, with renewed colonial warfare in the 1750s, people drew up plans for a fort on Mud Island but did not implement any such plan. Only in the 1770s did the city acquire permanent fortifications, by 1771, Philadelphia ranked as the largest British port and dockyard in North America. Locals then rose in protest against British economic policies and imports, in response to complaints by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Philadelphia Governor John Penn asked General Thomas Gage to send someone capable of designing defenses for the city. He intended a fort on Mud Island to help to regulate traffic entering and exiting the port, Gage assigned Engineering Captain John Montresor to the task. Montresor presented six designs to Penn and the Board of Commissioners, the commissioners reviewed the plans, found all too expensive, and insisted on economy despite protestations of Montresor about budget. Montresor stated that his preferred plan cost about £40,000, which at 6 men each make 240 men required,160 musketry, in all 400 garrison. The colonial General Assembly passed a bill releasing £15,000 for the construction of the fort and the purchase of Mud Island from Joseph Galloway, the board instructed Montresor to begin construction but failed to provide him with the funds that he considered necessary to do so properly. The rooms in the farthest interior of casemate #11 probably date from the construction in 1771. On 4 June 1772, Montresor left the head workman in charge of the construction project, the project floundered onward for about a year, when it stopped for lack of guidance and funding. The crews completed only the east and south walls, built in stone, following the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin headed a committee to provide for the defense of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Committee of Public Safety quickly thereafter restarted construction on the fort, the committee simultaneously also constructed Fort Mercer, New Jersey, on the eastern bank of the Delaware River across from Fort Mifflin
2.
USS Constitution
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USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America. She is the worlds oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat, Constitution was launched in 1797, one of six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 and the third constructed. Joshua Humphreys designed the frigates to be the young Navys capital ships, Constitution was built in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts at Edmund Hartts shipyard. Her first duties with the newly formed U. S. Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi-War with France, the battle with Guerriere earned her the nickname of Old Ironsides and public adoration that has repeatedly saved her from scrapping. She continued to serve as flagship in the Mediterranean and African squadrons, during the American Civil War, she served as a training ship for the United States Naval Academy. She carried American artwork and industrial displays to the Paris Exposition of 1878, Constitution was retired from active service in 1881, and served as a receiving ship until designated a museum ship in 1907. In 1934, she completed a three-year, 90-port tour of the nation, Constitution sailed under her own power for her 200th birthday in 1997, and again in August 2012 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of her victory over Guerriere. The officers and crew are all active-duty U. S. Navy personnel, traditionally, command of the vessel is assigned to a Navy commander. She is usually berthed at Pier 1 of the former Charlestown Navy Yard, in May 2015, Constitution entered Dry Dock 1 to begin a three-year restoration program. In 1785, Barbary pirates began to seize American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean, in 1793 alone, eleven American ships were captured and their crews and stores held for ransom. To combat this problem, proposals were made for warships to protect American shipping, resulting in the Naval Act of 1794. The act provided funds to construct six frigates, but included a clause that, if peace terms were agreed to with Algiers, joshua Humphreys design was unusual for the time, being long on keel and narrow of beam and mounting very heavy guns. The design called for a diagonal scantling scheme intended to restrict hogging while giving the ships extremely heavy planking and this design gave the hull a greater strength than a more lightly built frigate. Humphreys design was based on his realization that the fledgling United States of the period could not match the European states in the size of their navies and this being so, the frigates were designed to overpower any other frigate yet escape from a ship of the line. Primary materials used in her construction consisted of pine and oak, including live oak. Her masts were of white pine from Maine, the keel was ultimately constructed from an alternative white oak tree, sourced from New Jersey. The name Constitution was selected by President George Washington and her keel was laid down on 1 November 1794 at Edmund Hartts shipyard in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Captain Nicholson and naval constructor Colonel George Claghorn. Constitutions hull was built 21 inches thick and her length between perpendiculars was 175 ft, with a 204 ft length overall and a width of 43 ft 6 in, in total,60 acres of trees were needed for her construction
3.
American Legation, Tangier
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The Tangier American Legation is a building in the medina of Tangier, Morocco. The first American public property outside the United States, it commemorates the historic cultural and it is now officially called the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies, and is a cultural center, museum, and a research library, concentrating on Arabic language studies. The legation was listed on the U. S. National Register of Historic Places on January 8,1981, U. S. Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt subsequently designated it a National Historic Landmark on December 17,1982. It was the first such listing or designation in a foreign country, the legation is an elaborate Moorish-style building of stuccoed masonry. This complex structure contains the mud and stone building presented to the United States in 1821 by Sultan Moulay Suliman. It is symbolic of the 1786 Moroccan–American Treaty of Friendship, which is still in force today, the complex expanded over the years as the surrounding houses were bought up. During World War II it served as headquarters for United States intelligence agents, after the move to Rabat as the diplomatic capital in 1956, when the country gained its independence, the Legation was abandoned as a diplomatic building. Over the years the United States government proceeded to use it as offices and Peace Corps offices. In time it became neglected and threatened with demolition, in 1976 a group of American citizens established a public, non-profit organization to save the Old American Legation. Today the Tangier American Legation Museum Society rents the structure, which is owned by the United States government. TALIMs historic building now includes a wing devoted to the expatriate writer and composer Paul Bowles. The museum also has a library and conference room. TALIMs community outreach programs include Arabic literacy courses for women living in the Tangier medina, john Davison is the current museum director
4.
Navajo Nation
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This is the largest land area retained by a U. S. tribe, with a total population of 173,667. The original territory has expanded several times since the 1800s. In 2016 under the Tribal Nations Buy-Back Program, some 149,524 acres of land were returned by the Department of Interior to the Navajo Nation for tribal communal use, the program is intended to help restore the land bases of reservations. The executive system manages a large law enforcement and social services apparatus, health services, Diné College, the population continues to disproportionately struggle with health problems, unemployment, and the effects of past uranium mining accidents. In English, the name for the area was Navajo Indian Reservation. On April 15,1969, the changed its official name to the Navajo Nation. This was a period of Native American activism and assertion of sovereignty, in 1994, the Tribal Council rejected a proposal to change the official designation from Navajo to Diné. It was remarked that the name Diné represented the time of suffering before the Long Walk, in Navajo, the geographic entity with its legally defined borders is known as Naabeehó Bináhásdzo. This contrasts with Diné Bikéyah and Naabeehó Bikéyah for the idea of Navajoland. Neither of these terms should be confused with Dinétah, the used for the traditional homeland of the Navajo. It is situated in the area among the four sacred Navajo mountains of Dookʼoʼoosłííd, Dibé Ntsaa, Sisnaajiní, the Navajo peoples tradition of governance is rooted in their clans and oral history. The clan system of the Diné is integral to their society, singer argues in 2007s Government Reform Project. In the mid-19th century, the Navajo were forced from their lands by the US Army following defeat, after they were allowed to return, the Navajo Indian Reservation was established according to the Treaty of 1868 with the United States. Though the treaty had provided for one hundred miles in the New Mexico Territory. This initial piece of land is represented in the design of the Navajo Nations flag by a dark-brown rectangle, as no physical boundaries or signposts were set in place, many Navajo ignored these formal boundaries and returned to where they had been living prior to captivity. A significant population of Navajo still resided along the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers and they had never lived in the Hwéeldi near. The first expansion of the territory occurred on October 28,1878, further additions followed throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. The eastern border was shaped primarily as a result of allotments of land to individual households under the Dawes Act of 1887, the government determined that land left over after all members had received allotments was to be considered surplus and available for sale to non-Native Americans
5.
Mohonk Mountain House
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The Mohonk Mountain House, also known as Lake Mohonk Mountain House, is a historic American resort hotel located on the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, New York. Its prominent location in the town of New Paltz, New York is just beyond the border of the Catskill Mountains. Mohonk Mountain House is a member of Historic Hotels of America, because of the Smileys love of the outdoor life, the area around the hotel was treated as an integral part of the attractions of the resort. Much of this area was planned as an experiment in conservation of the environment, and as an educational tool for the study of botany, geology. The historic resort is located on the shore of Lake Mohonk, the main structure, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986, was built by Quaker twin brothers Albert and Alfred Smiley between 1869 and 1910. It has 259 guest rooms, including 28 tower rooms, a pool and spa. The picturesque setting of the resort on the lake was featured in a print by Currier & Ives, the property consists of 1,325 acres, and much of it is landscaped with meadows and gardens. It adjoins the Mohonk Preserve, which is crisscrossed by 85 miles of hiking trails, the Smileys conveyed the majority of their property to the preserve, and have received recognition for the stewardship of their land and their early environmental awareness. The property has been owned and operated by descendants of the Smiley brothers since 1869, the Smiley brothers envisioned a peaceful retreat where people could enjoy the beauty of nature in a truly spectacular setting. From its earliest days, the resort has maintained values of stewardship, reflection, the house was given a National Historic Landmark designation in 1986, and a United Nations Environment Programme Award in 1994 in honor of 125 years of stewardship. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Through its buildings and roads, its land, Mohonk has since managed to maintain its 19th century character into the 21st century. In the 21st century, the resort also retains an emphasis on eco-friendly, environmentally green practices, hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Bill Clinton. Guests have also included former First Lady Julia Grant, author Thomas Mann, abdul-Bahá, the eldest son of Baháí Faith founder Baháulláh, stayed there in 1912 during the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration as part of his journeys to the West. From 1883 to 1916, annual conferences took place at Mohonk Mountain House, sponsored by Albert Smiley, the 22,000 records from the 34 conference reports are now at the library of Haverford College for researchers and students of American history. The hotel also hosted the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration between 1895 and 1916, which was instrumental in creating the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and those conference papers were donated by the Smiley Family to Swarthmore College for future research. The Mountain House was featured on The Today Show on September 28,2006 for an adventure for Meredith Vieira. It was mentioned as a key point in the Stephen King novel The Regulators, the resort was the setting of the 1994 film, The Road to Wellville, starring Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Broderick. The historic resort has been featured numerous times in national newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal
6.
Shawangunk Ridge
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This ridge constitutes the western border of the Great Appalachian Valley. The ridgetop, which widens considerably at its end, has many public. Its only settlement of consequence is unincorporated Cragsmoor, in the past, the ridge was chiefly noted for mining and logging and a boom-era of huckleberry picking. Fires were regularly set to burn away the undergrowth and stimulate new growth of huckleberry bushes, today the ridge has become known for its outdoor recreation, most notably as one of the major rock climbing areas of North America. Also known for its biodiversity and scenic character, the ridge has been designated by The Nature Conservancy as a significant area for its conservation programs. The English name, Shawangunk, derives from the Dutch Scha-wan-gunk, Lenape linguist Raymond Whritenour reports that schawan is an inanimate intransitive verb meaning it is smoky air or there is smoky air. Its noun-like participle is schawank, meaning that which is smoky air, adding the locative suffix gives us schawangunk in the smoky air. Whritenour has suggested that the name derives from the burning of a Munsee fort by the Dutch at the base of the ridge in 1663. Use of the spread quickly, and it was recorded in numerous land deeds. Fried also notes that the names swift spread in the record suggests it was in use as a proper name before the Bruyn purchase. Shawangunk appears nowhere in reference to the fort in the extensive, Shawangunk became associated with the ridge during the 18th century. European colonists began to truncate Shawangunk into Shongum, Shongum was mistakenly identified as the Munsee pronunciation by the Reverend Charles Scott writing on Shawangunks etymology for the Ulster County Historical Society in 1861. The error has been reinforced in ethnographic sources and ridge literature, and by historians, librarians, both Shawangunk and Shongum are popular usages among locals native to the region. The Gunks is also a widely used term for the ridge and has been in use at least since the mid-19th century. In a letter dated August and postmarked August 8,1838, Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole corresponding with painter A. B. Durand writes, I hope you will find every thing there your heart can wish. The Shawangunks, particularly around Lake Mohonk, were the subject for several Hudson River School painters and these mountains mark the western and northern edge of the Great Appalachian Valley. The ridge is widest near the end and narrow in the middle. The ridge rises above a broad, high plain which stretches to the Hudson River to the east and these adjacent valleys are underlain by relatively weak sedimentary rock
7.
Permanent Court of Arbitration
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The Permanent Court of Arbitration is an intergovernmental organization located at The Hague in the Netherlands. The cases span a range of issues involving territorial and maritime boundaries, sovereignty, human rights, international investment. The PCA is constituted through two separate multilateral conventions with a membership of 121 states. The organization is not a United Nations agency, the Peace Palace was built from 1907 until 1913 for PCA in The Hague. In addition the houses the Hague Academy of International Law, Peace Palace Library. The Administrative Council is a composed of all diplomatic representatives of Member States accredited to the Netherlands. It is presided by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and it is responsible for direction and control of the International Bureau, directs the organisations budget and reports on its activities. The International Bureau is the Secretariat of the PCA and is headed by the Secretary-General and it provides linguistic, research, administrative support to PCA arbitration tribunals. The judges or arbitrators that hear cases are called Members of the Court, Members of each member state together form a national group. Members may be selected in arbitration cases in which the PCA provides support, national Groups may propose candidates for International Court of Justice members. The PCA sometimes gets confused with the International Court of Justice, the PCA is however not part of the UN system, although it does have observer status in the UN General Assembly since 1993. In the Articles 30-57 of the Hague Convention of 1899 the rules of procedure are outlined. These rules are the version of pre-existing treaties among the states. They were amended in 1907. They came in again in 1920 to serve the Permanent Court of international Justice. The first act of parties is the submission of the so called compromisis, stating the issue, basically the lawsuit is divided in two phases, written pleadings and oral discussion. During the first part of the procedure the agents and the barristers of parties submit, in the second phase there is a verbal debate in front of the Court that retires once the debate is over to deliberate and conclude the case by a simple majority of votes. The award binding on the parties and no appeal is allowed, however, a minor restriction for revision is made in case fresh evidence of a decisive nature has come up between the debate and the award. Naturally, any decision as to its relevance and the subsequent admission of the request is up to the Court and it is this Article 55, incidentally, which led to heated argument within the body of the Third Commission in 1899
8.
The Hague
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The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. With a population of 520,704 inhabitants and more than one million including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands. The Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 12th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which constitutionally is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, the Hague is also home to the world headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and numerous other major Dutch companies. The Hague originated around 1230, when Count Floris IV of Holland purchased land alongside a pond, in 1248, his son and successor William II, King of the Romans, decided to extend the residence to a palace, which would later be called the Binnenhof. He died in 1256 before this palace was completed but parts of it were finished by his son Floris V, of which the Ridderzaal and it is still used for political events, such as the annual speech from the throne by the Dutch monarch. From the 13th century onwards, the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre, the village that originated around the Binnenhof was first mentioned as Haga in a charter dating from 1242. In the 15th century, the smarter des Graven hage came into use, literally The Counts Wood, with connotations like The Counts Hedge, s-Gravenhage was officially used for the city from the 17th century onwards. Today, this name is used in some official documents like birth. The city itself uses Den Haag in all its communication and their seat was located in The Hague. At the beginning of the Eighty Years War, the absence of city walls proved disastrous, in 1575, the States of Holland even considered demolishing the city but this proposal was abandoned, after mediation by William of Orange. From 1588, The Hague also became the seat of the government of the Dutch Republic, in order for the administration to maintain control over city matters, The Hague never received official city status, although it did have many of the privileges normally granted only to cities. In modern administrative law, city rights have no place anymore, only in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was a puppet state of the First French Empire, was the settlement granted city rights by Louis Bonaparte. After the Napoleonic Wars, modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands were combined in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a buffer against France, as a compromise, Brussels and Amsterdam alternated as capital every two years, with the government remaining in The Hague. After the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam remained the capital of the Netherlands, when the government started to play a more prominent role in Dutch society after 1850, The Hague quickly expanded. The growing city annexed the rural municipality of Loosduinen partly in 1903, the city sustained heavy damage during World War II
9.
Commemorative plaque
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A monumental plaque or tablet commemorating a deceased person or persons, can be a simple form of church monument. A plaquette is a plaque, but in English, unlike many European languages. The Benin Empire, which flourished in present-day Nigeria between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, had a rich sculptural tradition. One of the kingdom’s chief sites of production was the elaborate ceremonial court of the Oba at the palace in Benin. Among the wide range of artistic forms produced at the court were rectangular brass or bronze plaques, surviving in great numbers, they were manufactured from sheet brass or latten, very occasionally coloured with enamels, and tend to depict highly conventional figures with brief inscriptions. In England, the London blue plaques scheme, which is administered by English Heritage, has been running for over 140 years and is thought to be the oldest of its kind in the world, Plaques are attached to buildings to commemorate their association with important occupants or events. A range of other commemorative plaque schemes, which are run by local councils and charitable bodies. These tend to use their own criteria for determining the eligibility to put up a plaque, a list of schemes currently operating in England is available on the English Heritage website. After the First World War, the families of British and British Empire service men and women killed during the conflict were presented with bronze Memorial Plaques, the plaques, of about 125 millimetres in diameter, were designed by the eminent sculptor and medallist, Edward Carter Preston. In the United States, various governments have commemorative plaque schemes usually using the name historical markers. The National Trust for Historic Preservation or the U. S. Government, through the National Register of Historic Places, state programmes, such as the California Register of Historical Resources allows designated sites to place their own markers. As the price of metal has increased plaques have been the target of metal thieves wishing to resell the metal for cash. Plaques or, more often, plaquettes, are given as awards instead of trophies or ribbons. Such plaques usually bear text describing the reason for the award and, often, blue plaque Hartog Plate Parting stone Stolperstein
10.
Chicago Board of Trade Building
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The Chicago Board of Trade Building is a skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It stands at 141 W. Jackson Boulevard at the foot of the LaSalle Street canyon, built in 1930 and first designated a Chicago Landmark on May 4,1977, the building was listed as a National Historic Landmark on June 2,1978. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 16,1978, in 2012, the CME Group sold the CBOT Building to a consortium of real estate investors, including GlenStar Properties LLC and USAA Real Estate Company. The current structure is known for its art deco architecture, sculptures and large-scale stone carving, an aluminum, three-story art deco statue of Ceres, goddess of agriculture, caps the building. The building is a sightseeing attraction and location for shooting movies. On April 3,1848, the Board of Trade opened for business at 101 South Water Street, when 122 members were added in 1856, it was moved to the corner of South Water and LaSalle Streets. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed this building, in 1882 construction began of the CBOTs new home, which opened at the current location on May 1,1885. The building was designed by William W. Boyington, best known today for his work on the Chicago Water Tower and it faced Jackson Street with 180 ft feet of frontage, and was built from structural steel and granite taken from the Fox Island quarry near Vinalhaven, Maine. With a rear of enameled brick, it was 10 stories tall and featured a tower 320 ft tall containing a clock and 4,500 pounds bell. The interiors were finished in mahogany and frescoed and it was also the first building in the city to exceed 300 ft in height and at the time was the tallest building in Chicago. The building attracted tourists, visitors, and protesters, the building, on which two million dollars had been lavished in the midst of an economic depression, was denounced by the anarchists as. The crowning symbol of all that was hateful in the property system. The procession were cheered by thousands of spectators, viewing galleries were opened to the public for the first time in honor of the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition. In 1895, the tower was removed and the tallest building in Chicago record was then held by the 302 ft tall Masonic Temple Building. Built on caissons surrounded by muck, the house was rendered structurally unsound in the 1920s when construction began across the street on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The 1885 building was demolished in 1929, and the exchange temporarily moved to Van Buren and Clark while a new building was constructed at the LaSalle. The 1885 allegorical architectural sculptures of 35 ft Industry and Agriculture, in 1925, the Chicago Board of Trade commissioned Holabird & Root to design the current building. The general contractors Hegeman & Harris built it for $11.3 million and it serves as the southern border for the skyscrapers hugging LaSalle Street and is taller than surrounding structures for several blocks
