1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
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Public library
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A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is generally funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries, Public libraries exist in many countries across the world and are often considered an essential part of having an educated and literate population. Public access to books is not new, romans made scrolls in dry rooms available to patrons of the baths, and tried with some success to establish libraries within the empire. In the middle of the 19th century, the push for public libraries, paid for by taxes. Public libraries were started with a donation, or were bequeathed to parishes, churches. These social and institutional libraries formed the base of many academic and public collections of today. The establishment of circulating libraries in the 18th century, by booksellers and publishers provided a means of gaining profit, the circulating libraries not only provided a place to sell books, but also a place to lend books for a price. These circulating libraries provided a variety of including the increasingly popular novels. Circulating libraries were not exclusively lending institutions and often provided a place for other forms of commercial activity and this was necessary because the circulating libraries did not generate enough funds through subscription fees collected from its borrowers. As a commerce venture, it was important to consider the factors such as other goods or services available to the subscribers. The Malatestiana Library, also known as the Malatesta Novello Library, is a public library dating from 1452 in Cesena, Emilia-Romagna and it was the first European civic library, i. e. belonging to the Commune and open to everybody. It was commissioned by the Lord of Cesena, Malatesta Novello, the works were directed by Matteo Nuti of Fano and lasted from 1447 to 1452. In the early years of the 17th century, many famous collegiate, norwich City library was established in 1608 and Chethams Library in Manchester, which claims to be the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, opened in 1653. Claude Sallier, the French philologist and churchman, operated an early form of library in the town of Saulieu from 1737 to 1750. He wished to make culture and learning accessible to all people, the Załuski Library was built in Warsaw 1747–1795 by Józef Andrzej Załuski and his brother, Andrzej Stanisław Załuski, both Roman Catholic bishops. The library was open to the public and indeed was the first Polish public library, at the start of the 18th century, libraries were becoming increasingly public and were more frequently lending libraries. The 18th century saw the switch from closed parochial libraries to lending libraries, before this time, public libraries were parochial in nature and libraries frequently chained their books to desks
3.
St. Louis
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St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area
4.
St. Louis County Library
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St. Louis County Library serves residents of St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is the busiest public library in Missouri, circulating more than 12 million items in 2011 and it consists of 20 branches, including the Headquarters branch, which is located at 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd in Ladue. SLCL is unrelated to the St. Louis Public Library, which serves the city of St. Louis, SLCL services the St. Louis county. The library was founded in 1947 and it is supported by the St. Louis County Library District, which includes most of St. Louis County. SLCL has reciprocal borrowing agreements with most of the libraries in St. Louis County, as well as with the St. Louis Public Library. St. Louis County Library District is governed by a five-member Board of Trustees, Board members are appointed by the County Executive. Founded in 1998, History & Genealogy at St. Louis County library features a collection of over 95,000 print volumes,850 periodical titles. At its core are the collections of the St. Louis County Library, other collections have followed including the William C. E. and Bessie Becker Collection, the Lewis Bunker Rohrbach Collection, the Joy A. Reisinger Collection, the Julius K. Hunter and Friends African American Collection, the Mary Berthold Reference Collection, History & Genealogys equipment includes microfilm reader-printers, over-head book scanner, photocopiers, wi-fi, and free access to genealogical and historical research databases. History & Genealogy publishes the monthly newsletter PastPorts in support of historical and genealogical research, History & Genealogy is located at the Headquarters Branch and is open seven days per week. Groups and tours are welcomed by appointment, St. Louis County Library website St. Louis County Library catalog Map of branches
5.
Andrew Carnegie
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He built a leadership role as a philanthropist for the United States and the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away to charities, foundations and his 1889 article proclaiming The Gospel of Wealth called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and it stimulated a wave of philanthropy. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and emigrated in 1848 to the United States with his parents, Carnegie started work as a telegrapher and by the 1860s had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges and oil derricks. He accumulated further wealth as a bond salesman raising money for American enterprise in Europe and he built Pittsburghs Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J. P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million. It became the U. S. Steel Corporation, after selling Carnegie Steel, he surpassed John D. Rockefeller as the richest American for the next couple of years. Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education. Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in a typical weavers cottage with only one main room, the main room served as a living room, dining room and bedroom. He was named after his legal grandfather, in 1836, the family moved to a larger house in Edgar Street, following the demand for more heavy damask from which his father, William Carnegie, benefited. He was educated at the Free School in Dunfermline, which had been a gift to the town by the philanthropist Adam Rolland of Gask, Lauders son, also named George Lauder, grew up with Andrew and would become his business partner. When Carnegie was thirteen, his father had fallen on hard times as a handloom weaver. His mother helped support the family by assisting her brother who was a cobbler and she eventually became the primary breadwinner by the 1840s. Struggling to make ends meet, the Carnegies then decided to move with his family to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Andrews family had to borrow money from the Lauders in order to migrate. Allegheny was an industrial area that produced many products including wool. The Made in Allegheny label used on these and other diversified products was becoming more and more popular. His first job at age 13 in 1848 was as a bobbin boy and his starting wage was $1.20 per week. Andrews father, William Carnegie, started off working in a cotton mill and his mother, Margaret Morrison Carnegie, earned money by binding shoes. In 1849, Carnegie became a messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $2.50 per week. He was a hard worker and would memorize all of the locations of Pittsburghs businesses
6.
Carnegie library
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A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems. At first, Carnegie libraries were almost exclusively in places where he had a connection, namely his home-town in Scotland. Beginning in 1899, Carnegie substantially increased funding to libraries outside of these areas, in later years few towns that requested a grant and agreed to his terms were refused. By the time the last grant was made in 1919, there were 3,500 libraries in the United States, the first of Carnegies public libraries, Dunfermline Carnegie Library was in his birthplace, Dunfermline, Scotland. It was first commissioned or granted by Carnegie in 1880 to James Campbell Walker, the locally quarried sandstone building displays a stylized sun with the carved motto Let there be light at the front entrance. The first library in the United States to be commissioned by Carnegie was in 1886 in his hometown of Allegheny. In 1890, it became the second of his libraries to open in the USA, the building also contained the first Carnegie Music Hall in the World. It was the second Carnegie Library in the United States to be commissioned,1887, an 1893 addition doubled the size of the building and included the third Carnegie Music Hall in the United States. Initially Carnegie limited his support to a few towns in which he had an interest and these would be in Scotland and the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. In America,6 out of the first 7,7 of the first 10, until 1898, only one library was commissioned in America outside of Southwestern Pennsylvania—a library in Fairfield, Iowa, commissioned in 1892. Beginning in 1899, his foundation funded an increase in the number of libraries. They led the establishment of 75–80 percent of the libraries in communities across the country, under segregation black people were generally denied access to public libraries in the Southern United States. Rather than insisting on his libraries being racially integrated, Carnegie funded separate libraries for African Americans, for example, in Houston he funded a separate Colored Carnegie Library. The Carnegie Library in Savannah, Georgia, opened in 1914 to serve black residents, the privately organized Colored Library Association of Savannah had raised money and collected books to establish a small Library for Colored Citizens. Having demonstrated their willingness to support a library, the group petitioned for. Future U. S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his memoirs that he used it as a boy. Most of the buildings were unique, constructed in a number of styles, including Beaux-Arts, Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival
7.
St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall
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St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall was an indoor exposition hall, Music Hall and arena in St. Louis, Missouri from 1883 to 1907. In addition to the 1904 Democratic convention, it was used as a venue for other conventions. The 502 by 332 ft exposition hall was initially at a cost of US$750,000. It was designed by Jerome Bibb Legg and completed in 1884, leggs most prominent existing building is Academic Hall at Southeast Missouri State University. Originally built to house the St. Louis Exposition, a fair, it covered 6 acres at Olive. The Music Hall, which was a home for the St. Louis Symphony, had a stage which could accommodate 1,500 people, in the winter of 1896 the Republican National Convention planned to be in a rebuilt permanent building in the center. However, it was determined that it would not be ready in time for the convention so a temporary wooden convention was erected on the south of City Hall. The temporary structure was erected within sixty days at cost of $60,000 including decorations, following the 1896 Convention, the temporary structure as well as the Exposition building were torn down and a new Coliseum was built on the site of the Exposition Building. The new Coliseum had an arena of 112 by 222 ft with an 84 ft ceiling and it had a single span trussed roof, with no columns or obstructions. The seating capacity was 7,000 but could be expanded to 12,000 and it was rated at 10,500 for its 1904 convention. The whole structure including the new Coliseum and Music Hall were torn down in 1907 when the St. Louis Central Library was built at its location and the new St. Louis Coliseum was constructed
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Cass Gilbert
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Not to be confused with American architect C. P. H. Gilbert Cass Gilbert was a prominent American architect and his public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect the optimistic American sense that the nation was heir to Greek democracy, Roman law and Renaissance humanism. Gilberts achievements were recognized in his lifetime, he served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908-09, Gilbert was a conservative who believed architecture should reflect historic traditions and the established social order. C. Gilbert was born in Zanesville, Ohio, the middle of three sons, and was named after the statesman Lewis Cass, to whom he was distantly related, Gilberts father was a surveyor for the United States Coast Survey. At the age of nine, Gilberts family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota and he attended preparatory school but dropped out of Macalester College. He began his career at age 17 by joining the Abraham M. Radcliffe office in St. Paul. In 1878, Gilbert enrolled in the program at MIT. Gilbert later worked for a time with the firm of McKim, Mead. He was commissioned to design a number of stations, including those in Anoka, Willmar. He won a series of house and office-building commissions in Minnesota, as a Minnesota architect he was best known for his design of the Minnesota State Capitol dome and the downtown St. Paul Endicott Building. His goal was to move to New York City and gain a national reputation, the completion of the Minnesota capitol gave Gilbert his national reputation and in 1898 he permanently moved his base to New York. His break-through commission was the design of the Alexander Hamilton U. S, custom House in New York City. Commission of Fine Arts from 1910 to 1916, in 1906 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1908. Gilbert served as President of the Academy from 1926 to 1933, modernists embraced his work, John Marin painted it several times, even Frank Lloyd Wright praised the lines of the building, though he decried the ornamentation. C. In particular, his Union Station in New Haven lacks the common of the Beaux-Arts period. Gilberts drawings and correspondence are preserved at the New-York Historical Society, the Minnesota Historical Society, the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota. Cretin Hall, Loras Hall, the Service Center, a building, the refectory building, the administration building in 1894. Only Cretin, Loras, the Service Center, and Grace still stand, Minnesota State Capitol, Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1895–1905. Designed in High Renaissance style, the building is not merely a replica of the United States Capitol and its brick dome is held in hoops of steel
9.
Michelangelo
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered to be the greatest living artist during his lifetime, he has since described as one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of Michelangelos works of painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence and he sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library, at the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peters Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification. Michelangelo was unique as the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive, in his lifetime he was often called Il Divino. One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, the attempts by subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelos impassioned and highly personal style resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, at the time of Michelangelos birth, his father was the Judicial administrator of the small town of Caprese and local administrator of Chiusi. Michelangelos mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, the Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa, this claim remains unproven, but Michelangelo himself believed it. Several months after Michelangelos birth, the returned to Florence. There Michelangelo gained his love for marble, as Giorgio Vasari quotes him, If there is good in me. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, as a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino. The young artist, however, showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches, the city of Florence was at that time the greatest centre of the arts and learning in Italy. Art was sponsored by the Signoria, by the merchant guilds and by patrons such as the Medici. The Renaissance, a renewal of Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as The Gates of Paradise. The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence – Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco. The interiors of the churches were covered with frescos, begun by Giotto. During Michelangelos childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican, among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing, and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence at that period
10.
Laurentian Library
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The Laurentian Library is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. It contains the manuscripts and books belonging to the library of the Medici family. The library is renowned for its architecture, designed by Michelangelo, a Codex Laurentianus identifies any of the book-bound manuscripts in the library. The Laurentian Library was commissioned in 1523 and construction began in 1525, however and it was then continued by Tribolo, Basari, and Ammannati based on plans and verbal instructions from Michelangelo. In this way, the library integrates parts executed by Michelangelo with others built much later in an interpretation of his instructions, the Laurentian Library is one of Michelangelos most important architectural achievements. Even Michelangelos contemporaries realized that the innovations and use of space in the Laurentian Library were revolutionary, the admirable distribution of the windows, the construction of the ceiling, and the fine entrance of the Vestibule can never be sufficiently extolled. The two-story Quattrocento cloister remained unchanged by the addition of the library, because of this, certain features of Michelangelo’s plan, such as length and width, were already determined. Therefore, new walls were built on pre-existing walls and cloisters, because the walls were built on pre-existing walls, recessing the columns into the walls was a structural necessity. This led to a style and pattern that Michelangelo took advantage of. The vestibule, also known as the ricetto, is 19.50 m long,10.50 m wide and it was built above existing monastic quarters on the east range of the cloister, with an entrance from the upper level of the cloisters. Originally, Michelangelo planned for a skylight, but Clement VII believed that it would cause the roof to leak, blank tapering windows––framed in pietra serena, surmounted by either triangular or segmental pediments, and separated by paired columns set into the wall––circumscribe the interior of the vestibule. The plan of the stairs changed dramatically in the design phase, originally in the first design in 1524, two flights of stairs were placed against the side walls and formed a bridge in front of the reading room door. A year later the stairway was moved to the middle of the vestibule, Tribolo attempted to carry out this plan in 1550 but nothing was built. Ammannati took on the challenge of interpreting Michelangelo’s ideas to the best of his abilities using a clay model, scanty material. The staircase leads up to the room and takes up half of the floor of the vestibule. The treads of the flights are convex and vary in width. The three lowest steps of the flight are wider and higher than the others, almost like concentric oval slabs. As the stairway descends, it divides into three flights, the reading room is 46.20 m. long,10.50 m. wide, and 8.4 m. high
11.
Frederick M. Crunden
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Frederick Morgan Crunden was the head librarian of the St. Louis Public Library in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1877 to 1909 and the President of the American Library Association in 1889-1890. Crunden was born in Gravesend, England to Benjamin and Mary Crunden, the family immigrated to the United States and settled in St. Louis, Missouri when Crunden was still a child. He attended Washington University, St. Louis, graduating in 1868 with a bachelor of arts, Crunden taught in St. Louis public schools and at Washington University where he received a masters degree in 1872. In January 1877 he became secretary and librarian of the St. Louis public library which was, at the time, Crunden focused on the relationship of schools and libraries, developing them in St. Louis so that they were modeled for others nationwide. He advocated and promoted a strong partnership between the National Education Association and the American Library Association, Crunden led an expansion of the St. Louis public schools library and oversaw its conversion into a free public library. He served as the first president of the Missouri state library association, the new novel problem and its solution The Free Public Library, Its Uses and Value
12.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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