1.
Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)
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Georgetown is a historic neighborhood, commercial, and entertainment district located in northwest Washington, D. C. situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751 in the Province of Maryland, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district, Georgetown remained a separate municipality until 1871, when the United States Congress created a new consolidated government for the whole District of Columbia. A separate act passed in 1895 specifically repealed Georgetowns remaining local ordinances, Georgetown is home to the main campus of Georgetown University and numerous other landmarks, such as the Volta Bureau and the Old Stone House, the oldest unchanged building in Washington. The embassies of Cameroon, France, Kosovo, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Mongolia, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine, situated on the fall line, Georgetown was the farthest point upstream that oceangoing boats could navigate the Potomac River. In 1632, English fur trader Henry Fleet documented a Native American village of the Nacotchtank people called Tohoga on the site of present-day Georgetown, the area was then part of the Province of Maryland, an English colony. George Gordon constructed a tobacco inspection house along the Potomac in approximately 1745, the site was already a tobacco trading post when the inspection house was built. Warehouses, wharves, and other buildings were constructed around the inspection house. It did not take long before Georgetown grew into a port, facilitating trade. In 1751, the legislature of the Province of Maryland authorized the purchase of 60 acres of land from Gordon, a survey of the town was completed in February 1752. Since Georgetown was founded during the reign of George II of Great Britain, another theory is that the town was named after its founders, George Gordon and George Beall. The Maryland Legislature formally issued a charter and incorporated the town in 1789, robert Peter, an early area merchant in the tobacco trade, became Georgetowns first mayor in 1790. Col. John Beatty established the first church in Georgetown, a Lutheran church on High Street, Stephen Bloomer Balch established a Presbyterian Church in 1784. In 1795, the Trinity Catholic Church was built, along with a parish school-house, construction of St. Johns Episcopal Church began in 1797, but paused for financial reasons until 1803, and the church was finally consecrated in 1809. Banks in Georgetown included the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, which was established in 1814, other banks included the Bank of Washington, Patriotic Bank, Bank of the Metropolis, and the Union and Central Banks of Georgetown. Newspapers in Georgetown included the Republican Weekly Ledger, which was the first paper, the Sentinel was first published in 1796 by Green, English & Co. Charles C. Fulton began publishing the Potomac Advocate, which was started by Thomas Turner. Other newspapers in Georgetown included the Georgetown Courier and the Federal Republican, magruder, the first postmaster, was appointed on February 16,1790, and in 1795, a custom house was established on Water Street. General James M. Lingan served as the first collector of the port, in the 1790s, City Tavern, the Union Tavern, and the Columbian Inn opened and were popular throughout the 19th century. Of these taverns, only the City Tavern remains today, as a social club located near the corner of Wisconsin Avenue
2.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
3.
Georgetown University
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Georgetown University is a private research university in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D. C. the capital of the United States. Georgetowns main campus is located on a hill above the Potomac River, the campus is identifiable by its flagship Healy Hall, which is a National Historic Landmark. Georgetown offers degree programs in disciplines, enrolling an average of 7,500 undergraduate and 10,000 post-graduate students from more than 130 countries. The university is known for preparing leaders for careers in government. As of 2015, Georgetown produced more diplomats for the U. S, Foreign Service than any other school in the country, and has ranked second in the U. S. by the average number of graduates serving in the U. S. Congress. Georgetown is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit-affiliated institution of education in the United States. The Jesuits have participated in the academic life, both as scholars and as administrators, since 1805, however, the university has always been governed independently of the church. At present, the majority of Georgetown students are not Catholic, Georgetown is home to the countrys largest student-run business, as well as the largest student-run financial institution. Jesuit settlers from England founded the Province of Maryland in 1634, during most of the remainder of Marylands colonial period, Jesuits conducted Catholic schools clandestinely. It was not until after the end of the American Revolution that plans to establish a permanent Catholic institution for education in the United States were realized, Carroll began meetings of local clergy in 1783 near Annapolis, Maryland, where they orchestrated the development of a new university. On January 23,1789, Carroll finalized the purchase of the property in Georgetown on which Dahlgren Quadrangle was later built, future Congressman William Gaston was enrolled as the schools first student on November 22,1791, and instruction began on January 2,1792. During its early years, Georgetown College suffered from financial strain. The Maryland Society of Jesus began its restoration in 1805, and Jesuit affiliation, in the form of teachers and administrators, the school relied on private sources of funding and the limited profits from local lands which had been donated to the Jesuits. To raise money for Georgetown and other schools in 1838, Maryland Jesuits conducted a sale of some 272 slaves to two Deep South plantations from their six in Maryland, ending their slaveholding. In 1844, the received a corporate charter, under the name The President and Directors of Georgetown College. In response to the demand for an option for Roman Catholic students. The U. S. Civil War greatly affected Georgetown as 1,141 students and alumni enlisted in one army or the other, by the time of President Abraham Lincolns May 1861 visit to campus,1,400 troops were living in temporary quarters there. Due to the number of lives lost in the war, enrollment levels remained low until well after the war, only seven students graduated in 1869, down from over 300 in the previous decade
4.
Philanthropy
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Philanthropy means etymologically, the love of humanity, in the sense of caring, nourishing, developing, and enhancing what it means to be human. In this meaning, it both the benefactor in their identifying and exercising their values, and the beneficiary in their receipt. A person who practices philanthropy is called a philanthropist, Philanthropy has distinguishing features from charity, not all charity is philanthropy, or vice versa, though there is a recognized degree of overlap in practice. The literal, classical definitions and understandings of the term philanthropy derive from its origins in the Greek φιλανθρωπία, the most conventional modern definition is private initiatives, for public good, focusing on quality of life. This combines the social scientific aspect developed in the century with the humanistic tradition. These distinctions have been analyzed by Olivier Zunz, and others, instances of philanthropy commonly overlap with instances of charity, though not all charity is philanthropy, or vice versa. The difference commonly cited is that charity relieves the pains of social problems, the first use of the noun form philanthrôpía came shortly thereafter, in the early Platonic dialogue Euthyphro. Socrates is reported to have said that his out of his thoughts freely to his listeners was his philanthrôpía. In the second century CE, Plutarch used the concept of philanthrôpía to describe superior human beings and this Classically synonymous troika, of philanthropy, the humanities, and liberal education, declined with the replacement of the classical world by Christianity. During the Middle Ages, philanthrôpía was superseded by Caritas charity, selfless love, Philanthropy was modernized by Sir Francis Bacon in the 1600s, who is largely credited with preventing the word from being owned by horticulture. Bacon considered philanthrôpía to be synonymous with goodness, which correlated with the Aristotelian conception of virtue, then in the 1700s, an influential lexical figurehead by the name of Samuel Johnson simply defined philanthropy as love of mankind, good nature. This definition still survives today and is cited more gender-neutrally as the love of humanity. However, it was Noah Webster who would more accurately reflect the usage in American English. The precise meaning of philanthropy is still a matter of some contention, nevertheless, there are some working definitions to which the community associated with the field of philanthropic studies most commonly subscribes. The Greeks adopted the love of humanity as an ideal, whose goal was excellence —the fullest self-development, of a body, mind, and spirit. The Platonic Academys philosophical dictionary defined Philanthropy as a state of well-educated habits stemming from love of humanity, just as Prometheus human-empowering gifts rebelled against the tyranny of Zeus, philanthropic was also associated with freedom and democracy. Both Socrates and the laws of Athens were described as philanthropic and democratic, gradually there emerged a non-religious agricultural infrastructure based on peasant farming organized into manors, which were, in turn, organized for law and order by feudalism. Francis Bacon in 1592 wrote in a letter that his vast contemplative ends expressed his philanthropic, Henry Cockeram, in his English dictionary, cited philanthropy as a synonym for humanity—thus reaffirming the Classical formulation
5.
Art collector
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A private collection is a privately owned collection of works, usually a collection of art. This source will usually be an art collector, although it could be a school, church organization, bank or other company, collectors of books, even if they collect for aesthetic reasons, are called bibliophiles, and their collections are referred to as libraries. The Royal collections of most countries were originally the grandest of private collections but are now mostly in public ownership, however the British Royal Collection remains under the care of the Crown, though distinguished from the private property of the British Royal Family. The cabinet of curiosities was an important mixed form of collection, including art and these were formed by royalty but smaller ones also by merchants and scholars. The tastes and habits of collectors have played an important part in determining what art was produced. Many types of objects, such as medals, engravings, small plaquettes, modern engraved gems, increasingly collectors tended to specialize in one or two types of work, although some, like George Salting, still had a very wide scope for their collections. The extension of serious collecting to art from all periods and places was an essentially 19th-century development, trecento paintings were little appreciated until about the 1830s, and Chinese ritual bronzes and jades until perhaps the 1920s. Collecting of African art was rare until after World War II, very famous collections that are now dispersed include the Borghese Collection and Farnese collection in Rome, and the Orleans Collection in Paris, mostly sold in London. When this happens, it can be a loss to those interested in art as the initial vision of the collector is lost. The works were displayed in the Liechtenstein Museum after nearly 60 years with most in storage. The important collection of the Thyssen family, mostly kept in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, only an exhibited part, the collection of Carmen Cervera, widow of the late Baron Thyssen, remains private but exhibited separately in the museum. Many collections were left to the public in some form, and are now museums, most museums are formed around one or more formerly private collection acquired as a whole. Other collections remain complete but are merged into larger collections in museums, many other bequests or purchased collections are split up within the museums collection. Sergei Shchukin, was an important Russian art collector, mainly of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art and his collection is now divided between the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The Charles Lang Freer Collection became an important part of The Smithsonian—the Freer Gallery of Art, when the banker Robert Lehman died in 1969, his foundation donated 2,600 works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Housed in the Robert Lehman Wing, the museum refers to the collection as one of the most extraordinary private art collections ever assembled in the United States. Unlike other departments at the Met, the Robert Lehman collection does not concentrate on a style or period of art, rather. Media related to Private collections at Wikimedia Commons
6.
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
7.
Corcoran Gallery of Art
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The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D. C. Prior to its closing, it was one of the oldest privately supported cultural institutions in the United States capital, starting in 1890, a museum school, later known as the Corcoran College of Art + Design, co-existed with the gallery. The museums main focus was American art, when the gallery was founded in 1869 by William Wilson Corcoran, the co-founder of Riggs Bank, it was one of the first fine art galleries in the country. Corcoran established the gallery, supported with an endowment, for the establishment and encouragement of the Fine Arts. While an independent institution, the Corcoran was the oldest and largest non-federal art museum in the District of Columbia and its mission was dedicated to art and used solely for the purpose of encouraging the American genius. The Corcoran Gallery of Art was originally located at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, construction of that building started before the Civil War. The building, near completion, was used by the government as a warehouse during the Civil War and it was finally completed in 1874 and the gallery opened to the public. By 1897, the Corcoran Gallery collection outgrew the space of its original building, a new building was constructed, designed by Ernest Flagg in a Beaux-Arts style. The 135,000 square feet building was built to house an expanded Corcoran collection in addition to the nascent school, which had been formally founded in 1890. In 1928, the art collection of former Senator William A. Clark joined the Corcoran in a new wing designed by Charles Adam Platt, for decades, the Corcoran examined the possibility of adding on a final wing which would complete the campus footprint. These plans abruptly ended in 2005 after a Frank O. Gehry -designed wing was scrapped due to lack of funding, throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the gallery continued to display its main collection from Corcoran, Clark, and a few select major donors. In 1989, the Corcoran Gallery of Art had agreed to host a solo exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpes works. Mapplethorpe decided to show a new series that he had explored shortly before his death, Robert Mapplethorpe, several Trustees of the Corcoran and U. S. The Coalition of Washington Artists organized a demonstration to protest the Corcoran Gallerys cancellation of the exhibit, an estimated 700 people attended the demonstration. In June 1989, pop artist Lowell Blair Nesbitt became involved with a scandal involving Mapplethorpes work and it was at this time that Nesbitt, a long-time friend of Mapplethorpe, revealed that he had a $1.5 million bequest to the museum in his will. Nesbitt publicly promised that if the museum refused to host the exhibition he would revoke his bequest, the Corcoran refused and Nesbitt bequeathed the money to the Phillips Collection instead. The 1990 NEA Appropriations Bill included language against obscene work, as a result of the scandal, more than a dozen artists canceled exhibitions while the director, Christina Orr-Cahall, resigned and moved to the Norton Museum of Art. In its final years, the museum and its art and design college Corcoran College of Art and Design together had a staff of about 140
8.
District of Columbia
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
9.
Second Bank of the United States
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The banks formal name, according to section 9 of its charter as passed by Congress, was The President, Directors, and Company, of the Bank of the United States. A private corporation with public duties, the bank handled all fiscal transactions for the U. S. Government, and was accountable to Congress, twenty percent of its capital was owned by the federal government, the banks single largest stockholder. Four thousand private investors held 80% of the capital, including one thousand Europeans. The bulk of the stocks were held by a few hundred wealthy Americans, in its time, the institution was the largest monied corporation in the world. The federal deposits endowed the BUS with its regulatory capacity, failing to secure recharter, the Second Bank of the United States became a private corporation in 1836, and underwent liquidation in 1841. A national alliance arose to legislate a central bank to address these needs, calhoun of South Carolina and Henry Clay of Kentucky was decisive in the successful chartering effort. The charter was signed into law by Madison on April 10,1816, opposition to the banks revival emanated from two interests. if Congress could incorporate a bank, it might emancipate a slave. Hostile to the effects of the central bank, private banks—proliferating with or without state charters—had scuttled rechartering of the first BUS in 1811. These interests played significant roles in undermining the institution during the administration of U. S. President Andrew Jackson, Government land sales in the West, fueled by European demand for agricultural products, ensured that a speculative bubble would form. When the U. S. Further, it transpired that branch directors for the Baltimore office had engaged in fraud and larceny. Resigning in January 1819, Jones was replaced by Langdon Cheves who continued the contraction in credit in an effort to stop inflation and stabilize the bank, the central banks reaction to the crisis—a clumsy expansion, then a sharp contraction of credit—indicated its weakness, not its strength. The effects were catastrophic, resulting in a recession with mass unemployment. The financial crisis raised doubts among the American public as to the efficacy of paper money, upon this widespread disaffection the anti-bank Jacksonian Democrats would mobilize opposition to the BUS in the 1830s. The national bank was in disrepute among most Americans when Nicholas Biddle. Under Biddles guidance, the BUS evolved into a banking institution that produced a strong and sound system of national credit. From 1823 to 1833, Biddle expanded credit steadily, but with restraint, albert Gallatin, former Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, wrote in 1831 that the BUS was fulfilling its charter expectations. By the time of Jacksons inauguration in 1829, the bank appeared to be on solid footing. Public perceptions of the bank were generally positive
10.
Pennsylvania Avenue
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Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D. C. that connects the White House and the United States Capitol. Called Americas Main Street, it is the location of official parades and processions, moreover, Pennsylvania Avenue is an important commuter route and is part of the National Highway System. The avenue runs for a total of 5.8 miles inside Washington and it continues within the city for 3.5 miles, from the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds through the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and over the Anacostia River on the John Philip Sousa Bridge. At this point, as a highway, it becomes Southern Maryland Boulevard. At one point in the century, Pennsylvania Avenue was designated DC4. Northwest of the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue runs for 1.4 miles to its end at M Street NW in Georgetown, from 1862 to 1962, streetcars ran the length of the avenue from Georgetown to the Anacostia River. Although Pennsylvania Avenue extends six miles within Washington, D. C. the expanse between the White House and the Capitol constitutes the heart of the nation. Washington called this stretch most magnificent & most convenient, and it has served the country well, laid out by Pierre Charles LEnfant, Pennsylvania Avenue was one of the earliest streets constructed in the Federal City. The first reference to the street as Pennsylvania Avenue comes in a 1791 letter from Thomas Jefferson, one theory is that the street was named for Pennsylvania as consolation for moving the capital from Philadelphia. Both Jefferson and George Washington considered the avenue an important feature of the new capital, after inspecting LEnfants plan, President Washington referred to the thoroughfare as a Grand Avenue. Jefferson concurred, and while the avenue was little more than a wide dirt road ridiculed as The Great Serbonian Bog. At one time Pennsylvania Avenue provided an unobstructed view between the White House and the Capitol, the construction of an expansion to the Treasury Building blocked this view, and supposedly President Andrew Jackson did this on purpose. In November 2012, as part of preparations for the inauguration of Barack Obama. On September 30,1965, portions of the avenue and surrounding area were designated the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, the National Park Service administers this area which includes the United States Navy Memorial, Old Post Office Tower, and Pershing Park. Congress created the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation on October 27,1972 to rehabilitate the street between the Capitol and the White House, an area seen as blighted. In 2010, the District of Columbia designated Pennsylvania Avenue from the terminus of John Philip Sousa Bridge to the Maryland state line to be a D. C. The city spent $430 million to beautify the street and improve the roadway, ever since an impromptu procession formed around Jeffersons second inauguration, every United States president except Ronald Reagan has paraded down the Avenue after taking the oath of office. From William Henry Harrison to Gerald Ford, the funeral corteges of seven of the eight presidents who died in office, franklin Roosevelt was the only president who died in office whose cortege did not follow this route
11.
George Washington Riggs
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George Washington Riggs was an American businessman and banker. He was known as The Presidents Banker, Riggs was born in Georgetown, D. C. the son of Elisha Riggs and Alice Lawrason. His great-grandfather was John Riggs, who was mentioned in a will in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, George was brought up in Baltimore, to which his father removed after he took George Peabody into partnership and established the firm of Riggs & Peabody there. He went to the Round Hill School kept by George Bancroft and Joseph Green Cogswell at Northampton, Massachusetts, and entered Yale College in 1829, but left some time in his junior year. He traveled abroad, and, returning to America, worked for his father in the firm of Riggs. On June 23,1840, he was married to Janet Madeleine Cecilia Shedden and they had nine children, among them the Catholic priest T. Lawrason Riggs. The same year William W. Corcoran took him into partnership in the firm of Corcoran & Riggs at Washington. In 1848 he gave up his connection with the firm, to which, however, when Corcoran retired in 1854, Riggs bought his interest. Under the firm name of Riggs & Company, he directed the business until his death and he built and owned the Riggs House, a famous hotel of his time, and was one of the organizers of the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company. He was a trustee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and of the Peabody Education Fund and he was for many years the treasurer of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union. In 1864 he advanced the money to maintain Mount Vernon until the return of peace should make it possible for the society again to raise funds, George Washington Riggs died at his home, Green Hill, in Prince Georges County, Maryland. The Green Hill estate included much of the nearby Maryland suburbs northeast of Washington including Adelphi, Chillum, although a Protestant in early life, he received the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church. He is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery, near Riggs Road in Washington and his grandniece, Kate Cheeseman Riggs, married Edward Newton Perkins, the grandson of U. S. Secretary of State, U. S. Attorney General and U. S. Senator William M. Evarts and the brother of famed editor Maxwell Perkins, a few letters in the Lib. of Cong. By The Washington Post, ed. by A. B, bryan, A Hist. of the National Capital, vol. II, H. W. Crew, Centennial Hist. of, Washington, D. C. J. H. Wallace, Geneal. of the Riggs Family, vol. II, Evening Star, Aug.24,1881, dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936
12.
Levi Woodbury
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Levi Woodbury was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a U. S. Senator, Governor of New Hampshire and cabinet member in three administrations. He was the first Justice to have attended law school, Woodbury was born in Francestown, New Hampshire, the son of Mary and Peter Woodbury. He began his education at Atkinson Academy and he graduated from Dartmouth College, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1809, briefly attended Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut, and read law to be admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1812. He became the first Supreme Court justice to attend law school, later, he was in private practice in Francestown from 1812 to 1816. His education contributed to his start in law, which led to his later political positions. He was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1812 and began practicing law in his hometown, following the publication of his defense, he gained the recognition he needed to receive an appointment to the state senate in 1816. In quick succession, he was appointed to the supreme court a year later. During the time of his election, there was factionalism within the party. The caucus chose Samuel Dinsmoor as the candidate for governor, Woodbury defeated Dinsmoor by a wide margin, but his one year as governor was a failure. He tried to reconcile the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans but did not make a lot of progress, Senator from New Hampshire, during which time he served as the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Throughout Woodbury’s political career, he was characterized as being independent and moderate, Woodbury was a clerk of the New Hampshire State Senate from 1816 to 1817, and a Justice of New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature from 1817 to 1823. He was Governor of New Hampshire from 1823 to 1824 and was Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives,1825, Woodbury served as a United States Senator from New Hampshire from 1825 to 1831. Elected to serve in New Hampshire State Senate in 1831, Woodbury did not take due to his appointment as United States Secretary of the Navy under President Andrew Jackson. At the beginning of term, he was instrumental in the appointment of fellow New Hampshireman Edmund Roberts as special agent. Woodbury served as Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson and Martin Van Buren from 1834 to 1841 and he was a Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court,1845 to 1851. As a U. S. Senator, Woodbury was a dependable Jackson Democrat, Woodbury successfully worked to end the Second Bank of the United States, like Jackson he favored an independent treasury system and hard money over paper money. In retrospect, the financial Panic of 1837 and the collapse of land prices were legacies of Woodburys tenure. It was largely repealed under the new administration the following year, Woodbury also served as chairman of the U. S. Senate Committee on Finance during a Special Session of the 29th Congress
13.
New York Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
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New York Avenue is diagonal avenue radiating northeast from the White House in Washington, D. C. to the border with Maryland. New York Avenue was planned as one of the streets in the LEnfant Plan for Washington. It was intended to begin at the Potomac River and extend northeast toward the White House, the portion of the street southwest of the White House was to give the President of the United States an uninterrupted view of the river. Construction of the State, War, and Navy Building from 1871 to 1888 blocked this view, and it remains blocked to this day. Originally, it extended to the grounds of the U. S. Naval Observatory and its consolidation with Triangle Park and three other parklets into a Little Mall in 1937 consumed another block between 20th and 21st Streets NW. Construction of the United States Department of War Building, and a park from 1940 to 1941 destroyed the lower three blocks of New York Avenue. Construction of the Theodore Roosevelt Building in 1963 eliminated another block between 19th and 20th Streets NW and this left a single block of New York Avenue NW, between 17th and 18th Streets NW, southeast of the White House. New York Avenue northeast of the White House retains its uninterrupted character and it originally terminated at Boundary Avenue (now Florida Avenue NE, as all city streets did in the LEnfant Plan. Extensive development occurred beyond Boundary Avenue from 1870 to 1900, extension of New York Avenue to Bladensburg Road was considered as early as 1899. The McMillan Plan, a plan for the capital published in 1901. But although many portions of the plan were acted on, no road construction occurred, plans were drawn up in 1903 to extend the street about 1-mile beyond the city limits to reach the Ivy City development, but these, too, fell through. In 1907, as construction of Union Station was under way, as part of this effort, the B&O was required to build a bridge to carry New York Avenue over its new track route. It did so, but the bridge remained unused for decades, extensions to Bladensburg Road were debated again in 1908, and failed. The right of way was purchased in 1914, and property owners along the street route assessed for construction, an extension was proposed to South Dakota Avenue NE in 1925, but these proposals were not acted on. Construction on New York Avenue Extended finally began in September 1930, the $231,000 project created a 50-foot roadway 2.125 miles long from Florida Avenue NE to Bladensburg Road NE. There were no intersections with side streets, and only 4th Street NE merged with it, New York Avenue Extended opened on November 2,1931. The final section of New York Avenue NE, from Bladensburg Road to the District-Maryland border, the construction of Route 50 was a joint effort of the state of Maryland and the federal government. The District of Columbia paid to have New York Avenue extended to the connection, a gateway to the city was proposed at this time, but no gateway was built
14.
Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
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Oak Hill Cemetery is a historic 22-acre cemetery located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D. C. in the United States. It was founded in 1848 and completed in 1853, and is an example of a garden cemetery. Oak Hill has two structures which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel and the Van Ness Mausoleum. Oak Hill began in 1848 as part of the rural cemetery movement, directly inspired by the success of Mount Auburn Cemetery and he then organized the Cemetery Company to oversee Oak Hill, it was incorporated by act of Congress on March 3,1849. Oak Hills chapel was built in 1849 by noted architect James Renwick and his one story rectangular chapel measures 23 by 41 feet and sits on the cemeterys highest ridge. It is built of granite, in Gothic Revival style. By 1851, landscape designer Captain George F. de la Roche finished laying out the winding paths, when initial construction was completed in 1853, Corcoran had spent over $55,000 on the cemeterys landscaping and architecture. Barry, Brevet Brigadier General in the Union Army and Representative from Mississippi Alice Birney, Army, acting Secretary of War under President Andrew Johnson Theodore Timby, inventor of the revolving turret first introduced on the Civil War ship USS Monitor, and many other inventions. His portrait of Ulysses S. Grant hangs in the White House, with brother Julius had photographic studio in Washington DC. National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
15.
Rock Creek Park
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Rock Creek Park is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D. C. The park was created by an Act of Congress in 1890, the Old Stone House in Georgetown, and certain of the Fort Circle Parks, a series of batteries and forts encircling the District of Columbia for its defense during the U. S. Civil War. Rock Creek Park was established by an act of Congress signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison on September 27,1890, glover and other civic leaders and in the wake of the creation of the National Zoo the preceding year. It was only the national park established by the U. S. following Yellowstone in 1872. Sequoia was created at the time, and Yosemite shortly thereafter. In 1933, Rock Creek Park became part of the newly formed National Capital Parks unit of the National Park Service, Rock Creek Park is the oldest natural urban park in the National Park System. In 1913, Congress authorized creation of the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, the parkway is a major traffic thoroughfare, especially along the portion south of the zoo. The park is patrolled by the United States Park Police, the main section of the park comprises 1754 acres, along the Rock Creek Valley. Including the other areas the park administers, it encompasses more than 2000 acres. The parklands follow the course of Rock Creek across the D. C. -Maryland border to connect with Rock Creek Stream Valley Park, the Maryland parks are operated by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. The Rock Creek Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 23,1991, Rock Creek Park also maintains cultural exhibits, including the Peirce Mill. Rock Creek is a venue for jogging, cycling, and inline skating, especially on the long, winding Beach Drive. A number of the citys outstanding bridges, such as the Lauzuns Legion, Dumbarton, Taft, in 2014 it was named best obscure memorial by Washington City Paper. Rock Creek Park Horse Center, founded in 1972, is located in the middle of the park near the Nature Center, the barn, run by Guest Services Inc, has 57 stalls, two outdoor rings, one indoor ring, and three bluestone turnout paddocks. The stable provides trail rides, pony rides, and lessons for the public, the stable primarily teaches English riding, with an emphasis on lower-level jumping and dressage. The barn is home to Rock Creek Riders, a therapeutic riding program for adults. Past participants in the program include brain injured veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and people with autism, cerebral palsy, the program is volunteer-run and relies on donations and contributions for funding. The horse centers summer camps are popular with DC residents, the stable offers summer camp from 9-3 for children over eight, and a two-hour afternoon camp for children between five and eight years old
16.
Act of Congress
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An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. It can either be a Public Law, relating to the public, or a Private Law. The term can be used in countries with a legislature named Congress. In the United States, Acts of Congress are designated as public laws, relating to the general public, or private laws. Since 1957, all Acts of Congress have been designated as Public Law X-Y or Private Law X-Y, for example, P. L. 111-5 was the fifth enacted public law of the 111th United States Congress. Public laws are often abbreviated as Pub. L. When the legislation of those two kinds is proposed, it is called public bill and private bill respectively, the word act, as used in the term Act of Congress, is a common, not a proper noun. The capitalization of the act is deprecated by some dictionaries. Some writers, in particular the U. S. Code and this is likely a result of the more liberal use of capital letters in legal contexts, which has its roots in the 18th century capitalization of all nouns as is seen in the United States Constitution. Act of Congress is sometimes used in speech to indicate something for which getting permission is burdensome. For example, It takes an Act of Congress to get a permit in this town. The President promulgates Acts of Congress made by the first two methods, if an Act is made by the third method, the presiding officer of the house that last reconsidered the act promulgates it. In addition, if the President rejects a bill or resolution while the Congress is in session, after the Archivist receives the Act, he or she provides for its publication as a slip law and in the United States Statutes at Large. Thereafter, the changes are published in the United States Code, an Act of Congress that violates the Constitution may be declared unconstitutional by the courts. The judicial declaration of an Acts unconstitutionality does not remove the law from the books, rather. However, future publications of the Act are generally annotated with warnings indicating that the statute is no longer valid law, legislation List of United States federal legislation for a list of prominent acts of Congress. Procedures of the United States Congress Act of Parliament Coming into force Enactment Federal Register http, //bensguide. gpo. gov/6-8/glossary. html
17.
Gothic Revival architecture
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Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. Gothic Revival draws features from the original Gothic style, including decorative patterns, finials, scalloping, lancet windows, hood mouldings, the Gothic Revival movement emerged in 19th-century England. Its roots were intertwined with deeply philosophical movements associated with a re-awakening of High Church or Anglo-Catholic belief concerned by the growth of religious nonconformism, ultimately, the Anglo-Catholicism tradition of religious belief and style became widespread for its intrinsic appeal in the third quarter of the 19th century. The Gothic Revival was paralleled and supported by medievalism, which had its roots in antiquarian concerns with survivals, as industrialisation progressed, a reaction against machine production and the appearance of factories also grew. Proponents of the such as Thomas Carlyle and Augustus Pugin took a critical view of industrial society. To Pugin, Gothic architecture was infused with the Christian values that had been supplanted by classicism and were being destroyed by industrialisation, poems such as Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson recast specifically modern themes in medieval settings of Arthurian romance. In German literature, the Gothic Revival also had a grounding in literary fashions, guarino Guarini, a 17th-century Theatine monk active primarily in Turin, recognized the Gothic order as one of the primary systems of architecture and made use of it in his practice. Some of the earliest evidence of a revival in Gothic architecture is from Scotland, inveraray Castle, constructed from 1746, with design input from William Adam, displays the incorporation of turrets. These were largely conventional Palladian style houses that incorporated some features of the Scots baronial style. The eccentric landscape designer Batty Langley even attempted to improve Gothic forms by giving them classical proportions, a younger generation, taking Gothic architecture more seriously, provided the readership for J. Brittens series of Cathedral Antiquities, which began appearing in 1814. In 1817, Thomas Rickman wrote an Attempt. to name and define the sequence of Gothic styles in English ecclesiastical architecture, the categories he used were Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular. It went through numerous editions and was still being republished by 1881. The largest and most famous Gothic cathedrals in the U. S. A. are St. Patricks Cathedral in New York City and Washington National Cathedral on Mount St. Alban in northwest Washington, D. C. One of the biggest churches in Gothic Revival style in Canada is Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Ontario, Gothic Revival architecture was to remain one of the most popular and long-lived of the Gothic Revival styles of architecture. The revived Gothic style was not limited to architecture, classical Gothic buildings of the 12th to 16th Centuries were a source of inspiration to 19th-century designers in numerous fields of work. Architectural elements such as pointed arches, steep-sloping roofs and fancy carvings like lace ant lattice work were applied to a range of Gothic Revival objects. Sir Walter Scotts Abbotsford exemplifies in its furnishings the Regency Gothic style, parties in medieval historical dress and entertainment were popular among the wealthy in the 1800s but has spread in the late 20th century to the well-educated middle class as well. By the mid-19th century, Gothic traceries and niches could be inexpensively re-created in wallpaper, the illustrated catalogue for the Great Exhibition of 1851 is replete with Gothic detail, from lacemaking and carpet designs to heavy machinery
18.
Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel (Washington, D.C.)
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The Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel, also known as the Renwick Chapel or James Renwick Chapel, is a historic building in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D. C. Designed by James Renwick, Jr. in 1850, Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel is the only known example of Gothic Revival church architecture in Washington. It is located on the highest ridge in Oak Hill Cemetery, near the intersection of 29th, the chapel is one of two structures in Oak Hill Cemetery listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the other being the Van Ness Mausoleum. The chapel, mausoleum, and cemetery are contributing properties to the Georgetown Historic District, Corcoran organized a company to establish a cemetery, and on March 3,1849, the Oak Hill Cemetery Company was chartered by an Act of Congress. Architect James Renwick, Jr. was chosen to design a chapel for the new cemetery. The cost of constructing Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel was $9,400, on March 16,1972, the National Park Service added Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel to the National Register of Historic Places. Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel is considered an excellent example of Gothic Revival architecture and it features a steeply designed pitched roof, buttresses, and stained glass lancet windows accented with tracery. The chapel is a one-story, rectangular building measuring 23 feet high and 41 feet long, the building materials consist of Potomac gneiss, sandstone, and wood. A cornerstone, inscribed with the date 1850, is located in a buttress on the chapels northwest corner, the chapel is accessible by a large, painted door on the west side. The door is protected by a padlocked, wrought iron gate, a rose window with wooden mullions is located above the door. The design of Grace Episcopal Church, a Gothic Revival church built in 1867, is similar to that of the nearby Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel. Although the architect of Grace Episcopal Church is unknown, there is reason to believe Renwick may have designed the building, if this isnt the case, the person who designed the church was greatly influenced by Renwicks work. National Register of Historic Places listings in western Washington, D. C
19.
George Washington University
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The George Washington University is a private research university in Washington, D. C. GW is the largest institution of education in Washington, D. C. In his will, Washington left his 50 shares in the Potomac Company to help endow the university, however, due to the companys financial difficulties, the funding did not materialize. The university was chartered by an act of Congress on February 9,1821 and its name was changed to Columbian University in 1873 and to the George Washington University in 1904, in honor of Washington. GWs Graduate School of Political Management is the school of applied politics in the nations capital. GWs professional schools and the Elliott School of International Affairs are consistently ranked highly in national and international college rankings lists, the Princeton Review consistently ranks GW as one of the Most Politically Active schools. Some of the graduates have gone on to high positions within both the U. S. government and foreign governments. Notable alumni include former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and he presented numerous letters to Congress and included the subject in his last will and testament. Baptist missionary and leading minister Luther Rice raised funds to purchase a site in Washington, the first commencement in 1824 was considered an important event for the young city of Washington, D. C. In attendance were President Monroe, John C, Calhoun, Henry Clay, Marquis de Lafayette and other dignitaries. During the Civil War, most students left to join the Confederacy, walt Whitman was among many of the volunteers to work on the campus. Following the war, in 1873, Columbian College became the Columbian University and moved to a downtown location centered on 15th and H streets. The university moved its operations to the D. C. neighborhood of Foggy Bottom in 1912. The George Washington University, like much of Washington, D. C. traces many of its origins back to the Freemasons, the Bible that the presidents of the university use to swear an oath on upon inauguration is the Bible of Freemason George Washington. Freemasonry symbols are displayed throughout the campus including the foundation stones of many of the university buildings. Many of the Colleges of the George Washington University stand out for their age, the Law School is the oldest law school in the District of Columbia. The School of Medicine and Health Sciences is the 11th oldest medical school in the nation, the Columbian College was founded in 1821, and is the oldest unit of the university. The Elliott School of International Affairs was formalized in 1898, the majority of the present infrastructure and financial stability at GW is due to the tenures of Presidents Cloyd Heck Marvin, Lloyd Hartman Elliott and Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
20.
University of Maryland, College Park
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Founded in 1856, the university is the flagship institution of the University System of Maryland. It is a member of the Association of American Universities and competes in athletics as a member of the Big Ten Conference, the University of Marylands proximity to the nations capital has resulted in research partnerships with the Federal government. The operating budget of the University of Maryland during the 2009 fiscal year was projected to be approximately $1.531 billion, for the same fiscal year, the University of Maryland received a total of $518 million in research funding, surpassing its 2008 mark by $118 million. As of December 12,2012, the universitys Great Expectations campaign had exceeded $1 billion in private donations, on March 6,1856, the forerunner of todays University of Maryland was chartered as the Maryland Agricultural College. Two years later, Charles Benedict Calvert, a future U. S. Congressman, Calvert founded the school later that year. On October 5,1859, the first 34 students entered the Maryland Agricultural College, the school became a land grant college in February 1864. During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers under Brigadier General Bradley Tyler Johnson moved past the college on July 12,1864 as part of Jubal Earlys raid on Washington, D. C. By the end of the war, financial problems forced the administrators to sell off 200 acres of land, for the next two years the campus was used as a boys preparatory school. Following the Civil War, in February 1866 the Maryland legislature assumed half ownership of the school, the college thus became in part a state institution. By October 1867, the school reopened with 11 students, in the next six years, enrollment grew and the schools debt was paid off. In 1873, Samuel Jones, a former Confederate Major General, twenty years later, the federally funded Agricultural Experiment Station was established there. Morrill Hall was built the following year, on November 29,1912, a fire destroyed the barracks where the students were housed, all the schools records, and most of the academic buildings, leaving only Morrill Hall untouched. There were no injuries or fatalities, and all but two returned to the university and insisted on classes continuing. Students were housed by families in neighboring towns until housing could be rebuilt, a large brick and concrete compass inlaid in the ground designates the former center of campus as it existed in 1912. The state took control of the school in 1916, and the institution was renamed Maryland State College and that year, the first female students enrolled at the school. On April 9,1920, the became part of the existing University of Maryland, replacing St. Johns College. In the same year, the school on the College Park campus awarded its first PhD degrees. In 1925 the university was accredited by the Association of American Universities, by the time the first black students enrolled at the university in 1951, enrollment had grown to nearly 10,000 students—4,000 of whom were women
21.
College of William & Mary
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The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. William & Mary educated U. S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, a young George Washington also received his surveyors license through the College. W&M students founded the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society in 1776, the establishment of graduate programs in law and medicine in 1779 makes it one of the first universities in the United States. In addition to its program, W&M is home to several graduate programs. Named in honor of the reigning monarchs King William III and Queen Mary II, the original plans for the College date back to 1618 but were thwarted by the Indian Massacre of 1622, a change in government, events related to the English Civil War, and Bacons Rebellion. In 1695 before the town of Williamsburg existed, construction began on the College Building, now known as the Sir Christopher Wren Building and it is the oldest college building in America. The College is one of the countrys nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution, the Charter named James Blair as the Colleges first president. William & Mary was founded as an Anglican institution, students were required to be members of the Church of England, and professors were required to declare adherence to the Thirty-Nine Articles. In 1693, the College was given a seat in the House of Burgesses and it was determined the College would be supported by taxes and export duties on furs. The College acquired a 330 acres parcel for the new school,8 miles from Jamestown, in 1694, the new school opened in temporary buildings. Williamsburg was granted a charter as a city in 1722 by the Crown. During this time, the College served as a law center and it educated future U. S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler. The College has been called the Alma Mater of a Nation because of its ties to Americas founding fathers. A 17-year-old George Washington received his surveyors license through the College, William & Mary is famous for its firsts, the first U. S. institution with a Royal Charter, the first Greek-letter society, the first student honor code and the first law school in America. The College became a school in 1906 and became coeducational in 1918. In 1928, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. chose the College Building as the first building to be returned to its 18th-century appearance as part of the iconic Colonial Williamsburg restoration. During the period of the American Revolution, freedom of religion was established in Virginia notably with the 1786 passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, in 1779 the college became the first American university with the establishment of the graduate schools in law and medicine. The College of William and Mary is home to the nations first collegiate secret society, Society, popularly known as the Flat Hat Club, founded November 11,1750
22.
Washington and Lee University
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Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts university in Lexington, Virginia, United States. The campus is approximately 50 miles from Roanoke, Virginia,140 miles from Richmond, Virginia, Washington and Lee was founded in 1749 as a small classical school named Augusta Academy by Scots-Irish Presbyterian pioneers, though the University has never claimed any sectarian affiliation. In 1796, George Washington endowed the academy with a gift of stock. In gratitude, the school was renamed for the first United States President, Washington and Lee is the ninth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the second-oldest in Virginia. The University consists of three units, The College, the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics. The University hosts 24 intercollegiate athletic teams compete as part of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference of the NCAA Division III. The classical school from which Washington and Lee descended was established in 1749 by Scots-Irish Presbyterian pioneers and soon named Augusta Academy, in 1776, it was renamed Liberty Hall in a burst of revolutionary fervor. The academy moved to Lexington in 1780, when it was chartered as Liberty Hall Academy, the academy granted its first bachelors degree in 1785. Liberty Hall is said to have admitted its first African-American student when John Chavis and he is believed to be the first black student to enroll in higher education in the United States, although he did not receive a degree. Washington and Lee enrolled its next African-American student in 1966 in the law school, in 1796, George Washington endowed the academy with $20,000 in James River Canal stock, at the time one of the largest gifts ever given to an educational institution in the United States. Washingtons gift continues to provide nearly $1.87 a year toward every students tuition, the gift rescued Liberty Hall from near-certain insolvency. In gratitude, the changed the schools name to Washington Academy. An 8-foot tall statue of George Washington, carved by Matthew Kahle, the current statue is made of bronze, the original wooden statue was restored and now resides in the universitys library. The campus took its current architectural form in the 1820s when a merchant, Jockey John Robinson. For the dedication celebration in 1824, Robinson supplied a huge barrel of whiskey, but according to a contemporary history, the rabble broke through the barriers and created pandemonium, which ended only when college officials demolished the whiskey barrel with an axe. A justice of the Virginia State Supreme Court, Alex, M. Harman, Jr. re-created the episode in 1976 for the dedication of the new law school building by having several barrels of Scotch imported. Robinson also left his estate to Washington College, the estate included between 70 and 80 slaves. Until 1852, the institution benefited from their labor and, in some cases
23.
George Washington
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George Washington was an American politician and soldier who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and he is popularly considered the driving force behind the nations establishment and came to be known as the father of the country, both during his lifetime and to this day. Washington was widely admired for his leadership qualities and was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. Washingtons incumbency established many precedents still in use today, such as the system, the inaugural address. His retirement from office two terms established a tradition that lasted until 1940 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. The 22nd Amendment now limits the president to two elected terms and he was born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia to a family of wealthy planters who owned tobacco plantations and slaves, which he inherited. In his youth, he became an officer in the colonial militia during the first stages of the French. In 1775, the Second Continental Congress commissioned him as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, in that command, Washington forced the British out of Boston in 1776 but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter, he defeated the British in two battles, retook New Jersey, and restored momentum to the Patriot cause and his strategy enabled Continental forces to capture two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies, after victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which devised a new form of government for the United States. Following his election as president in 1789, he worked to unify rival factions in the fledgling nation and he supported Alexander Hamiltons programs to satisfy all debts, federal and state, established a permanent seat of government, implemented an effective tax system, and created a national bank. In avoiding war with Great Britain, he guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795 and he remained non-partisan, never joining the Federalist Party, although he largely supported its policies. Washingtons Farewell Address was a primer on civic virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism. He retired from the presidency in 1797, returning to his home, upon his death, Washington was eulogized as first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen by Representative Henry Lee III of Virginia. He was revered in life and in death, scholarly and public polling consistently ranks him among the top three presidents in American history and he has been depicted and remembered in monuments, public works, currency, and other dedications to the present day. He was born on February 11,1731, according to the Julian calendar, the Gregorian calendar was adopted within the British Empire in 1752, and it renders a birth date of February 22,1732. Washington was of primarily English gentry descent, especially from Sulgrave and his great-grandfather John Washington emigrated to Virginia in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson, Georges father Augustine
24.
Mount Vernon
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Mount Vernon was the plantation house of George Washington, the first President of the United States, and his wife, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington. The estate is situated on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, near Alexandria, across from Prince Georges County, the Washington family had owned land in the area since the time of Washingtons great-grandfather in 1674. In 1739 they embarked on an expansion of the estate that continued under George Washington, who came into possession of the estate in 1754, the mansion is built of wood in a loose Palladian style, and was constructed by George Washington in stages between 1758 and 1778. It occupies the site of an earlier, smaller house built by George Washingtons father Augustine and it remained Washingtons country home for the rest of his life. Following his death in 1799, under the ownership of successive generations of the family. Escaping the damage suffered by many plantation houses during the American Civil War, Mount Vernon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and is today listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is still owned and maintained in trust by The Mount Vernon Ladies Association, allowing the public to see the estate is not an innovation, but part of a 200-year-old tradition started by George Washington himself. In 1794 he wrote, I have no objection to any sober or orderly persons gratifying their curiosity in viewing the buildings, Gardens, when George Washingtons ancestors acquired the estate, it was known as Little Hunting Creek Plantation, after the nearby Little Hunting Creek. Vernon had been Lawrences commanding officer in the British Royal Navy, when George Washington inherited the property, he retained the name. The current property consists of 500 acres, the main buildings, the present house was built in phases from 1758, by an unknown architect, on the site of the Washingtons former farmhouse. This staggered and unplanned evolution is indicated by the main door. As completed and seen today, the house is in a loose Palladian style, the principal block, dating from 1758, is a two-storied corps de logis flanked by two single-story secondary wings, built in 1775. These secondary wings, which house the hall on the northern side. The corps de logis and secondary wings have hipped roofs with dormers, the rooms at Mount Vernon have mostly been restored to their appearance at the time of George and Martha Washingtons occupancy. These rooms include Washingtons study, two dining rooms, the West Parlour, the Front Parlour, the kitchen and some bedrooms, instead they range from severe Palladianism to a finer and later neoclassicism in the style of Robert Adam. This varying of the style is best exemplified in the doorcases. Today, visitors to Mount Vernon are shown Washingtons study, a room to which in the century only a privileged few were granted entrée. It is a furnished room Washington used as a combined bathroom, dressing room and office
25.
Federal government of the United States
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The Federal Government of the United States is the national government of the United States, a republic in North America, composed of 50 states, one district, Washington, D. C. and several territories. The federal government is composed of three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U. S. Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the courts, including the Supreme Court. The powers and duties of these branches are defined by acts of Congress. The full name of the republic is United States of America, no other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name that appears on money, in treaties, and in legal cases to which it is a party. The terms Government of the United States of America or United States Government are often used in documents to represent the federal government as distinct from the states collectively. In casual conversation or writing, the term Federal Government is often used, the terms Federal and National in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government. Because the seat of government is in Washington, D. C, Washington is commonly used as a metonym for the federal government. The outline of the government of the United States is laid out in the Constitution, the government was formed in 1789, making the United States one of the worlds first, if not the first, modern national constitutional republics. The United States government is based on the principles of federalism and republicanism, some make the case for expansive federal powers while others argue for a more limited role for the central government in relation to individuals, the states or other recognized entities. For example, while the legislative has the power to create law, the President nominates judges to the nations highest judiciary authority, but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as unconstitutional any law passed by the Congress and these and other examples are examined in more detail in the text below. The United States Congress is the branch of the federal government. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate, the House currently consists of 435 voting members, each of whom represents a congressional district. The number of each state has in the House is based on each states population as determined in the most recent United States Census. All 435 representatives serve a two-year term, each state receives a minimum of one representative in the House. There is no limit on the number of terms a representative may serve, in addition to the 435 voting members, there are six non-voting members, consisting of five delegates and one resident commissioner. In contrast, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population, there are currently 100 senators, who each serve six-year terms
26.
George Peabody
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George Peabody was an American-British financier widely regarded as the father of modern philanthropy. Born poor in Massachusetts, Peabody went into business in dry goods, in 1837, he moved to London, then the capital of world finance, where he became the most noted American banker and helped to establish the young countrys international credit. In his old age, Peabody won worldwide acclaim for his philanthropy and he founded the Peabody Trust in Britain and the Peabody Institute and George Peabody Library in Baltimore, and was responsible for many other charitable initiatives. For his generosity, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and made a Freeman of the City of London, Peabody was born in 1795 what was then South Danvers, Massachusetts. His family had Puritan ancestors in the state, but were poor, as one of 7 children, George suffered some deprivations during his childhood, and was only able to attend school for a few years. These factors influenced his later devotion to both thrift and philanthropy, in 1816, he moved to Baltimore, where he made his career and would live for the next 20 years. He established his residence and office in the old Henry Fite House, at that time London, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt, were at the center of international banking and finance. Only they held the quantity of reserves of capital necessary to extend credit to a developing economy like that of the US. Over the next decade Peabody made four more trips, establishing a branch office in Liverpool. Later he established the firm of George Peabody & Company in London. In 1837, he took up permanent residence in London, where he lived for the rest of his life, although Peabody was briefly engaged in 1838, he never married. Ron Chernow describes him as homely, with a rumpled face, knobby chin, bulbous nose, side whiskers, and heavy-lidded eyes. At around this time, Peabody began to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, at about the same time, Peabody was also mentioned in newspapers as a future presidential candidate. Peabody described the presidential suggestion as a kind and complimentary reference and he died in London on November 4,1869, aged 74, at the house of his friend Sir Curtis Lampson. At the request of the Dean of Westminster, and with the approval of Queen Victoria and his will provided that he be buried in the town of his birth, Danvers, Massachusetts. He was laid to rest in Harmony Grove Cemetery, in Salem, Massachusetts, Peabodys death and the pair of funerals were international news, through the newly completed trans-Atlantic underwater telegraph cable. Hundreds of people participated in the ceremonies and thousands more attended or observed, branches were opened in New York and Philadelphia in 1822. Riggs retired in 1829, and the firm became Peabody, Riggs & Co. with the names reversed as Peabody became the senior partner, Peabody first visited England in 1827 to purchase wares, and to negotiate the sale of American cotton in Lancashire
27.
Visual art of the United States
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Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by American artists. Early colonial art on the East Coast initially relied on artists from Europe, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, artists primarily painted portraits, and some landscapes in a style based mainly on English painting. American artists who remained at home became increasingly skilled, although there was awareness of them in Europe. The American Revolution produced a demand for art, especially history painting. A parallel development taking shape in rural America was the American craft movement, which began as a reaction to the industrial revolution. After 1850 Academic art in the European style flourished, and as richer Americans became very wealthy, the flow of European art, new and old, to the US began, museums began to be opened to display much of this. Developments in modern art in Europe came to America from exhibitions in New York City such as the Armory Show in 1913, after World War II, New York replaced Paris as the center of the art world. Since then many American movements have shaped Modern and Postmodern art, Art in the United States today covers a huge range of styles. One of the first painters to visit British America was John White, eventually the English settlements grew large enough to support professional artists, mostly portrait-painters, often largely self-taught. Among the earliest was John Smybert, a trained artist from London who emigrated in 1728 intending to be a professor of fine art and his friend Peter Pelham was a painter and printmaker. Both needed other sources of income and had shops, most of early American art consists of history painting and especially portraits. As in Colonial America, many of the painters who specialized in portraits were essentially self-taught, notable among them are Joseph Badger, John Brewster, Jr. and William Jennys. The young nations artists generally emulated the style of British art, which they knew through prints, Robert Feke, an untrained painter of the colonial period, achieved a sophisticated style based on Smiberts example. Charles Willson Peale, who gained much of his earliest art training by studying Smiberts copies of European paintings, Peales younger brother James Peale and four of Peales sons—Raphaelle Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Rubens Peale and Titian Peale—were also artists. John Singleton Copley painted emblematic portraits for the prosperous merchant class. Benjamin West painted portraits as well as paintings of the French. John Trumbull painted large battle scenes of the Revolutionary War, when landscape was painted it was most often done to show how much property a subject owned, or as a picturesque background for a portrait. Americas first well-known school of painting—the Hudson River School—appeared in 1820, Thomas Cole pioneered the movement which included Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Doughty and several others
28.
Mansion
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A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word mansio dwelling, the English word manse originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way. Manor comes from the same root—territorial holdings granted to a lord who would remain there—hence it is easy to see how the word Mansion came to have its meaning, within an ancient Roman city, patrician dwellings might be very extensive, and luxurious. Such mansions on one hill in Rome became so extensive that the term palatial was actually derived from the name Palatine hill and is the origin of palace. Following the fall of Rome the practice of building unfortified villas ceased, today, the oldest inhabited mansions around the world usually began their existence as fortified castles in the middle ages. As social conditions slowly changed and stabilised fortifications were able to be reduced and it became fashionable and possible for homes to be beautiful rather than grim and forbidding allowing for the development of the modern mansion. In British English a mansion block refers to a block of flats or apartments designed for the appearance of grandeur, in many parts of Asia, including Hong Kong and Japan, the word mansion also refers to a block of apartments. In Europe, from the 15th century onwards, a combination of politics, as a result, many were transformed into mansions without defences or demolished and rebuilt in a more modern, undefended style. Due to intermarriage and primogeniture inheritance amongst the aristocracy, it common for one noble to often own several country houses. These would be visited throughout the year as their owner pursued the social. Many owners of a house would also own a town mansion in their countrys capital city. These town mansions were referred to as houses in London, hotels in Paris and it might be noted that sometimes the house of a clergyman was called a mansion house. This was a period of social change, as the educated prided themselves on enlightenment. The uses of these edifices paralleled that of the Roman villas and it was vital for powerful people and families to keep in social contact with each other as they were the primary moulders of society. The rounds of visits and entertainments were a part of the societal process. State business was discussed and determined in informal settings. Times of revolution reversed this value, in the great houses of Italy, the number of retainers was often even greater than in England, whole families plus extended relations would often inhabit warrens of rooms in basements and attics. It is doubtful that a 19th-century Marchesa would even know the number of individuals who served her
29.
Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.
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It is named for the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution, and includes a prominent statue of early 19th century President and general Andrew Jackson on horseback. The square and the structures were designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1970. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson had Pennsylvania Avenue cut through that park, in 1824, the park was officially renamed in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French military leader whose involvement was crucial in securing victory in the American Revolutionary War. Lafayette Square has been used as a racetrack, a graveyard, a zoo, a market, an encampment for soldiers during the War of 1812. In 1851, Andrew Jackson Downing landscaped Lafayette Square in the picturesque style, on February 27,1859 Representative Daniel Sickles killed Philip Barton Key II in Lafayette Square. Key had come to the park for an assignation with Sickles wife, todays plan, with its five large statues, dates from the 1930s. In the center stands Clark Mills equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson, Thomas and Concepcion Picciotto are founders of the White House Peace Vigil, the longest running anti-nuclear peace vigil in US history, at Lafayette Square. The White House White House Historical Association
30.
Architect
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An architect is someone who plans, designs, and reviews the construction of buildings. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, which derives from the Greek, practical, technical, and academic requirements for becoming an architect vary by jurisdiction. The terms architect and architecture are used in the disciplines of landscape architecture, naval architecture. In most jurisdictions, the professional and commercial uses of the terms architect, throughout ancient and medieval history, most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans—such as stone masons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Until modern times, there was no distinction between architect and engineer. In Europe, the architect and engineer were primarily geographical variations that referred to the same person. It is suggested that various developments in technology and mathematics allowed the development of the gentleman architect. Paper was not used in Europe for drawing until the 15th century, pencils were used more often for drawing by 1600. The availability of both allowed pre-construction drawings to be made by professionals, until the 18th-century, buildings continued to be designed and set out by craftsmen with the exception of high-status projects. In most developed countries, only qualified people with appropriate license, certification, or registration with a relevant body, such licensure usually requires an accredited university degree, successful completion of exams, and a training period. To practice architecture implies the ability to independently of supervision. In many places, independent, non-licensed individuals may perform design services outside the professional restrictions, such design houses, in the architectural profession, technical and environmental knowledge, design and construction management, and an understanding of business are as important as design. However, design is the force throughout the project and beyond. An architect accepts a commission from a client, the commission might involve preparing feasibility reports, building audits, the design of a building or of several buildings, structures, and the spaces among them. The architect participates in developing the requirements the client wants in the building, throughout the project, the architect co-ordinates a design team. Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers and other specialists, are hired by the client or the architect, the architect hired by a client is responsible for creating a design concept that meets the requirements of that client and provides a facility suitable to the required use. In that, the architect must meet with and question the client to ascertain all the requirements, often the full brief is not entirely clear at the beginning, entailing a degree of risk in the design undertaking. The architect may make proposals to the client which may rework the terms of the brief
31.
Second Empire (architecture)
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Second Empire is an architectural style, most popular in the latter half of the 19th century and early years of the 20th century. It was so named for the elements in vogue during the era of the Second French Empire. The style quickly spread and evolved as Baroque Revival architecture throughout Europe and its suitability for super-scaling allowed it to be widely used in the design of municipal and corporate buildings. In the United States, where one of the architects working in the style was Alfred B. Mullett, buildings in the style were often closer to their 17th-century roots than examples of the found in Europe
32.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
33.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
34.
George Eustis Jr.
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George Eustis Jr. was an American lawyer and politician. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 28,1828 and his father was a lawyer who served as a Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. His brother, James Biddle Eustis, was a United States Senator, George Jr. married Louise Morris Corcoran, the daughter of William Wilson Corcoran. They were the parents of two sons, William Corcoran Eustis and George Peabody Eustis, and a daughter, Louise Mary, Eustis graduated from Jefferson College in Convent, Louisiana and obtained a law degree from Harvard University Law School. He was a member of Congress and then secretary to John Slidell during the Civil War. He became a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Louisiana and he served two terms as a member of the anti-immigration American Party. He was later Secretary of the Confederate mission in Paris and he died in of Tuberculosis in Cannes, France on March 15,1872. His body was brought to the United States and interred in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, bio at Congress. gov G. Eustis at Find A grave
35.
Confederate States of America
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The Confederate States, officially the Confederate States of America, commonly referred to as the Confederacy, was a breakaway country of 11 secessionist slave states existing from 1861 to 1865. It was never recognized as an Independent country, although it achieved belligerent status by Britain. A new Confederate government was established in February 1861 before Lincoln took office in March, after the Civil War began in April, four slave states of the Upper South – Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina – also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. The government of the United States rejected the claims of secession, the Civil War began with the April 12,1861, Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, a Union fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. In spring 1865, after four years of fighting which led to an estimated 620,000 military deaths, all the Confederate forces surrendered. Jefferson Davis later lamented that the Confederacy had disappeared in 1865, Missouri and Kentucky were represented by partisan factions from those states, while the legitimate governments of those two states retained formal adherence to the Union. Also fighting for the Confederacy were two of the Five Civilized Tribes located in Indian Territory and a new, but uncontrolled, Confederate Territory of Arizona. Efforts by certain factions in Maryland to secede were halted by federal imposition of law, while Delaware, though of divided loyalty. A Unionist government in parts of Virginia organized the new state of West Virginia. With the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,1863, the Union made abolition of slavery a war goal, as Union forces moved southward, large numbers of plantation slaves were freed. Many joined the Union lines, enrolling in service as soldiers, teamsters and laborers, the most notable advance was Shermans March to the Sea in late 1864. Much of the Confederacys infrastructure was destroyed, including telegraphs, railroads, plantations in the path of Shermans forces were severely damaged. Internal movement became increasingly difficult for Southerners, weakening the economy and these losses created an insurmountable disadvantage in men, materiel, and finance. Public support for Confederate President Jefferson Daviss administration eroded over time due to repeated military reverses, economic hardships, after four years of campaigning, Richmond was captured by Union forces in April 1865. Shortly afterward, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, President Davis was captured on May 10,1865, and jailed in preparation for a treason trial that was ultimately never held. The U. S. government began a process known as Reconstruction which attempted to resolve the political and constitutional issues of the Civil War. By 1877, the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction in the former Confederate states, Confederate veterans had been temporarily disenfranchised by Reconstruction policy. The prewar South had many areas, the war left the entire region economically devastated by military action, ruined infrastructure
36.
Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes
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The Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes is an Episcopal church building located at 1215 Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest Washington, D. C. The current structure built in 1874 as the Church of the Ascension was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. On May 7,1844, several residents of northwest Washington who had previously attended services at St. Johns Episcopal Church in the Lafayette Square neighborhood met to begin forming their own parish. The church was formally established March 1,1845, and the territory of St. Johns was split between the two churches, while the church raised funds to construct a building, the members met in a schoolhouse on 9th Street. Parishioner Martha Burnes was the owner of 600 acres of Washington real estate, in 1802, she married John Peter Van Ness, who was a prominent banker and later became Mayor of Washington. Among Mrs. Van Nesss philanthropic endeavors was the Washington Orphan Asylum, Mrs. Van Ness expressed a desire to help the building effort, but died before this could happen. In accordance with her wishes, Mr. Van Ness donated land on H Street NW between 9th and 10th to Ascension Parish, and the cornerstone was laid September 5,1844. The Gothic Revival brick structure was complete enough to use by December 1844, the debt the parish incurred for construction was repaid by 1853, and the church was consecrated May 23 of that year. Throughout the 1850s, however, the continued to experience difficulties. Gilliss, resignation of his successor, a decline in the number of communicants and Sunday school attendees, the congregation sought the Rev. William Pinkney, who was then rector of St. Matthias Church in nearby Bladensburg, Maryland, to become the next rector. After initial reluctance, Pinkney agreed and the parish stabilized, in 1859, he oversaw building renovations that included expanding the capacity for approximately 600 additional worshipers. As many parishioners had friends and relatives in both the Northern and Southern states, their feelings and loyalties boiled over in the church during the leading to. This division was evident in the clerical ranks also as the rector, Mr Pinkney, in March 1862, Bishop Whittingham requested parishes to say a special prayer of thanksgiving for the late victories, Mr. Pinkney refused. The Saturday following Pinkneys refusal, Washingtons Provost Marshall notified him that the authories would assume control of the church to prevent a disturbance, Ascension became a military hospital to house casualties from the Peninsula Campaign, as did Epiphany Church and Holy Trinity in Washington. After their church was seized by the government, the parish was without a home, the problem was solved by member William Corcoran, a prominent banker and partner in the firm of Corcoran and Riggs, later known as Riggs Bank. Corcoran offered the use of a building he owned on H Street NW between 13th and 14th Streets. The congregation returned to its permanent home after the war, but by 1870, after much debate, leaders decided to erect a new structure and began soliciting funds. William Corcoran donated a site at the northwest corner of Massachusetts Avenue and 12th Street, the congregation engaged the Baltimore firm of Dixon and Carson, and the cornerstone was laid June 9,1874
37.
John Howard Payne
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John Howard Payne was an American actor, poet, playwright, and author who had most of his theatrical career and success in London. He is today most remembered as the creator of Home, a song he wrote in 1822 that became widely popular in the United States, Great Britain, and the English-speaking world. After his return to the United States, Payne spent time with the Cherokee Indians and he published accounts that suggested their origin as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel. In 1842, Payne was appointed American Consul to Tunis, where he served for nearly 10 years until his death, Payne was a distant cousin of the American parlor song composer Carrie Jacobs-Bond, born 10 years after Paynes death. John Howard Payne was born in New York City on June 9,1791, soon after his birth, his father moved the family to Boston, where he headed a school. The family also spent time at his grandfathers house in East Hampton, New York. As a youth, Payne showed precocious talent, but his father tried to discourage that path. After the death of a brother, his father installed young Payne, age 13, in the brothers position at the same accountants firm in New York. His interest in theater was irrepressible and he published the first issue of The Thespian Mirror, a journal of theater criticism, at age 14. Soon after that, he wrote his first play, Julia, or the Wanderer and its language was racy, and it closed quickly. Payne then caught the attention of John E. Seaman, a wealthy New Yorker who recognized his talent, Payne started a college paper called the Pastime, which he kept up for several issues. When he was 16, his mother died and his fathers business failed and he was a brilliant success, and played in other major cities to acclaim. In a brief interval away from the theatre, he founded the Athenaeum, Payne was friends with Sam Colt and his brother John C. Colt, who was accused of murdering a printer named Samuel Adams, Payne was a character witness at John Colts murder trial and acted as a witness in Colts wedding ceremony to Caroline Henshaw on the morning of Colts scheduled execution. After the death of Paynes father, the actor was taken up by the English tragedian George Frederick Cooke who came to America. Cooke appeared with Payne in King Lear at New Yorks Park Theatre and he encouraged Payne to go to London for its theatre world, which the young man did in February 1813. Paynes first engagements as an actor in London were very successful, Payne also went to Paris, where he attended much theater and met people in the circles. He decided to try writing, which he did easily and quickly and he was paid to translate several French plays for production in London
38.
Home! Sweet Home!
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Bishop had earlier published a more elaborate version of this melody, naming it A Sicilian Air, but he later confessed to having written himself. The songs lyrics are, When the song was published separately, the publishers made a considerable profit from it, net £2,100 in the first year, and the producer of the opera did well. Only Payne did not really profit by its success, while his money lasted, he was a prince of bohemians, but had little business sense. In 1852 Henry Bishop relaunched the song as a parlour ballad, the songs American premiere took place at the Winter Tivoli Theatre in Philadelphia on October 29,1823, and was sung by Mrs. Williams. As soon as 1827 this song was quoted by Swedish composer Franz Berwald in his Konzertstück for Bassoon, gaetano Donizetti used the theme in his Opera Anna Bolena Act 2, Scene 3 as part of Anna’s Mad Scene to underscore her longing for her childhood home. In 1857 composer/pianist Sigismond Thalberg wrote a series of variations for piano on the theme of Home, in 1909, it was featured in the silent film The House of Cards, an Edison Studios film. In the particular scene, a bar was hurriedly closed due to a fracas. A card reading Play Home Sweet Home was displayed, upon which an on-screen fiddler promptly supplied a pantomime of the song and this may imply a popular association of this song with the closing hour of drinking establishments. The song was banned from being played in Union Army camps during the American Civil War for being too redolent of hearth and home. The song is famous in Japan as Hanyū no Yado and it has been used in such movies as The Burmese Harp and Grave of the Fireflies. It is also used at Senri-Chūō Station on the Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Railway
39.
Tunis
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Tunis is both the capital and the largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as Grand Tunis, has some 2,700,000 inhabitants. Situated on a large Mediterranean Sea gulf, behind the Lake of Tunis and the port of La Goulette, the city extends along the coastal plain, at its core lies its ancient medina, a World Heritage Site. Beyond this district lie the suburbs of Carthage, La Marsa, as the capital city of the country, Tunis is the focus of Tunisian political and administrative life, it is also the centre of the countrys commercial activity. Tunis is the transcription of the Arabic name تونس which can be pronounced as Tūnus, Tūnas, All three variations were mentioned by the Greek-Syrian geographer al-Rumi Yaqout in his Mujam al-Bûldan. Different explanations exist for the origin of the name Tunis, some scholars relate it to the Phoenician goddess Tanith, as many ancient cities were named after patron deities. Another possibility is that it was derived from the Berber verbal root ens which means to lie down or to pass the night, given the variations of the precise meaning over time and space, the term Tunis can possibly mean camp at night, camp, or stop. There are also mentions in ancient Roman sources of such names of nearby towns as Tuniza, Thunusuda, Thinissut. As all of these Berber villages were situated on Roman roads, the historical study of Carthage is problematic. Because its culture and records were destroyed by the Romans at the end of the Third Punic War and these writers belonged to peoples in competition, and often in conflict, with Carthage. Greek cities contended with Carthage over Sicily, and the Romans fought three wars against Carthage, not surprisingly, their accounts of Carthage are extremely hostile, while there are a few Greek authors who took a favourable view, these works have been lost. The existence of the town is attested by sources dating from the 6th century BC, in the 2nd millennium BC a town, originally named Tunes, was founded by Berbers and also over time occupied by Numidians. In 146 BC, the Romans destroyed Tunis, however, the city was subsequently rebuilt under the rule of Augustus and became an important town under Roman control and the center of a booming agricultural industry. Situated on a hill, Tunis served as an excellent point from which the comings and goings of naval and caravan traffic to and from Carthage could be observed. Tunis was one of the first towns in the region to fall under Carthaginian control, thus, during Agathocles expedition, which landed at Cape Bon in 310 BC, Tunis changed hands on various occasions. During the Mercenary War, it is possible that Tunis served as a center for the population of the area, and that its population was mainly composed of peasants, fishermen. Compared to the ancient ruins of Carthage, the ruins of ancient Tunis are not as large, according to Strabo, it was destroyed by the Romans during the Third Punic War. Both Tunis and Carthage were destroyed, Tunis, however, was rebuilt first, the city is mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana as Thuni
40.
Charles Morris (naval officer)
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Charles Morris was a United States naval officer and administrator whose service extended through the first half of the 19th century. Morris was born in Woodstock, Maine, on July 26,1784, after being appointed a midshipman in July 1799, he served in the Quasi-War with France, First Barbary War, the Second Barbary War, and the War of 1812. He was promoted to captain in March 1813 and he served as a Navy Commissioner from 1823 to 1827, and as the Chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repairs from 1844 to 1847. In 1812, Morris was appointed officer of the USS Constitution under the command of Isaac Hull during her battle with the HMS Guerriere. He was promoted to captain on March 3,1813, in 1814, he commanded the USS Adams in raiding expeditions against British commerce. The British regulars routed the Americans, however, and Morris and his crew had to burn the ship and escape overland to Portsmouth, in 1819 after protracted negotiation, the government of Venezuela granted all the demands of the United States on 11 August negotiated by commodore Perry. However, during the passage down the Orinoco river, Perry was stricken with yellow fever, after visiting Montevideo and Buenos Aires, both ships returned to the United States, arriving Hampton Roads on 24 April 1820. In 1835, his daughter Louise eloped and married William Wilson Corcoran, in his later career, Morris commanded the Mediterranean Squadron and served as the chief of the Bureau of Ordnance. He was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts, Charles Morris died at his home in Washington, D. C. on January 27,1856, from a lung ailment. At the time of his death, he was the second highest-ranking officer in the Navy after Charles Stewart and he was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D. C. near the large family mausoleum built by his son-in-law, William Wilson Corcoran. Corcoran paid for a large, decorative headstone to be placed at the grave, Charles Morris was married to Harriet Bowen in February 1815. They had four sons and six daughters and his eldest son, Charles W. Morris served in the United States Navy during the Mexican-American War. As a flag lieutenant under Commodore David Connor he died from wounds received in an attack on Tabasco, Ships in the United States Navy have been named USS Morris and USS Commodore Morris for him. Charles Morris Court, a street inside the Washington Navy Yard in Washington and this article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. A Portrait of Old George Town, autobiography of Commodore Charles Morris, USN. Annapolis, Md
41.
Freemasonry
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The degrees of freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow, and Master Mason. These are the degrees offered by Craft Freemasonry, members of these organisations are known as Freemasons or Masons. There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, the basic, local organisational unit of Freemasonry is the Lodge. The Lodges are usually supervised and governed at the level by a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient. There is no international, worldwide Grand Lodge that supervises all of Freemasonry, each Grand Lodge is independent, modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups. Continental Freemasonry is now the term for the liberal jurisdictions who have removed some, or all. The Masonic Lodge is the organisational unit of Freemasonry. The Lodge meets regularly to conduct the formal business of any small organisation. In addition to business, the meeting may perform a ceremony to confer a Masonic degree or receive a lecture, at the conclusion of the meeting, the Lodge might adjourn for a formal dinner, or festive board, sometimes involving toasting and song. The bulk of Masonic ritual consists of degree ceremonies, candidates for Freemasonry are progressively initiated into Freemasonry, first in the degree of Entered Apprentice. Some time later, in a ceremony, they will be passed to the degree of Fellowcraft. In all of ceremonies, the candidate is entrusted with passwords, signs. Another ceremony is the installation of the Master and officers of the Lodge. In some jurisdictions Installed Master is valued as a separate rank, in other jurisdictions, the grade is not recognised, and no inner ceremony conveys new secrets during the installation of a new Master of the Lodge. Most Lodges have some sort of calendar, allowing Masons. Often coupled with events is the obligation placed on every Mason to contribute to charity. This occurs at both Lodge and Grand Lodge level, Masonic charities contribute to many fields from education to disaster relief. These private local Lodges form the backbone of Freemasonry, and a Freemason will necessarily have been initiated into one of these, there also exist specialist Lodges where Masons meet to celebrate anything from sport to Masonic research
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William Corcoran Eustis
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William Corcoran Eustis was a captain in the United States Army and the personal assistant to General John J. Pershing during World War I. He was chairman of the committee for the first inauguration of Woodrow Wilson in 1913. He was born on July 20,1862 in Paris to George Eustis, Jr. and he was the grandson of banker and philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran. He laid the cornerstone for the Corcoran Gallery of Art on May 10,1894, William was a personal secretary to General John J. Pershing during the First World War. In 1900 he married Edith Livingston Morton, a daughter of Levi P. Morton and he owned and restored Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Virginia until it was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1964. She served as a member of the commission for the District of Columbia War Memorial. He died on November 24,1921 of pneumonia due to related to the Spanish Flu. Eustis great-granddaughter, Wendy Pepper, was a contestant on season 1 of Project Runway, Oatlands Plantation is open to the public for a greater understanding of its historical impact
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