KiMMiE's MyOpera OPUS #64

You don't have to go far to find fascinating stories behind some of the world's most famous logos. Just take a look inside your kitchen cabinets ...

Morton Salt: The Morton Umbrella Girl

Morton Salt, as its name clearly states, makes salt. The company got its start as a small Midwestern sales agency in 1848. In 1889, Joy Morton bought a major interest in the company and in 1910, he changed its name to Morton Salt Company.



The Morton Umbrella Girl got her start in 1914. The logo was produced as part of a series of ads in Good Housekeeping. The concept was that Morton Salt - unlike regular salt of the day - poured without clumps, even in damp weather. The company added magnesium carbonate as an absorbing agent to ensure that its table salt poured freely (it had since been changed to calcium silicate).

At first, the advertising agency suggested "Even in rainy weather, it flows freely" as the company's motto. Morton felt that it was too long, and the motto was changed to the catchier "When it Rains it Pours."



Heinz 57 Varieties
Did you ever wonder why Heinz Ketchup bottle has a label that says "57 Varieties"? Well, it turns out that while riding a train in New York City in 1896, Henry John Heinz noticed an ad for "21 styles of shoes." He thought that it was a clever way to advertise the great number of choices of canned and bottled foods that his company sold. Back then, the company already sold more than 60 items but Heinz put together "5" (his lucky number) and "7" (his wife's lucky number) to get "57 varieties."

That number must be really lucky, because H.J. Heinz Company grew to be a behemoth in the food industry. It currently sells more than 5,700 varieties in 200 countries and territories.

Oh, and by the way, Heinz' first product wasn't ketchup. It was bottled horseradish made from his mother's own recipe.



Jolly Green Giant: The Logo that Became the Company

In 1925, Minnesota Valley Canning Company wanted to market its canned peas (a particularly large variety of peas, actually), so it came up with an unusual mascot: a grumpy grey gnome, wearing a scruffy bearskin, stooping and scowling. If that doesn't seem like a mascot that would induce you to buy products, you'd be right.



So the company hired an ad agency to revamp the mascot's image. A young ad man named Leo Burnett (who later became a legend in advertising) was assigned the task and he revamped it into a smiling green giant wearing a skimpy tunic, wreath and boots made of leaves. He also named it "Jolly."

The Jolly Green Giant was such a successful marketing ploy that in 1950 the company changed its name into Green Giant.

The company's first TV commercial in 1953 featured the Jolly Green Giant as a puppet (in a stop-motion animation) roaming the valley and saying "fo fum fi fe." What they didn't anticipate was how scary he turned out to be to children! Needless to say, they didn't continue the ads ...

In 1978, the town of Blue Earth, Minnesota, put a 55-foot (~ 17 m) tall fiberglass statue of the Jolly Green Giant to welcome visitors to the local Blue Earth Green Giant plant. Every Christmas, the townspeople put a red scarf around its neck, so it doesn't get too cold!







La Vache qui Rit: The Laughing Cow



At the end of World War I, a French cheesemaker named Léon Bel had a lot of leftover comté, gruyere, and emmental cheeses and decided to melt them down to create a new type of cheese.

In 1921, Bel saw a traveling meat truck nicknamed "Wachkyrie," after "Valkyries," the creatures in Norse mythology that determine the victors in the battle, and thought that it would make a good name for his cheese. Well, actually a pun of the name: La Vache qui Rit ("The Laughing Cow"). Bel commissioned Benjamin Rabier, who later became a famous cartoon artist, to draw the laughing cow logo.

The original La Vache qui Rit wasn't laughing. It also wasn't red and it didn't wear the tiny cheese earrings. Bel asked his printer Vercasson to make the changes - but that's not all that Vercasson did: he also trademarked the "Red Cow" design. Bel was later forced to pay for the right to use his own logo!

If you look closely at the cow's earring, you'll see that it's actually a package of La Vache qui Rit cheese, with a picture of the red cow on it. And yes, that cow has earrings of cheese, which have another picture of a red cow ad infinitum. (It's an example of the Droste effect, if you must know).

But why is the cow laughing? (Indeed, that is the motto of the cheese.) Well, given that the Laughing Cow cheese is now sold in more than 90 countries, with 125 portions of the cheese wedge eaten every second around the world - it seems that the cow is laughing all the way to the bank!


Aunt Jemima

In 1889, Chris Rutt and Charles Underwood developed a ready-mixed, self-rising pancake flour. All they needed was a name. One evening, Rutt heard a song called "Old Aunt Jemima," sung by a black-faced vaudeville performer clad in apron and a bandana headband, and so "Aunt Jemima Manufacturing Company" was born.

A year later, the duo sold their business to R.T. Davis, who brought Aunt Jemima to life - literally - by hiring Nancy Green, a former slave to play her. Green portrayed Aunt Jemima for 30 years till her death in 1923. Davis' campaign was so successful that people thought that Aunt Jemima was a real Southern cook who came up with the pancake mix recipe. Since then, six more women had portrayed the jovial cook.


(Photos: Nancy Green via African American Registry; Anna Robinson via NY Times/Bettmann/Corbis; Edith Wilson via Redhotjazz; Rosie Lee Moore Hall via RTIS; Aylene Lewis via Stuff from the Park; not pictured: Ethel Ernestine Harper and Ann Short Harrington)

In her book Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus , author Marilyn Kern-Foxworth calls Aunt Jemima "the most battered woman in America" - and the portrayal of this character certainly reflected the societal change that America went through over the years. In the 1950s, the black "Mammy" in kerchief look was criticized as being an outdated and negative portrayal of African-American women. As a result, Quaker Oats Company (which bought the company and brand in 1926) modernized the image of Aunt Jemima: for her 100th anniversary, the company transformed her into a younger, thinner woman, all dressed up with a pearl earring and no kerchief. The bright warm smile, however, remains.


Betty Crocker

The story of how Betty Crocker came to be is quite interesting. In the early 1920s, the Washburn Crosby Company of Minneapolis (a big milling company that later merged with other companies to form General Mills) got a lot of mail from its customers asking baking questions.

In 1921, the company thought that it would be better to sign the responses personally, so they combined the last name of its director, William Crocker, with the first name "Betty" (chosen because "it sounded cheery, wholesome, and folksy.") The famous Betty Crocker signature was penned by a company secretary who won a contest.

The whole Betty Crocker persona was carefully engineered to appeal to women:

A group of college educated women were hired to develop Betty's persona. Her picture and signature appeared in print ads. Cooking demonstrations were organized showing off Betty's "solutions to domestic woes." [...]

On the radio, Betty could speak to her loyal followers. Cooking and Gold Medal Flour were central to the script. But so were housekeeping, time management, friends, family, and husbands. "If you load a man's stomach with boiled cabbage and greasy fried potatoes," Betty once told listeners, "can you wonder that he wants to start a fight, or go out and commit a crime?" But she also reminded women that their role as homemakers was important, and that their aspirations could be "as great as woman could have in any occupation."

In 1924, Betty Crocker debuted on the radio (on the nation's first cooking show). In 1936, Betty Crocker got a face: artist Neysa McMein brought together all women in the General Mills' Home Service Department and created a composite face. Over the next eight decades, Betty had several makeovers to update her look to fit the times!



(If you're interested in finding out more about Betty Crocker, Susan Marks wrote the definitive book, Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food)


Chef Boyardee

Legends have it that Chef Boyardee was named for the men who created him (Boyd, Art, and Dennis), and given the other made-up food mascots, you'd be forgiven if you believed it.

But in this case, there actually was a real-life Chef Boyardee! His name was Ettore "Hector" Boiardi (1897-1985). Boiardi immigrated to the United States when he was 16 years old and worked himself up to head chef at the Plaza Hotel in New York. When Chef Boiardi opened his own restaurant [in 1924, Boiardi opened the Giardino d'Italia restaurant at East 9th Street and Woodland Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio] so many of his customers asked for extra portions of his spaghetti sauce to take home that he opened a factory to keep up with orders. To help Americans pronounce his name correctly, he named his brand Chef Boy-Ar-Dee (later the company got rid of the hypens).


Sara Lee

In 1932, Charles W. Lubin pooled his money with his brother-in-law to purchase a small chain of bakeries called the Community Bake Shops. When he came out with a new line of cheesecakes, his wife Tillie told him that he should name it after their daughter, Sara Lee.

The Sara Lee cheesecakes were so popular that in 1950, Lubin renamed his company the Kitchens of Sara Lee. When his company was bought out by Consolidated Foods, that company also renamed itself Sara Lee Corporation!

The real Sara Lee Lubin never held management position in the company, though she did appear as a spokesperson in some ads. Today, Sara Lee Lubin Schupf is a philantrophist and devotes her time to support the advancement of girls and women in science.


Quaker Oats

Quick: what does the Quaker Oats cereal have to do with the religious Christian denomination The Religious Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers? Turns out ... nothing - only clever advertising.

In 1877, Henry D. Seymour and William Heston founded a mill in Ravenna, Ohio, and named it the Quaker Mill. There are conflicting stories as to how the name came to be. One legend has it that Seymour chose the name after reading an encyclopedia entry on the Quakers:

"The name was chosen when Quaker Mill partner Henry Seymour found an encyclopedia article on Quakers and decided that the qualities described — integrity, honesty, purity — provided an appropriate identity for his company's oat product."

Another story said that Heston was walking on the streets of Cincinnati when he ran across a picture of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania and a famous Quaker. In whichever case, later that year the company trademarked the Quaker Man, described as "The figure of a man in Quaker garb." It was the first US trademark ever registered for a breakfast cereal.

The original 1877 Quaker Man was a full-length picture of a Quaker holding a scroll with the word "pure" on it (just in case the integrity/honesty/purity point didn't get across). In 1946, graphic designer Jim Nash created a black and white head portrait of the smiling Quaker Man and in 1957, Haddon Sundblom made the full-color portrait. The last update to the logo was in 1972, when Saul Bass created the stylized graphic that still appears on Quaker Oats product packages today.


Gerber Baby

In 1928, Frank Daniel Gerber and his son Daniel Frank Gerber (yes, I know) of Fremont Canning Company wanted to promote their new product: baby food. The company had been a small packager of peas, beans, and fruits in rural Michigan. Daniel convinced his father to manufacture and sell strained baby food (at the time, preparing food for infant was a tedious chore of cooking and mashing things).

The Gerbers wanted a baby face to brand their new baby food, and held a contest. Amongst the many drawings and paintings submitted (including some elaborate oil paintings of baby portraits) was an unfinished charcoal sketch by Dorothy Hope Smith of Boston. Dorothy drew a five month old baby with tousled hair and bright blue eyes, using her neighbor's baby as a model. She offered to finish the sketch if she won, but the judges decided to use it as it was.

The Gerber Baby turned out to be so popular that over a decade later, the company changed its name to Gerber Products Company.

Oh, and who was the original Gerber Baby? Her name is Ann Turner Cook, a mystery author and former high school English literature teacher. You can find out more about Ann and her three published mystery books at her official website. [http://annturnercook.info/index.html]

~source ::: Stories Behind 10 Famous Food Logos by Alex in Food & Drinks, Neatorama Only on Jan 22, 2009, http://www.neatorama.com/2009/01/22/stories-behind-10-famous-food-logos/


as a footnote, i always thought my Baby Sister looked like the baby on the Gerber food jars and boxes...

Bathsheba is an artist exploring the region between art and mathematics, and this is her gallery and storefront. Her work is about life in three dimensions: working with symmetry and balance, getting from a zero point to infinity, and always finding beauty in geometry.

That's to say, she likes to think about shapes, and occasionally she thinks up a new one, and usually they come out very symmetrical. She's like any artist in that it's difficult to explain exactly how and why this happens.


So she writes about her odd points. Apparently she studied more math than most artists. She didn't use it very directly – she's certainly not a research mathematician, and most of her designs are drawn rather than computed – but it's plain that her creative engine is interested in this subject.

She likes technology. She3D printing in metal is her main medium, and she also works with subsurface laser damage in glass. This isn't because she loves gadgets, it's much more trouble to do this than to use the mature tech that most sculptors enjoy. She does it because the shapes she has in mind aren't mold-able, and she wants to make a lot of them. Those two constraints, taken together, turn out to be remarkably constraining: most traditional sculpture technology simply doesn't operate on un-moldable objects.






She has a grass-roots business model. She doesn't limit editions, she prices as low as costs permit, and most of her selling is direct to you, by way of her web site. Her plan is to make these designs available, rather than restrict the supply. It's more like publishing than like gallery-based art marketing: she doesn't feel that a book has lost anything because many people have read it. In fact it becomes more valuable as it gains wide currency and influence. With the advent of 3D printing, this is the first moment in art history when sculpture can be, in this sense, published. She thinks it's the wave of the future.



That said, most people's next question is, "So, is this your real job?" At present, she's happy to say that it is. It took her about ten years from art school to make a dollar, during which she worked as a programmer, college professor, tech writer, typist, web designer, etc., making sculpture by hand as best she could. In the last years of the 20th century, 3D printing was developed to a level that could do her work, and then, quite suddenly, she began to be an artist.



That was satisfying of course, but it brought new challenges as she studied up on CAD, made her mistakes with new media, and started figuring how to make the money work. There's always so much to do! She's tried to include on her web site everything that you need to understand what she does, and to take up the subject yourself if you feel inclined. There's plenty of room.



But none of this is important to the work: naturally she's proud of it, but now it makes its own way. She hopes you'll enjoy her designs. They're visions of order in the universe, her peaceful places. She feels calm and hopeful in making them, and she hopes they will bring some of that satisfaction into your life. — Bathsheba Grossman http://www.bathsheba.com/



Sculptor Bathsheba Grossman creates metal and crystal artworks of forms found in math, physics, biology, and astronomy. Grossmen shows us Borromean rings, hypercubes, gyroids, fractals, Calabi-Yau spaces, and interlaced sculptures based on the five Platonic solids. I particularly like this Voronoi network wrapped onto a Möbius toroid, sculpted in white glass. For many of us, the first time we appreciated the art of math was when we played with a Spirograph. However, it’s a long way from addition and subtraction to epicycloids, and very few of us actually study math that far. But those who do sometimes end up creating some very beautiful artworks based on mathematics and geometry.

The Legendary and Internationally Renowned Terracotta Warriors[/COLOR]







The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses are the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century. Work is ongoing at this site, which is around 1.5 kilometers east of Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum in Lintong, Xian, Shaanxi Province. It is a sight not to be missed by any visitor to China.












Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had begun to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish. It is speculated that many buried treasures and sacrificial objects had accompanied the emperor in his after life. A group of peasants uncovered some pottery while digging for a well nearby the royal tomb in 1974. It caught the attention of archeologists immediately. They came to Xian in droves to study and to extend the digs. They had established beyond doubt that these artifacts were associated with the Qin Dynasty (211-206 BC).





Armoured General. An armoured general, prepared to lead soldiers in the afterlife.
© Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau and the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage [/COLOR]


Less than 40 years ago in the Shaanxi province of north-central China, farmers accidentally unearthed fragments of what would become one of the world's greatest archaeological finds: the Terracotta Army of Warrior Emperor Ying Zheng.


A Terracotta Dog. This dog was created in the time of Emperior Gaozu from the Han Dynasty.
© Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau and the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage [/COLOR]


Since that first incredible discovery in 1974, archaeologists have unearthed approximately 2,000 full-sized terracotta warriors and horses from three ancient pits, yet the terracotta site is in fact only a minor component of a much grander tomb construction under which lie thousands of treasures waiting to be excavated. Considered by some to be the 8th wonder of the world, this extraordinary site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 and continues to be a shining symbol of China's rich cultural history.


Terracotta Horse. A life size terracotta horse, found along with the army.
© Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau and the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage [/COLOR]


Ying Zheng's autocratic rule lasted 37 years and saw incredible tyranny alongside incredible development, yet despite his controversial role in history, the Terracotta Warriors represent the greatest evidence of his legacy. The construction of the mausoleum started when he was just 13 years old and required more than 700,000 workers to complete the various warriors and sculptures, who Zheng thought would protect him in the afterlife. Recent archaeological findings suggest that the underground tomb complex may actually resemble a grand underground palace complete with royal gardens.


Terracotta Army[/COLOR]


The Terracotta Army (simplified Chinese: 兵马俑; traditional Chinese: 兵馬俑; pinyin: bīngmǎ yǒng; literally "soldier and horse funerary statues") is the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China. The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (Chinese: 秦始皇陵; pinyin: Qín Shǐhuáng Ling). The figures vary in height (183-195 cm - 6 ft-6 ft 5in), according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.


Warrior and horse. The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army Exhibit at the ROM.
Photo courtesy of Mallorie Bronfman-Thomas.[/COLOR]


The Terracotta Army was discovered in the spring of 1974 in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province by local farmers named Yang who were drilling a water well 1.5 miles east of Mount Li. The region around the mountain was riddled with underground springs and watercourses, and every little extra bit of water helped when it came to irrigating fields. In 195 B.C., Liu Bang himself -- the first emperor of the dynasty that followed the Qin -- had ordered that 'twenty households' should move to the site of the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huang, "shi huang" means the first emperor) to watch over the tomb. To this day, twenty villages sit in the immediate vicinity of the mausoleum, one of them the hamlet where the Yang family lived; the terracotta army may have been rediscovered by the direct descendants of the people left to guard it. For centuries, in fact, there were reports of pieces of terracotta figures and fragments of the Qin necropolis -- roofing tiles, bricks, and chunks of masonry -- having been occasionally dug up in the area.


Kneeling Archer.Emperor Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Army Museum.
Photo courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum.[/COLOR]


This most recent discovery prompted archaeologists to investigate. The Terracotta Army is a form of funerary art buried with the First Emperor of Qin in 210-209 BC. He had declared himself the first emperor of unified China in 221 B.C. From the name of his dynasty comes our name for this large nation. The Army's purpose was to help rule another empire with Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife. Consequently, they are also sometimes referred to as "Qin's Armies." The material to make the terracotta warriors originated on Mount Lishan. In addition to the warriors, an entire man-made necropolis for the emperor has been excavated. Up to 5 meters (16 feet) of reddish, sandy soil had accumulated over the site in the centuries following its construction, but archaeologists also found evidence of earlier, impromptu discoveries. During the digs at Mount Li, archaeologists found several graves from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, whose diggers had obviously struck terracotta fragments, only to discard them as worthless with the rest of the back-filled soil.


Terracotta Warrior. The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army Exhibit at the ROM.
Photo courtesy of Mallorie Bronfman-Thomas.[/COLOR]


According to historian Sima Qian (145-90 BC), construction of this mausoleum began in 246 BC and involved 700,000 workers. (Geographer Li Daoyuan, six centuries after the death of the First Emperor, explained that Mount Li had been chosen as a site for its auspicious geology: it had once had a gold mine on its north face and a jade mine on its south face, demonstrating not only its sacred value, but also perhaps how the tunnels had come to be dug in the first place.) Qin Shi Huang was 13 when construction began. He specifically stated that no two soldiers were to be made alike, which is most likely why he had construction started at that young age. Sima Qian, in his most famous work, Shiji, completed a century after the mausoleum completion, wrote that the First Emperor was buried with palaces, scenic towers, officials, valuable utensils and "wonderful objects," with 100 rivers fashioned in mercury and above this heavenly bodies below which he wrote were "the features of the earth." Some translations of this passage refer to "models" or "imitations," but he does not use those words.


Up-close warrior shot. The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army Exhibit at the ROM.
Photo courtesy of Mallorie Bronfman-Thomas.[/COLOR]


Recent scientific work at the site has shown high levels of mercury in the soil on and around Mount Lishan, appearing to add credence to Sima Qian's writings. The tomb of Shi Huang Di is under an earthen pyramid 76 meters tall and nearly 350 square meters. The tomb remains unopened, in the hope that it will remain intact. Archeologists are afraid that if they do excavate the tomb, they might damage some of the valuables buried with emperor Qin Shi Huang. Only a portion of the site is presently excavated, and photos and video recordings are prohibited in some areas of the viewing. Only few foreigners, such as Queen Elizabeth II, have been permitted to walk through the pits, side by side to the army.


Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
UNESCO World Heritage Site


Qin Shi Huang’s necropolis complex was constructed to serve as an imperial compound or palace. It comprises several offices, halls and other structures and is surrounded by a wall with gateway entrances. It was also said as a legend that the terracotta warriors were real soldiers, buried with Emperor Qin so that they could defend him from any dangers in the next life.


The terracotta army figures were manufactured both in workshops by government laborers and also by local craftsmen. The head, arms, legs and torsos were created separately and then assembled. Studies show that eight face molds were most likely used, and then clay was added to provide individual facial features. Once assembled, intricate features such as facial expressions were added. It is believed that their legs were made in much the same way that terracotta drainage pipes were manufactured at the time. This would make it an assembly line production, with specific parts manufactured and assembled after being fired, as opposed to crafting one solid piece of terracotta and subsequently firing it. In those times of tight imperial control, each workshop was required to inscribe its name on items produced to ensure quality control. This has aided modern historians in verifying that workshops that once made tiles and other mundane items were commandeered to work on the terracotta army. Upon completion, the terracotta figures were placed in the pits in precise military formation according to rank and duty.


A rank of soldiers. One of the soldiers on the left is missing his head, a result of the fact
that the statues were made in pieces and then assembled.


The terracotta figures are life-like and life-sized. They vary in height, uniform and hairstyle in accordance with rank. The colored lacquer finish, individual facial features, and actual weapons and armor from battle used in manufacturing these figures created a realistic appearance. The original weapons were stolen by robbers shortly after the creation of the army and the coloring has faded greatly. However, their existence serves as a testament to the amount of labor and skill involved in their construction. It also reveals the power the First Emperor possessed, enabling him to command such a monumental undertaking.


Note how the faces of these two soldiers differ from each other.
Each statue was constructed to be unique.


The four pits associated with the dig are about 1.5 km east of the burial ground and are about 7 meters deep. The outside walls of the tomb complex are as if placed there to protect the tomb from the east, where all the conquered states lay. They are solidly built with rammed earth walls and ground layers as hard as concrete. In addition to delineating the site, these served to protect the ground beneath the site from springs in the area, as also mentioned in the Shiji. Pit one, 230 meters long, contains the main army, estimated at 8,000 figures. Pit One has 11 corridors, most of which are over 3 meters wide, and paved with small bricks with a wooden ceiling supported by large beams and posts. This design was also used for the tombs of noblemen and would have resembled palace hallways. The wooden ceilings were covered with reed mats and layers of clay for waterproofing, and then mounded with more soil making them, when built, about 2 to 3 meters higher than ground level. Pit two has cavalry and infantry units as well as war chariots, and is thought to represent a military guard. Pit three is the command post, with high ranking officers and a war chariot. Pit four is empty, seemingly left unfinished by its builders.


The Terracotta Warriors were once painted.
Today only a handful of statues contain small amounts of paint.
Also notice the detail put into the soles of the warrior's shoes.


A set piece of 120 objects from the mausoleum and 20 terracotta warriors were displayed at the British Museum in London as its special exhibition "The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army" from September 13, 2007 to April 2008. This Terracotta Army exhibition made 2008 the British Museum's most successful year ever, and made the British Museum the United Kingdom's top cultural attraction between 2007-08. The exhibition also brought in the most visitors to the British Museum since the King Tutankhamun exhibition in 1972. It was reported that the initial batch of pre-bookable tickets to the Terracotta Army exhibition sold out so fast that the museum extended the exhibition until midnight on Thursdays to Sundays. According to The Times, many people had to be turned away from the exhibition, despite viewings until midnight, and during the day of events to mark the Chinese new year, the crush was so intense that the gates to the museum had to be shut. The Terracotta Army has been described as the only other set of historic artifacts (along with the remnants of ruins of the RMS Titanic) which can draw a crowd simply on the back of the name alone.


The statues include many of the different military units in the Emperor's army at the time.
Here we see a four horse war chariot with mounts.

~sources ::: [1] The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army Marches Into Canada, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marissa-bronfman/the-warrior-emperor-and-c_b_632420.html, Marissa Bronfman, Writer, Posted: July 6, 2010 12:13 PM; [2] wikipedia

Cover of the 1862 sheet music for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"

"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is an American abolitionist hymn. The lyrics were written by Julia Ward Howe in November 1861 and first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. It became popular during the American Civil War. Since that time it has become an extremely popular and well-known American patriotic song.

The tune was written around 1855 by William Steffe. The first known lyrics were called "Canaan's Happy Shore" or "Brothers, Will You Meet Me?" and the song was sung as a campfire spiritual. The tune spread across the United States, gaining a reputation as the best song of its time.

Sheet music version

Thomas Bishop, from Vermont, joined the Massachusetts Infantry before the outbreak of war and compiled a popular set of lyrics, circa 1860, titled "John Brown's Body" which became one of his unit's walking songs. According to writer Irwin Silber (who has written a book about Civil War folk songs), the original lyrics were only obliquely about John Brown, the famed abolitionist. More particularly the lyrics were about a Scotsman of the same name who was a member of the 12^th Massachusetts Regiment, and the lyrics were composed to poke some good-natured fun at the runty, mild-mannered Scotsman who shared the same name as the much more famous and fearsome abolitionist.

Bishop's battalion was dispatched to Washington, D.C. early in the Civil War, and Julia Ward Howe heard this song during a public review of the troops outside Washington on Upton's Hill, Virginia. Rufus R. Dawes, then in command of Company "K" of the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, stated in his memoirs that the man who started the singing was Sergeant John Ticknor of his Company. By this time the association with the diminutive Scotsman John Brown was forgotten or unknown to most listeners, who heard only a rough and somewhat oddly-phrased marching song about John Brown the abolitionist. Howe's companion at the review, the Reverend James Clarke, suggested to Howe that she write new words for the fighting men's song. Staying at the Willard Hotel in Washington on the night of November 18, 1861, Howe awoke with the words of the song in her mind and in near darkness wrote the verses to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Of the writing of the lyrics, Howe remembers, "I went to bed that night as usual, and slept, according to my wont, quite soundly. I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind. Having thought out all the stanzas, I said to myself, 'I must get up and write these verses down, lest I fall asleep again and forget them.' So, with a sudden effort, I sprang out of bed, and found in the dimness an old stump of a pen which I remembered to have used the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper."

As originally published 1862 in The Atlantic Monthly

Howe's "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was first published on the front page of The Atlantic Monthly of February 1862. The sixth verse written by Howe, which is less commonly sung, was not published at that time. The song was also published as a broadside in 1863 by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments in Philadelphia.

"Canaan's Happy Shore" has a verse and chorus of equal metrical length and both verse and chorus share an identical melody and rhythm. "John Brown's Body" has more syllables in its verse and uses a more rhythmically active variation of the "Canaan" melody to accommodate the additional words in the verse. In Howe's lyrics, the words of the verse are packed into a yet longer line, with even more syllables than John Brown's Body. The verse still uses the same underlying melody as the refrain, but the addition of many dotted rhythms to the underlying melody allows for the more complex verse to fit the same melody as the comparatively short refrain.

Both "John Brown" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic" were published in Father Kemp's Old Folks Concert Tunes in 1874 and reprinted in 1889. Both songs had the same Chorus with an additional "Glory" in the second line: "Glory! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!"

Julia Ward Howe was the wife of Samuel Gridley Howe, the famed scholar in education of the blind. Samuel and Julia were also active leaders in anti-slavery politics and strong supporters of the Union.

One version of the melody, in C major, begins as below. This is an example of the mediant-octave modal frame.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His day is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on."
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Since God is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.[/I]

The song alludes to several Biblical passages. The first verse draws on the Book of Revelation, which describes an angel casting grapes into "the great winepress of the wrath of God" (14:19), and later describes the Word of God who wields "a sharp sword" and "treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" (19:15). The third verse refers to YHWH Elohim's (God's) statement in Genesis 3:15 that the woman's (Eve's) offspring will step on and bruise (or crush) the head of the serpent (and/or its seed), while the serpent will strike at his heel. Indirectly, this also refers to Revelation(Apocalypse in Catholic/Orthodox bibles) 12:1-10, where a woman (often interpreted as being The Blessed Virgin Mary and/or the newly formed Christian Church and/or the ancient Israel) bears a child while engaged in struggle with a dragon/serpent. The dragon/serpent is defeated. The fourth verse alludes to 2 Corinthians 5:10, which states that "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." The fifth verse refers to the doctrine that Christians can be made holy through the death of Christ (Colossians 1:21-22). The sixth verse refers to the Earth as the footstool of God, a claim which appears in Isaiah 66:1, Matthew 5:35, and Acts 7:49.

In later years, when this song was sung in a non-military environment, the clause "let us die to make men free" was sometimes changed to "let us live to make men free." This change can be seen in most modern hymnals. In addition, the term "bosom" in the fifth verse is often changed to "being." Sometimes, gender-neutral language is used and it is sung as "as he died to make us holy, let us live to make all free."

The sixth verse is often omitted, as is the third. Also, a common variant changes "soul of Time" to read "soul of wrong," and "succour" to "honor."

Also, when the sixth verse is omitted, the fifth verse can be sung at a slower pace than the rest of the song.

In the years since the Civil War, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" has been used frequently as an American patriotic song.

This song is usually heard at the national conventions of both the Republican Party and Democratic Party, and is often sung at Presidential inaugurations.

In 1960 the Mormon Tabernacle Choir won the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus. The 45 rpm single record, which was arranged and edited by Columbia Records and Cleveland disk-jockey Bill Randle, was an unlikely commercial success and reached #13 on Billboard's Hot 100 the previous autumn.



Judy Garland performed this song on her weekly television show in December 1963. She originally wanted to do a dedication show for JFK upon his assassination but CBS would not let her, so she performed the song without being able to mention his name.

Words from the first verse gave John Steinbeck the title of his 1939 masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath. The title of John Updike's In the Beauty of the Lilies also came from this song, as did Terrible Swift Sword and Never Call Retreat, two volumes in Bruce Catton's Centennial History of the Civil War.

The lyrics of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" appear in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sermons and speeches, most notably in his speech "How Long, Not Long" from the steps of the Montgomery, Alabama, Courthouse on March 25, 1965, after the 3rd Selma March and in his final sermon "I've Been to the Mountaintop" delivered in Memphis, Tennessee, on the evening of April 3, 1968, the night before his assassination. In fact, the latter sermon, King's last public words, ends with the first lyrics of the "Battle Hymn," "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."



~source ::: ~wikipedia

The garden strawberry is a common plant of the genus Fragaria cultivated worldwide for its fruit, the (common) strawberry. The fruit is widely appreciated, mainly for its characteristic aroma but also for its bright red color, and it is consumed in large quantities, either fresh or in prepared foods such as preserves, fruit juice, pies, ice creams, and milk shakes. Artificial strawberry aroma is also widely used in all sorts of industrialized food products.
Ready to eat Strawberries
The garden strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France in 1740 via a cross of Fragaria virginiana from eastern North America , which was noted for its flavor, and Fragaria chiloensis from Chile and Argentina brought by Amedee-Francois Frezier, which was noted for its large size.

Cultivars of Fragaria ananassa have replaced, in commercial production, the woodland strawberry, which was the first strawberry species cultivated in the early 17th century.
Closeup of the surface of a strawberry shows achenes with style and stigma attached
The strawberry is, in technical terms, an accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries (achenes) but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries. Accessory fruits were sometimes in the past referred to as "false" or "spurious" fruits, but those terms have been criticized as "inapt" and are not used by botanists today.

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Subfamily: Rosoideae
Genus: Fragaria
Species: F. ananassa
Binomial name
Fragaria ananassa
Duchesne

Strawberry cultivars vary remarkably in size, color, flavor, shape, degree of fertility, season of ripening, liability to disease and constitution of plant. Some vary in foliage, and some vary materially in the relative development of their sexual organs. In most cases the flowers appear hermaphroditic in structure, but function as either male or female.

For purposes of commercial production, plants are propagated from runners and, in general, distributed as either bare root plants or plugs. Cultivation follows one of two general models, annual plasticulture or a perennial system of matted rows or mounds. A small amount of strawberries are also produced in greenhouses during the off season.
Strawberry flowers and developing fruit
The bulk of modern commercial production uses the plasticulture system. In this method, raised beds are formed each year, fumigated, and covered with plastic to prevent weed growth and erosion. Plants, usually obtained from northern nurseries, are planted through holes punched in this covering, and irrigation tubing is run underneath. Runners are removed from the plants as they appear, to encourage the plants to put most of their energy into fruit development. At the end of the harvest season, the plastic is removed and the plants are plowed into the ground. Because strawberry plants more than a year or two old begin to decline in productivity and fruit quality, this system of replacing the plants each year allows for improved yields and denser plantings. However, because it requires a longer growing season to allow for establishment of the plants each year, and because of the increased costs in terms of forming and covering the mounds and purchasing plants each year, it is not always practical in all areas.

The other major method, which uses the same plants from year to year growing in rows or on mounds, is most common in colder climates. It has lower investment costs, and lower overall maintenance requirements. Yields are typically lower than in plasticulture.
Halved strawberry showing internal structure
A third method, uses a compost sock. Plants grown in compost socks have been shown to produce significantly higher oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), flavonoids, anthocyanins, fructose, glucose, sucrose, malic acid, and citric acid than fruit produced in the black plastic mulch or matted row systems. Similar results in an earlier 2003 study conducted by the US Dept of Agriculture, at the Agricultural Research Service, in Beltsville Maryland, confirms how compost plays a role in the bioactive qualities of two strawberry cultivars.

Strawberries are often grouped according to their flowering habit. Traditionally, this has consisted of a division between "June-bearing" strawberries, which bear their fruit in the early summer and "ever-bearing" strawberries, which often bear several crops of fruit throughout the season. Research has shown recently that strawberries actually occur in three basic flowering habits: short-day, long-day, and day-neutral. These refer to the day-length sensitivity of the plant and the type of photo-period that induces flower formation. Day-neutral cultivars produce flowers regardless of the photoperiod.
Ripe strawberry [/ALIGN]
Strawberries may also be propagated by seed, though this is primarily a hobby activity, and is not widely practiced commercially. A few seed-propagated cultivars have been developed for home use, and research into growing from seed commercially is ongoing. Seeds (achenes) are acquired either via commercial seed suppliers, or by collecting and saving them from the fruit.

Strawberries can also be grown indoors in strawberry pots.

Most strawberry plants are now fed with artificial fertilizers, both before and after harvesting, and often before planting in plasticulture.
Unripe strawberry [/ALIGN]
The harvesting and cleaning process has not changed substantially over time. The delicate strawberries are still harvested by hand. Grading and packing often occurs in the field, rather than in a processing facility. In large operations, strawberries are cleaned by means of water streams and shaking conveyor belts.

Around 200 species of pests are known to attack strawberries both directly and indirectly. These pests include slugs, moths, fruit flies, chafers, strawberry root weevils, strawberry thrips, strawberry sap beetles, strawberry crown moth, mites, aphids, and others.

A number of species of Lepidoptera feed on strawberry plants.
A diorama created from beeswax by Dr. Henry Brainerd Wright at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport, Louisiana depicts strawberry harvesting. Strawberries are particularly grown in the southeastern portion of the state about Hammond. [/ALIGN]
Strawberry plants can fall victim to a number of diseases. The leaves may be attacked by powdery mildew, leaf spot (caused by the fungus Sphaerella fragariae), leaf blight (caused by the fungus Phomopsis obscurans), and by a variety of slime molds. The crown and roots may fall victim to red stele, verticillium wilt, black root rot, and nematodes. The fruits are subject to damage from gray mold, rhizopus rot, and leather rot. The plants can also develop disease from temperature extremes during winter. When watering your strawberries, be sure to water only the roots and not the leaves, as moisture on the leaves encourages growth of fungus. Ensure that the strawberries are placed in a windy area to prevent the fungus from occurring.

This bubble map shows the global distribution of strawberry output in 2005 as a percentage of the top producer (USA - 1,053,240 tonnes).

Strawberries are an easy plant to grow, and can be grown almost anywhere in the world. The best thing to do is to buy a plant in early to middle spring. Place the plant preferably in full sun, and in somewhat sandy soil. Strawberries are a strong plant that will survive many conditions, but, during the time that the plant is forming fruit, it is important for it to get enough water. Strawberries can also be grown as a potted plant, and will still produce fruit.
Fragaria ananassa 'Chandler,' a short-day commercial cultivar grown in California
A strawberry plant will send out shoots in an attempt to propagate a new plant, and, if left alone, it will be successful in doing so, but this shoot can be cut off, and placed wherever you wish to start a new plant.

In addition to being consumed fresh, strawberries can be frozen, made into preserves, as well as dried and used in such things as cereal bars. Strawberries are a popular addition to dairy products, as in strawberry-flavored ice cream, milkshakes, smoothies, and yogurts. Strawberries and Cream is a popular dessert, famously consumed at Wimbledon. Strawberry pie is also popular. Strawberries can be dipped in melted chocolate fondue as a healthier way to enjoy chocolate.
A garden using the plasticulture method
Strawberry pigment extract can be used as a natural acid/base indicator due to the different color of the conjugate acid and conjugate base of the pigment.

One cup (144 g) of strawberries contains approximately 45 calories (188 kJ) and is an excellent source of vitamin C and flavonoids.

Some people experience an anaphylactoid reaction to the consumption of strawberries. The most common form of this reaction is oral allergy syndrome, but symptoms may also mimic hay fever or include dermatitis or hives, and, in severe cases, may cause breathing problems. Some research suggests that the allergen may be tied to a protein involved in the ripening of fruits, which was named Fra a1 (Fragaria allergen1). Homologous proteins are found in birch and apple, which suggests that people may develop cross-reactivity to all three species.
Fragaria ananassa 'Gariguette,' a cultivar grown in southern France
White-fruited strawberry cultivars, lacking Fra a1, may be an option for strawberry allergy sufferers. Since they lack a protein necessary for normal ripening, they do not produce the flavonoids that turn the mature berries of other cultivars red. They ripen but remain white, pale yellow or "golden," appearing like immature berries; this also has the advantage of making them less attractive to birds. A virtually allergen-free cultivar named 'Sofar' is available.
~source ::: wikipedia