The original Keep Calm and Carry on poster, as well as its more widely used and distributed contemporaries.
Irene, (born c. 752, Athens—died Aug. 9, 803, Lesbos), Byzantine ruler and saint of the Greek Orthodox Church who was instrumental in restoring the use of icons in the Eastern Roman Empire.
The wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo IV, Irene became, on her husband’s death in September 780, guardian of their 10-year-old son, Constantine VI, and co-emperor with him.
Irene favoured the restoration of the use of icons, which had been prohibited in 730. As Constantine approached maturity, he grew resentful of his mother’s controlling influence in the empire. An attempt to seize power was crushed by the Empress, who demanded that the military oath of fidelity should recognize her as senior ruler. Anger at the demand prompted the themes (administrative divisions) of Asia Minor to open resistance in 790. Constantine VI was proclaimed sole ruler and his mother banished from court. In January 792, however, Irene was allowed to return to court and even to resume her position as co-ruler. By skillful intrigues with the bishops and courtiers she organized a conspiracy against Constantine, who was arrested and blinded at his mother’s orders (797).
Irene then reigned alone as emperor (not empress) for five years. In 798 she opened diplomatic relations with the Western emperor Charlemagne, and in 802 a marriage between her and Charlemagne was reportedly contemplated. According to the contemporary Byzantine historian Theophanes, the scheme was frustrated by one of Irene’s favourites. In 802 a conspiracy of officials and generals deposed her and placed on the throne Nicephorus, the minister of finance. She was exiled, first to the island of Prinkipo (now Büyükada) and then to Lesbos.
In 1888, Bertha Benz drove from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in first long distance automobile trip.
Read more on Today in Women’s History.
Lt. Emily Lewis and two colleagues prepare to travel by jeep in Normandy. 1944. She served as a flight nurse and helped evacuate wounded after D-Day.
(via womenatwar)
Have you ever wondered why the District of Columbia is called the District of Columbia?
“Columbia is a poetic name for the Americas and the feminine personification of the United States of America. It has inspired the names of many persons, places, objects, institutions, and companies in the Western Hemisphere and beyond.
Columbia is a New Latin toponym, combining a stem Columb- based on the surname of the explorer Christopher Columbus and an ending -ia, common in Latin names of countries (e.g.Britannia ’Britain’, Gallia ’Gaul’). The meaning is therefore ‘Land of Columbus.’
The image of the personified Columbia was never fixed, but she was most often presented as a woman between youth and middle age, wearing classically draped garments decorated with the stars and stripes; a popular version gave her a red-and-white striped dress and a blue blouse, shawl, or sash spangled with white stars. Her headdress varied; sometimes it included feathers reminiscent of a Native American headdress, sometimes it was a laurel wreath, but most often it was a cap of liberty.”
Pictured: World War I patriotic poster.
George Peter Alexander Healy (American, 1813 -1894)
Portrait of Sallie Ward,1860,oil on canvas.Sallie Ward was one of the most notorious southern belles of the nineteenth century. A resident of Louisville she was known from Boston to New Orleans, not only for being vivacious, impetuous and fun-loving, but also for her scandalous actions. She was married four times, “painted” her face, and wore bloomers at formal events, all very shocking to the more staid members of society. Nonetheless she had numerous admirers who were quick to forgive her trespasses.
The Speed Museum
Plus, once a month we focus in on one particular place, time, or group, in Theme Week.
