'Titanic' at National Geographic Museum

 RMS Titanic under construction. Tools used in the making of the ship are on display at the National Geographic Museum through Monday/Library of Congress

It's not too late to get tickets for the last weekend (through New Year's Eve on Monday) of the stunning display of artifacts and pieces of the remarkable story at the National Geographic Museum of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.  The history of the search for the ship after it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 unfolds in pictures, objects, and words.

Who is not interested in this incredible Titanic tale? 

Part of the show includes an elaborate set from the movie, Titanic, and pieces from the ship never publicly shown.

 

An artist's rendering of the collision between the Titanic and the iceberg. With global warming now prevalent more than 100 years later, this iceberg now might be a fourth of its size illustrated here/Mary Evans Library, Library of Congress

Oceanographer Robert Ballard at National Geographic's Titanic exhibition with submersible companions, Alvin and Jason, which were critical instruments in the successful hunt for the ship in 1985/Photo by Patricia Leslie

If it were not for the persistence, skill, and drive of

oceanographer Robert Ballard and his team, the Titanic might still lie undiscovered in ocean waters, but a secret mission from the U.S. Navy to Dr. Ballard led to the missing ship.

Declassified documents and the cooperation of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and the U.S. National Archives help now to tell the story behind the hunt.

Dr. Ballard had a one-year assignment from the Navy to find and report on conditions of two nuclear submarines, the Scorpion and the Thresher which both sank in the 1960s. To keep the goal of the trip secret from a participating French team, the ostensible purpose of the voyage was to search for the Titanic.

Dr. Ballard knew the Titanic rested somewhere between the two subs, but he only had had a year to complete the job on the subs.  Any leftover time could be used, the Navy agreed, to look for the Titanic.  

Near the end of the year, all that remained for Dr. Ballard's team to find the Titanic were 12 days.

Below are pictures from the exhibition, Titanic: The Untold Story.

Oceanographer Robert Ballard at the Titanic exhibition at National Geographic Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A Titanic deck chair, one of only seven to remain in existence. Dozens of these chairs were thrown into the water, hoping passengers could use them as support to survive in the icy waters. The ship's chief baker, Charles Joughin  threw nearly 50 overboard, according to the label copy. Rather than drowning, most victims died from hypothermia.  This particular chair was salvaged by the crew of a rescue ship, the CGS Montmagny/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This is the only known life jacket to be associated with a passenger who was Madeleine Astor, wife of John Jacob Astor. When he made his way to enter a lifeboat with his wife, he was turned away because he was a male ("women and children first!" which included Mrs. Astor's nurse [Mrs. Astor was pregnant] and maid). .Mr. Astor helped his wife put on the life jacket shortly after the ship struck the iceberg. The 14-carat gold pocket watch below was engraved with his initials and found on his body with $25,000 in cash on April 27, 1912. Mr. Astor's eldest son, Vincent, from another marriage, carried his father's watch for more than 20 years, and Mr. Astor's youngest child, John Jacob Astor VI was born on August 14, 1912. This is the first time since the sinking, that the watch and the life jacket have been together.  In today's dollars, Mr. Astor was worth about $2.2 billion and the Astors' ship suite, about  $26,000 daily. Their dog, Kitty, also died on the Titanic.  Mr. Astor is buried in Trinity Cemetery, New York/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Mr. Astor's pocket watch found on his body on April 27, 1912 with $25,000 in cash.  See above/Photo by Patricia Leslie

These wooden pieces from the Titanic's Grand Staircase floated to the ocean's surface after the ship sank. On the top is a piece of stair tread and on the bottom, a piece of a wooden cap. The black rectangle in the plastic case on the left is an exhibition tool designed to protect the artifacts/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Captain E. J. Smith's uniform.  Although he went down with the Titanic and his body was never recovered, what is the source of this uniform?  The label does not say. One of his last acts was to release his crew to escape. Captain Smith hesitated to order passengers to board the lifeboats until he realized, in consultation with the ship's designer, the eminent tragedy/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A set from James Cameron's movie, Titanic. The label says Mr. Cameron was meticulous in every detail of his movie, making everything as real and lifelike as possible, spending hours in research and using a module to dive into the Atlantic to inspect the remains of the ship himself/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Above are pieces of fabric from the Titanic's restock inventory to replace normal wear and tear of a floral valence and curtain tie/Photo by Patricia Leslie

China used by various classes of Titanic passengers.  On the far left is the captain's table dinner plate, Spode pattern R4331, a rare design with gold trim, the most expensive of china decoration. Examples have been found at the Titanic wreck site. The white plate at the top is a first-class deck service plate with the White Star Line logo found in the center and similar to third-class china found at the bottom.  Deck plates often broke which explains why less expensive china was used there. The second-class dinner plate is the delft pattern on the far right.  The third-class china at the bottom is actually from the S.S. Republic, another White Star ship which sank in 1909. It shows the relative luxury third-class passengers enjoyed, with an egg cup and coffee service/Photo by Patricia Leslie

In the upper far left corner is the crew's handwritten luncheon menu, the only one known to exist. Next to it are two photographs of the Titanic Captain E. J. Smith, taken between 1907 and 1911 when he captained the RMS Adriatic. Beside them are pieces of one of two known cup and saucer sets of the captain's table china service, given by crewman James Kieran to his wife on the morning the Titanic sailed.  The  keys on the far left were carried by lamp trimmer Samuel Hemming who escaped in Lifeboat 4, and the four buttons are like the ones ship officers wore on their coats/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On the left are a hammer and plane used by a construction worker on the Titanic when it was built in Belfast by Harland & Wolff.  On the right is an anti-vibration block to test the ship's engines at full speed and reduce vibrations":that would put strain on the testing building," according to label copy/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This is the only known deck chair from the rescue ship, Carpathia, which was one of the  "widows' seats" so called because new widows, rescued from the Titanic, sat in them on their way to New York.  In the chair is a blanket used by second-class passenger Marion Wright Woolcott  to keep warm on the lifeboat/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At the National Geographic Museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What: Titanic: The Untold Story

When: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily through Dec. 31, 2018. The last ticket is sold at 5 p.m.

Where: National Geographic, 1145 17th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036

Admission: Adults: $15; seniors, military, students: $12; children ages 5-12, $10; children under age 5 are admitted free. No charge for members.  

Closest Metro station: Farragut West or Farragut North

For more information: 202-857-7700


patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: 'Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy'

It's not because of the song in Hamilton, "Dear Theodosia" that I read this book. It's because of my every annual visit to the fabulous sculpture garden in South Carolina, Brookgreen Gardens, and the historical marker in its parking lot about the "lost" Theodosia Burr Alston (1783-1813) that I read it.*  

Thank you, author Richard N. Côté (1945-2015) for compiling a thoroughly documented resource,  Theodosia Burr Alston:  Portrait of a Prodigy, about the daughter of Aaron Burr (1756-1836).  

Mr. Burr trained and guided his daughter to become a cosmopolitan, erudite young woman who could speak several languages and rise to any occasion, he, a feminist, unsmitten by gender roles in the 18th century and enough contained herein about him to warrant consideration of a sub-title, as in: Aaron Burr, Director of a Daughter's Life or Portrait of an 18th Century Umbrella Father.

Mr. Burr enjoyed an exceedingly close relationship with his daughter which may have led to the death of Alexander Hamilton when the two men fought a duel, perhaps caused, Mr. Côté postulates, by whispers Mr. Hamilton circulated about the close relationship of father and child (p. 181-86).

Several times Mr. Côté mentions the oddity Mr. Burr practiced of keeping his daughter informed about his many trysts with prostitutes, after, of course, the death of his wife for whom their daughter was named. When Mrs. Burr died, Theodosia was only 10, but it did not take long for her to assume hostessing duties at her father's estate, Richmond Hill in Manhattan. 

In 1801 Theodosia wed a wealthy Southern planter, Joseph Alston (1779-1816), who was elected governor of South Carolina in 1812, the same year their only child, Aaron Burr Alston, age 10, died of malaria. This tragedy preceded Theodosia's disappearance at sea the next year off the coast of Georgetown, S.C., while on her way to visit her father.

Mr. Alston provided handsomely for his father-in-law when he needed money, including Mr. Burr's wild (or so it seems now) scheme to raise an army and separate the western United States and make a nation, Mexico, for which Mr. Burr would be emperor and his daughter, empress.

Although it is written that Theodosia did love her husband, had she been forced to choose between him and her father, there is little doubt she would have chosen the latter, or, at least, that was my impression.  Her husband was often away, busy with political duties and earning money.

At times, the Theodosia writing is disjointed and repetitive. The first 30-or-so pages drag with too many dates and names which are hard to keep straight, but the book soon becomes a rapid page-turner. 

Without warning or hint that their son was ill, a chapter begins with the announcement of his death.

Why was Aaron Burr considered "a dangerous man" (p. 179) and what were the reasons for his disharmony with President Thomas Jefferson for whom he served as vice-president of the United States?  Neither is adequately defined.

The last three chapters describe the many fictional and non-fictional books, articles, and suppositions about Theodosia's death, including the final, "Nag's Head Portrait," now found at Yale University's Lewis Walpole Library, claiming, without proof, according to Mr. Côté, the portrait is of Theodosia Burr Alston. Mr. Côté presents a convincing case of why it is not. 

The Nags Head Portrait (or "Fake" Theodosia) at Yale University's Lewis Walpole Library

Portraits, illustrations, maps, and photographs of family homes, places, and things enliven the text.  

I wish the oceanographer, Robert Ballard, would take up the cause and find the Patriot, the ship which carried the first lady of South Carolina and others to their deaths.

Mr. Côté hints that Mr. Burr, a ladies man par excellence who relied upon sex for release of many burdens, could be the father of the eighth president, Martin van Buren (1782-1862). Is it time for an exhumation?

*Another nearby marker commemorates President George Washington's visit to Brookgreen Plantation on April 28, 1791.

Anna Hyatt Huntington, 1876-1973, Diana of the Chase, 1922, Brookgreen Gardens, S.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

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Book review: 'Dinner in Camelot' is lukewarm

Dinner in Camelot is rather like one boring movie which makes you wonder if it's going to get any better.

It doesn't.

Those of us who were alive during the Kennedy presidential years, I think are always looking to recapture some of their magic and allure and relive the days of grace, intellect, and beauty which have been mostly absent since 1963.

Subtitled: The Night America's Greatest Scientists, Writers, and Scholars Partied at the Kennedy White House, this book, published last spring, describes (some but not enough of) the famous dinner on April 29, 1962 for all living Nobel Prize winners in the Western Hemisphere.

Many of the phrases are repeated twice or more. Some of the guests are described in too much detail: J. Robert Oppenheimer (atomic bomb), William and Rose Styron (Kennedy friends and authors; she wrote Dinner's foreword ), the Paulings (chemist and activists whose son, Linus C. Pauling, Jr. gave Dinner the highest possible rating on Amazon).

I didn't get Dinner at the library to read about them and their research. I got it to read about them, the hosts, and more about other guests, and the actual dinner: the menu, the flowers, the table settings, the guests' arrivals and their attire, the orchestra, the music program.  

What did the expanded portions about the scientists and their work have to do with the dinner? Had I wanted a book about science, I would have gone to the science section of the library.  

My impression was the author, Joseph A. Esposito, was trying to pad and fill pages which number 252 but they are little pages, at best no more than 150 real pages.

Did I miss the list of all the guests with a brief description of their occupations? Or, cause for their celebrity? Surely, it is there somewhere, and I overlooked it.  After all, this is about one fancy dinner party, likely the fanciest one in Washington when JFK said:  

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

Anything about the children (other than Caroline playing with the elevator)?  More about the orchestra, please. Did Jacqueline Kennedy select the music?

Maybe, the next edition?  

Patricialesli@gmail.com

National Philharmonic gifts for the hard-to-please

Hanbing Jia and Sara Matayoshi, violinists for the National Philharmonic Chamber Players/Photo by Patricia Leslie

For the person or persons on your list who is hard to please, who may "have everything," what about a gift subscription to the National Philharmonic at Strathmore? 

Some music lovers in Northern Virginia are hesitant about going out to Strathmore, but there is no difficulty, I can assure you, as a frequent customer who finds the Old Georgetown Road exit off the Beltway with a right turn on Grosvenor Lane the easier route, but there is also the Rockville Pike/Tuckerman Lane exit, too. 

Strathmore has plentiful free parking at the Metro station garage across the street with an elevated, covered walkway to connect to the music center.

One of the joys of the Philharmonic is its chamber music series where I was able to hear another tribute to Leonard Bernstein's 100th birthday celebration when chamber players performed "What is a Melody?" at the John Kendall Recital Hall at Potter Violins in Takoma Park. 

The program opened with a short video devoted to Mr. Bernstein who defined melody as repeating ideas in a simply arranged method, such as birds flying together or the sound of humming bees (if live bees are a possibility). 

Two masterpieces by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), String Quartet in B Flat Major OP. 18 and Grosse Fuge for String Quartet OP. 133 began and ended the program, exquisitely performed by Hanbing Jia and Sara Matayoshi on violins, Lori Barnet on cello, and Colin Sorgi played the viola and directed. 

The first movement in B Flat Major started cheerily with an energetic answer to the cello and violins, while the viola seemed content to linger in the background. The violins played in tandem with an emphatic end to the movement. 

A strong cello led the second movement with more repetition and energy to introduce the third movement whose mazurka similarities and a demanding violin solo all ending happily enough with the fourth.

Next came Blueprint by Caroline Shaw (b. 1982), a Pulitzer Prize winner whose creation linked to Beethoven's String Quartet.

Exclaimed Director Sorgi: "It really is fun and we hope you enjoy it," and the audience did.  It is delightful to hear new compositions, the variations in the outcome, and a millennial's perspective.

In program notes, Ms. Shaw wrote the basis for the work originated as "a harmonic reduction" of Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 18 which she has played many times with friends. "Chamber music is ultimately about conversation without words," she noted.

As in dialogue with friends, there are pauses here, too, but it is a contemporary work which is unobnoxiously modern for this traditionalist (and definitely beyond "millennialism").

Because I am a huge fan of Russian history and culture, the inclusion of String Quartet no. 3 by the Russian Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) was of keen interest and presented no disappointment despite its stylish sway.

Reginald Gray, (1930-2013), Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), 1972/Wikimedia Commons

A modern piece by a modern composer with a tense spirit, unpleasant and uncompromising, with hints of Alfred Hitchcock here and there.  A sadness and gloom seemed to permeate the structure in which the composer included attention to Orlande de Lassus, Beethoven's Grosse Fugue, and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Mr. Schnittke composed symphonies, operas, ballets, concertos, and scores for more than 60 films (any of Hitch's?). He is buried in the renowned Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Alfred Schnittke's gravestone with fermata, Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow/Photo by de Bernutzer: Wwwrathert, Wikimedia Commons

The last selection, Beethoven's Grosse Fugue, was labeled "surely one of the composer's most inspiring achievements" in program notes by Mark Steinberg from Yale's School of Music and a member of the Brentano String Quartet. Certainly, another one which the chamber players performed with precision and flair.

Upcoming dates for the Chamber Players at Potter Violins are:

Feb. 3, 2019: The Road to Paris

Apr. 28, 2019:  Musical Atoms
  
The entire orchestra will perform Holiday Pops, December 7, at 7:30 p.m. at Strathmore.


patricialesli@gmail.com 





 

Ships from the Dutch Golden Age at the National Gallery of Art

Willem Van De Velde the Younger, 1633-1707, The Dutch Fleet Assembling Before the Four Days' Battle of 11-14 June 1666, 1670, on loan from Moveo Art Collection. This depicts the Dutch ships, the Liefde (Love) on the left and the Gouden Leeuwen (Golden Lions) on the right, as they sailed on the North Sea to wage war on the British during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667). Although the Liefde sank during the engagement, the Dutch won the battle, the longest and largest ship fight between the two nations.

 

Above is one of the 17th century ship models in the exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. This model is on loan from the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts. The artist is unknown. Iceboards attached to the sides helped stabilize the ship, especially in shallower waters, indicating this yacht was intended to stay closer to shore rather than venturing out to higher seas, according to the label copy/Photo by Patricia Leslie
 
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age at the National Gallery of Art came down last Sunday,  but here, you may read about it and see some of the 50 odd pieces in the exhibition which included ship models, paintings, prints, and drawings portrayed by artists from the 17th century and the Dutch Golden Age.

Then the Dutch stood at their height of realm and rule, the most prosperous nation in Europe, emboldened by their mighty seas and waterways which were used for commerce, battles, and pleasure,  and drawn by their artists.

Breaking from religious themes and styles, Dutch painters drew subjects from everyday scenes, people, landscapes, animals, flowers, still lifes, historical events, ships, and water. Rembrandt van Rijn was represented by six of his etchings and drawings.

Adam Van Breen, 1585-1640, Skating on the Frozen Amstel River, 1611, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Waterways were not only used for commerce but for pleasure, too. See the dancers on the ice shaking a leg after, perhaps, imbibing in some Amstel Light beer. At the bottom near the center to the right of the dignitary in red, is a lad carrying a stick over his shoulder to play kolf, a combination of golf and hockey. His red and black shirt identifies him as an orphan.

Hendrick Avercamp, 1585-1634, A Scene on the Ice, c. 1625. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Here you can see couples in love, couples, maybe out of love, a playful dog, a horse-drawn sleigh, and children playing the precursor of hockey, kolf.

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-1669, View over the Amstel from the Rampart, c. 1646-1650, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-1669, The Bathers, 1651, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Abraham Blooteling, 1640-1690, Admiral Egbert Meesz Kortenaer, c. 1665. One of the most interesting in the show. The admiral lost his lower right arm and left eye in the First Anglo-Dutch war in 1652 in the Battle of Dungeness. He continued to serve his nation until his death in 1665 at the Battle of Lowestoft when the Dutch were defeated near the coast of Suffolk, England. Look at the confidence in his eyes and his strong grasp of the telescope or baton (what is it?) in his left hand, a force demanding reckoning! He is buried at Rotterdam at the memorial (pictured below) which is engraved with a poem by Gerard Brandt.

By Josh at nl.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org

The Hero of the Maas, bereft of eye 
 and his right hand
Yet of the Wheel the Eye, Fist of 
the Fatherland 
KORTENAER the Great, the terror 
of foe's fleets
the forcer of the Sound by this grave 
his country greets

Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656, Ice Scene near a Wooden Observation Tower, 1646, National Gallery of Art, Washington. See the horse-drawn sleigh on the ice on the left and men pushing carts. The tower provided a mark in the horizon to help sailors navigate waterways. During bad weather and at dusk, the tower was a lighthouse.  The time period is what is known as the "Little Ice Age."

Hendrick Cornelis Vroom, 1566-1640, A Fleet at Sea, c. 1614, private collection. The label copy said Vroom was the first Dutch painter to specialize in seascapes. He was a frequent sailor who survived a shipwreck and applied his experiences and observations to the canvas.

Cornelius Verbeeck, 1591-1637. A Naval Encounter between Dutch and Spanish Warships, c. 1618-1620, National Gallery of Art, Washington. For ten years these two works led separate lives  until technical analysis revealed they belonged together, according to label copy. A Spanish ship on the left fires cannons on the Dutch on the right. The Dutch ships were usually smaller and more easily navigated, especially by their skilled and experienced crew, testimony which can be seen below the Dutch vessel where a destroyed Spanish vessel is battered by waves.

Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age at the National Gallery of Art, Washington/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The curator for the exhibition was Alexandra Libby, the assistant curator of northern Baroque paintings at the National Gallery.

What and when: The National Gallery of Art is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday.

Where: The National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.

Admission charge: It's always free at the National Gallery of Art.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215
 
patricialesli@gmail.com