Another great post from obitoftheday. I watched the Opening Ceremony on TV last night and was really pleased to see that posters from previous Olympic Games were incorporated. They are iconic designs.
The Games of the XXXth Olympiad begin this evening. Here are some of the Olympic athletes and a coach who I have had the honor of featuring at Obit of the Day:
James Worrall, hurdler - 1936, Berlin
Ann Curtis, gold medal winner, swimming - 1948, London
Willie May, silver medal winner, 110m hurdles - 1960, Rome
Bob Boozer, gold medal winner, basketball - 1960, Rome
Fred Etcher, silver medal winner, hockey - 1960, Squaw Valley
Floyd Bedbury, speed skater - 1960, Squaw Valley; 1964, Innsbruck
LeRoy Walker, track and field coach - 1976, Montreal
and as an added bonus the two greatest athletes of the 20th century:
and
All Olympic posters are copyright of the International Olympic Committee and courtesy of sailing.org except for 1960 Squaw Valley (lonkeller.com), 1964 Innsbruck (brittanica.com) and 1972 Munich (harveyabramsbooks.com).
Random note: Great piece on the 1936 Berlin poster via @Guggenheim
Attention Twitter users and history nerds! Check out the @OlofAnderson account I maintain for the American Swedish Institute. I tweet short entries from his diary (in English!), which he wrote in 1855, about his emigration from Sweden to America and while he set up his new life in Minnesota. It’s pretty darn interesting, and it would also help me out if you followed. Thanks! And please share if you’re so inclined.
nypl:
We don’t have the scroll in our collection, but the New York Public Library does have a massive Jack Kerouac archive, in the Berg Collection of English and American Literature. Included are drafts of writing, notebooks, journals, and even items relating to Kerouac’s fantasy baseball team!
Right now you can see a page from a manuscript of On the Road, featuring a mention of Hector’s Cafeteria, at the NYPL’s Lunch Hour NYC exhibition.
Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. The poet typed on a scroll for three weeks in the spring of 1951.
Too cool.
Archives! Who needs them? Police.
The closure of the forensic science archive in England and Wales will cause miscarriages of justice and stop police solving crimes, senior politicians, scientists and lawyers have warned.
The archive has been closed to save money, meaning forces will have to create individual storage systems.
Acpo police chiefs said the “consolidated” archive provided a “safe, secure and efficient facility”.
The Home Office said proper access to forensic records would be maintained.
The Archive of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) holds more than 1.7m case files - some more than 30 years old.
The records are regularly used to investigate unsolved crimes, as well as for appeals against unsafe convictions.
But in March, the government closed the FSS from taking on more material, arguing that it had been losing money.
Now, each of the 43 police forces across England and Wales must arrange its own storage of future forensic records.
June 30, 2012 will be one of the most important moments in the history of the American Swedish Institute, so we’re throwing a party and inviting everyone!
Don’t cling to things, because everything is impermanent.
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Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie (via bookmania) This is a great quote for archivists. Do what you can, but it’s all going sometime. |
