This is really good. Just the right mix of nostalgia, bitterness and sadness.

Who knew? "Under the authority of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, over 11,000 Germans and German Americans were selectively detained and interned at the start of World War II. In addition, over 4,500 ethnic Germans were brought to the U.S. from Latin America and detained." (as comparison, 10x as many Japanese-Americans were interned)

Installation at the NAP point in Amsterdam. Tubes show the current sea levels and the high mark of the 1953 floods.

muxtape: too good to last

"Landscape artist Alan Sonfist (1946- ) created Time Landscape as a living monument to the forest that once blanketed Manhattan Island. He proposed the project in 1965. After extensive research on New York’s botany, geology, and history Sonfist and local community members used a palette of native trees, shrubs, wild grasses, flowers, plants, rocks, and earth to plant the 25' x 40' rectangular plot at the northeast corner of La Guardia Place and West Houston Street in 1978. The result of their efforts is a slowly developing forest that represents the Manhattan landscape inhabited by Native Americans and encountered by Dutch settlers in the early 17th century."

annual rebuilding of fish weirs on the ancient coastline in boston common, complete with ritual and ceremony.

"There is a faction of the city that wants to make sure people will remember, a feeling among old-time residents that the time has come to mark their territory" [1997-12-29]

"Another unforgettable remembrance was the aroma from the Brighton Abattoir, especially when the wind was from the northeast."

call for submissions

"For example, Cimicchi is hoping to install electronically controlled access gates in Orvieto, which would grant entrance exclusively to city residents."

Amazing/wrenching collection of photography (incl 250 color pix) from Word War I. Incl article on Churchill saying that American entry prolonged the war.

stupidsmart: 'you just look for the part of the record where the reflections in the groove change, then you know you can mix it there.'

"A medium-sized city on the East Cost of North America is suddenly possessed by a mania for memorial commenoration"

FF project to design a monument to Paterson NJ. It will be awesome!

"As a living force the past is ever remade. Heritage cannot be stored in a vault or an attic; the true steward adds his own stamp to his predecessors'."

Professor Young is author of At Memory's Edge: After-images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture (2000), The Texture of Memory (1993), & Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust (I988), which won a Choice Outstanding Book Award for 1988. Guest

"artist invited representatives from 8 religious faiths [in the Ruhr] to answer the question: 'Is it possible to depict the subject of your quest?'...Answers engraved on 8 glass panels, installed permanently at the place of worship of another faith."

Countermonument: "alluded to an artistic criticism of monuments, which was a conscious departure from the traditional iconography of monuments, or rather, which took it to absurd lengths."

gegendenkmal

I'm going to bookmark a bunch of articles now Ceci, watch out! [review of

Saw this painting before I ever saw the canal.

Continous occupation by one family from ~1650 then direct sublimation into historical artifact. "In 1989 the last Lott to live in the house, Miss Ella Suydam, died. Soon after, NYC landmarked the Lott House & Suydam's estate sold the Lott House & propert

Mostly nostalgic 'reports' on Brooklyn. Top one describes Lott's Lane, more on that TK.

"Eternal September (also Great September, September that never ended, perpetual September, or endless September) is a Usenet slang expression for the period of time beginning September 1993."

"Every evening at 8, buglers close the road which passes under the Memorial & play the Last Post. Ceremony was banned by Germans in WWII, resumed on the night that Ypres was liberated, despite heavy fighting still taking place in other parts of town."

"sponsors projects designed to broaden the definition and the reach of community planning and neighborhood history in New York City." leahb: 'gowanus canal viewing boxes'

"The Chronology of the Ancient Near East deals with the notoriously difficult task of assigning dates to various events, rulers and dynasties of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC."

"Below is a list (by state) of U.S. Senators for whom we have no image in our collection. If you have an image, or information that may lead us to an image, please contact the Senate's photo historian."

when you start quoting anecdotes from a book you read from the library years ago, you should probably just buy it. thank god for the internets that I could find which book it was I was talking about

in the US Capitol: "statues donated by states to honor persons notable in their history. The entire collection now consists of 100 statues contributed by 50 states. All 50 states have contributed 2 statues each."

"But great men:- the word is injurious. Is there caste? Is there fate? What becomes of the promise to virtue?" ... "Never mind the taunt of Boswellism: the devotion may easily be greater than the wretched pride which is guarding its own skirts. "

"Richard P. Feynman, scientist, teacher, raconteur, and musician. He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb, expanded the understanding of quantum electrodynamics, translated Mayan hieroglyphics, and cut to the heart of the Challenger disaster"

I remember looking at a similar kind of site c. 1996 and thinking about how cool this WWW thing was