Courtesy of David Hume Kennerly, I was alerted of a display in Washington, D.C., featuring the typewriter of playwright Neil Simon.
Difficult to identify in that photo; “typewriter used by Neil Simon from the 1970s to 2010s. Simon used the IBM Personal Wheel Writer Electronic 6781 typewriter in his New York City apartment, writing plays, scripts, and books including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Lost in Yonkers.” Image from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Leave a Comment » | 
History, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: History, Neil Simon, Typewriters | 
Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Rachel Carson died in 1964, and although she attained some celebrity, there are not a lot of good images of Carson in circulation. I like to highlight images that come to light.
One image that is lesser known is Una Hanbury’s bust from 1965, in the collection of the U.S. National Portrait Gallery.
Description from the National Portrait Gallery:
As a government scientist, Rachel Carson became concerned about the ecological impact of pesticides, especially DDT, and in 1962, she published the groundbreaking book, Silent Spring. Finely written and passionately reasoned, Silent Spring exploded into national consciousness and can be said to have started the modern environmental movement. Although some of its conclusions are still controversial today, the book was a warning that an active citizenry had to be skeptical of large institutions, an attitude that became a dominant theme of the 1960s and 1970s.
Una Hanbury and Carson met for the first and only time at an event in 1964. Following an impromptu speech by Carson, Hanbury approached Carson and asked if she could make her portrait. Carson willingly agreed to pose. Hanbury was impressed by Carson’s “tremendous vitality,” but when she called to arrange a sitting only four months later, Carson was nearing death. She passed away one week later, leaving Hanbury no option but to work from photographs and memories of their single meeting for the portrait bust. Life magazine provided her with pictures taken at Carson’s Maine tidal pools, and a number of Carson’s close friends advised the artist while she worked on the portrait.
Leave a Comment » | Art, DDT, Environment, History, History of Science, Rachel Carson, Science, Sculpture | Tagged: Art, Books, DDT, environment, History, Nature, Poetry, Rachel Carson, Science, Writing | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Veteran Vic Meyers takes Republicans to task for misreporting the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, which Trump set up before Trump released 5,000 Taliban from Afghanistan prisons — one of whom conducted the fatal attack on 13 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Afghan citizens during evacuations.
1 Comment | Afghanistan, Donald Trump, History, President Joe Biden, War | Tagged: Afghanistan, History, President Joe Biden, War | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the Millard Fillmore's Bathtub blog archives for September, 2024.
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 