Onwards to 2013

Another year has come and (almost) gone, and what a splendid year it was – scarcely a month went by without a major anniversary. If it wasn’t Dickens, it was Captain Scott and if doomed explorers weren’t your scene, there were doomed Titanic passengers to read about. So let’s have a look forward to what we will be commemorating in 2013…

28 January sees the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. If your knowledge of the book is confined to seeing Colin Firth in a wet shirt, then you’re in for a real treat. It’s much funnier and more knowing about human nature than any novel has any right to be. And if you have read it, why not try one of the many, many spin-offs and sequels, some by very famous writers indeed. You can find all of Jane Austen’s books in Westminster Libraries as well as many biographies and volumes of criticism.

24 February gives us an opportunity to celebrate the 75th birthday of nylon. The first commercial product made with nylon was not, as one might expect, stockings but a toothbrush. Previously, toothbrushes had been made with animal bristles so it’s a cause for celebration for pigs and badgers too. You can find out more about looking after your teeth on our Health page, including finding your nearest dentist via NHS Direct. For everything you could possibly want to know about nylon, have a look at the excellent HowStuffWorks via the Science Gateway page.

19 March brings us the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone. You can read  about his life in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (log in with your Westminster Library card). It’s hard not to be impressed by the determination of young David who at the age of 10 worked for 12 hours a day in a Clydeside factory and studied for 2 hours every night at the village school, where he developed a lifelong interest in geology and herbal medicine.
One of the favourite heroes of the Victorians, Livingstone’s achievements in exploration (though he failed to locate the source of the Nile), anti-slavery work and promoting Christianity were considerable and, unlike many Victorian heroes, no scandals have been unearthed posthumously. Check out the Themes section of the ODNB for other Imperial Lives, some rather less attractive than Livingstone.

On 18 April comics fans everywhere will be celebrating the 75th birthday of Superman and waiting patiently for the summer release of the latest movie retelling of the story: Man of Steel. You can find plenty of the graphic novels and films in Westminster libraries but even if cartoons aren’t your scene, you might want to try Michael Chabon’s masterpiece The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a fictional look at the lives of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the original Superman artists.

High culture will be celebrated on 29 May when it is the centenary of the first performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Riots at the ballet are, fortunately, quite rare, but the police had to be called, so outraged were the audience at the unusual  movements of the dancers and musical harmony (or lack of it). Log into Oxford Music Online to find out more about the piece and listen to it at Naxos Music Online (though if you think you won’t be able to refrain from throwing the furniture about, we’d rather you listened at home!)

More controversy will be commemorated on 8 June, the centenary of the death of Emily Davison, the brave Suffragette who disrupted the Derby in 1913 and was tragically killed. You can read more about her life in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and watch the British Pathe newsreel of the event.

Rather more cheerfully, on 30 July, we wish a Happy 75th Birthday to The Beano, greatest of all comics and home of Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, Rodger the Dodger, Billy Whizz, the Bash Street Kids, Lord Snooty and many another childhood favourite. How many of these can you remember?

8 August sees the 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery, not perhaps an event  to celebrate but certainly one that looms very large in the British public consciousness. The are no shortage of books on the subject as well as a number of films. You can see how newspapers at time reported the story by logging in to their online archives (The Times initially reported the theft as totalling £500,000 but it is now thought to have been nearer £2.6 million)

12 September brings the centenary of the birth of the great Jesse Owens, the outstanding athlete of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, whose achievement in setting three world records and tying a fourth at an athletics meet in 1935 is unlikely to be bettered any time soon. You can read contemporary newpaper accounts of  his winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics and even see the events themselves in archive footage on YouTube.

26 October sees the 150th anniversary of the formation of the Football Association, supposedly formed at a meeting in the Freemason’s Arms in Long Acre,  Covent Garden. Prior to that, different clubs, schools and colleges used their own rules which presumably led to some amusing complications when they played each other. Eleven London clubs and schools sent representatives to the meeting though, ironically, many of them now play rugby union. If you want to take up football yourself, why not check out some of the listings on the Sports page of the Gateway to websites. Or maybe you’re more of a pub person – Westminster Archives have published a splendid history of West End pubs called One on Every Corner.

23 November is already marked as the key event in the Treasure Hunt Towers 2013 diary: the 50th anniversary of the first broadcast of Doctor Who. We don’t know yet what producer Steven Moffat has planned  – look at the BBC Dr Who site for the latest info, but also check our newspaper archives to  look back at its past history: The Times’ Toyshop Roundabout (22/11/65) suggested that the must-have Christmas toy for boys was the Anti-Dalek Neuron Exterminator, though it reported with some disappointment that another anti-Dalek weapon, the Fluid Neutralizer was just ‘our old friend the water-pistol’.

Everything will be a bit of an anti-climax after that excitement but, on 21 December, cruciverbalists everywhere will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first ever ‘wordcross’ puzzle being published in the New York World, created by a British journalist called Arthur Wynne (you can try it here). The first crossword in a British paper was published in the Sunday Express on 2 November 1924 with cryptic crosswords following soon after (though the Americans didn’t take to them until they were introduced to the New York Magazine by composer Stephen Sondheim in 1968).
Why not have a browse among some of the language resources on the Westminster site? Check the Oxford English Dictionary to find out where the word ‘cruciverbalist’ comes from and check Oxford Dictionaries Pro for help with grammar and punctuation as well as some more word puzzles. And if you go to Naxos Music Library, you can listen to some Sondheim while you solve The Guardian’s latest teaser.

There may be some other anniversaries coming up (we’ll all be very familiar with the works of Benjamin Britten by the end of the year) but I’m sure they won’t be as much fun as these…

[Nicky]

Dear Santa

Removing barriers

Today, 3 December, is the ‘International Day Of Persons with Disabilities‘, a slightly clunky title for a day that the United Nations has been observing since 1992.

This year’s theme is ‘Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all’.  15% of the world’s population have some form of disability and it’s a group any of us could join at any moment.

At Treasure Hunt Towers we were big fans of the Paralympics and were truly in awe of some of the swimmers who were missing limbs, the blind footballers and the wheelchair boccia players. So we thought we’d devote this Web Treasure Hunt to a few people with disabilities who have become world-famous in their own spheres.

It makes sense to start with the extraordinary physicist Stephen Hawking, who launched the Paralympics Opening Ceremony with the words

“Ever since the dawn of civilisation, people have craved an understanding of the underlying order of the world – why it is as it is and why it exists at all.”

Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1963 and was given two years to live, but celebrated his 70th birthday earlier this year, having gone on, post-diagnosis, to Cambridge to become a brilliant researcher and then Professor. He is also a prolific author – check out one of his books and prepare to have your mind blown!

Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinian short-story writer, philosopher and director of the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) found his eyesight failing in this thirties and was completely blind by his fifties. However he continued to write books and screenplays and deliver lectures, helped by his mother who acted as his secretary since he never mastered Braille.

You can find many of his works in Westminster Libraries – his short stories, with their themes of mirrors, libraries, dreams and labyrinths pioneered the genre of magical realism.  For more information, have a look at Contemporary Authors (you will need your Westminster Library card to log in).

In the late nineteenth century, Sarah Bernhardt was simply the most famous actor in the world. Nicknamed ‘The Divine Sarah’, after training at the renowned Comedie-Francaise she then toured Europe and the USA, even going to Cuba. She was renowned as the greatest tragic actress of her time, playing both male and female roles. She was also a pioneer of silent films and even appeared in a 1900 film of a scene from Hamlet with sound. You can see clips from some of her films on Youtube.

In 1905, she was performing in the dramatic version of La Tosca (adapted for opera by Puccini) in Rio Di Janeiro when she stumbled after leaping from the balcony in the final scene. She never fully recovered and, in 1915, her right leg was completely amputated. However, this didn’t stop her acting  – she played many of her most famous roles, including Cleopatra, Judas and Queen Elizabeth after her injury.

You can check out some biographies of Sarah in Westminster Libraries. If you’re interested in her theatrical successes, have a look at the John Johnson Collection where you can find facsimiles programmes of some of her plays including Hamlet at the Royal Adelphi Theatre and Lena at the Royal Lyceum Theatre (now home to The Lion King).

Everyone knows Beethoven lost his hearing, but he wasn’t the only composer with this condition. Bedrich Smetana was perhaps the greatest of nineteenth century Czech composers and wrote much of his most notable music, including the cycle of symphonic tone poems Ma Vlast (‘My Country’), after he had become completely deaf. You can listen to his complete works online at the Naxos Music Library, including his much-revived opera The Bartered Bride. If you want to find out more about his life and works, have a look at Oxford Music Online.

Itzhak Perlman, certainly one of the finest post-war violinists, is happily still alive and performing despite contracting polio at the age of four. He made a good recovery but has subsequently used crutches or a mobility scooter and sits while performing. He has  played the violin all round the world in venues ranging from Barack Obama’s inauguration to Sesame Street. Check out some of his performances on CD from Westminster Libraries or listen online via Naxos Music Library.

Remember, if you are disabled or caring for someone with a disability, Westminster Libraries have a range of services that can make life easier, from a Home Library Service for those who cannot get to a library to a range of specialist services and equipment. You can also check WELDIS, a very useful online directory of services, groups and information for older people and those with a disability or long-term illness.

[Nicky]

Marvellous Movember in the MODNB

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has long been a favourite online resource at Treasure Hunt Towers and many happy lunch-hours have been spent browsing among the Fleshly Poets, Sea Dogs and Merrie Men. We’re also jolly keen on moustaches and whiskers (well, who isn’t?) and we like to keep healthy.

Movember, the month when gentlemen grow ‘taches in order to raise awareness of men’s health issues is a great time to combine these interests and the ODNB has helped out with an excellent selection of the most splendid moustaches, mutton chops and whiskers, with subjects ranging from Abbas Hilmi II, last Khedive of Egypt to Sir Joseph Bazalgette, London’s greatest sewer-Tsar. Log in with your library card to find out more.

As Movember draws to a close, it’s decision time. To shave or not to shave?

[Nicky]

Are you experienced?

“Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don’t seem the same
Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why
‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky”

As all lovers of popular music will know, 27 November 2012 is – or would have been – the 70^th birthday of James Marshall Hendrix, better known as Jimi.

He sadly isn’t around to celebrate it as he died in London on 18 September 1970. Forty-two years after his death, to many he is still, quite simply, the greatest guitarist of all time.

The basic details of Hendrix’ life can be found in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and, to be honest, it’s the usual rock star story of army, music, drugs and a tragically early death. What really matters is the music, played with his unique  upside-down style (Hendrix was left-handed and played a right-handed guitar upside-down). You can find plenty of CDs of his work in stock in Westminster Libraries as well as  biographies and musical criticism. For an in-depth critique online as well as a comprehensive discography, videography and bibliography, check out the Encylopaedia of Popular Music, part of Oxford Music Online and for some more serious criticism, have a look at African American Music Reference, from the Alexander Street Press.

For some contemporary accounts of his life, you can check out some of our archive of newspapers and magazines. His tragic death was reported on the front page of the Daily Mirror. Ironically the first time he was mentioned in The Times was in a report of the death of  the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, as a concert he was giving  was cancelled as a mark of respect. Only three years later, his own obituary was published in the same paper:

“In contrast to the violence and seeming anarchy of his music, Hendrix was a gentle, peaceful man whose only real concern was music. His final public appearance was when he sat in with War, an American band, at Ronnie Scott’s club in London last Wednesday, and it was typical of the man that it was he who felt honoured by being allowed to play.”

Hendrix spent much of his short career in London and anyone who wants to get closer to the man might wish to visit the Handel House Museum in Brook Street, Mayfair. For several months in 1968, Hendrix lived next door – he was thrilled to discover the Handel connection. His flat is now used as the offices of the museum. And when you’ve seen where he lived, you’ll be able to see his most famous gig on the big screen as Hendrix 70 : Live at Woodstock  is released in cinemas around the country.

[Nicky]