“Henry VIII is actually one of my heroes” | W.U Hstry

“Henry VIII is actually one of my heroes”

I overheard these words from a senior gentleman. Now, this topic is a very controversial one as ‘Henry’ and ‘hero’ haven’t exactly met eye-to-eye in Tudor historiography. This Tudor has traditi…

Source: “Henry VIII is actually one of my heroes” | W.U Hstry

Rose Valland – Art Spy Extraordinaire | ascholarlyskater

Originally posted on ascholarlyskater.

As all of you probably know, the topic of art crime is very important to me. Art matters to me, so people who threaten it bother me deeply. Thus far, I’ve written about forgery, the theft and repatriation of art during World War Two, the work of The Monuments Men, and destruction of cultural heritage currently taking place in the Middle East. However, I have not yet written about an extremely courageous woman who was instrumental in tracking and restoring thousands of works stolen by the Nazis from France during World War Two. Her impact on western cultural heritage was immense, so I think it’s about time she gets some space on this blog.

Rose Valland (1898-1980) was one of the war’s unlikeliest of heroes. A country-born French woman who studied art and art history at several prestigious institutions including the Sorbonne, Valland was a volunteer curator at the Louvre when Paris was invaded in 1939 (Edsel 194). Prompted by Jacques Jaujard, the director of the French National Museums and a Resistance operative, Valland went back to work at the…

via Rose Valland – Art Spy Extraordinaire | ascholarlyskater.

Phantom – Memories of a U-2 Pilot

A Trivial Mind At Work

A friend of mine sent me this story. Other than Francis Gary Powers, I do not know that anyone has heard much of anything about the U-2 spy plane program. The entire program stands as a forgotten footnote from the Cold War. This article offers a personal glimpse into the life of a U-2 spy…

U-2 PILOT MEMORIES
Men like this guy never get any attention in the press, and that’s how they prefer it. Unfortunately, but understandably, not all U-2 pilots survived to tell their stories in their old age.

Cliff Beeler was a spy. He didn’t hang out on shadowy street corners with his trench coat collar obscuring his face. The Air Force major, now retired, spent his snooping time in a plane. Beeler, 88, of Riverside, was a U-2 pilot at the height of the Cold War.

His missions took him over Russia, Cuba and China, photographing…

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The History Girls: My hero by Tanya Landman

Words we should all heed in a world still heading for disaster.

Originally posted on The History Girls

Why do I like this letter so much? It was written by my hero,  EB.White,  to a man teetering on the brink of despair.

Dear Mr. Nadeau:

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society – things can look dark…

Read more: The History Girls: My hero by Tanya Landman.