« May 2010 | Main | July 2010 »
Johann Esaias Silberschlag, Theorie der am 23 Juli, 1762, erschienen Feuer-Kugel (Theory on the July 23, 1762, appearance of a fireball)
Tonight might be a good night to get away from the bright lights of the big (or small) city and take a long look up—you never know what the skies might offer . . .
—Elizabeth Periale
Goggles, Pilot, Aleksei Leonov, USSR, National Air and Space Museum, Gift of Aleksei Leonov.Continuing our theme from last week . . .
The 1960s were a volatile time around the world, and one of the most difficult relationships involved the competition between the Unites States and the Soviet Union over who would be the first to achieve the monumental task of sending a human to outer space. During the early years of what was to become known as the “Space Race” the Soviets were most often the leaders, and were responsible for the first orbiting satellite, first man in space, the first woman in space, and the first person in orbit, among others. In 1965 the Soviets extended their lead in the Space Race when Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov became the first human to leave the safe confines of his spacecraft and complete a space walk.
In 1960 the Soviets put together their first group of Cosmonauts, and Leonov was among them. As a Soviet Air Force pilot, Leonov was just 25-years old when he was selected to be among the history-making members of the Soviet Space Program. He was also a gifted artist, and in addition to being the first man to complete a spacewalk, Leonov became the first artist in space when he flew on the Voskhod 2 flight.
The Vostok Program was the Soviet plan for manned space flight, and was successful at putting both the first man and the first woman in space. Leonov was originally scheduled to complete his space walk on the Vostok 11 flight, but the program was ended after 6 missions and replaced with the Voskhod program. During this time Leonov was completing a rigorous 18 months of training, including extensive weightlessness training to prepare him for the Voskhod 2 flight and historic spacewalk. Following completion of their training, Leonov and mission commander Pavel Belyayev, blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on the 8th Soviet manned space mission.
Leonov was connected by a 5.35 meter (17.5 foot) tether when he exited his spacecraft through an inflatable airlock. He was outside the spacecraft for 12 minutes and nine seconds, floating in the zero gravity environment with the Earth behind him. In this video Leonov is seen during his space walk, and in translation describes his experience as “extra-ordinary.” The mission was not without problems, and a potentially life-threatening issue arose at the end of the spacewalk when the vacuum of outer space caused Leonov's spacesuit to inflate so much that he could not re-enter the airlock. In a risky move he opened a valve to release some of the limited oxygen in the suit, and was able to struggle back into the airlock to safety.
Leonov brought his love of the arts with him during his flight, and he became the first person to sketch the view of earth from space. He created a “bracelet” to hold a set of colored pencils, and was able to create several color sketches during he mission, which he has used as the basis of numerous paintings and other art works. His keen artistic eye is evident in a recent quote about his experience with the spacewalk. Leonov said:
"The Earth is shrouded by a light grey mantle. Not very beautiful, but when you look at the Earth from the side of the Sun, it's emerald green like a shiny ball from a Christmas tree. And you know, the Black Sea is indeed the darkest one, and the Baltic is grey, and the Caribbean is emerald blue. All depends on sedimentary rock and the depth."
Leonov served as the commander of the cosmonaut team and deputy director of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center from 1976 to 1982. He retired from the Soviet Air Force in 1991, holding the rank of Air Force General. In 2007 he was a contributor to a non-fiction book called Into Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era 1961-1965. The book is an account of the American and Russian space programs from 1961 onwards. He continues to show active interest in international space programs.
—Carrie Carter
Dennison Manufacturing Co., Framingham, MA. The 1917 Party Book, 1917, pages 6-7, Patriotic table decorations.
To get in the spirit we are featuring some patriotic decorations from The 1917 Party Book.
There are lots of parades on the Fourth of July, but have you ever wondered how floats have changed over the years? The 1917 Party Book gives us a glimpse into possible floats or decorated cars from 1917. One car is decorated in a red, white, and blue theme but also has a tire wreath of flowers. Another car is decorated with yellow and white roses along with a huge butterfly.
The 1917 Party Book also includes ideas for decorating tables in specific holiday themes. One of these holidays is the Fourth of July. The main theme for the Fourth of July is, of course, red, white, and blue, but there are also American flags, eagles, and stars adorning the tables. Crepe paper, ribbons, and streamers are some of the materials used to decorate the tables.
The Trade Literature Collection at the National Museum of American History Library includes this catalog and others by the Dennison Manufacturing Company. There are also more images from The 1917 Party Book on the Galaxy of Images.
—Alexia MacClain
Is it possible to have too many cat images in one's blog? Not when they're as wonderful as this one! The frantic feline (left) is an illustration of "Phoenix's Feline Attachment," an ingenious contraption designed to harness the energy of one's pet cat to power a sewing machine. This technological innovation is the brainchild of George Horatio Derby (1823-1861), writing under the pen name John Phoenix, in his book of humorous stories and illustrations, The Squibob Papers (New York: Carleton, publisher, 1865; call number PS1535 .S6X 1865 AAPGRB American Art/Portrait Gallery library).
For just $90.00 and change (which works out to over $1200.00 in today's money), an enterprising person could build this cat-powered sewing machine, assuming he or she could find a cat that didn't immediately get bored with chasing the mouse dangled in front of its nose. Obviously, it's not meant to be a REAL invention. After all, no self-respecting cat would put up with this sort of treatment (notice that the budget for the machine doesn't include bandages, a clear tip-off that it's fiction!).
George Horatio Derby, who worked for the U.S. Army Topographic Corps and looked as dashing as his name (his portrait from the Wikipedia article is shown below), wrote humorous stories about American characters, in the same style as his contemporary, Mark Twain. You can read The Squibob Papers online from Google Books, if you can't come down to the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art / National Portrait Gallery library to see the book in person.
This past April, the Libraries blog featured a contest to see if anyone could identify the coat of arms that appears in the cat picture from Travels through the southern provinces of the Russian Empire in the years 1793 and 1794 by Peter S. Pallas (London : Printed for John Stockdale, Piccadilly, 1812; call number qDK509 .P3513 1812 v. 1-2 CHMRB, in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library). The unknown coat of arms featured three hay stacks above two crossed ax blades. Within twenty-four hours of posting, the mystery was solved, thanks to the excellent investigative skills of two blog readers with an interest in heraldry, "Ducky" and Maria E. McWilliams, who were able to cite specific sources that linked the coat of arms to the Russian town of Mokshan, in the Penza Oblast. Maria offered a surprise bonus as well, having tracked down a colored version of the same cat image, from the online article Siberian Cat: Without a Masquerade by A.V. Kolesnikov, PhD., featured on the site of a Siberian Cat fancier based in Germany, Tscharodeika. Zarine L. Arushanyan, the researcher of Russian cat breeds in Armenia whose one line comment on the original Smithsonian Libraries blog entry about Peter S. Pallas served as the catalyst (pun intended!) for the coat of arms contest, was delighted by this new information too, writing, "I did not pay attention to the emblem when I studied the illustration last year. And your attention to this detail is helpful for indicating the exact place, where the strange cat had been seen by Pallas."
The most amazing development from this contest, however, is that both Ducky and Maria already happen to work at the Smithsonian. Although they work for the National Museum of the American Indian, they could be considered honorary Libraries reference staff, since they were so helpful in resolving the question about the coat of arms. This is the remarkable thing about crowdsourcing research questions on the internet: it may turn out that the person who has the answer might work in the next office, or across the country, or on the other side of the world, but how would you know to ask them, if their expertise isn't already known to you? With the Smithsonian Libraries blog, we can put the thorniest questions out to the public and there's a great chance that someone out there will either know the answer, or will be able to contribute insights that lead towards an answer, in the best spirit of collaboration. This whole episode demonstrates the great potential that the resources of the Smithsonian can offer for researchers and other interested readers, whenever the Institution's collections, the expertise of its staff, and its public outreach efforts are combined on the World Wide Web. This serendipitous combination is at the heart of the Smithsonian Commons project (now in the prototype stage), which will establish a "digital presence dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities."
Stay tuned for more information about SIL's contributions in support of the Smithsonian Commons effort. And for all you cat enthusiasts out there, look for the story of "Poor Kitty Popcorn" appearing on the SIL blog in July.
—Diane Shaw, Special Collections Cataloger
