Keeper of the Plains

This dramatic scene is one that came into being to mark the bicentennial of the United States of America in 1976, although the statue was erected in 1974.

Keeper of the Plains stands at the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers in Wichita, KS.  The 44-ft Cor-Ten steel sculpture by nationally renowned artist Blackbear Bosin was a gift from the artist to the City of Wichita.  The work was dedicated in May 1974.

Cor-Ten, I have found out, is a type of steel designed not to need painting.  It develops a rust-like appearance in time.  The sculpture shows a Native American warrior offering a blessing to the sky.  It was raised on to a 30-ft rock pedestal in 2006 so that ipeople could see it from further away.

this card was sent to me in April 2009.  I can't read the postmark but the sender said she doesn't live in Wichita, so it could be anywhere.

Jūrmala, Latvia

When it arrived , at first glance I thought this card was from Finland or at least a Nordic country because of the style of the wooden buildings.  But no, it's from Jūrmala in Latvia.  There may be a reason for my mistake because the town has over 4000 wooden buildings including 414 of historic importance and under protection.  Some of the buildings were designed by Finnish architects though most were German and Latvian.

Jūrmala was a resort favoured by Communist officials in the time when Latvia was part of the USSR, because of the beautiful beaches and attractive houses.

Jūrmala is in fact made up of a number of small resorts, one of which is Majori where the card was posted on 17 July 2009.

Aston Hall, Birmingham

Showing a complete ignorance of architectural style, I thought Aston Hall was a Victorian building until I tried to find out a little more about it.  Then I looked at it more closely.  In fact it is Jacobean and building started in 1618.  It wasn't finished for 17 years.  It is classified as Grade I listed, the most protected of historic buildings.

It has a number of other claims to fame:

• King Charles stayed there just before the battle of Edgehill, the first battle of the civil war.
• The staircase was damaged by a cannonball during the war and the damage can still be seen.
• The elder son of James Watt lived there for a time.
• It was became the first country house to be owned by a municipality when it was bought by Birmingham City Council in 1864.
• Queen Victoria was not amused when a tightrope walker fell and was killed not long after the queen had visited to open the building officially.

The building has recently undergone a major renovation.  There are some pictures of the work on Flickr.

The card itself is clearly postmarked Birmingham and dated 8 May 1906.

Good to see you

I'm posting this because it amused me, and I could say the same to all my readers.  It was sent from Southampton in July 2005.

Culzean Castle, Scotland

Now go back and read the title again, but this time pronounce the name Cullane.  That's the correct way, believe it or not.  During the 1600s the spelling was changed from Cullean to Culzean but that's not the entire explanation.  The 'z' is a 'yogh' or 'ʒ' in the same way as it is in Dalziel (pronounced Dee-yell) and in Menzies (pronounced (Ming-iss).  It was used in Middle English and Middle Scots, and because of its shape like a figure 3 it was confused with the letter 'z'.

Now you may carry on reading, safe in the knowledge that you are pronouncing the name correctly. :)

Culzean Castle is on the west coast of Scotland, south of Glasgow.  It was built in 1777 to replace a stately home that had been there earlier.  It now belongs to the National Trust for Scotland but when it was handed over, one of the conditions was that an apartment was to be reserved for Eisenhower in recognition of the part he played during World War II.  There is now an Eisenhower exhibition in one of the rooms.

This card was posted in Ayr on 7 July 1977, a time of wonderful weather, by all accounts:

"Childhood haunts revisited after a long absence can be very nostalgic but I realise much more so on a balmy summer evening than in a drizzle".

Visit Marie Reed's The French Factrice to find more people this Postcard Friday.

Peace

"I don't ask for the meaning of the song of a bird or the rising of the sun on a misty morning. There they are, and they are beautiful."

~ Pete Hamill.

This card was sent to me from Finland. It succeeded in escaping the postmarking machine, but it arrived on my doorstep on 11 January 2010.

The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace was originally built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, London, but when the Exhibition ended in the October of that year the designer of the Palace, Sir Joseph Paxton, together with a number of other people, raised enough money to move the structure to Penge Place.

The Palace reopened in 1854, Penge Park became known as Crystal Palace Park, and became the theme park of its day.  After a while its popularity waned, it struggled through a number of incidents and was declared bankrupt in 1911, after which it was purchased for the nation.

During World War I it was used as a place of training for the Royal Navy, which did nothing for its state of repair.  After the war, John Logie Baird opened up a television studio, workshops and manufacturing units while the buildings and Park were renovated.  Almost as soon as a small profit started showing another disaster struck and the building burned to the ground.  By 1937 the last remains had gone.

Nowadays, when you come across the name Crystal Palace, a number of images may spring to mind:

• a football team
• a major sports centre
• a television transmitter
• a railway station
• an area of south London,

among others.  There are ambitious plans for further development.

This card showing the original Crystal Palace is unused, and has a divided back with the words "Write here for inland postage only".  This indicates it dates from after 1902 and probably before 1907.  Interestingly though, it is in a collection of cards all with a naval connection, so it may well have been added to the collection or bought during the First World War.

C is for Crystal palace.  A post for ABC Wednesday.