![On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 20, 1887
The Duquesne Incline starts operations on Mount Washington. [Wikipedia]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m451v0PKWA1qakblyo1_500.png)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 20, 1887
The Duquesne Incline starts operations on Mount Washington. [Wikipedia]
Biologist, author and Pittsburgh native Rachel Carson with children and dog in the woods near her home, by Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life magazine. (via)
![On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 19, 1921
The world’s first broadcast of “market” reports are on the air at KDKA-AM. [Wikipedia]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4514q4iTe1qakblyo1_r1_500.jpg)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 19, 1921
The world’s first broadcast of “market” reports are on the air at KDKA-AM. [Wikipedia]
![On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 18, 1918
An explosion at Etna Chemical Company kills 114 people. [The Pittsburgh Press]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m450v78wDX1qakblyo1_r1_500.png)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 18, 1918
An explosion at Etna Chemical Company kills 114 people. [The Pittsburgh Press]
Gwilym Price, president of Westinghouse, with a television camera system and monitor as he inspects the company’s new electronic laboratory. Pittsburgh, 1955. Margaret Bourke-White, Life magazine.
Andy Warhol’s Flowers, 1964, sold for $8,146,500 at the Contemporary Art Part I sale, 12 May 2011, New York.
Andy Warhol’s Flowers, 1964 was produced during what was arguably the most significant time period of the artist’s career. Though Warhol had already experienced a great deal of success with his images of Campbell’s Soup Cans, Liz, Marilyn and Elvis, the year 1964 saw his dramatic and meteoric rise to fame. To round off an outstanding season, Leo Castelli scheduled a Warhol show to take place at his gallery from November to December of that year featuring the artist’s new Flowers paintings. The source of the image Warhol appropriated for this series first appeared in the June 1964 issue of Modern Photography, a photograph of hibiscus blossoms illustrating an article about color processing. Following the show at Castelli Gallery, critic David Bourdon described Warhol’s Flowers as “…cut out gouaches by Matisse set adrift on Monet’s lily pond” (The Village Voice, December 3, 1964). The color scheme is also highly evocative of Van Gogh’s Irises.
Culling inspiration from a seemingly banal source, using a lithographic process, Warhol produced only two or three basic designs in a variety of color schemes, each in a square format. The artist found this format particularly satisfying because its regular shape allowed these paintings to be hung with any side up. As Warhol himself explained, “I like painting on a square…because you don’t have to decide whether it should be longerlonger or shorter-shorter or longer-shorter: it’s just a square” (D. Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, p. 191).
(via learningarchitecture)
Vietnam War soldier awarded posthumous Medal of Honor [MSNBC]
President Barack Obama presented the country’s highest military decoration to the family of Army Spc. Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., who was killed protecting fellow soldiers from an ambush in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
The 22-year-old Army rifleman killed several North Vietnamese soldiers, shielded a comrade from a grenade blast and forced a retreat in a battle that took place on May 10, 1970.
The Medal of Honor was awarded to Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, in the East Room of the White House.
“He saved his comrades who meant more to him than life,” Obama said at the ceremony, while also saluting other Vietnam War veterans. Members of Sabo’s unit, Bravo Company, were in attendance and received a standing ovation. (more)
![A Lens on Lenz in the South Side [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
When Frank Lenz left Pittsburgh in 1892 on what was then a newfangled “safety” bicycle, carrying little more than a camera, a revolver and a homemade umbrella, he expected to return to the city two years later, after completing a spectacular bike ride around the world.
He didn’t. Lenz and his bicycle disappeared in Turkey, after he made it roughly 15,000 miles across the United States and several countries including Japan, China and Iran. (more)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m430l8pjJc1qakblyo1_500.jpg)
A Lens on Lenz in the South Side [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
When Frank Lenz left Pittsburgh in 1892 on what was then a newfangled “safety” bicycle, carrying little more than a camera, a revolver and a homemade umbrella, he expected to return to the city two years later, after completing a spectacular bike ride around the world.
He didn’t. Lenz and his bicycle disappeared in Turkey, after he made it roughly 15,000 miles across the United States and several countries including Japan, China and Iran. (more)
![On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 16, 1990
William “Bill” Bennett, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W. Bush, makes world headlines in Pittsburgh when he scolds local homeless in a shelter, “You guys aren’t watching “The Simpsons,” are you? That’s not going to help you any.” [Wikipedia; The Madison Courier]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4490nYwbb1qakblyo1_500.jpg)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 16, 1990
William “Bill” Bennett, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W. Bush, makes world headlines in Pittsburgh when he scolds local homeless in a shelter, “You guys aren’t watching “The Simpsons,” are you? That’s not going to help you any.” [Wikipedia; The Madison Courier]
![Norwegian Nationality Room dedication (via)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 15, 1948
The University of Pittsburgh dedicates the Norwegian Nationality Room at the Cathedral of Learning. [Wikipedia]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m39hgoMH2z1qakblyo1_500.png)
Norwegian Nationality Room dedication (via)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 15, 1948
The University of Pittsburgh dedicates the Norwegian Nationality Room at the Cathedral of Learning. [Wikipedia]
![Lady Bird Johnson, left, with Paul and Rachel “Bunny” Mellon at the National Gallery of Art, created through gifts from the Mellon family. [The New York Times]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m41adkGqCa1qakblyo1_500.jpg)
Lady Bird Johnson, left, with Paul and Rachel “Bunny” Mellon at the National Gallery of Art, created through gifts from the Mellon family. [The New York Times]
![Henry John Heinz, 1914. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (via)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 14, 1919
Henry John Heinz, founder of the H. J. Heinz Company, one of the world’s largest food manufacturing firms and owner of one of the nation’s outstanding private art collections, died of pneumonia at the age of 75 at his home. [Historic Pittsburgh]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m39h56D8Dh1qakblyo1_500.jpg)
Henry John Heinz, 1914. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (via)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 14, 1919
Henry John Heinz, founder of the H. J. Heinz Company, one of the world’s largest food manufacturing firms and owner of one of the nation’s outstanding private art collections, died of pneumonia at the age of 75 at his home. [Historic Pittsburgh]
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 20, 1887
The Duquesne Incline starts operations on Mount Washington. [Wikipedia]
Biologist, author and Pittsburgh native Rachel Carson with children and dog in the woods near her home, by Alfred Eisenstaedt for Life magazine. (via)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 19, 1921
The world’s first broadcast of “market” reports are on the air at KDKA-AM. [Wikipedia]
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 18, 1918
An explosion at Etna Chemical Company kills 114 people. [The Pittsburgh Press]
Gwilym Price, president of Westinghouse, with a television camera system and monitor as he inspects the company’s new electronic laboratory. Pittsburgh, 1955. Margaret Bourke-White, Life magazine.
Andy Warhol’s Flowers, 1964, sold for $8,146,500 at the Contemporary Art Part I sale, 12 May 2011, New York.
Andy Warhol’s Flowers, 1964 was produced during what was arguably the most significant time period of the artist’s career. Though Warhol had already experienced a great deal of success with his images of Campbell’s Soup Cans, Liz, Marilyn and Elvis, the year 1964 saw his dramatic and meteoric rise to fame. To round off an outstanding season, Leo Castelli scheduled a Warhol show to take place at his gallery from November to December of that year featuring the artist’s new Flowers paintings. The source of the image Warhol appropriated for this series first appeared in the June 1964 issue of Modern Photography, a photograph of hibiscus blossoms illustrating an article about color processing. Following the show at Castelli Gallery, critic David Bourdon described Warhol’s Flowers as “…cut out gouaches by Matisse set adrift on Monet’s lily pond” (The Village Voice, December 3, 1964). The color scheme is also highly evocative of Van Gogh’s Irises.
Culling inspiration from a seemingly banal source, using a lithographic process, Warhol produced only two or three basic designs in a variety of color schemes, each in a square format. The artist found this format particularly satisfying because its regular shape allowed these paintings to be hung with any side up. As Warhol himself explained, “I like painting on a square…because you don’t have to decide whether it should be longerlonger or shorter-shorter or longer-shorter: it’s just a square” (D. Bourdon, Warhol, New York, 1989, p. 191).
(via learningarchitecture)
Vietnam War soldier awarded posthumous Medal of Honor [MSNBC]
President Barack Obama presented the country’s highest military decoration to the family of Army Spc. Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., who was killed protecting fellow soldiers from an ambush in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
The 22-year-old Army rifleman killed several North Vietnamese soldiers, shielded a comrade from a grenade blast and forced a retreat in a battle that took place on May 10, 1970.
The Medal of Honor was awarded to Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, in the East Room of the White House.
“He saved his comrades who meant more to him than life,” Obama said at the ceremony, while also saluting other Vietnam War veterans. Members of Sabo’s unit, Bravo Company, were in attendance and received a standing ovation. (more)
A Lens on Lenz in the South Side [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
When Frank Lenz left Pittsburgh in 1892 on what was then a newfangled “safety” bicycle, carrying little more than a camera, a revolver and a homemade umbrella, he expected to return to the city two years later, after completing a spectacular bike ride around the world.
He didn’t. Lenz and his bicycle disappeared in Turkey, after he made it roughly 15,000 miles across the United States and several countries including Japan, China and Iran. (more)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 16, 1990
William “Bill” Bennett, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W. Bush, makes world headlines in Pittsburgh when he scolds local homeless in a shelter, “You guys aren’t watching “The Simpsons,” are you? That’s not going to help you any.” [Wikipedia; The Madison Courier]
![Norwegian Nationality Room dedication (via)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 15, 1948
The University of Pittsburgh dedicates the Norwegian Nationality Room at the Cathedral of Learning. [Wikipedia]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m39hgoMH2z1qakblyo1_1280.png)
Norwegian Nationality Room dedication (via)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 15, 1948
The University of Pittsburgh dedicates the Norwegian Nationality Room at the Cathedral of Learning. [Wikipedia]
![Lady Bird Johnson, left, with Paul and Rachel “Bunny” Mellon at the National Gallery of Art, created through gifts from the Mellon family. [The New York Times]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m41adkGqCa1qakblyo1_1280.jpg)
Lady Bird Johnson, left, with Paul and Rachel “Bunny” Mellon at the National Gallery of Art, created through gifts from the Mellon family. [The New York Times]
![Grand View Avenue, Mount Washington, South Side, Pittsburgh, 1911 [OrchardLake’s Flickr]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m33k41wA8i1qakblyo1_500.jpg)
![Henry John Heinz, 1914. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (via)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 14, 1919
Henry John Heinz, founder of the H. J. Heinz Company, one of the world’s largest food manufacturing firms and owner of one of the nation’s outstanding private art collections, died of pneumonia at the age of 75 at his home. [Historic Pittsburgh]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m39h56D8Dh1qakblyo1_1280.jpg)
Henry John Heinz, 1914. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (via)
On This Day in Pittsburgh History: May 14, 1919
Henry John Heinz, founder of the H. J. Heinz Company, one of the world’s largest food manufacturing firms and owner of one of the nation’s outstanding private art collections, died of pneumonia at the age of 75 at his home. [Historic Pittsburgh]
