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Army | History | History |
Army | India | India
The Battle of the Ten Kings, a Hindu Aryan king named Sudas defeated an alliance of ten kings and their supportive chieftains. During the Iron Age, the Maurya and Nanda Empires had one of the largest armies in the world, the peak being approximately over 600,000 Infantry, 30,000 Cavalry, 8,000 War-Chariots and 9,000 War Elephants not including tributary state allies.History of India by Malti Malik, p.84The Great Armies of Antiquity by Richard A. Gabriel p.218 In the Gupta age, large armies of longbowmen were recruited to fight off invading horse archer armies. Elephants, pikemen, and cavalry were other featured troops. |
Army | China | China
thumb|A bronze crossbow trigger mechanism and butt plate that were mass-produced in the Warring States period (475-221 BCE)
The states of China raised armies for at least 1000 years before the Spring and Autumn Annals. By the Warring States period, the crossbow had been perfected enough to become a military secret, with bronze bolts that could pierce any armor. Thus any political power of a state rested on the armies and their organization. China underwent political consolidation of the states of Han (韓), Wei (魏), Chu (楚), Yan (燕), Zhao (趙) and Qi (齊), until by 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇帝), the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, attained absolute power. This first emperor of China could command the creation of a Terracotta Army to guard his tomb in the city of Xi'an (西安). in addition to a realignment of the Great Wall of China to strengthen his empire against insurrection, invasion and incursion.
Sun Tzu's The Art of War remains one of China's Seven Military Classics, even though it is two thousand years old.In the twentieth c., Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China), General Võ Nguyên Giáp (Viet Nam), General Douglas MacArthur (United States), and in medieval Japan, Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) have drawn inspiration from the work Since no political figure could exist without an army, measures were taken to ensure only the most capable leaders could control the armies."who wishes to fight must first count the cost" —Sun Tzu, The Art of War Civil bureaucracies (士大夫) arose to control the productive power of the states, and their military power."You conquered the empire on horseback, but from horseback, you will never succeed in ruling it." —Lu Chia, as quoted by Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. vol 7, part II. |
Army | Sparta | Sparta
thumb|upright|An Ancient Greek warrior in bronze, Riace bronzes, .
The Spartan Army was one of the earliest known professional armies. Boys were sent to a barracks at the age of seven or eight to train for becoming a soldier. At the age of thirty, they were released from the barracks and allowed to marry and have a family. After that, men devoted their lives to war until their retirement at the age of 60. The Spartan Army was largely composed of hoplites, equipped with arms and armor nearly identical to each other. Each hoplite bore the Spartan emblem and a scarlet uniform. The main pieces of this armor were a round shield, a spear and a helmet. |
Army | Ancient Rome | Ancient Rome
thumb|A 2nd-century depiction of Roman soldiers on Trajan's column
The Roman Army had its origins in the citizen army of the Republic, which was staffed by citizens serving mandatory duty for Rome. Conscription remained the main method through which Rome mustered forces until the end of the Republic.
The army eventually became a professional organization largely of citizens, who would served continuously for 25 years before being discharged.
The Romans were also noted for making use of auxiliary troops, non-Romans who served with the legions and filled roles that the traditional Roman military could not fill effectively, such as light skirmish troops and heavy cavalry. After their service in the army they were made citizens of Rome and then their children were citizens also. They were also given land and money to settle in Rome. In the Late Roman Empire, these auxiliary troops, along with foreign mercenaries, became the core of the Roman Army; moreover, by the time of the Late Roman Empire tribes such as the Visigoths were paid to serve as mercenaries. |
Army | Medieval Europe | Medieval Europe
thumb|Armies of the Middle Ages consisted of noble knights, rendering service to their suzerain, and hired footsoldiers
In the earliest Middle Ages it was the obligation of every aristocrat to respond to the call to battle with his own equipment, archers, and infantry. This decentralized system was necessary due to the social order of the time, but could lead to motley forces with variable training, equipment and abilities. The more resources the noble had access to, the better his troops would be.
Initially, the words "knight" and "noble" were used interchangeably as there was not generally a distinction between them. While the nobility did fight upon horseback, they were also supported by lower class citizens – and mercenaries and criminals – whose only purpose was participating in warfare because, most often than not, they held brief employment during their lord's engagement. As the Middle Ages progressed and feudalism developed in a legitimate social and economic system, knights started to develop into their own class with a minor caveat: they were still in debt to their lord. No longer primarily driven by economic need, the newly established vassal class were, instead, driven by fealty and chivalry.
As central governments grew in power, a return to the citizen armies of the classical period also began, as central levies of the peasantry began to be the central recruiting tool. England was one of the most centralized states in the Middle Ages, and the armies that fought in the Hundred Years' War were, predominantly, composed of paid professionals.
In theory, every Englishman had an obligation to serve for forty days. Forty days was not long enough for a campaign, especially one on the continent.
Thus the scutage was introduced, whereby most Englishmen paid to escape their service and this money was used to create a permanent army. However, almost all high medieval armies in Europe were composed of a great deal of paid core troops, and there was a large mercenary market in Europe from at least the early 12th century.
As the Middle Ages progressed in Italy, Italian cities began to rely mostly on mercenaries to do their fighting rather than the militias that had dominated the early and high medieval period in this region. These would be groups of career soldiers who would be paid a set rate. Mercenaries tended to be effective soldiers, especially in combination with standing forces, but in Italy they came to dominate the armies of the city states. This made them considerably less reliable than a standing army. Mercenary-on-mercenary warfare in Italy also led to relatively bloodless campaigns which relied as much on maneuver as on battles.
In 1439 the French legislature, known as the Estates General (French: états généraux), passed laws that restricted military recruitment and training to the king alone. There was a new tax to be raised known as the taille that was to provide funding for a new Royal army. The mercenary companies were given a choice of either joining the Royal army as compagnies d'ordonnance on a permanent basis, or being hunted down and destroyed if they refused. France gained a total standing army of around 6,000 men, which was sent out to gradually eliminate the remaining mercenaries who insisted on operating on their own. The new standing army had a more disciplined and professional approach to warfare than its predecessors. The reforms of the 1440s, eventually led to the French victory at Castillon in 1453, and the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War. By 1450 the companies were divided into the field army, known as the grande ordonnance and the garrison force known as the petite ordonnance.Vale, M.G.A. (1992). Charles VII. Berkeley: University of California Press. |
Army | Early modern | Early modern
thumb|Swiss mercenaries and German Landsknechts fighting for glory, fame and money at the Battle of Marignan (1515). The bulk of the Renaissance armies was composed of mercenaries.
First nation states lacked the funds needed to maintain standing forces, so they tended to hire mercenaries to serve in their armies during wartime. Such mercenaries typically formed at the ends of periods of conflict, when men-at-arms were no longer needed by their respective governments.
The veteran soldiers thus looked for other forms of employment, often becoming mercenaries. Free Companies would often specialize in forms of combat that required longer periods of training that was not available in the form of a mobilized militia.
As late as the 1650s, most troops were mercenaries. However, after the 17th century, most states invested in better disciplined and more politically reliable permanent troops. For a time mercenaries became important as trainers and administrators, but soon these tasks were also taken by the state. The massive size of these armies required a large supporting force of administrators.
The newly centralized states were forced to set up vast organized bureaucracies to manage these armies, which some historians argue is the basis of the modern bureaucratic state. The combination of increased taxes and increased centralization of government functions caused a series of revolts across Europe such as the Fronde in France and the English Civil War.
In many countries, the resolution of this conflict was the rise of absolute monarchy. Only in England and the Netherlands did representative government evolve as an alternative. From the late 17th century, states learned how to finance wars through long term low interest loans from national banking institutions. The first state to master this process was the Dutch Republic. This transformation in the armies of Europe had great social impact. The defense of the state now rested on the commoners, not on the aristocrats. However, aristocrats continued to monopolize the officer corps of almost all early modern armies, including their high command. Moreover, popular revolts almost always failed unless they had the support and patronage of the noble or gentry classes. The new armies, because of their vast expense, were also dependent on taxation and the commercial classes who also began to demand a greater role in society. The great commercial powers of the Dutch and English matched much larger states in military might.
As any man could be quickly trained in the use of a musket, it became far easier to form massive armies. The inaccuracy of the weapons necessitated large groups of massed soldiers. This led to a rapid swelling of the size of armies. For the first time huge masses of the population could enter combat, rather than just the highly skilled professionals.
thumb|The colonels of the French Guards and British guards politely discussing who should fire first at the Battle of Fontenoy (1745).Mackinnon, Daniel. Origin and services of the Coldstream Guards, London 1883, Vol. 1, p. 368, note 2 An example of "lace war".
It has been argued that the drawing of men from across the nation into an organized corps helped breed national unity and patriotism, and during this period the modern notion of the nation state was born. However, this would only become apparent after the French Revolutionary Wars. At this time, the levée en masse and conscription would become the defining paradigm of modern warfare.
Before then, however, most national armies were in fact composed of many nationalities. In Spain armies were recruited from all the Spanish European territories including Spain, Italy, Wallonia (Walloon Guards) and Germany. The French recruited some soldiers from Germany, Switzerland as well as from Piedmont. Britain recruited Hessian and Hanovrian troops until the late 18th century. Irish Catholics made careers for themselves in the armies of many Catholic European states.
Prior to the English Civil War in England, the monarch maintained a personal bodyguard of Yeomen of the Guard and the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, or "gentlemen pensioners", and a few locally raised companies to garrison important places such as Berwick on Tweed or Portsmouth (or Calais before it was recaptured by France in 1558).
Troops for foreign expeditions were raised upon an ad hoc basis. Noblemen and professional regular soldiers were commissioned by the monarch to supply troops, raising their quotas by indenture from a variety of sources. On January 26, 1661 Charles II issued the Royal Warrant that created the genesis of what would become the British Army, although the Scots Army and English Army would remain two separate organizations until the unification of England and Scotland in 1707. The small force was represented by only a few regiments.
After the American Revolutionary War the Continental Army was quickly disbanded as part of the Americans' distrust of standing armies, and irregular state militias became the sole ground army of the United States, with the exception of one battery of artillery guarding West Point's arsenal. Then First American Regiment was established in 1784. However, because of continuing conflict with Native Americans, it was soon realized that it was necessary to field a trained standing army. The first of these, the Legion of the United States, was established in 1791.
Until 1733 the common soldiers of Prussian Army consisted largely of peasantry recruited or impressed from Brandenburg–Prussia, leading many to flee to neighboring countries. To halt this trend, Frederick William I divided Prussia into regimental cantons. Every youth was required to serve as a soldier in these recruitment districts for three months each year; this met agrarian needs and added extra troops to bolster the regular ranks.
thumb|The battle of the Nations (1813), marked the transition between aristocratic armies and national armies.Napoléon a réinventé l’art de la guerre . lecavalierbleu.com Masses replace hired professionals and national hatred overrides dynastic conflicts. An early example of total wars.
Russian tsars before Peter I of Russia maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps (streltsy in Russian) that were highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war the armed forces were augmented by peasants. Peter I introduced a modern regular army built on German model, but with a new aspect: officers not necessarily from nobility, as talented commoners were given promotions that eventually included a noble title at the attainment of an officer's rank. Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on quota system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers.Jerome Blum (1971) "Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century", , pp. 465, 466 The term of service in the 18th century was for life. In 1793 it was reduced to 25 years. In 1834 it was reduced to 20 years plus 5 years in reserve and in 1855 to 12 years plus 3 years of reserve.
The first Ottoman standing army were Janissaries. They replaced forces that mostly comprised tribal warriors (ghazis) whose loyalty and morale could not always be trusted. The first Janissary units were formed from prisoners of war and slaves, probably as a result of the sultan taking his traditional one-fifth share of his army's treasure they looted in kind rather than cash.
From the 1380s onwards, their ranks were filled under the devşirme system, where feudal dues were paid by service to the sultan. The "recruits" were mostly Christian youths, reminiscent of mamluks.
China organized the Manchu people into the Eight Banner system in the early 17th century. Defected Ming armies formed the Green Standard Army. These troops enlisted voluntarily and for long terms of service. |
Army | Late modern | Late modern
thumb|British Indian Army personnel during Operation Crusader in Egypt, 1941
Conscription allowed the French Republic to form the Grande Armée, what Napoleon Bonaparte called "the nation in arms", which successfully battled European professional armies.
Conscription, particularly when the conscripts are being sent to foreign wars that do not directly affect the security of the nation, has historically been highly politically contentious in democracies.
In developed nations, the increasing emphasis on technological firepower and better-trained fighting forces, make mass conscription unlikely in the foreseeable future.
Russia, as well as many other nations, retains mainly a conscript army. There is also a very rare citizen army as used in Switzerland (see Military of Switzerland). |
Army | Field army | Field army
thumb|An army can also feature specialized units to give air or sea support. This image depicts the Italian Army 7th Army Aviation Regiment "Vega" transporting troops with NH90 helicopters.
A particular army can be named or numbered to distinguish it from military land forces in general. For example, the First United States Army and the Army of Northern Virginia. In the British Army it is normal to spell out the ordinal number of an army (e.g. First Army), whereas lower formations use figures (e.g. 1st Division).
Armies (as well as army groups and theaters) are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size, composition, and scope of responsibility.
In the Soviet Red Army and the Soviet Air Force, "Armies" could vary in size, but were subordinate to an Army Group-sized "front" in wartime. In peacetime, a Soviet army was usually subordinate to a military district. Viktor Suvorov's Inside the Soviet Army describes how Cold War era Soviet military districts were actually composed of a front headquarters and a military district headquarters co-located for administration and deception ('maskirovika') reasons. |
Army | Formations | Formations
In many countries, especially in Europe or North America, armies are often subdivided as follows:
80px| 80pxfield army: A field army is composed of a headquarters, army troops, a variable number of corps, typically between three and four, and a variable number of divisions, also between three and four. A battle is influenced at the Field Army level by transferring divisions and reinforcements from one corps to another to increase the pressure on the enemy at a critical point. Field armies are controlled by a general or lieutenant general. 80px| 80pxCorps: A corps usually consists of two or more divisions and is commanded by a lieutenant general. 80px| 80pxDivision: Each division is commanded by a major general, and usually holds three brigades including infantry, artillery, engineers and communications units in addition to logistics (supply and service) support to sustain independent action. Except for the divisions operating in the mountains, divisions have at least one armored unit, some have even more depending upon their functionality. The basic building block of all ground force combat formations is the infantry division. 80px| 80pxBrigade: A brigade is under the command of a brigadier or brigadier general and sometimes is commanded by a colonel. It typically comprises three or more battalions of different units depending on its functionality. An independent brigade would be one that primarily consists of an artillery unit, an infantry unit, an armour unit and logistics to support its actions. Such a brigade is not part of any division and is under direct command of a corps. 80px| 80pxBattalion: Each battalion is commanded by a colonel or sometimes by lieutenant colonel who commands roughly 500 to 750 soldiers. This number varies depending on the functionality of the regiment. A battalion comprises 3–5 companies (3 rifle companies, a fire support company and headquarters company) or its functional equivalent such as batteries (artillery) or squadrons (armour and cavalry), each under the command of a major. The company can be divided into platoons, each of which can again be divided into sections or squads. (Terminology is nationality and even unit specific.) |
Army | See also | See also
Lists of armies
List of armies by country
List of army units called Guards
List of numbered armies
List of countries by number of military and paramilitary personnel
Military organization
Paramilitary |
Army | References | References |
Army | External links | External links
Category:Types of military forces |
Army | Table of Content | short description, Definition, Structure, History, India, China, Sparta, Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Early modern, Late modern, Field army, Formations, See also, References, External links |
Alligatoridae | Short description | The family Alligatoridae of crocodylians includes alligators, caimans and their extinct relatives. |
Alligatoridae | Phylogeny | Phylogeny
thumb|A. olseni fore limb
thumb|right|Alligator prenasalis fossil
The superfamily Alligatoroidea includes all crocodilians (fossil and extant) that are more closely related to the American alligator than to either the Nile crocodile or the gharial. This is a stem-based definition for alligators, and is more inclusive than the crown group Alligatoridae. As a crown group, Alligatoridae only includes the last common ancestor of all extant (living) alligators, caimans, and their descendants (living or extinct), whereas Alligatoroidea, as a stem-based group, also includes more basal extinct alligator ancestors that are more closely related to living alligators than to crocodiles or gavialids. When considering only living taxa (neontology), Alligatoroidea and Alligatoridae contain the same species.
The simplified cladogram below shows Alligatoridae's relationships to other extant (living) crocodilians.
Alligatoridae contains eight living species: two alligators within Alligatorinae, and the six caimans of Caimaninae. Phylogenetic studies using molecular DNA consistently resolve their relationships as follows:
The below detailed cladogram shows one proposal for the internal relationships within Alligatoridae including fossil species, based on morphological analysis (although the exact alligatoroid phylogeny is still disputed). |
Alligatoridae | Evolution | Evolution
The superfamily Alligatoroidea is thought to have split from the crocodile-gharial lineage in the late Cretaceous, about 87 million years ago. Leidyosuchus of Alberta is among the earliest known genera. Fossil alligatoroids have been found throughout Eurasia as land bridges across both the North Atlantic and the Bering Strait have connected North America to Eurasia during the Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Neogene periods. Alligators and caimans split in North America during the early Tertiary or late Cretaceous (about 53 million to about 65 million years ago) and the latter reached South America by the Paleogene, before the closure of the Isthmus of Panama during the Neogene period. The Chinese alligator split from the American alligator about 33 million years ago and likely descended from a lineage that crossed the Bering land bridge during the Neogene. The modern American alligator is well represented in the fossil record of the Pleistocene. The alligator's full mitochondrial genome was sequenced in the 1990s. The full genome, published in 2014, suggests that the alligator evolved much more slowly than mammals and birds. |
Alligatoridae | True alligators | True alligators
The lineage including alligators proper (Alligatorinae) occurs in the fluvial deposits of the age of the Upper Chalk in Europe, where they died out in the Pliocene age. The true alligators are today represented by two species, A. mississippiensis in the southeastern United States which can grow to and weigh ,"American alligator". animals.nationalgeographic.com. National Geographic Society. with unverified sizes of up to , and the small A. sinensis in the Yangtze River, China, which grows to an average of . Their name derives from the Spanish el lagarto, which means "the lizard". |
Alligatoridae | Caimans | Caimans
thumb|C. crocodilus at the Helsinki Tropicario Zoo aquarium in Helsinki, Finland in 2010
In Central and South America, the alligator family is represented by six species of the subfamily Caimaninae, which differ from the alligator by the absence of a bony septum between the nostrils, and having ventral armour composed of overlapping bony scutes, each of which is formed of two parts united by a suture. Besides the three species in Caiman, the smooth-fronted caimans in genus Paleosuchus and the black caiman in Melanosuchus are described. Caimans tend to be more agile and crocodile-like in their movements, and have longer, sharper teeth than alligators.
C. crocodilus, the spectacled caiman, has the widest distribution, from southern Mexico to the northern half of Argentina, and grows to a modest size of about . The largest is the near-threatened Melanosuchus niger, the jacaré-açu or large or black caiman of the Amazon River basin. Black caimans grow to , with the unverified size of up to . The black caiman and American alligator are the only members of the alligator family that pose the same danger to humans as the larger species of the crocodile family.
Although caimans have not been studied in depth, scientists have learned their mating cycles (previously thought to be spontaneous or year-round) are linked to the rainfall cycles and the river levels, which increases chances of survival for their offspring. |
Alligatoridae | Taxonomy | Taxonomy
† = extinctthumb|right|An alligator nest at Everglades National Park, Florida, United States
thumb|Spectacled caiman head
thumb|Black caiman, Jauaperi River, Amazonia
thumb|Head of smooth-fronted caiman
Family Alligatoridae
Subfamily Alligatorinae
Genus Alligator
† Alligator hailensis
† Alligator mcgrewi
† Alligator mefferdi
Alligator mississippiensis, American alligator
† Alligator olseni
† Alligator prenasalis
Alligator sinensis, Chinese alligator
† Alligator thomsoni
Genus † Allognathosuchus
Genus † Arambourgia
Genus † Ceratosuchus
Genus † Chrysochampsa
Genus † Eoalligator
Genus † Hassiacosuchus
Genus † Krabisuchus
Genus † Navajosuchus?
Genus † Procaimanoidea
Genus † Wannaganosuchus
Subfamily Caimaninae
Genus † Acresuchus
Genus † Bottosaurus
Genus Caiman
† Caiman brevirostris
Caiman crocodilus, Spectacled caiman
Caiman latirostris, Broad-snouted caiman
† Caiman lutescans
† Caiman venezuelensis
† Caiman wannlangstoni
Caiman yacare, Yacare caiman
Genus † Centenariosuchus
Genus † Chinatichampsus
Genus † Culebrasuchus
Genus † Eocaiman
Genus † Globidentosuchus
Genus † Gnatusuchus
Genus † Kuttanacaiman
Genus Melanosuchus
† Melanosuchus fisheri
Melanosuchus niger, Black caiman
Genus † Mourasuchus
Genus † Necrosuchus
Genus † Orthogenysuchus
Genus Paleosuchus
Paleosuchus palpebrosus, Cuvier's dwarf caiman
Paleosuchus trigonatus, Smooth-fronted caiman
Genus † Protocaiman
Genus † Purussaurus
Genus † Tsoabichi |
Alligatoridae | References | References |
Alligatoridae | External links | External links
"Crocodilians: Natural History & Conservation" crocodilian.com
"Family Alligatoridae Gray 1844 (alligator)" , fossilworks.org.
Category:Taxa named by John Edward Gray
Category:Crocodilian families
Category:Extant Campanian first appearances |
Alligatoridae | Table of Content | Short description, Phylogeny, Evolution, True alligators, Caimans, Taxonomy, References, External links |
Alder | Short description | thumb|Female alder catkins after shedding their seeds
thumb|upright|Alnus serrulata male catkins
Alders are trees of the genus Alnus in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species extending into Central America, as well as the northern and southern Andes. |
Alder | Description | Description
thumb|Pollen
With a few exceptions, alders are deciduous, and the leaves are alternate, simple, and serrated. The flowers are catkins with elongate male catkins on the same plant as shorter female catkins, often before leaves appear; they are mainly wind-pollinated, but also visited by bees to a small extent. These trees differ from the birches (Betula, another genus in the family) in that the female catkins are woody and do not disintegrate at maturity, opening to release the seeds in a similar manner to many conifer cones.
The largest species are red alder (A. rubra) on the west coast of North America, and black alder (A. glutinosa), native to most of Europe and widely introduced elsewhere, both reaching over . By contrast, the widespread Alnus alnobetula (green alder) is rarely more than a shrub. |
Alder | Phylogeny | Phylogeny |
Alder | Classification | Classification
The genus is divided into three subgenera: |
Alder | Subgenus ''Alnus'' | Subgenus Alnus
right|thumb|Speckled alder (Alnus incana subsp. rugosa)—leaves
right|thumb|Leaves of the tag alder
Trees with stalked shoot buds, male and female catkins produced in autumn (fall) but stay closed over winter, pollinating in late winter or early spring, about 15–25 species, including:
Alnus acuminata
subsp. acuminata
subsp. arguta
subsp. glabrata
Alnus cordata
Alnus cremastogyne
Alnus firma
Alnus glutinosa
subsp. barbata
subsp. glutinosa
subsp. incisa
subsp. laciniata
Alnus hirsuta
Alnus incana
subsp. incana
subsp. kolaensis
subsp. rugosa
subsp. tenuifolia
Alnus japonica
Alnus jorullensis
subsp. lutea
subsp. jorullensis
Alnus lusitanica
Alnus matsumurae
Alnus nepalensis
Alnus oblongifolia
Alnus orientalis
Alnus rhombifolia
Alnus rohlenae
Alnus rubra
Alnus serrulata
Alnus subcordata
Alnus tenuifolia
Alnus trabeculosa |
Alder | Subgenus ''Clethropsis'' | Subgenus Clethropsis
Trees or shrubs with stalked shoot buds, male and female catkins produced in autumn (fall) and expanding and pollinating then, three species:
Alnus formosana
Alnus maritima
Alnus nitida |
Alder | Subgenus ''Alnobetula'' | Subgenus Alnobetula
right|thumb|Green alder (Alnus viridis)
Shrubs with shoot buds not stalked, male and female catkins produced in late spring (after leaves appear) and expanding and pollinating then, one to four species:
Alnus alnobetula (synonym-Alnus viridis)
subsp. alnobetula
subsp. crispa
subsp. fruticosa
subsp. sinuata
subsp. suaveolens
Alnus firma
Alnus mandshurica
Alnus maximowiczii
Alnus pendula
Alnus sieboldiana |
Alder | Not assigned to a subgenus | Not assigned to a subgenus
Alnus fauriei
Alnus ferdinandi-coburgii
Alnus glutipes
Alnus hakkodensis
Alnus henryi
Alnus lanata
Alnus mairei
Alnus paniculata
Alnus serrulatoides
Alnus vermicularis |
Alder | Species names with uncertain taxonomic status | Species names with uncertain taxonomic status
The status of the following species is unresolved:
Alnus balatonialis
Alnus cuneata
Alnus dimitrovii
Alnus djavanshirii – Iran
Alnus dolichocarpa – Iran
Alnus figerti
Alnus frangula
Alnus gigantea
Alnus glandulosa
Alnus henedae
Alnus hybrida
Alnus laciniata
Alnus lobata
Alnus microphylla
Alnus obtusifolia
Alnus oxyacantha
Alnus subrotunda
Alnus vilmoriana
Alnus washingtonia |
Alder | Hybrids | Hybrids
thumb|upright|Alnus × spaethii
The following hybrids have been described:
Alnus × elliptica (A. cordata × A. glutinosa)
Alnus × fallacina (A. incana subsp. rugosa × A. serrulata)
Alnus × hanedae (A. firma × A. sieboldiana)
Alnus × hosoii (A. maximowiczii × A. pendula)
Alnus × mayrii (A. hirsuta × A. japonica)
Alnus × peculiaris (A. firma × A. pendula)
Alnus × pubescens (A. glutinosa × A. incana)
Alnus × suginoi
The status of the following hybrids is unresolved:
Alnus × aschersoniana
Alnus × koehnei
Alnus × ljungeri
Alnus × purpusii
Alnus × silesiaca
Alnus × spaethii (A. japonica × A. subcordata) |
Alder | Fossil record | Fossil record
The oldest fossil pollen that can be identified as Alnus is from northern Bohemia, dating to the late Paleocene, around 58 million years ago.
†Alnus fairi - Miocene; Western North America
†Alnus heterodonta – Oligocene; Fossil, Oregon
†Alnus hollandiana - Miocene; Western North America
†Alnus largei - Miocene; Western North America
†Alnus parvifolia - Ypresian; Okanagan Highlands
†Alnus relatus - Miocene; Western North America |
Alder | Etymology | Etymology
The common name alder evolved from the Old English word alor, which in turn is derived from Proto-Germanic root aliso. The generic name Alnus is the equivalent Latin name, from whence French aulne and Spanish Alamo (Spanish term for "poplar"). |
Alder | Ecology | Ecology
Alders are commonly found near streams, rivers, and wetlands. Sometimes where the prevalence of alders is particularly prominent these are called alder carrs. In the Pacific Northwest of North America, the white alder (Alnus rhombifolia) unlike other northwest alders, has an affinity for warm, dry climates, where it grows along watercourses, such as along the lower Columbia River east of the Cascades and the Snake River, including Hells Canyon.
Alder leaves and sometimes catkins are used as food by numerous butterflies and moths.
A. glutinosa and A. viridis are classed as environmental weeds in New Zealand. Alder leaves and especially the roots are important to the ecosystem because they enrich the soil with nitrogen and other nutrients. |
Alder | Nitrogen fixation and succession of woodland species | Nitrogen fixation and succession of woodland species
right|thumb|A red alder seed is a tiny samara like those of all alders
Alder is particularly noted for its important symbiotic relationship with Frankia alni, an actinomycete, filamentous, nitrogen-fixing bacterium. This bacterium is found in root nodules, which may be as large as a human fist, with many small lobes, and light brown in colour. The bacterium absorbs nitrogen from the air and makes it available to the tree. Alder, in turn, provides the bacterium with sugars, which it produces through photosynthesis. As a result of this mutually beneficial relationship, alder improves the fertility of the soil where it grows, and as a pioneer species, it helps provide additional nitrogen for the successional species to follow.
Because of its abundance, red alder delivers large amounts of nitrogen to enrich forest soils. Red alder stands have been found to supply between of nitrogen annually to the soil. From Alaska to Oregon, Alnus viridis subsp. sinuata (A. sinuata, Sitka Alder or Slide Alder), characteristically pioneer fresh, gravelly sites at the foot of retreating glaciers. Studies show that Sitka alder, a more shrubby variety of alder, adds nitrogen to the soil at an average rate of per year, helping convert the sterile glacial terrain to soil capable of supporting a conifer forest. Alders are common among the first species to colonize disturbed areas from floods, windstorms, fires, landslides, etc. Alder groves often serve as natural firebreaks since these broad-leaved trees are much less flammable than conifers. Their foliage and leaf litter does not carry a fire well, and their thin bark is sufficiently resistant to protect them from light surface fires. In addition, the light weight of alder seedsnumbering allows for easy dispersal by the wind. Although it outgrows coastal Douglas-fir for the first 25 years, it is very shade intolerant and seldom lives more than 100 years. Red alder is the Pacific Northwest's largest alder and the most plentiful and commercially important broad-leaved tree in the coastal Northwest. Groves of red alder in diameter intermingle with young Douglas-fir forests west of the Cascades, attaining a maximum height of in about sixty years and then are afflicted by heart rot. Alders largely help create conditions favorable for giant conifers that replace them. |
Alder | Parasites | Parasites
Alder roots are parasitized by northern groundcone. |
Alder | Uses | Uses
thumb|right|Alder coat of arms of Grossarl, Austria
The catkins of some alder species have a degree of edibility, and may be rich in protein. Reported to have a bitter and unpleasant taste, they are more useful for survival purposes. The wood of certain alder species is often used to smoke various food items such as coffee, salmon, and other seafood.
Alder is notably stable when immersed, and has been used for millennia as a material for pilings for piers and wharves. Most of the pilings that form the foundation of Venice were made from alder trees.
Alder bark contains the anti-inflammatory salicin, which is metabolized into salicylic acid in the body. Some Native American cultures use red alder bark (Alnus rubra) to treat poison oak, insect bites, and skin irritations. Blackfeet Indians have traditionally used an infusion made from the bark of red alder to treat lymphatic disorders and tuberculosis. Recent clinical studies have verified that red alder contains betulin and lupeol, compounds shown to be effective against a variety of tumors.
The inner bark of the alder, as well as red osier dogwood, or chokecherry, is used by some Indigenous peoples of the Americas in smoking mixtures, known as kinnikinnick, to improve the taste of the bearberry leaf.
Alder is illustrated in the coat of arms for the Austrian town of Grossarl.
Electric guitars, most notably those manufactured by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, have been built with alder bodies since the 1950s. Alder is appreciated for its tone that is claimed to be tight and evenly balanced, especially when compared to mahogany, and has been adopted by many electric guitar manufacturers. It usually is finished in opaque lacquer (nitrocellulose, polyurethane, or polyester), as it does not have a prominent grain.
As a hardwood, alder is used in making furniture, cabinets, and other woodworking products. In these applications, its aforementioned lack of prominent grain means that it is often veneered, either by stained light woods such as oak, ash, or figured maple, or by darker woods such as teak or walnut.
Alder bark and wood (like oak and sweet chestnut) contain tannin and are traditionally used to tan leather.
A red dye can also be extracted from the outer bark, and a yellow dye from the inner bark. |
Alder | Culture | Culture
Ermanno Olmi's movie The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L' Albero Degli Zoccoli, 1978) refers in its title to alder, typically used to make clogs as in this movie's plot.PRESSO LA RIVA: L'ONTANO (tr. AT THE SHORE: THE ALDER), December 2015 www.officinadellambiente.com, accessed 17 November 2020Ontano nero (tr. Black Alder) accessed 17 November 2020 uomoenatura.it |
Alder | References | References |
Alder | Further reading | Further reading
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Alder | External links | External links
Flora Europaea: Alnus
Flora of Bolivia: Alnus
Flora of China: Alnus
Flora of North America: Alnus
Flora of Pakistan: Alnus
Category:Taxa named by Philip Miller |
Alder | Table of Content | Short description, Description, Phylogeny, Classification, Subgenus ''Alnus'', Subgenus ''Clethropsis'', Subgenus ''Alnobetula'', Not assigned to a subgenus, Species names with uncertain taxonomic status, Hybrids, Fossil record, Etymology, Ecology, Nitrogen fixation and succession of woodland species, Parasites, Uses, Culture, References, Further reading, External links |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Short description | Amos Bronson Alcott (; November 29, 1799 – March 4, 1888) was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and avoided traditional punishment. He hoped to perfect the human spirit and, to that end, advocated a plant-based diet. He was also an abolitionist and an advocate for women's rights.
Born in Wolcott, Connecticut, in 1799, Alcott had only minimal formal schooling before attempting a career as a traveling salesman. Worried that the itinerant life might have a negative impact on his soul, he turned to teaching. His innovative methods, however, were controversial, and he rarely stayed in one place very long. His most well-known teaching position was at the Temple School in Boston. His experience there was turned into two books: Records of a School and Conversations with Children on the Gospels. Alcott became friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and became a major figure in transcendentalism. His writings on behalf of that movement, however, are heavily criticized for being incoherent. Based on his ideas for human perfection, Alcott founded Fruitlands, a transcendentalist experiment in community living. The project failed after seven months. Alcott and his family struggled financially for most of his life. Nevertheless, he continued focusing on educational projects and opened a new school at the end of his life in 1879. He died in 1888.
Alcott married Abby May in 1830, and they had four surviving children, all daughters. Their second was Louisa May, who fictionalized her experience with the family in her novel Little Women in 1868. |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Life and work | Life and work |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Early life | Early life
A native New Englander, Amos Bronson Alcott was born in Wolcott, Connecticut (then recently renamed from "Farmingbury") on November 29, 1799. His parents were Joseph Chatfield Alcott and Anna Bronson Alcott. The family home was in an area known as Spindle Hill, and his father, Joseph Alcox, traced his ancestry to colonial-era settlers in eastern Massachusetts. The family originally spelled their name "Alcock", later changed to "Alcocke" then "Alcox". Amos Bronson, the oldest of eight children, later changed the spelling to "Alcott" and dropped his first name.
At age six, young Bronson began his formal education in a one-room schoolhouse in the center of town but learned how to read at home with the help of his mother. The school taught only reading, writing, and spelling, and he left this school at the age of 10. At age 13, his uncle, Reverend Tillotson Bronson, invited Alcott into his home in Cheshire, Connecticut, to be educated and prepared for college. Bronson gave it up after only a month and was self-educated from then on. He was not particularly social and his only close friend was his neighbor and second cousin William Alcott, with whom he shared books and ideas. Bronson Alcott later reflected on his childhood at Spindle Hill: "It kept me pure ... I dwelt amidst the hills ... God spoke to me while I walked the fields." Starting at age 15, he worked for clockmaker Seth Thomas in the nearby town of Plymouth.
At age 17, Alcott passed the exam for a teaching certificate but had trouble finding work as a teacher. Instead, he left home and became a traveling salesman in the American South, peddling books and merchandise. He hoped the job would earn him enough money to support his parents, "to make their cares, and burdens less ... and get them free from debt", though he soon spent most of his earnings on a new suit. At first, he thought it an acceptable occupation but soon worried about his spiritual well-being. In March 1823, Alcott wrote to his brother: "Peddling is a hard place to serve God, but a capital one to serve Mammon." Near the end of his life, he fictionalized this experience in his book, New Connecticut, originally circulated only among friends before its publication in 1881. |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Early career and marriage | Early career and marriage
By the summer of 1823, Alcott returned to Connecticut in debt to his father, who had bailed him out after his last two unsuccessful sales trips. He took a job as a schoolteacher in Cheshire with the help of his Uncle Tillotson. He quickly set about reforming the school. He added backs to the benches on which students sat, improved lighting and heating, de-emphasized rote learning, and provided individual slates to each student—paid for by himself. Alcott had been influenced by educational philosophy of the Swiss pedagogue Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and even renamed his school "The Cheshire Pestalozzi School".
thumb|Abby May Alcott in her later years
His style attracted the attention of Samuel Joseph May, who introduced Alcott to his sister Abby May. She called him, "an intelligent, philosophic, modest man" and found his views on education "very attractive". Locals in Cheshire were less supportive and became suspicious of his methods. Many students left and were enrolled in the local common school or a recently reopened private school for boys. On November 6, 1827, Alcott started teaching in Bristol, Connecticut, still using the same methods he used in Cheshire, but opposition from the community surfaced quickly; he was unemployed by March 1828. He moved to Boston on April 24, 1828, and was immediately impressed, referring to the city as a place "where the light of the sun of righteousness has risen". He opened the Salem Street Infant School two months later on June 23. Abby May applied as his teaching assistant; instead, the couple were engaged, without consent of the family. They were married at King's Chapel on May 22, 1830; he was 30 years old and she was 29. Her brother conducted the ceremony and a modest reception followed at her father's house. After their marriage the Alcotts moved to 12 Franklin Street in Boston, a boarding house run by a Mrs. Newall. Around this time, Alcott also first expressed his public disdain for slavery. In November 1830, he and William Lloyd Garrison founded what he later called a "preliminary Anti-Slavery Society", though he differed from Garrison as a nonresistant.Perry, Lewis. Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought. University of Tennessee Press, 1995: 81. Alcott became a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee.
Attendance at Alcott's school was falling when a wealthy Quaker named Reuben Haines III proposed that he and educator William Russell start a new school in Pennsylvania, associated with the Germantown Academy. Alcott accepted and he and his newly pregnant wife set forth on December 14. The school was established in Germantown Pennsylvania, which at the time was a separate town from Philadelphia. The Alcotts were offered a rent-free home by Haines. Alcott and Russell were initially concerned that the area would not be conducive to their progressive approach to education and considered establishing the school in nearby Philadelphia instead. Unsuccessful, they went back to Germantown, though the rent-free home was no longer available, and the Alcotts instead had to rent rooms in a boarding-house. It was there that their first child, a daughter they named Anna Bronson Alcott, was born on March 16, 1831, after 36 hours of labor. By the fall of that year, their benefactor Haines died suddenly and the Alcotts again suffered financial difficulty. "We hardly earn the bread", wrote Abby May to her brother, "[and] the butter we have to think about."
The couple's only son was born on April 6, 1839, but lived only a few minutes. The mother recorded: "Gave birth to a fine boy full grown perfectly formed but not living". It was in Germantown that the couple's second daughter was born. Louisa May Alcott was born on her father's birthday, November 29, 1832, at a half-hour past midnight. Bronson described her as "a very fine healthful child, much more so than Anna was at birth". The Germantown school, however, was faltering, and soon only eight pupils remained. Their benefactor Haines, having died before Louisa's birth, had recruited students and paid tuition for some of them. As Abby wrote, Haines' death, "has prostrated all our hopes here". On April 10, 1833, the family moved to Philadelphia, where Alcott ran a day school. As usual, Alcott's methods were controversial; a former student later referred to him as "the most eccentric man who ever took on himself to train and form the youthful mind". Alcott began to believe Boston was the best place for his ideas to flourish. He contacted theologian William Ellery Channing for support. Channing approved of Alcott's methods and promised to help find students to enroll, including his own daughter Mary. Channing also secured aid from Justice Lemuel Shaw and Boston mayor Josiah Quincy Jr. |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Experimental educator | Experimental educator
On September 22, 1834, Alcott opened a school of about 30 students, mostly from wealthy families. It was named the Temple School because classes were held at the Masonic Temple on Tremont Street in Boston. His assistant was Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, later replaced by Margaret Fuller. Mary Peabody Mann served as a French instructor for a time. The school was briefly famous, and then infamous, because of Alcott's method of "discarding text-books and teaching by conversation", his questioning attitude toward the Bible, and his reception of "a colored girl" into his classes.
Before 1830, primary and secondary teaching of writing consisted of rote drills in grammar, spelling, vocabulary, penmanship and transcription of adult texts. In that decade, however, progressive reformers such as Alcott, influenced by Pestalozzi, Friedrich Fröbel, and Johann Friedrich Herbart, began to advocate compositions based on students' own experiences. These reformers opposed beginning instruction with rules and preferred to have students learn to write by expressing their personal understanding of the events of their lives.
Alcott sought to develop instruction on the basis of self-analysis, with an emphasis on conversation and questioning rather than lecturing and drill. A similar interest in instructive conversation was shared by Abby May who, describing her idea of a family "post office" set up to curb potential domestic tension, said "I thought it would afford a daily opportunity for the children, indeed all of us, to interchange thought and sentiment".
Alongside writing and reading, Alcott gave lessons in "spiritual culture", which included interpretation of the Gospels, and advocated object teaching in writing instruction. He even went so far as to decorate his schoolroom with visual elements he thought would inspire learning: paintings, books, comfortable furniture, and busts or portraits of Plato, Socrates, Jesus, and William Ellery Channing.
During this time, the Alcotts had another child. Born on June 24, 1835, she was named Elizabeth Peabody Alcott in honor of the teaching assistant at the Temple School. By age three, however, her mother changed her name to Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, after her own mother, perhaps because of the recent rupture between Bronson Alcott and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody.
thumb|Record of a School, a chronicle of Alcott's Temple School, was published in 1835.
In July 1835, Peabody published her account as an assistant to the Temple School as Record of a School: Exemplifying the General Principles of Spiritual Culture. While working on a second book, Alcott and Peabody had a falling out and Conversations with Children on the Gospels was prepared with help from Peabody's sister Sophia, published at the end of December 1836. Alcott's methods were not well received; many found his conversations on the Gospels close to blasphemous. For example, he asked students to question if Biblical miracles were literal and suggested that all people are part of God. In the Boston Daily Advertiser, Nathan Hale criticized Alcott's "flippant and off hand conversation" about serious topics from the Virgin birth of Jesus to circumcision. Joseph T. Buckingham called Alcott "either insane or half-witted" and "an ignorant and presuming charlatan". The book did not sell well; a Boston lawyer bought 750 copies to use as waste paper.
The Temple School was widely denounced in the press. Reverend James Freeman Clarke was one of Alcott's few supporters and defended him against the harsh response from Boston periodicals. Alcott was rejected by most public opinion and, by the summer of 1837, he had only 11 students left and no assistant after Margaret Fuller moved to Providence, Rhode Island. The controversy had caused many parents to remove their children and, as the school closed, Alcott became increasingly financially desperate. Remaining steadfast to his pedagogy, a forerunner of progressive and democratic schooling, he alienated parents in a later "parlor school" by admitting an African American child to the class, whom he then refused to expel in the face of protests. |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Transcendentalist | Transcendentalist
Beginning in 1836, Alcott's membership in the Transcendental Club put him in the company of such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Orestes Brownson and Theodore Parker.Buell, Lawrence. Emerson. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003: 32–33. He became a member at the club's second meeting and hosted its third. A biographer of Emerson described the group as "the occasional meetings of a changing body of liberal thinkers, agreeing in nothing but their liberality". Frederic Henry Hedge wrote similarly that "[t]here was no club in the strict sense ... only occasional meetings of like-minded men and women". Alcott preferred the term "Symposium" for their group.
In late April 1840, Alcott moved to the town of Concord urged by Emerson. He rented a home for $50 a year within walking distance of Emerson's house. He named it Dove Cottage. A supporter of his philosophies, Emerson offered to help Alcott with his writing. This proved a difficult task. For example, after several revisions of the essay "Psyche" (Alcott's account of how he educated his daughters), Emerson deemed it unpublishable. Alcott also wrote a series patterned after the work of German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe which was published in the Transcendentalists' journal, The Dial. Emerson had written to Margaret Fuller, then editor, that Alcott's so-called "Orphic Sayings" might "pass muster & even pass for just & great", but they were widely mocked as silly and unintelligible. Fuller herself disliked them, but did not want to hurt Alcott's feelings. The following example appeared in the first issue:
With financial support from Emerson, and leaving his family in the care of his brother Junius, Alcott departed Concord for a visit to England on May 8, 1842. There he met admirers Charles Lane and Henry C. Wright, supporters of Alcott House, an experimental school outside London based on Alcott's Temple School methods. The two men followed Alcott back to the United States and, in an early communitarian experiment, Lane and his son moved in with the Alcotts.
Persuaded in part by Lane's abolitionist views, Alcott took a stand against President Tyler's plan to annex Texas as a slave territory and refused to pay his poll tax. Abby May wrote in her journal on January 17, 1843, "A day of some excitement, as Mr. Alcott refused to pay his town tax ... After waiting some time to be committed [to jail], he was told it was paid by a friend. Thus we were spared the affliction of his absence and the triumph of suffering for his principles." The incident inspired Henry David Thoreau, whose similar protest against the $1.50 poll tax led to a night in jail and his essay "Civil Disobedience". |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Fruitlands | Fruitlands
thumb|right|Alcott and Charles Lane founded "Fruitlands" in 1843.
Lane and Alcott collaborated on a major expansion of their educational theories into a Utopian society. Alcott, however, was still in debt and could not purchase the land needed for their planned community. In a letter, Lane wrote, "I do not see anyone to act the money part but myself." In May 1843, he purchased a farm in Harvard, Massachusetts. Up front, he paid $1,500 of the total $1,800 value of the property; the rest was meant to be paid by the Alcotts over a two-year period. They moved to the farm on June 1 and optimistically named it "Fruitlands" despite only ten old apple trees on the property. In July, Alcott announced their plans in The Dial: "We have made an arrangement with the proprietor of an estate of about a hundred acres, which liberates this tract from human ownership".
Their goal was to regain Eden, to find the formula for agriculture, diet, and reproduction that would provide the perfect way for the individual to live "in harmony with nature, the animal world, his fellows, himself, [and] his creator". In order to achieve this, they removed themselves from the economy as much as possible and lived independently, styling themselves a "consociate family". Unlike a similar project named Brook Farm, the participants at Fruitlands avoided interaction with other local communities. At first scorning animal labor as exploitative, they found human spadework insufficient to their needs and eventually allowed some cattle to be "enslaved". They banned coffee, tea, alcoholic drinks, milk, and warm bathwater. As Alcott had published earlier, "Our wine is water, — flesh, bread; — drugs, fruits." One member, Samuel Bower, "gave the community the reputation of refusing to eat potatoes because instead of aspiring toward the sky they grew downward in the earth",Francis 2010, p. 179 For clothing, they prohibited leather, because animals were killed for it, as well as cotton, silk, and wool, because they were products of slave labor. Alcott had high expectations, but was often away, attempting to recruit more members when the community most needed him.
The experimental community was never successful, partly because most of the land was not arable.Delano, Sterling F. Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004: 118. Alcott lamented, "None of us were prepared to actualize practically the ideal life of which we dreamed. So we fell apart". Its founders were often away as well; in the middle of harvesting, they left for a lecture tour through Providence, Rhode Island, New York City, and New Haven, Connecticut. In its seven months, only 13 people joined, included the Alcotts and Lanes. Other than Abby May and her daughters, only one other woman joined, Ann Page. One rumor is that Page was asked to leave after eating a fish tail with a neighbor. Lane believed Alcott had misled him into thinking enough people would join the enterprise and developed a strong dislike for the nuclear family. He quit the project and moved to a nearby Shaker family with his son. After Lane's departure, Alcott fell into a depression and could not speak or eat for three days. Abby May thought Lane purposely sabotaged her family. She wrote to her brother, "All Mr. Lane's efforts have been to disunite us. But Mr. Alcott's ... paternal instincts were too strong for him." When the final payment on the farm was owed, Sam May refused to cover his brother-in-law's debts, as he often did, possibly at Abby May's suggestion. The experiment failed, the Alcotts had to leave Fruitlands.
The members of the Alcott family were not happy with their Fruitlands experience. At one point, Abby May threatened that she and their daughters would move elsewhere, leaving Bronson behind. Louisa May Alcott, who was ten years old at the time, later wrote of the experience in Transcendental Wild Oats (1873): "The band of brothers began by spading garden and field; but a few days of it lessened their ardor amazingly." |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Return to Concord | Return to Concord
thumb|right|The Wayside, home in turn to the Alcott family, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Sidney
In January 1844, Alcott moved his family to Still River, a village within HarvardEhrlich, Eugene and Carruth, Gorton. The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 62. but, on March 1, 1845, the family returned to Concord to live in a home they named "The Hillside" (later renamed "The Wayside" by Nathaniel Hawthorne). Both Emerson and Sam May assisted in securing the home for the Alcotts. While living in the home, Louisa began writing in earnest and was given her own room. She later said her years at the home "were the happiest years" of her life; many of the incidents in her novel Little Women (1868) are based on this period. Alcott renovated the property, moving a barn and painting the home a rusty olive color, as well as tending to over six acres of land. On May 23, 1845, Abby May was granted a sum from her father's estate which was put into a trust fund, granting minor financial security. That summer, Bronson Alcott let Henry David Thoreau borrow his ax to prepare his home at Walden Pond.
The Alcotts hosted a steady stream of visitors at The Hillside, including fugitive slaves, which they hosted in secret as a station of the Underground Railroad. Alcott's opposition to slavery also fueled his opposition to the Mexican–American War which began in 1846. He considered the war a blatant attempt to extend slavery and asked if the country was made up of "a people bent on conquest, on getting the golden treasures of Mexico into our hands, and of subjugating foreign peoples?"
In 1848, Abby May insisted they leave Concord, which she called "cold, heartless, brainless, soulless". The Alcott family put The Hillside up for rent and moved to Boston. There, next door to Peabody's book store on West Street, Bronson Alcott hosted a series based on the "Conversations" model by Margaret Fuller called "A Course on the Conversations on Man—his History, Resources, and Expectations". Participants, both men and women, were charged three dollars to attend or five dollars for all seven lectures. In March 1853, Alcott was invited to teach fifteen students at Harvard Divinity School in an extracurricular, non-credit course.
Alcott and his family moved back to Concord after 1857, where he and his family lived in the Orchard House until 1877. In 1860, Alcott was named superintendent of Concord Schools. |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Civil War years and beyond | Civil War years and beyond
right|thumb|Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts
Alcott voted in a presidential election for the first time in 1860. In his journal for November 6, 1860, he wrote: "At Town House, and cast my vote for Lincoln and the Republican candidates generally—the first vote I ever cast for a President and State officers." Alcott was an abolitionist and a friend of the more radical William Lloyd Garrison. He had attended a rally led by Wendell Phillips on behalf of 17-year-old Thomas Sims, a fugitive slave on trial in Boston. Alcott was one of several who attempted to storm the courthouse; when gunshots were heard, he was the only one who stood his ground, though the effort was unsuccessful. He had also stood his ground in a protest against the trial of Anthony Burns. A group had broken down the door of the Boston courthouse but guards beat them back. Alcott stood forward and asked the leader of the group, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "Why are we not within?" He then walked calmly into the courthouse, was threatened with a gun, and turned back, "but without hastening a step", according to Higginson.
In 1862, Louisa moved to Washington, D.C. to volunteer as a nurse. On January 14, 1863, the Alcotts received a telegram that Louisa was sick; Bronson immediately went to bring her home, briefly meeting Abraham Lincoln while there. Louisa turned her experience into the book Hospital Sketches. Her father wrote of it, "I see nothing in the way of a good appreciation of Louisa's merits as a woman and a writer."
Henry David Thoreau died on May 6, 1862, likely from an illness he caught from Alcott two years earlier.
At Emerson's request, Alcott helped arrange Thoreau's funeral, which was held at First Parish Sanctuary in Concord, despite Thoreau having disavowed membership in the church when he was in his early twenties. Emerson wrote a eulogy, and Alcott helped plan the preparations. Only two years later, neighbor Nathaniel Hawthorne died as well. Alcott served as a pallbearer along with Louis Agassiz, James T. Fields, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and others. With Hawthorne's death, Alcott worried that few of the Concord notables remained. He recorded in his journal: "Fair figures one by one are fading from sight." The next year, Lincoln was assassinated, which Alcott called "appalling news".
In 1868, Alcott met with publisher Thomas Niles, an admirer of Hospital Sketches. Alcott asked Niles if he would publish a book of short stories by his daughter; instead, he suggested she write a book about girls. Louisa May was not interested initially but agreed to try.Madison, Charles A. Irving to Irving: Author-Publisher Relations 1800–1974. New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1974: 36. . "They want a book of 200 pages or more", Alcott told his daughter. The result was Little Women, published later that year. The book, which fictionalized the Alcott family during the girls' coming-of-age years, recast the father figure as a chaplain, away from home at the front in the Civil War.
Alcott spoke, as opportunity arose, before the "lyceums" then common in various parts of the United States, or addressed groups of hearers as they invited him. These "conversations" as he called them, were more or less informal talks on a great range of topics, spiritual, aesthetic and practical, in which he emphasized the ideas of the school of American Transcendentalists led by Emerson, who was always his supporter and discreet admirer. He often discussed Platonic philosophy, the illumination of the mind and soul by direct communion with Spirit; upon the spiritual and poetic monitions of external nature; and upon the benefit to man of a serene mood and a simple way of life. |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Final years | Final years
left|thumb|Hillside Chapel, home to Alcott's Concord School of Philosophy
Alcott's published books, all from late in his life, include Tablets (1868), Concord Days (1872), New Connecticut (1881), and Sonnets and Canzonets (1882). Louisa May attended to her father's needs in his final years. She purchased a house for her sister Anna which had been the last home of Henry David Thoreau, now known as the Thoreau-Alcott House.Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth. The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 45. Louisa and her parents moved in with Anna as well.
After the death of his wife Abby May on November 25, 1877, Alcott never returned to Orchard House, too heartbroken to live there. He and Louisa May collaborated on a memoir and went over her papers, letters, and journals. "My heart bleeds with the memories of those days", he wrote, "and even long years, of cheerless anxiety and hopeless dependence." Louisa noted her father had become "restless with his anchor gone". They gave up on the memoir project and Louisa burned many of her mother's papers.
On January 19, 1879, Alcott and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn wrote a prospectus for a new school which they distributed to potentially interested people throughout the country. The result was the Concord School of Philosophy and Literature, which held its first session in 1879 in Alcott's study in the Orchard House. In 1880 the school moved to the Hillside Chapel, a building next to the house, where he held conversations and, over the course of successive summers, as he entered his eighties, invited others to give lectures on themes in philosophy, religion and letters. The school, considered one of the first formal adult education centers in America, was also attended by foreign scholars. It continued for nine years.
In April 1882, Alcott's friend and benefactor Ralph Waldo Emerson was sick and bedridden. After visiting him, Alcott wrote, "Concord will be shorn of its human splendor when he withdraws behind the cloud." Emerson died the next day. Alcott himself moved out of Concord for his final years, settling at 10 Louisburg Square in Boston beginning in 1885.Wilson, Susan. The Literary Trail of Greater Boston. Beverly, Massachusetts: Commonwealth Editions, 2005: 57.
As he was bedridden at the end of his life, Alcott's daughter Louisa May came to visit him at Louisburg on March 1, 1888. He said to her, "I am going up. Come with me." She responded, "I wish I could." He died three days later on March 4; Louisa May died only two days after her father. |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Beliefs | Beliefs
Alcott was fundamentally and philosophically opposed to corporal punishment as a means of disciplining his students. Instead, beginning at the Temple School, he would appoint a daily student superintendent. When that student observed an infraction, he or she reported it to the rest of the class and, as a whole, they deliberated on punishment. At times, Alcott offered his own hand for an offending student to strike, saying that any failing was the teacher's responsibility. The shame and guilt this method induced, he believed, was far superior to the fear instilled by corporal punishment; when he used physical "correction" he required that the students be unanimously in support of its application, even including the student to be punished.
The most detailed discussion of his theories on education is in an essay, "Observations on the Principles and Methods of Infant Instruction". Alcott believed that early education must draw out "unpremeditated thoughts and feelings of the child" and emphasized that infancy should primarily focus on enjoyment. He noted that learning was not about the acquisition of facts but the development of a reflective state of mind.
thumb|Portrait of Alcott
Alcott's ideas as an educator were controversial. Writer Harriet Martineau, for example, wrote dubiously that, "the master presupposes his little pupils possessed of all truth; and that his business is to bring it out into expression". Even so, his ideas helped to found one of the first adult education centers in America, and provided the foundation for future generations of liberal education. Many of Alcott's educational principles are still used in classrooms today, including "teach by encouragement", art education, music education, acting exercises, learning through experience, risk-taking in the classroom, tolerance in schools, physical education/recess, and early childhood education. The teachings of William Ellery Channing a few years earlier had also laid the groundwork for the work of most of the Concord Transcendentalists.
The Concord School of Philosophy, which closed following Alcott's death in 1888, was reopened almost 90 years later in the 1970s. It has continued functioning with a Summer Conversational Series in its original building at Orchard House, now run by the Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association.
While many of Alcott's ideas continue to be perceived as being on the liberal/radical edge, they are still common themes in society, including vegetarian/veganism, sustainable living, and temperance/self-control. Alcott described his sustenance as a "Pythagorean diet": Meat, eggs, butter, cheese, and milk were excluded and drinking was confined to well water. Alcott believed that diet held the key to human perfection and connected physical well-being to mental improvement. He further viewed a perfection of nature to the spirit and, in a sense, predicted modern environmentalism by condemning pollution and encouraging humankind's role in sustaining ecology. |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Criticism | Criticism
thumb|left|Alcott in his study at Orchard House
Alcott's philosophical teachings have been criticized as inconsistent, hazy or abrupt. He formulated no system of philosophy, and shows the influence of Plato, German mysticism, and Immanuel Kant as filtered through the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Margaret Fuller referred to Alcott as "a philosopher of the balmy times of ancient Greece—a man whom the worldlings of Boston hold in as much horror as the worldlings of Athens held Socrates."Nelson, Randy F. (editor). The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 152. In his later years, Alcott related a story from his boyhood: during a total solar eclipse, he threw rocks at the sky until he fell and dislocated his shoulder. He reflected that the event was a prophecy that he would be "tilting at the sun and always catching the fall".
Like Emerson, Alcott was always optimistic, idealistic, and individualistic in thinking. Writer James Russell Lowell referred to Alcott in his poem "Studies for Two Heads" as "an angel with clipped wings". Even so, Emerson noted that Alcott's brilliant conversational ability did not translate into good writing. "When he sits down to write," Emerson wrote, "all his genius leaves him; he gives you the shells and throws away the kernel of his thought." His "Orphic Sayings", published in The Dial, became famous for their hilarity as dense, pretentious, and meaningless. In New York, for example, The Knickerbocker published a parody titled "Gastric Sayings" in November 1840. A writer for the Boston Post referred to Alcott's "Orphic Sayings" as "a train of fifteen railroad cars with one passenger".
Modern critics often fault Alcott for not being able to financially support his family. Alcott himself worried about his own prospects as a young man, once writing to his mother that he was "still at my old trade—hoping." Alcott held his principles above his and his family's well-being. Shortly before his marriage, for example, his future father-in-law Colonel Joseph May helped him find a job teaching at a school in Boston run by the Society of Free Enquirers, followers of Robert Owen, for a lucrative $1,000 to $1,200 annual salary. He refused it because he did not agree with their beliefs, writing, "I shall have nothing to do with them."
From the other perspective, the Alcotts created an environment which produced two famous daughters in different fields in a time when women were not commonly encouraged to have independent careers. |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Works | Works
Observations on the Principles and Methods of Infant Instruction (1830)
The Doctrine and Discipline of Human Culture (1836)
Conversations with Children on the Gospels (Volume I, 1836)
Conversations with Children on the Gospels (Volume II, 1837)
Tablets (1868)
Concord Days (1872)
Table-Talk (1877)
New Connecticut: An Autobiographical Poem (1887; first edition privately printed in 1882)
Sonnets and Canzonets (1882)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Philosopher and Seer: An Estimate of His Character and Genius in Prose and Verse (1882)
The Journals of Bronson Alcott (1966) |
Amos Bronson Alcott | References | References |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Notes | Notes |
Amos Bronson Alcott | Sources | Sources
|
Amos Bronson Alcott | External links | External links
Amos Bronson Alcott Network
Alcott biography on American Transcendentalism Web
Alcott at Perspectives in American Literature
Bronson Alcott: A glimpse at our vegetarian heritage, by Karen Iacobbo
Guide to Books from the library of Amos Bronson Alcott at Houghton Library, Harvard University
Guide to Amos Bronson Alcott papers at Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Amos Bronson Alcott | Table of Content | Short description, Life and work, Early life, Early career and marriage, Experimental educator, Transcendentalist, Fruitlands, Return to Concord, Civil War years and beyond, Final years, Beliefs, Criticism, Works, References, Notes, Sources, External links |
Arachnophobia | short description | Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders and other arachnids such as scorpions and ticks. The word "arachnophobia" comes from the Greek words arachne and phobia. |
Arachnophobia | Signs and symptoms | Signs and symptoms
People with arachnophobia tend to feel uneasy in any area they believe could harbour spiders or that has visible signs of their presence, such as webs. If arachnophobes see a spider, they may not enter the general vicinity until they have overcome the panic attack that is often associated with their phobia. Some people scream, cry, have emotional outbursts, experience trouble breathing, sweat and experience increased heart rates when they come in contact with an area near spiders or their webs. In some extreme cases, even a picture, a toy, or a realistic drawing of a spider can trigger intense fear. |
Arachnophobia | Reasons | Reasons
Arachnophobia may be an exaggerated form of an instinctive response that helped early humans to survive or a cultural phenomenon that is most common in predominantly European societies. |
Arachnophobia | Evolutionary | Evolutionary
An evolutionary reason for the phobia remains unresolved. One view, especially held in evolutionary psychology, is that the presence of venomous spiders led to the evolution of a fear of spiders, or made the acquisition of a fear of spiders especially easy. However, there is no evidence that during the Pleistocene there were a sufficient number of venomous African spider fauna to trigger such an evolutionary fear. Like all traits, there is variability in the intensity of fear of spiders, and those with more intense fears are classified as phobic. Being relatively small, spiders do not fit the usual criterion for a threat in the animal kingdom where size is a factor, but they can have medically significant venom and/or cause skin irritation with their setae. However, a phobia is an irrational fear as opposed to a rational fear.
By ensuring that their surroundings were free from spiders, arachnophobes would have had a reduced risk of being bitten in ancestral environments, giving them a slight advantage over non-arachnophobes in terms of survival. However, having a disproportionate fear of spiders in comparison to other, potentially dangerous creatures present during Homo sapiens environment of evolutionary adaptiveness may have had drawbacks.
In The Handbook of the Emotions (1993), psychologist Arne Öhman studied pairing an unconditioned stimulus with evolutionarily-relevant fear-response neutral stimuli (snakes and spiders) versus evolutionarily-irrelevant fear-response neutral stimuli (mushrooms, flowers, physical representation of polyhedra, firearms, and electrical outlets) on human subjects and found that ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) and arachnophobia required only one pairing to develop a conditioned response while mycophobia, anthophobia, phobias of physical representations of polyhedra, firearms, and electrical outlets required multiple pairings and went extinct without continued conditioning while the conditioned ophidiophobia and arachnophobia were permanent.
Psychiatrist Randolph M. Nesse notes that while conditioned fear responses to evolutionarily novel dangerous objects such as electrical outlets is possible, the conditioning is slower because such cues have no prewired connection to fear, noting further that despite the emphasis of the risks of speeding and drunk driving in driver's education, it alone does not provide reliable protection against traffic collisions and that nearly one-quarter of all deaths in 2014 of people aged 15 to 24 in the United States were in traffic collisions. Nesse, psychiatrist Isaac Marks, and evolutionary biologist George C. Williams have noted that people with systematically deficient responses to various adaptive phobias (e.g. arachnophobia, ophidiophobia, basophobia) are more temperamentally careless and more likely to receive unintentional injuries that are potentially fatal and have proposed that such deficient phobia should be classified as "hypophobia'" due to its selfish genetic consequences.
A 2001 study found that people could detect images of spiders among images of flowers and mushrooms more quickly than they could detect images of flowers or mushrooms among images of spiders. The researchers suggested that this was because fast response to spiders was more relevant to human evolution.Öhman, A., Flykt, A., & Esteves, F. (2001). "Emotion drives attention: Detecting the snake in the grass". Journal of Experimental Psychology: 130 (3), 466–478. |
Arachnophobia | Cultural | Cultural
An alternative view is that the dangers, such as from spiders, are overrated and not sufficient to influence evolution. Instead, inheriting phobias would have restrictive and debilitating effects upon survival, rather than being an aid. For some communities, such as in Papua New Guinea and Cambodia, spiders are included in traditional foods. This suggests arachnophobia may, at least in part, be a cultural rather than genetic trait.
Stories about spiders in the media often contain errors and use sensationalistic vocabulary, which could contribute to the fear of spiders. |
Arachnophobia | Treatments | Treatments
The fear of spiders can be treated by any of the general techniques suggested for specific phobias. The first line of treatment is systematic desensitization – also known as exposure therapy. Before engaging in systematic desensitization, it is common to train the individual with arachnophobia in relaxation techniques, which will help keep the patient calm. Systematic desensitization can be done in vivo (with live spiders) or by getting the individual to imagine situations involving spiders, then modelling interaction with spiders for the person affected and eventually interacting with real spiders. This technique can be effective in just one session, although it generally takes more time.
Recent advances in technology have enabled the use of virtual or augmented reality spiders for use in therapy. These techniques have proven to be effective. It has been suggested that exposure to short clips from the Spider-Man movies may help to reduce an individual's arachnophobia. |
Arachnophobia | Epidemiology | Epidemiology
Arachnophobia affects 3.5 to 6.1 percent of the global population.
Even though most spiders are small and not venomous. They still trigger intense fear in many people, making arachnophobia one of the most widespread anxiety disorders. It is strongly linked to sociodemographic factors like gender, age, education, and an individual's tendency toward disgust. The majority of studies show that females are more likely to develop this phobia. |
Arachnophobia | See also | See also
Apiphobia, fear of bees
Entomophobia, fear of insects
Myrmecophobia, fear of ants |
Arachnophobia | References | References |
Arachnophobia | External links | External links
National Geographic: "Fear of Snakes, Spiders Rooted in Evolution, Study Finds"
Category:Arachnids and humans
Category:Phobias
Category:Spiders and humans
Category:Zoophobias |
Arachnophobia | Table of Content | short description, Signs and symptoms, Reasons, Evolutionary, Cultural, Treatments, Epidemiology, See also, References, External links |
Alabaster | Short description | thumb|Calcite alabaster: The tomb of Tutankhamun (d. 1323 BC) contained a practical objet d’art, a cosmetics jar made of Egyptian alabaster, which features a lid surmounted by a lioness (goddess Bast).
Alabaster is a mineral and a soft rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions for the word alabaster. In archaeology, the term alabaster includes objects and artefacts made from two different minerals: (i) the fine-grained, massive type of gypsum, and (ii) the fine-grained, banded type of calcite.More About Alabaster and Travertine: Brief Guide explains the different definitions used by geologists, archaeologists, and the stone trade. Oxford University Museum of Natural History, 2012,
Chemically, gypsum is a hydrous sulfate of calcium, whereas calcite is a carbonate of calcium. As types of alabaster, gypsum and calcite have similar properties, such as light color, translucence, and soft stones that can be carved and sculpted; thus the historical use and application of alabaster for the production of carved, decorative artefacts and objets d’art."Grove": R. W. Sanderson and Francis Cheetham. "Alabaster", Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, accessed 13 March 2013, subscriber link. Calcite alabaster also is known as onyx-marble, Egyptian alabaster, and Oriental alabaster, which terms usually describe either a compact, banded travertine stone or a stalagmitic limestone colored with swirling bands of cream and brown.
thumb|Alabaster artefact: A composite bust of the Emperor Septimius Severus; the head is marble and the bust is alabaster.
In general, ancient alabaster is calcite in the wider Middle East, including Egypt and Mesopotamia, while it is gypsum in medieval Europe. Modern alabaster is most likely calcite but may be either. Both are easy to work and slightly soluble in water. They have been used for making a variety of indoor artwork and carving, as they will not survive long outdoors.
The two types are readily distinguished by their different hardness: gypsum alabaster (Mohs hardness 1.5 to 2) is so soft that a fingernail scratches it, while calcite (Mohs hardness 3) cannot be scratched in this way but yields to a knife. Moreover, calcite alabaster, being a carbonate, effervesces when treated with hydrochloric acid while gypsum alabaster remains almost unaffected. Endnotes:
M. Carmichael, Report on the Volterra Alabaster Industry, Foreign Office, Miscellaneous Series, No. 352 (London, 1895)
A. T. Metcalfe, "The Gypsum Deposits of Nottingham and Derbyshire," Transactions of the Federated Institution, vol. xii. (1896), p. 107
J. G. Goodchild, "The Natural History of Gypsum," Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, vol. x. (1888), p. 425
George P. Merrill, "The Onyx Marbles," Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1893, p. 539. |
Alabaster | Etymology | Etymology
thumb|upright=1.1|Alabaster windows in the Church of Santa Maria la Mayor of Morella, Spain (built 13th–16th centuries)
The English word "alabaster" was borrowed from Old French , in turn derived from Latin , and that from Greek () or (). The Greek words denoted a vase of alabaster.Alabastos, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
The name may be derived further from ancient Egyptian , which refers to vessels of the Egyptian goddess Bast. She was represented as a lioness and frequently depicted as such in figures placed atop these alabaster vessels."alabaster", Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary Ancient Roman authors Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy wrote that the stone used for ointment jars called alabastra came from a region of Egypt known as Alabastron or Alabastrites. |
Alabaster | Properties and usability | Properties and usability
The purest alabaster is a snow-white material of fine uniform grain, but it often is associated with an oxide of iron, which produces brown clouding and veining in the stone. The coarser varieties of gypsum alabaster are converted by calcination into plaster of Paris, and are sometimes known as "plaster stone".
The softness of alabaster enables it to be carved readily into elaborate forms, but its solubility in water renders it unsuitable for outdoor work. If alabaster with a smooth, polished surface is washed with dishwashing liquid, it will become rough, dull and whiter, losing most of its translucency and lustre. The finer kinds of alabaster are employed largely as an ornamental stone, especially for ecclesiastical decoration and for the rails of staircases and halls. |
Alabaster | Modern processing | Modern processing
thumb|Alabaster workshop in Volterra, Italy |
Alabaster | Working techniques | Working techniques
Alabaster is mined and then sold in blocks to alabaster workshops. There they are cut to the needed size ("squaring"), and then are processed in different techniques: turned on a lathe for round shapes, carved into three-dimensional sculptures, chiselled to produce low relief figures or decoration; and then given an elaborate finish that reveals its transparency, colour, and texture. |
Alabaster | Marble imitation | Marble imitation
In order to diminish the translucency of the alabaster and to produce an opacity suggestive of true marble, the statues are immersed in a bath of water and heated gradually—nearly to the boiling point—in an operation requiring great care, because if the temperature is not regulated carefully, the stone acquires a dead-white, chalky appearance. The effect of heating appears to be a partial dehydration of the gypsum. If properly treated, it closely resembles true marble and is known as "marmo di Castellina". |
Alabaster | Dyeing | Dyeing
Alabaster is a porous stone and can be dyed into any colour or shade, a technique used for centuries. For this the stone needs to be fully immersed in various pigment solutions and heated to a specific temperature. The technique can be used to disguise alabaster. In this way an imitation of coral that is called "alabaster coral" is produced. |
Alabaster | Types, occurrence, history | Types, occurrence, history
thumb|upright|A calcite alabaster perfume jar from the tomb of Tutankhamun, d. 1323 BC
Typically only one type is sculpted in any particular cultural environment, but sometimes both have been worked to make similar pieces in the same place and time. This was the case with small flasks of the alabastron type made in Cyprus from the Bronze Age into the Classical period.Hermary, Antoine, Mertens, Joan R., The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Stone Sculpture, 2014, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, , 9781588395504, pp. 384-398 |
Alabaster | Window panels | Window panels
When cut into thin sheets, alabaster is translucent enough to be used for small windows. It was used for this purpose in Byzantine churches and later in medieval ones, especially in Italy. Large sheets of Aragonese gypsum alabaster are used extensively in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, dedicated in 2002 by the Los Angeles, California, Archdiocese. The cathedral incorporates special cooling to prevent the panes from overheating and turning opaque. The ancients used the calcite type, while the modern Los Angeles cathedral employs gypsum alabaster. There are also multiple examples of alabaster windows in ordinary village churches and monasteries in northern Spain. |
Alabaster | Calcite alabaster | Calcite alabaster
thumb|Calcite dish from the Ancient Egyptian tomb of "U", Semerkhet
Calcite alabaster, harder than the gypsum variety, was used in ancient Egypt and the wider Middle East (except Assyrian palace reliefs), and also in modern times. It is found as either a stalagmitic deposit from the floor and walls of limestone caverns, or as a kind of travertine, similarly deposited in springs of calcareous water. Its deposition in successive layers gives rise to the banded appearance that the marble often shows on cross-section, from which its name is derived: onyx-marble or alabaster-onyx, or sometimes simply (and wrongly) as onyx. |
Alabaster | Egypt and the Middle East | Egypt and the Middle East
Egyptian alabaster has been worked extensively near Suez and Assiut.
This stone variety is the "alabaster" of the ancient Egyptians and Bible and is often termed Oriental alabaster, since the early examples came from the Far East. The Greek name alabastrites is said to be derived from the town of Alabastron in Egypt, where the stone was quarried. The locality may owe its name to the mineral; though the origin of the mineral name is obscure
The "Oriental" alabaster was highly esteemed for making small perfume bottles or ointment vases called alabastra; the vessel name has been suggested as a possible source of the mineral name. In Egypt, craftsmen used alabaster for canopic jars and various other sacred and sepulchral objects. The sarcophagus of Seti I, found in his tomb near Thebes, is on display in Sir John Soane's Museum, London; it is carved in a single block of translucent calcite alabaster from Alabastron.
Algerian onyx-marble has been quarried largely in the province of Oran.
Calcite alabaster was quarried in ancient Israel in the cave known as the Twins Cave near Beit Shemesh. Herod used this alabaster for baths in his palaces. |
Alabaster | North America | North America
In Mexico, there are famous deposits of a delicate green variety at La Pedrara, in the district of Tecali, near Puebla. Onyx-marble occurs also in the district of Tehuacán and at several localities in the US including California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Virginia. |
Alabaster | Gypsum alabaster | Gypsum alabaster
Gypsum alabaster is softer than calcite alabaster. It was used primarily in medieval Europe, and is also used in modern times. |
Alabaster | Ancient and Classical Near East | Ancient and Classical Near East
thumb|upright=1.35|Wounded lion, detail from the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal, 7th century BC, British Museum
"Mosul marble" is a kind of gypsum alabaster found in the north of modern Iraq, which was used for the Assyrian palace reliefs of the 9th to 7th centuries BC; these are the largest type of alabaster sculptures to have been regularly made. The relief is very low and the carving detailed, but large rooms were lined with continuous compositions on slabs around high. The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal and military Lachish reliefs, both 7th century BC and in the British Museum, are some of the best known.
Gypsum alabaster was widely used for small sculpture for indoor use in the ancient world, especially in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Fine detail could be obtained in a material with an attractive finish without iron or steel tools. Alabaster was used for vessels dedicated for use in the cult of the deity Bast in the culture of the ancient Egyptians, and thousands of gypsum alabaster artifacts dating to the late 4th millennium BC also have been found in Tell Brak (modern Nagar), in Syria.
In Mesopotamia, gypsum alabaster was the material of choice for figures of deities and devotees in temples, as in a figure believed to represent the deity Abu dating to the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, which is kept in New York. |
Alabaster | Aragon, Spain | Aragon, Spain
Much of the world's alabaster is extracted from the centre of the Ebro Valley in Aragon, Spain, which has the world's largest known exploitable deposits. According to a brochure published by the Aragon government, alabaster has elsewhere either been depleted, or its extraction is so difficult that it has almost been abandoned or is carried out at a very high cost. There are two separate sites in Aragon, both are located in Tertiary basins. The most important site is the Fuentes-Azaila area, in the Tertiary Ebro Basin. The other is the Calatayud-Teruel Basin, which divides the Iberian Range in two main sectors (NW and SE).
The abundance of Aragonese alabaster was crucial for its use in architecture, sculpture and decoration. There is no record of use by pre-Roman cultures, so the first ones to use alabaster from Aragon may have been the Romans, who produced vessels from alabaster following the Greek and Egyptian models. It seems that since the reconstruction of the Roman Wall in Zaragoza in the 3rd century AD with alabaster, the use of this material became common in building for centuries. Muslim Saraqusta (Zaragoza) was also called "Medina Albaida", the White City, due to the appearance of its alabaster walls and palaces, which stood out among gardens, groves and orchards by the Ebro and Huerva Rivers.
The oldest remains in the Aljafería Palace, together with other interesting elements like capitals, reliefs and inscriptions, were made using alabaster, but it was during the artistic and economic blossoming of the Renaissance that Aragonese alabaster reached its golden age. In the 16th century sculptors in Aragon chose alabaster for their best works. They were adept at exploiting its lighting qualities and generally speaking the finished art pieces retained their natural color. |
Alabaster | Volterra (Tuscany) | Volterra (Tuscany)
thumb|upright|Uplighter lamp, white and brown Italian alabaster, base diameter 13 cm (20th century)
In modern Europe, the centre of the alabaster trade is Florence, Italy. Tuscan alabaster occurs in nodular masses embedded in limestone, interstratified with marls of Miocene and Pliocene age. The mineral is worked largely by means of underground galleries, in the district of Volterra. Several varieties are recognized—veined, spotted, clouded, agatiform, and others. The finest kind, obtained principally from Castellina, is sent to Florence for figure-sculpture, while the common kinds are carved locally, into vases, lights, and various ornamental objects. These items are objects of extensive trade, especially in Florence, Pisa, and Livorno.
In the 3rd century BC the Etruscans used the alabaster of Tuscany from the area of modern-day Volterra to produce funeral urns, possibly taught by Greek artists. During the Middle Ages the craft of alabaster was almost completely forgotten. A revival started in the mid-16th century, and until the beginning of the 17th century alabaster work was strictly artistic and did not expand to form a large industry.
In the 17th and 18th centuries production of artistic, high-quality Renaissance-style artifacts stopped altogether, replaced by less sophisticated, cheaper items better suited for large-scale production and commerce. The new industry prospered, but the reduced need for skilled craftsmen left few of them still working. The 19th century brought a boom to the industry, largely due to the "traveling artisans" who offered their wares to the palaces of Europe, as well as to America and the East.
In the 19th century new processing technology was also introduced, allowing for the production of custom-made, unique pieces, as well as the combination of alabaster with other materials. Apart from the newly developed craft, artistic work became again possible, chiefly by Volterran sculptor Albino Funaioli. After a short slump, the industry was revived again by the sale of mass-produced mannerist Expressionist sculptures. It was further enhanced in the 1920s by a new branch that created ceiling and wall lamps in the Art Deco style, culminating in participation at the 1925 International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris. Important names in the evolution of alabaster use after World War II are Volterran Umberto Borgna, the "first alabaster designer", and later on the architect and industrial designer Angelo Mangiarotti.:it:Ecomuseo dell'alabastro, Volterra; official website |
Alabaster | England and Wales | England and Wales
thumb|upright=1.1|Resurrection of Christ, typical Nottingham alabaster panel from an altarpiece set, 1450–1490, showing remnants of its painted decoration
Gypsum alabaster is a common mineral, which occurs in England in the Keuper marls of the Midlands, especially at Chellaston in Derbyshire, at Fauld in Staffordshire, and near Newark in Nottinghamshire. Deposits at all of these localities have been worked extensively.
In the 14th and 15th centuries the carving into small statues and sets of relief panels for altarpieces was a valuable local industry in Nottingham, as well as a major English export. These were usually painted, or partly painted. It was also used for the effigies, often life size, on tomb monuments, as the typical recumbent position suited the material's lack of strength, and it was cheaper and easier to work than good marble. After the English Reformation the making of altarpiece sets was discontinued, but funerary monument work in reliefs and statues continued.
In addition to the carvings still in Britain (particularly the Nottingham Castle Museum, British Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum), trade in mineral alabaster (other than the antiques trade) is ongoing as far afield as the Musée de Cluny, Spain, and Scandinavia.
Alabaster is also found, in smaller quantity, at Watchet in Somerset, near Penarth in Glamorganshire, and elsewhere. In Cumbria it occurs largely in the New Red rocks, but at a lower geological horizon. The alabaster of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire is found in thick nodular beds or "floors" in spheroidal masses known as "balls" or "bowls" and in smaller lenticular masses termed "cakes". At Chellaston, where the local alabaster is known as "Patrick", it has been worked into ornaments under the name of "Derbyshire spar"―a term more properly applied to fluorspar.
alt=|thumb|Attributed to Willem van den Broecke, Rijksmuseum |
Alabaster | Black alabaster | Black alabaster
Black alabaster is a rare anhydrite form of the gypsum-based mineral. The black form is found in only three veins in the world, one each in United States, Italy, and China.
Alabaster Caverns State Park, near Freedom, Oklahoma, is home to a natural gypsum cave in which much of the gypsum is in the form of alabaster. There are several types of alabaster found at the site, including pink, white, and the rare black alabaster. |
Alabaster | Gallery | Gallery |
Alabaster | Ancient and Classical Near East | Ancient and Classical Near East |
Alabaster | European Middle Ages | European Middle Ages |
Alabaster | Modern | Modern |
Alabaster | See also | See also |
Alabaster | Mineralogy | Mineralogy
– mineral consisting of calcium carbonate (); archaeologists and stone trade professionals, unlike mineralogists, call one variety of calcite "alabaster"
– mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate (); alabaster is one of its varieties
– a mineral closely related to gypsum
– the main inorganic compound () of gypsum
– translucent sheets of marble or alabaster used during the Early Middle Ages for windows instead of glass |
Alabaster | Window and roof panels | Window and roof panels
Chronological list of examples:
– 5th century, Ravenna
– 6th century, Ravenna
– mainly 13th–14th century, Valencia, Spain; the lantern of the octagonal crossing tower
– 14th-century, Orvieto, Umbria, central Italy
– 17th century, Rome; alabaster window by Bernini (1598–1680) used to create a "spotlight"
– 1924, Jerusalem, architect: Antonio Barluzzi. Windows fitted with dyed alabaster panels.
– 1924, Mount Tabor, architect: Antonio Barluzzi. Alabaster roofing was attempted. |
Alabaster | References | References |
Alabaster | Further reading | Further reading
Harrell J.A. (1990), "Misuse of the term 'alabaster' in Egyptology", Göttinger Miszellen, 119, pp. 37–42.
Mackintosh-Smith T. (1999), "Moonglow from Underground". Aramco World May–June 1999. |
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