The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and government of Switzerland. Since after World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand coalition government composed of representatives of the country's major parties and language regions.

While the entire Federal Council is responsible for leading the federal administration of Switzerland, each Councillor heads one of the seven federal executive departments. The President of the Swiss Confederation chairs the council, but exercises no particular authority; rather, the position is one of a first among equals and rotates among the seven Councillors annually.

The Federal Council is elected as a body by the 246 members of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland for a term of four years after each federal parliamentary election, without the possibility of recall or a vote of no confidence. Incumbents are not term-limited and are by convention almost always re-elected; most serve around 8 to 12 years in office.

Members
 the members of the Federal Council are, in order of seniority:

Origins and history of the Federal Council

Origins of the institution
The Federal Council was instituted by the 1848 Federal Constitution as the "supreme executive and directorial authority of the Confederation".

When the Constitution was written, constitutional democracy was still in its infancy, and the founding fathers of Switzerland had little in the way of examples. While they drew heavily on the United States Constitution for the organisation of the federal state as a whole, they opted for the collegial rather than the presidential system for the executive branch of government (directorial system). This accommodated the long tradition of the rule of collective bodies in Switzerland. Under the Ancien Régime, the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy had been governed by councils of pre-eminent citizens since time immemorial, and the later Helvetic Republic (with its equivalent Directorate) as well as the cantons that had given themselves liberal constitutions since the 1830s had also had good experiences with that mode of governance.

Today, only three other states, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andorra and San Marino, have collective rather than unitary heads of state. However the collegial system of government has found widespread adoption in modern democracies in the form of cabinet government with collective responsibility.

Changes in composition

The 1848 constitutional provision providing for the Federal Counciland indeed the institution of the Council itselfhas remained unchanged to this day, even though Swiss society has changed profoundly since.

Party representation

Free Democratic hegemony, 1848–1891

The 1848 Constitution was one of the few successes of the Europe-wide democratic revolutions of 1848. In Switzerland, the democratic movement was ledand the new federal state decisively shapedby the Radicals (presently the Free Democratic Party, FDP). After winning the Sonderbund War (the Swiss civil war) against the Catholic cantons, the Radicals at first used their majority in the Federal Assembly to fill all the seats on the Federal Council. This made their former war opponents, the Catholic-Conservatives (presently the Christian Democratic People's Party, CVP), the opposition party. Only after Emil Welti's resignation in 1891 after a failed referendum on railway nationalisation did the Radicals decide to co-opt the Conservatives by supporting the election of Josef Zemp.

Emerging coalition government, 1891–1959
The process of involving all major political movements of Switzerland into the responsibility of government continued during the first half of the 20th century. It was hastened by the FDP's and CVP's gradually diminishing voter shares, complemented by the rise of new parties of lesser power at the ends of the political spectrum. These were the Social Democratic Party (SP) on the Left and the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents (BGB; presently the People's Party, SVP) on the Right. In due course, the CVP received its second seat in 1919 with Jean-Marie Musy, while the BGB joined the Council in 1929 with Rudolf Minger. In 1943, during World War II, the Social Democrats were also temporarily included with Ernst Nobs.

Grand coalition, 1959–2003

The 1959 elections, following the resignation of four Councillors, finally established the Zauberformel, the "magical formula" that determined the Council's composition during the rest of the 20th century and established the long-standing nature of the Council as a permanent, voluntary grand coalition. In approximate relation to the parties' respective strength in the Federal Assembly, the seats were distributed as follows:
 Free Democratic Party (FDP/PRD): 2 members,
 Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC): 2 members,
 Social Democratic Party (SP/PS): 2 members,
 Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC): 1 member.

During that time, the FDP/PRD and CVP/PDC very slowly but steadily kept losing voter share to the SVP/UDC and SP/PS, respectively, which overtook the older parties in popularity during the 1990s.

End of the grand coalition, 2008

The governmental balance was changed after the 2003 elections, when the SVP/UDC was granted a Council seat for their leader Christoph Blocher that had formerly belonged to the CVP/PDC's Ruth Metzler. Due to controversies surrounding his conduct in office, a narrow Assembly majority did not reelect Blocher in 2007 and chose instead Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, a more moderate SVP/UDC politician, against party policy. This led to a split of the SVP/UDC in 2008. After liberal regional SVP/UDC groups including Federal Councillors Widmer-Schlumpf and Samuel Schmid founded a new Conservative Democratic Party, the SVP/UDC was left in opposition for the first time since 1929, but returned into the Council with the election of Ueli Maurer on 10 December 2008, who regained the seat previously held by Schmid, who had resigned. The SVP/UDC regained its second seat on the Council in 2015, when Widmer-Schlumpf decided to resign after the SVP/UDC's large election gains in the 2015 election, being replaced by Guy Parmelin.

Women on the council
Women gained suffrage on the federal level in 1971. They remained unrepresented in the Federal Council for three further legislatures, until the 1984 election of Elisabeth Kopp. In 1983, the failed election of the first official female candidate, Lilian Uchtenhagen and again in 1993 the failed election of Christiane Brunner (both SP/PS), was controversial and the Social Democrats each time considered withdrawing from the council altogether.

There were two female councillors serving simultaneously for the first time in 1999, and three out of seven councillors were women from 2007 till 2010, when Simonetta Sommaruga was elected as the fourth woman in government in place of Moritz Leuenberger, putting men in minority for the first time in history. Also remarkable is the fact that the eighth non-voting member of government, the chancellor, who sets the government agenda, was also a woman.

In total, there have been ten female councillors in the period 1989 to present:

The first woman councillor was Elisabeth Kopp (FDP/PRD), elected 1984, resigned in 1989.
Ruth Dreifuss (SP/PS), served from 1993 to 2002, was the first woman to become President of the Confederation in 1999. Since her election there has always been at least one woman on the council.
Ruth Metzler (Metzler-Arnold at the time) (CVP/PDC), served from 1999 to 2003 and was not re-elected to a second term (see above). Upon her election two women served on the council simultaneously for the first time.
Micheline Calmy-Rey (SP/PS) was elected in 2003 and served until 2011.
Doris Leuthard (CVP/PDC) was elected in 2006 and served until 2018.
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was elected in December 2007 and served until December 2015.
Simonetta Sommaruga was elected in September 2010. Together with Micheline Calmy-Rey, Doris Leuthard and Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, women were in the majority in the Federal Council for the first time, until January 2012, when Alain Berset replaced Micheline Calmy-Rey.
 Karin Keller-Sutter and Viola Amherd were elected on 5 December 2018 and are currently on the council.
 Élisabeth Baume-Schneider was elected on 7 December 2022 and is the most recent woman to be elected to the council.

Regional balancing acts
Until 1999, the Constitution mandated that no canton could have multiple representatives on the Federal Council at the same time. For most of Swiss history, the canton of any given councillor was determined by their place of origin, but starting in 1987 this was changed to the canton from which they were elected (for former members of the Federal Assembly or cantonal legislative or executive bodies) or place of residence. Nothing prevented candidates from moving to politically expedient cantons; this was one of the motivators for abolishing the rule. At the 1999 Swiss referendums, the Constitution was changed to require an equitable distribution of seats among the cantons and language groups of the country, without setting concrete quotas.

Since the rule against Federal Councillors being from the same canton was abolished, there have been a few examples of it happening. The first time was from 2003 to 2007, when both Moritz Leuenberger and Christoph Blocher from the canton of Zürich were in office. It happened again between 2010 and 2018, starting when Simonetta Sommaruga and Johann Schneider-Ammann from the canton of Bern were elected in 2010. As of 2023, four cantons have never been represented on the Federal Council: Nidwalden, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Uri. The canton of Jura is the most recent canton to be represented. It is currently being represented by Elisabeth Baume-Schneider since 1 January 2023.

With the Council's constitution in 2023, the constitutional requirement that languages and regions be appropriately balanced is under increased strain. "Latin speakers" – people who either speak French, Italian or Romansh – form a majority on the Council, despite more than seventy percent of the Swiss citizens speaking German as a first language. Likewise, all Federal Councillors (as of 2023) did not grow up in an urban area (with the exception of Karin Keller-Sutter, who spent some school years in Neuchâtel NE).

Whenever a member resigns, they are generally replaced by someone who is not only from the same party, but also the same language group. In 2006, however, Joseph Deiss, a French-speaker, resigned and was succeeded by Doris Leuthard, a German-speaker. In 2016, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, a German-speaker, was succeeded by Guy Parmelin, a French-speaker and most recently in 2023 German-speaking Simmonetta Sommaruga was replaced by French-speaking Elisabeth Baume-Schneider. Historically, at least two Council seats have been held by French- or Italian-speakers. The language makeup of the Council as of 2022 is four German-speakers, two French-speakers and one Italian-speaker. In November 2017, Ignazio Cassis became the first Italian speaker to serve on the Council since 1999. For elections to the Federal Council, candidates are usually helped by a high degree of fluency in German, French and Italian.

Operation of the Federal Council

Presidency

Each year, one of the seven Councillors is elected by the United Federal Assembly as President of the Confederation. The Federal Assembly also elects a Vice President of Switzerland. By convention, the positions of President and Vice President rotate annually, each Councillor thus becoming Vice President and then President every seven years while in office.

According to the Swiss order of precedence, the President of the Confederation is the highest-ranking Swiss official. They preside over Council meetings and carry out certain representative functions that, in other countries, are the business of a head of state. In urgent situations where a Council decision cannot be made in time, they are empowered to act on behalf of the whole Council. Apart from that, though, they are primus inter pares, having no power above and beyond the other six Councillors.

The President is not the Swiss head of state; this function is carried out by the Council in corpore, that is, in its entirety. However, in recent practice the President acts and is recognised as head of state while conducting official visits abroad, as the Council (also by convention) does not leave the country in corpore. More often, though, official visits abroad are carried out by the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Visiting heads of state are received by the Federal Council in corpore.

Council meetings

The Federal Council operates mainly through weekly meetings, which are held each Wednesday at the Federal Palace in Bern, the seat of the  Swiss federal government.

Apart from the seven Councillors, the following officials also attend the meetings:
Federal Chancellor Walter Thurnherr. As government chief of staff and head of the Federal Chancellery, he participates in the discussion but has no vote in the Council's decisions. Nonetheless, his influential position is often referred to as that of an "eighth Federal Councillor".
 the Vice-Chancellor: André Simonazzi. Simonazzi is the spokesman of the Federal Council and conducts the weekly press briefing after the meeting.
 the Vice-Chancellor: Viktor Rossi who is in charge of the Federal Council sector within the Swiss Federal Chancellery.

During the meetings, the Councillors address each other formally (e.g. Mrs. Sommaruga, Mr. Berset), even though they are on first name terms with each other. This is done to separate the items on the agenda from the person promoting them.

After the meetings, the Councillors take lunch together. The Council also meets regularly in conclave to discuss important topics at length; it annually conducts what is colloquially referred to as its "field trip", a day trip to some attractions in the President's home canton. In that and other respects, the Council operates like a board of directors of a major corporation.

Decisions and responsibilities
Each Federal Councillor heads a government department, much like the ministers in the governments of other countries. Colloquially and by the press (especially outside Switzerland), they are often referred to as ministers even though no such post formally exists. For example, the head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports is often called "the Swiss defence minister," even though no such post officially exists. However, as Council members, they are not only responsible for their own department, but also for the business of their colleagues' departments, as well as for the conduct of the government and the federal administration as a whole.

Decisions to be taken by the Council are always prepared by the responsible department. Accordingly, a change in the salaries of federal employees would be proposed to the Council by the head of the Federal Department of Finance, to whose department the Federal Office of Personnel belongs. Before a vote is taken at a Council meeting, though, all proposals are circulated in writing to the heads of departments, who commission the senior career officials of their department – the heads of the Federal Offices – to prepare a written response to offer criticism and suggestions. This is called the co-report procedure (Mitberichtsverfahren/procédure de co-rapport), designed to build a wide consensus ahead of a Council meeting.

To prepare for important decisions, an additional public consultation is sometimes conducted, to which the cantons, the political parties and major interest groups are invited, and in which all members of the public can participate. If a change in a federal statute is to be proposed to the Federal Assembly, this step is mandated by law. In such cases, the consultation procedure also serves to identify political concerns that could later be the focus of a popular referendum to stop passage of the bill at issue.

The decisions themselves are formally taken by voice vote by a majority of the Councillors present at a meeting. However, the great majority of decisions are arrived at by consensus; even though lately there is said to be a trend towards more contentious discussions and close votes.

Secrecy
The meetings of the Federal Council and the result of the votes taken are not open to the public, and the records remain sealed for 50 years. This has lately been the subject of some criticism. In particular, the parties at the ends of the political spectrum argue that this secrecy is contrary to the principle of transparency. However, the Council has always maintained that secrecy is necessary to arrive at consensus and to preserve the collegiality and political independence of the individual Councillors.

Constitutional conventions
Due to the Federal Council's unique nature as a voluntary grand coalition of political opponents, its operation is subject to numerous constitutional conventions. Most notable is the principle of collegiality; that is, the Councillors are not supposed to publicly criticise one another, even though they are often political opponents. In effect, they are expected to publicly support all decisions of the Council, even against their own personal opinion or that of their political party. In the eye of many observers, this convention has become rather strained after the 2003 elections (see below).

Travels abroad
Due to the fact that technically no sole federal councillor but rather the entire council in corpore is the Swiss head of state, Federal Councillors did for a long time not travel abroad in official business. In other countries, Switzerland was nearly exclusively represented by diplomats.

After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Federal Councillors convened an urgent meeting, where they discussed sending a Councillor to Kennedy's funeral. Given that the absence of the Swiss government would not be understood by the population, they decided to send Friedrich Traugott Wahlen. On his travel to the U.S. capital, Wahlen also met with Secretary of State Dean Rusk to discuss tariffs. Despite the opening of Switzerland due to the Kennedy assassination, foreign travels of Federal Councillors were only normalized after the dissolution of the USSR.

Election and composition

On 11 December 2019, the following Federal Councillors were reelected, as no seat opened (election per individual seat):

 Simonetta Sommaruga (SP/PS), 192 votes, Environment Minister; elected President of Switzerland (for the second time) for 2020 with 186 votes out of 200,
 Guy Parmelin (SVP/UDC), 191 votes, Economy Minister; elected Vice President of Switzerland for 2020 with 168 votes out of 183,
 Ignazio Cassis (FDP/PRD), 145 votes, Foreign Minister,
 Viola Amherd (CVP/PDC), 218 votes, Defence Minister,
 Alain Berset (SP/PS), 214 votes, Interior Minister,
 Ueli Maurer (SVP/UDC), 213 votes, Finance Minister,
 Karin Keller-Sutter (FDP/PRD), 169 votes, Justice Minister

Following the resignation of Ueli Maurer and Simonetta Sommaruga as of 31 December 2022, the following Federal Councillors were elected on 7 December 2022:
 Albert Rösti (SVP/UDC), 131 votes out of 243.
 Élisabeth Baume-Schneider (SP/PS), 123 votes out of 245.

In addition, Walter Thurnherr (CVP/PDC) was reelected as Federal Chancellor with 219 votes out of 224.

Election mode

The members of the Federal Council are elected for a term of four years by both chambers of the Federal Assembly sitting together as the United Federal Assembly. Each Federal Council seat is up for (re-)election in the order of seniority, beginning with the Councillor who had the longest term of office. The office holders are then elected individually by secret ballot by an absolute majority of the valid votes. Every adult Swiss citizen is eligible (and could even be elected against his own will), but in practice, only members of Parliament or more rarely, members of cantonal governments, are nominated by the political parties and receive a substantial number of votes. The voting is conducted in several rounds, under a form of exhaustive ballot.

 In the two first rounds, any adult Swiss citizen with voting right is eligible.
 At the issue of the second round, eligible for the third round is anybody who has received at least ten votes.
 At the issue of the third and later rounds (if necessary), the candidates with less than ten votes are excluded, or the candidate with the lowest vote count is excluded. No such exclusion takes place when two or more candidates share a lowest vote count at least equalling 10.

After the election is concluded, the winner holds a short speech and accepts or refuses the office of Federal Councillor. The oath of office is then taken, even then the regular term of office only begins a few weeks later, on 1st January.

Usually, the party which has a seat to fill presents two candidates with mainstream viewpoints to the United Federal Assembly, which then chooses one. This was not so, however, during the 2003 election, which was the most controversial in recent memory. Until the end of the 19th century, it was informally required of Federal Councillors to be elected to the National Council in their canton of origin every four years to put their popularity to a test. This practice was known under the French term of élection de compliment. The first Councillor who failed to be reelected (Ulrich Ochsenbein) lost his election to the National Council in 1854.

Once elected, Councillors remain members of their political parties, but hold no leading office with them. In fact, they usually maintain a certain political distance from the party leadership, because under the rules of collegiality, they will often have to publicly promote a Council decision which does not match the political conviction of their party (or of themselves).

Resignation
Once elected for a four-year-term, Federal Councillors can neither be voted out of office by a motion of no confidence nor can they be impeached. Reelection is possible for an indefinite number of terms; it has historically been extremely rare for Parliament not to reelect a sitting Councillor. This has only happened four times – to Ulrich Ochsenbein in 1854, to Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel in 1872, to Ruth Metzler in 2003 and to Christoph Blocher in 2007. In practice, therefore, Councillors serve until they decide to resign and retire to private life, usually after three to five terms of office.

Status of Federal Councillors

Councillors' lives

Unlike most senior members of government in other countries, the Federal Councillors are not entitled to an official residence (however, the Federal Palace houses living apartments for both the Federal Chancellor and President of the Confederation). Mostly, they have chosen to rent apartments or hotel suites in Bern (at their own expense). However, they are entitled to use the Federal Council's country estate, Lohn, for holidays; this estate is also used to host official guests of the Swiss Confederation.

While Councillors can draw on an Army security detail if they need personal protection (in particular during official events), it is more usual to encounter them without any escort at all in the streets, restaurants and tramways of Bern, and Ueli Maurer was known to use the bicycle on most days from his apartment in Münsingen to the Federal Palace in Bern. Councillors are also entitled to a personal bailiff (huissier or Bundesweibel) who accompanies them, in a red and white ceremonial uniform, to official events.

The spouses of Councillors do not play an official part in the business of government, apart from accompanying the Councillors to official receptions.

Councillors' salary
Federal councillors receive an annual salary of CHF 456,854 (about EUR 471,000 / USD 529,000), plus another CHF 30,000 annually for expenses. The councillors pay tax on this income.

Former councillors with at least four years of service receive a pension equivalent to half the salary of Federal Council members in office. If a councillor leaves office for health reasons, they may receive this pension even if their length of service was less than three years. Councillors who leave their offices after less than four years may also receive a partial pension. After leaving office, "former federal councillors frequently pursue some other lucrative activity," but "their earnings, when added to the pension they receive as an ex-federal councillor, may not exceed the salary of a federal councillor in office, otherwise their pension is reduced accordingly."

Serving federal councillors "enjoy a certain number of special benefits, from free telephone contracts to a chauffeur-driven car for official business, a courtesy car for personal use or the use of federal planes and helicopters for official business trips. Each member of the Federal Council also has the right to a first-class SBB GA travelcard (also in retirement). They are also given personal security, which is often very discreet."

Immunity
Federal Councillors, like members of parliament, enjoy absolute legal immunity for all statements made in their official capacity.

Prosecution for crimes and misdemeanors that relate to the Councillors' official capacity requires the assent of the immunity commissions of the Federal Assembly. In such cases, Parliament can also suspend the Councillor in office (but not actually remove them).

According to statements to the media by a Federal Chancellory official, in none of the few cases of accusations against a Federal Councillor has the permission to prosecute ever been granted. Such cases usually involved statements considered offensive by members of the public. However, one unnamed Councillor involved in a traffic accident immediately prior to his date of resignation was reported to have voluntarily waived his immunity, and Councillor Elisabeth Kopp decided to resign upon facing an inquiry over allegations of secrecy violations.

List of firsts in the Federal Council

 1848: The first seven members elected: Ulrich Ochsenbein, Jonas Furrer, Martin J. Munzinger, Henri Druey, Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Wilhelm Matthias Naeff and Stefano Franscini.
 1854: First (of only four so far) sitting Federal Councillor not to be reelected, Ulrich Ochsenbein.
 1855: The first elected Councillor to refuse the office, Johann Jakob Stehlin.
 1875: Louis Ruchonnet wins the election, but refuses the office. In a repeated election, Charles Estoppey wins, but refuses too. In a third election, Numa Droz is elected and accepts the office. He still is the youngest person to have ever served on the Federal Council.
 1891: First Councillor of the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland, Josef Zemp.
 1893: First member whose father was a member of the Council: Eugène Ruffy, son of Victor Ruffy. In 2007, the second is elected: Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the daughter of Leon Schlumpf.
 1911: First (and only) octogenarian in office, Adolf Deucher (FDP).
 1913: First (and only) native Romansh speaker, Felix Calonder (FDP).
 1917: First (and only) Councillor of the Liberal Party elected, Gustave Ador.
 1917 - 1919: First majority of Romance-speaking Councillors, making German speakers a minority: Gustave Ador, Giuseppe Motta, Camille Decoppet and Felix-Louis Calonder. This would happen again more than hundred years later, in 2023.
 1930: First Councillor of the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents (BGB/PAI; now the Swiss People's Party), Rudolf Minger.
 1943: First Councillor of the Social Democratic Party (SP), Ernst Nobs.
 1973: First Councillor of the working class, Willi Ritschard of the SP. He was trained as a heating engineer; his father was a shoemaker.
 1983: First female candidate for the Council from a government party, Lilian Uchtenhagen (SP).
 1984: First woman Councillor, Elisabeth Kopp (FDP).
 1993: Ruth Dreifuss (SP) is elected, the first Jewish Councillor.
 1995: First Councillor living in a domestic partnership, Moritz Leuenberger (SP) (with architect Gret Loewensberg, whom he later married).
 1999: First woman President of the Confederation, Ruth Dreifuss (SP).
 2010: First majority of women in the Swiss Federal Council with the election of Simonetta Sommaruga (SP).
 2019: After 1900, the overwhelming majority of the Federal Councillors had an academic education. From January 2019 until December 2022, non-academics featured a majority: Ueli Maurer (salesman), Guy Parmelin (high school diploma, farmer), Simonetta Sommaruga (high school diploma, concert pianist) and Karin Keller-Sutter (trade school, translator).

Popularity
As of August 2022, half of the Swiss population was satisfied with the Federal Council.

See also
 List of members of the Swiss Federal Council (by date of election)
 List of members of the Swiss Federal Council by date (by first day in office)
 Composition of the Swiss Federal Council
 :Category:Members of the Federal Council (Switzerland) (alphabetical list)
 List of presidents of the Swiss Confederation
 Hotel Bellevue Palace
 Government and Administration Organisation Act (Switzerland)
 Federal act (Switzerland)
 Value added tax (Switzerland)

Notes and references

Bibliography

 The Swiss Confederation: A brief guide 2006–2009, edited by the Swiss Federal Chancellery.
 Resultate der Wahlen des Bundesrats, der Bundeskanzler und des Generals, compiled by the services of the Swiss Parliament.
 Clive H. Church (2004). The Politics and Government of Switzerland. Palgrave Macmillan. .
 Altermatt, Urs (1993). Conseil Fédéral: Dictionnaire biographique des cent premiers conseillers fédéraux. Cabédita, Yens.

External links

Federal Council
Collective heads of state
European governments
1848 establishments in Switzerland

Federal Council (Switzerland)


Justin Goldberg (born April 12, 1966) is an American music and film industry executive and artist manager. Goldberg has held senior executive positions at such companies as Sony Music, Red Light Management, and Razor & Tie Entertainment. He has worked extensively in music, television and film as a producer, writer and music supervisor, collaborating on projects including Disney's animated features Tangled, Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice, the Forest Whitaker narrated film Before the Music Dies, Touchstone/ABC's Veritas: The Quest, In Memory of My Father, and various music video productions at events such as Bonnaroo and Coachella. He is the author of The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell (Crown Publishing Group / Random House). An outspoken critic of the music industry's traditional business model, he is an early advocate for online marketing and distribution. He is the founder of Measurement Arts, which has managed a broad range of projects and artists focused on the music industry. Goldberg has been a featured speaker at the prestigious Milken Institute Global Conference, SXSW, Midem and other major industry conventions.

Goldberg is credited with the development and discovery of several prominent artists in the music industry, including Martin Sexton and Grace Potter.

He has been active in music education. In March 1997, Goldberg was appointed Adjunct Professor at CUNY/Baruch College where he taught entertainment marketing. He lectured at The Musician's Institute, USC, The Dickensen School of Law, and at various industry conventions including ASCAP, SXSW, NARM, National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the Milken Institute, where he debated with Quincy Jones and then Sony Music CEO Andrew Lack on the subject of recorded music industry revenues.

One of digital distribution's early pioneers, Goldberg founded the Online Music Channel in 1998, and held key posts at major online music companies such as iMesh, Tonos, and Riffage.com. An accomplished graphic artist, Goldberg has had several gallery showings, including a benefit for the City of Hope at the Patricia Correia Gallery in Santa Monica in 2001. As a music executive and manager, he has worked with a wide range of artists and producers, including Mos Def, Dee Dee Ramone, David Foster, Dave Grohl, Martin Sexton, T Bone Burnett, Mark Batson, Willie Nelson, Warren Haynes, Kenny Chesney, Peter Buck, Mick Taylor, Barrett Jones, Wally Gagel and Rage Against the Machine.

Biography

Early life and career
Goldberg initially geared his career towards becoming an actor, training in New York City at Herbert Berghoff studios, then later in Los Angeles with Charles Conrad at CEC studios. He graduated from USC with a Bachelor of Arts in theatre. His career as a music executive in A&R began at Sony Music International and later with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 1991 as an A&R assistant.  Goldberg's father, New York City based attorney Jay Goldberg, introduced him to clients in his youth such as Miles Davis, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, who encouraged his interest in the music industry and helped produce his demo tapes. After a successful case involving Mick Jagger, his college fund was established by a check from the Rolling Stones. After losing a personal bet with Donald Trump related to his independent record label, Goldberg agreed to work for The Trump Organization in real estate for one year, beginning in 1998.

Sony Music Publishing
From 1991 to 1996, Goldberg served as Director of Artists & Repertoire for Sony/ATV Music Publishing in Santa Monica, CA where he built the company's publishing profile by signing early publishing deals with such artists as Martin Sexton, Rage Against the Machine, Candlebox Chixdiggit, Menthol, Gus Black, and projects related to Pearl Jam's guitarist Stone Gossard's Loose Groove label, founded by Regan Hagar, including Brad, Satchel, Pigeonhed and Devilhead, featuring Kevin Wood, brother of the late Andrew Wood a founder of Pearl Jam.

Tonos Entertainment
From January 2000 to March 2001, Goldberg was the Sr. Vice President of Content at Tonos Entertainment, a large scale online music company based in Culver City and founded by producers David Foster, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds and songwriter Carole Bayer Sager. Goldberg led a development team to help devise and produce the first online music collaboration community during a period where most online users still dialed through landlines for internet access.

Laundry Room Records, Inc.
Laundry Room Records was founded in September 2006 by Goldberg and Seattle based producer Barrett Jones, whose credits include producing Nirvana and Foo Fighters at the Laundry Room Studio, founded by Jones in 1990. The record company was run by Goldberg in New York City while most of the company's releases were recorded or mixed at the company's recording studio on Greenwood Avenue in Seattle. The company released full length albums by Tube Top (produced by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck), Harlingtox, Angel Divine (featuring Dave Grohl), Churn (featuring Barrett Jones), Walkie Talkie (with collaborations by Mick Taylor) Sharon America, For Stars and Xing, and seven inch singles from The Chauffeur. The company was distributed initially by the Northwest Alliance of Independent Labels (NAIL) and later by Never Records Group and Proper Sales & Distribution, a successful distribution and label services pairing that were an early model for other independent distribution coalitions, and outlined sharing for labels and artists.

Indie911.com
Launched in March of 2003, Goldberg was the founder, CEO and lead architect of indie911 networks, which provided one of the earliest social networking websites focused on selling new music online. Circulating podcasts of original radio programming and a daily "hoooka of the day" to over 100,000 subscribers for a three-year period, Goldberg helmed an artist discovery platform spotlighting dozens before they were signed by record deals and known to the public, including Shiny Toy Guns and The Submarines. The company maintained distribution and marketing agreements with entertainment companies such as Disney, CBS, Reveille/NBC, American Express, Ingrooves, The European Music Office, The Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA), V2, Associated Production Music (APM), IODA, Yangaroo, Live Universe/Live Video, Songcatalog, Mediaguide, MECA, and ASCAP.

indie911 Myspace Controversy
In December 2006, indie911 launched "Hoooka", the first online sales widget and player providing personalized streaming of audio and video playlists from consumers and artists offering distributed retail as an online transaction. Under the Hoooka brand, indie911 marketed content from developing artists on a daily basis by publishing exclusive content to its online subscribers under the title "Hoooka of the Day."

A New York Times article covering the controversy helped lead to a national discussion on the public's expectations for social networking sites.

indie911 launched the "Small Screen Film Festival" the first online film festival focusing exclusively on content created for cell phones. By 2005, the website contained over 200,000 pages of web content and was one of the largest streaming music websites with over 1,000,000 copyrights licensed for online streaming and digital sales.

Television and film
Goldberg was featured as a music industry commentator in the film Before the Music Dies, featuring Erykah Badu, Eric Clapton and Dave Matthews and narrated by Forest Whitaker. From 2003 through 2004, Goldberg served as music supervisor for the television show Veritas: The Quest, created by John Zinman and Patrick Masset by Touchstone Television and was the music supervisor for the film In Memory Of My Father. Goldberg appeared as an actor with Sean Penn and Robert Duvall in Dennis Hopper's film Colors (1987), playing the role of a police officer, and with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson in the film Another Pair of Aces (1991) Aces where he played an FBI agent.

As author
Goldberg wrote the play "Testing Negative," produced at the McCadden Place Theatre in 1988. It ignited local controversy as the first US production to address the AIDS epidemic from a heterosexual point of view. In his review, Don Shirley of the Los Angeles Times said: "There is talent here: Writer Justin Goldberg [...] is tuned into the pitiless chatter of extended adolescence."
Goldberg's book The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell was published in 2004 by Crown Publishing Group / Random House and continues to serve as a leading resource for independent musicians seeking to distribute their music in the digital age.

As graphic artist
As a graphic artist Goldberg dubbed his work "A&Rt", a reference to those in and around the business of acquiring new talent in the music industry,  known as "Artists and Repertoire," or A&R.  Utilizing a process that typically begins with digitally manipulated photographs transferred to cotton canvass, he creates a mood of depth and antiquity by then applying water-soluble crayons and acrylic paint.  The work is both an homage to and an indictment of its primary subject matter, the music business and those who work in it.  Musical luminaries common to most followers of pop music culture appear throughout the work including Dave Grohl, Courtney Love, Jewel, Dave Matthews Band, P Diddy, Cake and Incubus, as well as music industry figures such as Guy Oseary, Tommy Mottola and Fred Davis.

Quotes
"Why shouldn't they call it FoxSpace? Or RupertSpace?" – Goldberg to New York Times reporter Brad Stone

"Pretty soon both of you will be out of business (well maybe not you Quincy)" – Goldberg to Quincy Jones and then Sony Music CEO Andrew Lack

Discography
Sharon America, Sharon America, Producer (1996)
Walkie Talkie, School Yard Ryhmes, Producer (1996)
Harlingtox, Angel Divine, Executive Producer (1996)

References

External links
Measurement Arts website
A&Rt

American music industry executives
American male writers
1966 births
Living people

Justin Goldberg


Levan (), also known by his Muslim name Shah-Qoli Khan () (born c. 1653 – 30 May 1709) was a Georgian royal prince (batonishvili) and the fourth son of the king of Kartli Shahnawaz (Vakhtang V). He was a titular king of Kartli in 1709.

In 1675, Levan was confirmed as a janisin (regent) of Kartli during the absence of his reigning brother, George XI (Gurgin Khan), at the Persian military service in Afghanistan. Summoned to Isfahan in 1677, he had to accept Islam and take the name Shah-Quli Khan. Thereafter he was appointed as naib of Kerman, Iran, and, as a commander of Georgian auxiliary forces, he secured the eastern provinces of the Persian empire from the rebellious Baluchi tribesmen from 1698 to 1701. For a short time in 1703, he was again a janisin for his absent brother in Kartli. As a reward for his military service the shah Husayn made Levan, in 1703, a divanbeg (chief justice) of Persia, and his son, Khusrau Khan, darugha (i.e., prefect) of Isfahan.

During his governance in Kartli, he patronised Catholic missioners in the Caucasus. He also encouraged scholarly activities in Georgia, and helped his cousin, Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, to create a Georgian dictionary, which is still widely used in Georgia. Although officially a convert to Islam, Levan covertly remained Christian and composed the prayers to St John the Baptist, St Peter, St Paul and other Christian saints.

Family and children

Levan was married twice. He married, in 1672, Tuta, daughter of Kaikhosro I Gurieli, Prince of Guria. She died on 11 October 1678. Their children were:
 Kaikhosro of Kartli (1 January 1674 – 27 September 1711), king of Kartli;
 Vakhtang VI of Kartli (15 September 1675 – 26 March 1737), king of Kartli;
 David (1676–1703);
 Domentius IV (1677–1741), Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia
 Princess Khvaramze (1678 – fl. 1710), wife of Prince Sadzverel Chijavadze (died 1708).

Levan married Tinatin (c. 1655 – 1708), daughter of the Georgian nobleman Giorgi Avalishvili, in 1680, after the death of Tuta. She had previously been married to Prince Iotam Palavankhosroshvili (of Baratashvili stock; fl. 1658–1709), with one son, Bezhan, whose daughter Ana-Khanum would marry King Teimuraz II of Kakheti as his second wife in 1746. Tinatin bore to Levan several children:

 Jesse of Kartli (1680–1727), king of Kartli;
 Svimon (1683–1740), regent of Kartli;
 Teimuraz (died 1710).
 ?Alexander (died 1711), a general in the Safavid service, otherwise considered to have been a son of Levan's brother Luarsab .

Levan also had several natural children by unknown concubines:

 Rostom (Rustam Khan; died 8 March 1722), general in the Safavid army;
 Toma (fl. 1688–1703);
 Constantine (died 1756), who married in 1725 the certain Khvaramze;
 Adarnase (Afanasy) (15 November 1707 – 31 March 1784), general in the Russian army;
 Princess Khoreshan (fl. 1724).

External links and references
 History of Iranian-Georgian relations, an article by Keith Hitchins at Iranica.com
 Political history of Georgia 1658-1703, excerpt from David Marshall Lang, The Last years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658–1832

House of Mukhrani (royal line)
1653 births
1709 deaths
17th-century people from Georgia (country)
18th-century people from Georgia (country)
Iranian people of Georgian descent
Safavid governors of Kartli
Safavid generals
Government of Safavid Iran
Kings of Kartli
17th-century people from Safavid Iran
18th-century people from Safavid Iran

Levan of Kartli


The English firm of Holland & Sons (1803–1942) became from 1843 one of the largest and most successful cabinet makers, and a rival to Gillows of Lancaster and London.

The company's labelled Day books are now housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum Archive of Art and Design where they present a virtual "who's who" of nineteenth century society.

The company was established in 1803 by Stephen Taprell and William Holland, a relation of the architect Henry Holland. Always on the leading edge of fashion, Holland & Sons employed some of England's foremost designers and participated in all of the International Exhibitions of 1851, 1855, 1862, 1867, 1872 and 1878. Holland and Sons also participated in many of the leading international exhibitions including London in 1862, Vienna in 1873 and Paris in 1867 and 1872.

After a brief period in which the company was known as Taprell, Holland & Son c.1835-43, William Holland gained sole command after the senior partner Taprell's retirement.  From 1843 onwards they were known as Holland and Sons. The relationship between builder and cabinet maker is similar to another leading Victorian firm, Trollope and Sons.

Their earliest known commission was to furnish the Athenaeum Club, London, 1824- 1838. They also worked alongside the prestigious firm of Thomas Dowbiggin at Osborne House, and eventually took over their premises and business at 23 Mount Street, London in 1851 and 1853 respectively. In 1851, when the company was based in Mount Street and employed 351 people, they won a prize at the Great Exhibition for a bookcase. By then, after being granted a Royal Warrant of Appointment (United Kingdom) early in the reign of Queen Victoria, they had already taken a leading part in the decoration and furnishing of Osborne House, Sandringham House, Balmoral Castle, Windsor Castle and the apartments of the Prince and Princess of Wales at Marlborough House, executing numerous exceptional pieces of furniture. Holland and Sons also executed over three hundred separate commissions for the British Government, including the Palace of Westminster, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and oversaw the State funeral of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. One of their celebrated private commissions was a suite of bedroom furniture for the late Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Baronet at Luton Hoo. During the latter half of the 19th century, Holland and Sons also supplied furniture for such notable London clubs as the Reform Club and the Oxford and Cambridge Club. They shared the commission for the new Palace of Westminster with Gillows.

A pair of Royal Victorian gilt-bronze mounted tulipwood, yewwood, amboyna, harewood, and ivory marquetry center tables sold for US$1,052,500 at Sotheby's in 2011.

References

Defunct furniture manufacturers
Furniture companies of England
British furniture makers
Defunct manufacturing companies of England

Holland and Sons


The P-38 Lightning is a World War II fighter aircraft made by Lockheed. It was mainly used by the United States Air Force. It first flew in 1939. It was different from other fighters because it had two engines instead of one, and was twice the size of other fighters. The plane fought in the Pacific and in Europe. It could carry 4 50-caliber machine guns and a 20mm cannon. With a top speed of over 400 miles per hour the P-38 was one of the fastest fighters of its time. The P-38 is also accounted for capturing 90% of all aerial footage over Europe. By 1944, it was replaced by the faster P-51 Mustang in Europe. The P-38 was the only American fighter being built at the beginning and the end of the war. The Germans called it the "fork tailed devil."

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a well equipped single-seat WWII fighter. It had 2 powerful engines allowing it to reach high altitudes and speeds. The tail design was unique compared to other aircraft of the time. The Americans used this aircraft in many of its dogfights and long-range enemy engagements. The P-38 created many aces, making it favourable over other aircraft.

References

United States Army aircraft
P-38
World War II American aircraft

Lockheed P-38 Lightning


Olive May Graves Percival (July 1, 1868 – February 18, 1945) was a writer, photographer, gardener, artist, and bibliophile in Los Angeles. Although she earned her living as an insurance clerk, she wrote for a variety of magazines, authored several books, and was sought after as a lecturer on gardens, New England antiques, Japanese ceramics, and children's books, among other subjects.

Early years
Percival was born near Sheffield, Illinois, in a log cabin on her family's farm. Growing up, there was tension between her parents, most likely as result of debt related to the family farm. Her older brother, Leo, remained disconnected from the family, and Percival's father died when she was ten. In 1887, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and sister, lured by the climate and the prospect of year-round gardening. Her sister, Edna, died when she was 17 in 1893 leaving Percival to spend much of the next fifty years with her mother, Helen Mason Percival.

Down-hyl Claim
Percival began work as a saleswoman in the People's Store (later a branch of the May Company California) before joining the fire agency firm of McLellan & Golsh. In 1895, she joined the Home Insurance Company as a clerk and remained there for more than thirty years. Despite her modest salary, which never exceeded $150 a month, she built a home called the Down-hyl Claim in the Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County), a scenic area northeast of Los Angeles, often described as an artists' colony. Oddly, when she built her home, she did not have it wired for heat or electricity. Instead, it was lit with oil lamps and candles and warmed by fires in the fireplace.

Her home was often the setting for garden teas, moon-viewing parties, and memorable salons attended by local and visiting celebrity authors, artists, and book lovers. Her diaries from 1889 to 1943 are peopled with artists, actors, writers, society leaders, career women, and others active in the intellectual life of Los Angeles during that time. One guest thought of the occasions as a mingling of "the inconvenient and the cultivated."

Writing
Percival began writing for publication in 1896 and sold her first poem and first article just before her 28th birthday. Eventually, she began to regularly contribute to the Los Angeles Times, writing articles on subjects ranging from women's suffrage to gardening. After the Los Angeles Times bombing in 1910, she penned an article titled Would Woman's Vote Suppress Anarchy, which appeared in the October 16, 1910, issue:
If ever we needed the full representation of the whole people in government affairs, that need is terribly emphasized by this distressing occurrence. As for equal suffrage, I have never in my life heard one sane argument against it. I think the only argument that men who are opposed to the measure have ever advanced in justification of their unfair and un-American position, is that they do not want women to lose their delicacy and charm by rough contact with matters political. This is not 'sentiment' but sentimentality. . . . There is no sense or intelligence about it. Women must live in the world as truly as men and in many instances they are as well equipped for the actualities of life as men. . . .

If there is to be anything democratic or republican about the government of America, that independence must be based upon the liberty of all of its citizens. . . . When half of the people of any country are disenfranchised, that country has no freedom. We pretend to be progressive and we boast our splendid republicanism, but our republic is more despotic than any monarchy unless all who are taxed have a voice in the control of public affairs.

Her books include Leaf-Shadows and Rose-Drift, Being Little Songs from a Los Angeles Garden (1911) and Mexico City: An Idler's Note-Book (1901) which featured some of her own photographs and was reviewed favorably. In her will, she arranged for the publication of two of her manuscripts, Our Old-fashioned Flowers (Pasadena, CA 1947) and Yellowing Ivy (Los Angeles, CA 1946). In 2005, the Huntington Library Press published excerpts from her book-length manuscript Children's Garden Book, as Olive Percival's Children's Garden Book. The Huntington Library has seven hundred of her photographs, many of which are a record of her garden. Others are of scenes in Mexico, Los Angeles, San Pedro, and San Francisco. She often printed them herself—purposely on blueprint paper—because the colors reminded her of Oriental porcelain.

In 1949, Los Angeles nurseryman Paul Howard patented an Olive Percival Rose. It was chosen to honor the teachers of America and planted at the White House.

Although she achieved some success as a writer, she often lamented to her diary the fact that she was not able to make a living as a writer.

Book, Art and Doll Collections
Percival accumulated notable book and art collections, many of which are now in three Southern California libraries: Ella Strong Denison Library, The Libraries of the Claremont Colleges, the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens and the University Research Library at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA.

In "Different Images, Portraits of Remembered People," author Hildegarde Flanner writes this of Percival:
"It was in 1915 in Los Angeles that I first met Miss Olive Percival. More properly, let me say, I had the honor to be presented. She was a prominent figure in Southern California, a well-known hostess, a collector of books and art. She was an authority on Oriental art and also early American antiques. She collected both. She had a fine collection of  textiles, bookplates, and exquisite paper dolls. Her library of children's books was one of the best in America. She was a direct descendant of Gov. William Tracy of Virginia. In the midst of her scrupulously filed and arranged ten thousand good books she was a very important person, intellectually and socially, at a time in the history of Los Angeles when such possessions as hers represented conspicuous achievement and impeccable position."

Percival also collected old hats while making new ones. Her hat making extended to her dolls, for whom she made nearly two hundred little hats.  She also made paper dolls, inspired by a letter about antique paper dolls from Wilbur Macey Stone, an authority on children's literature and toys. The Denison Library now houses over 300 of Percival's dolls, clothes, and other accessories.

Chinese and Japanese collections
Percival was considered an authority on many aspects of Chinese and Japanese art, lending pieces from her collections of prints, porcelain, scroll paintings, lacquer, bronzes, sword guards, and stencils to local art groups for special exhibitions.

Her interest in the Japanese and their culture lead her to protest anti-Japanese measures, such as the California Alien Land Law of 1913 discriminating against the Japanese. During World War II, she stored the belongings of her Japanese friends when they were sent to internment camps. To counteract the charges of some friends who accused her of being un-American, she joined the Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Society of Colonial Families, and the Mayflower Society.  This did not stop her from also belonging to the Japan Society of the UK, the Japan Society (New York), the local Japan-American Club, and the Japanese-American Woman's Club.

Death
Olive Percival died on February 19, 1945, after suffering from a stroke a few months earlier in her garden. Lawrence Clark Powell paid tribute to her after she died:
In spite of an income limited to her clerk's earnings and from the occasional sale of articles, this woman, whose name was Olive Percival, collected beautiful things so assiduously that, after her death, it took an appraiser two weeks to inventory the contents of her cottage. . . . What a pity that she lacked the wealth and the leisure of a Huntington or a Morgan.

References

External links
 Ingrid Johnson discussed the life and work of Olive Percival on November 15, 2005, as part of the Tuesday Noon Academy speaker series at Scripps College; a podcast of this lecture is available at the Scripps College web site.

1868 births
1945 deaths
People from Bureau County, Illinois
Writers from Illinois
American garden writers
Artists from California
American book and manuscript collectors
Hatmaking

Olive Percival


South African English (, , ) is a dialect of English spoken in South Africa. English is the main language of business, school and government in South Africa and is used for day-to-day communication. It (along with Afrikaans and 9 other native languages) is an official language of South Africa. It uses British English spelling and sounds similar to Australian English and New Zealand English. There are many South African slang words too, which come from Afrikaans and native languages.

English
Dialects of English

South African English


Angers is a city in the west of France. Around 160,000 inhabitants live inside the city and 300,000 live in the metropolitan area.

It is the capital of the historical province called Anjou. Today, the name of Anjou is Maine-et-Loire. The inhabitants of Angers and of Anjou are called 'angevins'.

The city existed before the Roman Empire. After the Roman conquest, the city was called Juliomagus. Angers was an important French city during the Middle-Ages. There is one of the bigger castles of Europe in the city.

It is now the 16th city of France (for its population). It is an economic center, a touristic and cultural town. Many festivals happen every year in the city (film festival 'Premiers plans', street festivals 'Tours de scène' and the famous 'Accroches-coeurs'). It has many museums. The museum of Beaux-Arts (a famous Art museum) and "Apocalypse Tapestry" (the oldest and largest collection of medieval tapestries in the world) are very famous.

There are two universities. More than 17,000 students go to the 'Université d'Angers' (a state university) and 12,000 go to the 'Université Catholique de l'Ouest' (a private catholic university). The 'École supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers' is one of the most prestigious business school in France.

Transport
 Road: Motorway A11 to Paris ~295 km and to Nantes ~90 km
 Railway: TGV (very quick train) from Angers-St Laud station to Paris in 92 minutes only
 International Airports: Angers-Marcé, Nantes-Atlantique

Sister cities
Angers is twinned with:
  Haarlem, Netherlands, since 1964
  Osnabrück, Germany, since 1964
  Bamako, Mali, since 1974
  Pisa, Italy, since 1982
  Wigan, United Kingdom, since 1988
  Södertälje, Sweden, since 1998
  Seville, Spain, since 2000
  Yantai, China, since 2006

Angers


NGC 6820 is a small reflection nebula near the open cluster NGC 6823 in Vulpecula. The reflection nebula and cluster are embedded in a large faint emission nebula called Sh 2-86. The whole area of nebulosity is often referred to as NGC 6820.

M27, the Dumbbell Nebula, is found three degrees to the east, and α Vulpeculae three degrees to the west.

Open star cluster NGC 6823 is about 50 light-years across and lies about 6,000 light-years away. The center of the cluster formed about two million years ago and is dominated in brightness by a host of bright young blue stars. Outer parts of the cluster contain even younger stars. It forms the core of the Vulpecula OB1 stellar association.

Image gallery

References

External links

National Optical Observatory

6820
NGC 6823
H II regions
Vulpecula
Sharpless objects
18630808
Star-forming regions

NGC 6820 and NGC 6823


James Johnson (January 1, 1774 – August 13, 1826) was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky, brother of Richard Mentor Johnson and John Telemachus Johnson and uncle of Robert Ward Johnson.

Born in Orange County in the Virginia Colony, Johnson moved with his father to Kentucky in 1779.
He pursued preparatory studies.
He was a member of the State senate in 1808.
He served as lieutenant colonel in the War of 1812 and fought alongside his brother Richard at the Battle of the Thames.

He was a contractor for furnishing supplies to troops on the western frontier in 1819 and 1820. (See: Yellowstone expedition)
He served as presidential elector on the ticket of Monroe and Tompkins in 1820.

Johnson was elected as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1825, until his death in Washington, D.C., August 13, 1826. He was interred in the family cemetery, Great Crossings, Kentucky.

See also

 The Family (Arkansas politics)
 List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899)

References

1774 births
1826 deaths
People from Orange County, Virginia
Virginia colonial people
Richard Mentor Johnson family
American people of Scottish descent
Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky
Kentucky state senators
United States Army officers
American military personnel of the War of 1812

James Johnson (Kentucky politician)


WTEL (610 kHz) — branded "Philadelphia's BIN 610" — is a commercial all-news AM radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, the station is currently operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. as part of their Philadelphia cluster under a long-term local marketing agreement. The station services the Greater Philadelphia and Delaware Valley area as the market affiliate of the Black Information Network.

The WTEL studios are located in the nearby suburb of Bala Cynwyd, while the transmitter site is in Bellmawr, New Jersey. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WTEL programming is simulcast over the second HD Radio digital subchannel of WDAS-FM, and is available online via iHeartRadio.

WTEL is a primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System in eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.

History

WIP

On December 1, 1921, the U.S. Department of Commerce, in charge of radio at the time, adopted a regulation formally establishing a broadcasting station category, which set aside the wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) for entertainment broadcasts, and 485 meters (619 kHz) for market and weather reports. Philadelphia's first broadcasting station, WGL, was licensed on February 8, 1922, to Thomas F. J. Howlett.

This was followed by a scramble among four of the city's department stores to become the first to establish its own station. On March 20, 1922 Gimbel Brothers, with Benedict Gimbel Jr. as its president, was issued a license with the call letters WIP, for a new station operating on the 360 meter "entertainment" wavelength. Although the WIP call sign was randomly assigned, later slogans based on the call letters have included "Wireless In Philadelphia", "We're In Philadelphia" and "Watch Its Progress". The station later received an additional authorization to broadcast weather reports on 485 meters.

The other three Philadelphia department store stations authorized in the first half of 1922 were WOO (licensed March 18, 1922, to John Wanamaker), WFI (later WFIL, licensed March 18, 1922, to Strawbridge & Clothier), and WDAR (later WLIT, licensed May 20, 1922, to the Lit Brothers).

Because 360 meters was the only designated broadcasting wavelength, WIP had to operate within the restrictions of a timesharing arrangement with the other local stations. In the race to be the first department store on the air, Strawbridge & Clothier's WFI debuted on March 18, starting with a 10:16 a.m. speech by John F. Braun, president of the Art Alliance and the Music League. WIP's formal debut came a short time later, beginning with an 11:00 a.m. speech by J. Hampton Moore, Mayor of Philadelphia. However, an advertisement placed by Gimbels on the previous day claimed that "Philadelphia's first radio broadcasting by any store, opened this morning at 9 o'clock", and, somewhat vaguely, "Details of programs will speedily unfold". The department store's March 18 advertisement for WIP further asserted that "Yesterday's broadcasting was most successful", although it provided no details about the nature of any earlier transmissions. Under the local timesharing agreement, WIP's August 17, 1922, schedule on 360 meters consisted of a variety of short programs, beginning with New York and Philadelphia stock price quotes at 1:00 p.m., and ending with its "Uncle Wip" children's programs starting at 7:15 p.m.

In late September 1922, the Department of Commerce set aside a second entertainment wavelength, 400 meters (750 kHz) for "Class B" stations that had quality equipment and programming, and WIP was assigned use of this more exclusive wavelength, joining WOO, WFI, and WDAR. WIP's March 27, 1923, time slots were entertainment programs from 2:00 to 3:00 and 6:00 to 6:30 p.m., followed by "Uncle Wip's Bedtime Stories and roll call" beginning at 7:00 p.m. In May 1923 additional "Class B" frequencies were made available, which included two Philadelphia allocations, with WIP and WOO assigned to 590 kHz on a timesharing basis, while WFI and WDAR were assigned to the second Philadelphia Class B frequency, 760 kHz. In late 1927 WIP and WOO were reassigned to 860 kHz. On November 11, 1928, as part of the implementation of a major nationwide reallocation under the provisions of the Federal Radio Commission's General Order 40, WIP was assigned to a "regional" frequency, 610 kHz, along with a new timesharing partner, the Keystone Broadcasting Company's WFAN.

On January 20, 1933, WIP's owners took over WFAN, eliminating that station in order to allow WIP to begin broadcasting on an unlimited schedule. Beginning in the mid-1930s, WIP's Morning Cheer program presented by George A. Palmer was a popular daily feature. In the 1940s and 1950s, the station was an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System. From the 1950s until the early 1960s, the station was owned by Metropolitan Broadcasting (successor to Dumont) and had a rock and roll format.  In the early 60s the parent company name was changed from Metropolitan to Metromedia, and WIP adopted an MOR format (after an unsuccessful attempt at a Top 40 format branded as Color Radio). With this format, the station played pop hits of the 1960s, along with some 50s pop mixed in. Announcers during this time period included Joe McCauley (the "Morning Mayor"), Ned Powers, Tom Brown, and Chuck Daugherty.

During this time WIP called themselves "The Big W" after a phrase in the 1960s comedy, "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," and the slogan was justified. WIP was number one in the market ratings through the 1960s and for most of the 1970s. In the late 60s they began including more soft-rock until the format gradually evolved into an Adult Contemporary format which survived through the 1970s and into the 1980s. The music mix continued to include pop from the previous two decades. In addition, the station was full service in approach, as they had a heavy emphasis on news as well.

1970s and 1980s
By the early 1970s, WIP evolved to an adult contemporary format, and for a while, they were heavy on 1950s and 1960s rock and roll oldies. At the height of its popularity as a full service/adult contemporary station in the early to mid-1970s, WIP was the home to some of the most well-known air personalities in the city, including popular rush hour host Ken Garland (who had replaced Joe McCauley, the "Morning Mayor"), late morning host Bill "Wee Willie" Webber, early afternoon host Tom Moran, late PM host, Dick Clayton, evening host Tom Lamaine, and overnight host Nat Wright.  Weekend coverage included Allan Michaels, Alan Drew, Bill St. James, and Mark Andrews. During this time, Metromedia's station in New York, WNEW, had similar programming and it was not uncommon for DJs to swap back and forth for subbing duties. WNEW's Julius LaRosa was a frequent guest. WIP's presentation, like other full-service stations, was heavily dependent on its personalities to entertain the audience as much as the music itself.

In addition to music, full-service music stations in that era were typically home to strong news operations, and WIP had local newscasts every hour, seven days a week (at one point they offered half-hourly newscasts around the clock). The weekday morning news was so extensive that they had two anchors in later years, and even introduced a 5 a.m. 30 minute newscast. One of WIP's news reporters, Jan Gorham, remained with the station after the switch to sports and continued to work there until retiring in 2009.

The station hosted a popular radiothon for one weekend a year for several years, raising funds to fight leukemia. The events were staged on a large scale, in venues like hotel ballrooms, with local and national celebrities visiting the live broadcast.

WIP's best-known contest was Cash Call, a call-out game in which the DJs picked numbers out of the phone book or from postcards submitted by listeners. The intro to the contest was the first 10 seconds of a song called "The Sound Of Money" by the J's with Jamie, a vocal group that recorded many commercial jingles and three albums. If the person at the other end of the call could identify the exact amount of money in the "jackpot," down to the standard 61¢ ending, they won the current jackpot. Players who knew the 61¢ but not the dollar amount typically won a token prize from a sponsor. Every incorrect guess lead to a few dollars being added to the jackpot; a correct guess resulted in the jackpot being reset to $61.61. Another long-running contest late in WIP's run as a music station was Team Trivia. Two area businesses competed, one on the morning show with Ken Garland, the other on the afternoon show with (Bruce) Stevens and (Nick) Seneca (who had replaced Tom Moran).

As the popularity of music on FM radio grew, stations like Magic 103 (now 102.9 WMGK) and Kiss 100 began to eat away at WIP's audience. For a time, the station experimented with general interest talk. Michele Iaia was brought on to host "WIPeople Talk", a weeknight call-in show from 8 p.m. to midnight. The show later expanded to include a weekend edition, and over time the talk block was extended to run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. (with the station touting that it played music all day and talked all night). One of the regular features was a Friday night segment called Desperate & Dateless, a show that eventually spun off into a stand-alone Saturday night program that included music mixed in with the calls from single listeners.

The local talk was scaled back to make room for Larry King's syndicated radio show in the overnight hours, and eventually most of the local talk was replaced by music once again. The station later tried a programming experiment known as Midday Infotainment, a features-based midday show hosted by Bill Gallagher and Lynn Adkins. That move pushed Bill Webber out of his longtime midday slot into the early evening shift. The show was canceled in less than a year, and the regular music format, hosted once more by Webber, returned.

As WIP continued adding more current music, it also added the weekly countdown show "Dick Clark's National Music Survey." WIP aired the version produced for adult contemporary stations, while WSTW in Wilmington, Delaware, listenable in much of the Philadelphia market, aired the top 40 version.

Sports radio
WIP gradually adopted a sports radio format in the late 1980s, and had been regarded in the industry for its influence on the Philadelphia sports fanbase headlined by prominent hosts Angelo Cataldi, Al Morganti and Howard Eskin, and was one of the first radio homes for Tony Bruno. WIP's transition to sports was gradual, unlike many so-called format flips that happen instantaneously. The station began adding sports programming in the mid-1980s, adding a daily sports program hosted by Howard Eskin in afternoon drive by September 1986. More and more sports hosts were brought on to replace the music hosts that left, including Ken Garland, who moved to cross-town WPEN, then a nostalgia-based music station. Garland was initially replaced by WIP part-timer Jeff Brown before the sports-based morning show debuted.  Bill Webber's show, then limited to 9 a.m. to noon, was the last regularly scheduled weekday music program. Webber also would eventually join WPEN, hosting his familiar midday slot on Saturdays.

After many years of ownership by Metromedia the station was purchased by Ed Snider's Spectacor Group, the longtime owner of the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers, in 1988. Snider sold the station to CBS Radio in 1994. WIP continued playing music on Saturday mornings for a short time before the transition to all-sports (save for an overnight talk show with Larry King/Jim Bohannon) was complete on November 1988. The morning show itself was converted to all-sports with the pairing of Angelo Cataldi and Tom Brookshier—dubbed Brookie and the Rookie—on November 1990.

Joe Conklin left WIP in January 2003, and was followed by Mike Missanelli that May 1; both joined WMMR to begin a morning show called Philly Guys. WIP later filed a restraining order against Conklin on May 23, 2003, over comments made about WIP on-air. Missanelli rejoined WIP in July 2005 to co-host a midday show with Anthony Gargano, but was fired on March 20, 2006, for on- and off-air altercations with workers. Missanelli's replacement, Steve Martorano, left WIP on March 25, 2008, with Glen Macnow as Gargano's co-host.

Throughout much of this era, WIP was the flagship radio station for the Philadelphia Eagles and Philadelphia Phillies. When both teams were playing at the same time, WPHT and/or WYSP usually carried one of the games. WIP was the full-time flagship radio station for the Eagles until 1992, when Eagles broadcasts moved to WYSP. WIP later added play-by-play coverage of the Philadelphia Flyers in 1998 and the Philadelphia Phantoms in 2005, and also retained coverage of the Philadelphia 76ers in 2005.

The station, and Angelo Cataldi, made headlines when Cataldi arranged for a group of Eagles fans to attend the 1999 NFL Draft in New York City and demand the Eagles select University of Texas at Austin running back Ricky Williams with the team's #2 pick; this led to the infamous booing of the decision to select Donovan McNabb. Howard Eskin's achievements included a "funeral" for Terrell Owens following the announcement of Owens's four-game suspension from the Eagles during the 2005-2006 season, and a short-lived hunger strike in support of trading Philadelphia 76ers superstar Allen Iverson; Eskin was suspended by WIP for 30 days on September 9, 2004, in order to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Richard Sprague, a lawyer for Iverson. Despite the controversies, WIP also hosted multiple programs co-hosted by sports stars, including Brian Dawkins and Maurice Cheeks, and co-produced with WAXY a weekly program with Terrell Owens hosted by Dan Le Batard. The station was also known for hosting the annual eating contest, the Wing Bowl, successor station WIP-FM would continue the event until 2018.

On February 20, 2008, the station announced that broadcasts of Eagles games would return to WIP, plus remain on WYSP, with each radio station broadcasting different feeds to make it easier for local fans to watch television coverage of Eagles games but to lower the volume on their TV and listen to the game on the radio. The advent of digital television signals was putting television and radio signals too far out of sync. The station also carried Philadelphia Phillies games on Friday nights during the 2005 season, allowing WPHT to pick up some regularly scheduled programming on Friday nights. In 2008, WIP broadcast the Phillies' March 31 season opener against Washington along with WPHT.

Transition to FM, trade to Beasley
Under the ownership of Infinity Broadcasting Corporation/CBS Radio during much of this era, WIP's call sign and format subsumed that of co-owned WYSP in 2011 to become WIP-FM, and was eventually traded to Beasley Broadcast Group to become the second incarnation of WTEL. From 2011 to 2020, this station was the market's full-time CBS Sports Radio affiliate, and later the market's full-time ESPN Radio outlet.

On September 2, 2011, WIP began simulcasting on 94.1 FM, replacing rock station WYSP. The simulcast of WIP and WIP-FM soon began to gradually split, as certain sporting events are not heard on both frequencies (such as most Philadelphia Phillies broadcasts, which began to air on WIP-FM in 2012 but are still carried on the AM dial by WPHT), and the syndicated The Nick & Artie Show was added to 610 AM's programming in February 2012, while local programming airs on WIP-FM; the simulcast ended entirely January 2, 2013, when WIP became a full-time affiliate of CBS Sports Radio, airing national programming to complement the local programming on WIP-FM.

On October 2, 2014, CBS Radio announced that it would trade 14 radio stations located in Tampa, Charlotte and Philadelphia (only WIP (AM) would be sold) to the Beasley Broadcast Group in exchange for 3 stations located in Miami and WRDW-FM and WXTU in Philadelphia. The swap was completed on December 1, 2014. As a result, WIP changed its call letters to WTEL, the longtime former call sign of Beasley-owned sister station WWDB, as CBS Radio (which has since been merged into Entercom) continues to own WIP-FM.

In early 2015, WTEL became an affiliate of ESPN Radio, dropping affiliation with CBS Sports Radio. The station began airing Mike and Mike in the Morning on April 20, 2015, on the day that former ESPN affiliate WPEN started a local morning show with former WIP host Anthony Gargano. WPEN continues to be affiliated with ESPN, but only airs live sporting events distributed by the network. WTEL airs ESPN shows almost around the clock, except for Philadelphia Union Soccer Games, the Philadelphia Phillies farm team, the Reading Fightin Phils, and public access shows on weekends which include food, real estate, gardening and Italian-American programs.

Leasing to iHeartMedia, format change

On August 18, 2020, it was initially reported by Philadelphia sports blog Crossing Broad, and later independently verified by radio news website RadioInsight, that Beasley Broadcast Group would soon lease out WTEL's operation to iHeartMedia. Upon closure of the leasing on August 31, the station became the Philadelphia affiliate of iHeart's Black Information Network, a news/talk format simulcast on WDAS-FM's HD2 sub-channel and oriented towards African American audiences, competing with Entercom (now Audacy)'s heritage all-news stations KYW/WPHI-FM.

Notable former on-air staff

 Michael Barkann
 Tom Brookshier
 Tony Bruno
 Bill Campbell
 Craig Carton
 Angelo Cataldi
 Garry Cobb
 Pat Croce
 Ray Didinger
 Howard Eskin
 Keith Jones
 Glen Macnow
 John Marzano
 Mike Missanelli
 Al Morganti
 Ike Reese
 Bill "Wee Willie" Webber

References

External links

 FCC History Cards for WTEL (covering 1927-1981 as WIP)
 History of WIP (broadcastpioneers.com)

TEL
Metromedia
Radio stations established in 1922
TEL
All-news radio stations in the United States
Black Information Network stations
1922 establishments in Pennsylvania

WTEL (AM)


Private Lives is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Sidney Franklin. The screenplay by Hanns Kräly and Richard Schayer is based on the 1930 play Private Lives by Noël Coward.

Plot
Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne, divorced after a tempestuous marriage, are dismayed to discover they both have opted to honeymoon with their new spouses at the same hotel on the French Riviera. Elyot finds his bride Sybil's questions about Amanda annoying, while Amanda wishes her new husband Victor would stop referring to Elyot every chance he gets. When Elyot discovers Amanda on the terrace their adjoining suites share, he insists he and Sybil immediately depart for Paris, the same plan Amanda proposes to Victor. The two ex-spouses quarrel with their new mates, both of whom set off in search of peace and quiet.

Left to reminisce, Elyot and Amanda rekindle their relationship with a kiss and make a pact to put an end to any verbal battles when either one utters the name "Solomon Isaacs." The two then abandon and flee to St. Moritz, but before long they begin a spat that evolves into a major fight about a phonograph record, which Amanda breaks over Elyot's head, an action that leads to total destruction of their hotel room. Rushing out, Amanda meets Victor and Sybil, who have tracked down the prodigal duo, and everyone becomes involved in the dispute. Things finally calm down, and the two couples meet for breakfast the next day, but when Victor and Sybil begin to fight, Elyot and Amanda walk out and depart the resort by train.

Cast
 Norma Shearer as Amanda Prynne
 Robert Montgomery as Elyot Chase
 Reginald Denny as Victor Prynne
 Una Merkel as Sibyl Chase
 Jean Hersholt as Oscar
 George Davis as Bell Hop

Production
When Noël Coward's play proved to be a hit both in London and on Broadway, MGM executive Irving Thalberg bought the rights for a film adaptation starring his wife, Norma Shearer. Coward was uncertain if Shearer was capable of handling the sophisticated dialogue of his comedy of manners, but the actress confidently proclaimed, "I don't care what he thinks - he thinks in theater terms - I think in film terms. It doesn't seem to occur to Mr. Coward that we both may turn out to be right!" She personally suggested Robert Montgomery, who already had appeared in three films opposite her, for her co-star.

The studio filmed a performance of the play with Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, which the director and cast closely followed. According to Coward biographer Cole Lesley, the playwright was pleased with the outcome and described the leading performers as "perfectly charming." The film's critical acclaim and financial success proved instrumental in helping Coward sell the film rights to several other plays.

Exteriors were filmed in Franklin Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains and Glacier National Park, Montana. The song "Someday I'll Find You" sung by Shearer and frequently heard as an underscore on the soundtrack, was written by Coward.

Critical reception
Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times called the film "a swift and witty picture" and "one of the most intelligent comedies that has come to the screen." He added, "Sidney Franklin's direction is excellent and Norma Shearer as Amanda Prynne gives an alert, sharp portrayal . . . Robert Montgomery struggles with matters at the outset, but he soon succeeds in doing well enough with his rôle . . . Una Merkel and Reginald Denny both deserve a great deal of credit for their work."

References

External links

1931 films
1931 romantic comedy films
Films about honeymoons
Films set on the French Riviera
American romantic comedy films
American films based on plays
American black-and-white films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Films directed by Sidney Franklin
Comedy of remarriage films
Films produced by Irving Thalberg
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
Films with screenplays by Richard Schayer
English-language romantic comedy films

Private Lives (film)


Graham Priest (born 1948) is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center, as well as a regular visitor at the University of Melbourne, where he was Boyce Gibson Professor of Philosophy and also  at the University of St Andrews.

Education
Priest was educated at St John's College, Cambridge and the London School of Economics. His thesis advisor was John Lane Bell. He also holds a DLitt from the University of Melbourne.

Philosophical work

He is known for his defence of dialetheism, his in-depth analyses of the logical paradoxes (holding the thesis that there is a uniform treatment for many well-known paradoxes, such as the semantic, set-theoretic and liar paradoxes), and his many writings related to paraconsistent and other non-classical logics. In these he draws on the history of philosophy, including Asian philosophy.

Priest, a long-time resident of Australia, now residing in New York City, is the author of numerous books, and has published articles in nearly every major philosophical and logical journal. He was a frequent collaborator with the late Richard Sylvan, a fellow proponent of dialetheism and paraconsistent logic.

Priest has also published on metaphilosophy (Beyond the Limits of Thought, 1995/2002).

In addition to his work in philosophy and logic, Priest practiced Karate-do. He is 3rd Dan, International Karate-do Shobukai; 4th Dan, Shi'to Ryu, and an Australian National Kumite Referee and Kata Judge. Presently, he practices Taichi.

Books

References

External links
 Graham Priest personal website -- free pdfs of papers available for download
An in-depth autobiographical interview with Graham Priest
Priest archive on the CUNY Philosophy Commons
Video of Graham Priest & Maureen Eckert on Deviant Logic
 Rationally Speaking, Podcast of Graham Priest on Paradoxes and Paraconsistent Logic
 Arche Foundations of Logical Consequence Workshop 2009, "Is the Ternary R Depraved?"
The Monthly: Graham priest on Gottlob Frege
The Philosopher's Zone, 10 July 2010: "It's All about Me: A Forum on the Philosophy of the Self"
The New York Times, The Stone Blog, 28 November 2010:  "Paradoxical Truth"
Graham Priest Photograph (full NYT version) Wikimedia Sept. 2010
Philosophy TV, 10 January 2011: Discussion of Deviant (Non-Classical) Logic, teaching logic, metafiction and logic with Maureen Eckert (UMASS Dartmouth)
Two-Part Interview on Florida Student Philosophy Blog: Part 1 General Questions and Part 2 Technical Questions.

1948 births
Living people
Writers from London
20th-century Australian philosophers
English philosophers
English logicians
Analytic philosophers
Metaphysicians
Academic staff of the University of Melbourne
Paraconsistent logic
Abstract object theory
Australian logicians
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Distinguished professors in the United States
Distinguished professors of philosophy

Graham Priest


Final Crisis is was a seven issue miniseries published by DC Comics from May 2008 to January 2009 written by Grant Morrison and drawn by JG Jones, Carlos Pacheco and Doug Mahnke.

In Final Crisis, the bad guys win. But after some fighting, Superman deep freezes the Earth's population. After he defeats a vampire god called the Dark Monitor, he brings the world back with his imagination.

DC Comics

Final Crisis


Bellevue House National Historic Site was the home to Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John Alexander Macdonald from 1848 to 1849. The house is located in Kingston, Ontario.

Bellevue House was constructed around 1840 for Charles Hales, a wealthy Kingston merchant who profited greatly from the prosperous decade of the 1830s. The house, which is located at 35 Centre St. between Union and King streets, is one of the first examples of Italian Villa architecture in Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald moved into the house with his wife Isabella Clark and their son John Alexander in 1848.

Architecture and layout

Bellevue House is notable for the non-symmetrical Italian Villa style of its architecture. Features of Italianate architecture at Bellevue House include an L-shaped layout with two wings extending from a square central tower; different varieties and shapes of windows and roof gables; and multiple small balconies.

The house has three main floors, but is further divided by seven levels. The first floor is notable for the very large drawing room, containing a parlour piano manufactured in London, England in about 1820 and two oil paintings whose subjects are unknown.  The first floor of the house also contains the formal dining room and a room that is currently interpreted as Isabella's bedroom (though this would likely have been a morning room for other families living at Bellevue in the 19th century).

A kitchen is located in the cellar.  The basement contains both a storage area (used for the storage of fruits, vegetables, and preserves) and a laundry room.  On the top floor of the house, several rooms are interpreted.  These include a guest room, maid's bedroom, nursery, study, dressing room and master bedroom.  The observation floor of the central tower looks out upon Lake Ontario.

History

Occupancy by John A. Macdonald, 1848–49

Much of what is known about the stay of Sir John A. Macdonald and his family at Bellevue has been gleaned from both general historical knowledge of the 19th century in Kingston and from five letters that Macdonald himself wrote while living at Bellevue. The Macdonalds rented Bellevue from Charles Hales in the hope that the fresh air of what were then the outer suburbs of Kingston would assist in Isabella's recovery. The experiment was a failure, and Isabella did not recover from her chronic malady. In addition to this burden, tragedy further struck the young family when their first-born son, John Alexander Jr., died in the house a month after his first birthday.

As a lawyer and a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, Macdonald was often absent from Bellevue House, visiting his second law office in Toronto or attending parliamentary sessions in Montreal. Isabella's health continued to fluctuate during this time. Despite her frail condition, however, Macdonald reports in his letters that she kept a watchful eye on the servants and the day-to-day affairs of the house.

While entertaining was expected of prominent lawyers and politicians like Macdonald in the 19th century, Isabella's frail condition prevented her from fulfilling this part of her responsibility as a politician's wife. For this reason, the drawing room and the back parlour would likely not have been used while the Macdonald family stayed at Bellevue House. The only guest that is known to have stayed at Bellevue House between 1848 and 1849 while the Macdonalds lived at the villa was Lt. Col. John Clark, an officer in the British military who was Isabella's brother and a trusted member of the family.

Given the expenses associated with renting Bellevue and the fact that Isabella continued to suffer from chronic illness, the Macdonald family moved from Bellevue House in 1849 to another house in Kingston. At the time of the move, Isabella was pregnant with their second child, Hugh John Macdonald.

Family home and restoration, 1849–1967

Bellevue House continued to be inhabited by middle-class Kingston families until it was purchased by Parks Canada in 1964 with the intention of commemorating Sir John A. Macdonald. Significant renovations had been performed in the intervening century, including the addition of electricity, indoor plumbing, and central heating, as well as changes to the floor plan. Parks Canada historians and archaeologists did significant research to determine how the home would have appeared in the late 1840s, and it was restored both indoors and outdoors to its original colours and wallpaper patterns. Furnishings from the 1820s–1840s were purchased from antique dealers in Kingston and surrounding areas to lend as much authenticity as possible to the site. The site also received a few items that would have belonged to Macdonald in the late 1840s, including a portion of his library. Bellevue House opened as a "national historic park" in 1967, to coincide with the centennial of Canadian Confederation.

List of known inhabitants of Bellevue House

1839–1841: Charles Hales
1841–42: Tenant
1842–1845: Charles Hales
1845–1848: a variety of tenants, including Col James Harvey and William Ermatinger
1848–49: John A. and Isabella Macdonald
1849–1851: unoccupied
1853–1869: Mr. & Mrs. Ferguson
1869–1879: James Davis
1870–1877: Thomas Baker
1877–1887: Lt. Col. P W Worsley
1887–1905: James Wilson
1905–06: Herbert Howard
1906–07: unoccupied
1907–1923: John Nathan Gilbert
1923–1927: unoccupied
1927–1959: F. W. Atack
1959–1964: Dr. J. M. R. Beveridge, professor at Queen's University.

Current use
Bellevue House is a National Historic Site owned and operated by Parks Canada.  It is the only national park system unit commemorating Macdonald as first Prime Minister, and is one of the main attractions in Kingston. Admission lets visitors explore an exhibit on The Many Voices of Confederation, see a rotating exhibit in the Visitor's Centre, browse artifacts and experience interpretative techniques meant to bring alive what life was like for the Macdonalds as a middle-class family in Kingston in the 1840s.

The visitor centre, located on the site of what was the old coach house beside Bellevue, welcomes visitors with a display area filled with artifacts related to Sir John, and a gift shop. Visitors are welcome to look around, take a photos, and then continue to the historic house where guided and self-guided tours are available from interpreters dressed as gentlemen and maids from the 1840s.

References

Historic house museums in Ontario
Museums in Kingston, Ontario
Houses in Ontario
Biographical museums in Canada
National Historic Sites in Ontario
Italianate architecture in Canada
Tourist attractions in Kingston, Ontario
Designated heritage properties in Ontario

Bellevue House