Saturday, December 28, 2019

Biography of Betsy Ross, American Icon

Betsy Ross (January 1, 1752–January 30, 1836) was a colonial seamstress who is usually credited with creating the first American flag. During the American Revolution, Ross made flags for the navy. After her death, she became a model of patriotism and a key figure in the legend of early American history. Fast Facts Known For: According to legend, Betsy Ross made the first American flag in 1776.Also known As: Elizabeth Griscom Ross, Elizabeth Ashburn, Elizabeth ClaypooleBorn: January 1, 1752 in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaParents: Samuel and Rebecca James GriscomDied: January 30, 1836 in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSpouse(s): John Ross (m. 1773-1776), Joseph Ashburn (m. 1777–1782), John Claypoole (m. 1783–1817)Children: Harriet Claypoole, Clarissa Sidney Claypoole, Jane Claypoole, Aucilla Ashburn, Susannah Claypoole, Elizabeth Ashburn Claypoole, Rachel Claypoole Early Life Betsy Ross was born Elizabeth Griscom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 1, 1752. Her parents were Samuel and Rebecca James Griscom. Ross was the great-granddaughter of a carpenter, Andrew Griscom, who had arrived in New Jersey in 1680 from England. As a youth, Ross likely attended Quaker schools and learned needlework there and at home. When she married John Ross, an Anglican, in 1773, she was expelled from the Friends Meeting for marrying outside the meeting. She eventually joined the Free Quakers, or Fighting Quakers, who did not adhere strictly to the historic pacifism of the sect. The Free Quakers supported the American colonists in their struggle against the British crown. Ross and her husband began an upholstery business together, drawing on her needlework skills. John was killed in January 1776 on militia duty when gunpowder exploded at the Philadelphia waterfront. After his death, Ross acquired property and kept up the upholstery business, making flags for the Pennsylvania Navy and tents, blankets, and other materials for the Continental Army. The Story of the First Flag According to legend, Ross made the first American flag in 1776 after a visit in June from George Washington, Robert Morris, and her husbands uncle, George Ross. She demonstrated to them how to cut a five-pointed star with a single clip of the  scissors if the fabric were folded correctly. This story was not told until 1870 by Rosss grandson William Canby, and even he claimed that it was a story that needed confirmation (a few other seamstresses from that era also claimed to have made the first American flag). Most scholars agree that it was likely not Ross who made the first flag, though she was a flagmaker who, according to historian Marla Miller, was paid in 1777 by the Pennsylvania State Navy Board for making Ships [sic] Colours, c. After Rosss grandson told his story of her involvement with the first flag, it quickly became legend. First published in Harpers Monthly in 1873, the story was included in many school textbooks by the mid-1880s. The story became popular for several reasons. For one, changes in womens lives, and social recognition of such changes, made discovering a founding mother to stand alongside the founding fathers attractive to the American imagination. Betsy Ross was not only a widow making her own way in life with her young child—she was twice widowed during the  American Revolution—but she was also earning a living in the traditionally female occupation of a seamstress. (Notice that her abilities to buy and manage land never made it into her legend, and are ignored in many biographies.) Another factor in the Ross legend was growing patriotic fever connected with the American flag. This required a tale that was more than just a business transaction, such as the (plausible but disputed) story of Francis Hopkinson, who allegedly created the stars-and-stripes design for the flag along with the design for the first U.S. coin. Finally, the growing advertising industry made the image of a woman with a flag popular and used it to sell a variety of products (even flags). Second and Third Marriages In 1777, Ross married sailor Joseph Ashburn, who had the misfortune of being on a ship captured by the British in 1781. He died in prison the following year. In 1783, Ross married again. This time her husband was John Claypoole, who had been in prison with Joseph Ashburn and who had met Ross when he delivered Josephs farewells to her. She spent the following decades, with help from her daughter Clarissa, making flags and banners for various departments of the U.S. government. In 1817, her husband died after a long illness and Ross soon retired from work to live with her daughter Susanna on a farm outside of Philadelphia. During the final years of her life, Ross went blind, though she continued to attend Quaker meetings. Death Betsy Ross died on January 30, 1836, at the age of 84. She was reburied in the Free Quaker Burying Ground in 1857. In 1975, the remains were moved once again and reinterred on the grounds of the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia. Legacy After her death, Ross became a prominent character in the story of Americas founding while many other stories of womens involvement in the American Revolution were forgotten or ignored. Like Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan, she is now one of the countrys most prominent folk heroes. Today, a tour of Betsy Rosss home in Philadelphia (there is some doubt about its authenticity, too) is a must-see when visiting historical sites. The home, established with the aid of 2 million 10-cent contributions by American schoolchildren, is a unique and informative place. One can begin to see what home life was like for families in the early colonial era and remember the disruption and inconvenience, even tragedy, that war brought to women as well as to men during the American Revolution. Even if she did not make the first American flag, Ross was still an example of what many women of her time found as the reality in times of war: widowhood, single motherhood, independently managing household and property, and quick remarriage for economic reasons. As such, she is emblematic of this unique period of American history. Sources Glass, Andrew. â€Å"Congress Redesigns U.S. Flag, April 4, 1818.† Politico, 4 Apr. 2017.Leepson, Marc. Flag: an American Biography. Thomas Dunne Books, 2006.Miller, Marla R. Betsy Ross and the Making of America. St. Martins Griffin, 2011.

Friday, December 20, 2019

Medical Transition Reasonings And Challenges - 2461 Words

Medical Transition: Reasonings and Challenges When we think of transgender people, often the first picture that comes to mind is the physical aspect of transition. However, what many of us never bother to look into is the harsh reality of medical transition and the costs and reasonings that drive it. For many transgender people, medical transition is needed to both vastly improve mental health and increase chances of physical safety out in the world. Whether from lack of monetary income, unsupportive environments, or uninformed doctors, transgender people are often kept from easily and quickly accessing potentially lifesaving medical care. Gender dysphoria is one of the characterizing aspects of being transgender, and while not all transgender people experience this, for those who do mental health often suffers; for this reason many consider medical treatment necessary to improve their well-being. Gender dysphoria, as described by the DSM-5, â€Å"manifests in a variety of ways, including strong desires to be treated as the oth er gender or to be rid of one’s sex characteristics† (Kupfer). It’s often accompanied with distress, which can lead to depression, anxiety, self-harm, or suicidal thoughts. In fact, suicide is all too common in transgender people. A survey of over 6,000 transgender people done in 2010 found that 41% had attempted suicide at some point in their lives (Grant 82). This high number is a trend that continues to be reflected in other surveys, such as one inShow MoreRelatedThe Role Of Nurse Practitioner1749 Words   |  7 Pagesand treating acute and chronic illnesses, the management of medications and therapies, ordering and interpreting tests results, and educating and counseling for patients of health and wellness (Giddens, et. al., 2014). 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Thursday, December 12, 2019

Two Periods of Buddhist Art in India Essay Example For Students

Two Periods of Buddhist Art in India Essay Less than 1% of the population of modern India is Buddhist. Therefore, it is reasonable to say that Indias importance for Buddhism and its art is mainly its historical influence. Not only is India the country where the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, lived and taught, but it is the land where the first images of the Buddha were produced and where Buddhist iconography and symbolism evolved. Being a student whose family originates in India, I am interested in some of the historical aspects and influences of Buddhist Art in India. Therefore, my study of this topic extends to two of the most important periods of Buddhist art in India, the Kushan and the Gupta Periods. The Kushan period is the period in which the first human images of the Buddha appeared. This paper will briefly discuss the Mathura region and will primarily focus on the styles and attributes of sculptures from the Gandharan region. This discussion will illustrate how regional differences contributed in developing two distinct styles of art within the same period. Therefore, I will briefly discuss the history and location of the Gandharan region. I will focus on the Gandharan Bodhisattva (2nd/3rd century, made of schist) displayed in the Art Institute. Next, the paper will discuss the Gupta Dynasty, this is period in which the culture of the period was more concerned with aesthetic values of sculpture, which I will illustrate through my discussion of the Preaching Buddha of Sarnath (c. 475 ad, Buff Sandstone). As a result, the art from the Gandharan region will show how regional location and influences affected this periods sculpture, and the art from the Gupta Period will illustrate how aesthetic preferences of the culture influenced the sculpture of this period. By discussing the Gandharan Bodhisattva and Preaching Buddha from Sarnath, we can see that the art of Buddhism in India reflects the ideals and the sophisticated aesthetics of the varied regions and periods in which it flourished. In early Buddhist art, the Buddha was merely symbolized by a wheel, a bodhi tree, or a stupa. Not until the Kushan period , during the reign of Kanishka I, was the historic Buddha represented in human form. The creation of a Buddha image in human form corresponded to the theological changes influenced by Mahayana Buddhism taking place in the religion. Two distinct styles of sculpture emerged during the Kushan period, one associated with the region of Gandhara and the other with the city of Mathura in northern India. There is much debate in which region these first images appeared, and such discussion is not relevant to my thesis. What is relevant is that these two regions developed two distinctly different styles of sculpture. While Mathuran art developed from local Indian artistic traditions, Gandharan sculptures were heavily influenced by the artistic traditions of the Hellenistic world, most probably as a result of Alexander the Greats colony in Bactria (western Afghanistan). Mathura school sculptures often share iconographic features with their Kusana-period counterparts in the northwest. But for the most part, they reveal a purely Indic stylistic heritage that must have evolved independently (Huntington 151). The Gandharan style of sculpture, on the other hand, combines an intriguing blend of Western classical and Indian influences. Gandhara was a region in the northwest of ancient India, known for its Greco-Buddhist school of sculpture. Gandhara corresponded to the modern Peshawar valley, but its more popular meaning today encompasses large portions of northern Pakistan and adjoining northeastern Afghanistan. Gandharas regional location was vital to this Hellenistic development. Gandhara was located just east of the famous Khyber Pass, comprising what is now north-western Pakistan. The art of the Roman Empire was probably brought to Gandhara because much of the Mediterranean trade with Asia was channeled through such mountain passes. This regions sculpture had some chief characteristics, especially its degree of realism inherited from its Greek antecedents in the area combined with ideals of its own native tradition. The stance of the figures, the style of the draperies, and even the proportions of the idealized features of the heads with their straight noses, oval eyebrows and tranquil expressions owe much to Greek prototypes (Penny 103). We can observe the Greco-Roman influence on the sculpture of Gandharan art by observing the Gandharan Bodhisattva at the Art Institute. As a beginning student in Buddhist Art, the stylistic differences in this sculpture are quite obvious. After conducting research on Gandharan sculptures, I found that the sense of volume conveyed in the outline of the Buddhas garment is characteristic of Gandhara sculptures. Both the folds of the clothing and the body underneath are modeled with a greater sense of naturalism compared to the sculptures can be seen in images from Mathura. It is important to note that although most sculptures from the Gandhara region share certain stylistic and iconographic features, a tremendous variety may be seen in its works. However, in general sculptures are characterized by naturalism in body forms, drapery, and pictorial scale, reveling a debt to Hellenistic, Roman, and other western influences (Huntington 134). This example of a Gandharan Bodhisattva probably once stood in a stupa or temple. This sculpture is made from the material schist. According to the book The Materials of Sculpture, Schist is a metamorphic rock of foliate character and dark silvery gray color, sometimes tending to blue or green. Used for the great school of Buddhist sculpture in Gandhara (Penny 310). The hard schist material allowed the sculptors of Gandhara to carve the folds of the garments and details of features and jewelry much more crisply and with greater volume than materials such as sandstone (Pal 152). Family values EssayThe Preaching Buddha of Sarnath is generally regarded as the quintessence of the Gupta aesthetic and a masterpiece of Indian art (Khandalavala 44). Although, I have been unable to see this sculpture in person, I was able to examine and evaluate a full page color illustration in the book The Golden Age by Karl Khandalavala (40). As one examines this sculpture, it is obvious that this sculpture is focusing on the meditative and serene qualities of the Buddha. The intent is to focus us on the meaning of the faith instead of concentrating on the person of the Buddha. His form is highly abstracted, extraneous details are eliminated and our attention is drawn to the focused gaze and to the hands, areas surrounded by smooth unadorned surface (Fisher 55-56). On a side note, the downcast eyes, so important for the concept of the image, may well derive from Gandharan art (Far Eastern Art 104). This image is supposed to depict the story of how after remaining in contemplation for some weeks, the Buddha traveled to Sarnath, near modern Varanasi, where he preached the first sermon to his five companions in the Deer Park. In Buddhist terminology he set the wheel of the doctrine (dharma) in motion, in art the wheel symbolize both the first sermon and the doctrine of dharma. Buddha is seated as a yogic ascetic, displaying the soles of his feet, and his hands in the dharmacakara mudra the turning of the Wheel of Law. This became one of the most common indicators of the historical event at Sarnath, as well as a symbol for Buddhist teachings in general. Behind his head and centered on the urna the tuft between his eyes, is the halo, the sun wheel, indicating the universal nature of the deity. This sculpture obviously goes beyond just representing this event, and more to the ideals of Mahayana Buddhism. Unlike the Gandharan Bodhisattva, this image is stripped of all the jewelry and other non-essential artifacts. Rather, this sculpture is more concerned with portraying an image that is removed from this world. The robe of the Gandharan Bodhisattva was large and volume with the pleats of the robe curling over the chest in waves. The Preaching Buddhas robe is much more transparent with loose drapery eloquently ending on his sides. The torso is also different in that the Guptas sculpture has a more triangular shape torso. The figure incorporates sandstone. This may partly be due to the notion that the material sandstone helps deliver a more smooth look. The grain of sandstone is barely discernible but enough to make its smoothness more sensuous that of a material without a grain (Penny 111). Other noticeable characteristics of this sculpture is that the Buddha is seated in a yogi ascetic pose. We see many common symbols in this image such as the lotus flower. The throne is decorated with lions, called leogryphs, which indicated a throne of royalty. Such images highlight the emphasis on a royal celestial Buddha, which is heavily influenced by Mahayana beliefs. The halo is decorated with borders of symbols, such as lotuses, and often give reminders of symbols associated with yakshas. The hands are sculpted more elegantly, the chest and shoulders are narrower, and the face has a softer outline than the Gandharan image. All in all the image is more silent in its delivery. The viewer of the sculpture is asked to think about the meaning of the religion rather than focusing on the clothing and accessories of the sculpture. They are asked to grasp the meditative and celestial ideals of the Buddha and understand his doctrine. In summary, the culture of the Gupta empire influenced sculpture in that its Mahayana culture demanded more aesthetic value in the artin which one can understand the meaning of the faith, rather than the figure of the Buddha. The Kushan and Gupta periods of Indian art are two of the most important eras of Buddhist sculpture in India. To analyze the Kushan period I focused on the Gandharan Bodhisattva in the Art Institute. The two major regions of the Kushan dynasty, Mathura and Gandhara, were less than 500 miles apart, nevertheless, they developed two distinct styles of art. The Gandhara region was more Hellenistic in style due to the Greco-Roman influences on this region. As we progress in time, we come to the Gupta period which was indeed influenced by the styles of the prior periods. However, by the 5th century AD, it becomes obvious that the culture of this period was more concerned with aesthetic value as illustrated by the meditative and silent sculpture of the Preaching Buddha from Sarnath. By analyzing these two works and the periods in which they were developed we can see that the style of one of the sculptures was influenced by the region in which it developed, while the other was more heavily influenced by the aesthetic preferences of the time. In conclusion, the Gandharan Bodhisattva illustrated how regional location and ideals influenced the style of sculpture, and the Preaching Buddha illustrated how aesthetic preferences and rising cultural tastes influenced the style of sculpture in the Gupta period. This analysis is important in that it shows how the Buddhist sculpture in India reflects the ideals and the sophisticated aesthetics of the varied regions and periods in which it flourished.

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Hippie Story Essay Example For Students

Hippie Story Essay Once there was man who lived back in the seventies and was an extremely horny hippie. He lived in a village right outside of London, England where they lived off the land, smoked a hell of a lot, and had orgies every night. This particular hippie REALLY, REALLY enjoyed the nightlife, because he was so good at doing it that the group members gave him the name Riddlenut. After riddlenut got some extremely contagious STDOs, the group banned him from the village. Riddlenut had never gone outside the village walls, so he was frightened, and had no place to go. But he found his way to the ocean, where he hopped a boat, and was headed for New York City, a place that he had only heard about in folklore. When he arrived in New York, he immediately found out that he had to go get a job. Riddlenut went everywhere looking for a job, but no one would take him because of his fatal diseases. So finally, he ended up at Comiskey Park, where the New York Yankees play. Riddlenut had never heard of base ball before, but he sure had the right skills to be a janitor! So Riddlenut lived happily ever after at Comiskey Park, cleaning up after people and living in the dugout. As for the village right outside of London? Well, everyone contracted fatal diseases and they all died out, never getting to see the world like Riddlenut. Category: Miscellaneous