History.

European colonization.

Indigenous peoples lived in the area for thousands of years. The historic Chickasaw and Choctaw, both Muskogean-speaking peoples of the Southeast, occupied this area long before European encounter.  French and British colonists traded with these indigenous peoples and tried to make alliances with them. The French established towns in Mississippi mostly on the Gulf Coast. At times, the European powers came into armed conflict. On May 26, 1736, the Battle of Ackia was fought near the site of present-day Tupelo; British and Chickasaw soldiers repelled a French and Choctaw attack on the then-Chickasaw village of Ackia. The French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France.  In the early 19th century, after years of trading and encroachment by European-American settlers from the United States, conflicts increased as the US settlers tried to gain land from these nations. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act and authorized the relocation of all the Southeast Native Americans west of the Mississippi River, which was completed by the end of the 1830s.  In the early years of settlement, European-Americans named this town Gum Pond, supposedly due to its numerous tupelo trees, known locally as "blackgum". The city still hosts the annual Gumtree Arts Festival.

Civil War and post-war development.

During the Civil War, Union and Confederate forces fought in the area in 1864 in the Battle of Tupelo. Designated the Tupelo National Battlefield, the battlefield is administered by the National Park Service (NPS). In addition, the Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield, about ten miles north, commemorates another American Civil War battle.  After the war, a cross-state railroad for northern Mississippi was constructed through the town, which encouraged industry and growth. With expansion, the town changed its name to Tupelo, in honor of the battle. It was incorporated in 1870.

20th century to present.

By the early twentieth century the town had become a site of cotton textile mills, which provided new jobs for residents of the rural area. Under the state's segregation practices, the mills employed only white adults and children. Reformers documented the child workers and attempted to protect them through labor laws.  The last known bank robbery by Machine Gun Kelly, a Prohibition-era gangster, took place on November 30, 1932 at the Citizen's State Bank in Tupelo; his gang netted $38,000. After the robbery, the bank's chief teller said of Kelly, "He was the kind of guy that, if you looked at him, you would never thought he was a bank robber."  During the Great Depression, Tupelo was electrified by the new Tennessee Valley Authority, which had constructed dams and power plants throughout the region to generate hydroelectric power for the large, rural area. The distribution infrastructure was built with federal assistance as well, employing many local workers. In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt visited this "First TVA City".  In 2007, the nearby village of Blue Springs was selected as the site for Toyota's eleventh automobile manufacturing plant in the United States.  In 2013 Gale Stauffer of the Tupelo Police Department died in a shootout following a bank robbery, possibly the first officer killed in the line of duty in the department's history.

Severe weather.

The spring of 1936 brought Tupelo one of its worst-ever natural disasters, part of the Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak of April 5–6 in that year. The storm leveled 48 city blocks and over 200 homes, killing 216 people and injuring more than 700 persons. It struck at night, destroying large residential areas on the city's north side. Among the survivors was Elvis Presley, then a baby. Obliterating the Gum Pond neighborhood, the tornado dropped most of the victims' bodies in the pond. The storm has since been rated F5 on the modern Fujita scale. The Tupelo Tornado is recognized as one of the deadliest in U.S. history.  The Mississippi State Geologist estimated a final death toll of 233 persons, but 100 whites were still reported as hospitalized at the time. Because the white newspapers did not publish news about blacks until the 1940s and 1950s, historians have had difficulty learning the fates of blacks injured in the tornado. Based on this, historians now estimate the death toll was higher than in official records. Fire broke out at the segregated Lee County Training School, which was destroyed. Its bricks were salvaged for other uses.  The area is subject to tornadoes. In 2008 one rated an EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale struck the town. On April 28, 2014, a large tornado struck Tupelo and the surrounding communities, causing significant damage.

Geography and climate.

Tupelo is located in northeast Mississippi, north of Columbus, on Interstate 22 and U.S. Route 78, midway between Memphis, Tennessee (northwest) and Birmingham, Alabama (southeast).  According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which is land and (0.62%) is water.  Like the rest of the state, Tupelo has a humid subtropical climate ("Cfa" in the Köppen climate classification); it is part of USDA hardiness zone 7b. The normal monthly mean temperature ranges from in January to in July, while, on average, there are 3.0 days where the temperature stays at or below freezing, 55 days with a low at or below freezing, and 67 days with a high at or above per year. The all-time record low is, set on January 27, 1940, while the all-time record high is, set on July 29, 1930. However, temperatures at or below are rare, having last occurred December 23, 1989, the date of the all-time record low for December; additionally, while highs can reach several days a row during severe heat waves, several years may pass between such readings.  Precipitation is high, averaging annually. On average, December is the single wettest month, with wet conditions typical from late fall to late spring most years. On average, August and September are the driest months. The rainiest calendar day on record is March 21, 1955 when of rain fell; monthly precipitation has ranged from trace amounts in August 1983 to in December 1982. Snow is uncommon, with many years receiving trace amounts or no snowfall at all, and normal (1981–2010) winter snowfall stands at. The most snow in one calendar day was on January 24, 1940, contributing to the that fell that month, the snowiest on record; the snowiest winter was 1935–36 with.

Demographics.

As of the census of 2010, there were 35,456 people, 13,602 households, and 8,965 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 58.7% White, 36.8% African American, 0.1% Native American, 1.0% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 2.0% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races. 3.5% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.  According to the 2007–2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, there were 13,395 households, 42.8% were married couples living together, 2.6% had a male householder with no wife present, and 22.5% had a female householder with no husband present. 32.2% were non-family households, with 28.4% had a householder living alone and 3.8% having a householder not living alone. In addition, 39.7% of householders were living with related children under 18 and 60.3% with no related children under 18. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.08.  The median income for a household in the city was $39,415. The poverty rate was 20%.

Economy.

Historically, Tupelo served as a regional transportation hub, primarily due to its location at a railroad intersection. More recently, it has developed as strong tourism and hospitality sector based around the Elvis Presley birthplace and Natchez Trace. The city has also been successful at attracting manufacturing, retail and distribution operations (see 'Industry' section below).

Transportation.

Rail.

Until the late 1950s long-distance trains served Tupelo. These included the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio's "Gulf Coast Rebel" and the Frisco Railroad's "Kansas City-Florida Special" and its "Sunnyland."

Roads.

U.S. Route 45, U.S. Route 78, U.S. Route 278 run through the town. And Interstate 22 runs north of the town on an east–west route.

Air.

The city is served by Tupelo Regional Airport, with service on Contour Airlines.

Government.

Tupelo's current mayor is Jason L. Shelton. The Tupelo Council is made up of seven representatives, each elected from single-member districts. They annually elect the president of the council on a rotating basis. In 2017, the President of the Tupelo City Council is Lynn Bryan. Other council members are Markel Whittington, Buddy Palmer, Willie Jennings, Mike Bryan and Nettie Davis.  Jim Newell was elected to the City Council in 2013, but resigned August 1, 2014, when he moved out of the ward he represented. A special election was held to fill the vacancy is set for September 4, 2014.  In 2013 Nettie Davis was elected by the council as President, becoming the first woman and first African American to hold the position. Davis has served on the council for four terms.  Mayor Jason Shelton sought re-election in 2017 and was returned to office for another four years in the Democratic primary by garnering 85.55 percent of the votes cast. His opponent was Candace Knowles.  Mayor Jack Reed did not seek reelection in 2013. Attorney Jason Shelton, a Democrat, was elected mayor on June 4, 2013, over council chairman Fred Pitts, a Republican.  The city government has been honored with many awards in 2015, including: ° All-America City, National League of Cities (5th designation) ° Mississippi Municipal League Award of Excellence ° Southern Public Relations Federation Certificate of Merit, Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau ° Southern Public Relations Federation Award of Excellence, Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau ° Southern Public Relations Lantern Award (2), Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau ° Mississippi Governor's Conference on Tourism Volunteer of the Year, Bev Crossen nominated by Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau ° Mississippi Governor's Conference on Tourism Large Festival/Event Award, Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau ° Mississippi Governor's Conference on Tourism Travel Media Award, Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau ° Mississippi Urban Forest Council Lifetime Achievement David Knight ° Mississippi Urban Forest Council 2015 Scenic Community Award ° Mississippi Recreation and Parks Association Design Award, Joyner Splash Pad ° Mississippi Recreation and Parks Association Award of Excellence in Special Events Sports Programing, Southern Zone Age Group Swimming Championship, The Tupelo Aquatic Center

Education.

Tupelo schools are served by the Tupelo Public School District. It participates in the Chromebook Distribution Policy, which means students in grades 6 to 12 are each given a school-owned Google Chromebook to use during the school year. In 2008, "Sports Illustrated" ranked the high school athletic department as the third-best high school athletic program in the nation.  For post-secondary education, the city has satellite campuses of the University of Mississippi, Itawamba Community College, and the Mississippi University for Women.

Media.

The local daily newspaper is the "Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal".  Tupelo is home to three television stations serving the 133rd-ranked designated market area among 210 markets nationwide as determined by Nielsen Media Research: WTVA (9), an NBC and ABC affiliate; and WLOV (27), a Fox affiliate. Both stations are located on Beech Springs Road and were controlled by Frank K. Spain until his death on April 25, 2006.  The American Family Association, located in Tupelo, includes the national American Family Radio network and the OneNewsNow news service. It has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center due to its denunciations of homosexuality, including blaming the holocaust on homosexuality.

Tupelo is a city in, and the county seat of, Lee County, Mississippi, United States. With an estimated population of 38,312 in 2019, Tupelo is the sixth-largest city in Mississippi and is considered a commercial, industrial, and cultural hub of North Mississippi.

Tupelo [] ist eine Stadt und Sitz der Countyverwaltung (County Seat) im Lee County im US-Bundesstaat Mississippi mit 34.546 Einwohnern (2010). Weltbekannt wurde die Stadt als Geburtsort von Elvis Presley.


History.

Tonga participated in World War I, as part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.  The Tonga Defence Service (TDS) came into existence at the beginning of World War II in 1939. In 1943, New Zealand helped train two Tongan contingents of two thousand personnel who fought in the Solomon Islands Campaign. In addition, New Zealand and US troops were stationed on Tongatapu, which became a staging point for shipping.  At the end of World War II, the TDS was disbanded, but was re-formed in 1946.  Former Prime Minister Prince Lavaka Ata 'Ulukalala (now King Tupou VI) joined the naval arm of the Tonga Defence Service in 1982 and became Lieutenant-Commander of the defence force in 1987. From 1990 to 1995 he commanded the PPB VOEA "Pangai" and his time in charge included peacekeeping operations in Bougainville.  In 2002, TDS soldiers were deployed as part of a multi-national regional peacekeeping force in the Solomon Islands. In July 2004, a forty-five personnel contingent of the TDS served in the Solomon Islands. A third contingent was sent in July 2005. This contingent consisted of thirty-three TDS troops, and was expected to remain four months.  In March 2003, military-to-military talks began between Tonga and the United States about Tonga providing personnel for the Multinational force in Iraq. Support arrangements were finalised in May 2004. Forty-five Royal Tongan Marines, led by the Chief of Defence of the Tonga Defence Services, Colonel Tau'aika 'Uta'atu, departed Tonga on 13 June 2004. From July 2004, the Royal Tonga Marines were augmenting the 1st Marine Expeditionary Forces (MEF) in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq. The Royal Marines supported the 1st Marine Division's security and stabilisation mission at Camp Blue Diamond. Tonga first served with the 1st MEF on the Solomon Island during World War II. The Royal Tongan Marines returned from Iraq in December 2004. In December 2008, the Tonga Defence Services ended their mission in the Iraq War and returned home.  In 2006, TDS soldiers, in co-operation with local police, were deployed to deal with the Nuku'alofa riots.  In 2010, Tongan troops began training with the RAF Regiment, in preparation for operations in Afghanistan; the first troops deployed to Afghanistan during February 2011. Tonga's military size was approximately 450 troops, half of which were sent to fight in the War in Afghanistan, serving in Camp Bastion and Camp Leatherneck. During the September 2012 Camp Bastion raid Tonga troops were in perimeter guard towers without any night-vision devices. On September 2013, Tonga Defence Services were officially renamed into His Majesty's Armed Forces (HMAF). In April 2014, the Royal Tongan Marines ended their mission supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Components.

The main elements of HMAF are:

Tongan Maritime Force (Tongan Navy).

The Maritime Force is equipped with three Pacific-class patrol boats, a tanker, a Landing Craft Mechanised and a motor boat that is the royal yacht. Tongan Maritime Force performs patrol missions, occasionally dealing with border violations. Notably at the Minerva Reef and Tonga’s restricted fishing zones.

Royal Tongan Marines.

The Royal Tongan Marine Infantry is organised as a single battalion with a HQ and three Light Infantry Companies.

Tongan Royal Guards.

The Tongan Royal Guards are a company size unit that are responsible for the security of His Majesty. The Royal Guard maintains a musical unit known as the Tonga Royal Corps of Musicians that serves as a military band for different occasions.

Tongan Air Wing.

The Air Wing was established in 1996 and operates one Beechcraft G.18S aircraft in the maritime patrol and search and rescue roles, and an American Champion Citabria light trainer. The current position of the HMAF air wing is unclear but both aircraft have not been active.

International Defence Organisations.

The HMAF is a member of the following international defence organisations:  Tonga has an agreement to share "disaster response knowledge" with the United States Nevada National Guard.

His Majesty's Armed Forces (HMAF) is the military of Tonga. It is composed of three operational components and two support elements (logistics and training groups).

Die Tonga Defence Services (TDS) sind die Streitkräfte des Königreichs Tonga im Südpazifik. Sie sind dem tongaischen Verteidigungsministerium unterstellt. Die Streitkräfte haben eine Stärke von etwa 450 Mann.


Sanctuary of Isis and Magna Mater, Mainz

Heiligtum der Isis und Mater Magna (Mainz)

Historical background.

In the year 13/12 B.C. the Roman history of Mainz, which lasted almost 500 years, began with the construction of a legion camp on the Mainz Kästrich, a hill above the Rhine valley. The rapidly developing Canaba, the civil vicus towards the Rhine and the public buildings of the later provincial capital, such as thermal baths, theatres, administrative buildings and temples, followed quickly, especially under the Flavian dynasty. During this time, the temple complex for Isis and Magna Mater was built.  In the sanctuary in Mogontiacum both Isis – here with the additions Panthea ('Allgoddess') and Regina ('Queen') – and the mother god Magna Mater were worshipped according to the found inscriptions. Both goddesses were most probably introduced by the Roman army in Mainz, who brought their religion with them, in the context of the expansion of the Roman empire. The cult of Isis originates from Egypt, the deity Mater Magna goes back at least to the small Asian goddess Kybele (see Isis- and Osiris cult and Kybele- and Attis cult). Both cults already had a longer tradition in the Roman Empire: Kybele/Mater Magna had been worshipped in Rome since the end of the 3rd century BC. Isis had long been part of the pantheon in the Egyptian pharaonic empire. Through the Ptolemies and the Hellenistic culture, the Roman world also came into contact with the Isis cult. In the Roman republic and at the beginning of the imperial period up to Tiberius partly forbidden, the Isis cult finally established itself under Emperor Caligula. In the new province of Germania superior with its provincial capital Mogontiacum, however, these cults were new.  Since the founder of the Flavian imperial house, Emperor Vespasian, had received his destiny of rule in Alexandria from the Egyptian deity Serapis, the Flaviers had a close connection to oriental cults. The Egyptian goddess Isis was a representative of the imperial cult, comparable to the position of Venus in the Julian imperial house. In this context, bricks with military brick stamps found on site suggest that a building had been erected on behalf of the Emperor for the purpose of cult practice promoted by the Emperor.  The sanctuary was fundamentally rebuilt several times over the next 200 years and, after the first city wall was built around 250, was also located within the protected city area. Towards the end of the 3rd century AD, perhaps even later, the cult of Isis and Mater Magna was no longer practiced in Mainz. The sanctuary was abandoned and the building complex fell into disrepair. Concrete reasons for the cessation of cult activities are not known. Datable finds are mainly from the 1st and 2nd centuries and prove the active use of the sanctuary during this period. It is possible that the further processing of the extensive find material may enable a more precise dating of the useful life of the sanctuary.  Due to its peripheral location in early medieval Mainz, the site probably lay fallow for some time. Beginning with the construction of the monastery of the Poor Clares after 1330 and the construction of the Wamboldt court in a similar time frame, the site was built over with monastery complexes and patrician courts in the Middle Ages.

Rediscovery, excavation and rescue.

In 1999 one of the last inner-city areas with buildings from the 1950s was to be upgraded. In order to build a shopping arcade, the existing buildings were demolished and a correspondingly large excavation pit was dug for the foundations. The construction project was accompanied by the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate. Since the Roman road in this area ran from the legionary camp towards the Rhine bridge (parts of which were uncovered during the excavations), the archaeologists involved reckoned with a typical strip house development and smaller workshops from Roman times.  At a depth of five metres at the end of 1999, two archaeologically important finds were unexpectedly discovered: the remains of a sanctuary from the Roman period and an underlying burial site from the Hallstatt period that was around 700 years older. During the subsequent archaeological excavations, both the building complex of the sanctuary and a women's grave of the Hallstatt burial ground dated 680-650 BC were documented. The excavations lasted about 17 months and ended at the beginning of 2001. Fifteen tons of soil were removed from the excavation site for further archaeobotanical and archaeozoological evaluation, in addition to 49 m3 of other recovered finds.  Initially, it was planned to remove the structural remains according to the archaeological documentation and to continue with the construction work for the shopping arcade. The Mithräum at Ballplatz, which was discovered in the 1970s and also dates back to the 1st century, suffered a similar fate. It was irretrievably destroyed during the construction work - insufficiently documented. Resistance against these plans formed among the population of Mainz and a newly founded citizens' initiative, the Initiative Römisches Mainz, collected several 10,000 signatures for the preservation of the sanctuary within a short time.  This achieved a permanent conservation of the sanctuary and its inclusion in the newly built shopping arcade. Due to the planned construction of an underground car park at this location, however, the finds had to be translocated. The structural remains of the sanctuary were dismantled in a complex procedure and moved several metres. The resulting costs of 3.43 million euros were shared between the city of Mainz and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Since the festive opening on 30 August 2003 - an estimated 25,000 visitors came to the Mainz city centre for the festival – the sanctuary of Isis and Mater Magna can be visited in the so-called Taberna archaeologica in the basement of the Römerpassage Mainz.

The Sanctuary of Isis and Magna Mater was a sanctuary in Mainz, dedicated to Isis and Magna Mater. The temple was founded during the 1st century and active until at least the 3rd century. Since 1999, substantial excavations have been made on the site. During construction work of a shopping gallery later named "Römerpassage" in the city centre of Mainz, its structural remains were discovered and uncovered at the end of 1999. Consecration inscriptions prove the connection between the Flavian imperial house and the erection of the sanctuary and suggest a possible connection between the foundation of the sanctuary and a politically explosive reason for the consecration. The remains of the building, selected finds, and a multimedia framework presentation can be viewed in the form of a small museum in the basement of the Römerpassage.

Das Heiligtum der Isis und Mater Magna entstand im römischen Mogontiacum im 1. Jahrhundert und bestand bis in das 3. Jahrhundert. Bei Bauarbeiten zur Einkaufsgalerie „Römerpassage“ in der Mainzer Innenstadt wurden seine baulichen Überreste Ende 1999 entdeckt und freigelegt. Weihe-Inschriften belegen die Verbindung des flavischen Kaiserhauses mit der Errichtung des Heiligtums und lassen einen möglichen Zusammenhang zwischen der Stiftung des Heiligtums und einem politisch brisanten Anlass für die Weihung vermuten. Die baulichen Überreste, ausgewählte Funde und eine multimediale Rahmenpräsentation sind in Form eines kleinen Museums im Untergeschoss der Römerpassage zu besichtigen.


Phenomenon.

In spiritualism, ectoplasm is said to be formed by physical mediums when in a trance state. This material is excreted as a gauze-like substance from orifices on the medium's body and spiritual entities are said to drape this substance over their nonphysical body, enabling them to interact in the physical and real universe. Some accounts claim that ectoplasm begins clear and almost invisible, but darkens and becomes visible, as the psychic energy becomes stronger. Still other accounts state that in extreme cases ectoplasm will develop a strong odor. According to some mediums, the ectoplasm cannot occur in light conditions as the ectoplasmic substance would disintegrate.  The psychical researcher Gustav Geley defined ectoplasm as being "very variable in appearance, being sometimes vaporous, sometimes a plastic paste, sometimes a bundle of fine threads, or a membrane with swellings or fringes, or a fine fabric-like tissue". Arthur Conan Doyle described ectoplasm as "a viscous, gelatinous substance which appeared to differ from every known form of matter in that it could solidify and be used for material purposes".  The physical existence of ectoplasm has not been scientifically demonstrated, and tested samples purported to be ectoplasm have been found to be various non-paranormal substances. Other researchers have duplicated, with non-supernatural materials, the photographic effects sometimes said to prove the existence of ectoplasm.

Ectenic force.

The idea of ectoplasm was merged into the notion of an "ectenic force" by some early psychical researchers who were seeking a physical explanation for reports of psychokinesis in séances. Its existence was initially hypothesized by Count Agenor de Gasparin, to explain the phenomena of table turning and tapping during séances. Ectenic force was named by de Gasparin's colleague M. Thury, a professor of natural history at the Academy of Geneva. Between them, de Gasparin and Thury conducted a number of experiments in ectenic force, and claimed some success. Their work was not independently verified.  Other psychical researchers who studied mediumship speculated that within the human body an unidentified fluid termed the "psychode", "psychic force" or "ecteneic force" existed and was capable of being released to influence matter. This view was held by Camille Flammarion and William Crookes, however a later psychical researcher Hereward Carrington pointed out that the fluid was hypothetical and has never been discovered.  The psychical investigator W. J. Crawford (1881–1920) had claimed that a fluid substance was responsible for levitation of objects after witnessing the medium Kathleen Goligher. Crawford, after witnessing a number of her séances, claimed to have obtained flashlight photographs of the substance; he later described the substance as "plasma". He claimed the substance is not visible to the naked eye but can be felt by the body.  The physicist and psychical researcher Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe later investigated the medium Kathleen Goligher at many sittings and arrived at the opposite conclusions to Crawford; according to D'Albe, no paranormal phenomena such as levitation had occurred with Goligher and stated he had found evidence of fraud. D'Albe claimed the substance in the photographs of Crawford was ordinary muslin. During a séance D'Albe had observed white muslin between Goligher's feet.

Fraud.

Ectoplasm on many occasions has been proven to be fraudulent. Many mediums had used methods of swallowing and regurgitating cheesecloth, textile products smoothed with potato starch and in other cases the ectoplasm was made from paper, cloth and egg white or butter muslin.  The Society for Psychical Research investigations into mediumship exposed many fraudulent mediums which contributed to the decline of interest in physical mediumship. In 1907, Hereward Carrington exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums such as those used in slate-writing, table-turning, trumpet mediumship, materializations, sealed-letter reading and spirit photography.  In the early 20th century the psychical researcher Albert von Schrenck-Notzing investigated the medium Eva Carrière and claimed her ectoplasm "materializations" were not from spirits but the result of "ideoplasty" in which the medium could form images onto ectoplasm from her mind. Schrenck-Notzing published the book "Phenomena of Materialisation" (1923) which included photographs of the ectoplasm. Critics pointed out the photographs of the ectoplasm revealed marks of magazine cut-outs, pins and a piece of string. Schrenck-Notzing admitted that on several occasions Carrière deceptively smuggled pins into the séance room. The magician Carlos María de Heredia replicated the ectoplasm of Carrière using a comb, gauze and a handkerchief.  Donald West wrote that the ectoplasm of Carrière was fake and was made of cut-out paper faces from newspapers and magazines on which fold marks could sometimes be seen from the photographs. A photograph of Carrière taken from the back of the ectoplasm face revealed it to be made from a magazine cut out with the letters "Le Miro". The two-dimensional face had been clipped from the French magazine Le Miroir. Back issues of the magazine also matched some of Carrière's ectoplasm faces. Cut out faces that she used included Woodrow Wilson, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, French president Raymond Poincaré and the actress Mona Delza. After Schrenck-Notzing discovered Carrière had taken her ectoplasm faces from the magazine he defended her by claiming she had read the magazine but her memory had recalled the images and they had materialized into the ectoplasm. Because of this Schrenck-Notzing was described as credulous. Joseph McCabe wrote "In Germany and Austria, Baron von Schrenck-Notzing is the laughing-stock of his medical colleagues."  The Danish medium Einer Nielsen was investigated by a committee from the Kristiania University in Norway in 1922 and it was discovered in a séance that his ectoplasm was fake. Nielsen was also caught hiding his ectoplasm in his rectum. Mina Crandon was a famous medium known for producing ectoplasm during her séance sittings. She produced a small ectoplasmic hand from her stomach which waved about in the darkness. Her career ended however when biologists examined the hand and found it to be made of a piece of carved animal liver. Walter Franklin Prince described the Crandon case as "the most ingenious, persistent, and fantastic complex of fraud in the history of psychic research."  The psychical researchers Eric Dingwall and Harry Price re-published an anonymous work written by a former medium entitled "Revelations of a Spirit Medium" (1922) which exposed the tricks of mediumship and the fraudulent methods of producing "spirit hands". Originally all the copies of the book were bought up by spiritualists and deliberately destroyed. On the subject of ectoplasm and fraud John Ryan Haule wrote:  Because ectoplasm was believed susceptible to destruction by light, the possibility that ectoplasm might appear became a reason for making sure that Victorian séances took place in near darkness. Poor lighting conditions also became an opportunity for fraud, particularly as faux ectoplasm was easy to make with a mixture of soap, gelatin and egg white, or perhaps merely well-placed muslin.  Psychical researcher Harry Price exposed medium Helen Duncan's fraudulent techniques by proving, through analysis of a sample of ectoplasm produced by Duncan, that it was cheesecloth that she had swallowed and regurgitated. Duncan had also used dolls' heads and masks as ectoplasm. Mediums would also cut pictures from magazines and stick them to the cheesecloth to pretend they were spirits of the dead. Another researcher, C. D. Broad, wrote that ectoplasm in many cases has proven to be composed of home material such as butter-muslin and that there is no solid evidence that it has anything to do with spirits.  The photographs taken by Thomas Glendenning Hamilton of ectoplasm reveal the substance to be made of tissue paper and magazine cut-outs of people. The famous photograph taken by Hamilton of the medium Mary Ann Marshall (1880–1963) depicts tissue paper with a cut out of Arthur Conan Doyle's head from a newspaper. Skeptics have suspected that Hamilton may have been behind the hoax. The mediums Rita Goold and Alec Harris dressed up in their séances as ectoplasm spirits and were exposed as frauds. The exposures of fraudulent ectoplasm in séances caused a rapid decline in physical mediumship.

Ectoplasm (from the Greek "ektos", meaning "outside", and "plasma", meaning "something formed or molded") is a term used in spiritualism to denote a substance or spiritual energy "exteriorized" by physical mediums. It was coined in 1894 by psychical researcher Charles Richet. Although the term is widespread in popular culture, the physical existence of ectoplasm is not accepted by science and many purported examples were exposed as hoaxes fashioned from cheesecloth, gauze or other natural substances.

Der Begriff Ektoplasma (von altgriechisch εκτος "ektos" ‚außen‘ und πλάσμα "plásma" ‚das Gebildete, Geformte‘) wurde von Charles Richet in die Parapsychologie übernommen und soll einen Stoff bezeichnen, der angeblich bei einem Medium aus den Körperöffnungen tritt. Ektoplasma soll grau-weiß oder rosa, schaumig oder leichte Fäden ziehend sein. Laut Berichten von Richet und anderen Wissenschaftlern der damaligen Zeit könne es bei vollständigeren Materialisationen aber auch fester werden. Ektoplasma (später auch Teleplasma genannt) sei sehr lichtempfindlich und somit unter normalen Bedingungen kaum sichtbar, nur in dunklen oder mit Rotlicht beleuchteten Räumen. Skeptiker betrachten Ektoplasma eher als „lichtscheu“ – sie meinen, es handle sich um Gaze, die nur im Dunklen als Ektoplasma verwendet werden könne, weil sie bei Licht als Gaze erkennbar sei.


Movement.

Process art has been entitled as a creative movement in the US and Europe in the mid-1960s. It has roots in Performance Art, the Dada movement and, more traditionally, the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, and in its employment of serendipity. Change and transience are marked themes in the process art movement. The Guggenheim Museum states that Robert Morris in 1968 had a groundbreaking exhibition and essay defining the movement and the Museum Website states: Process Artists were involved in issues attendant to the body, random occurrences, improvisation, and the liberating qualities of nontraditional materials such as wax, felt, and latex. Using these, they created eccentric forms in erratic or irregular arrangements produced by actions such as cutting, hanging, and dropping, or organic processes such as growth, condensation, freezing, or decomposition.  It's not the kind of thing you can say often, but I think William Basinski's "Disintegration Loops" are a step toward that understanding-- the music itself is not so much composed as it is this force of nature, this inevitable decay of all things, from memory to physical matter, made manifest in music. During the summer of 2001, William Basinski set about transferring a series of 20-year-old tape loops he'd had in storage to a digital file format, and was startled when this act of preservation began to devour the tapes he was saving. As they played, flakes of magnetic material were scraped away by the reader head, wiping out portions of the music and changing the character and sound of the loops as they progressed, the recording process playing an inadvertent witness to the destruction of Basinski's old music.  In essence, Basinski is improvising using nothing so much as the passage of time as his instrument, and the result is the most amazing piece of processmusic I've ever heard, an encompassing soundworld as lulling as it is apocalyptic. The process art movement and the environmental art movement are directly related:  Process Artists engage the primacy of organic systems, using perishable, insubstantial, and transitory materials such as dead rabbits, steam, fat, ice, cereal, sawdust, and grass. The materials are often left exposed to natural forces: gravity, time, weather, temperature, etc. In process art, as in the Arte Povera movement, nature itself is lauded as art; the symbolization and representation of nature, often rejected.

Antecedent.

The process art movement has precedent in indigenous rites, shamanic and religious rituals, cultural forms such as sandpainting, sun dance, and the tea ceremony are fundamentally related pursuits.  Aspects of the process of the construction of a Vajrayana Buddhist sand mandala (a subset of sandpainting) of Medicine Buddha by monks from Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca, New York that began February 26, 2001 and concluded March 21, 2001 has been captured and web-exhibited by the Ackland's Yager Gallery of Asian Art. The dissolution of the mandala was on June 8, 2001.

Relationship to other disciplines and movements.

Process art shares fundamental features with a number of other fields, including the expressive therapies and transformative arts, both of which pivot around how the creative process of engaging in artistic activities can precipitate personal insight, individual healing, and social change, independent of the perceived value attributed to the obejct of creation.  Additionally, process art is integral to arts-based research, which uses creative process and artistic expression to investigate subjects that resist description or representation through other modes of inquiry.

Artists.

The maximum exponents of "process art" are Abel Azcona, Lynda Benglis, Joseph Beuys, Chris Drury, Eva Hesse, Gary Kuehn, Barry Le Va, Bruce Nauman, Robert Morris, Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier, Aida Tomescu and Richard Van Buren.

Process art is an artistic movement as well as a creative sentiment where the end product of "art" and "craft", the "objet d’art" (work of art/found object), is not the principal focus. The 'process' in process art refers to the process of the formation of art: the gathering, sorting, collating, associating, patterning, and moreover the initiation of actions and proceedings. Process art is concerned with the actual "doing" and how actions can be defined as an actual work of art; seeing the art as pure human expression. Process art often entails an inherent motivation, rationale, and intentionality. Therefore, art is viewed as a creative journey or process, rather than as a deliverable or end product.

Prozesskunst (engl.: "process art") oder prozesshafte Kunst ist eine Form der zeitgenössisch-avantgardistischen Konzeptkunst, die in den 1960er Jahren, basierend auf den Ideen der Minimal Art und der Performance-Kunst, entwickelt wurde. Werke der Prozesskunst sollen Zeit und Raum für Künstler und Betrachter bewusst machen, Hintergründe in der Entstehung in das Kunstwerk einbeziehen sowie konkret Entwicklungen anstoßen und steuern und diese bewusst wahrnehmbar machen.


Biography.

Early years.

Thomson was born in Kansas City, Missouri. As a child he befriended Alice Smith, great-granddaughter of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter-day Saint movement. During his youth he often played the organ in Grace Church, (now Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral), as his piano teacher was the church's organist. After World War I, he entered Harvard University thanks to a loan from Dr. Fred M. Smith, the president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and father of Alice Smith. His tours of Europe with the Harvard Glee Club helped nurture his desire to return there. At Harvard, Thomson focused his studies on the piano work of Erik Satie. He studied in Paris on fellowship for a year, and after graduating lived in Paris from 1925 until 1940. While studying in Paris he was influenced by several French composers who were members of "Les Six" including: Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, and George Auric. He eventually studied with Nadia Boulanger and became a fixture of "Paris in the twenties."  In Paris in 1925, he cemented a relationship with painter Maurice Grosser, who was to become his life partner and frequent collaborator. Later he and Grosser lived at the Hotel Chelsea, where he presided over a largely gay salon that attracted many of the leading figures in music and art and theater, including Leonard Bernstein, Tennessee Williams, and many others. He also encouraged many younger composers and literary figures such as Ned Rorem, Lou Harrison, John Cage, Frank O'Hara, and Paul Bowles. Grosser died in 1986, three years before Thomson.  His most important friend from this period was Gertrude Stein, who was an artistic collaborator and mentor to him. After meeting Stein in Paris in 1926, Thomson invited her to prepare a libretto for an opera which he hoped to compose. Their collaboration resulted in the premier of the groundbreaking composition "Four Saints in Three Acts" in 1934. At the time, the opera was noted for its form, musical content and the portrayal of European saints by an all-black cast. Years later in 1947, he collaborated once again with Stein on his provocative opera "The Mother of Us All" which portrays the life of the social reformer Susan B. Anthony. Thomson incorporated musical elements from Baptist hymns, Gregorian chants and popular songs into both scores while demonstrating a restrained use of dissonance.  Thomson's contributions to music were not limited to the operatic stage, however. In 1936, he established a collaboration with the film director Pare Lorentz and composed music for the documentary film "The Plow That Broke the Plains" for the United States government's Resettlement Administration (RA). Thomson incorporated folk melodies and religious musical themes into the film score and subsequently composed an orchestral suite of the same name which was recorded by Leopold Stokowski and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra in 1946 for RCA Victor (# 11-9522,11-9523). In 1938 he also formed a collaboration with Lorentz and the operatic singer Thomas Hardie Chalmers on the documentary film "The River" for the United States government's Farm Security Administration. Thomson composed an orchestra suite based on the score; when it was published, the musical journal "Notes" commented: "Delightful as background music, the piece is an awful bore when you try to give it your full attention". Subsequently, in 1948 he collaborated with the director Robert J. Flaherty on the docufiction film Louisiana Story, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1949. At the time, the award was the only Pulitzer Prize in music granted for a musical composition written exclusively for film. Thomson's suite based on the score was premiered by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1949 to widespread critical acclaim.  Following the publication of his book, "The State of Music", Thomson established himself in New York City as a rival of Aaron Copland. Thomson's criticisms of Copland were phrased in terms that brought accusations of antisemitism, but Copland remained on good terms with him, and Thomson admitted his envy of Copland's greater success as a composer. Thomson was also a music critic for the "New York Herald-Tribune" from 1940 to 1954. A fellow critic, Robert Miles, accused him of being "vindictive and of settling scores in print". In a 1997 article in "American Music", Suzanne Robinson writes that Thomson, motivated by "a mixture of spite, national pride, and professional jealousy" was consistently "severe and spiteful" to Benjamin Britten. Miles records that Thomson agitated for more performances in New York of new music, including his own.  Thomson's definition of music was "that which musicians do", and his views on music are radical in their insistence on reducing the rarefied aesthetics of music to market activity. He even went so far as to claim that the style a piece was written in could be most effectively understood as a consequence of its income source.

Later years.

In 1969, Thomson composed "Metropolitan Museum Fanfare: Portrait Of An American Artist" to accompany the Museum's Centennial exhibition "New York Painting And Sculpture: 1940–1970".  Thomson became a sort of mentor and father figure to a new generation of American tonal composers such as Ned Rorem, Paul Bowles and Leonard Bernstein, a circle united as much by their shared homosexuality as by their similar compositional sensibilities. Women composers were not part of that circle, and one writer has suggested that, as a critic, he selectively omitted mention of their works, or adopted a more passive tone when praising them.

Awards and honors.

Thomson was a recipient of Yale University's Sanford Medal. In 1949, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for the score to the film "Louisiana Story". In addition, the Kennedy Center Honors award was bestowed upon Thomson in 1983. In 1988, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Ronald Reagan. He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.

Death.

Thomson died on September 30, 1989, in his suite at the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan, aged 92. He had lived at the Chelsea for close to 50 years.

Works.

Included among Thomson's compositions are:

Bibliography.

Included among Virgil Thomson's publications are:

Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassicist, and a composer of "an Olympian blend of humanity and detachment" whose "expressive voice was always carefully muted" until his late opera "Lord Byron" which, in contrast to all his previous work, exhibited an emotional content that rises to "moments of real passion".

Virgil Garnett Thomson (* 25. November 1896 in Kansas City, Missouri; † 30. September 1989 in New York) war ein US-amerikanischer Komponist.


History.

Beginning with Columbus in 1492, the Spanish presence in the Western Hemisphere (like most other European exploration and colonization) traveled west across the Atlantic Ocean, then around or across the Americas to reach the Pacific Ocean. The Russian expansion, however, moved east across Siberia and the northern Pacific. In the early nineteenth century, Spanish and Russian expansion met along the coast of Spanish Alta California, with Russia pushing south and Spain pushing north. By that time, British and American fur trade companies had also established a coastal presence, in the Pacific Northwest, and Mexico was soon to gain independence. Mexico ceded Alta California to the United States of America following the Mexican–American War (1848). The history of the Russian Fort Ross settlement began during Spanish rule and ended under Mexico.

Russian-American Company.

Russian personnel from the Alaskan colonies initially arrived in California aboard American ships. In 1803, American ship captains already involved in the sea otter maritime fur trade in California proposed several joint venture hunting expeditions to Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, on half shares using Russian supervisors and native Alaskan hunters to hunt fur seals and otters along the Alta and Baja Californian coast. Subsequent reports by the Russian hunting parties of uncolonized stretches of coast encouraged Baranov, the Chief Administrator of the Russian-American Company (RAC), to consider a settlement in California north of the limit of Spanish occupation in San Francisco. In 1806 the Russian Ambassador to Japan, and RAC director Nikolay Rezanov, undertook an exploratory trade mission to California to establish a formal means of procuring food supplies in exchange for Russian goods in San Francisco. While guests of the Spanish, Rezanov's captain, Lt. Khvostov, explored and charted the coast north of San Francisco Bay and found it completely unoccupied by other European powers. Upon his return to New Archangel, Rezanov recommended to Baranov, and the Emperor Alexander, that a settlement be established in California.  Fort Ross was established by Commerce Counselor Ivan Kuskov of the Russian-American Company. In 1808 Baranov sent two ships, the "Kad'yak" and the "Sv. Nikolai", on an expedition south to establish settlements for the RAC with instructions to bury "secret signs"(possession plaques). Kuskov, on the "Kad'yak", was instructed to bury the plaques, with an appropriate possession ceremony, at Trinidad, Bodega Bay, and on the shore north of San Francisco, indicating Russian claims to the land. After sailing into Bodega Bay in 1809 on the "Kad'yak" and returning to Novoarkhangelsk with beaver skins and 1,160 otter pelts, Baranov ordered Kuskov to return and establish an agricultural settlement in the area. After a failed attempt in 1811, Kuskov sailed the brig "Chirikov" back to Bodega Bay in March 1812, naming it the Gulf of Rumyantsev or Rumyantsev Bay (, "Zaliv Rumyantseva") in honor of the Russian Minister of Commerce Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantzev. He also named the Russian River the Slav (, "Slavyanka"). On his return, Kuskov found American otter hunting ships and otter now scarce in Bodega Bay. After exploring the area they ended up selecting a place north that the native Kashaya Pomo people called "Mad shui nui" or "Metini". "Metini", the seasonal home of the native Kashaya Pomo people, had a modest anchorage and abundant natural resources and would become the Russian settlement of Fortress Ross.  The present name of Fort Ross appears first on a French chart published in 1842 by Eugene Duflot de Mofras, who visited California in 1840. The name of the fort is said to derive from the Russian word rus or "ros", the same root as the word "Russia" (, "Rossiya") and not from Scottish "Ross". According to William Bright, "Ross" is a poetic name for a Russian in the Russian language.  Fort Ross was established as an agricultural base from which the northern settlements could be supplied with food and carry on trade with Alta California. Yet during its initial ten years of operations the post "provided the company with nothing but heavy expenses for its maintenance." Fort Ross itself was the hub of a number of smaller Russian settlements comprising what was called "Fortress Ross" on official documents and charts produced by the Company itself. Colony Ross referred to the entire area where Russians had settled. These settlements constituted the southernmost Russian colony in North America and were spread over an area stretching from Point Arena to Tomales Bay. The colony included a port at Bodega Bay called Port Rumyantsev (), a sealing station on the Farallon Islands out to sea from San Francisco, and by 1830 three small farming communities called "ranchos" (): Chernykh (, "Rancho Egora Chernykh") near present-day Graton, Khlebnikov (, "Rancho Vasiliya Khlebnikova") a mile north of the present day town of Bodega in the Salmon Creek valley, and Kostromitinov (, "Rancho Petra Kostromitinova") on the Russian River.

Local enterprise.

In addition to farming and manufacturing, the Company carried on its fur-trading business at Fort Ross, but by 1817, after 20 years of intense hunting by Spanish, American and British ships—followed by Russian efforts—had practically eliminated sea otter in the area. Fort Ross was the site of California's first windmills and shipbuilding. Russian scientists associated with the colony were among the first to record California's cultural and natural history. The Russian managers introduced many European innovations such as glass windows, stoves, and all-wood housing into Alta California. Together with the surrounding settlement, Fort Ross was home to Russians (during the 19th and early 20th century Russian subjects included Poles, Finns, Baltic Germans, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Russians, Byelorussians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Circassians, Tatars, and numerous other nationalities and ethnic groups of the Russian Empire), as well as North Pacific Natives, Aleuts, Kashaya (Pomo), and Creoles. The native populations of the Sonoma and Napa County regions were affected by smallpox, measles and other European diseases, one instance that can be traced to the settlement of Fort Ross. However, the first vaccination in California history was carried out by the crew of the "Kutuzov", a Russian-American Company vessel arriving from Callao, Peru which brought vaccine to Monterey in August,1821. The "Kutuzov's" surgeon vaccinated 54 persons. Another instance of disease prevention was when a visiting Hudson's Bay Company hunting party was refused entry to the Colony in 1833, when it was feared that a malaria epidemic which had devastated the Central Valley was carried by its members. In 1837 a very deadly epidemic of smallpox that came from this settlement via New Archangel wiped out most native people in the Sonoma and Napa County regions.  An 1841 inventory for Mr. Sutter describes the settlement surrounding the fort: "twenty-four planked dwellings with glazed windows, a floor and a ceiling; each had a garden. There were eight sheds, eight bathhouses and ten kitchens."  By 1841 the settlement's agricultural importance had decreased considerably, the local population of fur-bearing marine mammals had been long depleted by international over-hunting, and the recently secularized California missions no longer supplemented the agricultural needs of the Alaskan colonies. Following the formal trade agreement in 1838 between the Russian-American Company in New Archangel and Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver and Fort Langley for their agricultural needs, the settlement at Fort Ross was no longer needed to supply the Alaskan colonies with food. The Russian-American Company consequently offered the settlement to various potential purchasers, and it was sold to John Sutter, a Mexican citizen of Swiss origin, soon to be renowned for the discovery of gold at his lumber mill in the Sacramento valley. Although the settlement was sold for $30,000 to Sutter, some Russian historians assert the sum was never paid, therefore legal title of the settlement was never transferred to Sutter and still belongs to the Russian people. A recent Sutter biography however, asserts that Sutter's agent, Peter Burnett, paid the Russian-American Company agent William M. Steuart $19,788 in "notes and gold" on April 13, 1849, thereby settling the outstanding debt for Fort Ross and Bodega.

20th century.

Afterward, possession of Fort Ross passed from Sutter through successive private hands and finally to George W. Call. In 1903, the stockade and about of land were purchased from the Call family by the California Historical Landmarks Commission. Three years later it was turned over to the State of California for preservation and restoration as a state historic monument; since then, the state acquired more of the surrounding land for preservation purposes. California Department of Parks and Recreation as well as many volunteers put extensive efforts into restoration and reconstruction work in the Fort.  Most of the existing buildings on the site are reconstructions. Cooperative research efforts with Russian archives will help to correct interpretive errors present in structures that date from the Cold-War period. The only original structure remaining is the Rotchev House. Known as the "Commandant's House" from the 1940s through the 1970s, it was the residence of the last manager, Aleksandr Rotchev. Renovated in 1836 from an existing structure, it was titled the "new commandant's house" in the 1841 inventory to differentiate it from the "old commandant's house" (Kuskov House). The Rotchev House, or in original documents, "Administrator's House", is at the center of efforts to "re-interpret" Russia's part in California's colonial history. The Fort Ross Interpretive Association has received several federally funded grants to restore both exterior and interior elements. While its exterior has been partially restored, its interior is currently undergoing restoration to reflect the recent research that shows a more cosmopolitan and refined aspect of colonial life at the Fort.  The Fort Ross Chapel collapsed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake but much of the original structural woodwork remained and it was re-erected in 1916, but retained the appearance of the American ranch-period modifications when it was used as a stable. Several other restorations ensued, but none incorporated the information in Voznesensky's 1841 water-colour which portray the chapel with copper-clad cupola and tower, and red-metal roof. "The Fort Ross Chapel was found eligible for designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1969, architecturally significant as a rare U.S. example of a log church constructed on a Russian quadrilateral plan. An accidental fire destroyed the chapel on October 5, 1970. This loss of the original workmanship and materials of the chapel led to withdrawal of the Chapel's Landmark designation in 1971. A complete reconstruction of the chapel was undertaken in 1973 and the Fort Ross settlement, as a whole, retains its National Historic Landmark designation." The current chapel was built during the intensive restoration activity that followed, but retains the American ranch period appearance.  A large orchard, including several original trees planted by the Russians, is located inland on Fort Ross Road in Sonoma County.  Fort Ross is now a part of Fort Ross State Historic Park, open to the public.

Fort Ross Cemetery.

In 1990-1992 the Fort Ross Cemetery, located on a ridge adjacent to the settlement, was cleared and 135 gravesites identified by archaeological excavations. The project was undertaken in collaboration with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), the Kodiak Area Native Association, the Kashaya Pomo, the Bodega Miwok, and the California Native American Heritage Commission.  The cemetery served as a burial ground for both Russians and native people, showing no differentiation of rank or status. Based on the grave dimensions, it is estimated that half of the burials were children, who represented 47% of the population of Fort Ross by 1838. In consultation with Reverend Vladimir Derugin of the ROC, researchers were able to confirm that the burial practices followed traditional Russian Orthodox canon and norms, despite having been conducted in a remote frontier outpost. At the conclusion of the project, all unearthed individuals were returned to their grave sites, and a religious reburial ceremony was conducted.

Windmills at Fort Ross.

Much archaeological research has been done at Fort Ross, more recently in search of the windmills. The historical record states there were at least three windmills, possibly four, although the fourth may have been a watermill or a man or animal powered mill. The windmills have gained much attention because various accounts of their exact locations are sometimes inconsistent and vague. There was, in fact, one windmill located not far from the northern end of the blockade, which was most likely used to grind wheat and barley flour. Based on the descriptions given by people who visited Fort Ross, it has been concluded that the main windmill, located outside the blockade, was the traditional style Russian "stolbovki". The root word "stolb" means thick vertical pole.  At the time, the only mills in California, which was under Spanish/Mexican rule, were either water or animal powered. What made the Russian mills significant is that they were the first windmills in California. The Russian stolbovki needed a very large center post which was sunk into the ground and supported the transverse pole. The transverse pole was rotated by the wings of the mill that faced the wind current. Archaeologists are searching for the remains of this center post, which would have left a significant indentation in the ground.  In October 2012 a modern interpretation of one of Fort Ross' windmills was erected and placed near the parking lot and visitors center of the State Historic Park. The windmill was built completely by hand, using the same methods that were presumed to have been used in the days of the Russian American settlement. Its pieces were constructed in Russia and shipped to California, where it was fully assembled and now stands as the only working Russian windmill of this style. It has been pointed out, however, that this is a replica of a 19th or early 20th century Vologda Province windmill, and only bears a slight resemblance to the windmill recorded at Fort Ross in 1841 by Ilya Voznesensky. In Voznesensky's painting the roof is hipped rather than peaked, and there is no roofed exterior porch on the upper left-hand side. The supporting cribbing is covered in the 1841 rendition, and the proportions are noticeably different. The placement near the parking lot at Fort Ross also conflicts with archeologists' views of the actual site of the windmill as portrayed by Voznesensky.

Colonial administrators.

Fort Ross colony had five administrators:

Derived place names.

Along with its status as a National Historic Landmark, the fort itself and the surrounding area are part of Fort Ross State Historic Park. Fort Ross also designates the small rural community that exists between the towns of Cazadero, Jenner, and Gualala, with the Fort Ross Elementary School at its center.

Annual international conference on Russian–U.S. relations.

Starting from 2012, Fort Ross Conservancy has been hosting the Fort Ross Dialogue annual international conference on US–Russian Relations and Fort Ross Festival, co-sponsored by Transneft, Chevron and Sovcomflot. The first Russia-based meeting within the framework of the Dialogue was held in Pskov (Russian Federation) on 29 and 30 May 2017. The first day of the Forum was marked by the panel discussion "Towards each other: Russian trailblazers and American pioneers: similarities and dissimilarities of Russian and US experience in arranging museum operations, financing structure, role of the state and private business in promoting cultural sites". On the second day, the forum participants representing business circles and the expert community of Russia and the U.S. reviewed the interaction potential between the two nations in energy industry at the panel discussion "The energy sector as an important element Russian and USA geopolitics".

California State Landmark.

On June 1, 1932, Fort Ross was designated "California Historical Landmark #5".

Climate.

The National Weather Service has maintained a cooperative weather station at Fort Ross for many years. Based on those observations, Fort Ross has cool, damp weather most of the year. Fog and low overcast is common throughout the year. There are occasional warm days in the summer, which also tend to be relatively dry except for drizzle from heavy fogs or passing showers. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Fort Ross has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb).  In January, average temperatures range from to. In July, average temperatures range from to. September is actually the warmest month with average temperatures ranging from to. There are an average of only 0.2 days with highs of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher and 5.8 days with lows of 32 °F (0 °C) or lower. The record high temperature was on September 3, 1950. The record low temperature was on December 8, 1972.  Average annual precipitation is, falling on an average of 81 days each year. The wettest year was 1983 with and the driest year was 1976 with. The wettest month on record was February 1998 with. The most rainfall in 24 hours was on January 14, 1956. Snow rarely falls at Fort Ross; the record snowfall was on December 30, 1987.

Popular culture.

Fort Ross serves as the backdrop in the short story "Facts Relating to the Arrest of Dr. Kalugin," part of Kage Baker's series of science fiction stories concerning "The Company."  In Adrienne Jones's historical novel, "Another Place, Another Spring", set in 19th century Russia, a young countess and her maid, sentenced to live in exile in Siberia get help to escape to Fort Ross in California.

Fort Ross (), originally Fortress Ross (, "Krepostʹ Ross"), is a former Russian establishment on the west coast of North America in what is now Sonoma County, California. It was the hub of the southernmost Russian settlements in North America from 1812 to 1842. It has been the subject of archaeological investigation and is a California Historical Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, and on the National Register of Historic Places. It is part of California's Fort Ross State Historic Park.

Fort Ross (vermutlich abgeleitet von, Transkription "", für Russland) war von 1812 bis 1841 eine Niederlassung der Russisch-Amerikanischen Handelskompagnie in Kalifornien. Es liegt an der Küste des Pazifiks im heutigen Sonoma County, etwa 145 Kilometer nordwestlich von San Francisco.


Career.

Stolle is notable for being the only male player in history to have lost his first five Grand Slam singles finals, the fifth of which he led by two sets to love. However, Stolle went on to win two Grand Slam tournament singles titles, the 1965 French Championships and the 1966 US Championships. At Wimbledon and the Australian Championships he finished as runner-up in these tournaments and losing to compatriot Roy Emerson on no fewer than five occasions. Lance Tingay of "The Daily Telegraph" ranked Stolle as World No. 2 in 1966.  Stolle won ten Grand Slam doubles titles, partnering with compatriots Bob Hewitt (4 titles), Roy Emerson (4 titles) and Ken Rosewall (2 titles). In addition Stolle won 7 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.  As a member of the Australian Davis Cup team Stolle won the Davis Cup title in 1964, 1965 and 1966. In 1964 Stolle and Emerson were briefly suspended from the Australian Davis Cup team for going on an overseas tour in defiance of a Lawn Tennis Association of Australia order to remain in Australia until April.  Stolle turned professional in 1966, and as a pro, won two singles and 13 doubles titles. He earned about US$500,000 in career prize money.  Stolle coached Vitas Gerulaitis from 1977 until 1983.  For many years, Stolle did TV commentary for ESPN and other tennis broadcasts. He currently provides commentary on Grand Slam tennis tournaments for Australia's Fox Sports and the Nine Network.

Honours.

For his contribution to the tennis sport Fred Stolle was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985. In 1988 he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. He received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2005.

Grand Slam tournament performance timeline.

Singles.

Note: The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.

Frederick Sydney Stolle, AO (born 8 October 1938) is an Australian former tennis player and commentator. He was born in Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia. He is the father of former Australian Davis Cup player Sandon Stolle.

Frederick "Fred" Sydney Stolle (* 8. Oktober 1938 in Hornsby, Sydney) ist ein ehemaliger australischer Tennisspieler. Er gewann in seiner Karriere die Herreneinzel bei den French Open 1965 und US Open 1966. Die Titel bei den australischen Meisterschaften und in Wimbledon konnte er nie erringen, obwohl er zweimal bei den Australian Open und dreimal bei den englischen Meisterschaften im Finale stand.


Chronology.

There is evidence of Xunantunich being settled as early as the ceramic phase of the Preclassic period. The findings have been insubstantial to prove that Xunantunich was a site of importance. It was not until the Samal phase in AD 600–670 that Xunantunich began to grow significantly in size. Architectural constructions boomed in Hats’ Chaak phase (AD 670–750) when Xunantunich's connection with the polity Naranjo solidified. Left in a state of abandonment at approximately AD 750 due to an unknown violent event (see Euan MacKie's work in 1959–60, above, which may be relevant here), Xunantunich did not re-establish itself as a strong presence in the region until Tsak’ phase in AD 780–890.

Monuments.

The core of the city Xunantunich occupies about one square mile (2.6 km2), consisting of a series of six plazas surrounded by more than 26 temples and palaces. As a polity in whole, Xunantunich contains 140 mounds per square km, as discovered in the surveys done by the XSS. One of Xunantunich's better known structures is the pyramid known as "El Castillo" (not to be confused with the El Castillo at Chichen Itza). The site is broken up into four sections – Group A, Group B, Group C, and Group D, with Group A being central and most significant to the people. Prior to the seventh century, the site was mainly occupied by small houses, formulating the occasional village. With the architectural boom in the Samal phase, we see the extreme importance of cosmological and political placing of the monuments in relation to the axis mundi (the intersection cardinal axis of the site; the heart of the site).

El Castillo.

It is the second tallest structure in Belize (after the temple at Caracol), at some 130 feet (40 m) tall. El Castillo is the “axis mundi” of the site, or the intersection of the two cardinal lines. Evidence of construction suggests the temple was built in two stages (the earlier dubbed Structure A-6–2nd, which dates to around 800 AD, and the later Structure A-6–1st). Structure A-6–2nd had three doorways, whereas Structure A-6–1st only had doors on the north and south. The pyramid lays underneath a series of terraces. The fine stucco or "friezes" are located on the final stage. The northern and southern friezes have eroded, and the others were covered during the reconstruction and over time. There is a plaster mold on the Eastern wall frieze. The frieze depicts many things. Each section of the frieze is broken up by framing bands of plaited cloth or twisted cords (which represent celestial phenomena). The frieze depicts the birth of a god associated with the royal family, gods of creation, as well as the tree of life (which extends from the underworld, the earth, and the heavens).

Structure A-1.

Structure A-1 was built in the Late Classic, at around 800 AD. It bisected Plaza A-I, which had until then been the most important plaza in the site. It now lies on top of the original ball court of Xunantunich between Structure A-6 (El Castillo) and A-11. It became a ritual space solely for the rulers and elite, which doubled as an impediment to other public spaces.

Burial chamber.

On July 19, 2016, a team led by Jaime Awe discovered an untouched burial chamber attached to a larger building. It is considered to be one of the largest Mayan burial chambers found within the last 100 years. The chamber contained the corpse of a male, aged between 20 and 30 years. The chamber also contained a number of ceramic vessels, obsidian knives, jade pearls, animal bones and some other artefacts made of stone. Osteologists believe the man was athletic and quite muscular when he died.

Relationships with other sites.

During a time period when most of Mayan civilizations were crumbling, Xunantunich was managing to expand its city and its power over other areas within the valley. It lasted a century longer than most of the sites within the region. It is known that Xunantunich superseded Buenavista as the hub of sociopolitical administration for the upper valley, in addition to the main location for elite ancestral and funeral rites and ceremonies. One theory is the move was made due to political strife in the lowlands due to neighbors vying for control over Buenavista, and that Xunantunich was a much more easily defensible site (located on top of a hill).  There is evidence of trade and communication between other sites in abundance. First, there is the disbursement of pine. Pine naturally grows in the Mountain Pine Ridge, which is accessible via the Macal River. It was imported to Xunantunich, where the disbursement of this valuable commodity could be controlled by elites and rulers. This resource was used in ritualistic and building purposes for the upper class, which would sometimes be given to members of the lower class to strengthen socio-political strategies. Similarities between pottery among different sites is a trait commonly looked for by archaeologists. The difference between qualities of pottery can accentuate gaps between social classes within a location, just as it can show the difference between classes of other polities. In the Terminal Classic period, equality in the distribution of pottery at Xunantunich can be seen as political currency across the Belize Valley. Pottery types became uniform among sites found in the areas in Belize Valley around Xunantunich, further evidence of their strong relationships with the “Stone Woman” site.

Naranjo.

Due to regional conflicts, Naranjo, a regional polity, began to disintegrate around the 9th century. It transformed from a regional authority to a smaller site, which eventually disappeared into the background. For reasons not yet understood, documentary hieroglyphs rapidly disappeared in AD 820 at Naranjo; which aligns with the earliest stela at Xunantunich, Stela 8. The stela, hieroglyphs and architecture are stylistically similar to Naranjo's in style From here, there was a power shift to Xunantunich, although the influence of Naranjo prior to this is certain. The construction of the core site itself is extremely similar to the layout of Naranjo's Group B layout. The pronounced north-south axis (believed to be a link to royal authority and continuity) is shared between the two, the buildings are placed in similar spots, and the shapes of the buildings resemble one another.

Xunantunich () is an Ancient Maya archaeological site in western Belize, about 70 miles (110 km) west of Belize City, in the Cayo District. Xunantunich is located atop a ridge above the Mopan River, well within sight of the Guatemala border – which is a mere to the west. It served as a Maya civic ceremonial center in the Late and Terminal Classic periods to the Belize Valley region. At this time, when the region was at its peak, nearly 200,000 people lived in Belize.

Die Maya-Ruinen von Xunantunich liegen ca. 13 Kilometer südwestlich von San Ignacio in Belize (Mittelamerika) auf einer Geländestufe über dem Mopan-Fluss. Der Name ist modern und bedeutet "steinerne Frau".


Biography.

Origins.

Bell was born in East Shefford, Berkshire, in 1881, the third of four children of William Heward Bell (1849–1927) and Hannah Taylor Cory (1850–1942). He had an elder brother (Cory), an elder sister (Lorna, Mrs Acton), and a younger sister (Dorothy, Mrs Hony). His father was a civil engineer who built his fortune in the family coal mines in Wiltshire in England and Merthyr Tydfil in Wales – "a family which drew its wealth from Welsh mines and expended it on the destruction of wild animals." They lived at Cleeve House, Seend, near Devizes, Wiltshire, where Squire Bell's many hunting trophies were displayed.

Marriage and other liaisons.

Bell was educated at Marlborough College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, studying history. In 1902 he gained an Earl of Derby scholarship to study in Paris, where his interest in art began. On returning to London early in 1907 he met and married Vanessa Stephen, the artist sister of Virginia Woolf. They had two sons, Julian and Quentin, who both became writers. Julian joined the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War as an ambulance driver and was killed in 1937 by an enemy shell, aged 29.  By World War I their marriage was over. Vanessa had begun a lifelong relationship with Duncan Grant, and Clive had a number of liaisons with other women including Mary Hutchinson. However, Clive and Vanessa never officially separated or divorced. Not only did they visit each other regularly, they also sometimes spent holidays together and paid "family" visits to Clive's parents. Clive lived in London but often spent long periods at a farmhouse in Charleston, Sussex, where Vanessa lived with Duncan and her three children by Clive and Duncan. He supported her wish to have a child by Duncan and allowed his wife's only daughter, Angelica, to bear his surname.  Vanessa's daughter by Duncan, Angelica Garnett (née Bell), was raised as Clive's daughter until she married. She was informed, by her mother Vanessa, just prior to her marriage and shortly after her brother Julian's death, that Duncan Grant was her biological father.  According to historian Stanley Rosenbaum, "Bell may, indeed, be the least liked member of Bloomsbury... Bell has been found wanting by biographers and critics of the Group – as a husband, a father, and especially a brother-in-law. It is undeniable that he was a wealthy snob, hedonist, and womaniser, a racist and an anti-Semite (but not a homophobe), who changed from a liberal socialist and pacifist into a reactionary appeaser. Bell's reputation has led to his being underestimated in the history of Bloomsbury..."

Significant form.

Soon after Bell met Roger Fry, he developed his art theory significant form. The two shared a passion for contemporary French art. Bell's book "Art" (1914) was the first publication of his theory, which he describes as "lines and colours combined in a particular way, certain forms, and relations of forms, that stir our aesthetic emotions." This form can be seen in art created by many members of the Bloomsbury Group, an example being "Interior at Gordon Square" by Duncan Grant.

Political views.

Bell was at one point an adherent of absolute pacifism, and during the First World War was a conscientious objector, allowed to perform Work of National Importance by assisting on the farm of Philip Morrell MP, at Garsington Manor. In his 1938 pamphlet "War Mongers", he opposed any attempt by Britain to use military force, arguing "the worst tyranny is better than the best war." However, by 1940 Bell was a supporter of the British war effort, calling for a "ceaseless war against Hitler".

Arthur Clive Heward Bell (16 September 1881 – 17 September 1964) was an English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury Group. He developed the art theory known as significant form.

Arthur Clive Heward Bell (* 16. September 1881 in East Shefford, Berkshire, England; † 17. September 1964 in London) war ein britischer Kunstkritiker und stand in Verbindung zur Bloomsbury Group.


Early history.

The growth of moveable type in the 17th century prompted episodic and often disconnected narratives such as "L'Astrée" and "Le Grand Cyrus". At that time, books remained a premium item, so to reduce the price and expand the market, publishers produced large works in lower-cost installments called fascicles. These had the added attraction of allowing a publisher to gauge the popularity of a work without incurring the expense of a substantial print run of bound volumes: if the work was not a success, no bound volumes needed to be prepared. If, on the other hand, the serialized book sold well, it was a good bet that bound volumes would sell well, too.

19th and early 20th centuries.

Serialized fiction surged in popularity during Britain's Victorian era, due to a combination of the rise of literacy, technological advances in printing, and improved economics of distribution. Most Victorian novels first appeared as installments in monthly or weekly periodicals. The wild success of Charles Dickens's "The Pickwick Papers", first published in 1836, is widely considered to have established the viability and appeal of the serialized format within periodical literature. During that era, the line between "quality" and "commercial" literature was not distinct. Other famous writers who wrote serial literature for popular magazines were Wilkie Collins, inventor of the detective novel with "The Moonstone" and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created the Sherlock Holmes stories originally for serialization in "The Strand" magazine.  While American periodicals first syndicated British writers, over time they drew from a growing base of domestic authors. The rise of the periodicals like "Harper's" and the "Atlantic Monthly" grew in symbiotic tandem with American literary talent. The magazines nurtured and provided an economic sustainability for writers, while the writers helped grow the periodicals' circulation base. During the late 19th century, those that were considered the best American writers first published their work in serial form and then only later in a completed volume format.  As a piece in "Scribner's Monthly" explained in 1878, "Now it is the second or third rate novelist who cannot get publication in a magazine, and is obliged to publish in a volume, and it is in the magazine that the best novelist always appears first." Among the American writers that wrote in serial form were Henry James and Herman Melville. A large part of the appeal for writers at the time was the broad audiences that serialization could reach, which would then grow their following for published works. One of the first significant American works to be released in serial format is "Uncle Tom's Cabin", by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which was published over a 40-week period by "The National Era", an abolitionist periodical, starting with the June 5, 1851 issue.  Serialization was so standard in American literature that authors from that era often built installment structure into their creative process. James, for example, often had his works divided into multi-part segments of similar length. The consumption of fiction during that time was different than in the 20th century. Instead of being read in a single volume, a novel would often be consumed by readers in installments over a period as long as a year, with the authors and periodicals often responding to audience reaction.  In France, Alexandre Dumas and Eugène Sue were masters of the serialized genre. "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" each appeared as a "feuilleton". "The Count of Monte Cristo" was stretched out to 139 installments. Eugène Sue's serial novel "Le Juif errant" increased circulation of "Le Constitutionnel" from 3,600 to 25,000. Production in book form soon followed and serialization was one of the main reasons that nineteenth-century novels were so long. Authors and publishers kept the story going if it was successful since authors were paid by line and by episode. Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" was serialized in "La Revue de Paris" in 1856.  Some writers were prolific. Alexandre Dumas wrote at an incredible pace, oftentimes writing with his partner twelve to fourteen hours a day, working on several novels for serialized publication at once. However, not every writer could keep up with the serial writing pace. Wilkie Collins, for instance, was never more than a week before publication. The difference in writing pace and output in large part determined the author's success, as audience appetite created demand for further installments.  In the German-speaking countries, the serialized novel was widely popularized by the weekly family magazine "Die Gartenlaube", which reached a circulation of 382,000 by 1875. In Russia, "The Russian Messenger" serialized Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" from 1873 to 1877 and Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" from 1879 to 1880. In Poland, Bolesław Prus wrote several serialized novels: "The Outpost" (1885–86), "The Doll" (1887–89), "The New Woman" (1890–93), and his sole historical novel, "Pharaoh" (the latter, exceptionally, written entire over a year's time in 1894–95 and serialized only after completion, in 1895–96).  In addition, works in late Qing dynasty China had been serialized. "The Nine-tailed Turtle" was serialized from 1906 to 1910. "Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed over Two Decades" was serialized in "Xin Xiaoshuo" (T: 新小說, S: 新小说, P: "Xīn Xiǎoshuō"; W: "Hsin Hsiao-shuo"; "New Fiction"), a magazine by Liang Qichao. The first half of "Officialdom Unmasked" appeared in installments of "Shanghai Shijie Fanhua Bao", serialized there from April 1903 to June 1905.

Late 20th and early-21st centuries.

With the rise of broadcast—both radio and television series—in the first half of the 20th century, printed periodical fiction began a slow decline as newspapers and magazines shifted their focus from entertainment to information and news. However, some serialization of novels in periodicals continued, with mixed success.  The first several books in the "Tales of the City" series by Armistead Maupin appeared from 1978 as regular installments in San Francisco newspapers. Similar serial novels ran in other city newspapers, such as "The Serial" (1976; Marin County), "Tangled Lives" (Boston), "Bagtime" (Chicago), and "Federal Triangle" (Washington, D.C.). Starting in 1984, Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities", about contemporary New York City, ran in 27 parts in "Rolling Stone", partially inspired by the model of Dickens. The magazine paid $200,000 for his work, but Wolfe heavily revised the work before publication as a standalone novel. Alexander McCall Smith, author of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series, experimented in 2004 with publishing his novel "44 Scotland Street" in instalments every weekday in "The Scotsman". Michael Chabon serialized "Gentlemen of the Road" in "The New York Times Magazine" in 2007.  The emergence of the World Wide Web prompted some authors to revise a serial format. Stephen King experimented with "The Plant" (2000), and Michel Faber allowed "The Guardian" to serialise his novel "The Crimson Petal and the White". In 2005, Orson Scott Card serialized his out-of-print novel "Hot Sleep" in the first issue of his online magazine, "InterGalactic Medicine Show". In 2008 McCall Smith wrote a serialized online novel "Corduroy Mansions", with the audio edition read by Andrew Sachs made available at the same pace as the daily publication. In 2011, pseudonymous author Wildbow published "Worm", which remains one of the most popular web serials of all time.  The rise of fan fiction on the internet also follows a serial fiction style of publication, as seen on websites such as FanFiction.Net and Archive of Our Own (AO3).  Many aspiring authors also used the web to publish free-to-read works in serialized format independently as well as web-based communities such as LiveJournal, Fictionpress.com, fictionhub, and Wattpad. Many of these books receive as many readers as successful novels; some have received the same number of readers as "New York Times" bestsellers.  In addition, the prevalence of mobile devices made the serial format even more popular with the likes of JukePop Serials, and Serial Box, with iOS and Android apps that focuses entirely on curating and promoting serialized novels.

In literature, a serial is a printing format by which a single larger work, often a work of narrative fiction, is published in smaller, sequential "installments". The installments are also known as "numbers", "parts" or "fascicles", and may be released either as separate publications or within sequential issues of a periodical publication, such as a magazine or newspaper.

Unter einem Feuilletonroman (auch: Zeitungsroman, Fortsetzungsroman, Fortsetzungsgeschichte) versteht man einen Roman, dessen einzelne Kapitel in einer Publikumszeitschrift veröffentlicht werden. Auf die serielle Veröffentlichung folgt später oft auch eine Buchveröffentlichung. Im 19. Jahrhundert war der Feuilletonroman in einigen Teilen Europas die vorherrschende Form der Erstpublikation von Romanen. Große Popularität haben damit u. a. Eugène Sue und Alexandre Dumas der Ältere erlangt. Obwohl die serielle Publikation Texte mit kurzen Spannungsbögen und Cliffhangern ‒ also tendenziell Unterhaltungs- und Trivialliteratur ‒ begünstigt, haben auch einige Meisterwerke der Weltliteratur als Feuilletonromane begonnen, darunter etwa die Arbeiten von Gustave Flaubert, Lew Tolstoi und Fjodor Dostojewski.


History.

Christian was born about 1180 in the Duchy of Pomerania, possibly in the area of Chociwel (according to Johannes Voigt). Probably as a juvenile he joined the Cistercian Order at newly established Kołbacz ("Kolbatz") Abbey and in 1209 entered Oliwa Abbey near Gdańsk, founded in 1178 by the Samboride dukes of Pomerelia. At this time the Piast duke Konrad I of Masovia with the consent of Pope Innocent III had started the first of several unsuccessful Prussian Crusades into the adjacent Chełmno Land and Christian acted as a missionary among the Prussians east of the Vistula River. In 1209, Christian was commissioned by the Pope to be responsible for the Prussian missions between the Vistula and Neman Rivers and in 1212 he was appointed bishop. In 1215 he went to Rome in order to report to the Curia on the condition and prospects of his mission, and was consecrated first "Bishop of Prussia" at the Fourth Council of the Lateran. His seat as a bishop remained at Oliwa Abbey on the western side of the Vistula, whereas the pagan Prussian (later East Prussian) territory was on the eastern side of it.  The attempts by Konrad of Masovia to subdue the Prussian lands had picked long-term and intense border quarrels, whereby the Polish lands of Masovia, Cuyavia and even Greater Poland became subject to continuous Prussian raids. Bishop Christian asked the new Pope Honorius III for the consent to start another Crusade, however a first campaign in 1217 proved a failure and even the joint efforts by Duke Konrad with the Polish High Duke Leszek I the White and Duke Henry I the Bearded of Silesia in 1222/23 only led to the reconquest of Chełmno Land but did not stop the Prussian invasions. At least Christian was able to establish the Diocese of Chełmno east of the Vistula, adopting the episcopal rights from the Masovian Bishop of Płock, confirmed by both Duke Konrad and the Pope.  Duke Konrad of Masovia still was not capable to end the Prussian attacks on his territory and in 1226 began to conduct negotiations with the Teutonic Knights under Grand Master Hermann von Salza in order to strengthen his forces. As von Salza initially hesitated to offer his services, Christian created the military Order of Dobrzyń ("Fratres Milites Christi") in 1228, however to little avail.  Meanwhile, von Salza had to abandon his hope to establish an Order's State in the Burzenland region of Transylvania, which had led to an éclat with King Andrew II of Hungary. He obtained a charter by Emperor Frederick II issued in the 1226 Golden Bull of Rimini, whereby Chełmno Land would be the unshared possession of the Teutonic Knights, which was confirmed by Duke Konrad of Masovia in the 1230 Treaty of Kruszwica. Christian ceded his possessions to the new State of the Teutonic Order and in turn was appointed Bishop of Chełmno the next year.  Bishop Christian continued his mission in Sambia ("Samland"), where from 1233 to 1239 he was held captive by pagan Prussians, and freed in trade for five other hostages who then in turn were released for a ransom of 800 Marks, granted to him by Pope Gregory IX. He had to deal with the constant cut-back of his autonomy by the Knights and asked the Roman Curia for mediation. In 1243, the Papal legate William of Modena divided the Prussian lands of the Order's State into four dioceses, whereby the bishops retained the secular rule over about on third of the diocesan territory: all suffragan dioceses under the Archbishopric of Riga. Christian was supposed to choose one of them, but did not agree to the division. He possibly retired to the Cistercians Abbey in Sulejów, where he died before the conflict was solved.

Christian of Oliva (), also Christian of Prussia () (died 4 December(?) 1245) was the first missionary bishop of Prussia.

Christian von Preußen, auch Christian von Lekno oder Christian von Oliva (* um 1180, möglicherweise in der slawischen Vorläufersiedlung des 1250 gegründeten Freienwalde in Hinterpommern, heute Chociwel; † 4. Dezember 1245 in Marburg, Hessen (oder evtl. in Sulejów, Polen)) war der erste Bischof von Preußen. Die Beinamen ‚"von Preußen"‘, ‚"von Lekno"‘ und ‚"von Oliva"‘ rühren von seinem hauptsächlichen Missionierungsgebiet her beziehungsweise von seinen Aufenthalten als Mönch 1209–1210 im Kloster Oliva und als Abt im Kloster Łękno, das später nach Wągrowiec ("Wongrowiec") verlegt wurde.