One of my favorite things in the world is a good bookstore or library. This beautiful bookstore in Porto, Portugal was an inspiration to J. K. Rowling for the moving staircases in Hogwarts.
Along with Bertrand in Lisbon, it is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal and frequently rated among the top bookstores in the world (placing third in lists by guidebook publisher Lonely Planet and The Guardian).
Great to be back out in the world again! Here are some before and after finds from Brooklyn and Manhattan this past Fall.
The Roman Catholic parish of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, was established in 1863. F.J. Berlenbach, Jr., designed the Lombardian Romanesque basilica in 1870.
The Austin organ now in the Church of the Annunciation was originally built in 1912 for St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Morristown, N.J. In 1930, St. Peter’s installed a new Skinner organ (Op. 836), and the Austin organ was acquired by Annunciation Church.
Bleeker St. at the NW Corner of Bowery 1934. Cool to see the old elevated rail line in the background of the old photo. Too bad they couldn’t have saved it for another Highline.
Long before their occupation of Rome and eventual defeat, the Nazis had a strong presence in Italy. After the Italian surrender and 9 month Nazi occupation, US tanks and troops pour into the Roman capital in June of 1944 at the same time allied troops were storming the beaches in Normandy far to the north.
Found a few new before and after photos this week in Amsterdam. This is a target rich city as so little has changed on the streets over the past century.
Beschrijving Hartenstraat 19-21, Amsterdam – 1893Beschrijving Van Baerlestraat 98, Amsterdam – 1894 Beschrijving Leprozengracht, Amsterdam gezien naar de Mozes en Aäronkerk. Na demping in 1882 werd dit het Waterlooplein – 1862 to 1882
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against Britain in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and is the German word for ‘lightning’.[4]
The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a battle for daylight air superiority between the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force over the United Kingdom. By September 1940, the Luftwaffe had failed and the German air fleets (Luftflotten) were ordered to attack London, to draw RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation.[5][6]Adolf Hitlerand ReichsmarschallHermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 out of the following 57 days and nights.[7] Most notable was a large daylight attack against London on 15 September.
The Luftwaffe gradually decreased daylight operations in favour of night attacks to evade attack by the RAF, and the Blitz became a night bombing campaign after October 1940. The Luftwaffe attacked the main Atlantic sea port of Liverpool in the Liverpool Blitz and the North Sea port of Hull, a convenient and easily found target or secondary target for bombers unable to locate their primary targets, suffered the Hull Blitz. Bristol, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Southampton and Swansea were also bombed, as were the industrial cities of Birmingham, Belfast, Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester and Sheffield. More than 40,000 civilians were killed by Luftwaffe bombing during the war, almost half of them in the capital, where more than a million houses were destroyed or damaged.[1]
In early July 1940, the German High Command began planning Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.[8] Bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or do much damage to the war economy; eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British war production, which continued to increase.[9][10] The greatest effect was to force the British to disperse the production of aircraft and spare parts.[11] British wartime studies concluded that cities generally took 10 to 15 days to recover when hit severely, but exceptions like Birmingham took three months.[11]
The German air offensive failed because the Luftwaffe High Command (Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, OKL) did not develop a methodical strategy for destroying British war industry. Poor intelligence about British industry and economic efficiency led to OKL concentrating on tactics rather than strategy. The bombing effort was diluted by attacks against several sets of industries instead of constant pressure on the most vital.[11][12]
History Then and Now 