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Francis Skidmore
Francis Alfred Skidmore (1817 – 13 November 1896) was a British metalworker best known for high-profile commissions, including the glass and metal roof of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (1859), the Hereford Cathedral choir screen (1862) and the Albert Memorial (1866–73) in London. Skidmore was heavily influenced by Gothic Revival style, a movement characterised by its use of medieval designs and styles. He was a member of both the Oxford Architectural Society and the Ecclesiological Society, two organisations which endorsed the Gothic Revival style. Skidmore also worked closely with architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. Early life and work Francis Alfred Skidmore was born in Birmingham, the son of Francis Skidmore, a jeweller. The Skidmore family moved to Coventry around 1822, possibly because Coventry was an important watchmaking centre. Skidmore learned metalworking from his father and completed a seven-year apprenticeship with him. In 1845, father and so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford University Museum Of Natural History
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum or OUMNH, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It also contains a lecture theatre which is used by the university's chemistry, zoology and mathematics departments. The museum provides the only public access into the adjoining Pitt Rivers Museum. History The university's Honour School of Natural Science started in 1850, but the facilities for teaching were scattered around the city of Oxford in the various colleges. The university's collection of anatomical and natural history specimens were similarly spread around the city. Regius Professor of Medicine, Sir Henry Acland, initiated the construction of the museum between 1855 and 1860, to bring together all the aspects of science around a central display area. In 1858, Acland gave a lecture on the museum, setting forth the reason for the b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holy Trinity Church, Coventry
Holy Trinity Church, Coventry, is a parish church of the Church of England in Coventry City Centre, West Midlands, England. Above the chancel arch is an impressive Doom wall-painting. History The church dates from the 12th century and is the only Medieval church in Coventry that is still complete. It is long and has a spire high, one of the tallest non-cathedral spires in the UK. The church was restored in 1665–1668, and the tower was recased in 1826 by Thomas Rickman. The east end was rebuilt in 1786 and the west front by Richard Charles Hussey in 1843. The inside of the church was restored by George Gilbert Scott in 1854. Doom painting The doom painting was painted above the tower arch in 1430s. It was discovered in 1831, covered by a lime wash, and was then restored and varnished over by David Gee. In the years following, the varnish darkened and hid the painting from view again. In 1995, conservation and restoration work was begun and the painting was revealed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1896 Deaths
Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen has discovered a type of radiation (later known as X-rays). * January 6 – Cecil Rhodes is forced to resign as Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope, for his involvement in the Jameson Raid. * January 7 – American culinary expert Fannie Farmer publishes her first cookbook. * January 12 – H. L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph. * January 17 – Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War: British redcoats enter the Ashanti capital, Kumasi, and Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I is deposed. * January 18 – The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time. * January 28 – Walter Arnold, of East Peckham, Kent, England, is fined 1 shilling for speeding at (exceeding the contemporary speed limit of , the first sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1817 Births
Events January–March * January 1 – Sailing through the Sandwich Islands, Otto von Kotzebue discovers New Year Island. * January 19 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, starts crossing the Andes from Argentina, to liberate Chile and then Peru. * January 20 – Ram Mohan Roy and David Hare found Hindu College, Calcutta, offering instructions in Western languages and subjects. * February 12 – Battle of Chacabuco: The Argentine–Chilean patriotic army defeats the Spanish. * March 3 ** President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill. ** The U.S. Congress passes a law to split the Mississippi Territory, after Mississippi drafts a constitution, creating the Alabama Territory, effective in August. * March 4 – James Monroe is sworn in as the fifth President of the United States. * March 21 – The flag of the Pernambucan Revolt is publicly blessed by the dean of Recife Cathedral, Brazil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Art Gallery And Museum
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (also known as the Herbert) is a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry, England. Overview The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herbert, a Coventry industrialist and philanthropist whose gifts enabled the original building to be opened in 1960. Building began in 1939, with an interruption by the Second World War, and the Herbert opened in 1960. In 2008, it reopened after a £14 million refurbishment. The Herbert is run by Culture Coventry, a registered charity, and admission is free. It derives financial support from donations, sales at the museum shop, and hiring the buildings out. In 2010, the museum and gallery received more than 300,000 visitors, making it one of the most popular free tourist attractions in the West Midlands. History Benedictine Museum and foundation: Pre-war Museums in Coventry before the Herbert included the museum of the Coventry C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (also known as the Herbert) is a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry, England. Overview The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herbert, a Coventry industrialist and philanthropist whose gifts enabled the original building to be opened in 1960. Building began in 1939, with an interruption by the Second World War, and the Herbert opened in 1960. In 2008, it reopened after a £14 million refurbishment. The Herbert is run by Culture Coventry, a registered charity, and admission is free. It derives financial support from donations, sales at the museum shop, and hiring the buildings out. In 2010, the museum and gallery received more than 300,000 visitors, making it one of the most popular free tourist attractions in the West Midlands. History Benedictine Museum and foundation: Pre-war Museums in Coventry before the Herbert included the museum of the Coventry Ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hereford Screen
The Hereford Screen is a great choir screen designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811–1878) and made by Coventry metalworking firm Skidmore & Co. for Hereford Cathedral, England in 1862. It was one of the Gothic Revival works in iron of the nineteenth century. When it was unveiled at the 1862 International Exhibition it was hailed as the "grandest and most triumphant achievement of modern architectural art". Weighing over eight tonnes, the screen is a mixture of wrought and cast iron, brass, copper, semi-precious stones, and mosaics, supporting electroformed statues of Christ and attendant angels. In 1967 the screen was dismantled as it was no longer considered fashionable. It was stored in wooden packing cases at Coventry's Museum store a waiting for it to be re-erected in a new museum dedicated to Coventry's Industrial past, but funds were never available, (the only item ever being unpacked was the angel with the harp). So Coventry passed over the custodianship to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorian Decorative Arts
Victorian decorative arts refers to the style of decorative arts during the Victorian era. Victorian design is widely viewed as having indulged in a grand excess of ornament. The Victorian era is known for its interpretation and eclectic revival of historic styles mixed with the introduction of Asian and Middle Eastern influences in furniture, fittings, and interior decoration. The Arts and Crafts movement, the aesthetic movement, Anglo-Japanese style, and Art Nouveau style have their beginnings in the late Victorian era and gothic period. Architecture Interior decoration and design Interior decoration and interior design of the Victorian era are noted for orderliness and ornamentation. A house from this period was idealistically divided in rooms, with public and private space carefully separated. A bare room was considered to be in poor taste, so every surface was filled with objects that reflected the owner's interests and aspirations. The parlour was the most important ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Birnie Philip
John Birnie Philip (23 November 1824 – 2 March 1875) was a nineteenth-century English sculptor. Much of his work was carried out for the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. Life Philip was born in London, the son of William and Elizabeth Philip. He studied at the Government School of Design at Somerset House in London under John Rogers Herbert, and then at Herbert's own newly opened school in Maddox Street. He went on to work in Augustus Pugin's wood carving workshop at the Palace of Westminster before setting up his own studio. Much of Philip's work was commissioned for buildings by the Gothic Revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. At St Michael, Cornhill, in the City of London, he carved the decorations for the porch built by Scott as part of his Gothic embellishment of Wren's church. They included an elaborate tympanum sculpture depicting ''St Michael disputing with Satan'', which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1858, his first work to be shown there. He did fu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorian Restoration
The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria. It was not the same process as is understood today by the term building restoration. Against a background of poorly maintained church buildings, a reaction against the Puritan ethic manifested in the Gothic Revival, and a shortage of churches where they were needed in cities, the Cambridge Camden Society and the Oxford Movement advocated a return to a more medieval attitude to churchgoing. The change was embraced by the Church of England which saw it as a means of reversing the decline in church attendance. The principle was to "restore" a church to how it might have looked during the " Decorated" style of architecture which existed between 1260 and 1360, and many famous architects such as George Gilbert Scott and Ewan Christian enthusiastically accepted commis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hillfields
Hillfields is a suburb of Coventry in the West Midlands of England. It is situated north of Coventry city centre, and has undergone a series of name changes throughout its history originally called "Harnall" and has seen itself change from a village, to a remote suburb, to a large postwar redevelopment zone. Hillfields has always welcomed immigrants of all nationalities. Originally the Irish communities and then the Indian-sub continent and West Indian communities settled in the mid 20th century. The area declined in the early 90s however in recent times a wave of new immigrants from Northern Iraq (Kurdistan) Iran as well as various people's from Africa have settled and have invested into the area and now the area is a lively neighbourhood bustling with shops and restaurants selling intercontinental produce and cuisine. Hillfields used to be home to Coventry City Football Club on Highfield Road until the club relocated to the Ricoh Arena. Hillfields is also home to Sidney Str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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