Category Archives: On This Date

April 9, 1682~ Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River

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La Salle Christening the Country “Louisiana” by Howard Pyle

Oil on Canvas / 24”x16 1/4” / Private collection

Illustration for article “The Great La Salle” by Henry Loomis Nelson, published in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, February 1905

1923 / Reproduced as Cover and Frontispiece for “Howard Pyle’s Book of The American Spirit” / Harper & Brothers

Previous April 9 posts:

Spring~ April 9

Eadweard Muybridge: Born April 9, 1830

Tom Lehrer: Born April 9, 1928

April 9, 1939: Marian Anderson’s Easter Sunday Lincoln Memorial concert

Artist Birthday Quiz for 4/9~

April 8, 1820~ Venus de Milo discovered on the island of Milos

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Aphrodite, known as the Venus de Milo,
credited to Alexandros of Antioch

c.100 BC / Marble / 80” high / Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Previous April 8 posts:

Spring~ April 8

April 8: Hana Matsuri (Buddha’s birthday Festival in Japan)

Clarence Hudson White: Born on April 8, 1871

Premiered April 8, 1876: “La Gioconda”

Artist Birthday Quiz for 4/8~

April 7, 1940~ Booker T. Washington is first African-American honored on U.S. postage stamp

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10 cent Booker T. Washington stamp by USPS; part of Famous Americans series

1940 / Engraving, dark brown ink on paper; adhesive / National Postal Museum Collection, Smithsonian Institution, D.C.

Booker T. Washington by Harris & Ewing, Inc.

Digital image from glass negative of unknown date (between 1905 and 1915) / Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, D.C.

Previous April 7 posts:

Spring~ April 7

Billie Holiday: April 7, 1915-July 17, 1959

Billie Holiday: Born on April 7, 1915

Artist Birthday Quiz for 4/7~

April 5, 1722~ First European discovery of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

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A View of the Monuments of Easter Island (Rapanui) by William Hodges

c.1776 / Oil on panel / 30 1/2”x48” / National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Dutch Admiral Jacob Roggeveen (1659-1729) made the first European discovery of Easter Island on Easter Day, April 5, 1722. Fifty-two years later, William Hodges travelled as draughtsman on Captain James Cook’s second voyage to the South Pacific.

Previous April 5 posts:

Spring~ April 5

Herbert Bayer: Born April 5, 1900

Artist Birthday Quiz for 4/5~

April 4, 1968~ Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, TN

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Martin Luther King, Jr. by John Woodrow Wilson

Pictured: 2002 / Etching and aquatint on chine collé / Image: 30 1/2″x27 3/4″ /
Various collections (edition of 50) incl. Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
1985 / Original (smaller) drawing: pastel on cream Japanese paper / Sheet: 21 15/16”x20 13/16” / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Previous April 4 posts:

Spring~ April 4

William Henry Jackson: Born on April 4, 1843

April 4~

Artist Birthday Quiz for 4/4~

April 2, 1851~ Rama IV crowned King of Thailand

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First King of Siam in State Costume by John Thomson

1865 / Wet-plate collodion process print / 8 11/16″x6 3/4” / Various, including Wellcome Collection, London

The Real Thai Story of The King and I
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/thailand/articles/the-real-thai-story-of-the-king-and-i/

https://www.coinsweekly.com/en/The-King-and-Anna-and-the-monetary-reform-of-Thailand/8?&id=107&type=a
https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2019/01/the-king-of-siam-speaks-rehabilitating-a-kings-image/

Previous April 2 posts:

Spring~ April 2

Clifford Berryman: Born April 2, 1869

Jan Tschichold: Born April 2, 1902

Artist Birthday Quiz for 4/2~

April 1, 2019~ April Fools’ Day

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April Fool: Girl with Shopkeeper by Norman Rockwell

1948 / Cover illustration for April 3, 1948 “The Saturday Evening Post” / Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collections

Can you find all 57 “errors” in Rockwell’s Girl with Shopkeeper cover of The Saturday Evening Post?
Click on the image to enlarge it. Click here for the answers~ https://www.nrm.org/2009/04/fools-gold-answers/

1943 Rockwell April Fools painting~ https://www.nrm.org/2018/03/april-fools-2018/

1945 Rockwell April Fools painting~ https://www.nrm.org/2019/03/april-fools-2019/

Previous April 1 posts:

The Four Seasons: Spring

Spring~ April 1

April 1~

Artist Birthday Quiz for 4/1~