#historic artifacts

In 2024, Mount Rainier National Park celebrated its quasquicentennial, or the 125th Anniversary of its creation in 1899. The park has grown and changed a lot in those years! Pieces of its history have been preserved in the park’s archives. These objects and documents give a glimpse into the many events that have shaped the Mount Rainier National Park we know today.

A few of them are captured in the story map “Celebrating Mount Rainier’s 125th Anniversary with Artifacts”.

As we start the next year, what objects do you think will tell the park’s story in the future? What object or document tells YOUR story at Mount Rainier?

Ain Sakhri Lovers Figurine

Natufian Culture — c9000 BCE (approx. 11,000 years old) Stone sculpture, carved from Calcite. Found in the Ain Sakhri caves, near Bethlehem, Palestine.

Thought to be the oldest depiction of two people having sex. Depending on the angle you view it from, it can appear as a couple wrapped around each other, a penis, a vagina, or balls.

I got curious about this piece and went digging a little further outside of Wikipedia. Mostly I was trying to find images of it from the other angles, but I did find some more research. As I understand it, there's not a lot (or like... any) of similar pieces for comparison, so it's hard to understand the full historical context of this piece within the culture that made it. We don't know if it was symbolic or ritualistic, or if it was simply a non-metaphorical depiction of the act of sex. The culture it is thought to be from, the Natufian culture, was in the process of developing agriculture and animal husbandry, so presumably they were starting to understand the essentials of sex for reproduction. But we don't have a concrete understanding of their cultural views towards sex, love, gender, or sexuality.

That said, even with the lack of contextual knowledge, we can safely examine this as a piece of erotic art. To me, there's an element of sensuality and tenderness to the piece. The figures are face to face, kissing, no space in between them. Their arms and legs are wrapped around each other in an embrace, holding each other as close as you can get. It's clearly got a phallic element, but due to the positioning and the sculptural style, there's not actually much difference between the individual shapes of the figures, and their genders are not definitively clear. It could just as easy be two men or two women, as a man and a woman.

ngl I think this is the coolest sculpture! The way the depiction changes depending on the angle is so fuckin clever!

I keep thinking it would be an amazing piece for a love or fertility altar or spellwork. I wonder if you can find reproductions of it somewhere?

Treasured Family Clown/

Once Again in My Possession/

Lost in Yr. 1973/

Recovered in Yr. 2023/ https://photos.app.goo.gl/nyMbca9ttNe7i1LQ6

HONG KONG PALACE MUSEUM WILL BE SIGNIFICANT OR RELEVANT?——AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. LOUIS NG, THE DIRECTOR 

The best learning about nation or race is to walk through a museum. A visit to the museum is a search for the truth of the past history so that we will digest the meaning of our present existence. It was said that if you do not appreciate your history, you will not know anything. You are sadly a leaf that does not know you are part of a tree.

The Forbidden City is a marvelous palace complex in Beijing. It houses the Palace Museum and was the former palace of emperors from 1400s to 1910s. It had been the political centre of China for over 500 years. Every year, around 16,000,000 visitors go there to remember the glory days of China.

In 2016, Hong Kong government announced it would build a roughly 30,000 sq. m museum to accommodate the regular display of arts and relics generously provided to us by the Palace Museum in Beijing. This grand Museum is scheduled to open in 2022. Curating from the refreshing Hong Kong and international perspectives, the museum should be a very popular culture and tourist spot with first-rate exhibitions and other programs.

In 2019, Dr. Louis Ng Chi Wa was appointed to the position of Director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM). He has to be responsible for 5 duties:

1.   developing the museum’s strategic visions;

2.   exhibitions, programming and managing its collections;

3.   educational functions and activities;

4.    operations including audience-building strategies; and

5.    fundraising and financial management.

I have known Louis for many years. He was a visionary and capable high-level cultural official. I was taken by surprise when he resigned from his stable government position and took up the challenge of building up a much anticipated museum from scratch.

I asked him why. Louis said, “I love history and this is why I have been studying and researching in history since my university days. HKPM is the golden opportunity for me to be focused on history in an unprecedented way. I could not get a grip on my passion for this historian, if not historical, job.”

My curiosity led me to ask, “What is your magic formula to make HKPM significant, relevant and meaningful?” Louis replied, “The answer depends on what I have, what I need and what I want. We have the loans of great treasures from the Palace Museum. I obviously want a lot of audience who however expect HKPM to offer a totally different but equally attractive experience. So, what I want is to be able to do well in 3 challenging directions. Hong Kong is an international, modern and cross-cultural city. I want to connect the artifacts with the audience today and from a modern perspective. I also want to make the exhibitions bear a quality, character and atmosphere which are charmingly international. Thirdly, I want the ‘civilians’ not from the art world but perhaps even a housewife at Shau Kei Wan to come to HKPM for enjoyment. They will find things which will interest and excite themselves. My job is to return great times of the past into great spaces of the present.” I laughed, “The three are lovely directions. But, have you come up with any special recipe?” He chuckled, “The recipe is to employ a diversity of good chefs. I want world-standard museum teammates from various backgrounds and expertise within or outside Hong Kong. As you know, we do have a limited budget but hopefully, I can get people having dreams and passion to work with me.”

I tried to play devil’s advocate, “Some said HKPM, like a hurricane, would sweep away our local cultures. How do you think?” Louis disagreed, “It must be an overstatement and in fact very narrow-minded. Let us not look at it politically. The Mainland and Hong Kong both belong to a ‘Greater Chinese’ culture, past, present and future. Culture of a race is not given or taken. It is organic and grows like a jungle. We speak Chinese. We eat and live the Chinese ways. Respect and love for one’s history and culture need no moral justification or warrant any regional concern.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. | Lincoln museum backers seek money to keep Illinois artifacts

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Advocates for Abraham Lincoln’s museum pleaded with Illinois lawmakers Tuesday to use state funds to help keep a throng of historic artifacts in his hometown despite questions about whether one of the relics — a stovepipe hat — actually belonged to the 16th president.

Lawmakers grilled Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation leaders over the $9.2 million it still owes…

Jack Ruby's pistol, used to murder Lee Harvey Oswald, along with the fedora Ruby wore when he pulled the trigger.