Carving Dead Trees Into Public Art

Trees have long life spans, but eventually they too die of old age or succumb to diseases or get damaged in thunderstorms and hurricanes. When trees in urban spaces die and show signs of toppling over or breaking off, the city might decide to remove them for the safety of those around. The remaining stumps then provide a wonderful opportunity for wood carvers to showcase their talent and liven up the neighborhood at the same time.

Battle of Thermopylae, August 480 BC

Leonidas at Thermopylae is an 1814 painting by Jacques-Louis David now on show at the Louvre. It shows the Spartan king Leonidas prior to the Battle of Thermopylae.

From The Sketchbook of a World War 2 Soldier

Victor A. Lundy is best known for his modernist architecture — the imposing rectangles of the United States Tax Court Building in Washington, D.C., the angular shapes of the Church of the Resurrection Harlem in New York City

The Island Town of Sviyazhsk

When Ivan the Terrible, the Grand Prince of Moscow and the first Tsar of Russia, ascended the throne in the middle of the 16th century, he decided to put an end to the Khanate of Kazan, a medieval Bulgarian-Tatar Turkic state occupying the territory of former Volga Bulgaria, and ruled by the descendants of Genghis Khan.

Trajan’s Column: An Emperor’s War Diary Carved in Stone

In the beginning of the 2nd century, the Roman Emperor Trajan led two very successful war campaigns against the powerful Dacia kingdom by the river Danube in what is now Romania. The Dacians were a constant threat to the Roman Empire since the days of Caesar.

The Terracotta Army

Elvis In The Army, 1958